The Wealthy, The Republicans and Power in America

Besides the power play that's being fought in Wisconsin right now that I posted on earlier, the other power play that's also being fought right now in Washington and across the country, is the Republican leaders' attempts to take all money away from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and so, NPR (formerly National Public Radio) and PBS (formerly the Public Broadcasting System).

And the reasoning and examples proving it are easy and obvious.

One of the most obvious "burrs" in the side of Corporate America and so, their underlings, the Republican leadership, used to be Bill Moyers, his writing and his TV shows, specifically "Bill Moyers Journal" that used to run on PBS.

That program routinely exposed both Corporate America's worst transgressions, but also government's, so the American people knew what we were up against and possibly, likely what we had to work for and be aware of.

Friday evening, I saw another PBS program, this one ProPublica's Abraham Lustgarden on Congress's Fracking Report.

First, a quick definition:  Fracking is an abbreviation for hydraulic fracturing, which energy companies have created and use for getting more oil and gas out of the ground.  It "is a process that results in the creation of fractures in rocks. The most important industrial use is in stimulating oil and gas wells, where hydraulic fracturing has been used for over 60 years in more than one million wells.  The fracturing is done from a wellbore drilled into reservoir rock formations to increase the rate and ultimate recovery of oil and natural gas."

The fracturing forces water and chemicals into the ground, in order to force out the oil or gas. 

The problem lies in that there are chemicals used in the process and a) they seem to be making large groups of us Americans sick who live within proximity of these wells and b) the corporations won't disclose what these chemicals are to the government and the American people.  They've already bought off enough government legislators, so far, so they don't have to report what's in the process.  In the meantime, as I said, it seems to be making whole groups of Americans sick.

So you see, it is this kind of reporting, given to us by and through PBS, that, as but one easy, current example, the oil industry, with all their millions of dollars, don't want the people of America to be aware of.  You can see how and why it would be in the energy companies' interests to then give campaign contribution money---read:  bribes---to their Congressmen to shut off the spigot of information that comes to us via the CPB. 

It's also why these same energy companies pay for advertising like I've seen recently, telling us how safe and wonderful this fracking is, so we can get energy from here in the US.  Naturally, in the ads, they don't call it fracking.  They use much gentler, far more acceptable terms.

But back to my point.

First, I believe, it was Bill Moyers and his show "Bill Moyers' Journal" that no doubt rankled Corporate America. 

Now it is the PBS show "Need to Know" which replaced Mr. Moyers.

With knowledge for the American people, too frequently comes action, particularly in really egregious cases of misplacement of trust or misuse of power and/ or money and the CPB, PBS and NPR are, at times, good sources of information for us, the American people.

Corporate America wants nothing of that, clearly.

And Corporate America will do all they can to see to it that is shut down, if possible. 

Fortunately for them but unfortunately for us, it is far too easy--and cheap--to do since all they have to do is give campaign contributions (read, again:  bribes)  to their government representatives.  Then they get whatever legislation they, the corporations, want.  We see it time and again.

It got so bad here in Missouri, on a more local level, that the Republican leaders did away with ALL campaign contribution limits, of course.  It's open season on legislators and legislation for them now, until we get that changed back. 

And the only way that will change, either in Jefferson City for our local politics or Washington, D.C. and the national level, is for the American people to demand the changes, unequivocally.

We have to care.  And work on it.

I say again:  We need true, stringent, tough and verifiable campaign finance reform in this country.  It's way overdue.

We also need legally-required campaign seasons that are only 3 to 6 months long, at most, like the British require, so we can, again, get the big money out of our campaigns.

It's in these ways we can be more sure of getting our government back working for us, the American people, instead of virtually exclusively for the wealthy and Corporate America.

Links:  http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/video/video-propublicas-abrahm-lustgarten-on-congresss-fracking-report/7501/
http://www.propublica.org/article/questions-for-congress-and-hollywood-about-fracking
http://www.propublica.org/series/buried-secrets-gas-drillings-environmental-threat
http://www.propublica.org/article/drilling-industry-says-diesel-use-was-legal
http://www.propublica.org/article/opponents-to-fracking-disclosure-take-big-money-from-industry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/index-flash.html
http://www.npr.org/