Bush's Imperial Storm Troopers pepper spray a peaceful, retreating crowd that is already 10 yards from the barricade. August 22nd, 2002 in Portland Oregon.

Photo by PDX Teach or PDX Dragon at Portland IndyMedia

The Other Evil-Doers

Navigate Evil-Doers Blog/Essays: [ twin peaks & oil spills ] [ fascists vs fags ] [ global cronies ] [ george w bush ] [ axes of evil ] [ remember anthrax? ] [ hate crime ]

updated December 30, 2003 & checked links January 5, 2004

I deplore terrorism of all kinds, including the attacks on 9/11. Whoever is responsible for these attacks is, without a doubt, profoundly evil. In the wake of the Afghanistan War, in which Al Qaida and Osama Bin Laden escaped to Pakistan, we have lost our focus on the real perpetrators of that horror. Instead, we are targeting a 100 billion dollar war, and squandering all of our diplomatic capital in a ridiculous attempt to knock down a sinister dictator who was once the puppet of our president's father--a dictator who was fully supported by our government until AFTER he invaded Kuwait. Worse, it seems that the only people who don't know this history are American Republicans. Instead of looking for sources of terrorism, the American government is bullying the world into giving us Iraq for its oil, geopolitical power, and the construction projects that will follow its demolition. In spite of all the frightening rhetoric, there is absolutely no evidence that Saddam Hussein had anything to do with the 9/11 attack, nor with Al Qaida. This page is focused on profiles of people who deserve some close scrutiny and intense criticism for their behavior and policies.

Tops on the list of the Other Evil Doers is the Bush Administration. Are you still so unaware as to think that these people are really out to help the people who actually do the work in America? Did you know that they are pushing hard to put an end to the labor reform laws that assure you overtime pay? That means your boss can demand that you work 50 or 60 hours and receive less pay than you currently do--probably nothing more than comp time. (If this pisses you off, click here) Even more telling, the war mongers who talk big about supporting our troops are engineering massive pay cuts for military personnel they can't afford to pay for. There is a lot of information on this if you're motivated enough to turn off those reruns of Friends and start looking at what's going on around you [ 1

But, before I turn you loose in a collection of very depressing and disturbing links, I suggest that you start by reading Doris Haddock's empowering article How to Break the American Trance.

Kurt Vonnegut's remarks on the current situation:

I myself feel that our country, for whose Constitution I fought in a just war, might as well have been invaded by Martians and body snatchers. Sometimes I wish it had been. What has happened, though, is that it has been taken over by means of the sleaziest, low-comedy, Keystone Cops-style coup d’etat imaginable. And those now in charge of the federal government are upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography, plus not-so-closeted white supremacists, aka “Christians,” and plus, most frighteningly, psychopathic personalities, or “PPs.”

...Unlike normal people, [PP's] are never filled with doubts, for the simple reason that they cannot care what happens next. Simply can’t. Do this! Do that! Mobilize the reserves! Privatize the public schools! Attack Iraq! Cut health care! Tap everybody’s telephone! Cut taxes on the rich! Build a trillion-dollar missile shield! Fuck habeas corpus and the Sierra Club and In These Times, and kiss my ass!

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15098

Evil-doers Introduction

[ twin peaks & oil spills ] [ fascists vs fags ] [ global cronies ] [ george w bush ] [ axes of evil ] [ remember anthrax? ] [ hate crime ]

In Freudian psychoanalysis there is a common neurotic behavior known as projection. In the case of the radical right wing that is currently in control of nearly every facet of politics (except the privacy of our minds, I think), they have turned this neurotic defense mechanism into a political strategy. They have had quite a lot of success with it since Dubyah was crowned by the Supreme Court. It works like this: whenever something is wrong in society and it's obvious that the cause of that problem is corporate greed, deregulation or tax cuts (or assault rifles), then a gang of intellectuals from the thousands of conservative think tanks and judicial cults like the Federalist Society come up with a convoluted argument that blames the problem on liberal policies and/or Bill Clinton. For instance, it is a known fact that Saddam Hussein was a product of late Cold War (1978-1991) strategy developed gone wrong. Saddam was basically a puppet of American foreign policy.

So, to demonstrate this neurotic projection, we see that when it comes to looking for a cause for all the problems we see in Iraq, we have been told that the real culprit is the liberal and tolerant policies of the United Nations that ignored the dangers posed by the monster they created from themselves. According to the argument, Saddam took advantage of the strong global and American opposition to the PNAC plans to conquer the world and toss the United Nations out the window. The failure of the war to accomplish the promised six month transition to democracy is caused by liberals here in America who are questioning the Bush axiom "get the oil production running first so we can get some cash." Only then will they worry about the utilities and jobs and other problems Iraqis face since the collapse of a fascist law and order government that was once good enough for Donald Rumsfeld to congratulate him for doing such a good job protecting our interests. When the expensive war and massive tax cuts that Bush gave to the top 1% of Americans caused a collapse of government programs for the poor, and a vicious cycle of economic decomposition, then the cause mysteriously becomes liberal spending programs that, unbeknownst to the suckers who believe them, don't even amount to a tiny fraction of the amount of global money spent on killing people and buying luxury cars, boats and planes. If this kind of Orwellian doublethink doesn't qualify as "evildoing", then I don't know what does. It is rather interesting and humorous to note that every single self-centered pyscho jerk I have known has used this technique of projection and inversion to simultaneously protect themselves and destroy their opponents in the most crippling ways. It is a little surprising that our media have become such willing pawns in the process.

It really does amaze me how people like Michael Savage can look out a world torn up by George Bush's arrogant stupidity and violent venality and tell us with a straight face that the sudden influx of illegal immigrants into America is caused by liberal "ultra tolerance" rather than a revival of the slavery model in a new form fueled by NAFTA's parasitization of Latin America and hypocritical conservative business owners who break the laws in order to hire these new age wage slaves. Wal Mart is an excellent contradiction to all this nonsense. They are one of the most clear examples of how the wealthy corporate elites are using their increasing power to pay workers even less and less. So much for trickle down. Savage refuses to look at the fact that his conservative puppet masters are playing him for a sucker--while they tell him that he should keep his Caucasian subgenius listeners upset and excited about the immigrants, his masters simultaneously hire immigrants and create the very system he is supposed to lambaste. The key is to find the way to blame it on liberals. In other words, Savage is a useful tool for them to hypnotize and enflame the racist white right voting block, while the leaky borders are a tool to bringing the neocolonial wage slave labor closer to home. Meanwhile, just to pour salt in the wounds, our high paying jobs are being shipped off to India. They are profiting by having it both ways.

In a society obsessed with law suits and attributing blame (either you're at fault, or the other guy is at fault), it's very troubling to think about the possibility that America might have some responsibility for what is happening in Israel and what happened on 9/11. So, in the spirit of seeking the other half of this equation of evil, here are some other evil-doers on the global stage today.

The ACLU's page on the Patriot Act is a must read.

You Are Being Watched--nothing new here, just the latest updates on the sorts of COINTELPRO-like activities that are going on since Ashcroft turned the Justice Dept. into a right wing K.G.B.

List of Groups Promoting Oppression or Right Wing Agenda--no affiliation or conspiracy among them is implied, but these are the big names in the "conservative" war on humanity.

Map of Sites Producing Weapons of Mass Destruction US Terrorist Infrastructure.

Weird People Behind Bush: Story of the Neocon movment.
The Corporate Death Penalty: Ooooh! What a great idea. The invention of the idea of "corporation", refers to the legal creation of an entity or body (corpos-body) which stands instead of the owners as the legally responsible entity. Since it is an imaginary and theoretical entity, a death penalty is equally theoretical. Stated simply, any corporation that is convicted of defrauding the government will lose all connections to government money--which would effectively "kill" it.
French might Indict Dick Cheney for "bribery, money-laundering and misuse of corporate assets" in Nigeria. The evidence is strong, but so is the conservative media. This scandal might not get onto public radar.
Wal Mart Evil Empire: paying people to lobby for lower wages for their employees, and hauling in illegal immigrants to work at lower pay. They may not be as blatantly violent and evil as Saddam, but they are the best proof available that Texan economic plans have nothing to do with American patriotism. Axiom #1 of economics: give an "entrepreneur" more money/less taxes, and they will use that money to screw you even more. Trickle down economics belongs in the dustbin with perpetual energy.
New Yorkers are banding together to protest the opportunist Republicans who are planning to have their convention near "Ground Zero" in 2004.
ACLU is suing Secret Service for shielding Bush and Cheney from even seeing protesters. If they win, this could come in very handy for the New York RNC convention.
Ronald Reagan's achievements: A tongue-in-cheek piece, but an uplifting reprise of his most memorable moments.
The Reagan Years. If you are one of those living with a distorted recollection of the 1980's, visit this nice web site. Part of a larger project, Liberalism Resurgent, which provides useful counterarguments to supply side economics.
Ronald Reagan used to be a drug pusher. Just a little humor there, but he did used to hock cigarettes for Chesterfield. Go see the authentic, old advertisements. They're hilarious.
Professor Paul Krugman's essays--economist and author of the book The Great Unraveling, which has criticized the Bush administration's policies and earned him numerous death threats from creepy people who think that the truth must be suppressed.
America Two Years After 9/11: What We Now Know--an excellent, brief summary of the facts regarding the Bush Administration's activities and motives. Although you won't find these facts woven together into a coherent picture anywhere in our media, the supporting information is extremely easy to find. The trouble is that Americans by and large don't want to know or think about this. The active ignorance of the Americans in this case inspires me to remind them that "nobody died when Clinton lied." Nevertheless, the vast majority of Americans can tell you extensive and intimate details of Clinton's affair, but have no idea what the PNAC is, or who John Poindexter and Paul Wolfowitz are.
The Dangers of the Military-Industrial Complex--Dwight D. Eisenhower's farewell speech from January 1961.
Colin Powell and the "Powell Doctrine" of warfare. It's not the worst doctrine I've seen come from a Republican General. But, given the path of the Bush administration in spite of Powell's wisdom, it has become increasingly clear that Harry Belafonte was onto something when he called Powell a "house slave."
Colin Powell's Dark Record-- There is another side to this popular hero's background. Burning homes and fields in Vietnam, supporting covert activities in Central America during Reagan's regime, mastermind of the Gulf War 1 and Serbia bombings, Mr. Powell brings Hitler's Blitzkrieg into the 21st century. Now it's called "Shock and Awe", and Rumsfeld loves it. It's amazing how the Republicans successfully deceived Americans into believing Powell has a soul and that he has something in common with African Americans.
Lunch With The Chairman: Why was Richard Perle meeting with Adnan Khashoggi--a long article about this important figure in the Bush War and his relationship with a Saudi businessman involved in the Iran-Contra arms for hostages trade. Guess what? It looks like they're in it for the money.
Binladin Family Values: We are told frequently that the Binladen family disowned their erstwhile son Osama. However, there are some important facts to keep in mind about this creepy family: 1) the family is active in Wahabi Islam. which in Saudi Arabia maintains one of the more extreme religious right wing, fundamentalist, misogynist Islamic governments. 2) the family has ties to the Carlyle Group, which has ties to Bush family friends in the Republican party. [1, 2] 3) they are in the construction business, and will probably be major beneficiaries of post-war Iraq. They built the Tora Bora caves in Afghanistan. 4) there are many hints and rumors that the Binladen family has ties to funding extremist Islamic groups. 5) It is difficult to find any Binladen family news more recent than the last six months. Their domain name business website is down. It's now a known and officially documented fact that the only plane that left the United States immediately after the 9/11 shutdown of air traffic in the US carried a load of Binladin family members out of America. The Carlyle Group was meeting in New York, with the Binladin family representatives present on the day of 9/11. This does not suggest any involvement in the attack, but it does highlight the collaboration of the strongly Republican Carlyle Group with the Binladins. Examine these links, and evaluate them for yourself: [ construction profits from war, a rumor mill site that has some interesting information, but may be unreliable. Good starting point for further fact-checking work. Another rumor mill site, based on the Bushladen/Emperor's New Clothes websites, British Royal Family links to El Saud and Binladin family (appears to be very reliable info--appears in many newspapers) death of Binladin family patriarch. Yet more Binladin family info
Personal Voices: Republicans Don't Really Care about Improving Race Relations Jackson Thoreau at AlterNet--This Black Texan tells it like he has seen it in Dallas, providing also a litany of names and information about the numerous Republicans who try to hide their racist ideas. Trent Lott was a sacrificial lamb put out as a nifty PR stunt to help restore the fading illusion. It's just like these conservative sleazos to invert the liberal rhetoric to protect themselves. For example, when a liberal calls a knuckle dragger like Trent Lott a racist, they scream out ironies like: "That's racial discrimination against Southern White conservatives!" or "You liberals are intolerant of our views."
Who is this Bill Frist guy anyway? Joshua Micah Marshall and Steven Weiss and Robert Dreyfuss (the main differences are what he does with white sheets, and the fact that Karl Rove likes him.)
Louis Freeh hated Clinton so much that he let Al Qaeda continue their work? (CBS News) (Washington Post) While the former president was certainly not beyond criticism for his policies (remember, we're to the left of the Democrats), the reasons that people like this hold for hating Clinton are ridiculous, trivial and hypocritical. No ifs ands ors or buts. Dan Benjamin and Steven Simon (director and senior director for counterterrorism on the National Security Council staff during Bill Clinton's second term) published a new book on the war on terror. According to Simon and Benjamin, Osama Bin Laden was, for practical purposes, ignored and even protected by Louis Freeh, then head of the FBI. Partisan rancor worked like a brain tumor on American intelligence (both literally, and in the sense of the agencies whose job it is to protect us), thus allowing Bin Laden to carry on unimpeded. So, in exchange for a massive waste of our time listening to impeachment nonsense, and a seventy million dollar tax investment, (not to mention a wasted salary for Louis Freeh) Americans may have purchased the largest terrorist act in history. Of course, that's twisting the news just a bit. But, it's the kind of distortion we hear from Limbaugh on a regular basis. The right wing deserves a taste of their own medicine now and then. It is a fact that Minneapolis FBI agents were joking that there must be a Bin Laden mole in the Washington office because they were blowing off their warnings about suspicious flight school students. Actually, the revelations coming out of this investigation make me feel very sorry for FBI agents who, in spite of doing a very good job, were utterly ignored. I imagine that there are a lot of very frustrated agents who wish that they had been able to do something about 9/11. If Benjamin and Simon accurately portray the events, then these agents can thank their old boss for it. Perhaps God will create a special hell just for Louis. Those whose memories still serve them will recall that every time Clinton tried to act against Bin Laden, the Republicans drug their feet and vocally complained that he was just trying to distract us from his sex scandal. Too bad the spineless Democrats don't give it all back to them now while they have the chance.
The Dead and the Guilty--Simon Schama of the Guardian UK provides a literate commentary on the one year commemoration of 9/11. He beautifully and disturbingly juxtaposes the pathos of Americans and the Kafkaesque venality of our plutocrat puppet masters.
Protecting Eli Lilly from autistic victims of their vaccines is part of Homeland Security??? In a typical tag-on to the Orwellian mega-bill, the Republicans and Republicrats show their true colors. It's all about money.
Bush is God -- in a land where a certain political party won't let a mother terminate an unwanted pregnancy, or an ALS victim commit suicide because a theoretical God doesn't like it (according to interpretations of a book supposedly written with help from that theoretical God), and where we are all supposed to be united under this God who commands us "Thou shalt not kill." Mr. George Bush now has the divine authority to order your secret execution by CIA assassins. All it takes is a little paper work and a phone call, and if the Bushleague doesn't like an American citizen, POW! S/he's dead. Given Bush's record for naming his programs with ironic titles, I propose this as a PR title for this new program: Instant Safety Act.
Learning To Love Big Brother: George Bush Channels George Orwell There are a whole lotta people talking about how much the Bush Reich resembles Orwell's 1984 or Animal Farm these days. This article does it best, I feel.
Dick Cheney and GOP succeeded in stopping GAO attempts to subpoena and prosecute him over the charges of colluding with Enron to set energy policy.
Dick Cheney's Halliburton made a 73 million dollar trade deal with Iraq in June of 2001--shortly before September 11th. Besides the fact that this gives him an economic motive in the war, there are major questions as to the ethical and legal status of his trading with "the axis of evil." Furthermore, he lied about the size of the deal. Is this the kind of man you'd buy a used car from, let alone authorize to start a war? The Washington Post first reported this on June 23rd, 2001.
Donald Rumsfeld has been caught lying and exaggerating the threat posed by ballistic missiles in order to justify Star Wars weapons purchases. Rumsfeld is a religious zealot in regards to missile defense. Through the Bush family network, he is obviously one of those who stands to profit from war and government contracts. Rumsfeld was CEO, and is still connected to General Instrument/Motorola--the ones who want to force us all to buy expensive digital television (see my essay on picking winners and losers) so they can charge us for every single thing we watch. No more free TV, and music will be soon after that.
Portland Indy News--Pictures of the August 22nd storm trooper police attack on peaceful protesters of president appointed Bush's surrealistic fund raiser in which he blamed trees for all the forest fires. Nightmarish scenes coming soon to a neighborhood near you. (Page 1, Page 2, Page 3) It's stories and photos like this that will bring an end to this ridiculous dictatorship. What in the hell were these cops thinking, anyway???
Court Jousters. A clandestine group of conservative lawyers is behind the Patriot Act and all the goofball pro-corporate legislation we are seeing. These are the villains of 21st Century American Fascism. Learn more about them from James Ridgeway of the Village Voice
Conservative Bubble Boys. Even the Washington Post is weighing in on the economic scandals. Here is the story of how Reagan and Gingrich's Republicans and New Democrats quietly dismantled the protections we had since the Depression--which was caused by the excesses of the 1920's and lack of regulations on corporations. You'd think we would learn from our mistakes, but it seems that a bunch of tapeworms wanted to make it happen all over again.
Crony Capitalism Goes Global: Tim Shorrock at The Nation lifts the veil of secrecy from this creepy hive of Federalist Society global corporate iniquity. The shadow war in Afghanistan helped this military corporation loaded with daddy Bush's cronies, like the eminently sinister James Baker III (Bush Sr.'s Secretary of State, Bush Jr.'s axe man in Florida election, and general family confident and attack dog).
Peruvian Indians move to West Bank--Orthodox missionaries desperate to fill the West Bank with more settlers are turning to the land of the ancient Incas. 90 Quechua Indian converts from remote Andes villages were quickly indoctrinated and symbolically turned into Jews, and then shipped off to contested West Bank villages where they are being used as human shields around these villages to protect the more affluent European and American Jews who feel that God wants them to be there. Isn't that nice?
Reagan-Bush Crime Syndicate--the story of CIA cocaine, contras and corruption
The Reagan Years--an objective and statistically informed look at the impact of Ronald Reagan's policies. People seem to forget that the upper class robbed the middle and lower classes in the 1980's too, and the economy went down the toilet. "the total wages of all people who earned less than $50,000 a year -- about 85 percent of all Americans -- increased an average of 2 percent a year from 1980 to 1989, which did not even keep pace with inflation. By contrast, the total wages of all millionaires shot up 243 percent a year."
A look down the Carlyle Group rabbit hole: Melanie Warner at Fortune Magazine--important information on the corporate-political connections behind the Bush Reich. Another interesting article on Carlyle and September 11th. See also Frank Carlucci, James Baker III
November 10th 2003 Update: Mikhail Khodorkovsky (Yukos Oil) and Platon Lebedev (Menatep Bank-shareholder in Yukos), the Russian oil "tycoons" arrested recently by Putin have close ties to the Carlye Group. Carlyle has been looking at investment in Russia--completely new territory for their "take-over" model of business. Interestingly, they have been discussing a joint investment scheme with Alfa Bank.
Insider Trading for September 11th? Seem too awful to be true?
Ashcroft's Prison Camps for "Enemy Combatants": What are the criteria for inmates in Ashcroft's prisons? Basically, it would appear that right now all you need to be is an American citizen who is opposed to American fascism, Muslim, dark skinned (John Walker Lindh has light skin, so they let him go), and some minor transgression. The Jose Padilla fiasco should have chastened this constitution wrecking lunatic, but nooooo. Padilla is going to rot in a secret prison without a trial. America is in deep trouble.
John Ashcroft: Whose side are you on, anyway? (MSNBC original story) strange story of Ashcroft's connections to an Iranian terrorist organization based in Iraq--the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO). The more we learn about the history of Islamic extremism and terrorism, the more confusing it is to sort the good guys from the bad guys. Of course, the old line was that when Iran was our enemy, Iraq was a convenient ally. This group is similar to the anti-Cuban terrorists in Florida, so it has extensive support from wealthy refugees of the Iranian revolution. In other words, the MKO is a lot like those Florida based terrorist organizations that torment Cuba with US protection, which means they are able to function in the same way Al Qaida worked out of Afghanistan. Smell hypocrisy yet? However, Ashcroft's support for this dubious group has been as recent as September 2000. Even if they are fighting against the Islamist government of Iran, they are still terrorists, and they have had extensive support and protection from America. Perhaps this explains why the world community is becoming more skeptical about "American Exceptionalism."
John Ashcroft protecting terrorists? The devoutly religious, pro-life, anti-immigrant, chief of patriotic secret police wants to use immigration records, drivers' license records, phone calls, e-mail and where you've been on the internet. Now they're even doing secret probes of on-line computers. He is violating civil rights all over the place, except for one: using gun buyer instant background check records to look for terrorists and felons. They definitely don't want you to know that Al Qaida training manuals have explicit instructions on how to use American gun laws to their advantage. Read Bill Moyer's report on this repulsive scandal. On the show, we were treated to shocking footage of Ashcroft's heated and emotional refusals to let the FBI and ATF see these records--in front of Congress.
John Ashcroft, Evangelist of Executions: The despicable deacon of hatred, creepiness and right wing politics is making an ass of himself by working hard to get more and more people killed by the government. More proof that he's a dangerous nutcase with WAY too much power. This morbid and cynical agenda driving "Lethal Injection" George and John "The Noose" Ashcroft is probably one of the most important causes behind the rapid retreat of foreign investment in America--and therefore the downturn of our economy. It's worth noting that our only colleagues in government sanctioned death are countries like China, Syria, North Korea and Pakistan. The civilized world sees America as cruel, brutal and medieval. The more these right wing zealots push this policy of death, the more our economy will drop and the more alienated we will be in the world. Of course, none of this matters in the least to Ashcroft or Bush, who obviously believe that God is on their side, and will be coming along soon to clean up their mess.
The Revolution against Ashcroft/Bush has begun, like the Boston Tea Party, in the lib'ral state of Massachussetts. Local governments are taking a stand for their constitutional rights in direct defiance of Ashcroft's totalitarian threats and proclamations. This growing surge of resistance is invigorating, and is giving even a cynic like me renewed faith in Americans.
Henry Kissinger--appointed to investigate 9/11?? Given the FACT that UNOCAL was negotiating with the Taliban before 9/11 to build a pipeline through Afghanistan, and given the FACT that Kissinger and the current leader of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai both have deep connections to UNOCAL, and given the rumor that UNOCAL, with American support threatened the Taliban with a military strike if they didn't comply, and given the FACT that Afghanistan's Taliban was clearly an important target in the attack after 9/11, is it not horribly ironic and suspicious that Bush would appoint Kissinger to investigate 9/11?? Read more about Henry Kissinger's record.
Henry Kissinger, War Criminal. Seem too good to be true? It probably is, but it is significant that the international community has gotten this far in proving that even the big guys have to answer to the war crimes tribunal, not just Rwanda, South Africa, Serbia, etc. Things are changing, anyway. Many people around the world suspect that Mr. Kissinger is one of the most sinister forces in global politics and corporate war. It's that Nixon connection, which extends to Carl Rove and Dick Cheney too.
Theodore Shackley: an important cold war CIA officer, responsible for much of the mayhem that Nixon and Reagan oversaw.
The Doomsday Doctrine: Justin Raimondo's comments on the Bush-Cheney Corporation (TM) decision to use nuclear weapons in the war on terrorism.
60 Feet Under--loyal Republican partisan media pundit Maureen Dowd falls from the Bush wagon in this scathing and terrifying NY Times article about the plans for totalitarian rule being plotted by Rove, Cheney and maybe even the imbecile president.
Carl Rove--aka Turd Blossom--the president's brainy, evil genius invisible sidekick.
Bush Family Corruption--the names and crimes of the whole family and all their associates. It's interesting that Dubyah campaigned on his "integrity." This piece is highly recommended. All of this information was common knowledge long ago, but the media chose to ignore it in 1999-2000. They were more interested in stalking the Clintons.
Los Amigos de Bush--English language article about the Bush family ties to Mexican gangsters and other unsavory creeps. At the El Andar site
Darren's George W Bush blog page on this web site--more critical remarks about the unelected president.
The Cato Institute and the Citizens for a Sound Economy--libertarian/conservative think tanks working hard to prove that war and carbon dioxide are good for the economy, tort reform and privatization of social security are good ideas and we should trust corporate America. Minnesota is home to the founders of both of these fountainheads of Orwellian doublethink--the Koch Brothers--who also own Koch Petroleum, Koch Industries. The second largest privately owned corporation in the country. Beef, chemicals, gasoline, asphalt, building materials, investment speculation, ... A big force behind the fossil fuel fundamentalists. Read about Cato and the CSE and their campaigns to mold the truth. See also the Federalist Society
Federalist Society had their 20th anniversary Lawyers' Convention Just in case you weren't sure exactly what sort of people they are, the first annual Barbara K. Olson Memorial speaker is Kenneth Starr. Given her abject and tedious record of stalking the Clintons, and the Federalists' desire to keep her vicious spirit alive, fortunate Federalists will forever be favored with fervent litanies against the Clintons. Good old "sticky cigar" Ken isn't exactly hot off the Grand Jury bench, but I'm sure they're going to do everything they can to get Hillary out of the Senate. Celebrity guests include: Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Judge Robert Bork, and Solicitor General Theodore Olson. Topics of the group sessions will include:
- Federalism at Wartime
- The President v. Congress: Who Leads in an Age of Globalism and Terrorism?
- Law Enforcement vs. Civil Liberties in the War Against Terrorism
- The Laws of War
- Confidentiality & Deliberation in the Executive Branch
- Free Speech & the Slippery Slope
- Competition and Regulatory Federalism
- Lawyers' Ethical Responsibilities & Enron
- Privacy and 9/11
- Religion and the Law: Recent Developments
You better believe that there weren't any liberal voices allowed into the sessions, nor will any of the attendees see any protesters outside. Unfortunately, most of the left activists aren't noticing that these guys are the judicial and legal branch of the same folks who are bringing us neo-colonial globalization that involves forcing them to drop subsidies to the poor workers and selling all the resources and assets to IMF (American controlled) bankers and multinational tapeworms. Now they're plotting their next moves to help Ashcroft get everything he wants. I wonder if Ashcroft managed to get a number 88 baseball hat from Target before media coverage forced them to take them off the shelves.
State's Rights Schizophrenia: Medical Marijuana and Assisted Suicide (and now gay marriage)--the Bushies and the Federalists have a really screwy idea of state vs federal power. Although they scream a lot about state's rights, their true goals are more than a little obvious. Basically, whenever a state has right wing, Christian and/or pro-crony-capitalist goals that run counter to federal law, then the state's rights trump those of the federal government. Conversely, whenever the will of the state is more socialist, secular and anti-monopolistic, then the conservative constructivism of the federalist judges and lawyers trumps the state's rights. Take for example the willingness of Federalists (who are actually controlling our legal system--forget about the Constitution, dude.) to support states in their attempts to blur the boundaries between church and state, or to deregulate and privatize utilities, prisons and all public property. On the other hand, notice how blatantly fascist and anti-state's rights they have been in regard to California's medical marijuana (approved by huge margins in state referendums and polls) and their shit-headed opposition to Oregon's doctor assisted suicide law. I suspect that the next thing to come down the pipe will be attempts to strike down hate crimes laws, and re-implement the death penalty at the state level. That makes a hell of a lot of sense, coming from religious wackos who think that euthanasia is a sin.
Deliver us From Evil: Washington Post editorial about William J. Bennett's praise of Bush's attempt to get us to believe that calling terrorists evil will help conquer them. This is an excellent argument, though the point might be obvious to most readers who have read this far down this page. William J. Bennett certainly deserves to be somewhere down low on the list of the "other evil-doers."
The Militia Watchdog: Research on Right Wing Extremism in America. It's a bit outdated, but still rather relevant, given the connection of the NRA, KKK and GOP (not just Lott, see also this). The information is here is more relevant to understanding the 1990's.
Trent Lott & Strom Thurmond--the dueling banjos who help reinforce those good ol' boys stereotypes of the South. Mr. Lott, speaking at Thurmond's retirement celebration spoke glowingly of his colleague's politics, which were at the time in question overtly racist, segregationist and ignorant:

"I want to say this about my state: when Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it," he said to applause. "And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years either."

What's that supposed to mean? We wouldn't have to worry about sharing bathrooms, schools or restaurants with blacks? Given that Jim Crowe racism was the essence of Thurmond's run for president, what the hell else could this NRA closet klansmen have been talking about? Just to be fair, we can't forget that the Democrats have plenty of history of racism in their past too. Take a look at Rush Limbaugh's typical "you think we're bad, look at them" remarks. And, as if Lott weren't enough trouble for them, Hispanic commanding police officers in the USA and Puerto Rico are accusing Bush's drug czar Asa Hutchinson of racism. (Also in San Antonio Business Journal)

Kenneth Starr: We're getting down almost to the bottom of the barrel here, to those evil-doers who are at the level of slime moulds on the political evolutionary scale. They really don't accomplish much, except making 70 million tax dollars disappear into thin air. We got to know this obsessive geek in that famously dull porn novel he put together about Bill Clinton's sex life. But, that's not nearly so interesting as the fact that now Kenny is being paid to continue the continued legal attacks on the relatively liberal Microsoft Corporation, while the dramatically conservative monopolies of Time/Warner/AOL and Qwest are insulated from attack and media attention. It has been so effective that even left wingers are willing to ignore the comparatively positive effects of Bill Gates' benevolent dictatorship and charitable activies. (Though Gates' activities are not entirely selfless)
Meanwhile, Phillip Anschutz, the CEO of Qwest prefers to invest his meager tax exempt charitable dollars in anti-gay religious activists. Through his United Artists theaters, he also makes sure that only Christian-friendly movies make it to your theaters. As a Christian right wing CEO, he sits at the very top of the list for stock market robbery through insider trading for a cool 1.57 billion dollars. The Gates foundation is far better endowed than Anschutz' whoopdy doo 1.67 million from a man who is richer than Bill Gates.
The Wisdom of Ann Coulter: and Devil in a Blue Dress (The Nation) Admittedly, this obviously insane and shameless windbag of hate speech hardly merits the credit of being ranked among the important evil-doers of today, but a quick glance at some of her remarks quoted here will give you an idea of what sort of hypocritical lunatic she is. Ironically, her most recent book, a savage slander and attack on liberal attacks on right wingers is entitled Slander. One of the most telling of her remarks is this one (which I personally saw her make, so this isn't out of context) "I think [women] should be armed but should not [be allowed to] vote."---Politically Incorrect, 2/26/01 Her point was basically that women are (unlike herself) typically liberals, and spend money on stupid programs. The CentreDaily, which has been publishing her savagely idiotic columns finally decided to fire her on Sept 1, 2002. Much too late, since she's now rolling in money from her latest book. It's more than a little absurd that they picked this point in time to call her on it. Sacha Zimmerman has a splendid review of her book that qualifies as top notch ironic humor commentary on pseudo-political "discourse". Have a look at the sunny remarks she's making about Muslims these days. Doesn't she make you proud to be an American? It's wonderful what she can do with the word "slander," isn't it?

The following section is a longer and older rant on Bush, written over time and modified periodically. If you have visited this page before, and read that rant, please skip ahead to the links, or stop here.

Obviously, Sandy and I are not fans of the Bush Posse. Basically, we were convinced before the election that his administration would oversee the final and complete merger of the military and energy corporations with the government. We also predicted that he would destroy the economy, roll back the gains of liberalism (which we feel are indeed GAINS), wage war, and generally turn this US into an extreme right wing dictatorship.

The scariest thing is that he made our fears come true in his first year of office. Ashcroft is taking away our constitutional rights, the media has been completely overtaken by the government, we now have a new excuse for eternal war and limitation of personal freedoms to replace the cold war, the economy has fallen even farther than we imagined, and we have a government that is engaged in illegal manufacture of weapons of mass destruction, and uses them on its own citizens (anthrax). Of course, the latter can't be attributed directly to Bush, but it's obviously connected to right wing partisans who hate liberals. Lynn Cheney is going about trying to whip up a new McCarthyism by telling Americans that anyone who questions the integrity of her corrupt spouse and his puppet president is probably working for Fidel Castro or Saddam Hussein.

Perhaps the most insulting of his offenses is the long line of criminals he has put into important positions--as if to whitewash the evil deeds of the Reagan years and the Cold War. It's positively surreal. I keep asking myself if this isn't all a joke. John Poindexter in charge of Information Awareness? It's not as humorous as putting Bill Clinton in charge of sexual abstinence, but it's quite similar in spirit. Some perverse comedian must be writing this script. I guess that's where Carl Rove fits in.

Clinton was not a good man or a good president--but not for any of the reasons the media and right wing attacked him. I would argue that Clinton and Bush have a great deal in common when it comes to the truly sinister details. Clinton's sex scandal was the only one that turned up anything substantial, but not anything that a significant number of Republicans hadn't done before him. Bush's dyslexia and philistine personality are not really relevant to the criticisms of this same pro-corporate, neo-colonial political racketeering. REAL campaign finance reform would destroy this system completely, so we can expect a perpetual stonewalling by our elected officials.

Yet, the media is completely under their control, and scarcely a critical word is uttered there. When the slightest hint of criticism is made against Bush, the nazis in the media scream about liberal bias. War protesters and liberals critics of the war are consistently ridiculed by the Bush family Media Center, Faux News. It is hard to imagine Clinton being so confrontational to Republicans who opposed his war in Yugoslavia. Bush and Ashcroft are surprisingly blind to the fact that the majority of the people on the planet are dead set against them. Within their own country, a deceptive media they control, propelled by obviously untrue polling data, can only manage to exaggerate their support up to about 60%. To be perfectly honest, I would be surprised if the reality is more than 40%. Bush is clearly impervious to this sort of dissonance. Most people on this planet would have to pause and ask themselves if they were doing the right thing, and address their opponents in an honorable, respectful way. Even more so in light of the massive opposition he has outside of the country. The largest protests in the history of the planet. Even Nixon didn't have this kind of public bad juju aimed at him. Bush's insensitivity and bold rejection of those who oppose him is profoundly offensive and indicative of the Bush regime's type A personality. It is also symptomatic of the reality of the fascist power structure they are attempting to build upon a foundation of manufacture illusory public support.

In comparison, Nixon, also a mentally unstable president, had many agonized moments over his public opponents. Bush, in spite of all the frat boy posturing and faux redneck bravado has been the most cowardly president since Nixon--unable to face up to those who disagree with him, obsessed with preaching in hermetically sealed echo chambers to carefully selected crowds of sycophants. He insulates himself from the people and the truth with brutal riot police and barricades. This is a very small man of no integrity and with no interest in dialogue or bringing people together. I suppose driving through the crowds of grim inaugural protesters scared the shit out of him, and now he's out to get even with all those liberals who ruined his big day. Based upon my amateur psychoanalysis of him, I have no doubt that the best way to piss him off is to remind him that he wasn't elected, but rather appointed by Federalist Family Supreme Court justices. This type A personality manifested in the behavior of his campaign team in Florida, where his brother's bimbo fixed the election for them.

The Right Wing is potentially situated for a perpetual dictatorship of trickle-down economics, institutional racism and Ten Commandments plaques on the insides of city buses. The only "environment" Bush cares about is the business environment. His buddies caused an electricity crisis in California (where he lost big time) so he can justify drilling for oil in Alaska and building more power plants. Meanwhile he cut the solar power research and development budget to 1/7 of its Clinton era funding. I guess that he plans to save electricity by mandating lethal injection instead of the electric chair.

Bush is often accused of being an idiot, a moron, a dimwit, etc. For the most part, I agree with them. Bush is certainly not an intellectual. He also lacks important skills of reasoning and verbal expression. Perhaps most important is his utter lack of curiosity about the world. He is an archetypal philistine. But, given the outrageous offenses against freedom, justice and truth that he has committed in the past two years, and given the passivity of the Democrats, I must say that the real morons and idiots are the American people and the Democrats. It is truly shocking that any president could get away with this sort of behavior. We have only the Democrats and ourselves to blame.

So, what exactly is this dyslexic jerk doing to the world? He is using playground bully tactics with N. Korea and China to create situations that make it look like we need that space age missile defense system so his buddies can get richer. His buddies created a stock market crisis to squeeze the middle class out so the rich can scoop up all the stocks at a discount, and meanwhile he uses it all as an excuse for cutting taxes for the ultra-rich and canceling all plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions. More recently, he has been appointing convicted criminals from the Iran-Contra Scandal, and that infamous war criminal/slime bag Henry Kissinger to high cabinet positions. John Poindexter? Elliot Abrams? Bush may be an absolute moron, but he obviously has some really sinister brains pulling his strings for him. He also has an immense amount of chutzpah. By the time we throw them out of the White House, he will have made Ronald Reagan look like FDR. No doubt the corporate parasites will want to name an airport after him too.

However, it appears that a few Americans are starting to figure out the situation--inspired, sadly, by dissatisfaction with the tanking stock market, and the suspicious 2002 election. Why is the market crashing? If you ask Bush, he'll blame it on Bill Clinton, 9-11 and "corporate irresponsibility." Certainly the Enron and Worldcom situations have been harmful to our mutual funds. The corporate cronies controlling the capitol/capital were given free reign during the 90's to carry out Gingrich's, Reagan's and Bush Sr.'s deregulation and privatization of our economy and infrastructure. Clinton is surely not innocent of guilt for allowing the Republicans to get nearly everything they wanted--even the virtual elimination of abortion clinics and providers through federally protected "free speech" "moral" terrorists. NAFTA, IMF, ATF, FBI and DEA activities from 1993 onward are the best reasons to hate Clinton. Never mind his sex life. But we can't complain about that because it's not politically correct to criticize pro-corporate judicial constructionism and corporate control of our legislative and executive branches--anything is permissible as long as it's good for business.

Any honest economist will tell you that the single most important reason Enron and Worldcom were forced to lift the veil is because the stock market crashed, and not the other way around. World economic markets are based on popularity and public opinion. When our economy was soaring on its Gingrich smoke and mirrors fuel and Clinton's smile, nobody gave a shit what the corporations were doing. When the market fell, Enron crashed almost over night, and the whole charade fell apart.

An interesting economic indicator is a graph comparing median income from 1990 to 1999 against the Dow Jones average. During that period, median incomes fell behind inflation by remaining almost flat. In 1999 the median income was about $37,000. In 1999, it had risen $6,000 all the way to a meager $43,000. That's a 16% increase over ten years. Inflation was much greater than that.

During that same period, the Dow Jones went from a low of around 2,300 in 1990 to 3,900 in 1994 after the election of Gingrich and his minions. That's an increase of 69% in four years. That might seem like a lot, but almost immediately after Clinton lost Democratic control of congress, the Dow Jones began to rocket upward. It went' from 3,900 to just over 11,000. That's an increase of 282%--nearly triple. If we divide median income by the Dow Jones average, we see that ratio spike upward too. This allows us to see the two dynamically related.

1990 Median Income/DowJones: 0.0789
1994 MI/DJ=0.1
1995 MI/DJ=0.119
1996 MI/DJ=0.153
1997 MI/DJ=0.190
1998 MI/DJ=0.204
1999 MI/DJ=0.2613

That's an Increase of about 330% relative to Median Income--more than tripled.

Those are the Clinton years of prosperity. More significantly, these are the years of the Newt Gingrich Contract With America, where the Federalist Society's pro-corporate legislation was created in spite of Clinton vetoes and threats. Partisans definitely tend to blame it on the other, but the fact is, the media was asleep at the wheel, because they too were helping blow up the stock market bubble.

Millions of people are losing as much as 1/3 of their retirement savings--probably to fund some insider push options (selling short) placed along with their sell orders. Did you know that it's possible to make money on a falling stock? You don't suppose that any of these guys might be doing that, do you? Nah. Couldn't be. They're too nice for more government regulations and oversight, don't you agree? Bush is certainly the best man to supervise the rooting out of crony corruption in our "capitalist" plutocracy where the phrase "free markets" means "surrender to the invasion of our monopoly mega-corporation that will take control of everything in your life." Incidentally, the Bush's buddy's business, Enron, was one of the most aggressive monopolies in the world before it fell. They had just taken over Argentina's natural gas reserves and water [ more on Enron/Bush/Argentina: 1, 2, 3 by gangster methods when their economy tanked, and a parade of short-duration presidents came and went without scarcely an American noticing. No wonder the skeptical environmentalist Bjorn Lomberg is so hot to get clean water and sanitation to all the people of the developing world.

If you can escape the American media fog, you'll discover that the entire world despises Bush and his crony capitalist buddies who are directly connected to the corporate corruption we've been watching. It's more than a tad bit ironic to toss all the blame on Clinton for all those blatantly Republican ideas he let by. It would make more sense to blame it all on the Bush family, but that's giving them far too much credit. I simply don't believe that anyone in that family is bright enough to come up with the zany antics we have been seeing lately. No, the Bush family isn't especially creative or risk-taking.

Just to show you how much faith Wall Street has in him, notice how when Captain Corruption shook his finger at Wall Street over these naughty CEO's, and tried to rally confidence in the markets, the result was that the stock market dropped another 5%. Bush's mere presence causes the markets to drop, which removed the excess cash that was hiding their shenanigans and forced these corporations to declare bankruptcy. The market has been heading southward ever since James Baker III appeared to defend Bush's Banana Republic "election" in Florida. September 11th added jet engines to Wall Street's slide into the hole, but the markets were already way down by then. After Enron, the wolves started to howl, but only because the sleazy work of the corporate/Republican mobsters has hit them hard in their own pocketbooks. If the markets had still been up, and looking more optimistic, I'm sure that not even Larry King would be interested in Halliburton or Harken.

Anyway, Clinton was the best Republican president in history, and now Bush's steel & farm subsidies, radical expansion of government programs and the invasion privacy make him the best democratic president in years. It's obvious to me that the political parties are meaningless. It's really just a matter of who is looking out for the people and who is looking out for the right wing ultra rich and sociopathic corporate tapeworms and gangsters that run this planet. But, when it comes to character and ethics, it's quite clear that Americans receive a rather limited and controlled view of the Bush family. James Higdon concisely presents the hideous irony of Bush family honor and ethics:

And the religious right wing is every bit complicit in this charade. They trumpet Bush as a shining example of a return to American culture and values. Clinton shamed us by an affair with an intern, but the Bush family solicits respect throughout the world. George has been arrested three times that we know of, for both drunkenness and violence. His daughters, alcoholics themselves, have been arrested at least twice each. His sister-in-law has been arrested for attempted smuggling, and each of brother Jeb's children has been arrested for crimes ranging from breaking and entering to forgery. His brother, Neil, sat at the center of the savings and loan scandal, and his father directed the Iran/Contra affair, pardoning the criminal perpetrators as he left the Oval Office. Grandfather Bush traded with the most evil government in modern history after war had been declared, and promoted the Nazi regime's most repugnant tenant by using the treasonous proceeds to fund research into the despicable "science" of eugenics. [Article no longer available at: http://www.onlinejournal.com/Commentary/Higdon020702/higdon020702.html--no longer available there--see this copy]

Just how big of jerk is he? He often plays the "I was drinking back then" card when confronted with his "youthful" indiscretions. But, let's take a look at one of the more telling verbal gaffes made by the man who occupies the White House. (Bush publicly admits and apologizes for the remark, by the way.)

The Other Evil-Doers

Evil-doers Introduction

Darren's Left-hand path