Gannon/Norquist/Armstrong Williams: closer look at Leadership Institute

[nashville_brook]

Maybe it's my early spring diet and the time of day, but I just went to the newly minted jeffgannon.com. Following the links I realized I was getting physically ill. Nauseous.

First off there's the Fear and Loathing headline -- we're all guilty of using it, in COLLEGE. Using "Fear and Loathing" when you are an ADULT instead of thinking of your own headline is just embarrassing. It was cliché almost as soon as Hunter penned it. If you are going to borrow it, you better live up to its pedigree (you sir, are no Hunter Thompson). To use it now, considering the recent suicide of its creator, is so lazy and to, well, make you sick.

Wanting to better understand The Guck's ideological identity, I went to a place where there's a public record of ideology. GOPUSA and Talon have a mission and plenty of material to peruse, but the Leadership Institute claims Karl Rove himself used their workshops to learn about politics and leadership. This is a place where yu ind everyone is on the same page.

On their website they sell a video called The Roots of the Ultra Left. As a matter of fact, it is the ONLY item for sale on the Leadership Institute website. Sure, they offer "workshops" in "journalism" and "leadership" -- but how much you wanna bet if spent the cash and attended, you would watch the video and break out into groups to use the rhetorical foundation of The Roots Of The Ultra Left to form various strategies.

I think we can use this resource to glimpse their inner mind.

Even though the script itself is only 90 or so pages, it took a while to digest because there's an historical figure the Leadership Institute references -- Robert Owen -- who the Leadership Institute basically thinks is The Supreme Evil One himself. Despite the fact that studied Marxism and other forms of utoptianism in graduate school, I had never heard of this Owen -- so off to educate myself which was very easy. Owen's got a lot of web presence despite the fact he died more than a century ago. He has a museum and is considered on the I wondered what Owen's offense was and was intrigued by his status as The Root Man of the Ultra Left. I've been a lefty since birth and I had never heard of this guy.

Robert Owen

He was a British industrialist and reformer who fought to establish child labor laws and other civic commitments we take pretty much for granted, most prominently, public education. For this, the Leadership Institute compares him to Hitler and Stalin. It's a long story and a boring read, but The Roots of the Ultra Left are workers' rights and public education which to these people, are The Root of All Evil.

This is THE ONE MESSAGE the Leadership Institute spends its time and apparently generous budget promoting.

Now for the tasty bits.

Guess who is on the appears on this video as guests of the Leadership Institute:
Grover Norquist
Robert Bork
Ann Coulter
David Horowitz,
Walter Williams, George Mason School of Economics
Dan Flynn, author of Why The Left Hates America
Mike Pence, Indiana Republican Congressman
and,
ARMSTRONG WILLIAMS.

Armstrong Williams. Paid partisan hack against public education (no child left behind)
Ann Coulter, Partisan hack. Possibly insane.
Dan Flynn, Partisan hack. Not as photogenic as Coulter.
David Horowitz, Partison hack. Former Salon conservative pustule.
Then there's the brains of the operation.
Grover Norquist, Grand Pooh Bah
Robert Bork, Grand Pooh Bah
Walter Williams, Pooh Bah
Mike Pence, Little Pooh. Bah Wannabe

The script outline has the inelegant tone of a 1940s racist screed. Get a load of this:
Section One:
Profit Comes From Evil Greed
Socialists must get all your property
Tax all income at 100%
Support big government. No new tax cuts.
Why work when you can loot those who do?
Socialism has never been tried

Section Two:
What Socialists Really Think About Your Family And Our American Culture
Traditional morality is always bad
Do what feels good now. Make taxpayers pay the bill
Break all family ties
Make God illegal
Masculine is bad; feminine is also bad
Kill it. Why give your baby to a moral couple?

Section Three:
What Socialists Really Think About Liberty
Give the Left all power.
Stamp out liberty. It's unfair.
Everything not compulsory must be prohibited
Re-write history or stop teaching it
Keep campuses conservative-free zones
In the media, any conservatives are too many
No free speech for conservatives
Only groups have rights
Give up your guns. We want you defenseless.
Pay the union boss or we'll crack your skull
Save the environment. Kill off all the people.
Destroy all non-government education
Teachers unions -- more important than teaching kids
When judges give us what we want, forget the laws and the Constitution

blah blah blah -- there's more -- go see for yourself.

My husband has been talking to a guy at work (another software developer) who has been upset about the "socialists" for some time now. We've been perplexed at this because, well, the Cold War is over and has been for some time now. Having studied Marxist theory in school, this made my brain lock. So I ignored it. It makes my brain lock because saying there is a Socialist threat in America (now!) is like saying there is a gravitational threat and therefore are an Anti-Gravitarian. This is a Capitalist country. We all buy and sell stuff. The scruffy communists in Lafayette Park don't run things. No one it taking anyone's property -- except the Republicans in taking our sons and daughters off to war.

But there it is. These people really believe there is a Socialist Threat and if you read the material you find out that what these people hate most is public education and workers' rights. These are the Angry White Men, who, despite having great jobs and stay-at-home wives and home-schooled chunks of children, they truly believe the world is out to get them. The feminists want their masculinity. The schools want their religion. The government wants their money. They are middle class and operating out of fear they might lose their footing. they are one lay-off or serious illness from bankruptcy (for as long as that exists).

What they don't see is that these are projections, that the only people out for their shit is the conservatives. So, it's sad to say the least. These folks benefit the most from "transfer payments" in the form of roads and government services and they are being used to tear down their world brick by brick at the behest of Grover The Defunder Norquist.

What gets me most is that the tyranny of the masses is ignorance and it's public education they are most fiercely opposed to. Wake up people.

<a href="http://johnsoncity.blogspot.com/ultraLEFT_script.pdf">ultraLEFT_script.pdf</a>

[Wilms]

1. Great post. Thanks.

But so you know, there IS a gravitational threat...

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/big_rip_030306.html

:)

[nashville_brook]

2. dammit -- another analogy shot to hell

:)

i'm actually pissed at the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

[KingoftheJungle]

3. I wish there was a socialist threat

It would be a nice change from barbarianism

[nashville_brook]

4. no doubt! i could have spent more time on that part or cut it

it's so basic it's almost BORING, but this "threat" is nothing but the oldtime anti-unionist Capitalists. i'm brain-locked at to the public education thing. it seems such a great gamble that would cripple our country to have even more uneducated youth. re-educated?

with Lynne Cheney calling the shots with history curriculum we are already seeing outrageous ignorance comiing out of our high schools with regard to civics -- CIVITAS.

damn -- they are barbarians.

[KoKo]

5. The only thing most of the people on the "list" at " Leadership Institute"

believe in as principle, though, is lining their own pockets with dollars by hiding the truth of what they are doing in promoting "unbridled capitalism" to the American People.

I've even had doubts that Grover Norquist has any true core ideology. I think it's fake to cover the money he makes from the RW Think Tank funders and his other enterprises. It's a power trip to be able to have raped the Average American and made big bucks while you're doing it all in the name of "Conservative Ideology," against the Socialists and Communists and whatever convenient label they can throw on any of those who resist them..

The same names keep cropping up wherever we look. Yet, they are considered "untouchable" by most of our Democrats and the MSM.

[nashville_brook]

15. it's so simple -- greed. RW think tank $$ comes from big corps

and is used to keep the $$ in big corps.

they aren't untouchable. they are slow and stupid. they just have more money for now.

[Al-CIAda]

6. You people constantly amaze me- keep up the great work all

The enemy doesn't stand a chance!

[nashville_brook]

14. it's good to see someone say this -- they are HAM-FISTED

these are ancient/lame techniques (the socialists are coming!) for controlling people. we are smarter than this. *we* are that is.

[Warpy]

7. I guess they define "liberty" very differently

to me it means being able to count on a certain degree of fairness from government and economic institutions so that I can pretty much live my life the way I want, with reasonable constraints against assault, fraud, theft, and murder.

To them it means the absolute freedom of those institutions to be able to mistreat people any way they want and the absolute freedom of people to be lied to, cheated, robbed, poisoned, killed by unsafe goods and environmental pollution, and ignored to death by a health care system that sees profit as its only goal.

I really think they think they're for liberty. They just have an incredibly odd way of defining it, and a bizarre focus on institutional liberty rather than individual liberty.

[sandnsea]

8. They're at the top of the heap

And they want to stay there. Who wouldn't? Why else would they need their own party. If Angry White Men didn't vote Republican, a Republian would never be elected. It's in the interest of the corporate elites to keep them angry or they'd never have any power again.

[ChiciB1]

12. I Can't Resist...

I freely admit I'm a female, but hasn't it ALWAYS been the WHITE MAN, who has screwed us???

If memory serves me correctly, wasn't it George Washington, a White Male, who first turned Indian Tribes against OTHER Indian Tribes to achieve a land grab? Lots of land grabs!!!

I will admit, there are plenty White Men in the Democratic Party or Progressives who I don't include in that statement, however, if you REALLY think about it... there is some truth in what I've said.

I mean NO malice here, just making a comparison... so don't ALL of you jump on me at once!!!

[sandnsea]

16. There needs to be penance

Or something.

"We weren't lost and
We didn't need any book
Then the great spirit
Met the great lie
Indians are jesus
Hanging from the cross
Hanging from the cross

In the name of their savior
Forcing on us
The trinity of the chain
Guilt sin and blame
The trinity of the chain
Guilt sin and blame
Hanging from the cross
Hanging from the cross"

John Trudell

[ChiciB1]

24. VERY NICE...

I'm one of those "white" people who follows a lot of the Indian Spirituality! Love to go to Pow-Wows and someday want to go to one of the REALLY big ones up north.

I live in Florida and am an honorary member of the Seminole Tribe. We just got a Chocolate Lab that was born in South Dakota and we decided she needed an Indian name. Her name is Shawnee! That's not her registered name, but that's what we call her. She's our pride and joy!

[EVDebs]

18. Actually the French and British during the war of same name. Geo. Wash

was a bit player during that skirmish. He freed his slaves as an example for others to follow at his death. Let's not judge too harshly now, freepers are watching.

[ChiciB1]

23. Okey-Dokey...

I knew I would get SOME feed-back! But Georgie was around and the first White man that I can recall to join in. I know the French were very instrumental and that's why Georgie got involved, but hey... we're STILL pretty much talking White Men!

But I'm so enamored of the French language and could listen for hours. Some day I'm going to learn how to speak it.

[chicagojoe]

30. You are correct.

Now we have a problem with Angry White Women, as well. I think it's hilarious how all of these Radical Right women like Coulter, Ingraham, et al, complain about the Womens Movement. Were it not for the Womens Movement, the Radical Right women wouldn't be allowed to go on TV and radio and run their rather large mouths.

[nashville_brook]

33. BIG topic of conversation last night -- musicians at the house to work on

a performance art project. mixed race group. mentioned the Angry White Men thing and our black friends were quick to jump in and say it works both ways. according to our buds, Angry Black Men do the same favors for the Bush Administration b/c the REAL issue is economic.

warmed the cockles of my heart. down to the sub-cockles.

[Mr_Spock]

9. Great post!

Thanks for putting that together to educate us.

BTW, Ann Coulter IS insane/psychotic :D

[DoYouEverWonder]

10. Kick

n/t

[ChiciB1]

11. Has It Occurred To Anyone That

just like all these "plants" that seem to be cropping up lately, that there really is some ACTUAL TRUTH to the Election Fraud??

We keep getting these funny leaks, or references coming out of the wood-work. People who were paid to report, people who were plants in the media, this woman named "cinnamon" who claims to have been a liberal!

Our problem just might be that we didn't (haven't) dug deep enough. To this day, I still don't think The Boy King Idiot was re-elected. They've covered their tracks over and over. But just MAYBE, and one can only hope beyond hope, someday some REAL TRUTH will find it's way into the public domain!

I'm sure the "real" truth is being guarded better than Ft. Knox right now, but let's just keep at it until the little tears become a big RIP!

[nashville_brook]

13. i don't think for a minute the Boy Idiot was elected. no way...

watched Runaway Jury last night -- the Grisolm movie with John Cusack about jury rigging. it really *showed* how our system can be bought and sold. if it can happen to juries, it can happen with elections.

to paraphrase the antagonist in the movie -- elections are too damn important to leave to the people.

[ChiciB1]

22. Yeah, I Read That Link At Another Site And..

It may have been you who posted it. I RECALL seeing that Bunny!

I also saw that movie several months back. But at least THEY were doing it for a GOOD cause to some extent. Not that jury rigging is something that should be condoned, however I really liked that movie.

There was another movie with Matt Damon and and John Voight recently that was pretty good too. Not so much jury rigging, BUT catching the BIG guys flat-footed! Can't remember the name though!

I really enjoy John C & Matt D!! Good Dems too!

[EVDebs]

17. Owen's rules for cooperatives are the basis for Credit Unions...OMG !

Credit unions are tools of socialism's Fifth Column ! To the baracades !

[nashville_brook]

19. financial services institution have been after credit unions for a long

time.

when you get right down to it this is a company-store kind of struggle. they want to force people to have little choice about how they work and how they "put food on the table,' i.e. the way it produces the most profit for them and the least value for us.

[nashville_brook]

20. postscript -- pardon my lack of editing, ya'll

i just re-read this and am slightly embarrassed. my husband was hurrying me out to the suburbs for our twice-monthly Costco trip.

[SpiralHawk]

21. Kique

(Now that we are pals with the French again, and kommander Bush has been forced to eat Frech Fries at a State Dinner, all Amuricans can again use phony French-sounding words with impunity.

Nice analysis, Nash. Thanks.

Kique

[ChiciB1]

25. I Think I'm Sitting On My Beaner!!!

I guess I DID read the link, but it was HERE!

Time for a little change, like maybe I should get my dinner dishes done NOW!

I'll be baaaack again, hopefully with a little more observance!!!

[burn the bush]

26. Flynn is the Director of Campus Leadership Program for the Leadership

Institute. check out flynnfiles.com for more.
Anyone know if he is related to
Edmund J Flynn?

[Petrushka]

27. Just downloaded "The Roots of the Ultra Left" PDF files --

-- to read later.

Looks interesting . . . especially if you consider how threatening Robert Owen's 19th century Utopian ideas must be to 20th century Right-wing extremists at the Leadership Institute who say that its 21st century "...mission is to identify, recruit, train, and place conservatives in politics, government, and media."

Something tells me that they're seeing "Evil" Owen in every aging hippie who might or might not tempt the younguns to wonder what communalism was all about--not just in the 1800s or the 1960s and 1970s, but in the 1st century AD, too!

:hippie:

[justiceischeap]

28. Their fear is internally based

Because there is no way the US, in our lifetimes, is going to be a socialist society. At this rate, it's seeming more like a dictatorship than anything. I know many argue that B*sh is no dictator because he was elected but many dictator's are elected.

There is a push in our society right now to turn back to the stone age instead of moving forward. It's just sad that a huge segment of the population believe that another section of the population doesn't deserve the same rights and freedoms they do because we don't carry the same ideologies.

[nashville_brook]

34. mark crispin miller does such a great job of unpacking your points!

check out his interview on buzzflash from a couple of days ago!


Mark Crispin Miller Examines Mainstream Media's Blind Eye Towards the Gannongate Sex Scandal
http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/05/02/int05009.html

miller has been saying for a while that the Bush admin want to turn the clock back to pre-enlightenment, back to a world of good and evil. SO TRUE. the sad fact is these people LIVE there in this pre-enlightenment world.

christo-facsist zombies. they are EVERYWHERE! and they want your BRAINS!

[nashville_brook]

32. the evil they fear (i think) is more concrete with Walmart associates

trying to unionize. and senior citizens demanding security for their Social Security. young workers demanding healthcare.

the reason i say this is because a group of 50 or hippies doing a farm co-op doesn't cost them any money. hippies make a good bugaboo -- but the real threat is BORING! unions. healthcare. living wage. FAIR TRADE!

my first couple of years in school were spent in a what we lovingly called the Hippie House which was basically a co-op of 7 seven student who rented a house near the university and shared living costs. it sure FELT radical to do. as i did more student organizing work i found a group of north carolina students working with displaced workers and helping textile workers unionize. i didn't understand it. unions. how old school. no fashionable slogans or graphic symbols there. no tie dye. no drugs. how un-interesting.

well, it didn't take too long for the hippie house to dissolve but the work the NC students did with the unions continues today.

amount damage the hippie house cost the capitalist empire: 0
amount the hippie house benefitted the inhabitants: ~probably around 2000 a piece per year

amount the unions cost the capitalist empire: who knows, lets just say, priceless

[LdyGuique]

29. eminent domain of private property for private developers

isn't a "socialist" thing -- but it does take private property and gives it to private developers for condos and such -- and I betcha most of the developers are Repugs. It's become a trend during the 90s -- and the Georgia Legislature is pushing through a bill to make it easier -- and they're all Repugs.

[nashville_brook]

31. i actually had that in mind vis a vis the case where

they are climing eminent domain from private citizens to build more expensive developments b/c they produce more taxes and therefore and in the "public's interest" to condemn the housing that exists.

anyone know where this is? thom hartamann has been talking about it.


when i was a kid we owned an beautiful of old victorian duplex in Fort Lauderdale that was claimed for emminent domain for a shopping center. it crushed my mother and our family never really recovered financially from the theft. i was so young, but i'll never forget my mother weeping on the front stoop.