Lobbyists

Jason Linkins

Ten Things That Totally Sucked About The Media In 2009

HuffingtonPost.com | Jason Linkins | Posted 01.01.2010 | Media


Earlier, I offered up the Ten Things That Did Not Suck About The Media in 2009. You know what's coming now! The stuff in 2009 that straight up sucked canal water! Let's hit it and quit it.

Post-Madoff Reforms At SEC Scaled Back, Delayed, Canceled

bloomberg.com | Posted 12.30.2009 | Business


Mary Schapiro, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, said she wanted to show that her agency was cracking down after missing Bernar...

Jason Linkins

David Simon On Health Care Bill: "Only One Thing Can Make People This Stupid, And That's Money"

HuffingtonPost.com | Jason Linkins | Posted 12.28.2009 | Media


The most recent issue of Vice Magazine features an interview with David Simon, who unpacks at length on the television show he's best known for creati...

My 2009 "McLaughlin Awards" [Part 1]

Chris Weigant | Posted 12.26.2009 | Politics


Chris Weigant

Welcome once again to our year-end wrap-up and awards ceremony. Honesty dictates that I immediately genuflect to The McLaughlin Group, from whom I have stolen all these award categories.

Christmas 2009: We Know Who's Been Naughty... Nice Is a Little Harder to Find

Arianna Huffington | Posted 12.26.2009 | Comedy


Arianna Huffington

Time for my annual tradition of getting gifts for my favorite -- and not so favorite -- public figures, including Larry Summers whom I'm getting a Goldman Sachs pension (after all, he's earned it). READ MORE Newsmakers Roasting on an Open Fire: Your Gift Ideas for 2009's Naughty and Nice Here are your gift suggestions, including a GPS for Barack Obama, to show him the way from Wall Street to Main Street (submitted by manx). READ MORE The Senate Health Care Bill: Leave No Special Interest Behind There are many reasons for hoping the Senate health care bill doesn't become the law of the land. But the biggest reason of all is the desperate need for a DC pattern interrupt. READ MORE

Lobbyists On Pace For Record Year

Politico | VICTORIA MCGRANE | | Posted 12.22.2009 | Politics


Main Street has had a tough year, losing jobs and seeing little evidence of the economic revival that experts say has already begun. But K Street i...

Person of the Year: Let's Vote!

Mark Setton | Posted 12.21.2009 | Media


Mark Setton

Let's get straight to the point. Today Arianna Huffington suggested that Time magazine designate the Washington lobbyists "Persons of the Year." I t...

How Health Lobbyists Influenced Reform Bill

chicagotribune.com | Posted 12.20.2009 | Politics


David Nexon had a big problem. An early version of national health care legislation contained a $40 billion tax aimed squarely at members of the medic...

Sunday Roundup

Arianna Huffington | Posted 12.20.2009 | Politics


Arianna Huffington

This week, Time named Fed chair Ben Bernanke its Person of the Year. The magazine says its choice is "not an award," but rather a recognition of the person who "most influenced the news during the past year -- for good or for ill." Based on that criterion, Time should, without a doubt, have picked Washington lobbyists -- because no person or group was more influential in 2009. After an inspiring presidential campaign that promised to take on the special interests, the lobbyists flexed their muscles (and their wallets) and showed who really runs the show in DC. Lobbyists carried the day on health insurance reform, banking reform, financial reform, drug pricing, cramdown legislation, and credit card interest rates, to name just a few. And every time they won, the American people lost. It's Time for a reshoot. The Lobbyists: The Real Persons of the Year.

The Business Lobby In Copenhagen (VIDEO)

Posted 12.19.2009 | Green


Story by Kate Willson Video by Kate Willson and Andrew Green of the ...

BCS, Colleges, NewsCorp Spend A Fortune Lobbying College Football Playoff Proposals

Center for Responsive Politics | Dave Levinthal | Posted 12.17.2009 | Politics


House Resolution 390 will not result in troop deployments to Afghanistan, an overhaul of the U.S. health care system or the bolstering of an economy i...

Barack Obama, Inc.

Cenk Uygur | Posted 12.17.2009 | Politics


Cenk Uygur

The man who said he was going to challenge the system, fight corporate lobbyists and change the system now appears to be fighting for the status quo and corporate America at every turn.

Obama And The Banks: No Real Consensus On Financial Reform

AP | DANIEL WAGNER | Posted 12.16.2009 | Business


WASHINGTON — After meeting with bank executives, President Barack Obama noted "a big gap" between the CEOs and their lobbyists on his campaign t...

Daschle Had Public And Private Role In Push For Digital Health Records

Huffington Post Investigative Fund | Fred Schulte and Emma Schwartz | Posted 12.16.2009 | Politics


In the government's campaign to bring medical care into the digital age, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle has served as a key advisor to Pres...

Meet The Lobbyists: Oil And Coal (VIDEO)

Posted 12.11.2009 | Green


Special to The Huffington Post By Kate Willson and Andrew Green of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists for The Global Climate...

Meet The Lobbies: Agriculture (VIDEO)

Posted 12.10.2009 | Green


By Kate Willson and Andrew Green of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists for The Global Climate Change Lobby series: "Lobby On!...

Meet the Lobbies: Electricity and Gas (VIDEO)

Posted 12.09.2009 | Green


Special To The Huffington Post By Kate Willson and Andrew Green of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists for The Global Climate C...

Congressional Research Service Praises Lobbying Reforms Under Obama

politico.com | KENNETH P. VOGEL | Posted 12.03.2009 | Politics


Critics across the political spectrum have lambasted the Obama administration's restrictions on lobbying as everything from a loophole-ridden politica...

FEC Reverses Lawmakers' Self-Restriction On Corporate Jets; Senate "Should Be Furious": NYT Editorial

The New York Times | Posted 12.01.2009 | Politics


The Federal Election Commission -- the supposed referee of fair campaigning -- has just created an ethics loophole big enough for lobbyists to fly a c...

The US Chamber of Commerce Is Killing the Copenhagen Climate Treaty

James Hoggan | Posted 12.02.2009 | Green


James Hoggan

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has already done everything it can to kill the chances of a legally binding agreement emerging from the Copenhagen climate change summit.

The Fight For Biogenerics

Hilary Kramer | Posted 11.30.2009 | Politics


Hilary Kramer

You know a health care bill isn't right for the American people when it carves out a legal monopoly for Big Pharma and Botox. Our Congressional leaders should be capable of more.

Obama Pushes Lobbyists Off Federal Advisory Boards

Posted 11.27.2009 | Business


In a little-noticed blog post published on the White House website in September, President Obama's special counsel for ethics and government reform No...

Oil Giant Chevron Accused of "Extortion" on Capitol Hill

Han Shan | Posted 11.23.2009 | Green


Han Shan

Chevron is making an extraordinary lobbying effort to evade responsibility for its massive toxic contamination of the Ecuadorian Amazon. In solidarity with all communities where Big Oil puts profit ahead of people, we must say "no more."

Tax the Guy Behind the Tree

Carl Pope | Posted 11.19.2009 | Green


Carl Pope

Big Carbon is fighting for its life and seems determined to do as much damage as it can before it faces the inevitable. The world will move on to a clean-energy, post-coal-and-oil economy.

CFTC Gets Derivatives Advice From Industry Insiders

HuffPost Investigative Fund | Keith Epstein And Ben Protess | Posted 11.18.2009 | Politics


Like many federal agencies contemplating reform these days, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission is hearing a lot from the industry it regulates...