The one Griff quoted from (American heritage dictionary). I have no idea how representative that is of other American dictionaries though.

Ah, gotcha. Brit version is worded a little more conservatively but the same theme.

That's not what the dictionary(s) says. Besides, if it acts like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's at least a wannabe.

I'd say the attribute would be a desire for dictatorship rather than a functional one. H*t**r was a fascist before the fire. A big fly in the ointment is that we can't look inside their heads, when they are not forthcoming enough to write a Mein Kampf.

Where does the Islamofascist label fit in? Is there a document of intention or is it just a catchy label? The islamist movement, to me, looks more decentralized and tribal..? al Sadr might have the potential though?

YET!

The Bushies have tried to control the media, and their secrecy doesn't allow us citizens to know much of what they're doing. Something tells me that Bush would love to send many Democrats on a quail hunting trip with BIG DICK.

If he's not a fascict, why is his picture next to the definition?

Do you mean the one that shoots from the shoulder; or shoots from the hip?

It finally occurred to me why the art is precisely wrong:

In a fascist regime, it would not be permitted. Its mere existence, its creation without fear of penalty, your advertisement of it and my hosting a forum where it can be seen - are certain proof that we are not in a fascist state.
We're always on the slippery slope, except it's not so slopey and we aren't really slipping. In 2008 there will be an election. It won't be canceled and Bush will no longer be President.

It's also a function of what information is reported and what information is shared. We have perfected the ability to find and share the very worst take -- as well as the very best, depending on which side you're on. Sitting in the middle, things aren't so very alarming.

I'll call him good, and just, and not remotely a proto-fascist anything. He's doing what I'd do -- shooting at the actual fascists, on their home territories -- and his doings are all just what a Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces would be doing in prosecuting a war started by coercion-minded nasties possessed of and by an idea so unpopular that the one way they can get it to prevail is by savagery. That's the functioning definition of "terrorists." Countervailing violence to suppress such as these is thus moral.

Your views, Ibbie, are both less than seasoned -- a bad thing in a democracy's politics -- and second- to third-hand, owing to your geographical remoteness. What you think you see from the island of Taiwan is not something seen by those of us here on the ground.

The totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century (and the two or three surviving regimes thereafter) relied even more on control of information available to their subject populations than on their armies and police. One may for convenience call such regimes "information dictatorships." In the era of the Internet, an information dictatorship becomes less viable by the day -- anyone foresee any final success for the Great Firewall Of China? The capabilities of technology are once again outpacing the capabilities of government.

About those comics: it most regrettably cheapens anti-fascism when anti-patriotism tries to cloak itself in anti-fascism. And the fools can't get it that we can see through them? Not too bright, are they? And Spexx, darling: Ann Coulter laughs at those so abysmally credulous as to suck in the conspiracy theories the Left is peddling, simply because our commonsensical President has Republican after his name. They were at this from early '01 and have been pushing the manure enthusiastically ever since.

Man, I am never voting Democratic. They even belie their own party name, with their softness on despots! Yuck! Harry Reid needs some foreign-policy Viagra! Or maybe Cialis for longer lasting effect.

Wow, so now i'm not just an ignorant teenager, but an ignorant fe'rgner too?

He didn't say you are a foreigner, he said you watching from the cheap seats.

Nowadays, it's not six months by boat for my mail and the news. It's six-tenths of a second. Anyone anywhere can know what's going on, so he's doing nothing but bullshitting once again.

Thankfully, he's even more of a joke than merc - I'm not offended, only amused.

Six months or 6/10 of a second you're still on the other side of the world where it's safe.
You don't have to check under the bed at night, in the backseat of your car coming out of the mall, or the kitchen of the restaurant, to make sure terrorists aren't going to rush out and saw your head off, like UG does.

Spoken like a true teen...:)

Fascism made easy...


1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy
2. Create a gulag
3. Develop a thug caste
4. Set up an internal surveillance system
5. Harass citizens' groups
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release
7. Target key individuals
8. Control the press
9. Dissent equals treason
10. Suspend the rule of law

-Naomi Wolf

You are being wry here, right? Sorry if my wrymeter needs calibrating...