Alpha Phi - Great quotes man.
Especially liked Danforth's, he was a good man.
Irate - You're right they are already knowingly breaking laws so more rules and regulations are just going to hurt the true lobbyists that don't have the money but may have good causes, while those that have the money will be able to hide what they give better.
One of the huge problems I see is that even the honest Congressmen knew and know who is being bought off and they don't say shit. Now is this because the party scares them into silence, they don't want to rock the boat, they use these as blackmail ....... those are the Congressmen that piss me off the most. The ones that know about the corruption and do NOTHING.
An informed electorate can only be as informed as the media and government allows.
Withholding wiretap stories for a year, not making corruption trials and investigations front page news every day, and so on is not keeping the electorate well informed.
And when people do speak out and you have a Limbaugh, a Drudge, a Coulter or an O'Reilly that downplays the corruption, that treats the corruption as though it is only partisan hate politics and there is nothing of true substance there...... you have to ask who are they protecting and if they truly love this country as much as they say they do, then why are they making excuses and trying so desperately to rationalize, downplay and avoid facing the corruption and demanding that we investigate and convict every last guilty congressman regardless of party or who they are???????? But they don't they make more excuses, downplay and outrageous claims, it's as if they are OJ's legal defense, trying to convict the people coming out about the scandals rather than those who committed the crimes..... WHY, WHY IS THAT?????????
And the people that speak out like Springer, Franken, and even here Host, they are met with ridicule attacks and called names, and lengths are gone to harrass them, get into their personal lives, laugh at them, make fun of what they say and say they need psychological help.
These people attack not the corruption but the people informing, doing research into it and trying to blow whistles and hold up red flags.
We are allowing people with hidden agendas to ridicule, harrass and do all they can to discredit not the facts that have been brought out, not the research, but the people themselves.
Doesn't that say something to you? doesn't that tell you something right there?
Perhaps we do need to look at the craziest possible scenarios first and move backward towards the rational to find out what truly is going on and how deep the corruption is.
Also, partisan politics allows and creates corruption. When I'm voting strictly by what my party tells me, am I truly helping the country? Am I truly following what I believe? I don't think so.
And I think we have Congressmen blackmailed by their parties to either, "stay in the fold" or face severe problems when they come up for re-election or "when the next bill comes up don't expect any money to your district" or "don't expect any propsals you may make to be heard" and so on.
Ask Voinivich and Dewine how Bush has threatened them. My father has gotten letters from the GOP to not donate to Voinivich's election funds because the party is looking into and I quote "Someone that represents the party closer to the values you have put on it to have." What exactly is that implying to those who support Voinivich, who truly isn't a bad man and has had some great ideas and policies.
It's more obvious and prevelant in the GOP because they are the ones in power and have the structure and talking heads to take the heat off. When you have a Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Ann Coulter attacking even Republicans for not voting "the party way" something stinks and it ain't the limberger cheese or my feet.
The Dems do it but they aren't as organized, nor truly have the power to attack each other. If they get the power back, and as organized then they'll be just as bad.
So we have to have unbiased, non partisan and untouchable committees that can investigate without any fear of retribution.
We need government to become held accountable again. The people getting it now, Ney, Delay, Taft, Frist and whatever other names are coming out.... are sacrificial pigs, to take the heat off everyone else. They are probably, "team players" that won't blow any whistles", that will take one for the team and not take anyone else down with them.
We also need to ask where is all the money going? How are we having all this deficit spending, yet programs are being cut left and right and we keep hearing how there is no money for this, that and the other thing? When we had a party in '94 vow and sign a contract to not deficit spend and 10 years later they are spending record deficits it tells me someone is making money on our deficit spending. How much of our taxes goes to pay the interest on the deficit?
We need a complete overhaul and we need to check every nook and cranny to make sure that government is acting in the country's best interest and not their own. How we do that, is the $1,000,000 question.