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WHO RULES: THE ISRAEL LOBBY
OR UNCLE SAM?
The answer
at last! Uri Avnery, former Knesset member, assesses the Lobby's
power. "If the Israeli government wanted a law tomorrow
annulling the 10 Commandments, 95 U.S. Senators (at least) would
sign the bill forthwith." But, yes, in the end the dog wags
the tail.Fifty
years ago Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" blew the cobwebs
out of millions of young minds and drove a stake through the
heart of Eisenhower's America. Lenni Brenner remembers Ginsberg
in the East Village.Dr Mengele died in exile, in disguise. Dr Ishii
died rich and recognized, in his own Tokyo home. Christopher
Reed on Japanese WW2 medical tortures and how the U.S. covered
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With corruption stories in
the mainstream press almost daily, this book should be a best
seller.
Sirota documents the hostile
takeover by big business of the country on every major issue
that matters to every American.
He documents myths--jury awards
and lawsuit costs to the economy are out of control--lies--America
can't afford health care coverage because it is too expensive--pathological
lies--our government tries to stop companies from shipping jobs
overseas--and fairy tales--companies are forced to pay higher
taxes in the United States than in most other industrialized
countries.
He highlights twenty public
heroes--Costco CEO Jim Senegal, Congressman David Obey (D-Wisconsin),
Governor Bob Riley (R-Alabama), ACORN leader Bertha Lewis, Congressman
Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), Congressman Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio),
the late Senator Paul Wellstone (D-Minnesota), Harvard Law Professor
Elizabeth Warren, Wall Street Journal reporter Ellen Schultz,
Congressional staffer Warren Gunnels, California State Senator
Deborah Ortiz (D), former New England Journal of Medicine
Editor Marcia Angell, Pfizer VP Peter Rost, public interest
attorney James Love, Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer (D), National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration head Jeffrey Runge, Working
Families Party founder Dan Cantor, Wal-Mart employee Joshua Noble,
Public Citizen Congress Watch's Frank Clemente, Congressman John
Conyers (D-Michigan).
By our rough count only two--Riley
and Runge--of the twenty heroes are Republicans.
Call them token Republican
Party heroes.
And he calls out twenty-two
corporate hacks--Governor Sonny Perdue (R-Georgia), Mickey Kantor,
Congressman Tom DeLay (R-Texas), Grover Norquist, White House
economic adviser Greg Mankiw, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
(R), Senator Evan Bayh (D-Indiana), Congressman Jim Moran (D-Virginia),
Congressman John Boehner (R-Ohio), Congressman Jim Nussle (R-Iowa),
former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-Georgia), Maryland
Governor Bob Ehrlich (R), Medicare administrator Tom Scully,
Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), former Heritage Foundation president
Ed Fuelner, Senator Pete Dominici (R-New Mexico), Missouri Governor
Matt Blunt (R), Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels (R), Secretary
of Education Rod Paige, Congressman Charlie Norwood (R-Georgia),
Senator Mary Landrieu (D-Louisiana), ABC reporter John Stossel.
By our rough count only four--Kantor,
Bayh, Moran and Landrieu--of the twenty-two corporate hacks are
Democrats.
Call them token Democratic
Party hacks.
Get the picture?
Yes, in Sirota, we are talking
about a Democratic Party partisan.
The guts of Sirota's book are
ten chapters showing how corporations have used their power to
tilt the playing field toward big business on taxes, wages, jobs,
debt, pensions, health care, prescription drugs, energy, unions,
and legal rights.
It is the kind of book that
public interest types--think New York Attorney General candidate
Mark Green--have written in decades past--to no avail.
The corporate juggernaut rampages
on--unabated.
Why?
Because the people writing
these books--like Sirota and Green--and those supporting them--like
Hightower and Frank--are Democratic Party loyalists.
They condemn the Democratic
Party--as does Sirota--for being corrupted by big money interests.
But they are tethered to its
rotting hulk.
And they cannot let go.
There is a war inside the Democratic
Party.
On one side, the progressives
and anti-corruption forces--led by the likes of David Sirota
and Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin).
On the other, big business
interests led by the Democratic Leadership Council, and Bill
and Hillary Clinton.
But what if the big money interests
win the war?
We asked Sirota--what if Hillary
Clinton gets the Democratic Party's nomination for President
in 2008?
Will Sirota support her?
"I don't think she is
going to get the nomination," he says.
But what if she does?
Would you support her?
"I'd have to see the dynamics
of the race," he says.
After a little bit of back
and forth, it becomes clear--Sirota will support the Democratic
Party--no matter the nominee--against the Republican--no matter
the nominee.
To Sirota, the Republican Party
is the party of big business.
And the Democratic Party is
the party of the people.
The way it has been.
The way it always must be.
Although as he makes clear
in his book, there has been a hostile takeover of the Democratic
Party by big business.
And Sirota is going to spend
his time trying to get it back.
Does he have a breaking point--a
point at which he says--this party is too far gone to save?
"I can't answer that question,"
he says.
Why not?
"I'm an optimist,"
he says. "That comes through in the book. Some people call
it deluded optimism. Also, because I've been around enough good
Democratic politicians and activists--people who are trying to
do the right thing. I believe that the party can be a means to
progressive ends."
Sirota was brought up in a
Democratic Party household in the Philadelphia area.
"I was brought up in opposition
to Republican policies," he says. "That's for sure.
That was definitely in my house, all the time."
And he is tethered to the Democratic
Party and cannot let go.
After graduating from the Medill
School of Journalism at Northwestern University in 1998, he worked
in various Democratic Party campaigns, did a stint at the American
Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in Washington, D.C.,
was the press spokesperson for Congressman Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont),
and then moved to Montana, where his wife now works for Governor
Brian Schweitzer.
Sirota worked to get Schweitzer
elected.
Sirota is now a campaigner
against corruption in politics.
He will be a featured speaker
at an upcoming conference in New Hampshire on state efforts to
combat corporate corruption.
He puts out a weekly "corruption
digest" that is a compilation of corruption stories from
around the country.
But what good is all his good
work--if the anti-corruption forces are locked within a corrupt
Democratic Party?
(For a complete transcript
of Interview with David Sirota, see 20 Corporate
Crime Reporter 19 (10-16), May 8, 2006, print edition
only.)
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