Silence is Consent

If you don't speak up you accept what is happening. This site was born out of the mainstream media's inability to cover the news. I am just an American cititzen trying to spread the word in the era of FCC consolidation, post 9/11 Patriot Act hysteria, hackable voting machines and war without end. I rant and post news items I perceive to be relevant to our current situation.

All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.
- Thomas Jefferson

Social Security is not broken and therefore does not need to be fixed

So Called Social Security Crisis (SCSSC)

Comments, questions, corrections, rebuttals are always welcome.

Thursday, April 14, 2005
 
LAT Tries To Minimize DeLay's Family Problem
In an attempt to make DeLay's problems look like "everyone" does it the Los Angeles Times gives us this article, Political Payrolls Include Families. They try and show that by stating:
At least 39 members of Congress have engaged in the controversial practice of paying their spouses, children or other relatives out of campaign funds, or have hired companies in which a family member had a financial interest, records and interviews show.
Wow that's shocking, isn't it? They also say up front that the practice is not illegal. They also refer to it as a "bipartisan practice" which makes it seem like both parties endorse it. I think what they should have said is that members from both parties do this. So I guess the main thrust of this story is that it's not illegal and both parties do it so this is not a story.

There are a couple of things, I think, that were not mentioned in this story that should have been. It's a difference in degree. None of the people mentioned have made the amounts of money that DeLay's wife and daughter made. The others family members in some cases took pay cuts to come work for their family members campaign. Some even ran other campaigns before. I guess it's the fact that more than likely without the Tom DeLay connection for these two they would not be making this kind of money working on someone else's campaign that wasn't their husband or their father's.

Clearly, to me, this is the least of DeLay's problems. Illegal corporate campaign contributions used to steal state legislative seats in order to redraw Congressional districts is much worse. But just because others are doing it and to a lesser degree doesn't mean that his family isn't abusing the system either.

Here is the original story from the NYTPolitical Groups Paid Two Relatives of House Leader and here is the latest from OffTheKuff, Checking in on the DeLay barrage

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