Stop Calling it Government-It's Organized Crime

[buzzsaw_23]

As you link to the blog below pay particular attention to Jack Abramoff and link over to Josh Marshall's excellent blog-talkingpointsmemo.

To reveal truths it is important to name things with their proper names.


Organized crime in Washington

It appears to have been a rough week for the Republican Party, with DeLay's indictment, Miller talking, Larry Franklin's plea bargain, the forcing of the release of the worst of the Abu Ghraib photos, more revelations on the Abramoff and Safavian scandals, continued fallout from the debacle of the non-response to Katrina, more problems in Iraq, and on and on. People are starting to notice a pattern. From Sam Smith:

"WITH the indictment of Tom DeLay there can no longer be any doubt that with the Bush regime we are observing not a variation on politics but chronically criminal and corrupt behavior parading as ideology. This is not a movement but a mob and a disservice as much to conservatives as to progressives and moderates. The whole purpose of the Bush machine is to line its own pockets, increase its own power, and suppress any who would complain about it. For the media to treat what is happening as just another political discussion merely makes it a tool of the biggest fraud ever perpetrated on the American public. It is time the press learned to distinguish clearly between a con and a concept."

<snip>

The Republicans like to talk about how the Bush Administration brought MBA management techniques to the American government, but what they really did was discover the method of applying the most advanced management techniques to using the government as a source of personal wealth. The Katrina reconstruction, where they salivated like a wolf watching a lamb as they awarded huge no-bid, no-limit contracts to the usual select group of cronies, just provided the final proof of what they are really up to. The only difference between this American government, and corrupt governments at other times or in other countries, is that the current Republicans are better at it. Strangely enough, the Republican Party reminds me most of old revolutionary organizations, like the IRA or the Palestinian Authority, or even the original mafia itself, that start out with ideological purpose and descend into groups which use their power as the monopolists of violence to live off the avails of organized crime. Dick Cheney is just like Tony Soprano with an MBA.

<snip>

As the American public s-l-o-w-l-y wakes up to the fact that their government is being run solely for the purposes of thievery, there is not a damn thing they can do about it. That's because the first thing the Republicans stole was the voting system itself. It's telling that the only resistance to the thievery - not the media, not the 'moderate' Republicans, and certainly not the Democrats - is coming from what is left of the judicial system, and Bush is in the final stages of permanently fixing that final problem. Why do the Democrats not take the obvious anti-war stance supported by the majority of Americans? Because they know they can't possibly win an election on the basis of their policies, so they might as well continue to line their pockets with the money from the same military lobbyists who are paying the Republicans. The entire adversarial nature of the voting system has been toppled by the fact that only one party has any chance to win. The Republicans may act a little contrite about the most blatant corruption, but as long as Diebold and similar Republican cronies are running the computer voting system, there is no chance that the Republicans will lose control of Congress or the White House, no matter how much they steal, and no matter how much they are caught. As the legal system is slowly worn down, there will be absolutely no checks on the thievery whatsoever.

http://www.xymphora.blogspot.com/

[cassiepriam]

1. Yep, a legalized crime syndicate. And most americans like it.

They are hoping to get on the gravy train too.

[Demeter]

2. It Is the MBA Strategy They Follow

Just remember most American companies have been on the ropes for years--and the 2000-2005 list of embezzelers, fraud, and bankruptcy continues, laying lives to waste and evaporating savings, jobs, benefits, tax bases, etc.

[buzzsaw_23]

3. K Street is the hub of this crime syndicate

Back in 1995, when Republicans took over Congress, a new cadre of daring and original thinkers arose. These bold innovators had a key insight: that you no longer had to choose between being an activist and a lobbyist. You could be both. You could harness the power of K Street to promote the goals of Goldwater, Reagan and Gingrich. And best of all, you could get rich while doing it!

Before long, ringleader Grover Norquist and his buddies were signing lobbying deals with the Seychelles and the Northern Mariana Islands and talking up their interests at weekly conservative strategy sessions - what could be more vital to the future of freedom than the commercial interests of these two fine locales?

Before long, folks like Norquist and Abramoff were talking up the virtues of international sons of liberty like Angola's Jonas Savimbi and Congo's dictator Mobutu Sese Seko - all while receiving compensation from these upstanding gentlemen, according to The Legal Times. Only a reactionary could have been so discomfited by Savimbi's little cannibalism problem as to think this was not a daring contribution to the cause of Reaganism.

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/000390.html