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These are among the myriad right-wing organizations, religious and secular, linked directly to the dministration or engaged in promoting the Bush agenda.

American Center for Law and Justice

Conceived as an anti-ACLU, the ACLJ grew out of the Christian Coalition's efforts to fight sex education, abortion, gay rights, and restrictions on prayer in the public sector. This legal service organization seeks to puncture the wall of separation between church and state. Its Chief Counsel is Jay Sekulow. For an update on ACLJ activities, visit www.aclj.org.

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American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research

Welling out of old-guard conservatism in 1943, AEI is now on the cutting edge of the neoconservative movement. Its influence within the Bush Administration is strong. Denizens of this think tank include militant neocon Richard Perle, Vice Presidential spouse Lynne Cheney, ex-Congressman Newt Gingrich, and Charles Murray, co-author of The Bell Curve, famed for controversial claims about class, intelligence, and race. AEI publications attack various entitlement programs, call for continued deficit spending, and advocate "a genuinely global military posture." The institute's website is www.aei.org.

The American Family Association

In 1977, Rev. Donald Wildmon, a reactionary Methodist incensed by televised smut, created the National Federation for Decency (NFD). By 1988, the NFD had become the American Family Association (AFA). Its notion of pop-cultural filth encompasses the cartoon series Rocky and Bullwinkle, said to condone bestiality. Now headed by Wildmon's son Tim, the AFA puts much of its energy into product boycotts. One current target is Procter and Gamble, "the leading sponsor of TV programs that continually push the homosexual agenda." The AFA's wholesomely hate-filled website is www.afa.net.

Cato Institute

Founded in 1977, this libertarian think tank "seeks to broaden the parameters of public policy debate to allow consideration of the traditional American principles of limited government, individual liberty, free markets, and peace." It also seeks to privatize all remnants of the New Deal out of existence, including Social Security. Its website is www.cato.org.

Christian Coalition

Organized in 1989, the Christian Coalition joined the 700 Club, Regent University, and the Christian Broadcasting Network as an extension of Rev. Pat Robertson's empire. Its influence peaked under the leadership of Ralph Reed, who departed in 1997. Two years later, when the IRS voided the Coalition's nonprofit status, membership declined. Roberta Combs, the present Executive Director, presided over distribution of 70 million Voter Guides before the November Presidential election. Her latest exertions are described at www.cc.org.

Concerned Women for America

"We are the nation's largest public policy women's organization with a rich 25-year history of helping our members across the country bring Biblical principles into all levels of public policy." During that loamy quarter-century, CWA has never ceased hyperventilating over the homosexual menace. Its founder and chairman is Beverly LaHaye, wife of apocalypse-monger Tim LaLaye. For more information, visit www.cwfa.org.

Family Research Council

Once the lobbying arm of Focus on the Family (FOTF), this social research agency conducts no research. Its publications denounce Planned Parenthood, gay marriage, sex-ed, and the absence of school prayer. Under the leadership of Gary Bauer, the FRC legally split from FOTF after a run-in with the IRS. Its current president, Tony Perkins (not to be confused with the late star of Psycho), achieved prominence by founding the Louisiana Family Forum to counter "the growing influence of the homosexual community." Like FOTF, the FRC is a religious organization in secular makeup. Its website is www.frc.org.

Focus on the Family

This "pro-family" behemoth wields more power than the Christian Coalition. Part of its secret is a soft-sell approach. Rev. James Dobson's operation, based in Colorado Springs, is budgeted at around $130 million annually. FOTF employs 1300 people, publishes ten magazines, broadcasts worldwide, and maintains affiliates in at least 36 states. In James Dobson's War on America (1997), apostate cofounder Gil Alexander-Moegerle wrote, "Whereas the founders of the [theocratic] movement said, 'We want a voice at the table,' Dobson's battle cry is, 'We want the table.'" The FOTF homepage is www.family.org.

Heritage Foundation

This think tank deals in magic thinking. Launched with funding from the Coors fortune by Paul Weyrich, who heads the archconservative Free Congress Foundation, it formulates rationales for preconceived conservative objectives. Reagan Administration personnel with Heritage ties included Attorney General Ed Meese. Eclipsed somewhat by AEI in the Bush era, the Heritage Foundation remains influential. Its website is www.heritage.org. A related site, www.townhall.com, is a major conservative online resource.

Hoover Institution

This entity was founded in 1959 on the Stanford University campus by Herbert Hoover, the President whose tenure marked the onset of the Great Depression. Hoover Fellows include Dinesh D'Souza, author of a fawning Jerry Falwell biography and several attacks on affirmative action, and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, who has been on leave long enough to have forgotten the institution's commitments to "secure and safeguard peace, improve the human condition, and limit government intrusion into the lives of individuals"-- a statement enshrined at www-hoover.stanford.edu.

RAND Corporation

Hatched in 1945 by the US Air Force and Douglas Aircraft, RAND (derived from "Research and Development") was devised to study the feasibility of space travel. This nonprofit resource now works in both public and private sectors "for the public welfare and security of the United States of America." It has conducted studies on health insurance, the justice system, and terrorism. Its focus on national security has given the Rand Corporation strategic input into the Homeland Security State. The corporation's website is www.rand.org.

Rutherford Institute

Its founder, attorney Robert Whitehead, describes Rutherford as "a civil liberties organization." One civil liberty Rutherford lawyers defend is freedom to avoid positive representations of gay people. This innately religious legal resource has links to hard-right Christian Reconstructionists. Its vision is not quite articulated at www.rutherford.org.

Traditional Values Coalition

Led by founder Lou Sheldon, this "church lobby" claims 43,000 affiliated congregations from at least a dozen denominations. You can order TVC's perennially best-selling video, Gay Rights, Special Rights, at www.traditionalvalues.org.