One has to wonder sometimes. Yeah, I know: Bush is no Hitler and history never really repeats itself (or as Heraclitus would say, "You cannot step into the same river twice...for different and again different waters flow."). Still I and others have noted that there is a uniquely American form of fascism rearing its ugly head that has found friends in the White House, Congress, and elements of the mass media and corporate sectors. A round-up of some stories that grabbed my attention:

Not Scared Yet? Try Connecting These Dots by Ray McGovern. Among other things, McGovern looks at how Americans might react to a possible "delay" of elections:

On Friday I listened to a reporter asking a tourist in Washington, DC, whether he felt inconvenienced by all the blockages and barriers occasioned by the heightened alert. While the tourist acknowledged that the various barriers and inspections made it difficult to get from one place to another, he made his overall reaction quite clear: "Safety first! I don't want to see another 9/11. Whatever it takes!" I was struck a few hours later as I tuned into President Bush speaking at a campaign rally in Michigan: "I will never relent in defending America. Whatever it takes."

How prevalent this sentiment has become was brought home to me as Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) quizzed 9/11 Commissioner Bob Kerrey (a former Democrat Senator from Nebraska) at a hearing last week on the commission's sweeping recommendation to centralize foreign and domestic intelligence under a new National Intelligence Director in the White House. Kerrey grew quite angry as Kucinich kept insisting on an answer to his question: "How do you protect civil liberties amid such a concentration of information and power?"

Kerrey protested that the terrorists give no priority to civil liberties. He went on to say that individual liberties must, in effect, be put on the back burner, while priority is given to combating terrorism. Whatever it takes.

Does this not speak volumes? Would Kerrey suggest that Americans act like the "good Germans" of the 1930s, and acquiesce in draconian steps like postponement or cancellation of the November election?

These are no small matters. It is high time to think them through.

RNC Protest Organizers Reject Rally Site looks at the on-going struggle for protesters to be seen and heard at the upcoming GOP convention in NYC. On a related note, Jim Hightower of The Nation looks at Bu$hCo's efforts to quash free speech and protest even before the 9/11 tragedy in Bush Zones Go National.

One crucial element in the development of a fascist state is the merging of the federal government and big business to the extent that it is unclear as to where the public sector ends and the private sector begins. We see in this article, Big Business Becoming Big Brother by Kim Zetter of Wired.com that the US government is increasingly contracting out surveillance work to private corporations which apparently allows the feds to keep an eye on the theat posed by peace sign-wearing activists without the inconvenience of those restrictions regarding privacy rights. Nice.

And David Neiwert of the excellent blog Orcinus continues to look at the role of mainstream media and (yes) mainstream GOP voters in allowing virulent racists and virulent racist ideas to go unchallenged in Home to Roost. Remember that old parental admonition that you are judged by the company you keep? Well, as long as GOP types continue to keep a blind eye to the right-wing extremists who've aligned themselves with the GOP, it'll be difficult to impossible for independents of a variety of political stripes (from the very liberal such as myself to those who are more moderate or libertarian) to trust representatives of that party. Something to think about.

While were on Neiwert's blog, don't forget to check out the post Good Christian Hate which looks at a recent gay bashing crime by someone who apparently was quoting Biblical scripture while working over his victim. In another post by Neiwert Shades of Kristallnacht, we get some commentary on a recent anti-Semitic vandalism of a large number of businesses in the Bay Area of California that had displayed signs for a local Board of Supervisors candidate David Heller, who so happens to be Jewish and whose grandparents had been killed by the Nazis during WWII. The vandals spray-painted swastikas on the windows of those businesses. Finally, Neiwert tackles one of my least favorite right-wing gasbags, Bill O'Reilly, in a post titled Just like the Klan which discusses a recent "debate" between O'Reilly and Paul Krugman on Tim Russert's CNBC show. I put "debate" in quotes as O'Reilly wasn't actually there to discuss issues as a rational human being and was instead content to threaten and intimidate. Real nice guy. Fair and balanced, and all that. In making the claim that the watchdog group Media Matters is just like the Ku Klux Klan, Neiwert notes that not only is O'Reilly factually wrong but is serving a sinister purpose with that claim:

Not only does O'Reilly smear one of his political nemeses -- he soft-pedals what real hate groups stand for. When he compares Media Matters to the Klan, he's not only telling his audience that the former is full of hateful vitriol that poisons the public well, he tells them that the Klan is a reasonably legitimate organization that mostly is engaged in mere political partisanship.

And that makes O'Reilly appear not only ridiculous, but genuinely dangerous.

Food for thought.