Chris Floyd: Burma on the Potomac: Another Step Deeper Into Tyranny

[babylonsister]

Burma on the Potomac: Another Step Deeper Into Tyranny
Saturday, 20 October 2007
by Chris Floyd

One day, you'll open up your eyes and
You'll see where you are.
— Bob Dylan

From USA Today:
Three days after a 24-year-old college graduate spoke out on her immigration plight in USA TODAY, U.S. agents arrested her family — including her father, a Vietnamese man who once was confined to a "re-education" camp in his home country for anti-communist activities.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., who chairs the House immigration subcommittee, on Tuesday accused federal officials of "witness intimidation" for staging a pre-dawn raid on the home of Tuan Ngoc Tran.

The agents arrested Tran, his wife and son, charging them with being fugitives from justice even though the family's attorneys said the Trans have been reporting to immigration officials annually to obtain work permits.

Lofgren said she believes the family was targeted because Tran's eldest child, Tam Tran, testified before Lofgren's panel earlier this spring in support of legislation that would help the children of illegal immigrants. On Oct. 8, Tam Tran was quoted in USA TODAY. Her parents and brother were taken into custody Thursday. The family was released to house arrest after Lofgren intervened.

Is this the America you thought you were living in? Is this the America your parents and teachers told you about? Is this the America that you sing about at all the ball games and public events, "the land of the free and the home of the brave"? Is this the America you have carried in your mind, and perhaps your heart, all these years?

You'd better snap out of it. You'd better slap yourself in the face and look around, see where you really are. You aren't living in "the land of the free;" you're living in a two-bit, tin-pot, half-assed tyranny, led by greasy cut-throats and howling cranks. And they have peopled the entire government with ideological automatons, willing and eager to use the levers of power to punish all those who displease the Leader.

more...

http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/2663/81/

[belpejic]

1. Reality check

Great editorial. I couldn't quite put my finger on why I distrust every appointed official in the administration; the article nails it. We're going to have to do some serious work as a nation once the Bush administration ends. Otherwise we're going to stay on the same steady slope to disrepute and irrelevance.

[izquierdista]

2. The lessons of World War II

I'm beginning to think that progressives have forgotten about the horrors of the Second World War and that the only ones to learn from it are the fascists and right-wingers. They learned that gas chambers and crematoriums were too over the top, so now they create the same conditions in Baghdad as in the Lodz ghetto and wait for nature to kill them off. They have learned that drafting the common folk into an army will cause resentment, but that contractors and mercenaries will gleefully kill, maim, and torture. They have learned that eliminating ALL opposition writings makes it a harder sell for them; if they let one "White Rose" or Dan Rather or Keith Olbermann speak their peace and then paint them as crackpots, they win in the long run. They have learned that targeting a native-born minority is more difficult than targeting immigrants; native born minorities are still members of the community, while even immigrants will want to shut the door behind them.

They never did give up on the Hermann Goering principle: "Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."

Yes, they have had 60 years to learn from their past mistakes and polish up their image. Now they fool a lot more people than just the Duke of Windsor and Charles Lindbergh.

"Land of the free and the home of the brave", my ass. More like "land of the incarcerated and home of the scared shitless".