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> a coalition of mining industry groups are legally entitled to review data from the study before publication You can't blame the lobbyists' lawyers for trying

> a coalition of mining industry groups are legally entitled to review data from the study before publication You can't blame the lobbyists' lawyers for trying to enforce a provision that their clients successfully negotiated. You should be ripshit that they were able to negotiate the provision in the first place.

aero142 15y ago
I can and do blame them for being immoral and this clearly demonstrates that they have no interest in integrity or the truth. I don't "blame" them in any legal sense however.
firefoxman1 15y ago
Very well put. It's quite unfortunate that capitalism didn't rule the world when this country was founded, because it was nearly impossible for our founding fathers to predict the massive power and interest businesses now have in government. They let congress regulate themselves because, I mean, who would want to be a congressman in 1780? Low pay, hard job, hardly any kickbacks for the corrupt, and you were personally responsible to your constituents because the population was so small.
cs702 15y ago
> You can't blame the lobbyists' lawyers for trying to enforce a provision that their clients successfully negotiated. I'm not so sure. By the same logic, one could argue that the lobbyists deserve no blame either, because they were just doing what their clients paid them to do; nor could one blame the business executives who hired the lobbying firm in the first place, because the fiduciary obligation of those executives is to maximize their companies' profits; and so on. At some point, by reductio ad absurdum, this chain of "we did exactly what we were hired to do" excuses must break down, no? Doesn't the buck stop somewhere? Or is this a systemic cultural problem where blame is so diffuse that no one can be held reponsible -- i.e., everyone is to blame, therefore no one can be blamed?

aero142 15y ago

I can and do blame them for being immoral and this clearly demonstrates that they have no interest in integrity or the truth. I don't "blame" them in any legal sense however.

firefoxman1 15y ago

Very well put. It's quite unfortunate that capitalism didn't rule the world when this country was founded, because it was nearly impossible for our founding fathers to predict the massive power and interest businesses now have in government. They let congress regulate themselves because, I mean, who would want to be a congressman in 1780? Low pay, hard job, hardly any kickbacks for the corrupt, and you were personally responsible to your constituents because the population was so small.

cs702 15y ago

> You can't blame the lobbyists' lawyers for trying to enforce a provision that their clients successfully negotiated. I'm not so sure. By the same logic, one could argue that the lobbyists deserve no blame either, because they were just doing what their clients paid them to do; nor could one blame the business executives who hired the lobbying firm in the first place, because the fiduciary obligation of those executives is to maximize their companies' profits; and so on. At some point, by reductio ad absurdum, this chain of "we did exactly what we were hired to do" excuses must break down, no? Doesn't the buck stop somewhere? Or is this a systemic cultural problem where blame is so diffuse that no one can be held reponsible -- i.e., everyone is to blame, therefore no one can be blamed?