About Directive 51

[Prophet 451]

"I hurt myself today / to see if I still feel" ~ Johnny Cash

Apparently, the policy director of the ACLU has looked at this thing and says it's nothing to worry about, not unusual. And if it was any other president, I'd leave it there but for this president and this administration with their proven record of breaking the law if they can find a pretext (however flimsy) for it, I'm not happy to leave it at that. Bush would like to be a dictator. He's said or implied that numerous times. He's broken the law at every turn, violated international law, wiretapped most of the country it seems, legalised torture for Satan's sake! Cheney has been claiming for a while now that the office of VP is unaccountable to basically anyone. Both have publically delcared, even boasted, of their intention to ignore both the law and Congress and yet, so many, even here, are so sure that he will just peacefully walk out of office when his time is up. WAKE UP!

The problem is that, even now, many people don't want to admit how bad Bush really is. For several reasons, conspiracy theory has been so demonised in the popular imagination that anything that sounds like a conspiracy theory tends to be ignored, no matter how much evidence it has on it's side. And then there's the "it couldn't happen here" mindset. That plays off the general human (and especially American) assumption that we're better than others, that what might happen in some Latin American nation couldn't happen in the wonderful US of A. Again, WAKE UP!. BushCo has already stolen at least one election and probably a second and somehow, he's supposed to have enough respect for the democratic process to leave peacefully when his time is up? Do I need to shout a third time? Yes, other administrations have developed continuity plans, doubtless others will do so in the future but at this time, from this administration? An administration that has already been proved casually criminal and disrespectful of both the rule of law and democratic process? Do I need to say it again? (Don't worry, I'm through shouting) They've been accusing us of being Henny Penny so long (sometimes with good reason) that they haven't noticed that this time, the sky really is bloody falling.

Bush is a fascist. I'm not using that simply to call him nasty names (I can think of much nastier names to call him). I studied PoliSci and I'm using the word in it's full historic and technical meaning. Mussolini once said that fascism should be called corporatism because it represents the fusion of the state with the corporate. Has there been, in modern history, any better an example of that than Bush? Fascism has certain inherant features which an administration must satisfy to be called "fascist" and the Bush admin satisfies them just as much as the Muslim terror groups don't (hence the reason "Islamofascist" is a nonsense word). In simplistic terms and at a minimum, fascism requires a retreat from previously held democratic freedoms (done), an authoritarian attitude toward individual rights (done), a merging or near-merging of state and corporate bodies (ongoing), an appeal to an exagerated sense of national identity (done via the abuse of patriotism) and an elevation of the state above the individual (done and done). So, I'm not tossing casual insults when I say Bush is a fascist. He also presents many other secondary characteristics of fascism such as an aggressive foreign policy, a predeliction toward secrecy, the fostering of a cult of personality around the leader (in fairness, that was less Bush than his enablers) and an obsession with loyalty. The use and abuse of religion, while not a requirement of fascism, is often a feature of fascist parties and again, Bush qualifies.

About this time, someone will usually offer to bet me that power will be transferred peacefully in 2009. I'm not going to take that bet and here's why: Anything could happen between now and then. Bush could die, be deposed, decide his scheme wouldn't work, grow a conscience (nah, no chance of that), be kidnapped by aliens, anything. So, even a peaceful transfer of power would not prove that Bush wasn't preparing for a dictatorship, it would just prove that he didn't go through with it or failed. Even this though, is really asking the wrong question. Bush is, in many senses, already a dictator. Partly, that's the result of the powers built into the presidency (such as the power of veto) and partly, it's a result of Bush having gone outside his official powers (such as his abuse of signing statements).

I don't talk much about evil because I think the word is overused. We tend to think of evil as the rampaging serial killer or a cartoon Lew Luthor or Doomsday (the creature that killed Superman) or as the Nazis, herding people into gas chambers. We tend to forget that true evil can come greyly by day, carrying a clipboard and just doing it's job. Yes, the Nazis did herd people into gas chambers but many of them were simply paper pushers, moving numbers around. Does that makes them less evil? Most of us don't meet genuine evil too often so when it turns up, we don't always recognise it for what it is but subverting democracy, stealing elections, enacting laws and policies which directly cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, legalising torture (torture, for Satan's sake!), overturning the very foundation of the rule of law, do these actions not add up to true evil? Forget the personality of Bush himself, he probably isn't that evil but he's just the front man, manipulated, groomed and chosen to act as the likeable (sometimes) mouthpiece of the greatest collection of pure evil since the Corinthian's Cereal Convention. I'm not a Christian, far from it but if I were, I'd be honestly considering the possibility that the Bush administration was the Anti-Christ.

Towards the end of the Watergate crisis, someone pointed out to Nixon (hopefully in jest) that he was still C-in-C of the military, he could still resist his removal. Perhaps it is the kindest thing we can say of Nixon that when it came right down to it, he stepped back from that (and as it turned out, it wouldn't have worked anyway because someone had already blocked that option). Nixon was bad but in the end, he left office more or less peacefully. Bush isn't Richard Nixon. Bad as Nixon was, he had at least some respect for the rule of law otherwise he wouldn't have gone to such lengths to cover up breaking it. BushCo doesn't go to those lengths, they're proud of their lawbreaking. Bush isn't Tony Blair, forced out by public opinion. Bush is a Mussolini, a Mosley. If allowed to continue for long enough, he may even become a Hitler. Right about now, someone is preparing to call me paranoid and offer me a tinfoil hat. Don't bother. I may be paranoid but, as a man once said, the price of liberty is eternal vigilance and at this point, if you're not paranoid, you're not paying attention. The Bush administration have already demonstrated, time and again, that they have zero respect for the rule of law, they have zero respect for the will of the people or the democratic process. They have proved, time and again, that they will do and say anything (and I do mean anything, the word is an absolute) to hold on to power. The point here is not that he will declare martial law and assume a dictatorship, the point is that he could and based on the record so far, many, even here, would excuse it and make excuses for him.

I'm aware, even now, that very few are listening to me. In many ways, I often feel like Cassandra, seeing the danger coming but unable to get anyone to listen. There is nothing I can say that will convince those who have already decided and so, I find myself screaming into the abyss, aware that none will answer but feeling compelled to shout all the same. Your democracy is gone or going, most of your much-vaunted freedoms are gone. Your voice counts for nothing, your interests, your freedoms, your very lives, count for nothing at all. The Long Night came upon us all six years ago and we sit in the darkness still while a monster sits in the Oval Office. Perhaps the only hope is that even if Bush siezes a dictatorship, he will not have America. Because America was never a place, it was a dream and, like Londo Mollari, in the pursuit of power, Bush will destroy that which he desires.

"And you could have it all / my empire of dirt" ~ Johnny Cash

[Igel]

1. The problem with being upset about the directive is what the upset is about.

It *may* be about the contents of the directive. But it's certainly about knowing--for the first time--the contents of the directive.

All or nearly all presidents have signed directives for governmental continuity. Clinton signed his in 1998. It was fully in force as far as * was concerned.

The problem is, we don't know the details of Clinton's directive. So the * directive looks big and scary, although it seems quite likely that the directive it replaces was just as easy to abuse. But we didn't know, because Clinton didn't make his directive public.

In other words, it strikes me that "we" are likely upset not because * has new awesome and scary powers, but because he did us the honor of letting us know at least some of what his directive said. There's still a secret annex to the directive.

The directive isn't all that long a read, or all that difficult.

[Prophet 451]

2. I trusted Clinton not to abuse it

Maybe naive but I did. Do you trust Bush not to?

[Zensea]

3. Directives, we don't need no stinking directives

If Bush is going to engage in a coup, do you think he's going to care whether there is a directive or not?
People who engage in coups are not particularly concerned about legal niceties.

That's the reason this directive doesn't really worry me, especially when someone who has some actual knowledge about these things from the ACLU concurs.

I'm more likely to pay attention to someone from the ACLU than I am to a poster at DU who appears to live in fear. I refuse to be ruled by fear.

[Prophet 451]

4. He will want to make it look legal

Or, at least, semi-legal. Hitler did the same, so did Hussein, so did Caesar Julius, so have most of history's dictators.

If I'm a nutcase, fine. But this time, it seems to me that teh sky really is falling.