MUST READ...to keep focus:
Hijacked Republicans (Submitted Oct 20, 2004 --
PRE-Election -- by "citizenvoice")
<excerpts...not in context...emphases mine>
This administration is perhaps the most radical administration in a century. The word radical can be used two ways, to mean extreme, or to mean ‘back to the roots’. I am sure that many of the thinkers in the radical wings of the Republican Party think they are going back to the roots, but the reality is that several wings of the Party are extreme, way more extreme than their supporters who are ordinary Americans generally think.
There are three extreme factions...One is the
extreme fiscal conservatives. Conservatives generally support lower taxes, fiscal responsibility, and limits to spending, but they also support good government where needed, with accountability for results. The second extreme faction is the
neoconservative wing of the administration, the one currently responsible for implementing the Bush Doctrine of preemptive war. They believe in a role for ‘total war’ in the establishment of what amounts to a new American empire; they are overt about this and use these words themselves. They held these beliefs way before 9/11; in fact they have writings stating the need for something like 9/11 to happen so that they could implement their vision. (The third extreme faction is the
far right wing of the party on social agendas and issues of civil liberties, which has its highest representation in John Ashcroft as Attorney General. Conservatives generally have a high interest in increasing morality in their culture, but they also traditionally believe that government does not function best when it is taking away civil liberties. )
...
Here are current administration players in their own words. Grover Norquist is the mastermind of the radical fiscal policies, behind which there is definitely a hidden agenda. He is a Washington power broker who oversees coordination of administration players through a weekly breakfast, attended by all branches of government. Michael Ledeen is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a major think tank, and influential with Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz. Paul Weyrich is founder of the Heritage Foundation, which has itself been at times called a shadow government, due to its influence with leaders.
"I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it to the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub."
Grover Norquist, on NPR 2001
“Creative destruction is our middle name, both within our society and abroad. We tear down the old order every day, from business to science, literature, art, architecture, and cinema, to politics and the law. Our enemies have always hated this whirlwind of energy and creativity which menaces their traditions (whatever they may be) and shames them for their inability to keep pace. … We must destroy them to advance our historic mission.”
Michael Ledeen
“We are different from previous generations of conservatives. We are no longer working to preserve the status quo. We are radicals, working to overturn the present power structure of this country.”
Paul Weyrich
The strategy for achieving the goals of these wings of the current Republicans in charge is also radical. They want to effectively
abolish the two party system. They are in fact well on the way to accomplishing that. Here is Grover Norquist again, one of the most powerful of the power brokers in a powerful party:
“One of the steps for getting there is a permanent Republican government, in the sense of fifty-five Republican senators and a thirty-vote margin in the House and a Republican President for twenty years in a row. That’s when you can do to the left what the left did to us in the thirties and the forties.”
Grover Norquist, on how toaccomplish the one-party rule
This might not sound so alarming, unless you realize that
they carry no great allegiance to the structures of democracy, nor to the Constitution. Or unless you realize that they carry great influence and can see the traces of that influence in the actual deeds of the administration.
...
This
shadow government exists, behind the scenes. Its ends and objectives have almost nothing to do with the interests of ordinary Americans, both Republicans and Democrats. Its current purpose is to get reelected, hopefully retaining control of both Houses of Congress and the ability to appoint judges for four more years, such that the high court could feel their stamp for several more decades. One of the most central beliefs of the framers of our Constitution was a system of checks and balances. They believed that democracy was always in danger of being hijacked by an overconcentration of power in any one branch of government. They also knew that in a democracy, that could happen at any time. They knew that the greatest threats to democracy would come from within, not from abroad. Thus, their passionate championing of a free press, because the informed citizenry would be able to keep their democracy. They were right. When we as a people have been informed, we have always chosen to keep our democracy.
...
Both of these radical factions work against the health of our nation and its principles. They are not in the mainstream of the Republican tradition. They require
keeping the American people in the dark about their true beliefs, because otherwise they couldn’t stay in power. They require keeping people afraid:
"We can lead by the force of high moral example ... fear is much more reliable, and lasts longer.”
Michael Ledeen
"If you tell the same story five times, it’s true." <the methodology of talking points & media control & "reality-defining">
Larry Speakes, Reagan spokesman.
"The task of public relations must be to curtail Americans' democratic expectations."
Philip Lesly, a leading conservative Public Relations figure, 1974
=========
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4133161"This snippet is from the edited transcript of an interview of Vincent Cannistaro by Ian Masters that aired on KPFK (Los Angeles) back in April of this year. I just ran across this at AlterNet; hope it hasn't already been posted."
Well, Ambassador Wilson publicly refuted the claims — particularly the 16 words in the President’s State of the Union address that the Iraqis were trying to buy significant quantities of uranium from Niger. That document, I understand, was fabricated ... it originally came out of Italian intelligence, I think SISME, or SISDE—I’m not sure which one.
It was SISME, yeah. ...
During the two-thousands when we’re talking about acquiring information on Iraq. It isn’t that anyone had a good source on Iraq—there weren’t any good sources. The Italian intelligence service, the military intelligence service, was acquiring information that was really being hand-fed to them by very dubious sources. The Niger documents, for example, which apparently were produced in the United States, yet were funneled through the Italians.
Do we know who produced those documents? Because there’s some suspicion ...
I think I do, but I’d rather not speak about it right now, because I don’t think it’s a proven case ...
If I said “Michael Ledeen” ?
You’d be very close . . .
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
