In Washington, Life Goes On.

       Here's more good news for you to enjoy. Two things have happened or may be happening soon. First, sometime last year Congress voted to make it illegal for themselves or their staffs to participate in insider trading practices. That was a good thing. But very recently, Congress rescinded the part about disclosure. So now it may be illegal to trade on insider information, but nobody will be allowed to know if they do. I guess it's the honor system. Question is; is there any honor in Congress?
       Secondly the Security and Exchange Commission thinks it should require publicly held corporations to report any and all political donations to their shareholders. You should hear the squawking over that. "The unions don't have to report their donations" which is true,  "Tax exempt groups don't have to report it either" also true, but then the SEC doesn't have any control over these groups.
       A petition to the SEC in favor has over half a million comments, with the vast majority in favor. But House Republicans and the US Chamber of Commerce are up in arms. They're ready to declare all out war against the SEC. Which is a shame because this would be a big help towards cleaning up our electoral system. I agree Non Profits and Unions should be required to do the same. But that's not what corporations and the GOP want. They want that money to keep flowing without any messy reporting that could get the corporations in trouble with their shareholders or customers.
       I can see their point though. What if they wanted to get some politician defeated in his campaign? What if their customers like this politician? Wouldn't that hurt the bottom line? What if the politician found out? Wouldn't that hurt their chances for a fat contract? I guess the real question is; why aren't these corporations willing to stand up and have the courage to speak out no matter if it might hurt them? I guess they'd rather show one face and secretly be another face. Wouldn't that make them two faced?