Ever Wonder What Motivates People To Contribute To Politicians-- Take Banksters And Nuclear Dump Owners For Example

"[C]ontributions from parties with an interest in legislation are really nothing but bribes. Sure, it's legal for the most part. Sure, everyone in Washington does it. Sure it's the way the system works. It's one of Washington's dirty little secrets-- but it's bribery just the same..."- Jack Abramoff, Capitol Punishment

I bet there aren't many DWT readers who flip between us and American Banker-- and that includes me. But someone sent me a story they ran this week that I thought I should share: Bankers For SuperPac for 'Surgical' Strike At Industry's Enemies. That set off alarm bells. couldn't any remotely non-corrupt politician be defined as the enemy of the banksters?

Frustrated by a lack of political power and fed up with blindly donating to politicians who consistently vote against the industry's interests, a handful of leaders are determined to shake things up.

They have formed the industry's first SuperPAC-- dubbed Friends of Traditional Banking-- that is designed to target the industry's enemies and support its friends in Congress.

"It comes back to the old philosophy of walking softly and carrying a big stick," says Howard Headlee, the president and chief executive officer of the Utah Bankers Association. "But we've got no big stick. And we should. We have the capacity to have one, we just aren't organized."

Think of it as an Emily's List for bankers and their allies.

"Congress isn't afraid of bankers," adds Roger Beverage, the president and CEO of the Oklahoma Bankers Association. "They don't think we'll do anything to kick them out of office. We are trying to change that perception."

Unlike traditional banking PACs, which target hundreds of House and Senate races, the SuperPAC instead is focusing on making a big difference in just a handful of close elections.

SuperPACs are the latest campaign finance innovation, made possible by two 2010 court decisions. They are officially known as "independent-expenditure only committees" because they are not allowed to coordinate their activities with candidates. SuperPACs are attractive because there are no limits on contributions or expenditures.

With a regular political action committee, like the American Bankers Association's BankPAC, an individual may donate no more than $5,000 a year. Then the PAC may contribute up to $10,000 to any one candidate in an election cycle-- $5,000 for the primary and another $5,000 for the general election.

But Friends of Traditional Banking can direct as much money as it can raise to certain races without such restrictions. Matt Packard, the SuperPAC's chairman and president and CEO of $670 million-asset Central Bank in Provo, Utah, views the SuperPAC as a complement to BankPAC.

"BankPAC is much broader and covers lots of different candidates. This is much more surgical," Packard says. "If someone says I am going to give your opponent $5,000 or $10,000, you might say, 'Yea, okay.' But if you say the bankers are going to put in $100,000 or $500,000 or $1 million into your opponent's campaign, that starts to draw some attention.

In case you're wondering where this is going, Packard himself only contributes to far right candidates like Jason Chaffetz and Willard. Ditto for co-organizers Howard Headlee (Chaffetz, Willard, McCain) and Roger Beverage (Blunt, Boren, Inhofe, Lucas, Sullivan, Fallin-- although he unsuccessfully tried bribing Elizabeth Warren and Barney Frank, probably the genesis of his anger). Although as you can see from the Tim Holden video above, not all corrupt congressmen serving the interests of teh Big Banks are Republicans. Blue Dogs, like Holden, are just as bad.

The banksters want their way and they don't want anyone questioning their motivations or casting doubt on their integrity. But their greed and avarice crashed the entire economy and destroyed the lives and dreams of millions of Americans. And not one bankster went to prison for it. In China, scores of them would have been rounded up and shot... which perhaps would have made future banksters more reticent about shenanigans the jeopardize the entire society. But instead they're forming a SuperPAC. I might mention that the Finance Sector is already the single biggest force for bribery in Washington. This cycle alone they have so far spent $207,196,396, 31.8% for Democrats (mostly conservatives, of course) and 52.2% for Republicans. Since 1989 the sector has poured over a billion dollars into bribing Members of Congress. In the case of the House, they spent $671,713,451, most of it ($370,956,409) on Republicans. Any regular DWT reader should easily be able to name the 3 most heavily bribed current House Members: Republican Speaker John Boehner ($6,391,518), Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor ($6,054,515) and Republican Chairman of the Financial Services Committee Spencer Bachus ($5,563,334). One of America's biggest problems is that the banksters have too much influence over the politicians, not that they don't have enough.

Of course, it isn't only the bankster scumbags who are destroying America in the name of their own demented selfishness and greed. Yesterday Bloomberg ran an exposé on the Republican Party's biggest bribe giver, Texas far right billionaire Harold Simmons. And, as they point out, his motivations are clear.

Harold Simmons built a West Texas dump for radioactive waste that is bigger than 1,000 football fields and he can’t fill it.

To turn it into a profitable enterprise, the Texas billionaire hired lobbyists to urge the Obama administration to expand the types of nuclear waste, including depleted uranium, the dump can accept and award his company disposal contracts. If the Nuclear Regulatory Commission changes the rule, it could open access to a market worth billions. The deadline for a decision is in 2014.

Simmons now is spending money in a new way that could improve his business prospects: He’s invested $15.9 million this election cycle in various groups to help elect Republicans, who advocate easing regulations on the nuclear industry.

The largest chunk of Simmons’s campaign cash-- $12 million-- has gone to American Crossroads, a so-called super political action committee that takes unlimited donations and has a stated mission of defeating President Barack Obama. He has given at least $700,000 to Restore Our Future, a super-PAC backing Republican front-runner Mitt Romney, whose call for a fast-tracked permitting process for new nuclear plants could benefit Simmons’s Waste Control Specialists LLC.

“Whatever federal switch has to be thrown to get uranium into the hole, believe me, it will be thrown; that’s how Harold Simmons works,” said Glenn Lewis, a former Texas environmental employee who retired in protest to Simmons’s influence in the state permitting process for his dump.

If it were up to me I'd dump Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, Kennedy and Alito and their families in the middle of Simmons' dump and make them live there.

Can You Guess Who Senator Corndog Is?

Hint: he ain't got any bullets in his gun. And his good friend and longtime political ally, George W. Bush, gave him the nickname. More hints? Well... he's certainly one of the most favored of all members of Congress by Mr and Mrs Satan (in fact, their Contran PAC alone gave him $42,500 in the current election cycle) and he's the #1 most bribed senator by Big Oil (not counting John McCain who is, after all, running for President). Big Oil "donated $484,100 so far this year-- for services rendered-- and have given him $1,317,825 since he was first elected. Still not ringin' any bells? He's also the #1 recipient of cash from the gun fanatics-- over $15,000 this year alone-- and not counting presidential candidates (again, McCain is, by far #1), he is the biggest recipient of "donations" from car dealers who sell foreign-made autos. That's a big hint because if anyone in the Senate is responsible for destroying the American manufacturing base and for supporting policies that have led directly to the outsourcing of American jobs, it is Senator Corndog.

Still stumped? OK, the booze industry-- again McCain is by far their biggest recipient-- gives more to this guy ($88,400 this year alone) than to any senator not running for president. So do commercial banks ($201,548 this year), who are appreciative in his steadfast help in weakening the federal regulatory agencies enough so that there would be so little oversight that... well, you heard of the real estate bust, I'm sure. Thank Corndog.

OK, if you haven't guessed yet, maybe you stopped following the intricacies of campaign finance after McCain's cynical and very superficial regulations just made the whole mess worse. Fair enough. Let's look at Senator Corndog's voting record instead. Here is a list of categories in which he is the very worst-- i.e., most reactionary-- of all 100 senators:

-The well-being of America's military personnel
-Response to the Darfour humanitarian crisis
-Respect for international treaties and the United Nations and arms control treaties
-Relations with Cuba
-Nuclear weapons
-Intelligence agency oversight
-Aid to needy children
-Aid to American veterans
-Aid to workers negatively impacted by trade agreements like NAFTA and CAFTA
-Aid to needy senior citizens
-Aid to Native Americans
-Aid to impoverished women
-Aid to small family farms
-Aid to Big Pharma
-Aid to the Insurance Industry
-Aid to banks and credit card companies
-Aid to the asbestos industry
-Aid to the firearms industry
-Public education
-Air pollution
-Clean water
-Humane treatment of animals
-Renewable energy
-Choice
-Availability of contraceptives
-Coziness with lobbyists
-Coziness with Big Tobacco
-Heath care
-Foreclosures
-Hate crimes
-Individual rights
-Separation of Church and State
-Freedom of Speech and Press
-Government surveillance of citizens
-Human rights
-Drug prevention
-Judicial nominations
- Protection of working men and women to organize unions
-Pension protection
-Occupational safety and health
-Outsourcing of American jobs overseas
-Civil rights
-Preserving Social Security
-Ethics in Congress
-Campaign finance reform

Again, this isn't a list of areas where Senator Corndog is bad. This is a list of where Senator Corndog is the worst member of the U.S. Senator (although in many cases tied with other right-wing extremists like Inhofe, McConnell and McCain). OK, enough with the guessing game? This little animated song and dance will give it all away:

Harold Simmons, America's Biggest-- and Most Crooked-- Financier Of Hate Politics And Smears

Crooked GOP Sen. Susan Collins Refuses To Return The Tainted Money From Mr & Mrs Satan

Since posting about reactionary billionaire, swift boat funder, and hate-monger Harold Simmons yesterday, we've had more than a dozen e-mails from people in Texas claiming inside knowledge of not just activities that will keep Simmons out of Heaven, but activities that, if they were provable in court, would have him spending the little bit left of his wretched life in a prison cell. I'll pass on publishing the ones that I can't verify and the personal stuff and just stick to the political dirt.

It's well known that the twice-divorced ne'er-do-well was sued by his two daughters. What I didn't know is that some of what came out in the process is that he'd been funneling vast amounts of money to Republican candidates by forging documents making it look like the donations were coming from other people (like the two daughters). Under questioning, and threatened with perjury charges, he admitted in court that he forged his two daughters' signatures to make political contributions from family trusts to various Republican candidates. Simmons has said that from 1991 to 1995 he made $110,000 in contributions to political action committees (PACs) in his daughters' names without their knowledge or permission. He later settled a lawsuit with them for $50 million.

So why aren't slimy Republican crooks who routinely look after his business interests in the Senate, like Susan Collins (R-ME), Gordon Smith (R-OR), Norm Coleman (R-MN), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), John Cornyn (R-TX), Elizabeth Dole (R-NC), John Sununu (R-NH), James Inhofe (R-OK), Pat Roberts (R-KS), and others upon whom he has lavished thousands and thousands of tainted dollars, returning the money? And while we're on the subject, so far this year Simmons' shady Dalen PAC has made efforts to buy the loyalty of the following senators and Senate candidates (all Republicans):

Lamar Alexander (R-TN, $2,000)
Norm Coleman (R-MN, $5,000)
John Cornyn (R-TX, $10,000)
Elizabeth Dole (R-NC, $5,000)
Michael Johanns (R-NE, $5,000)
James Risch (R-ID, $5,000)
Bob Schaffer (R-CO, $5000)
John McCain (R-AZ, $5,000)

The same suspicious PAC handed out $130,000 in 2006 to some of the most extreme right members of (and candidates for) Congress. Although almost all of his Senate patsies lost-- like Michael Steele (R-MD, $10,000), Mark Kennedy (R-MN, $7,000), James Talent (R-MO, $6,000), Conrad Burns (R-MT, $6,000), George "Macacawitz" Allen (R-VA, $5,000), Mike DeWine (R-OH, $5,000), Rick Santorum (R-PA, $5,000), Stephen Laffey (R-RI, $5,000), Michael McGavick (R-WA, $5,000), and Pete Ricketts (R-NE, $5,000)-- he still has his hooks into dozens of Republican House members he and his PAC have financed, especially Kay Grangers (R-TX), Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Michele Bachmann (R-MN), Jim Gerlach (R-PA), Michael McCaul (R-TX), and Chris Shays (R-CT).

According to the Dallas Morning News, "The two daughters, Andrea Swanson, 33, and Scheryle Patigian, 44, contend in a lawsuit over control of the family trust that Mr. Simmons made hundreds of thousands of dollars of contributions in their names without their permission in violation of federal campaign law."

He also funnels money to Republicans through his Contran Industries PAC. So in addition to what he's given personally, given fraudulently from his daughters, and given through Dalen PAC, he's also given hundreds of thousands more-- mostly to the same far right candidates like McCain, McConnell, Cornyn, Dole, Inhofe, etc.-- through Contran, $100,000 this year alone.

Who Is Reactionary Billionaire Harold Simmons-- And Why Is He Financing Millions of Dollars in TV Ads To Smear Barack Obama?

Evil incarnate

There isn't a more sleazy and disreputable political operator in America than 77 year old Harold Clark Simmons. Credited as one of the fathers of predatory capitalism, the far right Texas billionaire developed the concept of the leveraged buyout. One of McCain's primary financial backers, Simmons, worth over $7 billion, has a long and sordid history in extremist political sleaze. He's probably best known for having donated $4 million dollars to finance the Swift Boat campaign of lies against John Kerry in 2004, allowing the most ruinous administration in American history to capture the presidency. He is determined to spend whatever it takes to smear Obama with any lie anyone wants to make up about him. Even Fox has refused to show his ads (sort of).

Today's NY Times ran a piece on Simmons' attempt to subvert democracy with his billions. Simmons is spending millions of dollars on trying to tie Barack Obama to a radical who bombed the Capitol when Obama was 8 years old. It is just a small beginning for what Simmons intends to do to make sure McCain-- and his policies-- wind up in control of America.

Simmons is one of the very worst examples of a social criminal in America and his companies make money by poisoning the earth. Without corrupt political hacks like John McCain and George Bush, creatures like Harold Simmons, one of the 50 richest men in America, could not exist. Besides financing more smear campaigns than anyone else in American history, Simmons has donated hundreds of thouands of dollars to extremist Republicans (as well as to a small handful of recationary Democrats, particularly Nancy Pelosi's candidate for the vice presidency, Chet Edwards). When Jesus talked about camels getting through the eyes of a needle he had Harold Simmons in mind. In South Africa Satan gave them Mark Scott-Crossley; in Texas, the Angel of Darkness cursed us with Harold Clark Simmons.