This is the fourth installment in an irregular series taking a closer look at who is financing the political ambitions of Barack Obama. This post takes a closer look at Obama’s lobbyist connections.
Obama is a grand deception when it comes to lobbyists. He claims that he doesn’t take money from lobbyists. That’s simply duplicitous parsing of the facts because his fundraising team includes 38 members of law firms that were paid $138 million last year to lobby the federal government. Of those 38 lawyers, 10 are former federal lobbyists. And those 38 lawyers have pledged to raise at least $3.5 million for the Obama campaign. Employees of their firms have given Obama’s campaign $2.26 million according to USA TODAY.
Thirty-one of the 38 are law firm partners, who receive a share of their firm’s lobbying fees since law firms pool compensation. And according to The Washington Posat, at least six of them have some managerial authority over lobbyists at their firm.
Apparently, Charles Blow of the New York Times was off the planet in November 2000. In a column entitled Skirting Appalachia he writes:
Eschewing Appalachia might be risky but by no means suicidal. Clinton said in her victory speech on Tuesday night that no Democrat has won the White House since 1916 without taking West Virginia. True. But they all could have won without it. The margins of victory in those races ranged from 23 to 515 electoral votes. West Virginia has five.
Her point wasn’t about the Democrats who won those elections but rather those who failed to win West Virginia like Gore for example in 2000. That’s why she stated that NO Democrat since 1916 had won without West Virginia. Had Gore won West Virginia then Florida would not had matter. West Virginia’s five electoral votes would have reversed the Electoral College outcome. That’s the point. Fail to win West Virginia and it doesn’t bode well.
The Canadian dollar touched a two- month high and rose for a second week as surging commodity prices and stocks at a record boosted the currency’s appeal.
Canada’s dollar has increased 0.9 percent so far this month, making it the fifth-best performer among the 16 most- active currencies. The Canadian dollar gained 0.6 percent this week, as oil reached a record above $127 per barrel yesterday. Commodities account for about half of Canada’s exports.
“Higher crude oil is a big positive for the Canadian dollar,” said Nick Bennenbroek, head of currency strategy at Wells Fargo Bank in New York. “I don’t see that trend changing soon. There is a positive bias for the currency and that could take it to 97 cents per U.S. dollar.”
The currency rose to 99.93 cents per U.S. dollar in Toronto, from C$1.0052 on May 9. Canada’s currency yesterday touched 99.43 cents, the highest since March 19. The Canadian dollar strengthened 1.4 percent during the week ended May 9. One Canadian dollar buys $1.0007.
Canada’s consumer prices probably increased 0.4 percent in April, unchanged from the previous month, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg survey. Statistics Canada will release the report on May 21.
The currency is attracting investors as Canada’s economy benefits from rising demand for copper, gold, wheat and oil from the U.S. and emerging economies such as India and China. Canada is the world’s largest producer of uranium and the second-biggest exporter of natural gas. The oil sands in Alberta contain the largest crude deposits outside the Middle East.
At least half of North America is doing well. And this is in spite of having Stephen Harper as Prime Minister.
As the story goes, such was “Obama’s monumental capacity for sucking up to his professors that the “Obamamometer” was established to calibrate and quantify the most egregious, shameless brown-nosing, and it quickly became the gold standard of Uriah Heep-dom in Cambridge, Mass. “That was a 10 on the Obamamometer,” the men and women of Harvard Law would whisper when someone rose to the unctuous level of Barack at his best.” He must be off the scale by now.
Last year, I was approached by Liliana Bonilla of Editorial Norma if I wanted to write my autobiography and reflect on what it is like to be a Colombian living in the United States. I thought about it but in the end I thought such a project still awaits more chapters of me writing my own life. At 47, I am just getting started. It is thus with amusement that Barack Obama, who is just ten months younger than I am, has not one but two autobiographies out plus two more on the way. Such the prodigy. Mind you, it has served him well. It has made him a millionaire.
Janny Scott writing in The New York Times covers the story of Obama writing on Obama.
Senator Obama understands as well as any politician the power of a well-told story. He has risen in politics less on his track record than on his telling of his life story — a tale he has packaged into two hugely successful books that have helped make him a mega-best-selling, two-time Grammy-winning millionaire front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination at age 46. According to his publisher, there are more than three million copies of his books in print — and two more books on the way.
Isn’t that a kick in the head? Obama has risen in politics less on his track record than on his telling of his life story. This, of course, fits in with David Alexrod’s meme of selling Obama as a personality and foregoing as much as possible any serious discussion of the issues. We are being sold not a political programme but a media personality.
Gibson Nyandoro was a war veteran, a hero of the Zimbabwean resistance that toppled the Ian Smith’s Rhodesia. Today he is dead, murdered in Zimbabwe. His crime was opposing Robert Mugagbe’s tyrannical regime. The Mail & Guardian has the full story.
In other news from Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, has postponed plans to return to the country due to an alleged plot to kill him. Deutsche Welle has this story.
He was my friend and now he is killed. He was a soldier and they didn’t care. He worked to help make people see that Mugabe is a wrong man. Hundreds of people are being attacked now, all the time. They take away MDC people’s food and they go to funerals to arrest others there. They were expecting people to vote for Zanu-PF and now comes the punishment. They are trying to get rid of all these people. - An Anonymous Zimbabwean
Gibson Nyandoro, a hero of the Rights of Conscience Inalienable.
Here is the Sunday May 18th, 2008 edition of interesting reads from around the world.
As Venezuela Fails, Chávez Nationalizes
Hugo the petulant has a problem. Venezuela is sputtering. Despite the oil bloom, Venezuala’s economy is underperforming that of its Latin neighbours. Colombia’s growth rate is twice that of Venezuela and Chile’s nearly three times. Faced with shortages of foods, building materials and other staples, President Hugo Chávez is intensifying state control of the Venezuelan economy through a new wave of takeovers of private companies and the creation of government-controlled ventures with allies like Cuba and Iran. More from the New York Times.
Chief Justice Ronald George Reflects on the Gay Marriage Ruling
A moderate Republican appointed to the Court by Governor Pete Wilson, California Chief Justice Ronald M. George who voted with the majority, likens the case to earlier civil rights battles. The Los Angeles Times profiles the Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court.
Indonesia May Leave OPEC
Indonesia’s oil production has been waning for some time now. In fact, Indonesia is now a net importer of crude. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has noted that perhaps the time has come for Indonesia to consider quitting the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The full story from CNBC News.
ASEAN Monitoring Team in Burma
Seeking answers from Myanmar’s governing junta, a team of experts from ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) arrive in Yangon to assess the damage and the status of the relief operations. More on this story from the Irrawaddy News Network and from the International Herald Tribune. Meanwhile Germany’s Der Spiegel covers the growing frustration of Western powers.
Hamas’s Al-Aqsa Television’s Children’s Programmes
The Hamas satellite station Al-Aqsa recently used a Mickey Mouse clone to teach Muslim children — in Gaza and Europe — to hate Jews and encouraging their murder. Der Spiegel reports the story.
Angela Merkel on a State Visit to Colombia
In the first visit ever by a German Chancellor to Colombia, Merkel supported Colombian President Alvaro Uribe in his efforts to buttress the authority of the state over the broiling conflicts that have put many sections of the country in a state of civil war. Deutshe Welle has the details. The story in Spanish from Colombia’s El Tiempo.
Obama to Blame His Loss in Kentucky on Fox News
Apparently, Fox News poisoned Barack Obama in the minds of Kentuckians for Obama is blaming his woes in Kentucky on Fox News and e-mails. The story from the Lexington Herald Tribune.
