Stop Me Before I Vote Again

Democrats Beat Republicans in 2005 Fund-Raising on Wall Street

April 24 (Bloomberg) -- Democrats outdid Republicans last year in attracting political donations from investment banks, brokerages and fund managers for the first time since 1994, helped by support from hedge funds and companies such as Merrill Lynch & Co.

Democrats got $13.6 million, or 52 percent of the financial industry's $26.3 million in political donations in 2005, said the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan Washington group that researches the influence of money on elections and public policy. In the two years leading up to the 2004 presidential election, Republicans received 52 percent of the $91.6 million given by the industry.

``Wall Street wants change'' on issues such as the Iraq war and the budget deficit, said James Torrey, chairman of the Torrey Funds, which manages about $1 billion.

Daschle joins the CaroLinks board
Ex-Senate leader joins inland port advisory panel

Tom Daschle, the former U.S. Senate majority leader, is the latest to join the advisory board of Carolina Linkages, the Charleston-based company with plans to bring an inland port into Orangeburg County....

Daschle’s appointment continues the relationship the former Democratic senator built with CaroLinks founder, President and CEO Lucy Duncan-Scheman during the 15 years she ran a consulting business in Washington, D.C.

Duncan-Scheman’s husband, Ron Scheman, has been a longtime supporter of the Democratic Party and its candidates, with a Brookings Institute report listing Scheman as a top contributor to former President Bill Clinton and one of the top 10 contributors who received a presidential appointment, according to the Charleston Business Journal.

http://wampum.wabanaki.net/vault/2006/08/002979.html

In some ways, this jerk [Lamont] is worse than Lieberman.

"Rather than prescriptive standards [for GHG emissions], I would support performance standards to get us where we need to be in terms of conservation and efficiency."

1. He's defying the Israel lobby, and
2. People seem to like it.

Nice briefing on Dem consultants:

Once the Democrats turned into the opposition, key Clinton figures found a home in offering their advertising, public relations and arm-twisting skills to industry trade associations and corporations. They retained their links to the party, and have lived a kind of dual life ever since, moving effortlessly from corporate work to campaign work and back. The friendliness with big business has escalated under the reign of Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, who has assembled his own so-called “K Street Cabinet” – named after the street where the lobbying hordes are headquartered.

Maybe if we progressives take back the House this fall, the evils of incestuous crony networks can at last be addressed. Then we take back the country. Let "to the moon Alice!" be our battle cry.

Business hedges bets by donating to Pelosi
Firms open wallets in case Democrats take back House

Traditionally Republican big business interests are hedging their electoral bets this year by increasing their campaign contributions to Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, whose party is given a healthy shot at taking House control in the Nov. 7 elections....

Pelosi's main campaign committee reported raising more than $1.2 million, including $730,025 from political action committees, for the 2006 election through June 30.... 54.2 percent of the PAC money -- more than $400,000 -- given to Pelosi in the first six months of 2006 came from businesses. That's up from $366,000 for the entire 2003-04 election cycle, her first as House minority leader, and $207,750 in 2001-02....

The increase is even more pronounced for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee [which] received about $20.6 million from business interests in the first half of 2006. That's up from $19.5 million for all of the 2004 cycle and represents almost 50 percent of the group's total fundraising.

For the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the increase was even bigger, up 15.8 percent to $31.5 million, a figure that represented 76.8 percent of the committee's fundraising total.

I thought I might get into a political debate here, but I can't find much in the way of politics--you know, like Lenin defined it, concrete analysis of concrete conditions, then 'Who-Whom', who can do what to whom. I know you're against the Dems, any Dem, but are you for McCain, the Greens, or staying home studying POMO stuff? Can't tell from these posts.

There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge.

Don't let the "Kick Me" signs fool you. They're there to lull people into misunderestimating the hard-boiled progressive resolve. Carl and the Pwogs for Obama have a cunning plan. They're going to put Obama in their debt, by offering him everything he wants from them with no preconditions and no plan for coping with defection. Through the magic of social contract theory, he will then be obliged to fulfill the progressive dreams. If he doesn't... let's just say there will a be a number of scathing articles in The Nation.

That's a red tail hawk in flight, courtesy of Wikipedia

The Bottomless Bailout, by Ralph Nader, who is arguably the last principled liberal in the United States.

Shocking as it may seem, the House has summoned up what little sense of decency remains in its ghastly collective substitute for a soul. A majority of them have signed up to support H.R.1207 , a very simple bill to audit the Fed. This is what Owen is referring to in the post immediately below.

The sponsors and cosponsors may, to put it delicately, leave a lot (well, everything) to be desired from a left perspective, but some do indeed have what it takes to rake the Fed over the coals. If this Bill is a trojan horse to politicize the Fed, I can't help laughing. There is no quango so thoroughly politicized already. It cannot possibly be made any worse than it is.

I had to laugh. The New York Times brain trust wants Goldman Sachs to show good citizenship. The editors helpfully provide them with a mailing address to send a donation that would defray the public debt. The debt, to flog the obvious, is not the problem.

So I have a much better idea, with a similar degree of likelihood in fruition. Arrest them all and, after a fair show trial, confiscate everything they have — except, possibly, their underwear.

Just kidding around. Senator Ben Nelson, that mean-spirited tar baby obstructionist, authoritarian misanthrope, diehard opponent of human rights and staunch defender of the capitalist faith etc. etc., got himself and better still his constituents one hell of a deal for his ObamaCare vote.

It wasn't clear whether Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had the support needed to move ahead with his chamber's health care bill until Sen. Ben Nelson, the last Democratic holdout, had a change of heart this weekend.

He agreed to support the bill in return for compromise language on federal funding for abortion and more money for his home state of Nebraska.

As a part of the deal, the federal government will pay 100 percent of Nebraska's tab indefinitely for expanding Medicaid for low-income Americans.

It's not socialized health care and there are plenty of problems with Medicaid, but the horrible old thug stumbled into doing something that in this context comes within spitting distance of a decent regard for humankind.