A crime against Democracy

Watergate was considered a crime against Democracy ? how about what is happening in our government now.

I was barely in my teens when I was visiting my Grandmother in NY in the summer of 74, when I decided to defend Nixon to be bash at by my angry American cousins.

Boy I was so naïve, looking back at the whole situation I see now that Waterway was more than just a president doing dirty tricks but was actually considered a Crime against Democracy what he did.

How is that? It seems that watergate has a lot to do with what is happening now in our government to me like history repeating Itself.

What really happen during Watergate? It seems that it was related to corporate corruption and influences in our government just like is happening now.

In 1971 The Federal Elections Campaign Act was passed, banning corporate campaign contributions. The Watergate was followed So major amendments to the act were passed in 1974, many figure that it was related as the result of the scandal.

Now how true is the fact that Waterway Was about Nixon trying to use dirty tricks to influences the politics of the Democrat Party so a weak candidate will be nominated so he could be able to win.

Nixon then was able to get his people to have corporations to contribute to his campaign.

Now look what is going right now in our present day government, corporations still find their way to get into politics and they regulations and provisions of the Federal Elections Commission can not control them, so for the last 100 years since money is making their way into our government and pay for the way of many of our political Leaders.

Its this also can be considered a Crime Against Democracy and the Democratic process?






[edit on 24-10-2005 by marg6043]

wat the heck is waterway? ooooo u mean watergate? right? is it waterway or watergate?

Originally posted by deltaboy
wat the heck is waterway? ooooo u mean watergate? right? is it waterway or watergate?

Hey don't make fun, my spell check did that it change all the gates for way.

Wow, I didn't know thats what watergate was all about, i'm canadian and 22 so i'm pretty retarded when it comes to that hot topic.. I just remember hearing something him getting caught on tapes and using naughty words ...

In all seriousness, thats pretty crappy, and why people are allowing the same kind of thing to go unnoticed in washington is pretty pathetic and scary at the same time.

did these laws/bills expire? Were they allowed to expire so corporate america could get back in the door??
Tom DeLay is getting in some hot water over something similar no?
Perhaps there is hope, but it's the duty of american people to stand up to this horsesht and demand change. I was taught the people could hire and fire their representatives, no?

Well that is the problem Truelies I also grew up thinking that Watergate was about spies tapes and just plain dirty political tricks.

The problems is that political campaigns has become so expensive that most running politicians do not have the money available to run their ads so only if they are rich or they have money from donations they can do something.

Most donations coming from the People that support them is not enough so the corporate world comes into play to pay for the funding and donating money but is not for their goodness of their hart it comes with a price.

The first political campaign involving a large amount of corporate contributions was that of William McKinley in 1896.

When they notice how much money the corporate people of the time was willing to pay, and the corruption that can come from it Teddy Roosevelt Ran a Clean Government presidential campaign.

Various laws were past on campaign financing, The first Federal Corrupt Practices Act was pass in 1925, . This limited the amount of money that politicians could get from contributors.

Then in 1971 The Federal Elections Campaign Act was passed, banning corporate campaign contributions.

After Watergate scandal a Major amendments was passed in 1974 But the corruption is still unstoppable.

In 1976 It was a case call Buckley v. Valeo www.epic.org...

This prompted the courts to establish that campaign money could not be limited and that they could used their own money for campaign.

That made what we have now in the US a Millionaires club that only two parties run the nation and the candidates are in the ranking elite.

That is how the PACs come into play the are the Political Actions Committees where money from donations from corporations, and other groups can be collected.

Back in the seventies this was control equally by labor unions and corporations.

1979 The soft money came into play, the act was change again so money could be collected for campaigns by other means.

Now all these money used for campaign should be for helping the public but having private interest paying for all that is creating the corruption we have now when they work for the highest bidder.

See like in the case of DeLay is many ways to find loopholes as to get money from donations made by corporations and tried to cover how they were made at the same time having your friends that helps collect the money into positions of interest within the corporations that made the donations.

Is pure and simple corruption.


[edit on 24-10-2005 by marg6043]

Originally posted by TrueLiessimilar no?
Perhaps there is hope, but it's the duty of american people to stand up to this horsesht and demand change. I was taught the people could hire and fire their representatives, no?

Well TL, at one time this was the case. But Watergate was a long time ago and most Americans either don't care about Watergate or think what Nixon did was OK. The American People can't hire or fire anybody anymore what with Diebold and electronic voting being manulipulated so the puppet masters can continue to pull the strings. One more time; We dont live in a democracy anymore; we live in a corperate oligarchy and that is the way it will stay until the corruption is so pervasive that it consumes itself. This is not just the American cross to bear; it's global.

It's a brave new world, welcome to the monkey house

Originally posted by deltaboy
wat the heck is waterway? ooooo u mean watergate? right? is it waterway or watergate?

Let he without sin cast the first stone!!!!!

I can't believe that you are criticzing anyones spelling lol.

Originally posted by whaaa
I can't believe that you are criticzing anyones spelling lol.

and i cant believe u dint dink i was jokin... i know wat she was saying. but i want to make sure dat she knows dat the computer made the changes to somthing else. imagine dat sombody say Nixon was impeached because of waterway...would u say huh?

Originally posted by deltaboy
imagine dat sombody say Nixon was impeached because of waterway...would u say huh?

you know I am laughing my hart at it, sometimes you can not believe the words that my spell program comes with when I run it.

whaaa,

That's the other thing I have a beef w/ are those diebold machines. There is sworn testament from the software developer where he stated he was told how to write the programming because the company he worked for didn't want to lose th e$33 million contract or whatever it was... These are the hijinks played in politics today. You make a good point though, corruption will not go away until it consumes itself, by then we'll have to start all over again, hopefully people won't repeat 'history'... I'd like throw tennis balls at the crotch of every politician in washington today.

The reality of political campaigns is they cost LOTS of money if you want to win...

There's NOTHING new about that, the vast majority of our sitting government leaders (senators and representatives of the House of Congress) are lawyers from wealthy families.

Always have been. Watergate was an attempt at figuring out what the Dems were going to do and sabotage it if possible.

G. Gordon Liddy and crew went into the office (the name of the building was The Watergate) to plant bugs. This would allow them to listen into the planning/strategy sessions of the opposition. I don't where you are getting the "Corporate" connection from Marg, this was an in house operation by the Nixon re-election team.

Corporations, more often than not, hedge their bets politically, they usually contribute to both sides of the aisle. This is good business and NEVER think you can run a country like the USA without good business.

Springer...



[edit on 10-25-2005 by Springer]

In 1971 The Federal Elections Campaign Act was passed, banning corporate campaign contributions.

That's wierd...

My uncle is a Sales Manager at Philip Morrise for California, and he stated that his company gave Bush and Co 50 million dollars. Am I hearing wrong?

Luxifero

The link comes on how during Nixon time and scandal he was also involve with getting corporations to give money to his campaign.

This bring the Dirty Tricks that surrounded his presidential time, during the Nixon’s scandal he has his own people that formed the committee the name was CREP for the Re-election of him,. They were able to get corporations to give money for his campaign this happened during 1972 directly.

But we have in 1971 that the Federal Elections Campaign Act was passed, banning corporate campaign contributions, something that Nixon’s people completely disregarded.

The Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (P.L. 92-225), together with the 1971 Revenue Act (P.L. 92-178), initiated fundamental changes in Federal campaign finance laws. The FECA, effective April 7, 1972, not only required full reporting of campaign contributions and expenditures, but also limited spending on media advertisements.2 (These limits were later repealed.)
The FECA also provided the basic legislative framework for separate segregated funds,3 popularly referred to as PACs (political action committees), established by corporations and unions. Although the Tillman Act and the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 banned direct contributions by corporations and labor unions to influence Federal elections, the FECA provided an exception whereby corporations and unions could use treasury funds to establish, operate and solicit voluntary contributions for the organization's separate segregated fund (i.e., PAC). These voluntary donations could then be used to contribute to Federal races.

During the 1972 elections Congressional officials referred about 7,000 cases to the Justice Department, and the Comptroller General referred about 100 cases to Justice,5 few were litigated.

It wasn’t until 1974 that something was done for the abuses of the 1972 presidential campaign.

Comprehensive amendments to the FECA (P.L. No. 93-443) established the Federal Election Commission, an independent agency to assume the administrative functions previously divided between Congressional officers and GAO.

The 1974 amendments is the current system that is used now when it comes the financing of the Presidential elections with another amendment done in 1979.

My point, very simple if what Nixon did what considered a A crime against democracy then what is considered what the two elite parties campaigns funding practices is now?

While the Congress has made possible to provided Presidential elections with Tax payer money, has limited contributions in Federal Elections, and required disclosure of campaign financial activity, and have an agency to administer and enforce provisions.

Actually Corporations still get their way into the political process and end up buying out our political leaders their contributions and pay off lobbyist make sure that the candidates that we supposedly elect work for them and not the American people.

Again, its what goes on in American now the same as what happen with Nixon? when it comes to corporate financing considered a Crime against Democracy?

How about Tom DeLay scandal
.
www.fec.gov...