Hat Tip: Betty Albright

Mainstream press isn’t touching the comparison of government ownership of big business and the definition of Fascism. Even the Wall Street Journal is saying the former CEO Wagner needed to leave General Motors and we would agree.

The problem with having a CEO resign is the Board of Directors should seal that person’s fate not a President of the United States and a few “czars” in a room across from the Oval Office.

Inside a windowless, ornate room Thursday just across from the Oval Office, President Barack Obama and a group of senior economic advisers began the job of remaking the American automobile industry.

The first order of business: Oust General Motors Corp. Chief Executive Rick Wagoner.

It “wasn’t the hardest decision,” said one government official.

Government officials making decisions that belong in the board room not the Roosevelt Room with nobody representing the company. Government officials placed a new CEO at AIG and now the Obama administration has handpicked the new CEO at General Motors even though he was the Chief Operating Officer and next in line for the job.

There was also an economic policy component of fascism, known in Europe during the 1920s and ’30s as “corporatism,” that was an essential ingredient of economic totalitarianism as practiced by Mussolini and Hitler. So-called corporatism was adopted in Italy and Germany during the 1930s and was held up as a “model” by quite a few intellectuals and policy makers in the United States and Europe.

A version of economic fascism was in fact adopted in the United States in the 1930s and survives to this day. In the United States these policies were not called “fascism” but “planned capitalism.” The word fascism may no longer be politically acceptable, but its synonym “industrial policy” is as popular as ever. The essence of fascism, therefore, is that government should be the master, not the servant, of the people.

On April 8, 1952, President Harry Truman ordered Commerce Secretary Charles Sawyer to seize and take over operation of most of the country’s steel mills. Truman cited no legislative authority for his actions. Instead, he cited the Korean War. Truman claimed there was a national emergency and his presidential war powers were all the authority he needed to nationalize the steel industry. The steel companies fought back, and in the landmark case Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer the Supreme Court found Truman’s actions to be unconstitutional.

The man who is now president, Barack Obama, is precisely the man whose spiritual mentor for 2 decades, Jeremiah Wright, denounced “white folks greed” running  “a world in need.”  Barack Obama is precisely the man whose political mentor, Saul Alinsky, advised the use of any and all means necessary to take power in America, and to clothe his deceit in “moral garments.” Barack Obama is precisely the man whose most influential and moneyed backer was George Soros, the Fabian socialist whose financial schemes have garnered great wealth for him while leaving whole economies in shambles, the way ours is now.

Anyone still harboring the illusion that President Barack Obama cares one whit about the millions of Americans whose retirement funds and futures dwindle with each passing day of this “regime change” needs a reality check.

Most job requirements have experience listed but when running the auto industry from the White House this isn’t needed. Obama named a Director of Recovery for Auto Workers and Communities. Edward Montgomery, labor economist and former Deputy Secretary of Labor, will serve in the role, helping autoworkers, communities, and regions adversely impacted by the failure of the automakers find new jobs, businesses, and industries. 

There doesn’t seem to be anything in his resume or job title that would indicate Edward Montgomery, President Obama’s new director of recovery for auto communities and workers, will be dictating corporate policy for General Motors or other car companies. He’s a “people” economist, not an industrial technocrat, focusing on workers, community economic development etc. From the Web site at the University of Maryland, where he is dean of the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences:

Dr. Montgomery has published numerous papers and articles on local economic development, youth unemployment, cross national comparisons of labor market performance, savings and pension policy, Medicaid and Social Security, labor unions and workplace smoking regulations.

During the Bush years he was called a Fascist by the Left-Wing nut cases but Jonah Goldberg would argue that history is not on their side:

It’s fine to say that incestuous relationships between corporations and governments are fascistic. The problem comes when you claim that such arrangements are inherently right-wing. If the collusion of big business and government is right-wing, then FDR was a rightwinger. If corporatism and propagandistic militarism are fascist, then Woodrow Wilson was a fascist and so were the New Dealers. If you understand the right-wing or conservative position to be that of those who argue for free markets, competition, property rights, and the other political values inscribed in the original intent of the American founding fathers, then big business in Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany,
and New Deal America was not right-wing; it was left-wing, and it was fascistic. What’s more, it still is.

We’re now on fast-forward Fascism with Obama just getting started. Big Oil, big insurance, big health care, big education, big government. Indeed!

Barack Obama’s “Call to Serve” speech made public service a major theme of his campaign. In this speech, and in his “Blueprint for Change,” he gave two main reasons for this emphasis on public service. The first is that there are many national problems with which coordinated government volunteers could help. The second is that the character of the country needs a change in favor of selfless service instead of individualism and greed. He thus proposes to make increasing public service–mobilizing America in a new spirit of selflessness– “a cause of my presidency.”

AmeriCorps “volunteers,” for example, are paid, and some receive housing. If they complete a term of service, they also receive work-study funds or tuition stipends. In either case, the message sent by the government is that people should participate in these programs, but not for the kind of selfless reasons Obama wishes to foster. Paid employees, by definition, are not volunteers.

Participants in these programs do not work directly for their communities–they work for federal bureaucracies. This fact reflects the early 20th century Progressives’ idea of serving “the public,” a nebulous term personified by government bureaucrats. In such a world, the only necessary relationship for public service is that between the individual and the state.

HR 1388, a bill entitled “The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, an Act to reauthorize and reform the national service laws” has passed the Senate. The two RINOs from Maine, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe voted for this bill. Imagine that!

The Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education (GIVE) Act would dramatically increase funding for AmeriCorps and other volunteer programs, including those for seniors and veterans. It also establishes a goal of expanding from 75,000 government-supported volunteers to 250,000, and would increase education funding and establish a summer service program for students, paying $500 (which would be applied to college costs) to high-school and middle-school student who participate.

The bill sound so “Americana”, so much like the Peace Corp until you dig deeper and read House Amendment 49, which prohibits organizations from attempting to influence legislation; organize or engage in protests, petitions, boycotts, or strikes; and assist, promote, or deter union organizing.”

Does this read like a volunteer program?

SEC. 122. NATIONAL SERVICE PROGRAMS ELIGIBLE FOR PROGRAM ASSISTANCE.

(a) Required National Service Corps- The recipient of a grant under section 121(a) and each Federal agency operating or supporting a national service program under section 121(b) shall, directly or through grants or subgrants to other entities, carry out or support the following national service corps, as full- or part-time corps, including during the summer months, to address unmet educational, health, veteran, or environmental needs.

The legislative scheme is an appeal to unemployed and those in need to volunteer and get paid with benefits. This isn’t a true volunteer program but is set up to have people find housing and income while being brainwashed by government handlers (I smell a burning ACORN)

While Barney Frank has called for huge reductions in military spending, AmeriCorps volunteers earn about $1,000 a month, plus medical benefits, housing assistance and $4,725 in education awards that can be applied to future studies. The legislation would increase that education award to $5,350, the maximum Pell Grant award for the 2009-10 school year, and increase with Pell Grant increases over time.

It would also establish new programs for youth, including the Summer of Service program, in which middle and high school students could earn a $500 education award to be used for college costs. It would expand opportunities for Americans 55 or older to volunteer in both the public and non-profit sectors.

The bill would also create “green” opportunities — including a Clean Energy Corps to focus on environmental conservation. It would also create a Healthy Futures Corps, focusing on health care; a Veteran Services Corps, focusing on services for military veterans; and an Education Corps.

Doesn’t this program to establish foot soldiers on the domestic front sound just swell?

Invigorating NO, Volunteerism NO, Education NO, Creepy, YES! Stop Obama and his Comrades NOW!  Write and let this Communist ilk have it. Indeed!