Harold Pinter acknowledgement speech

[Occhidiangela]

O man, and there I am with my shares in RD Shell...let's get rid of them.....

I mean are there non millionaire congressmen?

Yep, loads of them are not millionaires. Your perception that only millionaires get into the Senate and Congress is in error, though I wonder if they don'g eventually leave as millionaires.

For example, the recent story of Representative Randall Cunningham of California, who took bribes in the order of 2.5 million dollars over a few years. He didn't start with a lot of money: he was a retired Navy fighter pilot who ran for office and succeeded 20 or so years ago. It appears he was trying to get into that millionaire club by taking bribes. And he got caught. And he will go to jail.

Hopefully, the guys bribing him, the real millionaires, will also go to jail, but since they are millionaires who can hire fancy lawyers, I am guessing they won't.

And third, we tend to be a lot more critical  of our leaders.

I don't think you perceive the blistering every president takes in the American press, which is very understandable given that you don't live here. Journalist (and a bit of a liberal shill) Molly Ivans has been writing scathing articles about George W. Bush, whom she calls "Shrub," since before he was Governor of Texas. She is not alone.

No matter what any President does, there is always someone writing him up for some failed policy or another. The criticism is constant. That is because you can't please all of the people all of the time, to misquote Abe Lincoln.

You could argue that our First Amendment and "the free press is the watchdog of liberty" cultural norms embed a habit of constant criticism, in both senses of the word: critical analysis, and being critical of any shortcomings in policy or action, perceived or real.

Occhi

PS: I wouldn't sell RD Shell, oil demand is going up, I expect oil stocks will do OK for the next few years. Thank a Chinaman next time you see one, you soon to be rich oil tycoon! :D