Truly, nothing is sacred and everything is for sale--or purchase

This from The Washington Post, yesterday:


Interest groups vie for a moment of Obama's time in State of the Union address

By Peter Wallsten and Anne E. Kornblut

Washington Post Staff Writers 

Sunday, January 23, 2011; 12:22 AM

It has been a frenetic few weeks for the country's leading oil industry group: Lobbyists for the American Petroleum Institute have repeatedly phoned the White House, cajoled agency higher-ups, even bought big newspaper ads touting the virtues of oil and natural gas.

The goal of all this activity isn't to win support for a crucial piece of legislation in Congress, but something much narrower - convincing President Obama to say something, anything, complimentary about Big Oil in his State of the Union address Tuesday night.

Could that be more disgusting?  Just when I think I've heard everything and that it couldn't get or be any worse, you hear something like this.

Companies, corporations, their lobbyists and money, buying "mentions" in the State of the Union address.  I don't care who the president is at the time, no matter the party, this should not be allowed.  If it takes legislation to do it, so be it.  We need to get corporate money and money of all kinds, like this, out of our government and in all forms and all areas, from the Executive Branch to the Legislative to the Judicial.

We need to get working on this.

Link to original story:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/22/AR2011012203368.html?wpisrc=nl_agenda