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Washington Scene:
Hitler and Nazi Germany Analogies
"That is what the Supreme
Court did in Bush
versus Gore. It put somebody in power....
That is what happened when Hindenburg put Hitler in."
Court of Appeals Judge Guido Calabresi
Mid-East
Realities - MER - www.MiddleEast.Org - 16 July 2004: versus Gore. It put somebody in power....
That is what happened when Hindenburg put Hitler in."
Court of Appeals Judge Guido Calabresi
While the New York Times is busy with front page stories about 'rumors' that VP Cheney may have to go, the corporate press is working overtime to avoid front-page stories about the actual Hitler and Nazi Germany analogies that are coming from more and more establishment places.
A few examples help reveal the actual climate in today's Washington that the corporate media is either afraid to honestly report, or covering up to prevent the wider public from knowing.
A
partner in a Washington law firm just a few blocks from the White House
was seen standing outside the White House on a demonstration weekend
with a sign proclaiming "Welcome to the Fourth Reich - Heil Bush!". A Congresswoman from Florida spoke on the floor of the House of Representatives yesterday about the 'coup d'etat' that brought Bush/Cheney to power in 2000 -- but her remarks were expunged from the Congressional Record by order of the Republicans who control.
Private conversations among insiders often use terms like 'neo-fascist' and 'police-state' to describe both the mentality and developments in Bush/Cheney/neocon Washington -- but these hardly ever make it into print and certainly not onto regular TV talk shows.
The other day the Red Cross publicly reported that it believes the Americans have secret prisons scattered around the world where 'detainees' are being held in total secrecy, with no judicial review or even
knowledge, and to which the Red Cross has no access. There use to be
a word for this - 'Gulag' - and Americans use to believe it never
applied to their own country. The Washington Post didn't
even report it in a serious way, burying it inside the paper though no
such credible charge has ever been leveled against the U.S. before in
history.Last evening in New York on Jones Beach the infamous Ozzy Osbourne had his own say. Though other rockers appeared to support the 'war on terrorism', if not Bush/Cheney, Osbourne opened his concert with the song "War Pigs" featuring a video portrait comparing Bush to Hitler. With pictures of both Bush and Hitler on the same screen the caption read "Same shit different asshole" as footage of bombs dropping and Hitler marching flashed with Ozzy screaming and guitars screeching.
And now a ranking sitting judge has spoken up in public as well:
"In a way that occurred before but is rare in the United States...somebody came to power as a result of the illegitimate acts of a legitimate institution
that
had the right to put somebody in power. That is what the Supreme Court
did in Bush versus Gore. It put somebody in power.... That is what
happened when Hindenburg put Hitler in. I am not suggesting for a
moment that Bush is Hitler. I want to be clear on that, but it is a
situaiton that is extremely unusual." Speaking at the convention of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy this comment was made by a ranking judge, Judge Guido Calabresi, a member of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, the court system just one level below that of the Supreme Court itself.
And all this talk isn't just the result of 9/11 as many might think. Just a few long years ago, and more than a year before 9/11, on the ellipse near the White House with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on stage, the faculty speaker at the George Washington University graduation made allusions to the situation in the U.S. and what happened in Nazi Germany not that long ago in history. The University President and the Secretary of State, both of whom spoke after the faculty speaker, made no reference to what he said in very carefully chosen words. Who chose the faculty member to speak before the assembled thousands with the White House in the background? It was the students themselves who made the choice.
* Pictures are from demonstration at the White House on 22 March 2003.
