It's interesting that you don't appear to have checked the articles I sent you
but you want
me to just buy into these two articles? I am showing you that this isn't an
open and shut
matter.
I gave you three articles with numbers and with far more doccumentation. Did
you read
them? Open Secrets has been a reputable source of campaign sources for years.
They
not only show the Presidental Election they go back for years to show where
the money came from. There is more than one view involved here.
Pamela Somers <psomers1@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
You said that you "researched" Counterpunch, as if you'd never heard
of it before. You seemed to be saying that Counterpunch was not a
good enough source of information, so I figured maybe you'd heard of
Z Magazine, which also carried the piece. But Counterpunch actually
is quite reputable, and known for being not biased in favor of
either Democrats or Republicans. p
--- In NewPacifica@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Melinda Iley-Dohn <Iley_dohn@...>
wrote:
>
> Good enough for what? Are you expecting me to just buy into a
magazine article and ignore
> public records of campaign contributions, reported income
statements and other sources I have sent you. If this is so credible
why isn't Hillary Clinton, who is desparate to win Texas,
> not using this against him? McCain is gunning for him too. I
would think that Matthew Drudge or one of the other right wingers
would use this.
>
> Pamela Somers <psomers1@...> wrote:
> Really? Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair not good
enough for
> you? How about Z Magazine then?
>
> http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/16601
>
> p
>
> --- In NewPacifica@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Melinda Iley-Dohn <Iley_dohn@>
> wrote:
> >
> > Great. I did a background on CounterPunch. They don't look that
> objective. Check out a few others.
> > http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/02/02/2008-02-
> 02_barack_obamas_moneymaker_site.html
> >
> > http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/allsummary.asp?
> CID=N00009638
> >
> > http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/02/28/fundraising/
> > Pamela Somers <psomers1@> wrote:
> > Obama's Money Cartel
> > How he's fronted for the most vicious firms on Wall Street
> > February 23, 2008 By Pam Martens
> > Source: CounterPunch
> >
> > Wall Street, known variously as a barren wasteland for
> diver­sity or
> > the last plantation in America, has defied courts and the Equal
> > Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for decades in its
failure
> > to hire blacks as stockbrokers. Now it's marshal­ling its
money
> > machine to elect a black man to the highest office in the land.
Why
> > isn't the press curious about this?
> >
> > Walk into any of the largest Wall Street brokerage firms today
and
> > you'll see a self-portrait of upper management rac­ism and
> sexism:
> > women sitting at secre­tarial desks outside fancy offices
> occupied by
> > predominantly white males. According to the EEOC as well as the
> > recent racial discrimination class actions filed against UBS and
> > Merrill Lynch, blacks make up between 1 per cent to 3.5 per cent
of
> > stockbrokers - and this after 30 years of litigation, settlements
> and
> > empty prom­ises to do better by the largest Wall Street firms.
> >
> > The first clue to an entrenched white male bastion seeking a
black
> > male occupant in the oval office (having placed only five blacks
in
> > the U.S. Senate in the last two centuries) appeared this month on
a
> > chart at the Center for Responsive Politics website. It was a
list
> of
> > the 20 top con­tributors to the Barack Obama campaign, and it
> looked
> > like one of those compre­hension tests where you match up
> things that
> > go together and eliminate those that don't. Of the 20 top
> > contributors, I elimi­nated six that didn't compute. I was
now
> looking
> > at a sight only slightly less fright­ening to democracy than
a
> Diebold
> > vot­ing machine. It was a Wall Street cartel of financial
> firms, their
> > registered lobbyists, ! and go-to law firms that have a death
grip
> on
> > our federal government.
> >
> > Why is the "yes, we can" candidate in bed with this cartel? How
can
> > we, the people, make change if Obama's money backers block our
> > ability to be heard?
> >
> > Seven of the Obama campaign's top 14 donors consist of officers
and
> > em­ployees of the same Wall Street firms charged time and
again
> with
> > looting the public and newly implicated in originat­ing
and/or
> > bundling fraudulently made mortgages. These latest frauds have
left
> > thousands of children in some of our largest minority communities
> > coming home from school to see eviction notices and foreclosure
> signs
> > nailed to their front doors. Those scars will last a lifetime.
> >
> > These seven Wall Street firms are (in order of money given):
> Goldman
> > Sachs, UBS AG, Lehman Brothers, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup,
Morgan
> > Stanley and Credit Suisse. There is also a large hedge fund,
> Citadel
> > Investment Group, which is a major source of fee income to Wall
> > Street. There are five large corporate law firms that are also
> > registered lobbyists; and one is a corporate law firm that is no
> > longer a registered lobbyist but does legal work for Wall Street.
> The
> > cumula­tive total of these 14 contributors through February
1,
> 2008,
> > was $2,872,128, and we're still in the primary season.
> >
> > But hasn't Senator Obama repeatedly told us in ads and speeches
and
> > debates that he wasn't taking money from reg­istered
lobbyists?
> Hasn't
> > the press given him a free pass on this statement?
> >
> > Barack Obama, speaking in Greenville, South Carolina, on January
> 22,
> > 2008:
> >
> > "Washington lobbyists haven't funded my campaign, they won't run
my
> > White House, and they will not drown out the voices of working
> > Americans when I am president".
> >
> > Barack Obama, in an email to support­ers on June 25, 2007, as
> reported
> > by the Boston Globe:
> >
> > "Candidates typically spend a week like this ? right before the
> > critical June 30th financial reporting deadline ? on the phone,
day
> > and night, begging Washington lobbyists and special interest PACs
> to
> > write huge checks. Not me. Our campaign has rejected the money-
for-
> in­
> > fluence game and refused to accept funds from registered federal
> > lobbyists and po­litical action committees".
> >
> > The Center for Responsive Politics' website allows one to pull up
> the
> > filings made by lobbyists registering under the Lobbying
Disclosure
> > Act of 1995 with the clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives
and
> > secretary of the U.S. Senate. These top five contributors to the
> > Obama campaign have filed as registered lobbyists: Sidley Austin
> LLP;
> > Skadden, Arps, et al; Jenner & Block; Kirkland & Ellis;
Wilmerhale,
> > aka Wilmer Cutler Pickering.
> >
> > Is it possible that Senator Obama does not know that corporate
law
> > firms are also frequently registered lobbyists? Or is he making a
> > distinction that because these funds are coming from the
> employ­ees of
> > these firms, he's not really taking money directly from
registered
> > lobby­ists? That thesis seems disingenuous when many of these
> > individual donors own these law firms as equity partners or
> > shareholders and share in the profits gen­erated from
lobbying.
> >
> > Far from keeping his distance from lobbyists, Senator Obama and
his
> > cam­paign seems to be brainstorming with them.
> >
> > The political publication, The Hill, re­ported on December
20,
> 2007,
> > that three salaried aides on the Obama campaign were registered
> > lobbyists for dozens of corporations. (The Obama campaign said
they
> > had stopped lobbying since joining the campaign.) Bob Bauer,
> counsel
> > to the Obama campaign, is an attorney with Perkins Coie. That law
> > firm is also a reg­istered lobbyist.
> >
> > What might account for this persistent (but non-reality based)
> theme
> > of distanc­ing the Obama campaign from lobbyists? Odds are it
> traces
> > back to one of the largest corporate lobbyist spending sprees in
> the
> > history of Washington whose details would cast an unwholesome
pall
> on
> > the Obama campaign, unless our cognitive abilities are regularly
> > bombarded with abstract vacuities of hope and change and
> sentimental
> > homages to Dr. King and President Kennedy .
> >
> > On February 10, 2005, Senator Obama voted in favor of the passage
> of
> > the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005. Senators Biden, Boxer,
Byrd,
> > Clinton, Corzine, Durbin, Feingold, Kerry, Leahy, Reid and 16
other
> > Democrats voted against it. It passed the Senate 72-26 and was
> signed
> > into law on February 18, 2005.
> >
> > Here is an excerpt of remarks Senator Obama made on the Senate
> floor
> > on February 14, 2005, concerning the pas­sage of this
> legislation:
> >
> > "Every American deserves their day in court. This bill, while not
> > perfect, gives people that day while still providing the
reasonable
> > reforms necessary to safe­guard against the most blatant
abuses
> of the
> > system. I also hope that the federal judiciary takes seriously
> their
> > expanded role in class action litigation, and upholds their
> > responsibility to fairly certify class actions so that they may
> > protect our civil and consumer rights..".
> >
> > Three days before Senator Obama ex­pressed that fateful yea
> vote, 14
> > state attorneys general, including Lisa Madigan of Senator
Obama's
> > home state of Illinois, filed a letter with the Senate and House,
> > pleading to stop the passage of this cor­porate giveaway. The
> AGs
> > wrote: "State attorneys general frequently investigate and bring
> > actions against defendants who have caused harm to our
citizens...
> In
> > some instances, such actions have been brought with the attorney
> > general acting as the class representative for the con­sumers
> of the
> > state. We are concerned that certain provisions of S.5 might be
> > misinterpreted to impede the ability of the attorneys general to
> > bring such ac­tions..."
> >
> > The Senate also received a desper­ate plea from more than 40
> civil
> > rights and labor organizations, including the NAACP, Lawyers
> > Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Human Rights Campaign,
> American
> > Civil Liberties Union, Center for Justice and Democracy, Legal
> > Momentum (formerly NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund), and
> > Alliance for Justice. They wrote as fol­lows:
> >
> > "Under the [Class Action Fairness Act of 2005], citizens are
denied
> > the right to use their own state courts to bring class actions
> > against corporations that violate these state wage and hour and
> state
> > civil rights laws, even where that corporation has hundreds of
> > employees in that state. Moving these state law cases into
federal
> > court will delay and likely deny justice for working men and
women
> > and victims of discrimination. The federal courts are
al­ready
> > overburdened. Additionally, federal courts are less likely to
> certify
> > classes or provide relief for violations of state law".
> >
> > This legislation, which dramatically im­paired labor rights,
> consumer
> > rights and civil rights, involved five years of pres­sure
from
> 100
> > corporations, 475 lobby­ists, tens of millions of corporate
> dollars
> > buying influence in our government, and the active participation
of
> > the Wall Street firms now funding the Obama campaign. "The Civil
> > Justice Reform Group, a busi­ness alliance comprising general
> counsels
> > from Fortune 100 firms, was instrumen­tal in drafting the
class-
> action
> > bill", says Public Citizen.
> >
> > One of the hardest-working registered lobbyists to push this
> > corporate giveaway was the law firm Mayer-Brown, hired by the
> leading
> > business lobby group, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. According to
> the
> > Center for Responsive Politics, the Chamber of Commerce spent $16
> > million in just 2003, lobbying the government on various business
> > issues, including class action reform.
> >
> > According to a 2003 report from Public Citizen, Mayer-Brown's
class-
> > action lobbyists included "Mark Gitenstein, for­mer chief
> counsel to
> > the Senate Judiciary Committee and a leading architect of the
> Senate
> > strategy in support of class-action legislation; John Schmitz,
who
> > was deputy counsel to President George H.W. Bush; David McIntosh,
> > former Republican congressman from Indiana; and Jeffrey Lewis,
who
> > was on the staffs of both Sen. John Breaux (D-La) and Rep. Billy
> > Tauzin (R-La)."
> >
> > While not on the Center for Responsive Politics list of the top
20
> > contributors to the Obama presidential campaign, Mayer-Brown's
> > partners and employees are in rarefied company, giving a total of
> > $92,817 through December 31, 2007, to the Obama campaign. (The
firm
> > is also defending Merrill Lynch in court against charges of
racial
> > discrimination.)
> >
> > Senator Obama graduated Harvard Law magna cum laude and was the
> first
> > black president of the Harvard Law Review. Given those
credentials,
> > one assumes that he understood the ramifica­tions to the poor
> and
> > middle class in this country as he helped to gut one of the few
> > weapons left to seek justice against giant corporations and their
> > legions of giant law firms. The class-action vehicle confers upon
> > each citizen one of the most powerful rights in our society: the
> > ability to function as a private attorney general and seek
redress
> > for wrongs inflicted on ourselves as well as for those similarly
> > injured that might not otherwise have a voice.
> >
> > Those rights should have been strengthened, not restricted, at
this
> > dangerous time in our nation's history. According to a
> comprehensive
> > report from the nonprofit group, United for a Fair Economy, over
> the
> > past eight years the total loss of wealth for people of color is
> > between $164 billion and $213 billion, for subprime loans which
is
> > the greatest loss of wealth for people of color in mod­ern
> history:
> >
> > "According to federal data, people of color are three times more
> > likely to have subprime loans: high-cost loans account for 55 per
> > cent of loans to blacks, but only 17 per cent of loans to
whites".
> >
> > If there had been equitable distribution of subprime loans,
losses
> > for white people would be 44.5 per cent higher and losses for
> people
> > of color would be about 24 per cent lower. "This is evidence of
> > systemic prejudice and institutional racism."
> >
> > Before the current crisis, based on improvements in median
> household
> > net worth, it would take 594 more years for blacks to achieve
> parity
> > with whites. The current crisis is likely to stretch this even
> > further.
> >
> > So, how should we react when we learn that the top contributors
to
> > the Obama campaign are the very Wall Street firms whose shady
> > mortgage lenders buried the elderly and the poor and minority
under
> > predatory loans? How should we react when we learn that on the
big
> > donor list is Citigroup, whose former employee at CitiFinancial
> > testified to the Federal Trade Commission that it was standard
> > practice to target people based on race and educational level,
with
> > the sales force winning bonuses called "Rocopoly Money" (like a
> sick
> > board game), after "blitz" nights of soliciting loans by phone?
How
> > should we react when we learn that these very same firms, arm in
> arm
> > with their corporate lawyers and registered lobbyists, have
> weakened
> > our ability to fight back with the class-action vehicle?
> >
> > Should there be any doubt left as to who owns our government? The
> > very same cast of characters making the Obama hit parade of
> campaign
> > loot are the clever creators of the industry solu­tions to
the
> wave of
> > foreclosures gripping this nation's poor and middle class,
> effec­
> > tively putting the solution in the hands of the robbers. The
names
> of
> > these pro­grams (that have failed to make a dent in the
> problem) have
> > the same vacuous ring: Hope Now; Project Lifeline.
> >
> > Senator Obama has become the in­spiration and role model to
> millions
> > of children and young people in this coun­try. He has only
two
> paths
> > now: to be a dream maker or a dream killer.
> >
> >
> > Pam Martens worked on Wall Street for 21 years; she has no
> securities
> > position, long or short, in any company mentioned in this
article.
> > She writes on public interest issues from New Hampshire. She can
be
> > reached at pamk741@
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ---------------------------------
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