Henk van de Goor's Bloggers@large

The following article is from author Naomi Wolf and was originally posted in the Guardian Unlimited on Tuesday April 24, 2007. I am using it here verbatim because I really believe she has a point with this article when she compares the steps taken by fascist regimes in order to set the stage for a totalitarian regime with the steps that George Bush has been taking in America. It is quite unsettling to read and see the parallels. Her about this subject, The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot, came out in September this year.

I always like to say: "History doesn't repeat itself; people do". And as Wolf describes it, Bush is definitely working on repeating some of the ten steps she talks about.

From Hitler to Pinochet and beyond, history shows there are certain steps that any would-be dictator must take to destroy constitutional freedoms. And, argues Naomi Wolf, George Bush and his administration seem to be taking them all

Last autumn, there was a military coup in Thailand. The leaders of the coup took a number of steps, rather systematically, as if they had a shopping list. In a sense, they did. Within a matter of days, democracy had been closed down: the coup leaders declared martial law, sent armed soldiers into residential areas, took over radio and TV stations, issued restrictions on the press, tightened some limits on travel, and took certain activists into custody.

Continue reading "Fascist America, in 10 easy ... »

Right, we just had another all time low for one of Hollands stupidest politicians: the semi-fascist Geert Wilders. This Wednesday he came up with yet another dumbass idea: he wants to forbid the Koran because - according to him - it is just as bad as Hitler's "Mein Kampf". It is not the first time that Wilders came up with such a stupid idea. Earlier this year he stated that Muslims that want to stay in Holland should "rip out half of the Koran and throw it away". I am for freedom of speech but this kind of pathetic populism is just outrageous. I guess Wilders just is screaming to be murdered and then live on like some hero, just like Pim Fortuyn.

What a clown!

I wrote earlier about Micheal Moore's latest documentary SiCKO. The story Below comes from The Washington Post and shows how the US Governement (i.e. Bush) treats its own people, in this case veterans from the Iraq/Afghanistan war. Did I hear anyone say "Vietnam?" It is really another example of how the "richest country in the world" just seems to give up on their own citizens. The sad thing is that I see the same trend in my own country.

SOLDIER WHO CAPTURED SADDAM IS SICK, BUT LEFT TO ROT BY VA

Army Spec. Jeans Cruz helped capture Saddam Hussein. When he came home to the Bronx, important people called him a war hero and promised to help him start a new life. The mayor of New York, officials of his parents’ home town in Puerto Rico, the borough president and other local dignitaries honored him with plaques and silk parade sashes. They handed him their business cards and urged him to phone.

But a “black shadow” had followed Cruz home from Iraq, he confided to an Army counselor. He was hounded by recurring images of how war really was for him: not the triumphant scene of Hussein in handcuffs, but visions of dead Iraqi children.

In public, the former Army scout stood tall for the cameras and marched in the parades. In private, he slashed his forearms to provoke the pain and adrenaline of combat. He heard voices and smelled stale blood. Soon the offers of help evaporated and he found himself estranged and alone, struggling with financial collapse and a darkening depression.

Continue reading "Bush' politics of war: just ... »

Our Dutch TV just aired a HBO documentary called "Bagdhad ER". HBO cameramen were allowed unprecedented access to the 86th Combat Support Hospital in Iraq. Over a two-month period, they captured the day-to-day lives of doctors, nurses, medics, soldiers and chaplains in the Army's premier medical facility. This documentary shows in to painstaking detail how useless the war in Iraq is and why it is wrong for America and the rest of the world to be there. I watched this documentary on a day when the soon to be ex-secretary general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, said in an interview to the BBC that Iraq is in a worse state than it was then when Saddam Hussein ruled the country. Even though Bush denies it, the country definately is in civil war and has been for months. Iraq has turned into the Vietnam of this century.

I think the documentary speaks for itself, and so do some of the people that are quoted in it:

"You can learn about war by walking through this facility...the horrors of what man can do to man are visualized right here. But we do our best, our level best, to make sure our people survive and make it back to their homes."
-- Col. Casper P. Jones III, Commander, 86th Combat Support Hospital

"This is hard-core, raw, uncut trauma. Day after day, every day. Even if you're lucky enough not to go home with war wounds on the outside, if you're not equipped with coping skills, you'll definitely have them on the inside."
-- Specialist Saidet Lanier, an operating room nurse

You can see the full documentary online at Google videos.

It is Monday September 11th 2006 and while you are reading this, I'm in a plane on my way to Londen Luton Airport. And no, it wasn't my choice to fly on this day: I'm going over to the UK for business as my company is working on a rather big Internet project for a UK based company. As I mentioned many times over in my blog: I hate flying. So flying on a September 11th, exactly 5 years after the infamous attacks that changed the world we live in for the worse, isn't exactly my idea of fun. Off all news events in my life (so far) the September 11 attacks are the one thing I will definately remember the rest of my life, just like the fall of the Berlin Wall, Tsjernobyl, the release of Nelson Mandela, the first and second Gulf War, the bombings in Spain, Londen, the 2004 Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina to mention a few.

For one, the September 11th attacks had a direct impact on my personal life: about three months later it resulted in a big round of lay-offs at my work (Lost Boys) and I was one of the 30-something people that were fired. Second, it triggered a whole strain of related events that still have an impact on our lives today. In Holland, for instance, would-be politician Pim Fortuyn got assassinated on May 6th 2002 because of his views on the Islam religion and immigration. Two years later, on November 2nd 2004, film director and columnist Theo van Gogh got murdered because of his critical views and columns on the Islam. Continue reading "The day earth stood still" »

The biggest story this week I consider to be a victory for democracy in the US. U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor struck down the NSA wiretap program ordered by G.W. Bush, which she said violates the rights to free speech and privacy. A blow for Bush who always maintained his program was lawful and necessary to ‘protect US citizens’ from terrorists. The judge also declared that the program "violates the separation of powers doctrine, the Administrative Procedures Act, the First and Fourth amendments to the United States Constitution, the FISA and Title III." Her ruling went on to say that "the president of the United States ... has undisputedly violated the Fourth in failing to procure judicial orders."
As I wrote in my January 28th Blog “Liar Liar”, Bush said that he was convinced he had the legal authority to execute such a program. So off course the attorney General Alberto Gonzales said the Bush Administration disagrees with the ruling and has appealed.

If you have seen the movie “V for Vendetta” you can see the parallels between that fictional situation and reality in the USA. Governments that do these things under the pretence of ‘protection’ have placed themselves ‘above the law’. And there is nothing more frightening than a government (or president) who thinks it’s own views are the only ones that a right. In that way there is no difference between them and what they consider their enemies: terrorists. On can only hope that another government - without Bush - will be more careful with civil rights.

I don't think anyone could have described or said it better than Jack Cafferty from CNN. Watch this clip and judge for yourself:

"President Bush is breaking the law"