Is there ever a time when Corruption is not Corruption?

Obama payback


With the Occupy Wall Street Movement and Occupy Movement(s) around the country and the world still raging; the Republican hopefuls for the 2012 election doing their very best not to implode; and the rest of us just trying to keep our heads above water both literally and figuratively,  to have the above information brought to my attention was both disheartening and a confirmation of what the We Are the 99% movement is all about.


Our political system broken.  Cronyism is alive and well in both major parties and Obama is no different than George W. Bush when it comes to payback for getting him elected.


It makes me very angry to see that we, the 99%, have again been duped into believing that our participation in getting someone elected (by voting) is changing the system.  Obama had no intention when he arrived in Washington of doing things differently.  In fact, he did things exactly the same as his predecessor only on an accelerated time frame.


It wasn't the $25 or $50 that you and I donated to the campaign that made the difference, it was the hundreds of thousands the "bundlers"  pulled together and were handsomely rewarded for after the election.  It may not have been illegal but it certainly has the smell of impropriety and at the very least unethical behavior given how this President campaigned.  


The Whitehouse can spin it any way they like, and I have been a strong supporter of Obama up to this point, yet the actions speak so much louder than the words.  "Do as I say, not as I do" doesn't fly here.


I don't know if there is enough time for the OCCUPY movement to create a People's Congress in time to mount a credible Third-Party Candidate for this next election, so what are the alternatives?  The lesser of the two evils seems to be Obama and electing a Democratic House and Senate to try and get this Country moving rather than focusing on ideological wars with the GLBT community and the Poor and Middle-Class as well as attempting to send women to clandestine back-alley abortionists again all in the name of being good "Christians".


When will the American people demand - require - that their elected officials are held directly accountable for the platform that they run and are elected on?  It seems as though once elected, all bets are off and the platform is completely rewritten.  This could be done in a myriad of ways: financially by removing the possibility of receiving lobbying dollars by the candidate and their family and by  prohibiting lobbying after holding office for at least 5 years; limiting the number of terms they can serve in the House to 6 terms and the number of terms they can serve in the Senate to two. This makes both the House and the Senate available to serve a total 12 years and once you serve in one legislative branch you may not serve in the other but you are not precluded from running for President.  We term limit the President, why do we not term limit our elected representatives?  This would at the very least limit the effect the lobbyists would have on the legislative process.  Alas, as long as these two houses have the ability to police themselves and make the rules to guide their behavior, no such sensible legislation will be forthcoming.  It is up to the 99% to make it happen and we are on the move.