How to Bribe Members of Congress, and Other Links
Jack Abramoff tells “60 Minutes” how to bribe members of Congress. Ezra Klein weighs in as well.
UCLA medical officials: 16,000 patients’ information data stolen.
Legalizing medical marijuana does not increase use among youth.
Kids at exclusive, ritzy school have vaccination rates one-fourth of public school children.
Jack Abramoff added to the corruption problem in Congress, but he is not to blame. Paying a bribe certainly increases the level of corruption, but the people who demand the bribe in the first place are the ones to blame. The real culprits are the men and women in Congress who demand favors and payoffs from lobbyists before using their elected power to solve problems.
You don’t necessarily have to actually bribe Members of Congress. Payments from political Action Committees increase the success of incumbents, lucrative pensions for staying in Congress along with the knowledge that there will be lucrative lobbying job offers after retirement is enough to compel politicians to play ball.
The 60 Minutes show was a real eye opener.
I’m not surprised at the finding that legalizing MJ does not increase use among youth. I’m looking forward to more studies debunking the myth that cannabis is a gateway drug as well.
The truth is, most young people only end up using the harder drugs because they have to go to shady people to get their cannabis to begin with. Those shady dealers are the ones that end up introducing young people to real narcotics. Legalize cannabis takes the illicit dealers out of the picture insofar as distributing cannabis is concerned. Thus, many young people who would try marijuana in their life will never come across crack dealers, “cheese” dealers, etc.
…just noticed that I didn’t put “medical” in the previous post.
I don’t think it would ultimately matter if they only legalized it for medical purposes or legalized it outright.