official business...

that's what the envelope the letter from my "friend" representative pete visclosky arrived in yesterday said ( it also meant you and i footed the bill for the mailing...but what the heck...perks of the office, fight? )...he said he was co-sponsoring a house bill to stand up to those doggone chinese and their continued "currency misalignment" which he would define as, "...a prohibited export subsidy"...he is doing this to, "support american manufacturers and steelworkers"...no doubt...and no doubt in order of their importance in pete's philosophy...all fine election year rhetoric....probably not to be taken all that seriously...i have no doubt the chinese are unfazed...probably unaware...it's not their election after all...utterly bored with the campaign gibberish i began to scan the screed for something of interest...anything that would redeem the time i had invested in this nonsense...when i saw the header on the left side that said old pete was on the appropriations committee and, better still, the "ranking member" on the defense and energy and water development subcommittees...with my interest piqued i decide to do a bit of research so i went to: http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.php?cid=N00003813 to have a look at who pete's donors were....the top five were all corporations ( "american manufactuers" )and tops on the list? lockheed-martin...huh...imagine..a defense contractor...boeing was there..and northrop-grumman..all in the top five...nisource was there too...that's the parent company of the local utility corporation ( "energy and water development" )...my union is in there too...down the list...a "gift" of $10,000...so i am party to this whether i like it or not...and , it should be clear, i do not...the "steelworkers" business was pretty much a campaign afterthought...real workers do not fit well into pete's worldview or donor list..the unions do..they are in the business of selling industrial peace in contract sized bites and they do fairly well at it despite having the politicians they support turn on them routinely...it is the price the unions paid for being taken "into the system" by the wagner act in 1935...fdr pulled their teeth and they hardly noticed...old bill maclay said he was serving in " a nest of vipers" during the first congress because of the venality he saw there...there has been little change.