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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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"Center for Consumer Freedom" Takes Aim At PETA
Posted by Pile
(5964 views) [E-Mail link]
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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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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.
