Saturday, May 2, 2009
The Banks Own Washington
This last week the U.S. Senate voted down a bill that would have allowed for greater control over home loans and reduced foreclosures. Here are the details:
It continues to surprise and amaze me that so many Americans are unaware of the obvious facts. Corporations control DC. They have rights that we as individuals don't have. Under the guise of "freedom of speech" under the First Amendment - rights they took through a series of questionable court decisions leading up to the infamous Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company decision, which I discussed here - corporations can write off their lobbying. You and I cannot do that. I can't hire someone to lobby for me and then write off the cost of that expense from my taxes.
Until we Americans decide to fundamentally change the underlying laws that define how corporations operate in this country, none of us should be surprised that corporations rule DC and the rest of this country.
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It continues to surprise and amaze me that so many Americans are unaware of the obvious facts. Corporations control DC. They have rights that we as individuals don't have. Under the guise of "freedom of speech" under the First Amendment - rights they took through a series of questionable court decisions leading up to the infamous Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company decision, which I discussed here - corporations can write off their lobbying. You and I cannot do that. I can't hire someone to lobby for me and then write off the cost of that expense from my taxes.
Until we Americans decide to fundamentally change the underlying laws that define how corporations operate in this country, none of us should be surprised that corporations rule DC and the rest of this country.
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There is an essential logical flaw to the notion that, because we tortured people in the past, and we're trying to look forward, we're not going to prosecute these past events. All crimes are in the past when prosecuted. We do not prosecute people for future crimes. We assert that, under our judicial system, all people are innocent until proven guilty. Obviously they are proven guilty of crimes they committed in the past.
On the basis of the logic some are attempting to apply to torture, one could argue that no crimes would ever be prosecuted, because we're looking forward. According to this logic, all victims should simply never complain or cry out for justice, since they are looking backward.
On the whole, the cry for justice always looks backward to past injustices, while attempting to right the wrong in the present or in the future....looking forward. To deny the need to look backward, to correct injustices in the past, those who advocate "looking forward" deny the very nature of justice - which ALWAYS looks backward.
I campaigned and voted for President Obama. I expect more from him than this "forward looking" stuff.