Did you hear who sponsored the DLC convention in Columbus, Ohio??

[in_cog_ni_to]

I was listening to Laura Flanders' show tonight and she mentioned this. :wtf: And Ed Schultz wonders why the Progressives detest the DLC? Here's a PERFECT expample of WHY. :grr: What? They couldn't find any BLUE companies to sponsor that event? WTF is wrong with those people?


<snip>
In the stratosphere of world leaders, the Dems and the Repubs have aligned interests and vote accordingly. Consider the sponsors of this event: the local Schottenstein family through its corporations, Limited Brands, Safe Auto Insurance, and Schottenstein Stores; Chevron, SBC, Global LEAD, Int’l Council of Shopping Centers, National Retail Federation, and Wendy’s. National elites are legislating away the Constitution, the Judiciary is suppressing the Rule of Law, and the Executive Branch is waging Armageddon by going after MidEast Oil. If the DLC wants to talk about the American Dream, they’d best be served by recognizing that the public is waking up. <snip>
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/20/2005/1386


The Limited Brands....a RED company
http://www.buyblue.org/detail.php?corpId=53


Chevron!!! A RED company.
http://www.buyblue.org/detail.php?corpId=244

Wendy's....a RED company.
http://www.buyblue.org/detail.php?corpId=75

SBC 65% to repuke party.
http://www.buyblue.org/detail.php?corpId=186

[Jack Rabbit]

1. That's an impressive rogue's gallery

It sounds like a Republican gathering. (No doubt, some smart aadrvark here will say it was.)

[Cha]

2. They don't think.

They accumulate. Or, at least, that's what they're trying to do.

[ulysses]

3. but we're doomed without them!

You hear me? DOOMED!

[gulfcoastliberal]

4. Please, I would LOVE for any DLC apologists to chime in on this

...nt...

[ulysses]

5. they won't. n/t

[punpirate]

6. No one got back to me...

... when they said they'd check on what the DLC said about having reps of the Koch brothers on their board....

DLCers can rant and rave, but they're apologists for the corporate world that is determined to control this country. Hell, they even have their own military now--our Pentagon.

The preamble of the Constitution says "We the People...." It does not say "We the Corporations of...."

[KittyWampus]

12. The Koch Bros. Seeded Howard Dean's Prez. Campaign... Oh, The Irony

[punpirate]

18. Link for that?

The Kochs have pretty much bad-mouthed Dean, so I have to wonder if that's true.

Cheers.

[KittyWampus]

20. Links Were Posted Ad Naseum During Primary Season. It's A Fact.

[punpirate]

24. Well, I don't see any contributions to his...

... campaign for the 2004 election cycle from the Koch Industries bunch on opensecrets.org.

The only Demo contributions come from Wm. I. Koch, who left his father's/brothers' business around 1980. Wm. I. seems to be a different animal from the rest of them.

In fact, it was Bill Koch who sued his brothers under the False Claims Act for their theft of oil from government and Indian lands:

http://www.publicintegrity.org/oil/report.aspx?aid=347

No sense confusing the two. Koch Industries and Wm. Koch aren't associated.

[KittyWampus]

29. Reprint of article I just found- I Support Dean 100% As DNC Chair, BTW

and am absolutely NOT interested in refighting Primary Wars. :)

Please forgive me for not searching for more articles... but this gives you a hint...


Does Howard Dean Have An "Enron" Problem?

Let’s see some money on the table to keep the promises you made (to) those veterans instead of sending the money to Ken Lay and the boys at Enron with $3 trillion worth of tax cuts. - Howard Dean, appearing on MSNBC-TV's Hardball with Chris Matthews, Dec. 1.

Did then-Gov. Howard Dean's administration approve a $180 million sweetheart deal to the boys at Entergy, at the same time utility executives were pumping campaign contributions into his then-fledgling campaign for president?

And did that deal wrongfully stick Vermont taxpayers with high electricity rates for ten years?

They are questions Dean may find himself having to answer on the campaign trail, as he repeatedly invokes the Enron scandals in an effort to link the Bush Administration to "Ken Lay and the boys at Enron."

The Dean Administration's Public Service Board last year gave thumbs up to the sale of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant to Entergy Corp. Conservationists opposed the deal, and the board rejected a rival energy company's bid to buy the plant a year earlier.

What was different about Entergy's bid to buy the plant that hadn't already been rejected by the Dean Administration? Not much, says Vermont's Conservation Law Foundation - except critical campaign contributions to Dean's presidential campaign at the time the deal was under review.


Vermont utility executives got complete access to the Dean Administration's Public Service Department to pressure a deal on Vermont Yankee that will give the utilities some $25 million for their corporate coffers, and lock ratepayers into high-priced energy costs for the next ten years. This sweetheart deal was struck just after certain utility officials made political contributions to the Governor's presidential bid. Meanwhile, environmental groups didn't get the time of day.

And as usual, ratepayers get stiffed. For years to come, Vermont ratepayers will be forced to pay above-market power costs - more than $100 million -- to Entergy to buy back Vermont Yankee power, while power prices drop everywhere else in New England.


How did the AP put it?

MONTPELIER — When Gov. Howard Dean wanted to raise money for a possible presidential bid, he followed the example of a former governor of Texas and called on his friends in the energy industry.

Nearly a fifth of the roughly $111,000 collected in its first months by Dean’s presidential political action committee, the Fund for a Healthy America, came from people with ties to Vermont’s electric utilities, according to a recent Federal Elections Commission filing.

It should be no surprise. Dean and utility executives have had a long and friendly relationship.


Early contributions to Dean's Fund For A Healthy America included $1,000 from a top executive of Green Mountain Power, one of the power companies involved in the Vermont Yankee negotiations, and $5,000 from an executive of the company that operated Vermont Yankee.



One-fifth of $111,000 isn't much, compared to Dean's more than $25 million raised through the end of the third quarter. However, the period involved was critical for Dean: Early 2002 was well before Dean's Internet fundraising operation was open for business. It represented critical seed money for Dean's presidential effort at the time his campaign was in its larval stage.

And about Vermont rate payers...

The Dean Administration said the Vermont Yankee deal would cut power costs. But the Conservation Law Foundation ran the numbers, and said it just wasn't so:

Well, GMP's own power forecasts indicate that future costs over the life of the Vermont Yankee deal will be in the 2.8 cents to 3.2 cents range (per kilowatt hour). Meanwhile, the utilities would have us buy back Vermont Yankee power from Entergy in the range of 4 to 5 cents through 2005, at least 30-40% more than market power, and at a 15% premium above market prices starting in 2006.

That means that Vermonters will shell out hundreds of millions of dollars in excess power costs to Entergy. In fact, the utilities' recent forecast numbers are so low that it's probably cheaper to close the plant today rather than to force Vermonters to continue to subsidize nuclear power.


If reporters and critics begin to throw questions to Dean regarding his role in the Vermont Yankee sale, ironically, he may need to turn to his gubernatorial papers to show everything was on the up-and-up. Right now, he's defending his move to conceal those records from public view for ten years and taking heat on that front.

[punpirate]

31. I'm a bit confused...

... how did we get from the DLC and Koch Industries to Dean and Entergy (btw, the only connection between Entergy and Koch Industries is that they've become trading partners in energy credits--otherwise, they're quite separate)?

Cheers.

[blm]

21. Actually, I believe the Koch Bros. duped Dean into a deal

and set him up during the negotiations for Vermont Yankee. If he had been the nominee they would have produced some papers or memos that were designed to make Dean appear complicit or guilty.

That's what they do. In Conason's book, he covers how within a month of Poppy taking office in Jan 89, Atwater and his operatives made a determination of who planned to run against him in 92 and try to pre-empt them by entangling them in some sort of personal or financial mess.

[in_cog_ni_to]

8. Right. and I would love to hear what ED SCHULTZ thinks of this!

He was ragging on the protesters that were at that convention. If this isn't proof that they're in bed with big corporations and the repuke party, I don't know what is. Hillary will not get any support from me. EVER. I just HOPE she isn't our nominee. :(

[gulfcoastliberal]

14. I've posted this often, but check who Hillary's biggest contributors are:

2006 Top Contributors:

1 Citigroup Inc $103,700
2 Metropolitan Life $85,000
3 International Profit Assoc $80,000
4 Corning Inc $62,750
5 Cablevision Systems $53,500
6 Goldman Sachs $53,000
7 E*TRADE Financial Group $49,600
8 Monster Worldwide $36,500
9 Aetna Inc $35,000
10 Time Warner $34,350
http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.asp?CID=N00000019&cycle=2006

2004 Top Contributors:

1 Citigroup Inc $190,150
2 Goldman Sachs $137,170
3 Kushner Companies $119,000
4 Cablevision Systems $104,450
5 International Profit Assoc $86,000
6 Metropolitan Life Insurance $85,500
7 Walt Disney Co $84,850
8 Corning Inc $83,750
9 Time Warner $80,100
10 Skadden, Arps et al $71,600
http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.asp?CID=N00000019&cycle=2004

I wonder whose interests she really represents?

[Al-CIAda]

15. Citigroup=Saudis

[Al-CIAda]

17. Ed Shultz is an out to lunch boob. n/t

[tomg]

7. Now this is a democratic platform

that is a real platform. As I was reading the freepress article, I came across this list from the Progressive Ohio Backbone Campaign:

Verifiable clean elections, Instant Runoff Voting, an end to corporate personhood, democratize public airwaves, universal healthcare, support reproductive rights, fair labor practices here and abroad, fair trade – not free trade, protect the Earth's ecosystems, support and expand the Kyoto Treaty, aim for energy independence by investing in renewables, strengthen Affirmative Action, full and equal funding of public schools, civil unions for all, embrace diversity, decriminalize poverty, fairness in lending and housing for all, universal access to Head Start and college, provide living wage and social safety net, debt-relief, stop arming dictators, take the profit out of war, end the weapons trade, honor treaties, uphold the Geneva Conventions, take the profit out of prisons, end mandatory sentencing, end the drug war, investigate reparations for slavery and discuss racism, and uphold human rights everywhere.

Thanks for the link and screw the DLC.

[in_cog_ni_to]

9. You don't want to miss this one.

:kick:

[Lannes]

10. To paraphrase the Godfather 2

"DLC,we are part of the same hypocrisy, but never think it applies to progressives."

Im not particularly fond of the DLC but the notion that progressive candidates dont take any money from corporations or the only ones they receive funds from are "true blue" is nonsense.

Tell me all of those corporations have been good corporate citizens.

Corporations,PACS,special interest groups,donate to candidates indirectly through the party and certain Democratic committees and some of that money winds up going to candidates,some more than others.If you dont believe me take a look for yourself.Look who gave to the party and who took money from the party.

I would love to ban all corporate contributions.We would have to find a way to make up for the shortfall but I believe it can be done.

http://www.politicalmoneyline.com/cgi-win/x_pacdonations.exe?DoFn=&CmteID=C00000935&sYR=04&DW=0

Energy industry contributions:

http://www.ewg.org/oil_and_gas/part11.php

Top corporate contributors

http://www.capitaleye.org/DemConventionDualDonors.7.23.04.asp

[Pithy Cherub]

11. The DLC plutocracy is determined to cling to the Dark Ages.

Consolidated (copiously congealed)corporate power underwrites DLC elected people who stand and give speeches about values and being on the side of the people. Hypocrisy is afoot! :eyes:

[OhNoTheyDidNot]

13. kick

[faithnotgreed]

16. i want to know why - and how - political conferences

need (corporate) sponsors
this is one of the 2 major political parties and they are literally selling themselves out in public
we clearly already knew this but its usually behind the scenes with lobbyists
this is right out there

on edit: i understand the difference between the dlc and the democratic party but the dlc has members serving in the govt
its not some exploratory committee or ex govt members
these are people actively legislating so how do they separate all this out

how does howard dean pay for the pda conferences for example
a sincere question because i would like to know how this guy does it
i imagine its a much better example so i dont know why the dlc has to sell themselves

like zidzi says
they just want to accumulate wealth
sadly they surely arent alone

[Name removed]

19. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[mtnester]

22. Sheesh, couldn't they have gone to buyblue.org

and contacted SOMEONE from the blue list for gawds sake?

Telling, ain't it?

[in_cog_ni_to]

23. One would think they could have found BLUE companies to sponsor

the event, eh? But who am I? What do I know? :eyes:

[Tinoire]

25. OOOmp! There it is! But where are all the DLC apologists?

Hiding? Under what rocks?

They know damn well the DLC is rotten to the core despite their ridiculous asserions in the absence of proof... so of course when evidence like this is presented, they disappear and pretend they heard nothing, saw nothing.

Screw it. Screw the DLC and the people who support it.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

26. give it one more vote for the greatest and maybe they'll see it

[MamaBear]

27. No problem.

Now it has three; now they'll see it.

[Tinoire]

28. Done!

:evilgrin:

[ulysses]

30. they've seen it.

They can't claim ignorance or deny it later if they post now, though.

[progressivebydesign]

32. If you all think Democrats can win without corporate money..

.. then you're smoking very good weed. I have no qualms against accepting corporate money, only because we're getting our ass handed to us regularly because the repubs are funded to the teeth. Hey, I welcome corporate support.

[progressivebydesign]

33. posted twice for some odd reason. I meant it twice.

Oh.. and I have no clue about DLC DNC or any of that. I think this little pissing contest about who's the better Democrat is why we don't win elections. The republicans blow, but at least they have some unity when it counts.

[bloom]

34. You might want to get a clue about the DLC

before you support them.

Maybe you agree with them... :shrug:

Are you pro-the Iraq War? Do you want to expand the military?

Do you think that people who are anti-War and anti-Torture are anti-American.

If you do - you can choose between the DLC and the Republicans. Because that is what they both think.