Articles and More!: Lobby

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Thursday, April 3, 2014

Amnesty Advocates Fearful High-Tech Lobby Will Break Away, Push Solely for Increase in Visas

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Amnesty Advocates Fearful High-Tech Lobby Will Break Away, Push Solely for Increase in Visas

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Hobby Lobby Hypocrisy

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Hobby Lobby Hypocrisy

Hobby Lobby invests in contraceptive, abortion drug manufacturers

20% off hypocritical blowhards, just bring this coupon

It’s peculiar how a group of individuals who are so devoted to their religious beliefs that they demand the very laws of the nation be rewritten to accommodate them can be so lax about those same religious beliefs if ignoring them will net them a little dough.

Documents filed with the Department of Labor and dated December 2012—three months after the company’s owners filed their lawsuit—show that the Hobby Lobby 401(k) employee retirement plan held more than $ 73 million in mutual funds with investments in companies that produce emergency contraceptive pills, intrauterine devices, and drugs commonly used in abortions. Hobby Lobby makes large matching contributions to this company-sponsored 401(k).
Several of the mutual funds in Hobby Lobby’s retirement plan have holdings in companies that manufacture the specific drugs and devices that the Green family, which owns Hobby Lobby, is fighting to keep out of Hobby Lobby’s health care policies: the emergency contraceptive pills Plan B and Ella, and copper and hormonal intrauterine devices.

So the company demands it not have to pay for any employee insurance that might purchase such things, but investing in their manufacture? Not a problem.

Oh, but it gets worse. The assertion from Sharia Lobby is that whether or not those contraceptives actually cause abortions, the company owners have a religious belief that they do, so the law must not only be rewritten to eliminate the possibility of the company spending money on abortifacients but rewritten to allow the company to deny insurance for anything that the company feels is an abortifacient. What’s still all right, at least from the investor side of things, is actual abortions.

The companies Hobby Lobby invests in include Teva [...], as well as Pfizer, the maker of the abortion-inducing drugs Cytotec and Prostin E2. Hobby Lobby’s mutual funds also invest in two health insurance companies that cover surgical abortions, abortion drugs, and emergency contraception in their health care policies.

So providing workers with health insurance that might provide certain contraceptives is right out, but making a little dough from companies that make actual abortion drugs does not run afoul of those self-same Deeply Held Religious Beliefs, nor investing in the very insurance companies whose original naughtiness was the thing Hobby Horse could not put up with.

I think we all understand each other here. Businesses must be able to lodge religious objections to the medical decisions of their employees, but don’t be surprised if that happens to be the one and only Deeply Held Religious Belief a given company might have. And we won’t even get into the Made In China part.

Daily Kos

Hobby Lobby invests in contraceptive, abortion drug manufacturers

20% off hypocritical blowhards, just bring this coupon

Documents filed with the Department of Labor and dated December 2012—three months after the company’s owners filed their lawsuit—show that the Hobby Lobby 401(k) employee retirement plan held more than $ 73 million in mutual funds with investments in companies that produce emergency contraceptive pills, intrauterine devices, and drugs commonly used in abortions. Hobby Lobby makes large matching contributions to this company-sponsored 401(k).
Several of the mutual funds in Hobby Lobby’s retirement plan have holdings in companies that manufacture the specific drugs and devices that the Green family, which owns Hobby Lobby, is fighting to keep out of Hobby Lobby’s health care policies: the emergency contraceptive pills Plan B and Ella, and copper and hormonal intrauterine devices.

So the company demands it not have to pay for any employee insurance that might purchase such things, but investing in their manufacture? Not a problem.

The companies Hobby Lobby invests in include Teva [...], as well as Pfizer, the maker of the abortion-inducing drugs Cytotec and Prostin E2. Hobby Lobby’s mutual funds also invest in two health insurance companies that cover surgical abortions, abortion drugs, and emergency contraception in their health care policies.

Daily Kos

Hobby Lobby invests in contraceptive, abortion drug manufacturers

Monday, March 31, 2014

Morning Reads: 2016 Could Offer Bush V. Clinton; The Hobby Lobby Of Union-Busting?

Happy 66th birthday to Al Gore! Here are some of the stories we’re reading on a gloomy Monday in NYC…

Latest from Crooks and Liars

Morning Reads: 2016 Could Offer Bush V. Clinton; The Hobby Lobby Of Union-Busting?

Saturday, March 29, 2014

Piers Morgan Ends Final CNN Show With Heartfelt Broadside Against America"s Gun Lobby (VIDEO)

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Piers Morgan Ends Final CNN Show With Heartfelt Broadside Against America"s Gun Lobby (VIDEO)

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Podcast: The Media"s Gotten the Hobby Lobby Case Upside Down

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Podcast: The Media"s Gotten the Hobby Lobby Case Upside Down

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

MSNBC.com Hypes How Obama Judicial Pick Is Target of Pro-Abortion Lobby

Let it not be said that MSNBC is never critical of President Obama. When he runs afoul of the abortion lobby, the Lean Forward network will take up arms and fires a few warning shots at the White House for betraying an ally in the “war on women.”

blares the teaser headline over a photo of a stern-looking Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.). “A revolt against President Barack Obama’s nominees to the federal bench in Georgia has spread from the civil rights icons who paved the way for his presidency to the abortion rights movement,” adds a teaser caption [see screen capture below page break], alarming readers that, in the words of NARAL president Ilyse Hogue, “We look to our judicial branch to protect and uphold our values and freedoms.” Here’s how writer Adam Serwer caught msnbc.com readers up to speed on the controversy [emphasis mine]:

Story Continues Below Ad ↓

A revolt against President Barack Obama’s nominees to the federal bench in Georgia has spread from the civil rights icons who paved the way for Obama’s presidency to the abortion rights movement.

The abortion rights group NARAL last week announced its opposition to nominee Michael Boggs, joining a coalition of Democratic members of Congress from Georgia and celebrated civil rights leaders like Georgia Democratic Rep. John Lewis, C.T. Vivian and Joseph Lowery. The group had already been calling for the president to withdraw Boggs, a former Democratic Georgia state representative, and Mark Cohen, an attorney who defended the state’s voter ID law.

Both judges were approved as part of a package deal between the White House and Georgia’s two conservative Republican Senators, Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson. The deal was put together before Democrats abolished the filibuster for most nominations, but Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy maintains a Senate tradition, called the blue-slip process, which allows Republican senators to quietly block Obama’s judicial picks without drawing public attention.

“We look to our judicial branch to protect and uphold our values and freedoms. Michael Boggs’ anti-choice record shows that he will push his personal agenda instead of listening to the cases in front of him without bias,” Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL pro-choice America, said in a statement. “We expect our leaders to nominate judges whom we are confident will be fair and unbiased. Michael Boggs does not pass that test.”

Boggs has drawn particular opposition because as a state representative he supported keeping a Confederate symbol on Georgia’s state flag, supported a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, and backed a law that would require parental notification for minors seeking an abortion without exceptions for rape and incest.

Boggs also supported a state program that allowed Georgia residents to purchase “choose life” license plates, the proceeds from which go to support “Pregnancy Resource Centers” in Georgia. The Pregnancy Resource Centers are meant to counsel women on alternatives to terminating a pregnancy, NARAL and other abortion rights organizations see such facilities as attempting to mislead pregnant women by inflating the health risks associated with abortion.

According to a 2004 article in the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, when voting in support of a state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, Boggs railed against “activist judges” and said that “whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, we have seldom had an opportunity to stand up for things that are common-sensical, things that stand up for Christian values.” Boggs also said the amendment outlawing marriage between same-sex couples was “premised on good Christian values,” according to a 2004 Associated Press report.

Those sentiments might not have been unusual for a moderate or conservative Southern Democrat in 2004. But that’s not the kind of record liberal groups want to see from someone receiving a lifetime appointment to the federal bench.

The White House has not backed down from the nominations, arguing that the deal was part of a long, painstaking process of negotiations that they don’t want to toss out the window. According to The Hill, White House adviser Valerie Jarrett told the Congressional Black Caucus at a meeting in early February that the administration wouldn’t be withdrawing the nominations. The Obama administration is also frustrated with what they see as inadequate recognition of the fact that the administration has nominated the most diverse slate of candidates for the federal bench in history — including one who would be the first openly gay black nominee —and that the Georgia delegation failed to weigh in on the process before the deal over the Georgia nominees was cut.

For their part, local activists say they were left out early in the selection process. “What folks in this community are accustomed to is having senators come to the community and get input as to judicial vacancies, that’s what people in this community were expecting this time,” said Charles Johnson, an attorney with Advocacy for Action, a Georgia-based group opposing Obama’s Georgia nominees. “We were told a deal had been brokered that had been pushed by Chambliss and Isakson that involved people that would not have come up from the traditional process.”

Democrats in the Senate have yet to come out publicly against either of the Georgia nominees who have drawn opposition from Democrats in the House. Massachussetts Democrat Sen. Elizabeth Warren came closest, warning that Obama has appointed too many “corporate judges” to the bench. With NARAL joning [sic] the fray, other liberal groups may follow suit, and Democrats in the Senate may no longer be able to stay silent on the matter.

“We have a lot of fantastic pro-choice allies in the Senate,” said Samantha Gordon, a spokesperson for NARAL. “They’re well aware of our opposition to this candidate.”

This is precisely the sort of special-interest, litmus-test judicial nomination politics that MSNBC would skewer if it involved a Republican president, a moderately pro-choice judicial nominee, and social conservatives rising up in arms to scuttle two district court nominations.

But, alas, because this controversy is tied up in the fictitious “war on women” and the abortion lobby has a dog in the fight, well, it’s a far different story.

It’s also worth noting both Boggs and Cohen are nominated to district court seats, which are trial level in nature and do not set precedent as appellate courts do. As District Court judges, they would have a strong incentive to follow precedent and not rock the boat so as to better position themselves in the future for nomination by Mr. Obama or a future president to an appellate court seat.

NewsBusters – Exposing Liberal Media Bias

MSNBC.com Hypes How Obama Judicial Pick Is Target of Pro-Abortion Lobby

Friday, November 1, 2013

Israel lobby trying to ‘undermine’ Iran nuclear talks – Press TV

Israel has been trying to “undermine” ongoing nuclear negotiations between Iran and the world powers by putting more pressure on the United States to toughen sanctions against Tehran, an analyst says.

Link for the four minute audio interview is here. Embed would not work for some reason.

___________________________

In an interview with Press TV on Thursday, Veterans Today columnist Jim Dean said there are some efforts by the Israel lobby in the US for using “military option” against Iran.

However, he said, the United States is now focusing on the peace in the Middle East because it is “critical” to Washington’s “economic survival.”

The US Senate is ratcheting up pressure on the White House to tighten sanctions against Iran in line with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s demand for more pressure against Tehran.

On Monday, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Robert Menendez (D-NJ) said that the Senate aims to cut Iran’s current oil exports to 500,000 barrels per day.

Iran held nuclear talks with the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany in Geneva earlier this month. The two sides are set to meet again in Geneva on November 7-8.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State John Kerry defended the talks with Iran in an apparent rejection of Netanyahu’s demand for more pressure against Tehran.

The top US diplomat said “some have suggested that somehow there’s something wrong” with giving diplomacy a chance. “We will not succumb to those fear tactics and forces that suggest otherwise,” Kerry said.

________________________________

Veterans Today

Israel lobby trying to ‘undermine’ Iran nuclear talks – Press TV

Thursday, September 26, 2013

The Congressional Black Caucus and the Financial Lobby: BFFs

This story has been corrected.*

For decades, the Congressional Black Caucus has been a champion of progressive politics and policy on Capitol Hill. Its members are some of the most liberal lawmakers in the US House of Representatives. But the CBC has recently forged a close relationship with a major Washington player that would probably surprise many who view the group as a left-of-center bastion: lobbyists for Big Finance.

The most recent display of these cozy ties arrived on Tuesday, when caucus staff attended a private meeting with a bevy of industry lobbyists fighting a Labor Department proposal to impose regulations on investment advisers. The caucus, meanwhile, has ignored repeated requests from the Labor Department to brief its members on the new rule it is considering, which is intended to protect the retirement accounts of American workers from unscrupulous advisers. The industry’s briefing with CBC staff comes a week before a House vote is scheduled on a bill that would block the new protections.

Continue Reading »

Politics | Mother Jones

The Congressional Black Caucus and the Financial Lobby: BFFs

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Gloves Come Off: Israel Lobby Goes All-In for Syrian Intervention, While New York Times Self-Censors

Today’s the day I knew was coming. Despite the fact that Jodi Rudoren mistakenly said that the Lobby would maintain radio-silence about Obama’s plan to strike Syria, I knew she was wrong. And she was. Today, Obama pulled out all the stops and the Jewish leadership responded: virtually all the major organizations announced their support for military intervention.

This statement by the hawkish, pro-Israel Conference of Presidents highlights the real reason for the turnabout:

…Failing to take action would damage the credibility of the US and negatively impact the effort to prevent Iran from achieving a nuclear weapons capacity.

So, Syria is really a sideshow. It’s a sort of precursor to war against Iran. That’s the main attraction and all Israel or the Jewish leadership cares about. All the mumbling about setting a moral example and parallels between Syria and Jews being gassed by the Nazis is a smokescreen. We want the Ayatollahs and we want ‘em bad.

Aipac will let loose a lobbying barrage that will leave few members of Congress uncertain about which way they’re expected to vote (unless they’re prepared for a primary challenge from an amply endowed pro-Israel opponent). It’s safe to say that Obama is going to win this round handily. This will allow him the first opportunity in his presidency to bring the full force of U.S. military might on a Middle Eastern country. You’ll recall a prior president who enjoyed that opportunity twice. Obama will score a big gain in his popularity ratings. Americans love a good Shock and Awe display. But they will soon come down to earth and wonder what we’ve gained from raining cruise missiles on Damascus. The answer will be: precious little.

An interesting sidebar to this story is a neat little bit of N.Y. Times self-censorship that M.J. Rosenberg noted. In this story, the following passage originally appeared, but then mysteriously disappeared, apparently a product of pre-emptive censorship:

Administration officials said the influential pro-Israel lobby group Aipac was already at work pressing for military action against the government of Mr. Assad, fearing that if Syria escapes American retribution for its use of chemical weapons, Iran might be emboldened in the future to attack Israel. In the House, the majority leader, Eric Cantor of Virginia, the only Jewish Republican in Congress, has long worked to challenge Democrats’ traditional base among Jews.

One administration official, who, like others, declined to be identified discussing White House strategy, called Aipac “the 800-pound gorilla in the room,” and said its allies in Congress had to be saying, “If the White House is not capable of enforcing this red line” against the catastrophic use of chemical weapons, “we’re in trouble.”

In its own explanation, the Times noted that the second paragraph had already appeared in an article the day before. Thus the paper was apparently trying to avoid redundancy. The public editor, Margaret Sullivan, falsely stated that the entire quotation had appeared previously: “the quotation remains in the earlier article.” It hadn’t, as I said. So why not retain the first paragraph?

I’d have thought the first paragraph was dropped both because it referred to Eric Cantor as Jewish (fear of the “A” word), and because it explicitly notes the muscular role Aipac was planning to play in the intervention debate. Aipac is notorious for not wanting its fingerprints to appear publicly. It prefers to operate off the radar as much as possible so when the shit hits the fan, it can’t be blamed for policy failures.

M.J., who worked for Aipac for ten years and knows the organization pretty damn well, believes there were explicit conversations between it and the Times and that it made its displeasure known at the negative portrayal in the offending passage.

On a related matter, yesterday the Russians announced that their early warning tracking system picked up a mysterious missile launch in the Mediterranean. The trajectory took the missile from its launch in the central Mediterranean to its fall in the eastern Mediterranean. Within hours, the Israeli government confirmed that it had launched a “Sparrow” missile in a routine test. The Sparrow is the missile used to test the Arrow anti-missile system. It’s the missile which the Arrow hunts and kills.

Frankly, there is something fishy about this story. Israel never intended for the launch to be public. But Russia called Israel’s bluff and did so. Either the Israelis tested a far more ambitious weapons system and lied about it being the Sparrow; or else they launched a missile as a shot across Assad’s (and Russia’s) bow, warning them that Israel would unleash its missile cache to defend from and respond to any Syrian attack.

Haaretz reporters, writing on behalf of their government sources, say Israel never dreamed of using the test as a warning to Syria. Again, I don’t buy it. If they didn’t, and the original government version of this report is true, then Netanyahu is an incredibly naïve figure who ratcheted up tension in a tinder box situation without even realizing how a missile test would be received by Israel’s enemies. Israel’s leadership is many negative things, but certainly not naïve.

Even if you accept the government version of events, the Israeli military exhibited extraordinary stupidity. It lit a match in an oil refinery. Luckily the whole place didn’t blow up. It could have.

Global Research

Gloves Come Off: Israel Lobby Goes All-In for Syrian Intervention, While New York Times Self-Censors

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Hobby Lobby Wins Stay Against Birth Control Mandate

A federal judge has temporarily exempted Hobby Lobby Stores Inc from a requirement in the 2010 healthcare law that it offer workers insurance coverage for birth control, which the retailer said violated its religious beliefs.

The preliminary injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Joe Heaton in Oklahoma City, where Hobby Lobby is based, covers the arts and crafts chain and its affiliated Mardel Christian bookstore chain.

He put the case on hold until Oct. 1, giving the federal government time to decide whether to appeal.

“There is a substantial public interest in ensuring that no individual or corporation has their legs cut out from under them while these difficult issues are resolved,” Heaton said at a hearing, according to the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a nonprofit law firm representing Hobby Lobby.

A U.S. Department of Justice spokesman had no immediate comment. The government has said contraception coverage is needed to promote public health and gender equality.

The Green family, which owns Hobby Lobby, said that providing coverage to workers for the morning-after pill and similar contraceptives violated its Christian beliefs.

It also said it could have under Obamacare faced $ 1.3 million in daily fines by not providing such coverage. Hobby Lobby has 556 stores in 45 U.S. states.

On June 27, a federal appeals court in Denver let Hobby Lobby challenge the mandate on religious grounds, and said there was a good chance the company would prevail.

It said Hobby Lobby had “drawn a line at providing coverage for drugs or devices they consider to induce abortions, and it is not for us to question whether the line is reasonable.”

The Becket Fund said there are 63 lawsuits challenging the mandate. It called Heaton’s decision a victory for “the religious liberty of all for-profit businesses.”

Newsmax – America

Hobby Lobby Wins Stay Against Birth Control Mandate

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Why the Gun Lobby Is Terrified of California

California would ban the sale of all semiautomatic rifles that accept removable magazines, slap a hefty tax on ammo, and require every gun owner to take a yearly safety course under a new package of firearms laws that would give the Golden State the nation’s strongest gun controls.

These and many other proposed firearms laws were announced late last week by leading state Democrats and the mayors of San Francisco and Los Angeles. Many of the laws are expected to pass, in part because the Democratic Party in California now controls the governor’s mansion and a supermajority in the Legislature.

“As it is with many issues, California is out front on firearms regulations,” said Mark Hedlund, a spokesman for California Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg. “We don’t represent the NRA. We don’t think that the NRA represents the majority of Californians, by a long shot.”

California’s newly proposed gun laws would:

Ban the possession of ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds
Prevent the future sale, purchase, manufacture, importation, or transfer of any firearms that can accept detachable magazines
Close the “bullet button” loophole by banning tools that allow the quick changing of gun magazines
Regulate ammunition sales like the state regulates gun sales. Ammunition dealers would need to be licensed and anyone buying from them would need to obtain a permit and complete a background check.
Create a 5 cent tax on each bullet purchased, for the purpose of funding crime prevention
Prevent felons and other adults barred from gun ownership from living in a house that contains any guns
Prohibit the loaning or sale of a firearm between people who know each other personally
Take steps to phase out legal possession of assault weapons that were purchased before California outlawed their sale
Require all firearms owners to take an hours-long gun safety course every year, similar to what the state now requires for obtaining a concealed-weapon permit
Require gun owners to purchase insurance to cover damage they may inflict
Require CalPERS and CalSTRS, two of the nation’s largest pension funds, to divest from companies that make, sell, or market firearms or ammunition

California has already enacted some of the nation’s strictest gun control laws, partly due to its experience with a Sandy Hook-style massacre: In 1989, a mentally unstable ex-con opened fire with an AK-47-style assault rifle on an elementary school playground in Stockton, killing five schoolchildren and wounding 28 others. The shooting contributed to the passage that year of California’s assault weapons ban.

Somewhat uniquely, California’s state constitution doesn’t guarantee the right to bear arms. The Golden State gives its cities the option of refusing to issue concealed-carry permits and doesn’t recognize permits issued by other states. It requires the reporting of all handgun sales, and it cross-checks the data against the names of convicted criminals and violent mental patients. And unlike most states, it requires background checks for firearms purchases between private parties, closing a loophole that accounts for 80 percent of gun acquisitions made with intent to carry out a crime.

Since the passage of California’s strict gun rules, the incidence of mass shootings has plummeted. “California used to be the mass-shooting capital of the country, but instead of throwing up their hands, they addressed the problem head-on and are reaping the benefits,” says Julie Piotrowski, a spokeswoman for the Violence Policy Center, a pro-gun-control group. “Their success will most certainly inspire action in other states and at the federal level.”

If enacted, the new laws might do for guns what California’s pollution and fuel economy rules did for the nation’s automobiles. In 2011 alone, Californians bought 600,000 firearms; only Texas sports more registered weapons. “The gun industry has a love/hate relationship with California,” Hedlund says. “They hate our gun regulations because they are among the toughest in the country, but they love our marketplace.”

Not to mention how the state essentially does their marketing. No matter what, the weapons industry can rest assured that there will be no shortage of guns in Clint Eastwood flicks.

Politics | Mother Jones

Why the Gun Lobby Is Terrified of California