Sep 22, 2009
Acorn is a poor people's grassroots organization.
Earlier this month, some of it's employees were caught on tape giving advice to two young right-wing activists posing as pimp and prostitute.
Pfizer is a wealthy and powerful multinational corporation.
Earlier this month, a Pfizer unit pled guilty to a felony in connection with a major health care fraud and paid $2.3 billion in fines.
So, if the Democratically controlled Congress were to vote to either:
a) strip federal funding from the grassroots group Acorn, or
b) ban corporate felon Pfizer from future government business
Which would it be?
Let me guess.
Last week, the Democratic controlled Congress voted to strip Acorn of its federal funding.
Why?
The vote came a day after the release of the latest video by the two activists who crisscrossed the country trying to get Acorn employees to help them in setting up a child-prostitution business.
In some Acorn offices, workers reported the two to the police.
In others, they sought to help the fake pimp and prostitute.
Fox and Limbaugh and Hannity and Beck and O'Reilly made it seem as if Acorn was a corporate felon.
And reacting to the right-wing echo chamber, the House and Senate voted to end Acorn's federal funding.
Unclear whether such a move is Constitutional.
The Constitution prohibits bills of attainder.
That means Congress can't punish individual organizations.
But putting that minor detail aside for a moment, let's say Congress can punish.
Why bully the weak?
After all, a society rots from the head down.
Let's chop at the top.
Let's find a list of major corporate criminals who rip off the federal government.
And bar them from ever doing business with the federal government again.
Lo and behold, we have such a list right here.
A quick and dirty list from the annals of Taxpayers Against Fraud and the Corporate Crime Reporter:
Pfizer, Serono, Takeda-Abbott Pharmaceutical, Shering-Plough, Lilly, Abbott Labs, Cephalon, National Medical Enterprises, HCA, Gambro Health Care, Schering-Plough, Astra-Zeneca, Bayer, Purdue.
Major corporate criminals?
Check.
Convicted in a court of law?
Check.
Ripped off the federal government?
Check.
Paid fines that would keep Acorn in business until hell freezes over?
Check.
Which raises an obvious question for the members of Congress who voted overwhelmingly to strip Acorn of its federal funding:
Who's the pimp?
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Russell Mokhiber
Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime Reporter. He is also founder of singlepayeraction.org, and editor of the website Morgan County USA.
Acorn is a poor people's grassroots organization.
Earlier this month, some of it's employees were caught on tape giving advice to two young right-wing activists posing as pimp and prostitute.
Pfizer is a wealthy and powerful multinational corporation.
Earlier this month, a Pfizer unit pled guilty to a felony in connection with a major health care fraud and paid $2.3 billion in fines.
So, if the Democratically controlled Congress were to vote to either:
a) strip federal funding from the grassroots group Acorn, or
b) ban corporate felon Pfizer from future government business
Which would it be?
Let me guess.
Last week, the Democratic controlled Congress voted to strip Acorn of its federal funding.
Why?
The vote came a day after the release of the latest video by the two activists who crisscrossed the country trying to get Acorn employees to help them in setting up a child-prostitution business.
In some Acorn offices, workers reported the two to the police.
In others, they sought to help the fake pimp and prostitute.
Fox and Limbaugh and Hannity and Beck and O'Reilly made it seem as if Acorn was a corporate felon.
And reacting to the right-wing echo chamber, the House and Senate voted to end Acorn's federal funding.
Unclear whether such a move is Constitutional.
The Constitution prohibits bills of attainder.
That means Congress can't punish individual organizations.
But putting that minor detail aside for a moment, let's say Congress can punish.
Why bully the weak?
After all, a society rots from the head down.
Let's chop at the top.
Let's find a list of major corporate criminals who rip off the federal government.
And bar them from ever doing business with the federal government again.
Lo and behold, we have such a list right here.
A quick and dirty list from the annals of Taxpayers Against Fraud and the Corporate Crime Reporter:
Pfizer, Serono, Takeda-Abbott Pharmaceutical, Shering-Plough, Lilly, Abbott Labs, Cephalon, National Medical Enterprises, HCA, Gambro Health Care, Schering-Plough, Astra-Zeneca, Bayer, Purdue.
Major corporate criminals?
Check.
Convicted in a court of law?
Check.
Ripped off the federal government?
Check.
Paid fines that would keep Acorn in business until hell freezes over?
Check.
Which raises an obvious question for the members of Congress who voted overwhelmingly to strip Acorn of its federal funding:
Who's the pimp?
Russell Mokhiber
Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime Reporter. He is also founder of singlepayeraction.org, and editor of the website Morgan County USA.
Acorn is a poor people's grassroots organization.
Earlier this month, some of it's employees were caught on tape giving advice to two young right-wing activists posing as pimp and prostitute.
Pfizer is a wealthy and powerful multinational corporation.
Earlier this month, a Pfizer unit pled guilty to a felony in connection with a major health care fraud and paid $2.3 billion in fines.
So, if the Democratically controlled Congress were to vote to either:
a) strip federal funding from the grassroots group Acorn, or
b) ban corporate felon Pfizer from future government business
Which would it be?
Let me guess.
Last week, the Democratic controlled Congress voted to strip Acorn of its federal funding.
Why?
The vote came a day after the release of the latest video by the two activists who crisscrossed the country trying to get Acorn employees to help them in setting up a child-prostitution business.
In some Acorn offices, workers reported the two to the police.
In others, they sought to help the fake pimp and prostitute.
Fox and Limbaugh and Hannity and Beck and O'Reilly made it seem as if Acorn was a corporate felon.
And reacting to the right-wing echo chamber, the House and Senate voted to end Acorn's federal funding.
Unclear whether such a move is Constitutional.
The Constitution prohibits bills of attainder.
That means Congress can't punish individual organizations.
But putting that minor detail aside for a moment, let's say Congress can punish.
Why bully the weak?
After all, a society rots from the head down.
Let's chop at the top.
Let's find a list of major corporate criminals who rip off the federal government.
And bar them from ever doing business with the federal government again.
Lo and behold, we have such a list right here.
A quick and dirty list from the annals of Taxpayers Against Fraud and the Corporate Crime Reporter:
Pfizer, Serono, Takeda-Abbott Pharmaceutical, Shering-Plough, Lilly, Abbott Labs, Cephalon, National Medical Enterprises, HCA, Gambro Health Care, Schering-Plough, Astra-Zeneca, Bayer, Purdue.
Major corporate criminals?
Check.
Convicted in a court of law?
Check.
Ripped off the federal government?
Check.
Paid fines that would keep Acorn in business until hell freezes over?
Check.
Which raises an obvious question for the members of Congress who voted overwhelmingly to strip Acorn of its federal funding:
Who's the pimp?
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