Veteran journalist Bill Moyers wrote on Thursday, "We are this close to losing our democracy to the mercenary class," describing how money buys influence. It is called the "mercenary class" because it is bought by money and is primarily interested in serving the particular interests of very few particular parties.

A timely patch [By Jiao Haiyang/China.org.cn]

By no means is this phenomenon a new one. The Greek historian Plutarch (ca. 46-120) one day wrote about ancient Rome, "The buying and selling of votes crept in and money began to play an important part in determining elections. Later on, this process of corruption spread in the courts of law, to the army and finally, when even the sword became enslaved by the power of gold, the republic was subjected to the rule of emperors."

Writing these words some 2000 years ago, Plutarch's writing still manages to give a relatively accurate description of the present-day U.S.

U.S. Congress is also known as "Israeli-occupied territory." Even Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, who is enamored with Israel, admitted that "the U.S. Congress is bought and paid for by Israel lobby."

Two years ago, 81 congressional representatives from all over the United States, or 20 percent of Congress, led by Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, traveled to Israel with all expenses of their weeklong trips paid for by the American Israel Education Foundation (AIEF), a supporting organization of AIPAC, the major Israel lobby.