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<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/mokhiber09222009.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.counterpunch.org/mokhiber09222009.html<br>
</a></font><font face="Verdana" size=2 color="#990000">September 22,
2009<br><br>
</font><h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4><b>The Democrats,
Pfizer and Acorn <br><br>
<br>
</i></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5 color="#990000">
Who's the Pimp?
</b></font></h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>By RUSSELL
MOKHIBER <br><br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=6 color="#990000">A</font>
<font face="Verdana" size=2>corn is a poor people’s grassroots
organization.<br><br>
Earlier this month, some of it’s employees were caught on tape giving
advice to two young right-wing activists posing as pimp and prostitute.
<br><br>
Pfizer is a wealthy and powerful multinational corporation.<br><br>
Earlier this month, a Pfizer unit pled guilty to a felony in connection
with a major health care fraud and paid $2.3 billion in fines.<br><br>
So, if the Democratically controlled Congress were to vote to
either:<br><br>
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<dd>a) strip federal funding from the grassroots group Acorn, or<br><br>
<dd>b) ban corporate felon Pfizer from future government
business<br><br>
</dl>Which would it be?<br><br>
Let me guess.<br><br>
Last week, the Democratic controlled Congress voted to strip Acorn of its
federal funding.<br><br>
Why?<br><br>
The vote came a day after the release of the latest video by the two
activists who crisscrossed the country trying to get Acorn employees to
help them in setting up a child-prostitution business.<br><br>
In some Acorn offices, workers reported the two to the police.<br><br>
In others, they sought to help the fake pimp and prostitute.<br><br>
Fox and Limbaugh and Hannity and Beck and O’Reilly made it seem as if
Acorn was a corporate felon.<br><br>
And reacting to the right-wing echo chamber, the House and Senate voted
to end Acorn’s federal funding.<br><br>
Unclear whether such a move is Constitutional.<br><br>
The Constitution prohibits bills of attainder.<br><br>
That means Congress can’t punish individual organizations.<br><br>
But putting that minor detail aside for a moment, let’s say Congress can
punish.<br><br>
Why bully the weak?<br><br>
After all, a society rots from the head down.<br><br>
Let’s chop at the top.<br><br>
Let’s find a list of major corporate criminals who rip off the federal
government.<br><br>
And bar them from ever doing business with the federal government
again.<br><br>
Lo and behold, we have such a list right here.<br><br>
A quick and dirty list from the annals of Taxpayers Against Fraud and the
Corporate Crime Reporter:<br><br>
Pfizer, Serono, Takeda-Abbott Pharmaceutical, Shering-Plough, Lilly,
Abbott Labs, Cephalon, National Medical Enterprises, HCA, Gambro Health
Care, Schering-Plough, Astra-Zeneca, Bayer, Purdue.<br><br>
Major corporate criminals?<br><br>
Check.<br><br>
Convicted in a court of law?<br><br>
Check. <br><br>
Ripped off the federal government?<br><br>
Check.<br><br>
Paid fines that would keep Acorn in business until hell freezes
over?<br><br>
Check.<br><br>
Which raises an obvious question for the members of Congress who voted
overwhelmingly to strip Acorn of its federal funding:<br><br>
Who’s the pimp?<br><br>
Russell Mokhiber</b> is editor of Corporate Crime Reporter and founder of
<a href="mailto:singlepayeraction.org">singlepayeraction.org</a><br><br>
<br><br>
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