Banana Republic USA

The gem of democracy no more. Wayne Madsen describes D.C.

Creepy.

The White House Ellipse is now a security bivouac. The grassy area that once played host to Frisbee games between dogs and their owners, touch football scrimmages, and throngs of tourists marveling at the south facade of the White House are largely gone. They have been replaced by chain link fences, concrete Jersey barriers, menacing black Secret Service SUVs, squad cars, and security "men in black" armed to the teeth. Sitting in the midst of this security encampment is the National Christmas Tree. Once surrounded by rosy-cheeked youngsters who marveled at its thousands of ornaments and lights up close, the tree is now viewed after dark from afar-its future as endangered as its rooted relatives in the Rocky Mountain and Alaska National Forest and Wilderness areas.

Vice President Dick Cheney sent out thousands of Christmas cards this year that extolled the Bush administration's international imperial agenda by suggesting God approves it. Taking a quote by founder Benjamin Franklin out of context, Cheney's card read, "And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?" Fascists, imperialists, and colonialists throughout history have tried to invoke God's name in justifying their global ambitions. The Bush-Cheney regime is no different and hopefully it will meet the same fate as its fascist and imperial antecedents.

Across Constitution Avenue, the Washington Monument is surrounded by an 8-foot wall, reminiscent of the one that used to divide Berlin and the one now being built to bifurcate the West Bank. A similar wall surrounds the U.S. Capitol-the so-called "peoples' house," and one has been erected on one side of the Supreme Court. The steps of the Supreme Court are now largely restricted to access by "we the people." The Capitol Building is constructing an underground security control center that will soon screen Girl Scouts and 4-H Club members as suspected terrorists.

If you are doing a news report or a documentary and set down a camera tripod on the National Mall or at any of the monuments, you will be confronted by nasty Park Police, who order you not to film without permission from the Park Police.

The famed Washington Metro system now bans the sale of newspapers in its stations. Newspaper vending machines have been boarded up. Trash piles up on subway platforms and trains because waste containers on the concourses are also banned. Recorded announcements appeal to passengers to report anyone who looks "suspicious."

No sooner had the Texans taken over the White House, Washington area caterers felt the pinch. Gone are the diplomatic receptions and elaborate state dinners for visiting dignitaries. Washington's caterers, florists, limousine drivers, hotels, upscale bars, and trendy restaurants immediately felt this trickle down effect of Bush's low class approach to diplomacy. Around my place of employment, a number of restaurants have shut their doors. They include a trendy martini bar and restaurant, an upscale Spanish tapas restaurant, an Italian deli, a health food eatery, and, unbelievably, a Chinese restaurant. How many more Code Oranges and phony terrorist alerts can this city take? Not many, I would suggest. The glamorous days of Kennedy's Camelot and Reagan's "Morning in America" at the White House are now in the distant past for America's capital.

Drivers and passengers who drive past the Pentagon on Virginia state highways are confronted by menacing Humvees with their high caliber machine guns pointed at the traffic....One security expert has reported that Washington, DC, Metro Police have sometimes been instructed to turn on their sirens for no reason because police in Israel discovered that sirens are a psychological deterrent to would-be terrorists. Add the sirens to the almost constant noise from patrol helicopters, fighter aircraft, and the extremely high-pitched whine from unmanned aerial vehicles and you realize you no longer live in the capital of the Free World, but some bizarre Twilight Zone version of the capital city of an America...

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And one more little tell-tale quip:

Just as Hitler constantly berated neighboring Poland and France for Germany's ills, the Bush fascists have accused Canada of being responsible for last August's major power failure and now charge Canada with being responsible for the first mad cow outbreak in the United States. Both charges are patently inane.