Rick Perry Backs AT&T Merger Plan With T-Mobile, Pay-Off? $500,000
Over the past decade, AT&T’s political action committee has given Perry more than $500,000, according to the Texas Ethics Commission’s records. Those contributions already have Democrats on the offensive.
“This is just one more example of Rick Perry’s pay-to-play network that represents the same old type of lobbyist-first politics. He might try to pretend to be some outsider, but as his record continues to come to light, the American people will see right through his facade,” said Ty Matsdorf, spokesman for American Bridge 21st Century, a Democratic opposition research organization.
After Taking Nearly $100K From Private Prison Industry, Rick Perry Pushed Prison Health Privatization
- GOP Congressmen Put Constituents Who Asked Tough Questions On A ‘Watch List’ | ThinkProgress
- People that challenged the reasons why some Congressmen voted the way they did were investigated, Black and white photos were posted on flyers with information that was found to make their loyalty questioned. During new meetings with their constituents, these flyers were handed out, campaign workers walked around taking photos of those present, and the atmosphere was a little intimidating.
- Wall Street Donated Heavily To Boehner As The GOP Blocked Funding For Dodd-Frank | ThinkProgress
As Bloomberg News reported, “three of the five biggest sources of Boehner’s campaign cash this year are employees of three Wall Street investment houses, a shift from the 2010 election cycle when such contributors weren’t ranked among his top 10 donors”: Employees at the New York hedge fund Paulson & Co. contributed $61,050 to Boehner’s campaign account, more than any other company. New York-based Moore Capital Management LLP employees gave $53,000, while those at Cantor Fitzgerald LP donated $45,000.
No one from any of those companies donated to Boehner for his 2010 re-election campaign, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.Wall Street has been spending almost as much to influence the implementation of Dodd-Frank as it spent trying to block the law. The Center for Public Integrity has found that “the Street and other financial institutions engaged about 3,000 lobbyists to fight Dodd-Frank – more than five lobbyists for every member of Congress – and have hired almost the same number to delay, weaken, or otherwise prevent its implementation.”
And part of Wall Street’s strategy seems to be keeping the speaker’s campaign coffers stuffed. Boehner’s office last week called Dodd-Frank one of the factors “holding back our economy.”
- Just One Week Into His Campaign, Rick Perry Disavows His Nine-Month-Old Book | ThinkProgress
The book, Mr. Sullivan said, “is a look back, not a path forward.” It was written “as a review and critique of 50 years of federal excesses, not in any way as a 2012 campaign blueprint or manifesto,” Mr. Sullivan said. The campaign’s disavowal of “Fed Up!” is itself very new. On Sunday evening, at Mr. Perry’s first campaign stop in Iowa, a questioner asked the governor to talk about how he would fix the country’s rickety entitlement programs. Mr. Perry shot back: “Have you read my book, ‘Fed Up!’ Get a copy and read it.”
- Questions about Mitt Romney and Donations to his Campaign. Companies seem to pop up donate a Million Dollars then Disappear and no one at their addresses has ever heard of the companies.??? Hmmm?
- Firm gives $1 million to pro-Romney group, dissolves - politics - Decision 2012 - msnbc.com "A mystery company that pumped $1 million into a political committee backing Mitt Romney has been dissolved just months after it was formed, leaving few clues as to who was behind one of the biggest contributions yet of the 2012 presidential campaign."
- Read full story and watch a video from Fox News. "It turns out that two other companies have done something very similar for Mitt, yet it appears only one station has reported it, and that is a local Fox affiliate of all places. A political committee tied to Mitt Romney received two separate $1 million donations from companies located in Provo, but the companies don't appear to do any substantial business. The giant sums of money is surprising enough, but Eli Publishing and F8 LLC don't seem to do any business. They incorporated with the state, but they have no presence on the internet and when Fox 13 went to their address, we found only an accounting firm whose employees weren't aware of the companies' activities."
Eric Cantor proposed a series of spending cuts, one of them aimed squarely at college students. The House majority leader, who did most of the talking for the Republican side, said those taking out student loans should start paying interest right away, rather than being able to defer payments until after graduation. It is a big-ticket item that would save $40 billion over 10 years. By Zaid Jilani on Jul 12, 2011; http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/07/12/266192/cantor-taxes-students-pay/
"South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) promised to drive residents whose right to vote will be jeopordized by her new voter ID law to the DMV to help them obtain a photo license. “Find the people who say this is invading their rights and I will go take them to the DMV myself and help them,” Haley said in a local TV interview. With 178,000 residents lacking proper IDs, ThinkProgress estimated it would take Haley over seven years to drive all those people to DMV, even if they carpooled. By Alex Seitz-Wald on Jul 29, 2011; http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/07/29/283456/nikki-haley-wont-drive-vet/
GOP Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO) is suffering serious blowback after he equated working with President Obama with “touching a tar baby.”
