It was just another, typical, ho-hum, routine, Republican day at the Congressional office: Republicans doing nothing whatsoever for the average American, but fighting tooth, nail, claw, skin, and fur to protect the rights of corporations and the obscenely rich.
"Don't tread on us?" Oh, man -- that is sooo rich. What a hoot!
Don't expect any of this to make the news, stated clearly, or show up at the water cooler in chit-chat, of course. This yawner-material is the new normal -- has been, since ignorance was declared the new genius, since banks have been too big to fail, since theft was made the new success, and since astroturf groups like Teabaggers sprang up to do the artificial grassroots business of billionaires.
Haven't you heard? Everything's been stood on its collective head, been stripped of common sense, been co-opted and crippled by corporations, the instant they were made people and their money made speech.
Should you be wondering what on earth has happened and what it is that you might have missed now, here's the gist of it: Senate Republicans have defeated the DISCLOSE Act.
Instead of fighting for the People and the public interest, Republicans have battled for the right of corporations and the rich to keep secret any purchase they might care to make of any public, American election, anywhere, at any time.
While you are letting this latest outrage sink in, the DISCLOSE Act is an acronym, standing for, "Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light On Spending in Elections."
It's a novel concept, so there's no reason anyone should know what the acronym means, nor what the vote meant, or what the lack of that law means, but here it is: The People of America do not have the right to know who is pouring in money to sway and buy American elections.
Instead, those with rights are -- take your pick -- foreign countries, jihadists, cultists, grudge-bearers, corporations, the wealthy, madmen and madwomen of all kinds, with motives and rationales of all flavors. These are the groups with rights in American elections, and they deserve their privacy whenever buying an election.
This is how Republicans voted.
If you are shocked, startled, or stunned by these revelations, and all that is implied for those flag-waving GOP types, you are sincerely urged to do some homework and research for yourself just when it was that Republicans voted for any measure espousing to benefit or assist any middle- or lower-class American -- such as a Jobs Bill, for example.
(Despite all the GOP chest-beating and screaming about the extreme importance of getting jobs to Americans, the GOP has put forth a round, even number of jobs bills to date: exactly none. Although, they have, to their credit, managed to advance a number of bills regarding religion in public institutions and a woman's lack of privacy in health care, among many urgent and braindead notions.)
Before you begin that research project, trying to find the last time a GOP rep had a vote to spare for a regular American, here's a safety tip: Pack a lunch. A lot of them. A few thousand, to start. Good luck! Happy hunting! See you in a few years!
Same old, same old. Just the Republicans, going to the mat again for their owner-operators: special interests, the well-heeled, the highly privileges, the sublimely and obscenely rich. And their right to buy any election they like.
In fact, that GOP push is a neat trick and strangely ironic: Here is a cluster of plotters who continually scream about all-but-nonexistent voter fraud, while simultaneously doing all they can to support all-but-bald and obvious election fraud in every way possible -- including scrubbing from voter rolls the valid names of anyone who might actually dare to vote.
For now, let's bypass, like a purposefully-missed land mine, the issue of supremely hackable, easily controllable electronic voting machines. Let's also side-step the fact that the programs used to run them are proprietary, owned and run by corporations -- and, NO, you may NOT see nor investigate nor test them for the secure conduct of the People's and the nation's business. Private property. No trespassing. Shoo. Go away.
It's no wonder things like the shameless, Republican DISCLOSE vote are scarcely reported and barely known by most people. Sheesh -- Republicans, jumping through hoops to please their masters while letting the public rot? Puh-leeze, that's about as newsworthy as telling us the sun rose and set again today.
Instead of the facts, what does get plenty of coverage is how celebrity lawmakers feel about this or that vote -- using the most current, state-of-the-art spin that Republican blood money, right-wingnut-think-tank focus groups, and their linguistic terrorists and psyops propagandists can buy.
What else don't you have a need to know? Stay tuned: Republicans will be happy to keep telling us, more and more.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/17/disclose-act-senate-gop_n_1680635.html
http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/17/politics/senate-disclose-act/index.html
