Gem of the Week: Woody the Fascist

 

“It is a fool’s prerogative to utter truths that no one else will speak.” 1

In a recent interview published by a Spanish language newspaper, film director and comedian Woody Allen had this to say about Barack Obama: “I am pleased with Obama. I think he’s brilliant. The Republican Party should get out of his way and stop trying to hurt him… It would be good…if he could be a dictator for a few years because he could do a lot of good things quickly.” 2

Dictator? Really?  Sounds ridiculous, right?  And coming from a nutty—albeit highly accomplished and creative—guy like Woody Allen, it’s to be easily dismissed. Or is it?  Perhaps Woody himself is unaware of just how germane his comment really is. 

First, need we remind ourselves that Obama and his party control the White House and both houses of Congress.  As Commander in Chief, he of course has full control over the military.  And in less than two years, the Obama government:

• controls at least one-sixth of the American economy through the new healthcare law;
• controls a large part of the automotive industry with the bailout and takeover of General Motors;
• controls or exercises daunting power over the insurance and financial industries with the bailout of the banks and AIG;
• controls 96% of the housing market through quasi-government housing finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac;
• will have unprecedented control over a large part of the energy sector with the passage of “Cap and Trade” legislation;
• will have unprecedented control over news and other media outlets that it doesn’t already have de facto control over (i.e., NBC and MSNBC) with the passage of the “fairness doctrine” or its equivalent.
• will have unprecedented control over the Internet with the passage of so-called “net neutrality” or its equivalent.
• is attempting to infiltrate and exercise control over the nation’s churches through a new faith-based initiative program that merges churches with the EPA.
• is attempting, through the Justice Department, to usurp control over a state’s right to duly enact laws to deal with immigration problems within the state (Arizona);
• is publicly contemplating, through the Justice Department, a modification to the Miranda laws with respect to certain U.S. citizens.

It would seem all President Obama needs now is some kind of national catastrophe or emergency (real or contrived) as justification for enacting his own form of “enabling” law to sweep away any remaining dissent and fully suspend all freedom of speech and civil rights.  So I’d say Woody is just one Reichstag Fire away from getting his wish. 3  But Woody may want to be careful what he wishes for.  His people don’t have a really good history with dictators, don’t cha know. 

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Footnotes:

Fn. 1: Attributed to Neil Gaiman, in Dream Country

Fn. 2: For Woody Allen quote:

http://entertainment.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/05/17/woody-allen-president-obama-dictator/

Fn. 3: For more information on the German Reichstag fire click here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_fire

Inconvenient History

Last night’s vote was historic.  That’s what they kept telling us.  With universal healthcare enacted into law, a sweeping transformation of one-sixth of our nation’s economy and, therefore too our society and culture, would ensue.  Historic indeed!  Together with the vast network of medical bureaucracies and numerous apparatchiks that will inevitably be created in order to bring this monstrosity to life, casual decisions by government regulators and mini-health czars will bring about life-altering consequences for ordinary Americans.  Moreover, fundamental controls, previously reserved for the legislative branch will be transferred over to the executive branch giving it the authority to fashion new policy and reshape the healthcare system as it sees fit.  Thus all this will enable and invest the executive branch, under President Obama, with the authority to exercise virtually boundless powers in healthcare and other areas. 

Aaaaaa-Hahahahahaha... Aaaaaa-Hahahahahaha!!

In such circumstances, it will be allowed that Nancy Pelosi, by going to the great lengths she has to bring this all about, has become the President’s great enabler; she and the so-called pro-life Democrats led by Bart Stupak, who at the eleventh hour cut a deal with the President by accepting the latter’s pledge in the form of an Executive Order prohibiting federal funding for abortions.

Well, history has a way of repeating itself.

On March, 23, 1933, almost 77 years to the day, Adolf Hitler passed his own Enabling Act.  Before the Reichstag (the German legislature) Hitler made a speech wherein he pledged that “the government will make use of these powers only insofar as they are essential for carrying out vitally necessary measures … The number of cases in which an internal necessity exists for having recourse to such a law is in itself a limited one.” 

As the new law would alter the German constitution, a two-thirds majority was required which meant that Hitler needed 31 non-Nazi votes to get it passed.  He got those votes from the German centrist party after making a false promise to restore certain rights previously taken away by decree.  By this vote, Germany’s elected officials paved the way for the end of democratic government in Germany and the establishment, legally, of the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler. 

The rest, as they say, is history.

For more on this topic, link to:

https://culturecrusader.wordpress.com/2010/03/03/inconvenient-history/

https://culturecrusader.wordpress.com/2010/03/22/america-r-i-p/