I understand what the politician meant who said of the Texas House of Representatives, "If you think these guys are bad, you should see their constituents."

" What would have happened if millions of American and British people, struggling with coupons and lines at the gas stations, had learned that in 1942 Standard Oil of New Jersey [part of the Rockefeller empire] managers shipped the enemy's fuel through neutral Switzerland and that the enemy was shipping Allied fuel? Suppose the public had discovered that the Chase Bank in Nazi-occupied Paris after Pearl Harbor was doing millions of dollars' worth of business with the enemy with the full knowledge of the head office in Manhattan [the Rockefeller family among others?] Or that Ford trucks were being built for the German occupation troops in France with authorization from Dearborn, Michigan? Or that Colonel Sosthenes Behn, the head of the international American telephone conglomerate ITT, flew from New York to Madrid to Berne during the war to help improve Hitler's communications systems and improve the robot bombs that devastated London? Or that ITT built the FockeWulfs that dropped bombs on British and American troops? Or that crucial balI bearings were shipped to Nazi-associated customers in Latin America with the collusion of the vice-chairman of the U.S. War Production Board in partnership with Goering's cousin in Philadelphia when American forces were desperately short of them? Or that such arrangements were known about in Washington and either sanctioned or deliberately ignored?"

"Individuals have international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience ... Therefore [individual citizens] have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity from occurring."
Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal, 1950

"If we'd been born where they were born and taught what they were taught, we would believe what they believe.'

Samuel Johnson
"Power is always gradually stealing away from the many to the few, because the few are more vigilant and consistent."

James Madison
"I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."

mred: i dunno if u saw the whole moveon/hitler fiasco? basically moveon.org ran a competition where people could submit antiwar/antibush 30sec vid/flash movies and then users could vote on their faves. they got a thousand submissions or sumthink and 2 of them made the bush/hitler analogy.

the shrill media made a big deal about it - presumably to discredit moveon - who coincidently were the lucky recipient of 2.5m of soros money. one somewhat interesting thing is that the attacks on moveon often didnt mention soros (altho there were soros articles that mentioned moveon). soros is obviously a target, but the opportunity to tar moveon with the soros brush seemed to often stay in the pocket. (this is a mere curiousity at the mo). the more interesting thing if one has a tendency to draw long bows, is that its a golden rule in pr that u dont use negative words in association with yuor brand - even to deny something. think nixon's "im not a crook". ad campaigns sh/would never say something like "some people say our product sux, but 100% of scientists prove them wrong" - the brain often doesnt absorb the literal message, but remembers the 'our product sux' bit. nothing new here, so far. but if one assumes for a minute that rove et al are really good at this sort of thing (or more accurately, just if they follow the basics), then one could easily assume that the attention lasered on the bush/hitler thing was actually a form of 'innoculation', rather than a 'legitimate' (ie as it appears) attack on moveon, or (indirectly) on soros.

does that idea/approach sound reasonable? heres the logic again: 1. shrillmedia went outta their way to highlight an issue which suggested a bush/hitler link 2. it was a non-story without the attention (the ads didnt make the 'cut' for the competition) 3. professional pr people know that every time a scribe says bush slash hitler, that the link is reinforced, even in a denial. 4. professional pr people also know that 'innoculating' an audience is the best way to introduce an idea to an audience.

the logic suggests that shrillmedia is actually promoting the bush/hitler link - bush as a strong leader (oops about the oratory ability), defending the homeland (didja ever hear that term before 43?) etc etc. thats one of the scariest ideas ive had in a long time.

of course, it could be that they ran the moveon story for other reasons, or cos theyre bad at executing (media) - but we've seen from the *increased* saddam/911 beliefs that they realy are very fukking good.