-----Original Message-----
From: PEN-L list [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Michael
Perelman
Sent: Saturday, February 07, 2004 5:47 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [PEN-L] skull & bones
I think we have picked the bones clean on this one -- unless we come up
with something shockingly new.
--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Got it. But as a last comment for the moment:
Russert: you're trailing John Kerry in both U.S.A. Today and Newsweek
polls by seven and five points.
President Bush: Yeah.
Russert: This is what John Kerry had to say last year. He said that his
colleagues are appalled at the quote "President's lack of knowledge.
They've managed him the same way they've managed Ronald Reagan. They
send him out to the press for one event a day. They put him in a brown
jacket and jeans and get him to move some hay or move a truck, and all
of a sudden he's the Marlboro Man. I know this guy. He was two years
behind me at Yale. I knew him, and he's still the same guy."
Did you know him at Yale?
President Bush: No.
Russert: How do you respond to that?
President Bush: Politics. I mean, this is-you know, if you close your
eyes and listen carefully to what you just said, it sounds like the year
2000 all over again.
Russert: You were both in Skull and Bones, the secret society.
President Bush: It's so secret we can't talk about it.
Russert: What does that mean for America? The conspiracy theorists are
going to go wild.
President Bush: I'm sure they are. I don't know. I haven't seen the
(unintel) yet. (Laughs)
Russert: Number 322.
President Bush: First of all, he's not the nominee, and I look forward
Russert: Are you prepared to lose?
President Bush: No, I'm not going to lose.
Russert: If you did, what would you do?
President Bush: Well, I don't plan on losing. I have got a vision for
what I want to do for the country. See, I know exactly where I want to
lead. I want to lead us I want to lead this world toward more peace
and freedom. I want to lead this great country to work with others to
change the world in positive ways, particularly as we fight the war on
terror, and we got changing times here in America, too.
Russert: Biggest issues in the upcoming campaign?
President Bush: Who can properly use American power in a way to make the
world a better place, and who understands that the true strength of this
country is the hearts and souls of the American citizens, who
understands times are changing and how best to have policy reflect those
times.
And I look forward to a good campaign. I know exactly where I want to
lead the country. I have shown the American people I can lead. I have
shown the American people I can sit here in the Oval Office when times
are tough and be steady and make good decisions, and I look forward to
articulating what I want to do the next four years if I'm fortunate
enough to be their president.
Russert: Mr. President, we thank you for sharing your views, and I hope
we could come back and talk about issues during the course of the
campaign.
President Bush: Thank you, Tim.
Russert: That's all for today. We will be back next week. If it's
Sunday, it's Meet The Press.
Note: the one time Bush was asked about S and B before he feigned not
knowing if it still existed asking it if still exists. He didn't
mention, and no media asked, why his first meeting after stealing the
White House was with his 14 fellow Bonesmen in his class; nor did anyone
ask about the 5 Bonesmen he has appointed to high-level offices. Russert
could have easily picked up on that noting: "Mr. President, you say this
organization is secret and you can't talk about it, the last time you
were asked you wondered if it still exists, but since you hold the
office and powers you hold, how is it that your membership and
activities in any organization, not covered by government secrecy laws,
along with the nature, objectives and activities of that organization,
that say so much about the character of the members of the
organization--and vice versa--could or should be "secret" and not a
matter for full disclosure for potential voters? Were those Skull and
Bones members you have appointed to high-level positions when vetted for
security clearances, allowed to remain silent about the organizations of
which they have been members and the nature, objectives and activities
of those organizations?
And finally, I thought, after the puff-piece by Russert, that once again
the "V" in Oval Office should have been replaced with an "R"...The
spirit of Monica Lewinski lives on through Russert doing a metaphorical
blow job in the Oral Office. Here is another type of journalist:
>From Secrets of the Tomb: Skull and Bones, the Ivy League and the Hidden
Paths of Power" by Alexandra Robbins, Little Brown, 2003
Under the society's direction, Bonesmen developed and dropped the
nuclear bomb and navigated the Bay of Pigs invasion. Skull and Bones
members had ties to Watergate and the Kennedy assassination. They
control the Council of Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission
so that they can push their own political agenda. Skull and Bones
government officials have used the number 322 as codes for highly
classified diplomatic assignments. The society discriminates against
minorities and fought for slavery; indeed, as evidence eight out of
twelve of Yale.s residential colleges are named for slave owners while
none are named for abolitionists. The society encourages misogyny: it
did not admit women until the 1990s because members did not believe
women were capable of handling the Skull and Bones experience and
because they said they feared incidents of date rape. This society also
encourages grave robbing: deep within the bowels of the tomb are the
stolen skulls of the Apache Chief Geronimo, Pancho Villa, and former
President Martin van Buren.
Finally, the society has taken measures to ensure that the
secrets of Skull and Bones slip ungraspable like sand through open
fingers. Journalist Ron Rosenbaum, who wrote a long but not probing
article about the society in the 1970s, claimed that a source warned him
not to get too close.
"What bank do you have your checking account at?" this party
asked me in the middle of a discussion of the Mithraic aspects of the
Bones ritual.
I named the bank.
"Aha," said the party. "There are three Bonesmen on the board.
You'll never have a line of credit again. They'll tap your phone.
They'll. . ."
. . . The source continued: "The alumni still care. Don't laugh.
They don't like people tampering and prying. The power of Bones is
incredible. They've got their hands on every lever of power in the
country. You'll see - it's like trying to look into the Mafia."
In the 1980s, a man known only as "Steve" had contracts to write
two books on the society, using documents and photographs he had
acquired from the Bones crypt. But Skull and Bones found out about
Steve. The society broke into his apartment, stole the documents,
harassed the author, and scared him into hiding, where he has remained
ever since. The books were never completed. In Universal Pictures'
Spring 2000 thriller The Skulls, an aspiring journalist is writing a
profile of the society for the New York Times. When he sneaks into the
tomb, the Skulls murder him. Similarly, in the real Skull and Bones tomb
is a bloody knife in a glass case. It is said that when a Bonesman stole
documents from the society and threatened to publish Skull and Bones.
secrets if they did not pay him a determined amount of money, the
society used that knife to kill him.
And...
Certainly, the society does cross boundaries in order to attempt to
stay out of the public spotlight. When I wrote an article about the
society for The Atlantic Monthly in May 2000, an older Bonesman said to
me, "If it's not portrayed positively, I'm sending a couple of my
friends after you." After the article was published, I received a
telephone call at my office from a fellow journalist, who is a member of
Skull and Bones. He scolded me for writing the article - "writing that
article was not an ethical or honorable way to make a decent living in
journalism," he condescended - and then asked me how much I had been
paid for the story. When I refused to answer, he hung up. Fifteen
minutes later, he called back.
"I have just gotten off the phone with our people."
"Your people?" I snickered.
"Yes" Our people."
He told me that the society demanded to know where I got my
information.
"I've never been in the tomb and I did nothing illegal in the
process of reporting this article," I replied.
"Then you must have gotten something from one of us. Tell me
whom you spoke to. We just want to talk to them," he wheedled.
"I don't reveal my sources." Then he got angry. He
screamed at me for a while about how dishonorable I was for writing the
article.
"A lot of people are very despondent over this!" he yelled.
"Fifteen Yale juniors are very, very upset!"
I thanked him for telling me his concerns.
"There are a lot of us at newspapers and at political journalism
institutions," he coldly hissed. "Good luck with your career" - and he
slammed down the phone.
Skull and Bones, particularly in recent years, has managed to
pervade both popular and political culture. In the 1992 race for the
Republican presidential nomination, Pat Buchanan accused President
George Bush of running "a Skull and Bones presidency." In 1993, during
Jeb Bush's Florida gubernatorial campaign, one of his constituents asked
him, "You're familiar with the Skull and Crossbones Society?" When Bush
responded, "Yeah, I've heard about it," the constituent persisted,
"Well, can you tell the people here what your family membership in that
is? Isn't your aim to take control of the United States?" In January
2001, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd used Skull and Bones in a
simile: "When W. met the press with his choice for attorney general,
John Ashcroft, before Christmas," Dowd wrote, "he vividly showed how
important it is to him that his White House be as leak-proof as the
Skull & Bones 'tomb.'"
Jim C.
