We spotlight the cartoons of Tom Paine with additional cartoons from Cunningham Strikes and Chadsux. Thomas B. Edsall explains what the 'Great Satans Mullahs' have in store for you in, "Gimmie That Old Time Religion III." R. William Davis shows us the "Bush-Dulles-Nazi" connection. Blue Ribbon Visibility calls for national strikes. Leslie Wayne shows us how the G.O.P. gets it's money at your expense. Michael C. Ruppert explains Smirky's plans to bring back political assassinations. Molly Ivans asks "How Dumb Do The Republicans Think We Are?" Richard N. Draheim Jr. takes us back to WWI to show us how Smirky got his fortune. Media Whores Online gives us their "Top Ten Media Whores." And finally The Onion explains why the 'Christian Right' wants to repeal the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, but first Uncle Ernie warns about "Wolves In Sheep's Clothing." Plus we have all your favorite departments, so welcome once again to "Issues & Alibis." We hope you enjoy your stay.

Wolves In Sheep’s Clothing

While wandering around Bartcop the other night I came across a piece about the Ben Franklin Foundation. At first glance it would seem to be just another honest liberal organization. WRONG! What greeted my disbelieving eyes was your typical Nazi swill. Where in the hell do they get off? As I suggested to them in an email why not name their organization right i.e. The Benedict Arnold Foundation or perhaps the Judas Iscariot Society or maybe the Vidkun Quisling Group?

Yes I know it’s not nice, I shouldn’t play head games with the mentally unbalanced but the nerve of these wackos to take the name of the hero of the Revolution. The smartest man of his generation, a great Liberal thinker and to take his name and to use it to hide behind for their Nazi ravings was a bit too much. To pretend Ben would have had a thing to do with these latter day Tories is the height of doublespeak and an outright lie.

It’s like Smirky the Chimp using JFK’s name to try and sell his tax cut for the rich in middle class America. Have they no shame? Do they think we’re all fools? It of course all revolves around the "Big Lie." Yes the Republicans have done their homework. They’ve all read Mien Kampf. It was Der Snifter himself who said, "The great masses of the people … will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small lie." And for once in his life Adolf wasn’t lying. By taking the honored name of Ben Franklin they hope to get the gullible to believe that they're somehow connected to the hero, and that just pisses me off!

Of course the question is what can we do. I have had a few thousand thoughts on the subject but most were illegal, immoral and would have had me stoop to their level. So perhaps gentle reader you have might have some suggestions that we can use? If you do, just email them and we will print the best of the lot in our next issue. Our email is: issues@uncle-ernie.com. Oh and if you want to get righteously mad do go check out their site at: http://benfranklinfoundation.org
©2001 Ernest Stewart

Gimmie That Old Time Religion III

By Thomas B. Edsall
Washington Post Staff Writer

Leaders of some of the nation's largest Jewish organizations last night told the director of President Bush's plan to expand federal funding of social services provided by religious groups that the program could drastically undermine the constitutional separation of church and state with "sinful and tyrannical" results.

The director, John J. DiIulio Jr., defended the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, declaring that virtually no money would go to religious groups requiring beneficiaries to worship in any specific way. He said that in well-run religious social programs, "Bible-thumping doesn't cut it" and real person-to-person contact is the crucial ingredient for success.

DiIulio was well-received at the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, an umbrella organization representing 13 national and 123 local Jewish groups. But the program he directs was not. Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, received strong and spontaneous applause when he warned that if money goes to such groups as the Southern Baptist Convention, which has "targeted us for conversion," federal grants will "free up their money to come after us." He said using federal tax dollars this way would be "corrupting" and "sinful and tyrannical."

Lynn Lyss of the National Council of Jewish Women opened the questioning of DiIulio by citing a Texas church-run anti-drug program that specifically sought to convert clients to believe in Jesus to cure their addictions. This program, she said, was able to receive money from Texas after then-Gov. George W. Bush lifted restrictions governing state grants to local programs. Asked if such funding would be possible at the federal level, DiIulio said, "the answer to your question is a strong no."

Richard Foltin, legislative director and counsel for the American Jewish Committee, said it will be almost impossible under the White House initiative to avoid grants to religious leaders who "do have in mind the desire to oppress people and push people into religious activity they don't want to be involved in."

The Bush proposal also raises the possibility that groups that have voiced anti-Semitic views, such as the Nation of Islam, could receive government funds, said Hanna Rosenthal, executive director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs.

"As a religious minority, we are greatly concerned about government programs that present a danger of people having to participate in religious activities by explicit or implicit pressure as a price of receiving social services," Foltin said earlier.

He said he and others are also "greatly concerned" that the government could award grants to organizations that discriminate in hiring practices by restricting jobs to the faith of the providing group, effectively "putting up a sign, 'No Jew Need Apply' or 'No Catholic Need Apply.' "

DiIulio has in past comments sought to minimize such fears by stressing the potential of religious social service groups to address unmet needs: "The spirit of this ought to be not, 'Let's get to the letter of the law,' but instead, 'Let's look at how we can get things done together,' " DiIulio declared a few weeks ago. "We could spend all our time disagreeing, and it will not put any bread on anybody's table. It's not going to put a mentor in any child's life."

Bush, when he issued an executive order creating the office, declared: "When we see social needs in America, my administration will look first to faith-based programs and community groups, which have proven their power to save and change lives."

In addition to the White House office, the Bush initiative requires five federal departments -- Justice, Education, Labor, Health and Human Services, and Housing and Urban Development -- to set up "Centers for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives."

The purpose of each of these centers, according to Bush's order, "will be to coordinate department efforts to eliminate regulatory, contracting, and other programmatic obstacles to the participation of faith-based and other community organizations in the provision of social services."

As part of his program, Bush said he intends "to create a compassionate capital fund, which will provide start-up funds for promising new programs serving people in need. . . . Government, of course, cannot fund, and will not fund, religious activities. But when people of faith provide social services, we will not discriminate against them."

It is just this expansion of federal grant-making activity into the religious domain that worries civil libertarian and Jewish groups. "As a minority of 2 percent scattered increasingly throughout the countryside," said Marc Stern, assistant executive director of the American Jewish Congress, the prospect that some communities might only have "some Christian group running social services" and the danger "of religious discrimination in government-funded employment scares Jews."

In addition to the civil liberties and Jewish communities that are expressing concerns, a number of conservative groups and leaders are warning that government funding of religious charities threatens to weaken the independence and spiritual vitality of some of the most effective programs that have explicitly sought to use faith as a central part of dealing with such problems as addiction and violence.

Rosenthal yesterday voiced similar concerns, noting that in her past job as a regional director for the Department of Heath and Human Services, she saw some very successful religious programs fighting drugs in which "belief in God and accepting Jesus was a very important part of service delivery. In some cases, the programs may indeed be very good," but, she said, they should not be getting tax dollars.
© 2001 The Washington Post Company

THE BUSH-DULLES-NAZI CONNECTION
by R. William Davis

Like Richard Nixon, George Bush was a strong anti-marijuana/hemp president, escalating the so-called "war on drugs" begun by Nixon. And, like Nixon, George Bush was deeply involved with supporting the Nazis in the Republican's closet. In fact, support for the Nazis was a Bush family tradition which goes back more than six decades and, once again, to Allen Dulles.

Loftus and Aarons write: "The real story of George Bush starts well before he launched his own career. It goes back to the 1920s, when the Dulles brothers and the other pirates of Wall Street were making their deals with the Nazis. . . ."

"George Bush's problems were inherited from his namesake and maternal grandfather, George Herbert 'Bert' Walker, a native of St. Louis, who founded the banking and investment firm of G. H. Walker and Company in 1900. Later the company shifted from St. Louis to the prestigious address of 1 Wall Street. . . .

"Walker was one of Hitler's most powerful financial supporters in the United States. The relationship went all the way back to 1924, when Fritz Thyssen, the German industrialist, was financing Hitler's infant Nazi party. As mentioned in earlier chapters, there were American contributors as well.

"Some Americans were just bigots and made their connections to Germany through Allen Dulles's firm of Sullivan and Cromwell because they supported Fascism. The Dulles brothers, who were in it for profit more than ideology, arranged American investments in Nazi Germany in the 1930s to ensure that their clients did well out of the German economic recovery. . . .

"Sullivan & Cromwell was not the only firm engaged in funding Germany. According to 'The Splendid Blond Beast,' Christopher Simpson's seminal history of the politics of genocide and profit, Brown Brothers, Harriman was another bank that specialized in investments in Germany. The key figure was Averill Harriman, a dominating figure in the American establishment. . . .

"The firm originally was known as W. A. Harriman & Company. The link between Harriman & Company's American investors and Thyssen started in the 1920s, through the Union Banking Corporation, which began trading in 1924. In just one three-year period, the Harriman firm sold more than $50 million of German bonds to American investors. 'Bert' Walker was Union Banking's president, and the firm was located in the offices of Averill Harriman's company at 39 Broadway in New York.

"In 1926 Bert Walker did a favor for his new son-in-law, Prescott Bush. It was the sort of favor families do to help their children make a start in life, but Prescott came to regret it bitterly. Walker made Prescott vice president of W. A. Harriman. The problem was that Walker's specialty was companies that traded with Germany. As Thyssen and the other German industrialists consolidated Hitler's political power in the 1930s, an American financial connection was needed. According to our sources, Union Banking became an out-and-out Nazi money-laundering machine. . . .

"In [1931], Harriman & Company merged with a British-American investment company to become Brown Brothers, Harriman. Prescott Bush became one of the senior partners of the new company, which relocated to 59 Broadway, while Union Banking remained at 39 Broadway. But in 1934 Walker arranged to put his son-in-law on the board of directors of Union Banking.

"Walker also set up a deal to take over the North American operations of the Hamburg-Amerika Line, a cover for I.G. Farben's Nazi espionage unit in the United States. The shipping line smuggled in German agents, propaganda, and money for bribing American politicians to see things Hitler's way. The holding company was Walker's American Shipping & Commerce, which shared the offices at 39 Broadway with Union Banking. In an elaborate corporate paper trail, Harriman's stock in American Shipping & Commerce was controlled by yet another holding company, the Harriman Fifteen Corporation, run out of Walker's office. The directors of this company were Averill Harriman, Bert Walker, and Prescott Bush. . . .

". . . In a November 1935 article in Common Sense, retired marine general Smedley D. Butler blamed Brown Brothers, Harriman for having the U.S. marines act like 'racketeers' and 'gangsters' in order to exploit financially the peasants of Nicaragua. . . .

". . . A 1934 congressional investigation alleged that Walker's 'Hamburg-Amerika Line subsidized a wide range of pro-Nazi propaganda efforts both in Germany and the United States.' Walker did not know it, but one of his American employees, Dan Harkins, had blown the whistle on the spy apparatus to Congress. Harkins, one of our best sources, became Roosevelt's first double agent . . . [and] kept up the pretense of being an ardent Nazi sympathizer, while reporting to Naval Intelligence on the shipping company's deals with Nazi intelligence.

"Instead of divesting the Nazi money," continue the authors, "Bush hired a lawyer to hide the assets. The lawyer he hired had considerable expertise in such underhanded schemes. It was Allen Dulles. According to Dulles's client list at Sullivan & Cromwell, his first relationship with Brown Brothers, Harriman was on June 18, 1936. In January 1937 Dulles listed his work for the firm as 'Disposal of Stan [Standard Oil] Investing stock.'

"As discussed in Chapter 3, Standard Oil of New Jersey had completed a major stock transaction with Dulles's Nazi client, I.G. Farben. By the end of January 1937 Dulles had merged all his cloaking activities into one client account: 'Brown Brothers Harriman-Schroeder Rock.' Schroeder, of course, was the Nazi bank on whose board Dulles sat. The 'Rock' were the Rockefellers of Standard Oil, who were already coming under scrutiny for their Nazi deals. By May 1939 Dulles handled another problem for Brown Brothers, Harriman, their 'Securities Custodian Accounts.'

"If Dulles was trying to conceal how many Nazi holding companies Brown Brothers, Harriman was connected with, he did not do a very good job. Shortly after Pearl Harbor, word leaked from Washington that affiliates of Prescott Bush's company were under investigation for aiding the Nazis in time of war. . . .

". . . The government investigation against Prescott Bush continued. Just before the storm broke, his son, George, abandoned his plans to enter Yale and enlisted in the U.S. Army. It was, say our sources among the former intelligence officers, a valiant attempt by an eighteen-year-old boy to save the family's honor.

"Young George was in flight school in October 1942, when the U.S. government charged his father with running Nazi front groups in the United States. Under the Trading with the Enemy Act, all the shares of the Union Banking Corporation were seized, including those held by Prescott Bush as being in effect held for enemy nationals. Union Banking, of course, was an affiliate of Brown Brothers, Harriman, and Bush handled the Harrimans' investments as well.
Elkhorn Project

Quotable Quote

If we don't even have the brains to count votes in Florida correctly, why do they think they can build a system to intercept incoming nuclear missiles?
Jake Johannssen

BLUE JOINS ORANGE AND BLACK RIBBONS FOR NATIONAL STRIKE

BLUE RIBBON VISIBILITY is calling for a National Strike to coincide with The Voter Rights March.

The Voter Rights March takes place on May 19, 2001, on the Mall in Washington, DC, from 10 am to 6 pm. The National Strike will begin on Thursday, May 17, and continue through Monday, May 21. The weekend will land in the middle of the strike, making it essentially a three "working day" strike.

This national strike will be called "Strike One", because it's just the start. If the first strike doesn't work, we do it again. Perhaps it will go to three strikes and Bush is out. The strike is to let our government know, and all the mega corporations who bought Bush the White House know that Al Gore got more votes in Florida and the USA. Since they had so much trouble counting our votes, and since so many Americans were wrongly prevented from voting, this strike will be another election where we cast our vote by not going to work; calling in sick. No matter how large and powerful a corporation is, it cannot exist without the people who work for it. Likewise, our government could not exist without the taxes that come out of our paychecks.

We The People are the fourth branch of government, which, by our consent, the other three branches may govern. It is our duty to help the other branches of government protect democracy. They cannot strongly act without our power visibly behind them.

Just last October the Yugoslavian people tried to vote Slobodan Milosovic out of office. They voted him out, but, he wouldn't leave. He was tampering with the vote count (election fraud) saying he got more votes. The people then had a national strike, which lasted long enough to get Milosovic out of office. It was peaceful and it worked.

Having Strike One coincide with the Million Voter March will serve two purposes. It will allow more people to have time to get to the march, and to get home again. It will also give people, all over our nation, a major part to play in this if they can't get to Washington, DC.

I hope some of you on my mailing list have connections in the major Unions. We all know that Bush is no friend to the Unions. I hope that employers will openly endorse the strike to their employees. It's a very small price to pay for Democracy. I speak equally to our darker skin Americans, AKA African/Black Americans, whose industries have graced this nation with such prosperous and original genius, and whose votes were so egregiously abused. (That means you, too, in big time sports industries.) Let's not forget our school teachers and law school professors. Someone translate this into Spanish, please. Yo habla un poquito, nada mas. Of course, emergency services such as hospitals and fire departments are not being asked to join in the strike. They can wear the blue, orange, and black ribbons which have come to represent what I call Election Fraud 2000.

Make no mistake, Election Fraud 2000 was a coup d' etat. It didn't happen with guns and bombs, but, it had precisely identical results as coup d' etat. Having a father who was born in Czechoslovakia, I know what it looks and feels like to not live in a democracy. I was born in the USA, in the USA branch of the Czech underground. You cannot allow this kind of takeover to succeed for even one year. One must refuse immediately. Otherwise it gets worse and worse. I saw this starting in earnest in 1980. Few listened then, but, at last, they have gone too far for the American people to tolerate.

This strike is something which is available to everyone. I know the vast majority will want to join in. I know it will take far less than that for it to succeed. (Note how just a few days of an airline pilot strike or garbage strike works) In fact, if we really mean it, we might get what we want with just the promise of a strike. We want who the American people voted for. If we let them get away with stealing this election, they'll do it again.

If Strike One does not get Bush and his gang out of the White House, then we will call Strike Two, starting Monday, July 2, on through the entire Fourth of July week. Then Strike Three will be an open ended, no time limit strike to begin the first week in October.

We The People have great power in our own hands. We shall peacefully assert that power, with confident optimism, and gain immediate results.
Estrella Holtzknecht/Berosini

Elder Bush in Big G.O.P. Cast Toiling for Top Equity Firm
By LESLIE WAYNE

WASHINGTON - During the presidential campaign last year, former President George Bush took time off from his son's race to call on Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia at a luxurious desert compound outside Riyadh to talk about American-Saudi business affairs.

Mr. Bush went as an ambassador of sorts, but not for his government. In the same way, Mr. Bush's secretary of state, James A. Baker III, recently met with a group of wealthy people at the elegant Lanesborough Hotel in London to explain the Florida vote count.

Traveling with the fanfare of dignitaries, Mr. Bush and Mr. Baker were using their extensive government contacts to further their business interests as representatives of the Carlyle Group, a $12 billion private equity firm based in Washington that has parlayed a roster of former top-level government officials, largely from the Bush and Reagan administrations, into a moneymaking machine.

In a new spin on Washington's revolving door between business and government, where lobbying by former officials is restricted but soliciting investments is not, Carlyle has upped the ante and taken the practice global. Mr. Bush and Mr. Baker were accompanied on their trips by former Prime Minister John Major of Britain, another of Carlyle's political stars. With door-openers of this caliber, along with shrewd investment skills, Carlyle has gone from an unknown in the world of private equity to one of its biggest players. Private equity, which involves buying up companies in private deals and reselling them, is a high-end business open only to the very rich.

Over the last decade, the Carlyle empire has grown to span three continents and include investments in most corners of the world. It owns so many companies that it is now in effect one of the nation's biggest defense contractors and a force in global telecommunications. Its blue-chip investors include major banks and insurance companies, billion-dollar pension funds and wealthy investors from Abu Dhabi to Singapore.

In getting business for Carlyle, Mr. Bush has been impressive. His meeting with the crown prince was followed by a yacht cruise and private dinners with Saudi officials, including King Fahd, all on behalf of Carlyle, which has extensive interests in the Middle East.

And Mr. Bush led Carlyle's successful entry into South Korea, the fastest-growing economy in Asia. After his meetings with the prime minister and other government and business leaders, Carlyle won a tough competition for control of KorAm, one of Korea's few healthy banks.

The steady flow of politicians to lucrative private-sector jobs based on their government contacts is a familiar Washington tale. But in this case, it is being played out for more dollars, on a global stage, and in the world of private finance, where the minimal government rules prohibiting lobbying by former officials for a given period are not a factor. These rules say nothing about potential conflicts when former government officials use their connections and insights for financial gain, and they may attract more notice now that George W. Bush is president. Many of those involved with Carlyle, which invests largely in companies that do business with the government or are affected by government regulations, have ties to the Oval Office.

For instance, Frank C. Carlucci, a Reagan secretary of defense who as much as anyone is responsible for Carlyle's success, said he met in February with his old college classmate Donald H. Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense, and Vice President Dick Cheney, himself a defense secretary under former President Bush, to talk about military matters - at a time when Carlyle has several billion-dollar defense projects under consideration.

Carlyle officials contend that the firm's activities do not present any potential conflicts since Mr. Bush, Mr. Baker and other former Republican officials now at Carlyle - including Mr. Carlucci, who is Carlyle's chairman, and Richard G. Darman, Mr. Bush's former budget director - do not lobby the federal government. Carlyle executives point out that many corporations have former government officials as board members.

"Mr. Bush gives us no advice on what do with with the federal government," said David Rubenstein, the firm's founder and a former aide in the Carter White House. "We've gone over backwards to make sure that we do no lobbying."

Others, however, see little difference between potential conflicts involving lobbying and those involving investments.

"Carlyle is as deeply wired into the current administration as they can possibly be," said Charles Lewis, executive director of the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit public interest group based in Washington. "George Bush is getting money from private interests that have business before the government, while his son is president. And, in a really peculiar way, George W. Bush could, some day, benefit financially from his own administration's decisions, through his father's investments. The average American doesn't know that and, to me, that's a jaw-dropper."

It is difficult to determine exactly how much money the senior Mr. Bush and Mr. Baker have made. Mr. Baker is a Carlyle partner, and Mr. Bush has the title senior adviser to its Asian activities. With a current market value of about $3.5 billion on Carlyle's equity and with the firm owned by 18 partners and one outside investor, Mr. Baker's Carlyle stake would be worth about $180 million if each partner held an equal stake. It is not known whether he has more or less than the other partners.

Unlike Mr. Baker, Mr. Bush has no ownership stake in Carlyle; he is an adviser and an investor and is compensated by obtaining stakes in Carlyle investments. Carlyle executives cited, for example, Mr. Bush's being allowed to put money he earns giving speeches for Carlyle into its investment funds. Mr. Bush generally receives $80,000 to $100,000 for a speech. He sits on no corporate boards other than Carlyle's.

Carlyle also gave the Bush family a hand in 1990 by putting George W. Bush, who was then struggling to find a career, on the board of a Carlyle subsidiary, Caterair, an airline-catering company.

From Carlyle's point of view, the involvement of Mr. Baker and the former president is invaluable.

"It punches up the brand awareness for us globally," said Daniel A. D'Aniello, a Carlyle managing director. "We are greatly assisted by Baker and Bush. It shows that we are associated with people of the highest ethical standards."

With $12 billion from investors, Carlyle claims to be the nation's largest private equity fund and makes money by investing in undervalued companies and reselling at a profit. These numbers put Carlyle in the same league as better-known private equity firms like Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company and Forstmann-Little & Company.

Two hundred forty Carlyle employees are stationed throughout the world either raising money or finding ways to spend it. Carlyle has ownership stakes in 164 companies, which last year employed more than 70,000 people and generated $16 billion in revenues. About 450 institutions - mainly large pension funds and banks - are Carlyle investors.

The California state pension fund invested $305 million with Carlyle, and the Texas teachers pension fund - whose board was appointed when George W. Bush was governor - gave Carlyle $100 million to invest in November. Carlyle also works as a financial adviser to the Saudi government.

"Let's say Carlyle is going fund- raising in the Middle East and they bring Bush along," said David Snow, editor of Private Equity Central, a trade publication. "He led the U.S. Army into that region. That will catch the attention of very wealthy investors in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. The fact that Bush is involved doesn't mean that Carlyle will make great investment decisions. But it will get them access to certain deals and certain countries that they might otherwise not have."

One former Carlyle employee said, "The firm understands that having Bush and Major around is like having movie stars around."

Yet Carlyle's success is not just because of its high-powered connections. Carlyle has done well for its investors, returning an average of 34 percent a year over the last decade, in line with other private equity funds. It has done this by buying what it knows best - companies that are regulated by the government. Nearly two-thirds of its investments are in defense and telecommunications companies, which are affected by shifts in government spending and policy.

Carlyle has become the nation's 11th largest defense contractor, owning companies that make tanks, aircraft wings and a broad array of other military equipment. It also owns health care companies, real estate, Internet companies, a bottling company and even Le Figaro, the French newspaper.

"Carlyle is one of the most successful fund-raising groups," said Mario L. Giannini, president of Hamilton Lane, a Philadelphia consultant to institutional investors. "They have tremendous access and they have done very well with their money."

And its access extends well beyond American shores. In Europe, Carlyle has assembled an advisory board that besides Mr. Major includes Karl Otto Pöhl, former president of German's Bundesbank, and the past or present chairmen of B.M.W., Hoffman-LaRoche, Nestlé, LVMH-Moët Hennessy, Louis Vuitton and Aerospatiale, the French Airbus partner.

Carlyle's Asia advisory board, which helps raise money and finds and reviews deals, includes former President Fidel V. Ramos of the Philippines, the former prime minister of Thailand and the executive director of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. The former South Korean prime minister Park Tae Joon was also an adviser to Carlyle.

This star power is a source of great pride for Carlyle and part of an acknowledged long-term strategy to associate the firm with brand-name politicians and business executives in order to attract more of the same - along with their money, insights and connections. That said, Carlyle partners bristle at any suggestion that the firm's success is based only on high-powered schmoozing.

"If our track record was not good, people would not invest with us," said Mr. Rubenstein, the founding partner. "No one would gives us money just because Mr. Bush is one of our advisers."

On that point, others agree. "People took potshots at Carlyle early on and tried to denigrate their investment credentials because they had all these government officials over there," said Bernard Aronson, managing partner at ACON Investments, a private equity firm in Washington. "But that's sort of a myth. The all- hat-and-no-cattle has disappeared because they performed consistently, delivered excellent returns and have become global players.."

One of the people who put Carlyle on the map - developing its riches and its image - is Mr. Carlucci, who joined the firm in 1989 when it had engaged in a string of ill-fated ventures. He is credited with steering Carlyle into successful defense industry acquisitions - just when other investors were shunning them - and with using his seat on more than a dozen corporate boards to bring Carlyle deals and investors.

In an office adorned with photographs of Mr. Carlucci and the politically mighty - he sits beneath an Oval Office picture of himself and Mr. Reagan - Mr. Carlucci makes it clear that his extensive government and global ties are as fresh as ever.

"I know Rumsfeld extremely well," Mr. Carlucci said in an interview. "We've been close friends throughout the years. We were college classmates."

Pointing to a picture of the Chinese president, he said, "There's a photo of me and Jiang Zemin. And there's me and the president of Taiwan."

Right now, Carlyle is hoping that financing is provided for the $13.7 billion Crusader program. The Crusader is a heavy-duty tank made by a Carlyle portfolio company and other contractors. And Carlyle just lodged a complaint with the government after another of its portfolio companies lost a $4 billion contract to build a lightweight combat vehicle.

While Mr. Carlucci is open about his discussions with Mr. Rumsfeld on Pentagon policies, he said he never lobbies. "I've made it clear that I don't lobby the defense industry," Mr. Carlucci said. "I will give our Carlyle bankers advice on what they might do and who they should talk to.. But I do not pick up the phone and say you should fund X, Y or Z."

If Washington's revolving door brought Republicans to Carlyle during the Clinton presidency, now the firm is preparing for an onslaught of Democrats. The day these interviews took place at Carlyle's Washington office, Gene Sperling, one of the Clinton administration's top economic advisers, was in for a job interview.
Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company

NEW BUSH BILL REMOVES ASSASSINATION BAN

HOUSE BILL PROPOSES LIFTING BAN ON ASSASSINATIONS
BUSH ADMINISTRATION WASTING NO TIME IN MOVING TOWARD WAR FOOTING

HR 19, Introduced by Republican Georgia Congressman Bob Barr on January 3, 2001, the first day of the new 107th Congress, would legislatively repeal sections of three Executive Orders specifically prohibiting assassinations by the United States Government.

Entitled the "Terrorist Elimination Act of 2001", the bill, submitted to the House International Relations Committee, would specifically nullify sections of three previous Executive Orders including one initiated by Ronald Reagan in 1981. It is interesting to note that acts of Congress are not required to nullify previous Executive Orders (EOs) which are, by definition, orders issued by the President and Commander in Chief to all federal employees (including military) under his authority. All that is necessary to reverse one EO is another EO. This is exactly what President George W. Bush did with respect to EOs issued by President Clinton on the environment in the last days of his administration.

Section 3 of HR 19 specifically states: "The following provisions of Executive orders shall have no further force or effect:
(1) Section 5(g) of Executive Order 11905.
(2) Section 2-305 of Executive Order 12306.
(3) Section 2.11 of Executive Order 12333." [By Ronald Reagan]

Section 5 (g) of Executive Order 11905, signed by Gerald Ford on 2/18/76 specifically prohibited "political" assassination. Section 2-305 of Executive Order 12036, signed 1/24/78 by Jimmy Carter renewed the ban. Section 2.11 of Executive Order 12333, signed by Ronald Reagan on 12/4/81 renewed the ban on assassinations, or conspiracy to commit assassinations, as part of a broader package which gave virtually complete control of the American National Security apparatus to then Vice President George H.W. Bush.

The full text of HR 19 may be viewed at http://thomas.loc.gov. Enter a search in the 107th Congress for 19 and it will take you straight to the bill

The bold move, unreported and ignored by any major media, offers a chance for an early referendum on the new administration's full-speed run at a more violent and brutish foreign policy. The current bill, introduced by staunch Bush supporter and Clinton impeachment leader Barr, indicates that the Bush administration is seeking to add legitimacy to the move by implying that Congress and the American people support the action. This can only mean that there is quite likely a list of people the Bush Administration wants to start killing fairly quickly. The appointment of career covert operative and Annapolis graduate Richard Armitage as Deputy Secretary of State under Colin Powell only underscores the clear message that the Bush Administration is sending to the world.

Armitage, who was denied a 1989 appointment as Assistant Secretary of State because of links to Iran-Contra and other scandals, served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs in the Reagan years. U.S. Government stipulations in the Oliver North trial specifically named Armitage as one of the DoD officials responsible for illegal transfers of weapons to Iran and the Contras. But Armitage's dirty past goes much deeper.

A Vietnam veteran and graduate of Annapolis, Armitage's roots have been thoroughly intertwined with the likes of CIA veteran Ted Shackley, Richard Secord, Heine Aderholt, Elliot Abrams, Dewey Clarridge, Edwin Wilson and Tom Clines. All of these men have been directly linked to CIA covert operations, the drug trade, the abandonment of U.S. prisoners of War after Vietnam and/or Iran-Contra. Armitage has also been routinely discussed in FTW as a Bush-era covert functionary who has been linked to covert operations, drug smuggling and the expansion of organized crime operations in Russia, Central Asia and the Far East.

In 1986 a private dispute between POW activist Ross Perot and Armitage went public as photos of Armitage with a topless Vietnamese nightclub owner Nguyen O'Rourke brought allegations of gambling and prostitution very close to Armitage's doorstep. The stories went public when TIME and "The Boston Globe" wrote lengthy stories on the feud in 1986 and 1987. That scandal arose as a result of 1984 investigations by President Reagan's Commission on Organized Crime in which the photo and documentation of gambling charges and prostitution led directly to Armitage's close association with O'Rourke. Then LAPD Assistant Chief Jesse Brewer, a former Commanding Officer of this writer, served on the Reagan Commission.

The 1992 best-seller "Kiss The Boys Goodbye" by former "60 MINUTES" producer Monika Jensen-Stevenson details Armitage's role as Reagan point man on Vietnam POW-MIA issues and describes why Armitage has earned the enmity of many POW activists. However, in a 1995 interview with "The Washington Post", Colin Powell referred to Armitage as his "white son." This, notwithstanding the fact that the 6 foot, balding, power-lifter, now 56, can still bench press 300 or more pounds and reportedly "enjoys killing."

William Tyree, Special Forces Veteran who has provided much reliable information and documentation to FTW in the past said, "Armitage used to 'sit ambush' on the trails in Laos and Cambodia. He liked it. Now when Powell, 'the dove,' sits down at a table with Armitage 'the killer' beside him the message will be that Armitage can reach across the table and deal with the other party on the spot." That message will not go unheard.

There is reason to believe that a repeal of the assassination ban would lead to an immediate series of deaths. Remember, the Iran-Contra team is coming back to power with a vengeance. The completion of a February 11, 1982 memorandum between Reagan Attorney General William French Smith and CIA Director Bill Casey removed any requirement for CIA to report drug trafficking by its agents, contractors and proprietary employees. Immediately thereafter cocaine consumption into the United States multiplied as imports rose from approximately 80 tons in 1982 to 600 tons by 1989.

[A copy of that memorandum, published by the CIA in 1998, is available in FTW's Extracts and Commentary on Volume II of the CIA Inspector General's Report" originally published on 10/8/98.]

There are no choices and this is no longer a convenient exercise of protected liberty. This is now a true struggle against tyranny. Call your Congressman. Call your local media. Call your neighbor. A loud enough uproar can stop this criminal move in its tracks. Silence can only invite bloodshed.
Michael C. Ruppert Publisher/Editor "From The Wilderness" http://www.copvcia.com
(c) Copyright 2001, From The Wilderness Publications and Michael C. Ruppert.

Dead letter office

Heil Bush,

Dear Gruppenfuhrer Byrd,

Congratulations you have just been awarded the Vidkun Quisling Award for 2001. Your name will now live throughout history with such past award winners as Marcus Junius Brutus, Judas Iscariot, Benedict Arnold, Vidkun Quisling and last years winner Volksjudge Wilhelm Rehnquist. With your vote to allow Herr Ashcroft to take command of the Gestapo we will soon certainly put those Darkies and Jews back in their place und make Jesus das King. Along with this award there will be an Iron Cross 2nd class presented by our glorious Fuhrer Herr Bush at a gala party in das Fuhrer Bunker, formerly the White House on 4-1-2001. We salute you Herr Byrd! Sieg Heil!

Signed,
Deputy Fuhrer Cheney

Heil Bush

How Dumb Do the Republicans Think We Are?
by Molly Ivins

AUSTIN - President Bush's maiden address to the nation was classic Dubya: He talks moderate and governs right. And this is never more true than on economic issues.

Again, with Bush, what you see is not what you get. What you hear is not what you get. What you get is what you get.

One is tempted to conclude, "Surely he jests."

The man cannot possibly want us to sign off on an enormous tax cut designed to benefit the rich without telling us what will be cut in return. Houston, we have a problem. Earth to Karl Rove: Beam me up, Scotty.

In budgets, as in bridges, the devil is in the details, and the details of the amorphous plan that Bush presented Tuesday night are grim indeed.

Just the other day I had occasion to cite one of the Great Questions of government, which is: What the Hell Will They Do To Us Next? Tuesday night's maiden speech before Congress brought up another always-timely query: How Dumb Do They Think We Are?

This tax cut is carefully back-loaded: We won't fully feel its effects until 10 years into the future, yet we have to start cutting already to accommodate the little wedge of it that will affect this budget.

To use one of the great legislative cliches of all time, this year's tax cut is the head of the camel under the tent. And if you think the head causes problems, wait'll you see what the rest of the beast does when it's inside.

For all the size of the federal budget, the amount available for discretionary spending is relatively small, and within that small portion are most of the efforts to use government flexibly and intelligently.

Again, to cut basic scientific research is sheer folly. To cut job training programs is not only cruel but stupid. To cut health and human service programs is to abandon investments in people; as we have long known, the earlier we can invest in a child's health and education, the more money we save in the long run.

Bush's budget is irrefutably the work of old Reaganites who do not like government and believe that the best way to deal with it is to starve it to death.

According to 'The Wall Street Journal,' the chief architects of Bush's budget are John Cogan of the ultra-conservative Hoover Institution at Stanford, and Mitch Daniels, a former executive at Eli Lilly & Co., newly named head of the Office of Management and Budget.

Relying on the wide range of opinion available from such sources at the Heritage Foundation and Citizens Against Government Waste, a span that covers the gamut from A to B, Cogan and his team noodled the numbers.

Bush so clearly represents a change of rhetoric without a change of intent that it's almost painful. Ronald Reagan used to go around saying, "Government is not the solution; government is the problem." Newt Gingrich thought so little of the institution that he shut it down twice.

I say that government is neither the problem nor the solution. It is just a tool. Whether you put the tool to good use or bad, whether you use it wisely or carelessly, is not the fault of the tool.

I can't say that I see we're better off for paying for a $1.5 million statue of the Roman god Vulcan in honor of Alabama steelworkers -- one of the splendid items of pork spotted by Cogan's team -- but it's certain that some Alabama steelworkers are going to need job retraining if we keep making trade pacts with no labor or environmental floors.

Perhaps the single funniest argument I have heard in favor of Bush's tax cut for the rich is from CNN's Tucker Carlson, who crossly announced that it is vulgar -- vulgar -- to point out that the rich are going to get ever so much more out of this tax cut than everybody else.

Quite, quite vulgar to point out that in a society already deeply scarred by the dramatically growing gap between the rich and everyone else, a tax cut that transfers yet more wealth into the hands of the rich while shifting more of the burden of taxation to everyone else is a truly bad idea.

However, I believe it is even more vulgar -- in fact, crass, stupid and greedy -- to actually pass such a tax cut. I believe it is vulgar that this tax cut is proposed by the wealthiest Cabinet in history; seven of them are worth more than $10 million, and 11 of the remaining 12 are worth at least $1 million apiece. (Ag Secretary Ann Veneman is the pauper in the bunch, worth only $680,000, according to 'The Guardian' of London.)

One of Bush's "ordinary" couples, Paul and Debbie Peterson, will get a tax cut of $1,100 a year. Bush himself will get more than 60 times that.

I find that a little vulgar.

According to the Census Bureau, 3.7 million Americans suffer from hunger as a result of being unable to buy basic foods. About 9 million households have "uncertain access to food."

I find that truly vulgar.
Molly Ivins is a columnist for the Star-Telegram. You can reach her at 1005 Congress Ave., Suite 920, Austin, TX 78701; (512) 476-8908; or mollyivins@star-telegram.com.

Where's His Money Coming From?

By Richard N. Draheim, Jr.

Why has Presidential candidate George W. Bush been able to raise uncounted tens of millions of dollars? It can't be because of his positions on the issues; he has scrupulously avoided taking many. It can't be because of his knowledge of world events; he thinks being asked such questions is a trick." (He will embarrassingly lie, saying that he knows the answer to a question, and half a sentence later admit that he doesn't.)

No, George "I'm No Longer Drunk" Bush's support is because the Bush family fortune is old, and it's big, and comes from a century old alliance with the most powerful interests on Wall Street and in industry. Worse, part of Dub-a-Ya's money comes from grandfather Prescott Bush's financial alliance with the Nazis.

On October 20, 1942, the US Alien Property Custodian, under the "Trading With the Enemy Act," seized the shares of the Union Banking Corporation (UBC), of which Prescott Bush was a director and shareholder. The largest shareholder was E. Roland Harriman. (Bush was also the managing partner of Brown Brothers Harriman, a leading Wall Street investment firm.)

The UBC was established to send American capital to Germany to finance the reorganization of its industry under the Nazis. Their leading German partner was the notorious Nazi industrialist Fritz Thyssen, who wrote a book admitting much of this called "I Paid Hitler."

Among the companies financed was the Silesian-American Corporation, which was also managed by Prescott Bush, and by his father-in-law George Herbert Walker, who supplied Dub-a-Ya with his name. The company was vital in supplying coal to the Nazi war industry. It too was seized as a Nazi-front on November 17, 1942. The largest company Bush's UBC helped finance was the German Steel Trust, responsible for between one-third and one-half of Nazi iron and explosives.

Prescott Bush was also a director of the Harriman Fifteen Corporation, (this one owned largely by Roland's brother, Averell Harriman), which owned about a third of the Consolidated Silesian Steel Corporation, the rest owned by Friedrich Flick, (a member of Himmler's "Circle of Friends" who donated to the S.S.).

Republican Presidential candidate Bush's great-grandfather, Bert Walker, helped organize the Harriman investment in the Hamburg-America Line of ships, of which grandfather Prescott became a director. It was seized on August 28, 1942 because it was used to give free passage to Nazi propaganda and propagandists, and had earlier shipped guns to the Nazi's private armies to assist their takeover of Germany.

Further examples would be more tedious than shocking. But, given these evil financial dealings, how did Prescott later become a Republican Senator, and George H.W. become President? Well,the two leading attorneys for these Bush-Harriman-Nazi deals were John Foster Dulles, later Secretary of State under Eisenhower, and Allen Dulles, future head of the CIA.

Prescott's father, Samuel P. Bush, owned Buckeye Steel Castings Co. which made parts for the Harriman brothers' father's (E.H. Harriman) railroads. Harriman's financing for the railroads came largely from William Rockefeller. These shipped the oil of his brother John D. Rockefeller, the founder of Standard Oil. (This was the origin of the two Georges' involvement in the oil business.)

Samuel Bush became a leader in President Woodrow Wilson's "War Socialism" as director of small armaments and ammunition on the War Industries Board (which set up coercive price-fixing cartels over American industry during World War I). There, Bush assisted Percy Rockefeller (son of William) in his takeover of small arms manufacturers.

The elder George Bush continued the family tradition of support for totalitarian governments by supporting the Communist Chinese in the UN, and by directly aiding its military as President.

Will the younger George Bush continue to support big government, or will he support free markets? His first political act was a tax increase to subsidize his baseball stadium. When libertarians and conservative Republicans were opposing the bailout of American banks that loaned money to the Mexican government, the Texas Governor supported it, because of his connections to those Wall Street Banks.

This is in keeping with the actual history of the Republican Party. It was founded in the 1850's explicitly as the party of high taxes to subsidize politically connected businesses, (then known as "internal improvements"). All Republican Presidents in the last fifty years have continued to increase the size of the government, and claims of support for free markets and lowered taxes are mere rhetorical cover. Texas Governor George Bush will continue that tradition.
©2001 Richard N. Draheim, Jr. http://www.bruinzone.com/gen/messages/11310.shtml

The Cartoon Corner

This edition we're proud to showcase the cartoons of Tom Paine.

If you'd like to join Tom's mailing list send an email to: tomp1776@yahoo.com

VOTER RIGHTS MARCH (Saturday, May 19, 2001)

On Saturday, May 19, 2001, Voter March will sponsor the Voter Rights March at the Mall in Washington, DC from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm to voice our outrage over the fraud and disenfranchisement of voters in the latest Presidential election, to call for critically-needed voting and electoral reforms, and to protest the illegitimate President's right wing agenda to turn back gains in the environment, a woman's right to choose, and the separation of church and state.

To end on a happy note ...

Little Bush Coup
Sung to the tune of "Little Deuce Coupe"
With apologies to The Beach Boys

Little Bush Coup
We all know what he got

Well, Dubya's braggin', 'cause Al Gore went down
But Shrub's got the slickest lawyers in town
When something comes up, the Bushies' spin will fly
It's the corruption that he brings, and he knows how to lie

It's the Little Bush Coup
We all know what he got
(Little Bush Coup, we all know what he got)

It's the Little Bush Coup - hear their fatheads shill
But this talking dunderhead's understanding is nil
According to believers, Shrub's a man of note
He's down five hundred thousand in the popular vote

It's the Little Bush Coup
We all know what he got
(Little Bush Coup, we all know what he got)

Shrub lost the competition, much of the vote went to Gore
We refer to what's written 'bout the vote swipe score
And if that ain't enough to rip Bush for what he did
There's one more thing: he's the Son of Bush Daddy

They're comin' out of hiding, the right wing's mean
They'll impose their kind of order, like you've never seen
They'll get Bush into shape, and it's hard to cheer
When we get Shrubbie for four more years

It's the Little Bush Coup
We all know what he got
(Little Bush Coup, we all know what he got)
It's the Little Bush Coup
We all know what he got
(Little Bush Coup, we all know what he got)

(repeat chorus and fade)

Top Ten Media Whores
from Media Whores Online

Tim Russert - Winner of the Fastest Decline into Whoredom Award

Cokie Roberts - Laughed at the "stupid" old people of Palm Beach County, Florida

Chris Matthews - Foamed at the mouth over overseas military ballots, saying that Americans "care more about" military votes than votes from Jews in Palm Beach. No we don't, lying whore. Now Chris is in bed with new John, Rush Limbaugh. They have a deal: You whore on my show, I'll whore on yours.

Andrew Sullivan - Andrew has a dilemma. He's gay, but a "devout" Catholic. Therefore, he has come to oppose most liberal causes, except gay rights. This is Andrew the Guilty Catholic's deal with God: "Let me be gay (he says the Church is "wrong" about homosexuality) and I'll side with the Pope on abortion and bash pro-choice politicians like Clinton and Gore". Hey, who knows. It might work.

Brian Williams - He's so "alarmed". And he can never resist throwing in his own whorish editorial comments. Is it us, or is MSNBC becoming more faux than Faux?

Peggy Noonan - Affected pervert (said Chelsea's holding hands with her dad was 'creepy'). All her columns read like a bad LSD trip.

Matt Drudge - Sees Clinton's crotch in a benign Esquire cover shot. Sees Gore's crotch in the folds of his Dockers. Sees subliminable Democratic crotches everywhere.

David Gergen - Triple agent traitor who's always wrong

Bill O'Reilly - "I'm fair and balanced because one in 6,000 emails calls me a closet liberal".

Tucker Carlson - Lately the most often complained about Media Whore to MWO.

"This is America," said Duane Collins, a Gatlinburg, TN, distillery operator and father of five. "And in this country, we have the God-given right to change laws we don't think are Christian. We are united in our demands that the second law of thermodynamics be repealed, and our voice will be heard no matter what. That's just a plain fact, and nothing anybody says can ever change it."
The Onion