Lobbyists and the New World Order
To say lobbyists have influence is to miss the point of what is occurring in the US. Lobbyists have far more than influence. They have determination of what laws are made and which ones are enforced. Further, lobbyists determine who will hold office, and, in many cases, for how long.
People in power positions in the federal government are, almost without exception, business men from a "community" of international business. That isn't mere coincidence. Big business, through lobbyists, campaign finance, questionable voting apparatus and domination of media, is setting policy for everything from environment to defense. In fact, I cannot think of an example in which business is not determining the outcome of public life.
The idea behind the American system is the exact opposite. It was designed to give individuals the legal basis, through the constitution, to never be beholden to or downtrodden by a corporation or king or pope.
Of course, the individuals for whom it defined this legal status were white men who wore powdered wigs and raped those they enslaved, but their social descendents were smart enough to figure out that the constitution is a living document, just like English is a living language, and reach out to include others, after much agitating, sacrifice and fighting by those others.
When you hear lip smacking repiglikkkans paying homage to the constitution and strict construction, never forget you are witnessing theater. This party, far more than the dimocraps, though they are guilty too, has structured their existence around taking corporate money in return for policy and legislative favors. They even have organizations that are geared to do this kind of work, and nothing else. They don't give a damn about the constitution.
Because of them you have pharmaceutical companies writing drug laws, telecom companies writing FCC rules, credit card companies writing bankruptcy legislation, oil companies writing environmental legislation and 54 million dollars given to Washington by the oil industry since 2001 sure as hell played a part in the billions of dollars of profit they just pocketed, immediately before the heads of that industry collectively refused to give sworn testimony to congress.
Those are a tiny handful of publicly noticed examples from notorious industries. It goes on and on.
Under NAFTA, written by business, sported by Bush The Elder and signed by Repiglikkkan Lite, Clinton, we are not even sovereign.
A corporation has the right to sue you and win, under that nasty NAFTA treaty law,
for interfering with their business as they perceive it, even if you are acting legally under the laws of your municipality, state or nation.
Globalization, something of which NAFTA is a a part, is bad for everyone except the people who make the 9000 dollars an hour from it. It is bad for workers and the environment and consumers. But we have it anyway, precisely because business is
writing the rules.
This is not "we the people." This government is not for, by or of the people. This is a corporate oligarchy, at best.
If anything, fascists like those who make up BushCo. wish to wipe out the cumulative knowledge of our nation creating ancestors in very much the way George Orwell described in 1984. The past was deemed irrelevant in that story, and there is an effort being made in that direction right now in the US. Ranting on about the bible and Jesus and mosaic law and strict constitutional construction is smoke, not reliance on ancestors or traditional rules of governance. Dick Cheney, a truly despicable, amoral man, making rounds of media appearances right now to lie about the invasion and occupation of Iraq is the modern memory hole where the truth is disposed when it conflicts with the desires of the rulers.
All of this could be brought to a halt if we had tax payer financed elections. We could purge the lobbyists from our government. A different kind of person might be moved to enter politics. The United States might live up to the myth it has created about itself.
But the lobbyists and PACS have to go.
People in power positions in the federal government are, almost without exception, business men from a "community" of international business. That isn't mere coincidence. Big business, through lobbyists, campaign finance, questionable voting apparatus and domination of media, is setting policy for everything from environment to defense. In fact, I cannot think of an example in which business is not determining the outcome of public life.
The idea behind the American system is the exact opposite. It was designed to give individuals the legal basis, through the constitution, to never be beholden to or downtrodden by a corporation or king or pope.
Of course, the individuals for whom it defined this legal status were white men who wore powdered wigs and raped those they enslaved, but their social descendents were smart enough to figure out that the constitution is a living document, just like English is a living language, and reach out to include others, after much agitating, sacrifice and fighting by those others.
When you hear lip smacking repiglikkkans paying homage to the constitution and strict construction, never forget you are witnessing theater. This party, far more than the dimocraps, though they are guilty too, has structured their existence around taking corporate money in return for policy and legislative favors. They even have organizations that are geared to do this kind of work, and nothing else. They don't give a damn about the constitution.
Because of them you have pharmaceutical companies writing drug laws, telecom companies writing FCC rules, credit card companies writing bankruptcy legislation, oil companies writing environmental legislation and 54 million dollars given to Washington by the oil industry since 2001 sure as hell played a part in the billions of dollars of profit they just pocketed, immediately before the heads of that industry collectively refused to give sworn testimony to congress.
Those are a tiny handful of publicly noticed examples from notorious industries. It goes on and on.
Under NAFTA, written by business, sported by Bush The Elder and signed by Repiglikkkan Lite, Clinton, we are not even sovereign.
A corporation has the right to sue you and win, under that nasty NAFTA treaty law,
for interfering with their business as they perceive it, even if you are acting legally under the laws of your municipality, state or nation.
Globalization, something of which NAFTA is a a part, is bad for everyone except the people who make the 9000 dollars an hour from it. It is bad for workers and the environment and consumers. But we have it anyway, precisely because business is
writing the rules.
This is not "we the people." This government is not for, by or of the people. This is a corporate oligarchy, at best.
If anything, fascists like those who make up BushCo. wish to wipe out the cumulative knowledge of our nation creating ancestors in very much the way George Orwell described in 1984. The past was deemed irrelevant in that story, and there is an effort being made in that direction right now in the US. Ranting on about the bible and Jesus and mosaic law and strict constitutional construction is smoke, not reliance on ancestors or traditional rules of governance. Dick Cheney, a truly despicable, amoral man, making rounds of media appearances right now to lie about the invasion and occupation of Iraq is the modern memory hole where the truth is disposed when it conflicts with the desires of the rulers.
All of this could be brought to a halt if we had tax payer financed elections. We could purge the lobbyists from our government. A different kind of person might be moved to enter politics. The United States might live up to the myth it has created about itself.
But the lobbyists and PACS have to go.
posted by TheFuriousGourmet | 3:59 PM
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