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With the recent disclosure of the British Petroleum gas market manipulation a criminal fraud, we now have yet another confirmation that Justice in America is anything but blind. While thousands of Americans and dirt-poor immigrants are prosecuted and jailed every day for minor frauds of under $1,000 or even for using a phony green card to work and feed their families, the truly big fraudsters like the executives of British Petroleum and recently the pharmaceutical giant Bristol Myers Squibb (who was caught defrauding elderly consumers of over a billion dollars a year with kick-back bribes to doctors for prescribing unneeded but expensive drugs for unwitting patients) walk away with only fines that are paid by their shareholders not them. Similarly, we all watched Scooter Libby, a convicted felon, just walk away from a prison sentence. All three of these perpetrators had one common denominator political friends in high places that clearly prove that politics trump justice in America. So much for the theory that the severity of the punishment should match the magnitude of the crime.

The "Why" of this ugly status quo is no great mystery. The two largest lobby groups in the world are the oil and pharmaceutical industries. Nobody contributes more political campaign money and other "campaign support" (like free corporate jets, free banquet halls, free printed material, and TV air time). But we all know by now that anything "free" comes with strings attached and favors that must be paid back after the elections. Over 94% of our Congressmen and Senators have taken large contributions from these two industries. The oil industry had financed both Bush presidencies, and both VP Cheney, and Condoleeza Rica (as well as the President himself) were all previously on the board of directors for various oil companies before coming to Washington to become "public servants".

By allowing the scheming executives of these huge companies to walk away without criminal prosecution and jail time, the Bush administration themselves, and their puppet Justice Department, have all become brazen accomplices to the biggest frauds perpetrated against the public since Enron. This sends a wonderful signal to all the other huge corporations that ripping off American consumers and taxpayers will only result in a minimal fine that is a mere fraction of the billions of profits earned. We are not fooled nor amused Mr. President.

While this unfortunate reality prevails in America, thousand of teachers

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