THE GATEKEEPERS OF YOUR MIND by The Cosmic Messenger

“As the most participatory form of mass speech yet developed, the Internet deserves the highest protection from governmental intrusion.” -- Stewart Dalzell

Graft has always existed in Washington and cuts through partisan politics. We're told by the President there's a foreign "axis of evil" ready to take down America but the excessive influence of money in governmental policy legislation is the most wicked menace our democracy faces.

Observers from the political, social and religious spectrums have cautioned throughout the millenniums this medium of exchange is at the root of all society's iniquity but their counsel goes unheeded by moneygrubbers who regard it as a means to an end. Since President Bush took office there's been one corporate scandal after another with the student loan controversy and mortgage lending debacle of 2007 being the latest connivances brought to the public's attention.

Last year at this time, I took a satirical look at this dilemma using the lobbying efforts of telecom corporations to deregulate government restrictions on the way the internet is utilized. My sarcasm warned of the consequences it could have for Americans if the industry were to succeed. In February the debate about Net Neutrality reemerged on several U.S. college campus's whether Congress should pass some limitations to keep the system from being totally controlled by the phone and cable industries. The fear is they would implement a two-tier system giving greater access of information to consumers with the financial resources to pay while limiting those with lesser means to smaller databases.

Aside from this concern, there's the objection raised by civil rights advocates who allege the government has purposely enabled these communication monopolies to materialize and are colluding with them to obtain their customer's transaction records. This suspicion was substantiated in April when National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell suggested the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 be amended to "give telecommunications companies immunity from civil liability for their cooperation with Bush's terrorist surveillance program."

The following fictitious exchanges reflect how this secretive collaborative effort geminated and represents the tainted impact of political donations currently shaping government behavior.

Oval Office Secretary: Hello .... this is the ruler of the kingdom's correspondence clerk. What privilege do you wish his majesty to bestow upon you today ?

Papa Bell: Hi sweet thang. I need an urgent sit down with Dubya to discuss whether our plans for monopolizing .... I mean turning the internet into a free market enterprise system are still on track.

Oval Office Secretary: Hold one moment please while I convey your request to his excellency, King W.

Papa Bell: Thank you sugar plum. By the way .... are you free for some dinner and romance tonight at the Watergate establishment ?

Oval Office Secretary: Your excellency .... Papa Bell is on line one requesting a conference about your scheme to control the information fast lane. He also wants to know if I'm available for an amorous night on the town with him ?

King W: Tell him I'll be happy to see him but first he must make an electronic deposit to the offshore account of the RNC. When it's confirmed you can admit him to the inner sanctum of my palace. Concerning his second desire, he's always had a thing for you so go with my blessing and consider it a patriotic act in service to the monarchy. Be sure to bring protection though in case things get physical and he pulls his gun later in the evening .... wink, wink !

Oval Office Secretary: Why your majesty whatever are you implying ? You know I'm a bible belt gal from an upper crust Texas family raised with proper values. My daddy taught me I shouldn't leap into bed with just anyone. He's got to spend at least $1500 on dinner and pay for it with a platinum credit card before doing anything like you're suggesting. Besides, I thought you issued an edict banning the use of contraceptives ?

King W: That decree was a public relations stunt designed to mollify the simpletons and some of the more pious serfs within my domain to maintain their allegiance. You better get back to your call waiting.

Oval Office Secretary: King W informs me you will be cleared for entry once your donation is verified, Papa Bell. Have your limousine pick me up at 7 PM at my condominium. I'll be wearing that low cut V neck red evening gown with the spangles and my hooker heels you like so much.

Papa Bell: The payment is on its way, honey. I've also got some cruise line brochures I'd like to show you while we're sipping some vintage Bordeaux tonight. The trip would be on me. All the industries are doing it since your boss was crowned and threw ethics out the window. I'm leaving for the palace now and should reach its gated entrance in about five minutes. Make sure my security clearance is approved.

Palace Trumpeter: Your majesty I wish to announce the arrival of a loyal subject, Papa Bell. He's been scanned and is awaiting entrance. Shall I admit him ?

King W: By all means let him proceed to my throne.

Papa Bell: Howdy Dubya thanks for seeing me on such short notice. Those musicians heralding my entrance add a nice regal touch to the decor around here.


King W: Glad you liked them. As you can see no Satchmo horn players for us. They're immigrants we got on the cheap south of the border after I signed that Katrina Gulf Opportunity Zone Act last year. Nothing better than getting labor for next to nothing is my motto. What's on your mind today, Papa Bell ?

Papa Bell: I'm here representing all the major phone company CEO's. We're alarmed by last month's allegation in that national rag our organizations cooperated with the NSA to provide your boy Hayden all of our customer's phone number transactions.

I thought you agreed with us the future of modern communications lies in the hands of the telephone industry and cabal companies providing public access to information depending on which premium they choose ? Think of the profit potential and the govermnent's ability to control the information highway, Dubya ! This story would never have reached the common people because the system we envision excludes those who can't afford to read accounts like this. Monopoly ... not neutrality is the only way this can happen. If the public thinks we're conspiring with federal spy agencies they'll quit dialing their phones or logging onto the internet. All our marketing plans to feed the government and advertisers data about our customers usage habits will be negated.

King W: Now don't get your panties in a bunch, Papa Bell. I haven't forgotten the telecoms but things must be done incrementally. I've got my lackey over at the Senate Judiciary Committee covering our backsides as we speak. I've directed him to stall subpoenaing phone executives to testify until after the midterm elections. We plan to win in the Fall with a vigorous campaign of gay bashing and appealing to voter's prejudices. Switching the message to God and bigotry works every time the patriotic theme wears thin. Besides .... we control Congress, the FCC, federal court judges and can always claim it's a national security issue so quit hyperventilating. For now, tactical delay is the way to proceed.

Papa Bell: I hope you're right, Dubya. A lot is riding on this. All our merchandising plans will be invalidated. Our agenda to merge with the other telecom giant and centralize content stream will be lost. We have new cell phones to market, telephony and DVR video products for the internet ready to unveil which would make it easier for the government to listen in on and track people with. All that hangs in the balance if the consumer looses confidence in us.

King W: Didn't you get the fax I told my Attorney General to send over ? It was a carefully worded statement of denial which all the phone companies are supposed to use if the media asks for an explaination. It states I can't comment on a pending allegation and won't make any further remarks at this time. I've used it so often in the past five years its become an instinctive reaction to any bad news I encounter. My wife caught me sleepwalking the other night and to her chagrin told me I mumbled the same line when she demanded to know where I was going.

Papa Bell: All I ask is you stay focused on the end objective, Dubya. Imagine an internet where only the wealthiest customers have access to genuine news. We stream them the latest stock quotes, oil prices and global data so they can plan their investments accordingly. Everybody else will be limited to entertainment bulletins and feeds from either the bible thumpers or the gun toting crowd. To see more they'll have to pay a higher premium. Once the system is launched, we'll sink initial profits into state of the art fiber optic networks enabling us to expand content delivery beyond the internet to consumer's living rooms. The pay to play concept will apply here as well giving the phone companies total control over information whether obtained from their computers or televisions. The public will only see and hear what we and the government permit. Together we can rule the world. Business investors will snap up our stocks when they realize we have exclusive control of the market.

King W: I understand your concern and share your desire for empire building, Papa Bell. Heck, I'm trying to do the same thing with my oil buddies but there's really no need to fret about whether people will quit using their phones or computers. All persons regardless of wealth are motivated by greed. It's basic human psychology. I've already commanded the Treasury Department to capitalize on this desire by having them terminate the tax on long distance calls and issue refunds for this inconvenience to the people. Citizens can apply for it on their 2006 tax return provided they furnish us a legitimate phone number. Most refunds will be nominal but both the telecoms and government will make out like bandits. All the numbers acquired will go into our spy database and cross checked against those you previously gave us. We'll share the tax return data with the phone companies so they can market the internet plan to customers based on income reported. Technically, this is a violation of federal law but the boys in legal tell me we can get around this by issuing national security letters to protect ourselves. It'll be our little secret just like the money paid by the NSA for the phone records.

Papa Bell: Wow ...... you're even more deceitful than I thought but I like your business savvy, Dubya. Where did you say you attended school ?

King W: It's nothing really. Family wealth put me through Yale and Harvard where I hung out with the frat boys guzzling beer while toking some of that crazy weed. College was a blur for me. Daddy suggested Coach C as a sage advisor to help me through any crisis I might encounter during my reign. He's given a whole new meaning to the expression "Tricky Dick." It's been nice chatting with you but I've got another lobbyist coming in soon. Cute little gal representing a private contractor for the Pentagon asking me to maintain their no bid agreements with the government. It's like a revolving door around here but I'll tell her the same thing I told you. If you really want to get your order of business authorized I've got the friends in Congress to make it happen for a price.

Papa Bell: Thanks for your time. I can find my way out and I'll make sure the telecom executives pass along some financial incentives before the Fall elections.

Palace Trumpeter: The loyal subject, Papa Bell is now departing ... adios and good day.

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DON'T GET SCREWED AGAIN By The Cosmic Messenger

“You need a president who didn’t fall out of a Christmas tree. You need a president who doesn’t have a key in the back being wound up by special interests.” ... Dennis Kucinich

Nothing ever seems to change on the Hill. Ideological gridlock is the game and the path leading to the King's throne is paved with "K" Street gold. To gain favor with the ruler, one must come forth bearing gifts to grease the machinery and keep it functioning.


Last April I wrote a Column which portrayed this corrupt practice, cynically describing how politicians and special interests woo one another for access to something each desires. Invariably, the tradeoff is entree to the Oval office or Congressional hallways by everyone from corporations to pressure groups with a particular cause in return for a monetary contribution to a political campaign's war chest. I used the communication industry's lobbying effort to monopolize the flow of information data as an example.

A year ago it was Tom Delay and Ken Lay headlining the news because of the legal trouble each had encountered for adapting these tactics. Delay was censured twice by a Congressional ethics committe for the political fundraising violations his tactics employed and indicted by a Texas county DA on charges of political money laundering. Lay incurred court-ordered penalities against him for swindling investors with inflated shares of Enron made possible through financial contributions to political coffers giving his company a power supply monopoly over certain geographical areas of the U.S.

Ironically as we begin this month, Delay has just published his autobiography in which he attempts to marginalize his ethical misbehavior including "heavy drinking and womanizing" according to a March 24, Houston Chronicle review. Delay also makes an effort to alibi his dishonorable conduct by vilifying political opponents with the classic conservative tirade his enemies tried to ruin him.

"Like good communists when they cannot defeat their enemies politically they seek to destroy them personally," Delay alleges. "All of this is punishment for holding values different from theirs. Today it is not enough to defeat a man politically. This is what the political left in this country has brought us and this is why many of the best leaders in our land refuse to take public office."

Since Lay is now deceased, he can't justify his actions but in March two federal judges dismissed a class action suit brought by Enron shareholders against the company's three banking advisors. An executive editoral written by Isaiah J. Poole for Tom Paine on March 28, suggests both court magistrates reasoned the financial institutions couldn't be sued for Enron's "misrepresentations" despite their advice which contributed to incorrectly portraying the corporation's true "financial condition." In addition, Poole used his commentary to make one other significant observation. The editor astutely implies much of the President's legal philosophy evolves from policies advocated by conservative groups like the Federalist Society which protect corporate rights while throttling an individual's ability to win redress against them for negligent behavior.

"These groups provided the intellectual firepower behind such laws as the Class Action Fairness Act, approved by the Republican Congress and signed by President Bush in 2005, shifting most class action cases to federal courts and making it harder for aggrieved parties to successfully pursue those cases," Poole opined. "Laws such as CAFA, combine with Bush’s stacking of the federal courts with judges who seem ideologically opposed to even the mildest discipline on bad actors in the free market. In these ways, Bush-era conservatism is allowing the wealthy and the powerful to pillage ordinary people."

The behavior of Delay, Ken Lay and the judges illustrates how the excessive influence of money in governmental policy legislation is dictating the scandalous actions of our political leaders. Just within the last month it was disclosed one of the principal causes contributing to the neglect of our returning soldiers at Walter Reed was the privatization of their care outsourced to contractors employing workers receiving wages substantially less than the unionized federal health care providers they replaced. Numerous national media sources identified the company hired as IAP Worldwide Services, Inc. which received a $120 million grant to manage the facility. Furthermore, it was determined IAP had politically correct connections to Vice President Dick Cheney because it was run by Al Neffgen, a former senior official at Halliburton.According to California Senator Henry Waxmam, a September memo from last year reveals the Army Medical Command was aware of the negative impact privatization was having on the quality of services provided at WMRAC but did nothing to correct the problem.

One can only speculate about the motives for their inaction but a rationale assumption would conclude it was due to pressure to comply with Bush's "Competitive Sourcing Initiative" of 2001. The strategy was designed to achieve cost efficiency by allowing private competitors to bid for management contracts of government activities. Like many of Bush's other disasterous market style ventures though, namely the Iraq war and public education, the policy has failed due to insufficient oversight of performance standards designed to ensure their success. In every instance whether appropriations were for the war effort, veterans' medical care or our children's public education the money has been wasted shamelessly by Congressional cronies who are horrified by the idea of government regulation of any kind despite the President's own CSI policy mandating operational standards.

However, Bush's effort to reinvent America's legal system to make it more corporate friendly finally began to unravel last month when substantial allegations were made against the U.S. Justice Department and its Attorney General that premeditated actions had been taken to replace federal D.A.'s in districts throughout the country with attorneys more conducive to the President's goals. Had this alleged plot which supposedly emanated from the darkest corners of the White House succeeded, Bush would've completely co-opted America's federal judiciary with a combination of appointments intolerant of anyone's rights other than big business. Neither federal judges or district attorneys would be available to remedy corporate malfeasance if his network of political ideologues had been installed.

Past capers by our Congressional and business leaders to manipulate the laws of the land is well documented. The unprofessional conduct of persons such Tom Delay, Duke Cunningham and Ken Lay are the most recent examples of individuals employing largess to accomplish this. Like these men, President Bush shares a kindred desire to achieve market domination by exercising power through the influence of money. One is not possible without the other, a false premise which deludes them into believing the next chess move in the game of autonomy can only be accomplished this way. In their view, businessmen are necessary to finance political power to remove any legal hindrances threatening their perpetuity.

These dishonest business practices won't end until Congress pledges to correct mammoth loopholes in existing campaign finance laws once and for all. Indicting the present Administration and its top law enforcement officers for crimes against the Constitution would be a good start. Whether they have the political fortitude to do so will be indicative of their sincerity to return government to the people.

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