Washington Babylon — June 12, 2009, 9:13 am
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Ted Disante of Tucson wrote an interesting note about this item from last week, which referred to Washington as a gigantic lobbying operation:
Here’s an additional tidbit to support your POV. Recall when Microsoft was a de facto monopoly in the 1980s-90s and DC (acting not unlike an organized crime family) started saying the equivalent of: “Nice little business you have there. Too bad if something were to happen to it.” So the Department of Justice established anti-monopoly proceedings against it; a legal battle ensued; Microsoft eventually established a presence in DC, creating a lobbying program, hiring ex-legislators and the like to spread around cash and favors; a settlement was then reached under the Bush administration, requiring some money and gifts of software, but a lot less than originally asked for. In effect, DC demanded and received their cream off the top and eventually got it.
More from Ken Silverstein:
Commentary — July 25, 2012, 2:20 pm
Washington Babylon — September 29, 2010, 11:37 am
Ratio of military recruiters to college counselors at East Los Angeles’s Roosevelt High School:
The majority of young Swedish women are attracted to both men and women.
“My body was quite happy,” said ISS mission commander Chris Hadfield. “I learned to talk with a weightless tongue.”
“This is the heart of the magic factory, the place where medicine is infused with the miracles of science, and I’ve come to see how it’s done.”
