A Decider by any other name is.....

Its hard NOT to compare the political tactics of the present administration with the 1930's NSDAP. Replace the manufactured crises in Poland with Iraq. Replace scapegoating Jews, Communists and homosexuals with Muslims, communists and homosexuals. The NSDAP took over the "congress" and "supreme court" because of the real crises of the economy, passed an enabling act allowing the administration to ignore civil liberties in a time of crises, and then manufactured a crises in Poland. The Bush Administration used the very real crises of 9/11 to get "war powers" and then manufactured a crises in Iraq. Blame everything on the Jews/Muslims, fear the Communists and give the "average man" someone to look down upon (homosexuals) and praise your own morality. Make sure anyone who speaks out is "with them", and count on your hand-picked court to say its all OK. As long as you can keep soldiers under fire no one will speak out too much as the one thing we ALL have in common is that we support, respect and love our soldiers, sailors, pilots and marines.

I keep trying not to think this way, but then I hear of "Homeland Security" having its own domestic police force and illegal searches, seizures and wiretaps. Then there are secret "detention camps" being built by Haliburton in the US, "black hole" CIA prisons in Europe, claims of torture and even death among prisoners. Add the administration's claim to be able to ignore any law deemed a hindrance to Executive power (so-called "signing statements"), secret courts, indeterminate "detention" without counsel, charges or outside contact and I can't help but see a similarity. I recently started worrying again when I found out what a "Unitary Executive" REALLY means. Even with all this, though, I kept reminding myself the comparison between George W. Bush and Adolph Hitler is ridiculous, although Cheney and Goebbels is a lot closer, and Rumsfeld/Goering has quite a bit going for it. Just about when I got it all put out of my head I heard W. Bush give himself a new title. He was telling about his view of the job each member of his administration is responsible for. In his usual colloquial manner, where everyone has a nickname (often ending in -y or -ie) I heard him say that he is The Decider.

A little homework for you. Look up "Fuhrer".