All Entries in the "Corruption" Category

BREAKING: U.S. Senate Candidate Files Challenge to SC’s ‘Unreliable, Unverifiable’ E-Vote Results

Vic Rawl says inexplicable Democratic primary contest casts ‘cloud’ over state election; Notes ‘irregularities’, problem reports from voters, poll workers, vows ‘electoral reform’, calls for ‘full and unblinking investigation of overall integrity’ of state’s ES&S voting system…

A formal challenge to the announced results of South Carolina’s Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate has now been filed by Judge Vic Rawl, the candidate who wasn’t announced the winner by the state’s oft-failed, easily-manipulated, 100% unverifiable ES&S e-voting system.

Rawl released an official statement on his website today, in conjunction with the filing and a press conference he held in Charleston this afternoon.

The statement points generally to a number of findings being made by the campaign as independent experts have analyzed the results, voting patterns and problems being reported by poll workers and voters on Election Day where the unknown, unemployed candidate Alvin Greene defeated Rawl on the unverifiable ES&S iVotronic touch-screen voting systems, performing 11 points better on those machines than he did in the paper-based absentee results. The oft-failed, easily-manipulated ES&S election results reporting system gave Greene a 59% to 41% “victory” over Rawl.

Full Story: The BRAD BLOG : BREAKING: U.S. Senate Candidate Files Challenge to SC’s ‘Unreliable, Unverifiable’ E-Vote Results.

Lincoln, Who Gets A Large Amount Of Corporate Cash, Complains About ‘Other People’ Funding Her Opponent

On Tuesday, Arkansas voters will go to the polls to nominate a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate. The race is expected to be close, with incumbent senator Blanche Lincoln facing a tough challenge from former Arkansas Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, who is mounting a populist campaign against Lincoln, claiming she is too close to big corporations.

Today, on CNN’s State of the Union, host Candy Crowley asked Lincoln about how she felt her campaign was going. The incumbent senator said that she has been traveling all over the state to campaign, while Halter has been allowing “other people fund his campaign and do his dirty work”

LINCOLN: I’ve spent the last oh gosh the last week on our countdown to victory tour in 20, 25 county courthouses across the state. Bill hasn’t been doing that, he’s been letting other people fund his campaign and do his dirty work and I’ve been out there with the people.

Watch it:

Full Story: Think Progress » Lincoln, Who Gets A Large Amount Of Corporate Cash, Complains About ‘Other People’ Funding Her Opponent.

Video: Israel owns the USA

– Dr. Paul Craig Roberts:

Sharon to Peres: “We Control America”

Congressional Pandering to Israel proves him Right

by Mohamed Khodr

On October 3, 2001, I.A.P. News reported that according to Israel Radio (in Hebrew) Kol Yisrael an acrimonious argument erupted during the Israeli cabinet weekly session last week between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his foreign Minister Shimon Peres. Peres warned Sharon that refusing to heed incessant American requests for a cease-fire with the Palestinians would endanger Israeli interests and “turn the US against us. “Sharon reportedly yelled at Peres, saying “don’t worry about American pressure, we the Jewish people control America.”

“The Israelis control the policy in the congress and the senate.”

– Senator Fullbright, Chair of Senate Foreign Relations Committee: 10/07/1973 on CBS’ “Face the Nation”.

“I am aware how almost impossible it is in this country to carry out a foreign policy [in the Middle East] not approved by the Jews….. terrific control the Jews have over the news media and the barrage the Jews have built up on congressmen …. I am very much concerned over the fact that the Jewish influence here is completely dominating the scene and making it almost impossible to get congress to do anything they don’t approve of. The Israeli embassy is practically dictating to the congress through influential Jewish people in the country“

—–Sec. of State John Foster Dulles quoted on p.99 of Fallen Pillars by Donald Neff

Full Story: Video: Israel owns the USA – Dr. Paul Craig Roberts « Wake-up Call.

Pro-Israel PAC Contributions to 2010 Congressional Candidates

PRO-ISRAEL PAC CONTRIBUTIONS TO 2010 CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATES

More…..

Full Story: Pro-Israel PAC Contributions to 2010 Congressional Candidates.

Unemployment Benefits For Millions Once Again Hung Up in The Senate

For the third time in as many months, unemployment benefits for millions of jobless Americans could begin running out if the Senate doesn’t act.

Emergency unemployment compensation expired this past Wednesday, a Pennsylvania state official warns. Without immediate Senate attention to the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010, hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians will be left without any supplemental income while they seek new work, according to Pennsylvania Labor & Industry Secretary Sandi Vito. Millions of other jobless Americans also could be affected.

The Labor Department released May jobs data on Friday. The economy added 431,000 jobs last month, but most of those were part-time Census positions. The national unemployment rate dipped from 9.9 percent, to a still-high 9.7 percent. The ongoing economic slump represents the worst such downturn since the Great Depression.

Full Story: On The Hill: Unemployment Benefits For Millions Once Again Hung Up in The Senate.

Shadow Congress:

A Guide To More Than 170 Congressmen Turned Lobbyists

I’d really encourage readers to check out this great piece from Justin Elliot and Zachary Roth over at TPM Muckraker, which documents what the authors term “the Shadow Congress.” See, in their ongoing efforts to destroy America, lobbying firms have hired “more than 170 former lawmakers” to skulk around the corridors of power, using their contacts and their intimate awareness of the legislative process to make sure that moneyed interests retain their iron grip on your lawmakers.

Members of this Shadow Congress — not all of whom are registered lobbyists — hail from 41 of 50 states (Texas has the most, with 17) and they’re almost as likely to be Democrats as Republicans. Some, like Tom Daschle and Bob Dole, were powerful congressional leaders, whose presence on K Street has drawn scrutiny in the past.

But far more are low-profile back-benchers we’d never heard of and we doubt you had either: say, George Hochbrueckner, who served five terms as a New York Democrat, stepping down in 1995, and now works at Nossaman LLP; or Bill Zeliff, a three-term New Hampshire Republican who left Congress in 1997 and is now at the Livingston Group. For these run-of-the-mill lawmakers, it’s not hard to see how a second career based on leveraging their direct knowledge of the legislative process and their cozy relationships with current lawmakers — credentials they never fail to tout on their websites — could seem more appealing than the other options likely on offer: a visiting professorship at the local college, say, or a seat on the board of a smallish company.

Full Story: Shadow Congress: TPM Offers Guide To More Than 170 Congressmen Turned Lobbyists.

Vitter comes out to advocate for BP

Vitter and BP

What happens when you’re a small government, pro-business conservative and your state gets pummeled by one of the worst man made disasters ever – not five years after getting pummeled by one of the worst natural disasters (Hurricane Katrina)? If you’re Louisiana Senator David Vitter, you double down on offshore drilling and push for a liability cap for BP.

Doubling down on drilling is not particularly surprising. Much of Louisiana’s much-needed revenue comes from off-shore drilling leases. “By the same token, after every plane crash, you and I should both oppose plane travel,” Vitter quipped on Sunday to CNN’s Candy Crowley. “I don’t think that is rational.” Even Vitter’s Democratic challenger, Rep. Charlie Melancon, reiterated his support for expanded drilling in the wake of the disaster.

But it’s Vitter’s early support of a liability cap – he introduced legislation that he promoted in last weekend’s weekly GOP radio address – that’s landing the son of a Chevron petroleum engineer in trouble. Local and national Democrats have been pounding Vitter for seeking to limit the amount of legal damages BP would be responsible for to the last four quarters of profit. “Unlike Republicans, Democrats are not going to protect BP – and given their track record, we are certainly not going to rely on BP’s word as the only thing ensuring that taxpayers are not left on the hook to pay for the disaster they caused,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in a statement.

Full Story: Vitter and BP – Swampland – TIME.com.

No Respite for K Street During Memorial Day Break

The business community and organized labor are fanning out over the country during the Memorial Day recess, attempting to roust grass-roots support for their favorite candidates and legislative priorities in the waning months of the 111th Congress. They are squaring off on controversial issues such as immigration and free trade.

The labor federation AFL-CIO confirmed late last week that it will be on the ground in Arkansas helping Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s (D) runoff opponent, Lt. Gov. Bill Halter (D), by today. Early voting in that state starts a week before the June 8 runoff election.

“We’re going to be having a very busy recess all across the country to keep the pressure on our issues,” AFL-CIO spokesman Eddie Vale said in a statement.

Full Story: No Respite for K Street During Memorial Day Break – Roll Call.

ATTACK THE DEFORMERS

Jim Hightower :

Wall Street reform. How hard could it be for the US Senate to do this job?

After all, terms like “Wall Street banker,” “hedge fund operator,” and “derivatives speculator” are curse words among the general public. These are the narcissistic hiesters who wrecked our economy, yet they’ve gotten away with a multitrillion-dollar bailout for their banks and multimillion-dollar bonuses for themselves. So passing a bill to stop such thievery in the future seems like something even a senator could do.

But after months and months, the financial regulatory reform bill is staggering out of the senate as a hodgepodge of compromises, loopholes, and fiendishly convoluted amendments. It reads like something that bankers, operators, and speculators themselves patched together to avoid reform.

That’s because it largely is. This bill drew industry lobbyists like road kill draws vultures. Not just a lot of lobbyists, but the “connected ones” – those high-salaried K-Streeters who have insider access because… well, because they are insiders.

Full Story: Jim Hightower | ATTACK THE DEFORMERS.

K Street Lobbyists Hope To Make John Boehner The Next Speaker: He’s ‘A Good Investment’

Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner’s (R-OH) ability to corral his caucus into opposing reform is paying off dividends in his bid to become the next Speaker of the House. Roll Call reports this morning that lobbyists view Boehner as a “good investment,” and that Boehner has assembled a “kitchen cabinet” of lobbyists to organize his fundraising operation. According to the article, Boehner has leaned on these lobbyists to pressure their clients to increase their contributions to vulnerable Republican lawmakers. Already, Boehner’s outreach has helped his own campaign war chest swell to $3.2 million, while his leadership PAC had brought in $1.9 million by the end of March.

Boehner promised that if he becomes the next Speaker, he will create a more “open” and “transparent” Congress. But Boehner’s courtship of K Street undermines that claim, especially considering the fact he has consistently prioritized the interests of lobbyists over the public over the past year:

– In July of 2009, Boehner interrupted House proceedings so Republican lawmakers could attend his annual “Boehner Beach Party” fundraiser with corporate lobbyists. [Politico]

– In December of 2009, Boehner convened a meeting with 100 corporate lobbyists to plot strategy to defeat Wall Street reform. [Roll Call]

Full Story: Think Progress » K Street Lobbyists Hope To Make John Boehner The Next Speaker: He’s ‘A Good Investment’.

Oil & Gas: Money to Congress

The numbers on this page are based on contributions from PACs and individuals giving $200 or more. All donations took place during the 1989-2010 election cycle and were released by the Federal Election Commission.

Repubs	Dems		Repubs	Dems
	$s in millions  total	percentages
2010	6.4	3.2	9.6	67%	33%
2008	17.2	5.7	22.9	75%	25%
2006	11	2.5	13.5	81%	19%
2004	13.5	3.3	16.8	80%	20%
2002	8.8	3	11.8	75%	25%
2000	10.7	2.8	13.5	79%	21%

Total	67.6	20.5	88.1	77%	23%

Full Story: Oil & Gas: Money to Congress | OpenSecrets.

James Carville Takes On Obama On Oil Spill: He’s ‘Risking Everything’ With ‘Go Along With BP Strategy’

Democratic strategist James Carville and MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews, two reliable supporters of President Barack Obama, have issued withering critiques of the administration’s handling of the Gulf oil spill.

Carville, the famously outspoken Louisianian who was a chief political aide to Bill and Hillary Clinton, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Thursday that the administration’s response to the spill has been “lackadaisical” and that Obama was “naive” to trust BP to manage the massive clean-up effort.

“I think they actually believe that BP has some kind of a good motivation here,” he said. “They’re naive! BP is trying to save money, save everything they can… They won’t tell us anything, and oddly enough, the government seems to be going along with it! Somebody has got to, like shake them and say, ‘These people don’t wish you well! They’re going to take you down!’”

Full Story: James Carville Takes On Obama On Oil Spill: He’s ‘Risking Everything’ With ‘Go Along With BP Strategy’.

GOP Kills Science Jobs Bill By Forcing Dems To Vote For Porn

In an example of Republican obstructionism rendered beautiful by its simplicity, the GOP yesterday killed a House bill that would increase funding for scientific research and math and science education by forcing Democrats to vote in favor of federal employees viewing pornography.

Rep. Ralph Hall (R-TX), the ranking member of the House science committee, introduced a motion to recommit, a last-ditch effort to change a bill by sending it back to the committee with mandatory instructions.

In this case, Republicans included a provision that would bar the federal government from paying the salaries of employees who’ve been disciplined for viewing pornography at work.

Full Story: GOP Kills Science Jobs Bill By Forcing Dems To Vote For Porn | TPMDC.

President Obama’s Campaign Arm Tries to Get Grass-Roots Democrats to Defeat Fellow Progressive

Organizing for America, the former grass-roots campaign arm for President Obama’s 2008 campaign, is trying to rally supporters to phone bank and get out the vote in Pennsylvania for Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Penn., the former Republican locked in a tight primary race with a far more progressive Democrat, Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Penn.

Chris Bolling, the national volunteer coordinator for OFA, writes in an email that the “stakes of this election are high: ensuring that allies of the President are elected in the House and Senate to fight for change. So starting this weekend, through Tuesday’s election, there will be phone banks for OFA volunteers in D.C. We’ll call into Pennsylvania and encourage voters to support leaders who will fight for President Obama’s vision for change.”

Specter, of course, supported the presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and only became a Democrat when it became clear he would suffer an ignominious defeat in the GOP primary to former Rep. Pat Toomey, R-Penn. But the White House, needing Specter’s support for various parts of the president’s agenda, pledged to help him in his re-election.

Full Story: President Obama’s Campaign Arm Tries to Get Grass-Roots Democrats to Defeat Fellow Progressive – Political Punch.

OPS:  ‘Fellow Progressive’ ? This dumb-ass is still trying to sell the snake-oil that Obama is a Progressive.

Bill Maher: Why Can’t Liberals Get A Liberal On Supreme Court? (VIDEO)

Newly re-elected Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Daily Beast columnist John Avlon, and author S.E. Cupp appeared on Bill Maher’s “Real Time” panel Friday.

Maher began the discussion with the topic of Elena Kagan’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Pointing to questions about Kagan’s judicial philosophy, Maher wondered why President Obama would nominate a person who is a “huge question mark.”

“I find it very scary that the liberals win two elections in a row, the Democrats at least, and the best they can put on the Supreme Court is a huge question mark,” Maher said. “The Republicans don’t do it that way. Bush wins an election, he gets John Roberts a known, dyed in the wool conservative on the court. He gets Alito. Why can’t the liberals get somebody who’s a liberal on the court to balance it.?”

Full Story: Bill Maher: Why Can’t Liberals Get A Liberal On Supreme Court? (VIDEO).

Is Your Senator on the Side of the People or the Banksters? Report Card: Banksters Winning in the Senate

The Financial Reform Report Card was put together by my colleague at the Mobilization for OUR Economy, www.forOUReconomy.org, David DeGraw of AmpedStatus.com. The report card lists senators and whether they are voting for the people’s interests, the banksters or their party. This report card is based on three critical votes concerning breaking up the big banks, a real audit of the Federal Reserve and a compromise, narrow, one-time audit of the Fed.

ForOUReconomy.org is bringing together people who want real financial reform in protests at big banks, crony capitalist Wall Streeters and others who are putting the interests of the economic elite ahead of the people. Sign up at www.ForOUReconomy.org. We are building a movement for an economy that shrinks the wealth divide, democratizes the economy and breaks-up the financial oligarchy.

Financial Reform Report Card: Banksters 37, People 10, Partisans 53

Full Story: Is Your Senator on the Side of the People or the Banksters? Report Card: Banksters Winning in the Senate.

How to turn Congress Inc. back to just Congress

Katrina vanden Heuvel -

What is the biggest scandal of 2010 so far?

Allegations of fraudulent misrepresentation from Goldman Sachs? An oil spill that poses a threat to our environment and economy for generations? Mining operators freely ignoring safety violations and treating workers as disposable?

Each of these is bad. But perhaps the biggest political scandal is the one that aids and abets these others — the pay-to-play system that buys up Congress, pollutes our political system with special-interest cash and deep-sixes the kind of bold reform agenda that we voted for and need.

The health-care industry has contributed more than $200 million to congressional candidates in the 2008 and 2010 election cycles, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Is it any wonder that there was no public option in the final bill, or that Medicare isn't able to negotiate lower drug prices for seniors the same way the Veterans Administration does for veterans?

Full Story: Katrina vanden Heuvel – How to turn Congress Inc. back to just Congress.

VIDEO: As House Opens Hearing To Investigate Oil Spill Disaster, House GOP Gathers At Oil Industry Fundraiser

This morning, executives including BP’s chairman Lamar McKay, Transocean CEO Steve Newman, and Halliburton’s Timothy Probert appeared before a hearing in the House Energy and Commerce Committee to dodge responsibility for their respective roles in the Deepwater Horizon Gulf Coast oil spill. About an hour before the investigation began, however, House Republicans gathered a few blocks away for an “oil and gas breakfast” fundraiser with the oil and gas industry to benefit Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX). View a screenshot of the invitation from the Political Party Time blog below:

Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) breakfast

ThinkProgress reported from the fundraiser and spoke with several lawmakers as they went in and out of the building. We asked Brady, who praised the environmental record of the oil industry shortly after the spill, if he still believed that oil drilling still has a “very positive” record. He replied, “you know, I do.”

Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) — the chairman of the Republican committee tasked with raising funds to elect more House Republicans — told us that he saw no conflict with his members raising money from the oil industry just about an hour before BP was scheduled to appear for questioning:

Full Story: Think Progress » VIDEO: As House Opens Hearing To Investigate Oil Spill Disaster, House GOP Gathers At Oil Industry Fundraiser.

The Salazar Quotient

How Big Oil Bought the Interior Department

By BILLY WHARTON

Big oil and coal interests seemed to have reached their high point with the re-election of George W. Bush in 2004. He was a well-heeled oil man, as firmly committed to the military seizure of the world’s oil spigot, as he was hostile to the kind of science that spoke about anti-business notions such as global warming. However, the time of big energy was supposed to have faded with the election of Barack Obama to the presidency. Obama hailed the beginning of a new age of political sanity, where the US would be brought into line with global opinion about pressing issues such as carbon emissions and the transition to clean energy sources. Then, a humble Coloradan, with a cowboy hat that seemed permanently affixed to his head, named Ken Salazar ambled to the microphone to accept Obama’s nomination to be the new Secretary of the Department of the Interior (DOI). Somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico, a bird shuttered as the future of its habitat was being sealed by putting big energy back in charge of the one part of government capable of reining it in.

The Early Clashes

Salazar had a long record of clashes with environmental activists while serving as the Attorney General for the State of Colorado in the 1990s. One case with particularly ominous tones, given the current BP-oil spill cleanup, involved Salazar botching the Summitville Mine Superfund cleanup. The then Attorney General claimed that the Canadian-based Summitville Consolidated Mining Corp. would be made to pay for all of the environmental damage caused by their gold mining operation. In the end, Salazar’s inept negotiations and unwillingness to legally prosecute the company meant that millions of dollars in public funds were expended during the cleanup (Counterpunch, 12/18/2008). Salazar allowed Summitville to cut and run.

Full Story: Billy Wharton: The Salazar Quotient.

Is Your Senator a Bankster?

Dylan Ratigan:

The one main benefit to the financial reform effort so far is that it helps further do away with the false paradigms of “left” or “right” and “Democrat” or “Republican” – fewer and fewer people are falling for those lies anymore. Try to get an ideological conservative to explain why Republicans love spending and so eagerly give welfare to banks. Try to get your local liberal to explain why it was a good idea to make backroom deals with abhorrent corporations and drill, baby, drill. Heck, even try to get a Tea Partier to explain choosing bailout-lover Sarah Palin to keynote their convention, especially when that movement once had at least some pre-astroturf roots in protesting government giveaways.

What we have now is a group of politicians with shifting alliances on a case-by-case basis to the special interests who fund them. And currently, the most damaging one to our nation is the rise of the Bankster Party. Thankfully, we can now better identify its members.

Anyone who voted for the Kaufman-Brown SAFE amendment deserves to be considered a member of the “People’s Party”, at least for today. And while I may not agree, I am also OK with someone voting no on Kaufman-Brown if they voted no on the bailout in the first place. That at least shows a consistent ideology and we wouldn’t need to break up the banks into smaller parts if our leaders had the will to let them fail.

Full Story: Is Your Senator a Bankster? | The Big Picture.

Death of Brown/Kaufman a Huge Blow

By MATT TAIBBI

So the Senate voted yesterday evening. It went down by 61-33. That is frankly a crushing defeat.

The roll call has its interesting moments, notably that Alabama Republican Richard Shelby voted for it. Shelby is the leading GOP negotiator on the bill. Two other GOPers also backed it.

The Democrats split 30 for, and 27 against. Looking at those groupings will give you a pretty good idea of the nature of the divide within the Senate Democratic caucus.

via Michael Tomasky: The limits of liberalism in the Senate | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk.

As recently as last night I still had some hopes that this Financial Regulatory Reform bill might turn into something real. I was in DC watching the debate on the Senate floor yesterday and aside from being amused by the utterly schizophrenic Republican strategy for attacking the bill (several Republican Senators yesterday veered into discussions of how the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency would harm, of all people, orthodontists) there was little to the naked eye that suggested the whole thing was a farce.

In general I got the sense that many of the members on both sides of the aisle were genuinely freaked out by the snowballing corruption on Wall Street and wanted to sink at least one real fang or two into the problem, though they differed on how to get there.

Full Story: Death of Brown/Kaufman a Huge Blow – Matt Taibbi – Taibblog – True/Slant.

Obama calls for legislation to restrict lobbyist influence on elections

US President Barack Obama called on Congress on Saturday to pass reforms limiting the influence of special interest groups on US elections, saying the integrity of US democracy needed to be protected.

“What we are facing is no less than a potential corporate takeover of our elections,” Obama said in his weekly radio address. “And what is at stake is no less than the integrity of our democracy.”

The appeal came after a recent US Supreme Court ruling that gave corporations, lobbyists, other special interest groups — foreign and domestic — the power to spend unlimited money to influence the outcome of US elections.

Full Story: Obama calls for legislation to restrict lobbyist influence on elections | Raw Story.

In Aftermath Of Massive Oil Spill, Who In Washington Would Feel Beholden To Defend BP?

The ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico certainly will be one for the history books in terms of environmental impact. If BP comes under scrutiny for its role in the disaster, it appears destined also to become a textbook case in the power of corporate influence in Washington.

Coastal Louisiana appears destined for ecological catastrophe as a result of a massive oil slick coming ashore, caused by an April 20 explosion on an offshore oil rig leased by BP.

The world’s fourth-largest corporation, BP has long donated to U.S. elected officials, and spent millions to influence American policymaking.

Full Story: On The Hill: In Aftermath Of Massive Oil Spill, Who In Washington Would Feel Beholden To Defend BP?.

Bob Rubin Cuddles

Matt Taibbi -

So that’s what this is about. For a moment I was totally speechless and had to dig into my Harvard trained PhD brain to figure out what the hell he meant by “cuddling”! What can I say; once a teetotaling math geek, always a bit slow to pick up on signals from the menfolk. So the former Treasury Secretary had a “crush” on me! And not long afterward the former Treasury Secretary had his tongue down my throat and hands everywhere sort of like an octopus. But as soon as the thought entered my mind — the former Treasury Secretary has his tongue down my throat?! — I came to my senses a bit and awkwardly went back home before we both got too carried away. This is to say, I said to myself that there would be no other former Treasury Secretary appendages entering any other of my orifices.

via Iris Mack: Bob Rubin Just Wants to Be Cuddled.

No man’s behavior looks attractive when he’s cheating on his wife, but this little tell-all by a woman who had a sort-of fling with former Goldman chief and Treasury Secretary Bob Rubin is more than unusually embarrassing. It’s all coming out now — Goldman is officially the new Tiger Woods. The next revelation has to be something involving Gary Cohn and Ted Haggard.

The most disgusting (and revealing) part of the story is, to me, this part of Iris Mack’s narrative:

Full Story: Bob Rubin Cuddles – Matt Taibbi – Taibblog – True/Slant.

How Rev. Moon’s ‘Snakes’ Infested US

By Robert Parry (A Special Report)

As an investigative journalist, I’m not much for catchy political metaphors, but the revelation that snakes and rodents are infesting the Washington Times building as the Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s newspaper sinks into a financial swamp does have some poetic justice about it.

After all, for 28 years, the right-wing Washington Times has sent disinformation slithering through the U.S. political system while creating a nest for propagandists who have befouled American democracy with irrationality and dirty tricks.

Indeed, one could say that Moon’s newspaper pioneered the modern style of deceptive “journalism” that is the daily fare on Fox News, angry talk radio and right-wing blogs.

The immediate cause of the Washington Times’ financial collapse is said to be the bitter succession fight among children of the 90-year-old Unification Church founder who is no longer capable of maintaining personal control over his global religious-political-business empire.

Full Story: Consortiumnews.com.

FOREIGN CORPORATIONS IN OUR ELECTIONS?

Jim Hightower -

Having decreed that Corporations have a free speech “right ” to spend unlimited sums from their massive corporate treasuries to elect or defeat candidates in our elections, the Supreme Court’s five-man corporatist majority has opened a colossal can of worms. One of those worrisome squigglies is this question: Does the Court’s newly-fabricated political right extend to foreign corporations?

In their ruling, the answer from the five judicial monkeywrenchers was… silence. How sly. With no explicit ban to rule out foreign corporate money, the justices have implicitly ruled it in. After all, argue apologists for this constitutional l perversion, a corporation is a corporation, and its official domicile is irrelevant in determining its political rights.

So, not only have the Supremes magically endowed all inanimate corporate things with the human ability to speak, but they’ve also granted corporate “persons” more speech than actual people-people have. Start with the fact that the Court’s ruling equates our freedom of speech with the freedom to spend money – a plutocratic contortion of democracy that gives the most speech to those with the most money. American corporations alone have trillions of dollars they can draw from to shout down the voices of us mere humans.

Full Story: Jim Hightower | FOREIGN CORPORATIONS IN OUR ELECTIONS?.

For Democrats, Pushing Financial Reform Is All About Biting The Hand That Feeds

Democrats all week have been railing against “secret,” “back-room,” and “closed door” meetings between Republicans who want to collect campaign cash, and Wall Street executives eager to derail financial reform legislation.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s spokesman, in particular, has been calling regular attention to the newly close friendship between the GOP and financial executives. It’s been part of an effort to push the Senate toward passage of the largest overhaul of the financial sector since the Great Depression in the face of hostile Republican rhetoric that the fact-check website PolitiFact says is “false” and “seriously overheated rhetoric.”

Democrats, in fact, have turned their outrage over these illicit gatherings — apparently held for the purpose of swapping cash for political obstruction — into fundraising tools. The Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) sent supporters separate email appeals that attacked Republicans for their meetings with financial bigwigs.

Full Story: On The Hill: For Democrats, Pushing Financial Reform Is All About Biting The Hand That Feeds.

Alan Grayson Discloses That Dodd Bill Covertly Eliminates Already Passed Legislation Requiring Full Fed Audit

Once again we get confirmation that Chris Dodd is nothing but a paid manservant for his Federal Reserve masters,…

in addition to being a lame duck, whose last days in office are meant to do everything to allow the old-school Wall Street ways of endless secrecy and Fed bailouts to continue in perpetuity. As Ryan Grim points out “Alan Grayson and co-author Rep. Ron Paul passed legislation through the House that would allow the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to audit the Federal Reserve and, after a delay, release the information to Congress. It was a remarkable victory, with a populist coalition beating back the combined lobbying efforts of the Treasury Department, the Fed and Wall Street banks. The Senate has been more hostile territory for the Fed audit provision. Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) opposes the Grayson-Paul version, but allowed a much more restrictive audit proposal from Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) into his bill.” Why and how Dodd believes he can stand against this critical issue, that over 80% of America supports by demanding Fed transparency, is beyond any rational attempts at explanation. How he hopes to get away with it is even more mindboggling.

From the Huffington Post:

Full Story: Alan Grayson Discloses That Dodd Bill Covertly Eliminates Already Passed Legislation Requiring Full Fed Audit « COTO Report.

Eric Massa Paid Chief Of Staff $40,000 After Announcing Resignation

Former New York Rep. Eric Massa wrote a $40,000 check to his chief of staff shortly before resigning his seat last month amid sexual harassment allegations. The aide is among those pursuing complaints against the Democrat.

Federal campaign finance records describe the March 4 check to Joe Racalto from Massa’s campaign account as a “campaign management fee.” Massa had announced a day earlier, on March 3, that he would resign his seat.

Racalto’s lawyer, Camilla McKinney, said Friday the check was a “deferred payment” for Racalto’s work this year and last year on Massa’s 2010 re-election campaign and for his work on Massa’s transition after the 2008 election.

Full Story: Eric Massa Paid Chief Of Staff $40,000 After Announcing Resignation.

AR: Lt. Gov. Halter & Sen. Joyce Elliott Speak to the Machinists

Blanche Lincoln Got $1.3 Million from Wall Street

McConnell Tries To Dodge Repeated Questions About His Wall Street Fundraising

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has been blasting the Senate’s financial regulatory reform bill in recent days, falsely arguing that it “institutionalizes” bailouts for Wall Street. As Think Progress reported, McConnell’s reason for opposing financial reform seems disingenuous in the face of reports that he attended a private fundraiser with hedge fund managers and other Wall Street elites last week.

Yesterday, reporters pressed McConnell for details about his meetings on Wall Street. McConnell repeatedly refused to discuss the matter and claimed that he based his opposition to financial reform not on fundraising from Wall Street but rather on concerns from community banks in Kentucky:

QUESTION: How do you push back against this perception that you’re doing the bidding of the large banks? There was a report that you guys met with hedge fund managers in New York. A lot of people are viewing this particular line of argument, this bailout argument as spin –

Full Story: Think Progress » McConnell Tries To Dodge Repeated Questions About His Wall Street Fundraising.

McConnell Slams Financial Reform Bill After Meeting With Hedge Fund Managers And Other Wall Street Elites

This morning, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) declared his opposition to the financial reform bill before the Senate. McConnell claimed to have principled objections to the bill, saying that it “institutionalizes” bailouts of Wall Street and that it would give the Federal Reserve “enhanced emergency lending authority that is far too open to abuse.”

What McConnell did not mention was that, last week, he traveled alongside National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman Sen. John Cornyn (TX) to New York City for a private meeting with elite hedge fund managers and other Wall Street executives. The purpose of the meeting between the top Republicans and the financial executives was to enlist “Wall Street’s help” in funding Republican campaigns in the fall and killing any tough financial reform:

As a financial reform bill starts to take shape in Washington, two key lawmakers came to New York City last week to explain what it means for Wall Street, and how financial executives might help prevent some of its least market-friendly aspects from becoming law by electing more Republicans, FOX Business Network has learned.

Full Story: Think Progress » McConnell Slams Financial Reform Bill After Meeting With Hedge Fund Managers And Other Wall Street Elites.

Senate Staffer Cashes Out, Heads Back To K Street

Peter Rubin, staff director for Maryland Democrat Sen. Barbara Mikulski’s subcommittee on health and aging, announced in an email to staffers this week that he will be leaving the Hill for a job on K Street in May.

This will be Rubin’s second spin through the revolving door. In 2000, he left a job with Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) to become a registered lobbyist for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). He started working for Merck in 2007, then became Mikulski’s subcommittee staff director in 2008, just as health care reform ramped up.

“With the imminent arrival of baby #2, I have decided to take a job at Sanofi-Aventis starting on May 3rd,” said Rubin in an email to staffers that was forwarded to HuffPost. [Note to Hill staffers: Colleague making a similar move? Tell us about it -- email arthur@huffingtonpost.com. Confidentiality guaranteed.]

Full Story: Senate Staffer Cashes Out, Heads Back To K Street.

Toyota Adds to Lobbying Team Over Recalls

Toyota has moved to shore up its lobbying team, hiring a former assistant secretary of transportation from the Clinton administration, as well as the Democrat-dominated Glover Park Group, according to new lobbying registrations.

The registrations – filed over the past week – show Glover Park Group and Michael Frazier, the former assistant transportation secretary for governmental affairs who is now at Pendulum Strategies, have been working for Toyota since February. That same month, Quinn Gillespie & Associates terminated its relationship with the company because of a client conflict. Read an earlier BLT post about that here.

Glover Park Group was already working for Toyota on the public relations front. According to the lobbying registration, Joel Johnson, a Glover Park managing director who heads the firm’s lobbying, is lobbying for Toyota, as is Gregg Rothschild, a former aide to Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.). Johnson could not immediately be reached for comment.

Full Story: Toyota Adds to Lobbying Team Over Recalls – The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times.

New Book/Resource: Proving Election Fraud

Phantom Voters, Uncounted Votes, and the National Exit Poll

Click and buy now

So “spreadsheet-wielding Internet bloggers” analyzed the statistical anomalies and the online debates began. They covered the state and national pre-election and exit polls, approval ratings, margins of error, non-response, past vote recall, correlation between vote swing from 2000 and the exit poll shift, the “Urban Legend”: the counter-intuitive large Bush gains in urban locations compared to declines in rural areas. And the “Smoking Gun” is the standard policy of forcing the National Exit Poll to match the recorded vote count. This required millions more returning Bush 2000 voters than were alive. These so-called “phantom voters” are still unmentioned by media pundits and political scientists – even though similar anomalies occurred in 2006 and 2008. The pundits assume that the recorded vote is correct although millions of uncounted votes occur in every election.

This book is a comprehensive resource for analyzing presidential elections from 1968 to 2008, including the 2006 midterms. It is written for readers of virtually all backgrounds. The only requirement is an inquisitive, open mind. The True Vote is estimated using basic statistical modeling that is for some reason avoided in the media and academia. Internet links to several election analysis spreadsheet models are provided in the book and are free to download.

Full Story: Proving Election Fraud: Phantom Voters, Uncounted Votes, and the National Exit Poll – AuthorHouse.

Administration warns insurers on children’s preexisting conditions

The Obama administration sent a stern warning to health insurers Monday to not exploit loopholes in healthcare law to not cover preexisting conditions among children.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius wrote the head of an insurance industry group, America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), warning that she’s prepared to issue regulations on top of new healthcare law to ensure children’s preexisting conditions are covered.

“Unfortunately, recent media accounts indicate that some insurance companies may be seeking to avoid or ignore a provision in the new law that prohibits insurance companies from excluding children with pre-existing conditions from coverage,” Sebelius wrote.

Full Story: Administration warns insurers on children’s preexisting conditions – The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room.

Climate bill could face threats from left

Senators writing climate and energy legislation are vigorously courting business groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. But they might lose support on the left if they go too far.

Case in point: The Sierra Club’s new executive director is warning that the powerful environmental group will fight the legislation if the concessions to industry pile up too high.

“There are things that would cause the Club to oppose the bill, and there are several trigger points for us,” said Michael Brune, who took over as the venerable group’s executive director this month, in an interview with The Hill

Full Story: Climate bill could face threats from left – The Hill’s E2-Wire.

OPS:  Once again the Democrats are allowing the lobbyists write the legislation. Nothing positive can come from a Climate bill that involves, in any way, the COC.

The Unbearable Lightness of Reform

Bill Moyers and Michael Winship -

So we got health care reform this week — but it’s a far cry from reformation.

That wickedly satirical Ambrose Bierce described politics as “the conduct of public affairs for private advantage.”

Bierce vanished to Mexico nearly a hundred years ago — to the relief of the American political class of his day, one assumes — but in an eerie way he was forecasting America’s political culture today. It seems like most efforts to reform a system that’s gone awry — to clean house and make a fresh start — end up benefiting the very people who wrecked it in the first place.

Which is why Bierce, in his classic little book, The Devil’s Dictionary, defined reform as “a thing that mostly satisfies reformers opposed to reformation.”

So we got health care reform this week — but it’s a far cry from reformation. You can’t blame President Obama for celebrating what he did get — he and the Democrats needed some political points on the scoreboard. And imagine the mood in the White House if the vote had gone the other way; they would have been cutting wrists instead of cake.

Full Story: The Unbearable Lightness of Reform | CommonDreams.org.

Glenn Greenwald: Industry interests are not in their “twilight”

PhRMA is so in favor of this bill that, over the last week, they’ve spent $6 million on an ad campaign aimed at undecided House Democrats to try to pressure them to vote for the bill.

The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein has an amazing post in which he trumpets what he calls the “Twilight of the Interest Groups” reflected by likely passage of the health care bill (h/t). Why are Interest Groups — once so powerful in Washington — now banished to their “twilight”? Because, says Ezra, “the Obama administration succeeded at neutralizing every single industry.” If, by “neutralizing,” Ezra means “bribing and accommodating them to such an extreme degree that they ended up affirmatively supporting a bill that lavishes them with massive benefits,” then he’s absolutely right. He himself notes what he calls the “remarkable level of industry consensus” in support of the bill:

Pharma supports the bill. Insurers are incoherent on it, but there’s not a ferocious and united campaign to kill the proposal. The American Medical Association has endorsed the Senate bill. The hospitals have endorsed the bill. Labor has endorsed the bill. The business community is split, with larger employers holding their fire.

Full Story: Industry interests are not in their “twilight” – Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com.

Dodd’s Chief Counsel Bought Financial Stocks During 2008 Crisis

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd’s chief counsel in 2008 traded stock in Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo & Co., American International Group Inc. and other rescued companies as the panel considered legislation to address the credit crisis, according to her financial disclosure form filed with the Senate.

Amy Friend, 51, who is now leading the panel’s effort to write a bill overhauling Wall Street regulations, bought $1,000- to-$15,000 stakes in four banks, weeks after Dodd hired her in January 2008, the form shows. She also owned shares of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG and other insurance firms, according to the disclosure document, which she signed on June 5, 2009.

The transactions, permissible under Senate rules, included buying $1,000 to $15,000 of Federal Home Loan Bank bonds and Fannie Mae debt in June and July, 2008. On July 30 of that year, then-President George W. Bush signed into law a Dodd-sponsored bill setting out new regulations for the housing finance agencies and allowing the Treasury Department to give them cash injections.

Full Story: Dodd’s Chief Counsel Bought Financial Stocks During 2008 Crisis | MichaelMoore.com.

Dems: Memo On Medicare Changes Isn’t Ours — It’s A GOP ‘Hoax’

Democrats today are accusing Republicans of circulating a fraudulent memo that claims to be sent to “Democratic health and communications staff” and which suggests the majority party leadership wants to make big changes to Medicare next year after health care passes.

A senior Democratic leadership aide told TPMDC in an interview the memo, obtained and printed by Politico and leading the Drudge Report this afternoon a few days ahead of the health care vote Sunday, is “a hoax.”

[READ THE MEMO HERE]

“We have checked with every Democratic office, no one has ever seen it. It did not come out of a Democratic office,” the aide said, adding that media outlets printing the memo have not checked with leadership offices if the memo is authentic. A second Democratic leadership aide confirmed the memo was not sent by the Democrats. A third Democratic aide also said the memo is fake, citing the “draft” stamp and saying no one uses such things.

Full Story: Dems: Memo On Medicare Changes Isn’t Ours — It’s A GOP ‘Hoax’ | TPMDC.

MAPLight.org Shows Links Between Politicians’ Votes, Campaign Contributions

It’s no mystery that money has become a key factor in American politics. But until now it’s been difficult to show voters just how closely politicians hew to the interests of their political patrons and campaign donors.

MAPLight.org, a non-partisan web site, hopes to change that. The site uses three data sets to create a detailed picture that illustrates money’s influence over elected officials: campaign contributions, voting records, and the supporting and opposing interests of a bill.

Dylan Ratigan lavished praise on the web site during his show Thursday and interviewed MAPlight’s director

Full Story: MAPLight.org Shows Links Between Politicians’ Votes, Campaign Contributions.

Boehner Tells Bankers To Fight Financial Reform:

‘Don’t Let Those Little Punk Staffers Take Advantage Of You’

This week, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) released the latest version of his financial regulatory reform bill, which aims to correct the deficiencies in the financial system that led to 2008’s economic crisis. The House of Representatives has already passed a comprehensive regulatory reform bill, and now that Dodd has given up on negotiating with recalcitrant Republicans, he is moving on an expedited timeline, with a markup scheduled for Monday.

It’s taken the Senate a year and a half after the financial crisis to even get to this point, but House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) told “an enthusiastic crowd of bankers” today that, even if the Senate passes a bill, reconciling it with the House version will take another year. “If the Senate is able to produce a bill, I think it’s just as likely that we’ll be talking about the same issue a year from now as we are right now,” Boehner said at the American Bankers Association government relations summit.

Boehner then added that the bankers should be standing up for themselves against “those little punk staffers” trying to write new regulations:

Full Story: Think Progress » Boehner Tells Bankers To Fight Financial Reform: ‘Don’t Let Those Little Punk Staffers Take Advantage Of You’.

The Green They Steal, The Greed They Wear

A St. Patrick’s Day Lament

by Michael Moore

Friends,

It was amazing. Every story on the front page of Monday’s New York Times told the story of the Age of Greed during which a system known as capitalism is slowly, but surely, killing us:

Insurance company greed: “Millions Spent to Sway Democrats on Health Care”

War profiteers: “Contractors Tied to Effort to Track and Kill Militants”

There’s no profit in repairing our infrastructure: “Repair Costs Daunting as Water Lines Crumble”

China, the bank: “China Uses Rules on Global Trade to Its Advantage”

You mean NAFTA didn’t improve life in Mexico: “Two Drug Slayings in Mexico Rock US Consulate”

What happens when Big Food profits from hurting kids: “Forget Goofing Around: Recess Has New Boss”

Full Story: The Green They Steal, The Greed They Wear | CommonDreams.org.

One-year freeze on earmarks fails in Senate, splits GOP

The Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly defeated a bid to freeze spending earmarks for a year.

Lawmakers voted 68-29 against an amendment by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., to impose a one-year moratorium on earmarks. Twenty-four fellow Republicans voted for DeMint’s measure, while 15 GOP senators voted against it.

The vote came six days after House Democratic leaders banned earmarks to defense contractors and other private companies, limiting them to state or local governments and nonprofit groups.

DeMint and fellow conservative Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., engaged in a brief but fierce debate on the Senate floor before the vote.

Full Story: One-year freeze on earmarks fails in Senate, splits GOP | McClatchy.

Did Obama make a backroom deal to kill the public option?

A New York Times reporter has confirmed that President Obama made a deal with hospital lobbyists back in August of 2009, that promised there would be no public option.

Obama, on many occasions made speeches supporting a public option but this explains why he never did anything to get it included in a health care bill.

Nancy Pelosi had said only a few days ago that a public option wouldnt be in the House bill largely because Obama never fought for it,, never pushed for it and never supported it. And now we know why. Because of this backroom deal with lobbyists he made back in August promising there would be no public option.

Full Story: Did Obama make a backroom deal to kill the public option?.

NY Times Reporter Confirms Obama Made Deal to Kill Public Option

For months I’ve been reporting in The Huffington Post that President Obama made a backroom deal last summer with the for-profit hospital lobby that he would make sure there would be no national public option in the final health reform legislation. (See here, here and here). I’ve been increasingly frustrated that except for an initial story last August in the New York Times, no major media outlet has picked up this important story and investigated further.

Hopefully, that’s changing. On Monday, Ed Shultz interviewed New York Times Washington reporter David Kirkpatrick on his MSNBC TV show, and Kirkpatrick confirmed the existence of the deal. Shultz quoted Chip Kahn, chief lobbyist for the for-profit hospital industry on Kahn’s confidence that the White House would honor the no public option deal, and Kirkpatrick responded:

“That’s a lobbyist for the hospital industry and he’s talking about the hospital industry’s specific deal with the White House and the Senate Finance Committee and, yeah, I think the hospital industry’s got a deal here. There really were only two deals, meaning quid pro quo handshake deals on both sides, one with the hospitals and the other with the drug industry. And I think what you’re interested in is that in the background of these deals was the presumption, shared on behalf of the lobbyists on the one side and the White House on the other, that the public option was not going to be in the final product.”

Full Story: Miles Mogulescu: NY Times Reporter Confirms Obama Made Deal to Kill Public Option.

AIPAC Lashes Out At Obama Administration Over Israel Statements

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobbying group, released a statement over the weekend lacing into President Obama for what it calls “escalated rhetoric” on the part of the administration in response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s push for new housing units in East Jerusalem.

“The Obama Administration’s recent statements regarding the U.S. relationship with Israel are a matter of serious concern. AIPAC calls on the Administration to take immediate steps to defuse the tension with the Jewish State,” according to the statement. “The Administration should make a conscious effort to move away from public demands and unilateral deadlines directed at Israel, with whom the United States shares basic, fundamental, and strategic interests.”

The Israeli plan to add additional housing units in East Jerusalem came during Vice President Joe Biden’s recent trip to the region to help jumpstart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Even Netanyahu acknowledged the timing of the announcement was “unfortunate.”

Full Story: AIPAC Lashes Out At Obama Administration Over Israel Statements.

David Axelrod: Health Care Lobbyists Descending Like ‘Locusts’ On Congress

White House Senior Adviser David Axelrod warned on Sunday that health care industry lobbyists were descending on skeptical Democratic lawmakers “like locusts” in an effort to scuttle the final vote on a reform bill.

Appearing on ABC’s “This Week,” Axelrod rationalized the difficulties of getting a majority vote behind a final health care package by pointing to the pressures these lawmakers face.

“It has been a long and arduous debate,” he said. “It is a tough issue for members of congress because there is an enormous lobbying campaign going on, on the other side. Lobbyists from the insurance industry descending on Capital Hill like locusts and trying to pressure people to vote against this bill. There is a lot of pressure on people, but I believe we will be there at the end of the day.”

Full Story: David Axelrod: Health Care Lobbyists Descending Like ‘Locusts’ On Congress.

The Democrats’ scam becomes more transparent

Glenn Greenwald -

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about what seemed to be a glaring (and quite typical) scam perpetrated by Congressional Democrats: all year long, they insisted that the White House and a majority of Democratic Senators vigorously supported a public option, but the only thing oh-so-unfortunately preventing its enactment was the filibuster: sadly, we have 50 but not 60 votes for it, they insisted. Democratic pundits used that claim to push for “filibuster reform,” arguing that if only majority rule were required in the Senate, then the noble Democrats would be able to deliver all sorts of wonderful progressive reforms that they were truly eager to enact but which the evil filibuster now prevents. In response, advocates of the public option kept arguing that the public option could be accomplished by reconciliation — where only 50 votes, not 60, would be required — but Obama loyalists scorned that reconciliation proposal, insisting (at least before the Senate passed a bill with 60 votes) that using reconciliation was Unserious, naive, procedurally impossible, and politically disastrous.

But all those claims were put to the test — all those bluffs were called — once the White House decided that it had to use reconciliation to pass a final health care reform bill. That meant that any changes to the Senate bill (which had passed with 60 votes) — including the addition of the public option — would only require 50 votes, which Democrats assured progressives all year long that they had. Great news for the public option, right? Wrong. As soon as it actually became possible to pass it, the 50 votes magically vanished. Senate Democrats (and the White House) were willing to pretend they supported a public option only as long as it was impossible to pass it. Once reconciliation gave them the opportunity they claimed all year long they needed — a “majority rule” system — they began concocting ways to ensure that it lacked 50 votes.

Full Story: The Democrats’ scam becomes more transparent – Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com.

Why the Stupak amendment should be striken and Bart Stupak censured

Every member of congress when they are elected, puts their hand on the bible and swears to uphold the constitution of the United States.

Bart Stupak has violated his oath of office and the Conference of Catholic Bishops violated their tax exempt status regarding the Stupak amendment in the healthcare bill and both should be punished appropriately. The question is will anyone have the guts to do it?

Stupak’s arrogance in inviting representatives of the Conference of Catholic Bishops to write legislation regarding the abortion amendment, violates the first amendment to the constitution.

Full Story: Why the Stupak amendment should be striken and Bart Stupak censured.

Senators Target Wall Street, With Goldman Sachs In Mind

A quintet of Democratic senators introduced legislation Wednesday to specifically prohibit investment maneuvers that have been likened to “selling a car with faulty brakes and then buying an insurance policy on the buyer of those cars”.

Senators Jeff Merkley (Ore.), Carl Levin (Mich.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Ted Kaufman (Del.) and Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.) are pushing the Obama administration’s proposal to rein in banks’ Wall Street-like practices, such as trading securities for their own profit, while they enjoy the protections afforded by U.S. taxpayers through deposit insurance and access to cheap funds courtesy of short-term loans from the Federal Reserve. Their legislation also attempts to sever the ties between banks and largely unregulated hedge funds and private equity funds — firms that invest and bet for the benefit of their investors.

Those two proposals try to resurrect the wall between Main Street banking and Wall Street trading, a Depression-era reform that was torn down during the Clinton administration. After excessive risk-taking by Wall Street culminated in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, necessitating hundreds of billions of dollars in a taxpayer-funded bailout, top economists and Wall Street veterans have come out in favor of at least partially restoring that divide.

Full Story: Senators Target Wall Street, With Goldman Sachs In Mind.

When Jesus Attacks! Why don’t we care that the Catholic Church is officially whipping Congress?

It’s Time to Separate Church and State, Once and for All

If you recall, anti-Catholic prejudice was once a problem for Catholic politicians in the US. John F. Kennedy went so far as to address the issue head-on in his 1960 campaign – probably because he didn’t feel he had much choice. Here’s what he told the Greater Houston Ministerial Association on September 12 of that year:

I am not the Catholic candidate for President. I am the Democratic Party’s candidate for President who also happens to be a Catholic. I do not speak for my Church on public matters — and the Church does not speak for me.

He went on to assert his respect for the separation of church and state and vowed that Catholic officials would not dictate policy to him. As noted in part 1, the times, they have a-changed.

In 1960 it was “anti-Catholic prejudice.” In 2010 it’s “empirical evidence of improper behavior by the Roman Catholic Church.” And it’s time it stopped. Cold.

Full Story: Scholars and Rogues » When Jesus Attacks! Why don’t we care that the Catholic Church is officially whipping Congress?.

Will Stupak and the Catholic Bishops Kill Health-Care Reform?

The outcome of the battle for health-care reform may rest on the say-so of one man, Rep. Bart Stupak. But he’s got an army of Catholic bishops pulling his strings.

With the congressional spring recess fast approaching, it’s crunch time, once again, for health-care reform. And once again, one Democrat, Rep. Bart Stupak, is threatening to kill the bill — with the help of 10 or so anti-choice compatriots — if the final deal does not include the draconian language on abortion contained in the health-care reform legislation passed by the House in November.

Stupak no doubt feels like the big man in this fight, the guy who can stop the clock and deprive some 30 million uninsured Americans a shot at having health-care coverage. In truth, however, the big men are the ones in mitres and vestments: the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. It was they who demanded the Stupak amendment to the House bill, which bars any American who receives a government subsidy to purchase health insurance through a government-run insurance exchange from purchasing a plan that includes coverage for abortion.

Full Story: Will Stupak and the Catholic Bishops Kill Health-Care Reform? | News & Politics | AlterNet.

Another Wall Street Bonus Tax Falters In Congress

Few topics have generated as much political heat between Main Street and Wall Street as the billions of dollars in bonuses handed out at financial companies that received federal bailouts. But Washington’s efforts to claim some of that money for taxpayers continue to falter.

The latest attempt is a measure authored by Democratic Sens. Jim Webb of Virginia and Barbara Boxer of California. It would impose a one-time 50 percent tax on 2009 bonuses of more than $400,000 paid by the 13 firms receiving the most federal bailout money.

The plan appears to be crumbling amid opposition from two financial industry-lobbying powerhouses and hesitation among moderate Democrats and key New York politicians, including Sen. Charles Schumer. It has little chance of surviving a procedural vote expected late Tuesday, according to legislative aides and industry lobbyists.

Full Story: Another Wall Street Bonus Tax Falters In Congress.

Thin wall separates lobbyist contributions and earmarks

Lawmakers Deny That Lobbying Affects Earmarks. Numbers Suggest Otherwise

House Appropriations defense subcommittee member James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.) works hard at fundraising: Two to three times a week, he telephones contributors to ask for more. Yet, according to the account he supplied to the Office of Congressional Ethics last year, he is unaware of “who made donations” or how much they gave, and so that information plays no role in his earmarking — the systematic granting of public funds for mostly private purposes.

Fellow subcommittee member Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) similarly presides over fundraisers arranged by his staff for defense firms and lobbyists every three months or so, according to his office’s account. An aide in charge of Dicks’s earmarks attends the fundraising events. But Dicks and the aide told investigators they were unaware of the substantial overlap between defense industry contributions to Dicks and his earmarks to contributors.

The House ethics committee on Feb. 26 exonerated Dicks, Moran and five other defense subcommittee members of allegations that they had abused their offices by, in essence, selling earmarks to donors. In so doing, it drew heavily on promises such as these by lawmakers and staff members that their campaign fundraising operations had been carefully walled off from their earmarking decisions. Otherwise, their actions would violate laws and rules that bar any link between such donations and legislative acts.

Full Story: Thin wall separates lobbyist contributions and earmarks – washingtonpost.com.

Dodd to Defang Financial Reform?

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd's effort to house a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency under the Federal Reserve is fatally flawed. For the past two decades, the Fed has aligned itself with any policy that boosts short-term profits for America's largest banks, regardless of the consequences for consumers or the broader economy. But even worse is Dodd's effort to block the new agency from enforcing the rules it writes, leaving enforcement up to the same regulators who ignored rampant predation and outright fraud throughout the housing bubble.

The bank lobby and its boosters in the Republican Party have been targeting the CFPA since President Barack Obama proposed creating it in July. It’s easy to see why: for the first time, a regulatory agency would be concerned with protecting the public, rather than bank balance sheets. That’s good news for the economy, but bad news for quarterly earnings at major U.S. banks. Republicans are doing anything they can to gut the proposal, and several back-lobby-backed Democrats are reluctant to push for a strong agency. But instead of forcing lawmakers to cast vote siding with the bankers, Dodd appears ready to let the agency die without even extracting a political pound of flesh.

If the new CFPA cannot enforce its own rules, it is effectively powerless. All the good rules in the world don’t amount to anything without strong enforcement, and the existing federal bank regulators–the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Office of Thrift Supervision (OCC)–have proven time and again that they simply are not interested in enforcing consumer protection laws.

Full Story: Dodd to Defang Financial Reform?.

Obama’s olympic NAFTAgate lie under scrutiny in Canada

In Canada its called Obama’s NAFTAgate. When Barrack Obama was running for president during the Ohio primary he was caught in a blatant, cynical and unconscionable lie to the people of Ohio, exploiting their pain and fear over their faltering economy and massive unemployment.

Obama’s political dishonesty and the attempted cover it up by his economic advisor Austan Goolsebee who is still a member of Obama’s White House economic team, went largely ignored by a mainstream press intent on seeing Obama elected.

While running against Hillary Clinton in the Ohio primary, a state that had lost 265,000 jobs even before the economic crisis, Obama blamed NAFTA for the loss of jobs and used it to attack Hillary Clinton since it was Bill Clinton’s decision to implement NAFTA.

….Obama told the voters of Ohio that if he is elected he would abolish NAFTA ……

Full Story: Obama’s olympic NAFTAgate lie under scrutiny in Canada.

Rangel stepping down from tax-writing chairmanship

Rangel tells Pelosi he’s ready to step down from Ways & Means chairmanship during ethics probe

Rep. Charles Rangel announced Wednesday he will temporarily step down as chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, saying he didn’t want his ethics controversy to jeopardize election prospects for fellow Democrats.

The 20-term Harlem congressman held a news conference on short notice, telling reporters, “My chairmanship is bringing so much attention to the press, and in order to avoid my colleagues having to defend me during their elections, I have this morning sent a letter” asking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “to grant me a leave of absence until such time as the ethics committee completes its work.”

The 79-year-old Rangel’s decision was another jarring setback for President Barack Obama and majority Democrats in Congress, coming at a time when the party is scrambling to save sweeping health care overhaul legislation that has been pending on Capitol Hill for well over a year and still assessing a surging anti-incumbent fervor among the voters.

Full Story: Rangel stepping down from tax-writing chairmanship | Raw Story.

Two more House Dems demand Rangel step down as panel head – TheHill.com

Two politically vulnerable Democrats on Monday called for Rep. Charles Rangel to step down as Ways and Means Committee chairman.

Reps. Betty Sutton (Ohio) and Harry Mitchell (Ariz.) have joined the ranks of Democrats calling for the New York Democrat to relinquish his gavel in the wake of the ethics committee finding that Rangel violated House rules.

“I think that in order to preserve the public trust, which is of the highest priority, Rep. Rangel should, at this point, step aside as chair of the Ways and Means Committee,” Sutton said in a statement to The Hill. “Our nation is facing many challenges and we must put all our energy, without distraction or question, into meeting those challenges.”

Full Story: Two more House Dems demand Rangel step down as panel head – TheHill.com.

Reform Déjà Vu: Democrats Follow Failed Health Care Strategy and Preemptively Surrender on Consumer Financial Protection Agency

A “doom loop.” That’s what Andy Haldane, executive director of financial stability for the Bank of England, warned last fall would happen if serious financial reform wasn’t enacted.

Well, we appear to be a step closer to that “doom loop” with the leak this weekend of Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd’s plan for a seriously watered-down consumer financial protection agency.

Back in June, President Obama released a proposal calling for the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency that would be “independent,” with “broad authority” and the power to “combat the worst abuses in mortgage markets.” The agency, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said, would “have an independent seat at the table in our financial regulatory system.”

Full Story: Arianna Huffington: Reform Déjà Vu: Democrats Follow Failed Health Care Strategy and Preemptively Surrender on Consumer Financial Protection Agency.

Solid Evidence of GOP’s Unconstitutional Abuse of Power

Nearly 300 Bills Have Passed in House Since Current 111th Congress Took Office Nearly 14 Months Ago — Many With Broad Bipartisan Support — Only to be Tied Up by Unprecedented Brick Wall of Republican Filibusters in Senate; Minority Party Has No Constitutional Authority to Hold All Legislation Hostage by forcing 60-Vote ‘Super Majority’ in 100-Member Chamber

To say that the Republicans in the U.S. Senate are engaging in an unconstitutional abuse of power by blocking virtually all legislation proposed by either the Obama administration or the Democratic majority in Congress is not just political grandstanding. Nearly 300 bills that have passed in the House since the current 111th Congress took office 14 months ago have been blocked in the Senate by Republican filibusters. There is nothing in the Constitution that gives the minority party in the Senate any authority to hold these bills hostage by forcing a 60-vote “super majority.” (Chart courtesy McClatchy Newspapers)

Full Story: The ‘Skeeter Bites Report: Letter From the Editor: Solid Evidence of GOP’s Unconstitutional Abuse of Power.

QUID PRO DOUGH: House Ethics Panel Rules It’s Okay To Steer Contracts To Campaign Donors

The House ethics committee ruled Friday that seven lawmakers who steered hundreds of millions of dollars in largely no-bid contracts to clients of a lobbying firm had not violated any rules or laws by also collecting large campaign donations from those contractors.

In a 305-page report, the ethics committee declared that lawmakers are free to raise campaign money from the very companies they are benefiting so long as the deciding factors in granting those “earmarks” are “criteria independent” of the contributions. The report served as a blunt rejection of ethics watchdogs and a different group of congressional investigators, who have contended that in some instances the connection between donations and earmarks was so close that it had to be inappropriate.

“Simply because a member sponsors an earmark for an entity that also happens to be a campaign contributor does not, on these two facts alone, support a claim that a member’s actions are being influenced by campaign contributions,” the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct said in a unanimous statement.

Full Story: Ethics panel clears 7 on earmarks – washingtonpost.com.

OPS:  Ethics? Really?

Top Obama ally broke Congress ethics rules

A powerful Democratic lawmaker and strong ally of President Barack Obama drew a formal rebuke Thursday from congressional ethics watchdogs over corporate-funded travel to the Caribbean.

Representative Charles Rangel, chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, violated House limits on gifts and must repay the cost of the trips, the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct said in a report.

The ethics panel, in a finding dated Friday and obtained by AFP, said publishing its findings would serve as a “public admonishment” of Rangel.

Full Story: Top Obama ally broke Congress ethics rules – Yahoo! News.

The Last Honest Republican?

Len Hart,  -

Dwight David Eisenhower, familiarly called ‘Ike’, may very well have been the last honest Republican. As both General and President, Eisenhower held his positions in ‘good faith’; he was not a ‘crook’. Bertolt Brecht had said: “A man who does not know the truth is just an idiot but a man who knows the truth and calls it a lie is a crook.” By that standard, Nixon was a crook, the progenitor of the modern Republican who lies to conceal his/her true position. When Nixon said ‘I am NOT a crook’, one knew immediately that he was one.

Arguably a great general, the man who supervised allied forces landing in Normandy in preparation for the final assault on Hitler’s Third Reich, Eisenhower made the best case for peace, putting forward five ‘precepts’ for world peace in what is often called the ‘Cross of Iron Speech’. Tragically, Eisenhower’s five principles have been hypocritically eschewed since, primarily because the GOP leadership fell to the likes of Nixon, Reagan. Bush Sr and the Shrub. The four of them failed the economy, failed the economy, failed the people, failed the Constitution. All were crooks who whored themselves to the very Military-Industrial Complex that Ike had warned about. The GOP has been crooked ever since.

In that spring of victory the soldiers of the Western Allies met the soldiers of Russia in the center of Europe. They were triumphant comrades in arms. Their peoples shared the joyous prospect of building, in honor of their dead, the only fitting monument-an age of just peace. All these war-weary peoples shared too this concrete, decent purpose: to guard vigilantly against the domination ever again of any part of the world by a single, unbridled aggressive power.

Full Story: The Existentialist Cowboy: The Last Honest Republican?.

Lobbying run amok: Eight health care lobbyists for every member of Congress

President Obama will meet with 22 high-ranking lawmakers Thursday to discuss health care reform and how to accomplish it.

But if newly released information about lobbying in 2009 is any indication, the private sector and its interests may already be secured.

For every member of Congress, there were eight lobbyists working to influence health care reform last year, according to research by The Center for Public Integrity.

That’s about 4,525 total lobbyists from 1,750 companies that include 207 hospitals, 105 insurance companies and 85 manufacturing companies.

Full Story: Lobbying run amok: Eight health care lobbyists for every member of Congress | Raw Story.

The Democratic Party’s deceitful game

Democrats perpetrate the same scam over and over on their own supporters, and this illustrates perfectly how it’s played:

Politics Daily, October 4, 2009:

Jay Rockefeller on the Public Option: “I Will Not Relent”

Glenn Greenwald -

Jay Rockefeller has waited a long time for this moment. . . . He’s [] a longtime advocate of health care for children and the poor — and, as Congress moves toward its moment of truth on health care, perhaps the most earnest, dogged Senate champion of a nationwide public health insurance plan to compete with private insurance companies.

“I will not relent on that. That’s the only way to go,” Rockefeller told me in an interview. “There’s got to be a safe harbor.”

President Obama often says a public option is needed to drive down costs and keep insurance companies honest.  To Rockefeller, it’s both more basic and more vital:  The federal government is the only institution people can count on in times of need.

Full Story: - Salon.com.

‘Volcker Rule’ Stalls in Senate

Key senators are expected to scrap President Barack Obama’s proposal to prohibit commercial banks from certain risky trading activities, people familiar with the matter said, a setback for the administration’s bid to limit the size and scope of the largest U.S. banks.

The proposal, dubbed the “Volcker rule” after former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, would have essentially prevented any commercial bank with federally insured deposits from owning a division that makes speculative bets with its own capital.

But after resistance from lawmakers from both parties, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.) and other legislators are expected to introduce a plan next week that would give regulators more discretion to limit and potentially ban risky trading at banks, especially if it poses a risk to the broader economy. The measure would stop short of banning such trading outright.

Full Story: ‘Volcker Rule’ Stalls in Senate – WSJ.com.

The Last Thing We Need is More Money for Prisons, But That Is What Obama Wants

At the same time the Obama administration is talking about a dramatic “spending freeze,” it’s requesting more money to lock people up.

At the same time the Obama administration is talking about a dramatic “spending freeze” on any and all projects unrelated to war-making, this is exactly what’s in store, it is quietly increasing the federal budget for even more prisons.

On February 1, Attorney General Eric Holder announced the administration would request $2.9 billion for the Department of Justice 2011 budget — “a 5.4 percent increase in budget authority,” according to the DOJ. Approximately $527.5 million would go to the federal Bureau of Prisons, a chunk of which would provide “bed space” to house prisoners currently at Guantanamo Bay (and ostensibly slated for transfer to the supermax prison in Thomson, IL).

“We have an obligation to protect our country in smart, reliable ways at every level,” Holder said, invoking both the “fight against global terrorism” as well as the need to enforce “civil rights and the rule of law.”

Full Story: The Last Thing We Need is More Money for Prisons, But That Is What Obama Wants | Civil Liberties | AlterNet.

Inside the Administration’s Deal with the Pharmaceutical Lobby

by Sebastian Jones, ProPublica –

Last August, the Los Angeles Times reported that a deal had been reached between the White House and the lobbying group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). The pharmaceutical industry promised to deliver $80 billion in cost savings and to run television ads supporting the health care reform effort. In exchange, the White House would prevent Medicare renegotiation of drug prices and the re-importation of drugs from abroad.

Now, in a methodically researched report drawing on public records and press accounts, the Sunlight Foundation has gone back and forensically examined how the deal came to be.

To get a full picture of the interlocking interests at work, the full piece is worth a read. Here are a few of the key findings:

Full Story: On The Hill: Inside the Administration’s Deal with the Pharmaceutical Lobby.

Senate sitting on 290 bills already passed by House; tension mounts – TheHill.com

Exasperated House Democratic leaders have compiled a list showing that they have passed 290 bills that have stalled in the Senate.

The list is the latest sign that Democrats in the lower chamber are frustrated with their Senate counterparts.

An aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says the list is put together during each Congress, but that this year’s number is likely the largest ever. However, he said Pelosi blames GOP senators, not Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) or Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).

“The Speaker believes that the filibuster has its place, but clearly Senate Republicans are taking what was once a rare procedural move and abusing it to the detriment of progress for America’s working families,” said Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill.

But some House Democrats and their aides have shown no reticence in blaming Senate Democrats, who enjoyed a supermajority until Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) was sworn in earlier this month.

Full Story: Senate sitting on 290 bills already passed by House; tension mounts – TheHill.com.

OPS: Because Reid and Durbin are cowards.

VIDEO: Iraq for Sale

by Robert Greenwald -

The showing of this video was banned in the US Congress

On May 10th, 2007, this video was banned in Congress. Robert Greenwald, the director of IRAQ FOR SALE, was invited to testify before Congress by Rep. Jim Moran. He prepared four minutes from the documentary to show. Republicans insisted this not be shown.

Full Story: VIDEO: Iraq for Sale.

Obama Pressed to Release Identity of Telecom Lobbyists

Despite President Barack Obama’s pledge in the State of the Union address to “require lobbyists to disclose each contact they make on behalf of a client with my administration or Congress,” the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) says the Obama administration has been “fighting hard to stop the release of the names of these representatives.”

EFF urged, “While it’s great to see Obama reverse his position in the State of the Union and acknowledge the strong public interest in disclosure of lobbying records, the administration must do more than give speeches in order to fulfill its commitment to transparency.”

It said President Obama “must apply this policy to pending litigation, and release the identities of telecommunications representatives who lobbied for immunity for their telecommunications carrier clients.”

Full Story: t r u t h o u t | Obama Pressed to Release Identity of Telecom Lobbyists.

OPS: There should be a publicly available list of all lobbyists, who they represent, who they have contacted and how much they have spent, and who received it.

Campaign Contributions Up Five Percent In Fourth Quarter As Big Donors Beg For The Begging To Stop

Campaign contributions to members of the House of Representatives increased 5.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009, according to a preliminary analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics. Contributions to members of the Senate increased by 2 percent.

“The fact that the economy is pretty weak and fundraising seems to be robust may speak to the idea that 2010 will be a big year,” said CRP spokesman Dave Levinthal in an interview with HuffPost. “If you look at business, charitable giving — everything’s struggling, and politics doesn’t seem to be.”

House members raised $78 million in campaign contributions (which HuffPost commenters like to call “bribes”) in the last three months of the year, bringing the total for 2009 to $294 million, according to CRP. The average representative raked in $680,000. Senators raised $36 million in the fourth quarter, $152 million for the year. The average senator raised $1.6 million.

Full Story Campaign Contributions Up Five Percent In Fourth Quarter As Big Donors Beg For The Begging To Stop.

Evan Bayh Won’t Rule Out Becoming A Lobbyist After His Term Ends

A day after he announced his retirement from the U.S. Senate, Indiana Democrat Evan Bayh declined to rule out a career as a lobbyist.

“I have no idea what I’m doing next,” Bayh said in a statement to HuffPost. He would not elaborate further on his career plans when his term ends in 11 months.

Bayh offered a few clues about his next move in his retirement announcement on Monday: “At this time, I simply believe I can best contribute to society in another way: creating jobs by helping grow a business, helping guide an institution of higher learning, or helping run a worthy charitable endeavor.”

Full Story Evan Bayh Won’t Rule Out Becoming A Lobbyist After His Term Ends.

Most lawmakers haven’t returned donations from disgraced Texas banker Allen Stanford

Most lawmakers haven’t returned donations from disgraced Texas banker R. Allen Stanford despite pleadings from a federal receiver who is trying to get the money back for defrauded investors.

Dallas attorney Ralph Janvey is sending new letters this week demanding the funds from about 70 members of Congress, as well as the fundraising committees for Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate. Janvey is seeking more than $1.8 million in contributions from Stanford, his top corporate lieutenants and employees of his offshore bank and affiliated financial services companies.

“The funds used to make these contributions came directly from defrauded investors,” said Kristie Blumenschein, a spokeswoman for Janvey. “Such payments were fraudulent transfers, and the receiver has requested that the funds be returned to the receivership estate as soon as possible.”

Full Story Most lawmakers haven’t returned donations from disgraced Texas banker Allen Stanford | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Staff Writer Dave Michaels | Washington News | Dallas Morning News.

In a Message to Democrats, Wall St. Sends Cash to G.O.P

If the Democratic Party has a stronghold on Wall Street, it is JPMorgan Chase.

Its chief executive, Jamie Dimon, is a friend of President Obama’s from Chicago, a frequent White House guest and a big Democratic donor. Its vice chairman, William M. Daley, a former Clinton administration cabinet official and Obama transition adviser, comes from Chicago’s Democratic dynasty.

But this year Chase’s political action committee is sending the Democrats a pointed message. While it has contributed to some individual Democrats and state organizations, it has rebuffed solicitations from the national Democratic House and Senate campaign committees. Instead, it gave $30,000 to their Republican counterparts.

The shift reflects the hard political edge to the industry’s campaign to thwart Mr. Obama’s proposals for tighter financial regulations.

Full Story In a Message to Democrats, Wall St. Sends Cash to G.O.P. – NYTimes.com.

CEOs to Hill: Quit Calling Us for Campaign Cash

CEOs to Congress: Quit calling us for campaign cash, pass public financing

Dozens of current and former corporate executives have a message for Congress: Quit hitting us up for campaign cash.

Roughly 40 executives from companies including Playboy Enterprises, ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s, the Seagram’s liquor company, toymaker Hasbro, Delta Airlines and Men’s Wearhouse sent a letter to congressional leaders Friday urging them to approve public financing for House and Senate campaigns. They say they are tired of getting fundraising calls from lawmakers — and fear it will only get worse after Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling.

The court ruled that corporations and unions can spend unlimited money on ads urging people to vote for or against candidates. The decision was sought by interest groups including one that represents American businesses, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. They argued that restrictions on ads they could finance close to elections violated their free-speech rights, and the court agreed.

Full Story CEOs to Hill: Quit Calling Us for Campaign Cash – ABC News.

Scott Lee Cohen: Could Illinois’ Lieutenant Governor Candidate Hamper Democrats’ Agenda in Elections?

Democratic Nominee for Lieutenant Governor, Scott Lee Cohen, Was Charged With Battery in 2005

The politics in President Obama‘s home state of Illinois are once again in the spotlight for a scandal that seems ripped from the pages of a Hollywood script.

The Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, Scott Lee Cohen, is butting heads with his fellow party members who are calling on him to resign amid reports that Cohen was arrested five years ago for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend.

Cohen, who won the Democratic primary by 26 percentage points Tuesday, is standing steadfast despite the controversy.

“I will not resign, I will not step down, I have done nothing wrong,” Cohen said.

Full Story Scott Lee Cohen: Could Illinois’ Lieutenant Governor Candidate Hamper Democrats’ Agenda in Elections? – ABC News.

OPS: I guess I don’t understand the process. How the Hell can the Democratic “leadership” (and I use the term loosely) ALLOW people like this to run as Democrats?  Is there No vetting process?  Anyone with the bucks that is willing to run as a Dem – and slips the “leadership” a few $$ – can run as a Democrat?  I guess this explains Blago and Bean too.  ‘This is suicidal.

Federal stimulus program pours $54 million into Wine Train project

A company won a $54 million contract to build new structures for the Napa Valley Wine Train tourist attraction. The result? 12 new jobs and “pork barrel” accusations.

NAPA – The corporate shareholders live in tribal villages in the outback of western Alaska.

The CEO is in South Carolina, where his prior multimillion-dollar venture – a dot-com for sail boaters – collapsed in bankruptcy.

But the main action today is in Napa, where, without competitive bidding, this unusual construction company won a $54 million federal contract to build a new railroad bridge and other structures for the famed Napa Valley Wine Train tourist attraction.

This is the world of Anchorage-based Suulutaaq Inc. Because the company was founded by Alaska natives, it enjoys special access to federal contracts.

Full Story Federal stimulus program pours $54 million into Wine Train project | California Watch.

John Boehner Complained To J.P. Morgan CEO About Donations

GOP Leader Tells Wall Street CEO: PAY US FOR OUR SERVICES!

The Wall Street Journal reports today that “Republicans are stepping up their campaign to win donations from Wall Street, trying to capitalize on an increasing sense of regret among executives at big financial institutions for backing Democrats in 2008.”

Despite a more favorable political environment than in 2008 and 2006, Republican congressional campaign committees are actually trailing their Democratic counterparts in fundraising totals heading into the 2010 campaign season.

As a result, GOP leaders are becoming increasingly aggressive about wooing major donations from the financial industry. The Journal reports:

Full Story John Boehner Complained To J.P. Morgan CEO About Donations.

Exclusive: How corporations secretly move millions to fund political ads

The Supreme Court’s seismic January ruling that corporations are free to spend unlimited amounts of their profits to advertise for or against candidates may have been the latest shakeup of campaign finance – but gaping holes already allow corporations to spend enormous sums without leaving a paper trail, a Raw Story investigation has found.

Campaign finance experts confirmed that though disclosure rules remained intact in the new Supreme Court decision, there are effective methods to circumvent them.

Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, an attorney and campaign finance expert at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice, said corporations already effectively end-run campaign finance law by shuffling money through trade associations.

Full Story Exclusive: How corporations secretly move millions to fund political ads | Raw Story.

Obama Administration Knew Foreclosure Program Wasn’t Working Right, Did Nothing

Even as the Obama administration’s signature foreclosure-prevention program has foundered, Treasury Department officials have known that a key driver in keeping people in their homes in the long run is reducing mortgage principal, senior Treasury advisor Seth Wheeler told the Huffington Post. Wheeler is one of the architects of the administration’s housing plan.

But rather than pressure the mortgage companies to start reducing the amount mortgage-holders owe, the administration simply sat back and hoped servicers would do it on their own.

“When the administration came into office last year, from the get-go, it has certainly been aware of the link between negative equity and challenges in housing,” said Wheeler. “As the administration initially designed the modification program last year, it was aware of negative equity, was aware that some servicers were doing principal reductions.”

Full Story Obama Administration Knew Foreclosure Program Wasn’t Working Right, Did Nothing.

McConnell Raised Big Bucks From Foreign Defense Contractor Probed For Bribery

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has been quick to denounce a bid by Democrats to stop foreign corporations from pouring money into U.S. elections, claiming current law already bars such spending. As we’ve reported before, it’s not nearly as simple as that — but McConnell should know: The GOP Senate leader has raked in campaign cash from a subsidiary of a major foreign defense contractor that’s currently being investigated by the Justice Department for bribery.

As we reported yesterday, McConnell, a longtime foe of efforts to get money out of politics, last week took to the Senate floor to pooh-pooh the notion that the court’s decision could allow a flood of foreign money to sway our elections, citing an existing law that prevents foreign nationals, including corporations, from spending on U.S. elections. But that ban doesn’t cover the U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies, or to foreign-owned corporations that incorporate in the U.S.

That’s not just some technical loophole. Democrats and campaign-finance reform advocates argue it’s a very real weakness in the law, that, even before Citizens United, gave foreign corporations influence in our elections. And McConnell’s own ties to one foreign defense contractor offer a pretty good illustration.
Full Story McConnell Raised Big Bucks From Foreign Defense Contractor Probed For Bribery | TPMMuckraker.

Senate V. SCOTUS: Rules Committee Debates Measures to Stem the Coming Tide of Corporate Dollars in Political Campaigns

As Democrats scramble to assemble a slate of legislative and constitutional fixes to counter the effects of the Supreme Court decision, conservatives suggest Congress allow even more money to flow into campaigns.

With the president’s budget proposal and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” occupying the time of C-SPAN crews in the capital today, there may have been a perception that campaign finance reform took its dutiful place at the back burner of American political consciousness at a hearing in the Senate Rules Committee Tuesday morning. But Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) wasn’t about to let that assumption stand.

“I really think they show that they care when given a chance,” Durbin said of the American people. He countered the conventional wisdom that campaign finance reform is an “intramural issue.”

Of course, interest in Durbin’s long-time crusade for fair election financing (in the form of his Fair Elections Act) was helped along last month by a highly controversial decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that opened the floodgates, allowing corporations to spend virtually unlimited amounts of money on political campaigns.

Full Story Senate V. SCOTUS: Rules Committee Debates Measures to Stem the Coming Tide of Corporate Dollars in Political Campaigns | BuzzFlash.org.

Melissa Bean: A Democrat Bankers Bank On

Rep. Melissa Bean stands at the chokepoint of financial reform in the House of Representatives.

The Democrat from suburban Chicago is only in her third term, but she’s the co-chair of the 68-member New Democrat Coalition’s financial services task force — and financial reform doesn’t go anywhere in the House without the support of New Dems.

So when Democratic leaders in Congress want to rein in Wall Street, they have to go through Bean. And when bank lobbyists want to stop them, they go to Bean as well.

Why hasn’t the overwhelmingly Democratic House — and the House Financial Services Committee led by Barney Frank — been able to pass a more aggressive financial regulatory reform package? As HuffPost has reported, a significant obstacle to progressive reform is that Bean and 15 other New Dems on the committee have effective veto power.

Full Story Melissa Bean: A Democrat Bankers Bank On.

OPS: Corporate.  Bean is one of those Republicans pretending to be Democrat

Lobbyist charges $30,400 to ‘raise a glass’ with Pelosi

If you want to spend a couple hours hobnobbing with House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi, be prepared to pay up — way up.

Tony and Heather Podesta, two of Washington’s most prominent lobbyists, are inviting the Washington elite to a dinner party on Feb. 9 that will feature Pelosi, as well as a host of other Washington Democrats, including Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-NY) and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Chris Van Hollen.

The price of admission? $5,000 for an individual, $15,000 for a representative of a political action committee, and $30,400 — the maximum allowable donation — for the privilege of being a co-host.

Read the admission form here.

Full Story Lobbyist charges $30,400 to ‘raise a glass’ with Pelosi | Raw Story.

After Obama rips lobbyists, K St. insiders get private briefings

A day after bashing lobbyists, President Barack Obama’s administration has invited K Street insiders to join private briefings on a range of topics addressed in Wednesday’s State of the Union.

The Treasury Department on Thursday morning invited selected individuals to “a series of conference calls with senior Obama administration officials to discuss key aspects of the State of the Union address.”

The invitation, which went to a variety of stakeholders, was sent by Fred Baldassaro, a senior adviser at the Treasury Department’s Office of Business Affairs and Public Liaison.

Full Story After Obama rips lobbyists, K St. insiders get private briefings – TheHill.com.

Elizabeth Warren: Obama Is Pushing Back Against Wall Street (VIDEO)

Financial reform advocate Elizabeth Warren appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show Thurday to discuss President Obama’s new proposals to rein in banks.

Warren, a Harvard professor and the chief of the TARP Congressional Oversight Panel, told Maddow that she’s encouraged not only by the new proposals to limit banks, but also by the president’s renewed commitment to an independent consumer financial protection agency. Warren:

“I feel better than I’ve felt in a long time. Because what I’ve heard the president saying on the Consumer Financial Protection Agency is, ‘It’s not going down. I’m here, I’m not giving up on it. There is not going to be a compromise to cave in on it.’ I heard him say that we’re going to tax those large financial institutions, and we’re going to make them pay back all of the money under TARP. And then today, I heard him say we’re gonna break apart too-big-to-fail. And we’re going to have an answer, so that every financial institution, if it makes big enough mistakes, if it takes big enough risks and loses, every one of them, can in the end, die…. And what I hear in that is that… the financial institutions have pushed him hard… [Obama] is pushing right back.”

Full Story Elizabeth Warren: Obama Is Pushing Back Against Wall Street (VIDEO).

Dodd Opposes Fed Audit

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd opposes including a provision to audit the Federal Reserve in the Senate’s regulatory reform package, the retiring Connecticut Democrat told the Huffington Post Thursday.

The measure made it into the House bill in November after an unusual insurgency led by Reps. Ron Paul (R-Texas) and Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) beat back a concerted effort by the Fed to kill the provision, and won an overwhelming and bipartisan vote in the House Financial Services Committee. It was an unprecedented legislative defeat for the Federal Reserve, which has never had a real audit in its history. Little is known of what it does with the trillions of dollars at its disposal.

And if Dodd has his way, it will stay that way.

“No, no,” Dodd said firmly of the audit requirement. “It’s not in the Senate bill.”

Full Story Dodd Opposes Fed Audit.

OPS: Just another rightwing  Corporatists proving that he is in the pocket of Wall Street. The Nation will be better off when he’s gone.

Blanche Lincoln Cosponsors Murkowski’s Dirty Air Act

Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) announced today she is co-sponsoring Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s (R-AK) resolution of disapproval to block regulation of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act:

I am very concerned about the burden that EPA regulation of carbon emissions could put on our economy and have questions about the actual benefit EPA regulations would have on the environment. Heavy-handed EPA regulation, as well as the current cap and trade bills in Congress, will cost us jobs and put us at an even greater competitive disadvantage to China, India and others.

Like Murkowski and Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Lincoln is demonstrating a shocking disregard for her state’s interests, the health of her constituents, and a misunderstanding of why America has been losing jobs to China and India. Her support for the Dirty Air Act is an act of allegiance to polluters.

Full Story Wonk Room » Blanche Lincoln Cosponsors Murkowski’s Dirty Air Act.

Easily Hacked Diebold Systems to Decide ‘Toss-Up’ U.S. Senate Special Election in MA on Tuesday

Since writing today’s piece for Upstate New York’s right-leaning Gouverneur Times, a new poll has come out this morning showing the Republican Scott Brown now leading the Democrat Martha Coakley by 4 points in the race for the U.S. Senate seat formerly held by a Democrat named Kennedy for nearly 60 years.

As of last night, when I filed the story with them, the latest survey from a Democratic-leaning pollster showed Coakley up by 8, though a day or two earlier, Republican Rasmussen had Brown down only by 2 points.

Suffice to say it’s now officially “a toss-up”, at least according to the Rothenberg Political Report, and to all the Dems and Reps now sweating out what was previously thought to have been an easy Democratic win.

Full Story The BRAD BLOG : Easily Hacked Diebold Systems to Decide ‘Toss-Up’ U.S. Senate Special Election in MA on Tuesday.

Dodd may scrap consumer protection

Dodd Weighs Dropping Idea of Creating Independent Body in Bid to Get Financial Regulatory Revamp Passed This Year

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd is considering scrapping the idea of creating a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, people familiar with the matter said, an initiative at the heart of the White House’s proposal to revamp financial-sector regulations.

The Connecticut Democrat, who announced this month that he wouldn’t run for re-election this year, has discussed the possibility of abandoning the push for a new agency during negotiations with key Senate Republicans as a way to secure a bipartisan deal on the legislation, these people said.

Full Story Consumer Protection Agency in Doubt – WSJ.com.

OPS:  Politically he’s toast so he’ll be feathering his nest before he goes even more than usual

Stop the Chamber; I Want to Get Off! Group to Expose Candidates Accepting Funds From Commerce Lobbyists

It’s 2010. Do you know which corporate pocket your representative is in?

There is no better analogy for the outsize influence of corporations upon government than the behavior of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce of late. The “world’s largest business federation” has transformed itself into a lobbying machine for some of the nation’s dirtiest corporate crooks in a series of misleading campaigns against climate change legislation, affordable healthcare, the employee free choice act, campaign spending reform, corporate responsibility, consumer protection, and keeping social security private.

All the more reason to know who they’ve been wining and dining on the Hill.

Velvet Revolution, a nonprofit organization “dedicated to clean and honest government,” issued a statement today announcing they plan to target political candidates who accept contributions from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Full Story Stop the Chamber; I Want to Get Off! Group to Expose Candidates Accepting Funds From Commerce Lobbyists | BuzzFlash.org.

Lobbyists aided Alaska’s Murkowski in writing EPA limits bill

Two lobbyists had a hand in writing language proposed by Sen. Lisa Murkowski that could curtail the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate major emitters of greenhouse gases.

Their involvement, first reported Monday by The Washington Post, came at the request of a staffer on the Senate Energy and Environment Committee, where the Alaska senator is the top Republican. Both of the lobbyists, Jeff Holmstead and Roger Martella Jr., represent a number of high-profile energy clients. Both had top positions in the EPA during the Bush administration.

Murkowski has led the charge against the EPA's role in regulating greenhouse gas emissions, saying she has concerns about an executive branch agency, rather than Congress, writing such regulations. Her original amendment would have been attached to a spending bill and it would have prohibited the EPA for one year from spending any money on developing regulations for greenhouse gases

Full Story Lobbyists aided Alaska’s Murkowski in writing EPA limits bill | McClatchy.

Feingold wary of upcoming ruling on campaign finance

Supreme Court decision on case that challenges legislation expected soon

The court’s decision, which could come as early as this week, could have monumental consequences for the influence of corporate and union money on elections.

The case, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, centers on one of two primary provisions in the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2002, commonly known as the McCain-Feingold bill after authors Feingold and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. The law banned ”soft” money, or large unregulated donations, and limited electioneering communications such as political advertising.

Citizens United, an independent group, has challenged an FEC ruling that prohibited the group from airing a documentary on 2008 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton titled “Hillary: The Movie.” The FEC said the group, which received corporate donations, could not run the documentary because it advocated the defeat of a political candidate within 60 days of a general election. The group had intended to air the documentary via a video-on-demand service.

Full Story Feingold wary of upcoming ruling on campaign finance | htrnews.com | Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter.

Obama received $20 million from healthcare industry in 2008 campaign

Almost three times the amount given to McCain

While some sunlight has been shed on the hefty sums shoveled into congressional campaign coffers in an effort to influence the Democrats’ massive healthcare bill, little attention has been focused on the far larger sums received by President Barack Obama while he was a candidate in 2008.

A new figure, based on an exclusive analysis created for Raw Story by the Center for Responsive Politics, shows that President Obama received a staggering $20,175,303 from the healthcare industry during the 2008 election cycle, nearly three times the amount of his presidential rival John McCain. McCain took in $7,758,289, the Center found.

The new figure, obtained by Raw Story through an independent custom research request performed by the Center for Responsive Politics — a nonprofit, nonpartisan group that tracks money in politics — is the most comprehensive breakdown yet available of healthcare industry contributions to Obama during the 2008 election cycle.

Full Story Obama received $20 million from healthcare industry in 2008 campaign | Raw Story.

Obama’s Big Sellout

Matt Taibbi & Robert F. Kennedy, Jr –

During his campaign, Barack Obama surrounded himself with progressive leaders who believed that we could prevent another economic crisis by enforcing tougher regulations for Wall Street. However, once he took office, he sent those progressives packing, and filled his cabinet with former Wall Street insiders who want to keep the system operating out of the scope of the government. This isn’t the “change” that we were expecting, and this is one of the reasons that the president is now facing an uphill battle to win back the votes of his base. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. talks about the president’s sell out with Matt Taibbi, political correspondent for Rolling Stone magazine.

VIDEO: Obama’s Big Sellout – Matt Taibbi: Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3

Full Story Ring of Fire Radio | Obama’s Big Sellout – Matt Taibbi.

Drumbeat to Boot Geithner Gets Louder, on Eve of Hearings on Disastrous Economic Crash

Danny Schechter -

The Treasury Secretary’s pro-Wall Street policies, along with those of adviser Larry Summers, are failing. Time to give them the boot.

When a pitcher gets tired, starts throwing walks or being hit, most attentive managers take him out of the game. When policies break down, as in the case of the security system that failed to spot the alleged Christmas bomber, the president starts talking tough about the buck stopping here and orders to straighten out a failed system.

But when tens of thousands of workers, once again, lose their jobs, the people responsible get winked at, not wanked. The president is contrite, his rhetoric subdued, even as the recovery he keeps talking about goes south.

Yes, there needs to be a cabinet shake-up. It’s time to yank Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner from the game, along with economic adviser Larry Summers. Their pro-bank, pro-Wall Street policies are failing. Isn’t it obvious? According to an AP investigation, their road construction projects have had no impact on the jobs crisis.

Full Story Drumbeat to Boot Geithner Gets Louder, on Eve of Hearings on Disastrous Economic Crash | Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace | AlterNet.

Stunning Comments from the White House on the Burgeoning Geithner/AIG Scandal

David Sirota  -

As a follow up to yesterday’s explosive news, check out today’s an amazing – and hideous – interchange between CNN reporter Ed Henry and White House press secretary Robert Gibbs about new evidence that Tim Geithner’s New York Fed instructed AIG to hide information from SEC regulators (by the way, big kudos to Henry for trying to get some answers):

Q: Robert, Does the White House believe that Secretary Geithner should testify on the Hill, turn over any documents he has, to sort of clear this up?

MR. GIBBS: Ed, I’d point you to the Treasury Department. I’m sure you’ve already talked to them. Secretary Geithner was not involved in any of these emails. These decisions did not rise to his level at the Fed. These are emails and decisions made by officials at an independent regulatory agency –

Q: But how do you know that he wasn’t involved? He was the leader of the New York Fed.

more…..

Three things here:

1. Notice that the White House is not denying that illegal action may have occurred – the administration is only making the (preposterous) assertion that the regulatory filings of the largest corporation in the New York Fed’s receivership somehow “didn’t rise” to Geithner’s level. That’s right, we’re expected to believe the decisions to authorize and then hide multi-billion-dollar taxpayer-financed sweetheart deals for Geithner’s friends at Goldman Sachs and all the other big banks obviously – obviously! – “didn’t rise” to Geithner’s level. Hmm…where have we heard this “no controlling legal authority” argument before…hmm…oh, right – from top Enron executives. And I thought the President was telling us that he believed in “buck stops here” accountability for those at the top, right? Guess not.

2. Gibbs insists Geithner “wasn’t….

Full Story Stunning Comments from the White House on the Burgeoning Geithner/AIG Scandal | The Smirking Chimp.