Ten Post Round-Up: We Won’t Get Shafted, Again

You’ve got to give McCain credit. By welcoming Palin into his campaign, he sure livened things up quite a bit in this election (and no, I’m not referring to you-know-what, unless you know what is a bridge or something).

Truth be told, I don’t blame him for his (apparently) monumental screw-up. There was not much more he could do after Obama pretty much drop-kicked McCain during his awesome speech, last week. McCain can only hope that Palin will continue to be a distraction, especially if his big speech does not get the audience and/or the viewership that Obama’s did.

Looks like I got more to dish about Palin in today’s Ten Post Round-Up (after all, forewarned is fore-armed). I heard that Jerry Reed (of Smokey and the Bandit fame) died today. Searching for a song to link to, this one made me think of the Republican party and how we have been treated since GWB got the WH (S/He got the goldmine–I/We got the shaft).

• Get ready to have your access capped or pay more for internet access.

• More Gestapo tactics at the RNC. Welcome to Republican America, indeed!

• There goes “the neighborhood”. What would King Friday XIII decree?

• As Gustav passes, we still have our hearts and minds on Katrina.

• More things that make you go “Hmmmm…” in regards to Palin-gate.

• The Republicans continue to party-hardy despite McCain’s call for solemnity because of the approaching hurricane.

• McCain’s POW cred makes him unfit to be Prez? He doesn’t think so.

• Fitness may simply be a process of mind over matter.

• Progressives (and probably some Conservatives) have started a Palin Pull-out Pool. Will and when will she make her grand exit? I’ve placed my bet.

• From the annals of “Foods That Should NEVER Be Put Together In One Palate”.

(originally posted at: The Sirens Chronicles)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04RJyFCg7ks]

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Hunter Biden-Lobbyist for Big Pharma

Yet, his daddy Joe calls him a lawyer on his website. From the last paragraph on the page:

Senator Biden lives in Wilmington, Delaware and commutes to Washington, DC when the Senate is in session. He is married to Dr. Jill Biden, the former Jill Jacobs, an educator in Delaware’s schools for over twenty years. She currently is a professor teaching at Delaware Technical Community College. Senator Biden is the father of three children: Beau, Hunter and Ashley. Beau serves as Delaware’s Attorney General, Ashley is a social worker and Hunter is a lawyer. The Bidens also have five grandchildren: Naomi, Finnegan, Roberta Mabel, Natalie, and Robert Hunter.

Now, isn’t that interesting and just a little ironic? Which group is it that Obama has so much distain for he refuses to take their campaign donations? Lobbyists.

From Bloomberg: The Big O’s campaign had ‘no comment’. Also from Bloomberg:

Barack Obama’s speech announcing his running mate Joe Biden singled out the Delaware senator’s son who is headed for Iraq. Obama didn’t mention the profession of Biden’s other son, who lobbied for two drug companies and five universities.

No comment from the Obama-Biden campaign on what Biden’s son Hunter does for a living? You can bet your ass the neocon’s will be all over this little tidbit..so the campaign will have to address it sooner or later…And that’s not all the lobbying headaches for the Big O that Joe Biden brings to the campaign ‘table’. From The National Journal:

Further, a half-dozen or so former Biden staffers are working as Washington lobbyists. They include Jeff Connaughton, vice chairman of Quinn Gillespie & Associates; Mark Gitenstein, partner at Mayer Brown; Neil McBride, vice president for legal affairs at the Business Software Alliance; Jeff Peck, partner at Johnson Madigan Boland Peck & Stewart; Chris Putala, executive vice president of public policy at Earthlink; Jake Seher, senior legislative adviser at Venable; Ryan Spangler, manager of government relations at Monument Policy Group; and James Williams, senior vice president at Ogilvy Government Relations.

Biden also has family ties to K Street. His, son, R. Hunter Biden, is a founding partner at law and lobbying firm Oldaker, Biden & Belair. William Oldaker, one of the firm’s other founders, has been a campaign adviser and fundraiser for Biden for 25 years, according to Delaware news reports. Biden is so close to former Rep. Marty Russo, D-Ill., CEO and senior vice chairman at lobbying firm Cassidy & Associates, that he is godfather to Russo’s granddaughter.

Goodness, this could really get played by the Rethugs in a big way..

Tags: Hunter Biden, Biden son Hunter is a lobbyist, Big Pharma

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Hastert joins K Street Lobbying firm.

Dennis Hastert, the longest serving Republican Speaker of the House has been hired by Dickstein Shapiro. Due to the new ethic’s rules, Denny can’t really lobby for a year. This lobbying/ legal firm has many former elected officials in the fold, from the LegalTimes:

Dickstein’s 20-member public policy and law practice is already home to a small caucus of ex-members, including: Sen. Wendell Ford (D-Ky.); Sen. Joseph Tydings (D-Md.); Sen. Tim Hutchinson (R-Ark.) (Hutchinson’s wife, Randi Fredholm Hutchinson, is also a counsel in the group); and Rep. Stanford Parris (R-Va.).

Among the group’s top-paying clients in 2007, according to public disclosures, were Lorillard Tobacco Co. ($1.68 million); Peabody Energy ($800,000); and E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. ($460,000). This year, the client base has expanded to include Pew Charitable Trusts, which is monitoring mining legislation, and ARES Systems Group, which is lobbying on homeland security appropriations.

Denny will be making a..cough..modest $750k a year for his services, whatever the hell they are. If your wondering about how the Lobbyists are making it during these ‘hard times’..this article will show they are doing just fine:

The 50 highest-grossing lobbying practices in the country passed the $1 billion revenue mark for the first time last year, thanks in part to strong growth in work that’s outside the traditional boundaries of legislative lobbying.

Legal Times‘ annual Influence 50 survey (subscription required) shows that some of the biggest players in the lobbying world raked in multimillion-dollar increases in fees from public relations, legislative activity monitoring, and grass-roots advocacy. The survey, which covers annual income from lobbying work for 2007, also reveals that law firms are continuing to outpace nonlaw firms in revenue growth — and last year pulled in more than 64 percent of the revenue among Influence 50 firms.

Overall, revenue among the Influence 50 was up 11 percent. Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld ranks No. 1 on the list for the second consecutive year, with $89.8 million in lobbying income. Patton Boggs was a close runner-up, pulling down $89.3 million.

Below are the top ten firms that pulled in lobbying cash:

The Influence 50: Lobby shops and law firms with the highest revenues from lobbying work in 2007
Rank, Firm, 2007 Gross, 2006 Gross, Gain/Loss, Number of Lobbyists, Firm Type

1 Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld $89,800,000 $76,900,000 +16.7% 40 Law
2 Patton Boggs $89,300,000 $71,000,000 +25.8% 149 Law
3 Hogan & Hartson $71,400,000 $65,700,000 +8.7% 32 Law
4 DLA Piper $47,300,000 $46,200,000 +2% 38 Law
5 Holland & Knight $45,100,000 $34,700,000 +30% 56 Law
6 K&L Gates $42,300,000 $37,300,000 +13.4% 51 Law
7 Covington & Burling $40,400,000 $33,100,000 +22% 30 Law
8 Dutko Worldwide $35,100,000 $33,400,000 +5.1% 60 Non-Law
9 Greenberg Traurig $32,900,000 $29,200,000 +12.7% 74 Law
10 BGR Holding $30,200,000 $28,800,000 +5% 17 Non-Law

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Big Pharma spent $3.6 Mil in lobbying the Federal Government..

In the FIRST QUARTER of the year..that’s only three freaking months People! From Forbes:

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, whose members include Pfizer, Amgen Inc. and Eli Lilly & Co., lobbied on how prices are set for seniors’ medications, rules governing drug imports and other issues.

Here are the issues that Big Pharma took ‘issue’ with and lobbied against:

_ A proposal that would have allowed the government - not private health insurers - to negotiate drug prices for seniors in Medicare. The measure, aimed at wringing lower prices from drug makers, has stalled in the House since President Bush threatened to veto it.

_ Legislation that would allow the U.S. to import cheaper prescription drugs from Canada and other foreign countries. Proponents said foreign competition would help drive down U.S. drug prices, but the pharmaceutical industry warned it could expose Americans to counterfeit medications.

_ Patent reform legislation that it argued could weaken legal protections on drug patents. High-tech companies supported the bill that passed the House last year aimed at improving the U.S. patent system, but the pharmaceutical lobby argued it could weaken protections by reducing infringement penalties. The bill has stalled in the Senate.

_ Various bills that would allow generic drug companies to sell cheaper copies of biotech drugs. Unlike traditional chemical drugs, biotech drugs have never faced generic competition because the Food and Drug Administration lacks authority to approve the cheaper copies.

Greed..it’s just amazing how deep into the depths of hell humans will go to get over on people or groups of people ain’t it? They make a decent bottom line yet they always want more. If you extrapolate it out for the entire year..its a mind-numbing $14.4 Million.

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Another McCain Lobbyist/ Campaign advisor hitting the bricks?

There is of course rumors and then there is the truth. But as for this development…McCain seems to be skirting the issue by saying his national finance co-chair Tom Loeffler is only a ‘part time’ volunteer.

Yeah right..whatever. The man has Saudi Arabia as a friggin client. His company must work real hard for those Saudi’s too…they have raked in over 15 million bucks from Bush’s best friends forever.

This morning finds a writeup by Steve at the CarpetbaggerReport stating Loeffler quietly resigned yesterday. This brings the number of lobbyists to quit Johnny McCain to date: 4 in a week.

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The Reality Of The American Political Establishment?

While this video from The Onion, may be mildy humorous, we believe that a strong case could be made that this is the reality of the Bushliburton administration and the Republican controlled (through the early and middle years of the Bushliburton) Congress. What concerns us more, though, is that this well may be the reality of either a Democratic or Republican controlled Congress, under a Billary administration:

Send Hillary back to the Senate, and send Bill back to Chappaqua.

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McCain’s healthcare plan; created by the healthcare industry

I know McCain isn’t stupid..but for the love of Buddha wtf is the deal with asking healthcare industry lobbyists to craft a plan for him? From CAF we get this lil tidbit:

McCain and his handlers knew they had to say something about health care. So they turned to their friends (and financial supporters) in the health care industry and the conservative think tanks. And they have adopted the most extreme right-wing ideological approach, premised on the idea that the big problem in health care is that Americans have too much insurance - in their words, we don’t have enough “skin in the game” - and that only when we have to buy health care with money that comes directly out of our own pockets will consumers force doctors, hospitals and insurance companies to become more efficient.

Tax credits…the asshole wants to give us all tax credits so we can buy our own insurance. Of course many of us have pre-existing conditions..so McCain will make the states set up an insurance pool for people like me. As for his tax credits..here is the amount he is offering from a CNN writeup:

Read more

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NAM gets pissed the courts don’t go along like BushCo does..

Those lobbying fools known as NAM is highly peeved about this development. From the writeup:

The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) is appealing a federal court order to dismiss the group’s lawsuit challenging a new ethics and lobbying law.

Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia ruled Friday against the trade association’s suit, which took issue with a specific provision of the new law that would require “stealth coalitions” to disclose their member companies if they contributed at least $5,000 per quarter to the coalition or actively participated in a lobbying campaign.

Obviously the manufacturing lobby doesn’t like playing by the ‘new rules’. We can only hope to Buddha that judges uphold this new law..all the way up the chain. But frankly, I don’t feel good about our chances if they take it all the way to the Supreme’s. Those bastids are handpicked for the love of pete.

Crossposted at Bring It On! and Its my Right to be Left of the Center

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Important Facts about McCain and his lobbying ‘friends’..

This is a short video..so please, watch it and learn some very important facts about the man who would be President of our nation.

 

H/T to BraveNewFilms for making this video.

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