In Justice Shift, Corporate Deals Replace Trials

In 2005, federal authorities concluded that a Monsanto consultant had visited the home of an Indonesian official and, with the approval of a senior company executive, handed over an envelope stuffed with hundred-dollar bills. The money was meant as a bribe to win looser environmental regulations for Monsanto’s cotton crops, according to a court document. Monsanto was also caught concealing the bribe with fake invoices.

www.nytimes.com...



It is disheartening to watch our government crap on the American people. Wouldn't it be a change if just once they acknowledged that the system is a mess, and that the government should be representing their constituents and the citizens of America, rather than a bunch of lobbyists?

In a major shift of policy, the Justice Department, once known for taking down giant corporations, including the accounting firm Arthur Andersen, has put off prosecuting more than 50 companies suspected of wrongdoing over the last three years.

Deferred prosecutions have become a favorite tool of the Bush administration. But some legal experts now wonder if the policy shift has led companies, in particular financial institutions now under investigation for their roles in the subprime mortgage debacle, to test the limits of corporate anti-fraud laws.

I'm wondering how many laws the Bush Administration have broken, curtailed or loophooled? Is it too late to turn things around in this country?