Legal Newz of the day…

Tyco is going to cough up $73 million for their little faux paux regarding their insider trading and other securities violations..this probably comes at a bad time for them….HAHAHAHAHA!!!! Fuck em! They screwed plenty of pension funds over, like the state police, firefighters and school employee pension funds. Rat Bastards. The bigwigs however don’t get off so easily, from the Law.com writeup:

It does not, however, settle claims against former Tyco CEO L. Dennis Kozlowski and former Chief Financial Officer Mark Swartz, both convicted in 2005 in New York State court and sentenced to eight years for stealing company money for bonuses and loan programs, as well as inflating prices and misleading investors. Kozlowski was ordered to pay $70 million in fines, Swartz $35 million. Don’t drop the soap gents!

From LegalTimes we learn that NAM, the National Assoc of Manufacturers has finally disclosed their list of 65 members active in paying for and directing the trade association’s lobbying activities. The list is available here. The pricks are still appealing the ruling last month that the law recently passed by our Congress critters infringes on their civil rights to hide the truth from we, the people. Yeah right.. here are a few of their closest friends that pay NAM to lobby for them:

The members disclosed included well-known names not always associated with manufacturing, including several energy interests such as the American Petroleum Institute, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell Oil, and others. It also includes Northrop Grumman Corp., though not Boeing. The two companies have been battling over defense contracts.

Figures…Big Oil and Big federal contractors on that list..no one should be surprised..

Speaking of Shell Oil..those sons of bitches have pulled out of the world’s biggest offshore wind farm that is still in the developmental stages. From England’s Channel 4:

The multinational said it was selling its interest in the London Array project, with 341 turbines in the Thames estuary capable of generating enough energy to power a quarter of London’s homes.

Environment Secretary Hillary Benn called the decision “very disappointing” – especially in a week when Shell announced record profits.

Oh yeah..record profits and yet they still won’t back alternative energy…Gawd Damn that jerks my ever-loving chain and raises my blood pressure to unacceptable levels!

Some sad news today..the DC Madam has apparently committed suicide per the Florida authorities. She was recently convicted of running a prostitution ring. From the MSNBC writeup:

The body of the 52-year-old woman was found in a shed near her mother’s mobile home Thursday morning in Tarpon Springs, about 20 miles northwest of Tampa. Police said in a statement that she left a suicide note, but they did not disclose its contents or how she killed herself.

Ok…got two doc appts today.,.one down..got to get ready for numero two…take care m’dear readers.

Serving a constituency-but which one?

With the news that the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) will appeal a ruling handed down last week by the courts, it gives one pause to consider why they would have a problem with the new law regarding lobbying. The law in question is the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act (HLOGA). In fact, the NAM folks are so verklempt about this ruling they are actually going to seek an emergency stay of the decision. Lets see how one of the NAM faithful spins this shall we? From the piehole of their fearless leader comes this:

“We remain convinced that many of the law’s burdensome and intrusive disclosure requirements will have a serious chilling effect on the constitutional rights of our members,” said former Michigan Gov. John Engler (R), the NAM’s president, in a statement. “We are committed to protecting the rights of everyone in this country, including those who work for manufacturers, to freely associate and to exercise their First Amendment rights without the government interfering with or chilling them.”

Oh thats right, their First Amendment rights are being tromped on. Sweet Jesus, how can we allow that?

Well, I’ll tell you how, because the rights of the whole trump the rights of a few special interest groups which represent corporations not people, thats how. I am sick to death of these sycophants painting these issues as a ‘rights’ issue. It’s about disclosure, its about shining a sharp beacon of light into the beady rat eyes of the few who wish to push their will and interests on our elected officials. I like how J. Gerald Hebert, Campaign Legal Center Executive Director phrased it in his statement about Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly’s ruling last week in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia. Part of his spot-on remarks below:

“The National Association of Manufacturers’ (NAM) attempt to gut disclosure provisions of the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act (HLOGA) was a blatant attempt to keep the public in the dark regarding those who spend huge amounts of money to influence policy anonymously. The court recognized clear precedent that the disclosure provision serves the compelling governmental interest in providing full disclosure of lobbying activity and in protecting the integrity of the legislative process.”

I think, no I know, the words of Mr. Hebert ring true with the intelligent citizens of this nation. Aren’t we sick to death of cronyism and special interests ruling our Congress? Don’t we want equal representation under the law? Because we aren’t getting it, and we haven’t for decades. Our current administration is a government for the Corporations and by the Corporations. Clinton was a subscriber to that doctrine as well, don’t kid yourselves, as was Bush41 and Reagan.

The problem however is the Supreme Court is stacked with Bushie’s that will most likely cater to the whims of these greedy corporations and their lobbying arms. This will undoubtedly be taken all the way to the Supreme’s, you can take that to the bank. These guys won’t give up until the last jurist has listened to them bitch, whine and complain about how their rights are being subverted by this law.

A law that protects we, the people, from pandering and special interests. A law that will hopefully keep Jack Abramoff-like fools out of the halls of Congress. It’s not the end-all but its a start. It starts by keeping these bastards honest, if that is even possible. Their pandering self-interests must be held up to scrutiny that everyone can see, so that the Congress critters can’t take their money and give them free rein to write our laws so that they only benefit the corporations, as they have for decades and decades.

NAM gets pissed the courts don’t go along like BushCo does..

Those lobbying fools known as NAM are highly peeved about this development. From the writeup:

The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) is appealing a federal court order to dismiss the group’s lawsuit challenging a new ethics and lobbying law.

Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia ruled Friday against the trade association’s suit, which took issue with a specific provision of the new law that would require “stealth coalitions” to disclose their member companies if they contributed at least $5,000 per quarter to the coalition or actively participated in a lobbying campaign.

Obviously the manufacturing lobby doesn’t like playing by the ‘new rules’. We can only hope to Buddha that judges uphold this new law..all the way up the chain. But frankly, I don’t feel good about our chances if they take it all the way to the Supreme’s. Those bastids are handpicked for the love of pete.

Crossposted at Bring it On!

NAM files federal lawsuit to avoid new lobbying rules

Jesus, lets just say these guys want to treat us like mushrooms forever ok? To file suit in order to avoid full disclosure sure as hell says they are up to no good now..right?

From the CQ writeup:

The law, enacted last September, requires that trade associations such as NAM identify any other group that “participates actively” in its lobbying efforts. The manufacturer’s lobby argues that the requirement is “vague, overbroad and burdensome.”

“This pernicious law should be seen as a potentially lethal threat to trade associations,” NAM President John Engler said in a prepared release.

Since when is telling the truth..and full disclosure, a lethal threat? Only when your doing something smarmy is my response to that bullshit excuse. The last section of the writeup is a real treat too:

In addition to identifying participant groups, the new law requires registered lobbyists to disclose organizations that contribute more than $5,000 in a quarter. They previously were required to report twice a year on organizations that contributed more than $10,000 in that period.

Our lobbying laws are far too relaxed as it is..and this new one will now probably get put on hold while this bullshit lawsuit goes through the snail’s pace known as the Federal courts. Oh happy happy joy joy….God friggin forbid we shine a little bit of light into the beady little rat eyes of the lobbyists.