Conflict Of Interest

God bless America, land of the crooked way to earn a buck. When it comes to our elected officials in Washington, I am seldom surprised by their shenanigans. In what can only be seen as a clear conflict of interest, members of Congress have as much as 196 million dollars collectively invested in companies doing business with the Defense Department. Wow! To be fair, not all of that money is invested with companies that make weapons. The list includes such companies as
PepsiCo, IBM, Microsoft and Johnson & Johnson to name a few. I think people would assume that most of the holdings were owned by Republicans. It makes a certain kind sense given that the Republican Party remains the more vocal supporter of the Iraq War. However that assumption is wrong. I found it surprising that in 2006, the last year fully reported, Democrats held at least $3.7 million in military related investments, compared to Republican investments of $577,500. Democratic Senator John Kerry, who ran for President back in 2004, earned the most, at least $2.6 million between 2004 and 2006 from investments worth up to $38.2 million. Now do you feel silly for voting for him? Senator Kerry is a vocal opponent of the War in Iraq? I guess he likes to have his cake and eat it too. Senator Kerry is also a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. No conflict of interest there right? Presidential Candidates McCain and Obama have no military holdings. Clinton did, but sold them back in 2007. Hillary is nothing if not shrewd. One must wonder why we do not hear these stories all over the television news or in the newspapers. I think it is just further evidence of the huge liberal media bias.