The Audacity of Expediency
Posted: June 25, 2008 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Black Agenda Report, obama corporate shill, obama flip flop, obama lie, Obama lies, obama mortgage meltdown, obama private fundraising, Obama race card, Predatory Lending, Public Fundraising 13 Comments
I really need a new word for everything Barack Obama is doing these days. Obama’s positions change based on what will get him elected (flip-flop flop flips). I’m actually of the opinion he’s a pathological liar. His campaign is in some extraordinary phase of Darwinian Evolution. He’s devolving into something base and beyond trifling.
Today’s issue of the Black Agenda Report: Obama Tells Lies
So, please, try to convince me here, that the Black Agenda Report is being racist. Any time Obama’s lies find the light of day and we discuss them, the rest of us get thwapped with the race card. If you don’t think a white person can call Obama out on his lies, flip flops, gaffes and corporate shilling, then please, go there and take THEIR word for it.
Paul Street tells it like it is. Obama is not just another corporate shill. He’s raised corporate shilling to an artform. One of Obama’s favorite spiels is how his netroots campaign is full of little people giving little bits of money. Street makes it clear to us that Obama’s source of funds is not us little guys. Penny Pritzker, his finance committee chair, has churned up bundlers from a veritable who’s who list of bad guys in the Mortgage Meltdown. GIven Pritzker’s one of the alligators in this swamp, I shouldn’t be too suprised. It is also probably why you NEVER hear Senator Obama talk about some of the biggest rip-offs of poor folks (especially poor minorites and active duty military) these days: Subprime lending, Payday lending, and other predatory practices aimed at the unbanked. This would include making certain no bank branches are available in rural, urban, or other areas where many poor folk live so they are forced to rely on these loans sharks with legal status. If Senator Obama is concerned about inner city blacks, why is he taking so much money from the very people that fleece them every chance they get? This is consistent with his relationship with slumlord Rezko. Let the little people live in slums while Obama gets a sweetheart deal on a mansion and a sideyard.
The top contributors list also explains why Obama’s alternate energy polices frequently include nuclear energy (while he knew NOTHING of the Hanford site while campaigning in Oregon) and ethanol (a really, really inefficient alternative fuel that is a windfall for corporate farming). Obama’s progressive politics appear to be solidly based on the market. The highest bidder wins the Obama treatment.
“Too bad Obama is disproportionately funded by people from the top 1 percent of Americans, who own nearly 40 percent of the nation’s wealth and who account for more than 80 percent of campaign contributions above $250. Through April of 2008, the Campaign Finance Institute reports, Obama received more than $89 million in contributions of $1000 or more, just $8 million less than McCain’s total take ($97.3 million)[1].
According to the Center for Responsive Politics Obama’s top contributors include Goldman Sachs (#1 at $571,000), UBSAG (#3 at $365,000), JP Morgan Chase (#4 at $362,000), Citigroup (#5 at $358,000), Lehman Bros. (#7 at 4319,000), Google (#8 at $318,000), multinational corporate law firm Sidley Austin LLP (#10 at $294,000)and nuclear energy powerhouse Exelon (#15 at $236,000}[2].
Note:
1. Read at http://www.cfinst.org/pr/prRelease.aspx?ReleaseID=191%5D
2. Read at http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.php?cycle=2008&cid=N000096380
No wonder Obama doesn’t want $3 from each American Taxpayer. He can get a lot more for those Wall Street bundlers. For more information from Street, and more lists of lies, please go to the Black Agenda Report. Also, read his list of suggestions on what TRUE campaign finance reform would look like, why Obama lies and how this hurts the future of black political voices, and what authentic progressives and folks interested in poverty issues and providing opportunity to minorities really support. Here’s that link.
http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=676&Itemid=1
Oh, and all you trifilin’ people out there … stop playing that damned race card! You’re de-sensitizing folks to the REAL racial injustices that still exist in this country. Try taking on Subprime lending practices or predatory lending! Try asking for REAL UNIVERSAL health care instead of Obama’s watered down shill. Try equallizing resources among schools! This is just a suggestion from a teacher trying to keep it real in the Ninth WARD of New Orleans.
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Good post. I bookmarked the BAR awhile back by following a link from another blog. Which is how I found your blog. I’m surprised more people are not viewing/commenting here….the quality has been uniformly high, comparable to some of the more popular sites.
Not to be rude, but if you expect -any- politician not to go for expediency, you’re either blind or lying to yourself.
“One of Obama’s favorite spiels is how his netroots campaign is full of little people giving little bits of money. Street makes it clear to us that Obama’s source of funds is not us little guys. Penny Pritzker, his finance committee chair, has churned up bundlers from a veritable who’s who list of bad guys in the Mortgage Meltdown. ”
That’s bullshit, and here’s the proof – compare the numbers for yourself. You’ve got all of these snipey little remarks about Obama. And you don’t have a phurba – you’re stomping someone’s foot in a crowd and running off. I didn’t even like the guy, and you make me want to defend him, solely because all of these attacks are unfair and could easily be applied to Clinton as well, or any other politician.
It’s obvious you don’t like the guy, and it’s obvious that you like Clinton. But it’s not obvious why faults in him are not faults when she does the same thing.
Clinton
Size of Donations
$200 and Under $68,446,409 32.84%
$200.01 – $499 $15,182,604 7.28%
$500 – $999 $15,188,373 7.28%
$1000 – $1999 $28,949,953 13.89%
$2000 and Over $80,622,428 38.68%
—
Total 208389767
Obama
$200 and Under $135,684,173 46.56%
$200.01 – $499 $28,095,714 9.64%
$500 – $999 $24,202,573 8.3%
$1000 – $1999 $36,539,292 12.54%
$2000 and Over $66,841,762 22.94%
—
Total 291363514
Ben, you don’t include your source and the most important thing. This appears to be just a list by size period which hides bundled donations. You have to get into the campaign finance reports and sort the donations by ’employer’ to find all the bundled money. Dr. Street and the Center for Campaign Finance Reform do this.
This is how bundling works. You work for a large firm. The lobbyist/officer over you comes to you, tells you to write a $100 ( up to the 2300 max)check to the campaign. You do and you have to fill out the form that includes ’employer’. That lobbyist then takes the money and gives it to the campaign. It’s a sneaky way of getting around corporate donations max limits.
My ex worked for Mutual of Omaha. When he was an officer, part of what he had to do was fork over $100 checks when their lobbyist would ask him to support a campaign. I also had bundlers give checks to me when I ran for the unicameral. It’s a very widespread practice.
Dr. Street and the Center for Campaign Finance Reform gets these numbers by sorting the donations by employer. That lets you see where the bundled money is…
so, your comment isn’t really valid.
His campaign is in some extraordinary phase of Darwinian Evolution. He’s devolving into something base and beyond trifling.
Very well said….and the speed with which it is doing leaves even a virus in the dust .
You didn’t remove, “And you don’t have a phurba – you’re stomping someone’s foot in a crowd and running off,” but you did remove something about all politicians necessarily being liars?
It’s an interesting news-media style policy – outrageous insults and technical dissent tolerated. But saying that all politicians lie? Verbotten!
:-p
Why do you listen to a ex-CIA agent that’s trying to get you to riot in Denver ? You know his “racist ” church that the racist drove him out of, it was tolerant of gays, but you call him homophobic.Hell you even called him gay. didn’t you get the word Hillary is supporting him.So you fake republiklans can go back and vote for McPain, a man that cusses his wife out like the president you want him to be.
Ben, look up a few posts .. your comment is still up there …
okay, Kid …first, I’ve NEVER said in I’m voting FOR McCain … I have other choices and at this point, I’m evaluating all of them. The only thing I WILL NOT DO is vote for Obama.
Second, a lot of the GLBT have a problem with him. He’s been pandering to white evangelicals with known gay baiters. He’s never granted complete access to his campaign to the GLBT press. I can’t speak for the GLBT community any more than I can speak for the Black community. I’ll just point you to the BLACK AGENDA REPORT for the many issues black activists have with Senator Obama. I’ll point you here for a CBS story on why the Gay community doesn’t trust Senator Obama.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/01/23/politics/politico/main3743835.shtml
Third, my vote is my own vote. I think for myself. Larry Johnson does not think for me. Hillary Clinton does not think for me. I rejected Senator Obama after doing a lot of research on him and listening to him in the democratic debates. I did not select a candidate to support until after the debates. I actually liked a lot of things Senator Obama said when I heard him talk at Graduation at Dillard University down here in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. I was quite open to voting for him. I’ve listed in other threads why I don’t find him qualified.
Your response to my thread on why I’m not voting for Obama was to comment “You forgot to add he’s a black man.” I deleted that because it was an outrageous and racist statement and because if you read my previous threads, you will see that I’ve been voting for black men and women for longer than you’ve probably been alive.
Is it so difficult for you to understand that I don’t find him a suitable candidate? I don’t like John McCain either and I’ve said that. I’d rather not vote for either of them but I will not vote for Obama. I’ve had 8 too many years of incompetence and I’d rather not not experience any more …
Rather than calling me names, why don’t you tell me something positive about what Obama has achieved? When asked on tv, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Obama supporters don’t appear to be able to answer that question. That’s the BIG answer that I’m waiting for … some one to tell me he’s actually ACHIEVED something.
*61, the DNC and Dean will try like HELL to get hillerats to support *61 but after little success he will offer her publicly the VP spot. Hill, after seeing the polls and her undying support will politely decline. The DNC and the MSM will AGAIN pillar HRC and Dean will again be silent.
Further racist/leftist/elitist/ BS will come out about people *61 has spent his life with. SuperDs will then start to go WTF!!! Lieberman will become McCain’s VP.
Then it will really start to get FUN.
So it has been said so it shall be…..Ommmmmmmmm
That’s odd, then. I made another post, which the internet seems to have eaten.
Anyhow, the substance of the post was that all politicians, even “virtuous” ones, are bound to expediency – catering to the lowest common denominator is how elections are won.
Think about this: if Obama is as craven as you seem to believe, his constant “hope change hope change hope change” spiel, will, when he doesn’t actually change anything, do far more to shift the population toward actual change.
And Hillary Clinton as a great woman? Dear lord! She’s an inexperienced manipulator who would be involved in more scandals than you could count if she were to be elected. And even then, she was probably beaten very, very slightly in the polls once Iowa, Nevada, Maine, and Washington estimates are included, and would have been beaten by an even larger margin in the popular vote had Obama campaigned in those Florida and Michigan.
Obama might be a trojan horse, but one Watergate is enough for me, and a great many other people. (Which is why, had Clinton won the nomination, she would have been defeated in the general – there are A LOT of Republicans who are not going to vote for McCain for the same reason that you are not going to vote for Obama – they believe that he is a very weak candidate, at best. Clinton’s presence would be more effective than any debate or any ad he could ever run in getting them and lots of undecideds to vote for McCain, regardless of his merits or significant lack thereof.)
Oh yea, and then there’s that “obliberate Iran” comment. Someone who feels it necessary to prove that she can be as nasty and evil as any man has no business coming within 100 miles of the White House.
Just for purposes of correction, I meant Whitewater, not Watergate.