A Political Contradictionary from A to Z

OBBYISTS: Paul Krugman's 2012 column describes lobbying success that goes Jack Abramoff (see below) one better. Rather than just influence votes on bills in Congress and state legislatures, the American Legislative Exchange Council (aka ALEC) actually ghost writes the bills that state and federal law makers vote on.

LOBBYING Jack Abramoff was a well paid lobbyist on Capitol Hill until 2006 when he was convicted on "charges of mail fraud, conspiracy to bribe public officials and tax evasion." He became the poster boy for the corrupt practices that flourish at the intersection of public policy, political power and the corrosive influence of money. The House that Built Jack (with apologies to Mother Goose)
This is Jack.	This is also Jack.
This is the house that built Jack.	This is the bill That lay in the house that built Jack.
This is the bribe the lobbyist waved to push through the bill that lay in the house that built Jack.	This is the corporation that paid for the lobbyist to offer the bribe to pass the bill that lay in the house that built Jack.
This is the loophole (see also loophole) that rewarded the corporation that paid for the lobbyist to offer the bribe to pass the bill that lay in the house that built Jack. This is the congress that approved the loopholes that rewarded the corporation that paid for the lobbyist to offer the bribe to pass the bill that lay in the house that built Jack.
This is a citizen all forlorn that elected the congress that approved the loopholes that rewarded the corporation that paid for the lobbyist to offer the bribe to pass the bill that lay in the house that built Jack.
This graph shows the poor, all tattered and torn; they also are citizens, all forlorn, that elected the congress that approved the loopholes that rewarded the corporation that paid for the lobbyist to offer the bribe to pass the bill that lay in the house that built Jack.
Now come the creationists, fundamentally pure dead set against porn that ignore the poor all tattered and torn (because God must have made them that way for a reason) that think themselves citizens all forlorn that elected the congress that approved the loopholes that rewarded the corporation that paid for the lobbyist to offer the bribe to pass the bill that lay in the house that built Jack.
And next, all but buried by ignorant scorn, evolution's supporters, The bane of creationists who are fundamentally pure, dead set against porn (and socialized medicine), That deny the poor all tattered and torn, That think themselves citizens all forlorn, That elected the congress That approved the loopholes That rewarded the corporation That paid for the lobbyist To offer the bribe To pass the bill That lay in the house That built Jack. And last comes the farmer, sowing his corn Who has now lost his land to Big Ag reform; Changing meadows to suburbs with names like Spring Morn; Where industrial monoculture now is the norm, Despite climatological data that warn Of vast global change whether heat, drought or storm. The ecology shudders -- evolution's foresworn by creationists, fundamentally pure, dead set against porn (and contraception), That deny the poor all tattered and torn, That think themselves citizens all forlorn, That elected the congress That approved the loopholes That rewarded the corporation That paid for the lobbyist To offer the bribe To pass the bill That lay in the house that built Jack. By June, 2010, Jack Abramoff had served over 3 years of a four year sentence in a federal work camp. He was released to live the remaining 6 months of his sentence in a half-way house in Baltimore Maryland. A local pizza shop hired him to do marketing. LEADERSHIP: Does the leader lead from the front or is her job to see where the crowd is moving, and get behind them? Consider also Lemmings and Leaping off cliffs. And while we are at it, how about LIES? The administration of George Walker Bush has raised Constitutional contradictions and crises to heights never before realized.*** Whatever reputation for leadership the United States once held was trashed by the Cheney-Bush Imperial Executive, along with the Geneva Conventions. Signing statements eviscerate any notion of enforcing the LETTER OF THE LAW, turning regulations into a buffet the president can pick over and select from to suit his personal appetite. "Political LANGUAGE is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable." George Orwell ***...at least until the 2016 disaster of Donald Trump, whose lies and imperial posturings suggest he and his cronies are even more above the law, evoking nostalgia for Cheney-Bush.