Enjoy this peaceful lull while you can
From Hunter Thompson, everyone’s favorite gonzo journalist,
My final prediction for today is that the U.S. will not send any teams to the Olympic Games this year. And the World Series will also be canceled or at least postponed for a National Security emergency that will never be explained in public until long after George Bush is gone from the White House, which will happen in early November — or at least before Groundhog Day next year.
We are all going for a very wild ride for the next few months. So good luck and drink all the cold beer you can get your hands on for as long as necessary to guarantee victory and lasting peace in the nation and the world.
Buy the ticket, take the ride. Mahalo.
Paranoia? Lunacy?
From Newsweek, comes news of something arguably quite sinister.
American counterterrorism officials, citing what they call “alarming” intelligence about a possible Qaeda strike inside the United States this fall, are reviewing a proposal that could allow for the postponement of the November presidential election in the event of such an attack, Newsweek has learned.
How convenient for Bush such an attack would be.
Feb. 27, 1933.
The German Parliament (Reichstag) burns down. A dazed Dutch Communist named Marinus van der Lubbe is found at the scene and charged with arson.
Feb. 28, 1933.
President Hindenburg and Chancellor Hitler invoke Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution, which permits the suspension of civil liberties in time of national emergency. A supplemental decree creates the SA (Storm Troops) and SS (Special Security) Federal police agencies.
Who Did It?
Historians do not agree on who is actually responsible for the Reichstag Fire: van der Lubbe acting alone — a Communist plot — or the Nazis themselves in order to create an incident. Writers such as Klaus P. Fischer feel that most likely the Nazis were involved.
But regardless of who actually planned and executed the fire, it is clear that the Nazis immediately took advantage of the situation in order to advance their cause at the expense of civil rights. The Decree enabled the Nazis to ruthlessly suppress opposition in the upcoming election.
It Can’t Happen Here,
Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, 1966
And they thought it couldn’t happen here
(duh duh duh)
They knew it couldn’t happen here
They were so sure it couldn’t happen here
But . . .