Guest Editorial
by Roger Shuler
Author Naomi Wolf has written an essay about what might be ahead in a Republican-dominated America, and it is disturbing reading–on multiple levels.
Wolf’s primary thesis is that Sarah Palin is more than just John McCain’s running mate; she is the designated weak figurehead at the top of a coming police state in America.
Wolf became queasy when she saw Palin embrace lawlessness by defying subpoenas from the Alaska Legislature. Wolf became even more alarmed when she saw Palin use mafia-style tactics against critics.
Suddenly, Wolf realized that Palin, not McCain, was the central figure in the GOP’s 2008 ticket:
Reports confirmed my suspicions: Palin, not McCain, is the FrankenBarbie of the Rove-Cheney cabal. The strategy became clear. Time magazine reported that Rove is “dialed in” to the McCain campaign. Rove’s protégé Steve Schmidt is now campaign manager. And Politico reported that Rove was heavily involved in McCain’s vice presidential selection. Finally a new report shows that there are dozens of Bush and Rove operatives surrounding Sarah Palin and orchestrating her every move.
What’s the plan? It is this. McCain doesn’t matter. Reputable dermatologists are discussing the fact that in simply actuarial terms, John McCain has a virulent and life-threatening form of skin cancer. It is the elephant in the room, but we must discuss the health of the candidates: doctors put survival rates for someone his age at two to four years. I believe the Rove-Cheney cabal is using Sarah Palin as a stalking horse, an Evita figure, to put a popular, populist face on the coming police state and be the talk show hostess for the end of elections as we know them. If McCain-Palin get in, this will be the last true American election. She will be working for Halliburton, KBR, Rove and Cheney into the foreseeable future — for a decade perhaps — a puppet “president” for the same people who have plundered our treasure, are now holding the U.S. economy hostage and who murdered four thousand brave young men and women in a way of choice and lies.
We could be headed for what Wolf calls a Palin-Rove police state. And she offers evidence from her personal life that shows, in some respects, it’s already here:
Almost everyone I work with on projects related to this campaign for liberty has been experiencing computer harassment: emails are stripped, messages disappear. That’s not all: people’s bank accounts are being tampered with: wire transfers to banks vanish in midair. I personally keep opening bank accounts that are quickly corrupted by fraud. Money vanishes. Coworkers of mine have to keep opening new email accounts as old ones become infected. And most disturbingly to me personally is the mail tampering I have both heard of and experienced firsthand. My tax returns vanished from my mailbox. All my larger envelopes arrive ripped straight open apparently by hand. When I show the postman, he says “That’s impossible.” Horrifyingly to me is the impact on my family. My childrens’ report cards are returned again and again though perfectly addressed; their invitations are turned back; and my daughters many letters from camp? Vanished. All of them. Not one arrived. Try explaining that to a smart thirteen year old. Try explaining it in a way that still makes her feel secure and comfortable.
Some folks might read Wolf’s essay and decide she is a nut. But my wife and I sure don’t. Consider what Mrs. Schnauzer and I have experienced in the past eight years or so in Alabama, where Karl Rove helped put our state courts in GOP control:
* Our house has been repeatedly vandalized;
* We’ve had our savings wiped out from having to defend a bogus lawsuit brought by an attorney with family connections to Rove;
* We’ve seen substantial evidence to suggest that our phone calls were tracked (probably by a device called a pen register), and that information was used to cost my wife multiple employment opportunities over a three-year period;
* We’ve had our house unlawfully “auctioned” and a bogus “sheriff’s deed” placed on our property, meaning we no longer own our house free and clear;
* I’ve been the victim of a felony assault by a neighbor with a lengthy criminal record, only to see our local authorities insist it was a misdemeanor;
* Our deteriorating financial situation has caused us to be hounded by third-party debt collectors, a particularly charming form of “bottom feeder.”
* I’ve been terminated from my job as an editor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) after 19 years of service. This clearly was done because I write a blog that deals honestly and critically with the Bush Justice Department, particularly its misdeeds in Alabama.
I would call Naomi Wolf a visionary, not a nut. If anything, Wolf is a little bit late to the game. Here in Alabama, the GOP police state has been in action for quite some time.
For more information, check out Roger’s blog at LegalSchnauzer.blogspot.com.
