Absolutely worthy of attention. For those looking for another teaser..., here's the closing gem from this article:

Manifesto: 'Lobbyists Nation of America' 16 Principles

1. Lobbyists destined to fill a void left by democracy's failings. Voters are irrational, cannot be trusted to act without guidance from lobbyists.

2. Lobbyists are the new behavioral nudgers guiding America. Forget behavioral scientists, special interest lobbyists will do the real nudging.

3. Lobbyists must nudge voters to elect "friendly" politicians. Lobbyists must invest millions to elect officials favorable to special interests.

4. Lobbyists are the new "unseen hand" of American Capitalism. Capitalism's new "unseen hand" is the enlightened deals of 261,000 lobbyists

5. Lobbyists will guide economic recovery for special interests. Congress, the president and regulators all have a price, find it and pay it.

6. Lobbyists protect special interests using taxpayer money. The wealthy will have ready access to the assets and credits of the Treasury.

7. Lobbyists amass extra capital anticipating a new meltdown. Plan ahead for the next recession by stockpiling benefits for your clients.

8. Lobbyists hire new blood directly from inside government. The contacts of senators and congressmen are worth millions to clients.

9. Lobbyists reward politicians, treat them like co-lobbyists. Everyone in Washington wants to get rich off big government, help them

10. Lobbyists must defeat programs unfavorable to clients. Programs that weaken the power of the rich must be aggressively defeated.

11. Lobbyist clients' interests come before public interest. Principles of fiduciary duty mean clients take precedence over public needs.

12. Lobbyists must defeat or gut financial literacy programs. Intelligent, informed investors undercut special interests; Kill the CFPA.

13. Lobbyists give traders access to commercial bank assets. Investment banks switched to get access to deposits for high-risk trading.

14. Lobbyists never help mortgagees and credit-card holders. Helping failing homeowners and card holders means less for bank insiders.

15. Lobbyists want cap-and-trade derivatives for a new bull market. America needs a new bubble, new bull -- global warming trades will do trick.

16. Lobbyists must reward the rich, eliminate the "death tax." Eliminating inheritance taxes assures continuity of wealthy gene pools.

Oh yeah..., I'm feeling the love...

usa isn't a republic anymore?

So how can we change this? How can we ban the negative effects of lobbyists backed by big dollars of special interests while still allowing for Individual Americans to make their voices heard?

So what do we do? The views most everyone in this Country share are being more freely discussed, mistrust in the Government is spreading. What options are there? What serious options? Who is to blame for this? The Corporations that these lobbyists work for? The very same Corporations we work for and support when we spend our money on the products/services they produce?

The line in the sand is not easily found is it? This is a complicated issue finding out where things seem to be going wrong and who or what is to blame. I see foolish threads on many message boards talking about revolution and how to shoot effectively. To this I ask; Who is the target, who is the enemy? Whom do we know in our lives that is not in some way either working for a Bank, a University, or in the smallest way working for or spending money in the betterment of the industries that sign the paycheck of all these lobbyists.

So what do we do?

Democracy stinks it is essential to communism. Death to democracy, long live the republic! The "United States Government" is not a "government" of the people, it is a private corporation HQd in Washington DC and owned by the Vatican. It filed bankruptcy in the 1930s and uses the "citizens" as collateral for debt via the birth certificate. Lobbyist is just another angle of misdirection.

I think it's much further than America corporations are now able to bribe pretty much anyone in government around the whole planet. They have more influence than the voters and pretty much every new laws benefits them over us.

Unfortunately the problem is now so deep it's completely accepted and more and more of these new patents and laws pretty much guarantee none of us will ever be able to challenge any of them.

I feel there is no solution even if a country did get an incorruptible Government the second it started cutting into someone's profit margins the rest of the world would just overthrow it.

This thread couldnt be more true. Its a Serious, Serious problem this country has. This country needs to get more outspoken and serious when it comes to our Representatives cheating on us. This is just as bad as a high ranking government Rep selling our technology to our enemies .
Greedy crooked bastards. Run for office! All of you, thats the only way.

I posted this on my facebook and below is my friend's comment on the article. I have the same questions that he does.


While certainly everything he has said about "democracy" being dead and the government being essentially run by lobbyists is true to an extent, I still don't understand the crux of the article. Is he trying to say that attempts for the majority of Americans to regain power are futile, and that we should just accept total government-corporate ... Read Morecontrol aka fascism? Or is he admitting that the idea of a magically rational invisible hand that controls the "free" market is utter bull****? I'm not usually one to quote Lenin, but he said it first:

"Fascism is capitalism in decay."

[edit on 3-9-2009 by edgecrusher2199]

If only I could post what I would truly like to do. But, I can't and for a multitude of reasons. Suffice it to say that this is just one more straw on the proverbial camel's back.

Revolutions come in many forms. I know many don't like Titor's predicitions to come up, but this concept of Civil War happening again in our time is becomming more of a reality every day.

The greed of man (thanks Clifford Stone) is behind all of this. Power & money, the two most powerful corruptables are the essence of all greed.

Free energy isn't released because it levels the playing field. Who can regulate it? No money to be made if widely available. Therefore, withold and keep us dependent on fossil fuels. And our government surely would not want to see a third world nation start to thrive because of it.

Competition is good as long as we control the competition.

We must collectively "opt out" of the rigged system!

Imagine the backlash if NOBODY went to work for a couple of days! Or, NOBODY bought gas for a couple of days!

Imagine the power that a Nationwide boycott of any one corporation would have!! It wouldn't take decades or years or even months to make the change. It would only take a few days for the system to collapse!

Run on the banks? Tax paying Hiatus? What if everybody refused to pay a Credit Card or Utility Bill!!

What if we only bought groceries from somebody we knew and trusted? Forget the monstrous chains, and just go to a market, get to know the people there, and buy your local stuff! If something is out of season, don't go buy the genetically modified, imported from another continent version, just choose a different meal that is in season!! Not only will you support your local community and people, you will probably be WAY healthier to boot!!

WE THE PEOPLE can make this change, but the system is set up to smack down any loan dissenter; we have to do this together!

Welcome to the wonderfull world of American politics.

When an American president is elected, he is in debt towards all the generous industrial/financial investors who sponsored his campaign.

How can you believe that such a president, and thus such a government, is able to take decisions without being influenced by the private interests of the industrial and financial world ?

I never understood how the American people accept this ? In my country it is called corruption. You give a political leader money "to help him for his campaign", and you hope that this leader won't forget you once he is in charge...

How did you come to such an obviously corrupted electoral system ?

We also have lobbyists in Europe of course, but their possibilities of action are not as easy as in the U.S.



Edit : To be more precise, in Belgium, political candidates are allowed to accept sponsoring from individuals, but receiving money from any company is strictly forbidden. It seems so normal to me that I cannot understand how you trust your political leaders when they are so full of big companies money. They are so corrupted you cannot imagine.



[edit on 3-9-2009 by SpaceGoatsFarts]

My solution is to not contribute to such controls. Becoming self-sufficient, not relying on a city, but merely the community around, local gardens, and butchers in small rural areas.

All my drinking water is from reverse osmosis, organic veggies, and meat from a butcher, whose product comes from his own local farms.

I personally am out of the picture... besides taxes I pay by working in town.
I am working towards self-sufficiency completely; but it may take a couple years.

If everyone became self-aware, and capable, without relying on convenience; this world would be far more... rich with personality and pride, rather than money and greed.

Very good post S + F.

I think to stop these Lobbyists there would need to be a complete ban on Politicians accepting money from anyone.

Instead if people want to they can donate to a unilateral fund for the elections, which can be used for debates + makes sure people don't win solely because they raise the most money. Making all candidates equal would stop special interest promoters being elected so easily.

Originally posted by HunkaHunka
So how can we change this? How can we ban the negative effects of lobbyists backed by big dollars of special interests while still allowing for Individual Americans to make their voices heard?

NATIONAL STRIKE.

Don't give .gov or the greedy corporations any more money to use against us.

They want us as peasants on the land, let's live like peasants and make everything we need for ourselves.

Make our own food, electricity, clothing, transport.

After about 6 months to a year, something would have to break.