Bribing, Lying and Dying "for Jesus" (w/update*)

Ironically, it was his belief that the Roman Republic with its systems of "checks and balances" could be restored by the simple empowerment of more "just and honest" men that led to Cicero's ignominious end; his body torn to bits, his tongue ripped out, nailed to a pike and paraded about town. So died Rome's old Republic and its finest rhetorician.

It is my opinion that Obama won the presidency largely because after eight insufferable years of blundering incoherence Americans were enthralled imagining a leader who could manage a keenly turned phrase; one whose oratorical limit had not been reached by the third or fourth grade. But will Obama's instinct for Justice and a rhetorical flourish be enough to counter the reactionary elements who view the Constitution and the very notion of a pluralist democracy as anathema?

That many leaders of the ascendant "Religious right" share that view is an open secret. The problem is that while their followers are captivated by the revelatory "vision" of the "End Times" and the endlessly-predicted "Apocalypse" they have not yet soured on the idea of America as a republic. So while they plan for their new Christian Empire the Dominionists have apparently been at work rigging our elections. Do not been lulled into thinking that because the "secular Democrats'" have enjoyed recent victories that the Dispensationalists and their fascist supporters have shriveled up and thrown in the towel. I suspect they are merely biding their time. The facade must be maintained until the masses have been sufficiently "shocked" that they will march through the Capitol hoisting the latest ungodly Liberal leader's extracted tongue. For the zealous extreme, government has no role in seeking justice, tolerance or compassion.

Hark the Rev. Joseph Morecraft, of Cobb County, Georgia's Chalcedon Presbyterian Church: Democracy is "mob rule!". "The purpose of civil government is to terrorize evil doers... how do you terrorize an evil doer?--You enforce Biblical law! Nobody has the right to worship on this planet any other God than Jehovah."

Exploiting Religion...Older Than Rome

Christianity has always been the ideal religion for an oppressive empire. Such an authoritarian ideology can easily be put to serving the land-owning classes. The Romans were quick to see the effective use of religion in controlling the "plebes". Livy, in his history of the Roman republic, wrote that Numa Pompilius [an early king from 6th century B.C.E.] to convince the mob of his exceptional powers spread a story about his meeting at night with the goddess Egeria, by whose authority he set up Rome's enduring religious practices. The historian Polybius (2nd century B.C.E.) expressed the belief that the ruling class arranges matters in such a way that the masses are impressed and 'restrained' and Scaevola, the chief priest, opined that "it is expedient that populations should be deceived in the matter of religion."

Indeed the great Republican orator, Cicero, himself pronounced that the deceit was "just" since the people had a "constant need for the advice and authority of the conservative upper classes as it was what "holds the state together".

But what about "lying" when your goal is to tear the state apart and reconstitute it in your own image? Ironically at least one religious sect, the Jehovah's Witness, has been honest about lying:
"According the Watchtower, it is okay to “hide the truth from your enemies,” since they are in “Theocratic warfare,” which is taken as permission to lie. And who are their enemies? Everyone but themselves... has been described in their literature as permissible, especially to your “enemies” (which is everyone except the elitist governing body). It depends on whom you're lying to. They give the example of Abraham, in a life threatening situation, misrepresenting his wife's status, calling her his sister instead of his wife."

The issue of the Religious Right "using deceit" for "prosecuting good" brings us back to the murk surrounding our system of voting. It is not wild speculation to suspect that the untimely demise of Bush's loyal IT specialist involved foul play:



Neither can one feel confident about dismissing as coincidence all these others who have died after becoming enmeshed in our electoral corruption. What we may never know now thanks to the convenient death of Michael Connell is just who among Rove's wealthy backers on the Reactionary Right are quietly prosecuting the "great Deception."

(N.B. For those new to the election tampering story I recommend reading Citizens for legitimate Government and Raw Story. )

snippet:the interest in Mike Connell stems from his association with a firm called GovTech, which he had spun off from his own New Media Communications under his wife Heather Connell’s name. GovTech was hired by Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell to set up an official election website at election.sos.state.oh.us to present the 2004 presidential returns as they came in.

Alternative media group ePlubibus Media further discovered in November 2006 that election.sos.state.oh.us was hosted on the servers of a company in Chattanooga, TN called SmarTech, which also provided hosting for a long list of Republican Internet domains.

“Since early this decade, top Internet ‘gurus’ in Ohio have been coordinating web services with their GOP counterparts in Chattanooga, wiring up a major hub that in 2004, first served as a conduit for Ohio's live election night results,” researchers at ePluribus Media wrote.

A few months after this revelation, when a scandal erupted surrounding the firing of US Attorneys for reasons of White House policy, other researchers found that the gwb43 domain used by members of the White House staff to evade freedom of information laws by sending emails outside of official White House channels was hosted on those same SmarTech servers.

*Finally a network runs the story:

Dec. 23, 2008

(CBS/AP) Federal investigators are looking into a small plane crash in Ohio which claimed the life of its pilot, a Republican media consultant who was instrumental in the presidential and gubernatorial campaigns of three members of the Bush Family.

Michael Connell,45, of Akron died Friday when his plane crashed near a vacant house in Uniontown while attempting to land at nearby Akron-Canton Airport.

Following Last Friday's fatal accident, CBS Affiliate WOIO reported that Connell, who had recently been subpoenaed to testify in relation to a lawsuit alleging vote rigging in the 2004 Ohio election, was warned at least twice about flying his plane because his plane might be sabotaged.

Quoting an anonymous close friend of Connell's, WOIO correspondent Blake Chenault also reported that twice in the past two months Connell, who was an experienced pilot, canceled flights because of suspicious problems with his plane.