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Hightower Lowdown
"You can put earrings on a hog, but it won't hide the ugliness." -- Jim Hightower
December's Lowdown
Corporate elites and their small-minded political servants are creating the Incredibly Shrinking America
"We the people of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." What a paragraph! This sparse, 52-word opening of our Constitution did not merely launch a fledgling nation--but a bold experiment in democratic idealism.
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In This Issue
Dressed up in their designer suits, they trade in human cargo
The new racketeers
Also in this issue:
- Zapping the beef supply
- Granny d marches on!
- Postmodern piracy
- Suffer the little children
- Hogs at the trough
- Charity begins in the house
- Bill's beer
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Hogs at the trough
No sooner had Dennis Hastert become Speaker of the House than he got an invitation from Haley Barbour, the former Head Hog of the Republican Party, to have a cozy dinner with several people eager to be his pal. They were lobbyists for such outfits as Bell Atlantic, Microsoft and GTE. To make their new buddy feel welcome, they pitched $100,000 into the trough of Hastert's political action committee.
Then the lobbying firm of Fierce & Isakowitz held a breakfast for Hastert, inviting 100 people to feed $2,000 each to Hastert. The firm just happens to represent HMOs that want Dennis to kill the "Patients' Bill of Rights."
Shortly after, the firm of Clark & Weinstock set up yet another breakfast for Dennis with lobbyists putting another $2,000 each into his PAC. This spring, Hastert has 20 of these coffee and cash gatherings set up. As an aide says, Dennis "likes to do breakfast." I'll bet.