Do You Remember Monica Lewinsky?

(First in a series of short articles on the events leading up to the Bush Presidency and the ascendency of corporate control of USG) 

by Melinda Pillsbury-Foster

Vanity Fair will publish an article by Monica Lewinsky in it's June issue. Ripples of commentary have already begun on the now 40 year old woman who earned a Master of Science degree in December of 2006.

For the last eight years Monica has tried to keep her name out of the news. Today, she is again useful to the Clintons and their corporate sponsors.

While the source of her notoriety titillated, consider why her emergence matters one way or another. It doesn't, you know. This is hype, orchestrated to impact the 2016 election.

Lewinsky was persuaded to write the essay for Vanity Fair because her life has been on hold. Every job she has gotten pivoted on the events from July, 1995, when she was turning 22, to the failure to impeach Bill Clinton by Congress on February 12, 1999.

The Washington Post touts her return as a positive for Hillary Clinton's run for the White House. This surge of media attention focuses on Hillary as a secondary victim. It distracts us from what should, finally, be asked about the Clintons. They did well for themselves. Today Monica is still defined by the words, “cigar,” and “blue dress.”

Some of these questions are:

Why was Hillary ever positioned as a victim? We learned early on she had assisted in cover-ups of Bill's womanizing from the time he entered politics. Hillary showed no concern for the damage done to the women involved. Political advantage trumped telling the truth, the impact on victims, and accountability, for Hillary.

When the trial ended in Congress the Clintons were drained of money. Yet by 2004 they were doing well, entering the embrace of the 1%. The Clintons had become intimates of Bush Co., and were not speaking out against a war which had originated in another set of carefully orchestrated lies by Bush and his NeoCon cadre. What else was happening while these relationships were forming?

What might we have learned if we had demanded accountability when Bush jovially looked under his desk for WMD? What if Saddam had not been hurried into the silence of death?

Following the money and connections always answers questions far more revealing of secrets than are sexual dalliances.

The answers are there. Don't let Monica be used as a tool of distraction. Forget those nine incidents of sexual dalliance and demand answers to real questions.

Karl Rove and Bill Postmus, Soul Mates?

Why we must demand accountability, objective standards, and absolute transparency

From Revolt in 2100 by Robert Heinlein

“When any government or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, “This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know,”the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man whose mind has been hoodwinked; contrawise, no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fusion bombs, not anything – you can't conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him.”

Revolt in 2100 is about a revolution against an evangelical religious state that using disinformation, coercion, and deceit took over America. The good guys are pro-freedom and in the book you see them carry out the restoration of real American government. The bad guys use torture, absolute monitoring, and the force of a state that has rewritten history to control the American people.

Written in 1939 the book was read widely by those in now in the freedom movement, that movement from which such individuals as Karl Rove, Grover Norquist, Newt Gingrich, John Fund, among others originated. Heinlein was writing a juvenile science fiction yarn using elements he perceived as potential and threatening to our freedom. That take over worked. The elements present today with the attempted use of biometrics, as applied to the Real ID, the monolithic control reinforced by the evangelical no-think churches, and the routine use of torture and construction of American concentration camps are hauntingly like what you see in the Heinlein novel.

All of the individuals above grew up on science fiction. Heinlein, a libertarian, was the Grand Master of that genre. This is most probably the origin of the approach used to subvert power in America and hand control over to those who lurk behind foreign corporations tied to the military-industrial complex, banking, Big Oil, and Big Pharma. Those interests are the clients that Rove and these others named serve. Among those corporations are many that are closely and privately held. Instead of the transparency that, on paper, we as Americans were guaranteed, we see only lies and a closed door.

The individuals named took as their model what science fiction fans would call, “the forces of darkness.” Today they continue to work for the same employers as they continue to use the Republican Party to divide America.

The Republican Stimulus Package: War

On Friday afternoon, January 16^th, at 1:30 p.m., Congressman Joe Baca (D-43) hosted the first coalition of its kind to respond to Obama's challenge to stimulate the economy. Baca invited elected officials from both San Bernardino and Riverside Counties to sit down and discuss how the funds could be used to rebuild the badly decayed infrastructure in their area. The two counties, also commonly known as the Inland Empire have been the most heavily impacted by the meltdown in California. Foreclosures, lost jobs and despair light up the phones of food banks and in the offices of public officials every day.

Of the five Republican congressmen invited, David Dreier (R-26), Jerry Lewis (R-41), Ken Calvert (R-44), Gary Miller (R-42) and Buck McKeon (R-25) not one attended. All voted against the Obama package.

The cost of the Obama Stimulus Packages is high. The President has asked that billions be alloted for projects that rebuild desperately needed infrastructure while providing jobs lost during the last administration. But the same congressmen supported war in Iraq that destroyed the infrastructure of that country and cost far more. They also supported the exportation of American jobs to third world countries, placing many Americans out of work. They oversaw the administration of Federal funds that paid billions to companies building infrastructure, here and abroad, that are failing. Accountability and quality control have been non-existent.

The bridge which collapsed on Interstate 35 in Minneapolis in Aug., 2007 is just one example of a [problem of which many remain oblivious. The accident in Minneapolis killed 13 people and sounded a wake up call focusing attention on deteriorating infrastructure which cost millions to construct and billions to replace. Accountability for faulty construction is non-existent. Across the country, contractors involved figure among those who donate to Congressional campaigns, either directly of through their agents.

Inland Empire Toasted by Postmus

Simultaneous to the debate on the funding of the Stimulus Packages the Inland Empire witnessed the exposure of Bill Postmus, San Bernardino County Assessor. Postmus has long been known to idolize Karl Rove.

Postmus faces felony charges of drug possession. The disgraced Republican is under investigation by the District Attorney's Office for political malfeasance. $250,000 has been budgeted to pay the law firm retained to conduct the investigation. A recall petition by a broad spectrum of individuals and organizations will file a "Notice of Intention to Circulate Recall Petition" at the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters office on Fri., Jan. 30, 2009. There will be a press conference in front of the Registrar's office at 4:00 p.m.

Ordinary Americans are fed up with divide and profit politics.

The Stimulus Package meeting of January 16^th was attended by local officials who represented both major parties. The focus of their concern was their district and the needs of their constituents. Former California State Senator Don Rogers, a respected member of the Republican delegation, said of the Postmus indictment, “We need to clean our own house first. The man should resign and other Republicans should make sure that happens.” Anthony Adams, Republican County Chairman for San Bernardino has joined the call or Postmus to step down and save the millions a recall will cost.

Calls to the DC offices of the five Republican produced five press secretaries who were out to lunch or otherwise unavailable. Of the messages left none has been returned.

Will Republicans become obsolete?

Since the November election Republicans have confronted the need to take back their party. Taking it back brings into sharp focus from whom, bringing us back to the names above.

Locally both Republicans and Democrats agree in large that changes are necessary. They know money is in short supply and should not be wasted. Paul Pugh, the COO of Sequoia Valley Resource Corporation, who has worked in the Inland Empire said, “Politics has no part in this kind of decision. We need objective standards. And we need absolute accountability. We have the products to do the job. They cost no more and give us the same number of jobs locally. The age of greed is over.” Pugh is a life long Republican who also expressed concern for the direction his party has taken over the last decades. H proposed the following standard,

Stimulus funds should be granted only to companies that agree to:

High standards for quality for project longevity and durability in accordance to the guidelines provided by studies of technologies now available across the world. Products exist and can be used that reduce the carbon footprint at least 25% during construction. Longevity for high dollar projects must use only products that extend longevity to a millennium.

Absolute transparency – no contacts with private corporations.

To ensure that happens it is reasonable to exclude from consideration companies who have previously done work that failed the new standards.

Much is in motion. Will the Inland Empire exact accountability from Bill Postmus? Will Republicans meet the challenge to come together, despite the Republican delegation to Congress? The answers are coming and Robert Heinlein would have much to say if he still lived.

Stealing Truth: The John Fund Back Story

If the media had followed the clear rules they had written for themselves, would we now be on the express down elevator to a meltdown of global proportions? Likely not. We would have problems, but we would have seen them more clearly. We needed the truth. We did not get it, for perhaps as many reasons as there are individuals in journalism.
The first problem was that journalists so blithely ignored the standards of their profession.
The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) has established a code of ethics. The tenets of this code are short, clear, concise, and well-founded. But there is no means of enforcement. If journalists would follow them, we could trust the media. Today most of us do not. If a journalist ignores their ethical obligations, either from sloth or a desire to profit, nothing can be done. If raiding the cookie jar can be carried out with impunity, then there will be no cookies. I know this, having raised several children.
The SPJ has existed since 1909, four years before the Federal Reserve Bank came into being. Their founders could have included Ida Tarbell, the journalist who caused the break up of Standard Oil, though the site does not mention her – an indomitable truth teller. Tarbell told the truth, but a handful of years later the dispersed Standard Oil was larger than ever and still carried out the same exploitive pattern of business.
The takeaway: having the truth does not automatically solve the problem. You need to use the truth to build the cultural tools that enact accountability. We need that accountability today as the world melts down around our ears. Those responsible for the economic collapse are getting bailouts. Those who will be forced to pay are losing everything.
It was not just banks or oil companies or the "military-industrial complex" of which Ike warned us, though the sense of immunity to accountability these corporate-cultural structures enjoy is another part of the problem. Many individuals made decisions they knew to be wrong. Along with those heading corporations, journalists were a pivotal part of this failure. They had ample opportunity to act ethically and make a decision that would have influenced the values by which all of us live, building the world through those uncounted separate choices. Unfortunately, they chose unwisely and unethically – and their bad choices drove out the good.
Large media (and non-media) corporations have swallowed up newspapers and other media outlets during the last few decades with alarming speed, with the goal being the use of these outlets as an extension of their control. Individual journalists did not have to cooperate – but they did, in large part. The lack of dispassionate, objective reporting in journalism morphed the profession towards use as a perpetual public relations service for those in power. The question became not "What is the truth?" but "What do you want the truth to be?" Power and profit became the unassailable be-all and end-all of corporate journalism.
Consider, for example, the case of John Fund.

Sex, Lies, and Journalism

As a member of the Editorial Board of the Wall Street Journal for 18 years, Fund was on a trajectory toward greater power in 1998, and that power provided him with a feeling of invincibility. Already accustomed to sexual access to many women who were attracted to him as a figure possessing power and money, he became accustomed to ignoring the consequences of behavior that was deceitful and ugly. He was also accustomed to lying politically. His personal and professional life matched. He knew no matter what he did he would be protected.
In October of 1998, he began a sexual relationship with the daughter of a long-time friend he had once dated. The woman's name was Morgan Pillsbury, my biological daughter. I had known Fund since 1980 when we met at a Libertarian Party Convention, where he came across as nerdy and bumbling but likable. The impression stuck. Over the years we kept in touch.
When I heard a rumor that Fund was involved with Morgan, I called him directly. He lied to me, telling me she lived nearby. He claimed that he had been feeding her cat for her while she had been away. I believed him. Having had experience with Morgan over many years, I knew she could be dishonest . She would need strong evidence to disprove Fund's claims to me. That is why the audio tape often referred to as the "Weaselsearch tape" was made. If you listen to the tape, it becomes immediately apparent that Fund did not want me to know the truth. He lied and pressured Morgan to lie about their relationship. There was no reason for this; if he had told me he was in a relationship with Morgan, I would have been surprised and appalled, but it had been many years since we had been more than friends. My time was occupied caring for my handicapped son and by my own health needs, not with his love life. And Morgan was no child. She was born July 5, 1967. John was born April 8, 1956.
If this had remained merely a case of a man lying about his love life, journalism would never have been an issue. But Fund wanted to continue the relationship with Morgan covertly so he could also have relations with other women. He did not want his professional life impacted.
Unfortunately for Fund, Morgan refused to be his dirty little secret. For much of the three years they were a couple, Fund used Morgan's computer for professional purposes, but also to receive personal e-mail. Why Fund would have overlooked the chain of evidence thus produced is perhaps explained by the fact that at that time he knew next to nothing about computers. During that time, Fund consistently lied about his relationship with Morgan and pursued other women. It was a strange relationship, and I do not pretend to entirely understand it. But at each point, I demanded proof from Morgan for just that reason. I talked to Fund over dinner, on the phone from the apartment the couple shared. I received e-mails from him and other proof that could not have been falsified, for instance this IM conversation on AOL between Matt Drudge and Morgan. Drudge had been IMing with Fund on Morgan's computer earlier. Fund went to bed, leaving the window up. And so Morgan continued the conversation.
Around January, 2002, Fund – despite claims to the contrary by himself and others – was fired from the Wall Street Journal, probably because of the scandal that exploded over his own behavior. Morgan told me he had battered her on multiple occasions, first in New Jersey and then after he stalked her back to Manhattan and insisted on moving in with her in her new apartment. I heard several of those incidents via phone – as did others.
She finally decided to file charges in both New Jersey and New York.
A letter from Fidelity Investments advised him to, "make a decision about what to do with the savings you have accumulated in your former employer's retirement plan." That employer was the Wall Street Journal. The letter is in Morgan's possession. Fund opened it in her living room and, as Morgan told me, left it laying on the floor.
The lies then escalated.
Morgan told me that Fund coerced a false confession from her to hide his acts. He used threats of violence to get the confession. Morgan sent this email to me and others immediately to refute what she had been forced to sign. Documentation exists to support the truth.
Fund solicited and received the cooperation of other journalists to spin what had taken place. One can only conclude that Fund was very willing to make it worth their while or misrepresent the facts. Evidence almost immediately surfaced that Fund was sexually involved with at least one journalist who then lied for him in print. Some journalists knew the truth. Others were clearly taken in by Fund's lies. All were guilty of a lack of due diligence. If they had followed the tenets set out for journalists today might be different for all of us.

Black Box Road to the Rove White House

Fund's relationship with the Bush White House and the purpose of the book he was then writing, Stealing Elections, were less obvious in 2002. Fund has since admitted he has been routinely briefed by the White House, before and after he was fired from the WSJ. His road to being a willing tool of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue was long and, in many ways, meteoric.
Fund first worked as a political operative in 1979, according to Justin Raimondo. His services were secured to ensure the nomination of Ed Clark for the Libertarian Presidential Nomination for 1980 by Ed Crane. Far from having an interest in stopping voter or election fraud, Fund himself committed a curious specie of fraud by claiming to be a candidate by taking out papers that year but never turning them in while claiming to be running for office and getting 46% of the vote. Justin Raimondo characterized Fund as "an expert lying propagandist of the sleazier sort."
Never in all the years I knew him did I hear Fund express any interest in the issues of election or voter fraud. His political interests were more sensational; his personal interests run to Star Wars and Star Trek. If you really knew him, this sudden change in principal interests should have raised questions about his role with those associated with the administration. It did for me. The book he wrote is now considered by those in the clean elections movement to be a misdirective tool intended to muddy the water on the issue of voter fraud. It focuses in on purported fraud by individuals, ignoring the enormous issues of fraud now ascribed to such companies as Diebold and ES&S. Fund proposed centralizing control over elections as a solution – an idea completely in line with the big and well-connected "black box" mongers – and is nearly successful in undermining the issue by injecting his spin.
Bev Harris of Black Box Voting said of Fund's position, "It is amazing that this bogus solution is still being put forth. His solutions take us directly to ever more centralized control by a small group of insiders. What is needed is for the people to have local control and access to the results. Complete transparency."
Mark Crispin Miller was even more explicit, saying, "Despite his pose as an impartial expert on American elections, John Fund is in fact a dedicated party operative, who for many years has turned out rightist propaganda for the GOP. Specifically, he has abetted the Republicans' election theft by helping to promote the myth of widespread Democratic 'voter fraud'--a fiction that has been disproved by every reputable study, but one which Fund has pushed at every opportunity. And so whatever he may recommend to help 'reform' US elections should be rejected out of hand, as on this crucial subject he enjoys no credibility at all."
Vickie Karp and others involved in the clean elections movement also agree about Fund and his role as a propagandist and deceiver. All of the agree that Fund's "solutions," which provide cover for ever more centralization and displace real reform, are the opposite of transparency.
Inserting himself into that dialog would have been severely hampered had he been in jail for domestic violence. Yet Fund remains a high level political operative. Understanding how he accomplished his goals provides a clear understanding of the covert operation we know as the Bush Administration.

Fund's "Nuts and Sluts" Strategy

Fund solicited several articles attacking both Morgan and myself.
Eric Alterman, a New York based writer known for his partisan political writing, generally perceived as on the left, authored an article for the May 15, 2003 edition of The Nation, Who Framed John Fund? Morgan and I attempted to contact Alterman. On Mother's Day morning, June 11^th, Morgan received an email from Alterman urgently requesting a response to a list of questions. Alterman received her response within three hours. He used none of the material supplied, did not call to follow up on her reply, and did not ask for the further documents that Morgan had offered. On June 25, 2003 a response from another liberal, Mark Crispin Miller, was published with another from Alterman in The Nation. The exchange is titled, 'Ugly Tactics Make for Ugly People.' Alterman sent Morgan a dismissive e-mail on July 4^th.
According to Fred Brown, vice chair of the ethics committee for the Society for Professional Journalists, many journalists would pause before writing an article requested by someone in Fund's circumstances. A journalist who followed the tenets of ethics would also be careful to ensure that all principals had fully aired their cases. Alterman violated every tenet of the code as outlined by SPJ.
Fund was at that time working to have the charges against him in New York dropped. To accomplish that, he had been told he needed to destroy our credibility – Morgan's as the victim and my own as a witness. Along with soliciting journalists with whom he had relationships or could compensate in some way, he solicited libelous letters from at least two individuals, each with a motive for wanting either myself or Pillsbury silenced.
A perfunctory search of the journalists involved also leads to linkages between journalists to be pointed out. Alterman states in articles he has written that he is a friend of Katie Rosman, about whom you will read more below. A Google search of their names shows they often appear at the same events and cite each other. Alterman "adores gossip," by his own report, and admits to being an avid reader of Page Six, a gossip column run by Richard Johnson with associates such as Doug Dechert. Dechert was a regular attendee at the Fabiani Society, which meets the second Tuesday at the Princeton Club, a place where Fund also regularly showed up. The first time I was introduced to Dechert at one of these events, he asked me for $10,000 to be in Page Six. I did not know what Page Six was and would have declined even more rapidly if I had known. Selling print in this fashion is not news, it is not journalism, and it is not public relations, a profession having its own tenets for ethics. Discussing the matter with Fred Brown, we agreed that the term "Slime Journalism" worked to describe it (with apologies to slime, which is an important part of the ecosystem). Reading Alterman's enthusiastic reports on the operation leads one to believe he expects dishonesty and scandal as standard. Certainly that is how his reports read.
The Fabiani Society is jointly sponsored by two NeoCon think-tanks, the Cato Institute and the Manhattan Institute. The speakers usually represent the opinions marketed by those institutions. Many come only for the opportunity to network or the excellent canapés and ample bar.
Fund sent this email to Morgan at the same time these articles would have been in the works, once again demonstrating his lack not only of professionalism but maturity.
An article solicited by Katie Rosman, then at Elle, in the autumn of 2003 presents a strategy also intended to silence us using another tack. We met with Katie Rosman at a coffee shop in Manhattan where she asked for an exclusive on the story. We agreed. Soon her contact with us became sporadic. The story was stalled for months, during a critical time period, and then quashed (see correspondence). Rosman received a job offer at the Wall Street Journal simultaneous to the article being dropped. Rosman is still working at the WSJ and is a friend of Eric Alterman's, according to Alterman.
Fund solicited a woman law professor, Gail Heriot (who was having a sexual relationship with Fund) to assist him. The site, John H. Fund, was originally registered at her address in San Diego, 4830 Hart Drive, San Diego, CA 92116. That has now been changed. Heriot put herself in the category of journalist when she wrote to Gene Gaudette, the editor of APJ, with a letter she sent across the Internet, effectively publishing it. Its content is libelous. (You can read that e-mail from Heriot to American Politics Journal and their demolishing response here).
Heriot had written an email to Fund on January 13, 2002 that reveals the source of her support for Fund: at that time Morgan and Fund were still living together she wrote, "So allow me to introduce myself. I am Gail Heriot, the woman whose hotel room you've found yourself in a few times over the last six weeks." See the full letter here.
Fund solicited other attacks. Wendy McElroy, who wrote "False Rape Charges Hurt Real Victims" for FOXnews.com (published July 22, 2003), also violated the tenets of journalism, evidently profiting thereby. Journalists are required to ensure the principals are heard. McElroy failed to call either Morgan or myself. Since I had known her personally since the 1970s, this was a shock. Instead of carrying out her ethical obligation to seek the facts she wrote the article exonerating Fund and was within weeks hired at FOX News, a media outlet long associated with Fund and his fellow NeoCons. McElroy has made her living for decades writing effective spin for niche groups that want to hear justifications for their positions. These include why women need pornography and why women are as likely to be batterers as men, among others.
Fund was offered support from a female journalist with whom he was evidently conducting an affair at Christian Broadcast Network. Her name was Christine Hall-Reis. Here is a semi-nude photo of her that she sent to Fund, which he downloaded to Morgan's computer and became her property. Fund and Morgan were living together at the time the photo was sent along with the accompanying email.
One can reach no other conclusion that each and every one of these articles was clearly solicited by Fund.
One also has to relish the irony of Fund using women with whom he was intimately involved to deploy a "nuts and sluts" smear campaign.
Fund also received help from individuals hoping to benefit from the opportunity presented who were not compensated. Two such individuals were Eric Garris and Justin Raimondo, now of Anti-War.com. Both individuals had known Fund and myself for many years. Both were members of a small but self-consciously radical group associated with the Libertarian Party and Murray Rothbard, a highly respected free market economist who died in the 90s. I made a call to Eric Garris in 2002 asking for help. Morgan was in hiding, in fear of her life. Fund was using every avenue to destroy my reputation and credibility. Eric refused to help. In 2006 Justin Raimondo wrote this article that appeared on Anti-War.com. I responded in 24 hours with this article.
Soon afterward I talked to Lew Rockwell, who employs Eric Garris as a webmaster. Eric had read my assertion that the hit piece on Fund was motivated by the realization neither he or Raimondo would never profit by covering for Fund. Lew told me he talked to Garris right after he read my article. Eric, he said, affirmed I was exactly right.
Among journalists on the right, the left and the libertarian realm, Fund had succeeded in persuading journalists to write in his defense.
In each instance they ignored the truth.
In all cases they hoped for some benefit for themselves.

John Fund: Above the Law?

The criminal case to be heard through the District Attorney was still hanging over Fund's head. He needed the charges to be quashed. Photographs of the injuries had been taken by the police. I had given testimony on what I had witnessed. Documents proving that Fund had systematically lied both to many women and to other journalists for years existed and were available, freely offered as proof. Instead of looking at all the evidence, the focus was placed solely on Morgan's veracity. Fund had solicited letters that perpetuated statements that were provably libelous and untrue. He had cooperation from the DA's office in Manhattan to ignore all of these forms of evidence.
When the DA replaced the first ADA assigned to the case, Eric Arnone, with Bonnie Saar, it was clear that the investigation would be neither fair nor thorough. Saar spent hours hammering Morgan with questions as if she were the perpetrator, ignoring the laws and practices usual with victims of domestic violence. Morgan was not even allowed to see her own case file, and that is another violation of existing law and practice. Through a back door into the DA's office, we learned that the letters were from my former husband, Craig Franklin, and one Eugene Volokh, a former boyfriend of Morgan. Both men had reasons for wanting to destroy either Morgan's or my own credibility, and those motives can be documented. In one case, the motive was to cover a felonious fraud amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars.
But that is another story for another day.
Fund's motives were more obvious and also deeper. For years I had been questioning Fund's actions. Beginning with obvious issues, for instance how Hillsdale College used its large endowment, I asked questions. I moved on to research Fund's associates. As the Arkansas Project unfolded and the bizarre information I heard from Fund grew, I began to ask more questions as I observed the NeoCon strategies for winning. By 2000, the issue of election fraud was very present in my mind. During a conversation Fund, Morgan and I had at dinner in 2000, Fund told us that writing the book on elections was his "consolation prize" for not getting the job as Bush speechwriter. He might have been lying, but that is what he said. I was surprised, and said so. Fund shrugged. In what had already become a pattern of "Wingnut Welfare" for the NeoCon right's roster of propagandists, the book would be financed, published and promoted – that was what mattered.
Destroying my credibility along with Morgan's accomplished several goals, for Fund and others. Fund knew I was researching him. The conversation we had had regarding Hillsdale had told him I doubted his stated motives. His lack of action on these issues decreased the frequency of his calls to me from 1996 on. Over the years I continued to write about Fund and his connections, branching out from there into the impact on the economy, on our institutions, and on the future.
I had told Fund in 2001 that his highest purpose in life was as an example of what is wrong with journalism. Fund has illustrated in thorough detail what needs to change. Journalism is not spin provided to sell a political agenda. Journalism is a trust essential to ensuring our continued freedom. The public must have the facts, the truth, and the means to decide for themselves.
It is time to start in that direction.
This week a group of journalists will be filing a FOIA demand for the information long withheld by Morganthau's office in Manhattan. Ethics matter. Doing the right thing matters. The file on the case against John Fund for domestic violence may clarify issues. It may raise issues yet unknown. But it must be public. The victim is willing to have you see it. This case can tell us what went wrong with the courts, with the police, with journalism and how political figures and corporations distort and use each of these. This case leads you down the rabbit hole.
No matter who is impacted – just plain folks, social elite, poor or wealthy, black or white, gay or straight – the truth matters. The sign of a healthy society is a system that does right by everyone. A working media, courts that deliver justice, and communities of people who handle things for themselves give us the means to know we are secure.
Concern is growing and some are already taking action. On the Internet and elsewhere, people are looking for solutions. We need to find what works. The Madoff fraud has awakened many to the need for action.

There are many today, for instance Dan Rather, who understand what it means to go through the crucible of fire for truth, emerging on the other side. We need those who were willing to speak out and we need to listen.

Steps to Revolution – Effective Coalition, Cooperation, Communication, Consensus.

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Today on Lew Rockwell's blog Donna Volatile, a long time peace activist, said in an open letter to the Anti-war Movement,

“A few activists like myself have crossed over to support Ron Paul but far too many others have not. Far too many from the left, far too many progressives and liberals and far too many anti-war activists have not.

We have so much in common but many on the left ridicule Ron Paul and his supporters. They are so stuck in their positions, they do not see the monumental things we have in common.

For many on the left it is Ron Paul's stance on abortion, or his stance on health care and the list goes on...

But as we face another election year and perhaps the most critical and important election year, I ask what cause can be more important than the cause of PEACE? Without it, we have no chance at all.”

Sometimes we reach a moment in time that calls us to question the framing of ideas that we have always accepted. That can be frightening. But necessary. This is such a moment. Peace is not the absence of war. Peace will only happen when we discard the initiation of deceit, coercion, and violence as individuals or through such human tools as government.

Ron Paul is not just anti-war, he is a peace activist who can bring us together in a new frame for all human action. The campaign spontaneously taking place for him is an authentic shock and awe moment.

Ron Paul's impact on the present framing is clear from the deer-in-the-headlights expression you catch on the faces of Republican candidates during debates. They cannot believe he is breaking the frame they have so carefully and expensively constructed.

Ron Paul has always stood up for the Constitution; His message resonates. That is why he has been ignored by such 'Libertarian' organizations as Cato Institute. Those involved with Cato are the NeoCons of their movement, dedicated only to their own profit; using the rhetoric of freedom for ugly purposes.

With Ron Paul alone does honesty trump rhetoric. Even as the Constitution is dismissed as just, 'a piece of paper,' by George W. Bush, Paul speaks clearly, his voice alone in Congress for the last years. Through his reminders of our Founder's intentions we are called to question our affiliations with all political parties. We are called to take back America.

That is what the Ron Paul Revolution is about.

There are only two parties in America today. The Corporate Party, comprised of the Democrats and Republicans who support corporate candidates and those who support individuals with integrity, like Ron Paul. A short list.

The Ron Paul Revolution is bringing America together; that will escalate. Honesty and integrity, speaking truth to power and meaning it, brings its own power.

The idea of a Paul – Kucinich Ticket first saw light of day on my show, The Spiritual Politician, last year when it was proposed by Gene Gaudette, a life long liberal and the editor of American Politics Journal, the longest running E-zine on the Internet. At the time no one believed it possible. The divides were too deep, but Gene was right. Kucinich and Paul disagree on the tools but share the qualities of honesty and integrity for which we hunger. . Elected they would take action to stop war, and there are more wars than the one being waged in Iraq.

Americans are coming to realize that war is being waged on them, using as weapons the very institutions they pay for to ensure our security. Legislation, regulation, the courts, taxation, education; we pay and they use these as weapons to control us.

Those who wanted to ensure their continued profits baffled us with bullshit, trying to bully and frighten us into submission. The ominous threats of 'Communism' still echo in the newly honed cries of 'Islamic terrorists.'

The people so identified are not honest ideologues; they were and are employed to build specious and carefully manipulated ideas into justifications that permit the continuation of their profits. The Greed Grids pour profits into Big Oil. Big Energy, Factory Food, Big Medical, Big Pharma, and Big Killing. As they grew they partnered with Big Money, which many identify as The Fed.

Alan Greenspan was not hired for his brains but because of his connection to Ayn Rand; his presence sustained hope as the policies passed into law stole us blind. It was cheap ideological cover. Examine the work of Milton Friedman's Chicago School in contrast with that of Ludwig von Mises. It is not a free market if it flows through government fingers.

The NeoCons and their employers play with ideas the same way teenaged boys play with themselves. For them the modes for gratification have increased while remaining very focused on personal outcome.

America was divided on manufactured issues. Those in the employ of corporations worked to anger us over issues of personal behavior, the environment, homosexuality, abortion, illegal immigration, 'national security,' marriage, crime, gun control, you name it. Take any of those issues and examine it closely. All push more intrusive, legislation, imposed and enforced by government. Such legislation carries policy that also accomplished a steady increase of subsidies, in military intrusions, diplomatic muscling of foreign governments, no bid contracts to such corporations such as Halliburton and Koch Industries, and most favored donor status that cemented relationships between legislators and those who control the corporate check books.

There is a name for this; that is racketeering. As time went on more intrusive legislation begot more power concentrated in the hands of those who use government as a tool to destroy competition and extinguish the accountability we have a right to expect from everyone, no matter what their income. Virtue comes from how money is earned, not how much.

We need to cut off the flow of funds by stopping the profits to the Grid Corporations.. That means climbing off all the grids.

We must exact accountability for these past wrongs. Profits grabbed through abuse of trust is thievery, plain and simple. Those responsible need to be emptied of funds, left penniless on the street to send a message to future generations of the wishful greedy. We need to compile their names for that accounting.

This is the time to come together to carry out those changes needed to return America to the full realization of individual rights, peace, prosperity, and community that was the original mission. That is the light that should shine out to the world, a beacon of hope.

Do right and you will do well for everyone.

You might think the goal impossible but it has never been closer. Now we see how the People of Greed operate; their greed lead them to expose their avaricious intent, their complete lack of ethics and morals and the fact that most of them come from families that view this kind of theft, like the Mafia, as the 'family business.'

Now we can take action to extinguish their predatory behavior through transparency, accountability, and a real adherence to the principles of individual rights. Never before realized, the idea of individual rights for all remains to be enacted. You have heard the rhetoric but never lived the reality.

Ideas are tools, they are, in fact, the first artifacts of human invention because the idea always comes first; we cannot see or touch them, we can only infer their existence from the material remnants left behind. Philosophies are sets of ideas with no material existence. But the idea we call Natural Rights is an extrapolation of the fact that each person born can, and must, take action to survive. Here, an idea met biological reality.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — “

The revolution came with the word, 'all.' It is not the barons but every person born who possesses rights. The rationalizations that condemned women and blacks to non-person status condemn the unwillingness of those in power to give up the profits that accrued to them. It was wrong. This time we need to make sure that our individual rights are secured; that government affirms those rights.

For most of us that began with political parties. Now, we need to change that framing. Parties have become tools for controlling the people instead of fulfilling their original purpose, that of enabling the people to govern their own affairs.

Today we see both the Republican and Democratic parties manipulate rhetoric to evoke our trust and their own internal rules and the election process to maintain control. When that fails they just cheat.

Future generations will see the Ron Paul campaign as the moment when the people took into their own hands the tool of the Internet to bypass political parties, creating for themselves a new form of government that ignores the framing enforced by politics, the media, and through the structure of rules forced on us by government owned and controlled by corporations.

The Internet connects us in a vast network that knows no hierarchy. It sends a message that resonates with the essential message of Christ, “You are One in Me.” In all the ways we understand ourselves, material and sacred, a revolution is happening as we learn to work together, all political viewpoints, all races and genders, all ages, and all faiths. One.

Two days ago the Libertarian Party passed a unanimously resolution that invited Ron Paul to seek their nomination:

“NOW THEREFORE, in the event that Republican primary voters select a candidate other than Congressman Paul in February of 2008, the Libertarian National Committee urges Congressman Ron Paul to seek the presidential nomination of the Libertarian Party to be decided in Denver, Colorado during Memorial Day weekend of 2008.”

The Libertarian Party was under pressure because of the overwhelming numbers of Libertarians who had contacted members of the National Committee about the Paul candidacy. Former Republican Congressman Bob Barr, now registered Libertarian and serving on the National Committee, authored the resolution, partially reproduced above.

When as much as 80% of your membership speaks, you listen. Barr had also served with Ron in Congress and said of him, “I looked to Ron if I had a question on the correct way to vote. You could count on Ron voting the right way, especially on economic issues.”

We have long expected a realigning election. 2008, by all indications, will be the year when American politics change forever along with our own framing for what it means to be human. Eyes are turning back and forward to community, things that sustain and nurture us in the spirit.

Today Americans are leaving the major parties, disgusted with their corruption, hungry for something they feel should exist. They are finding that in Ron Paul. What comes into existence could be a form of government that mirrors the changes we are seeing taking place through the Internet.

The people are proving, by doing, that they can govern themselves.

Instead of politics as we have known it we can see cooperation through persuasion; consensus built through trust, local organizing, and transparency.

There is much to be done.

We need to take back elections into our own hands. Today they are weapons used to control us. Instead, we should be using paper ballots counted by precinct committees we elect from the precinct; we should tabulate on line where all of those votes can be tallied, and checked, by all.

They will probably steal this primary for one of their corporate candidates; they have the means in place and, clearly, that is their intention.

If that happens we need to keep going. Ron knows his duty and will not fail us.

I remember when local people ran their elections. There was community, trust, cooperation, and kindness. It was a time to come together. We need to come together again, for all of these reasons.

Get off the Grids - Build Coalition – Organize Locally

How The Rockefeller Republicans Raped America: Part 1: William F. Buckley, Jr.

“When in 1951 I was inducted into the CIA as a deep cover agent, the procedures for disguising my affiliation and my work were unsmilingly comprehensive. It was three months before I was formally permitted to inform my wife what the real reason was for going to Mexico City to live. If, a year later, I had been apprehended, dosed with sodium pentothal, and forced to give out the names of everyone I knew in the CIA, I could have come up with exactly one name, that of my immediate boss (E. Howard Hunt, as it happened). In the passage of time one can indulge in idle talk on spook life. In 1980 I found myself seated next to the former president of Mexico at a ski-area restaurant. What, he asked amiably, had I done when I lived in Mexico? "I tried to undermine your regime, Mr. President." He thought this amusing, and that is all that it was, under the aspect of the heavens”.

In 1951 the CIA recruited Yale graduate William F. Buckley, Jr., who wrote the paragraph above, into their ranks as a “deep cover agent.” Yale supplied most of the early agents for the CIA and many of these individuals went on to placement high up in government or in multinational corporations. It was an exclusive fraternity, serving the interests not of Americans but of the corporations. Through their lives they took with them loyalties and a world view that was very different than that of ordinary Americans, uninvested in those very special interests.

There is a case to believe that William Buckley remained in that service. It was not so much service to the CIA as it was to those who had come to control government, the collation of multinational corporations that today have given up trying to hide their intentions with the very public and obvious moves now underway.

Among these are the North American Union, or Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, The driver's licenses, ready for use, show their logo of the whole of North America; the insistence by the Feds on a Real ID that asserts absolute Federal Control; the LESO program that is now converting control of local law enforcement into Federal property. These prove what they denied for years. You can try to go to the LESO site but if you do a block comes up. You can read more about it on the Rockwell site; Lew is not usually an alarmist.

These are the end times, but not in the way Evangelicals have imagined; many who had bought into the Rapture are horrified at the bankruptcy now facing America, brought on by these same interests.

In the name of furthering the agenda or corporations America has justified torture, endless war, covert ops carried out routinely on all of us, and more. We are watching as the markets collapse and as people lose their homes in steadily increasing numbers, as the vital resources that belong to all of us, including the air ways themselves, are sold off along with the water we drink. The only cheering note is the report that 'they' are now preparing to destroy the evidence of this in Washington D. C., so perhaps Bush intends to leave after all, failing to finish what his grandfather Prescott Bush planned in 1943, the military take over of the US government.

Those working on this are relatively small in number. Buckley is one of them.

William Buckley was trained and paid by the CIA as a covert agent; he admits this as a matter of simple fact. If you look closely at his actions between 1951 and now there are many reasons to conclude he never left that job; all that changed was his assignment and perhaps how he was compensated.

To control the direction of America it was essential to limit the ideas in politics, especially movements that changed the framing regarding the power of government and the rights of the people. At that point in time there was only one movement that worried them.

Between the mid 50s and the 70s Buckley did all in his power to become Mr. Conservative. But there is no reason to believe he was, in fact, a conservative. He is identified with the Rockefeller wing of the GOP; his actions agree with the agenda of that political faction by his own contemporary quotes. His presence as a self-declared Conservative was founded on intense intellectual masturbation that ignored the unifying issues from which the Conservatism of that movement had derived.

Buckley did not win identification as a Conservative by enacting the ideas of Conservatism, he did so by simply repeating over and over that he was a Conservative, introducing microanalysis of issues that ignored the foundation for those ideas in the works of Locke and in the Declaration of Independence. Baffle with Thy Bullshit should be engraved on his forehead.

When that proved to be less than compelling to people looking for the truth Buckley changed tactics, destroying the people who lead and had created that movement. Their lives and actions tell us they were Conservatives; the records of their lives clearly prove that they understood the principles of limited government, individual rights, and adherence to the Constitution.

If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and lays duck eggs, it is a duck. Goldwater, Ayn Rand and Robert Welch were ducks. Buckley was a turkey trying to quack convincingly. William Buckley was no Ronald Reagan.

In the years following the Second World War American government, in collusion with corporations, was making war on the right of Americans to organize and restructure all they perceived as wrong with government. As that new movement began, dedicated to the ideas of limited government, individual rights, and the Constitution, corporations in collusion with the CIA, took up a covert war. To carry this out those who wanted to instead extend the power of corporations through government created the boogie man of Communism and recruited agents.

Children cowered under their desks to perpetuate that boogie man.

Many of those men involved in the planning stages of the Cold War had had dealings with the Soviet Union as they had had with Nazi Germany; those interests were purely financial. Living in a world of their creation, driven by money, they saw the world through the lens of corporations. They therefore owed allegiance to no nation; they were above such considerations, coming to view the issues of America as less weighty than of maintaining their own profits. Profits depended on an unending supply of oil.

All of the actions taken from then until now point to the goal of acquiring the oil reserves of which Everette Lee DeGolyer, the singular guru of oil they regarded as the preeminent world expert, had said, “No such galaxy of fields of the first magnitude over such a wide area has been developed previously in the history of the oil industry.” DeGolyer had returned from a survey of the Middle East.

The corporate interests, now merged with government in the US, were following through with a strategy intended to lower the costs of corporations in obtaining oil. Oil was the life's blood that pumped through their veins. The fact that Communism was no threat was irrelevant; the corporations needed a threat so they could continue to justify control just as they do today with threats of extremist Muslims.

The individuals who then were organizing to oppose them were gulled by the threats of Communism; they believed the people who they thought of as fellow Americans. The real Conservatives were naive but honest. They included men like Taft and Barry Goldwater; Ayn Rand and Ludwig von Mises. They came from diverse background but they shared a belief in the ideas expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the free market that America had never really had. They believed in individual freedom and the sovereignty of the individual before the existence of government. They dreams of freedom.

To men like Buckley, operating in the 50s and 60s, it must have been like stealing candy from a baby. Buckley's motives went deep. His father, William F. Buckley, Sr., had been an oil man in Venezuela whose interests were truncated by the move in that country to take control of that resource.

Buckley had very personal motives.

Now it is clear that all of those closely associated with the small group who worked to eviscerate the role of the United Nations, manicure the political environment in the United States, and weld the corporations to government had ties to Big Oil. The small group included George H. W. Bush, Sr., Maurice Strong, and Robert O. Anderson. Big Oil understood how much they had to lose if Americans had real choices. This period is also marked by the disappearance of various better carburetors and other innovations that improved gas and oil efficiency. These patents were typically bought up by oil companies and never used.

Communism was a distraction that kept the eyes of Americans off the ball and allowed for the continued plundering of oil reserves in the Middle East – and elsewhere as they were discovered.

Back home, Buckley made sure that the use of the military as an adjunct for corporate leveraging against other countries continued by destroying the potential objections from within the Conservative Movement.

Using government in this way gave rise to a very different attitude about their own mis gotten wealth and about people who lived simple, decent lives. You see the fully developed attitude in this Straussianism, which expressed this as, “if you are destined to rule then you may rightly ignore the rules made for lesser men.” This is self serving and ugly and it is possible that the hyper intellectual rationalizations used by Buckley and the others came from their unconscious knowledge that their actions were morally and ethically bankrupt.

Many of Buckley's fellow CIA recruits shared his affiliation with Skull and Bones, where who you know and how, provides yet another layer of artificial elitism. Members of that fellowship guaranteed a lifetime of easy times paid for by those whose long term associations have made them rich at the expense of ordinary Americans. Few are inclined to bite the hand that holds the caviar.

Those who employed Bush, Buckley and their cronies are the descendants of the mercantilists either by genes or by practice.

No matter where they come from they share that they are the inheritors of the devious practices of those who see government as an extension of their power. Today we know them as Corporatists, Oil Barons, the 28,000 Elite. Their moral ancestors were the ship owners who ignored the disgust of other New Englanders, making their services available to slavers and dealing in slaves themselves.

Earlier generations knew them as the people who moved in on the profits to be made from the Civil War, a war fought to establish a more powerful Federal State and not to end slavery. A generation later John D. Rockefeller would establish his own line of avarice using the same techniques.

William F. Buckley was never a Conservative any more than Monica Lewinsky was an innocent virgin when she met Bill Clinton. And examination of his actions over a life time reveals no nuance of action that affirmed the principles of Conservatism. His stock in trade was deceptive rhetoric. Debunking the ideas of Conservatism by his failure to defend them over and over again, he continued to claim the mantle. He could never have accomplished that if he had not gone after the real leaders of that movement.

Buckley's 1957 attack on Ayn Rand came in the form of a bizarre review of “Atlas Shrugged,” her most prominent novel, put out under the imprimatur of National Review. National Review would follow the strategy of later publications that are used in serial to excoriate individuals and reframe issues while continuing to carry enough unexceptional material so as to keep philosophical adherents oblivious to the real agenda, puzzled but not moved to attack.

Also essential was to control the youth. In 1960 Buckley used his estate in Sharon, Connecticut for the founding meeting of the Young Americans for Freedom. This did not work out as planned. The group immediately broke into two factions, reflecting two viewpoints that continue to drive politics today. The Rockefeller wing was a simple political extension of corporatism. The Conservative wing eventually dominating, representing the principles of small government, individual rights, and a non-interventionist foreign policy. These had been the principles of Robert Taft, who Buckley sought to displace in the minds of young Americans by promoting the candidacy of Barry Goldwater.

Credited with supporting the candidacy of Goldwater through National Review in 1964, Buckley gave public support to that candidacy because Goldwater's platform, rather than taking the clean non-interventionist viewpoint of Alliances with None, instead promised only to end the draft as soon as possible, according to Rockwell in his essay, “Before the Storm.”

War was essential to the successful prosecution of the corporate agenda; the other issues would have been largely irrelevant at that point in time. Buckley's later attitude towards Goldwater was dismissive. His support at the time had provided invaluable credentials and deflected resistance to the War in Vietnam. Providing very public support to a candidate who the loses badly is perfect positioning for the take over of the resulting political movement.

Those attacks included the devastating assaults on Robert Welch, the founder of the John Birch Society for the shocking crime of saying, in 1965, that the Vietnam War was immoral and unconstitutional because Congress had not declared war. In those attacks Welch was characterized as, “just a candy maker from Connecticut.” A curious commentary from someone whose very accent lies.

The agenda was war for the profit of oil, pure and simple.

Most people believe because of that accent William F. Buckley, Jr., is the scion of old Eastern money, probably New England. In fact, he is the son of William Frank Buckley, Sr., a Texas oil baron whose fortune was made wildcatting in Venezuela and Mexico. Their descent is Swiss-German and they are Irish Catholics.

I have come to think of this as Buckley's personal addition to the war of ideas, waged against opponents who had accepted him as a friend.

Even today most members of what we generally call The Freedom Movement, have not noticed the larger strategy used with the publication of bifurcated support on issues that leaves the reader uncertain of the real principles involved. Today we also must deal with the misdirecting websites used to deflect a clear understanding of issues also using this strategic approach.

For real Conservatives and the Libertarians who followed them, government should remain strictly limited and local; the rights of individuals are respected. The people do it for themselves; Government is best that governs least. That is Conservatism.

Buckley knew how to exude the rhetoric, leading the mind down into a sink of nuance and mincing fantasy, never the reality. For Buckley, who never encountered reality himself, and for his fellow privileged CIA James Bond wannabes, reality was what they wished to believe it to be.

He wrote this in 1952 in an article for Commonweal.

“We have got to accept Big Government for the duration—for neither an offensive nor a defensive war can be waged, given our present government skills, except through the instrument of a totalitarian bureaucracy within our shores. … And if they deem Soviet power a menace to our freedom (as I happen to), they will have to support large armies and air forces, atomic energy, central intelligence, war production boards, and the attendant centralization of power in Washington—even with Truman at the reins of it all.”

In recent years Buckley has often gloated over his success. Growing older he lives in a world of privilege gained through betrayal and lies. It was probably a lot of fun; a career of profitable work that was great for the ego and pocketbook simultaneously. He was probably laid frequently. Evidently when you have no conscience the only truth that matters is written in dollar signs.

That is the first part of the series. More coming soon on those who subverted freedom.

What Ben Laden, Bush, GE and Tammy Faye Baker have in common

What do Osama Ben Laden, George Bush, the Board of Directors for GE, and Tammy Faye Baker have in common? The answer is not their choice of eye liner.

They all profited, or are still profiting, from genocide. Of the group the only one who objected to what was going on, and not for the reasons that would strike Americans as appropriate, was Osama Ben Laden.

The conflict in the Middle East is escalating as the tides of death rise throughout the region. This is the ugly reality that America has tolerated. It is an ongoing genocide that began in Palestine in 1948 and which has continued, an open secret to which Americans remain largely oblivious, as children are used for target practice by Israeli soldiers and peace workers are mangled.

There are more questions than anyone can answer in one interview, more questions than can be answered in a life time, most likely. But the broad strokes are here and those provide the mapping for the territory we will be exploring.

It has been claimed by many that Palestinians celebrated when they heard about the attacks on the Twin Towers. Not only was this untrue, it was an intentionally fabricated lie rolled out using film from an event years before almost immediately. Our anger stilled potential protests and the questions we should have then asked.

For the last more than 50 years America has poured money into Israel, more money than is received in foreign aid by all other countries combined. America pays for Israeli weapons that Israel then uses to kill Palestinians, using those Palestinian children for target practice.

Israeli's today live a prosperous life style; Their economy continues to prosper. Americans who subsidize them through taxes experience economic downturns from every direction.

Nothing about American foreign policy and Israel makes sense, least of all the eradication of a country to make way for the condos and clubs that are displacing the rightful owners of the land that in 1948 was Palestine.

But if you take into account the flow of funds through the fingers of the avaricious it all makes perfect sense. When you understand the who, what, why, and how they all profit the pieces come together like a jig saw puzzle. You need to know because every day your life is impacted by those lines of greed and their greed increases faster than we can produce money for them to steal.

You thought these issues were unrelated. You were mistaken. The world is fraught with congruence, most of it leading today to the pockets of around 28,000 individuals.

Evangelical Christians have cooperated in this annihilation of human life and with the stripping of property from families that lived and worked on the land for hundreds of years in many cases. They do so because their eyes are firmly fixed on Heaven, where some portion of them believe that they will see Jesus Christ descending at any moment. Most of the faithful really believe that. Those who collect their offerings every Sunday mostly do not.

Where did these people come from? Who is responsible for their odd set of beliefs? The answers are horrifying, but interesting.

The several factions of theologically based post and pre millennialists have managed to make their followers believe in a revisionist Bible; they claim to have discovered their solemn absurdities at a time when the world is headed in the direction of piercing the veil of ignorance that has both frightened and intrigued humanity for uncounted generations. It is as if a subset of the most intellectually challenged of the American culture decided that if the unvarnished truth meant they would lose their power then they would simply cancel science and all other provable truth.

At the same time Americans and the rest of the world was moving towards an enlightened sense of spiritual connection these folks were looking for the reverse gear.

Ideas most Americans had rejected, for instance the idea the world was flat, that we did not actually land on the Moon, among others, didn't even make them blink. Given how their minds work tossing ideas like the separation of church and state in the dust bin was easy.

Economically and socially their beliefs were marginalizing them, making them unable to compete in the larger world. There is a logic to ideas when they are allowed to make their outcomes seen in life. Most of them were and are white men who regretted the final installation of civil rights for Blacks in the South; they are determined not to let women escape their grasp. They harken wistfully to a time when sitting around theorizing did not bring them face to face with the need for objective proof. They were looking for a way out. Their exit came with dollar signs from Big Oil using the only medium available to them, theology.

This low end trailer park trash, who spent their time scrunching up their faces to redefine words translated any number of times from languages having a culture of which they were entirely ignorant, were capable of any self-serving delusion. Those who funded them from those corporations simply nodded and wrote the checks. They understood what they were buying, having also purchased Palestine for hysterical Zionists as the perfect medium for injecting themselves into the Middle East, in close proximity to all that lovely oil.

They needed desperately to control the political direction of America.

Politics entered the equation with Karl Rove, Ralph Reed, Pat Robertson, Jack Abramoff, and the cadre of other Young Republicans who decided in the 70s that the way to hold on to control of a GOP, that was then moving towards responsible social and environmental policy, was to change the party's demographics.

They looked around and found some likely candidates in the marginalized Yellow Dog Democrats who inhabited low end Southern Churches, the same people who seriously listened to the theologizers who sat around redesigning reality to suit their fantasies.

Money can accomplish a lot when you are inherently deceitful and have no discernible ethical or moral qualms.

Suddenly big infusions of cash and an abrupt shift in party allegiance had accomplished what most people thought impossible. The source of the money was major corporations who were getting what they paid for. The intermediaries were their new NeoCon employees. We can be sure they were well compensated.

And so time and social progress reversed itself through the lead provided by Rovian, Reedian, and Robertsonian acolytes of fantasy land and the retreat to a bizarre Antebellum South began.

Now you see it.

These same people today own their own jets, multiple residences, and hob nob with Presidents – who they put into office. They indulge their own fantasies as we watch a genocide play out in Palestine and the price of war in the Middle East rises in a wave of Corporate orgasmic excess that the world will never forget.

At home the pumping sound of American blood provides a counter point that marks the flow of funds.

The bottom line of human action is always either sex, power, or money. The three are really interchangeable for most of those involved.

The TheoCons provide the political matrix through which that 180 degree turn away reality took place. They did it with a mythology that worked on the uneducated and credulous, which too polite liberals treated kindly because they pitied those who were so obviously, they thought, retarded.

We will begin unwinding the story and naming the players Friday, at 4pm Pacific Time on the Spiritual Politician on BBSRadio.com with Col. David Antoon and Tammy Watts, who between them have spent decades studying the issues.