4
POPSKucinich...no friend of Media............ The applause for this was so intense that the other candidates on the stage started joining in the media bashing. Kucinich had briefly changed the narrative from a horse race to a demand for decent political reporting. That's what he should have done on Wednesday when he flipped to support a disastrous health insurance bill. Rather than talking about the legitimacy of the presidency, Kucinich should have talked about the illegitimacy of the current narrative in the corporate media.
3
POPSJohn Ensign Probe: Grand Jury Subpoenas Issued Ensign's affair and the legal problems it has engendered have derailed talk that he might make a run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 and forced him to resign his position as chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee.
7
POPSCost of a US Attorney Position So the going rate for a US Attorney position in North Dakota is $12,000. Next this we will here is that the republican are obstructionists.
3
POPSRon Paul Wins Here are the full results: Rep. Ron Paul- 31 percent Mitt Romney- 22 percent Sarah Palin- 7 percent. Gov. Tim Pawlenty - 6 percent Rep. Mike Pence- 5 percent Mike Huckabee- 4 percent Newt Gingrich- 4 percent Gov. Mitch Daniels- 2 percent Rick Santorum- 2 percent Sen. John Thune- 2 percent Gov. Hayley Barbour- 1 percent
2
POPSGore Vidal Quotes By the time a man gets to be presidential material, he's been bought ten times over. Gore Vidal Democracy is supposed to give you the feeling of choice, like Painkiller X and Painkiller Y. But they're both just aspirin. Gore Vidal Every time a friend succeeds, I die a little. Gore Vidal Fifty percent of people won't vote, and fifty percent don't read newspapers. I hope it's the same fifty percent. Gore Vidal Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half. Gore Vidal I never miss a chance to have sex or appear on television. Gore Vidal I'm all for bringing back the birch, but only between consenting adults. Gore Vidal
2
POPSIdeology And Tactics
What particular ideology are we speaking about here? If it is the strategy of acquiring power and wealth and control as opposed to the rush from day one to hand over to corporate buddies every piece of public land, every vital government function this isn't bolted down, entrusting the environmental regulation to the polluters, the huge federal debt King George left us, the widening wealth gap between the top and the bottom--actually top and middle--which Republicans are not merely indifferent to, but I believe quite pleased about. Did I forget trying to block or reverse every bit of social and political progress we have made? If they had their way at each step, we'd still have slavery, aristocracy, and monarchy everywhere; little freedom of speech, the press, no social safety net. Now--while all of this works quite well for powerful interest groups, it is not working for the American people or our economy and it never did no matter how many times they package it differently.
3
POPSUS Senate to hold hearings on 'corporations versus voters'! This should be a very interesting follow-up hearing by the senate Rules committee. The recent US Supreme Court decided that corporations, unions and other nonprofits may spend unlimited amounts of money in favor of or opposed to any and all congressional and presidential candidates. Hopefully, the committee will show favor for the Fair Elections Now public financing bill; also, a new US Constitution amendment is being considered to recommit exclusive free speech rights to citizens.
5
POPS SUPREME COURT ....LOST IT'S MIND......!
Link that set of numbers to the fact that it costs more and more to run for public office in this country. It was a shocker that the candidates in the last presidential election were working with war chests of upward of half a billion dollars. In fact, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, Obama raised and spent roughly $730 million, while John McCain raised and spent about half that amount. Obama avowed that he did not take lobbyists money, but that budget did not grow on small trees, even though it was only $2.50 for every man, woman, and child in the country. The point is that leading candidates were able to raise that kind of money while the decades old constraints were in place on corporate America. In fact, with Thursday’s decision the Court overturned its own 1990 ruling that barred corporations from using funds from their general treasuries to buy political advertising. Now the cat is truly out of the bag. In principle, corporations can now spend as much of the t
2
POPS Trial Lawyers Buy Democrats in Congress (98% of total "contributions"!)
Since Jan. 3, 2009, 581 contributions worth $1,261,023 have been made by donors identifying themselves as employees of the 15 firms (contributions by employees who did not identify their employer are not reflected in this data). Democratic candidates and committees received $1,241,978, or 98 percent of the total. The most generous of these lucrative sources of Democratic campaign cash was the Dallas-based Baron & Budd, best known for the late Fred Baron, who was finance chairman for former Sen. John Edwards' 2008 presidential run. Thus far in 2009, Baron & Budd employees have contributed $212,958 to 21 Democrats, and not a cent to Republicans. Second on the list is the New York-based Grant Eisenhofer firm, with employees contributing $184,078 to seven Democrats and no Republicans. Of the 138 total recipients from employees of all 15 of the firms, 122 were Democrats and just 16 were Republicans. The Democrats received contributions averaging more than $4,700,
6
POPSThe COW and the ICE CREAM Remember: The government cannot give anything to anyone that they have not first taken away from someone else! NO INCUMBENTS IN 2010
4
POPSLegalized Bribery in American Politics Just one in a thousand adult Americans contributed $1,000 or more to any candidate in the last election, yet candidates for the 2004 presidential nomination raised more than 80 percent of their individual investments from these elites. In other words, with regard to using money to influence presidential candidates, 0.1% of Americans account for 80% of the influence. 2300 energy companies lobbied Congress between 1998 and 2004, with $984 million paid for lobbyists. Why pay a lobbyist $300,000? Because it’s a great investment, of course. Does anyone believe the legal fiction that the purpose of a lobbyist is to educate politicians on the issues? Of course not. Those huge bucks are paid out for skilled middle-men and women to discreetly (or not so discreetly) convey the message that a politician will be handsomely rewarded for screwing over his or her constituents in favor of the lobbyist’s employer.
4
POPSGore Vidal Quotes By the time a man gets to be presidential material, he's been bought ten times over. Democracy is supposed to give you the feeling of choice, like Painkiller X and Painkiller Y. But they're both just aspirin. Every time a friend succeeds, I die a little. Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half. Gore Vidal I'm all for bringing back the birch, but only between consenting adults. It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail.
2
POPSNew Obama Indoctrination Song For School Children: THE OBAMA SONG We began to write the song after watching the Inauguration. Our school day is packed bell to bell with academics, but were usually able to spend the last five minutes of singing songs as short ELD (English Language Development) activities. Day by day we used this tiny window of time to brainstorm lyrics. As the song took shape, the children became more and more proud of their accomplishment. It soon morphed into a tribute to MLK and others honored for their work towards social justice. By February the song was done. We got requests to come and perform from adjacent classrooms that heard it coming from our room at the end of the day. Their egos boomed. I decided to make it something they'd never forget by producing the video. Nobody forced the children to participate--in fact a few sat it out. When it was finished, they were hoping the President himself would see it and wanted to be able to show it to friends and relatives.
0
POPSThe Mystique of 'Free-Market Guy' Obama
Read the rest for the full value... Recent U.S. history shows that you can't serve corporate interests at the same time you're seeking reform - of healthcare or Wall Street or any other sector. Not when big corporations are the problem . . . and the major obstacles to change. Placating big business en route to social reform is like downing a flask of whiskey en route to kicking alcoholism. Yet there was the Obama White House this summer entering into secret deals with the pharmaceutical lobby protecting that industry's outsized profits. That's why he received more Wall Street funding than any candidate in history and why - before he was a front-runner in early 2007 - he was raising more money from the biggest Wall Street banks than even Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani, presidential candidates from New York. That's why - as soon as Hillary left the race - he went on CNBC and assured big business: "Look: I am a pro-growth, free-market guy. I love the market." That's w
5
POPSACORN: No Business Like Poverty Business ACORN proves the axiom of the modern welfare state " that there's no business like the poverty business. Although ACORN runs a large conglomerate of social-activist anti-poverty front groups out of a New Orleans hub, it is registered as a nonprofit corporation in Arkansas, which does not require financial disclosure. This has allowed it keep its own finances shielded from public scrutiny, while demanding transparency from all others. The group's nonprofit status refers only to its corporate form. That is, ACORN must be organized for a public purpose and have no stockholders, unlike a regular corporation. However, it is not tax exempt under federal law, since it does advocacy and lobbying that would run afoul of IRS restrictions, such as endorsing political candidates. ACORN was started in 1970 by Stephen Wade Rathke, a former SDS radical and Boston-based community organizer. The group now consists of so many interlocking associations, corporations, and affiliates . . .
9
POPSUS is slipping toward Plutocracy: Money rules
Latest example is healthcare reform. In the second quarter of 2009, the health industry spent $133 million on lobbyists, reckons the Center for Responsive Politics. That doesn’t count lobbying by associations. The US Chamber of Commerce alone spent $26 million on lobbying in the first half of this year, “a good chunk” on the health issue, says Dave Levinthal, spokesman for the center. Polls show the public wants healthcare reform and a public-insurance option. So the health-insurance industry is pretending to be in favor of reform while trying to kill it through campaign contributions, ads, and lobbying, says Wendell Potter, who until recently led corporate communications at CIGNA, a major health-insurance company. Moreover trade unions provide some balance of power to the might of business and wealth. In Sweden, 85 percent of the labor force is organized; in other major nations 35-40 percent. Compare with 7.4 percent of workers in the private sector in the US.
8
POPSHuckabee Prepares for 2012 by Playing for Israel's Support Note the flattery in his message to gain their support, championing the radical Likud party's cause. He knows who butters the bread of candidates for U.S. president. Next stop,back in America, will likely be AIPAC. Interesting the power of Israel on U.S. candidates, isn't it? Likely finding some heavy financing from this sponsor of his trip too.
3
Pops
Newest Clips
Latest Comments
Most Pops
Print
Save
Turn on live update