Four Surefire Tips for Following the Money in Your State. Not since the Gilded Age has money dominated American politics as it does today. Untold millions move through political action committees and their steroidal siblings, super PACs, through opaque nonprofit groups run out of PO boxes, much of it intended to keep average voters in the dark about who is influencing their elections.
And as the 2014 election year begins, with control of the House of Representatives, the US Senate and 38 governorships at stake, you can expect ever more of this campaign cash — secret and not — flooding into local, state and federal races. As the “dark money” reporter for Mother Jones, it’s my job to shine as much light on this cash bonanza as I can. I do this using every tool and trick at my disposal: databases, experts, plugged-in sources and good old-fashioned door knocking. Here are four easy-to-use tips for following the money in your state — and throwing some sunlight on the mega-donors trying to sway your elections. Lost? Shedding light on dark money. Seven House Judiciary Members Demand DOJ Investigate James Clapper For Lying To Congress. Since the Snowden revelations first started coming out, forcing James Clapper to admit that he flat-out lied to Congress, we've been somewhat perplexed as to how Clapper could come out of the whole thing "unscathed.
" Congress seemed willing to look the other way, and the President didn't appear to have any interest in firing Clapper or Keith Alexander, so as not to "let Snowden win. " But, it's never made much sense. Lying to Congress is a pretty serious crime -- and considering the lying was to cover up a program that just this week was found to be unconstitutional, it seems even more serious. The fact that anyone in Congress thinks that Clapper can even be remotely trusted to tell the truth going forward when he got away with lying, seems bizarre. Hopefully that will be changing now. Back in October, Rep. Congressional oversight depends on truthful testimony--witnesses cannot be allowed to lie to Congress. Agenda 21 For Dummies. Obama and Holder Let Gangsters Pay Fine, Continue Business As Usual. Imagine if Charles “Lucky” Luciano and his “Commission” representing the five reigning New York Mafia families plus the Chicago mob had been immune from law enforcement meddling in their activities, from the establishment of the “Syndicate” in 1931 to the present day.
By now, Luciano’s gangster heirs would be the unchallenged rulers of economic and political life in the United States and, by imperial extension, the entire capitalist world. Going on five years into the Obama regime, it is clear that Wall Street is immune from prosecution, no matter the savagery of the economic crime. Attorney General Eric Holder “has ruthlessly maneuvered every case against the oligarchs into his own jurisdictional arena, in order to protect the banksters from aggressive prosecution.” JP Morgan’s Jamie Dimon is a far bigger bandit than Lucky Luciano. JP Morgan chief executive Jamie Dimon is the man Lucky Luciano dreamed of becoming. “Dimon and his fellow banksters can easily afford the levy.” As the NSA Follows You, We Follow the Money. Since the 9/11 attacks, the United States has witnessed the rapid growth of an intelligence-industrial complex that fuses government and corporate power.
According to the Project on Government Oversight, $300 billion a year is now spent on a “shadow government of private contractors.” At the center of this arrangement is an interlocking web of current and former high-level government officials, major corporations, D.C. think tanks and other inside-the-Beltway operators who have benefitted from the rise of the surveillance state. Here are a few of the most notable: Sen.
Life must be good when you are deciding on government cyber-intelligence spending. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), the chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, is married to Richard C. Rep. “These narrowly targeted programs are legal, do not invade Americans’ privacy, and are essential to detecting and disrupting future terrorist attacks,” Rep. What did his editorial leave out? John M. . © 2013 Indypendent. George Bushisms. » Extensive List of Politicians Paid Off By Monsanto Alex Jones. Anthony Gucciardi Infowars.com May 29th, 2013 Democrat, Republican, it doesn’t matter. As long as you can help Monsanto slide its icy tentacles into the food chain, then there’s some financial tip available to you.
Thankfully, many such ties can be exposed through some data digging, and thanks to diligent readers who send comprehensive news tips and other researchers out there, we now have an extensive list of politicians getting paid cold hard cash from GMO juggernaut Monsanto. Keep in mind these are the figures we know , which means that behind the scenes expect these numbers to multiply extensively. But what is most amazing is that these politicians just don’t care that you know they’re receiving thousands of dollars from Monsanto! They sweep it under the carpet, but they are openly taking money from this corporation that has been caught running ‘slave-like’ rings and disregarding public health. Politicians Paid By Monsanto House of Representatives: A d v e r t i s e m e n t Senate. Nuclear Waste: A $1 Billion Energy Department Project Overshoots Its Budget by 600 Percent.
A multi-billion dollar nuclear fuel plant being built by the Energy Department in South Carolina has become an embarrassing symbol of government mismanagement, plagued by long delays, wasteful spending, and construction snafus.Officials in Washington initially paid little attention to the plant’s construction, despite the project’s size, its importance to U.S. nonproliferation goals, and a total cost projected to exceed $18 billion.Mismanagement and improper contracting practices cost the government more than $1.38 billion in avoidable expenses.The prospects for selling the plant’s plutonium-laced fuel to domestic nuclear power plants appear dim, and at best the government might recoup just 10 percent of its investment. Savannah River Site, South Carolina - Scattered among the pine forests of this 310-square mile federal reservation are five mothballed nuclear reactors where tens of thousands of workers were once engaged in a grim race to create as much plutonium as they could.
Anonymous Hacks Neo-Nazis, Finds Ron Paul. Well this just got interesting. The hacktivist collective Anonymous set out to take down the white supremacist American Third Party (A3P) in what they called “Operation Blitzkrieg” but they may have done much more. In a document dump that includes private forum messages, emails, organization notes another other information the group found numerous connections between Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul and A3P. According to the documents, all hosted here, Paul himself regularly met with many A3P members, engaged in conference calls with their board of directors and engaged in a “bridging tactic” between A3P and the Ron Paul Revolution. Other excerpts show A3P webmaster Jamie Kelso (whose email account was one hacked by the collective) coordinating meeting between Paul and other members of A3P such as corporate lawyer and chairman of the neo-Nazi group Paul.
Related Stories: The Rise Of Rand Paul And The Mainstreaming Of The Racist Right. WOW MUST SEE Obama destroyed & called a war criminal in Irish Parliament WOW MUST SEE. WOW MUST SEE Obama destroyed & called a war criminal in Irish Parliament WOW MUST SEE. Global Power Project: Identifying the Institutions of Control. (Photo: Kenneth Lu / Flickr)The Global Power Project, an investigative series produced by Occupy.com, aims to identify and connect the worldwide institutions and individuals who comprise today's global power oligarchy. In Part 1, which appeared last week, I provided an overview examining who and what constitute the global ruling elite – often referred to as the Transnational Capitalist Class (TCC). In this second part, I will attempt to identify some of the key, dominant institutions that have facilitated and have in turn been supported by the development of this oligarchic class. This is not a study of wealth, but a study of power.
In an article for the journal International Sociology, William K. The function of such institutions was to help mobilize and integrate the corporate elite beyond national borders, constructing a politically “organized minority.” The large industrial foundations have played a truly profound – and largely overlooked – role in the shaping of modern society. Interactive Map: Is Your State Legislator a Member of ALEC? Obama Administration Approves ALEC Model Bill for Fracking Chemical Fluid Disclosure on Public Lands. Ernest Moniz, Secretary of Energy, speaks before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, in Washington, April 9, 2013. (Photo: Doug Mills / The New York Times) On May 16, the Obama Interior Department announced its long-awaited rules governing hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") on federal lands.
As part of its 171-page document of rules , the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), part of the U.S. Dept. of Interior (DOI), revealed it will adopt the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) model bill written by ExxonMobil for fracking chemical fluid disclosure on U.S. public lands. ALEC is a 98-percent corporate-funded bill mill and " dating service " that brings predominantly Republican state legislators and corporate lobbyists together at meetings to craft and vote on " model bills " behind closed doors.
In a way, it's all come full circle. Both the Illinois and Florida state legislatures have also tried to push through this model, but it died dead in its tracks. Bush Convicted of War Crimes in Absentia. Kuala Lumpur — It’s official; George W Bush is a war criminal. In what is the first ever conviction of its kind anywhere in the world, the former US President and seven key members of his administration were yesterday (Fri) found guilty of war crimes. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and their legal advisers Alberto Gonzales, David Addington, William Haynes, Jay Bybee and John Yoo were tried in absentia in Malaysia. The trial held in Kuala Lumpur heard harrowing witness accounts from victims of torture who suffered at the hands of US soldiers and contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. They included testimony from British man Moazzam Begg, an ex-Guantanamo detainee and Iraqi woman Jameelah Abbas Hameedi who was tortured in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison.
Full transcripts of the charges, witness statements and other relevant material will now be sent to the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, as well as the United Nations and the Security Council. The court heard how. Chavez's death, like his life, shows the world's divisions - Opinion. The unprecedented worldwide response to the death of President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, and especially in the Western Hemisphere, has brought into stark relief the "multi-polar" world that Chavez fought for. Fifty-five countries were represented at his funeral on March 8, 33 (including all of Latin America) by heads of state. Fourteen Latin American countries decreed official days of mourning - including the right-wing government of Chile.
In contrast to the emotional outpourings, and the honour and respect that came from Latin American heads of state, the White House put out a cold and unfriendly statement that - to the horror of many Latin Americans - didn't even offer condolences. It seems that the most demonised democratically elected president in world history had a lot of friends and admirers - and not just the "enemy states" like Iran or Syria that get first mention in US news reports. Chavez transformed Latin America It wasn't fake - there wasn't anything fake about the man.
Women's Rights Worldwide. Exclusive: Billionaires secretly fund attacks on climate science - Climate Change - Environment. A secretive funding organisation in the United States that guarantees anonymity for its billionaire donors has emerged as a major operator in the climate "counter movement" to undermine the science of global warming, The Independent has learnt. The Donors Trust, along with its sister group Donors Capital Fund, based in Alexandria, Virginia, is funnelling millions of dollars into the effort to cast doubt on climate change without revealing the identities of its wealthy backers or that they have links to the fossil fuel industry.
However, an audit trail reveals that Donors is being indirectly supported by the American billionaire Charles Koch who, with his brother David, jointly owns a majority stake in Koch Industries, a large oil, gas and chemicals conglomerate based in Kansas. Millions of dollars has been paid to Donors through a third-party organisation, called the Knowledge and Progress Fund, with is operated by the Koch family but does not advertise its Koch connections. David Koch Spokesman Tells Hurricane Sandy Victims To ‘Suck It Up’ In a week when this guy is almost universally panned as the country’s biggest asshole, a perennial contender managed to slip under the radar. The election is over, but David Koch is already threatening sitting Republicans with a hurricane of attack ads if they dare divert money from his pockets and into the pockets of the victims of Hurricane Sandy. From Lee Fong of (emphasis added): Earlier this week, AFP, which is chaired by Koch and believed to be financed by several other plutocrats from the New York City region, released a letter warning members of Congress not to vote for the proposed federal aid package for victims of the storm that swept New Jersey, New York City and much of the surrounding area in October.
An announcement on the group’s website says that the vote next week for the Sandy aid package will be a “ key vote ”—meaning senators who support sending money for reconstruction could face an avalanche of attack ads in their next election. Are you laughing yet? Related posts: Eight Corporate Subsidies in the Fiscal Cliff Bill, From Goldman Sachs to Disney to NASCAR. President Barack Obama is flanked by Vice President Joe Biden as he speaks at a news conference following the House vote, at the White House, in Washington, January 1, 2013. (Photo: Luke Sharrett / The New York Times) Throughout the months of November and December, a steady stream of corporate CEOs flowed in and out of the White House to discuss the impending fiscal cliff.
Many of them, such as Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs, would then publicly come out and talk about how modest increases of tax rates on the wealthy were reasonable in order to deal with the deficit problem. What wasn’t mentioned is what these leaders wanted, which is what’s known as “tax extenders”, or roughly $205B of tax breaks for corporations. With such a banal name, and boring and difficult to read line items in the bill, few political operatives have bothered to pay attention to this part of the bill.
But it is critical to understanding what is going on. Enjoy! There Is No American Left. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. (Photo: Iowa Democrats / Flickr)NOTE: This article originally appeared in Australian Options magazine. It is reproduced here with permission. In September 2012 Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel attempted to break the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) with a bid to privatize Chicago's public schools. The mayor's proposal was based on a plan to subject teachers (and schools) to performance measurement based on students' standardized test scores.
Teachers whose students scored poorly would be fired. Schools whose students scored poorly would be closed. The students would then be farmed out to so-called "charter schools" - for the most part, for-profit institutions run by corporations like Edison Schools, Rocketship, Victory Schools, and Educational Services of America.
Do you support Truthout's reporting and analysis? The CTU went out on strike with the goal of maintaining public education in Chicago, America's third largest city. Rahm Emanuel is not just any Democrat. Obama's FCC Set to Give Rupert Murdoch a Media Monopoly. In Leaked Docs, Honeywell Cites Obama Ties As Key to Anti-Union Strategy. Ron Paul Farewell Speech. The Israeli Nightmare. Russia loses hold on Tajikistan pivot. Obama’s America: 2016 – a Debate between Dinesh D’Souza and Chris Hedges. Matt Taibbi: The Secret to Mitt Romney’s Fortune? Greed, Debt and Forcing Others to Foot the Bill. Richard Cobden: the goal of Free Trade is the abolition of the Nation-State.
Federal Records Show Romney Campaign Bought And Paid For By Big Banks.