Dennis Kucinich is controlled by AALPAC

[oberliner]

The Arab American Leadership PAC (AALPAC) contributed $4,000 to Dennis Kucinich in the 2004 cycle.

That must be the reason why he holds the positions he does on this conflict!

Edited to add: :sarcasm:

[Cooley Hurd]

1. Why, he must be a TERRORIST!

What a garbage post...:eyes:

On edit - you added a sarcasm tag...

[helderheid]

4. Self delete - I see a sarcasm tag has been added to the OP!

Good on ya!

[Benhurst]

5. Thanks.

:hi:

[babylonsister]

2. Yeah, he's been bought and paid for for 4 grand...

:eyes:

[liberalnurse]

3. You really believe that....

then you will also believe Ken Blackell is a Yellow-Dog Democrat.

[question everything]

6. How much is $4,000 in the scheme of things?

How much was he given total? How much does AALPAC contribute to others?

It is possible that compare to other donations, this amount is really a drop in the bucket.

As for his position on the conflict - when you are in a minority within a minority - you have to take different position to keep your name in the news. No hard feelings there.

[sui generis]

7. ha hahaha - Luke, use the sarcasm force.

got a couple of nice kneejerks spazzing around though.

[oberliner]

8. Oh come on!

Every time something is posted where a Dem says something positive about Israel, there invariably is a reply saying that they are controlled by AIPAC.

This post is meant to show how ridiculous that is!

Progressive Democrats take positions based on their principles.

That goes for Russ Feingold and that goes for Dennis Kucinich.

This is not a garbage post, it is a sarcastic, light-hearted way of making a valid point!

At least I thought it would be.

[liberalnurse]

21. You may need to work on your communications skills.....

Simply put...the post did not ooze of sarcasm.

[oberliner]

22. live and learn

I'll use the sarcasm tag from now on when being sarcastic.

Thanks!

[notadmblnd]

9. he he he

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

10. Unlike Diane Feinstein - $68, 000 from the defense industry.

[Bluebear]

25. Indeed.

[WCGreen]

11. FYI, DK has a whole lot of Arab owned and operated

business interests in his district....

[Totally Committed]

12. $4000 ???????????

Oh, the shame! :sarcasm:

What's Hillary got in her warchest now... something like $47 million, last I heard. How much of it came from AIPAC? Is that the reason for her pro-Israel stance? What about Corporate $$$ -- a lot of that had to come from Corporations. Is that why she's such a good DLC Do-Bee and supports their pro-corporate agenda for America? Could it be?

TC

[chill_wind]

15. Why ...you're right.

The fact that she has a constituency in her state to remember and is currently the #1 top of the top twenty biggest congressional recipients of the Pro-Israel pac $$$- in either party- couldn't possibly begin to enter into her politics.


Bwaahhh. :-)

[EFerrari]

13. Then I must control him, too, because we sent in $50!

And, some of my relatives a few hundred years ago came from Moorish Spain!

Wait -- maybe that just makes me al Qaida!

:silly:

[Strawman]

14. Well they're not getting their money's worth then

He didn't vote against the resolution in support of Israel. He hasn't blamed Israel. When the House voted on the resolution in support of Israel, he didn't vote no. He voted "present." He introduced a resolution to allow us to appear credible as honest brokers and peacemakers in the Middle East by not playing the blame game and acting like cheerleaders for the Israelis. That resolution has about a snowball's chance in hell of passing.

With no credibility as an honest broker in the Middle East what good can we do anybody, including Israelis? They are perfectly capable of bombing Lebanon as much as they want without our cheerleading. Why would 410 members of the House vote for this then? Who are they afraid of pissing off? Where's the Kucinich sponsored resolution full of language written by AALPAC lobbyists?

[oberliner]

16. Kucinich sponsored resolution full of language written by AALPAC lobby

http://www.aaiusa.org/

Arab American Leaders Urge Bush Administration to Push for Immediate Ceasefire

At an Emergency Summit on the Crisis in the Middle East, organized by AAI, more than 100 Arab American leaders from across the country called for:

1) An immediate ceasefire in Lebanon, Israel and Palestine,
2) The United States should immediately deploy a high ranking Administration official or envoy to negotiate an immediate ceasefire and set conditions for comprehensive peace.
3) Increased assistance for badly needed relief and humanitarian aid to Lebanon and Palestine and aggressively press for the resumption of peace negotiations.
4) For the Bush Administration to take steps to strengthen the nascent democratic efforts in Lebanon and Palestine

That is pretty much exactly the language of the resolution he sponsored.

[Strawman]

20. Open Secrets.org numbers

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/pro-israel.pro-arab/index.asp

Here are the pro-Israel contributions for the 2004 cycle:
http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/contrib.asp?cycle=2004&ind=Q05

Here is every other foreign lobby combined:
http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/contrib.asp?Ind=Q04&Cycle=2004

If you separate out the pro-Arab donations from that total it looks something like this:
Pro-Arab: $184,650
Pro-Israel: $6,095,120

The Pro-Arab PAC's are outspent 33:1.

As for your assertion that Kucinich's resolution is full of AALPAC language, it essentially agrees with the first and second points and says nothing about 3 or 4. Hardly boilerplate AALPAC language. I would contend that if he were so heavily influenced by AALPAC money (and not his conscience) he could have managed to vote "nay" rather than "present" on the pro-Israel resolution that recently sailed through Congress. Maybe he was holding out for another $500 donation this cycle. :sarcasm: That's what he's received so far for 2006 from AALPAC. The $4,000 you mention was for his 2004 Presidential run.

My sense of your OP is that your more general implication that it is illegitimate to discuss the influence of the pro-Isreal lobby and that it's equally valid to suspect that Arab lobby buys the kind of influence that the Israeli lobby does. Essentially, it sounds absurd to say that the Arab lobby bought DK's support, so it must be equally absurd to speculate about what kind of influence the pro-Isreal lobby buys. That implication is patently absurd based upon the numbers.

I don't doubt that many members of Congress voted for the pro-Israel resolution out of conscience and conviction, but I'm sure as shit that those who were less certain or passionate on this issue were afraid of crossing the pro-Israel lobby and donors while AALPAC and the pro-Arab lobby were not even an afterthought in all but a few instances.

And you could have certainly picked a better target than DK for that argument. One House member in particular comes to mind. She voted no on the pro-Israel resolution, has received more money from AALPAC than from pro-Israeli lobbies, has a husband who has trivialized the Holocaust in his public comments, and a son who ran a sleazebag campaign for mayor last year. If you picked that person, I might be inclined to agree with your specific point (although it would have lost the irony I think you may have originally intended here), but I can't agree with your specific point about DK and certainly not your larger point about the illegitimacy of discussing the influence of the pro-Israel lobby.

[oberliner]

23. my one and only point

My one and only point was to say that Progressive Democrats cast votes and make statements based on their principles, not based on the amount of money they get from lobbyists.

If that is not the case, why bother working to get Progressive Democrats elected in the first place?

[Ms. Clio]

24. those pesky facts, so inconvenient n/t

[Emit]

26. lol n/t

[chill_wind]

17. self-delete to repost it in main thread

[jonnyblitz]

18. I like to know these things about everybody no matter what side

I take. :shrug:

[chill_wind]

19. Both parties eat from the same piggy troughs

and drink from the same dog dishes when it comes to taking corporate and other lobby monies. The only overwhelming distinction, apart from matters of proportion here and there, is that the Gophers are so criminally stupid about it. Especially in the last 6 years. Dems have at least been intelligent enough not to get themselves so completely comprimised in the taking that they end up in the kinds of grossly criminal enterprises that come to mind like Abramoff, Delay Cunningham & MZM and so many more that we've seen with the GOP.

opensecrets.org.

Who gives. Who gets. And how we the people keep getting screwed.