Double G: The Dems, Brought To You By AT&T

Glenn Greenwald reports on the massive party AT&T threw for the Blue Dog Dems on Monday night...and of course Glenn got stopped at the door for his efforts exposing the Dems' culpability on the FISA debacle.

Armed with full-scale Convention press credentials issued by the DNC, I went -- along with Firedoglake's Jane Hamsher, John Amato, Stoller and others -- in order to cover the event, interview the attendees, and videotape the festivities. There was a wall of private security deployed around the building, and after asking where the press entrance was, we were told by the security officials, after they consulted with event organizers, that the press was barred from the event, and that only those with invitations could enter -- notwithstanding the fact that what was taking place in side was a meeting between one of the nation's largest corporations and the numerous members of the most influential elected faction in Congress. As a result, we stood in front of the entrance and began videotaping and trying to interview the parade of Blue Dog Representatives, AT&T executives, assorted lobbyists and delegates who pulled up in rented limousines, chauffeured cars, and SUVs in order to find out who was attending and why AT&T would be throwing such a lavish party for the Blue Dog members of Congress.

Amazingly, not a single one of the 25-30 people we tried to interview would speak to us about who they were, how they got invited, what the party's purpose was, why they were attending, etc. One attendee said he was with an "energy company," and the other confessed she was affiliated with a "trade association," but that was the full extent of their willingness to describe themselves or this event. It was as though they knew they're part of a filthy and deeply corrupt process and were ashamed of -- or at least eager to conceal -- their involvement in it. After just a few minutes, the private security teams demanded that we leave, and when we refused and continued to stand in front trying to interview the reticent attendees, the Denver Police forced us to move further and further away until finally we were unable to approach any more of the arriving guests.

Not all the Dems are corrupt as the Beltway types inside this party. But too many of them are. It's the way Washington has worked for decades, and getting it to truly change means putting an end to things like this.

It was really the perfect symbol for how the Beltway political system functions -- those who dictate the nation's laws (the largest corporations and their lobbyists) cavorting in total secrecy with those who are elected to write those laws (members of Congress), while completely prohibiting the public from having any access to and knowledge of -- let alone involvement in -- what they are doing. And all of this was arranged by the corporation -- AT&T -- that is paying for a substantial part of the Democratic National Convention with millions upon millions of dollars, which just received an extraordinary gift of retroactive amnesty from the Congress controlled by that party, whose logo is splattered throughout the city wherever the DNC logo appears -- virtually attached to it -- all taking place next to the stadium where the Democratic presidential nominee, claiming he will cleanse the Beltway of corporate and lobbying influences, will accept the nomination on Thursday night.

No matter which party is in charge, the corporations run everything. It's usually worse with the Republicans...but there are enough Democrats in Washington that if they banded together they could put a serious dent in this. They choose not to.

Changing a system like this requires a lot of work. But it's work that absolutely has to be started now with an Obama administration. A McSame administration will do nothing about these abuses. I don't have a lot of hope Obama will be able to do much of anything. But I am iron-clad sure that McSame will actively avoid cleaning up anything. He'll have all new wars to fight over megacorporate resources and record profits.

I know there's a slender thread of hope between what McSame will do and what Obama might try to do...after all nobody gets to this level in politics without being beholden to these same corporations, the ExxonMobils, Wal-Marts, and AT&Ts of the world, but I gotta believe a small chance is better than a known assurance it will continue for four more years.

So I vote for Obama in Kentucky. You don't get much more long shot than that.