Lobbyists ask candidates to give them a break

[babylonsister]

:cry::nopity:

Lobbyists ask candidates to give them a break
By Jim Snyder
Posted: 06/06/08 01:09 PM


For a group of people who apparently have so much influence in Washington, lobbyists seem to have a hard time keeping politicians from bashing them.

The American League of Lobbyists (ALL) made its second appeal this year to candidates to treat them with more respect.

“We feel there is growing frustration with this concept candidates keep pushing that all lobbyists are evil and somehow what we do is inappropriate,” said Brian Pallasch, the president of ALL.

Lobbyists like Pallasch are quick to point out that the right to petition the government, to lobby, is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution.

But for all the disagreements between Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.), they agree on at least one point: Lobbying needs to be curtailed and its influence diminished.

more...

http://thehill.com/business--lobby/lobbyists-ask-candidates-to-give-them-a-break-2008-06-06.html

[yourout]

1. Not a chance.......I want lobbyist to be viewed like used car salesman.

Despised and avoided when ever possible.

[Canuckistanian]

3. Actually, more like prostitutes

Because they work for a pimp (the special interest group) and they will do it for anybody for the right price.

[DJ13]

2. the right to petition the government, to lobby..........

.......was originally meant to be for the individual, NOT the corporate entity.

[Canuckistanian]

6. Has there ever been a SC ruling on lobbyists, aka "professional petitoners"?

Seems to me that a bright line should be drawn between beneficial (benefits all or most of the people) and the harmful (benefits the very few).

[DJ13]

9. Has there ever been a SC ruling on lobbyists? No, but on corporations

In 1886, . . . in the case of Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that a private corporation is a person and entitled to the legal rights and protections the Constitutions affords to any person. Because the Constitution makes no mention of corporations, it is a fairly clear case of the Court's taking it upon itself to rewrite the Constitution.
Far more remarkable, however, is that the doctrine of corporate personhood, which subsequently became a cornerstone of corporate law, was introduced into this 1886 decision without argument. According to the official case record, Supreme Court Justice Morrison Remick Waite simply pronounced before the beginning of arguement in the case of Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company that

The court does not wish to hear argument on the question whether the provision in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which forbids a State to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws, applies to these corporations. We are all of opinion that it does.

The court reporter duly entered into the summary record of the Court's findings that

The defendant Corporations are persons within the intent of the clause in section 1 of the Fourteen Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which forbids a State to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Thus it was that a two-sentence assertion by a single judge elevated corporations to the status of persons under the law, prepared the way for the rise of global corporate rule, and thereby changed the course of history.

http://www.ratical.org/corporations/SCvSPR1886.html

[Warpy]

11. Corporate personhood wasn't the decision handed down

by the court itself, but was in an elaboration later written by a clerk to one of the Justices.

That it's been allowed to stand is utterly ridiculous. It needs to be abolished, by constitutional amendment, if necessary.

[MonkeyFunk]

15. No, the court didn't decide that

and corporations clearly do NOT have the same rights as people.

But which rights would you like to take away from corporations? The right to free speech? The right to due process?

[Canuckistanian]

16. J.C. Bancroft Davis was his name

Read THIS:

Here's what happened. Santa Clara County in California was trying to levy a property tax against the Southern Pacific Railroad. The railroad gave numerous reasons why it shouldn't have to pay, one of which rested on the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause: the railroad was being held to a different standard than human taxpayers.

When the case reached the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Morrison Waite supposedly prefaced the proceedings by saying, "The Court does not wish to hear argument on the question whether the provision in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution which forbids a state to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws applies to these corporations. We are all of the opinion that it does." In its published opinion, however, the court ducked the personhood issue, deciding the case on other grounds.

Then the court reporter, J.C. Bancroft Davis, stepped in. Although the title makes him sound like a mere clerk, the court reporter is an important official who digests dense rulings and summarizes key findings in published "headnotes." (Davis had already had a long career in public service, and at one point was president of the board of directors for the Newburgh & New York Railroad Company.) In a letter, Davis asked Waite whether he could include the latter's courtroom comment--which would ordinarily never see print--in the headnotes. Waite gave an ambivalent response that Davis took as a yes. Eureka, instant landmark ruling.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/030919.html

[Robbien]

4. The people's right to petition is in the Constitution. Corporations have no such

constitutional right. Paid corporate lobbyist companies should stand in the back of the line behind we the people.

[RC]

12. The problem is that corporations are persons under the law.

That need to be fixed right after george and dick are frog marched off to prison in their new orange uniforms.

[annabanana]

5. Pfft.. Tell them to get a REAL job.

Be of some use to society and let the corporation's work stand on it's own merits.

[cynatnite]

7. Not all lobbyists are equal...

There are some lobbyists that do have honorable intentions. They are not all representing oil, guns or health insurance companies. Some of them actually do some good...environment protection, for example.

[Virginia Dare]

10. Definitely..

there are some DU'ers who are lobbyists. I think Vash The Stampede is.

[MannyGoldstein]

8. Lobbyists Represent Real People!!!

Where did I hear that... hmmm... from one of the final two candidates in the Democratic Primaries?

Nah, I must have imagined it.

[Captain Angry]

13. I have a better idea.

The only lobbying a firm may do is by video. They have to record and cite all sources for truth and accuracy. Then the lobbying session is uploaded to Youtube or whatever. That way all of the politician's constituents can see what information is being provided to their representative or senator.

Completely open, no edits, full disclosure. Any firm found lying/distorting lose their right to lobby that STATE's representatives/senators for a full year.

If they represent real people, we're real people. Let's see what they're saying.

[Botany]

14. Oh for the love of Dog

“We feel there is growing frustration with this concept candidates keep pushing that all lobbyists are evil and somehow what we do is inappropriate,” said Brian Pallasch, the president of ALL.


I forget the figure but there is something like 100 lobbyists for every member of
Congress .... and the vast majority care not one wit about "the common good."

These are not citizens trying to speak to their elected reps. but whores trying
to buy or use power to influence our government.

[chknltl]

17. They want a break? Right leg or left arm...

America's democracy is more important than their needs. Our democracy requires a controlled capitalism. Uncontrolled capitalism can destroy our democracy...the bush era fiasco plainly demonstrates this. The corporations who could afford it got the best government money can buy while the majority of We The People wound up getting screwed. It is time for We The People to reclaim our birthright: a Constitutionally limited representative government, "and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Lobbyists: Go find a rock to crawl under and take your bought and paid for politicians with you