> What I do find is that one side only mentions the problems with the other
> side. For every Madoff there is a government bureaucrat like Geithner
> ripping us off. For every wall street banker there are guys like Ted
> Stevens or Charlie Rangel.
Actually, what I think is that each side either doesn't see or doesn't notice when the
other side criticizes one of its own. I've seen plenty of "If Rangel did what they
say, he's got to go" on
liberal sites. Same thing with ACORN. The general liberal position I'm seeing is,
"ACORN didn't mess with the 2008 election in any significant way (as
conservatives believe), but saying that that
doesn't mean that I support everything they do. These videos show some outrageous
behavior that needs to be addressed, pronto."
Five people at ACORN were involved in the videos. They were fired. While
they behaved wrongly, many others at ACORN were also set up and filmed
illegally, and the employees in other offices called the police when the
fake posers became too aggressive and refused to leave. Individuals did
the wrong thing and were punished, however, blaming ACORN and trying to
shut them down, when what they do is help poor, mostly African American,
people, is disingenuous.
Instead of blaming the cleanup guy, Geithner, why not go back further to
charge other government bureaucrats like Goldman Sachs' Hank Paulson who
handed out money to his friends on Wall Street without requiring any
accountability. Paulson is an example of a government bureaucrat who
also is a capitalist Wall Street banker--at the same time. Go back a bit
further and charge Billy Tauzin who fought for a Medicare prescription
drug bill that prohibited negotiating with drug companies, while taking
lots of money from Pharma, then immediately leaving to head Pharma. Then
there's Dick Cheney whose holdings in Halliburton and related industries
were directly related to his actions as VP. Yesterday Max Baucus emerged
from committee to present a health insurance proposal that's more
friendly to private insurance companies and Pharma than to the American
people, while taking over $6 million from the private health care
industry over the past 6 years. There are many more examples of private
corporate interest overseeing actions in Congress, to the point of
writing legislation. There's guilt on both sides of the aisle, inside
and outside the government.
Who profited from the change from analog to digital TV when public
frequencies were sold instead of leased or licensed, and now millions of
people are without television? Who profits from lack of competition in
broadband, and which members of Congress work for those companies
instead of working for us?
That duality is the problem. That duality must be controlled. The
government should represent 'We, the people...' not 'We, the
corporations...' Where friendliness to corporations benefits people,
that's great, but where it harms people, compromise and strong
regulation is necessary.
*************************************************************************
** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy **
** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ **
*************************************************************************
