Byrd Compares Proposal to Nazi Germany

[seemslikeadream]

Posted 3/2/2005 09:04 AM

Sen. Robert C. Byrd
Republicans sharply criticize the West Virginia senator's comments on rules that could make it easier to approve judicial nominees.
Conservatives are attacking Sen. Robert C. Byrd for a speech he made on the Senate floor Tuesday.

Byrd criticized Republican proposals that would limit debate in the Senate on judicial nominees. In the speech, Byrd made references to Nazi Germany and fascism.

In a news release, Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman criticized the West Virginia Democrat, saying:

"Senator Byrd's invocation of Hitler's Germany in discussing the duty of U.S. Senators to advise and provide consent on judicial nominees is reprehensible and beyond the pale. While members of the Senate are free to agree and disagree on the issues, this poisonous rhetoric only serves to illustrate the desperation and weakness of Senator Byrd's position."

...

from Byrd's speech


But witness how men with motives and a majority can manipulate law to cruel and unjust ends. Historian Alan Bullock writes that Hitler's dictatorship rested on the constitutional foundation of a single law, the Enabling Law. Hitler needed a two-thirds vote to pass that law, and he cajoled his opposition in the Reichstag to support it. Bullock writes that "Hitler was prepared to promise anything to get his bill through, with the appearances of legality preserved intact." And he succeeded.


Hitler's originality lay in his realization that effective revolutions, in modern conditions, are carried out with, and not against, the power of the State: the correct order of events was first to secure access to that power and then begin his revolution. Hitler never abandoned the cloak of legality; he recognized the enormous psychological value of having the law on his side. Instead, he turned the law inside out and made illegality legal.

http://www.wtrf.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=1237#top

[RobertSeattle]

1. Hmmmm

PRESS RELEASE

From: Ken Mehlman, RNC Chairman

Subject: Comments by Senator Byrd

Senator Byrd's invocation of Hitler's Germany in discussing the duty of U.S. Senators to advise and provide consent on judicial nominees is reprehensible and beyond the pale. While members of the Senate are free to agree and disagree on the issues, this poisonous rhetoric only serves to illustrate the desperation and weakness of Senator Byrd's position.

Sieg Heil,

Ken Mehlman

:evilgrin:

[Name removed]

47. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[wtmusic]

2. Go Byrdie!

:thumbsup:

[Hobarticus]

3. STFU, Ken...

No one asked you.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

4. How predictably distorted...

Unfortunately, how many will read the entirety of Byrd's comments?

[underpants]

15. I heard this yesterday afternoon on Fox News

and the first thing I thought was "I wonder what he really said. I'll wait until I can read the whole quote"

Funny Major Garret reported that Republicans are concerned because they know Byrd would not have used that language if he didn't know they had the votes to defeat the nominations.

[Supersedeas]

28. how many MSM 'journalists/pundits' will take the tiem to read the entirety

[Democrats_win]

5. Byrd defends the constitution!!!!

[driver8]

33. We can't have people defending the constitution...

that wouldn't be good for "democracy".

[Dhalgren]

6. Yea for Byrd!

Fuck Mehlman! Byrd is absolutely right regarding the Nazi-like behavior of the Imperial Republicans. I know Byrd must get tired being so alone so much of the time, but he is fighting for us and I, for one, greatly appreciate his efforts.

[Whoa_Nelly]

7. WTG, Byrd

Speaking out once again, and hitting the proverbial nail squarely on its head. Unfortunately, the US media whore press will continue to aid BushCo into driving this nation into the dictatorial Fascist state those greedy idiots seek.

[HuckleB]

8. "Just because we act like fascists, doesn't mean we are fascists!"

"We love freedom and democracy!"

Indeed. The Bushies and the RNC love democracy, as long as its definition is completely changed to describe and encompass the definitions of what we used to call oligarchy, fascism, and corruption. And they love freedom, too, just as long as its definition means the "freedom" to fall in line and never as much as question with the monied folk (corrupt oligarchs and fascists) in power.

[Just Me]

25. "Former KKKlansman Labeled Too Liberal by Fascists!!!"

Oh the sweet freakin' irony of it all!!!

[driver8]

35. If it walks like a fascist, looks like a fascist, talks like a fascist and

acts like a fascist...it is probably a Republican!

These guys are amazing! They really don't see what they have become, do they? Or, maybe they do but just don't care. Either way, this country is in a shitload of trouble.

Hooray for Byrd for saying what definitely has needed to be said for quite some time. The only thing missing from these guys is the arm bands...

[phusion]

9. Byrd has a very good point...

"Hitler's originality lay in his realization that effective revolutions, in modern conditions, are carried out with, and not against, the power of the State: the correct order of events was first to secure access to that power and then begin his revolution. Hitler never abandoned the cloak of legality; he recognized the enormous psychological value of having the law on his side. Instead, he turned the law inside out and made illegality legal."

Very nice...

Kick ass, Byrd!

[Seabiscuit]

111. Great quote, and very a propos, Senator Byrd. Kudos!

Scratch a Repuke, uncover a Swastika.

[seemslikeadream]

10. NewsMax leads with Former Ku Klux Klansman

Wednesday, March 2, 2005 9:03 a.m. EST

Byrd: GOP Using Hitler's Tactics

Former Ku Klux Klansman Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., is blasting plans by Senate Republicans to invoke the so-called "nuclear option" to force a vote on President Bush's judicial nominees, saying it would be no different from the tactics employed by Adolf Hitler.

To drive home his point, the eight-term Democrat also invoked the imagery of the Holocaust.


http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/3/2/90420.shtml

[underpants]

13. Byrd complained:

Newsmax used "Klansman" twice and added a nice little holocaust twist at the end. :puke:

Moments later, Byrd invoked the imagery of the Holocaust, saying that the Senate's GOP leadership would "callously incinerate" the rights of the Democratic minority:

[Just Me]

19. Ask yourself: who did the neo-KKK vote for in 2004,...

,...and do you honestly believe they are going to support Byrd in 2006.

Yeah. You get my point, huh.

On edit: I'd bet $50 that it is white supremists and fascist-types that are funding and advancing this attack against Byrd.

[Webster Green]

11. Reprehensible and beyond the pale.....

That is the Nazi/Fascists' standard reply whenever someone points out to them how their policies are best described.

[The_Casual_Observer]

16. However, they never deny it.

[Binka]

44. Kicko In The Panties CO BooYah

They squeal up the yin yang yet yet yet they can't DENY it. What a bunch of coward-bullies. Fuck em and their Nazi agenda.

When are these fucktards gonna step up to the fuckin' plate and deal?

I'll submit never they just want to try and scare and harass folks to capitulate.

"Hey Ken Go Fuck Yer Self K?"

[bowens43]

12. Byrds entire speech is here.....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=1632424&mesg_id=1632424

[Conservativesux]

150. Hopefully Byrd will stay away from airplanes, canoes and bodies of water.

Bad things seem to happen to those who speak out against BushAmerika.

[aden_nak]

14. Hitler is not to be taken lightly, but also should not be taboo.

On the one hand, it's a dangerous thing for a Senator (not a citizen, a Senator) to run around saying that so-and-so politican is Hitler. On the other hand, if what he is doing is drawing a specific, verifiable analogy between a current situation and one that existed in Nazi Germany, there's nothing wrong with doing that. What he is pointing out here is that the "false safeties" that exist were not enough to stop Adolph Hitler from siezing power, so clearly they have no strength.

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

[Just Me]

18. If you read his speeches, his analogies are ALWAYS verifiable and,

quite frankly, true.

Naturally, the fascist-types are going to scream and stamp their feet and character-assassinate and attack with every ounce of venom they can conjure. Moreover, they pick their targets carefully. Their targets are always those who can shine the light of day on the fascist-type tactics being utilized in what is supposed to be a democratic republic.

[Pachamama]

45. If we are to learn lessons & not repeat history, we must be able to look

at exactly what Hitler and the Nazis did to rise to power and to be able to discuss it.

Sen Byrd is absolutely right...it is very important for him to discuss this and point out the seriousness of the actions of this administration and specifically how Hitler did use the "legality" and laws of Germany to justify and continue doing what he did.

The similarities between how this administration and the GOP that are trying to run this country and with the Nazis and how Hitler gained power and ruled Germany are frightening. Anyone failing to atleast examine and look at the similarities and discuss them is failing to learn the lessons of history or is trying to deny the reality, possibly defend those practices too.

[TahitiNut]

17. Byrd is championing minority rights.

Probably the best (92 page) book on this is Henry Steele Commager's "Majority Rule and Minority Rights". It's out-of-print but is available used and (probably) at your local library. I recommend it highly. It's small, but very distilled and erudite.

[Az_lefty]

20. This is right on target...

the cloak of legality, cloak of morality, cloak of fighting terror, etc.
It's all a show put on by the greatest power hungry fool to walk the halls of the White House.

[ghardy68]

21. Brother Byrd

I see what he saw and he is dead right. Mussolini, who helped create modern fascism, viewed liberal ideas as the enemy. "The Fascist Conception of life," he wrote, "Stresses the importance of the State and accepts the individual only in so far as his interests coincide with the State. It is opposed to classical liberalism denied the State in the name of the individual; Fascism reasserts the rights of the State as expressing the real essence of the individual. Mussolini thought it was unnatural for a government to protect individual rights: The essence of fascism, he believed, is that government should be the master, not the servant of the people.

[goodboy]

22. I grew up watching WTRF and WTOV9...it's cool they covered t his...

Kick for Byrd!

[DebbieCDC]

58. Me too Goodboy!

The old hometown stations.

[goodboy]

95. Well, I grew up in Martins Ferry...how about you?

[dandrhesse]

23. A little too close to the truth for the comfort of the RNC! Good for Byrd!

[DeaconBlues]

24. Byrd is probably one of the last politicians who understands how

important the separation of powers is to well-being of our system of government. He's not considered the expert on the Constitution in the Senate for nothing.

[underpants]

26. Byrd on Larry King a couple of years ago

From memory not an exact quote

King:"Now you have worked for a lot of Presidents of different.."

Byrd"Hold it Larry I never worked FOR a President as a Senator I work WITH them, sometimes"

[zbdent]

27. Hey, if Repukes can invoke JFK (a Dem Icon), then why is it that Repukes

get their boxers in a bunch when we invoke one of their ideological icons?

[old blue]

29. A spade is a spade. n/t

[Occulus]

30. Pounce on this.

Byrd has a ton of experience to draw upon. If he says a policy is akin to the Nazis, it is akin to the Nazis. His is a voice I completely trust.

Given that, contact Mehlman's office. Tell him Byrd merely spoke aloud what many of us on the left have been thinking for some time. Call the bluff. Expose them for what they are.

Make them deny it, over and over and more and more vociferously until their denials of being "like the Nazis" is all the public hears. Put the idea in the American mind.

My goodness- I just suggested one of their strategies. Imagine that.

[Catamount]

34. You are right! Don't feel bad, this battle must be won !

[ohkay]

48. You completely trust a Klansman?

I don't get it? This guy is am embarrassment to the Dem's, not an example.

:shrug:

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

49. Have you never made a mistake?

Are you the same man/woman you were 20 or 30 years ago?

[Yupster]

50. I'll be glad when Byrd retires

He's embarrassed me for 20 years.

And yes, I've made mistakes in my life too, but I never joined the f*&*king Ku Klux Klan.

And when he joined the Klan, it was not a popular thing to do. By the late 40's, the KLan was a tiny remnant of the powerful organization it was in the Twenties. It was torn up by the FBI and some show trials, especially involving sexual misconduct among the leadership, so that by the 40's, belonging to the Klan was not a cool thing to do.

Byrd is over 80 with Parkinson's and up for reelection to another 6 years term. I'll be happy when he announces he's retiring and I'll even send him a polite letter of gratitude and thanks.

[ElectroPrincess]

67. Have you no capacity for mercy and forgiveness?

If you don't ... well then citizen, The Republican Party is the place to be! (drum roll) Senator Byrd has denounced his KKK past time and time again ... further he has functioned as an honorable representative.

NEVER FORGIVING your opponent (much less a TEAM-player on OUR side like Senator Byrd), albeit that he/she's profoundly penitent is a classical, sick minded, right wing tactic. It has no place in progressive politics.

You want to get to the FREEPERS? Then start expressing *moral outrage* at their hypocrisy.

I guarantee you that with all the PRESENT Right Wing indiscretions, there's fertile ground to "scream for their heads" from the highest church steeple.

Our opponent is a true ENEMY in most every sense of the word. Until we're ready to play true political hard ball, they will always take advantage of the tolerant progressive. Perhaps it's beyond time to say "NO MORE"!?!

[Bridget Burke]

75. Guess you're proud of our fine senators!

Lucky Texas, represented by John Cornyn & Kaye "I'm not as bad as the other Senator" Bailey Hutchison.

[donheld]

100. You go right ahead and be embarrassed

I've been pleased as punch with Senator Byrd for several years now. Yes he WAS in the KKK, but sometimes people see the error of their ways. I think Mr Byrd has more than made up for passed transgressions.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

103. Quite frankly, when I read another Democrat's hateful thinking about ...

...Byrd, I feel very sorry for them.

I'd be willing to bet that you weren't around when Byrd was active in the Klan, otherwise you would know that the political climate back then in regards to minorities was COMPLETELY different than it is today.

You may not have joined the Klan but you're not doing yourself any favors by slamming Byrd, that's for sure.

[ohkay]

51. A "youthful indiscretion" ?

Like Ted Kennedy?

Look, a senator is a public figure, and allllll his skeletons come out. You know this BEFORE you become a senator. He was a Klansman, and this is an embarrassment to the Democratic party. The other side will always bring this up. It automatically negates anything he has to say.

He wants to make up for his past? Donate to a charity. He's not helping us.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

59. That's funny.

The only time I ever hear someone bring up the issue is when I'm on DU.

[Name removed]

87. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Spirochete]

110. They usually mention Ted Kennedy sooner or later.

[Name removed]

120. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Bridget Burke]

73. Byrd embarrasses the Republican party.

By pointing out the evil they are doing right at this moment.

He's not helping "us"? Damn straight. Every time he speaks up, the old, tired Right Wing talking point is bleated once again.

[Occulus]

81. Exactly how does it not help

to have at least one person on our side who has been on the other? It seems to me that would provide us with an enormous tactical advantage.

It was a long time ago, and his views have obviously changed. His words, as well as his deeds and his votes reflect that. I'm not going to punish someone forever when they have again and again demonstrated that they were wrong, know they were wrong, and have sought to prove it through their acts.

[Ouabache]

118. Really, gop is always pointing to their members who yoostabee Dems

and how they are somehow enlightened, but we are not allowed to hold up a Dem who used to be way over on the dark side when HE shines a light on THEIR dissembling? It is just another smear by the GOP.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

104. The more you post on this subject, the more you....

...embarrass yourself. You don't have a clue what Byrd really means to Democrats around the country....but keep on raving.

By the way, "the other side" has been bringing up this issue ever since Byrd was first elected to Congress in 1952. Those tactics didn't work then, and it's definitely not working today.

[Name removed]

123. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[SOS]

126. Only if you're a Democrat...

"It automatically negates anything he has to say."

Ronald Reagan was an FDR Democrat in his youth. The Republicans despise FDR Democrats. Yet after his switch to Republican, Reagan's past was never mentioned again.
Reagan changed. Byrd changed. Both changes happened 50 years ago.
Both are non-issues.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

147. Yeah, Ted's an embarrassment to Massachusetts

:eyes:

Keep listening to Jay and Howie. We've got your number.

[johnsonrod]

66. I never made THAT mistake

Nope, sorry, never accidentally joined the clan in my crazy days.

[ElectroPrincess]

68. Nope? Perhaps instead, you did a little weed, snorted a little coke

and went AWOL from the Air National Guard like OUR Dear Leader? :evilgrin:

[Name removed]

78. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[seemslikeadream]

80. Here BorrowMyCrew borrow my book, War Against The Weak

Edwin Black's book War Against the Weak reveals that eugenics-sham science made up to justify ethnic cleansing had an incredible foothold in America in the early twentieth century, and was in fact championed and funded by America's social, political and academic elite. Black traces the flow of ideas, research, and money from Cold Spring Harbor (Long Island) to Germany, in the process proving that it was America's eugenics program that gave Hitler the scientific justification to escalate his virulent anti-semitism into all out genocide.

The victims of eugenics weren't limited to the groups that have regularly suffered from prejudice in the U.S. they were also the poor, epileptics, alcoholics, people who wore glasses, petty criminals, the mentally ill, and those deemed shiftless

http://www.fourwallseightwindows.com/bookblack1.html

At the center of the eugenics story in the U.S. is the movement's two most ardent exponents, Charles Davenport and Harry Laughlin of the Eugenics Record Office. It was these two indivivuals who lead the movement and never wavered from their support for ending the blood lines of people they deeemed "unfit". Even after the Carnegie Institute closed the ERO at the end of 1939, partly out of embarrassment at being associated with the racism of the movement, and the horrors Nazi dominated Europe being publicized to the world, Davenport and Laughlin still defended their racist ideology as a legitimate science. They never severed their ties with the German eugenics movement.

The idea of the "unfit" is highly subjective notion, but it included the usual suspects deemed a burden on societ: African-Americans, Mexicans, and Native Americans.

The list of groups and agencies conducting eugenics research was long, from the U.S. Army and the Departments of Labor and Agriculture to organizations with names like the "American Breeders Association."

[yorkiemommie1]

86. gee i would have been 'eliminated'

on so many levels.

thanks for posting this. have passed the info along.

[donheld]

101. IMHO this man (Byrd) is the pride and joy of the Dems.

He's nearly irreplaceable.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

102. Hmmmm. Byrd quit being a member of the Klan in 1946....

...gee, that's almost sixty years ago, isn't it?

99% of all Democrats stopped being embarrassed by Byrd's former membership in the Klan because he has proven over the years how he changed his thinking on that subject. He has also done very well for his constituency in West Virginia...the only people that complain about him in that state are the ultra-rightwingers.

I guess that places you in that 1% category, doesn't it?

[Judi Lynn]

116. Certain people take vicious shots at him, but their own party

IS the racists' party, not the Democratic Party. Simple character assassination.

[John_H]

121. You're probably the kind of person who'd

say to the guy saving him from drowning, "Hands off! You're a former Klansman!"

Unlike you apparently, Byrd understands that ending the filibuster would be in the top five list of the biggest steps toward dictatorship in the history of America. Or maybe you do understand that perfectly well and it's AOK with you.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

146. Oh for Christ's sake

:eyes:

[MsMagnificent]

156. Nobody is ever 100% wrong

or right.

I backed Clinton and do so to this day; but he was dead wrong on the Waco, Ruby Ridge, and Rwandan fiasco's to name a few (but the worst).

That still doesn't take away from the good he's done.

Same for Byrd.

[tabasco]

31. Byrd is correct.

The Constitution will be destroyed by those claiming to defend it.

[Occulus]

32. Didn't one of our historical figures say that was how it would happen? n/t

[BulletproofLandshark]

41. Yep,shades of Huey Long...

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the American flag." Huey Long said those words over 70 years ago, and it seems like it is about to ring true.

[Stand and Fight]

55. Jim Garrison said the same thing essentially...

"In a very real and terrifying sense, our Government is the CIA and the Pentagon, with Congress reduced to a debating society. Of course, you can't spot this trend to fascism by casually looking around. You can't look for such familiar signs as the swastika, because they won't be there. We won't build Dachaus and Auschwitzes; the clever manipulation of the mass media is creating a concentration camp of the mind that promises to be far more effective in keeping the populace in line. We're not going to wake up one morning and suddenly find ourselves in gray uniforms goose-stepping off to work. But this isn't the test. The test is: What happens to the individual who dissents? In Nazi Germany, he was physically destroyed; here, the process is more subtle, but the end results can be the same.

I've learned enough about the machinations of the CIA in the past year to know that this is no longer the dreamworld America I once believed in. The imperatives of the population explosion, which almost inevitably will lessen our belief in the sanctity of the individual human life, combined with the awesome power of the CIA and the defense establishment, seem destined to seal the fate of the America I knew as a child and bring us into a new Orwellian world where the citizen exists for the state and where raw power justifies any and every immoral act. I've always had a kind of knee-jerk trust in my Government's basic integrity, whatever political blunders it may make. But I've come to realize that in Washington, deceiving and manipulating the public are viewed by some as the natural prerogatives of office. Huey Long once said, "Fascism will come to America in the name of anti-fascism." I'm afraid, based on my own experience, that fascism will come to America in the name of national security."

-- Excerpt from Jim Garrison's Playboy interview in October 1967


http://www.jfklancer.com/Garrison4.html

[98geoduck]

36. Democrats flip the GOP the Byrd, call for an end to fascism in the U.S.

Just posting a possible headline the MSM can use.

[Just Me]

38. I like it!!!!

:bounce:

[Brooklyn Michael]

37. "the duty of U.S. Senators to advise and provide consent...."

Did no one else catch the subtle re-framing that Ken applied here?

"Senator Byrd's invocation of Hitler's Germany in discussing the DUTY OF U.S. SENATORS TO ADVISE AND PROVIDE CONSENT on judicial nominees is reprehensible and beyond the pale....."

Ken speaks as if it's the Senate's duty to rubber-stamp any judicial nominee that the President decides to throw up. This is not only false, but purposely misleading. Granted, it's the way the GOP WANTS things to happen, but this has never been the case. It is the Senate's duty to decide if a judicial nominee is WORTHY of the position he is being nominated for. To suggest that it's their duty to just provide consent is to suggest that there be no dissent in a functioning democracy.

Now, doesn't THAT sound just a wee bit fascist?

:grr:

[Stand and Fight]

56. Caught it completely...

These guys are complete scum-bags. And they're just throwing it in the face of the American people everyday -- sticking to us. However, there is no outrage. The great silent majority has been reduced to a tumorous chain of reality TV, Fox News, fascism dressed up as patriotism, and hopeless materialism... It's at its base both sad and sick.

[earthboundmisfit]

39. ALL Senators - Dem especially - should take what Sen. Byrd says to heart.

Every Senator that professes love for our country should take every word Sen. Robert Byrd speaks and search their souls. He is a patriot in the truest sense, a hero in my book, with the courage to stand up for all of us and tell the truth. I wish every Dem senator had the guts and conviction that Byrd does! Hey, Biden, Clinton, Obama, et al: LISTEN TO THIS MAN!!!! Y'ALL NEED TO STEP UP AND SPEAK FOR US LIKE HE DOES!!!
I wish I could adopt him as MY Senator - unfortunately I'm stuck in Oklahoma.

[Hamsta1]

40. I was lucky to catch this

on CSPAN last night, and it was a very powerful, well thought-out speech. Of course the right is going to focus on one small, possibly-controversial portion, take it out of context, and of course you can't mention Sen. Byrd without saying "Former Klansman". Does this mean whenever we reference * we can say Former Drunk Driver George Bush? I particularly liked this part of the speech:

>someday that old man filibuster is going to help me, you, and every >Senator in here at some time or other, when the rights of the people he >or she represents are being violated or threatened

When he turned around, pointing at other senators, "Someday old man filibuster is going to help you, and you, and you"..etc. that really summed up what this is all about. It's about so much more than getting the right judges into the courts. I take it as a sign of hope for this country when a former klansman can articulate minority rights so poignantly.

Keep it up Sen. Byrd!!!!!!!!!!!

[mojavekid]

42. It is not a coincidence that this analogy,

is made more and more, as of late. It will be spun horribly, but in it's proper context it is right on.

[DearAbby]

43. YES, Sen. Byrd! He will be blasted for this, We must show him our support

Write, fax, email the senator, tell him you support him. Let him know the People heard his speech, and approve. He will be blasted by the Crap-o-media for this.

Yes, Senator Byrd!

[Laurab]

52. I don't think Senator Byrd gives a damn

about the media, although I do think it would be nice to write and show support, anyway. I think this is one politician who doesn't care what the media says or does - he knows his facts, and he knows he's right. I was so impressed with him after I read his book.

When I see him speak, I worry that he won't be able to do this much longer, and we need him now more than we ever have. But when I read his speeches, I see he's still sharp as a tack - I hope he remains that way for a long, long time.

[fshrink]

46. Moral of the story:

When you don't care about political loss, you tell the truth. For the overwhelming majority of leaders, politics is a kind of game that it's about winning or losing. That's called the "realistic/pragmatic" position. People have a hard time understanding that it's not. Hence the re-framing, the flip-flopping, Rodham's delirium and all this so-called "communication revolution".
When you tell the truth, you may lose more skirmishes than you win but, each time, regardless, you do push the whole system forward. It's like survival: it doesn't matter if you die when your species survives. You survive through the survival of your species. There is an super-ordinate agenda. That's the exact opposite of the marketing perspective. Which obviously reigns.

[ElectroPrincess]

69. Why does it always seem to be that the Highest Representatives that choose

to stand up, with some exception (Conyers, Kucinich etc.), seem to be Mature (old) Men (Sen. Byrd and Kennedy) and Women (Sen. Boxer)?

Where are those strapping middle-aged Democratic men?

Do they still feel THAT compelled to play the game for re-election?

[fshrink]

88. Yes they are that compelled.

They probably still are under the influence of massive testosterone and serotonin production. Let's face it: there is a handful, litterally, of progressive politicians who are ready to take a clear stand and fight for it.

[Ian David]

53. New frame / Meme: Bush's Enabling Law

[lovuian]

54. The Truth Hurts!!! Republicans are trying to stifle Free speech

Republicans have to be dying over Byrd and they can't sut him up!!!

[flobee1kenobi]

60. Thats cause for outrage?

and a "go fuck yourself" on the senate floor is not?
and gross incompitence is not?

I'm speechless!

[bamacrat]

57. I'm just glad we have 1 on our side.

[texasdem99]

61. That's Great

The Bushes are worse than Nazis.

[Griffy]

62. ABSOLUTLY... "applause".... and more people know...

and the awareness grows... keep it up people, everyday we all must work to tell everyone we can about whats happeing to our nation. We are the town criers and the pamphleteers of the new century and we are speading the truth! It is public awareness that we need, I know most of the country wouldnt support these things if the had the truth.


:bounce:

:bounce: :bounce:

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:


... and they told 2 friends, and so on...

[RedCloud]

63. Many repug youths worshiped Hitler...

I guess they forgot about all those members who as boys would play the Nazis gladly to represent their racist ideologies. The rest of us protected our country from their kind.

Apparently we need to do that again.

[honeybear]

64. The Analogy Holds But W's Numbers Lie

Byrd's analogy to Hitler's adherance to the law holds. The attitude of Republicans in the Senate, and even more so, in the house resembles fascism. That said, comparing Bush to Hitler makes many moderates totally dismiss out of hand the person and party making the comparison, no matter if it is apt, as in this case.

I think the comparison to Hitler is inaccurate, however. As evil as Hitler was, both the Nazi party and the German government kept accurate statistics. During the war, the SS knew how many Jews they had killed. Throughout the war, the military command estimated the civilian deaths incurred among the enemy and inside Germany. In contrast, our military has been specifically instructed not to track the number of Iraqi civilians killed.

Along the same lines, Nazi accounting was accurate in terms of budgeting for the state and the war. In contrast, the original estimate for the war in Iraq was $1.7 Billion and we are now up to $300 Billion or more.

Now, I doubt that George W. Bush and his minions view it as a point of accomplishment that, although they have yet to demonstrate to our country or the world virulent racism like that of Nazi Germany, they have failed to provide an accounting of their efforts, on our behalf as citizens of the United States, anywhere near as accurate as what Nazi Germany produced. Prescott Bush, W's grandfather, continued to be an agent for Germany and the Nazi party for the first ten weeks of the war, until the War Department threatened to jail him for treason. Apparently, he provided a better Accounting to Nazi Germany of his efforts than his grandson, our President, provides to us.

(This is only my 3rd post to the board. I would appreciate your feedback, please.)

[ElectroPrincess]

107. IMO good researched post ... welcome to DU and hope you enjoy :-)

[Spinoza]

128. Do I understand you correctly?

Hitler kills 11 million people (of which 6 million were jews) in concentration camps and many, many millions more outside of concentration camps, but since the Nazis kept accurate statistics of their killings, and the U.S. does not, Nazis are morally superior to the U.S.? Did I get it right?

Claiming that Nazis are MORALLY superior to the U.S., because they kept better statistics of their mass killings, is certainly going to attract liberal leaning voters among the 60 million Bush voters. Keep up the good work for the democratic party.

[JohnnyCougar]

65. Kick ass, Byrd!!!!

[Chicago Democrat]

70. Seig Heil Senator Byrd! I LOVE YOU!!!

You crazy ex Klansman! I jes luv ya!

[Name removed]

71. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[seemslikeadream]

72. Looky here Flapjacks I know one, all you have to do is read

Averell Harriman personally arranged with the Walker/Bush Hamburg-Amerika Line to transport Nazi ideologues from Germany to New York for this meeting.@s1@s1 The most famous among those transported was Dr. Ernst Ru@audin, psychiatrist at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Genealogy and Demography in Berlin, where the Rockefeller family paid for Dr. Ru@audin to occupy an entire floor with his eugenics `` research. '' Dr. Ru@audin had addressed the International Federation's 1928 Munich meeting, speaking on `` Mental Aberration and Race Hygiene, '' while others (Germans and Americans) spoke on race-mixing and sterilization of the unfit. Ru@audin had also led the German delegation to the 1930 Mental Hygiene Congress in Washington, D.C.

At the Harrimans' 1932 New York Eugenics Congress, Ernst Ru@audin was unanimously elected president of the International Federation of Eugenics Societies. This was recognition of Ru@audin as founder of the German Society for Race Hygiene, with his co-founder, Eugenics Federation vice president Alfred Plo@autz.

As depression-maddened financiers schemed in Berlin and New York, Ru@audin was now official leader of the world eugenics movement. Components of his movement included groups with overlapping leadership, dedicated to:

sterilization of mental patients (`` mental hygiene societies '');
execution of the insane, criminals and the terminally ill (`` euthanasia societies ''); and
eugenical race-purification by prevention of births to parents from `` inferior '' blood stocks (`` birth control societies '').
Before the Auschwitz death camp became a household word, these British-American-European groups called openly for the elimination of the `` unfit '' by means including force and violence.@s1@s2
http://www.tarpley.net/bush3.htm

[seemslikeadream]

74. here's a bit more, you know who Boyden Gray is don't you?

The undead enemy from World War II, renamed `` Population Control, '' had now been revived.

George Bush was U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in 1972, when with prodding from Bush and his friends, the U.S. Agency for International Development first made an official contract with the old Sterilization League of America. The League had changed its name twice again, and was now called the `` Association for Voluntary Surgical Contraception. '' The U.S. government began paying the old fascist group to sterilize non-whites in foreign countries.

The Gray family experiment had succeeded.

In 1988, the U.S. Agency for International Development signed its latest contract with the old Sterilization League (a.k.a. Association for Voluntary Surgical Contraception), committing the U.S. government to spend $80 million over five years.

Having gotten away with sterilizing several hundred North Carolina school children, `` not usually less than eight to ten years old, '' the identical group is now authorized by President Bush to do it to 58 countries in Asia, Africa and Ibero-America. The group modestly claims it has directly sterilized `` only '' two million people, with 87 percent of the bill paid by U.S. taxpayers.

Meanwhile, Dr. Clarence Gamble, Boyden Gray's favorite soap manufacturer, formed his own `` Pathfinder Fund '' as a split-off from the Sterilization League. Gamble's Pathfinder Fund, with additional millions from USAID, concentrates on penetration of local social groups in the non-white countries, to break down psychological resistance to the surgical sterilization teams.
http://www.tarpley.net/bush3.htm

[seemslikeadream]

76. Did ya ever hear about Grandpa Bert Walker's "Human Zoo" in St. Louis?

Bert Walker was known as the midwest's premier deal-arranger, awarding the investment capital of his international-banker contacts to the many railroads, utilities and other midwestern industries of which he and his St. Louis friends were executives or board members.

Walker's operations were always quiet, or mysterious, whether in local or global affairs. He had long been the "power behind the throne" in the St. Louis Democratic Party, along with his crony, former Missouri Governor David R. Francis. Walker and Francis together had sufficient influence to select the party's candidates.@s1@s1

Back in 1904, Bert Walker, David Francis, Washington University President Robert Brookings and their banker/broker circle had organized a world's fair in St. Louis, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. In line with the old Southern Confederacy family backgrounds of many of these sponsors, the fair featured a "Human Zoo" : live natives from backward jungle regions were exhibited in special cages under the supervision of anthropologist William J. McGee.

So Averell Harriman was a natural patron for Bert Walker. Bert shared Averell's passion for horse breeding and horse racing, and easily accommodated the Harriman family's related social philosophy. They believed that the horses and racing stables they owned showed the way toward a sharp upgrading of the human stock--just select and mate thoroughbreds, and spurn or eliminate inferior animals.
http://www.tarpley.net/bush1.htm

[Name removed]

92. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[seemslikeadream]

94. How the Bush Family Wealth is Linked to the Jewish Holocaust

...

In 1980, when George H.W. Bush was elected vice president, he placed his father's family inherence in a blind trust. The trust was managed by his old friend and quail hunting partner, William "Stamps" Farish III. Bush's choice of Farish to manage the family wealth is quite revealing in that it demonstrates that the former president might know exactly where some of his inheritance originated. Farish's grandfather, William Farish Jr., on March 25th, 1942, pleaded "no contest" to conspiring with Nazi Germany while president of Standard Oil in New Jersey. He was described by Senator Harry Truman in public of approaching "treason" for profiting off the Nazi war machine. Standard Oil, invested millions in IG Farben, who opened a gasoline factory within Auschwitz in 1940. The billions "Stamps" inherited had more blood on it then Bush, so the paper trail of UBC stock would be safe during his 12 years in presidential politics.

It has been 60 years since one of the great money laundering scandals of the 20th century ended and only now are we beginning to see the true historical aspects of this important period of world history, a history that the remaining Holocaust survivors beg humanity to "never forget." Loftus believes history will view Prescott Bush as harshly as Thyssen. "It is bad enough that the Bush family helped raise the money for Thyssen to give Hitler his start in the 1920s, but giving aid and comfort to the enemy in time of war is treason. The Bush bank helped the Thyssens make the Nazi steel that killed Allied solders. As bad as financing the Nazi war machine may seem, aiding and abetting the Holocaust was worse. Thyssen's coal mines used Jewish slaves as if they were disposable chemicals. There are six million skeletons in the Thyssen family closet, and a myriad of criminal and historical questions to be answered about the Bush family's complicity."

There is no question that the Bush family needs to donate at least $1.5 million to the proper holocaust reparation fund. Since Prescott Bush is dead, the only way to compensate is for the main inheritors of his estate to make amends with surviving slaves and the families of slaves who died in Bush and Thyssen's coal mines. If the Bush family refuses to contribute the money to compensate for Prescott Bush's involvement in the Holocaust, it is like denying the Holocaust itself and their role in one of the darkest moments in world history.


http://globalresearch.ca/articles/ROG309A.html

[sattahipdeep]

117. death after death, blood after blood

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1287763,00.html

A short stroll from his office was the evidence.
The newly dead were stored in a makeshift truck, next
to a German refrigerating unit that did not work.
In it, the bodies were too numerous to count.

"I don't believe in violence. I've never fired a gun. The only way to
solve this problem is through peaceful means," Dr Almahana
said. "But this isn't happening in Najaf. Instead we have sadness
after sadness, death after death, blood after blood."

....
Byrd Warns "We Stand Passively Mute"
by Senator Robert Byrd: :hi: seemslikeadream :hug:
http://byrd.senate.gov/byrd_speeches/byrd_speeches_2003february/byrd_speeches_2003march_list/byrd_speeches_2003march_list_1.html
"To contemplate war is to think about the most horrible of human experiences. On
this February day, as this nation stands at the brink of battle, every American on
some level must be contemplating the horrors of war.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

105. You plainly don't know what the heck you're talking about....

....and it's obvious to me that you haven't done any research on this subject. Trying to tell you the truth is like trying to force water through a steel plate.

Additionally, you don't know anything about Byrd except what you may have absorbed on other, shall we say, more conservative boards.

I also find it laughable that you can state that we should just forget about any corporations that did business with the Nazis before, during. and after WWII, but hold Byrd accountable for his former membership in the Klan that he quit in 1946. You can't have it both ways...so which is it going to be?

I bet you've also never heard of the Union Bank headed by Herbert Walker and Prescott Bush. I bet you also never knew that the Union Bank started making loans to Nazi Germany as early as 1934....and continued to do so until 1942 when they were shut down by the US Government. I bet you also didn't know that a large amount of the money loaned to Nazi Germany was used in the construction of Auschwitz.

I bet you also don't know that Prescott, George H. W., and George W. shared a common interest in eugenics...a "science" that the Nazis used as a base for their purging of German sanitariums prior to WWII. They expanded on eugenics to create the Final Solution in 1942.

Well, that's enough for now...I've probably got you so mad at this point that you're screaming at your PC.

[Bridget Burke]

112. The only party Byrd embarrasses is the Republican one.

The story of how the Nazis took over a civilized, educated country is a cautionary tale with special relevance right now & right here.

[Southern Dem 2005]

129. But its not!

Comparing Republicans to Nazis is the worst type of overblown, inaccurate rhetoric. There is simply NO comparison. While Republicans might stand for a lot of things Dems disagree with they do not stand for wiping out Jews, homosexuals, and Russians, nor has any national Republican advocated such acts.

[seemslikeadream]

130. You just haven't been paying attention, he's just getting started

EVERY DEATH CREATES NEW ENEMIES
MORE TERRORISTS
MORE DANGER
MORE DEATH
AND REMEMBER...
HE IS JUST GETTING STARTED...
BUSH'S PLAN FOR PEACE
IS THE PEACE OF THE COMMON GRAVE


http://www.bushflash.com/pax.html 3 minute video a must see



Who's who of the Haiti Coup - death squad veterans and convicted murderers

Working links and pretty pictures here at original post Mar-29-04
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...




Rebel leader Louis-Jodel Chamblain talks with other rebels at their headquarters in the Mont Joli Hotel in Cap-Haitien, Haiti, Saturday Feb. 28, 2004. (AP Photo/Pablo Aneli).

Louis-Jodel Chamblain

Convicted assassin and leader of death squads

Chamblain was the number 2 man in the FRAPH death squad which participated in the campaign of terror during the 1991 coup against Aristide.
Terrorising supporters of Aristide's Lavalas Family party, the group was blamed for thousands of killings before a US intervention ended three years of military rule in 1994.
"I am scared of what I did, not of what I didn't do," Chamblain told the AP. "I never committed murder. I am not a terrorist. I am not a drug dealer. I am not a criminal."

He was, however, convicted in absentia and sentenced to life imprisonment for the September 11, 1993 murder of Aristide financier Antoine Izmery, who was dragged from Mass in a church, made to kneel outside and shot.
Chamblain was also convicted for the April 23, 1994 massacre in the pro-democracy region of Raboteau.
A CIA intelligence memorandum implicated him in the October 14, 1993 assassination of Justice Minister Guy Malary who, with his bodyguard, was ambushed and machine-gunned.

According to the CIA memorandum, dated October 28, 1993, and obtained by the Centre for Constitutional Rights, "FRAPH members Jodel Chamblain, Emmanuel Constant, and Gabriel Douzable met with an unidentified military officer on the morning of 14 October to discuss plans to kill Malary".
Emmanuel "Toto" Constant was the founder of FRAPH.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/html/20040307T04000 ... ...

Analysis: Haiti's diverse rebels


The exiles' leader is Louis Jodel Chamblain, 50, who fled to the Dominican Republic in 1994.

A former sergeant, he is accused taking part in a number of atrocities during the years of military rule.

He was suspected of involvement in a 1987 election massacre, in which 34 voters were killed and a civilian-run ballot aborted.

In 1993 in co-founded the Front for Haitian Advancement and Progress - Fraph, which sounds like "hit" in French.


The group is accused of killing thousands of supporters of Mr Aristide.

Plots

Mr Chamblain denies involvement in any paramilitary activities and describes himself as a "Haitian patriot".

He returned from exile with another controversial former soldier, Guy Philippe, 35.


Aristide supporters are being hunted down across the north
Trained in the United States and Ecuador, he was a senior security official under President Rene Preval, a civilian elected in 1995.

Now Mr Philippe and Mr Chamblain are allies, and celebrating their capture of Cap-Haitien, the country's second city at the weekend.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3515267.stm


Louis Jodel Chamblain


Chamblain was joint leader - along with CIA operative Emmanuel “Toto” Constant - of the Front révolutionnaire pour l’avancement et le progrès haïtien, (Revolutionary Front for Haitian Advancement and Progress) known by its acronym - FRAPH - which phonetically resembles the French and Creole words for ‘to beat’ or ‘to thrash’. FRAPH was formed by the military authorities who were the de facto leaders of the country during the 1991-94 military regime, and was responsible for numerous human rights violations before the 1994 restoration of democratic governance.

Among the victims of FRAPH under Chamblain’s leadership was Haitian Justice Minister Guy Malary. He was ambushed and machine-gunned to death with his body-guard and a driver on October 14, 1993. According to an October 28, 1993 CIA Intelligence Memorandum obtained by the Center for Constitutional Rights: “FRAPH members Jodel Chamblain, Emmanuel Constant, and Gabriel Douzable met with an unidentified military officer on the morning of 14 October to discuss plans to kill Malary.” (Emmanuel “Toto” Constant, the leader of FRAPH, is now living freely in Queens, NYC.)

In September 1995, Chamblain was among seven senior military and FRAPH leaders convicted in absentia and sentenced to forced labour for life for involvement in the September 1993 extrajudicial execution of Antoine Izméry, a well-known pro-democracy activist. In late 1994 or early 1995, it is understood that Chamblain went into exile to the Dominican Republic in order to avoid prosecution.

http://www.haiti-progres.com/eng02-25.html

The most disturbing figure in the rebel leadership is Louis Jodel Chamblain. He is reported to have led the insurgents’ attacks on Central Plateau towns, including the regional capital of Hinche.

Chamblain was a sergeant in the Haitian army (FAd’H), and a member of the elite Corps des Leopards. He left the army in 1989 or 1990 and reappeared on the scene in 1993 as one of the founders of the Revolutionary Front for Haitian Advancement and Progress (Front révolutionnaire pour l’avancement et le progrès haïtien, FRAPH). Known as its number two leader, he had a reputation for violence and action (in contrast to the better known and more media-friendly Emmanuel “Toto” Constant). In the report of Haitian Truth and Justice Commission, there is a statement by Emmanuel Constant that explains that FRAPH’s central committee was composed of himself, Chamblain, Mireille Durocher-Bertin, a lawyer who was murdered in 1995, and Alphonse Lahens (a prominent Duvalierist).

Chamblain was sentenced in absentia to life in prison for the 1993 murder of businessman and activist Antoine Izmery, as well as for involvement in the 1994 Raboteau massacre. He is also implicated in the assassination of Justice Minister Guy Malary, who was ambushed and machine-gunned to death with his body-guard and a driver on October 14, 1993. According to a 1993 CIA Intelligence Memorandum obtained by the U.S.-based Center for Constitutional Rights, “FRAPH members Jodel Chamblain, Emmanuel Constant, and Gabriel Douzable met with an unidentified military officer on the morning of 14 October to discuss plans to kill Malary.”

Chamblain escaped to the Dominican Republic in 1994, after the U.S. military intervention in Haiti, and returned to the country in late 2003 or early 2004.

http://www.flashpoints.net/Haiti_Rebel_Leaders.html



Novak's friend Boniface Alexandre


When Caribbean neighbor Jamaica gave asylum to Aristide two weeks ago, an infuriated LaTortue immediately recalled Haiti's ambassador to Kingston. A second return of Aristide as a free man is ruled out. Boniface Alexandre, the Supreme Court chief justice who became provisional president upon Aristide's resignation under Haiti's constitution, is a careful jurist who measures his words -- except when it comes to Aristide. "He cannot come back to Haiti," Alexandre told me. Aristide will return only if it is decided to indict and extradite him, Justice Minister Bernard Grousse informed me.

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/robertnovak/rn200403 ...

Haiti: Marines patrol and rebels disarm


While Aristide has been replaced by interim President Boniface Alexandre, his real authority in Haiti has come into question, particularly now that rebel forces have entered the city and proclaimed their intention to reinstate the military.

Led by 36-year-old former military officer Guy Philippe -- who Tuesday proclaimed himself the "military chief" in Haiti -- the rebels began taking over cities in the North in early February with the intention of forcing Aristide's resignation.

The rebels and Haiti's political opposition -- though not aligned -- had been calling for Aristide to step down after what has been termed faulty elections in 2000 and widespread allegations of human rights abuses and corruption.

Since completing their sweep of the Caribbean nation, the rebels said days ago that they would put down their weapons at the request of the president, then appeared to modify their stance as Haiti's second coming of the military. Many of the rebels were soldiers in the nation's army when Aristide disbanded it in 1995.

The president was ousted in a military coup in the early 1990s then restored to power in 1994 with the help of 20,000 U.S. troops.

http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20040303-123122-1 ...

29 February 2004

Haitian President Resigns, Supreme Court President Sworn In
U.S. deploys Marines as initial contingent of multinational force

Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigned and departed Port-au-Prince the morning of February 29, resolving the impasse at the root of violence in Haiti in recent weeks, according to the U.S. State Department.

In a February 29 statement, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said that the United States facilitated Aristide's safe departure and noted that Haitian Supreme Court President Boniface Alexandre has been sworn in as head of state until presidential elections are held.

The statement called on all Haitians to respect the peaceful and constitutional succession, and added that the United States will deploy U.S. Marines as the intitial contingent of a multinational force.

The U.S. will also work with the international community to seek a United Nations Security Council resolution authorizing international support for Haiti's transition, the statement said.

Under a plan crafted by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the U.S. and international community "will facilitate the urgent formation of an independent government that will represent the interests of all of the Haitian people."

Following is the text of the statement:




Statement by Richard Boucher, Spokesman


Statement on the Resignation of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide of Haiti


Jean-Bertrand Aristide has resigned as president of the Republic of Haiti, submitting a letter of resignation before departing Port-au-Prince safely early this morning. At President Aristide's request, the United States facilitated his safe departure from Haiti.
.
In conformity with Haiti's constitution, Supreme Court President Boniface Alexandre has been sworn in as head of state until presidential elections are held. We have been informed that Prime Minister Yvon Neptune will continue to serve as Haiti's head of government until a successor is appointed in the next days, within the framework of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Plan of Action.

We call on all Haitians to respect this peaceful and constitutional succession and to refrain from any actions that will undermine national reconciliation. We urge all Haitians to cooperate with the international community as it supports measures to build a more just society and to help defeat the scourge of poverty and disease.

The decision by President Aristide to resign resolves the political impasse that is the root of the violent unrest in Haiti in recent weeks. Therefore, the United States will deploy a contingent of U.S. Marines as the initial contingent of a multinational interim force. We have been informed that several other countries are prepared to move quickly to join this mission.

During the course of the day we will continue consulting with our partners in CARICOM and the Organization of American States, as well as Canada and France, to seek a resolution of the United Nations Security Council authorizing international support for a peaceful and constitutional transition in Haiti. As envisaged under the CARICOM plan, the international community will facilitate the urgent formation of an independent government that will represent the interests of all of the Haitian people.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/200 ... ...



André “Andy” Apaid, Jr.,


Last December, after a powwow with the International Republican Institute in Santo Domingo, the Haitian opposition returned to Port-au-Prince to establish the “Group of 184,” a supposedly broad front of “civil society” organizations modeled on similar anti-government coalitions in Chavez’s Venezuela and Allende’s Chile.

The head of the “184" today is André “Andy” Apaid, Jr., also head of Alpha Industries, one of the oldest and largest assembly factories in Haiti.

On Nov. 11, Haiti’s Interior Minister Jocelerme Privert confirmed that Apaid is indeed a U.S. citizen, a rumor which had been circulating since the industrialist’s emergence on the political scene. According to Privert, Apaid was born to Haitian parents in the U.S. and came to Haiti in 1976 as a foreign businessman on a visitor’s visa.

After five years, any foreigner can obtain Haitian nationality by naturalization under the Constitution’s Article 12, but “Andy” Apaid has never done this, according to the government.

Andy is following in the political footsteps of his father. As founder of Alpha Sewing in the 1970s, André senior was a close to dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier and remains “a notorious Duvalierist,” according to Eric Verhoogen in the Multinational Monitor (April 1996). Apaid senior headed up the “civil society” (read: bourgeoisie) campaign to support the 1991-1994 military coup against President Aristide, which successfully eased U.S. sanctions on the export of goods from Haiti’s assembly sweat-shops.

“When asked at a business conference in Miami soon after the coup in 1991 what he would do if President Aristide returned to Haiti, Apaid replied vehemently, ‘I’d strangle him!’” Verhoogen wrote. “At the time, Apaid was heading up the United States Agency for International Develop-ment’s (USAID’s) PROMINEX business promotion project, a $12.7 million program to encourage U.S. and Canadian firms to move their businesses to Haiti.”

http://www.haiti-progres.com/eng11-12.html


ANDY APAID JR.:

The most outspoken leader of the opposition coalition, Apaid is a factory owner born in the United States. His family fled Haiti under Francois Duvalier, or "Papa Doc," who ruled from 1957 to 1971.

Favoring pressed pastel shirts and gold-rimmed glasses, Apaid looks like a Miami businessman but says he is totally Haitian at heart.

"I am just as much a part of this country as anyone," Apaid, in his early 50s, said recently. "That's why I am saying we must choose another path for the country."

But without a constitutional amendment, he will never become president because of his dual nationality. He has rejected the U.S.-backed settlement plan, saying Aristide must leave office.

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/0204/26haitiwho.ht ...

The most outspoken leader of the opposition coalition, Andre (Andy) Apaid is a factory owner born in the United States. His family fled Haiti under Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier, who ruled from 1957 to 1971.

Favoring pressed pastel shirts and gold-rimmed glasses, Apaid looks like a Miami businessman but says he is totally Haitian at heart.

"I am just as much a part of this country as anyone," Apaid, in his early 50s, said recently. "That's why I am saying we must choose another path for the country."

But without a constitutional amendment, he will never become president because of his dual nationality.

http://www.sptimes.com/2004/03/01/Worldandnation/Key_fi ... ...

The Washington-backed Democratic Convergence opposition front and the Haitian bourgeoisie’s “Group of 184” civil society front (G184), led by a U.S. citizen and sweatshop magnate André “Andy” Apaid, Jr. (see Haïti Progrès, Vol. 21, No. 35, 11/12/03), have been quick to embrace, foment and urge on the student demonstrations.

So on Dec. 11, about 10,000 students, with the G184 and Democratic Convergence leaders in tow, marched through the streets of the capital. (Bourgeois radio stations inflated the demonstration up to 5 fold). On hand were Apaid, former Haitian Army colonel Himmler Rébu, Convergence leader Evans Paul, writer Gary Victor, the head of the Civil Society Initiative (ISC) Rosny Desroches, and dissident Lavalas senators Prince Sonson Pierre and Dany Toussaint. Later that day on Radio Kiskeya, Toussaint virtually called for a coup by saying that the “international community” was reluctant to remove Aristide from power only because they feared anarchy would result. But, he reassured them, he could “restore order within 48 hours” due to his connections in the police and former army.

http://www.haiti-progres.com/2003/sm031217/eng12-17.htm ...


Propaganda is to a democracy what violence is to a dictatorship. (William Blum)



Evans Paul


The Kerry report claims Martinez is the bag man for Colombia’s cocaine cartels, and supervises bribes paid to the Haitian military. According to Miami attorney John Mattes, who is defending a Cuban-American drug trafficker cooperating with U.S. prosecutors, Martinez was paid $30,000 to bribe Haitian authorities into releasing two drug pilots jailed in Haiti after the engine in their plane conked out, forcing them to land in Port-au-Prince.

Martinez claims innocence from his lavish home in Petionville, an ornate suburb where Haiti’s ruling class live, overlooking the slums of the capital. He runs the casino at the plush El Rancho Hotel, that prior to the embargo realized nearly $50 million in business each week, a cash flow adequate to conceal a major money laundering operation.

But the most disturbing allegations have been of the role played by the CIA in keeping many of the coup leaders on the agency’s payroll, as part of an anti-drug intelligence unit set up by the U.S. in Haiti in 1986. Many of these same military men have had their U.S. assets frozen, and are prevented from entering this country because of their role in overthrowing Aristide, and subsequent human rights violations, including torture and murders of political opponents, raising the question—was the U.S. involved in a cocaine coup that overthrew Aristide?

Former Democratic party head and current secretary of commerce Ron Brown headed a law firm that represented the Duvalier family for decades. Part of that representation was a public relations campaign that stressed Duvalier’s opposition to communism in the cold war. United States support for Duvalier was worth more than $400 million in aid to the country, before the man who called himself Haiti’s President-for-Life was forced from the country.

Even Duvalier’s exit from Haiti, in February 1986, is shrouded in covert intrigue and remains an unexplored facet of the career of Lt. Col. Oliver North. Shortly after Duvalier’s ouster, North was quoted as saying he had brought an end to Haiti’s nightmare, a cryptic statement that was never publicly perused by the Iran-Contra hearings.

Francois and his men have a history of involvement in the torture of opponents and death-squad-style murders of Aristide supporters. In one recent incident, attaches mobbed Port-au-Prince City Hall to prevent the capital’s mayor, Evans Paul, an Aristide supporter, from entering his offices.

One person was killed and 11 wounded during the September 8th incident, when the mob opened fire on Aristide supporters. Witnesses say the attack began when attaches dragged two of Paul’s aides from a car, viciously beating an Aristide official. Francois is also considered responsible for the murder of Justice Minister Guy Malary.

http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43a/415.html

Another top figure in the opposition coalition, Paul is a former mayor of Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, who was in hiding from the brutal military regime during much of his term until U.S. troops arrived in 1994.

Paul, who is in his late 40s, was head of a center-left coalition that nominated Aristide for president in 1990. Paul managed Aristide's successful election campaign but broke ranks after Aristide left him out of his inner circle.

http://www.sptimes.com/2004/03/01/Worldandnation/Key_fi ... ...

EVANS PAUL:

Another top figure in the opposition coalition, Paul is a former mayor of Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, who was in hiding from the brutal military regime during much of his term until U.S. troops arrived in 1994.

Paul, who is in his late 40s, was head of a center-left coalition that nominated Aristide for president in 1990. Paul managed Aristide's successful election campaign but broke ranks after Aristide left him out of his inner circle.

A playwright and journalist when dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier ruled Haiti, Paul was jailed for opposing him.

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/0204/26haitiwho.ht ...



DENIS CODERRE:



Canada's minister responsible for the Francophonie — of French-speaking countries that include former French colonies like Haiti — was minister for citizenship and immigration in January 2002, which would have put him in touch with Canada's large Haitian community. Coderre oversaw the implementation of a new act to protect refugees and migrants.

A political scientist, Coderre was first elected to Canada's House of Commons in 1997. In 1999, he joined the federal Cabinet as secretary of state for amateur sport and helped establish the headquarters for the World Anti-Doping Agency in Montreal.

Coderre came to Haiti declaring, "We clearly don't want Aristide's head. We think Aristide must remain in place."

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/0204/26haitiwho.ht ...



Guy Philippe: Profile


In 2000, Haitian authorities said they had discovered Philippe was plotting a coup with a group of other police chiefs. Philippe fled to the Dominican Republic, the country that shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti.

Haitian and U.S. authorities say that Philippe was involved in drug trafficking while he was police chief in Cap-Haitien, as well as during his exile in the Dominican Republic, although he has never been officially accused of any drug crimes.

The Haitian government has accused Philippe of organizing an attack on the police academy in Petionville, a suburb of Port-au-Prince, in July 2001, and another attack in December 2001 on the national palace. The Organization of American States investigated, but was unable to find out who was behind the attacks.

Philippe was thought to have been in exile, but in February 2004, he appeared at a news conference at the side of one of the leaders of the anti-Aristide rebels.

His rebel group, the National Front for the Liberation of Haiti, is largely made up of former soldiers who lost their jobs when the military was demobilized.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/haiti/philippe.html

Guy Philippe
Guy Philippe is a former member of the FAD’H (Haitian Army). During the 1991-94 military regime, he and a number of other officers received training from the US Special Forces in Equador, and when the FAD’H was dissolved by Aristide in early 1995, Philippe was incorporated into the new National Police Force.

He served as police chief in the Port-au-Prince suburb of Delmas and in the second city, Cap-Haitien, before he fled Haiti in October 2000 when Haitian authorities discovered him plotting what they described as a coup, together with a clique of other police chiefs. Since that time, the Haitian government has accused Philippe of master-minding deadly attacks on the Haitian Police Academy and the National Palace in July and December 2001, as well as hit-and-run raids against police stations on Haiti’s Central Plateau over last two years.

http://www.haiti-progres.com/eng02-25.html

The leader of the insurrectionary forces, Guy Philippe, age thirty-five, trained by the United States as an army officer in Ecuador. He was integrated into the new Haitian National Police in 1995 and his first command post was in Ouanaminthe, on the northern border with the Dominican Republic. Later, in about 1997 to 1999, he served as police chief for Delmas, a large urban district on the north side of the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area. During his tenure there, the UN/OAS International Civilian Mission learned that dozens of suspected gang members were summarily executed, mainly by police under the command of Inspector Berthony Bazile, Philippe’s deputy.

On October 18, 2000, Haiti’s prime minister announced that Philippe and other officers were plotting a coup d’etat. Before they were arrested, however, the men escaped over the border to the Dominican Republic.

http://www.flashpoints.net/Haiti_Rebel_Leaders.html

Ernst Ravix



According to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights report on Haiti, dated 7 September 1988, FAD’H Captain Ernst Ravix, was the military commander of Saint Marc, and head of a paramilitary squad of “sub-proletariat youths” who called themselves the Sans Manman (Motherless Ones). In May 1988, the government of President Manigat tried to reduce contraband and corruption in the port city of Saint Marc, but Ravix, the local Army commander, responded by organising a demonstration against the President in which some three thousand residents marched, chanted, and burned barricades. Manigat removed Ravix from his post, but after Manigat’s ouster, he was reinstated by the military dictator, Lt. Gen. Namphy.

Ravix was not heard of again until December 2001 when former FAD’H sergeant, Pierre Richardson, the person captured following the 17 December attack on the National Palace, reportedly confessed that the attack was a coup attempt planned in the Dominican Republic by three former police chiefs- Guy Philippe, Jean-Jacques Nau and Gilbert Dragon - and that it was led by former Captain Ernst Ravix. According to Richardson, Ravix’s group withdrew from the National Palace and fled to the Dominican Republic when reinforcements failed to arrive.

http://www.haiti-progres.com/eng02-25.html


Jean-Pierre Baptiste - nom de guerre is Jean Tatoune


Among the rebel leaders was the notorious Jean-Pierre Baptiste, smiling and looking triumphant. It did not seem to matter that Mr. Baptiste, whose nom de guerre is Jean Tatoune, had been freed by rebels last year from a prison where he had been serving a life sentence for his participation in the killings of Aristide supporters in Gonaïves in 1994. Mr. Latortue hailed the rebels as "freedom fighters."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/29/international/america ...

Haiti: Perpetrators of serious past abuses re-emerge

Haiti Support Group

The emergence of former paramilitary leaders convicted of past human rights violations as leaders of the armed opposition force is fuelling a conflict that has already taken too many lives, said Amnesty International as the crisis in Haiti continues to deepen.

"At the best of times, the spectre of past violations continues to haunt Haiti," Amnesty International said today. "At this crucial stage, when the rule of law is so fragile, the last thing that the country needs is for those who committed abuses in the past to take up leadership positions in the armed opposition."

On 14 February Louis Jodel Chamblain, a notorious former paramilitary leader, reportedly gave an interview to a Haitian radio station to say that he had joined the armed movement seeking to overthrow President Jean Bertrand Aristide. He was accompanied by a former police commissioner.

In September 1995 Chamblain was among seven senior military and paramilitary leaders convicted in absentiaand sentenced to forced labour for life for involvement in the September 1993 extrajudicial execution of Antoine Izméry, a well-known pro-democracy activist. Chamblain had gone into exile to avoid prosecution.

Chamblain has reportedly joined forces with the leaders of the armed opposition based in Gonaïves.

Another of the leaders, Jean Pierre Baptiste, alias "Jean Tatoune", is also a former paramilitary leader who was sentenced to forced labour for life for participation in the 1994 Raboteau massacre. He was among the prisoners who escaped from Gonaïves prison during the August 2002 jailbreak of Amiot 'Cubain' Métayer, deceased leader of the formerly pro-government group which violently took over control of Gonaïves on 5 February. Gang
members under Jean Tatoune's direction have been accused of numerous abuses against government officials and supporters, as well as other Gonaïves residents, over past months.

"The Haitian authorities must do everything in their power to arrest these individuals, who have both already been convicted of serious violations," Amnesty International said. "For their part, political opposition parties must condemn the emergence of these notorious figures at the head of the armed movement to oust Aristide, and must do everything in their power to demonstrate their own commitment to human rights and the rule of law."

Background Information

Louis Jodel Chamblain and Jean Tatoune both belonged to the paramilitary organisation FRAPH, formed by military authorities who were the de facto leaders of the country following the 1991 coup against then-President Jean Bertrand Aristide. FRAPH members were responsible for numerous human rights violations before the 1994 restoration of democratic governance.

The group was at first known as the Front révolutionnaire pourl'avancement et le progrès haïtiens, Revolutionary Front for Haitian Advancement and Progress. The acronym FRAPH phonetically resembles the French and Creole words for 'to beat' or 'to thrash.'

Antoine Izméry was gunned down in the Church of the Sacred Heart in Port-au-Prince on 11 September 1993, while attending mass. The mass was being held to commemorate the fifth anniversary of a massacre committed during an attack on Aristide, then a parish priest, on 11 September 1988 at the St. Jean Bosco Church in La Saline, a shanty town on the outskirts of the capital.

After the 5 February attack in Gonaïves, unrest spread to nearly a dozen towns in the center and north of Haiti. Concerns are increasing about the humanitarian situation in the towns under control of anti-government forces and other areas cut off by the conflict. The first demonstration of the political opposition since the violence began took place in Port-au-Prince on 15 February; demonstrators were confronted by rock-throwing government supporters, and police used tear gas and fired their guns into the air to disperse both groups.
http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engAMR360062004?Op ...


Public Document
http://www.oneworld.net/article/view/79531/1 /

Jean Pierre Baptiste ("Jean Tatoune") is another FRAPH member convicted in the Raboteau massacre trial and sentenced to forced labour for life.

Others convicted of or indicted for human rights abuses escaped from the National Penitentiary in Port-au-Prince on Sunday 29 February in the atmosphere of lawlessness that followed the departure of President Jean Bertrand Aristide. AI fears that they may join the rebel forces, thus gaining access to weapons and potentially to positions of influence.

Police and judicial officers, witnesses and human rights defenders involved in past prosecutions may be at risk of reprisal attacks from those they helped bring to justice.

http://web.amnesty.org/pages/hti-100304-action-eng

Even US officials acknowledge that the leaders of the Haitian coup d’etat are “death squad veterans and convicted murderers,” (NYT 2/28/04). Two of these are Louis-Jodel Chamblain and Jean-Pierre Baptiste, leaders of FRAPH (Haitian Front for Advancement and Progress), a murderous rightwing group that was funded by the US for many years and played a leading role in overthrowing Aristide in 1991. FRAPH’s name, according to the Times, is a play on the French “frapper” (“to hit”).

Both Chamblain and Baptiste have been convicted of political murders. Chamblain, a former Haitian Army officer, has been hiding in the neighboring Dominican Republic. Baptiste was serving a life sentence until he recently broke out of jail.

http://www.ucimc.org/feature/display/16099/index.php

Mr. Latortue has no democratic mandate. Haitians are bitterly split between Aristide supporters and opponents, and both sides are heavily armed. Clearly, he needs to reach out to those on both sides of this divide who want to move their country forward. But Mr. Latortue aided neither national reconciliation nor his own shaky legitimacy by the unseemly ceremony he took part in last Saturday.

Ferried by American military helicopters to the city of Gonaïves, where the anti-Aristide revolt began, he stood on a stage with killers like Jean-Pierre Baptiste. Mr. Baptiste, who escaped from prison in 2002, is a death squad leader convicted of participating in a 1994 massacre of Aristide supporters.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/24/opinion/24WED2.html?t ...

Jean Tatoune
Jean Pierre Baptiste, alias “Jean Tatoune”, first came to prominence as a leader of the anti-Duvalier mobilisations in his home town of Gonaives in 1985. For some years he was known and respected for his anti-Duvalierist activities but during the 1991-94 military regime he emerged as a local leader of FRAPH.

On 22 April 1994, he led a force of dozens of soldiers and FRAPH members in an attack on Raboteau, a desperately poor slum area in Gonaives and a stronghold of support for Aristide. Between 15 and 25 people were killed in what became known as the Raboteau massacre.

In 2000, Tatoune was put on trial and sentenced to forced labour for life for his participation in the Raboteau massacre. He was subsequently imprisoned in Gonaives, from where he escaped in August 2002, and took up arms again in his base in a poor area of the city. At various times he has spoken out against the government, and at other times in favour of it, but since September 2003 he has allied himself with the followers of murdered community leader, Amiot Metayer, and vowed to overthrow the government by force.
http://www.haiti-progres.com/eng02-25.html



Butteur Metayer


Butteur immediately assumed command of his brother's army, soon renamed the Artibonite Resistance Front. The situation in Gonaives rapidly disintegrated, and some said Butteur's tactics were just as cruel as paramilitary operations in previous years.

The Times of London reported that Butteur's army "left the rotting bodies of dead policemen to be eaten by wild pigs and have taken several other towns in the interior, where they murdered more policemen."

Butteur sometimes sported a Hyatt Orlando golf shirt and bands of bullets across his chest. He challenged Aristide openly during press conferences at the family home.

Aristide, said Butteur and the other rebels, had become corrupt, relying on armed gangs and siphoning money away from the poor, away from schools, giving it to his supporters.

http://www.sptimes.com/2004/03/04/Worldandnation/Haitia ... ...

Amiot Metayer's Sept. 22 assassination led to protest rallies in Gonaives that eventually boiled over into rebellion. He had been the leader of the Cannibal Army street gang, which Butteur Metayer says was armed by Aristide's Lavalas Party to terrorize the president's opponents in the city -- a charge Aristide denied.

Metayer was viewed by many people in Gonaives as a Robin Hood who lavished gifts on slum dwellers and his killing angered supporters.

After Butteur Metayer launched the rebellion, former soldiers of the disbanded Haitian army crossed the border from the Dominican Republic to join the uprising. It was the former troops who gave impetus to the push that put half of Haiti in rebel hands within two weeks.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,112992,00.html

Aristide finally had Metayer arrested last year after months of pressure from the OAS, which demanded he be tried for allegedly burning homes of opponents. Gang members rammed a tractor into the prison to free him in September, and Metayer's bullet-riddled and mutilated body was found days later.

"They took out his eyes. They took out his heart," Latortue said.

Metayer's brother, Butteur, assumed leadership of the gang; he claimed Aristide ordered his brother's killing to keep him from publicizing damaging information about him.

With his death prompting the uprising that brought about Aristide's downfall, Metayer has become a hero in the town. Many feared him. Others saw him as a Robin Hood who lavished gifts on slum-dwelling Aristide supporters.

Thousands of them have fled the city since the Feb. 5 gunbattle in which Metayer's men killed several police officers and torched government buildings.
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/americas/03/20/haiti .... /

The city of Gonaives, where the slaves finally overcame Napolean's forces and gained independence has been one of the most political cities in the country. In the 1980s, the city was again the center of independence when rebel forces defeated the brutal (U.S. supported) Duvalier dictatorship. The country has experienced 30 coups since gaining its independence. As of February 5, it seems the country is thrown into armed conflict again. Rebel forces began a violent effort to overthrow the Aristide government and take control of the capital. Over 40 people been killed and more than a dozen cities seized by the rebels. Gonaives is now in the hands of what the newly named "Artibonite Resistance Front" (formally known as the Cannibal Army). Led by two brothers, Amiot and Butteur Metayer, the Gonaives chapter of the resistance has received "reinforcements" from neighboring Dominican Republic. The men who have joined the resistance from abroad are largely former military leaders of Haiti, exiled or hiding from histories of torture and abuse. Butteur Metayer told the Associated Press that Louis-Jodel Chamblain, former soldier from Haiti responsible for death squads in the 1980s and atrocities following the 1991 military coup is gathering forces for the resistance as well.

Back in Orlando, Metayer and his sister also have gratitude for another person: President Bush.

"I don't know how to thank him" for encouraging Aristide to get out, said Gertrude Metayer.

http://www.thesnapper.com/news/2004/02/19/NationWorldIs ... ...



The new Prime Minister of Haiti, Gerard Latortue, waves duirng a visit to his hometown, Gonaives, Haiti on Saturday, March 20, 2004.(AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

[Southern Dem 2005]

134. Is there any point to your post?

Of course Bush's policies are destructive and will not accomplish what he wants them to. The fact that he is misguided doesn't mean he is a Nazi. Jesus people, get a grip.

[seemslikeadream]

138. The point DEATH AND DESTRUCTION HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED

AND IS CONTINUING AS WE SPEAK



Do you have a clue what's happening in Haiti?

[Southern Dem 2005]

140. And what does that have to do with this discussion?

I don't see any Dems calling Clinton a Nazi because he didn't intervene in Rwanda.

[seemslikeadream]

141. Now YOU change the subject

http://www.john-loftus.com/Thyssen.asp#fortune

Intervening in Rwanda should have been done but Clinton DID NOT
get his family fortune from the Nazis
start a war with Iraq
refuse to enforce The Santiago Treaty to save Haiti

[Media_Lies_Daily]

152. Once again, Jews were to Hitler as Arabs are to Herr Busch....

....Hitler was in power in Germany for eight years before the Nazis formally implemented the Final Solution in 1942.

Herr Busch has only been in power for a little over four years, but his intentions for the Middle East are crystal clear for anyone willing to open their eyes and see.

[Kimber Scott]

155. Give them time. They just got the reins.

For me, I'm not willing to just shut my eyes and wait. Power corrupts, even the "nicest" people.

[0007]

77. Peck em hard Mr. Byrd peck em hard!

[peterh]

79. GOP Jewish Group Critizes Byrd's Remarks

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-byrd-nazis,0,215368.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines


WASHINGTON -- A Jewish Republican group accused Sen. Robert Byrd on Wednesday of making an "inappropriate and reprehensible" comparison between Adolf Hitler's Nazis and a Senate GOP plan to block Democrats from filibustering.

On Wednesday, Matt Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, issued a written statement criticizing Byrd.

"With his knowledge of history and his own personal background as a KKK member, he should be ashamed for implying that his political opponents are using Nazi tactics," Brooks said.




Republican Jews just don’t get it….while the neos act/are like Nazis, they act like the vichy….

[starmaker]

82. An elder due our respect

truth well spoken

[Tansy_Gold]

83. "March 20, 1938"

<entry in the diary of Friedrich Percyval Reck-Malleczewen, of Bavaria, shortly after the Nazi invasion and annexation of Austria.>



But I foresee a day when the nations <of Europe> will regret their cowardly passivity. The cost is beyond measuring; but they will have to pay, someday. In this first great breach of the peace, the criminal has been let go unpunished and is thus made to appear more powerful than he is. And as he is made more powerful, we, who are his last opponents inside Germany, are made weaker and more impotent.

Are we, and all who think like us, to run into the machine guns of a Nazi army which, thanks to the lethargy of the governments, now has Austria’s guns as well? I put the question now, and see the day coming when I will ask it a second time: after the inevitable Second World War. If five years ago, at the time of the so-called Assumption of Power, the European nations had taken action – everything would have ended with a police raid, with the gang being hustled off to jail by the collars.

But what did everyone do? They stood by and watched, and thus made impossible any resistance from inside Germany. What are they doing now? They are standing by and watching, preoccupied with figuring out a way to avoid irritating Herr Hitler – and so making any resistance even more impossible. In time to come, you will be able to do certain things: You will be able to punish those who with their wretched political deals made possible that infamous day in January, 1933; and you will be able to punish the military and industrial men-behind-the-scenes. But one thing you will not be able to do: you will not be able to make the whole nation, in extenso, responsible for a regime which you – yes, you – have strengthened. You have broken our internal resistance through political lethargy, and you are nevertheless demanding of an unarmed people that they do what you, with your mighty armies and the most powerful navy in the world, do not dare.

There will come a day when you will come face to face with this reproach, and this accusation.

As I write, an immense flight of bombers is droning past overhead. For a whole hour the drone has gone on above, as though these planes were flying against a world power. I am a German. I encircle this land in which I live with all my love. Never again can I be torn from here without going to seed. I tremble for each tree and each woods that disappears, for each silent valley that is devastated, for each stream that these pirates of industry, the real masters of our land, threaten. . . .

I know that this land is the living, beating heart of the world. I will go on believing in this heartbeat, despite all the covering layers of blood and dirt. But I know also that the thing up there that rumbles and thunders is the denial of right and justice, of truth and faith and everything that makes life worth living. I believe that this is a caricature of Germany, smeared by a malignant ape escaped from the leash.

You, up there: I hate you waking and sleeping. I will hate and curse you in the hour of my death. I will hate and curse you from my grave, and it will be your children and your children’s children who will have to bear my curse. I have no other weapon against you but this curse, I know that it withers the heart of him who utters it, I do not know if I will survive your downfall. . . .

But this I know, that a man must hate this Germany with all his heart if he really loves it. I would ten times rather die than see you triumph.


from "Diary of a Man in Despair"


Reck-Malleczewen was killed by a Genickschuss, a shot in the neck, February 23, 1945 in the Dachau concentration camp.


**********

Senator Byrd was -- and is -- absolutely correct. Like Nazi Germany, boooosh's America is the bully to whom everyone who could have stopped it has instead deferred, leaving even internal opposition effectively neutralized.



Tansy Gold, the un-neutralized

[BigBearJohn]

84. I LOVE BYRD -- We need more like him. VOTE IN '06!!!

[AngryAmish]

85. Bush is Hitler

[TankLV]

89. Repukes are Nazis.

I have yet to see anything to prove me wrong -in fact I see more and more things that reinforce this truth.

Even my other congressperson from empty land Nevada - puke jim gibbons.

[natrat]

97. nah we may not have seen the real hitler yet

could be that freak congressman from oklahoma or some other turd

[chomskysright]

90. call Byrd & thank him: he needs it: 202 224 3954

...when I talked to an aide there today it sounded like they were being hammered.

[GetTheRightVote]

145. Thank you for the number, called with positive feed back

:kick:

[oasis]

91. The only thing wrong with Byrd is............ there is only one of him.

:yourock:

[0rganism]

93. OK, people, we gotta drop the GOP-Nazi stuff, at least for variety's sake

Go with direct comaparisons to the fascist governments of Franco or Musolini instead. The second you say "Hitler", everyone think about the Shoah, gas chambers, invading Poland, stuff like that, and it's hard to make the case that Bush has killed millions of Jews. But if you compare Bush to Musolini or Franco or Pinochet or D'Aubuisson you get just as much rhetorical mileage and most of the repukes won't even know what those fuckers did. So read up! Amaze your friends, dazzle your relatives! Know your rightwing dictators:

* D`Aubuisson
* Franco
* Musolini
* Pinochet

[Media_Lies_Daily]

106. Here's something for you to think about.....

...it took Hitler eight to nine years before the Final Solution was formalized in 1942. Herr Busch has only been office a little more than five years. There's plenty of time for Herr Busch to attack and attempt to subjugate at least a couple more countries in the Middle East, don't you think?

What you fail to grasp is that Hitler was to Jews what Herr Busch is rapidly becoming for the Islamic world. How many Islamics is Herr Busch responsible for killing in the last five years, compared to the number of Jews killed by Hitler in his first five years?

Think about it.

In the meantime, I'll continue to compare Herr Busch to Hitler.

[ElectroPrincess]

109. Yes, what you claim is true, however, there's ONE fail-safe silver lining

in the clouds along the horizon: Unlike his dad, George W. Bush can be depended on to completely f*ck up every business endeavor in his control. It's as right as rain that this man has, perhaps a self-fulfilling (who knows?), REVERSE Midas Touch.

Let's just hope that not much more damage occurs to our country (and the world) before the Adults (Democrats) are able to wrest back control of the School (Congress).

[Southern Dem 2005]

127. That's a very poor analogy

Bush's invasion of Iraq did not purposely target Iraqi civilians or Muslims. Not only is your analogy incorrect its also pretty offensive. While Bush is a terrible president he has never advocated any policy remotely similar to the "final solution to the Jewish problem."

Your grasp of history is terrible.

[bvar22]

131. "Shock & Awe" by design targets civilians.

To say otherwise is unsupportable.

[Southern Dem 2005]

133. Targets them for what?

Whatever the goal of "shock and awe" might be, it is not to send people to the ovens by the millions. Find a survivor of the death camps and ask them what they think about comparing Republicans to Nazis.

[bvar22]

137. ovens???

I didn't say ANYTHING about deathcamps and ovens.

I merely corrected the mistake in your previous post.

[Southern Dem 2005]

139. ok

[seemslikeadream]

135. I guess that eases the minds of the 100,000 dead Iraqi

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7967-2004Oct28.html

[chlamor]

96. Suave Technocratic Omnicidal Fascists- Nothing Less

These men are murderers of the highest degree. Here is something to ponder and if even half of the total is accurate what does this say. And then consider the non-human deaths. Omnicide.


Read here:
"The greatest crime against humanity in all historic time has now been committed by the United States government. It dwarfs Joseph Stalin's killing of 7,000,000 Ukrainians in the 1930s and Adolph Hitler's killing of 6,000,000 Jewish people in the 1940s. This crime will cause the premature deaths of TENS of MILLIONS of people and will give a horribly debilitating disease to TENS of MILLIONS more. It is indiscriminate mass murder - genocide. My statements may be dramatic, but they are absolutely true."
<snip>
"Since October of 2001, the United States military has used approximately 3,000 tons of depleted uranium munitions against people in Afghanistan and Iraq. This will soon cause the serious health problems to include respiratory disease, kidney problems, rashes, birth defects, and the number of cancers of those people to jump to over 500,000 people each year. How do I know this? Because the United States military used 375 tons of depleted uranium munitions against Iraq in 1991 and the cancer rate in children measured in Iraqi hospitals rose from 32,000 per year in 1990 to 130,000 in 1997. According to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs official reports, U.S. casualties from Gulf War 1 now exceed 180,000 and already over 30,000 are now disabled from Gulf War 2. We've now used eight times what we did in 1991 and radiation has long been known to cause cancer. This is well known by our federal government."
<snip>
"It takes about eight tons of regular uranium ore to make one ton of enriched uranium to be used in nuclear power plants. This leaves seven tons of depleted uranium. Depleted uranium is composed primarily of three isotopes of uranium; it is 99.8% of U-238, 0.2% of U-235 and 0.0008% of U-234; collectively one microgram of it will constantly emit about 120 alpha particles every day for millions of years. One alpha particle has enough energy to disrupt the genetic information in the nucleus of a cell, but when this happens hundreds of local cells are affected by the instability of the zapped cell."
<snip>
'For example, each Abrams tank round contains about 10 pounds of solid depleted uranium while each 30 mm round fired by the A10 Warthog has about 3/4 pound of solid depleted uranium. After the collision, about half of the projectile is turned into powder 10 microns (ten one millionths of a meter) or smaller. A human hair is normally between 60 and 100 microns thick and that proverbial millionth of a gram of depleted uranium would fill a cube 37 microns on each side. This dust now blows wherever the wind takes it. We have already found depleted uranium in Iraq twenty five miles from an impact site. This radioactive dust blows in cities, in parks, on crops, in the rivers, and everywhere. They can be breathed in or ingested from food and drink. Particles on the order of 2.5 microns are perfect for implanting themselves in our lungs. A small number of these would be like smoking over ten packs of cigarettes every day forever and children one, two and five years old are getting this into their lungs."
<snip>

"If we used 375 tons of depleted uranium in the first Gulf War, think how the people of Iraq and Afghanistan will feel and be affected now that we used 3,000 tons of depleted uranium against them. And its terrible effects will be there forever."
<snip>
"The defense industry lobbyists want the federal government's supply of depleted uranium. Since the nuclear power industry has found no acceptable way to safely dispose of the leftover radioactive materials they produce, there are over 900,000 tons of depleted uranium still lying around waiting to be made into military weapons because it has no other commercial use and it makes big profits for the defense industries in not having to produce it themselves. These big profits can then be used to make large donations to federal politicians who follow corporate directives. It's a vicious and deadly cycle."

Entire article at:
http://www.warfolly.vzz.net/thegreatestcrime.html

[IndianaGreen]

98. Byrd gets it!

Kerry gets it!

Hillary doesn't!

[dArKeR]

99. By morning, the Afghan man had frozen to death.

CIA case officer in charge of a secret prison just north of Kabul allegedly ordered guards to strip naked an uncooperative young Afghan detainee, chain him to the concrete floor and leave him there overnight without blankets, according to four U.S. government officials aware of the case.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1279522

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2576-2005Mar2.html

[barb162]

108. Senator Bryd, you're great!

[leftchick]

113. Most Europeans recognise the similarities....

why can't ameriKans...

[Swamp Rat]

115. Did you see his speech?

I came home from school just in time to see it live. It was very moving. :)

Amerikan fascists really hate him and will find ANY excuse to criticize him. They hate what they fear.

[Swamp Rat]

114. Kick ass Byrd! True Americans patriots appreciate you...

Your detractors are anti-American buttholes! ;)

[John_H]

119. Holy shit. That story is as bad as anything Gannon crapped out.

The rule change is not the biggest step toward toltalitarianism yet devised by the GOP it's just a lil' ol' rule to make the judge nomination process go a little more smoothely.

The rest of the story is an excerpt from a RNC press release printed verbatim.

And, finally, there is no need to bother reading Byrd's whole speech--just read the part we want you to read by "clicking here."

Unbelievable.

[seemslikeadream]

122. So true, I don't know why they left out the 'Former Ku Klux Klansman' part

:shrug:

[Rose Siding]

124. Never fear! The WP includes it in the 2nd paragraph-

Sen. Robert Byrd's description of Adolf Hitler's rise to power was meant as a warning to heed the past and not as a comparison to Republicans, a spokesman for the West Virginia Democrat says.

Nonetheless, two Jewish groups and a pair of GOP politicians chastised the senator on Wednesday, including one who recalled Byrd's Ku Klux Klan membership as a young man. Byrd's comments, which he made Tuesday in the Senate, came during his speech criticizing a Republican plan to block Democrats from filibustering President Bush's judicial nominees.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3378-2005Mar3.html?nav=rss_politics

[Hamsta1]

132. Because they have plenty of people

to fill that part in.

[nolabels]

125. I don't know that some people don't have the cart in front of the horse

I am no expert but having looked at a fair amount of information on the Nazi Germany I would venture to say the Third Reich and the whole milieu of the era seemed more of a logical response (in the beginning) of nationalism against the Bolsheviks and capitalism. The Nazi's lost sort of but they now have morphed into each other.

The Nazi's march across Europe was not much different the immigrant's march across North America. Other than the speed and a more militant approach much of the same elements were there up to the lead up for WWII.

If Sociologist and historians study patterns why in the eff are they not debating what is going on in current culture :shrug:

[fromBrooklyn]

136. strong language for hard problems.

Listening to the Senate and the House debates every now and again on C-SPAN, language like Sen. Byrd's is not that outrageous:

More to the point, people are pointing to it and talking about it.
Two things could come of that, people read it, see the over-riding truth in the Senator's comments and are moved to write their own Senators urging support for Byrd's position,
Or, they get distracted by the mention of Nazi's and Byrd's own history as a Klansman, write of his insight as the jibber-jabber of an old racist.

I pray the numbers in the latter category are fewer than the former.

Byrd's point makes undeniable common sense: (and what's worse, visiting the in-laws in Germany last year I got it time and again, from all sides, that Bush was using the exact same tactics as Hitler used. We ignore this at our own peril.)

I watch the Bush version of Government and daily dread the tipping point; the moment I'll look back on forty years hence and think, "Why did I just sit there?"

Write your Senator, ask them not to vote for the "Nuclear option".

[OTownGuy]

142. ONLY the Dems...

Can call like it is. And only the RePugs can then use it against us and call us evil and hateful. Did anyone get a load of Dan Patrick on CONNECTED today? Perfect example.

[katty]

143. Byrd not holding back, calling it like it IS

he's an old byrd, but still kicking, and has lived through the last, extreme pass of fascism, he take any opportunity to give these a-holes a history lesson.

[DARE to HOPE]

144. Here's the address to write and tell him...

http://byrd.senate.gov/byrd_email.html

[Synnical]

148. Kick

Byrd's speech was right on. And the Repugs comments out of line.

I've been out sick for two days. Just learned of Byrd's speech.

[banana republican]

149. A Byrd in the hand is worth 2 in the Bush

[Vidar]

151. Good for Byrd.

[dArKeR]

153. I called Byrd today. I actually got through and told his office I support

him! And that I'm ashamed my Senators don't have morals and backbone like Sen. Byrd!

[Kimber Scott]

154. It's obvious this administration reads Mein Kampf religiously.

Well, not Bush, but I'm sure Rove tells him what it says.

[superconnected]

157. It's scary because of how true Byrds words are

Thank you Senator Byrd!