jcookc6

Kerry is no Gandhi on corporate donations
By Derrick Z. Jackson, 2/27/2004

ODD, JOHN KERRY has not yet spanked Viacom for its raunchy Super Bowl halftime show. This is interesting because Kerry fancies himself the warmonger on special interests who gouge us for our medicines and pollute our environment. Kerry warns he's coming, you're going, and don't let the door hit you on the way out.

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But even though Viacom and CBS put on a show verging on S&M, Kerry has not yet said on the stump: "I want to say this to the Viacoms and the special interests in Hollywood who poison our airwaves. We're coming, you're going, and don't let the popcorn hit you on the way out."

To be sure, on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being Gandhian suffering and 10 being unbleachable filth, Kerry cannot possibly smell like President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and the Republican Party.

The polluters, bomb makers, big oil, and big tobacco give the current administration a solid rating of 14, with the bonus points coming from the no-bid Iraq reconstruction contracts to Halliburton and cancerous Philip Morris, the Republican Party's top donor for the last quarter-century.

Kerry is not a 14. Nor is he Gandhi, according to Charles Lewis, executive director of the campaign finance watchdog group the Center for Public Integrity in his new book, "The Buying of the President."

In the mid 1990s, Johnny Chung illegally funneled $8,000 to Kerry. This month arms contractor Bob Majumder pleaded guilty to illegally funneling between $13,000 and $25,000 to Kerry. Kerry wrote 28 letters from 1996 to 1999 supporting Majumder for federal funds for a proposed missile system. The company received $150 million in federal funds.

Kerry was not accused of wrongdoing himself, but he has come to the aid of those have done wrong. In 2000 Kerry worked to defeat a proposal by Senator John McCain to kill $150 million in Big Dig spending after it was discovered that the American International Group insurance company had been overpaid $130 million in federal funds for worker compensation and liability insurance. Instead of giving back the money, the company used a loophole to invest it for its own profits.

After Kerry salvaged the loophole, the company and its executives gave Kerry $50,000 in senatorial or presidential campaign contributions in 2001 and 2002. The company also paid expenses for a Kerry trip to Vermont. Kerry has denied any connection between his assistance to American International and its assistance to him.

That sounds about as clean as Halliburton's no-bid contracts.

On the stump, Kerry castigates "Benedict Arnold" companies that evade taxes and take jobs overseas.

But this week, The Washington Post reported that Kerry's presidential campaign has received more than $540,000 from either companies that have moved operations overseas to avoid taxes or from fund-raisers run by executives who help companies move to tax havens such as the Cayman Islands and Bermuda. Then there are the media and telecommunications. Kerry's top career contributor ($231,000), the law firm of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, is heavily involved in telecommunications. Kerry's third-biggest donor is media conglomerate Time-Warner ($141,000). Fourth is the law firm of Hale & Dorr, which is significantly involved in telecommunications and biotech. Fifth is the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, which does work for nearly half of the Fortune top 250 industrial and service corporations.

Media companies, including Viacom, have given more than $300,000 to Kerry. Viacom has contributed a total of $3.2 million to political campaigns in the 2000 and 2002 election cycles, with 81 percent of the money going to Democrats. Kerry has played a role at helping telecom lobbyists control the timing of airwave auctions and helping media conglomerates by voting for telecom deregulation in 1996.

In "The Buying of the President," Lewis writes of Kerry, "Over the course of his Senate career, he has not been averse to taking campaign cash from companies and firms with a direct interest in his work. Federal Election Commission records reveal that their money has been as much a part of his campaign as it has been of anyone in US Congress."

The "Anybody But Bush" crowd will surely be tempted to ignore this. Viacom is no Halliburton: The latter is directly profiteering off a needless war that has taken thousands of lives. But the media and telecommunications play a significant part in our freedom of expression.

Bush's filth should not stop voters from pressuring Kerry on his rhetoric. In the Democrats' dreams, Bush is going and Kerry is coming. But for all the special interests Kerry claims would be going out, it is clear that Viacom and media conglomerates would be coming in. Viacom is no Halliburton, but as it reminded us so vividly during the Super Bowl, it can deliver weapons of mass cultural destruction.

Derrick Z. Jackson's e-mail address is jackson@globe.com
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/edi...ate_donations/

filtherton

And?

I think most people like to add their opinions to the threads they create. Otherwise i just might assume that you're posting this as an example of conservative bias in the media. In which case i might like to point out that perception of bias has more to do with where you stand than where the media stands.

But i'd only do that because i have no fucking idea what your point is.

Ustwo

The Boston Globe exsists to make the NYT look moderate

I think they are both owned by the same parent company.

__________________
Agents of the enemies who hold office in our own government, who attempt to eliminate our "freedoms" and our "right to know" are posting among us, I fear.....on this very forum. - host

Obama - Know a Man by the friends he keeps.

filtherton

I think kerry is obviously just a puppet for bob majumder. If he gets elected, the first thing he'll do is appoint majumder to head the atf, which will soon be renamed the bureau of alcohol tobacco and devilishness. It is all made very clear.

jcookc6

Ok guys, you want my opinion, Let me point out a couple of things
1. The Boston Globe, NY Times and Washington Post are most liberal of newspapers in this country, everything that has to do with govenment and politics are liberal.
2. I don't think I have to comment on the article because it is very self explanatory.
3. But I will, It shows you that canidate J(Just) F(for) Kerry, says one thing but deep down he is just saying that, it is not his beliefs. Every thing about this man is that he is a complete phoney. The democratic party is running him up the flag pole, they know he has no chance of winning(they don't want to win this one), because you know why??? HILLARY R. CLINTON.
She is going to be your president in 2008.
Just sit down and think about this, the more you do, the more sense it makes.

Ustwo

There has been talk of the Clinton's torpedoing this election since the 9 vertically challenged ones started, and its a tough call.

When it first started I think it was more 'it wouldn't surprise me' talk. Bush looked unbeatable any ways. Now I think there is a possibility of some DNC hatchet work going on, but its not as if Kerry is unbeatable, in fact while Dean was perceived as a weaker candidate, I think Kerry, with his long Liberal record, shady deals, and appearance of being a jiggalo make him the weaker candidate when the fur starts to fly.

__________________
Agents of the enemies who hold office in our own government, who attempt to eliminate our "freedoms" and our "right to know" are posting among us, I fear.....on this very forum. - host

Obama - Know a Man by the friends he keeps.

brianna

Kerry has taken special interest money. So has EVERY serious presidential candidate in the last 20 years -- we have created a system where it is impossible to run a campaign without extraordinary amounts of money -- there is next to no way to procure such funds without doing some shady dealing. We need campaign finance reform so that it's possible to run a clean campaign.

filtherton

Nice of you to chime in. Although it may seem self explanatory to you, had you not said anything i would have never known about the hillary clinton conspiracy theory connection.

I think you're being pretty selective if you can single out kerry, among all the people vying for the presidency, as the only one who lacks integrity and honesty. All the candidates, including bush, are career politicians, ie they've been bought and paid for for years. Name me one major party presidential candidate(actual contenders, kuciniches and deans don't count) in the last three elections who wasn't a liar beholden to special interests. Kerry isn't trying to be a good person he's trying to get elected president.


If anything, the bush admin has proven that america doesn't give a damn about shady behind the scenes dealmaking. Remember when ken lay was helping form our nation's energy policies? Or how about when the v.p.'s old employer was busted for overcharging the american taxpayers? The people don't seem to care.

maximusveritas

Well, if the Democratic Party is trying to get Kerry to tank, they're doing a pretty bad job of it.
As the article points out, Kerry is nowhere near as bad as George W. Bush. If Republicans want to attack him on this, they're being pretty darn hypocritical themselves.

By the way, jcookc6, perhaps it would be better if you started a single "Bash Kerry" thread where you could post all the links to Kerry-bashing articles that you find. There's no point in starting separate threads if you have nothing new to discuss.

jcookc6

Then I guess there is no need to Bash Kerry anymore. He is toast? I don't know, I wish he would go away, I can't stand to see him talk on the news, He pauses after every 3 words, because I guess we are all stupid and he wants us to understand what he is saying. He is trying to act like a
Boston Ward politician in the 1940's, all the people that like that type BS are dead or are old ladies living in nursing homes.
I do agree that Bush is not great, and that he has all his father's henchmen doing the dirty work, like think.
It is the same thing all of time, the Democrats think we are too stupid to do anything, so they make the rules for us. The republicans are in this to make thier friends even richer than they alread are.

Lebell

I understand that Ralph Nader doesn't take any corporate money like Bush or Kerry....

__________________
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." – C. S. Lewis

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