Some of you may be tiring of the subject -- "money and influence buying" within the U.S. political system -- but please indulge guru a bit more ... until we have clearly established the FACTS about the exploitation of the general public by the BIG contributors. That clearly IS playing a role in the government's indifference to the EMF issue...
What follows is the complete article about some recent revelations concerning Newt Gingrich, the (Republican) Speaker of the House of Representatives. It spells out the influence of a KEY person from the telecommunications industry who was working in the office of the Speaker DURING THE TIME WHEN THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS BILL WAS BEING WRITTEN by the Congress.
It is hard to imagine a more blatant example of the kind of "influence buying" guru has described to emf-l members in recent messages...
[Please note guru's few comments within the article. They will be in brackets ... like this.]
(Adds Gingrich refusing comment) ATLANTA (Reuter) - House Speaker Newt Gingrich once courted wealthy campaign donors on the White House grounds and at two foreign embassies, and explicitly promised access to his office, a newspaper reported Thursday. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said donors to Gingrich's former political action committee, GOPAC, were consulted during the crafting of the Republican Party's ``Contract with America'' and routinely were invited to small group discussions on national issues. In Washington, Gingrich brushed by reporters who shouted detailed questions to him about the newspaper story. He rushed through a hotel, where he had spoken to the National Conference of State Legislatures, and into a waiting van outside. His only answer to reporters was a curt ``Bye-bye.'' The newspaper reported that Gingrich, the top Republican fund-raiser in Congress, also adopted the pet interests of some donors as party policy objectives as he accelerated his campaign to wrest control of the U.S. House of Representatives from Democrats, a feat that Republicans finally realized in 1994. The newspaper said one Gingrich backer -- Patrick Rooney of Golden Rule Insurance Co -- saw his advocacy of medical savings accounts become a key part of Republican Medicare reforms after the 1994 election.
[Carefully read the next.]
Telecommunications entrepreneur Donald Jones also bragged in 1995 that he was working in Gingrich's office as a ``volunteer'' consultant to the speaker on telecommunications legislation, the newspaper said.
[Actually, it is very easy to believe Donald Jones. The practice he describes is fairly common ... when "interested industry reps" are made available to help draft legislation that affects "industry."]
[Cathy: Were you or anyone from the "other side" on the EMF issue given such an opportunity? Not likely. You are not among the "chosen" -- the BIG contributors!]
The Journal-Constitution article appeared as the Clinton administration faced charges that it provided top Democratic donors with special access to the president. Republicans in the House and Senate were expected to try to keep the focus of public hearings on alleged Democratic abuses, despite claims that problems were widespread in both parties.
[We say again ... BOTH PARTIES ARE EQUALLY GUILTY OF THIS ABUSE ... AND IT IS AS BAD IN THE CONGRESS AS IT IS IN THE WHITE HOUSE. Don't be taken in by this phony "smokescreen" argument that is being pushed (mostly by the Republicans) that what is being done is "legal" therefore it is OK.]
[Much of what is occurring clearly is NOT legal ... and even if it is ... it is not O.K.!!! It distorts the true meaning of the democratic process for such "special favors" to be given to the "rich and powerful" enabling them thereby to exploit the general public. This is happening in the EMF situation.......Read on.]
In 1991, the newspaper said, Gingrich invited charter members of GOPAC to sip champagne in his office while President Bush delivered his State of the Union address a short distance away. Donors then had coffee with several Cabinet members and were given a tour of the House floor by Gingrich, who was House minority whip at the time. Gingrich also won Republican Party backing for a White House reception with President and Mrs. Bush for GOPAC charter members. In a memo to the late Lee Atwater, he pointed out each donor contributed $10,000 annually to GOPAC and had made large donations to the president's re-election campaign.
[At that time, Lee Atwater was the one of the most powerful Republicans -- and he was genuinely a "nice guy." Every one who came into contact with him liked him.]
[He died not long thereafter of brain cancer -- possibly acquired as the result of his "very heavy" usage of a cellular phone during his "field general ship" of the political election campaign which put Bush in the White house.]
[The same fate would later befall guru's friend Congressman Mike Synar of Oklahoma under similar circumstances.]
Gingrich feted his financial backers in November 1990 with receptions held at the Soviet and the Saudi Arabian embassies for which foreign dignitaries played host, the newspaper said.
[Again, it is not so uncommon for "foreign" Ambassadors or other foreign dignitaries to absorb such expenses in order to curry favor with powerful U.S. political figures. The BIG corporate contributors do the same thing on behalf of their favorite Congressman or Senator!!! Perhaps there is "no law against it." Does that make it right??? It looks to guru very much like the "equivalence" of a "contribution." These "influence buying" techniques -- though not (in most cases) "outright bribes" -- do result in the exploitation of the general public because the influence buyers end up shaping legislation and acquire bureaucratic influence which "Joe public" cannot equal with his $50 contribution every other year or so. The real sad part is: "Joe public" THINKS that he is being part of the political process!!!..... Only marginally..... The real influence is what you see above in the Newt Gingrich article....]
Cheerio,
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