"In the real world, there are only two ways to deal with corporate misbehavior: One is through government regulation and the other is by taking them to court. What has happened over 20 years of free-market proselytizing is that we have dangerously weakened both forms of restraint, first through the craze for 'deregulation' and second through endless rounds of 'tort reform,' all of which have the effect of cutting off citizens' access to the courts. By legally bribing politicians with campaign contributions, the corporations have brought themselves immunity from lawsuits on many levels."

Molly Ivins: Co-Editor of the Texas Observer (1944-2007)

A Congress Bought and Paid For

After the blatant exercise by the American Pharmaceutical Industry to deny Americans access to affordable prescription drugs, can anyone of reasonable intelligence deny that the public has been ripped off? In 2003 the drug industry spent a combined total of $141 million and employed 952 individual lobbyists; nearly half of whom had what is commonly referred to as "revolving door" connections to Congress, the White House or the executive branch in general. A quick calculation reveals that ratio to be nearly 10 lobbyists to every U.S. senator.

Corporate America bought and paid for the Congress of the United States, and they are now enjoying the monetary fruits of that purchase. The very first dividend of that very lucrative investment was the $400 billion Prescription Drug and Medicare Improvement Act of 2003. This pharmaceutical industry lobbyist's handcrafted bill (right on the floor of the senate) prevents Medicare from bargaining for lower prescription drugs. However, the crimes against American citizenry go much farther and deeper, for the pharmaceutical industry is not the only player involved in this corporate feeding frenzy.( Click here to see chart of Medicare Lobbying interests.)

The petroleum and natural gas industries have also taken a place at the table to feast on the American public. It has never been clearly explained just how natural gas prices seem to rise proportionally as supposed outside forces influence the price of petroleum. For even though we do import a great deal of our petroleum, over 90 percent of the natural gas we use comes from our own reserves.

Nor can I fail to list the sins of the banking industry with their criminally high credit card fees and interest rates. In fact, the interest rates they are allowed to charge for their credit cards, exceeds by almost 50 percent that which brought serious jail time to loan sharks back in the 1950's and 1960's. But due to the diligent efforts of our elected officials, usury appears to no longer be a crime if it comes in the form of a plastic credit card. But the credit card interests rates weren't enough to assail the American consumer with. These banking interests wanted to protect their ill gotten gains from consumer burnout, so they once again called upon their friends in congress to draft a new bankruptcy law.

The bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act took effect on October 17, 2005. Under the guise that they were going after those who abuse credit, they managed to squarely hit those who do not - the Middle Class. Knowing full well that the majority of bankruptcies within this vital socioeconomic group were attributed to overwhelming medical bills, family emergencies and sudden loss of employment, they had Congress craft a bill that makes it virtually impossible for most people to file bankruptcy. The time honored ability of Americans to 'wipe the slate clean' for a new start has, for all intents and purposes, been 'wiped away.'

At the same time, a deliberate loosening of the same bankruptcy laws, rendering them open to liberal interpretation by the federal courts with reference to the corporate world, has allowed American industry to enrich their coffers at the expense of the working classes.

By this cruel and morally criminal act of Congress it has been estimated that 70 percent of Americans who find themselves in financial dire straits will be paying off these corporate and banking sharks - to the grave. Just like their children will follow in the same manner with their student loans, since Congress has seen fit to empower the Sallie Mae Corporation the right to force continuous repayment, regardless of financial status during retirement, right from your monthly Social Security check.

Let's face it, the banks and credit card companies are the new loan sharks - legally enabled by Congress. Therefore, the question that has to be addressed by the American public is just how do these mega corporate interests manage to manipulate a population considered to be, on average, as astute as ours? The answer is - We give them the power by simply being us and refusing to think - non-politically.

Why America's Children Are Dying In Iraq

We have now evolved to a society where the average working man and woman must hold down 2 jobs to live slightly below the level they would have in the 1960's with one job; in the interim, former high paying jobs are shipped to foreign shores to reduce workforce payroll and expense. The hard earned pensions of the one time backbone of this country's prosperous growth in the 20th century, the Middle Class, is often outright purloined or dissolved away via skillful Chapter 11 manipulations by Corporate America and the federal courts.

Meanwhile top executive pay and pensions are accorded ironclad protection and enriched beyond reason. And as a final insult upon injury, these industrial and banking interests, with congressional backing, are complicit in sending our sons and daughters off to fight and die and be critically maimed, for life, in a country that did not attack or threaten us.

However, despite this glaring moral indictment, just about anywhere one travels in America, in restaurants, diners, on street corners and meeting places of the ordinary man or woman, it is not uncommon to hear ordinary citizens defending big business. Upon serious reflection, one has to ask - why? The answer would appear to be that, on a national scale, Americas have come to confuse Morality with Patriotism.

In the United States of present, an individual comes under immediate suspicion of being unpatriotic, if he or she questions the motives and actions of the American private enterprise system; particularly those backed by the federal government, and anointed by the grace of our commander in chief, President George W. Bush Jr. In fact, Americans in general have demonstrated a propensity to criticize big business - only when backed to the wall by dire necessity. And as the country's history of recent documents, at that point it is usually too late.

Americans are now at a point where they respond to personal economic stress with a question: Who said this is bad and or economically painful and what political side is he or she representative of? If it is the political side they have aligned with, they admit to the discomfort. If not they tend to adamantly deny it.

To a majority of Americans, at present, truth is no longer a required precursor to judgment. What is important within their ranks is a question of - Whose's truth? For they have come to regard their side to be the guardians of morality. And therefore, to give serious considerations to the ideas and viewpoints of the 'other side' translates in their minds to being unpatriotic. As long as this widely held prejudicial attitude prevails within the populace, proxy corporate controlled politicians will dictate the direction of this country; both domestically and internationally through the ballot box.

For those of you, who for whatever reasons have as yet to do so, please remove the blinders from your mind's eye. We, the United States of America, went into Iraq for oil because very powerful energy industry interests wanted to get their hands on the last known great oil reserve. And our troops, our children, are now dying at an ever-increasing rate for their interests and - oil.

Political Thinking Enables the Rich To Get Richer...

Let it be known to all, Republicans and Democrats alike and those in the between referred to loosely as Middle of the Road - Political Thinking (PT) is non-Thinking. One cannot think "politically" and say that one is actually thinking. The process of thinking involves the application of reason and logic in varying proportions to the resolution of problems, the random outcomes of which - may be dramatically contrary to the thinker's previously held beliefs. And most important of all, thinking requires the acceptance of that outcome as fact and or at least part of reality in the here and now.

On the other hand, Political Thinking is a system of rationalization specifically evolved to allow one to progress from a fixed viewpoint or preferential opinion status to arrive at a desired conclusion. A perfect example would be, based upon given incontrovertible facts as to the past activities of two men in history. There are those who 'choose to qualify the late Yassar Arafat as a terrorist, yet decline to apply the same factual judgement to the late Prime Minister of Israel, Menachem Begin - who is still listed as a terrorist by two nations.

When such an equation is applied to humans, the outcome is normally referred to as a- Prejudice. In essence, Political Thinking is Prejudicial Thinking or, more properly described, Non-Thinking.

Incredible as it may seem, there are those who actually believe, with conviction, that they can divine truth from a single source to justify their beliefs. For the very religious, the source is the Holy Bible; for the Political Right Wing it is Fox News and the Holy Bible, and as regards the Political Left it is anyone or source that disagrees with the other two - and I mean that literally. Let it be known that, regardless of the beliefs and wishes of many, the function of all of these sources is too highly flawed to be taken as absolute reliable dispensers of truth or to be accepted as absolute - "Truth-Outlets."

In point of fact these media outlets - such as Fox News or the shows of Talk Radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh, Al Franken and Fox television's Bill O' Reilly - are best described as - Organs of Selective Interpretive Venues (OSIV). Their politically motivated purpose being to place a truth or fact into a fixed position from which they can maneuver around it, until one specific angle is found to be favorable to that individual's or organization's prejudices. Once that vantage point is established to the satisfaction of the examiner, all other viewpoints and opinions on the specific matter are deemed useless and are ridiculed or simply banished.

The intended affect, however, is to lull the viewer or listener into following his own line of personal prejudices (often buried deep in the psyche) and not Thinking. They are instead duped into 'Believing' that the 'Attitudes' that emerge are actually legitimate intellectually derived insights into specific problems. With a confidence in these attitudes most people are willing to cede control of their opinions to a specific source or political organ. And that end user will feel mandated to carry out the 'supposed' wishes of his followers or party members. Led by this type of limited philosophical progression, great nations and civilizations have risen and fallen.

The possible ramifications from all of this has chilling implications: Do you want Al Franken, Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh or the mysterious minds behind Fox News or any of these or other divisive OSIV elements to make foreign policy for this country? Upon careful consideration, I don't think so. Not when you really "THINK" about it.

If Winning Is Our Aim in the Middle East....

There are many out there who regard politics as a blood sport and, believe it or not, the vast majority of them are not professional serving politicians. They are the very people we work with, party with, marry and have children with every day. In good times we refer to them as fellow citizens, wives and lovers. But when they have the audacity to view politics from a different intellectual vantage point as ourselves, we tend to look upon them as social pariahs or, as they are more commonly referred to, the opposition. And what are they opposed to? Why our way of thinking or expressing a particular viewpoint of course, and the common reaction is referred to as - Political Intolerance.

Now of course, and I am certain with some degree of uneasiness, you begin to see the point I am striving to make. The description of the almost rabid evolution of hard-core politics in this country bears an unhealthy resemblance to an Organized Religion; in other words, Religious Intolerance and Political Intolerance are not such strange bedfellows as we were once led to believe. One is a come-lately hybrid form of the other, which would in part explain why they appear to get on so well.

Unfortunately, what Americans fail to recognize is that there are some cultures (and I make this point with specific reference to the Muslim world), where they link the term blood sport with religion and, most importantly, with a deadly emphasis on the term - blood. In the defense of their beliefs, they have no ethical or moral problem spilling their own blood - which includes that of their men, women and children - in copious quantities. It naturally follows they have no qualms about spilling ours in kind.

The only real difference between the Muslim religious fanatic and the Christian version of the same is that the Muslim counterpart is far more dedicated to his cause and better at it. Think about it, they've been at it with a deadly dedication for over 1300 years. On the other hand the Christian side is simply better armed militarily with particular reference to air power. But on the ground the Muslim element holds sway, for there is no way a multi-ton noisy tank can sneak up and surprise them. And for this reason, as the generals keep telling our leaders, and us the Iraq war cannot be won militarily.

A Reality No American Wants To Face

If tomorrow, driven by some horrible nightmare-like yet real necessity, America had to field about 3000 suicide bombers to defend our way of life or our beliefs, what are our chances of quickly procuring enough volunteers for such a mission? Keep in mind, this is not some morally sanitized movie script version where the men are told, en mass, that some may not be coming back. In this version they are told, beforehand, none of them are coming back. Remember, this is simply an exercise, but it is one that poses a relevant question that goes to the very heart of our confrontation with the Muslim world.

Ask the following of your deepest innermost conscience - the part that no matter what won't allow you to lie to yourself: how many such volunteers could the Muslim world field? Of course this is a trick question for we all have pretty good idea of the answer. It is being revealed to us every day on the news from around the world. In just the last 6 years (based upon a mean average of 7 a day), there have been an estimated 15,000 Muslim fueled suicide bomber attacks - minimum, starting with the attack of 9-11.

In light of such revelations about those we are up against, if we are really serious about winning, not only in Iraq, but in the Middle East as a whole, we will have to change our 230 year old mind set to match that of our purported enemy. Personally, I don't think Americans are programmed for, nor have the cultural stomach to take on such an emotional and philosophical metamorphosis. Therefore, quite simply, we have to find another way.

America's Moral Dilemma is One of Duplicity

In the simplest of terms, we in America cannot even begin to negotiate any sort of lasting Middle East peace settlement, if we continue to come to the table with an opening hand that insists upon acceptance of the following two conditions:

Everything the State of Israel has ever done (inclusive of injustices committed during its formation) or ever will do is correct, moral and just.

Israel should be the only state in the Middle East allowed the developing and possession of nuclear weapons.

In a part of the world that has been fighting the same battle for over 1300 years, this negotiating philosophy has no legs. It is never going to work. Israel is not only the epicenter of the regional problem, its very existence in that particular geographical location is the problem. But our leaders continue to treat the Jewish nation as though it was the 51st American state. Israel is not the 51st American State! It never has been, doesn't want to be and never will be. Still, to our bloody disadvantage, we continue to allow their wants to dictate our foreign policy in that region of the world so vital to American interests. If we seriously want to make any sort of diplomatic headway in the Middle East, we have to start treating each side as equals - not sunshine-allies and enemies.

In the Final Analysis

The point of this exercise was to widen the dialog on how that which has become American Domestic Policy, has evolved into a system that influences present American Foreign Policy. A resultant policy, that in the end, primarily due to its failings, may lead to one of the greatest tragedies to befall the human race on this beleaguered planet we call Earth - a nuclear war in the Middle East.

Your comments

The voices of our readers GREAT ! It's amazing how we think alike...... "If we seriously want to make any sort of diplomatic headway in the Middle East, we have to start treating each side as equals - not sunshine-allies and enemies". "sunshine-allies" - great catch phrase. Wish I could read more of you - not much time lately. I really appreciate these articles! (if only the media would open their damn eyes AND MOUTH!) Norma , California