Who Exactly is Against Marijuana Legalization, and Why?

Consider this: the Supreme Court tipped the national scales on same-sex marriage after it had been legalized in thirty-seven states. Marijuana has some status of legality in over half the country (according to Pew Research), with new laws budding every day. Will the Supreme Court follow a similar route of judicial legalization with marijuana? Possibly. […]

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Bill Gates Apparently Doesn’t Understand How the Private Sector Works

Given the amount of money Bill Gates has made, one would think he already understood how the private sector works. But his recent comments concerning green energy research and the public and private sector makes me think he has no idea what he’s talking about: Yes, the government will be somewhat inept… But the private […]

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Former TSA Lobbyist Now on TSA Appropriations Committee

Oh, the revolving door. How I hate thee. It’s becoming quite common for corporate lobbyists to get seats in key bureaucratic committees overseeing funding for their former employers (see: Comcast and the FCC or Monsanto and the FDA/EPA). The latest entry in that increasingly ballooning file involves the ever-repugnant TSA: Rapiscan Systems lobbied aggressively to win a […]

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The Lobbying Problem and How We Can Fix It

We have a lobbying problem in Congress. Beginning in the early 2000s, the amount of money being spent to lobby Congress exceeded the amount of money taxpayers were spending to fund Congress: Corporations now spend about $2.6 billion a year on reported lobbying expenditures – more than the $2 billion we spend to fund the […]

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Monsanto Lobbyist Insists Roundup is Safe to Drink … Then Refuses to Drink Some

A Monsanto lobbyist interviewed on French television made claims that the flagship Monsanto herbicide, Roundup, is safe for humans to drink. Little did he know that the interviewer actually had a glass of Roundup right there ready to drink. Here’s what happened: “You can drink a whole quart of it and it won’t hurt you,” […]

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Fannie Mae Is At It Again!

Mortgage giant Fannie Mae, the too-big-to-fail bailout beneficiary, is apparently at it again—doing everything in its power to sink the economy into another recession: The Federal Housing Finance Agency inspector general said its latest concerns involve Fannie Mae’s “haphazard” decision to fill a critical auditor position with an employee who lacked proper qualifications and suffered from […]

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The Direct Line Between Lobbying the DHS and Getting Defense Contracts

The top five contractors for the DHS, in terms of the value of defense contracts, spent millions on lobbying and political contributions to receive almost $9 billion worth of DHS contracts: MapLight looked into the contracts awarded by the DHS to the top 5 contractors and these contractors’ political spending. These companies were chosen because […]

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Why Isn’t Anyone Angry Over Failing Vaccines from Merck?

In the wake of the recent measles “outbreak” that affected a few dozen people, pro-vaxxers got the anger machine churning over all the anti-vaxxers who have threatened the safety, health, and herd immunity of the whole population by their close-minded, superstitious, anti-science selfishness. But one of the real devils contributing to the declining efficacy of vaccines […]

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A Rock and a Hard Place: Civil Corruption and Crony Capitalism

Should corporations be allowed to operate freely without government interference? Or do they need to be regulated by government to make sure corporations treat people fairly? Nope. Neither of these options are possible right now. We’re between a rock and a hard place: between civil corruption and crony capitalism. As you might surmise, neither is […]

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IRS Hires CGI Federal, the Same Company that Flubbed Healthcare.gov!

What in the world? I know that civil government is famous for inefficiency, over-spending, corruption, larceny, and just plain stupid, but this beggars belief. After the feds fired CGI Federal for its very expensive and ultimately botched design of Healthcare.gov, the IRS awarded the same company a $4.5 million contract to create its Obamacare tax […]

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