Don Siegelman and Richard Scrushy hear about their jail time, and I remember my days with Don

Don's been done wrong wrong wrong.

UNFAIR AND UNJUST SYSTEM FOR SIEGELMAN/SCRUSHY

Don and Scrushy should NOT have been given the sentences that they were. We all know now that it WAS a political vendetta. Politicians always get contributions, SO WHAT. Scrushy had served under other Governors, SO WHAT. There is no law broken here.It happens ALL THE TIME.
What does NOT happen ALL the time, is you have a genius of a politician who is the best for the state of Alabama and its people, but he is a DEMOCRAT. Siegelman gave them too much of a struggle for them to keep in control. They knew he would win if he ever got out from under this case that they had to acquire for him at such a convient time.That IS the broken law as far as that group in Washington goes, that is the whole reason that a couple of good men who were doing NO more than other politicians and people who donate do, get investigated for years and put in court at such a convinent time. We the people of Alabama and the U.S. need to speak up and let these Republicians know that we are "fed-up" with this NOW!Don was given more time because he spoke to the media,that violates our rights.
Are we going to let these people in Washington take our rights to everything away? This is suppose to be a free country!
Maybe Judge Fuller and Fega and Franklin and all of their prosecutors are sleeping real good now that the case is over, maybe they think they'll keep their jobs.When election time comes we WILL remember you!!
They ARE NOT HARD-CORE CRIMINALS,let them "plea-bargain", pay money and wipe their records clean!
The real criminals are the ones who the court took a "plea-bargain" from!
DON SIEGELMAN and RICHARD SCRUSHY SHOULD BE SET FREE NOW!

Has the U.S. Attorney Scandal Hit Home in Alabama? One of the key questions regarding the ongoing U.S. attorney scandal is whether the justice system is being used to unfairly prosecute persons for political reasons. Was the prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman an example of this?Our Washington representatives have informed us that they have conformation of congressional investigations to be held to investigate the charges and handling of former Gov. Don Siegelman. Beware, anyone that has lied to the FBI or lied in Federal court, or withheld evidence, or conspired to convict Gov. Siegelman may be taking the cell that was reserved for him if you don’t come forward quickly and tell the local FBI what you know.

Governor Riley - the McCain report found that millions of dollars from the Choctaw Indians came into Alabama during the 2002 governor’s race – a fact denied by Riley until the report was released. In emails released by the Senate, former Riley congressional staffer Michael Scanlon partnered with Jack Abramoff to funnel Choctaw Indian funds into the 2002 Alabama Governor’s race, supporting Riley. The report contained emails detailing conversation regarding the 2002 race in which Abramoff tells Scanlon that he has been in touch with “Nell” (Nell Rogers) of the Choctaws and “had it not been for what you did in Alabama, we would have had to spend millions in Alabama over the next four years.” The conversation then details what “Nell” wanted Riley to do in return for the “help” he had received. The email states Rogers made it clear that she “definitely wants Riley to shut down the Porch Creek operation.” The Alabama Porch Creek Indians were competitors of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. Subsequently, Riley met with Attorney General John Ashcroft about the Porch Creek Indians, and Alabama Attorney General Troy King wrote a letter on behalf of Riley to the Department of the Interior requesting denial of Porch Creek Indians request for Class III gaming. A commission to evaluate the Porch Creek application for Class III (table game) license was created.
And who should be appointed to that commission but William Canary’s “girl” and U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama, Leura Canary?

Siegelman’s popularity in Alabama has earned him the honor of being the only politician on record to have held the top four offices in Alabama: Governor (1999-2003); Lieutenant Governor (1995-99); Attorney General (1987-91); Secretary of State (1979-87).

In order for GOP candidates to win back top Alabama offices they recruited the help of Bill Canary and Karl Rove. Bill Canary worked with Rove in Alabama after they lost the 1992 Bush re-election campaign and Canary partnered with Rove in Alabama Republican state Supreme Court races beginning in 1994 and on Pryor’s campaign in 1998. (Bill Pryor was later appointed by Bush to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2004) In 1998 GOP Bill Pryor was elected Attorney General and Siegelman was elected governor.. Bill Pryor began having Democrats that held top state positions investigated. In March of 1999 Don Siegelman endorsed Al Gore and accompanied Gore on a campaign swing into Florida.. Gore’s opponent, George W. Bush’s campaign was directed by Karl Rove.. Bush was elected in 2000 and he appointed Karl Rove as his aid.

In 2001 Bush appointed Leura Canary as U.S. Attorney in Montgomery, Al., the wife of William Canary.. It was more than coincidental that the court dates coincided with the last few weeks of the Siegelman’s Governors 2006 election.

Elected officials of the GOP have spent millions of dollars of state and federal dollars to eliminate Don Siegelman. They want him out of politics, because he is honest, can't be bought, won't be part of corrupt government and popular with the blacks and whites alike. They took him away in shackles and he was not allowed to say good-bye to his wife and children; they wanted to set an example to deter democrats from running for high ranking Al. offices.

I bet that the Karl Rove gang is still laughing. It is a very sad day for Alabama citizens. I know of some Alabamians who haven't slept because of grieving for what our corrupt officials have done to him.

The three biggest Alabama newspapers have big GOP affiliations; everything that they have printed about Gov. Siegelman is deliberately worded to sound negative.

Two different lobbyist testified that both of them together gave $9,xxx.oo to buy a Honda motorcycle for Siegelman. The U.S. attorneys charged Siegelman with taking a bribe and for attempting to hid the evidence. The whole motor cycle thing sounds like a frame from the get go.

(Only 59% of the students in ALabama graduate from High school, and only 26% of them start college). One of Gov. Siegelman greatest hopes while he was governor was to do great things for education. He wanted every graduating H.S. senior to be able to receive a free scholarship by creating a state lottery to fund education and "hope" scholarships.

Siegelman co-signed a note for $500,000 to get the education campaign lottery started.
The election for the lottery scholarship failed, because of smear ads ran by the Alabama GOP financed by Jack Abramoff. Abramoff and Ralph Reed thought that a lottery in ALabama would hurt Mississippi’s and Louisiana’s Gambling revenues.

CEO and founder of HealthSouth Corp., Mr. Scrushy was serving his third term on the AL. Hospital Planning Commission donated the money to clear up the lottery campaign account. It was obvious that Gov. Siegelman was a honest politician and not a rich man. For paying off the $500,000 and for using the U.S. Mail to send the donation, the U.S. Attorneys said that they committed conspiracy, and mail fraud.

The jury came back with hung votes twice and they were told by the judge not to come back again until they had a verdict???

Hey Justin Fox:
You wrote a good article. I am grad that you got to work on the campaign with Mr Siegelman.

I wish that you could write an article in Time magazine about Mr. Siegelman's personality, the trial and his present treatment. They said that he is being held in a high security prison in Atlanta.

It is really a sad time right now in Alabama for everyone except those who prosecuted him. They said that he got more time because he did not admit guilt and snowed no remorse?????

Several people testified for his character in court Thursday. One black elderly Reverend came all the way from Ohio. Judge Vance's (who was killed by a mail bomb several years ago) wife testified of his good and honesty character.

Thanks,
Robert

The Rove Watergate of 2007 involves Alabama U.S. Attorneys and William Canary"

Karl Rove was caught by the FBI with Donal Segritti in 1972 processing the wiretap telephone conversations of Democrats. Since he was only 21 and provided the FBI with information that led to the conviction of his conspirators he didn’t have to serve prison time. Karl has spent all his life working for GOP candidates from Nixon to Bush running smear ads and framing Democrats. Most of the Alabama Republican Federal Judges that ran for office in the early 90's hired him to get them elected.

When the Patriot Act passed after 9-11 the executive branch was given the authority to perform domestic wiretaps without getting a warrant signed by a judge. I believe that he has access to the NSA System where he electronically wiretaps anyone's conversations anywhere in the world from his office in Washington. This would be like giving Hitler in WWII the atomic bomb. The NSA network is the state of the art in telephone and internet spying. I believe that his main victims are his wife, and Democrats holding top offices; however his character tells me that he has also been recording top Republicans for his job security and possible blackmail.

I wonder if Steve Feaga, Louis Frankin, and Judge Mark Fuller knows that they have been used by Rove and that they are the ones holding the smoking gun when they go before the Congressional Committee.

Anyone that has lied to the FBI or lied in Federal court, or withheld evidence, or conspired to convict Gov. Siegelman may be taking the cell that was reserved for him if you don’t come forward and tell the FBI what you know. Just tell them at the front desk or by telephone that it is confidential and that you want to talk to the agent in charge of the Siegelman investigation.

Justice is no longer blind; Bush has removed the blindfold. He is using Karl Rove to single out the candidates (the majority are Democrats) who are a threat to Cheney, him and his close party affiliates who have supported each other during elections, provided financial gains to each other, and funnel government contracts as they are doing with Jack Abramoff' affiliates..

Rove is using the U.S. Attorneys to have the FBI witch hunt investigate until they can drum up charges that the U.S. Attorneys can use to embarrass and even prosecute politicians that they want out of the way, so that business can be conducted among the ones holding high political state and federal offices. The attorneys that refuses to prosecute under Rove's instructions have been fired. This makes all of us wonder about the U.S. Attorneys that didn’t get fired.

While every media outlet is reporting that HealthSouth's founder, Richard Scrushy, was sentenced to six years and 10 months in Federal prison for bribery, there many looming questions that will likely be overshadowed by numerous shouts of judicial victory. As a high profile case, keep in mind that Scrushy was acquitted of a $2.7 billion accounting fraud trial in Birmingham. Following his acquittal, Scrushy proclaimed his innocence in the face of prosecutors who were none to happy.

Immediately there were cheers of judicial joy shouted all over the internet. Scrushy finally got what he deserved stated one blog with no apology for the gleeful tone. It seems that people easily find joy in another's trials. Funny, but focusing on another trials often keeps the focus off of our own issues and the pain of true human growth.

I feel for Scrushy. I know what he has been through and I know what its like to walk into Federal prison. Although in Scrushy's case he was immediately taken into custody - something rarely done in a white-collar crime case. Scrushy has exchanged a life of prestige and power to living in a place void of most worldly distractions. But, prisons are places where real personal changes can occur. Certainly, over then next five years or so, Mr. Scrushy will have time for meaningful self-evaluation.

On a crisp October day in 1995, I took 23 physical steps… opened a door… and began a new experience that was life-changing. Thinking back 12 years ago, I would never have considered that I, a competent, well educated man, would be sitting in prison. That was a life educational experience where I learned, really for the first time, that there are consequences to every unethical choice we make. Though one might think that we can avoid the consequences, the reality is that they are unavoidable and certain. We just don't know how or when we will face the inevitable.

Prison time gave me the opportunity to focus on "choices." Every choice has a consequence. The consequences are inescapable. They can be negative (prison for example) or positive and we, through the choices we make in life, control the outcome. Scrushy controlled this consequence he is now facing. He might have felt that he dodged the bullet when he avoided the first possible conviction, but the consequences of his unethical actions did yield a result.

Today, Scrushy will wake up each day and be counted - known as a number - and will occupy his time working and reflecting. He will be denied the simple pleasures that we take for granted. And, he will learn to regret those choices that he will recall often - the choices in life that earned him this privilege.

But, is there life following prison? Once again from personal experience I found the answer is yes! However, it is without doubt a function of the choices you make. Never forget, every choice has a consequence. We can make from the trials of life what we want. We all journey through life struggling to find some meaningful purpose to our earthly existence. Through this we all make choices and mistakes. From time to time we may receive help along the way and if we are really fortunate we might have the insight to "pay it forward" and help others.

As a former CPA, through a series of bad choices or serious ethics lapses, I became a white-collar criminal. Now, I am a sales executive in a publicly held company (something highly unusual for a convicted felon) and an international motivational speaker. I now take the time to review my lessons from prison and write about those experiences so that others may gain benefit and perhaps learn from the experience of others. Some of us learn lessons the hard way. Yet, through sharing the experience of my incarceration and return to productivity, others have stated that they've been able to look at their choices in a different and more productive way.

I learned a lot in prison. Mostly I became aware that success is not defined by our material possessions, but rather how we can help others. Through the Choices Foundation, which I founded, and my speaking and writing, I find today that helping others is a joy. People often ask, looking back, what I think about my time in prison. My response, "Best thing that ever happened to me." While I won't make the choices that would send me back (I didn't like it that much), I gained great insight while there and know that there is life following prison.

Perhaps, over time, Mr. Scrushy will learn through careful insight that following his time in prison he will emerge stronger and able to be a powerful voice of hope. Meanwhile, let us not forget that his family is experiencing pain, and perhaps we can remember them as they face new trials of their own.

The congressional investigation into U.S. Attorneys being fired because they didn't prosecute along party lines (democrats) has reach down into Alabama.

There are a number of names that are starting to surface that are involved with Karl Rove having U.S. Attorney Leura Canary appointed just to peruse getting an indictment on Siegelman. She has caused the FBI to spend thousands of man hours investigating Siegelman trying to find anything that she could use to embarrass him into not seeking a future political office or trying to find some wrong doing that they she could use to prosecute him. All this tax payers money wasted so that politicians holding top Federal and state office in Alabama can do business as usual without Siegelman getting elected again.

Eddie Curran with the Mobile Press-Register, thinks that since he was cohered by officers of his newspaper (owned by Advance Publication Inc.), and Federal officials that he is safe and didn't have to question why they wanted him to write articles from information that was provided to him. For this he could be charged with obstruction of justice by the congressional committee that he will possibly be appearing before. Since the Local FBI was cohered by a U.S. Attorney he should deal directly with the congressional committee that is investigating Karl Rove for having U.S. Attorneys fired because they didn't prosecute along party lines (Democrats).

>>Eddie Curran with the Mobile Press-Register, thinks that since he was cohered by officers of his newspaper (owned by Advance Publication Inc.), and Federal officials that he is safe and didn't have to question why they wanted him to write articles from information that was provided to him. For this he could be charged with obstruction of justice by the congressional committee that he will possibly be appearing before.

We the citizens of Alabama this Declaration of Independence week are tired of corruption that lies deep in the heart of our state.

We are preparing the first of four requests for congressional hearings/investigations.. We believe that the three largest newspapers in AL. owned by Advance Publication Inc. have close affiliations with high ranking state and federal politicians who are using the name of the Republican party to conduct illegal activities for personal gains..

We believe that these newspapers are attacking Democrats that hold or who are running for high state and federal offices by purposely writing articles to sound negative and eliminating important facts that would help the individual politician..

We believe that this will prove to be associated with the congressional hearings/ investigations that are ongoing with the firing of the 8 U.S. Attorneys who would not prosecute along party lines (democrats). We feel that managers of these newspapers maybe working with Karl Rove and/or his affiliates mainly William Canary and possibly affiliates of convicted Jack Abramoff’s for personal gains..

Note: We know nothing about and we are making no claims concerning the other 34 newspapers owned by Advance Publication Inc. in Cleveland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Central New York, New Jersey, New Orleans, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Staten Island.

Karl Rove urged U.S. attorneys in Alabama to pursue Siegelman. But I think a bunch of stories by "Eddie Curran" in the Mobile Press-Register played a big role, too.
Bush in 2001 appointed "Leura Canary" the wife of "William Canary" who was running spear campaigns against Siegelman for Bob Riley in the governor elections of 2002 and 2006.
When Siegelman was governor in 1998-2001 he was in support of the Alabama Porch Creek Indians to get permitted For casino gamling.

The McCain report found that millions of dollars from the Choctaw Indians came into Alabama during the governor’s race from Jack Abramoff to keep Siegelman from being elected!!!!!

In emails released by the Senate, former Riley congressional staffer ""Michael Scanlon"" partnered with ""Jack Abramoff"" to funnel Choctaw Indian funds into the 2002 Alabama Governor’s race, supporting Riley. The report contained emails detailing conversation regarding the 2002 race in which Abramoff tells Scanlon that he has been in touch with “Nell” (Nell Rogers) of the Choctaws and “had it not been for what you did in Alabama, we would have had to spend millions in Alabama over the next four years.” The conversation then details what “Nell” wanted Riley to do in return for the “help” in getting him elected.

The email states Rogers made it clear that she “definitely wants Riley to shut down the Porch Creek operation.” The Alabama Porch Creek Indians were competitors of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.

Alabama Attorney General Troy King wrote a letter on behalf of Riley to the Department of the Interior requesting denial of Porch Creek Indians request for Class III gaming.

A commission to evaluate the Porch Creek application for Class III (table game) license was created. And who should be appointed to that commission but William Canary’s “girl” and U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama, "Leura Canary"?

The actions of these men warrant more awareness of white collar crime. We need stricter laws to address these issues. You can not send them to the electric chair but you can give them life without parole to keep them off the streets. If Scrushy and Siegleman remain in jail for the rest of their lives they will not pose a threat to the working people of this country. Coal miners don't commit these hannis crimes so why should Dick and Don. Everyones livlihood is much safer with these men in prison.

Siegelman has got to be patient until the trap has sprung on the big rats. Riley is being groomed by the GOP to be the next vice presidential candidate. That's one of the reason's Bush gave his Secret Service agent in charge, Christopher Muphy to Gov. Riley. Bush is getting a daily report as to Riley’s activities and possibly Riley is using his Secret Service connections to build smear cases on his opponents.

Just watch and see the fireworks. Everything from investigating the Republican Governors Assoc. laundering dirty money from Abramoff/Scanlon for Riley's election to the fake Christian coalitions. These illegal non profit organizations mailed letters with Rileys signatures smearing Siegelman for trying to get an education lottery in Alabama where Alabamians are rated in the bottom four states as being illiterate. Only 59% graduate from H.S. and only 27% of them start college. These letters with Riley's signature of endorsements where circulated across Alabama by the U.S. mail.

All of this was intended to defeat Siegelman, prevent neighboring states mainly (Choctaw Indians in Miss.) from losing lottery/gaming money, and discrimination of the Alabama Poarch Creek Indians (Indians were referred to as those “monkeys“). They made one mistake they used the U.S. Postal system in this criminal process.

The charges of election corruption, money laundering, discrimination and mail fraud will be timed with the investigation of U.S. Attorney Leura Canary connections to Karl Rove and them using the FBI for personal gain.

We all know now that it was a political vendetta. Politicians always get contributions, if not they would have to pay everything out of their own pockets. If so why would anyone ever run for office?? Scrushy had served on the Alabama Board Of Hospitals under 3 other governors. Why is it illegal for Don to reappoint him?? There is no law broken here. It happens all the time. Siegelman gave the GOP too much of a struggle for them to keep in control. They knew he would win if he ever got out from under this case that they had to set the court dates during the election. These men done no more than other politicians and people who donate do. After the Governors election of 1997 the GOP knew that they had no one who could beat Siegelman.

Alabama is known by many as the illiterate state, because it has ranked in the bottom four states of having the lowest number of high school and college graduates. Before he ran for governor he made several trips to Georgia doing studies on their scholarship lottery. He studied the crime rate. He talked with church leaders to get their input on how the lottery effected their communities. One lady told him that she had four children that had all gotten free lottery scholarships. They said that before the lottery poor black H.S. graduates had a slim chance. When he served as governor in 1998-2001 part of his platform was to implement a scholarship lottery in AL.

Meanwhile, Lobbyist Jack Abermoff and Michael Scanlon used scare tactics to con millions of dollars out of the Choctaw Indians (they referred to them as monkeys) making them think that if AL. got its own lottery that they would eventually lose the gaming money that came out of AL. and from the south east coastal states that drove across AL. to gamble in Mississippi. These two cons set up several Fake Christian and family Coalitions/groups in Al. They got Bob Riley to sign letters that they sent out to the AL. churches to oppose the education lottery. Riley said that he thought that it was legit since he trusted Scanlon who was once his congressional aid when he was a congressman.

The new chief last week said that the Choctaw Indians had paid a total of $13,000,000 to see that Siegelman didn’t get re-elected and for the new 2002 governor (Riley) to turn down the request for a class 3 gambling license from the Alabama Poach Indians. Governor Riley and Attorney General Ashcroft’s signatures refused the license. Laura Canary (the U.S. Attorney who headed up Siegelman’s prosecution) was placed over the Class 3 Gambling committee.
John McCain was the congressional chairman over Indian Affairs who conducted the congressional investigation. J.A. and M.S. made contributions that totaled $500,000 that went through the Republicans Governors Assoc., but when Riley got the money transferred to him the RGA told the McCain committee that it all came from individual donations??? Riley said that he is innocent and did no wrong. It seems to me that the investigation stopped when it got to Alabama. According to the internet encyclopedia Bob Riley is expected to be a candidate for Vice president in 2008. It will be interesting to see if he is McCain’s running mate???

Our hats off to Judge Fuller for dropping the restitution fees. Siegelman is an honest hard working man who believes in high family and Christian values. Don has a passion for the poor and underprivileged which has been his weakness as a politician. He is very popular with the working class, the elderly, the disabled and the veterans. With all the letters that have been sent to Washington, I believe that he will be cleared of all charges and that those that unlawfully schemed against him will be prosecuted. It may sound crazy now but most of us believe that he will be our next governor.

I am sure that there will be a congressional investigation irregardless of whether his appeal process drops all charges or not. If anyone knows anything or was involved in unlawful acts to prosecute or dishonor him they should contact the office of the FBI and ask to speak to the agent in charge concerning the Siegelman and Scrushy case.

Politicians depend on contributions. If the law is interpreted that politicians have to bear all expenses out of their own pockets, who would run for office? Contributions are made all the time to help the politicians with their campaigns. These men have done no more than other politicians.

Scrushy had served on the Alabama Board Of Hospitals under 3 other governors. Why is it illegal for Siegelman to reappoint him?

W. C. and K. R. knew that Siegelman could cause Riley to be defeated in the governor's election of 2006, so the court dates were set so it would occur during the election.

Alabama has always been ranked in the bottom four states of having the lowest number of high school graduates at 59% and out of these H.S. graduates only 24% get the opportunity to start college.

Before he ran for governor he made several trips to Georgia doing studies on their scholarship lottery. He studied the crime rate. He talked with church leaders to get their input on how the lottery effected their communities. One lady told him that she had four children that had all gotten free lottery scholarships. They said that before the lottery that poor H.S. graduates had a slim chance.

When he served as governor in 1998-2001 part of his platform was to implement a scholarship lottery in AL. He went out on a limb and co-signed a note to get the scholarship campaign started. It was voted down due to Jack Abramoff using $4,000,000 of the Choctaw Indians’ money and using fake Christian and family groups

What a bunch of crooked bastards. I hope every one of these great republican crooks get sent to prison.

I'm posting long after this was current news. I was wholly unaware of the issue until I happened on it on the web, and followed links to get the facts.

The reason I'm adding my own comments here, is that this is a perfect example of the inherent perfidity of politics. The above comments (by some very well informed parties, I must say) illustrate that policy-making and the money that drives it are incredibly corrosive of personal morality, to an extent that transcends the correcting effects of personal morals.

But there is a solution. It's revolutionary, and honestly, I don't think ANY person already in power would put the weight of their office behind my concept. But I think we need to look realistically and critically at the forces that operate on our officials, elected and otherwise, and take steps to help them resist the apparently inevitable corruption of their mandates as public servants.

That is the first hurdle: to recognize fully that office holders are public servants first and always. In my view, they do deserve an elevated level of respect for their abilities and willingness to represent the aspirations of the populace -- but that should in no way exempt them from intense oversight by a demanding employer: us.

I think the only sufficient remedy, for the pervasive and insidious pressure on officials from special interests, is round-the-clock surveillance of those officials, with all actions and contacts securely recorded and archived, and those archives constantly available for citizens to review at will. Not through an FOIA-style application process, but through mp3's downloaded in real time from a website.

Officially-stacked media pools would include at least one full-time sound and vision record without commentary; simply a record of the actions the official is taking on behalf or his/her employers. Think C-SPAN on steroids. No space or time, spent on the public dime, would be exempt, except for time spent on personal hygiene -- and personal communications equipment would have to be left outside. No office time would be skipped. The record would include over-the-shoulder shots wherein the reviewing voter could read every official document entered into the public record. Every party to an official phone call would be notified of the recording through the call system. Anyone who didn't wish their calls or personal conversations with a representative recorded would ONLY have the recourse of not calling or conversing with them.

Personal calls would not be exempted. Officials would NOT be private citizens, for the span of their service in office.

I'm sure ninety percent of those reading this are now certain I'm a certifiable paranoiac. But you have to ask yourself: am I WRONG, that government service, with the low level of oversight now employed, has proven to be an insurmountable temptation to abuse of the power we confer on our leaders? The American system of politics is basically sound as it stands, but just as parasites in nature evolve to exploit the slightest weaknesses in their hosts, those who wish unfair political advantage have learned to exploit even the strengths of our system against the interests of the body politic.

We now have an entire generation of political operatives who pursue the "alternative American Dream" -- a morality-free pursuit of personal power and profit -- through cynical manipulation of a political system that was originally designed to prevent such abuse. Money and power are these operatives' driving motivations, and politics as we know it has proven to have only paltry defenses against their forces.

As long as money plays any role whatsoever in politics, it will take draconian measures such as those I propose above to prevent policy abuse.

Criminal acts are punished by exactly such heightened scrutiny and control of the offender, and politics in this country is now regularly abused at a criminal level. It's become endemic to the system; and the how-to knowledge for exploiting the system's weaknesses is achieving the force and persistence of tradition. If dramatic change is not forced on the system soon, we risk what some of us fear has already happened: our political system will cease to represent citizens at all, and become an outright organ of manipulation by those with overwhelming financial advantages. When this happens, there will literally be no more America worthy of the name, and patriotism will be a meaningless term. I did not and do not pledge allegance to the rich owners of the economy.

I believe it's time to make it clear that elected (or appointed) power is NOT personal power, but is power that is undertaken and exercised SOLEY for the people's business and the people's benefit.

Of course, as I implied above, if money could be wholly removed from the political equation, we could have a functioning democracy without running the government like a high-security lock-down. But absent such an idyllic state of governance, it will take measures like these to ensure public accountability.

www.lightningjoe.blog-city.com

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