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[Glowcat]

However, bear in mind that government agencies do not perform their own drug tests (virtually none anyway, outside of the military).  They contract private, which is to say for-profit, clinics specializing in such services to conduct and judge the tests.  At either the government's expense or the employee's obviously, probably the government's for the employees and the citizen's for the welfare.  And where this story moves from just running roughshod over privacy precedent and into plain old graft, is that Rick Scott founded Solantic, one of Florida's biggest and most frequently public-contracted drug testing clinics, ownership of which he transferred to his wife right before being sworn in as governor.  Somehow his wife owning a drug-testing clinic service instead of himself clears the conflict-of-interest rules.

"That Scott down there that's running for governor of Florida," Mr. Kanjorski said. "Instead of running for governor of Florida, they ought to have him and shoot him. Put him against the wall and shoot him. He stole billions of dollars from the United States government and he's running for governor of Florida. He's a millionaire and a billionaire. He's no hero. He's a damn crook. It's just we don't prosecute big crooks."

I find it hard to argue with the former Congressman. Maybe just life in prison instead?

Republicans pretend to be concerned about our nation's fiscal status but they're the ones who elect outright crooks into office and shrug their shoulders when those crooks steal from the American people, then they steal more from the people (in social services) to make up the deficit. Un-freakin-believable. Last I heard from polls was that Mr. Corporate Martial Law Snyder would lose his re-election by only 2%. As bad as the Republican party is, they only exist because of a large morally bankrupt voting base.

[Criptfeind]

Somehow I don't think big... (what big is this? Pharmaceutical? Clinical? Something anyway) corrupted 2.5 million people.

That said, it is pretty ridiculous.

[Glowcat]

Somehow I don't think big... (what big is this? Pharmaceutical? Clinical? Something anyway) corrupted 2.5 million people.

That said, it is pretty ridiculous.

Who said anything about being corrupted? It's more that they're apathetic to the horrible things the people they elect into office do, and try to justify their vote because the other option would've supported healthcare/equality in marriage/abortion and all Democrats serve a Kenyan Muslim socialist overlord. WARNING OF THE OBVIOUS: some of that was hyperbole.

[Criptfeind]

Somehow I don't think big... (what big is this? Pharmaceutical? Clinical? Something anyway) corrupted 2.5 million people.

That said, it is pretty ridiculous.

Who said anything about being corrupted?

You sure implied it when you said that the voting base was morally bankrupt.

I want to know how you combine apathy with morally bankruptcy.

[mainiac]

Apathy is moral bankruptcy.  People literally live and die due to the results of US elections and most people don't even vote.

[Earthquake Damage]

Republicans pretend to be concerned about our nation's fiscal status but they're the ones who elect outright crooks into office and shrug their shoulders when those crooks steal from the American people, then they steal more from the people (in social services) to make up the deficit. Un-freakin-believable. Last I heard from polls was that Mr. Corporate Martial Law Snyder would lose his re-election by only 2%. As bad as the Republican party is, they only exist because of a large morally bankrupt voting base.

First, I'm not sold that only Republican officials are crooks, or even that they're significantly worse than any other major political party anywhere.

Second, it's not a large morally bankrupt voting base (way to generalize) that gets them elected.  It's the same thing that gets any politician elected:  bullshit.

[Jake]

Apathy is moral bankruptcy.  People literally live and die due to the results of US elections and most people don't even vote.

I envy anyone who still has reason to believe it matters whether or not they bother turning up on polling day. At least your President can't kick Congresspersons off the party ticket for not voting how he tells them to vote the way British prime ministers can.

[mainiac]

Apathy is moral bankruptcy.  People literally live and die due to the results of US elections and most people don't even vote.

I envy anyone who still has reason to believe it matters whether or not they bother turning up on polling day. At least your President can't kick Congresspersons off the party ticket for not voting how he tells them to vote the way British prime ministers can.

Yeah, you guys really have the worst of both worlds.  You get elitist party structures and your system is rigged to keep third parties down.  When the hell are you guys gonna fix that already?  Wasn't that the primary demand the liberal democrats had going into the coalition?

[Bauglir]

-snip-

[Nadaka]

Haha, don't forget that rick scot, sorry a company he owned and had total control of, has also been convicted of medicaid fraud.

Back during the election, I had made a photoshopped rick scott ad, where I replaced the name rick scott with lex luthor as a form of satire.

[Earthquake Damage]

When the hell are you guys gonna fix that already?  Wasn't that the primary demand the liberal democrats had going into the coalition?

It benefits the existing party structure and members of those parties make up an overwhelming majority of elected officials.  They have no incentive to change it.  I figure it'll take a massive public uprising to change it.

As for the second question, I don't have a clue, actually.  I also wouldn't use the word "coalition" in US politics.  Regardless, political promises mean nothing when the people who made that promise have no reason under the sun to follow through with it.

[mainiac]

It benefits the existing party structure and members of those parties make up an overwhelming majority of elected officials.  They have no incentive to change it.  I figure it'll take a massive public uprising to change it.

As for the second question, I don't have a clue, actually.  I also wouldn't use the word "coalition" in US politics.  Regardless, political promises mean nothing when the people who made that promise have no reason under the sun to follow through with it.

I wouldn't use the word coalition in US politics either.  That's why I used it to describe UK politics, in which the liberal democrats are in a coalition with the conservatives.  This relationship has been very kind to the tories but the liberal democrats don't seem to be getting much out of it.

[Earthquake Damage]

I wouldn't use the word coalition in US politics either.  That's why I used it to describe UK politics,

Derp.

It's so easy to lose track of conversations when they cross borders in the blink of an eye.

[Glowcat]

You sure implied it when you said that the voting base was morally bankrupt.

I want to know how you combine apathy with morally bankruptcy.

Apathy towards blatant and severe criminal action justified by stances that are either immoral in themselves or hypocritical (i.e. claiming to be fiscally responsible while implicitly defending a corporate welfare system) is, in my view, only done by those who are morally bankrupt. Note that I am talking about people who go out and vote for the person who is responsible, or still hold a desire to vote for the person, because while they are apathetic about the criminal action they are still passionate for the cause that makes them vote for said person. Voters take action knowing full well that there are consequences for their choice -- knowingly voting for a crook makes them partially responsible for that crook's actions while he or she is in office.

Corrupt Democrats become marginalized in or exiled from politics; corrupt Republicans are championed by their party and base. That is what I see, and that is what I judge by.

[Nivim]

 Reading this thread, and many pages of similar subject material, I keep getting this feeling like such things (corruption, backstabbing, personal agendas, ect...) should be things of the past; non-existent in the civilized world. Is this the same feeling that causes the problem? That such things "can't happen" regardless of how often they do?
 I can easily dispel this feeling in myself, especially with these threads and news sites, but how would one go about breaking the feeling in another person? A group of people? A community of people? The connected world?[/rhetorical questions]
 Are there any ~"collected news repositories" that put together the news from all available online sources like so many bloggers and forumites struggle to do? I know there are people like R. Munroe who would have this idea, but I haven't heard or seen of it.