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Congress' Ghostwriters
Great minds think alike? Not quite. As the House of Representatives has debated the health-care reform bill, more than a dozen lawmakers have made statements that were eerily similar. That’s because they were written, all or in part, by lobbyists for Genentech, one of the world’s largest biotech companies. The New York Times got its hands on emails that show the lobbyists crafted one statement for Republicans and one for Democrats, and their success rate for getting those words in the Congressional Record is rather impressive. Genentech “estimates that 42 House members picked up some of its talking points—22 Republicans and 20 Democrats, an unusual bipartisan coup for lobbyists.” Wrote Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC), “One of the reasons I have long supported the U.S. biotechnology industry is that it is a homegrown success story that has been an engine of job creation in this country.” So did Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO).
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So Genentech and other corporations are putting words in the mouths of the democrats who control Congress and are writing the healthcare bill? The real story is that the democrats are also writing the bill the way Genetech and other corporations want it written......thats why the democrats also say what the corporations want said.
The article clearly states that it was bipartisan payola, so shut your biased mouth already. I think everyone's sick of your constant idiocy.
You don't get it.
It doesn't matter what the Republicans do. The democrats control the Congress and Senate and White House and it is the democrats who are stuffing the 1400 page long Obamacare bill with special favors, deals and earmarks for their corporate masters.
Hey. It is pretty clear both Dems and Repubs do it. It's just that the Dems hate themselves for doing it.
First you managed to ignore the 22- GOP statement, then implied that Dems are corporate lap dogs. Funny, seeing how in previous post they were "Marxist Radical, Socialist." Care to state how someone can be those two thing at once?
Plant the RNC couldn't pay a more loyal foot solder, willing discard all logical consistency and dignity for the "team."
You expected anything else from this DB troll, case1234?
You dopes don't get it.
It doesn't matter what the Republicans say or do in the Congress. The democrats have huge majorities and are in complete control of the House of Representatives and Senate and White House. The Republicans have no power---they aren't responsible for even a single word of the 1400 page long Obamacare bill that the democrats have stuffed with special favors, deals and earmarks for their corporate masters.
Lying as usual, Plant.
In the first four congressional committees that passed versions of health-care reform, the bills contained a total of 183 GOP amendments. I'm sure some of these amendments are still in the House and Senate bills.
And the Stupak-Pitts amendment, while offered by a Democrat (Stupak) as well as a Republican (Pitts), was only passed because all Republicans supported it, so Republicans are responsible.
PLANTAGENET's comments that start "So Genentech and other corporations are putting words...", "You dopes don't get it. It doesn't matter what the Republicans say..." and "You don't get it. It doesn't matter what the Republicans do..." use Rules # 1 & 3 of THE 5 RULES OF PROPAGANDA --
1) The rule of orchestration: endlessly repeating the same messages in different variations and combinations.
3) The rule of disfiguration: discrediting the opposition by crude smears and parodies.
The other 3 RULES OF PROPAGANDA ARE--
2) The rule of simplification: reducing all data to a simple confrontation between 'Good and Bad', 'Friend and Foe'.
4) The rule of transfusion: manipulating the consensus values of the target audience for one's own ends.
5) The rule of unanimity: presenting one's viewpoint as if it were the unanimous opinion of all right-thinking people: draining the doubting individual into agreement by the appeal of star-performers, by social pressure, and by 'psychological contagion'.
Desertpenguin...
By your logic, it appears most things outta the Obama White House follow rules 1, 2, 3, 4 and most of all 5.......... Thank you for the enlightening thread.
@Plantagenet
So Genentech and other corporations are putting words into the mouths of the Republicans in Congress who are deliberately trying to impede every piece of legislation attempting to change the status quo?
Do you seriously, SERIOUSLY believe that anyone except for pro-Republican, anti-Democrat partisans does not see through your transparent bias here? Do you actually believe that in any way such unambiguously selective remarks convince independents that Democrats are the bad guys and we should vote Republican from now on?
There is plenty of blame to go around to both parties. Those that advertise corruption in one party whilst ignoring that of the other party are part of an ideological fringe and are rapidly becoming less significant in determining elections. As well they should.
Plantagenet
skboon is right . Your just don't get it day after day .The mind is a terrible thing to waste , and they gave a 1`/2 one to you .Just read all the responses to your thinking . . You are so full of shit , your eyes are turning brown .
It's time for TDB to shut the Plant down.
The writing is robotic
Repetitive
Canned
Boring
Stale
TDB:
The Plant probably alienates more readers than s/he draws. If you're paying this blogger, it's time to find a new voice.
If, as I think, some conservative group pays this blogger, stand up to them -- and shut this Plant down.
In an interview, Representative Bill Pascrell Jr., Democrat of New Jersey, said: "I regret that the language was the same. I did not know it was."
He's not sorry for being a fraud, he's sorry that he his fraudulent script was the same as everyone elses. Nice!
"42 House members picked up some of its talking points-22 Republicans and 20 Democrats, an unusual bipartisan coup for lobbyists."
Can we cut out the middle man and just start electing lobbyist to run the country? It is clear that both political parties are entirely purchased and programed, so why should we dump tax money into congressional and senate salaries and benefits.
If you elect lobbyists, seemoreglass, you just create new job opportunities in the lobbying industry. Sigh...
They are all full of shit
As are you, Dem.
Very buy-partisan. We should get our own lobbyists to represent us in Congress, so the voice of the people is heard as well.
Yes, absolutely we should. Lobbying elected officials is ancient and legal. It is a part of our representative democracy. Anytime you write a letter to or call your Senator you're lobbying them. The people, as in "we", should lobby our representatives, we should have more influence.
Instead, there are cabals of agents who do not represent the best interests of the nation who are influencing the system. Their interest is in acquiring more power and more money to a select few. And they do this at our expense.
Ok, now I'm really done.
Since so many here are keeping score, let's just say the conservative platform includes supporting the status quo free market, which includes outsourcing blue collar jobs, leaving us as service providers which pay little more than minimum wage.
Their support of "free market" makes it near impossible to afford our consumer reputation.
Businesses are hard pressed to afford health insurance for workers.
My point is that regardless of the fact that greed affects Dems as well, at least the progressives aren't fools to buy that ideology.
Lobbyists should never be allowed around Washington.D.C.
We need to stop lobbyists from corrupting USA politicians.
First will pass the Public Health Care Bill.
Second we will pass a bill to stop lobbyists corruption.
Third we will send all the bluedogs and all the other crooked republicans to the pound.
I thought elected officials were paid to represent the electors.
They are even more amoral than I thought, not only pocketing the equivalent of bribe money but now working on their PR teams.
Disgraceful.
DakLak: Elections are expensive, and he who pays the piper calls the tune.
Lobbyists write talking points for legislators all the time. Nobody was holding a gun to their heads. If members of Congress used the materials and you don't like it, then it's OK to be mad, but don't believe that this is a new or novel practice.
Anybody who believes any Bill coming out of congress will be anything other than corporate welfare is living in Lala land. Check the guest list to the White House.
There seems to be little HTT (Holier Than Thou) squawking about an ANNUAL $636 Billion defense budget? (*Not* including Iraq and Afpak.)
An Annum in which 45,000 Americans will die in the Insurance Industry's War on Americans -- die when they would have lived had they had health coverage. Did I hear someone murmur, "Priorities"? Probably not. 28,670 dead by next 4th of July. Oh well, I'd rather have a massively expensive, dinosaur weapons system anyway.
Over 2000 veterans will die due to lack of health insurance next year, and over 100,000 will remain homeless. And yet politicians, especially Republicans, make speeches on Veterans Day about how "proud" they are of the "boys who came home from our wars ..." blah, blah, blah.
But when it comes to giving them medical care Senator Cornan wants to block healthcare for vets who have fallen through the cracks.
The hypocrisy is stifling, even for those who are used to Republican swindling.
Studies show that over 40,000 progressives, some estimate to be half the movement, will die of broken heart desease if the public option is not passed. This event will have its silver lining, in that the government will be able to start the long hard slog towards fiscal responsibility.
You've proven your stupidity on too many numerous occasions. Your ignorance or hostility to facts is also not in dispute. When it comes to "fiscal responsibility," it's been the Republican Party that has not been able to balance a budget (no matter how much Raygun, Bushdaddy or Bushboy promised they would), and has caused the national debt to balloon to over $10 trillion.
And to make light of the people who die each year so the profiteering healthcare insurance industry can pay their executives hundreds of millions $$$/year, is callous and hypocritical for those who claim to be "pro-life."
neverlate's just a typical conservative troll, periscope. His/her/its mind is closed.
STOP THE PRESSES - [GASP] LOBBYISTS CONTROL OUR POLITICAL SYSTEM!! And this is what passes for "News" nowadays. Any American over the age of 20 who doesn't know this by now doesn't deserve to be called American. It's our amazing Democracy people. The best the world has to offer. We're the only ones who know how to do it... remember?!
And yes, this is called sarcasm.
America, unfortunately, has the best government money can buy.
This just gives more credence to those independents who say we need a second political party in this country because what we have now are merely two-sides of the same confederate coin.
I can't think of any way to be more clear about this...
Corporate lobbyists are, and have been for a very long time, destroying this country. The overwhelming majority of these persons who continually lobby our elected officials on the behalf of major corporations and special-interest groups do not have the nation's best interests in mind. Not in the slightest.
Sadly, closed-minded partisans, both Republican and Democrat, are aiding and abetting them when they continue to turn a blind eye to that which takes place in the party they affiliate with. Some of these sort of people post here.
The time has long-passed when Americans who ACTUALLY give a damn about the best interests of their country should organize, demand accountability from their elected officials, call-out corruption and abuse in government and agitate for needed improvements to our way of life. Instead of spending so much time attacking based merely on ideological bent, distracting everyone with this red vs. blue dichotomy, we could be achieving what so many who vote(d) for change sought to achieve.
And make no mistake, regardless what you think of him, that's how President Obama got elected. That's how Jon Corzine and Creigh Deeds got voted out this month. Whether their choice was right or wrong, large groups of voters people turned out to shift the nation and their state governments in a dramatical;y different direction than they were going. Average people are sick to fricking death of the BS, the corruption, the incompetence, the inefficiency; ultimately the dithering (I couldn't resist) while Rome burns.
The vitriol propagated by Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Keith Olbermann and Ed Shultz isn't getting us anywhere, it's only fanning the flames. The Fox News/MSNBC media wars are bringing us paralysis at a time when we can least afford it.
Tea partiers may believe that 'they want their country back' because there isn't a staunch conservative in the white house, but they are right about one thing, we, all of us, are losing our country - to a myriad of sinister forces. It isn't one party, it isn't one policy, it isn't one group or one particular political ideology. It isn't one corporation and certainly not one individual.
I know it is cliche, but we've all heard the saying 'united we stand, divided we fall'. It is true. Divide and conquer is a real and effective tactic. And today we are a nation divided.
Alright, now I'll get down off my soapbox.
Excellent post Dragon. I was all fired up about Genentech and how false this whole situation is but you did all the heavy lifting for me. Thanks.
Your statement reiterating "United we stand, divided we fall" has been lost in all the bombast lately but it couldn't be more relevant. If we don't find a way to work with one another our country will go down (faster than it already is).
I hate it when someone compares Olbermann or even Shultz to liars like Limbaugh or Beck.
Yes, Olbermann has a pov that he is not shy about expressing, but he uses facts. You might disagree with him (or Shultz), but if you do so you should have a good factual argument to use. This is never the case with Flush or Beck. Facts are never relevent in their rants.
We live in a media world where the MSM is often to timid to condemn the right-wing for it's many crimes and errors. We also have a media like Fake News and Hate-Talk radio that works 24/7 to promote the lies of the right-wing, which is also over-represented with the newspaper pundits like Krauthammer, Will, and many others. Olbermann, Maddow and Shultz just a few of the liberal voices that can be heard in this sea of right-wing noise.
Equating pundits like Olbermann who tell the truth and opine against Republican and Democratic asinine behavior to fools on the right is wrong and muddle-headed.
I can appreciate where you are coming from. At least you didn't become belligerant about it.
Understand that my perspective is from the context of someone who has watched Keith Olbermann's show on a nearly daily basis for the past several years. I am fully aware that Keith Olbermann doesn't just make things up as he goes along, unlike Beck and Limbaugh. But surely you would admit that he has increasingly reduced himself to a similar level of vitriol. There is just such a bitter, biting element to it.
It's bad enough that most of what these guys provide is merely their biased interpretation of current events, or that they don't have the courage to debate with their opponents (Ed Shultz an exception), but there is such a petty vendicitiveness now among these "journalists". Not only are their platforms not improving our public discourse on substantive issues, they're actually detracting from it. Look no further than the blogs. It's a vicious cycle.
Like I said, I have watched Mr. Olbermann for years, but over time I have become very disillusioned with him. I've gone through this before. I used to watch Fox news up to and even some time after 9/11. Their jingoism after the outbreak of the war in Iraq ended that.
I stopped watching Bill-O years ago. Screaming at the TV just wasn't worth it anymore. I stopped watching Lou Dobbs over the past year. Now I'm not so sure I'm going to be watching Olbermann anymore. I do like Rachel Maddow, though. And I can't resist Hardball, though sometimes I don't know why... ;)
We have become a fascist nation. Time to reread Marx.
America has been controlled by the few for the benefit of the few for most of it's history. FDR's "New Deal" gave the working man a chance and the middle-class grew after WWII, but the Republican Party has been repealing bits and pieces of the New Deal ever since.
With Raygun they began their assault on a society that worked for most people, and returned us once again to a society that genuflected to the rich.
We're paying the price for that stupidity, and hopefully can return to a more New Deal oriented society again.
No surprise here. Anyone who doesn't know that congressmen take money for producing industry-friendly legislation must be living in a hole. This goes on not only in health care, but in banking, natural resources, farming, you name it. It's all about money to get reelected.
Stop the way campaigns are financed and we'll get legislation that's actually in the best interests of the nation.
In order to understand where Plantegenet is coming from, one needs to look up the word in Google. He is aligning himself with a thousand year old anachronism. He is mentally pre-renaissance and his thinking shows it. He is solidly midieval, pre Magna Charta.
Everybody knew Republicans were for the "big business". Democrats on the other hand were supposed to be for the people (not even working class anymore since this is shrinking in the era of Welfare State). This is in my mind the biggest news.President claimed to limit the access of lobbyists to the government! They are, togeather with lawyers responsible for our Contry's fall. Many represent interests of foreing governments and get paid with partnerships in bogus corporations set for them overseas so they don't have to report this income as the "lobbyist" fees! They know ,many of the "causes" they push are harmful to our Country yet choose to serve their foreign masters! We do need to take US back from the politicians and their lobbyists pals, before it is too late! I believe the political system is as broke as our financial one.
@ Periscope- I don't know where your "periscope" is looking at but it wasn't the New Deal that ended Great Depression. It was the WWII. I don't think more power to the Unions,relief programmes in the era of Global economy would do US any good.
Thank you.
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