I think the real danger from lobbyists is putting them in charge of drafting legislation

Well, if this part is true, Also, she said, Corr has agreed to recuse himself from tobacco-related issues. , okay, but I'd rather Obama stuck to his promise more strictly.

Headline is dumb, though, of course, since there's no "dough" connection.

Hey I have a great idea. Let's run this once a day til he leaves office.

From last time:

ProducedBy: Subby, your an idiot. read the rules they put forth, considerd the most restrictive in history...

Obama Transition Announces Rules for Lobbyists in Transition

Washington, DC: During a briefing today at the Presidential Transition Team headquarters, Obama Transition Co-Chair John Podesta announced the strictest, and most far reaching ethics rules of any transition team in history. The rules are:

• Federal lobbyists cannot contribute financially to the transition.
• Federal lobbyists are prohibited from any lobbying during their work with the transition.
• If someone has lobbied in the last 12 months, they are prohibited from working in the fields of policy on which they lobbied.
• If someone becomes a lobbyist after working on the Transition, they are prohibited from lobbying the Administration for 12 months on matters on which they worked.
• A gift ban that is aggressive in reducing the influence of special interests.

Obdicut: but I'd rather Obama stuck to his promise more strictly.

You're in for a looooong four years.

Obdicut: I'd rather Obama stuck to his promise more strictly.

Maybe he should have hired circus midget and sideshow freaks. OR MAYBE, you use people who have understanding of the inner workings of Washington.

When you establish and entire Presidential Administration, you better be using people who have some idea of on what is going.

Obama is using these "lobbyists" for their general knowledge and not for their expertise in corruption and corporate legislation.

As long as he doesn't have male prostitutes in the White House to service is Administration Staff, he is more than one up on the last eight (8) years.

Dancin_In_Anson: You're in for a looooong four years.

If this is the kind of thing I can expect, I'll be absolutely fine.

Not perfectly living up to incredible heights of ethics still means you're being very, very ethical.

I suppose in a black and white world, it would mean I was in for a long four years.

It seems like the rules say that you aren't allowed to work on the fields for which you've lobbied in the past year. Since he has agreed to step back from tobacco related issues I don't see a very strong conflict.

Obdicut: I suppose in a black and white world, it would mean I was in for a long four years.

I don't know anyone who could get through the day without two or three juicy rationalizations. They're more important than sex.

Ah, come on. Nothing's more important than sex.


Oh yeah? Ever gone a week without a rationalization?

Don't sweat it. Dancin hates everything.

Dusk-You-n-Me: Don't sweat it. Dancin hates everything.

No, he doesn't hate anything. He likes torture, illegal wiretapping, wars in Iraq and male prostitutes in the press room.

It's going to be fun watching the Democrats heads asplode when they realize that Obama is just another corrupt Chicago politician.

SpeshilEdjukashin: It's going to be fun watching the Democrats heads asplode when they realize that Obama is just another corrupt Chicago politician.

Yeah, putting the toughest ethics rules in history in his White House is totally corrupt. That jerk!

Meet the new boss, same as the old.

eddyatwork: Meet the new boss, same as the old.

Yeah, having the toughest ethics rules in the history of the White House is totally the same as the laxest standards since the Teapot Dome scandal. Exactly the same thing.

Atillathepun: Yeah, having the toughest ethics rules in the history of the White House is totally the same as the laxest standards since the Teapot Dome scandal. Exactly the same thing.

You are a step behind the question. What is being discussed is whether or not he will follow his "toughest ethics rules in the history of the White House". Hopefully he will do so better than his campaign finance pledge.

This is all part of the idiotic "guilt by association" thing the right lives. Doesn't matter if your relationship with someone is productive, logical, ethical, and efficient - if that person has ever done something you don't like, you are not allowed to know them.

Idiots.

DandamanFL: You are a step behind the question. What is being discussed is whether or not he will follow his "toughest ethics rules in the history of the White House". Hopefully he will do so better than his campaign finance pledge.

The ethics rules spelled out are being followed thus far.

And I can't believe you just repeated the campaign finance canard. Obama NEVER said "I'll take public financing, no matter what." By the time the choice to go public or private came around, McCain has already stretched or even broken at the very least the spirit of the law he himself co-authored. McCain had stated publicly that there was little he could do about 527s. The RNC was pouring funds into the race that the DNC could not match.

Here's the problem - everybody who has any farking experience at anything in DC has worked as a lobbyist at some point.

Oh no, not an anti-tobacco lobbyist.

This is a far far cry from Bush taking a Monsanto executive and putting them in the EPA.

Monsanto is the most evil corporation on the planet, creators of agent orange and DDT (among a list of other horrible products like Roundup and the terminator seed). They also polluted a river so bad that if you put a live fish in it, in just minutes its skin came off and it died.

And Bush put one of their executives (Linda Fisher) in the Environmental PROTECTION Agency.

One of the leading members of President-elect Barack Obama's Health and Human Services transition team was an anti-tobacco lobbyist as recently as September

Oh, the horror. He might be an agent of Big Anti-Tobacco.

I can't stop... my latest solution for the GOP "rebuild the party" site


Promote solutions to make penises larger. (new window)

As a nation we have lost our manhood. Truck Nutz are one possible solution but when getting to the full length and girth of the problem, it turns out that we need not only more but larger members. I propose extending a package providing the proper tools to government organs to distribute, at no cost, penis enlargment pills to the male members of our party. Plus Ann Coulter.

keiverarrow: I think the real danger from lobbyists is putting them in charge of drafting legislation

Checks, Balances and Transparency - That's the key to a well regulated government.

The thing about lobbyists is not that they're special intrests or that they write legislations, It's that to have influence, it needs money.

Thus the ones with the most amounts of money has most amount of influence. Usually.

Funny thing, you can consider any group with an intrest into changing the legislation a lobbyist - Wouldn't Martin Luthor King then be considered an lobbyist?

/ The good, bad and the ugly. Man, that title has it all!

ANTI-TOBACCO. Right, so you want to put someone who lobbied against one of the single most damaging products to health in the past century on the health and human services team.

YOUR CRAZY OBAMA! Resign now.

You farking people couldn't see things objectively if your lives depended on it.

SpeshilEdjukashin [TotalFark] Quote 2008-11-15 10:47:55 AM
It's going to be fun watching the Democrats heads asplode when they realize that Obama is just another corrupt Chicago politician.


They have known it all along. What's going to be fun is to watch the hoops they jump through to make excuses for him.

SuburbanCowboy:

They also polluted a river so bad that if you put a live fish in it, in just minutes its skin came off and it died.

And Bush put one of their executives (Linda Fisher) in the Environmental PROTECTION Agency.


That's pretty funny.

/not about the fish, that's sad

An anti-tobacco lobbyist in charge of Health and Human Services?

Oh ho ho. Karma's not only a biatch, she's quick!

Ain't she, North Carolina???

Phil Moskowitz: You farking people couldn't see things objectively if your lives depended on it.

THIS

Can you guys agree that Obama technically went against something he said?

unlikely: • If someone has lobbied in the last 12 months, they are prohibited from working in the fields of policy on which they lobbied.

This guy lobbied the FDA in the past 12 months, according to the article. The FDA falls under HHS' jurisdiction, according to the article. He's part of the HHS transition.

Is it horrible? No. He's against unhealthy tobacco. We'd want someone like that in the HHS. But he did lobby the FDA, which falls under the HHS.

it is not possible to work with a lobbyist without losing either a piece of your credibility or a piece of your soul

He lobbyed against cigs for kids? What an a-hole. Guys like him and Obama are going to ruin America.

priestrape: it is not possible to work with a lobbyist without losing either a piece of your credibility or a piece of your soul

That might be the reason why lobbyists and politicians are so attracted to each other.

The Great Placator will always say the shiat that gets you to believe he's with you.

That's how he earned the title.

You mean government under Dear Leader will be business as usual???

But....but...where is the change? Where is the hope?

Where is the hope?

*slaps a hand onto each cheek*

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

NYZooMan: The Great Placator will always say the shiat that gets you to believe he's with you.

That's how he earned the title.

No, I believe the title is "President-Elect" which must make you die a little inside every time you read it.

Lobbyist is such a general term, I have never understood why it is treated like a bad word. I mean sure, there are scummy lobbyists who lobby for scummy causes, but that is not all of them. Any special interest (which has also become a dirty word) has their own lobbyists, that is how they push their agendas in Washington. It must be hard for the democrats to demonize lobbyists when they are the party of special interests.

Is someone who lobbys against tobacco really just as bad as someone who lobbys for tobacco, just because they are both "lobbyists"?

Corr has agreed to recuse himself from tobacco-related issues.


Which complies with the rules they established for the transition team. So, can somebody explain the butthurt whining to me, please?

Stoj: Can you guys agree that Obama technically went against something he said?

unlikely: • If someone has lobbied in the last 12 months, they are prohibited from working in the fields of policy on which they lobbied.

This guy lobbied the FDA in the past 12 months, according to the article. The FDA falls under HHS' jurisdiction, according to the article. He's part of the HHS transition.

Is it horrible? No. He's against unhealthy tobacco. We'd want someone like that in the HHS. But he did lobby the FDA, which falls under the HHS.

He was a tabacco lobbyist. He has to recuse himself from tabacco related issues. That seems to fit exactly with the promise that he made ahead of time. I dont see the issue here.

tobacco

I cant spell. Never could.

wow - they've actually got that gay political meter here.

If the Next Occupant listens closely he will hear the same thing The Current Occupant and Previous Occupants heard. The sound of disappointment from the followers.

Krazikarl: He was a tabacco lobbyist. He has to recuse himself from tabacco related issues. That seems to fit exactly with the promise that he made ahead of time. I dont see the issue here.

Personally, I think it's unfortunate that he had to recuse himself. Somebody who lobbied against underaged smoking SHOULD be involved in tobacco-related issues.

This is not surprising. Obama has already proven that he cannot keep his word...the only question remains is how long his followers will continue to blindly support him.

Krazikarl: Stoj: Can you guys agree that Obama technically went against something he said?

unlikely: • If someone has lobbied in the last 12 months, they are prohibited from working in the fields of policy on which they lobbied.

This guy lobbied the FDA in the past 12 months, according to the article. The FDA falls under HHS' jurisdiction, according to the article. He's part of the HHS transition.

Is it horrible? No. He's against unhealthy tobacco. We'd want someone like that in the HHS. But he did lobby the FDA, which falls under the HHS.

He was a tabacco lobbyist. He has to recuse himself from tabacco related issues. That seems to fit exactly with the promise that he made ahead of time. I dont see the issue here.

SHH!! this is Fark! We will have none of that Logic talk here!

Edsel: Corr has agreed to recuse himself from tobacco-related issues.


Which complies with the rules they established for the transition team. So, can somebody explain the butthurt whining to me, please?

The outrage is coming from School Board Officials (and wannabes) who can only think in terms of zero tolerance rules. The ability to exercise any type of actual judgement escapes them.

Swampthing in Korea: You mean government under Dear Leader will be business as usual???

But....but...where is the change? Where is the hope?

Where is the hope?

*slaps a hand onto each cheek*

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Did you bother to read ANYTHING before putting in your 2 cents?

cameroncrazy1984: NYZooMan: The Great Placator will always say the shiat that gets you to believe he's with you.

That's how he earned the title.

No, I believe the title is "President-Elect" which must make you die a little inside every time you read it.

Just call him President Obama already. "President Elect" is too technical. I have never referred to George Bush as President Bush because it feels like a throwback to the early 90s. I called Bill Clinton by his name and his title, depending how I felt that day.

wutchamacallem: If the Next Occupant listens closely he will hear the same thing The Current Occupant and Previous Occupants heard. The sound of disappointment from the followers.

Your unwarranted cynicism is delicious. Tastes like candy.

JimmyCarter'sSecondTerm: Just call him President Obama already. "President Elect" is too technical. I have never referred to George Bush as President Bush because it feels like a throwback to the early 90s. I called Bill Clinton by his name and his title, depending how I felt that day.

You are the weirdest person on the internet. And I mean that.

skipjack: This is not surprising. Obama has already proven that he cannot keep his word...the only question remains is how long his followers will continue to blindly support him.

Didn't take you long to blindly hate, did it?