Alito Confirmation: A Straussian Neocon Fait Accompli

[Hestia]

Alito Confirmation: A Straussian Neocon Fait Accompli
Tuesday January 24th 2006, 9:57 pm
www.kurtnimmo.com

Now that the confirmation of Samuel Alito is a done deal—he won commitments from a majority of senators this afternoon and only a formal vote stands between him and the Supreme Court—we can say good-bye once and for all to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Academics and corporate media commentators like to call the encroaching dictatorial power of the Straussian neocon White House “unitary” presidential power, but we shouldn’t fool ourselves—it is nothing short of the sort of authoritarianism the founders did their best to avoid by establishing separated branches of government and a process of checks and balances, now virtually extinct. In essence, what we now have is a government owned and ruled by a corporate plutocracy—and the father of modern fascism, Benito Mussolini, defined fascism as corporatism.

Alito is a long-time member of the reactionary Federalist Society and if you want to know how he will rule on the highest court in the land, look no further than this organization and its membership. “Initial funding for the Federalist Society came from the Institute for Educational Affairs, a group founded by Irving Kristol and William Simon,” notes Right Web. “The elder Kristol remained an important funding adviser, while his son William Kristol became closely involved with the Federalist Society, by writing for its publications and speaking frequently at its gatherings. Other early funding came from Pittsburgh mogul Richard Mellon Scaife, the Olin Foundation, Bradley Foundation, and the Smith Richardson Foundation,” in other words, the Federalist Society is infested with the usual Straussian neocon and PNAC suspects. Bush administration insiders and former insiders who are members of the Federalist Society include Michael Chertoff, Spencer Abraham, Gale Norton, John Ashcroft, Theodore Olson, and John Bolton.

“The Bush administration, backed by the neoconservative Federalist Society, has brought the separation of powers, the foundation of our political system, to crisis,” Paul Craig Roberts wrote earlier this month. “The Federalist Society, an organization of Republican lawyers, favors more ‘energy in the executive.’ Distrustful of Congress and the American people, the Federalist Society never fails to support rulings that concentrate power in the executive branch of government…. September 11, 2001, played into neoconservative hands exactly as the 1933 Reichstag fire played into Hitler’s hands. Fear, hysteria, and national emergency are proven tools of political power grabs. Now that the federal courts are beginning to show some resistance to Bush’s claims of power, will another terrorist attack allow the Bush administration to complete its coup?”

I wouldn’t put it past them—in fact, if I was a betting man, I’d say this is precisely what will happen: another nine eleven, possibly one of a larger magnitude, will put the finishing touches on the murder of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. As a side bet, I’d wager this will happen sooner before later, maybe even as soon as this March, as the dollar plummets and the sirens or war (or shock and awe) wail over Iran. Bush (or rather the Straussian neocons since Bush is basically an empty shell, a cardboard cut-out, a cigar store Indian) will need another terror attack on the homeland to consolidate the power of the Straussians, who live in the ponderous philosophical shadow of Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, and Carl Schmitt (the last two were hands-on Nazis). As Shadia B. Drury noted in her 1997 book, Leo Strauss and the American Right, Strauss’ protégés include: Paul Wolfowitz, Clarence Thomas, Robert Bork; William Kristol, William Bennett; Alan Keyes, Francis Fukuyama, John Ashcroft, and William Galston.

<snippage>

[firefox]

1. We need to call for a Constitutional amendment

I recently read where Jefferson was unhappy with the Constitution because it did not adequately protect from the situation we have now. It has fallen on us and our times to fix it.

We need term limits on Congressmen and a defined term for a Supreme Court Justice. Congressmen have been way overboard about their own office and have put the government of the country second.

Congress needs to be swept clean. We need new management.

I was thinking back to Walter Cronkite's Op-ed in the NYT calling for a Constitutional convention. In looking it up I ran across his tapes on the original Constitutional convention and the ratification debates- http://tinyurl.com/73d8s I wonder what his thoughts are on all of this?

[izzie]

2. I feel bad he got in. Some thing is wrong in his thinking

But then look at the Sen. it has become like the old Roman Sen. and handed over power to Caesar. It will mean the end of the Republic if one of these group does not wake up but then it may be what most of the voters want and that really makes one ill. Are we going to go down in history as a country that could not make it work after 200 years when the whole world looked to us as a beacon? The more Bush and Co. want our data the more he shuts up his WH. I fear we are getting in office just what his voters wanted. A living God comes next I guess

[Hestia]

3. But at least Caesar won Gaul and Brittania

and the Roman Senate felt at least a little justification for crowning him Emperor. Bush hasn't won diddly squat on anything.

I am not quite ready to throw the towel in quite yet, what continues to give me a glimmer of hope, dunno, but I still have it. You know, when you boil it all down, it really is just a few people in this country/world who are doing this to us...start pointing fingers...name them as traitors...what have you...and we can still win this fight

[xchrom]

4. the author has the history correct.

what's more important to understand is that whatever the post alito time brings -- the straussian neocons are not done.

they will not go away simply because they achieve or fail at one goal or another.

this is the one central fact that i wish liberals and progressives could see.

bushco is simply a battle in a long, long war at this time.

[Hestia]

5. Agreed

There would have to a purge, up and down, in DC to root out Strassian NeoCons, Tri-Laterals, Skulls, other Secret Society members, etc. History Channel had an excellent program about it. The administrations may change, but the people running it don't, it is a change in name only. I really do wish someone would come out publically and start pointing fingers, loudly. There really are only a few people that are running things. Root em out, shame them, shun them, arrest them -- then we have real hope in getting back to what our Founding Fathers had in mind...