Free America
We're suffering from a nonstop right wing campaign based on the excluded middle. We are that excluded middle. Right wingers know that not enough politically sane people vote, but enough insane people do. So Republicans ride the wave of media bias and use their massive cash advantages, they game the system and rig enough voting machines to win. As a last resort, they even sue the voters and throw out votes.
When the corporate media wants balance, they pick a right winger and a Naderite who both attack the Democrats. The Republicans count on near-total corporate support -- and vice versa. Right wingers use corporate $millions to fund their disinformation schemes so they can gain access to power over $trillions. Unions and political sane groups struggle to approach a tenth of the right wing spending.
The huge leverage of business money in politics allows the most massive return on investment ever contemplated. The scale is too huge for us to even think about.
So consider a small part of the system: Dick Cheney. As Sec of Def he made decisions which gave $billions of our taxes to Halliburton. then, they paid him $25 million or so a year to make deals with Iraq. Such a huge return for such a tiny investment.
Consider Enron. They gave bush a few $million and he almost got away with handing them a quarter of a $BILLION in "tax rebates" for years in which they didn't pay any taxes. He also gave them other special favors, including authority to fire the Chairman of the FERC who prevented them from raping California, and replacing him with someone who let them go.
Right wingers say the difference between Watergate and White Water is there was a dead body in White Water. People dropped dead from the heat during the brown outs thanks to Enron screwing with the power supplies. There's your dead bodies in Enrongate.
Does the media cover it? No. Not really. What does Nader say? Both sides are equally to blame because Enron gave money to Democrats too. Thing is, these people give Nader money too. They ran his ads in 2000, and they'd give him more money in a heartbeat. They profit from Bush and right wing control too much not to.
Did Enron contribute to Democrats? Sure they did. But much less money than to Republicans, and that's not the end of the story. To paraphrase, "ask not what Enron has done for politicians, ask what politicians have done for Enron." Republicans gave Enron a blank check. Democrats took smaller checks then kept the Enron monster largely in check.
If you account for the huge cash gifts Bush wanted to give Enron, the company might not have gone under. Maybe Bush's pals counted on him too much and cut things a little too close, counting their "tax rebates" before they were passed. Something to consider.
We need a Voter's Bill of Rights. Secure, accurate voting machines. A fair process open to audit and review. Limits on campaign spending, public finance of campaigns. A crack down on corporate "contributions" and lobbying which constitute legal (until the laws change) and even illegal bribery. We must hold the sell-out politicians accountable and severely punish violations.
We should boycott right wing corporations -- including the corporate media. No more of our money should fund those who are ruining America.
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