The Oil Drum

As far as I am concerned, I have seen way too many laws and tax breaks passed for "special interests".

I feel most congressmen are whores, paid to do the bidding of the payer.

Any politician failing to "play the game" is economically forced to yield his power to one who will.

I do not subscribe to the concept that Members of Congress are inept fools... but I do think they are prostitutes, driven by lobbyists.

The Congressman does what he has to do in his environment to survive.

Unless the people organize a uproar, the lobbyists get their way.

This is the reason we can "justify" things like the Kelo vs. New London crap while simultaneously holding people who share music liable for criminal copyright infringement - even when we promise "justice for all" in exchange for "I pledge Allegiance".

Bit by bit the people are taxed more and more to pay for the largesse of the organizations represented by the lobbyist.

Yes, we have a good government system... but we the people MUST be vigilant. We aren't. We are allowing others to enslave us.

Steve

But you conspiracy theory wingnuts

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Conspiracy Features quotes from 'wingnuts' like:

- Winston Churchill, 1922
- Woodrow Wilson, The New Freedom (1913)
- Benjamin Disraeli, first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, in a novel he published in 1844 called Coningsby, the New Generation
- Congressman Larry P. McDonald, 1976, killed in the Korean Airlines 747 that was shot down by the Soviets.
- Andrew Jackson, letter, April 26, 1824
- Thomas W. Lawson Frenzied Finance, 1905
- Reginald McKenna, President of the Midlands Bank of England
- Professor Carroll Quigley, Tradgey and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time, 1966
- Congressman Louis T. McFadden, Chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee
- Grace Commission Report, submitted to President Ronald Reagan on January 15, 1984
- John F. Kennedy, speech at Columbia University, 10 days before his assassination
- Senator Claiborne Pell, Senate Intelligence Committe member, commenting on a USA/USSR treaty signed in 1978
- US Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter
- Congressman Louis T. McFadden, Chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee, June 20, 1932
- John Sherman letter sent to New York bankers, Morton, and Gould, in support of the then proposed National Banking Act,June 25, 1863
― Congressman Louis T. McFadden
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to then Secretary of the Treasury, Albert Gallatin, 1802
― Sir Josiah Stamp - president of the Bank of England in the 1920’s and the second richest man in Britain
― Henry Ford, Sr. — American Developer of the Automobile (Emerging Struggle pg. 165)
― Congressman Louis T. McFadden, Chairman of House Banking Committee 1921 through 1931 — in a speech made before the House in 1934
― Robert H. Hemphill (Credit Manager of Federal Reserve Bank, Atlanta, Ga.)
― Congressman Louis McFadden, Chairman of House Comm. on Banking and Currency from 1920 to 1931 (Shadows of Power, pg. 23
― Reginald McKenna, Chancellor of England’s Exchequer, January 1924
― Willis A. Overholser, LL.B - in History of Money in the United States.

All such positions are absolutely silly

Yup. Silly. People like US Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter Winston Churchill are silly gooses.

You guys sure add a little hilarity in my life.

Well, I'm sure all the above quoted people are happy to provide you with snickers and giggles.

Ron, it is no conspiracy theory that the US gov't, Executive Branch, controls media. This is simple fact. The NYT sat on the wiretap story for a YEAR. What was the time frame, eh? Let's see they revealed it in 2005... wasn't there an election in... 2004? Given how close the election was, do you think there was a chance it might have turned out differently?

Please. Don't ignore facts due to a visceral reaction to "conspiracy theorists." A few conspiracies we know DID happen: The USS Liberty, Tonkin Gulf, NYT and warrantless wiretapping, extraordinary renditions, Saddam attacked the US!!, the Reichstag fire, Abu Ghraib cover-up, Watergate, Pentagon publishing propaganda as news (current war in Iraq), etc.

I'm always amazed by the "It can't happen NOW" response.

Cheers

Okay, I am not going to respond to any more of you conspiracy theory wingnuts

IS that a promise?

Hell, I do have my standards you know.

Yes, that would be calling heads of state and court members 'silly'.

Good thing we'll never hear you comment on this JFK quote about the press and government interaction:
http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/Archives/Reference+Desk/S...

The very word "secrecy" is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it. Even today, there is little value in opposing the threat of a closed society by imitating its arbitrary restrictions. Even today, there is little value in insuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it. And there is very grave danger that an announced need for increased security will be seized upon by those anxious to expand its meaning to the very limits of official censorship and concealment. That I do not intend to permit to the extent that it is in my control. And no official of my Administration, whether his rank is high or low, civilian or military, should interpret my words here tonight as an excuse to censor the news, to stifle dissent, to cover up our mistakes or to withhold from the press and the public the facts they deserve to know.

But I do ask every publisher, every editor, and every newsman in the nation to reexamine his own standards, and to recognize the nature of our country's peril. In time of war, the government and the press have customarily joined in an effort based largely on self-discipline, to prevent unauthorized disclosures to the enemy. In time of "clear and present danger," the courts have held that even the privileged rights of the First Amendment must yield to the public's need for national security

And a bit later....

It requires a change in outlook, a change in tactics, a change in missions--by the government, by the people, by every businessman or labor leader, and by every newspaper. For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence--on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations.

Head, meet sand.

There is a free press in the United States.

Really?

As one of the Presidents said:

But I do ask every publisher, every editor, and every newsman in the nation to reexamine his own standards, and to recognize the nature of our country's peril. In time of war, the government and the press have customarily joined in an effort based largely on self-discipline, to prevent unauthorized disclosures to the enemy. In time of "clear and present danger," the courts have held that even the privileged rights of the First Amendment must yield to the public's need for national security