Money Talks, Bullshit Walks

(10:00AM EST – promoted by Nightprowlkitty)

I’ve come to believe there is really only one way out of this mess we have in the United States.  This mess that is controlled by 435 Congressional Representatives and 100 State Senators.  The way out is to break the control the lobbies and special interest groups have on those governmental entities, and create a system where more qualified and diverse candidates can compete for those positions.  

The amount of money flowing through the halls of Congress and Senate continues to grow, almost doubling since the Bush administration.  The stakes are obviously very high for those lobbies and special interests at the beginning of the Obama administration.  ALL members of Congress and Senate are influenced to some degree by the money and power plays, some totally, some to a degree.

I remember seeing a copy of a typical Congress members monthly calendar.  Out of the 30 total days, 22 of those days included appointments for fundraisers or meetings with special interest groups.  The primary motivation created by this system isn’t “the best interests of the people”, it’s how to keep the frigging job.  

The top 100 lobbies gave almost a quarter billion dollars to Congress and Senate members in the first quarter of 2009.  At that pace, the top 100 lobbies could give ONE BILLION dollars over the course of this year.   That’s just the top 100, there are over 20,000 lobbies inhabiting our great nations capital.  

http://informationclearinghous…

Hell, Congress not only accepts all that cash from lobbies, it also accepts it from us, the taxpayers.  They just gave themselves 4 BILLION for expenses.  That’s about 7 million per member.  

http://www.opencongress.org/bi…

I wonder what they do with all that money?  They sure don’t seem to be using it to improve the plight of the vast majority of citizens.  It’s just a big game with rules and policies made to ensure the game is played by all.  The most glaring example is with health care.  EVERYONE, even my kids, know what that fight is all about.  It’s not about what’s right, it’s about money.  I can go down to my local minute mart and talk with the Iranian immigrant who runs the place, and I ask him what he thinks the problem is, “is all about money”.  Jesus!  

The presidency is no different, probably worse.  Even though Obama said all those progressive things about not accepting money from lobbies, it was not true.  In fact, there could be a direct correlation with how much money a presidential candidate receives, particularly from the powerful Security and Investment groups, and who actually gets elected.  Watch for that in 2012.  Here’s the statistics from the last two Presidential campaigns regarding contributions from THE PEOPLE WHO STOLE ALL OUR MONEY:

Top Recipients of Securities and Investment Company Contributions. 2007-2008

Obama, Barack (D) $ 14,447,682

McCain, John (R-AZ) $ 8,547,727

Clinton, Hillary (D-NY) $ 6,776,654

Giuliani, Rudolph W (R) $ 5,099,595

Romney, Mitt (R) $ 4,981,989

Dodd, Chris (D-CT) $ 2,907,182

McConnell, Mitch (R-KY) $ 835,236

Coleman, Norm (R-MN) $ 830,075

Richardson, Bill (D) $ 818,000

Edwards, John (D) $ 806,795

2003-2004

Bush, George W. (R) $ 9,185,969

Kerry, John (D-MA) $ 4,845,528

Schumer, Charles E (D-NY) $ 1,368,339

Daschle, Tom (D-SD) $ 1,036,145

Obama, Barack (D-IL) $ 1,029,632

Lieberman, Joe (D-CT) $ 1,021,075

Bowles, Erskine B (D-NC) $ 794,251

Dodd, Chris (D-CT) $ 672,614

Dean, Howard (D) $ 639,271

Clark, Wesley (D) $ 631,483

Now the same people who stole our money are stealing it every day at the gas pump, using the derivative and credit swap market that brought down housing to make money off oil futures.  

http://www.dailykos.com/story/…

Is is absolutely not useful to watch TV news these days, even cable news.  They are clearly bought and paid for by the same powerful interests that control our government.  The internet is not immune and the larger the site and more money involved, the natural progression of money influence becomes more prevalent.

Everything is controlled by these special interests.  Surveillance of civilians is a big one coming.  All the Military Industrial Machine has to do is create new things that make sense to those that are prone to facism.  We can look forward to fifty five foot long blimps patrolling the skies over protests and other dubious citizen gatherings.  They might even have advertising so the local police departments can afford them, and they look more benign.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/i…

The Military Industrial Machine is particularly insideous.  Constantly coming up with ideas for new weapons that can be used in future wars, pouring tons of money to politicians and spreading propaganda on the airwaves.  That is definitely a well oiled and funded machine.  So much so that it can sell a dozen F-22 fighters to Congress even though the military said they didn’t need them, at 359 million a pop. Then of course, the weapons have to be used, or sold to other countries to use, and who pays the price for that?  Civilians.  Dead and innocent civilians.  

Personally I think we’ve been given a opportunity.  Bush, Cheney, et al, became such disgusting creatures many forgot about the real problem.  The real problem is our system of government that allows for the influence of money to guide policies and agendas, from health care to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.  The system that puts the reelection propects of a sitting Congressmen/women or Senators on the top of their priorities.  The system that tells the public, “Money Talks, Bullshit Walks”.

Crossposted at Daily Kos