So, this is how our political system *really* works.

And I am disgusted, disillusioned, and opting out.
I would make the naive comment that ours is one of the most corrupt systems of government on the planet.
But I suspect they are all the same.
I believe this guy speaks truth.

Is the King of Pork Dead?

"First, Stevens is hardly alone in controlling the goodies. Every single morsel in bills that come out of "his" defense appropriations subcommittee must also be approved by the top Democrat, Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) . Whether Stevens or Inouye happens to be chairman and the other merely sits atop the minority on the subcommittee means virtually nothing; the pork process is one of the very few things in Congress these days that knows no partisan divide.

Second, having worked in and closely observed the pork process on Capitol Hill for over 35 years, I can assert that no one in the Senate controls it. Earmarks are regarded as essential for political survival. Failure to "bring home the bacon" will attract vociferous attacks - from either party, sometimes both - that the non-porker is "ineffective" or "doesn't care." Being lifeblood, earmarks are pursued with a lust that few appreciate. They are never objectively evaluated; staffs of members and committees devote their entire existence to their advocacy, and senators legislate them far more frequently than they do policy. (Just count the amendments on the next defense bill in the Senate.) Any senator atop any committee that does not enable pork will not be chairman, or ranking minority member, for long.

There are no exceptions. John McCain (R-Arizona) widely advertises himself as a "pork-buster," and yet, according to the watchdog organization Taxpayers for Common Sense, the Senate Armed Services Committee, where he sits as top Republican this year, reported a Defense Authorization bill with over $2 billion in pork - against which there is not a peep of complaint on McCain's Senate or presidential websites or in the Committee's report. (To be fair, Barack Obama is also not shy as a porker, but at least he doesn't pretend to be against it in any meaningful way.)

The most important thing the pork system does is to generate revenue. That would not be federal revenue; it would be political revenue. The system is simplicity itself: the senator legislates the earmark; the beneficiary generates the revenue - for the politician.

There are certain rules that regulate the money stream. First and foremost, the gift must be to the politician's campaign, not to his or her person. Second, neither donor nor recipient can articulate in any way any link whatsoever between the legislative act and the donation. In this wonderfully simple system, the petitioner makes known his wants, and then the legislator legislates. Before, during, or after the legislative deed and without either party visibly offering or soliciting a gift, the campaign donation mysteriously appears. If it doesn't, the next time around, the legislator may be "too busy" to help the petitioner. If the legislator doesn't produce, the expression of appreciation just might "fall between the cracks."

The published rules are carefully written to make this fundamentally corrupt system perfectly legal. There is hardly a single sitting member of Congress who has not repeatedly benefited from it."
http://www.truthout.org/article/is-king-pork-dead?print

They are blatant corruption and totally undemocratic.

by controlling the Gov't.

Then them Lobby guys filter in to finish us off with legislation favoring themselves/clients...unless we change(OBAMA)...we are fucked.

But I've been completely disillusioned since the Dems took Congress back and failed at almost every turn to use it to anyone's benefit but their own. We haven't a chance in hell of meaningful change with this and lobbying going on. The country will always take a back seat to political gain.

It's that simple.

of crony thieves.Pretending they care about the very people they rob and work to death and profit from .
What could be more sick?

I hate this system.It is so corrupt and yet it pretends it is not corrupt and too many people believe the bullshit that the government cares,they care as long as they are paid to care.
I hate money.I hate corrupted power,I hate profit,I hate the greed this system sanctions. I mourn social disaster this country has become,to become a greed dominated cold psychopath nation of alienated consumers being numbed into a empty meaningless oblivion...It is sad to contemplate what has been stolen from us,and scary to think how far we bought into this system of make believe that we inherited from our parents who like the people before them bowed down to corrupted power and the perks and crumbs from the rich parasites table,filled with the things all of us need,the things many of us helped create,or invent,the fruits of our collective lives that most of us will never partake of...like those shameless pigs,the corporate/theocratic/ political parasites,that are the most psychopathic of all,so good at lying,and false imagery,like we are told, we vote them into power by the way they lie to us,and make promises they never intend to follow through with,and again they play us as rubes and we go right along,wondering why life is so hard,it is hard because we like our parents before us,failed..We too fail,to see these political parasites upon humanity we look to these creeps as "leaders, look for the charismatic ,attractive,sweet talking parental -like salesman,yet we still deny this same political pig we are told to think we wanted to run our lives for us is also a psychopathic greedy,cold hearted,power tripping,control freak,manipulative monster too..