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September 22, 2004
Bribocracy
A university of Chicago professor has calculated how much Wall Street would collect in fees if social security would be partly privatized:
President Bush's push to create individual investment accounts in the Social Security system would hand financial services firms a windfall totaling $940 billion over 75 years, according to a University of Chicago study to be released today.
And, here are Bush’s top 10 donors from this election cycle, according to the Center for Public Integrity:
Pricewaterhouse Coopers $488,600
Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. $486,125
Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. $455,904
UBS AG Inc $368,900
Goldman Sachs Group $295,950
Credit Suisse First Boston $271,650
Ernst & Young LLP $267,105
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. $263,200
MBNA Corp. $251,000
Citigroup $246,645
Yes, all 10 are financial firms. Four of those are also among Kerry’s top 10 donors:
Harvard University $213,045.00
Citigroup $169,254.00
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom $169,225.00
Time Warner $158,506.00
Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi $150,250.00
UBS AG Inc $138,700.00
Goldman Sachs Group $127,750.00
Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, et al $124,152.00
Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, et al $102,051.00
Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. $100,204.00
Meanwhile, Tom Delay's top aides have been indicted for illegal corporate fundraising activities -- money which they channeled into the blatantly undemocratic redistricting effort.
Three men with close ties to U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay were indicted on Tuesday along with eight companies for illegal fund-raising activities in a political action committee formed by the powerful Texan.Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle told reporters the investigation, not yet finished, had uncovered ominous behavior by the group.
"What has emerged is the outline of an effort to use corporate contributions to control representative democracy in Texas," he said.
Maybe a few people will get a slap on the wrist, maybe they won't. Meanwhile, results of legal and illegal bribery of public officials by corporations will stand. The lack of shame is so obscene that Delay has been asking his corporate donors to pay for his legal fees:
What do you do when it becomes public that you illegally funneled funds from large corrupt corporations into corrupt activities? ...Why, ask for more, of course:
Several weeks ago, DeLay hired two criminal defense attorneys to represent him in the probe. He previously created a fund for corporate donors to help him pay legal bills related to allegations of improper fundraising, and is now considering extending its reach to include the fees for these attorneys.
Representative Bribocracy in action.
Posted by zeynep at September 22, 2004 09:27 AM
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Comments
If these idiots try to steal my Social Security benefits, which I'm still 18 months away from being able to collect, I will want George Bush's balls sauted on a plate. But I wouldn't eat them. I'd just stare at them and then stab them with my fork. I am a pacifist, but even a pacifist can only take so much.
Sincerely,
Old & In The Way
Posted by: Phil Cicchi at September 23, 2004 03:18 AM