THE CIRCLE JERK, the TWEED RING, and PULLED PORK
We can differ on opinions but we can also be civil about it. Something Washington hasn't learned yet. I carried a Republican Voter Registration Card for 40 years, yet I changed and voted split tickets, I voted for the person whom I felt could do the best job. Isn't that's why we have elections? The best person for the job, what a novel approach, instead of the "party line". I guess I am called an Independent now, since I have a NPA card. "No Party affiliation", I find it's the party mentality thats evil.
THE TWEED RING
For those who follow discounted rhetoric and in the case of President OBAMA, I always hear about the Chicago political machine, another dumb down statement, and that the President is a product of that machine.
OK Chicago, part of the Illinois State law Jusridiction has some fairly loose laws concerning campaign donations and how influence is peddled. But it is still within the law and if you obey the law, all have a fair shot at success.
Well pilgrim, they got it from somewhere, it was no different in NY, and probably modeled after Tammany Hall. In a piece by David Wiles and I wish you would read the entire article, I quote a few lines as I consider this some of the best writing on this matter. (www.albany.edu/~dkw42/tweed.html)
But to me whats most important is that the tenets of Tammany are literally the rules of today in politics. If you grab a few lines from the article, the politics of today are not new. Thats the whole enchilada, we might have the best political system in the world only if the players, the laws and the people are there live it, follow it and to protect it. We don't and as I always tell you, "the real answers are found if you follow the money”.
TWEEDERS and TWITS
They made Chicago look like the Pope ran it compared to NY. Well today even that could be a problem with disclosures about the “ inconsistencies in Vatican accounting principles”. As explained by Cardinal Fiduci-Fifaci in his encyclical entitled “ unaforyuatuaforme ”.
The Tweed Ring were outright thieves and Tammany Hall did have a series of reoccurring scandals. An estimated 75 to 200 million dollars were swindled from the City between 1865 and 1871. Tammany represented a form of organization that wedded the Democratic Party and the Society of St. Tammany. The weave of city politics was the triangulation of the Mayor's office, the Democratic Party and the Social Club organization. The book, Plunkett of Tammany Hall was first published in 1963 and contains chapters like:
* "Honest and dishonest graft"
* "The curse of civil service reform"
* "Reciprocity in patronage"
* "Tammany leaders not bookworms"
* "Dangers of the dress suit in politics"
* "On the uses of money in politics"
* "Bosses preserve the nation"
* "Tammany the only lasting democracy."
Plunkett's formula for staying on top for seven decades of New York City rule was; " Tammany is the ocean, reform the waves, and there is a lot of unofficial patronage to ride out the storms if you know the ropes. Why don't reformers last in politics? Because they are amateurs and you must be a pro. Politicians do not have to steal to make a living because a crook is a fool and a politician can become a millionaire through 'honest graft.
"When we remember Ellis Island was in New York harbor (with the Statue of Liberty) and it is estimated that two fifths of the American population have relatives that were processed through that in migration site, the Plunkett "plain talk" starts to make sense.
"Think what the people of New York are. On half, more than one half, are of foreign birth. They do not speak our language, they do not know our laws, they are the raw material with which we have to build up the state....there is no denying the service that Tammany has rendered the Republic. There is no other organization for taking hold of untrained, friendless men and converting them into citizens. Who else in the city would do it? There is not a mugwump who would shake their hand.
"For that city context Plunkett advises those concerned with local governing; " Don't go to college and stuff your head with rubbish; get out with your neighbors and relatives and round up a few votes you can call your own. Study human nature and make government warm and personal."
For the way the political machine routinely operates, Plunkett states, "What reformers call 'machine' we call organization. In New York City the smallest unit is the election district committee, headed by a captain. The election districts overlap with the assembly districts headed by leaders who, in turn, constitute the county executive committee. Assembly leaders are elected in primaries and elect their own party chairmen."
When George Plunkett died in 1924 he was eulogized this way;" He understood that in politics honesty doesn't matter, efficiency doesn't matter, progressive vision doesn't matter. What does matter is the chance for a better job, a better price of wheat, better business conditions. Plunkett's legacy is to that practicality.”
MODERN DAY PORK WILL NEVER BE KOSHER
Our master-debaters are working overtime to create the largest Pork Sandwich Bill in the world. Not a word out of any of them for the public, that’s you and me. Only when it affects their personal bottom line do they react. All the money given to them by the insurance companies should bring tears to your eyes. And legally should be considered a bribe.
Just look to see who headed the committee on health care and wrote the initial draft of the Health Care Bill. It was Sen. Baucus, the initiator of the bill. His chosen job, by his peers, to write the proposal to reform the Health Care system in the US. By the way, Senator where have you been the past thirty years?
The good Senator and financially close friend to the Insurance Industry, Baucus has been criticized for his ties to the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries, (in criminal cases these are called "Bribes) and has been one of the largest beneficiaries in the Senate of campaign contributions from these industries.
From 2003 to 2008, Baucus received $3,973,485 from the health sector, including $852,813 from pharmaceutical companies, $851,141 from health professionals, $784,185 from the insurance industry and $465,750 from HMOs/health services, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. A 2006 study by PUBLIC CITIZEN found that between 1999 and 2005 Baucus, along with former Senate majority leader Bill Frist took in the most special-interest money of any one in the Senate.
While we were being screwed, Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus’ office confirmed late Friday night that the Montana Democrat was carrying on a little screwing of his own. An affair with his state office director, Ms. Melodee Hanes, when he nominated her to be U.S. attorney in Montana. Right last name, he got in her Hanes....
THREE COHORTS
Only three Senators have more former staffers working as lobbyists on "K" Street. The Washington address known as the "Block of Blockers", filled with offices of the lobbyists. Baucus had 24. That’s like asking the FOX to do the Chicken inventory. Worse it's putting the FOX in charge of the Chicken Industry. Same result, FOX eats, gets rich, has good life, and Chickens die. I ask myself how do we pick and select 535 people to govern and rule our country and we have such a high rate of corruption in one place. Because that’s how it’s played. Has Washington become a game? Yes, undoubtably I'm working on it... finding more things they don't tell us...