Money, Politics and Corruption

While our government was awash in corruption before Citizens United created a PAC frenzy, the Center for Public Integrity reports over the top numbers for lobbyists, and it's not even peak election season yet, this looks to be a record year for lobbyists throwing money at government.

But prompted in part by roiling debate over a national farm bill, the Grocery Manufacturers Association reported spending $7.47 million to influence the federal government — never before had it cracked the $2 million mark for a single quarter. A representative for the association could not be reached for comment.
Ahead of Obamacare implementation on Oct. 1, drug makers Amgen Inc. ($2.52 million) and GlaxoSmithKline ($1.27 million), increased their quarterly lobbying expenditures compared to the third quarter of 2012. So did other large lobbying forces with prominent health care interests, such as the American Chemistry Council ($4.75 million), American Medical Association ($4.27 million) and the Biotechnology Industry Organization ($2.02 million).
AT&T Inc., oil company Chevron Corp., Coca-Cola Co., defense contractor Raytheon Co., United Parcel Service, tech firm Hewlett-Packard and bank Wells Fargo also recorded spending increases compared to their performances during last year’s third quarter.
And prominent members of the gun lobby — both for and against firearm restrictions — also topped totals from 2012’s third quarter, although their spending levels were generally down from the previous quarter this year.

Congress, Your Civil Rights, and Money

The defeat of an amendment to eliminate the NSA dragnet of all phone call records in the US failed by only 12 votes (217-205), and an analysis by Wired Magazine found that the supporters of continued spying got twice as much in contributions from the Defense lobbyists as those who opposed the massive spy program.

The numbers tell the story — in votes and dollars. On Wednesday, the House voted 217 to 205 not to rein in the NSA’s phone-spying dragnet. It turns out that those 217 “no” voters received twice as much campaign financing from the defense and intelligence industry as the 205 “yes” voters.
That’s the upshot of a new analysis by MapLight, a Berkeley-based non-profit that performed the inquiry at WIRED’s request. The investigation shows that defense cash was a better predictor of a member’s vote on the Amash amendment than party affiliation. House members who voted to continue the massive phone-call-metadata spy program, on average, raked in 122 percent more money from defense contractors than those who voted to dismantle it.
Overall, political action committees and employees from defense and intelligence firms such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing, United Technologies, Honeywell International, and others ponied up $12.97 million in donations for a two-year period ending December 31, 2012, according to the analysis, which MapLight performed with financing data from OpenSecrets. Lawmakers who voted to continue the NSA dragnet-surveillance program averaged $41,635 from the pot, whereas House members who voted to repeal authority averaged $18,765.
Of the top 10 money getters, only one House member — Rep. Jim Moran (D-Virginia) — voted to end the program.

I no like, this is corruption...

Picking our Pockets

Move over too big to fail banks, there's another monopoly in town that has jacked up the cost of living to new heights, I'm talking internet monopoly here.  The Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) has published an article on its blog that points out that the companies dominating the internet broadband market (AT&T, Concast, Time Warner Cable, Verizon, et al) are selling internet internet access for about $500 / Year while it costs them less than $100 / subscriber, making a tidy 80% gross margin on that service.

How do they manage to keep this racket going?  Why the American way, they hire hundreds of lobbyists and partner with ALEC to buy protection against competition.  They do this with the Municipal Telecommunications Private Industry Safeguards Act the model legislation that outlaws communities efforts to build their own broadband networks, because that would be infringing on "Free Enterprise".  Such measures have now passed in 19 states, including our neighbors in Washington State. This is the worst of crony capitalism at work.
 

More Revolving Door Goings On

We see the revolving door scenario alive and well, Ron Wyden's former chief of staff has gone to the dark side.  Looks like a big catch.  I hate it.  I hope Ron tells them to go perform an impossible act on themselves.

Josh Kardon, former longtime chief of staff to U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), has a new lobbying client—Exxon Mobil Corporation. The oil giant wants access to the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, of which Wyden is the new chairman. Kardon, who works for the Capitol Hill Consulting Group in Washington, D.C., declined to comment about taking on Exxon Mobil as a client.

Big Tobacco will come out swinging

NYC mayor Bloomberg is ready to take on restricting the display of cigarettes in stores. 
The mayor of a tiny village that tried to ban stores from displaying cigarettes has a message for New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg as he attempts to do the same thing.
Good luck.
Mayor Michael Kohut, of the Village of Haverstraw in upstate New York, said the town board had to repeal its ordinance after Big Tobacco came after them with a federal lawsuit that would have cost the community -- population 11,000 -- hundreds of thousands in legal fees.
"They brought their full forces to bear and it was going to be a long, drawn-out, expensive process." Kohut said Tuesday. "I said unless someone wants to pay for this, I can't pass this onto my village."
As part of the settlement, the town rescinded an ordinance that would have forced retailers to keep tobacco products out of public view.  The tobacco lobby has said it might use "political" means to fight the NYC action, meaning they'll bankroll a campaign for a more tobacco-friendly city official for anyone coming up for election.
In Haverstraw, the mayor will be watching closely -- and rooting for Bloomberg.
"If the city prevails, I would think you would see a flood of communities pass something like this," Kohut said. "We’d be happy to pick up the gauntlet."

Lobbyists protecting criminals

The meat / poultry industry is constantly rocked by animal welfare investigators taking videos of blatant animal abuse, unsafe food handling and criminal cover-ups.  So what does industry do about this?  Why they do the natural thing, they try to pass laws against the whistle-blowers and concerned citizens by making it illegal to take photographs at a farming operation, that's what they do.

They have their Lobbyists getting bills introduced to protect the criminals.  Some make it a crime for someone such as an animal welfare advocate to lie on an application to get a job at a plant.

Bills pending in California, Nebraska and Tennessee require that anyone collecting evidence of abuse turn it over to law enforcement within 24 to 48 hours — which advocates say does not allow enough time to document illegal activity under federal humane handling and food safety laws.  In Indiana, Arkansas and Pennsylvania it would be a crime to make videos at agricultural operations.  The legislation is being pushed by the corrupt business lobby at ALEC, the agency that makes legislators get aligned with mega corporations wishes.  ALEC has labeled those who interfere with animal operations "terrorists," though a spokesman said he wishes now that the organization had called its legislation the "Freedom to Farm Act" rather than the "Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act."

Disgusting is the only word that comes to my mind.