Top organization spending on lobbying; top recipients of lobbying money

yet more evidence of how our super-rich elites are buying our government and ruling our lives...

via influence explorer...

it's interesting to me that the home of the masters of the universe, goldman sachs, has spent more than double the amount of any other organization...

thanks to glenn greenwald... 

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Dina Rasor: Self-dealing is the No. 1 problem that is preventing our government from working

self-dealing influence-peddling corruption... let's call it what it is...

dina rasor posting at truthout...

The overall self-dealing problem can hopefully begin to be reformed based on the knowledge gained from the accumulation of many examples of self-dealing in the system. The American public senses that the problem is there and hears about the deluge of corrupting money in the system, but they need individual examples to understand just how destructive this self-dealing is to our democracy.

the fix is in ... the global super-rich elites are in charge and have been for a number of years... our bought-and-paid for news media have zero interest in biting the hand that feeds them so any expectation that serious proposals for reform will see the light of day are delusional...

while i admire dina rasor's efforts to "out" the truth, i am increasingly doubtful that any such work will make a difference... the systemic nature of the problem means that any solution implemented on any part of that system will be effectively neutralized by the massive forces exerted by the rest of the system...

the hard piece of reality that none of us particularly want to face is that the whole house of cards (the corporate military industrial government complex fueled by the state religion of capitalism) must come down... unless and until it does, we can propose, discuss, reveal, protest, whistle-blow and vote for the candidates of our choice until hell freezes over and won't make a damn bit of difference...

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Using client's money to buy influence in Congress

again, nothing we don't know but still very useful to hear it from the horse's mouth...

jack abramoff on cbs' 60 minutes...



from alternet...

Abramoff: When we would become friendly with an office and they were important to us, and the chief of staff was a competent person, I would say or my staff would say to him or her at some point, "You know, when you're done working on the Hill, we'd very much like you to consider coming to work for us." Now the moment I said that to them or any of our staff said that to 'em, that was it. We owned them. And what does that mean? Every request from our office, every request of our clients, everything that we want, they're gonna do. And not only that, they're gonna think of things we can't think of to do.

money and power... that's what we're up against...

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Now, let's all feel sorry for the poor lobbyists and defense contractors

how 'bout it...? do ya think you can muster some sympathy...?

In a year when Washington's influence industry should be thriving, with epic battles over health-care and energy legislation, lobbying in many sectors is in marked decline as defense contractors, real estate firms and other companies pull back in a down economy.

Overall spending on lobbying has leveled off for the first time in a decade, according to disclosure data filed with Congress. Lobbying revenue for many of the city's most powerful advocacy firms, including bellwethers such as Patton Boggs and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, plunged 10 percent or more in the first half of the year.

Washington also has 2,200 fewer registered lobbyists than it did a year ago, the lowest tally since shortly after George W. Bush took office in January 2001.

[...]

The formidable defense industry, reeling from tens of thousands of layoffs, has cut back expenditures by 17 percent this year. That was true even with the lobbying effort triggered by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates's cancellation of the F-22 fighter jet and other major weapons projects, which had long survived thanks to the lobbying prowess of major contractors. Northrop Grumman has slashed its spending for lobbying in half, and Boeing and Lockheed Martin each have reduced spending by more than $1 million.

boo-freakin'-hoo...

p.s. ya gotta love that term, "influence industry"...

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