"Message Force Multipliers" and a "Shadow Government"

Just a couple interesting stories that shouldn't be missed...
Remember when the Defense Department unleashed its technocratically-dubbed "message force multipliers" and "surrogates" onto the conflict-of-interest-ridden corporate media right before the invasion of a sovereign nation so that it could have "information domination" on the public (though privately-run) airwaves? You know, those former military officers who were deployed as "military analysts" in the battlefield of public relations and had financial ties to companies that would profit tremendously from such an invasion and occupation (Interestingly, some still mistake it for a "war.")? Remember these"surrogates" and "message force multipliers" that invaded our tvs as part of a concerted DOD strategy to essentially sell their military-industrial wares and a "war" against the "imminent threat" posed by Iraq?

Victoria Clarke
Col. Ken Allard
Lt. General Tom McInerney
Maj. General Bob Scales
General Montgomery Meigs
Maj. General Don Sheppard
General Joe Ralston
Col. Jeff McCausland
General Barry McCaffrey
Lt. General Tim Eads
Maj. Bob Bevelacqua
Lt. Colonel Bill Cowan
Captain Chuck Nash
Brig. General James Marks
General William Nash
General Richard Myers
General Peter Pace
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

Probably not, unless you followed the story in spite of the near MSM blackout. The issue was first raised by The Nation back in '03, but the corporate media predictably, and self-servingly, refused to discuss their reliance on these "surrogates," and have even shown outright contempt for journalists who have investigated this illegal, domestic program of government propaganda and psy-ops.

The Times' David Barstow published a piece last April exposing the depth of the Pentagon program, and followed up again on the story this last week, but NBC is still not addressing it. Apparently, NBC---the daughter of the well-known arms manufacturer, General Electric----and Brian Williams don't think it's important to inform their audience that their "military analyst," Gen. Barry McCaffrey, has a consulting contract with the military contractor, Defense Solutions, before they allow him to opine on the needs and selfish desires of our perpetual "war on terror." For example, we learn pertinent facts like this:

General McCaffrey criticized a Pentagon plan to supply Iraq with several hundred armored vehicles made in the United States by a competitor of Defense Solutions.

So, this is journalistically acceptable? Williams says it's fine (on his freeekin' blog, of course, because the network itself has said NOTHING), there needn't be full disclosure for the people to make up their own minds because these "analysts" are "passionate patriots" and "honest brokers." Glenn Greenwald is following this story closely and has updates like this one: "NBC and McCaffrey's coordinated responses to the NYT story." Read the culprits' emails to each other first hand.

Who Advocates a "Shadow Government"?

And here, Jeb Bush advises the G.O.P to form a "shadow government." Of course, there's no "vast right-wing conspiracy." (On this topic, David Brock, the former right-wing hatchet man, has a juicy, revelatory book called Blinded by the Right that sheds some light on the well-funded infrastructure of institutions, papers, journals, and organizations to which J. Bush is alluding. Read all about their idiosyncratic, "paranoid style"! I hope to write some highlights from this book in the future, but not until I reboot my brain after all the hard work pretending to study for the GRE.)