The new Fascism.(Inside Track)

In a ruling in April, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld rules that will require privately owned companies, when involved in federal litigation, to produce "electronically stored information" as part of the discovery process, when evidence is shared by both sides before a trial. This seems innocuous and possibly even reasonable, but it is, in fact, another instance of Fascism being inserted into America through the back door.

Because no company, especially if large, can predict when or if it might find itself in a federal court, every company, as a result of this rule, will start carefully tracking, reading, and archiving electronic communications of all kinds that are generated by employees, with frightful effect. According to the Associated Press: "Under the new rules, an information technology employee who routinely copies over a backup computer tape could be committing the equivalent of 'virtual shredding,' said Alvin E Lindsay, a partner at Hogan & Hartson LLP and expert on technology and litigation." Consequently, employers, who already are forced to serve as federal tax collectors (think withholding) are now to be forced to become de facto domestic spies as well.

This brings up the unpleasant subject of Fascism. Since World War II, the left has had an unhealthy propensity to fling the term at any person or organization it doesn't like. As a result, the term has not only lost its meaning, but its use in political discourse has become a sign of mental deficiency on the part of those who employ it. This has created conditions in which actual Fascism can ...