Hightower Lowdown

While George W, the Congress, and the media have us all looking south to what they call the "invasion" of America by impoverished illegal immigrants, or looking east to what they call an "endless threat" to America from hordes of fanatical Islamic terrorists, there's another very real but very quiet siege taking place on our people's government... from within.

Far from being a movement of desperate poor people, this assault on democracy is being mounted by extremely wealthy and powerful guys in pinstripe suits. Theirs is a corporate assault on our public resources, public institutions, public functions -- and the very idea of the common good. Their goal is to replace our public sector with corporate governance.

In an important book titled The Fox In the Hen House, Si Kahn and Elizabeth Minnich document the startling extent to which this takeover has already happened with presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton willingly turning over public purposes, assets, and control to these antidemocratic, profitseeking interests.

This privatization (which is nothing but a euphemism for corporatization) hit the mother lode with the BushCheney regime. With their extremist, antigovernment ideology, the Bushites are gleefully selling out the public good by selling off whole chunks of our government. We know about their push to privatize Social Security and schools -- but few are aware of the massive turnover of power to corporations in such areas as the military, our parks, prisons, and social programs.

Kahn and Minnich's website is www.thefoxinthehenhouse.com.