Aren't we all lobbyist to varying degrees. We may not be professionals, representing the interests of clients for a fee, but we all hold certain interests near and dear to our heart and seek to influence peers and politicians alike through town-halls or emails or simply casual discourse. The problem is not with lobbyists, but with the pay to play system in modern American politics. Blaming lobbyists for our collective woes is little more than scapegoating. It makes you feel better but does little to solve real problems.

I am a born again atheist, I was raised in the Jewish faith and found the stories to be very compelling and interesting but always thought of them as stories. Religion is a choice people make to divorce themselves from the evolving reality in which they find themselves. They fill in unknowns and unknowable with "god did it" it's a lazy philosophy which hold humanity in contempt, denies it it's virtues (as they are from god), and condemns it it's failing (as they are from free-will). It is a cynical and nihilistic and holds no place in an evolved society.

Full Metal Jacket & Apocalypse Now - The Directors Cut.

Both films deftly expose both the horror and hypocrisy of war while allowing the hero's to shine.

The youth have far more at stake in politics than the elderly. I propose that the voting age be lowered to 16 with provisional voting rights till 18. Voters between 16 and 18 would have to take a class (it could even be an online class) where they would learn about the issues of the moment and be educated about the privilege of voting. I believe that such a program would dramatically increase voter turn out and civic engagement.

Ben Bernanke is a student of the Great Depression, and he'd tell you the same thing. The last thing you want to do to a struggling economy is cut off it's money supply. It's a akin to denying a bleeding patient a blood transfusion because he'd simply bleed it all away. The point is not to cure the patient with the transfusion but rather to keep the patient alive long enough to fix what's broken.

I agree, though it depends on what "free" means. Just because you're not getting paid doesn't mean your doing it for free. Reputation is a valuable thing and charity can be an effective vehicle for building it.

What are we? Well if your reading this and are not a computer program, then I can presume that you, like me, are a human being. Perhaps your a super intelligent chimp or dolphin or whale, but odds are extremely good that your a man or a woman or some combination or negation there of. And for our sake, I hope that Man triumphs over nature. If not, then this short brutal existence that has defined our kinds time on earth will have been of little to no consequence. We could DO so much better.

I would be inclined to accept that this was an error of omission rather than an error of commission. I find it impossible to believe that they would knowingly neglect to include provisions protecting American taxpayers from such abuses and strongly support all efforts to undo this gross injustice. In fact, I'm inclined to support a excise tax on all bonus monies in cases where the base salary is above $100K and the bonus is equal to or more than 100% of the base salary.

Here's the hitch. The monies were committed prior to the administration taking office so the problem is not a new one.

I don't know how this could be a defensible action. It is just in such bad taste!