Change?

[Annie]

Not so much... and they are trying to spin the best the NYT can:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/15/u...artner=permalink&exprod=permalink&oref=slogin

November 15, 2008
In Transition, Ties to Lobbying

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Correction Appended

WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama has imposed stricter conflict-of-interest restrictions on his White House transition team than any president before him. But a list of transition team members that his office made public on Friday includes a complicated tangle of ties to private influence-seekers.

Among the full roster of about 150 staff members being assigned to government agencies between now and Inauguration Day are dozens of former lobbyists and some who were registered as recently as this year. Many more are executives and partners at firms that pay lobbyists, and former government officials who work as consultants or advisers to those seeking influence....

Seems the WaPo got to it too. Much more of this and it might seem they are actually reporting news...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/14/AR2008111403922_pf.html

Ex-Lobbyists Have Key Obama Roles
Some Members of Team Shaping New Administration Had Recent K Street Ties
By Matthew Mosk
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 15, 2008; A03

Barack Obama campaigned on a pledge to change Washington, vowing to upend the K Street lobbying culture he encountered when he joined the U.S. Senate.

But more than a dozen members of President-elect Obama's fast-growing transition team have worked as federally registered lobbyists within the past four years. They include former lobbyists for the nation's trial lawyers association, mortgage giant Fannie Mae, drug companies such as Amgen, high-tech firms such as Microsoft, labor unions and the liberal advocacy group Center for American Progress.

Mark Gitenstein, one of the 12 transition board members who will play a significant role in shaping the Obama administration, worked on million-dollar lobbying contracts with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and promoted legislation for giant defense contractors Boeing and General Dynamics. Until this fall, he was registered to petition Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission on behalf of AT&T, Merrill Lynch, KPMG, Ernst & Young and others.

Gitenstein has blue-chip credentials for the volunteer role on the Obama team. He was chief Democratic counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee during confirmation hearings for controversial Supreme Court nominee Robert H. Bork; was a close adviser to Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s White House bid; and served as counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee.

But his presence is also a reminder that Obama's campaign pledge to keep his distance from the Washington lobbying culture may be tougher to fulfill than he anticipated.

"Nothing is going to change," said Lanny Davis, a former special counsel to President Bill Clinton who did lobbying work for a range of companies after leaving the White House.

"From George Washington to George W. Bush, there has been a role for the lobbyist that is perfectly appropriate and good for democracy. The notion that there is something wrong per se with lobbying is ridiculous. But I favor more transparency and disclosure -- online, in real time, for all lobbyists."

The number of former lobbyists involved in Obama's transition thus far is small compared with the past two transition teams, but they occupy several key positions. They include Biden's incoming chief of staff, Ron Klain, who was signed up to lobby for Fannie Mae until 2005, and transition co-chair John Podesta, who lobbied for the Center for American Progress until 2006.

After serving as a top aide to Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, Klain represented a company facing asbestos-exposure lawsuits, the embattled drugmaker ImClone and two companies trying to win support for large mergers. His completed his last lobbying assignment, helping Fannie Mae with "regulatory issues," in late 2004.

Obama's formal policy during the campaign indicated that there may be some role for lobbyists in his administration, though his rhetoric did not always convey that. In a 2007 speech, he said he was "running to tell the lobbyists in Washington that their days of setting the agenda are over. They have not funded my campaign. They won't work in my White House."

A few days later, he changed the phrasing to say that lobbyists "are not going to dominate my White House."...

 

[DiveCon]

lol
gonna be a fun 2 years till the next election

 

[Annie]

lol
gonna be a fun 2 years till the next election

How much? Well economically we have his 'malaise speech' to the world, from the office of the President Elect:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd8f9Zqap6U]YouTube - Your Weekly Address from the President-Elect[/ame]


Then I came across this! More 'CHANGE!' regarding Gitmo:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/15/washington/15gitmo.html?_r=1&ref=washington&oref=slogin

NEWS ANALYSIS
Post-Guantánamo: A New Detention Law?

By WILLIAM GLABERSON
As a presidential candidate, Senator Barack Obama sketched the broad outlines of a plan to close the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba: try detainees in American courts and reject the Bush administration’s military commission system.

Now, as Mr. Obama moves closer to assuming responsibility for Guantánamo, his pledge to close the detention center is bringing to the fore thorny questions under consideration by his advisers. They include where Guantánamo’s detainees could be held in this country, how many might be sent home and a matter that people with ties to the Obama transition team say is worrying them most: What if some detainees are acquitted or cannot be prosecuted at all?

That concern is at the center of a debate among national security, human rights and legal experts that has intensified since the election. Even some liberals are arguing that to deal realistically with terrorism, the new administration should seek Congressional authority for preventive detention of terrorism suspects deemed too dangerous to release even if they cannot be successfully prosecuted.

“You can’t be a purist and say there’s never any circumstance in which a democratic society can preventively detain someone,” said one civil liberties lawyer, David D. Cole, a Georgetown law professor who has been a critic of the Bush administration....

 

[DiveCon]

How much? Well economically we have his 'malaise speech' to the world, from the office of the President Elect:

YouTube - Your Weekly Address from the President-Elect


Then I came across this! More 'CHANGE!' regarding Gitmo:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/15/washington/15gitmo.html?_r=1&ref=washington&oref=slogin

CHANGE!!!!!!!!!!


seems the main thing that will change is Obamas positions on all these things

 

[editec]

WONKS either work as lobbyists or they work for the government.

When their allies are out of power, they're lobbyists.

When in power, they're working in the government.

It's a cozy arrangement that I do not expect to see change anytime soon.

 

[WillowTree]

promises promises,,

 

[RoadVirus]

Not so much... and they are trying to spin the best the NYT can:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/15/u...artner=permalink&exprod=permalink&oref=slogin



Seems the WaPo got to it too. Much more of this and it might seem they are actually reporting news...

Some Former Lobbyists Have Key Roles in Obama Transition

Typical politician...and a Chicago one to boot.

 

[rayboyusmc]

I wonder if any other president was condemed so much before he even became frigging president?

 

[Annie]

I wonder if any other president was condemed so much before he even became frigging president?

When was there another that started scheduled weekly addresses before becoming the frigging president?

 

[Silence]

When was there another that started scheduled weekly addresses before becoming the frigging president?

when was the last Presiday who won 53% and almost 8 million votes?

Obama has approximately 66 million of people who WANT to hear what he has to say, and would gladly forgo the period between 11/5/08 and 1/20/09 and have him sworn in NOW as President.

 

[matty]

CHANGE!!!!!!!!!!


seems the main thing that will change is Obamas positions on all these things

 

[BlackAsCoal]

How much? Well economically we have his 'malaise speech' to the world, from the office of the President Elect:

YouTube - Your Weekly Address from the President-Elect


Then I came across this! More 'CHANGE!' regarding Gitmo:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/15/washington/15gitmo.html?_r=1&ref=washington&oref=slogin

What does "too dangerous to release even though they can't be successfully prosecuted" mean?

Does that mean that anyone we suspect of terrorism has no right to a trial, no right to be released if they can't be proven to be what is claimed?

 

[matty]

I wonder if any other president was condemed so much before he even became frigging president?

Saw you coming way back.

You don't help him, why do people always pretend to be helping the cause of erradicating racism by stirring up wishful/imagined hate?

Everyone's lambasted in this position, play dumb somewhere else, manipulative shit like this proves you're smarter than not to know better.

So getting the seat still wasn't enough to make some people drop the hate stick, we know, but move it along, sunny.

 

[BlackAsCoal]

Not so much... and they are trying to spin the best the NYT can:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/15/u...artner=permalink&exprod=permalink&oref=slogin



Seems the WaPo got to it too. Much more of this and it might seem they are actually reporting news...

Some Former Lobbyists Have Key Roles in Obama Transition

The sweet melodic sound of "change" was so pleasing to the ear that few paid attention to what was actually being said. He said "what he had to say to get elected."

Now faced with the realities of being president, change has been thrown out the window and Obama surrounds himself with the same old people and policies that led America to need actual change.

 

[editec]

What does "too dangerous to release even though they can't be successfully prosecuted" mean?

Does that mean that anyone we suspect of terrorism has no right to a trial, no right to be released if they can't be proven to be what is claimed?

That's exactly what it means.

have you heard about how they've changed the meaning of the charge terrorist to include people who are NOT in any way involved with any organization, BAC?

They've created a new class of terrorist they're calling the lone wolf terrorist to insure that they can, if they feel the need, charge individuals who have NO ties to any organization...just in case.

Now in pre revolution France the imprisonment of people like that was done by lettres de cachet, but now all we need is the PATRIOT ACT to imprison any citizen that thegovernment decides might potentially pose a threat.

Can you say goodbye 4th and 5th amendments?

 

[Annie]

The sweet melodic sound of "change" was so pleasing to the ear that few paid attention to what was actually being said. He said "what he had to say to get elected."

Now faced with the realities of being president, change has been thrown out the window and Obama surrounds himself with the same old people and policies that led America to need actual change.

Well to a degree one must blame the media, then again it wasn't like they weren't warned. Of course they gobbled up Huffington Post and Daily Kos along with a few others. But read anything that might be a 'warning'? Nah, that might be depressing.

Well as I've repeatedly said, we'll see what changes he brings.

 

[WillowTree]

Well to a degree one must blame the media, then again it wasn't like they weren't warned. Of course they gobbled up Huffington Post and Daily Kos along with a few others. But read anything that might be a 'warning'? Nah, that might be depressing.

Well as I've repeatedly said, we'll see what changes he brings.

obamalama is in a bad spot, he wants to "rule" from the center, but MoveOn and KOS want far left, he got a funny funny walk to walk.. Now I wonder what he and JOhn McCain will talk about today? I'm still splitting my sides with the official "seal of the office of the President-Elect"

 

[glockmail]

....

Then I came across this! More 'CHANGE!' regarding Gitmo:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/15/washington/15gitmo.html?_r=1&ref=washington&oref=slogin

Maybe there's room in San Fransicko.

 

[Red Dawn]

obamalama is in a bad spot, he wants to "rule" from the center....snip"

So, you lied about Obama supposedly being a radical marxist/communist/socialist.

Thanks, finally, for the honesty.

 

[PubliusInfinitum]

WONKS either work as lobbyists or they work for the government.

When their allies are out of power, they're lobbyists.

When in power, they're working in the government.

It's a cozy arrangement that I do not expect to see change anytime soon.

ROFLMNAO... OH GOD! Now THAT'S precious...

Someone should go back in this turds posts and find her position on the Cheney meetings with the energy 'lobbyists'... or any of the Halliburton lobbyists or any of the thousands of other 'hell and damnation' rejections she was certain to have been standing upon where "BushCo" was said to be harboring with that most dispicable of all human life: CORPORATE LOBBYISTS!

Now, as predicted, 'everything's cool' and "Lobbyists are People too..."

LOL... Moderates...