In the tragedy of the Dineh-Navajo federal land swindle engineered by Sen. McCain (PL 93-531), we have a human drama writ large of political corruption and influence peddling to wealthy corporate special interests. The Dineh Navajo people were forceably relocated to Church's Hill - a radioactive toxic waste dump (recognized by Superfund) - in order to steal their land for strip mining by Peabody Western Coal Company, polluting the entire region's water table with Coal mine effluent in the process.
This didnt begin as a political issue, but it certainly deserves to become one later this year. Here is one clip from the indie documentary "Vanishing Prayer", which details the situation:
Part One:
For a clip from Part Two and the background, keep reading below the fold...
Following recent investigative articles by the New York Times and the Washington Post which detail two separate instances in which Sen. McCain apparently used his influence to bring about federal land deals lucrative for his friends and campaign contributors, another such case is about to come to the forefront.
This new land swindle is far less benign than the other two. It involves wealthy corporate mining interests, electric utilities, and a Coal slurry pipeline through the homeland of Native Americans, which took not only their land but their precious water along the way as well.
In this case, Sen. McCain's influence did more than just bring profits to campagin contributors, it dispossessed thousands of indigenous people from lands they had occupied since before Columbus, not in the 19th Century, but in the 21st. A story similar to that of many tribes sold out and taken advantage of by ruthless politicians, this wasnt the work of some banana republic dictator, but of the Republican candidate for President of the United States.
Following the March bombshell of presumptive Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain's offshore fundraiser in London (3/20)
An invitation sent out by the campaign says the luncheon will be held at Spencer House, St. James's Place, "by kind permission of Lord Rothschild OM GBE and the Hon Nathaniel Rothschild." Tickets to the invitation-only event cost $1,000 to $2,300. Attire is listed as "lounge suits."
-- Washington Post Saturday, March 15, 2008; Page A06
along with last week's sudden resignation of Clinton campaign manager Mark Penn, upon the discovery that he was a registered Foreign Agent, representing the Colombian government, and the weekend discovery that the Clintons have received $800,000 from shadowy Colombian organizations, a fresh new hell of a Clinton scandal broke this morning by Washington Post columnist Robert Novak.
Some Republican analysts have given over to wishful thinking that "solid Republicans" aren’t really defecting from the party, as many polls would indicate.
As a formerly "solid" Republican, who was active for many years in the party, as a member of my county Republican Executive Committee, and officer in Teen Age Republicans, College Republicans, and Young Republicans, the manager of several Republican campaigns, party operative, and contributor, I am only one of millions of ex-Movement Conservatives disgusted with the party's sellout of its traditional principles since rising to power in Washington.
In the Republican rush to "party unity", Conservatives dutifully fell in behind their annointed, the moderate "Manchurian Candidate", Sen. John McCain. Whether one agrees with Conservative policies or not, one cant help but marvel at how they keep lining up like lemmings behind candidates (Nixon, Ford, Bush, and Bush) who have no intention of balancing budgets, reducing bureaucracy, or keeping the government out of private affairs, as their millions of followers ardently hope they will do.
Just as dutifully, like Nixon, Ford, and the Bushes before him, Sen. McCain wasted no time in paying homage to elite investment bankers of the Eastern Establishment. Disturbing as these alliances are to grassroots Conservatives, they go generally unreported by the media, and no one ever calls the candidates on it.
Normally, one might be tempted to sigh with relief that such politicians dont deliver all that they promise their supporters, but in this case, its worth examining just who this year's Republican Icon has jilted the Conservative base to get in bed with...
In the nit-picking over Mark Penn's departure as Sen. Clinton's campaign manager, the biggest question of all has gone unasked by the mainstream media.
Whether he lobbies for the Columbian trade deal while she opposes it, or whether it was his flawed campaign strategy or conflicts with other staff that lead to his resignation, nobody has yet considered the underlying issue involved.
It is this: SINCE WHEN are American presidential campaigns managed by paid agents of Foreign Governments? Have we entered some Twilight Zone so completely unlike all of our previous political history that this doesnt even get ASKED?
