Hysterical Naomi Cries Wolf

When your crowning achievement in politics is being known as the person who suggested Al Gore wear earth tones, serious political analysis may not be your forte.

Now blithering idiot Naomi Wolf demonstrates that beyond all doubt with a rambling discussion on how condemning the outrageous MoveOn.org "Betray Us" is leading us lockstep into--you guessed correctly--Nazi Germany.

And Soviet-era Russia.

And Mussolini's Italy.

And Communist China.

This is either brilliant satire or raging, incurable Bush Derangement Syndrome.

I suspect it's the latter.

Yeah, I didn't like the wording of the ad either. But the attack on MoveOn.org by the Senate last week is not an aberration but is part of a dangerous --and accelerating -- trend of echoes from the past.

Students of history know that the National Socialists in Germany, before they came to power, made multiple assaults on democracy by pushing for laws and that expanded penalties for opponents' speaking out against certain subjects. What they -- and then Stalin, who studied Hitler -- perfected was the identification of a `third rail' of untouchable subjects that one could never approach critically without facing escalating penalties -- job loss, personal attacks, or, just a little later, criminal charges. These subjects were the war, the party itself, and the military. Making these subjects sacred and untouchable allowed National Socialists to commit any number of crimes by explaining that the abusive actions were taken in the name of the off-limits-to-criticism ideals.

OK, so you "didn't like the wording."

Well, neither did millions of people who were justifiably outraged. How does this lead us to fascism? Has anyone lost their job or been brought up on charges?

She goes on to say how much she loves the troops, blah blah blah, then gets to the heart of it.

The National Socialists introduced the term 'Heimat' -- Homeland. The Bush administration introduced the term 'Homeland,' as in 'Homeland Security,' to take the place of the more neutral 'Domestic' or 'Internal.'

And they did this right before our eyes! Better yet, until an image consultant came along six years later, nobody even suspected a thing.

A ha! You've got them now, baby.

To show how devious Bush is, he's also copying Stalin, no less.

Stalin coined the hyped notion of what he called 'sleepers' or 'sleeper cells' -- these were purported to be secret terrorist agents of global capitalism who would pretend to be good Soviet citizens, perhaps for years, but who would rise up at a signal to wreak mass havoc on Soviet society. By 2002, the White House introduced the term 'sleeper cells,' which was not in common usage in America.

Actually, the public became quite familiar with sleeper cells. The precise moment was 9:03 am on 9/11/01, just as the second plane hit the World Trade Center.

Wait, it gets better.

Joseph Goebbels pioneered the 'embedding' of reporters with military troops as a way to support favorable coverage; William Shirer was embedded with German troops in the invasion of France and Nazi filmmaker Leni von Riefenstahl was embedded with German troops in Poland.

Little did the average reporter who was embedded with the troops at the outstart of the Iraq war realize they were modern-day Leni Riefenstahls.

The more dot-connecting to do. She's on to us now.

Early on, Hitler sought legislation that retroactively protected the SS from war crimes. This was a major step to opening the door to the violence against German citizens that followed. The Bush administration has sought to shield its violent interrogators retrospectively from being charged with war crimes.

Hmm. An ominous parallel. U.S. interrogators quake in fear of retrospective charges.

Lenin set up military tribunals that bypassed the judiciary. Mussolini imitated this and did the same. Stalin imitated Mussolini and set up secretive military tribunals that bypassed the established judiciary. The National Socialists created the 'People's Courts' that bypassed the legitimate judiciary. These courts stripped prisoners of habeas corpus and were characterized by prisoners having no right of appeal.

Stalin pioneered the use of sleep deprivation, extremes of hot and cold, standing (or 'stress') positions, psychological humiliation, the use of dogs, and a separate facility to punish uncooperative prisoners in the Gulag with prolonged isolation. Guantanamo and U.S.-held Iraqi prisons reproduce the same tactics. (By the way, after a few days in a 'standing position,' which you recall Donald Rumsfeld supported, innocent prisoners in the Gulag would 'sign anything.')

Guantanamo Bay = Soviet gulags. Plain for all to see.

Except for the millions of dead.

How could we have not seen these parallels before?

Get this woman a Pulitzer.

OK, stop laughing. There's still more.

Nazi propaganda claimed that Jews hid from arrest in 'mouseholes.' When the scene of Saddam Hussein's capture was presented to the world, talking points, widely picked up by the media, introduced, again, a term that was generally unfamiliar in the U.S.: Hussein had been hiding in what they called a 'spider-hole.'

Saddam = terrified Jew in Nazi Germany?

Please tell me you are not making that comparison.

German troops tormented the imprisoned leader of Austria, Kurt von Schuschnigg, by blasting popular music into his cell day and night; U.S. interrogators do the same with rock and roll in U.S.-held Iraqi prisons.

Granted, it could be worse. It could be rap music.

The Chinese Politburo calls the secret surveillance file that keeps track of the work and private life of every Chinese citizen an 'iron triangle.' Bush referred to his former key group of advisers as the 'iron triangle.'

Many people have laughed at and called Naomi Wolf an idiot.

I'm laughing at this idiot.

Natually, the HuffPost commenters are lapping it up.

She's speaking truth to power, after all.