Slippery Slope to Fascism

IN REGARD TO Aaron Cross' letter (Nov. 12), I've been outraged over the last few years that any American would condone the Bush administration's use of torture (such as at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib), extraordinary rendition, putting groups such as the Quakers on terrorist lists, et. al. KSCO has obviously taken a tilt toward the right, and has editorialized in favor of these policies, assuming that security over liberty is more important, and you know what Ben Franklin said about that! I thought that perhaps someone would stand up to Bush in the Congress or Senate, and very few have, and in the media, sane voices (Olbermann or Maddow, let alone Amy Goodman) to be heard have been few and far between. I live and breathe politics to a degree, and I have a life!

In my opinion, the United States has, through Bush, gotten on that slippery slope toward fascism.

Bush called the Constitution a "goddamned piece of paper." He has waged a war against another nation for no good reason, police-state policies have obviously been enacted (look what happened in Minneapolis during the RNC!), and Corporate America has been enriched by the lack of regulation and cooperation of the Bush administration, Congress and the federal government. It's easy enough to Google the definition of fascism, read it and make up your own mind! Hopefully this all stops with Obama!

To say that Bush/Cheney's undemocratic regime is not the same as Hitler's Germany or Mussolini's Italy is missing the point. Francisco Franco's Spain or Pinochet's Chile aren't looked upon by historians as being equal to Hitler's or Mussolini's regimes either. I'll call Bush/Cheney a fascist regime because it bent over backward to enrich the corporate elite, used scare tactics to drum up a war against a country that was not a threat to our national security, used secrecy in hiding its illegal unconstitutional acts from Congress and the American people, broke international law in dealing with prisoners of war, and finally used local police authorities as an arm of governmental agencies like ICE to round up and jail people (like illegal immigrants and people of Middle Eastern descent in he weeks following Sept. 11). If Mr. Cross or anyone else doesn't see all these facts as proof that this country is on a slippery slope to fascism, then they need to wake up!

 L.D. Freitas,
Aptos

Bad for Our World

A BRIEF OPINION regarding your recent review of the film Religulous (Film, Oct. 8): criticisms of world religions' aspects that endanger humanity are good for our world. Criticisms of world religions that exclude the religion that worships "Ethnic purification ... as far as any eye can see" (Noam Chomsky's definition) are just pro-apartheid propaganda--bad for our world.

Jack Ross,
Los Angeles

Where Is The Love?

AFTER SEEING DeCinzo's latest harpooning of the other Coonerty (DeCinzo, Oct. 22), we think back to DeCinzo's attack of Neal's character on his run for supervisor, as a puppet of business/growth and a bastardizer of nature/open space. Anyone who knows these two knows different, but the attacks are not far off Karl Rove's distorting of the truth to get the Bushes in office. Some people believe these attacks. Ryan must be eating the right bagel to get smeared in with Big Oil. Fred Geiger's letter (next to the comic) associating the LOBA (locally owned business) endorsement of Coonerty, Lane and Terrazas with Big Business seemed ironic to me. SCAN (Santa Cruz Action Network) in its heyday followed the same line of endorsements, and one constant battle cry was "Save Downtown, save local business" from corporate business (factory outlets, Borders, Crown Books, etc.). Is it not ironic that LOBA, a grassroots effort of local (Santa Cruz) small business that is trying to protect their small businesses, is being ostracized? Is it not ironic that we were trying to save Bookshop Santa Cruz, only to find Coonerty in bed with "Big Business?"

Where do we go from here? We need to find love, love for the so-called enemy. If we cannot do it here, then where? You have to laugh at the slander and the irony. I must say, you have to love the Republican, a business owner, a homeless person, a member of the rainbow party. I hate to tell you, but there are some good Republicans (even in this town) and (even though it doesn't seem possible) there are some bad Democrats. Things are going to get tougher in the years ahead and we need to come together as a community. To show the world we aren't just weird. I think DeCinzo is very funny, but I don't believe everything I read and see on TV, just the things I agree with.

Todd Prindle,
Santa Cruz

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