pacs Archives - Where Is The Outrage?

Inside voice – Outside voice

We all have thought bubbles. As were talking to people while interacting with them there are things that run through our minds that, thankfully, we filter. For some of us, that filter simply doesn’t work that well. Some things should never be said out loud. The fact that conservatives continue to wonder about shooting our president… It just makes me sick. Never during the eight-year debacle of George W. Bush did I ever wish for anybody to shoot him. Yes, I wanted him out of office. I wanted him voted out of office. There’s a big difference.

From TPM:

In an interview featured Wednesday night on Fox Business, retired hedge fund manager Foster Friess, the largest donor to super PACs that had formerly supported ex-Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) for president, made a distasteful comment about guns being aimed at President Barack Obama.

“There are a lot of things that haven’t been hammered at because Rick and Mitt have been going at each other,” Friess said, according to The Los Angeles Times. “Now that they have trained their barrels on President Obama, I hope his teleprompters are bullet-proof.”

The paper said that he immediately back-tracked on that remark, and later told ABC News that he regretted the statement.

While most Fox Business feature interviews are published to the channel’s website shortly after they’re aired, video of Friess’s comments was nowhere to be found more than 18 hours later, even as fresh clips appeared online from the Fox Business Thursday morning shows.

Friess, who’s spent almost $2 million supporting his favored candidate this election season, said in the wake of Santorum’s concession this week that he would begin supporting former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney (R) instead.

What is remarkable is the fact that this man has spent $2 million and, truthfully, that number simply doesn’t phase me. We’ve seen so much money in this campaign already that $2 million is chump change. Newt Gingrich’s billionaire has spent close to $15 million. Now, that’s real money. This is all craziness.

By ecthompsonmd|2013-11-03T17:13:13-04:00April 12th, 2012|Party Politics|Comments Off

Citizens United and the Supremes are making it rain up in here!

The Supreme Court, in their infinite wisdom, decided that Citizens United was okay. Money is speech. Speech is money. Corporations are people, so… you get the idea. It should be no surprise to you that our campaigns are awash in secret money (moolah, cash, dough, greenbacks…)

From WaPo:

More than a third of the advertising tied to the presidential race has been funded by nonprofit groups that will never have to reveal their donors, suggesting that a significant portion of the 2012 elections will be wrapped in a vast cloak of secrecy.

The bulk of the secret money spent so far has come from conservative groups seeking to propel a Republican into the White House, advertising data shows. Millions of dollars in additional spending from both sides has poured into legislative races, such as the Senate contest in Massachusetts, that could help determine which party controls Congress in 2013.

The flow of funds is part of a wave of spending by outside groups that has quickly come to dominate the 2012 presidential contest, particularly by so-called “super PACs” that have few limits on their activities.

But unlike super PACs, politically minded nonprofit groups are under no obligation to disclose the corporations, unions or wealthy tycoons bankrolling their advertising, much of which is almost indistinguishable from regular political ads run by campaigns. (more…)

By ecthompsonmd|2012-02-07T06:08:29-04:00February 7th, 2012|Elections, Supreme court|Comments Off

The face of the real Republican party

I don’t think that Joe Barton said anything that Republicans weren’t thinking. Remember Rand Paul (said the president was wrong for calling out BP) and John Boehner’s remark from last week? He said that the taxpayers should shoulder some of the burden for the clean-up on the gulf. Republicans don’t believe in punishing business for any reason.

According to OpenSecrets, Joe Burton received $162,000 from Electric Utilities and over $100, 000 from Oil and Gas (see chart below) during the 2009-2010 campaign season.

Industry	Total	Indivs	PACs
Electric Utilities	$162,800	$13,300	$149,500
Oil & Gas	$100,470	$24,470	$76,000
Pharmaceuticals/Health Products	$82,250	$500	$81,750
Health Professionals	$72,300	$22,300	$50,000
TV/Movies/Music	$47,500	$3,000	$44,500

If you are taking money from a lobby, you should be open about it like Representative Burton.

From PA:

“I’m ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday,” Barton said. “I think it is a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown, in this case a $20 billion shakedown.” Talking directly to Hayward, Barton added, “I apologize. I do not want to live in a country where any time a citizen or a corporation does something that is legitimately wrong, is subject to some sort of political pressure that is, again, in my words, amounts to a shakedown. So I apologize.”

Democrats have been desperate to paint Republicans as siding with BP during this crisis. Barton just made that task much easier, with remarks that may prove to be the most politically important apology in recent memory.

Incessant Republican criticism of the White House is one thing; a leading Republican lawmaker issuing a public apology to BP is another.

I just never thought I’d see the day when a leading Republican publicly groveled to a foreign CEO, who just happens to be leading a company responsible for a devastating oil spill disaster. It was just a stunning display. That the right-wing Texan has taken in over $1.4 million in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry over his career makes his apology that much more unseemly.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs felt compelled to issue a statement: “What is shameful is that Joe Barton seems to have more concern for big corporations that caused this disaster than the fishermen, small business owners and communities whose lives have been devastated by the destruction. Congressman Barton may think that a fund to compensate these Americans is a ‘tragedy’, but most Americans know that the real tragedy is what the men and women of the Gulf Coast are going through right now. Members from both parties should repudiate his comments.”

By ecthompsonmd|2010-06-17T20:24:24-04:00June 17th, 2010|Big Oil, Party Politics|Comments Off