Rich people shouldn't get a break

Fugitive billionaire Marc Rich went out and bought himself a pardon, and the Republicans are going ballistic in Washington D.C.\nMaybe I'm being too harsh. Maybe Rich's ex-wife, Denise, didn't go up to Bill Clinton and give him $450,000 for his library in exchange for a pardon. But what we know for sure is Rich bought access to the presidential pardon process.\nRich's case bypassed the Justice Department, which normally reviews pardon applications. Denise has contributed more than $1 million to the Democratic Party. According to the San Jose Mercury News, Rich reportedly paid Jack Quinn, the former White House counsel, $300,000 for representing him. Clinton says Israeli high officials also pushed for Rich's pardon, but keep in mind that Rich has donated $80 million over the past 20 years to Israeli hospitals, museums, symphonies and the absorption of immigrants. I might be a journalistic abomination (as some of my fans tell me), but it seems to me, for the low price of $82 million plus change, you, too, can stay out of federal prison.\nLike the Republicans, I am sick of rich people getting whatever they want, whenever they want. \nThese pardons are just more examples of the joke rich people are making out of our legal system.\nCarlos Vignali, whose prison sentence was commuted to time served by Clinton, was caught with 800 pounds of cocaine. I would never again see the light of day if the Bloomington Police Department caught me with 800 pounds of cocaine. But Vignali's dad happens to be a big time Los Angeles businessman who contributes to the Democratic Party. Vignali's pardon also earned Hugh Rodham, Hillary's brother, $200,000, which he has given back after the evil Democrat-lovin' liberal media got wind of it.\nIt's not just pardons. The Super Bowl's Most Valuable Player, Baltimore Ravens' Ray Lewis, walked away a free man after he shuttled away in a limousine two friends who stabbed two men to death outside a nightclub in Atlanta. I wonder what would happen to me if two of my friends killed people outside of Axis (a local nightspot for you non-Bloomingtonians), and I drove them away?\nThese are not isolated incidents. The Houston Chronicle studied 30,000 court cases in Harris County, Texas. It found that criminal defendants represented by court-appointed attorneys were twice as likely to be sentenced to jail or prison than defendants with money to hire their own lawyers. In America, it's hard to put rich people in jail who commit the exact same crimes as poor people.\nThese pardons are also examples of the joke rich people are making out of our political system. To today's politicians, the voter is nothing more than a sheep to be led around using mass marketing techniques perfected by their corporate masters. To these people, convincing an individual citizen to vote for them is much less important than convincing some corporate bigwig to sign over a check so they can put their message up on the big-business brainwashing machine we call television.\nWant an example? After posting record profits last year, the oil industry is pushing our government to open up protected wildlife areas to drilling. In the last quarter, the Los Angeles Times reported, Exxon Mobil reported a 90 percent increase in earnings, $5.2 billion to be exact, a quarterly record for a U.S. company. Its full-year net profit was $16.9 billion, also a record, shattering the previous mark of $10.8 billion set in 1999 by Citigroup Inc, according to the Times. It's not alone. Chevron Corp.'s earnings rose 88 percent to $1.54 billion, and Texaco Inc., which Chevron is acquiring, and USX Marathon Group saw profits double, the Jan. 25 article reported. Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum Corp. posted an 82 percent operating earnings increase, according to the Times. But it must be those stinking Arabs who are making prices so high.\nThe Center for Responsive Politics reported that the oil industry has nothing to fear from Congress, not after contributing $124,769,289 to both parties during the last 10 years. For a fraction of its last quarter profits, its lobbyists get to walk into our representatives' offices whenever they like to tell them whatever they like. The average voter's voice can't compete against that.\nInstead of impotently railing against a man who is on permanent vacation, Republicans could channel their anger on the cause instead of the effect. They could listen to John McCain on campaign finance reform. They could lessen the economic disparity in the United States by giving a $1.6 trillion tax cut to those making under $50,000 (I call it "Trickle Up" economics). They could stop being hypocrites.