News and Politics // Current

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6 days ago

The 15 Biggest Congressional Recipients Of Wall Street Campaign Cash

Reforming Wall Street is a hot topic on Capitol Hill these days. Congress is currently weighing two financial reform bills that would, to varying degrees, reshape the way the financial system is regulated.

Still, Wall Street's influence in Washington appears to be as strong as ever. After all, it was just last spring that Senator Dick Durbin, frustrated by pushback on bankruptcy reform, denounced the financial sector's influence on the Senate: the banks, he said, "they frankly own the place." The Center for Responsive Politics, a research group that tracks money in politics, reports that financial industries -- the finance, insurance and real estate sectors, specifically -- have been one of the biggest benefactors to Congress over the past two decades:

"The finance, insurance and real estate sector has given $2.3 billion to candidates, leadership PACs and party committees since 1989, which eclipses every other sector. Nineteen percent of total contributions from the employees and political action committees across all sectors came from the financial sector."

And while campaign contributions don't equate to wrongdoing, it's worth noting that, while lawmakers ponder reforming the financial sector, the industry's campaign contributions have remained strong:

"Even with a number of large financial institutions folding or merging since last fall, the sector has still given more to federal candidates and party committees than any other sector this year at $78.2 million. Current lawmakers have brought in $661.6 million from the sector through their candidate committees and leadership PACs, with Democrats collecting 53 percent of that."

We took a look at the Center for Responsive Politics's database, OpenSecrets.org, to see which members of Congress have so far received Wall Street money for the 2010 election cycle. The answers may surprise you.

Check out our slideshow of the top 15 recipients and choose which politician may be taking too much money from Wall Street, at the link . . .

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/17/the-15-biggest-congressio_n_360514.htmlReforming Wall Street is a hot topic on Capitol Hill these days. Congress is currently weighing two financial reform bills that... more

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6 days ago

Let Them Eat Zoloft

As the Senate takes up health care reform, we’re sure to be treated to yet more scenes of our elected officials bending over backwards to kiss the gold-plated butts of the pharmaceutical and insurance industries. So far, just about every new turn in the health care battle is confirming what many have known for some time: The US health care system is run largely for the benefit of these corporate giants, rather than for the American people, and no piece of legislation is likely to change that fact.

But to fully appreciate the license these industries have been given to run roughshod over the public interest, you have to take a trip to Connecticut. The state is a longtime home base for the insurance industry, with 72 companies and the nation’s highest concentration of insurance jobs. It also has more than its share of drug and biotech companies. What luck then, for these industries, that the man who appears to hold a swing vote on health care reform is their own Senator Joe Lieberman, who has enjoyed enormous financial support from the insurance companies and plenty from Big Pharma, as well.

While Connecticut may be loyal to its health care companies, the opposite clearly is not true. This week the giant drugmaker Pfizer sent shock waves across the state when it announced its decision to shut down its huge research facility in New London. While some workers will be transferred to a facility in a nearby town, the closure represents a devastating loss of industry and tax base for this working-class coastal city. It also marks the disintegration of an elaborate publically financed urban development scheme that began a decade ago.

After the closure of a naval installation in the mid-1990s left New London in desperate economic straits, Pfizer swept in with promises to revitalize the city with a state-of-the-art R & D headquarters. To serve the company’s interests, the state government decided to use eminent domain to seize private property, uproot residents, and destroy a neighborhood in order to revamp the surrounding area. The state won the right to do so in a landmark Supreme Court case, Kelo vs. New London. But it built nothing on the vacated land. And now Pfizer, as the Wall Street Journal put it, has decided to "bug out." One local resident told the New York Times, "They stole our home for economic development. It was all for Pfizer, and now they get up and walk away."

Continued at link . . .

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2009/11/let-them-eat-zoloftAs the Senate takes up health care reform, we’re sure to be treated to yet more scenes of our elected officials bending over... more

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6 days ago

Gen. McChrystal: War Profiteer?

RT military analyst Yevgeny Khrushchev says the new U.S. war strategy, could be influenced by the private interests of conflict... more

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Blame the Internet for Ft. Hood?

Talking about extreme views...

Jenime
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7 days ago

Uninsured ER patients twice as likely to die

Uninsured patients with traumatic injuries, such as car crashes, falls and gunshot wounds, were almost twice as likely to die in... more

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Two patients at St. Mary’s

Marijuana becomes more useful as more is learned about it http://www.newsreview.com/reno/content?oid=1314338

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The 'Kill the Drill' Campaign To Ban Gas Drilling In The NYC Watershed

Members and Supporters of The Kill The Drill Campaign held a rally prior to delivering statement in opposition to the hydraulic... more

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7 days ago

Surprise surprise, we're still in a recession!

The UK economy unexpectedly contracted by 0.4% between July and September, according to official figures, meaning the country is... more

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7 days ago

UK children 'trafficked for sex'

Children as young as 10 are being moved around the UK to be sexually exploited at parties organised by paedophiles, a charity... more

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7 days ago

Lawmakers' Support For Cuba Embargo Tied To Political Donations

While U.S. policy toward Cuba has opened up since President Barack Obama took office, a new report from Public Campaign, an... more

atomiclegion
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7 days ago

Colorado Sen. Bennet Still Holds Wide Fund-Raising Lead Over Romanoff; Unions Still Neutral

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet raised about twice as much money as Democratic challenger Andrew Romanoff during the three weeks that the... more

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Medical-marijuana fight brewing between Senator Chris Romer, weed advocates

Senator Chris Romer has been the state legislator most willing to wade into the medical-marijuana morass -- and an article in... more

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7 days ago

Colorado Attorney General Decides Marijuana Is Subject To Taxation

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers has issued a formal legal statement saying that medical marijuana is subject to taxation.... more

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Hackers post private e-mails of accused Holocaust denier

A group identifying themselves as “anti-fascist hackers” broke into the website and e-mail account of controversial... more

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7 days ago

Communist China Tries to Protect Obama from Being Called a Communist

China banned these "Oba-Mao" T-shirts, which were selling at a brisk pace in Beijing, last week in an apparent effort to avoid embarrassing Barack Obama during his visit. The weird thing is, in China, it's a pro-Obama shirt.

The generational and cross-cultural refractions obscuring exactly what a T-shirt depicting Obama as a Chairman Mao is supposed to mean are positively cosmic. So the Chinese authorities decided to just ban the things outright. And they're taking this so seriously that security guards at a subway station, apparently aware of how Glenn Beck would use pictures of young Chinese people wearing T-shirts comparing our president to their great leader, detained a CNN reporter for two hours yesterday after she tried to tape a report about the banned T-shirts.

In China, according to the Christian Science Monitor, the shirts are popular with hipsters who get the joke of comparing Obama to Mao, and apparently like to mock Fox News:

In China, the image comes across as witty and cool.... [They are] popular with young people who admire Obama and who get the Andy Warhol-esque joke about icons.

"Mao is kitschy and cool," says Mr. Jenne. "He gets a pass" in a way that other 20th century dictators don't.

But in the U.S., some folks are importing them from China and selling them to the teabag crowd, who wear them to announce their genuinely held belief that Barack Obama is literally like Mao Tse-Tung and will soon begin collectivizing farms. So a shirt that Chinese kids wear ironically because they understand a) how silly it is to compare Obama to Mao, but at the same time b) how Obama has through his style and rhetoric become nearly as iconic as Mao, and c) that even though Mao was a monster, through the passage of time the imagery associated with him has taken on a different, more light-hearted meaning, is also worn in earnest by American teabaggers who understand none of the above and think "kitschy" is Hebrew or something. This reminds us of stories about Christmas displays at Japanese malls featuring crucified Santas. We can't quite wrap our heads around it.

Anyway, the Chinese government was so terrified Politico might see one of these T-shirts that they banned them, and detained CNN's Emily Chang for two hours when they caught her walking around with one in a Shanghai mall. How long before the same thing happens here?

http://gawker.com/5405893/communist-china-tries-to-protect-obama-from-being-called-a-communistChina banned these "Oba-Mao" T-shirts, which were selling at a brisk pace in Beijing, last week in an apparent effort to... more