Monthly Archives: December 2009

More Than $3.3B Nets Lobbyists the Best Government Money Can Buy

In their unrelenting contempt for the general population, it has become glaringly evident over the course of this past decade that the U.S. Congress has become so rife with corruption — the best government that money can buy if you lobby for a large corporation — and complete disdain for the oaths they swear to upon taking office, that America has been sold out.

Despite having about 1,500 fewer registered lobbyists in town this year, last year’s record of $3.3 billion dollars that was spent lobbying Congress and the rest of the federal government is reportedly on track to be shattered according to data collected by the Center for Responsive Politics.

Main Street continues losing jobs while seeing little if any evidence of the economic revival the ‘experts’ continue eluding to while K Street continues raking it in. Despite his pledge to reign in lobbyists and the influence they possess in Washington, many lobbying firms escaped the worst of the economic crisis thanks to President Obama’s massive economic stimulus package that he kicked off his Presidency with.

Traditional big spenders like the real estate and telecommunications sectors, as with many other sectors, cut down on the amount of money they gave to K Street but legislation on health reform, financial reform and climate change has made up for K Street’s lost compensation during these challenging economic times.

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UK Hearing Confirms U.S. Planned to Invade Iraq Before 9/11

A hearing on the UK’s involvement in the Iraq War has reportedly revealed that the U.S. was discussing plans — less than a month after the Bush administration took office — to invade Iraq, and the UK government reportedly ‘distanced itself’ from talk of removing Saddam Hussein in early 2001 despite concerns about his threat.

According to testimony from officials, the British government was aware of Washington’s drum beats of war with Iraq immediately after the inauguration of former President George W. Bush, long before the attacks of 9/11. Britain was opposed to military involvement at that time.

The decision to deploy British troops — which was later met with charges that then-Prime Minister Tony Blair, who will be a future witness in the hearings, had misled the country into believing that Iraq was holding weapons of mass destruction — faced strong public opposition in the UK.

Hundreds of pages of reports obtained by the Sunday Telegraph reportedly reveal that Tony Blair covered up British military plans for a full Iraq invasion throughout 2002. Blair lied to parliament and the public when he said that Britain’s objective was ‘disarmament, not regime change.’

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Fallacious Federal Oversight Affects Millions

Wall Street firms that are allegedly too big to fail are, in the eyes of Federal regulators, reportedly too big to punish. Despite having been accused by the government of cheating and misleading clients while ripping off the investments of tens of thousands of consumers, some of the nation’s largest financial firms have received, sometimes repeatedly, special exemptions from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that have saved them from regulatory penalties that would have decimated their fraudulent mutual fund businesses.

The SEC was well-aware of Bernie Madoff’s ponzi fraud scheme, but did absolutely nothing to stop or prevent it. More than a dozen firms have been let off the hook by the SEC since January 2007, including Bank of America, Citigroup and American International Group (AIG).

Goldman Sachs, the world’s largest financial firm, has been in the middle of and responsible for many of the fraudulent bubbles that have caused the world’s economy to crash — more than once. Despite defrauding the world’s populations out of trillions of dollars, not one person has been held accountable, which is hardly surprising when you consider the fact that President Obama’s economic team is padded with Wall Street insiders, most of which have ties to Goldman Sachs. Rampant financial fraud in Credit Default Swaps (CDS) and Derivatives — which are also being concocted for use around carbon trading schemes in part of the proposed Cap and Trade legislation — helped cause the global meltdown.

In lieu of regulations and accountability for their fraudulent actions, SEC rules allow corporate lawbreakers to apply for Section 9(c) waivers that effectively shutter the violators operations from one of the SEC’s harshest penalties. Consequently, regulators never rejected one single application for any of those firms. Some of the firms were punished by other means, but were spared from any type of severe penalties or accountability. According to McClatchy News, the last time the SEC’s staff turned down a waiver was 1978.

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