Home > A Culture of Corruption by Bill Moyers
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Published on Thursday, April 6, 2006 by the Washington Spectator
A Culture of Corruption
Let’s Save Our Democracy by Getting Money Out of Politics
by Bill Moyers
Money is choking our democracy to death. Our elections are bought out from under us and our public officials are doing the bidding of mercenaries. So powerful is the hold of wealth on politics that we cannot say America is working for all Americans. The majority may support such broad social goals as affordable medical coverage for all, decent wages for working people, safe working conditions, a secure retirement, and clean air and water, but there is no government "of, by, and for the people" to deliver on those aspirations.
Our system of privately financed campaigns has shut regular people out of any meaningful participation in democracy. Less than one-half of one percent of all Americans made a political contribution of $200 or more to a federal candidate in 2004. When the average cost of winning a seat in the House of Representatives has topped $1 million, we can no longer refer to that chamber as "The People’s House." Congress belongs to the highest bidder.
At the same time that the cost of getting elected is exploding beyond the reach of ordinary people, the business of influencing our elected representatives has become a growth industry. Since President Bush was elected the number of registered lobbyists in Washington has more than doubled. That’s 16,342 lobbyists in 2000 and 34,785 last year: 65 lobbyists for every member of Congress. The total spent per month by special interests wining, dining, and seducing federal officials is now nearly $200 million. Per month.
Numbers don’t tell the whole story. With pro-corporate officials running both the executive and legislative branches, lobbying that was once reactive has sallied forth to buy huge chunks of public policy. One example: In 2004 the computer maker Hewlett-Packard sought Republican-backed legislation that would enable it to bring back to the United States, at a dramatically lowered tax rate, as much as $14.5 billion in profits from foreign subsidiaries. The company nearly doubled its budget for contract lobbyists and took on an elite lobbying firm as its Washington arm. Presto! The legislation passed. The company’s director of government affairs was quite candid: "We’re trying to take advantage of the fact that Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the White House."
GREED WITHOUT APOLOGIES-I am an equal opportunity muckraker. Anyone who saw the documentary my team and I produced on the illegal fund-raising for Bill Clinton’s re-election knows I am no fan of the Democratic money-machine that helped tear away the party from whatever roots it had in the struggles of working people. But today the Republicans own the government lock, stock, and barrel. And they have turned their self-proclaimed revolution into a cash cow.
Look back at the bulk of legislation passed by Congress in the past decade: an energy bill that gives oil companies huge tax breaks at the same time that ExxonMobil has just posted $36.13 billion in profits and our gasoline and home heating bills are at an all-time high; a bankruptcy "reform" bill written by credit card companies to make it harder for poor debtors to escape the burdens of divorce or medical catastrophe; the deregulation of the banking, securities and insurance sectors, which brought on rampant corporate malfeasance and greed and the destruction of the retirement plans of millions of small investors; the deregulation of the telecommunications sector, which led to cable industry price-gouging and an undermining of news coverage; protection for rampant overpricing of pharmaceutical drugs; and the blocking of even the mildest attempt to prevent American corporations from dodging an estimated $50 billion in annual taxes by opening a P.O. box in an off-shore tax haven like the Cayman Islands.
In every case the results were produced by rivers of cash flowing to favored politicians from interests whose return on their investment put Wall Street equities to shame. This happens because our public representatives need huge sums to finance their campaigns, especially to pay for television advertising. The masters of the money game have taken advantage of that weakness in our democracy to turn our elections into auctions.
A WALK DOWN K STREET-It’s the Wall Street of lobbying, the address of many of Washington’s biggest lobbying firms. The "K Street Project"-the most successful shakedown operation since the first Gilded Age-was the brainchild of Representative Tom DeLay and Grover Norquist, the right-wing strategist who famously said that his goal is to shrink government so that it can be "drowned in a bathtub" (when, finally, it will be too impotent to protect democracy from plunder and powerless citizens from the rapacity of corporate power). For his part, Tom DeLay ran a pest exterminating business in Sugar Land, Texas, where he hated government regulators who dared to tell him that some of the pesticides he used were dangerous. He got himself elected to the Texas legislature at a time when the Republicans were becoming the majority in the once-solid Democratic South, and early in his new career "Hot Tub Tom," as he was known in Austin, became a born-again Christian.
In addition to finding Jesus, Tom DeLay discovered the power of money to drive his career. By raising more than $2 million from lobbyists and business groups and distributing it to dozens of Republican candidates in 1994, the year of the Republican breakthrough in the House, DeLay bought the loyalty of many freshmen legislators who helped elect him Majority Whip, the House’s number three man.
He wasted no time in inviting lobbyists to write the Republican agenda. Their first priority was "Project Relief"-"relief" from labor standards that protected workers from the physical injuries of repetitive work, "relief" from tougher rules on meat inspection, "relief" from effective monitoring of hazardous air pollutants. Scores of companies were soon adding one juicy and expensive tidbit after another. On the eve of the debate, according to Michael Weisskopf and David Maraniss of the Washington Post, 20 major corporate groups advised lawmakers that "this was a key vote, one that would be considered in future campaign contributions."
The Machine was off and running. As then-Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich famously told the lobbyists: "If you are going to play in our revolution, you have to live by our rules." The rules were simple enough. Contribute to Republicans only. Hire only Republicans as lobbyists (priority preference: DeLay’s own staff). Centralize the power to write legislation in the hands of the party bosses (assisted by hovering lobbyists). Allow no amendments. Produce bills in secret. Permit members no time to read them. Pass important bills late at night. Avoid compromise by banning Democrats from conference committees. Give lobbyists and campaign contributors what they want.
While examples abound of how the rules stacked the deck, consider one: the Medicare prescription coverage bill. Enacted after midnight, its hundreds and hundreds of pages unintelligible to anyone but lobbyists, the legislation enriched the pharmaceutical and insurance companies while giving senior citizens and taxpayers the shaft.
THE MONEY MAN-DeLay, who had announced that God had chosen him to return American to a "biblical worldview," needed help to sustain the cash flow necessary for spreading the Gospel of Greed. He found it in a fellow right-wing ideologue named Jack Abramoff, who personified the K-Street money-machine of which DeLay, with the blessing of his party’s leaders, was the major-domo. It was Abramoff who helped DeLay raise those millions of dollars from campaign donors to create the base for an empire of corruption.
Abramoff has now pleaded guilty to fraud, tax evasion, and conspiracy to bribe public officials. It’s a spectacular fall for a man whose rise to power began in his school days with his election as chairman of the College Republicans. Despite its innocuous name, the organization became a political attack machine for the far right and a launching pad for younger conservatives on the make.
"Our job," Abramoff, then 22 years old, wrote after his first visit to the Reagan White House, "is to remove liberals from power permanently. . . ." (He would later acknowledge that his agenda also included moving K Street closer to the Republican Party.) Karl Rove had once held the same job as chairman. So did Grover Norquist, who ran Abramoff’s campaign. A youthful $200-a-month intern named Ralph Reed was at their side. These were the rising young stars of the conservative movement who came to town to lead a revolution and stayed to run a racket.
CASINO ROYALE-Abramoff made his name, so to speak, representing Indian tribes and their gambling interests. As his partner he hired a DeLay crony named Michael Scanlon. Together they would bilk half a dozen tribes who hired them to protect their gambling interests from competition. What the two men had to offer, of course, was their connections to the Republican power structure, including members of Congress, friends at the White House (Abramoff’s personal assistant became the personal assistant of Karl Rove), Christian Right activists like Reed, and right-wing ideologues like Norquist. The network hummed smoothly for its inside traders-as, for example, when two lobbying clients of Abramoff paid $25,000 to Norquist’s organization, Americans for Tax Reform, for lunch at the White House and a meeting with President Bush in May 2001, according to the Texas Observer.
In a scheme they called "Gimme Five." Abramoff would refer tribes to Scanlon for grassroots public-relations work, and Scanlon would then kick back about 50 percent to Abramoff, all without the tribes’ knowledge. Before it was over, the tribes had paid the two lobbyists $82 million, much of it going directly into Abramoff’s and Scanlon’s pockets. And that doesn’t count the thousands more that Abramoff directed the tribes to pay out in campaign contributions.
Some of the money found its way into an outfit called the Council of Republicans for Environment Advocacy, founded by Gale Norton before she was appointed to run the Department of the Interior, which-surprise! surprise!-is the agency most responsible for Indian gaming rights. Some went to so-called charities, set up by Abramoff and DeLay, that filtered money for lavish trips for members of Congress and their staffs, as well as salaries for Congressional family members and DeLay’s pet projects.
And some of the money found its way to the Holy High Rollers of the Christian Right. Ralph Reed, for one, had his hand out. Reed had become the religious right’s poster boy against gambling ("We believe gambling is a cancer on the American body politic," he had said). Now Abramoff and Scanlon would pay Reed some $4 million to help them protect their own gaming interests. His assignment was to whip up Christian opposition to gambling initiatives that could cut into the profits of Abramoff’s clients.
Reed enlisted some of the brightest stars in the Christian firmament in a ruse conducted on Abramoff’s behalf: they would oppose gambling on religious and moral grounds in strategic places at decisive moments when competition threatened Abramoff’s clients. Bogus Christian groups were part of the strategy. A gaggle of influential Baptist preachers in Texas danced to Reed’s fiddling. Folks in Louisiana heard the voice of God on the radio-performed by Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson-thundering against a riverboat gambling scheme that Abramoff feared would jeopardize the profits of a client. Reed even got James Dobson, whose nationwide radio "ministry" reaches millions of people (and whose videos helped Tom DeLay find Jesus) to deluge the Interior Department and White House with telephone calls from indignant Christians.
Abramoff arranged for the Mississippi Choctaws, who were trying to stave off competition from other tribes, to contribute over $1 million to Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform, which then passed the money along to the Alabama Christian Coalition and to another anti-gambling group Reed had duped into aiding the cause. It is unclear how much these Christian soldiers knew about the true purpose of their crusade, but Reed knew all along that his money was coming from Abramoff. The e-mails between the two men read like a modern version of Elmer Gantry.
As reported by the Washington Post and National Journal, some of Abramoff’s money from lobbying went to start a non-profit organization called the U.S. Family Network, founded with the help of a top aide to Tom DeLay while he was still in DeLay’s employ (his salary at the time paid by-you guessed it-taxpayers). DeLay even wrote a fundraising letter in its behalf. The group announced that its purpose was to promote policies favorable for "families, the economic prosperity, social improvement, moral fitness, and general well being of the United States," and its fund-raising screeds warned that the American family "is being attacked from all sides: crime, drugs, pornography . . . and gambling." But its first donation came from the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, followed by other Abramoff clients who couldn’t care less about the professed moral agenda.
The U.S. Family Network turns out to be another scam in the Abramoff-DeLay money laundering machine. Its money paid for attack ads on Democrats, bought a townhouse three blocks from DeLay’s Congressional quarters, providing him with free office space where he could go to raise funds for the Machine, and awarded DeLay’s wife a sizable salary.
But that’s the least of it. Working with Abramoff through a now defunct law firm in London and an obscure offshore company in the Bahamas, oil and gas executives from Russia used the U.S. Family Network to funnel money to influence Tom DeLay, then-majority leader of the House of Representatives. A Christian pastor recruited to serve as the titular president of the organization was told by DeLay’s sidekick that $1 million was passed through from sources in Russia who wanted DeLay’s support for legislation enabling the International Monetary Fund to bail out the faltering Russian economy without demanding new taxes on the country’s energy industry. Lo and behold, there was Tom Delay, appearing on an obliging Fox News television show, arguing the Russian position. The rueful pastor who was the organization’s nominal head said he was told, "This is the way things work in Washington."
"REFORM" TALK FIZZLES-The Republican leaders would have us believe this is just a "lobbying scandal." They assume that if they pass a few minor reforms to put a little distance between the politician and the lobbyist, we will think everything is okay and they can go back to business as usual. Just look at Congressman John Boehner, elected to replace Tom DeLay as House Majority Leader. He’s been a full player in the K Street Project and DeLay’s money machine. The top lobbyists in town frequent his office. He thinks nothing of cruising with them in the Caribbean or of hopping on corporate jets arranged by them. This is the man who ten years ago moved around the floor of the House-the "People’s House"-handing out checks from tobacco executives.
As for Tom Delay? He is under indictment in Texas for money laundering and had to resign as Majority Leader. But just the other day the party bosses gave him a seat on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, where big contributors get their rewards. And-are you ready for this?-they put him on the subcommittee overseeing the budget of the Justice Department, which is investigating the Abramoff scandal, including Abramoff’s connections to DeLay. I’m not making this up. It’s business as usual. Rotten business as usual.
I have touched on only a few of the astonishing details pouring out about the sacking of Washington. The corrupting power of money in politics is an old story. This time is different, because in a one-party government the opposition is impotent and the corporate media, with a few notable exceptions, have bought into the notion that this is "just the way Washington works." Already the calls for reform are fading away.
CLEAN ELECTIONS-You may say, "What can we do about it? These forces are too rich, too powerful, too entrenched to be defeated." Maybe. But if others had given up before us, blacks would still be three-fifths of a person, women wouldn’t have the vote, workers couldn’t organize, and children would still be working in the mines. It’s time to fight again. These people in Washington have no right to be doing what they are doing. It’s not their government, it’s your government. They work for you, and if they let you down and sell you out, they should be fired. That goes for everyone, from the lowliest bureaucrat in town to the senior leaders of Congress on up to the president of the United States. The stakes are too high for us to give up.
Fortunately, there is something we can do. A movement is gathering across the country that could restore democracy to a country run by money. It’s the "clean money" campaign for the public funding of our elections. Maine led the way in 2000. Arizona followed suit. So have several municipalities, including Portland, Oregon, and Albuquerque, New Mexico. Races are more competitive and attract a more diverse group of candidates.
No sooner had Janet Napolitano been elected governor of Arizona under the state’s public financing program than she instituted reforms establishing low-cost prescription drug subsidies for seniors. There have also been advances in Maine in providing low-cost prescription drugs for residents. Why? Because the politicians write the legislation, not the lobbyists.
Look what happened in Connecticut last year, a state rocked by multiple political scandals. People decided to break the link between big donors and public officials. By December the legislature had passed clean-money reform, banning campaign contributions from lobbyists and state contractors. Connecticut is the first state where the legislature and governor have approved full public funding for their own races. In thirty other states clean-money campaigns are also forming. (You can find out more about the movement at the website of Public Campaign.)
While public funding won’t solve all the problems-the Abramoffs and DeLays of the world will always find ways to abuse the public trust-it would go a long way toward restoring the hope of government "of, by, and for the people." Even some business lobbyists are having second thoughts. Business Week recently quoted one of them as saying: "As a conservative, I’ve always opposed government involvement. But it seems to me the real answer is federal financing of Congressional elections."
Just think: For about $10 per taxpayer, per year, we, the people, could buy back our politicians in Congress and the White House with full public funding. But time is running out. Unless we offer qualified candidates a different source of campaign funding with clean, disinterested and accountable public money, the selling of America will go on, and we will wake up one day in a country we no longer recognize.
Bill Moyers is a broadcast journalist and former host the PBS program NOW With Bill Moyers. Moyers also serves as president of the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy.
2006 Public Concern Foundation, Inc.
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Forum posts
8 April 2006, 07:44
Absolutely on target. This has been an corporate war to raid the one time huge surplus amassed by the Baby Boomer taxes during peak earn years. The ominous Military Industrial Complex has not only influenced Bush and company..........it has been BROUGHT INSIDE. Just follow the money trail.
Department
Rank
Name
Affiliation(s)
Compensation
White House/ Executive
President
George W. Bush
ex-energy industry CEO
N/A
White House/ Executive
Vice President
Dick Cheney
CEO, shareholder of Halliburton (oil, defense construction)
$35.1 mil. salary, $500,001-$1 mil. deferred comp., $1-$5 mil. Cash Value Bonus Plan
director, Procter & Gamble
$250,001-$500,000 shareholder, restricted stock
director, Brown and Root Saudi Limited Co.
N/A
shareholder, Anadarko Petroleum
$250,001-$500,000 deferred stock payment
Lynn Cheney, wife of Vice President
director, Lockheed Martin
$500,000-$1,000,000 deferred fees
White House/ Executive
National Security Advisor
Condoleezza Rice
board member, Chevron
$250,000- $500,000 restricted stock
White House/ Executive
U.S. Trade Representative
Robert Zoellick
advisory council, Enron
$50,000 fees
director, Said Holdings, investment firm brokered numerous British-Saudi arms deals
fees, under $200,000
White House/ Executive
Deputy U.S. Trade Representative
Linnet Deily
director, shareholder, Reliant Energy
up to $600,000 stock, retirement benefits, life insurance
White House/ Executive
Deputy National Security Adviser
Stephen Hadley
board member, ANSER Analytic Services, (major defense contractor)
$20,000
partner, Shea and Gardner, law firm representing Lockheed Martin
N/A
White House/ Executive
Assistant to the President; Dir. Of Legislative Affairs
Nicholas Calio
paid consultant, Motorola (significant defense contractor)
N/A
White House/ Executive
Senior Advisor to the President
Karl Rove
shareholder, Enron and Boeing
$100,001-$250,000 each
White House/ Executive
Chief of Staff to Vice President
I. Lewis Libby
consultant, Northrop Grumman
$6,000
White House/ Executive
Chairman, President’s Council of Economic Advisors
Lawrence B. Lindsey
paid consultant, and sat on advisory board, Enron
N/A
Defense
Secretary
Donald H. Rumsfeld
director, Gilead Sciences (biotech)
up to $30 million stock
director, Asea Brown Boveri LTD. (nuclear energy)
$148,020
limited partner, SCF-III LP (energy)
$17,000
director, Gulfstream Aerospace (now a General Dynamics subsidiary), which specializes in corporate jets and "special mission" aircraft sold to foreign governments for military use
$5,000
Defense
Under Secretary for Comptroller
Dov Zakheim
vice president, Systems Planning Corporation (defense consulting firm)
$277,749
paid advisory board, Northrop Grumman
$11,000
Defense
Under Secretary for Policy
Douglas J. Feith
shareholder, Sunoco
up to $650,000 stock
president and managing partner of former law firm, Feith & Zell, clients include Loral Space and Communications Ltd, Northrop Grumman
$5,000 in fees for each client, salary of $246,045 at law firm
Defense
Under Secretary for Personnel & Readiness
David S.C. Chu
vice president, Rand Corp. (major Pentagon consulting and research firm)
$226,000
Defense
Under Secretary for Acquisition, Technology & Logistics
Edward C. "Pete" Aldridge Jr.
CEO, Aerospace Corp., a nonprofit defense research firm which has received more than $600 million for work at the Space and Missiles Defense Center, Los Angeles (a top 100 defense contractor)
$470,000 salary
United Industrial Corp.(defense), director, shareholder
$35,000 fees, up to $250,000 stock
director, AAI (defense)
$4,000
vice president, McDonell Douglas Electronics
N/A
Defense
Deputy Secretary
Paul Wolfowitz
co-chairman of Nunn-Wolfowitz task force, Hughes Electronics
$300,000
consultant, Northrop Grumman
$6,000 fees
consultant, BP Amoco
$10,000 fees
Defense
Undersecretary
Michael Wynne
senior vice president, General Dynamics, International Planning and Development, 25 years in defense industry at GD and Martin Marietta
N/A
Defense
Director, Office of Independent Testing and Evaluation
Thomas Christie
director, Institute for Defense Analysis (major Pentagon consulting firm), Operational Evaluation Division
N/A
Air Force
Secretary
James Roche
former president, Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems, in charge of combat avionics, defensive systems, space systems among others, began career with Northrop Grumman in 1984
N/A
Air Force
Assistant Secretary for Installations, Environment and Logistics
Nelson F. Gibbs
corporate comptroller 1991-1999, Northrop Grumman
N/A
Air Force
Assistant Secretary
Peter B. Teets
chief operating officer, Lockheed Martin, 37 years in defense industry
N/A
Navy
Secretary
Gordon England
former executive vice president, General Dynamics, 20 years in defense industry with GD and Lockheed
N/A
Army
Secretary
Thomas E. White
vice president, Enron Energy Services, negotiated major contract for Enron with Army
N/A
Energy
Under Secretary
Robert Card
senior vice president, director, CH2M Hill Companies (defense construction)
up to $7.25 mil. stock
president, CEO, Kaiser-Hill, subsidiary of CH2M
$1.1 million salary
Energy
Deputy Secretary
Francis S. Blake
GE, diversified manufacturing co. with major interests in defense and energy sectors, senior vice president for Business Development
$686,000 salary, $38 mil. Stock, deferred salary/pension
Energy
Administrator for Defense Programs (includes nuclear weapons work)
Everet Beckner
deputy chief executive, Lockheed Martin’s representative in three company consortium running Britain’s nuclear weapons complex (Atomic Weapons Establishment)
N/A
State
Secretary
Colin Powell
shareholder, General Dynamics
$1 to $5 mil. stock
honorarium for speaking, Carlyle Group
$100,000
honorariums, Arthur Andersen, GE Power Systems
$59,500 each
director, Gulfstream Aerospace
$5,000
State
Under Secretary for Management
Grant Green
president, CEO, GMD Solutions (marketing, defense sector)
$103,500 salary
State
Under Secretary of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs
Charlotte Beers
shareholder, Litton Industries (defense)
$250,001-$500,000 stock
shareholder, GE
$500,001-$1 mil. stock
State
Deputy Secretary
Richard Armitage
president and partner, Armitage Assoc. LLP (consulting for Raytheon, Boeing, Brown and Root, Science Application International and other defense contractors), also served on boards of Raytheon and Mantech
$246,965 salary
GE, Coastal Corp. (defense), shareholder
$500,001-$1 mil. each
State
Assistant Secretary for Latin America
Otto Reich
Worked as paid lobbyist for Lockheed Martin, promoting sale of F-16 comba<_t aircraft to
N/A
Commerce
Secretary
Donald L. Evans
CEO, Tom Brown Inc. (oil services)
$36 mil., salary, stock, bonuses, severance pay, $669,000 salary
director, shareholder, TMBR Sharp Drilling Inc.
$5,000 pay, up to $500,000 stock
Commerce
Under Secretary for Economic Affairs
Kathleen B. Cooper
chief economist, shareholder, Exxon Mobil Corp.
$1,838,953 salary, $6.5 mil. stock and options
Commerce
Deputy Secretary
Samuel W. III Bodman
CEO, Cabot Corporation (oil/manufacturing firm)
$108 mil., company stock, deferred compensation, pensions
Transportation
Secretary
Norman Mineta
special business initiative vice president, shareholder, Lockheed Martin
$130,000 salary, $80,000 stock
board member, MELE Assoc., (tech consulting for Lockheed, Depts. of Energy, State, Transportation)
up to $50,000 stock
Transportation
Deputy Secretary
Michael Jackson
vice president, Lockheed Martin, chief operating officer Lockheed Martin Information and Management Services
$300,000 salary, up to $500,000 severance package
Science & Technology
Director
John Marburger
Brookhaven National Laboratory (privately managed, but owned by Energy Dept.)
$194,000 salary
Interior
Deputy Secretary
James Stephen Griles
lobbyist for Procter & Gamble, Shell, Chevron, Occidental, Sunoco, Unocal, clients
$5,000 each, lobbying fees
Justice
Solicitor General
Theodore Olson
private practice clients include; Hughes Electronics, Arthur Andersen
$5,000 each
Justice
Deputy Attorney General
Larry C. Thompson
partner at Atlanta law firm of King & Spalding, clients include; Lockheed Martin, Texaco, DirectTV (subsidiary of Hughes Electronics)
$5,000 each
NASA
Administrator of
Sean O’Keefe
advisory board, Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems
$3,750
strategy advisory board, Raytheon
$18,000
Securities and Exchange
Commissioner
Harvey Pitt
shareholder, General Electric
$500,001-$1 mil.
Veterans Affairs
Deputy Secretary
Leo S. Jr. Mackay
vice president, shareholder, Bell Helicopter Textron, (Textron subsidiary, major weapons manufacturer in Dallas/Fort Worth)
$278,535 salary, $50,000 Textron stock, up to $100,000 separation bonus
Tennessee Valley Authority
Director
William Baxter
CEO, Holston Gases (oil services)
$621,000 salary, up to $25 mil.
8 April 2006, 15:10
Here’s an idea sure to get my phone tapped: Make government an honorary, voluntary, rotating position with only a stipend for volunteers while serving the people for all the right reasons: honor, duty, sacrifice. A novel concept indeed! April Schneider
8 April 2006, 13:46
Bill, Bill, Bill;
Please, Please, Please, run for the House THIS TERM! It’s true you might be downed by a sniper’s bullet, but it sounds to me like you are smart enough to avoid that also.
Then after a couple of succussful terms, try for President. Then if you make that, turn off political ads on TV. Make it so all canidates for public office have to appear on stage TOGETHER! ALL THE TIME! THEY COULD ACTUALLY DEBATE EACH OTHER!
WITHOUT HIDDEN MICROPHONES!
Make the president report to the House and Senate and explain his actions ONCE A MONTH! Yes! Democracy will rein again in this country!
Let’s see I think JFK tried that, and RFK, and even MLK. Weren’t there a couple of members of the House or Senate that died in light aircraft?
There is a reason why America is SO conservative.
And we both know why.
http://www.alternet.org/story/14399/
Except from
Was Paul Wellstone Murdered?
By Michael I. Niman, AlterNet. Posted October 28, 2002.
Wellstone now joins the ranks of other American politicians who died in small plane crashes. Another recent victim was Missouri’s former Democratic governor, Mel Carnahan, who lost his life in 2000, three weeks before Election Day, during his Senatorial race against John Ashcroft. Carnahan went on to become the first dead man to win a Senatorial race, humiliating and defeating the unpopular Ashcroft posthumously. Ashcroft, despite his unpopularity, went on to be appointed Attorney General by George W. Bush. Investigators determined that Carnahan’s plane went down due to "poor visibility."
Carnahan was the second Missouri politician to die in a small plane crash. The first was Democratic Representative Jerry Litton, whose plane crashed the night he won the Democratic nomination for senate in 1976. His Republican opponent ultimately captured the seat from his successor in November.
While an article in the New York Times on Saturday pointed out the danger politicians face due to their heavy air travel schedules, the death of a senator or member of Congress is still relatively rare, with only one other sitting U.S. Senator, liberal Republican John Heinz, dying in a plane crash since World War II. Heinz, who entered office as an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War, later emerged as a strong proponent of health care, social services, public transportation and the environment. He also urged reconciliation with Cuba. He died when the landing gear on his small plane failed to function, and a helicopter dispatched to survey the problem crashed into his plane.
One former senator, John Tower, also died in a small plane crash. Tower was best known as the chair of the Tower Commission, which investigated the Reagan/Bush era Iran/Contra scandal.
Another member of a prominent government commission who died in a small plane crash was former Democratic representative and House Majority Leader Hale Boggs. Boggs was best known as one of the seven members of the Warren Commission, which investigated the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The commission found that Lee Harvey Oswald was acting alone when he killed the president. Boggs, it turns out, had "strong doubts" that Oswald acted alone, but went along with the commission findings. Later, in 1971 and 1972, he went public with his doubts. He was presumed dead after the small plane carrying him and Democratic Representative Nicholas Begich disappeared in 1972.
On second thought maybe just a nice documentary on people that mysteriously die like Karen Silkwood.
9 April 2006, 01:46
Bill, forget about running for the House of Representatvies...go straight for the White House! I really think you could get elected. And do we ever need you now! Carol in WA State
8 April 2006, 19:28
Facinating article. This country is crying for leadership. We have been hijacked by greed and corruptions while the religious right and Republicans have defined any person or idea that is "liberal." The President and his party have failed the American people and destabilized the Middle East. It is tiime for regime change to begin by unseating those in power that don’t care about America.
Bill Rettberg
8 April 2006, 23:29
Bill,
I was in a family for more than 26 years who joined Organized Crime but this wasn’t any ordinary Crime System. They considered it “The World’s Largest Organized Crime System” and for good reason.
In the early 90’s other family members were explained what the family was involved in and although at that time many of us considered what we heard to be pure fantasy, it’s absolutely true. I didn’t learn how true until during the divorce when they started coming after me. Luckily, I remembered what I was told and witnessed over the years to escape getting harmed. But I know many others who didn’t and ended up being murdered or seriously harmed.
You may be witnessing what is thought to be wide spread out of control corruption, but what lays underneath is much worse and it’s in US soil as well as elsewhere. Also, I’m not the only one who knows or has experienced this and they are open to testify in court as I would.
The criminal group you refer to is actively involved in eliminating people who threaten them. This group is very active and extremely paranoid from getting caught. They do everything they can to make sure what they do doesn’t bring any attention and if it did, they rely on the links within corruption to cover it up.
Their favorite method of harming is by setup car accidents which they focus on their target around a Hospital that is part of their plan. Car accidents don’t normally kill you, but they can harm you which then you’ll be taken to the nearest Hospital. It’s at the Hospital where you are setup to be harmed to where you won’t walk home. These hospitals are linked through the enormous corruption connections with Health Insurance, Hospital Admin and support people. I personally know, as well as others, who have been murdered this way. My ex-wife’s family is terrified of having to be in a hospital and when someone in the family has to, they hire guards who sit 24/7 at the private room door to monitor everything that comes and goes. During that time, I thought this behavior was insane, but when I started having problems like this myself, I knew well were it was coming from. Back in the early 90’s I was told there are three hospitals involved in this around the Chicago area, but now more than 10 years later, I’ve learned there are more. This is why people in the MOB, Political Circles and others select certain hospitals to take care of their needs.
Besides setup car accidents, they use poisoning to harm you. I was told this is selected because over time, the poison diminishes from your body and it’s difficult to trace. They use it over time so the process is slow. I had a small refrigerator in my office and often found my office gone through as if someone was looking for something the night before. Plus some of the food I had stored had a strange taste and had to be thrown out. This came after eating some of my food which gave me serious stomach aches to where I buckled over. One time I made fresh orange juice in a large container from a bottle of spring water. When finished it was great, but the next day, something was added that turned it really bad. I ended up throwing it away. I used to eat Yogurt in the small containers, each container was a separate meal and came with a sealed cap and was checked at time of purchase.. A number of times, I found the sealed tops to be partially opened, those ended up being thrown out too.
They will kill in a way that is outright and obvious when they have to. But most of the time, they won’t as they don’t want to bring attention to their activities. They are highly skilled with snooping technologies, especially with anything electronic and computers on the Internet. Because of their extreme obsession with being paranoid, they snoop for months before striking their target. If you’re a target, you’re likely to notice a number of coincidental almost crazy things happening around you almost constantly. This isn’t to be taken lightly as they are not as good as you would think they are. They are in many cases very sloppy and can be noticed around you, so keep your eyes open.
If you have any questions that might help you identify if you’re being targeted, please feel comfortable to post questions. I’ve been dealing with this for more than 30 years and know well with what this is.
Besides Political Corruption, this group is also involved in International Drug Distribution across the US. I’m in the Chicago area and know from being in the family that this area is a main Drug Distribution Hub. The Big Banks are involved for laundering as well as others companies. Drug money for this group is washed by using corruption and Property Developers to put the money straight into property. I know this personally because this is the family’s business. However there are other Laundromats and the largest one I’m aware of is called: Mandarin Oriental Group which is owned by Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum who also owns Dubai. Dubai was the main player involved in purchasing our Sea Ports, if you remember.
There’s a great deal more that I could talk about. But my sense is there is personal fear with dealing with their threat. I know this well and have a great deal of experience, so please if you need help in this area, consider posting and I’ll reply.
This group is exceptionally huge and extends beyond out shores into other countries. I know that they are in the UK, Germany, France and elsewhere. They don’t have any regard for human life and are exceptionally paranoid of being found out. When they feel they are threatened, they will strike. If you feel you are a target, you need to learn how they behave and what to look for to help build security around yourself.
Marty Didier
9 April 2006, 01:09
Bravo Bill! Oh that the Democrats would show the kind of forthright nerve you have shown in this article. But one can dream. Washington is so corrupt, I quit paying any attention to anything coming out of there. You can’t believe anything you hear, and nothing of what you see anymore. Of course we all know, every great empire crumbled from within, one can only hope they will self-destruct. Keep putting the "truth" out there, maybe someday people will actually pay attention.
Dianne Yarnell
9 April 2006, 23:39
Dear Bill and other’s who have posted,
Yesterday, while reading through your article and then the attached posts, my emotions were seriously triggered causing me to post the way I did. I too, have been walking around with the knowledge of murders that it’s in the double digit range. These are above what was presented on this webpage. On top of this, I personally know more than a few people who were victimized by this group and also loosing someone from being murdered, as well. Then above this, are the more than 26 years from being in a family who joined this group, committed many serious crimes, bragged about it and openly enjoyed discussing what happened as part of family entertainment, for years. Thinking about this always leaves me feeling sick.
As married, trying to remain a family person when it went against my values and then having children to care for, kept me in check until the divorce. As heartbreaking as it was, I managed to survive, but I had to then face the criminal group’s concern because of what I knew. Being the last battle to fight, I did what I could even though it was most terrifying and caused me shrink down my life very small to end up in a complete survival mode. The first sign of incidents started during 1993, with less frequency than later as it went into high gear in 1997. I started to gravitate deeper into survival mode from that time on. It wasn’t until maybe months to possibly a year ago, that I started to come out of it. It isn’t easy to shed a way of life that proved to provide safety, even though it made you appear almost crazy. As they say, “Hard lessons learned aren’t easily forgotten!”
The questions surrounding the death of Paul Wellstone need to remain up front where everyone can see them. And we must not forget about the others who seem to share in their own mystery as well, as they have loved ones who want to know too. I can certainly add more to this growing list, since it was shared with me while in the family. Bill, and the others who have posted, this is one of my triggers – so many lost and for what reason? I know the reason though and that only adds to my pain. You and others are only now realizing what that reason is. Frankly, there have been far too many and this needs to stop!
As many who grew up in the US, we come to learn and appreciate that the US is supposed to be a Democracy with laws and values. We learn through history about our great leaders, as George Washington and others to then form a TRUSTING respect for the Presidency and those who take an oath for office. It’s our almost blind trust that is partially to be blamed. Similar to learning about a wayward spouse, life as it once was, is expected to come crashing down. We seem to be heading in this direction now and the pace is certainly picking up speed.
As the Bible says, “The truth shall set you free!” No matter how hurtful the truth can be, having it surface is the only way.
As Bills’ article suggests, every behavior has traits and characteristics. Once you identify the traits and characteristics, identifying those involved becomes an easier task. This group isn’t that special or especially mysterious to allow them to escape identification, believe me. One of my strong suits with surviving was because I was able to identify many traits and characteristics this group has. Noticing anything and quickly responding kept me many times out of harms way. However, living with hyper-vigilance does have its drawbacks and will affect your health over time. Wrestling with surviving leaves the question about God and I dealt with that also. I’m glad to say that I’ve believed he has been with me.
I wrote this new post hoping to explain myself more thoroughly. As with anything that happens to be connected with this, it can quickly become overwhelming. The real challenge I have with dealing with this, is that most articles only detail a summation of what is already know, to then add a few more facts coming from conspiracy theorists. Please accept that there are people who have lived through this and understand the bigger picture. Being with that group, I eagerly wait to hear about others, like me, who share an understanding of what this is. Fear runs ramped with those experiencing this group, so few are expected to surface. We really don’t have much hope for changes unless somehow, those living in the US finally realize in it’s entirety, what this problem really is.
Marty Didier
10 April 2006, 04:33
Dear Bill,
It’s good to see a heavy weight such as yourself take up this issue. I am quite aware of the problem and have been for many years. Do you recall the book "Agents of Influence" by Pat Choate? That book was a revelation in its time and is still on target today.
Identifying the problem is, of course, the first task. But what comes next? Do you have a strategy, a plan of action? If so, please let me know how I can help.
John Lucas
PS If the Congress represented the people, it could quickly resolve the illegal immigrant problem. But please note that it is likely that in 2005 remittances will exceed petroleum and tourism as the largest source of foreign income into the Mexican Economy (Center for Global Justice). So, do you expect that there may be some special interests working behind the scenes to "help" our elected officials come up with the "right" plan?
10 April 2006, 16:17
It is amusing to read the glowing comments about Moyers whose agenda is unabashed partisan politics. Did you all forget or even know that Moyers served under Lyndon Johnson from 1963 through 1967, first as his Special Assistant, then as his Press Secretary. And, let’s not forget the phony attack on US warships by the North Vietnamese which led to the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. Without that carte Blanche pass from Congress, Johnson could not have escalated the war in Southeast Asia. Moyers was the Scott McClellan of his day, standing before the press corps, spouting lies and ignoring their tough questions. He claims he was out of the loop on the Gulf of Tonkin matter, a denial that belies the history of the period. At various times, thereafter, he has accused Johnson of being in on the deception and of having been deceived by unnamed parties. He’s a democrat fraud, like most of the rest of them, and I wouldn’t vote for him for dog catcher, although he’s probably eminently qualified for that job.
11 April 2006, 01:48
Writing my life’s experiences, as horrible this part was, leaves condensing more than 30 years into less than 1000 words, a bit challenging. There certainly are issues within these posts that require more clarity, so I’ll focus on my comment made about Hospitals. This alone is very complex and could be confusing as well as being very important to all of us.
With every experience, there are facts, other people’s connected experiences, conclusions and suspicions. Some of this is offered for your review:
– I was told by the family during the early 90’s that around Chicago there are three Hospitals used as described above. Names were given along with stories. This was also to explain why the family went through great efforts to protect other family members when they needed to entered a Hospital.
– At the time, when my father-in-law went in for by-pass surgery, the family placed a medical skilled guard at the door of his private room. This was to monitor everything coming and going. My brother-in-law reported later that twice, someone had tried to enter with something that would have caused very serious problems. They were stopped.
In early 2002, I started receiving phone calls from a Hospital requesting a sales meeting. The instructions were very clear, they wanted me personally to attend. Knowing what I knew about this Hospital from the family, plus given the serious trouble I was already having with driving to and from my office, I was more than concerned. My work mainly focuses on Manufacturing facilities and Hospitals don’t fit my client profile. But I needed work and questioned the Maintenance Forman who now aggressively requested my presence. He insisted that they had interest in me doing work for them.
While driving to my meeting, I encountered three near miss car accidents as nearing the Hospital. One was while walking to my car following my meeting. Luckily, with all the ongoing trouble I’ve had for years, my driving skills and awareness were very defensive and nothing happened.
When I arrived, the Maintenance Forman wasn’t prepared for our meeting. As we both dug around their facility looking for possible work to quote on, he wasn’t sure why they wanted me there. I asked more questions to learn who exactly wanted me there and his answer was the Hospital President specifically wanted me personally to attend.
The Maintenance Forman wanted some time to prepare a package of work for me to quote on which required yet another trip to their facility. After a few more phone calls where I wanted to make sure this was a real sales meeting, I reluctantly went again. This time, there were more near miss car accidents. And again, between these two sales calls, I had continued problems with near misses driving to and from my office. My office was only a few miles from home and there are only two stop light intersections. Needless to say, I was more than interested to qualify personal safety and efforts with looking for work. His reply was that even though the Hospital President required my visit and was running the project, I wouldn’t be able to meet with him. Nothing ever came out of my visits other than near miss car accidents when I was at or near the Hospital.
Car problems among other strange things never stopped and a few years later, I met a nice lady and we started to date. Not more than a week after meeting, we started to share our life’s experiences. Her life wasn’t much different than mine and she had numerous car accidents with on going problems with attorneys and more.
She explained about a very strange situation where a male friend of 10 years and her decided to get married. He ended up getting sick, was talked into having a medical procedure that he didn’t need, went to the same Hospital that I discussed above for the procedure, ended up with a serious infection following his surgery, my friend hounded his doctor to insure he was getting well and he started to, then his doctor was removed from his case, two other doctors were assigned to his case and he immediately ended up with a brain infection that caused his death. His procedure and time in the Hospital went on for months. She told me outright that with what she witnessed, she felt he was murdered. Her son-in-law told me the same thing. There’s a lot more to this story that needs to be understood. His death happened at the exact same time I was being summoned for sales meetings to the same Hospital. And please don’t forget, I was told about this Hospital in the early 90’s and this was early 2002. This isn’t the end of her story either and there’s a history of similar problems as I have experienced. What connections her past offers with where these problems might come from play an important role in understanding why. I’ll leave the rest of this up for her to explain.
Regarding this Hospital and considering what I was told by the family, my interest and hope is that somehow, there is a probe to surface more about what this is.
We all count on many specialized services, especially Healthcare, for help and life support. If any of these services become compromised by connections from Political Corruption, Major Criminal Fraud or otherwise, many unsuspecting people will be lost because they might be perceived as a threat by a connected criminal element.
Marty Didier