Congress Critters Get Rich Off The War on Terror

                                                                           From the Ramparts
                                                                      Junious Ricardo Stanton
                                                                Congress Gets Rich Off War on Terror

    “A handful of federal lawmakers are invested in one of the companies behind the controversial full-body scanning machines now in more than 60 U.S. airports. The individual investments are worth thousands, and in some cases tens or hundreds of thousands, of dollars. According to a Center for Responsive Politics review of the most recent personal financial disclosure filings, eight members of Congress — three Democrats and five Republicans — owned at least $2,000 worth of stock in L-3 Communications, which is one of the two main contractors involved in the full-body scanning machines.” www.opensecrets.org/news/2010/11

    Ever wonder why our representatives in Washington don’t vote in our interests or why they craft policies that in recent years have undermined the US way of life and standard of living? Could it be they are doing this because they are beholding to the corporations, big banks and other special interests who bribe them by donating to their election campaigns? Could it be because our Congress critters find ways to enrich themselves by investing their personal money with the very special interests who bribe them to pass legislation to benefit them. It becomes a symbiotic relationship: the corporations bribe the legislators to write and  pass legislation beneficial to them and in return  the Congress critters get first dibs to partake in the massive profits these companies make at the expense of the taxpayers.
   

This is no conspiracy theory or wild speculative accusation. It is fact. The Opensecrets Website and Project Censored have documented the fact US Congressmen and Senators are heavily invested in the companies that make the body scanners being used in all the major airports in the country. If you doubt what I’m saying on this topic go to http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2010/11/several-federal-lawmakers-invested.html and read the facts for yourself. They name names and where possible tell how much each one has invested in  the companies based upon the lawmakers own financial statements.
   

That’s not all, Project Censored which monitors the corporate media and routinely exposes the major stories they suppress is on the case. One story tells how the Congress critters invested in stock of the defense contractors making billions on the bogus War on Global Terrorism that is wrecking havoc around the world. In their book Censored 2010 The Top 25 Censored Stories of 2008-09, number 14 was Congress invested in Defense contracts. “The nonpartisan Center for Responsible Politics has calculated that more than 151 members of Congress have up to$195 million invested in major defense contractors that are earning profits from the US military occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.
    When General David Petraeus, the top US military office in Iraq, went to Capital Hill to brief Congress in April 2008, he was addressing lawmakers who had a lot more than just a political stake in the Iraq occupation. Along with their colleagues in the House and Senate the politicians who got a status report from the general and the US Ambassador to Iraq had millions of dollars of their own money invested in companies doing business with the Department of Defense.” Censored 2010 The Top 25 Censored Stories of 2008-09 page 63
   

So our elected representatives are making huge profits off of  the laws they pass. This is a clear conflict of interest if not outright unethical. It shows just how morally bankrupt this country has become and how deeply the rot is metastisizing  throughout this society.  Remember, these two stories are just about the military industrial complex and Homeland Security industries. When you factor in big Pharma, oil and energy, agribusiness, insurance (Healthcare for example) and Wall Street (bailouts, protection from fraud prosecution by the SEC and Justice Department etc) we can understand why when our Congress critters  vote, they vote the interests of their benefactors and for money making opportunities for themselves not the interests of we the people. This means Congress is getting rich off the deaths and maiming of US soldiers  and the innocent people all around the world our drones, missiles and bombs are killing .
  

  As these censored stories reveal, our legislators are getting rich off the body scanners that pose a potential health risk to us when we go through them. They are getting rich off the money (bribes) the lobbyists give them as well as the investment profits from the companies that provide the scanners, weapons and medicines we are taking. And they wonder why their approval ratings are so low and they are held in such low esteem?  The people are beginning to wake up and confront them, and our Congress critters are getting scared.
 

   In the ongoing Class War this country is experiencing,  we need to fully understand the legislators are not on our side. It should be clear by now, many have sided with the oligopoly and the Kleptocrats who are destroying this society via massive fraud and predatory capitalism. Sadly this situation doesn’t  just exist on the national level. When you scratch beneath the surface you will find it is rampant on the state and local levels also. Two Wilks-Barre Pennsylvania judges were recently convicted of taking kickbacks for violating juveniles rights and sending them to institutions for minor infractions because they (the judges) had financial interests in the private companies that owned and operated the institutions .http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/us/13judge.html   Neither judge went to a holding cell but are out on bond. If that were you or I we’d be under the jail.
  

  My question is, how long will it be before all the so called “patriot movement”,  Tea Party zealots and concerned citizens  wake up and  follow the dictates of the US Declaration of Independence which plainly says  “…  whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”?
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