Jack Abramoff and Whatsisname
Ethics reforms put in place since the influence-peddling scandal surrounding high-rolling lobbyist Jack Abramoff haven’t cleaned up the system “at all,” a now-free Abramoff says.
Abramoff served three and a half years in prison for conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion before his release last December. In an interview…he said the reforms imposed after his guilty plea have little effect while campaign finance remains untouched.
“You can’t take a congressman to lunch for $25 and buy him a hamburger or a steak or something like that,” he said. “But you can take him to a fund-raising lunch and not only buy him that steak, but give him $25,000 extra and call it a fund-raiser — and have all the same access and all the same interactions with that congressman…”
The high-flying Republican lobbyist pleaded guilty to a raft of federal corruption charges in 2006 and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors investigating Washington influence-peddling. He admitted illegally showering gifts on officials who provided favors for his clients in a probe that led to convictions or guilty pleas for 20 lobbyists and public officials — including Ohio GOP congressman Bob Ney and Stephen Griles, the Bush administration’s deputy interior secretary.
Abramoff was the champion of gaming a system designed by corrupt corporate ideologues – agreed to nowadays by Democrats, Republicans and the Supreme Court. You can always count on the consistency of American politicians.
We have the best Government Corporate Money can buy !!! Get the Corporate Money out of politics and we might have a chance a Democracy, otherwise CORPORATE FASCISM WILL BE THE RULE OF LAW !!! Lady Liberty weeps !!!
40–Animby==3-4 shotgun blasts and not a single hit. Not a nip. Not a graze. The beast remains standing in front of you.
There really is no overlap of law and medicine is there.
Ha, ha.
ONLY because you don’t like it, but may take heed, actually, let’s mini parse:
xxxxxxxOH CRAP===DVORAK FIX THIS BLOG.
I’m not so anal that I’m going to page refresh 4-5 times just to educate those who have trained themselves into a cul de sac.
Animby==when you post that states should make laws regarding how to elect Senators, you are talking about states making laws.
When people don’t move from state to state because they don’t want to lose their health benefits, that impacts commerce. In fact, people moving is commerce as well. We both disagree with the over application of the CC, but that admits of its reality. When the cost of healthcare affects international competitiveness, that is an over application of the CC.
Do you confuse that with which you disagree with that which you don’t think is true? So many do. Bad logic that.
DVORACK: FIX THIS BLOG====AND VOTE ALL “NO NEW TAXES” POLITICIANS OUT OF OFFICE. BUT MOSTLY===FIX THIS BLOG.
There simply were no corporations, when the US Constitution was first drawn up. So there never was any provisions thought of to deal with their influence. And it might be argued that corporations were created for just that reason. So exploit the loopholes that didn’t deal with their actions. And of course, before any shortcomings in the law could be fixed, said corporations had already corrupted politicians minds against such reform.
The biggest business entity of the 18th century was the East India Company. Which handled most of the trade goods across the Atlantic. And unfortunately, imported slavery as “goods” to America. And yet England and the Dutch rarely seem to get blamed for that anymore. Just America. So slavery was the results of the very first pre-corporate large commercial entity. Controlled mainly by the royals of England. Whose interests superseded any rights, anyone else thought them had, or deserted. And that’s pretty much what modern day corporations are doing now. Getting their “vote” in Congress, everyday, between the elections.
You are mistaken about the long history of corporations. The concept goes back to ancient Rome and India, The church became a corporation in Medieval Europe. The first strictly commercial corporation was Stora Kopparberg, a mining company in Scotland in 1347. In our country fur companies from England exploited the fur trade and had to be consolidated to one company because of the fights for territories between companies. The British East India Company was given a 15 year monopoly in Africa and the East Indies on 12-31-1600 and was selling stocks by 1613. The Dutch East India was chartered in 1602. The corporation was integral in colonialism world wide.
A favorite old Tv show of mine is “It Takes A Thief”. A spy thriller of a sort. Where a highly skilled thief, ends up working for the US government, in some fictional dept called the SIA. Anyway, the idea was that a skilled thief/con-artist would do better at retrieving microfilm and such, from foreign powers, than regular government trained employees. Which is something of a joke today. As many of them are some of the biggest, most successful thieves ever. But of the domestic taxpayers’ money. Not of stolen goods, in the hands of foreign powers.
So apparently what Abramoff has come to represent, is the “it takes a thief, to know one” mentality of the media. And he’ll be idolized (rather than reviled) as an expert on how to fix the problems in government, he once exploited (and probably helped create). That’s a bit like hiring the fox, to guard the hen house against other foxes. Or hire ex-bank robbers to guard banks. What makes no sense at all, in the latter cases. Always seem to make acceptable sense in the former (fixing Congress) case. You’d be better off hire The Three Stooges to fix all the pluming leaks in the Congress building. Than to hire Abramoff to fix all the financial leakage in there.