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Elena Kagan: What They're Saying | White House Blog | Extensive Commentary

"White House says the hiring numbers are misleading because they do not reflect the number of offers that Dean Kagan made to women and scholars of color. But this seems a bit hard to believe. Do women and people of color find a tenured or tenure-track professorship at Harvard Law School less attractive than white men? Do they really prefer to teach at less prestigious schools?"

As of mid-August 2009, there were six (6) lobbyists per single (1) member of House and Senate (Bloomberg News). That's 6:1, folks. Just for healthcare reform. For financial industry reform, there are 2,400 lobbyists in play. The Chamber of Commerce spent $26.2 million--in the first 2 quarters (6 months) of 2009. Clearly, private industries and their foot soldiers on K Street/Capitol Hill influence/dictate American policymaking. No matter who's 'voted in,' it's the influence machine that rules Washington. Worse, there's a good chance that the Supreme Court will grant corporations (as 'fictive persons') to spend unlimited dollars in funding electoral campaigns. Is there hope that this country will be a democracy one day? Or is it doomed to become increasingly, irrevocably plutocratic?

G.W. Bush, 2006, National Strategy to Internationalize Efforts Agaiinst Kleptocracy, Pledging to Congront High-Level, Large-Scale Corruption by Public Officials and Target the Proceeds of their Corrupt Acts (!! hypocrisy !!)

"...compromise with the administration and the Fed would give Mr. Sanders and other critics of the central bank an opportunity to claim victory, while not breaking with the Fed's insistence that its monetary decisions be sacrosanct and insulated from political influence."

Obama made a safe pick: He wanted Kagan to have an easy path to the court. And it looks like that's exactly what she'll have. No Senator will buck the tide in an election year.

Why didn't the White House back the break-up of big banks? | Mother Jones | #p2 http://bit.ly/awxeg3