Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: J_F_Shepard who wrote (517904)	10/3/2009 12:37:02 PM
From: Brumar89	Respond to of 1574796

Don't know or care. I do know the bigger and more intrusive the government, the more lobbyists there will be.

To: J_F_Shepard who wrote (517904)	10/4/2009 12:30:17 PM
From: Brumar89	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1574796

Shocked To Find Lobbying In Obama Administration Every now and then, like the proverbial broken clock, Frank Rich at the NY Times gets something mostly right. His column, The Rabbit Ragu Democrats, gets it mostly right and does a good job exposing the reality that lobbyists for corporate interests are running just as wild in the Obama administration as in previous Republican administrations. Rich also gets it right in showing how the current situation flies in the face of Obama's campaign promises: Barack Obama promised a change from this revolving-door, behind-closed-doors collaboration between special interests and government. He vowed to “do our business in the light of day” — with health care negotiations broadcast on C-Span — and to “restore the vital trust between people and their government.” He said, “I intend to tell the corporate lobbyists that their days of setting the agenda in Washington are over.” That those lobbyists would so extravagantly flaunt their undiminished role shows just how little they believe that a new sheriff has arrived in Dodge. But note that I said Rich got it "mostly" right. What Rich cannot bring himself to admit is that Obama is part of the problem. Instead, Rich paints Obama as a victim of Washington, someone who still has a chance to stand up for his campaign promises: This is history that the president still has the power to write. It will be written in the bills he will or won’t sign into law. We can only hope that he learned an important lesson from his stunning failure to secure Olympic gold for his political home of Chicago last week. If the Olympic committee has the audacity to stand up to a lobbyist as powerful as the president of the United States, then surely the president of the United States can stand up to the powerful interests angling to defeat his promise of reform. Frank Rich still is a broken clock. Having cheered on the Obama candidacy, and having savaged all Obama opponents, Rich cannot bring himself to recognize that Obama not only tolerates, but encourages (for example, by cutting deals with the pharmaceutical industry) the type of lobbying against which Obama campaigned. In other words, Obama is just another politician. And Frank Rich, Maureen Dowd, Bob Herbert, Gail Collins, Paul Krugman, and all the other NY Times columnists combined, cannot change that reality, although twice a day they get the time right. Stay tuned. The next column by Frank Rich will express his shock to learn that there really was gambling in Casablanca. legalinsurrection.blogspot.com

To: J_F_Shepard who wrote (517904)	10/9/2009 1:04:40 PM
From: Brumar89	Respond to of 1574796

Most lobbyist money going to Dems ; 'Bundling' reports now law; critics point to loopholes Fredreka Schouten 05 October, 2009 USA Today WASHINGTON -- Fundraising by Washington lobbyists so far this year has chiefly benefited the Democratic Party, according to a USA TODAY analysis of campaign finance reports available for the first time under a new ethics law. Federal lobbyists helped collect more than $3.7 million during the first six months of 2009, and nearly $2.3 million went to Democrats, the analysis shows. The party now controls both chambers of Congress and the White House. There are no limits on how much lobbyists can deliver to lawmakers and party committees through "bundling" -- collecting contributions from friends, family and colleagues -- as they work to shape federal policy in their clients' favor. Bundling "is another tool of influence for lobbyists," who otherwise are limited like all contributors to donating no more than $2,400 per primary or general election to a federal candidate, said Dave Levinthal, of the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics. "It's one thing to give a contribution of $4,800 for a primary and general election," he said. "It's an entirely different thing to bundle together half a million dollars." The campaign committee working to elect Democrats to the Senate was the largest beneficiary of lobbyist bundling, reporting nearly $732,000 in such donations this year. Eric Schultz, a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said his party deserves credit for disclosing the bundling. "It took Democrats seizing control of Congress to pass the strongest ethics and lobbying reform in history," he said in an e- mail. "All of our fundraising is fully transparent and follows the law." Among those bundling for Democrats: lobbyist Anthony Podesta, whose Podesta Group reported more than $11.8 million in lobbying fees so far this year. Clients include Google, Wal-Mart and drugmaker Amgen. During the same period, Podesta collected more than $74,000 for Democratic committees and members, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, reports show. "I don't think there's any member of Congress who has taken a position because I've bundled for them. That's not the way it works," Podesta said. Lobbyists also bundled on behalf of Republicans, delivering nearly $409,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee alone, the reports show. T. Martin Fiorentino, a lobbyist in Jacksonville whose clients include AT&T and railway giant CSX Transportation, collected nearly $140,000 to aid Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, who is running for the Senate in 2010. Fiorentino said there was no "correlation there whatsoever" between his lobbying work and fundraising for Crist, whom he described as a longtime friend. The bundling reports were mandated under a 2007 law passed after Democrats took control of Congress. The requirement went into effect this year. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pledged the ethics changes would reverse a "culture of corruption" in Washington. Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly said "the law is working as intended. It provides disclosure and transparency that did not previously exist." Watchdog groups, such as the non-partisan Sunlight Foundation, however, say loopholes persist. Lobbyists have to collect more than $16,000, for example, before the reporting requirement kicks in. The reports also don't include information about people from whom lobbyists collect contributions.