A new DNC ad about McCain’s ties to gambling lobbyists. Americablog has much more about this here.

I posted a video of Pfotenhauer getting tore up on CNN here. I’m sure you’ve seen her on the talking head shows if you’ve been paying attention. I’ve been wondering about this woman since I saw her that day. Maybe because I think she looks like a creature from Star Trek. Maybe because I always wonder who McCain surrounds himself with. Reader Wyatt (thank you so much Wyatt) sent me an email with all kinds of links and information on a myriad of things, and included in that email was some information about Pfotenhauer and her background. Anyone who believes that a guy who surrounds himself with the likes of Phil Gramm and Pfotenhauer is a reformer ……..well, I gotta bridge to sell you.

Here’s some info on Pfotenhauer and why Drill Baby Drill sounds real good to her:

Nancy Pfotenhauer: McCain’s Dirty Energy Spokesperson

More on Pfotenhauer and Koch here and her associations here.

Her husband Kurt: As the chief lobbyist for the MBA, Pfotenhauer oversees policy
formation and implementation of legislative and regulatory advocacy on
Capitol Hill in addition to managing the association’s relationships
with industry allies, consumer groups, the GSE’s and policymakers. He
was named one of the top association lobbyists by The Hill magazine
for the last two consecutive years, specifically credited with
building a high quality team of professional lobbyists at MBA.

Yah, that John McCain, he’s gonna clean it up baby! Rigggghhhtttt!

McCain’s VP pick really was purely to garner votes from the far-right Christian extremists of the party. Nothing else about it makes any sense:

Palin’s small town secured big federal funds

As mayor, VP pick obtained millions in funds, a tactic McCain has criticized

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin employed a lobbying firm to secure almost $27 million in federal earmarks for a town of 6,700 residents while she was its mayor, according to an analysis by an independent government watchdog group. [...]

In introducing Palin as his running mate on Friday, Sen. John McCain cast her as a compatriot in his battle against wasteful federal spending. McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, hailed Palin as a politician “with an outstanding reputation for standing up to special interests and entrenched bureaucracies — someone who has fought against corruption and the failed policies of the past, someone who’s stopped government from wasting taxpayers’ money.”

From the Miami Herald:

The Beijing Olympics were the most-watched event in television history, and it seems Denver’s police must have been some of the most avid viewers — they’ve clearly picked up some law-enforcement tips from the Chinese. The cops arrested ABC producer Asa Eslocker Wednesday for the crime of taking pictures of big-ticket Democratic Party donors.

Eslocker’s camera crew was on a sidewalk outside Denver’s Brown Palace Hotel, shooting video for a series of reports on the role of corporate lobbyists and wealthy donors at the convention to air on ABC World News. The hotel told Eslocker to beat it; when he didn’t, the cops handcuffed and hauled him off to the slam where he was charged with trespass, interference, and failure to follow a lawful order — taking pictures of rich plutocrats evidently being against the law in Denver. Hey, you think Katie Couric had him busted?

Glenn Greenwald and others TRIED to cover the party……..

Last night in Denver, at the Mile High Station — next to Invesco Stadium, where Barack Obama will address a crowd of 30,000 people on Thursday night — AT&T threw a lavish, private party for Blue Dog House Democrats, virtually all of whom blindly support whatever legislation the telecom industry demands and who also, specifically, led the way this July in immunizing AT&T and other telecoms from the consequences for their illegal participation in the Bush administration’s warrantless spying program. Matt Stoller has one of the listings for the party here.

Armed with full-scale Convention press credentials issued by the DNC, I went — along with Firedoglake’s Jane Hamsher, John Amato, Stoller and others — in order to cover the event, interview the attendees, and videotape the festivities. There was a wall of private security deployed around the building, and after asking where the press entrance was, we were told by the security officials, after they consulted with event organizers, that the press was barred from the event, and that only those with invitations could enter — notwithstanding the fact that what was taking place in side was a meeting between one of the nation’s largest corporations and the numerous members of the most influential elected faction in Congress. As a result, we stood in front of the entrance and began videotaping and trying to interview the parade of Blue Dog Representatives, AT&T executives, assorted lobbyists and delegates who pulled up in rented limousines, chauffeured cars, and SUVs in order to find out who was attending and why AT&T would be throwing such a lavish party for the Blue Dog members of Congress.

Continue reading at Salon.com

Washington is just a hot-bed of crime and corruption… and they rub it in our faces every chance they get, for they know we’re powerless to do anything about it.

Fannie, Freddie spent $200M to buy influence

If you want to know how Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have survived scandal and crisis, consider this: Over the past decade, they have spent nearly $200 million on lobbying and campaign contributions. [...]

The two government-chartered companies run a highly sophisticated lobbying operation, with deep-pocketed lobbyists in Washington and scores of local Fannie- and Freddie-sponsored homeowner groups ready to pressure lawmakers back home.

They’ve stacked their payrolls with top Washington power brokers of all political stripes, including Republican John McCain’s presidential campaign manager, Rick Davis; Democrat Barack Obama’s original vice presidential vetter, Jim Johnson; and scores of others now working for the two rivals for the White House.

The Center for Public Integrity has a new report on Washington’s largest lobby, the pharmaceutical industry. Do you think the lobbyists would target the majority if it didn’t do any good? Let’s face it, they are bought and paid for, no matter who they are. Democrats, Republicans……. they’re all bought and paid for. From the report:

Full report here

Yes, we’ll stand by you and attack Iran…….not to worry. From MSNBC:

In his remarks to AIPAC this morning, McCain will also say this: “The people of Israel reserve a special respect for courage, because so much courage has been required of them. In the record of history, sheer survival in the face of Israel’s many trials would have been impressive enough. But Israel has achieved much more than that these past sixty years. Israel has endured, and thrived, and her people have built a nation that is an inspiration to free nations everywhere.”

“Yet no matter how successful the nation of Israel, or how far removed from the Holocaust, there are experiences that will never pass from memory. Not long ago I was in Jerusalem with Senator Lieberman and our colleague Lindsey Graham, and we went to the Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem. And for all the boundless examples of cruelty and inhumanity to be found there, for all the pain and grief remembered there, somehow I was especially moved by the story of the camp survivors who died from the very nourishment given to them by their liberators. They had starved and suffered so much that their bodies were too weak even for food. They endured it all, only to die at the moment of their deliverance.”

“These are the kind of experiences that the Jewish people carry in memory — and they are far from the worst experiences of the Holocaust. These are the kind of griefs and afflictions from which the State of Israel offered escape. And today, when we join in saying “never again,” that is not a wish, a request, or a plea to the enemies of Israel. It is a promise that the United States and Israel will honor, against any enemy who cares to test us.”

From TPM:

Before Rick Davis began serving as John McCain’s campaign manager, his lobbying firm had a pretty cosmopolitan set of clients.

For example, Ukranian billionaire Rinat Akhmetov, who has several business links to Iran.

To be sure, there’s a good crowd of lobbyists in Washington who work for international firms with ties to Iran.

But Davis isn’t just any lobbyist. He’s a lobbyist-turn-presidential campaign manager who just a couple weeks ago was drawing up rules on how to build a wall between lobbyists and McCain’s political operatives. And McCain has been more hawkish than most of his colleagues about confronting Iran.

And, interestingly, Davis’ lobbying shop, Davis Manafort, was doing work for the Ukranian oligarch about the same time that Davis was serving as the president of McCain’s Reform Institute.

Davis Manafort was helping Akhmetov’s conglomerate, System Capital Management Holdings, to develop a “corporate communications strategy” between the beginging of 2005 through the end of summer 2005, the company said.

The company’s subsidiary, Metinvest, a steel company, has one of its 11 offices in Tehran. And another subsidiary, Khartsyzsk Pipe Plant, sells large pipes to Iran.

Those business ties go back to at least 2005, when Davis Manafort was working for the company, according to a handful of stories in business publications like the Russia & CIS Metals and Mining Weekly and the Mining and the Metals report, which we found on Nexis.

A McCain aide told us Davis did not work on that account while he was heading up the firm. And he was unaware of the company’s ties to Iran.

Oh, please! Big John is as crooked as a… well… I usually say “republican” here. Like we’re supposed to believe that he doesn’t surround himself with like-minded thieves.

Oh well. If he can fool a few dim-witted moderates, then more power to him.

Analysis: Flap conflicts with McCain’s image

WASHINGTON (AP) — John McCain’s campaign angst over his lobbyist ties is putting the Republican in conflict with his carefully honed reformer image. It’s also giving Democratic rival Barack Obama an opening to paint him as nothing more than a Washington creature.

“The fact is, John McCain’s campaign is being run by Washington lobbyists and paid for by their money,” Obama argued Monday in Billings, Mont. - far from the Beltway. “I’m not in this race to continue the special interest-driven politics of the last eight years. I’m in this race to end it.” [...]

He’s tried to straddle two worlds, being both a four-term senator known as a fighter of special interests and a candidate whose campaign has employed people with long lobbying records. The dual role is proving problematic.