The Brazenness of High Level Corruption Sickens Me

The Brazenness of High Level Corruption Sickens Me

And that these guys operate with impunity is the obvious implication when you see them funding major political events. From ABC News:

Offshore banking experts say that the fraud charges this week against accused financial scammer R. Allen Stanford have been a long time coming.
"There's no surprise at all," said Washington lawyer and IRS consultant Jack Blum. "This man has been on law enforcement's radar screen for the better part of 10 years."
But the SEC didn't move forward until this week, after two former Stanford Financial whistleblowers filed an alleged lawsuit, which revealed how the bank lied about too-good-to-be-true certificates of deposit.
"The problem was the published returns that many advisors use to present to clients and prospects," said former Stanford Group employee Mark Tidwell, "that now we knew that information was incorrect."
...
Federal authorities tell ABC News that the FBI and others have been investigating whether Stanford was involved in laundering drug money for Mexico's notorious Gulf Cartel.
Authorities tell ABC News that as part of the investigation, which has been ongoing since last year, Mexican authorities detained one of Stanford's private planes. According to officials, checks found inside the plane were believed to be connected to the Gulf cartel, reputed to be Mexico's most violent gang. Authorities say Stanford could potentially face criminal charges of money laundering and bribery of foreign officials.
...
A video posted on the firm's web-site shows Stanford, now sought by U.S. Marshals, being hugged by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and praised by former President Bill Clinton for helping to finance a convention-related forum and party put on by the National Democratic Institute.
"I would like to thank the Stanford Financial Group for helping to underwrite this," Clinton said to the crowd at the event.
Stanford Financial was listed as the "lead benefactor" for the gathering, and Stanford was permitted to address the audience of several hundred.
...
The SEC charged yesterday that Stanford was running a fraudulent investment scheme that may have bilked customers out of as much as $8 billion.
Stanford's whereabouts are unknown and U.S. Marshals say they are searching for him.
Over the last decade, Stanford has spent more than $7 million on lobbyists and campaign contributions to Washington politics in both parties, although the vast majority of the money has gone to Democrats.

Michelle Malkin points out that while the Federal Election Commission didn't find anything actually criminal about Obama's unusually low mortgage rate deal on the house with the strange Rezko involvement, it is pretty clear that rank has its privileges. Politicians get special deals because they are in a position to reward their friends.

Yes, the Republicans have crooked influence peddlers like Jack Abramoff, but the sheer volume of Democratic crooks popping out of the woodwork right now is so huge that it is impossible to keep track of all of them. And regardless of party, the corrupting influence of big money on legislation makes it all the more critical that we start electing members of Congress at random from the voter rolls, just to remove the influence of money on elections.

There's only problem with that: that would require amending the U.S. Constitution. Which would require both House and Senate to pass such an amendment by 2/3 vote. Which would bring the orgy of influence peddling (more about that in the next post, about carbon dioxide) to end. Which means that only when a new Constitutional Convention is held in the ashes of the current disorder, will that happen.