How to Fight the Mighty Morphin' Neocons
AND their Trusty Sidekicks - January 24, 2004
by Jacques Kinau

Many Americans are resting easier on the eve of Conrad Black's ouster from Hollinger International.  Americans blighted by the non-stop US neocon media infestation are grateful for any reprieve.  However, even though Hollinger's illicit payments to support George F. Will,  Richard Perle and a legion of neocon sympathizers' non-stop war incitement have been permanently cut off, Americans have little to reason to rest easy.  Since the neocon's original evolution from liberals to conservatives, they've maintained an uncanny ability to morph into parasitic forms new hosts are willing to nurture.

An effective strategy to dry up the neocon media habitat is to diminish their feeding-chain.  Information distortion and beating the drum of war is an expensive endeavor!  Although neocons are prolific and able to move quickly between hosts, past and present neocon funding sources are now exposed.  Although some product categories and corporations are not necessarily wholly responsible for the nutrients they produced for Neocons, boycott is like preventive war.  If the original funding pools are dried up, few new corporations and foundations will risk their brands and reputations in the future.   If prevention is good for Iraq, it will also be good for the neocons.

The most prolific Neocon think-tanks are funded by a small handful of ultra right-wing foundations such as the Sara Scaife Foundation (Gulf Oil) and Smith Richardson (Vicks VapoRub fortune) that pump in millions for “studies” such as David Wurmser’s “The Battle Cry of Tyranny Anti-Americanism in Arab Politics”. Gulf Oil has 1,800 branded service stations you can boycott in the northeast.   That VapoRub on your infant's chest may be covering a future bullet hole from an upcoming war.  So forget about Vicks, a brand that soothed and nurtured Wurmser (Dick Cheney's new Middle East advisor) and his extreme regional theories.  Also eschew Coors beer (Castle Rock Foundation) and Winchester Ammunition (Olin Foundation).  Not that you probably buy much ammo.

Conglomerate news media have been the most important host to the Neocon propaganda organism.  Media mogul Conrad Black’s slavering and ubiquitous neocon minions Richard Perle, George Will, William Safire, and Robert Novak (who outed CIA agent Valerie Plame) continue to infect the Chicago Sun Times, Jerusalem Post, and the Daily Telegraph and endless cable outlets.  Wait until this ideological empire completely collapses and responsible owners step in to clean the house that Black built before returning.

Bradley Foundation (Defense Contractor Rockwell International, later Rockwell Automation) made 15 grants totaling nearly $1.9 million to the New Citizenship Project Inc., a group media talking head Bill Kristol founded and which also created the Project for a New American Century (PNAC).  PNAC has been a consistent cheerleader for a violent and interventionist US policy, known by some as the "Defense Contractor Full Employment Act". Bradley also is a significant funding source for the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington, D.C.  neoconservative bacteriological culture.

Although Rockwell does not produce many consumer goods, PNAC's other major funder, media mogul Rupert Murdoch of News Corp, produces massive gobs of pricey "infotainment".   Avoiding News Corp content also flushes out a Bill Kristol and David Brooks breeding ground, the Murdoch funded Weekly Standard.   Avoid Fox News and Fox sponsors like any unpleasant localized outbreak. Since News Corp recently acquired DirecTV, if you have a satellite dish, hurl it like a Frisbee into the street.

Targeting Fox is also a smart strategy if you wish to cut off nutrients to "centrist" posers that are merely neocon sidekicks, such as the Brookings Saban Center for Middle East Policy. Fox Television executive Haim Saban, who brought you the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, also sponsors the Mighty Morphin’ Martin Indyk (former Australian, American, instant US Ambassador to Israel, and now director at the pro-war Saban Center at Brookings) through a massive $13 million contribution.  Help unplug the Brookings-Saban gleeful war spew and bad policy advice by not letting the kiddies watch Fox productions or buy  Saban's (TM) Power Rangers until the Rangers join in an honest battle to save the Palestinians.

Your vacation and business travel plans can also have a direct impact on neocon nutrient sources.  When traveling by air, insist the flight you book is on an Airbus or Embraer airliner.  Boeing has not only bought heartfelt accolades from Richard Perle for $20 million, but has also plied Pentagon procurement officials with relocation and job offers in order to pump more Boeing refueling tankers into the Gulf theatre at a premium price to US taxpayers.  Avoiding Boeing like the plague is a vote of no-confidence in neocon appointee Paul Wolfowitz’s cozy leasing deal with Boeing for future wars in the Gulf.  Fly an Airbus for an enriching cultural tour to Syria, Lebanon or Egypt, countries about which most Americans know nothing, thanks in part to media moguls like Black and Murdoch.

For an advanced cure, consider tactics designed to squeeze even more dollars out of the neocon war machine.   Develop a mailing list of US Army, Navy and Marine reserve units in your neighborhood.  Explain to them the neocon roots of the Iraq war (see “A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm”) and let them decide whether or not to re-enlist for future adventures.  Be sure to translate it into Spanish for new immigrant "guest workers" from down south streaming in to take up hard-to-fill-positions (waist gunner, mine-sweeper, MP, etc.) 

As the shortage of military recruits intensifies, the Pentagon has already begun forming local draft boards.Volunteer for the draft board so that you can focus recruiting away from the poor and disadvantaged and toward neocon supporters and their privileged children in your neighborhood.

Finally, educate your neighbors.  Host college professors from the local university Middle East departments and other informed non-ideologues to hold community discussions and outreach, but do exercise control over your registration list!  Protesting and writing letters to media ombudsmen about neocon news outbreaks is like shouting at bacteria.  It will not cure the infestation.   Targeted actions to dry up dollars flowing to neocon's protozoan feeding chain are a gallon of Lysol, only much more effective.

Jacques Kinau writes for Academics for Justice, and San Francisco IndyMedia
He can be reached at: JacquesKinau@yahoo.com