One of the most polarizing fights over money in politics has been unfolding this spring at annual corporate meetings, where shareholders are mounting an intensifying effort to push companies to disclose the money they spend on lobbying and political campaigns. Read full article > >

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More shareholders call on companies to disclose their political spending

California is not exactly the GOP’s idea of home turf. But in the 2012 Republican presidential primary, it’s the most important state on the calendar. California’s June 5 primary, despite being the second-to-last contest, is looking more and more like it may determine whether Mitt Romney can win the Republican nomination or whether the party goes to its August convention without a nominee. Read full article > >

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California could decide the GOP nominee

I was eager to watch the HBO Film “Game Change” and see if I could find some sympathy for Sarah Palin, John McCain or their team who so recklessly put Palin a potential heartbeat away from the Presidency of this great country.

I already knew to expect a terrific performance from Julianne Moore and she certainly lived up to the hype. She created a complex person who showed a wide spectrum of abilities and disabilities.  Everyone in this most excellent film did a fine job but I thought Woody Harrelson was at the very top of his game as Steve Schmidt, McCain’s chief strategist.  His performance arc from optimism, hoping that Palin’s fabulous acceptance speech at the Republican convention would be that “game-changer” to his fury and utter disillusionment in how dangerous she would be for America was fantastic!

It is to the credit of the screenwriter, director and the cast that I did indeed find myself feeling some sympathy for the bewildering, uncharted predicament Sarah Palin found herself in.  And during that speech when she talked about her baby with Down Syndrome and showed she would be a fierce advocate for all Special needs children and their families made me wonder:

It’s been almost 4 years since that speech–Palin has catapulted her run for Vice President into a national platform, including Facebook and Twitter. Not to mention her bully pulpit at Fox News. Add to that the millions she has made from speaking fees and book advances and sales.  Her son Trig is now 4–How has she used her celebrity to influence or shape policy for other children with Down Syndrome and other disabilities?

I spent a lot of time researching online at both the state and national levels — looking at charitable groups like Special Olympics. the Alaska Chapter and National Down Syndrome Congress or other groups like ARC. And to the best of my knowledge what Palin has done or contributed is: ZIP! NADA! NOTHING! A BIG FAT ZERO! I can’t find a thing she’s done to publicly further champion this cause. Or put another way follow through with what she promised countless parents and their special needs children when she was on the campaign trail back in ’08.

Now, granted the Palin’s are private citizens so perhaps they donate scads of money to these or other charities quietly in the background. Although, it’s difficult to wrap one’s brain around the idea that she’d do it out of the public eye since she rarely wastes an opportunity to squawk her views from FOX News and via her Facebook page.

I do know she has a SarahPAC which as of 12/31/11 had over 1.3 million cash on hand.  I also know that SarahPAC paid over $ 13,000 to decorate the outside of the bus she used to take her family on their summer vacation.  Which, btw is in direct violation of F.E.C. campaign laws as she wasn’t running for political office.

And yet all signs from my research indicate no support of any kind for individuals with Special needs. Palin has squandered an amazing opportunity to effect real policies that could have helped special needs children and their families in the most profound way.

As someone who has been an early childhood specialist for over 35 years and would have given anything to have had such a platform to be an advocate: I will never forgive her or forget!

My conclusion erased any vestige of sympathy the movie generated and once again confirmed what i originally thought: Palin is a malignant narcissist! (see http://www.drirene.com/catbox/index.php?showtopic=40676).  Her children, especially her youngest are merely PROPS in order to make her look good and further her own agenda.

All talk-no action: Sarah Palin has the temerity to call herself a “real American”.

UPDATE: Sarah Palin has had the gall to challenge President Obama to a debate. Have at it Sarah-There only need be one question: What have YOU done for this Country in the past 3 & 1/2 years?

Sarah Palin is a disgrace.

Lost amid all the talk about millionaires influencing the 2012 election is a striking fact: The Republican primaries are shaping up as the cheapest and most financially depressed presidential nominating contest in years. Read full article > >

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2012 GOP primary shaping up to be cheapest race in years

Republican presidential contender Rick Santorum has his share of problems stemming from his sincerely held but extreme views on a number of issues and his penchant for inflammatory rhetoric that makes even commonplace observations sound loony. ( Yesterday , for example, he made the bizarre accusation: “President Obama once said he wants everybody in America to go to college. What a snob.” If there was a point about the flaws in the goal for everyone to attend college, it was hidden under a bushel of senseless rhetoric.) Read full article > >

Continued here:
Jennifer Rubin: The problem with Santorum’s ‘past’

Many Latino voters, who went heavily for President Obama in 2008, are disappointed that he has not done more on immigration.

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The Caucus: Obama Courts Latinos With Speech

The insider trading trial against Raj Rajaratnam promises to deliver gripping drama, complete with confidential informants, wiretapped phones and high-profile witnesses.

Original post:
DealBook: For Hedge Fund Baron, Trial Poses a Steep Risk

The new political reality was on display during the tax debate, which has become a vehicle for revealing the philosophical divisions in the party.

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The Caucus: New Power for G.O.P. Exposes Rifts as 2012 Race Looms

This article titled “John McCain survives Tea Party challenge at US primaries” was written by Ewen MacAskill in Washington, for The Guardian on Wednesday 25th August 2010 18.14 UTC

Tea Party activists were on the verge of achieving one of the biggest upsets of the year by ousting the sitting Republican senator for Alaska, a scalp that would compensate for their failure earlier in the day to defeat the former presidential candidate John McCain.

With 98% (91,000) of the votes counted in Alaska, the senator, Lisa Murkowski, was trailing Joe Miller on 51%. Miller has a lead of 1,190 votes, but still with 16,000 absentee ballots to be counted. Although Murkowski has been the senator since 2002 and polls suggested an easy win, Miller enjoyed Tea Party support, including one of its unofficial figureheads, the former Alaska governor Sarah Palin.

In a year that has seen establishment candidates beaten by outsiders in Republican primaries across the country, Alaska could be added to a list of Tea Party battle honours that already include Kentucky, Florida, Nevada and Utah.

Miller’s surprise success suggests nationwide resentment over lack of jobs and the slowness of economic recovery remains as strong as ever, with voters blaming Washington.

The Tea Party, a movement of conservative activists often at odds with the party establishment has long wanted to defeat McCain, who is detested by much of the Republican right as a moderate who is willing to do deals with the Democrats.

But McCain, the US senator of Arizona, bucked the national trend, crushing the Tea Party candidate J D Hayworth by 56% to 32% to win the Republican nomination for the US Senate for a fifth time.

In an interview with the Arizona Republic, he said: “I’m happy with the win – we had to do what it takes. As you know, this is an anti-incumbency environment and I had to prove to the Republican voters of Arizona I can be the most effective person for them in these very difficult times.”

McCain recognised the danger posed by the Tea Party early on and poured an extraordinary amount of cash into the race, an estimated m (£13m), achieving near saturation point in Arizona with his ad campaigns.

He also shifted his political ground, supporting Arizona’s controversial clampdown on illegal immigrants and turning his back on his previous support for reform that he had framed with the late Democratic senator, Ted Kennedy. He even went so far as to deny the label “maverick”, one that he has previously taken pride in.

McCain also denied he had reinvented himself, insisting he would be returning to the Senate “the same guy who left it”. He added: “I do not buy the storyline that I have changed.”

The senator was helped by Hayworth’s poor performance, who failed to persuade many Tea Party activists. Palin, though no longer holding any office, has proved pivotal this year, backing Tea Party activists across the US, gaining at least a few percentage points. But she turned up at two rallies on behalf of McCain in Arizona, returning the favour he bestowed on her by choosing her as his running mate in the 2008 White House election that propelled her to national fame.

Tuesday night’s primaries are among the last – with a final batch in September – that have been going on across the country for months to choose candidates to fight November’s mid-term elections for the Senate, where 36 out of 100 seats are at stake, all 435 House of Representative seats and 37 out of 50 governorships.

Relief at Republican party headquarters over McCain’s success proved shortlived as news filtered in from Alaska.

The Tea Party provides the Republicans with a dilemma. The Republicans want to harness the energy and enthusiasm of the activists while avoiding being pushed to the right, especially in fighting the mid-term elections. But the Tea Party has so far dictated much of the agenda, forcing upon the Republicans rightwing candidates they do not want.

A poll taken in June showed Murkowski with a seemingly commanding lead, on 62 % to Miller’s 30%. Although she outspent Miller by an estimated 10 to one, she failed to take the threat as seriously as had McCain in Arizona.

Miller may have been helped by a ballot measure, voted on the same day, that requires parental notification for teens seeking an abortion. Though both Murkowski and Miller supported it, Miller is regarded as the more strongly anti-abortion.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

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