Forum Post: In Key Senate Job, Ex-Lockheed Exec Replaced by Ex-Lockheed Lobbyist
Posted 10 years ago on April 26, 2013, 7:54 a.m. EST by GirlFriday
(17435)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Last year, we told you about how former Lockheed Martin executive Ann Sauer had been hired to be the top Republican staffer on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Sauer got $1.6 million from Lockheed, including a buyout, before being hired by Sen. John McCain to come back to Capitol Hill, where she had previously worked as a staffer. Watchdogs cried foul.
With McCain stepping down as ranking member of the committee, Sauer left the job on the Armed Services Committee earlier this year and now works as a federal budget expert for hire.
Her replacement? Another former Hill staffer who went to work with large military contractors — including Lockheed.
John Bonsell, the new staff director for the Republicans on the committee, spent five years as a lobbyist for military contractors such as Boeing, GE Aviation, BAE Systems, and SAIC. He made $276,400 in 2011, his final year as a lobbyist, a disclosure form shows. Bonsell did not respond to our requests for comment.
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You're obviously NOT supposed to notice such things.
Hide our heads in the sand like the good little GOP believers do.
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I think we've made the closet libe(R)tarians very angry.
This kind of thing is what deregulation and funding cuts are for.
It's how to make a revolving door and still be able to feign innocence..
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They don't like us much either.
Have you noticed they quit playing up Rand Paul lately?
Why just yesterday, it seems he was their anti-drone candidate for the Presidency, and now he want's to drone bomb B&E suspects here in the US.
Are there any of them left who aren't a caricature of everything that's wrong with the GOP?
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Ron Paulers??
There has never been a time when they weren't in denial.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/04/25/the-ron-paul-institute-be-afraid-very-afraid.html
Now he's an institute.
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Do you think they'll downvote a post on how WallStreet is raping peoples IRAs?
I think they will.
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/04/even-harsh-frontline-program-on-retirement-investments-understates-how-bad-they-are.html
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Hmmm...........How's "Death By A Thousand WallStreet Leaches" sound for a title?
Blood sucking fucks.
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Nah - they are no doubt gonna wait - till the comments die down - then come back through with their BS.
This should make em happy ( GOP/Corporatist weenies) (a replacement search/notice for an exiting BlueDog ) :
On Tuesday, Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) announced that he would not be running for re-election. This is huge news!
Baucus, who helped kill the public option during the health care debate in 2010, will not be missed. And now we have the opportunity to replace Sen. Baucus, better known as the "Senator from K Street."
Donate $15 now so we can elect a Senator that will take on corporate power.
This past year we made thousands of calls to Wisconsin and Ohio to elect Tammy Baldwin and Sherrod Brown to the Senate. And right now we're running a calling program all this week to elect Ed Markey for Massachusetts' Senate seat.
Next year, there will be a number of seats to target. We need to know whether to prioritize this seat as well. Donate today to show that you want us to work in Montana for this election.
Max Baucus earned the title "Senator from K Street" by using his prestigious position as the Chairman of the Finance Committee to do the bidding of his corporate donors — even at the expense of his own constituents.
According to the New York Times, at least 28 aides of Max Baucus who worked for the Senator since he became Chairman of the Finance Committee, have gone on to become corporate tax lobbyists during the Obama administration — more than any other current member of Congress.
These aides have in turn, used their close relationship with their former boss to pass legislation helping financial firms save $11.2 billion in tax deferments and secure $222 million in tax cuts.1 Now that's just wrong.
And in the eleventh hour, he left progressives hanging — in 2001 helping to pass the Bush tax cuts for the rich by breaking with Democrats, killing the public option and voting against the Democrats' budget proposal for 2014. And just last week, he was one of only 4 Democrats to vote against universal background checks.
It's time to put Max Baucus and his corporate lobbyists behind us. Right now, it looks like former MT Governor Brian Schweitzer, a powerful populist and single-payer healthcare advocate will be the Democratic nominee. But whoever Montana voters select in the primary, it will certainly be a better choice than corporate-shill Baucus.
Donate $15 now so we can elect a Senator who will stand up against corporate interests, rather than stand for them.
Sincerely, Ross Wallen USAction / TrueMajority
1 - "Tax Lobby Builds Ties to Chairman of Finance," The New York Times, April 7, 2013
What??
You expect them to abandon all their "conspiracy theories" and deal with reality?
Not going to happen.
CorpoRATists - a lost cause -they are blind to reality and need. Note all of the down votes on environment issues as well as on getting CorpoRATions out of government. They clearly have no interest in supporting a healthy world for all -THEIR Interests Are Obvious - Greed - Supporting it - even though what THEY support would kill us all.
LOL
Perhaps we actually should form a "twinkle team" to thwart their efforts of sabotage.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/everything-is-rigged-the-biggest-financial-scandal-yet-20130425
It's all rigged anyway.
I think it funny actually ( the downvoting of issues that are for the benefit of all - EVEN the Greedy assholes ).
In so-doing they demonstrate insanity to the viewing public.
Then they steal my link and make a new thread.
I don't think they'll steal this one, though you can be sure I'll be downvoted for posting it.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/04/25/the-ron-paul-institute-be-afraid-very-afraid.html
It does deserve a post of it's own.
The willfully blind - it is insane. Let em downvote it just shows their true insanity.
I was told in a PM that my posts are being actively ignored by an unnamed consortium.
So far, it's working for them.
I like that strategy - they should do that to all posts. How did you get so lucky?
???
Do ya mean that - by ignoring instead of commenting - that they don't look so stupid?
Death by cheap shirts.
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20130426/DA5T8RBO3.html
I'm sure this will be ignored as well, but note how these corporations that DEMAND less regulation here are holding out for the Bangladeshi to enact regulations of their factories over there.
The distance would be to grant them plausible deniabilty.
"For those attempting to overhaul conditions for workers who are paid as little as $38 a month, it is a grim reminder that corporate social responsibility programs are failing to deliver on lofty promises."
Modern Day Slavery is clearly no accident...indeed it is being encouraged through atrocious and collusive governments ending in calamitous and heartbreaking lives for our fellow human beings. The Bangladesh (and other regions) garment industry is a slavery monster that needs far more attention.
Great link shooz. Thanks. As your comment overlaps with slavery and the human condition, I will share it (with kudos to you), on the "Modern Day Slavery" thread for further reach.
The wto and GATT work very badly against reasonable wages and work conditions. They are all about profit at the cost of economies and environment.
With ART5 they can be rescinded. With that done, the people in foreign lands being exploited will hopefully be able to easily return to many of the sustainable practices of the past, while learning about how technology can be responsibly used, then integrating it for real improvement of their lives.
The Bangladeshi government, doesn't have the resources to fight off WallStreet/corporate interests.
They are the perfect example of a government that they could and would happily "drown in a bathtub".
They want, and are getting more of that here in the US.
F'n Greedy Living Dead Asshole CorpoRATions. They should get punished for supporting sweatshops. There is no way in hell that they are ignorant of working conditions in these areas where they contract ( if not outright own ) work/goods/production for pennies on the dollar (or is that for pennies on the every ten or 100 dollars).
Bangladesh, is just another 3rdworld example of a small government in the hands of the WallStreet/corporate mafia.
An example of a libe(R)topian distopia.
They have one planned for us too. If we let them enact it.
There is no end to the sadness that capitalism brings to the world.
It doesn't have to be that way, no matter what is used as "barter".
I find most of the real issues, lie within the language of corporate charter.
CRAPITALISM
It was so nice to see that at the Triangle Commemoration Ceremony that kids layed red carnations (alongside the white ones for the Triangle vicitms) on the sidewalk in honor of all the people who have died in factory fires in Bangladesh and Pakistan
~Odin~
That would make a beautiful photograph.
Is there something out there?
I took some of pictures of the flowers with my cell, but I do not see pictures of the yearly ceremony on the www.RemembertheTrianglefire.org web site
They along with the FDNY do a great job of commemorating that tragedy that was the impetus to so many good things to come in the decades that followed
I commented on it when the Triangle fire Tragedy news item was up...teenage girls with protest placards.....the FD ladder truck extending its ladder to the 6th floor as high as the ladder went in 1911....each of the 146 names said by a rotating bunch of 10 yr old kids....a fireman in full dress uniform chiming a brass bell after each name was said then each kid placing a white carnation on the sidewalk where many of the victims landed after jumping, and then like i said the same for victims of the fires in Banfladesh and Pakistan
It was all very beautiful, and it really made me think
~Odin~
UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE NOW. Declare the GREEDY who are in positions of power and influence DECLARED INCOMPETENT and sent to Hospital for the criminally insane.
They suffer from neoplexia, but I guess being diagnosed is why they fight so hard against national health care.
They don't want anyone to notice.
Which is exactly why they need to be regulated into a straight jacket - BECAUSE THEY ARE INSANE AND OUT OF CONTROL AND ACTIVELY WORKING TO KILL US ALL
They can't help it their brains are mis-wired.
I saw an article on that earlier today, but can't find it now.
I would imagine they are repressing the cure too.
LOL = "A huge steaming pile of corporate crap has to get blasted out of existence" - That is a good way to state it.
I think getting them to pay for the clean up, is just as if not even more important.
Because you know they wont.
They don't pay for it here, they damn sure won't pay for it in Bangladesh.
Slight???? UNDERSTATEMENT
Well yeah, I guess I was, but what qualifies as more than a lot?
A huge steaming pile of corporate crap has to get blasted out of existence, AFTER we find a way to make them pay to clean up the mess?
That's an understatement too. We lack the language to express it efficiently.
A lot's easier to type.................................:)
I think the corpoRAT charter probably contains whatever the corpoRATion wants as long as it provides for plenty of grease for the greedy who grant the charter.
A lot has to change. In many ways, in many places.
Another class oriented/divided Country/State - as long as those at the top stay wealthy - THEN - FUCK EVERY ONE AND EVERYTHING THAT IS NOT THEIR'S.
Yes - the Greedy Powers That Be - are certainly working against us ( The People ).
Those powers have names, like Walton and Koch.
Wouldn't you like to know what's in a corporate charter in Bangladesh?
Well, I try to remember that. I just have a peeking problem.
Well, you could at least ignore that it was McCain that played a major role in making this happen. Couldn't you?
That one's kind of tough. I will try.
Nah......forgetaboutit.
The guys an ass.
Oh, sure............that makes it way, way easier.
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Ya. I like this part: Bonsell takes the Armed Services Committee job at an especially fraught time for military contractors: the industry has been fighting — so far unsuccessfully — budget cuts that kicked in under sequestration last month.
And this part: “Due to his 20 plus years of service in the U.S. Army and his post-retirement career, Sen. Inhofe finds John Bonsell uniquely qualified to understand the perspective of both the government and the private sector as the committee works to address unprecedented challenges with the future of our national defense,” she wrote in an email.
Inhofe has said that his top priority is to avoid military budget cuts.
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I don't know what screams convenient more than contractor and national defense and anti global warming.
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I also doubt we will be curbing our oil drilling either.
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Can anyone say - Conflict of interest is an apparent requirement for governmental appointments?
Damn. That's what we are missing. We don't need a lobbyist. We need a conflict of interest.
Hey DKA, long time no see. Hope you are having a bright shiny day.
Hey GF - good to see you - and - Hope you are having a bright shiny day.