I have argued that in the closing stages of a `fascist shift', events cascade. I am hearing about them, even across the globe. Here in Australia I hear from the nation's best-know feminist activist, and former adviser to Paul Keating, Anne Summers, who was also at the time this took place Chair of the Board of Greenpeace International.

All right: Blackwater and other contractors have four BILLION dollars in US funds and, the New York Times reports today, almost no oversight in Iraq; wildfires are consuming acres of Southern California and many counties have been declared to be in a state of emergency -- and nothing at all but a whisper of popular opposition and a prayer -- nothing legal -- would prevent Bush today from declaring that the

(Naomi Wolf is the author of The End of America: A Letter of Warning To A Young Patriot.) I wish people would stop breaking into tears when they talk to me these days. I am traveling across the country at the moment -- Colorado to California -- speaking to groups of Americans from all walks of life about the assault on liberty and the ten steps now underway in America

(Naomi Wolf is the author of The End of America: Letter of Warning To A Young Patriot. She has written extensively about Blackwater and joins us in the comments -- jh) Congress is finally asking questions of Erik Prince, the head of Blackwater, the private mercenary organization that massacred seventeen civilians in Iraq recently.

(Naomi Wolf is the author of "The End of America -- Letters of Warning to a Young Patriot," an amazing book that discusses, among other things, the implications of the growth of paramilitary forces like Blackwater. She'll be here for the Book Salon on Oct. 14 -- JH) The New York Times reported today that Blackwater, the infamous organization that has been accused of killing civilians in Iraq, “has been involved