To: Rarebird who wrote (58945 ) 9/27/2000 10:53:40 AM From: long-gone Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 116759 From the writings of Sir Edward Coke in the 1520's England thru today,this has been very near the meaning of the term monopoly: Monopoly Control by one or a few companies of the manufacture, sale, distribution, or price of something. A monopoly may be prohibited if, for example, a company deliberately drives out competition. Oran's Dictionary of the Law lawoffice.com Monopoly A commercial advantage enjoyed by only one or a select few companies in which only those companies can trade in a certain area. Some monolopoies are legal, such as those temporarily created by patents. Others are secretly built by conspiracy between two or more companies and are prohibited by law. duhaime.org You will note that the direction of the manipulation is not that which places it outside the law, rather the sole fact undoes competition. Thus when Clinton sold oil from the strategic reserves(as a bonus to Gore) to OXY, into a soft market, he broke(at the very least) this law. Does not the same finding apply to those selling excessive paper gold into this soft market so as to control price? As to Bush "selling his soul" to the moral majority, were you running against a sitting VP(who has proven to take the public's money)would you turn away any money? Is money evil or only what it might buy? The question will be if those donations have put him at odds with the law or the public good or if they buy legal change or additional consideration? This can only be answered after the fact, we know what was bought & sold via donations under Gore/Clinton. There is little such proof in the recent history of Texas under Bush.