If you missed Terry Gross's interview with Boyden Gray, listen up...

[Dover]

This may be an eye opener for some who have been unaware of the depth and bredth of the organisational efforts by the deep Right to completely remake (retro) our government (pre-New Deal) by an influential group who consider themselves Federalists.

Federal Judges in 2005: Conservative View

Boyden Gray is the chairman and founder of the group Committee for Justice, formed to promote conservative judicial nominees. Gray was instrumental in getting Clarence Thomas appointed to the Supreme Court. Wednesday, we heard from Ralph Neas of the liberal group People for the American Way.


http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=13&prgDate=02-16-2005

The day prior to Gray's interview, Terry Gross interviewed Ralph Neas about the same topic:

Federal Judges in 2005: Rights Concerns
Ralph Neas is president of People for the American Way, a national social justice organization. He was executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights when he led the successful effort to block the nomination of Robert Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1987.

Listen here - http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=13&prgDate=02-15-2005


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This interview fits in nicely with another such group as spelled out in this article that was posted in DailyKos:

Sith Lords of the Ultra-Right
by Steven D
Tue Feb 22nd, 2005 at 12:55:24 PST

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/22/155525/061

"We are no longer working to preserve the status quo. We are radicals,
working to overturn the present power structure in this country." Paul
Weyrich

Got your attention? Good, because this is important.

Ever wonder how the right always seems so coordinated in the strategy. How
all the multitude of organizations they've created all seem to use the same
playbook? How they all manage to focus on the same talking points each day,
day after day, year after year. Well it's no accident. But how do they do
it?

The answer my friends lies in a little known organization with the innocuous
sounding name The Council for National Policy. Don't go looking for an
official website because you won't find one. In fact this "think tank" goes
out of its way to avoid publicity...cont'd

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. Thanks for posting this. Haven't heard his name for quite a while

but infact, these efforts began years ago...first with the LAW AND ECONOMICS movement..then with state level orgs on various social issues meant to divide.

In essence, war was declared on social welfare a long time ago...we were doing strategy..they were reloading.

For people new to this conversation, the site that I feel explains this movement and all its various tenacles best is
http://www.mediatransparency.com/movement.htm

[Dover]

2. Thanks! Looks like a good site. n/t

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

3. I nominated this for greatest page.

Now nominate it yourself. This is good information for newer DU'ers tha may not be aware of the actual depths and origins of this current political movement.

BTW, did you know C BOYDEN GRAY was on the boards of TWO environmental orgs?

[gbwarming]

4. Instructive, but Don't listen on a full stomach

Terry Gross has to be the best interviewer ever - Gray did some hardcore lawyerly parsing on the show and she cut through it pretty well.

[Dover]

5. I thought the same thing. I wonder how Terry keeps her lunch down!

She really is excellent.

[EC]

6. Tuesday morning meetings in all major cities

The Council for National Policy...working out writing campaignes for each week and talking points....

[Stirk]

7. The mind of an extremist, ladies and gentlemen.

It's an interesting interview- and not just for the information that Gross manages to extract from him.

Boyden Gray seems completely incapable acknowledging any viewpoint besides his own. How many times did he say, "it's impossible to dispute my position", or something with a similar theme?

He seems a rigid man with a simple mind- just the sort you'd expect to find in an authoritarian movement.

[dandrhesse]

8. It's all right there in the first few sentences, "goes out of its way to

avoid publicity. gwb committed a grave error, he has shone the light, unintentionally mind you, on a whole lot of folks who prefer to work in the dark, in the background. Big, big mistake.

[porkrind]

9. No thanks. I don't listen to "National Propaganda Radio"

anymore. Way to apologetic to the GOP fascists.

[Dover]

10. Oh I see......you mean the 'fascists' who hold NPR's fate in their hands?

The one's who hold and determine the purse strings? The fascists and their minions that have launched a full out campaign to deconstruct NPR?

Yeah, those NPR folks sure are sellouts....(sarcasm off).

I wonder how your business would hold up to that kind of pressure?

[porkrind]

11. Good point.

Now that you mention it, we shouldn't blame CNN, FOX, and the rest of the whore corporate media, because hey, they are just reacting to pressure from the * administration, the right-wing, their corporate advertising customers, etc.

Also, those insanely large SUVs? That's OK, Detroit is just reacting to market pressure.

Torture in Iraq? It's OK, the soldiers are under a lot of pressure.

(sarcasm off)


I agree with you that NPR is in an untenable position, being under constant pressure from the right-wing controlled government to spew their propaganda, and pressure from corporate America to defend the status quo and not be controversial. Unfortunately, they have essentially become a more intellectual FOX news. They are a pale imitation of their former journalistic splendor. All they share now is the name. They do more damage now than good by being an organ of propaganda for the fascists. BTW, I don't use the term "fascist" as hyperbole, in our unfortunate case, it fits.