While Rome Burns...The REAL Congressional Business
The GOP media machine openly questioned whether it was appropriate for President Barack Obama to travel to Los Angeles this week, when his "business" should be on the economy, the implication being that Obama was not capable of multi-tasking. It's an easy mistake, given the previous president could not watch TV and chew pretzels simultaneously. However, American News Project producer Harry Hanbury decided to take a look at the real business of Congress: fundraising. Collecting as many invitations as he could find, Hanbury found no less than two dozen fundraisers taking place over the course of a single day in DC and tried to visit them all:
Fundraising parties seem to be proliferating--possibly as an unintended consequence of the otherwise laudable post-Abramoff reforms of 2007, which banned gifts from lobbyists to members of Congress, restricted the use of corporate jets by members, and curbed junkets like Abramoff's notorious Scottish golfing trip. In his new book, So Damn Much Money, Robert Kaiser quotes the prominent lobbyist Lawrence O'Brien III, who says the latest reforms "have shifted the emphasis over to political fundraising. Now writing checks and raising money is the simplest pathway to completely legal personal face time with members and their senior staff."
It all may be "completely legal," but campaign finance advocates wonder what deals get cut along with all the big checks. After all, just before his sentencing no less an authority than Jack Abramoff reportedly said, "I was participating in a system of legalized bribery. All of it is bribery, every bit of it."
It may take time to dismantle what Kaiser calls "the culture of money, lobbying, and self-dealing that has metastasized over four decades." But a surprising alliance of good government groups, lobbyists, and business leaders believe this is the moment for sweeping campaign finance reform. They are rallying behind bills that would publicly fund races for the House, Senate, and the presidency. That would certainly throw a wet blanket over D.C.'s party circuit. But would it really be so a bad if members of Congress no longer felt compelled to spend a quarter to a third of their time raising campaign cash?
The numbers we're talking about are staggering. Yet, Eric Cantor--so concerned with Obama's ability to talk to Americans and handle the economic crisis--has no problem with his ability to take funds from PACs and supporters and obstruct the economic solutions the Obama administration proposes.
As a final note, think about how much good the $40,000 that Woolsey aide Stephanie Kenny (the only candid person in the video) mentions at the end of the video would benefit the students of Valley Academy High School, many of whom are so impoverished that the only decent meal they get every day is their school lunch.
Is there a better argument for public financing?
Fuck the GOP!
Buncha god damned whiney, bitch-ass bitches!
Tell us how you really feel.:)
What is your conceptual, continuity?
I will by golly! I'm just gettin warmed up!
Letum have it.:) They got it comin.
Just don't piss off the site monitors too much. ;)
What is your conceptual, continuity?
Ok...here's MY plan for the GOP...
IF the GOP has NO solutions, they need to either, A) STFU and let our prez get some damn work done. B)Get with THE FUCKING PROGRAM and help get some bills passed goddammit. C) actually put forth some ideas that don't include tax cuts for their rich asshole friends, or more deregulation for their rich asshole friends. Or , finally D) they can get bulls eye tattoos on their foreheads.
everyone go to the local offices of their representatives...bring everyone you can find.
Stand in front of the building...peacefully...drop your drawers...and everyone take a big steaming shit right on the pavement.
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
But by claiming this to be your plan, are you not trying to get credit for doing precisely what Congressional Republicans are doing on the floor of Congress in reaction to administration proposals?
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
not a very original idea...colorful...and smelly...but, original...not so much..
LOL!!!
giving back what we get from the system.
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
LOL!
....if the senators would consider me a representative of the Tattoo Lobby.
Already a tattoo lobby?
We must remedy this forthwith!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFK1rvL2NoQ
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
The D's are as much to blame for this system of private financing and they raise tons of cash for their campaigns. A pox on both their houses.
I am an equal opportunity shitter.
Shit on ALL of them.
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
Try some
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXcoCtOcm6I
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
both are equally guilty, however, we have not had anyone of the caliber or craveness of Jack Abramoff or Tom DeLay. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't our sitting president raise his money from the people? The GOP will always have their lips firmly planted on the asses of corporate America, it's their "base."
the D's have not had their own Abramoff recently but give them a chance. They have only been in control of Congress for 2 years. One need only look back at the 80's to see that corruption favors no single party but rather the party in power.
If you want to trust that the D's are inherently more ethical than the R's, go for it. I don't think history reflects that.
But the blatant criminality, outright fascism perpetrated by the rightwing in this country the last 8 years makes the Dem scandals analogous to shoplifting vs. armed robbery.
however, and "Crooks and Liars," are everywhere, but I think that if you stacked the unethical/lawbreaking Republicans against Democrats exhibiting similar behavior, the Repubs would win by a long shot and by a dollar count.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abscam
Rep. Jefferson?
Murtha's current troubles?
I would submit that inflation has a lot to do with R's getting more $ than the D's in their scandals. I don't mean the median inflation rate but rather in gigantic exponential growth the upper 3% have had over these last 10 years or so. That and the fact that the D's sell out to lower bidders.
The point is that at the top corruption is the rule, not the exception.
REMARKABLE!!! The Reps blew it twice for eight years, ran the system dow the tube with their stupid wars. Irag under false pretences, Committed treason by betraying Valerie Plame, and a few more crimes against the people. Created the highest debt in the history of the United States and now, besides the fact that they now try to blame the Democrats for their failures, are complaining about little shit like Mr. Obama not waring a coat and tie in the oval office. No, you bunch of idiots (reps). You can't work hard with coat and tie. But you are probably too stupid to understand that because you never did an honest days work. The man went to California to gather support for his plans to restore the system, that you left behind, if you can get that between your fat ears it would help. Now, get out of the way or climb aboard and help. But take your stupid propaganda, of wich I get a lot in spam e-mail, and stick it in that dark place you know so well.
would clean up the election process here in the United States, I have my doubts that much would change. As long as political contributions (money) is considered "free speech" then the lobbyists will always have access to those who can vote.
Only when the last tree has died
and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught
will we realize we cannot eat money.
... cap legislators' maximum allowable income or something similarly ridiculous.
Those positions are not supposed to be a for profit entitlements, they are there to serve the people. Salary caps would separate those who are in it for the money, vs. those who are in it to actually try to make a difference.
I'm not sure either "that public financing would clean up the election process...". But it might make elected officials' more productive, and easier to work with.
I remember seeing a Daily Show interview will Bill Clinton a year or so ago. One of the things Clinton talked about is about how Senators and Representatives have to spend so much time fundraising in order to mount viable election campaigns. Everyone is spending, like, 3 or 4 nights a week out at fundraisers. So everyone is chronically sleep-deprived. Clinton thinks that this is a major reason for the lack of civility in Washington. (If anyone out there remembers this interview, feel free to correct any errors I might have made.)
I think Bill Clinton is on to something. I have some experience with chronic sleep-deprivation. Besides that, it would be nice if Senators and Representatives could spend more time working on legislation or helping their constituents.
... if Obama were standing their breathing down their necks, they'd be bitching about that.
I mean, do the Republicans really want their hands held by the Democrats?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090323/ap_on_bi_...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
The GOP set their own bar so low they can't grasp the fact that, unlike Bubble Boy, Obama is capable of juggling more than one ball at a time. They are so petty, it is beyond belief. They sound like a bunch of whiney spoiled rotten brats with nothing to offer.
They can't fathom that one might be trying to solve problems, much less multiple problems at the same time. And even if they did, none of those problems would ever be pre-existing problems caused by the GOP. Whining, spoiled children are almost more tolerable than the typical GOP adherent. What a disaster the GOP has become.
They just keep shooting themselves in the feet.
I say , Keep it up.
The general public, with the mood their in right now will not like this very much.
What is your conceptual, continuity?
Keep us informed.
NO RSVP NECESSARY!
all i can do is shake my head
Jack Abramoff reportedly said, "I was participating in a system of legalized bribery. All of it is bribery, every bit of it."
He told the truth. That's no way to win friends and influence people in the District of Criminals.
I find it ironic that you guys are coming out in favor of public financing when, in the general election, Obama came out against it and this blog agreed with his decision to reject public financing (http://crooksandliars.com/node/21337).
I tend to think that you either come down on the issue one way or another, having these blurry lines based on political affiliations isn't helpful or productive. Remember in that video, it was Democrats, along with Republicans, that were indicted. In fact, Rangel's fundraiser was probably the most abrasive shown towards the media. If the Democrats and this blog are going to come out in favor of public financing, or against it thats fine...just be consistent!
However, I also know that with the current media ownership, that means the election of a lot of Republicans given favorable media treatment. That's not what the public wants, at least not now. The current system virtually guarantees high levels of corruption or at least lots of conflicts of interest. I would rather have my representatives working to represent me instead of having to continually raise funds for the next election.
I really don't understand how you can say that the gop owns the media and that if there were to be public financing of elections that they would be given favorable treatment. so please inform me and how and why you think what you think. Use reason and logic not emotion as the basis of your argument. I am after all just an ignorant college educated moderate.
that the party of Corporations would get favorable treatment by the Corporate Main Stream Media?
What planet have you been on the last 8 years?
Are you seriously saying, that the media is not a clearing house for GOP talking points?
HA!
actually in the last election i saw a media that was if anything favoring obama. hmm that is funny isn't it. when it suits you the media is your best friend. anyother time it is just another gop talking point spewing outlet.
the media may be skewed toward the corporatist candidate...in most cases the Republican, but they are not stupid.
They weren't in the bag for Obama. They saw from the polling who was going to win. They saw a very flawed team put forward by the GOP...so the the corporate media maasters hedged their bets.
It's always about money and influence.
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
Did you miss all the free passes that Palin received?
The woman should have been laughed away quickly.
What about: Limbaugh, Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, everyone on Fox?
Were they Hail Mary passes?
Or guys who make passes at girls who wear glasses?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
they were the latter, encouraged by that homespun lass from the Great WHITE North.
of course. The GOP don't own most of the media outlets in the US. It is their members and supporters who own those newspaper, radio and television chains. We all know that those people would never use their controlling interest in the media conglomerates to influence editorial policy. Au contraire, they insist that the MSM remain biased towards the left. We know this is true because they tell us regularly.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
the primary system should be made uniform. Access to a primary is based on a signature minimum. Once approved to be in the primary...each candidate is given a flat sum of public money for campaigning. Radio and tv media will provide FREE time (sorry...the airwaves belong to US...the people) to every candidate.
The gathering of signatures period is ONE YEAR. The campaign is ONE year.
That follows through for ALL elections for national offices.
States can decide their own rules for state office elections.
There will be NO corporate contributions allowed. Private contributions are capped at $25 per person per YEAR. PERIOD.
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
I will go one step further. six months from the election let the parties have their primaries so that they can choose their nominees. At four months from the elections the candidates can start having commercials. At three months till the election there will be debates (true honest debates not the platform recitals the debates have become). And that will be that. Of course it will never happen there is too much money to lose on both sides.
Well that's about 1/2 the story.
McCain challenged Obama to agree to public financing. Obama said he would agree to that if McCain would. McCain waited until the last minute to file for public financing, leaving Obama no time to file the paperwork.
That's a game of "Gotcha", also known as sandbagging, on the part of the McCain campaign.
Don't try to confuse the issue with half-truths and gorilla dust.
McCain was trying to limit contributions to Obama...cause he was getting his clock cleaned.
Alot of big GOP money sat out the last election cause McCain was a mess.
Limiting Obama's media access was the only option McCain had.
He doesn't give a rat's ass about limiting private campaign contributions.
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
"He doesn't give a rat's ass about limiting private campaign contributions."
McCain-Feingold, as originally proposed, was a decent piece of legislation, imo.
I think, in the particular case we're talking about, McCain was just taking advantage of the situation as he found it at the time.
Don't try to confuse the issue with half-truths and gorilla dust.
contributions limitations really work.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
...of McCain-Feingold?
I said it was decent. Not perfect. Not great. It was a start. But the limits in campaign financing need to be extended to cover PACs and other private entities who campaign for candidates.
Don't try to confuse the issue with half-truths and gorilla dust.
Actually the roberts court in Federal Election Commission v. Wisconsin Right to Life, Inc (2007)., called campaign finance a form of free speech, ironic considering that conservatives have never accepted the concept of symbolic free speech as per Des Moines v Tinker (1969).
But I believe large-scale corporate PACs and smaller ones like the Teacher's Union joined forces on this case.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
that's for you to decide.
McCain Feingold obviously wasnt ANYTHING.
Seems to me the the system is even more corrupt.
That is reality.
It wasn't even symbolic.
Most of the country probably thinks McCain-Feingold is a beer brewing company.
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
Not the bill that was passed. Even though the bill that was passed bears their names, the text of the bill as passed- the toothless law we have now- was the House version. It should be called the Shays-Meehan Act.
Don't try to confuse the issue with half-truths and gorilla dust.
LOL! Yes...if only...if ONLY the Democrats didn't hate America...it would have passed!
LOLOLOL!
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
Your last sentence is pretty much what I said. He made a strategic decision to try and salvage his candidacy.
As for the rest, I stand by what I said.
McCain-Feingold had NO teeth. It was political expediency at a time when there was no real political price to pay for floating it...and it allowed McCain to leverage his "maverick" image.
It was put together during a reelection cycle.
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
We do not have a hive mind. We supported different candidates through the primaries and we have different feelings about campaign finance as well, obviously.
Steve Benen may not think it's important, but I do, and I speak only for myself.
Amen, amen.
I've never been a hiver and have no intention of becoming one.
I try not to generalize myself, it's a problematic thing, and I get very offended by statements of the "you people," variety.
And, by the way for all of you generalizers/GOP apologists, I don't think Obama is a messiah or a saviour or a perfect human being who will never, ever make a mistake.
...if we remove the excuse for raising money by pols that 'campaigns are expensive', with public financing, then we'll know that any money accepted by these same pols is what it is - a f*****g BRIBE, pure and simple. And armed with that knowledge we can get rid of the SOBs, one way or another. I'm not saying that number of them are just larcenous enough to stay on the take, but with the requirement of posting how much money they take and from whom, at least we'll know it for what it is. Public financing, limits on spending, limits on the advertising time-frame, and to hell with free speech when it comes to this. We'll rid ourselves of a lot of crap when we do.
The GOP are strange animals indeed. They insist that they are are now the Party of 'responsible opposition' and my favorite, the Party of 'checks and balances' according to Eric Cantor. They want The People so desperately to trust them again but yet their fundraisers are closed events and they hide from the cameras like the Crooks & Liars they really are. The Democratic Party isn't that much better but they aren't the ones who ran this country into the sewer it's in. Yet they wonder why no one wants to trust them or give them their money.
Government + the Federal Reserve = organized crime
Cantor meant by checks and balances, is that they are the party that accepts checks, also, cash, credit cards, money orders, barter, trade-in-kind, oral sex, etc. What he meant by balances, it that they are really good at balancing their public Christian persona, with their amoral, hell-bound private lives and not becoming conflicted emotionally or mentally in the process.
Ah I see how to do it, lol. BTW, I was just making the Rome/USA connection myself. Only the lower classes and peasants are burning the elite are very untouchable for years to come.
I would be more than happy to be a camera man/heckler. I need security tho, I don't think I could handle being beaten by a republican thug.
I'm reminded of an old joke from SNL.
What does Betty Ford use for birth control?
Every night she gives the President a stick of gum before they go to bed.
... that the President had to do some brush clearing.
In contrast: "...The August getaway is Bush's 49th trip to his cherished ranch since taking office and the 319th day that Bush has spent, entirely or partially, in Crawford -- nearly 20 percent of his presidency to date."
If you need funds to pay for essentials, you have a revenue problem
If you need funds to pay for frivolity, you have a spending problem
How soon we forget. Sometimes the obvious is staring us in the face.
But your pointed counter argument won't diminsih the controversy. The MSM will help the Republicans milk this story for another three or four weeks yet.
It's a win-win. The Repubs hammer away at Obama on all the news channels and the MSM suckles at the teat (as Grassly might have said) of a trumped up controversy that feeds their 24 hour a day news habit.
can do a red carpet fund raiser for the economic crisis.
Or better yet hold a telethon for politicians running for office;
I hear Jerry Lewis is looking for work.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
or his toupee.
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
It's time to see precisely how much of our "bailout money" is being used to prop up politicos.
This was NOT the way this money was supposed to be used. It's time for taxpayers to demand every red cent of anything given by lobbyists to member of congress back - and immediately.
republicans response to everything but cash for themselves:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtMV44yoXZ0
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Team Obama should just keep pointing out over and over and over and over and over that the GOP has nothing. that they bring nothing to the table. That they only obstruct. Over and over and over again. These jokers just don't get it. I think maybe that even the rank and file right wing public, minus the 25% base, are getting more and more pissed off at these obstructionists. If you are negative about something (Obama's plan for example) you need to have an alternate plan or idea and it can't be the self serving tax cuts for the4 very rich who have already had their taxes cut to the point of destroying the country. No, they need something that Joe Sixpack and Betty Winebox can wrap their brains around and something that will help them and the GOP brings nothing because Joe Sixpack and Betty Winebox don't make anything like $250,000 a year, let alone $5,000,000 a year.
And we want a 'clean government'? Get serious. Until we have REAL campaign reform that will eliminate this sort of corruption, it won't happen.
We will continue to have a leak in the head gasket of the motor of government, and we will pollute the air to a disgusting degree as we putt putt down the road to get the peoples' work done.
Democracy at work....
When The Incredible Hulk gets drunk does he bellow, "Me Smashed!!!"
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
That was a waste of time, wunt it?
what our little back and forth?? The whole line got deleted. Look, I am not conservative and I am not liberal. I do not watch the news and I only look at the headlines. Therefore, the accusation that I am a gop talking point or a troll is not true because they do not have a influence on my opinion. today i just wanted an argument and i got frustrated and tired. I apologize for any offense.
[It's okay, Chris. The whole sub-thread got off topic. I'm not planning on banning anyone. A suggestion: If you don't want to see the word "troll" thrown at you, don't use generalities such as, "You guys all pile on." Statements such as that are magnets for accusations. Thank you. Site Monitor]
is to slow down and watch where the money is coming from.
watch the ads on all of the sites you get your news from...it's a hint
in any way influence our coverage?
You couldn't be more wrong.
I'm not even aware of what ads are running. No one tells me what to write or how to write.
I was talking earlier about the "Main Stream Media" in general.
It's been taken care of.
Hey maroons!
You have nothing to offer. You are a pathetic bunch of losers with nothing but a ficticious past that was re-written by you to your liking that says at one time Raygun was succesful. History paints a bleak picture of every term you have ever been in power. The GOP is just a pathetic party of no ideas and a history of failed philosophy.
The obvious occurred to me as I was watching that video - We elected them and are now pay their salaries!
We are paying them to serve our country, not fund raise in order to enhance their own careers.
What other job permits this?
"The GOP media machine openly questioned whether it was appropriate for President Barack Obama to travel to Los Angeles this week, when his "business" should be on the economy..."
These assholes didn't say a thing when their boy George Bush was spending about 20% of his presidency on vacation... yep about two of his 8 years was spent fooling around on his "ranch" yet you hardly heard a peep from the media or the GOP...
it's called projection.
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
Money money money-- the real American god. That's all they care about. They don't care squat about you. If they could, they'd tell every citizen to STFU. Please realize --internalize-- this obviuos truth, and never forget. Filter everything you hear through this idea.
"If the US government enforced its banking laws like it did its park regulations, we wouldn't be
in this damn park in the first place." OCCUPY.!!
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