THIS FAR AND NO FURTHER
A Timeline of Events Surrounding the Radical Right's Attempt to Subvert American Democracy
Written and Compiled by Black Max
2000:
May
- May: The Joint Chiefs of Staff release their blueprint for the coming decade as it applies to US military dominance of the globe. The report charges the Defense Department to pursue "full spectrum dominance," meaning the capability to defeat any enemy anywhere, using a "full range" of military technology, including nuclear weapons. The report paves the way for the more extreme mandates of the Bush Defense Department under Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Paul Wolfowitz. (Laura Flanders)
- May: The CIA and FBI jointly determine that Sudan is no longer a sponsor of terrorism, but the US refuses to take the country off their list of states sponsoring terrorism. Sudan again offers the Americans their voluminous files on bin Laden, and is again turned down. (CCR)
- May: Investigative reporter Roger Parloff proves in an article for American Lawyer that there had been no Democratic fund-raiser in the Hsi Lai Buddhist temple in 1996, contradicting a wave of fabricated stories that have dogged the Clinton administration and the subsequent Gore presidential campaign. Unfortunately, Parloff's work makes no impression on the mainstream media, which continues to hammer the Gore candidacy for the mythical fund-raiser, which never occurred outside of Republican National Committee press releases. (Joe Conason)
- May 5: National Rifle Association president Kayne Robinson boasts at a private function, "[if Bush wins] we'll have a president where we work out of their office -- unbelievably friendly relations." Nina Butts, the founder of Texans Against Gun Violence, calls Bush "a dream come true" for the NRA. The NRA, seeing a chance to "turn back the clock" on a Clinton-era law mandating waiting periods for purchases of handguns and the ban of 19 kinds of military-level assault weapons for personal ownership, will escalate their efforts to elect Bush to higher levels than ever before seen from the organization, pouring over $4 million into Republican campaign coffers. Robinson also says he expects that Bush will usher in a "supreme Court that will back up to the hilt." Though Bush publicly keeps his distance from the NRA, privately he and his backers revel in the support of the organization. (Eric Alterman and Mark Green)
