‘And what would happen today if a swarthy Middle Eastern man without wealth or political connections suddenly appeared in front of the White House proclaiming such a radical doctrine of mercy, forgiveness, charity, self-abnegation and love – love even for the "evildoers" who "want to destroy our way of life"? 

Would he be targeted by the lawless spy gangs that Bush has personally loosed upon the nation?  

Would he be condemned as a terrorist sympathizer and expelled from the country? 

Would he be seized and "rendered" to some secret CIA prison or Bush-friendly foreign torture chamber for "special interrogation"?’ 

Gospel Truth

‘It took 21 years longer than expected, but the future has finally arrived.  

And we don't like it. Not one bit.  

We are fighting a war with no end to create a peace with no defined victory. 

We occupy a foreign land that doesn't want us, while at home our civil liberties are discounted.  

We are told that it's better not to know what our government is doing in our name, for security purposes. Meanwhile, our government is becoming omnipresent, spying on us whenever it deems it necessary.  

War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.  

George Orwell was right after all.’  

Big Brother Is Watching

‘Bush stokes our fears, implying that the only alternative to doing things his extralegal way is to sit by fitfully waiting for terrorists to harm us. We are neither weak nor helpless. A proud, confident republic can hunt down its enemies without trampling legitimate human and constitutional rights. 

Ultimately, our best defense against attack - any attack, of any sort - is holding fast and fearlessly to the ideals upon which this nation was built. Bush clearly doesn't understand or respect that.  

Do we?’ 

Fear Destroys What bin Laden Could Not

‘There is a name for a system of government that wages aggressive war, deceives its citizens, violates their rights, abuses power and breaks the law, rejects judicial and legislative checks on itself, claims power without limit, tortures prisoners and acts in secret. It is dictatorship.’  

The Hidden State Steps Forward

"I don't give a goddamn," Bush retorted. "I'm the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way." 

Bush On The Constitution

"The signing statement is saying 'I will only comply with this law when I want to, and if something arises in the war on terrorism where I think it's important to torture or engage in cruel, inhuman, and degrading conduct, I have the authority to do so and nothing in this law is going to stop me.' " he said.  

"They don't want to come out and say it directly because it doesn't sound very nice, but it's unmistakable to anyone who has been following what's going on." 

Bush Prepares to Bypass New Torture Ban

‘For these cultists of an all-powerful presidency, the holy war, the "crusade" to be embarked upon was, above all, aimed at creating a President accountable to no one, overseen by no one, and restricted by no other force or power in his will to act as he saw fit. And so, in this White House, all roads have led back to one issue: How to press ever harder at the weakening boundaries of presidential power. This is why, when critics concentrate on any specific issue or set of administration acts, no matter how egregious or significant, they invariably miss the point. The issue, it turns out, is never primarily - to take just two areas of potentially illegal administration activity - torture or warrantless surveillance. Though each of them had value and importance to top administration officials, they were nonetheless primarily the means to an end.’ 

The Unrestrained President

‘Festering in our midst like a toxic cloud of pollution the army of good Americans exists, living and working among us, inhabiting our neighbourhoods and cities, co-existing peacefully with us, though perceiving an utterly different conception of reality than the rest of us.  

Their numbers, though dwindling more every day with the almost weekly revelations of corporatist lies built upon corporatist lies and government deceptions meshed with corporate criminality, remain high, thanks to those unable to escape the clouds of 9/11 and the manipulative propaganda of the corporatist media.  

The Kool-Aid drinking brigades remain strong, still ardent supporters of frivolous, fictitious and diminishing deceptions, still hypnotized to the dim-witted, slurred speech of their great Commander in Chief, still spewing the talking points they hear emanating from the corporatist media and still clinging to the ingrained and unenlightened selfishness that permeates their existence.’ 

The Army of Good Americans

‘Still, one thing that appears to be indisputable is that the NSA surveillance began well before 9/11 and months before President Bush claims Congress gave him the power to use military force against terrorist threats, which Bush says is why he believed he had the legal right to bypass the judicial process.

According to the online magazine Slate, an unnamed official in the telecom industry said NSA's "efforts to obtain call details go back to early 2001, predating the 9/11 attacks and the president's now celebrated secret executive order. The source reports that the NSA approached U.S. carriers and asked for their cooperation in a 'data-mining' operation, which might eventually cull 'millions' of individual calls and e-mails."’ 

Bush Authorized Domestic Spying Before 9/11

‘The writer Umberto Eco, in a 1995 essay titled "Ur-Fascism," delineated several core elements that have existed in one form or another in every fascist state in history: "Parliamentary democracy is by definition rotten, because it does not represent the voice of the people, which is that of the sublime leader. Doctrine outstrips reason, and science is always suspect. The national identity is provided by the nation's enemies. Argument is tantamount to treason. Perpetually at war, the state must govern with the instruments of fear. Citizens do not act; they play the supporting role of 'the people' in the grand opera that is the state."’

The New Fascism

Mark Fiore's

Greater Georgelandia

Britain is set to announce a new sweeping legislation that will allow real-time monitoring of all calls, e-mails, texts and Web site visits to tackle crime and terrorism, a move critics say likened the country to China and Iran.

Under the planned new law, Internet firms will be required to give intelligence agency, Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) access to communications on demand, in real-time.

The British Home Office says the move is key to tackling crime and terrorism, but civil liberties groups have criticised it.

Attempts by the last Labour government in 2006 to take similar steps failed after huge opposition, including from the Tories.

A new law - which may be announced in the forthcoming Queen's Speech in May - would not allow GCHQ to access the content of emails, calls or messages without a warrant, the BBC reported.

But it would enable intelligence officers to identify who an individual or group is in contact with, how often and for how long.

In a statement, the Home Office said action was needed to “maintain the continued availability of communications data as technology changes”.

“It is vital that police and security services are able to obtain communications data in certain circumstances to investigate serious crime and terrorism and to protect the public,” a spokesman said.

“As set out in the Strategic Defence and Security Review we will legislate as soon as parliamentary time allows to ensure that the use of communications data is compatible with the government's approach to civil liberties.”

But Mr Nick Pickles, Director of the Big Brother Watch campaign group, called the move “an unprecedented step that will see Britain adopt the same kind of surveillance seen in China and Iran”.

“This is an absolute attack on privacy online and it is far from clear this will actually improve public safety, while adding significant costs to Internet businesses,” he said.

The previous Labour Government attempted to introduce a central, government-run database of everyone's phone calls and e-mails, but eventually dropped the bid in the face of widespread anger.

UK Plans New Snooping Laws