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February
26, 2002
Alexander
Cockburn
Daniel
Pearl: Should His
Editors Have Sent Him There?
Rep. Dennis
Kucinich
A
Prayer for America
February
25, 2002
John Clarke
Interrogated
at US Border
Blankfort,
Poirier, Zeltzer
ADL
Blinks, Settles Spying Case
Alex Lynch
Naked
from Sin:
The Ordeal of Nahla
and Sami Al-Arian
John Chuckman
Ashcroft
Speaks in Tongues
February
24, 2002
David
Vest
Skate
Date
February
23, 2002
Tom Turnipseed
Axis
of Evil and
Media Monopolies
Bahour/Dahan
Cracks
in the Occupation
February
22, 2002
Alexander
Cockburn
Axel
of Evil: Sex Crimes
and the Constitution
February
21, 2002
Gary Leupp
The
Philippines: Second Front in US's Global War
David
Vest
Reagan
Clone Project?
Mokhiber
and Weissman
Chicago
School and Corporate America: Rotten to the Core
February
20, 2002
Bernard
Weiner
The
Shallow Throat Document
Kay Lee
The
Prison Guard Who Never Owned Up to His Crimes
February
19, 2002
David
Orr
Waylon
Jennings, the Duke,
and the Navajo
John Chuckman
The
Devil and Georgie Bush
Prudence
Crowther
Giblet
Gravitas
Ramzi
Kysia
Caught
in the Iraq DMZ
February
18, 2002
Ron Jacobs
The
US and Iran
George
Lewandowski
Empire
in Declline
Lenni
Brenner
Life
and Death of a Folk Hero
February
17, 2002
Robert
Fisk
Lost
in a Pit of Desperation
February
16, 2002
Phillip
Cryan
Colombia
in War Time
February
15, 2002
C.G. Estabrook
From
New York to Porto Alegre
Robert
O'Brien
The
View from Porto Alegre
Mokhiber/Weissman
Resisting
the Assassins
February
14, 2002
Levy and
Easton
Ante
Pavelic
Real Butcher of the Balkans
Joan Claybrook
Dear
Jeb Bush,
About You and Enron
John Chuckman
Time
for a Woman Prez
Alexander
Cockburn
Banning
the Koran
February
13, 2002
Sen. Russ
Feingold
War
Powers and
the War on Terror
Tom Turnipseed
Bush's
Folly
George
Monbiot
American
Imperialism
February
12, 2002
Uri Avnery
The
Great Game:
Oil, Sharon and Iran
Tommy
Ates
Black
Land Loss
February
11, 2002
Walt Brasch
The
Synergizing of America
John Troyer
Enron's
Deep Throat?
February
9, 2002
John Blair
Criticize
Cheney, Go to Jail
A Photographic Journal of Life
in an Afghan Refugee Camp
By Judith Mann
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
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Published Oct. 15, 2001
8-Page Special Issue
War Diary
CIA's Assassination Plan a History of
Torture in US Prisons
bin Laden and Bush
Business Connections
Aisha Ikramuddin on the Hidden Hype
of US Food Bombs
Peter Linebaugh on
Pakistan
Christopher Hitchens' Love for Mrs. Thatcher
Jiang Zemin Tells Bush:
Nuke 'Em
Search
CounterPunch
Read Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The New Crusade:
America's War on Terrorism
By Rahul Mahajan
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
Buy
This Explosive
New Book at an
Amazing Discount!
Reviews of Gore:
a User's Manual
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February 26,
2002
Using Shadowy "527 Groups,"
Corporations Give Unlimited Dollars Directly to Members of Congress
Groups
Allow Companies to Influence Legislation, Underscore Need for
Reform
CounterPunch
Wire Report
Corporations are using shadowy and little-noticed
groups to put millions of dollars into the hands of lawmakers
- a practice otherwise prohibited by federal campaign law - while
seeking legislative favors, Public
Citizen has found.
Public Citizen's analysis of recent telecommunications,
tobacco and money-laundering legislation shows that these groups,
known as "527 groups," enable corporations to gain
access to lawmakers and shape legislation.
The 527 groups, products of an exemption
carved in Section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code, enable lawmakers
to directly amass huge quantities of "soft money" -
unlimited contributions from individuals, corporations and unions.
(Other soft money is given through political parties.) With the
527 soft money, politicians sponsor events that further their
own careers, give money to state and local candidates, and pay
for "get-out-the-vote" efforts.
A Public Citizen investigation of 25
leading "politician 527 groups" (non-politician groups
will be the subject of a forthcoming report) found that it is
difficult and sometimes impossible to learn which politicians
have 527s, who contributes to them and what the groups spend
money on. Although these politician 527s would be banned under
pending campaign finance reform legislation, the defective disclosure
apparatus will continue to hinder the tracking of soft money
to the 527 groups set up by non-politicians, such as the Sierra
Club and Republicans for Clean Air, that want to influence elections.
"The politician 527 groups are a
nefarious mechanism for legalized bribery," said Joan Claybrook,
Public Citizen president. "They allow corporations to put
unlimited amounts of money directly into the pockets of members
of Congress. This corporate investment is for one purpose only:
to shape the laws that Congress votes on and ultimately approves.
They have corrupted our legislative process."
Among Public Citizen's findings, entitled
Congressional Leaders' Soft Money Accounts Show Need for Campaign
Finance Reform Bills:
Virtually every congressional leader
has his or her own 527. At least 61 members of Congress have
their own groups, including 19 who created new ones in the past
year.
In the one-year period from July 1, 2000
to June 30, 2001, the top 25 politician 527s collected more than
$15.1 million. This suggests that these top groups would collect
approximately $30 million in a two-year election cycle. (More
recent reports for all 25 groups are not available although they
were due to the IRS on Jan. 31, 2002.)
The majority of contributions to the
top 25 groups from July 1, 2000, to June 30, 2001 came from 27
major industries (including individuals, such as executives,
associated with these major industries) that gave at least $100,000.
The top six congressional leader 527s
collected 81 percent of their contributions from corporations
between July 1, 2000, and June 30, 2001.
The 527 politician groups remain shadowy
due to flaws in the disclosure law and the Internal Revenue Service's
Web-based disclosure system. And 527s often appear to skirt the
law by ignoring disclosure requirements and providing vague and
misleading information.
In new policy investigations, Public
Citizen found that:
Regional Bell telephone companies promoting
deregulation of high-speed Internet service poured $277,666 into
the 527s of House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), Majority Whip
Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and Chief Deputy Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.)
while their favored Tauzin-Dingell bill was considered in 2001.
Republican leaders simultaneously maneuvered to advance the bill
despite opposition among the House GOP rank and file. (A vote
is scheduled Feb. 27.)
The 527 groups of Senate Majority Leader
Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and House Democratic Caucus Chairman Martin
Frost (D-Texas) received $40,000 and $50,000 respectively from
the Stanford Financial Group between July 1, 2000, and June 30,
2001. During this period, Stanford was fighting anti-money laundering
legislation supported by the Clinton administration. Stanford
gained access to the Texas Democratic delegation through Frost,
and neither Democratic leader protested when key congressional
Republicans sank the bill.
"Internet access, money-laundering,
tobacco legislation - these are among the issues corporations
tried to influence through 527s," said Frank Clemente, director
of Public Citizen's Congress Watch. "These 527 groups are
just one more reason that the Senate and President Bush must
approve the pending campaign finance reform measure."
Click here for a copy of Public Citizen's report.
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