Congress passed a sham of a law purported to restore ethics unto the People's branch of government. A little frill cut here, a little frill cut there. But, the mainstay of bribery by wealthy lobbyists and special interests was not touched. Congress reserved the right to be bribed by the wealthy campaign donors, which made this ethics reform anything but.
In fact, some critics argue that corruption will now intensify as lobbyists and special interests who sought to buy Congressional votes with meals, plane rides, and vacation packages, are now left with only one legal avenue to bribe Congressmen and women, by donating directly to their reelection campaign treasure chests.
And there's more to this sham! Congress had the option of eliminating the practice of their members slipping pet pork projects into legislative bills having nothing to do with the pet pork project. But, self-denial is not a trait of this Democratic Congress anymore than it was of the Republican Congress. They instead chose to allow pork spending to continue, bridges to nowhere to be tucked into bills in the dead of night on the eve of its being voted on.
Democrats will protest "But, now the pork spending will have the Congress person's name attached to it". And just how many voters in America will be researching through two years of legislation to seek out their candidate's name and read up on the many pork projects contributing to the bankrupting of America's future?
The fact remains, politicians are in love with money to get reelected. And they proved, in this so called "ethics reform package", that a politician and money are not easily parted regardless of how unethical their being bribed is. Try bribing a local official in government. You will be arrested, prosecuted, and jailed. But, bribing a U.S. Congressperson through multi-million dollar contributions to their reelection bid, is legal. And this, Democrats and Republican Congresspersons call ethical.
The waste, fraud, and abuse of the American tax payer via pork project spending, and the legal bribery of Congress by multi-million dollar campaign contributions funneled through various party and other vehicles, continue. Is the public, who demanded a change in course on this fraud and rape of the tax payer, going to lie down and roll over for this? Or will the ranks of independent voters, dedicated to restoring our democracy, continue to grow and flex their muscle in 2008 by voting out incumbents in even greater numbers?
We shall see.
d.a.n said at :
6:43 PM, 01 20 2007 | Permalink
Too many politicians of BOTH parties are half the problem. They are FOR-SALE, and too preoccupied with gettin' theirs, self-gain, and securing their own cu$hy, coveted seats of abused power, while duping slumbering voters into repeatedly re-electing them by fueling the extremely effective, distracting, divisive partisan warfare that divides voters, pits voters against each other, so that a majority can never exist to vote them out.
The other half is too many voters that keep rewarding irresponsible politicians by repeatedly re-electing them, because they are too easily lured-into and too fond of wallowing in the powerfully seductive, circular, distracting, divisive partisan warfare, because it is easier to let "THE PARTY" do their thinking for them.
In the meantime, the nation's truly important problems are still not being adequately addressed.
Democrats had power about 70 years before the Republicans had their short 12 year turn at being the "IN PARTY". I hope I'm wrong, but the past 30+ years don't warrant much optimism. The Republicans in Congress and the executive branch did an absolutely terrible job and ran up huge deficits. But Democrats went along with most of it. The two party duopoly is merely about taking turns being irresponsible. The voters rewarded 90% of incumbents with re-election, so the same bunch, for the most part, is still there (including Rep. Jefferson Williams).
True, Congress is now fixing a few things, but they are not the most important problems facting the nation. It's good to enforce the FISA oversight. The minimum wage increase is OK (except for Nancy Pelosi sneakily trying to omit Samoa since she represents StarKist). Some of the 9/11 recommendations are OK. But that's not nearly enough. A few cleverly cherry-picked things isn't good enough.
Already, Congress is considering ethics reforms. Their solution? Hire more people for the Ethics Panels. Great! Wouldn't you know it. How typical. The solution seems to always be to grow the already over-bloated government ever larger. So, who will watch the watchers? It's a farce, and so is the "first 100 hour clock".
Let's see some real reforms finally be passed and enforced.
How about stopping illegal immigration?
How about border and port security?
How about stop plundering Social Security?
How about stopping the massive waste?
How about stopping the excessive money-printing?
How about stopping the massive borrowing and growing debt ?
How about stopping the massive growth of government itself, growing and growing to nightmare proportions?
How about fixing Medicare (it's a huge mess).
How about ONE-PURPOSE-PER-BILL ?
How about these more pressing problems, growing in number and severity?
How about simply addressing some of the most badly-needed, agreed-upon, common-sense, no-brainer, responsible reforms?
Stop Gerrymandering?
Stop eminent domain abuse?
Stop government FOR-SALE?
Stop corporate welfare, corpocrisy, and corporatism ?
Stop the waste and pork-barrel; especially while our troops risk life and limb, and go with out adequate body amror and healthcare?
Our troops deserve much better.
So it's only the first month, but we're running out of time, and there's no room for any more patience. We'd better start fixing these things, or they'll resolve themselves the hard way.
d.a.n | January 20, 2007 6:43 PM
Reply to this comment
d.a.n said at :
2:02 PM, 01 21 2007 | Permalink
Yes, we will see.
Also, as we have witnessed over and over, Congress passes many laws and rules, but selectively enforces them.
The media is delinquent at uncovering this devious form (and many other types) of corruption, despite its pervasiveness in all three branches of government.
It's going to take several cycles of refusing to re-elect irresponsible incumbents before the voters can get the message across to politicians.
But, I'm confident voters will mostly likely figure it out eventually, because the voters will be motivated by the education they are getting, as the painful consequences of so much massive debt, borrowing, irresponsible, wasteful spending, lost opportunities, and excessive money-printing, and general fiscal irresponsibility comes to pass . . . and it's not anywhere near as painful as it is quite likely to become.
When will voters learn to stop rewarding irresponsible incumbent politicians by repeatedly re-electing them?
When will voters learn to reject the partisan warfare that politicians cleverly use to pit voters against each other?
When will voters realize that many of the common-sense, no-brainer reforms and things that most voters agree upon, Congress still refuses to do?
When ?
Unfortunately, it may only be when the consequences finally become too painful.
d.a.n | January 21, 2007 2:02 PM
Reply to this comment
David R. Remer said at :
9:13 AM, 01 28 2007 | Permalink
That selective enforcement should be a breach of oath of office, and illegal, and grounds for removal from office.
But, it would take politicians to pass such new laws. What are the odds?
David R. Remer | January 28, 2007 9:13 AM
Reply to this comment