Beeville, Texas: 4.30 a.m.

One by one the bosses clip-clop over to one of the guard towers that surround the prison. They chat for a while among themselves, waiting amiably on horseback. Above them, the picket guard attaches a rope to a plastic milk crate, then lowers the crate over the side. Inside the crate are the bosses’ guns.

They are .357 Magnums, and the bosses are authorized to shoot to kill. When the crate reaches saddle height, each boss dips in and grabs one. There is one more guard on horseback, and he stays aloof from the others. He is known as the Highrider, and he is armed not with a pistol, but with a rifle: a .30-30 capable of picking off a running inmate at several hundred yards.  read more

When almost-elected President George W. Bush announced his “war on terrorism” in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, he also launched a campaign to advance the agenda of the reactionary Right at home and abroad. This includes rolling back an already mangled federal human services sector, reverting to deficit spending for the benefit of a wealthy creditor class, increasing the repression of dissent, and further expanding the budgets and global reach of the US military and other components of the national security state. read more

Until it imploded last October, Enron — long known as End-Run by its critics — was often described as just another aggressive corporation eager to expand its portfolio and open routes into new markets, albeit sometimes with "strong arm" tactics. The implication in most press reports was that, so long as consumers and shareholders came out on top, how it operated was a matter of little public concern.

But Enron was never just another company. It was a major architect and proponent of utility deregulation, with close friends in both the Clinton and two Bush Administrations. Headquartered in Houston, TX, it was also the largest contributor to George W. Bush’s presidential campaign, giving at least $550,000 to Bush himself and an estimated $1.8 million to the Republican Party during the 2000 elections. Since then, however, it has also emerged as one of the biggest corporate rip offs in history. Early evidence indicates that its executives hid at least half a billion in debt while enriching themselves through insider trading and financial gimmicks. In the end, they ran the company into the ground. Citgroup, J.P. Morgan and other banking houses were either hoodwinked or accomplices. In either case, they lured in shareholders with empty promises. read more

Let’s get a grip on this marriage hype. Regardless of what the church says about its sanctity or what the court mandates in the recent Vermont Supreme Court decision extending its "privileges and benefits" to heretofore-free same-sex couples, marriage isn’t a wholly beneficial institution. Rather, wedlock is a contract, often blessed by the church and always enforced by the state. And both formidable authorities have a compelling interest in this particular bargain, since it regulates the sexual activities of adults – mainly women. read more

 
Even though I felt bad about what we were doing, I was very pleased with the professional part of my job," recalls Margaret Newsham. "I don’t mean to brag, but I was very good at what I did, and I actually felt like Echelon was my baby."

In fact, Newsham helped build the electronic surveillance system known as Echelon. And although she’s broken with the world of espionage, she fears that "certain elements" in the NSA or CIA may yet try to silence her. As a result, Newsham sleeps with a loaded pistol under her mattress, and her best friend is Mr. Gunther – a 120-pound German shepherd trained to attack by a friend in the Nevada State Police. read more

Since the 1970s, right-wing Christian identity groups and apocalyptic survivalists have spawned militant, quasi-underground formations, including some that call themselves patriots or militias. During the height of the rural farm crisis in the early 80s, for example, one such group, the Posse Comitatus – a loosely knit, armed network that spread White supremacy and anti-Semitism throughout the farm belt – captured a small but significant number of sympathizers among farmers and ranchers. Other extremists such as Aryan Nations and the Lyndon LaRouche group were also active. Soon a network linked tax protesters to organizations as far to the right as various Ku Klux Klan (KKK) splinter groups and neo-Nazis. read more