Take the Republicans Down -- NOW!

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/northern_california/13286931.htm

Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA) has just admitted to accepting bribes from corporations. He was giving sweet deals to MZM Inc and another corporation through advocacy while a member of the House Armed Services Select Committee. There are a number of CEO's who may end up indicted as a result. This is an investigation of the military industrial complex itself and its connections within Congress. Therefore, the investigation needs to go much further than it has.

So far, two co-conspirator CEO's have been named: Mitchell Wade and Brent Wilkes. I went to opensecrets.org to check out who they donated money to legally. It is interesting, because many congressmen on the Armed Service Committees in the House/Senate came up:
Randy "Duke" Cunningham
Lyndsey Graham
Bob Stump
Duncan Hunter
(just to name a few)

One interesting side comment is that Duncan Hunter actually got more money than Cunningham from one CEO. Remember Duncan Hunter? No? He was the first Republican to blast Murtha when Murtha came out against the war! Cunningham got $6000. Hunter got $7500. It is sooo obvious...

Also, a number of names kept showing up over and over:
Jerry Lewis
Virgil Goode
(just to name a few)

Some slimeballs:
Alan Keyes
Katherine Harris

A good starting point for this future investigation would be to ask some more questions:
Did ADCS Inc and/or MZM Inc benifit at all while any of these other congressmen were in office? Examples: Armed Services Committees.
Were any actions by these congressmen to the benifit of these corporations and/or their CEO's? Examples: Armed Services Committees.
Can the donations be divided into two statistically significant categories: large, frequent donations versus small, infrequent donations? Is this pattern correlated with motive for benifit?
Are there any other financial transactions between these CEO's/corporations and any of these congressmen, such as the property scandal? Are these transactions weighted to benifit one party over the other? Example: selling the house for double its value.

We need to email some people to put some pressure on for this investigation. DU Activists? Anyone? Anyone up for this challenge?

He has the dirt over at TPM.

More details, please. Is there a website?

Also, someone needs to point out Duncan Hunter. And go after all of them, too, after Hunter is on the run...

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/

It's a really good blog. It's been around for some time. Marshall also has a newer forum-style site that he calls "TPM Cafe".

I looked at some of the things on the site. I did not see all these corrupt critters mentioned. So, yeah, it is a good start, but we need to do more. Any Republican who took money from these CEOs should be losing their next election. It should be a done deal.

Is based on corruption. Perhaps it is better than anyone else in the world (one can certainly debate this), but the sad truth is, corporations and the wealthy pay our leaders in one form or the other, initially by electing them with huge contributions, to make laws that benefit them. The only way the poorest or middle class ever make any progress is when there is some huge depression, and a guy like Roosevelt gets into power and makes laws to improve the lot for all of us. Bush has set about reversing all his progressive laws and regulation. The final result will be a reversal to the times when each great depression trumps the previous one.

It is an unacceptable thing for some conservatives to hear, but unfettered capitalism doesn't work for anyone but the richest in society, and eventually it even fails them. When the buying public gets busted down to nothing in great numbers, even they lose money, and they are exposed to the dangerous situation of not being able to travel from point A to point B safely. They also have difficulty even living in their own homes. We saw some of what desperation breeds in NO in the aftermath of Katrina. Imagine that kind of despair on a nationwide basis.

Campaign finance reform is the solution, and we'll probably never see it. We need to finance elections somehow, and exclude at least corporate entities from any contributions at all, not even conventions. Limiting the campaign contributions to something like $100 wouldn't be a terrible thing either.

Right now, we need to show these jerks that they can be held accountable, too. It is a short-term reaction with a long-term ramification.

Yes, public financing etc can help. In fact, I advocate for the separation of corporation and state.