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Ref. : Local Newsbriefs
Ref. : Letters to the editor
06.24 Mr. Holder, You Must Hold Torturers Accountable
06.29 Thinking about Climate
06.26 False Health-Scare Ad on CNN
06.25 Louella Learns the Limits of Medicare
06.23 The Simple Answer to America’s Health Care Crisis: Medicare for All
06.23 Tell ABC: Include Single-Payer in Healthcare Debate
06.23 Serving the Medical-Industrial Complex
06.22 Thinking about Recoveries
06.20 Obama's Health Care Waterloo
06.15 Obama, Like Clinton Before Him, is Blowing the Chance for Real Health Care Reform
06.11 Two Key Health-Care Numbers
06.10 Big Breakthroughs for Single Payer Health Care
06.10 Readying Americans for Dangerous, Mandatory Vaccinations
06.29 WP's Connolly Back, on Health Reform
06.17 Hypocrisy and Hope: Western Coverage, Iranian Courage
06.15 Excusing Outrages of the Right
06.11 Tying Obama to Bush's Budget Mess
06.30 Obama's Torture Hypocrisy
06.30 Court Circular: Annals of Imperial Continuity
06.29 Obama, They Want You to Fail
06.26 Who to Trust on a Truth Commission?
06.26 Tarnished Shields: The Morally Bankrupt 'Family Values' Republican Leadership
06.25 America's "Bases of Empire"
06.24 Twelve Angry White People: Jury Nullification in a Pennsylvania Coal Town
06.24 Touring Empire's Ruins
06.23 Employers are Undermining the Economic Stimulus Program
06.19 Criminalizing Dissent: Obama Pot Calls Iranian Kettle Black
06.17 Afghanistan's Operation Phoenix
06.16 Are You Ready for War with a Demonized Iran?
06.13 Where's the Anger as the Wheels Come Off Obama's and the Democrats' Recovery Program?
06.10 Waiving the Rules for Old Glory
06.10 Obama's Era of Openness Is Closed
07.03 Reviewing Marjorie Cohn and Kathleen Gilberd's "Rules of Disengagement"
07.01 Iraq: A Bitter Strategic Failure
06.25 It's All Good, Again: 'Uptick' in the American-Made Tides of Violence in Iraq
06.22 Obama Opposes Plame-gate Release
06.21 Dexter's Legions: The "Good" Killers of the "Good" War
06.18 Extending the Tradition: Proudly Taking American Torture Into the Future
06.15 New UN Report Denounces America's Human Rights Record
06.14 Fear Rules
07.01 Michael Hudson's "Super Imperialism:" The Economic Strategy of Imperial America
06.23 Obama's Financial Reform Proposal - A Stealth Scheme for Global Monetary Control
06.10 Cyberscares About Cyberwars Equal Cybermoney
07.01 Pirates of the Mediterranean
06.29 Color Revolutions, Old and New
06.25 Iran Divided & the 'October Suprise'
06.23 Astringent Corrective: AbuKhalil on Iran's Turmoil
06.20 Are the Iranian Protests Another US Orchestrated “Color Revolution?”
06.20 Through a Glass Darkly: Sifting Myth and Fact on Iran
06.19 Iran's Election and US - Iranian Elections
06.16 The Ir-Af-Pak War: Obama Looses the Manhunters
06.12 Israeli War Crimes Against Children During Operation Cast Lead
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.
