The tide comes in, the tide goes out....

We all came from primordial ooze.... Which might explain the Republicans' desire to return to simpler times...

"In the race to take on Obama, playing dumb about foreign affairs is the politically clever thing to do"

How Newt is channeling “The Producers”

One who takes issue with Naomi Wolf's article about the DHS and the mayors involved with a nation-wide crackdown of the OWS.

I think I like this new generation... teen tweeter won't apologize to Brownback.  Update:  Brownback backs down.

The NYTimes and LATimes both came out against SOPA and PIPA.

Blog sprinkles

Via JJ at Unrepentant Old Hippie: Weird News from all over the globe. I'll say! Warning: really weird.

Hipparchia of Over the Cliff, Onto the Rocks notes that McCain is a Manchurian candidate:

Yet despite McCain's tough talk, behind the scenes his top advisers have cultivated deep ties with Russia's oligarchy--indeed, they have promoted the Kremlin's geopolitical and economic interests, as well as some of its most unsavory business figures, through greedy cynicism and geopolitical stupor. The most notable example is the tale of how McCain and his campaign manager, Rick Davis, advanced what became a key victory for the Kremlin: gaining control over the small but strategically important country of Montenegro.

Eli of Multi Medium notices that Kenya has detained Jerome Corsi who has written a book about Obama filled with falsehoods and innuendos. Awww...

Via Ripley at Zen Cabin: An excellent bumpersticker!

Also via JJ, JABbering Stooge has a list we can refer to if McCain really wants to start throwing shit:

And if that’s the game John McCain wants to play, we’ll be happy to play it. We can talk about his role in the Keating Five. We can talk about his “palling around” with anti-Semitic Rapture Cheerleaders like Rev. John Hagee and Rev. Rod Parsley. We can talk about his time on the board of the United States Council for World Freedom, a far-right fringe group with ties to the Moonies that the ADL castigated as “a gathering place, a forum, a point of contact for extremists, racists and anti-semites.” We could also talk about McCain’s ties to Italian con man Raffaello Follieri.

Mapaghimagsik's cartoons are always on target.

Cookie Jill at skippy the bush kangaroo has the Tom Hartmann interview with Naomi Wolf.

PSoTD has the scariest Halloween costume ever. I'd worry if you had to provide the sound effects yourself....

Warren Street of They Gave Us a Republic asks a question as he described the activity seen at thrift stores:

Seems like a pretty good anecdotal way to gauge what is going on in the economy. But it could be evidence that Americans are simply living beyond their means. If things continue, a lot of "taboos" about second-hand stores, austerity, and making do are going to fall away. Things like backyard gardens, rummage sales, and actually putting off a major purchase are going to be fashionable. What will the neighbors think? Are we actually going to go from a nation where outspending the Joneses is going to be replaced by seeing who can scrimp and save?

When I grew up, there were plenty of old people who wouldn't throw away string; they had that Depression mentality of saving everything useful. Could it be coming back?

The answer I hope is yes.

crossposted at American Street

If you have time for just one thing today

Watch Naomi Wolf, author of The End of America, talk about the ten points to fascism and how far the United States has already gone down that list.

Your country's democracy depends on it. (Link from Hipparchia of Over the Cliffs, Onto the Rocks.)

Ten easy steps

To fascism. Darkblack has the list:

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

The list was taken from an article by Naomi Wolf published in the Guardian April 24, 2007. A quote:

Because Americans like me were born in freedom, we have a hard time even considering that it is possible for us to become as unfree - domestically - as many other nations. Because we no longer learn much about our rights or our system of government - the task of being aware of the constitution has been outsourced from citizens' ownership to being the domain of professionals such as lawyers and professors - we scarcely recognise the checks and balances that the founders put in place, even as they are being systematically dismantled. Because we don't learn much about European history, the setting up of a department of "homeland" security - remember who else was keen on the word "homeland" - didn't raise the alarm bells it might have.

It is my argument that, beneath our very noses, George Bush and his administration are using time-tested tactics to close down an open society. It is time for us to be willing to think the unthinkable - as the author and political journalist Joe Conason, has put it, that it can happen here. And that we are further along than we realise.

Conason eloquently warned of the danger of American authoritarianism. I am arguing that we need also to look at the lessons of European and other kinds of fascism to understand the potential seriousness of the events we see unfolding in the US.

Read the article and then put your pitchfork and torch by the front door. We're going to need them.