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09.25 State Elections Boards Seeks Volunteers to Help Process Unprecedented Number of Voter Applications
09.18 Reviewing Danny Schechter's "Plunder: Investigating Our Economic Calamity and the Subprime Scandal"
Ref. : Letters to the editor
09.30 To Joe Biden: Time for Confession
09.28 Open Letter to Senator Barack Obama
09.26 Bailout Package Must be Transparent to the American People
09.18 Possible $2 Million Donation to Support Md. Slots Sends Wrong Message
10.10 Ayers = Keating?
10.02 Project Censored's Media Democracy Advocacy
09.23 Satire: Louella Reads the Baltimore Sun
09.22 CBS Cheats on Tax Coverage
09.10 Post's Post-Convention 'Balancing' Act
09.10 McCain/Palin Campaign Relies on Lazy Thinking and Prejudice to Win
09.10 The Rising Cost of the Iraq 'Surge'
10.09 McCain-Palin Put 'Country Last'
10.07 GOP Judges Aid White House Cover-up
10.07 Voting the Fate of the Nation
10.07 Alaska GOP's Last-Ditch Palin Defense
10.07 Election '08: Here Comes the Sludge
10.02 John McCain v. The Truth
10.02 Drinking at the Public Fountain
10.01 Who won the Mississippi debate? Obama—but for different reasons than you think
09.30 The Shadow of the Pitchfork: Elite Panic Attack as Bailout Goes Bust
09.29 The Resurrectionists: Beltway's Big Money Cultists Bail Out the Dead
09.29 We Have the Money
09.27 Debate Evades Dark Realities
09.26 Alaskan Officials Allege Palin Cover-up
09.24 Don’t Worry, Be Happy
09.24 Text of Draft Proposal for Bailout Plan
09.24 Hey, Government! How About Calling on Us?
09.23 Coming Attractions: War Without End, Amen
09.22 The Evolution of John McCain
09.21 Palin's 'Troopergate' Battle Rages
09.19 Burning the First Amendment
09.15 Subverting Democracy Through Electoral Fraud
09.15 Military Industrial Complex 2.0
09.13 Acceptable Sacrifice: For the Right to Endorse
09.13 Why More Soldiers from Alaska?
09.12 Experience is Over-Rated
09.10 Obama Must Call for Palin's Removal from the Ticket
09.10 9/11 Plus Seven
09.10 Palin's Strange Probe of a Trooper
09.10 Dear Democrats: Integrity Won’t Win this Election
10.09 The Surge That Failed
10.08 The Orwellosphere: Anglo-American Drive to 'Total Security State' Rolls On
10.08 Justice for Yemini Sheik
10.06 The Wounded Shark: 'Good War' Lost, But the Imperial Project Goes On
10.02 U.S. Army Troops To Serve As U.S. Policemen?
09.25 Life on the Ledge
09.16 "Awakening" Into Nightmare: Seeding More Sectarian War in Iraq
10.06 Thinking About Treason
10.06 The Fleecing of America
10.03 Can a bailout succeed?
10.02 Empire of Greed
10.02 No Surprise in the Senate Bailout Vote
10.02 How Wall Street Can Bail Itself Out Without Destroying The Dollar
10.02 The Specter of Wall Street
10.01 We Need to Demand Hearings!
09.30 Surprise! Congress Listened to the Voting Public!
09.29 Thinking About Gyrations
09.29 Grand Theft America
09.26 Seizing America by Withholding the Mother’s Milk of Politics
09.26 Framing the $700 Billion Question
09.26 Bail Out NO, Buy Out YES
09.26 Just Say "No" to Any Immediate Bailout
09.26 Has Deregulation Sired Fascism?
09.25 Don't Fuel the Fire: Fire the Arsonists
09.25 America Pays the Piper, Big Time
09.24 Just Thinking Aloud Here
09.23 What Nobody's Saying: The Bailout Will Kill the Dollar
09.22 Thinking About Escalations
09.18 US Economy: Rudderless and Reeling From Direct Hits
09.18 US Economy: Rudderless and Reeling From Direct Hits
09.17 Creative Destruction: The Solid Core Behind the Financial Crisis
09.16 You Can't Feel Blue About the Economy If You Want To. There Are No Blue Chips Anymore
09.15 Thinking About Spotlights
09.15 U.S. Economy—Temporary Respite, Permanent Decline
10.10 Another Israeli West Bank Land Grab Scheme
09.26 Annals of Liberation: Sex is Death in a Darkened Land
09.25 New Coup D'Etat Rumblings in Venezuela
09.22 Remembering Edward Said Five Years On
09.20 Filter Tips: Distortion and Demonization on the Iran Beat
09.11 Wall Street and Washington
COMMENTARY:
The Abramoff Absurdity
If you need evidence of just how deceptive the Abramoff scandal will ultimately reveal itself to be, then consider what Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher said at a news conference at the Justice Department: “Government officials and government action are not for sale." This was an outrageous lie. Just because the excessive chutzpah and greed of Jack-the-Corrupter Abramoff and his gang got them nabbed does not negate the political reality that government officials and government action have been, still are, and in all likelihood will remain for sale. The historical fact is that no previous federal government scandal has ever put a stop to the legal and illegal sale of government. To put an end to the institutionally sanctioned bipartisan corruption of Congress and pay-to-play politics, consider how Congress will respond to these questions:- Will Senators and Representatives immediately take advantage of this monumental embarrassment and truly and effectively stop the sale of our government?
- Will they rally behind ending all private campaign financing by backing Clean Money/Clean Elections legislation?
- Will they require that any form of draft legislation not originated by a congressional member or staffer require full documentation, including what entities and interests the language serves?
- Will they end acceptance by members and staffers of ALL gifts, meals and other freebies from ANY private sector source?
- Will they restrict access of lobbyists and other types of representatives of special interests to members and staffers--perhaps to just one hour a day when Congress is in session and by using a lottery that gives winners a 15-minute session?
- Will they pledge to match access given to lobbyists and other representatives of special interests to individuals who are legitimate constituents?
- Will they greatly redesign their financial reporting requirements to provide more detailed and comprehensive information?
- Will they reform their ethics committees and make them effective prosecutors of misbehavior?
- Will they cause the billion-dollar lobbying, government influence, government relations, government affairs, Washington representation industry in Washington, D.C. to collapse, as evidenced by an exodus from all those corporate, trade association, and law offices on K-Street and throughout the metro-D.C. area?
- Will they beef-up reporting requirements for lobbyists so that the public can easily see exactly what lobbyists are doing and for whom?
- Will they put an end to line-tem pork handouts and other forms of corporate welfare that provide the motivation for so much influence peddling?
- Will they prohibit all forms of lobbying by former federal government employees for at least two years?
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This story was published on January 12, 2006.
