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Blagojevich scandal speaks to larger issue of money in politics
By Daryn Cambridge
Posted on Fri Dec 12, 2008 at 04:19:03 PM EST
The Blagojevich scandal, which has put Illinois politics on the front pages of every national newspaper, at first glance appears to be an isolated ethics issue - politician abusing his office for financial gain. Blagojevich clearly has a low set of ethical standards, however, the real culprit in this scandal is a pay to play political system where political access and influence are bought through campaign contributions. And unfortunately, most of the country is currently run under this kind of political system.
The prevailing system of privately financing political campaigns encourages and promotes the kind of behavior that will most likely land Blagojevich in jail. In fact, private financing of campaigns actually rewards politicians like Blagojevich who are willing to do anything to raise campaign cash - such as threatening to deny state reimbursement for a Children's Hospital unless the hospital's president agrees to donate $50,000 to the campaign.
Blagojevich may have been caught, but politicians engage in these kinds of quid-pro-quo practices all the time because that is what the prevailing campaign financing system requires. Jefferson, Rangel, Blagojevich: What's Obama to Do?
By Daryn Cambridge
Posted on Wed Dec 10, 2008 at 09:35:59 AM EST
And the hits just keep on coming - faster than I can actually blog about them! As Obama plows ahead with the transition into the White House, he must now take a firm stand on several ethics issues facing politicians in Washington and Illinois. Now is the time to recognize these issue as the outcome of a political system corroded by the influence of money and special interests.
First, indicted Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA):
Jefferson, a Louisiana Democrat who likely faces a trial next year on bribery and money laundering charges, can no longer offer his resignation as part of a plea deal with prosecutors. Jefferson has pleaded not guilty in the case, which started in 2005 when federal agents found $90,000 in alleged bribe money stashed in the freezer of his Washington home.
That led to last year's indictment on charges that he took bribes, laundered money and misused his congressional office for business dealings in Africa. Jefferson has promised there is an "honorable explanation" for the money in the freezer, although he has yet to make it public. His campaign did not return a call for comment Monday. It turns out Louisiana voters will not tolerate an indicted congressman who has been made famous for freezing bribery money. Jefferson, an incumbent in a heavily Democratic district, ended up losing to Republican Ahn "Joseph" Ceo. Its nice to see that the desire for honest and ethical governing trumps partisanship.
Apollo Alliance: Big Oil and Senator Inhofe Blocking Clean Energy Legislation
By Daryn Cambridge
Posted on Sun Dec 07, 2008 at 06:21:35 PM EST
I just got an email from the Apollo Alliance that demonstrates the need for activists on several issues - environmentalists in particular - to join in solidarity with Common Cause in working to implement public financing of campaigns.
Part of the email reads: We can see change coming. The President-elect and other new leaders in Washington are ready to re-power our economy. There's a real chance now that we can end our addiction to fossil fuels and put Americans to work with good, green jobs.
But we know Big Oil has the money, influence, and friends like Inhofe to throw up roadblocks at every turn. Their war chest is enormous - the three largest U.S. oil companies raked in $71.2 billion in profits so far in 2008 - and some have upped their spending on lobbyists by more than 70% this year.
They're already pressuring our leaders with everything they've got.
Key lawmakers like Inhofe will make critical decisions about whether Big Oil's dirty fingerprints are all over our future energy policy. If we can show that America is watching - with thousands of letters from people like you - we can curb their back-room dealing.
Americans demand an economic recovery that moves us into the future - one built on clean energy and millions of green-collar jobs. For obstructionists like Inhofe, it's time to stand down. Take action on this issue. Bob Edgar and I made a similar point on Marc Sussman's Money Message show this past weekend. Marc is a big environmentalists and is particularly concerned about the influence of coal fired powered plants. We mentioned that big energy (the coal, oil, and gas industries) contribute, on average, 50 times the amount of money to election campaigns as do environmental groups. As a result, big energy lobbyists have a lot of access and influence in shaping energy policy and controlling the debate. If our elected officials no longer had to rely on campaign contributions from the very industries for which they write laws, the Apollo Alliance would not have to write these kinds of emails. Big energy would no longer be able to use their financial might to obstruct a clean energy policy that is so urgently needed. Common Cause on Marc Sussman's Money Message
By Daryn Cambridge
Posted on Sun Dec 07, 2008 at 05:59:20 PM EST
This past saturday, Bob Edgar and I were on Marc Sussman's Money Message on Air America. We covered several topics. Our segment begins at 10 minutes. Give it a listen.
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flashvars=enablejs=true&width=300&height=15&autostart=false&file= http://airamerica.com/ondemand/play/92066.mp3" style="display: block; pluginspage= http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer type=application/x-shockwave-flash /> Obama Works to Make White House "The People's House"
By Daryn Cambridge
Posted on Sun Dec 07, 2008 at 03:55:05 PM EST
Over the past couple weeks the Obama transition team has signaled a number of positive developments in their efforts to open governemt to the people and encouraging them to participate.
First, the transition team is giving the American people a seat at the table.
In a memo released today (December 5th), Obama-Biden Transition Project Co-chair John D. Podesta announced that all policy documents from official meetings with outside organizations will be publicly available for review and discussion on Change.gov.
This means we're inviting the American public to take a seat at the table and engage in a dialogue about these important issues and ideas -- at the same time members of our team review these documents themselves...
Talking face-to-face with advocates and experts is a vital part of the Transition. But in past transitions, meetings like these took place behind closed doors and lacked the public input and transparency we're working hard to provide.
This is the kind of openness and accountability that Common Cause has been advocating for years. We encourage all our members, supporters and citizens alike, to take advantage of this openess and work to keep the new administation honest and accountable. We have already called on our supporters to visit Change.gov and submit their vision for the country by calling on the president to empower Americans and support public financing of campaigns that gives voice to small donors, and helps ensure our government work for the public interest and not the special interest.
Origins of Financial Crisis Start to Reveal Themselves
By Daryn Cambridge
Posted on Mon Dec 01, 2008 at 07:37:42 PM EST
Even though Americans have felt the pinch for over a year now with decreased wages and rising unemployment, yesterday marked the official declaration of America's economic recession.
The National Bureau of Economic Research said in a statement that it "determined that the decline in economic activity in 2008 met the standard for a recession."
That confirms what economists have long surmised, but analysts have already turned their attention to how severe the downturn will be and when the economy will begin to recover. New economic data today indicated that the downturn continues to be worse than expected.
This, of course, continued to stifle confidence in the market and has kept America headed down a path of economic uncertainty.
However, there is an element to this economic crisis that is becoming more certain; its origins. Catering to interests from financial and banking industry lobbyists, the Bush administration and members of congress feigned warnings that the massive deregulation of increasingly risky credit schemes would wreak havoc on the economy.
Bowing to aggressive lobbying -- along with assurances from banks that the troubled mortgages were OK -- regulators delayed action for nearly one year. By the time new rules were released late in 2006, the toughest of the proposed provisions were gone and the meltdown was under way. Deregulating the financial markets - making way for the highly profitable rise of sub-prime loans and credit default swaps - most certainly produced record profits for Wall Street CEOs. However, such recklessness and greed has not only devastated Main Street but is now destroying the solvency and liquidity of the financial industry.
Such an addiction to profit, no matter the consequence, has infected the the private financial sector and has also influenced the public sector that was supposed to regulate and temper the dangers of short-sighted self-interest and greed. Top 10 Worst Corporations of 2008
By Daryn Cambridge
Posted on Tue Nov 25, 2008 at 11:47:15 AM EST
The Multinational Monitor releases an annual list of the 10 worst corporations of the year and in this year's report there are some familiar faces: AIG, Cargill, Chevron, Constellation Energy, Chinese National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), Dole, General Electric (GE), Imperial Sugar, Phillip Morris International, and Roche. There are common themes that tie together many of the unethical and harmful activities these corporations have committed, and in many cases, gotten away with. Cheif among these themes is improper political influence. Corporations dominate the policy-making process, from city councils to global institutions like the World Trade Organization. Over the last 30 years, and especially the last decade, Wall Street interests leveraged their political power to remove many of the regulations that had restricted their activities. There are at least a dozen separate and significant examples of this, including the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999, which permitted the merger of banks and investment banks. In a form of corporate civil disobedience, Citibank and Travelers Group mergerd in 1998 - a move that was illegal at the time, but for which they were given a two-year forbearance - on the assumption that they would be able to force a change in the relevant law. They did, with the help of just-retired (at the time) Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, who went on to an executive position a the newly created Citigroup. Can you spell revolving door? And just this weekend the government agreed to another multi-billion dollar bailout for Citigroup.
Sustaining Youth Engagement in Politics
By Daryn Cambridge
Posted on Mon Nov 24, 2008 at 10:41:50 AM EST
As promised, more numbers have now been released showing the overwhelming impact young people had in determining the outcome of this election.
The patterns are...striking on a state-by-state basis. Obama won the 18-to-29 vote in 38 states and the District of Columbia, while in one state, Arkansas, the two candidates tied. McCain, by contrast, won the youngest voters in eight states. (For three states, data is not available.)
Obama didn't just win the youth vote in places that have long been considered blue, such as the group of 11 states plus Washington, D.C., where he garnered at least 70 percent of young voters. Nor were Obama's wins limited to formerly red states that turned blue this year, such as Indiana (63 percent), Nevada (67), North Carolina (72) and Virginia (60).
These numbers gives young people a strong voice to influence the policy of the new administration.
The question now is how does Common Cause harness the political power young people have and fold their creativity as agents of change into our pro-democracy movement? Youth advocates and policy experts are all looking at ways to answer this very question and Common Cause seems to be the thread that unites several ideas.
An article in the American Prospect asked the question, how do we keep Obama's youth mobilized? Here were some of the responses.
Jeff Blodgett, executive director of Wellstone Action and former Obama campaign Minnesota state director:
The progressive movement should also continue to give youth opportunities to develop their skills as organizers and leaders in their own right. If we fail to expand the progressive agenda, if we fail to offer youth leaders a seat at the table, we are missing a huge opportunity to grow the movement and align it with the interests of these new voters.
Common Cause's youth programs provide young people with sustained mentoring and training to help them become effective organizers in advancing the pro-democracy movement - a movement that impacts every single issue about which people care.
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