Friedly Joe called my attention to an article I’d heard about, but missed – There Is Fascism, Indeed, by Keith Olbermann. It’s a commentary on the worst of the series of recent speeches at the American Legion gathering – 
Donald Rumsfeld’s speech in which he made the analogies between the Nazis and Hussein. It was one horrid speech, but Olbermann’s retort is brilliant. He correctly reverses Rumsfeld’s assertions and places the Fascism label where it belongs – on the Bush Administration. He reminds us that in spite of all the spin-doctoring, this Administration has universally failed us – Terror, Iraq, Katrina. In response to Rumsfeld’s attack on dissent, Olbermann quotes Edward R. Murrow: "We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty," he said, in 1954. "We must remember always that accusation is not proof, and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law.""We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes that were for the moment unpopular."
And so good night, and good luck.
It’s a fine read. One of those articles that may be what you already think, but after you read it, you’ll think it more clearly. Here are some other very thoughtful responses to Rumsfeld’s speech, Demagoguery Won’t Keep Us Safe by Coleen Rowley [currently running for Congress in Minnesota] and Bush Team Casts Foes as Defeatist, Blunt Rhetoric Signals a New Thrust by Peter Baker and Jim VandeHei.
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