Nice column, but:

And we may have heard the last of Karl Rove, the principle architect of perhaps the most hateful and destructive version of American politics ever.

The correct word is "principal," not "principle."

Huh? A little extreme, isn't it?

The current Republican goverment in the United States was democratically elected. Labeling them fascist is inflamatory and inaccurate.

I'm not particularly fond of them either, but let's be realistic.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/us-politics/us-midterms-gfx.html

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/politics/index.html?adxnnl=1&excamp=GGGNsenateseat&adxnnlx=1163082470-qnCSjghH4wBNLkFAbhhaOQ

These links seem to provide a good sense of voter sentiment on tuesday with their North American pictorials of who went blue and red across america.

D'Arcy, I think crypto-fascist is a correct term to describe Bush & Co. and I think the American public woke up to the fact. Bush milked 9-11 for all it was worth and civil rights all but dissappeared.

The illegal war (yes everyone, the high courts in the UK hint that the iraq was is illegal) in Iraq is another fascist take over of oil. Under 'old boy' Sadam, an Al Quada operative lasted about 24 hours in that country. Now iraq is a massive boondogle, lost by an extremely incompentent Secretary of Defence.

Oh yes, Bush will rue those six years wasted on a fascist manifesto!

I think I can feel the humm of all those shredders already....

darcy.mcgee

Not as extreme as Nazi wannabe. It's down right scary just how close they come.

Oh, big deal ... a majority of U.S. citizens now realize what the rest of the world has known for ... umm, 6 years ... so?

Can't we get on with real life now? Or must we continue to be obsessed with every twitch and fart of the poor, besotted Elephant to the south?

I think if you look at the actual positions taken by classical fascism, and not the superficial aspects like uniforms and such, you will find that the Bush-shites share many of them, far more so than any other important political grouping. Corporatism, love of war, imperialism, the Big Lie technique, restriction of democratic rights, wars of aggression, social darwinism - all of these are fascist elements and all are present among the Bush-shites, so crpto-fascist isn't far off the mark.

Quite right, anarcho. Not to mention the number one economic superpower in the world claims no responsibility for global warming. "Its not man made." This dinosaur approach will sewer the Republicans down the road. Its backward, old school dated, not up with the reality of whats happening. This and a list of the corruption in congress and the unhappyness with the Senate's performance with the seats they lost...

The real story here, is the Democrats didn't lose one incumbant seat. And where the Republicans lost incumbants straight across the board, congressmen, governors, senators, the message is telling in American politics. Once elected, its your's to lose more than win. Corruption and scandal cost the Republicans dearly and incumbants aren't easily replaced by anything but these, along with bad whitehouse policies. The Republicans have both.

Bernie Sanders was elected as Vermont's only Senator. He was an independent democratic socialist candidate who trounced the Republicans and Democrats. Google him and learn why.

None of that will happen in any kind of genuinely meaningful sense unless they first address this. Their true history. Otherwise as Pilger states it is all fakery:

http://www.newstatesman.com/200611130025

The Brain asks "Anyone know off hand how long terms are for newly elected governors in the U.S.?"

I believe that they're all four year terms.

It's interesting that M. Fellman assumes Nancy Pelosi will be speaker, when in fact Rep.John Conyers has more seniority. He has lead the impeachment movement. I doubt whether there will be much investigation leading to any significant changes if indeed Pelosi is elected.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/november2006/081106newboss.htm

I'm worried about the anti-democratic legislation Bush put through. Unless the MCA and the John Warner Act are repealed swiftly. Bush could declare Martial Law and take over the National Guard without reference to state Governors.
http://towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/911/

John Dingell has more seniority than Conyers, but it is actually relatively uncommon for the speaker to be the senior member of his/her party. Pelosi role as "assumed speaker" is based upon her role as Minority Leader and not upon being senior member.

Whatever the details:
This was good news!
Yanks are not quite the complete idiots that they seemed when they gave Bush a second term.
Long Row to hoe ahead

By the way
Olmart thinks his artillery killed 18 innocents due to
"technical error"

You overstate yourself.

1. This Republican government was never democratically elected. In 2000 Bush was selected by the Supreme Court appointed by his daddy and his grand daddy Reagan. This in spite of losing the election nationwide AND in Florida.

2. Again in 2004 this government was not elected but was ushered into office through electoral fraud, voter intimidation and disenfranchisement of dem voters by various means, especially in Ohio.

However, the marriage of Corporate and Public Agenda imposed by this administration is practically the definition of Fascism.

I must add that I tend to also dismiss comparisons of Bush with Hitler. After all Hitler did actually win an election or two and was actually a combat veteran of World War I. Hitler and Bush make a good match in terms of being pretty much equally despicable individuals though!

doggone sez:

Stephen HarpoCon undoubtably thinks it is "measured."

Yes, governors are elected to 4 year terms, which start in different years in different states. Unless you engineer you own "special" election like the Governator in California, of course. His new term however will be for four years.

Thanks for straightening that out for me. Gerhardius.

If what Wayne Madsen reports today is true, The Lobby's control of Pelosi may not be that important except in terms of keeping the lid on impeachment.
He says that there may be plans to replace Cheney too.

Significantly,Poppy's people are taking the heat off Syria by placing the blame for the Hariri assasination on the notorius Russian/Israeli Viktor Bout.

Not all fascists are Nazis. No one says they have to wear jackboots.

Militarism, accompanied by hyper patriotism, seemingly perpetual war and fear-mongering, one-man (or three man) rule, bypassed democratic institutions, branding any opposition as treasonous, throwing away habeus corpus and casting some people in jail for an endless term on mere governmental suspicion, with no right to a trial, a lawyer or the ability to contront their accusers--all this is on the road to fascism. I used the term crypto-fascist intentionally to stir the pot.

Perhaps the past election will serve to reverse this trend.

On another note, whether or not we like it as Canadians, what happens in US politics and economy deeply affects us, and refusing to think about it is to bury our heads in the sand.

And finally, Nancy Pelosi will be Speaker--she has been the Minority Leader in the House. Such choices, made by the House Democratic caucas, and not mere seniority, determine who will leaders in the House. However, in general, the senior figure on this or that committee is normally made Chair when the party gains majority status, though the Speaker in the House, and the Senate Majority leader (in this instance Harry Reit), can choose someone else if they want. I would guess that seniority controls such choices 90% of the time.

MFellman. Thanks for the furthur elucidation of the rules of the House.

My fear is that everyone will go back to sleep. Now that the Dems are capable of making trouble for the NWO, they won't....and they won't do anything to remove the legal structure they and the NeoCons put in place on a basis of a false flag operation...9/11.

Just today another piece of evidence that a fraud was staged presented itself. The technolgy that allows one to make a cell phone call from a plane has been installed for the very first time!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=415303&in_page_id=1770&ct=5
Proof positive those cell phone calls from the planes on 9/11 were faked!

So the old guard has been called out to put the lid on for a while, but unless the reason for the existence of the Office of Homeland Security is exposed as the fraud it is, the world is in trouble.

Canadians will certainly continue to be in danger since Martin accepted terms for the legal invasion of this dear land in March 2003 and the legal snatching of anyone they declare a terrorist. Since the RCMP were found to have had the Raging Grannies on their little list, I am not reasured my age would protect me.

As to refusing to think about the ramifications of who's in charge down there, I don't know who you hang around with...

Thanks, Tom. 2 year congress, 4 year governors, 6 year senators, staggered elections every 2 years, U.S. politics is also much harder to cover in terms of numbers of seats and demographics over long timetables.

Though not impossible to find out, I'm looking for a website that lists the up and coming 2008 governor and senate elections state by state. As Michael Fellman states, U.S. politics impacts everything, most obviously including foreign policy and trade. And since 85% of Canada's trade is North/South... and their media... and ownership...

We here in Canada are still a sovereign nation, far more than we give ourselves credit for. This is why we need to be more aware of what America has within her systems that works and what does not. And to that end, Canadians are quite distinct in terms of the models we've adopted within our institutions to serve the public trust.

We've prided ourselves on being better or more superior than the U.S. in some ways, and in some ways we are... but in some ways, so is America. Being an empire has its pro's and con's. To that end, we are not superior to the states in much of anything, other than to succeed where she has visibly failed. Its not hard to extrapolate.

In areas of bad choices in U.S. foreign policy in a climate of a change of power, for Harper to visibly walk like a war mongering defence contract lobbiest Republican, talk like a "we don't cut and run" deficit spending, war profiteering Republican, with the gun toters and religious nutters and racists and sovereignty sellouts and privatizers and For Sale giveaways of whats left of this country for a cut of the great ass kissing of the U.S. corporate buyout...

And all we will have learned is how to send our sons and daughters off to die. And our jails will be full. And border guards will greet you with guns when you enter the country. And all peace keeping missions are armed now and forever. And our jails will be full. And we'll buy more guns. And have more individual rights. And get stopped for more piss tests. And our jails will be full. And our "puritan" Republican values will clean up our acts with bills like "the Patriot bill", and we'll build more jails and our jails will be full. Full, just like our friends largest prison in the middle east... Palestine. And just like them, our new jails too, will be full.

Crypto-fascist isn't a far reach for a description of the current trend we've seen in politics, hopefully until now. Democrat congress and Senate... First Rumsfelt, now Bolden... its looking more and more like a "lame duck" president in the U.S., as well as a sore lips ass kissin' PM at home. Can't wait for some political change to get here in Canada.

Inquisition, eh? Interesting word to choose. I can think of two questions among many that would be most important to have answers to:

1. Did anyone falsify any results in any of the last four federal elections, and if so, exactly how?

2. After the towers were attacked by the younger son of the Bush family's great allies, the Bin Ladens, why did Bush attack the wrong target? It seems likely that Saddam himself, not Iraq, was the enemy to be defeated, though nobody thought him guilty of attacking anybody outside his own country. And no Bin Laden has yet been inconvenienced seriously. Why?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Oh, and just to inject a little positivity, I really think that the only safety the world contains politically, can be found in a strong, motivated and adversarial opposition.

On that basis, the next two years may be an occasion for some hope. Unless the Democrats think they can get a majority next time. If they do, we're sort of back in the same idological boat.

There is no opposition coming from the Dems where it counts....Homeland Security, leave alone impeachment.

Bush declares Martial Law and and the Dems go along because Joe Lieberman (see
http://www.rense.com/general74/leib.htm)
and Nancy Pelosi are heavily indebted to The Lobby. The War of Civilizations line is even being pushed by Art Bell.
We just may get all of the anti-terrorism we had nightmares about anyway.

First Rumsfelt, now Bolton... its kind of disappointing to see this thread not have the volume it deserves, because its a big issue. The Republican congress passed a bill a few months back that essentially keeps the U.S. government from investigating and charging their own whitehouse for war crimes!

For a witch hunt to go on concerning illegal contracts and bribes through lobby efforts, even more specifically, to charge the secretary of defense for war crimes or any other whitehouse official... well, thats just not going to happen within and by the U.S. government as a result of this legislation, so the issue of witch hunts seems over before it began, at least, concerning war crimes.

But... Germany wants Rumsfelt. And this is where the story should be taking new life and legs. Germany is making an effort to have Rumsfelt tried for war crimes against humanity surrounding issues involving Iraq, Afganistan, and Guatanamo Bay (Bolton could be next). And Germany is not only the second world economic superpower, they have the international clout and standing to pursue it, with, I believe, the hearts and minds of the world behind them. Does Germany have the legal course to do so? Most legal experts agree that they do! The next question is whether or not Germany has the resolve... and with a Democrat congress, Senate and governors running the show with well known Republicans distancing themselves from the whitehouse, I believe the resolve is there.

The German government wants no such thing. The suit is being refiled because the original grounds for turning it down are no longer valid. It is still up to the German courts to decide whether to hear it. If Merkel has the influence I think she has, the case will not be heard. Even if it is, Rumsfeld can hole up on his ranch or maybe the Bush Family's place in Paraquay if things get hot at home. It is unlikely he would ever be bothered, since Kissinger has been only slightly inconvenienced by being found to be a war criminal..

Interesting site that shows the inexperience of the top war-mongers in the GOP:
http://www.nhgazette.com/news/chickenhawks/chickenhawk_headquarters/

Not wanting to pull readers from the discussion at hand, but this seemed loosely connected to the general topic so in I put it.

Thanks, Nana, the info re: Germany is news to me. I had heard of the French making noises about a trial.

http://kurtnimmo.com/?p=650
Spurious “al-Qaeda in Iraq” Celebrates Dem Victory

The chilling penultimate paragraph

The difficulty in the post Bush period is going to be making repairs.

Nana above says that Bush declared martial law. But I'm afraid that's not actually true. Would that it were so easy. Martial law could just be rescinded.

Bush and co extensively rewrote the entire legal system, changed the basic assumptions that underlay it. Abolished basic rights and freedoms forever.

Free speech, freedom from search and seizure, right to due process, speedy public trial, a jury of your peers, to face your accusers. To have a lawyer.

They abolished habeus corpus for pitys sake, after 800 years in common law as the strongest bulwark against tyrany.

This is not like the War Measures Act, which ends when the insurrection ends. These are new laws. Dozens or even hundreds of them. Permanent ones. They would have to be repealed individually, each one debated and subject to the usual process of blackmail and porkification.

To clear them all at once would take something like a reset to the day before Bush first ascended the throne.

The only possible way that might happen would be if Bush, Cheney, Rumsfelt were publically tried and found to be actually criminals, all exposed with lots of publicity, and that would be impossible in the new America. Comes to that, it'd be impossible in the new Canada, we haven't fared so well ourselves the last 20 years.

The only place it would be possible is Europe, and the only way to let Americans know about it if it does happen is the internet, since all traditional press has been bought and nobbled by the criminals themselves.

Wouldn't it be a marvellous thing if Europe, having once had their chance for freedom rescued by the naive industry of the Western Democracies, could return the favor and rescue them right back?

It could be argued that the difficulty we're in flows directly from the price we paid in WWll. That's where we laid the first bricks on our 'Military-Industrial Complex'. And that has been our undoing.

Bailey point of info...I said Bush could declare Martial Law. Otherwise I agree with you. It is unlikely the Dems in control are going to do anything about dismantling the draconian legal apparatus Bush put in place.

There is some good news. Gates thinks they should talk to Teheran.
http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=11/12/2006&Cat=2&Num=017

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2006/11/11/un-israel.html

So far, nothings changed. Business as usual.

And the Canadian Republican party led by Harper is trying to do it here. Vic Toews is trying to ram it through with piss tests for drugged up drivers, along with other individual rights taken away. How could Canadians not see which party Harper was truly coming from?

morefreedom.org

Till dem Dems are sworn in, the republicans have a window whereby they will attempt to pass as much legislation as they can. Things are entirely too quiet from the legislature at present. The right wing press is happy for the weather stories from Colorado Oregon and Washington, so they don't have to do any real research and reporting about what is going on in DC. They still have a couple of months worth of damage to inflict on civil liberties. Also, the GOP will probably write some more cover their own ass legislation saying they are absolved of any sins before they even get charged or sentenced - just like Agnew and Nixon. We all know that sins committed in the name of the big oil/neo-con/military/industrial dollar for the good of neo-cons are not really to be thought of as sins.