The Apparat: George W. Bush's back-door political machine (must read!)

[OneBlueSky]

It's anti-democratic, anti-Constitutional, and is working to create a one-party America

by Jerry M. Landay
for Meidatransparency.org
March 18, 2004

http://www.mediatransparency.com/stories/apparat.html

(snip)

The Cohort

In its latest report, called The Axis of Ideology, the NCRP has identified at least 350 tax-exempt, ostinsibly non-partisan organizations within the right wing's activist front, many operating at regional, state, and local levels. They have penetrated the three branches of the federal government, and dominate the political debate. They guide and oversee the agenda that directs White House action (or inaction). Two of these organizations housed the planners who invented the Iraq war.

Rob Stein, and independent Washington researcher, follows the money flow to the radical activist establishment. He estimates that since the early 1970s at least $2.5 to $3 billion has been awared to the 43 major activist organizations he tracks that constitute the core of the radical machine.

(snip)

Stein describes it as movement conservatism's "intellectual infrastructure: -- multiple-issue, non-profit, tax-exempt, and supposedly non-partisan. The apparatus includes think tanks, policy institutes, media-harassment enterprises, as well as litigation firms that file lawsuits to impose their ideological templates on the law.

They mastermind the machinery of radical politics, policy, and regulations. They include campus-based centers of scholarship, student associations, and scores of publications. The shorthand of their faith is well known: less government, generous tax cuts for the privileged, privatization or elimination of Social Security and Medicare, rollbacks of environmental safeguards, major curbs on the public's right to go to court, and a laissez-faire free market system unfettered by regulations or public accountability. Bush campaigns to advance the ideological agenda of the right, and the radical front in turn campaigns for Bush.

- much, much more . . . an essential read! . . .

http://www.mediatransparency.com/stories/apparat.html

[proud patriot]

1. MUST READ THIS ARTICLE

I'm sending this to Air America
Howard Stern , Larry Flynt ....

Get this article out !

[SpiralHawk]

2. Some tentacles of The Octopus

http://www.constitution.org/col/octocaso.htm

The Octopus
Secret Government and the Death of Danny Casolaro

by Kenn Thomas and Jim Keith
Review by Jon Roland


Danny Casolaro called it "the Octopus". A vast, interlocking network of criminal conspiracy that reaches into every branch and agency of the U.S. government, many other national governments, and every sector of our societies.

An investigative reporter seeking the truth, Danny told his friends he was meeting an informant to "bring back the head of the Octopus" when his body was found in a hotel in Martinsburg, West Virginia, on August 10, 1991.

Much of the evidence he had gathered was missing. The death was ruled a "suicide", but the evidence supports murder. He never had the chance to write the book he was working on. This is an attempt to finish the book Danny started, based on his surviving notes and further investigation.

(snip)

[uhhuh]

12. This is one of the most important

this I've read here on DU. I hope everyone reads it and bookmarks it.
Send it to everyone you know. I think we all knew this, but it puts everything together in one place for an easy read. It could make a difference for those who are not paying attention.

[NewJeffCT]

3. definitely keep this kicked all weekend!

It's scary to see how effective the Reich Wing has been...

[saigon68]

14. Awesome article

Imagine if Hitler had this organization and had waited 10 years before he started WW 2

[NewJeffCT]

17. just hoping it's not too late

Hopefully, people like those on the new liberal talk radio circuit, as well as Howard Dean, the Center for American Progress and others can at least start to swing the momemtum back towards the center. (I'm hoping for more than that, but if we can get back to the center - like when we actually had a middle class prior to Reagan's tax cuts for the rich)

[cybildisobedience]

4. oddly enough....

Despite all this effort, the billions of dollars, the millions of foot soldiers, the complete domiance of the media, they still feel the need to install insecure voting machines to steal enough votes to "win" an election.

What's remarkable is that enough people tune all of this hateful and dishonest propaganda to basically keep this country almost evenly split.

[qb]

5. kick

[OneBlueSky]

6. kick again . . . this is important stuff, folks . . . n/t

.

[Karenina]

7. Yes, it is.

:kick:

[OneBlueSky]

8. wow . . . doesn't seem to be much interest in this article . . .

maybe the length has prevented folks from getting around to reading it yet . . . I hope the discussion picks up over the weekend . . . this is important information to know and to pass on to others . . .

[Jade Fox]

9. This is incredible...

Some of it is familiar, but the extent of what is going on is mindboggleing.

[KoKo]

10. I just read it over in Editorials. It's definitely a DU must read. It

will explain alot of the why's of what we are going through in America today.

Some of us already knew some of this...those of us who've been here awhile had pieced it all together from articles and research and help from other DU'ers who had been studying and reading about it for years.

This article is really good, though, because it's all the information in one place and explains so well what we are up against.

It might frighten some people who won't believe it, though.

Hope it stays kicked for awhile.

[librechik]

11. good; I was going to suggest someone post in Ed

it might last a bit longer on the front page over there

[DeepModem Mom]

13. Add fundamentalist churches to the force of this RW power...

and you have one scary situation: our system itself teetering on the brink of disaster -- one-party, one everything. Either a majority of people wake up, and recognize the extremist direction the right is taking us in, or we wait for the possibility that Generation Y will take our country back.

[ithacan]

16. here's info on the Religious Right part of the story

The Rise of the Religious Right in the Republican Party

http://www.TheocracyWatch.org/

[xchrom]

15. kick

[eleny]

18. If we learn anything - it has to be about patience for the long term

Can you imgine the onslaught they're preparing for Air America's debut? I hope Randi has her "asbestos" suit handy. She surely has the brains for such a fight. And she's certainly has stamina. I watched her on CNN the other day and she dismantled the wingnut they put up against her.

[OneBlueSky]

19. drop-kick . . . for those who haven't read this yet . . . n/t

.