POLITICAL SHOTGUN      6-19-01
a column that finds it's targets in widely varied locations
By the Independent Alligator
 

(Before you get started, I think it's a good service to the reader to
 mention the word count, which today is 2,872. Think you're up to it?)

Today's blather was inspired by the C-Span appearance of Weak and Stupid's
Anti-Labor Secretary, Mrs. Mitch McConnell. So settle back, adjust your
glasses, clear the decks, and dig in.

On C-Span's Washington Journal, Labor Secretary Elaine Chou was responding
to callers.  She was a liiiiiiiitle too enthusiastic and slick, and trying
mightily to answer in the most glib and glossy way possible. She was clearly
on the verge of wetting herself at the prospect of a caller pinning her into
a corner with a tough, well-asked question.

A caller called in and calmly asked Mrs. McConnell (she's the wife, if you
can believe anyone would marry him, of Mitch McConnell R-Cabbage Patch, the
hit man in charge of defeating any and all campaign finance reform
legislation before it gets a chance.)

Where were we? Oh yeah, a caller asked Mrs. Mitch McConnell if she was or
had been a member of either the Heritage Foundation or the Federalist Society.
She got a little more rigid and you could witness her sphincter clamping down hard.
He grew about an inch in her chair.

She started with some blather about how, well, actually, well, yes, she had
been a member of the Heritage Foundation. She was in full spin mode now, no
turning back, and she did an admirably oily job of making it sound like it
was merely a sort of vacation.

She said that after she'd gotten done with one of her stints in some
government agency, she "took some time off" and made it appear as if it was
to spend more time with her family, blah, blah. During that time, she was
given a "fellowship" from the Heritage Foundation.  What she's seeming to
say, dear reader, is that this enormously influential outfit, that's become
practically a shadow government and is funded to the tune of billions with
right wing corporate bucks, gave her an enormous amount of money for
basically doing absolutely NOTHING.

Her bio as listed on the Heritage Foundation site notes:
Elaine Chao is now Secretary of Labor under President George W. Bush
FORMER CHAIRMAN, ASIAN STUDIES CENTER ADVISORY COUNCIL, AND DISTINGUISHED FELLOW
Areas of Expertise
women's issues, Asia, (More on that in link at bottom of article) civil
society, nonprofit sector, philanthropy
Former President and Chief Executive Officer of United Way of America. Her
career also includes Director of the Peace Corps, Deputy Secretary of the
U.S. Department of Transportation, Chairman of the Federal Maritime
Commission, and Vice President of Bank America Capital Markets Group in San
Francisco. She holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and an
undergraduate degree in economics from Mount Holyoke College.
Now there's a corporate/public resume any corporate right winger could love!
So since she wasn't currently employed, and her husband being who he was,
the Heritage Foundation tossed a few hundred thousand dollars at her, called
her a "fellow" and told her to have fun.

She said she enjoyed the opportunity to have the time to just sit around and
think.   Yeah. Don't we all. But most people don't get a huge salary to do it.
So she was in the thick of this right wing shadow government that dictates
policy for the entire Republican agenda. But to hear her tell it, it was
just a great time for her to take a much needed rest. Too bad it wasn't
longer term.

What actually happened was that she went to right wing boot camp. In
essence, she was trained extensively in how to think, look and talk. It was
a indoctrination camp, grooming her to be a good right wing soldier.  Then
wonder of wonders, she gets picked to be Dim Son's Labor Secretary!  What a
happy coincidence!

But Elaine says it was just a great opportunity to be closer to her family.
Bullshit. If any of these jerks mouths are moving, put money on the fact
that they're lying their asses off.

She then gamely went on to address her connections to the slimy and
dangerous Federalist Society.  This is the little cabal for Fascists that
has grown to have enormous influence and who's members include a cast of
crooks including Ted Olson, Kenny Starr, and a slew of lesser known, but
extreme right wing movers and shakers in the federal legal system and huge
D.C. law firms. Their take on the constitution should make any school boy or
girl that has learned anything about the constitution shudder.  They want to
warp it in ways that only a Nazi could fully appreciate.

Mrs. McConnell, (who never uses her married name, suggesting that at least
she has the sense to not want to be associated with her ugly and right wing
fanatic husband.) nervously tip-toed into this by saying quickly and in an
almost inaudible voice, indicating clearly that it is something she DOES NOT
want widely known, that, why yes she was a member of the Federalist
Society..and then quickly got a little snippy and defensive and questioned
why, (and this is the bizarre part), nobody ever asked who all in the
Clinton administration were members of the ACLU!!

This is what earned Mrs. McConnell, or Ms. Chou, (as she calls herself for
purely political purposes, serving to both emphasize her ethnicity for the
benefit of the nit-wit Chimp, and also de-emphasizing her incestuous
relationship with her legislator husband), the notice of the Shotgun.
Walk with me, would you, as we take a stroll through the world of Ms. Chou.

Let's lay out the facts. She was paid a huge amount of money to do nothing
but be indoctrinated in right wing economic policy (money is God) for a year
or so.  She's a member in good standing of the Federalist Society, who's
goal it is to pervert the constitution to their ends and to seize and
maintain power through legal or illegal methods and by packing the federal
bench with the "right" people. By banding together, these people make sure
that the message is sent loud and clear to all those that hope to land
themselves a fat plum of a federal judgeship: they better toe the Federalist
Society line or they ain't getting nowhere.

They accomplish this by putting out various writings that lay out how THEY
think the constitution should be manipulated and bent and torn to their
ends. In this way, they give a heads up to all those either currently on the
Federal bench or those that hope to be there as to exactly how they should
think and act.  Don't forget, Ted "Lying Weasel" Olson, (who's wife is the
obnoxious lying shrew Barbara Olson) is now in complete control of who is
recommended for federal judgeships. It's all going according to their plans.

If you want to be a player, you have to play by their rules.
So Ms. Chou/McConnell, good little Nazi soldier that she is, joined the
Federalist Society to show that she's with the program. But her defense (and
let's face it, why is she defensive at all? Because she KNOWS it's
anti-democratic) is to reflexively turn back to .yep, you know the drill,
the Clinton administration, and try to draw a parallel between the
Federalist Society and the ACLU!

OK, I've pretty much sketched in what the Federalist Society is for you, and
you probably know that the ACLU is a group dedicated to preserving and
defending the freedoms and rights granted under our constitution.  To the
F.S. members however, they represent the enemy. Of course it is! The
Federalist Society wants to TAKE AWAY and LIMIT rights and freedoms, so
naturally any organization that fights to preserve and defend them is the enemy.

Exhibit A is the fact that the ACLU has been about the only people fighting
to prevent the wall between church and state from being eliminated completely.
The F.S. believes that there IS NO wall between church and state in the constitution!
If that doesn't make your blood run cold, I don't know what would.

So Chou/McConnell thinks that it's unfair to hold her accountable for her
membership in this extremist group which wields so much power, when no one
made a fuss about whether a few Clinton cabinet members may have been
members of the ACLU.

I don't know about you, but there's something glorious and great about the
ACLU. It seems to me to exemplify the very constitutional principles that
make this the greatest country on earth.

They defend people's RIGHTS!  They don't care what color they are. They
don't care how much money they make. They don't care if they're a CEO or a
junkie. They don't care if they're defending the KKK or Nazis or
Environmentalists or abortion clinics or some kid that doesn't want to be
ostracized in school because he's a non-Christian. They don't care if they
have to defend the most ugly and unpopular groups that have philosophies
that 99.999% of us find insane, dangerous or intolerable.

The ACLU's one and only agenda is to protect the rights and freedoms granted
to ALL citizens by the greatest governmental document ever written, the U.S. constitution.

I find it patriotic in the extreme. It's patriotic because they realize that
if the most reviled and hated elements of our society are denied their
constitutional rights, then it's a slippery slope towards picking and
choosing who should and should not have that protection. It's everyone or no
one, and that's the way it MUST be. It's called equality. As in "We hold
these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal.." Many
people have a huge problem with this. They should get over it or get out.

If we start denying constitutional rights what happens? First the Nazis or
the KKK, then what? People that are not Christians? Forcing people to salute
the flag? Legal discrimination?  It's not as far as you might think to the
point where you'll have no protection if you don't belong to a certain political party.

Sure, the results of ACLU lawsuits are often controversial and seem extreme
to many, such as banning religious displays on government property which
serves to prohibit the display of crèches' during Christmas, and many don't
see the harm of leading a school prayer at the beginning of the school day
or at a football game.  But they are ignorant of the larger purpose of this,
which is to ensure freedom to ALL of us.

The constitution is unique in that it guarantees majority rule with MINORITY RIGHTS.
That is what makes America great, in my humble opinion.
But these Federalist Society members and others are getting sick and tired
of all these damn rights that offend their idea of what an American should
be, or what this country should be like. They know they have the power and
wealth, and damn it, our values out to be forced on the rest of the country,
and the rest of the world, for that matter! These values are in essense:

A society in which wealth equals power, the more wealth, the more rights you
have. This means that the more wealthy you are, the more you can get away
with in the "justice" system. You can get off with a slap on the wrist where
a poor person would get thrown to the dogs.

Christianity is the state religion and can be forced on others, the very
wealthy, being primarily white and Christian (though the actually worship
money far above any sham religion), have the right to discriminate against
and exclude "undesirable" members of other races or religions.

Corporations are all powerful (again relating to the "more money, more
rights" belief they hold so dear)  Corporations must be protected from the
nuisance of consumer lawsuits, so these will be limited to the point of
being eliminated. Cleaning up their own messes adversely affect the bottom
line, therefore, they should not be forced to be responsible for any toxic
pollution or the poisoning or killing of innocent citizens, even those that
have been poisoned while working every day for years for the company.

They also must have the right to move their operations anywhere on earth
where they can better exploit a population and pay slave wages without any
benefits, where there is no environmental regulation whatsoever, and where
they can avoid paying U.S. taxes. If this results in throwing tens of
thousands of Americans out of work, that's the breaks. Corporate loyalty to
Americans or America is not demanded or even expected as Money is the only
object of worship and respect and it trumps patriotism and the idea of citizenship.

Organized workers in the form of Unions tend to make problems if they're
expected to risk life and limb and kill themselves working in shit-holes for
next to nothing, and they get all carried away when you try to increase the
work expected of them while lowering wages and cutting benefits. This is a
headache for CEO's, who's compensation rate has grown about 600% in the last
few years.  It's a hassle and so unions must be broken and government must
intervene to break strikes and throw union members out of work. (as when
Weak and Stupid ordered Northwest Airlines machinists back to work. Condy
Rice just happens to have been on their board.)

One really clever way to do this, is to promote the bullshit "paycheck
protection" crap as a condition to passing even watered down campaign
finance legislation. This bunch of crap seeks to forbid unions from using
union dues for political donations, and says that each union member has to
approve a tiny portion of their dues being used for political donations.

This is despite corporate contributions being about 80 times the unions
money, and they don't have to consult their shareholders. But this would
effectively cut off a large source of funding to Democrats, who already
routinely get vastly less contributions than Republicans as it is. It's also
a real clever way of further marginalizing unions altogether.

Taxes in any form are bad, so they'll be done away with too, which will
throw away about the last remaining obstacle to creating a permanent ruling
class of the super wealthy. If there must be taxes, the majority of the
burden should be placed on the lower and middle classes though various
gimmicks. This will help pay the billions that flow to corporate defense
contractors and the billions of tax dollars paid to maintain and staff
airports for the use of corporate aircraft, and the billions spent to
improve and maintain waterways for huge transport corporations, and
subsidize the huge corporations use of public airwaves and public land on
which to mine and harvest timber and... the other thousands of corporate
welfare that's given out each and every year.

The very wealthiest somehow deserve to live and enjoy the benefits of this
country without paying any dues whatsoever.  I guess they're the new Lords
and Dukes of the aristocracy. The people that labor to produce this wealth
though are expected to pay through the nose for streets, police protection,
health care, etc.  But the people who's bank accounts are the final resting
place for all the wealth these people produce and create are exempt just by
virtue of being rich.

And the list goes on.

Ms. Chou? You're the Labor Secretary in charge of the working men and women
of this country. The very people your Federalist Society cohorts seek to
control, dominate, exploit, and throw in jail for their own ends.
Yet you seem to imply that it's merely something benign and not as bad as
that evil ACLU?

Which is more "American", the defense of freedom and equality for all, or
the attempt to subvert and pervert our very constitution and law in order to
help entrench an already incredibly wealthy plutocracy in permanent power?
One organization protects us all, no matter how unpopular our views may be,
the other seeks to widen the already enormous gulf between the wealthy,
white, Christian, ruling elite and the rest of us. The real Americans. All
colors, no rich Daddy, the people that have sent their boys and girls to die
in the armed services to defend corporate interests. The people that work
every day and buy all the crap you shove down our throats to provide your
wealth. The people who's hard won Social Security funds you now want to
profit from by forcing them to invest it on Wall Street. The people who's
promised Social Security and Medicaid benefits you're dooming to failure by
giving away the bank to the wealthiest and least needy in our country. The
people you lock up in record numbers for non-violent offences, thus creating
a private prison industry that is booming and providing obscene profits to
you, while creating a permanent and ever widening under-class in this country.

It's all a nice big, slick, plan. And you're hoping we won't notice because
we're too damn busy working and trying to keep our heads above water while
raising our kids and steering them through the cesspool of corporate greed
that feeds them all kinds of destructive crap.

And if anyone dares notice and say this is wrong, the right screams "Class
Warfare!" or calls it socialism. Well guess what?   The only Class Warfare
that's going on is the war on the middle class by the right and the very
wealthiest of this country, and if trying to stop this is socialism, then
don't be surprised to wake up and find a damn lot of proud socialists
marching down your street! Call it whatever you want.

With all your major media control, and all the mergers Smirk allows
resulting in our entire media being in the hands of a few billionaire
conservatives, you might be confident that the American people won't be able
to cut through the daily diet of garbage you feed them and realize which way
the wind's blowing.

Don't count on it. We're on to you and we're waking up.
Ms. Chou's got her sweet little gig for the moment, and she, like so many
others, are just swept up in the stealth attempt to take over our country.
But I won't feel sorry for her when she and her smug pals suddenly find
they're on the losing side.

For further ugly facts about both the McConnell's and their nefarious dealings
with the Chinese, and how Mr. McConnell's position will further the above agenda, click here:
 

The Independent Alligator is an incredibly attractive guy that is rather
surprised when he finds his views shared by others. He welcomes comments,
flattery, or scathing condemnation at IndependentAlligator@hotmail.com