Socialism for Big Business

[Ichingcarpenter]

If you want a great insight into how the lobbying game works in Washington, D.C., take a look at a very insightful article entitled “Mickey Goes to Washington” by Jeffrey H. Birnbaum, which appeared in last Sunday’s Washington Post Magazine. The article focuses on the process by which Walt Disney Parks and Resort and other big-business members of the U.S. tourism industry have been using well-heeled Washington lobbyists in an attempt to persuade members of Congress to allocate U.S. taxpayer funds to promote U.S. tourism to foreigners.

Recognizing that the U.S. government’s Iraq War had damaged America’s credibility abroad, Disney and its lobbying coalition argued that foreigners should be encouraged to come to America to see how nice Americans really are. The Disney coalition even views its efforts as a joint public-private exercise in U.S. diplomacy.

In other words, while the U.S. government continues to kill and maim people in Iraq, a country that never attacked the United States, Big Business will use U.S. taxpayer money to induce foreigners to visit Disneyland and other U.S. tourist sites to show that Americans are actually very kind and caring people.

So, why didn’t Disney and the members of its lobbying coalition simply come out with an open attack on the federal government’s invasion and occupation of Iraq? Why not also, at the same time, openly go on the attack against its prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, its kidnapping and renditions, its torture and sex abuse of prisoners and detainees, its kangaroo military tribunals, and its denial of due process? Why not attack the federal government’s attempt to isolate the private sector from the rest of the world, with its stringent visa requirements, its fingerprinting of tourists, and the building of walls around the United States?
>>>>>snip

http://www.fff.org/blog/jghblog2008-02-18.asp