Congresswomen's Voicemail: Where's My Bribe?

reply to post by Wonderer2012


What really struck me about her call, wasn't as much the request but how rather ignorant and dumb and inarticulate she was, what do they call it the "Peter principal" where incompetence goes straight up the chain.

I'm so glad that I'm not an American, as much as I love the people on the whole. You've got a very serious case of dumbing down going on, even to the degree that the dumbing down process is now dumbing up.

Originally posted by Mclaneinc

Originally posted by wrkn4livn
Bribe!? I'm not defending her, they should ALL be thrown out, but a bribe? Sounds like she's asking for a donation. We all know that's how our system runs. It's Pay to Play but I don't see where the donation would be going into her personal account. I fail to see where she broke any laws. Maybe I'm missing something.

The point you are missing is what you see in this thread, the disgust that this sort of system is the core of running the American and British Governments. The fact you fail to see that she isn't asking for a donation, she called it a contribution ie you give me money and I do more for you because of my place in the ranks.

That is simply a full on request for a bribe.

The fact that this was in 2010 and she is still in government and not just coming out of prison and also the fact hardly any press was done on this tells us all that Wall Streets Gordon Gekko was correct ; Greed is good..

This woman isn't doing what is right, she is doing what pays the best, that completely negates her position.

As for the government, they just hate that you guys find out about this stuff, this is a nothing compared to the level of corruption in the big house.

Call them Senators or MP's, its the same, they are there to line their pockets to the highest level they can, we are simply maintained to keep lining their grubby little hands (or big hands), we as a people mean zero to them and never will...We work, they play..

edit on 20-8-2013 by Mclaneinc because: (no reason given)

I agree with you. Unfortunately, it appears our system is broken and broken for a real long time! This is the way things are done here. Pay for Play. Take a look at Bongdonovich (SP?) the IL Gov who's in jail right now for actually trying to sell the position vacated in Il when Obama was promoted to Pres. That was a clear case of selling the seat. This person (who I think is as crooked as the rest) was simply telling this group that this is how its done. Donate, donate now or you get nothing. Its a shame but true.

reply to post by MystikMushroom


Wishful thinking, but when in America the crocks get to pass the laws, written by the lobbyist themselves is not such thing as "comprehensive anything".

I agree with the poster who said 18 years in office at most. But I take it a step further. Make the pay equal to military paygrades. Go back to having actual "sessions" of congress so that they can continue in their actual professions and go to DC to vote. With the way people can meet online now, they can do the business of the country from the different areas they represent. With the exception of any national security issues, those can be done face to face.

Term limits are a double edged sword. If we were to finally vote someone into power that did us a lot of good, we'd just be having the "lets get rid of term limits" conversation when their tenure was drawing to a close. Imposing harsher term limits will do very little to actually fix the issue.

reply to post by Wonderer2012

I received an email from Rand Paul the other day telling me that the house needs 64 more votes to audit the fed, and the only way he can secure those votes is if 10 people from my town send him 20 bucks.

Same thing as this if you ask me. The only way to stop it is to kill the money, but I'll save my Utopian views for another thread.

until lobbyist, the money and legal ease are taken away, and term limits set, and the congressmen have to read and write the laws that are voted on. we will continue to have this kinda crap.

sad part is it's been this way for a long time and there is no way it's gonna be done away with just by voting.
peaceful protest and hoping your senators and congressmen will do the right thing is never gonna change it.

Originally posted by 2manyquestions

Originally posted by Wookiep
A lot of these posts are correct, but only partially to really solve the problem.

#5 Pass strict laws that prohibit the media from ever being involved in politics again; ie, swaying votes, picking and choosing who to cover during debates etc. The media should ONLY report what is going on, nothing more, nothing less.


The above would be a good start IMO. Without those changes, we are just going to keep seeing more of the same..

edit on 19-8-2013 by Wookiep because: (no reason given)

Those points sound good and well except #5, and here's why. The media are corporations, private businesses, they are not tax-payer owned. You can't force a private news station to report on or not report on something. We already know it's more fabricated entertainment than news. All you can do and should be able to have the freedom to do is either turn off the TV or switch to a different station.

If you want to create strict and fair coverage governed by fairness laws, you have to create a tax-payer funded media channel that is required to report things truthfully and equally, because they have the public to answer to. The private news stations would have to compete against such a channel. If their information doesn't match the public news channel, people will know that either they're full of crap and they'll stop watching them, or they can be used to keep the public channel honest via uncovering any possible inside corruption going on.

There's just no way to ensure 100% that the news coverage you get (no matter what laws are in place) will be equal and honest all the time.

Well, I understand where you are coming from, I do.. but the type of corruption we have seen in the media over the past decade has been downright insane. Perhaps if we did away with the FED and the 3 major corporations that own the media right now, this would solve a lot and we wouldn't have to resort to such measures.

However, I think a lot can be said from what the media has become today. IF Americans ever got smart and realized all the BS, then there would need to be a solid agreement by our elected officials to NEVER let our media get to where it has become right now. Our media is literally state ran propaganda, and there HAS to be rules against that. Politics are so media driven now that there is no room for allowing this anymore. 2012 proved it to me, but this was going on long before that. I'm not for regulating too much in most cases, but the media is one entity along with our elected officials that I just do not believe any wiggle room should be allowed, at least when it comes to interfering with the election process of the most powerful men/women on the face of this planet.

Originally posted by hounddoghowlie
sad part is it's been this way for a long time and there is no way it's gonna be done away with just by voting.
peaceful protest

An effective peaceful protest can be carried out from our couches. The hard part is to get enough people to agree on what it is we're protesting against. The NSA? Obamacare? The fed? The IRS? Meddling in foreign affairs? Government spending? Taxes? Racism? Lobbying? Gay marriage? Gun control?

capitalism is the game and each players wants to write the rules and/or be the referee. Imagine sports were like that. I dont think you will have to task your imagination too much now that I think of it.

reply to post by Wonderer2012


Unreal...crooked and corrupt, the whole lot of them!

and I send taxes back to these idiots! cripe
GM - i cudda been buying a nice new CTV every 5 years...motorvate on that.

reply to post by starwarsisreal


This is exactly the answer. If we want a fair electoral system, all major campaigns should be federally, or tax payer funded. Each candidate would be given the same amount to spend on their campaign. It must all be documented. Otherwise we have the very wealthy buying their way to power. No, until we have an even playing field, then the American illusion will just continue as is.

I am politically active, a board member of a state political party, and have run for federal / state / local office five times. In the course of this experience I have come to really appreciate the degree of corruption that permeates the American version of 'democracy'.

I sometimes wonder if we wouldn't be better off just doing away with political parties, elections, and political contributions – and instead, have lotteries for officeholders chosen from among those willing to serve who can meet a specific set of job requirements.

Think about it. Would the quality of officeholders be better or worse than we have now? I think it would be about the same. Would there be opportunities and incentives for the kind of vote buying, election rigging, and general corruption that we have now? I think substantially less.

Good for discussion over a couple of beers, anyhow.

reply to post by Dukesy


Remember Obama's first orders of business when he got into the Whitehouse? Get rid of all the lobbyists on the hill...this was the reason but that and pork barrel spending seemed to fall to the bottom of the list of his priorities..