Freedom of speech during wartime should be curtailed.

[Chris Alger]

This is a great illustration of why we're in Iraq and why we need to leave ASAP. Note all the hallmarks of the fascism that the White House must rely on for its bedrock of support:

1. The equation of disagreement with treason. "I hope the FBI investigates him [Dean] for sedition/treason charges." Of course the FBI will never do this but Bill has no idea why because he believes that anyone who disagrees with him over the war is a traitor and, presumably, should be put to jailed or executed.

2. Paranoid conspiracy theories. "The liberal press today obviously wants the U.S. to lose this war." The "liberal press" helpfully promulgated all the lies that made 2/3's of the public believe that Saddam was responsible for 9/11 and was about to attack the U.S. with its vast WMD arsenal while ridiculing dissenters as hopelessly naive. So while the "liberal press" trumpted all the phony reasons for the war, dowplayed and ridiculed popular opposition, downplayed the killing of civilians by U.S. forces and continues to generally and overtly support the war, Bill thinks he sees a vast liberal conspiracy that "obviously" wants the U.S. to lose.

3. The invention of preposterous facts. Bill pretends that torture will "save[] the lives of U.S. troops on the ground" but can't identify even a single instance where this has happened, likewise ignoring all the cases where the innocent were tortured "by mistake" and later released.

4. Hatred of democratic institutions. The hallmark of fascist ideology is the termination of debate and dissent. Bill's vision of a "free" press that only reports pro-U.S. facts and propaganda is indistinguishable from Hilter's or Stalin's propganda machines.

5. Addiction to propaganda and the inability to cope with unwelcome news. Bill can't describe any connection between reporting about torture U.S. military setbacks because of course there is none. The "sad state of affairs" Bill decries therefore really amounts to public knowledge that the U.S. is a torturing country. It is this contradiction between image and reality that's obviously driving his anger and nothing more.

Just as support from liberal democratic Senators (Clinton, Biden, Kerry) was and remains vital to the launching of this war, so too is the fascist and exterminationist elements of the popular right. Without both of them, this war would not have occurred and the 200,000 or so casualties that have been sustained would never have happened.

[Arnfinn Madsen]

Great post, Alger. Manipulation and power abuse happens for a reason, it happens since the agenda would not be possible to push forward without it.

Life is much happier when the government does your thinking for you.

[tolbiny]

unless you get stuck with one of dem crappy governments that tells you to be unhappy. then yer screwed.