4um: Obama incorporated; Is our man of the people already too beholden to the fat cats?

Title: Obama incorporated; Is our man of the people already too beholden to the fat cats?
Source: Chicago Sun-Times
URL Source: [None]
Published: May 7, 2007
Author: Joshua Frank
Post Date: 2008-05-10 15:28:41 by Jethro Tull
Keywords: None
Views: 1550
Comments: 48

Obama incorporated; Is our man of the people already too beholden to the fat cats?

One cannot scale the ranks of the Democratic establishment without selling out to Washington insiders, and presidential aspirant Barack Obama is adept at playing the game. Since announcing his candidacy in February, Obama has raised millions of dollars from corporate fat-cats and multinational corporations. While the young candidate has leaned heavily on law firms to which he has professional connections, he's also not been afraid to dip into the trough of Big Business. And it's a sure sign Obama is a real contender for his party's nomination.

When Howard Dean's campaign began to gain momentum in the 2004 elections, the former Vermont governor had not flipped through his party's corporate black book, and instead relied heavily on the grass roots to provide fuel for his presidential bid. The party's elite, nervous and unsure that Dean could be one of them, quietly sacked Dean because he had not accepted the way business is done in Washington.

NEARLY $160,000 FROM EXELON

Insiders were brought on at safe distance from John Kerry's campaign, and a group, founded by Democratic fund-raiser David Jones, ran vile ads attacking Dean during the Iowa caucus. Moderate Demo-crats labeled Dean a radical despite his conservative tenure in Vermont. John Edwards called him unelectable. The Democratic Leadership Council was against him. Soon Dean was crushed at the polls and never recovered after his screaming speech following the disaster in Iowa. The Deaniacs' hopes were crushed. And it now seems Obama has vowed not to make the same mistake.

There's no question that industry loves Barack. As of March 31, UBS, the second-largest bank in Europe, has given more than $165,000 to his campaign. The Exelon corporation, the nation's largest nuclear plant operator, has donated almost $160,000. The investment Goliath, Goldman Sachs, has fattened the pockets of Barack Inc. with more than $143,000. Citigroup has given well over $50,000, with Morgan Stanley close behind at $40,000. Wall Street has Obama's back.

Kirkland & Ellis, the conservative law firm that worked for the Democrats to limit ballot access of Ralph Nader's campaign in 2004, also digs Obama, and has given his campaign more than $70,000. That's a lot of money to be tossing around so early in the campaign season. But the firm that represents GM and tobacco giant Brown & Williamson has plenty of cash to spare. They know Obama has a good chance at winning the nomination -- if not this cycle, perhaps one down the road.

CHAMPION OF 'GREEN' TECHNOLOGY

In the meantime, Obama's voice as a leading Democrat in the Senate grows more influential by the day. They know they'll get their money's worth in the long run.

The Obama campaign insists the funds he is raising won't influence his positions, politically or otherwise. They assure us Barack is untouchable. But whom are they trying to kid? Frankly, big donors aren't accustomed to handing out hundreds of thousands of dollars without any kickbacks. They don't write checks out of goodwill; they do it because they in turn profit.

Thanks in no part to Exelon, I'm sure, Obama has championed nuclear power as a "green" technology. Through his elaborate fund- raising channels Obama has also formed a close relationship with Skadden, Arps, one of the largest corporate law firms in the country and one of the largest contributors to the Democratic Party.

Skadden, Arps was the legal team hired by David Jones to help derail Howard Dean. They also were a top contributor to Kerry's campaign in 2004.

Like the rest of his deep-pocketed friends, they know Barack Obama has solidified himself as another corporate candidate.

"The difference between an honorable man and a moral man is that an honorable man regrets a discreditable act even when it has worked and he is in no danger of being caught." ~ H. L. Mencken

All three have been to zion and received their blessing - don't worry, you'e zion masters will till be in control.

Lod, they don't get to this position without the blessing. They have been vetted by Izzy and approved.

you've got some nerve posting an article with all those bolded the's and obama's!! ;)

My point is that such absolutist statements by people like JT create a lose lose situation.

Yes, there is a problem with many of those holding positions in government, but is the solution not trying to establish working relationships with the best ones you can get in and work to challenge them to actually do the job they are supposed to do?

I don't think so. Many feel the same way many of you do about Barack Obama about Dr. Paul. They felt that way about Wayne Morse who ran for president in 1960 and would of made an extremely principled and great POTUS.

I admire much of the sentiment of people like JT, but experience has taught me that challenging the problem of selection of those who run is best handled with several sets of tactics some of which are long term and time intensive.

I am going by gut instincts who is the most likely one to be a John Kennedy and refuse the will of the shadow government, even though they damn sure have had it been made clear to them the risks of doing so.

Sometimes tactics for change on the short term done in conjunction with long term tactics can seem discouraging, frustrating and useless; but not doing anything and apathetically abandoning the democratic process and withdrawing completely in a jaded fashion can be worse then challenging the best of those who get to the point of the selection process for a new POTUS.

i think we're so far beyond any John Kennedy type POTUS...i mean, where did it get him? assassinated by the PTB. Ron Paul was my last mustard seed of hope, but i can understand you're not being ready to go there yet. what bothers me the most about it though is that, imo, you and the others who will vote for one who has been created/selected for us, is that you're endorsing the two party fraud, in essence asking them to give us more, more, more.

i just wonder when will it be that we'll in great mass say enough. probably never because there are too many citizens beholding to government welfare in one form or another.

The odds of Oh'bummer being the next JFK is on about the same order as Pigs sprouting wings and flying.

Oh'bummer is in the Zbignew Brzhenski circle and is just as controlled as Hitlery, and McLame.

What you are doing is trying to ignore reality. Ron Paul was minimized because he WAS/IS the genuine article.

That the lamestream media touts Oh'bummer is a prima facie case in and of itself that he is owned.

Again, we are being presented with false choices and orchestrated pseudo-campaigns and you are biting on the bait.

"The difference between an honorable man and a moral man is that an honorable man regrets a discreditable act even when it has worked and he is in no danger of being caught." ~ H. L. Mencken

"There are many people in the world who really don't understand-or say they don't-what is the great issue between the free world and the Communist world. ... Let them come to Berlin!"

Quotes on Communism
"Communism doesn't work because people like to own stuff."
- Frank Zappa

Quotes on Communism
"Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite."
- John Kenneth Galbraith

Certain leading capitalists of the 19th and 20th century, and their foundations, have funded communism's rise. And they've funded the Nazis.

It is true. Marx was about as shiftless and unproductive as they come. He was the equivalent of a Welfare Queen for his time. He was kept by rich men to write fairy tales which would allow them to apply Machiavelli on a large scale.

"The difference between an honorable man and a moral man is that an honorable man regrets a discreditable act even when it has worked and he is in no danger of being caught." ~ H. L. Mencken

One of the few things Marx was correct about: In a capitalist system you eventually wind up with one or two humongous fish and a whole bunch of minnows to prey on.

"The difference between an honorable man and a moral man is that an honorable man regrets a discreditable act even when it has worked and he is in no danger of being caught." ~ H. L. Mencken

I wasn't the first to say it, but it rang true: modern capitalism fused with modern communism is a simplistic and accurate description of Globalism.

And these people want to "Fix The World"...but really they're eeeeevil power trippers flushing us down the toilet.

"The difference between an honorable man and a moral man is that an honorable man regrets a discreditable act even when it has worked and he is in no danger of being caught." ~ H. L. Mencken

When everyone (90% in 1900) in America was basically self-employed, things worked pretty well...then came the banksters...MNCs...usury...credit...bubbles.

"The difference between an honorable man and a moral man is that an honorable man regrets a discreditable act even when it has worked and he is in no danger of being caught." ~ H. L. Mencken

I rather tend to agree with Ron Paul that we've never really tried capitalism. The humongous fish grew that way by obtaining state/federal legal protection. Pure capitalism would leave everything to unadulterated competition, and would actually severely punish any unscrupulousness on the part of business.

Has Capitalism Failed?

[This article is excerpted from Part I of Pillars of Prosperity. An MP3 audio file of this article, read by Dr. Floy Lilley, is available for download.]

Congressional Record — US House of Representatives July 9, 2002

It is now commonplace and politically correct to blame what is referred to as the excesses of capitalism for the economic problems we face, and especially for the Wall Street fraud that dominates the business news. Politicians are having a field day with demagoguing the issue while, of course, failing to address the fraud and deceit found in the budgetary shenanigans of the federal government — for which they are directly responsible. Instead, it gives the Keynesian crowd that runs the show a chance to attack free markets and ignore the issue of sound money.

So once again we hear the chant: "Capitalism has failed; we need more government controls over the entire financial market." No one asks why the billions that have been spent and thousands of pages of regulations that have been written since the last major attack on capitalism in the 1930s didn't prevent the fraud and deception of Enron, WorldCom, and Global Crossings. That failure surely couldn't have come from a dearth of regulations.

What is distinctively absent is any mention that all financial bubbles are saturated with excesses in hype, speculation, debt, greed, fraud, gross errors in investment judgment, carelessness on the part of analysts and investors, huge paper profits, conviction that a new era economy has arrived and, above all else, pie-in-the-sky expectations.

When the bubble is inflating, there are no complaints. When it bursts, the blame game begins. This is especially true in the age of victimization, and is done on a grand scale. It quickly becomes a philosophic, partisan, class, generational, and even a racial issue. While avoiding the real cause, all the finger pointing makes it difficult to resolve the crisis and further undermines the principles upon which freedom and prosperity rest.

Nixon was right — once — when he declared "We're all Keynesians now." All of Washington is in sync in declaring that too much capitalism has brought us to where we are today. The only decision now before the central planners in Washington is whose special interests will continue to benefit from the coming pretense at reform. The various special interests will be lobbying heavily like the Wall Street investors, the corporations, the military-industrial complex, the banks, the workers, the unions, the farmers, the politicians, and everybody else.

"The only decision now before the central planners in Washington is whose special interests will continue to benefit from the coming pretense at reform."

But what is not discussed is the actual cause and perpetration of the excesses now unraveling at a frantic pace. This same response occurred in the 1930s in the United States as our policy makers responded to the very similar excesses that developed and collapsed in 1929. Because of the failure to understand the problem then, the depression was prolonged. These mistakes allowed our current problems to develop to a much greater degree. Consider the failure to come to grips with the cause of the 1980s bubble, as Japan's economy continues to linger at no-growth and recession level, with their stock market at approximately one-fourth of its peak 13 years ago. If we're not careful — and so far we've not been — we will make the same errors that will prevent the correction needed before economic growth can be resumed.

In the 1930s, it was quite popular to condemn the greed of capitalism, the gold standard, lack of regulation, and a lack government insurance on bank deposits for the disaster. Businessmen became the scapegoat. Changes were made as a result, and the welfare/warfare state was institutionalized. Easy credit became the holy grail of monetary policy, especially under Alan Greenspan, "the ultimate Maestro." Today, despite the presumed protection from these government programs built into the system, we find ourselves in a bigger mess than ever before. The bubble is bigger, the boom lasted longer, and the gold price has been deliberately undermined as an economic signal. Monetary inflation continues at a rate never seen before in a frantic effort to prop up stock prices and continue the housing bubble, while avoiding the consequences that inevitably come from easy credit. This is all done because we are unwilling to acknowledge that current policy is only setting the stage for a huge drop in the value of the dollar. Everyone fears it, but no one wants to deal with it.

Ignorance, as well as disapproval for the natural restraints placed on market excesses that capitalism and sound markets impose, cause our present leaders to reject capitalism and blame it for all the problems we face. If this fallacy is not corrected and capitalism is even further undermined, the prosperity that the free market generates will be destroyed.

Corruption and fraud in the accounting practices of many companies are coming to light. There are those who would have us believe this is an integral part of free-market capitalism. If we did have free-market capitalism, there would be no guarantees that some fraud wouldn't occur. When it did, it would then be dealt with by local law-enforcement authority and not by the politicians in Congress, who had their chance to "prevent" such problems but chose instead to politicize the issue, while using the opportunity to promote more useless Keynesian regulations.

Capitalism should not be condemned, since we haven't had capitalism. A system of capitalism presumes sound money, not fiat money manipulated by a central bank. Capitalism cherishes voluntary contracts and interest rates that are determined by savings, not credit creation by a central bank. It's not capitalism when the system is plagued with incomprehensible rules regarding mergers, acquisitions, and stock sales, along with wage controls, price controls, protectionism, corporate subsidies, international management of trade, complex and punishing corporate taxes, privileged government contracts to the military-industrial complex, and a foreign policy controlled by corporate interests and overseas investments. Add to this centralized federal mismanagement of farming, education, medicine, insurance, banking and welfare. This is not capitalism!

To condemn free-market capitalism because of anything going on today makes no sense. There is no evidence that capitalism exists today. We are deeply involved in an interventionist-planned economy that allows major benefits to accrue to the politically connected of both political parties. One may condemn the fraud and the current system, but it must be called by its proper names — Keynesian inflationism, interventionism, and corporatism.

What is not discussed is that the current crop of bankruptcies reveals that the blatant distortions and lies emanating from years of speculative orgy were predictable.

First, Congress should be investigating the federal government's fraud and deception in accounting, especially in reporting future obligations such as Social Security, and how the monetary system destroys wealth. Those problems are bigger than anything in the corporate world and are the responsibility of Congress. Besides, it's the standard set by the government and the monetary system it operates that are major contributing causes to all that's wrong on Wall Street today. Where fraud does exist, it's a state rather than a federal matter, and state authorities can enforce these laws without any help from Congress.

"We are unwilling to acknowledge that current policy is only setting the stage for a huge drop in the value of the dollar. Everyone fears it, but no one wants to deal with it."

– Ron Paul, 2002

Second, we do know why financial bubbles occur, and we know from history that they are routinely associated with speculation, excessive debt, wild promises, greed, lying, and cheating. These problems were described by quite a few observers as the problems were developing throughout the 1990s, but the warnings were ignored for one reason. Everybody was making a killing and no one cared, and those who were reminded of history were reassured by the Fed chairman that "this time" a new economic era had arrived and not to worry. Productivity increases, it was said, could explain it all.

But now we know that's just not so. Speculative bubbles and all that we've been witnessing are a consequence of huge amounts of easy credit, created out of thin air by the Federal Reserve. We've had essentially no savings, which is one of the most significant driving forces in capitalism. The illusion created by low interest rates perpetuates the bubble and all the bad stuff that goes along with it. And that's not a fault of capitalism. We are dealing with a system of inflationism and interventionism that always produces a bubble economy that must end badly.

So far the assessment made by the administration, Congress, and the Fed bodes badly for our economic future. All they offer is more of the same, which can't possibly help. All it will do is drive us closer to national bankruptcy, a sharply lower dollar, and a lower standard of living for most Americans, as well as less freedom for everyone.

This is a bad scenario that need not happen. But preserving our system is impossible if the critics are allowed to blame capitalism and sound monetary policy is rejected. More spending, more debt, more easy credit, more distortion of interest rates, more regulations on everything, and more foreign meddling will soon force us into the very uncomfortable position of deciding the fate of our entire political system.

~~$35~~ $24

"To condemn free-market capitalism because of anything going on today makes no sense."

If we were to choose freedom and capitalism, we would restore our dollar to a commodity or a gold standard. Federal spending would be reduced, income taxes would be lowered, and no taxes would be levied upon savings, dividends, and capital gains. Regulations would be reduced, special-interest subsidies would be stopped, and no protectionist measures would be permitted. Our foreign policy would change, and we would bring our troops home.

We cannot depend on government to restore trust to the markets; only trustworthy people can do that. Actually, the lack of trust in Wall Street executives is healthy because it is deserved and prompts caution. The same lack of trust in politicians, the budgetary process, and the monetary system would serve as a healthy incentive for the reform in government we need.

Markets regulate better than governments can. Depending on government regulations to protect us significantly contributes to the bubble mentality.

These moves would produce the climate for releasing the creative energy necessary to simply serve consumers, which is what capitalism is all about. The system that inevitably breeds the corporate-government cronyism that created our current ongoing disaster would end.

Capitalism didn't give us this crisis of confidence now existing in the corporate world. The lack of free markets and sound money did. Congress does have a role to play, but it's not proactive. Congress's job is to get out of the way.

Dr. Ron Paul is a Republican member of Congress from Texas and a 2008 US presidential candidate. Send him mail.

There you have hit on one of the NWO's key tactics in creating a slave population.

Eliminate small independent businesses, because small independent business people are:

C. Employees of large corporate entities are at massuh's mercy and will do what they are told because they fear the "Rice Bowl" could come up empty.

High Property Taxes making subsistence farming, small farms, unable to operate. High Property Taxes are particularly pernicious in that it means that you never really own your land, or your home, because the levels are too high to be paid by anyone unless they are employed and unless you pay massuh government the JBTs will come and evict you from your own land.

Additionally confusing, and I believe intentionally so, Income Tax rules which fall most heavily on the small business making it difficult for them to operate without inadvertently making themselves liable for attack from the IRS Gestapo which loves to prey on small and medium business (they don't have the resources to fight back and so just pay the "squeeze").

Rules and regulations have been multiplied beyond reason making it difficult to impossible for small businesses to operate.

In a nation full of small businesses and small entrepreneuers you have a nation of people resistant to domination.

The stupid liberals have bought the socialist dogma sold them and thus are forging their own chains through "tax the rich out of envy" taxes that actually beggar the independent middle class and make independence difficult at best. It is really a sick mess.

"The difference between an honorable man and a moral man is that an honorable man regrets a discreditable act even when it has worked and he is in no danger of being caught." ~ H. L. Mencken

True as far as it goes. Our current system is not capitalism, or a free market which is the term I prefer, but a crony capitalist Plutocracy/Kleptocracy.

What the analysis misses is that in a capitalist system, without adequate safeguards, eventually what did happen will happen i.e., that some interest, likely the Banksters, will get large enough to buy the government they need to create the Kleptocratic system they want.

I am staunchly pro-freedom and want the government AND predatory big business out of my life, and your life. However, we have a reality that we must now deal with and take responsibility for.

"The difference between an honorable man and a moral man is that an honorable man regrets a discreditable act even when it has worked and he is in no danger of being caught." ~ H. L. Mencken

The whole ball of wax is wrapped up in one neat package for America...the North American Community.

What is most frustrating is knowing that we had them on the run...Ron Paul had them on the run and at our Point of No Return he backed off.

Not that there isn't inertia from the campaign, I just don't feel that we dared to take the foot off the gas and settle for Republicanism at this point in time.

I am most angered that a man as great as Ron Paul (true American) was treated the way he was, so blatantly, by TPTB...

Had RP not backed off they would have whacked him, and I think that was clear to him and it should have been clear to us.

Still there were many positives to his run and we have not milked it for all it is worth yet. It woke up a lot of people, and raised the awareness of people who thought they were awake but held the mistaken belief that the system we have now was not as corrupt as it really is (anyone who will use and trade in children for sex slaves is way far gone and that is one of the CIA's "businesses").

As for the NAU that is only an intermediate step to establish a global tyranny. It must be fought because it slows them down and has put them on the defensive as their plans were being exposed. That is the one thing they fear the most at this point - light and exposure.

We have made headway, but the fight is far from over. They are psychotics and they will not give up short of a convincing defeat and then they will collapse - it goes with their make-up and their psychoses.

"The difference between an honorable man and a moral man is that an honorable man regrets a discreditable act even when it has worked and he is in no danger of being caught." ~ H. L. Mencken

Tough call, but you have to put those things in God's hands if you want to take on such enormous evil...imo

I believe that at the beginning of the r3VOLution about 3-5% of America was aware and maybe 1% were awake.

I honestly though could see 10-15% awake by November had Ron gone on to November outside of the Establishment.

Keep the faith, and remember what Learned Hand said - "that liberty dies first when it dies in our hearts" (or words to that effect).

"The difference between an honorable man and a moral man is that an honorable man regrets a discreditable act even when it has worked and he is in no danger of being caught." ~ H. L. Mencken

Since I do not think RP a coward, and I did notice a change in his demeanor after South Carolina, I suspect that he was hit with threats not so much against himself but against people close to him. It is a very very rare man who will put the lives of his family at risk, or sacrifice them, even on lofty principle. Some of the founding fathers did just that but then they were a very very very rare breed.

"The difference between an honorable man and a moral man is that an honorable man regrets a discreditable act even when it has worked and he is in no danger of being caught." ~ H. L. Mencken

I had a breakfast with he and some State Directors long before he bailed out...didn't come up. He seemed committed and always said he had the 'trump' of leaving.

The economy is a factor that is teetering on the edge. Welfare comes to a screeching halt when there's no goods.

The system is rotten through and through. The good ones are too far and few between to effect any perceptible change. The system must go. Obama et al are the system. I'm surprised that you see him as a savior.