There are a couple of things that are sad about this. But other than those I honestly laughed like hell when I heard that they issued an arrest warrant for Tom Delay.
The first sad thing about this: That this is a rare occurence. We should be able to take crooks from the Congress and the Senate to jail more often for the kind of shennanigans (sp?) they pull in the hallowed halls of our great capitol. I think it should be illegal to take campaign contributions from any private company. A politician taking money from a company, any company, is an instant conflict of interest. We need campaign finance reform that keeps contributions anonymous and from individual donors only. And they shouldn't be tax deductible. (Also, I think they should arrest Bob Bennett (R-Utah, big surprise) every time he says we need to reduce the federal minimum wage to $3.00 an hour.)
The second, sadder thing about all of this: That behaviour like this from those who hold office in this country isn't surprising. What was surprising is that the justice system had the wherewithal to actually prosecute a congressmen for his misdeeds. Our system is so broken that the exception to the rule is an indictment and an arrest warrant.
We need to go after people that break the law in office, no matter how white-collar their crimes might be (*cough*bill frist*cough*), no matter what party they come from. Why do we have to wait to find a dead hooker in their trunk? Strike now, pre-emptively. Small crime leads to larger crimes. These public office-holders need to know that they can't cross the people, that they aren't above the law. They need to stop holding corporate interests above those of the people. Period. It seems like, as days go by, they are more and more in the pocket of private corporations.
And, someone once said, "If you're not with us, you're against us..."
No comments:
Post a Comment