Tandra Page 1099, July 4, 2010

Created on 07/05/2010

by Hanther

So now it’s official, and from a recognized authority on the subject in question. Joining a terrorist group is now considered an acceptable, in fact commendable, strategy for obtaining a seat in Congress. I suppose that makes perfect sense in today’s world as Congress has itself become a recognized terrorist organization, employing tactics of intimidation and extortion to make Al Capone appear by comparison as Mother Teresa! As a matter of interest, when it comes to ethics and honour between Capone and our Congress, Capone holds the uncontested high ground. For the record, when you paid to buy protection from the Capone Mob, you were pretty much assured Capone would stay bought. As a general rule, you had a safe bet the mob would not sell you out before noon after you had handed over the required protection money at ten o’clock that morning. There is no such guarantee from this Congress or this administration. When today’s career politician comes to you with his hand out and a neon glow “For Sale” sign hung prominently about his neck, you can be certain that, once you write him a check for the bribe demanded, he is absolutely your boy, a wholly owned utility secure in your pocket and will remain so only so long as it takes him to find his next potential shakedown victim.

The money a politician extorts is never called a bribe, of course. A bribe is a bad thing and forbidden by law. What your average garden variety politician demands in place of illegal bribes are legal campaign donations, licensing fees, political action committee support and an infinite list of demands for your time and money, none of which are ever labeled as bribes but which serve exactly the same purpose. That purpose is to extort money from you to go into the politician’s pocket and extend his power.

The politician goes to excessive lengths, quite naturally, to be certain none of his demands for your money and volunteer support can be labeled as bribery and extortion, but painting lipstick on a pig and dressing him in an evening gown while claiming he is the high school homecoming queen does not change the essential nature of the beast. Beneath the name change and other tomfoolery, he remains a thing you are not likely to want to escort to the school prom.

A bribe remains a bribe no matter what innocuous name a politician wishes to paste on it.

Much has been made of the amount of money BP donated to the Messiah’s political ambitions. All those pointing to the extravagant numerical value of the donations take as a given these funds were donated from motivations of infatuation and loyalty. Ask yourself did the vegetable market vendor in Chicago in the Thirties pay protection to the Capone Mob inspired by infatuation and loyalty? Do you hand over a third of your income to this regime because of infatuation and loyalty? You hand over money you have earned to this regime because there is a gun pointed at your head and you do it for no other reason on God’s Green Earth. Take away the gun and you would promptly find other and more productive things to do with your hard earned money.

BP hands over millions in bribes to politicians for the same reason you give up your property in taxes. There is a gun pointed at BP and at every other business in America. BP is hoping, by paying protection to politicians and bureaucrats to gain some breathing space that will allow them to remain in business a few weeks or a few days longer. BP is hoping the funds they pay in bribes will make the bureaucratic rules and regulations imposed upon their operations a little less restrictive.

Sarah Palin recently insisted in a speech in Texas that stricter government regulations would have prevented the oil disaster in the Gulf. Palin is either infinitely more stupid than anyone has yet given her credit for or she is flat out lying. Government regulations have nothing to do with minimizing errors and questionable practices in business and everything to do with fattening the private bank accounts of regulators. It doesn’t require a rocket scientist to understand it is much more expedient to simply bribe the bureaucrat than it is to attempt to follow gazillions of contradictory rules and regulations imposed by regulatory agencies. Bureaucrats are well aware of this dirty little secret and they understand regulations are written with the firm understanding they are not for the purpose, Sarah Palin notwithstanding, of restricting business operations but to create a second and lucrative under the table income for government regulators.

As with bribes to politicians, bribes to government regulators are never labeled as bribes. They are political favors and free vacations and gifts to relatives and any number of other inventive ways of paying the regulators to look the other way. Looking the other way while his hand reaches under the table is the reason the regulator holds his position. That and to smear lipstick on the pig and dress him in an evening gown while insisting he is really the homecoming queen.

May the sun always shine on your parade!

Next Week; “Backstory”

Tandra...more than escapist fantasy, it’s a revolution!

Hanther

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