90 Seconds of News

LAPD Job Ratings UP!
The strong endorsement of the LAPD cuts across racial and ethnic lines, according to a new Los Angeles Times Poll — with the percentages of ablack and Latino voters who say they approve of how the police do their jobs almost as high as the level among white voters. That result is particularly notable given the long history of tensions between the police and the city’s black and Latino communities

Chris Brown Hearing Today to be a Media Spectacle
The crowd expected at this afternoon’s preliminary hearing for R&B singer Chris Brown will be on a different order. Fifty-two media outlets have asked to attend the proceeding, far more than were on hand for Paris Hilton’s re-jailing, Britney Spears’ divorce, the DUI cases of Lindsay Lohan and Nicole Richie, or the murder trials of Robert Blake or Phil Spector.

Sandra Bullock Tops the Box Office with “The Proposal”
People are giving The Proposal a big “I Do.” The comedy featuring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds finished at No. 1 with 34.1 million dollars in its opening weekend. In other movie news, “The Hangover” and “Ice Age 3D” are great too!

WANTED: Healthcare Reform
Republicans and some Democrats oppose increasing the government’s role in healthcare — it already runs the Medicare and Medicaid systems for the elderly and indigent — fearing it would require vast public funds and reduce the quality of care. But the Times/CBS poll found 85 percent of respondents wanted major healthcare reforms and most would be willing to pay higher taxes to ensure everyone had health insurance. An estimated 46 million Americans currently have no coverage.

I have a newsflash for y’all….if we continue to have politicians at the beckon call of lobbyists and big business who funds their campaigns, we will never have a TRULY representative democracy. Our representatives forget about their constituents because we are not paying for their office runs. Campaign finance reform is the root of this issue, and the only way to solve MANY of our current problems is to force our representatives to actually do their job….REPRESENT US!

A Recap of Day One

Here is a list of some of the things Obizzle did on Day One.

1. Halting the military tribunal process at Guantánamo Bay. Good call. There are 245 people’s lives hanging in the balance that we’re going to have to make some tough decisions about, but it was a good start.

2. Calling Arab leaders to discuss the Mideast situation. Excellent. Nice way to make a stand on Day One. I have confidence that this Mideast situation is going to be resolved under the Obama Administration. Something tells me he’s going to make it a priority to calm the torrents. Fnially.

3. Freezing salaries for senior White House staffers. Way to show us how to tighten the belt, Barack! If you want to get something done, you need to model the behavior yourself. Seems to me, Barack understands that concept fully.

4. Implementing semi-strict guidelines to stop the K Street revolving door. Lobbying has become outrageous in Washington, DC and I guarantee you, most of it is not for your or my best interest. If you’ve been lobbying for oil companies anytime in the past two years, guess what? You’re not going to get a job in the Energy Department. Same goes for lobbyists in any other field. This makes perfect sense, and is a 100 percent turnaround from the Bush approach. To Bush (or was it Cheney?), if you’d spent the past 10 years lobbying to gut all the regulations governing a given industry, that made you the perfect candidate to run the regulatory agency assigned to that industry. The results were predictably disastrous. Nice way to start the day, Obama! The Block FM heralds this move!

5. Taking his jacket off in the Oval Office. Basically Barack Obama is making it very open and obvious that his White House is going to be as DISSIMILAR to the Bush White House as possible. Which I think we can all agree is a good thing! Even if it’s something as small as this…roll your sleeves up and get down and dirty in there Obama! There’s work to do!

Source

Sarah Palin Gets Gifts of Over $25,000 as Gov. of Alaska

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who has made a crackdown on gift-giving to state officials a centerpiece of her ethics reform agenda, has accepted gifts valued at $25,367 from industry executives, municipalities and a cultural center whose board includes officials from some of the largest mining interests in the state, a review of state records shows.

The 41 gifts Palin accepted during her 20 months as governor include honorific tributes, expensive artwork and free travel for a family member. They also include more than $2,500 in personal items from Calista, a large Alaska native corporation with a variety of pending state regulatory and budgetary issues, and a gold-nugget pin valued at $1,200 from the city of Nome, which lobbies on municipal, local and capital budget matters, documents show.

About a quarter of the entities bestowing gifts on the governor are represented by one of Alaska’s most influential mining lobbyists, who said in an interview that she was not involved in the tributes. The lobbyist, Wendy Chamberlain, has a relationship with the governor’s family through the friendship of their teenage daughters.

On forms disclosing the gifts, Palin, who is the Republican vice presidential nominee, routinely checked “no” when asked whether she was in a position to “take official action that may affect the person who gave me the gift,” and a spokeswoman for Sen. John McCain‘s presidential campaign said the gifts had no undue influence on her.

In response to e-mailed questions, Meghan Stapleton, who is based in Alaska for the McCain-Palin campaign, wrote: “Throughout her career Governor Palin has stood for the highest standards of ethics. She spearheaded new ethics reforms in Alaska and took on her own party and entrenched interests to return Alaska’s government to its people.”

Records show that 23 of the gifts were offered during Palin’s early months in office, when she was pushing the legislature to address a state corruption scandal by passing a package of ethics reforms. She accepted 18 gifts after the law passed in July 2007. Among other provisions, the law forbade executive branch officials from taking gifts from lobbyists or from interests with pending state business.

Gift rules for elected officials vary among states, with some such as Wisconsin banning all gifts and others with no applicable rules other than anti-bribery statutes. When former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee (R) ran for president this year, he faced questions about his acceptance of more than $150,000 in gifts during a decade in office.

The Alaska attorney general’s office contends that gifts to a governor must be evaluated on “a case-by-case basis,” Assistant Attorney General Judy Bockman said. Some are offered as “a courtesy,” she said, to newly elected officials and are not considered an ethical issue.

Palin has noted that passage of the tough ethics law was a proud accomplishment. She took office amid a widespread federal investigation of influence-peddling by Veco, a now-defunct oil pipeline services and construction company, that had led to indictments of prominent state legislators and eventually to charges against Ted Stevens, the state’s senior Republican senator, who is now on trial in Washington.

Palin forwarded her ethics proposals to the legislature in January 2007, her first month in office. That month, she accepted three gifts from Calista’s chief executive, Matthew Nicolai: a $2,200 ivory puffin mask, a woven grass fan worth $300 and a $150 ivory necklace. Nicolai, who did not return phone calls, runs the large corporation, which profits from a multibillion-dollar gold-mining operation on its land.

Palin, who holds significant sway over budgetary issues affecting cities, also accepted for “personal use” the gold-nugget pin from Nome. Mayor Denise Michels said the memento was meant to remind the governor that “Nome is a historic mining community.” Palin approved about $6 million in funding this year for a public safety building in the city. “Anything our state can do to help us in capital projects, we’re very grateful,” Michels said.

Palin has also reported as gifts two fact-finding trips that mining companies sponsored for her husband, Todd. The trips were among several sponsored by mining companies for state officials

Todd Palin accepted an $805 charter flight from Barrick Gold and a $200 flight from Red Dog Mines. Both companies are clients of Chamberlain, a top lobbyist with Legislative Consultants, which led the state in lobbying income last year.

Red Dog is the sole taxpayer to the Northwest Arctic Borough, an Alaskan jurisdiction represented by Chamberlain that received $10.9 million from the zinc mine in 2007. The borough gave Palin a whale baleen basket valued at $300.

Chamberlain, the ex-wife of an influential former state lawmaker, said in an interview that she was unaware of her clients giving gifts to the Palins.

Under the new ethics laws, Palin may not accept lobbyist gifts unless the lobbyist is a family member. The governor explains in detail in her disclosure how she reimbursed Chamberlain for a summer trip made by Palin’s 14-year-old daughter, Willow. Willow is friends with Chamberlain’s teenage daughter, Mackenzie. Chamberlain said Willow accompanied her and her daughter in the summer of 2007 to a basketball camp and then to Mexico.”This is not a gift,” reads a handwritten note on Palin’s disclosure form. “It is merely interaction with a parent who is registered as a lobbyist with the state of Alaska.”

Chamberlain said she kept trip receipts to ensure that the Palins could reimburse her. The lobbyist said she has been careful around Palin in government settings.

“Because our kids are together quite a bit, people made the assumption we are good buddies, but we aren’t,” she said. “I was a bit nervous of her, and I guess she was a bit nervous of me.”

It was an unspoken rule that lobbyists should not directly approach Palin, Chamberlain said. The lobbyist said she had access to the governor’s key staff members and she set up meetings for her clients. “I didn’t have business conversations with her, because she didn’t see lobbyists,” Chamberlain said. “She preferred to see clients without lobbyists present.”

Chamberlain also represents the Pebble Partnership, which has proposed a massive gold mine on Bristol Bay that has encountered opposition from conservationists. Palin has come under fire for speaking out against a statewide initiative, Proposition 4, that would have imposed costly environmental regulations on mining operations, particularly the Pebble Mine. A hearing by a state ethics watchdog agency has been scheduled for mid-November to see whether statutes prohibiting partisan activity apply to the governor’s statements on the initiative.

Mining interests did not play a major fundraising role in Palin’s gubernatorial campaign, but post-election donations to her inaugural committee came from four mining companies, including Northern Dynasty, the Pebble Mine co-developer. The money was spent on inaugural balls and on travel by the governor and her family for events. The amounts were not disclosed.

Palin also reported receiving $1,000 in gifts — an Aleut woven basket, a sea otter headband, a Tlingit rattle and an Athabascan chief necklace — at an inaugural reception thrown by the Alaska Native Heritage Center. Executives of several of Chamberlain’s clients serve on the center’s board and many were in attendance when the gifts were presented to the governor.

Lobbyists for McCain…177 To Be Exact

83 of them who work for the Financial Sector that McCain now is attacking. Hmmm, interesting.

Phil Anderson: American Council of Life Insurers, Aetna, AIG, New York Life, MassMutual, VISA
Rebecca Anderson: Aegon, American Council of Life Insurers, Cigna, Barclays, Credit Suisse First Boston, HSBC
Stanton Anderson: The Debt Exchange

David Beightol: Allstate, Amerigroup, Charles Schwab, HSBC

Rhonda Bentz: VISA

Wayne Berman: American Council of Life Insurers, AIG, Americhoice, Shinsei Bank, Blackstone, Carlyle Group, Broidy Capital Management, Credit Suisse Securities, Highstar Capital, VISA, Ameriquest Mortgage, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Fitch Ratings

Charlie Black: JP Morgan, Washington Mutual Bank, Freddie Mac, Mortgage Bankers Association of America, National Association of Mortgage Brokers

Judy Black: Colorado Credit Union League, Genworth Financial, Bay Harbour Management, Merrill Lynch

Kirk Blalock: Credit Union National Association, Financial Executives International, American Insurance Association, Mutual of Omaha, Zurich Financial Service Group, Fannie Mae, Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco

Carlos Bonilla: Financial Services Roundtable, Freddie Mac

Christine Burgeson: Citigroup

Mark Buse: Freddie Mac, Goldman Sachs, Manufacturers Life Insurance Company

Nicholas Calio: Citigroup, Managed Fund Association, Fannie Mae, Merrill Lynch, The Investment Company Institute, TIAA-CRE, Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association

Ben Nighthorse Campbell: Amscot Financial Corporation, Community Financial Services Association, Fidelity National Financial

Andrew Cantor: American Insurance Association, Merrill Lynch

Alberto Cardenas: Fannie Mae

James Courter: Goldman Sachs, Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette, Investment Company Institute, Merrill Lynch

David Crane: Financial Services Roundtable, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte & Touche, KPMG, Ernst & Young, Bank of America, Association of Corporate Credit Unions, Freddie Mac

Dan Crippen: Merrill Lynch, National Multi-Housing Council

Arthur Culvahouse: Fannie Mae

Bryan Cunningham: Arch Capital Group

Alfonse D’Amato: AIG, Freddie Mac

Doug Davenport: Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, Goldman Sachs, VISA

Ashley Davis: Prudential Financial, American Financial Group, American Premier Underwriters, Great American Insurance Company

Mimi Dawson: MassMutual

Melissa Edwards: Freddie Mac, National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts, Access to Capital Coalition

Chris Fidler: American Bankers Association, Milcom Venture Partners, National Association Real Estate Investment Trusts

Samuel Geduldig: American Bankers Association, American Institute of CPAs, America Gains, Berkshire Hathaway, Consumer Bankers Association, Ernst & Young, Financial Services Roundtable, Investment Company Institute, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Prudential Financial, Sovereign Investment Council, Fidelity Investments, FMR Corp.

Benjamin Ginsberg: Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance, AIG Technical Services

David Girard-Dicarlo: American Financial Group, American Premier Underwriters

Juleanna Glover Weiss: RJI Capital, American Institute of CPAs, BNP Paribas, Ernst & Young, PriceWaterhouseCoopers

Slade Gorton: Allstate Insurance, Hannan Armstrong Capital

Phil Gramm: UBS Americas

John Green: Laredo National Bank, Alternative Investment Management Association, AIG, Blackstone Group, Carlyle Group, Citigroup, Credit Suisse Group, Fannie Mae, Icahn Associates, FMR Corp., AFLAC, VISA

Janet Grissom: American Institute of CPAs, NYSE, Merrill Lynch

Kristen Gullott: San Diego Credit Union

Kent Hance: Stanford Financial Group, Municipal Capital Markets Group, Inc.

Vicki Hart: American Financial Services Association, Citigroup, Investment Company Institute, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, New York Stock Exchange, VISA, Carlyle Group, Credit Suisse, Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis, Goldman Sachs, National Association of Government Guaranteed Lenders, Stanford Group, Lloyd’s of London, National City Corp.

Richard Hohlt: Capmark Financial Group, Fannie Mae, JP Morgan Chase and Co., Student Loan Marketing Association, Washington Mutual, Guaranty Bank & Trust, Peachtree Settlement Funding, Dime Savings Bank of New York

Gaylord Hughey: Heartland Security Insurance Group

Kate Hull: Credit Union National Association, Fannie Mae, Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, Zurich Financial Services, American Insurance Association, Financial Executives International

James Hyland: American Insurance Association, Seattle Home Loan Bank, Self Help Credit Union, National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees, Merrill Lynch, Mortgage Investors Corp., Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis, Freddie Mac, New York Stock Exchange, Citigroup, VISA

Aleix Jarvis: Credit Union National Association, Fannie Mae, Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, Financial Executives International, Mutual of Omaha, American Insurance Association, Zurich Financial Services

Greg Jenner: American Council of Life Insurers, JG Wentworth, UBS, VISA, PriceWaterhouseCoopers

Frank Keating: American Council of Life Insurers

Steven Kuykendall: California Bankers Association

William Lesher: Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Commerce Ventures, Rabobank International

Thomas Loeffler: Citigroup, Fannie Mae, Investment Company Institute, World Savings and Loan Association, United Services Automobile Association (USAA)

Kelly Lugar: RJI Capital Strategies

Peter Madigan: Arthur Andersen, Bank of New York, Broadridge Securities Processing, Charles Schwab, Deloitte and Touche, Goldman Sachs, International Employee Stock Option Coalition, Mastercard, NYSE, Fannie Mae, Merrill Lynch, PNC Bank

Mary Mann: MassMutual

Paul Martino: Morgan Stanley, Baker Tilly

Jana McKeag: Venture Catalyst

Alison McSlarrow: Fannie Mae, Hartford

Mike Meece: Georgetown Partners

David Metzner: Ernst & Young, Harbinger Capital Investments, Prudential, Public Financial Management, Western Union

Susan Molinari: Freddie Mac, American Land Title Association, Association of Consumer Credit Unions, Beacon Capital Partners, College Loan Corp, Coventry First, E-Trade, Financial Services Roundtable, Rent-A-Center

John Moran: Cerberus Capital Management, American Council of Life Insurers, Accenture

John Napier: Freddie Mac

Susan Nelson: AIG, San Antonio Credit Union

Paul Otellini: Ernst & Young, Financial Services Forum

Steve Perry: Charles Schwab, Hoover Partners, HSBC, National Stock Exchange

Nancy Pfotenhauer: American Land Title Association, Mortgage Bankers Association

Elise Pickering-Finley: Credit Suisse, DE Shaw, Hartford Financial Services, Research In Motion, Retail Industry Lenders Association, URL Mutual

James Pitts: Advanced Association for Life Underwriting, AETNA, American Council of Life Insurers, AIG, Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers, Debt Advisory International, Financial Services Coordinating Council, GE Financial Assurance, Hartford Life, Jefferson Pilot Financial, Kenwood Investments, MassMutual, Mutual of Omaha, New York Life, UNUM Provident, VISA, PMI Group

Tim Powers: AP Capital, Genworth Financial, Retail Industry Lenders Association, E-LOAN, General Electric Mortgage Insurance

Walter Price: Wachovia

Sloan Rappoport: Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group, Inc. (FBR), Trafelet Delta Funds

Hans Rickhoff: Capital One, Investment Company Institute, United Services Automobile Association (USAA)

Kathleen Shanahan: New York Stock Exchange

Andrew Shore: Accenture, Retail Industry Lenders Association, Barclays, Bond Market Association, Credit Suisse, TPG Capital

Katie Stahl: Alliance for Investment Transparency, Ares Management, Fairfax Financial Holdings, Uhlmann Financial Group

Milly Stanges: TIAA-CREF

Aquiles Suarez: Fannie Mae

Don Sundquist: Freddie Mac, The Hartford

Peter Terpeluk: JP Morgan Chase, Ernst & Young, Prudential

Fred Thompson: Equitas

Jeri Thompson: American Insurance Association

John Timmons: National Association of Federal Credit Unions

William Timmons Sr.: American Council of Life Insurers, Citigroup, Dun & Bradstreet, Freddie Mac, Vanguard Group

Vin Weber: Agstar Financial Services, AKT Investment Corp., American Institute of CPAs, Ernst & Young, Freddie Mac, Louis Dreyfus Corp, PriceWaterhouseCoopers

Jeffery Weiss: JP Morgan

Tony Williams: Russell Investment Group, American Life Inc., Northwestern Mutual

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1.02.21

1.02.05

FINALLY! Someone Used McCain’s “My Friends” Quote Ingeniously!

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1.02.05

Guys and Gals…Yikes

“Guys and gals…our regulatory system needs a complete overhaul…” YOU’RE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT PALIN-ATOR! Too bad it’s all YOUR campaign’s workers, all the lobbyists, Wall Street insiders, and promoters that are behind the financial collapse! Too bad it’s YOUR party’s mismanagement of these regulatory agencies that has led to this crisis! It is YOUR campaign that still asserts that the “fundamentals of our economy are strong” while at the same time asserting that your administration will bring the “change we need” to Washington. Stop stealing Obama’s lines! We know they’re good, but get your own! Jeez. PS – On a really shallow note, what the hell is Palin wearing? It looks like the shadows that mini-blinds make for God’s sake.

Barack Obama said it best yesterday in Colorado…

John McCain Loves Telecommunications Lobbyists – I Bet He Gets Free Rollover Minutes!

People who work, advise or raise campaign money for Republican presidential candidate John McCain who have lobbied for telecommunications companies since 1999:
Rick Davis
Presidential campaign manager
As a lobbyist at his former firm, Davis Manafort, Davis represented BellSouth (2001-02), SBC Communications (2001-05) and Verizon Corporate Services (2001-05). Davis and other Davis Manafort employees and their spouses gave $36,150 to McCain’s campaigns in the past 10 years. BellSouth political action committees, employees and their spouses gave $78,050. SBC political action committees, employees and spouses gave $41,300. Verizon political action committees, employees and spouses gave $59,650

Christian Ferry
Deputy campaign manager
Ferry partnered with Davis in representing SBC and Verizon from 2003 to 2005

Charlie Black
Unpaid chief adviser
Black, chairman of lobbying firm BKSH && Associates, has represented AT&T for the past decade. Black and other BKSH employees gave $9,600 to McCain’s campaigns over the past decade. Employees, spouses and political action committees of AT&T and its subsidiaries and merger partners gave $251,850

Mark Buse
Senate chief of staff
Buse became a lobbyist for ML Strategies in 2002 after working for McCain on the Senate Commerce Committee staff. Buse represented AT&T Wireless from 2002 to 2005. Buse and his co-workers at ML Strategies gave $3,750 to McCain during the past decade. Employees, spouses and political action committees of AT&T Wireless gave $24,500

Former congressman Tom Loeffler of Texas
Campaign co-chairman
Loeffler, now a senior partner of the Loeffler Group, has represented AT&T since 2001 and Qualcomm since 1999. Loeffler, his co-workers and their spouses gave McCain’s campaigns $64,908 in the past decade. Qualcomm employees, spouses and political action committees gave $55,600

Susan Nelson
Campaign finance director
Before joining the campaign last year, Nelson represented AT&T and Qualcomm for the Loeffler Group in 2006 and 2007. She also represented Verizon in 2004 while working at Ogilvy Government Relations

Wayne Berman
Campaign national finance co-chairman
Berman, the managing director of Ogilvy Government Relations, has represented AT&T since last year, and Verizon and Verizon Wireless since 2004. Co-workers and their spouses at Ogilvy, formerly known as the Federalist Group, gave McCain’s campaigns $38,550 in the past decade

John Green
Plans to take a leave of absence next month from his job at Ogilvy to work for campaign, coordinating efforts with Republicans in Congress
Green has represented AT&T since last year and Verizon since 2004 and represented the United States Telecom Association (1999-2002), the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (2001) and BellSouth (1999-2006)

Tim McKone
Campaign fundraiser
McCone, a former lobbying partner with Davis, joined SBC Communications as a lobbyist in 1999 and became a vice president of AT&T after it merged with SBC in 2005. McCone was last listed as an AT&T lobbyist in 2006

David Crane
Fundraiser and former aide to McCain at the Senate Commerce Committee
Crane’s clients at the Washington Group included BellSouth (2003-05). Crane left the Washington Group to form his own lobbying firm, Quadripoint Strategies, in 2007. Crane and his co-workers and their spouses at the Washington Group and Quadripoint gave McCain’s campaigns $9,350 in the past decade

Carlos Bonilla
Campaign economic adviser
Bonilla is a lobbyist with the Washington Group, which represented BellSouth 2003-05. The Washington Group’s employees and their spouses gave $7,050 to McCain’s campaigns in the past decade

John Timmons
Fundraiser for McCain and former aide in his Senate office
Timmons, a lobbyist at Cormac Group, represented AT&T (1999-2005) and Allegiance Telecom (2002-04). Cormac Group employees and their spouses have given $13,600 to McCain’s campaigns in the past decade

Judy Black
Fundraiser
Black is a lobbyist at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, which has represented Global Crossing Ltd. since 2004 and represented AT&T from 2003 to 2005 and again in 2007. Employees and their spouses have given $17,950 to McCain’s campaigns in the past decade

Bryan Cunningham
Fundraiser
Cunningham, a lobbyist at Barbour Griffith && Rogers, has represented AT&T since 2007, Qwest Communications since 2006 and Verizon since 2006. Barbour Griffith employees and their spouses gave $24,700 to McCain’s campaigns since 1998. Quest employees, spouses and political action committees gave $53,350

Juleanna Glover Weiss
Fundraiser and former spokeswoman for Vice President Cheney
Glover Weiss is a lobbyist at the Ashcroft Group, where she registered to lobby for AT&T in 2006. Glover Weiss also represented AT&T from 2004 to 2005 while working at another lobbying firm, Clark && Weinstock. The Ashcroft Group’s employees and their spouses gave McCain’s 2008 campaign $4,600

Peter Madigan
Fundraiser
Madigan, a lobbyist at Johnson, Madigan, Peck, Boland &Stewart, represented BellSouth (2003-06), SBC Communications (2003 and 2004), the United States Telecom Association (2001 and 2002) and Verizon (2001-06). Madigan Peck employees and their spouses gave McCain’s campaigns $43,200 in the past decade

James Pitts
Fundraiser
Pitts, a lobbyist at DC Navigators, has represented Qualcomm since 2006 and AT&T since last year and represented BellSouth (2004-06). DC Navigators employees and their spouses gave McCain’s campaigns $12,100 in the past decade

Kirk Blalock
Fundraiser
Blalock, a lobbyist at Fierce Isakowitz && Blalock, has represented Sprint Nextel since 2003 and represented the former MCI from 2002 to 2005. Fierce Isakowitz employees and their spouses have given $14,800 to McCain’s campaigns in the past decade. Sprint employees, spouses and political action committees gave $11,750

Kirsten Chadwick
Fundraiser
Chadwick, a lobbyist at Fierce Isakowitz, represented MCI in 2004 and 2005 and has represented Sprint Nextel since 2004

Aleix Jarvis
Fundraiser
Jarvis, a lobbyist at Fierce Isakowitz, represented MCI in 2005 and has represented Sprint Nextel since 2005

Alison McSlarrow
Fundraiser
McSlarrow, who has her own lobbying firm, McSlarrow Consulting, represented Nextel Communications in 2003 and 2004 and Qwest in 1999 and 2000. McSlarrow and her husband gave $8,000 to McCain’s campaigns in the past decade

Michael Meece of The Meece Group
Fundariser
Meece has represented Qualcomm since 2006. Meece gave $2,300 to McCain’s 2008 campaign

Eric Burgeson
Fundraiser
Now a lobbyist with Barbour Griffith, Burgeson registered to lobby for the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association in 2001 with Orion Strategies

Hey Johnny, we know you love your cellphone, but jeeeeeeez

John McCain has Freddie Mac Head Lobbyists on His Campaign Staff

From Mother Jones…

John McCain railed against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on the campaign trail today, saying that the CEOs that led the lenders to ruin “deserve nothing” and should have to pay back their severance packages. In an Wall Street Journal op-ed co-bylined by his vice presidential pick, Sarah Palin, McCain suggested bold reforms for Fannie and Freddie that would “terminate future lobbying, which was one of the primary contributors to this great debacle.”

If that’s the case, McCain should look first to his campaign staffers as the cause of that debacle. One of them was Fannie Mae’s head of lobbying, and spread tens of millions of dollars around Washington in the form of lobbying contracts. A number of McCain staffers were on the receiving end of those contracts, collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars each from the lenders to rep their interests. And McCain’s campaign manager served as president of a lobbying association that fought to protect Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae from the sort of regulation that McCain is now proposing.

In McCain’s op-ed in the Journal, he and Palin wrote:

For years, Congress failed to act and it is deeply troubling that what we are seeing is an exercise in crisis management rather than sound planning, and at great cost to taxpayers.

We promise the American people that our administration will be different. We have long records of standing up to special interests…

But McCain’s own campaign staffers are those special interests, a fact that casts doubt on both McCain’s hiring judgment and his ability to pursue tough reforms of Fannie and Freddie.

Aquiles Suarez, listed as an economic adviser to the McCain campaign in a July 2007 McCain press release, was formerly the director of government and industry relations for Fannie Mae. The Senate Lobbying Database says Suarez oversaw the lending giant’s $47,510,000 lobbying campaign from 2003 to 2006.

And other current McCain campaign staffers were the lobbyists receiving shares of that money. According to the Senate Lobbying Database, the lobbying firm of Charlie Black, one of McCain’s top aides, made at least $820,000 working for Freddie Mac from 1999 to 2004. The McCain campaign’s vice-chair Wayne Berman and its congressional liaison John Green made $1.14 million working on behalf of Fannie Mae for lobbying firm Ogilvy Government Relations. Green made an additional $180,000 from Freddie Mac. Arther B. Culvahouse Jr., the VP vetter who helped John McCain select Sarah Palin, earned $80,000 from Fannie Mae in 2003 and 2004, while working for lobbying and law firm O’Melveny & Myers LLP. In addition, Politico reports that at least 20 McCain fundraisers have lobbied for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, pocketing at least $12.3 million over the last nine years.

For years McCain campaign manager Rick Davis was head of the Homeownership Alliance, a lobbying association that included Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, real estate agents, homebuilders, and non-profits. According to Politico, the organization opposed congressional attempts at regulation of Fannie and Freddie, along the lines of what John McCain is currently proposing. In his capacity of president of the group, Davis went on record in 2003 and insisted that no further reform of the lenders was necessary, in contradiction to his current boss’s sentiments. “[Fannie and Freddie] are subject to an innovative and stringent risk-based capital stress test,” Davis wrote. “The toughest in the financial services industry.”

At a campaign rally Wednesday morning in Fairfax, Virginia, John McCain said that the heads of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac ought to give back the millions of dollars they’ve earned. What about the lobbyists who helped Fannie and Freddie game the system? Maybe McCain can ask them — at the next campaign strategy meeting.

New Obama Ad – McCain a Maverick? WHOAH!

I heart Obama’s marketing team! But I would like to point out that I was actually the FIRST person in the WORLD to think of this idea, as is evidenced by The Block FM podcast of 8 Septebmer 2008 which can be found on our awesome website! I guess brilliant minds just think alike. Cassie for Obama Campaign Manager ’12! YAY! GObama!