Posted by Agent J on August 01, 2003 at 16:42:44:
In Reply to: Blacked-out pages a gift to Democrats posted by Karen on August 01, 2003 at 16:34:13:
Has our country's national policy always been driven
by the corporate interests?
As far back as I can remember politics, which was
the mid-to-late 80s, it has seemed like there is a
corporate takeover of America.
The oldest incident I can think of was Ronnie
"Ray-gun" eliminating alternative energy programs and
favoring big business, specifically oil.
And then there was Bush Sr., and although we all
might agree that Kuwait was justified, he was still
just protecting his oil interests,... makes me wonder
if, similar to operation "Iraqi Freedom", the oil was
flowing in Kuwait before the power was back on.
After that it appeared that economic policy might
go clean with Clinton in office. I've liked Clinton
in the past, but if you look closely, the prosecution
of corporate crime went down dramatically during the
Clinton administration. And the cherry on top of the
Clinton years was him pardoning something like 137
people, some of them being charged with crimes such as
bank fraud, purjury, forgery, and a million kinds of
conspiracy,.... oh, and he pardoned his brother too.
And now, here we are, knee deep in economic
turmoil, because the greedy, and the elite, were not
happy with their already large share, and insisted on
gorging themselves at the cost of the American people.
I keep asking myself questions like:
Who benefitted, and who lost, from the Enron scandal?
Although I'm not the most knowlegable, I think I can
say pretty confidently that stockholders in Texas lost
money, and the executives that drove the company into
the groud are sitting in their million dollar homes
with not a care in the world. I wonder if the fact
that Ken Lay is such great pals with Bush has anything
to do with Kenny-boy's ability to dodge prosecution.
Who benefitted, and who lost, from the 9/11 tragedy?
The 3500 lives were lost in the incident itself, our
economy is taking a downturn, the admistration is
making law instead of interpreting it, we have the
(anti)patriot act, and we are now the world's police
(except that policing the world means supporting
american interests, which means supporting corporate
interests). But the rich, the few in the higher
echelon, have dramatic tax cuts (even the estate tax
has been removed for the next dozen years). The
executives of such shady companies as Haliburton,
Enron, WorldCom, and who knows who else are enjoying
free reign, eating as much from the trough as they
can.
Who benefitted from operation Iraqi Freedom?
Theoretically, the Iraqi people are better off, ...
or, maybe one day they will be, if they ever oust that
administration that takes all their oil, be it
American, or Saddam Hussein. I'm sure Haliburton Oil
has no complaints, nor do the "ships of convenience"
from Liberia (single-hulled ships that are duty free).
I'm sure mother nature doesn't appreciate that 2 of
the last 3 major oil spills came from single-hulled
ships (as opposed to the more expensive, but
incredibly safe double hulled ships) that fly Liberian
flags.
So, again, I ask, was there ever a time when American
policy was not influenced, or in today's times,
dictated, by corporate interests.
I think I'm going to go throw up I'm so ashamed with
the country I live in. We're on top of the world,
'cause we fight dirty and stand on the backs of the
voiceless.
Live simply so that all may simply live!