They damn well knew!

…politics and re-election first, who cares about a few dead Americans

Dirty Chicago Politics…

Fraud, Abuse, Waste: How Money in Politics is Weakening National Security

“This is a pattern in the modern American political landscape. The government no longer considers the American people to be critical to decision-making, even on issues that are quite literally a matter of life-and-death.”

http://unitedrepublic.org/war/

After three years

it’s time for Obama to deliver on his promise to curb money in politics

Four years ago, Sen. Barack Obama, candidate for the Democratic nomination for president, began to draw into focus a meme that for many of us defined what was different about his campaign, and what made his election critical. As he said in Columbia, S.C., on Jan. 26, 2008,

We are up against the belief that it’s all right for lobbyists to dominate our government — that they are just part of the system in Washington. But we know that the undue influence of lobbyists is part of the problem, and this election is our chance to say that we’re not going to let them stand in our way anymore.

On April 2, he told an audience in Philadelphia:

If we’re not willing to take up that fight, then real change — change that will make a lasting difference in the lives of ordinary Americans — will keep getting blocked by the defenders of the status quo.

Two weeks later, Washington, D.C.:

But let me be clear — this isn’t just about ending the failed policies of the Bush years; it’s about ending the failed system in Washington that produces those policies. For far too long, through both Democratic and Republican administrations, Washington has allowed Wall Street to use lobbyists and campaign contributions to rig the system and get its way, no matter what it costs ordinary Americans

One week later, Indianapolis:

Unless we’re willing to challenge the broken system in Washington, and stop letting lobbyists use their clout to get their way, nothing else is going to change.

And just as he had said in Pittsburgh the week before, he repeated in Indiana again:

The reason I am running for president is to challenge that system.

This “challenge” was an essential element in Obama’s argument. Without such reform, the aspirations of his campaign — from healthcare reform, to global warming legislation, to reform of the banks, to an overhaul of the tax system — would not just have been audacious. They would have been insane. All the money in the world was not simply going to be lulled to sleep by Obama, the great speechifier. Only by effecting a real change of its power within the system of our government would the Obama agenda be even possible.

That’s because the system of government that we have now is corrupt. Not corrupt in the traditional Rod Blagojevich sense of corruption. Our Congress is not filled with crooks. Quid pro quo bribery is not its central crime. Instead, corrupt in the sense that the attention of Congress is constantly drawn away from where it would be focused if it were an institution, as the Framers intended, “dependent upon the people alone.”

much more…

Gangster’s Paradise

Why we have to use the language of corruption when we talk about politics in Russia

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/08/15/gangsters_paradise