[+/-] The Corporatist States of America, Part 2
This type of corruption is disturbing, but I think it is significant not because of the misuse of taxpayer dollars (although that pisses me off), but because of the feedback loop to the Bush Cartel reelection machine. There have been other instances of the Republican party harnessing the power of the federal government to their own ends. House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-TX) used a Homeland Security Department agency to track Texas Democratic legislators who left the state to block passage of a GOP-backed Congressional redistricting bill. This is the same Homeland Security Department that is supposed to be making America safe from foreign terrorists. It's the agency we were told would never be used for domestic political purposes.
A more well-known example is Fox News, which is now (thankfully) widely recognized as the media arm of the Republican party. Other news organizations, however, have not proved to be any more objective. Just as the US media failed to objectively cover the war after being embedded with the troops, they have mostly failed to map out how thoroughly inbedded this network of contractors is with the Bush family, friends and campaign cronies. For example, last year, the Financial Times reported that Neil Bush has been involved in the Iraq contract gravy train through his association with John Howland and Jamal Daniel of New Bridge Strategies. The president's brother wrote letters to push businesses established by Howland and Daniel, including Crest Investment Corporation, which in turn employs Bush as co-chairman. The Financial Times reported that Bush receives the equivalent of $60,000 a year from Crest for working an average of three or four hours a week.
The failure of the US media to widely report this story is incredible. Imagine if the story involved John Kerry.
In sum,
A more well-known example is Fox News, which is now (thankfully) widely recognized as the media arm of the Republican party. Other news organizations, however, have not proved to be any more objective. Just as the US media failed to objectively cover the war after being embedded with the troops, they have mostly failed to map out how thoroughly inbedded this network of contractors is with the Bush family, friends and campaign cronies. For example, last year, the Financial Times reported that Neil Bush has been involved in the Iraq contract gravy train through his association with John Howland and Jamal Daniel of New Bridge Strategies. The president's brother wrote letters to push businesses established by Howland and Daniel, including Crest Investment Corporation, which in turn employs Bush as co-chairman. The Financial Times reported that Bush receives the equivalent of $60,000 a year from Crest for working an average of three or four hours a week.
The failure of the US media to widely report this story is incredible. Imagine if the story involved John Kerry.
In sum,
- We have a single party, unified with the apparatus of government, ruling the country and controlling the means of voting.
- America's President, George W. Bush, claims that it is his Administration's right to torture anyone, to imprison anyone, to invade any country, simply because he claims that as Commander-in-Chief in a war, he has the sole right to decide who should be prosecuted, imprisoned, tortured, invaded and killed, civil liberties be damned.
- The commanding heights of the economy are controlled by the ruling party
- The Republican governing apparatus recycles taxpayer dollars through corporations for its selfish electoral benefit, to the mutual benefit of those corporations.
- Our unelected leader has dehumanized millions and millions of human beings simply because of their religion and race
posted by Nanovirus @ 13:42 permalink
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