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PATH: BS | Business | Corporate Welfare
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Anatomy of How Congress Works (or Doesn't Work)
Posted by Pile
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 Rolling Stone has produced an epic outline of the behind-the-scenes deals involved in getting bills passed in the U.S. Government and the story is informative and downright frightening. When one discovers the handouts their tax dollars are paying for, such as $100,000 for a single street light, and the unbridaled cronyism and corporate control in government, you may never look at Congress the same again.
...When Rep. Chris Smith complained about Bush's policy toward veterans, he was relieved of his seat as the Veterans' Committee chairman. When Joel Hefley locked horns with Dennis Hastert during the Tom DeLay ethics flap, Hefley lost his spot as the House Ethics Committee chairman.
...The Rules Committee is supposed to wait out a three-day period before sending the bill to the House, ostensibly in order to give the members a chance to read the bill. The three-day period is only supposed to be waived in case of emergency. However, the Rules Committee of DeLay and Dreier waives the three-day period as a matter of routine. This forces members of Congress to essentially cast blind yes-or-no votes to bills whose contents are likely to be an absolute mystery to them.
...The Export-Import bank loan was a policy so dumb and violently opposed to American interests that lawmakers who voted for it had serious trouble coming up with a plausible excuse for approving it. In essence, the U.S. was giving $5 billion to a state-subsidized British utility (Westinghouse is a subsidiary of British Nuclear Fuels) to build up the infrastructure of our biggest trade competitor (CHINA), along the way sharing advanced nuclear technology with a Chinese conglomerate that had, in the past, shared nuclear know-how with Iran and Pakistan.
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READ MORE | 3 comments since 2005-08-18 18:32:06 | Comment on this Article |
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"Center for Consumer Freedom" Takes Aim At PETA
Posted by Pile
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 Richard Berman, a professional lobbyist, and head of the organization, Center for Consumer Freedom (which ultimately is a shill for fast food, tobacco and other industries that have a vested interest in smokescreening concern over carcinogens and wholesale animal cruelty & slaughter) has in the past criticized anyone who threatened the profitability of his clients, whether it was to discredit Mothers Against Drunk Driving, stop government education to consumers on the dangers of Salmonella, or sabotaging efforts to raise minimum wage by purchasing influence among politicians such as Newt Gingrich. This high powered professional propagandist organization's next target? PETA, who has managed to get some fast food places to pay more attention to their meat harvesting procedures.
I'm no big PETA supporter; I think both extremes of the spectrum, from rabid pro-lifers to radical animal rights groups need to mellow out a bit. There seems to be no public word that I can find in response to the attack on PETA, but one thing is for sure, the people behind it have just as many skeletons in their closet, so it's time to call BS. |
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If you think only Rep. "Dollar" Bill Jefferson was an anomaly, for creating shell companies to siphon political money to his family, you'd be wrong. Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics have released an extensive study of one branch of Congress showing more than two-thirds of our leaders are exploiting their position to ensure their family is in the lap of luxury.
Michael Moore came to the California Capitol on Tuesday and seemed to succeed on two fronts: promoting his new documentary on the ills of the American health care system, and rallying for a proposal to do away with health insurance companies and create a system in which government pays all medical bills, no questions asked.
Congress has spent more than $63 million on an experimental aircraft that has never flown more than a few feet and that the Pentagon has repeatedly rejected.
Construction of the U.S. embassy in Iraq, set to open in September, is projected to cost $592 million, with a staff of 1,000 people and operating costs totaling $1.2 billion a year. It will be a 104-acre complex, which is the size of approximately 80 football fields, featuring tennis courts and a swimming pool and a cabana.
According to MediaMatters, CNN has crossed the line. On Wednesday, the self-proclaimed "Most Trusted Name in News" aired an hour-long special on Global Warming that was anything BUT news.
People who donate to Mothers Against Drunk Driving are told by the charity that most of the $12 million it raises annually is spent on good works — stopping drunk driving and helping families traumatized by fatal crashes.
There's a lot of talk about government waste, how much taxes Americans pay, and where it goes. The problem is our political leaders aren't particularly keen on letting the public know the details of how our tax dollars are spent. Here at BSA, we've compiled a few informative videos on the issue, including an ABC report on the Pentagon losing $2.3 Trillion dollars, Ben Cohen from Ben & Jerry's discussing how tax dollars are spent in a more consumer-friendly metaphor: Oreo cookies, and an amazing web site that seeks to visualize the disbursement of government money to thousands of departments.
The latest person to go completely nuts over the latest video game console is not a person, but a corporation. Taco Bell has announced that if you're willing to donate your precious Playstation 3 to them to give a Boys & Girls club, they'll offer the generous gamer what they consider a "lifetime" worth of taco bell food (~ $12k in "taco bell bucks" -- no word about whether Angioplasty is included).
Pastor Marty Baker preaches that the Bible is the eternal and inviolate word of God. On other church matters, he's willing to change with the times, including setting up his own for-profit venture making religious ATM machines and selling them to his own, and other churches. Now giving money to "God" is even easier than ever!
Virginia's Republican senator George Felix Allen is a very busy guy in Congress. Is he looking into illegal wiretapping? Is he busy readying legislation to help hurricane Katrina victims? Is he working to bring our troops back home or curtail terrorism?
Darren Irby, spokesman for the national American Red Cross says, "We haven't viewed this as a security breach at this point."
As if we're living in some kind of bizarro world, GW Bush today announced that he is suspending environmental regulations regarding air standards and pollution as some sort of means to address increasing fuel prices.
This Christmas we'll be swamped with offers, ads and invitations to buy more stuff. But now there's a way to say enough and join a movement dedicated to reviving the original meaning of Christmas giving.
CNet has an interesting article on the top 10 dot-com business flops of all time. It's of particular amusement to us, because this site is running on a server we purchased at a liquidation auction from the company listed as #5.