Is Cap and Trade Payback for Campaign Donations to Obama/Democrats?

With all the healthcare news, we have been waiting to report on Cap and Trade and the consequences to business and consumers with these new taxes and regulations. The comments below from the Junior Senator from NY, Gillibrand, made us stop and think that now would be a good time to have Cap and Trade share the spotlight. Today’s postings will also feature a letter sent to the President with the sky is falling – do something now mantra which will come as a surprise to the global warming crowd.

We have suspected all along Cap and Trade aka known as Cap and Tax was a payback for Obama/Democrat donors. How many companies stood to gain from an Obama agenda such as Cap and Trade because their campaign contributions in 2008 were so far out of the norm?

One of the companies we consider among the most suspicious is GE who bundled almost 1/2 million dollars ($2300 per person for the primary and $2300 for the general). The $4600 max contribution by donor shows the large number of donors GE had to find to raise that much money. How many of those donors were stiff armed to donate to Obama? For those that don’t understand, bundling is reaching out to private donors through events, private meetings, and phone calls for maximum donations which are set by the FEC.

Another question comes to mind with a possible conflict of interest for GE. What is GE doing by raising this much money when they control TV networks? Those networks especially MSNBC knee padded for Obama every step of the way and still do. Makes one wonder if Cap and Trade legislation is what they paid for with donations to Obama and the Democrats. Worse is when GE started their Obama propaganda machine through MSNBC after bundling so much money. MSNBC with Keith Olberman and Chris Matthews were so overboard for Obama and anti-McCain it should have been an in-kind campaign contribution for an infomercial for Obama instead of news programs.

NBC’s Brian Williams was cheerleading for Obama in many instances which surprised us. There was absolutely no fairness during the Presidential campaign by the GE networks. We expected some liberal bias but GE networks were over the top on Obama refusing to report any negatives even when Obama kept throwing people under the bus like Bill Ayers, Rev Wright, and others. Crickets were chirping at GE networks along with lack of comments on Obama’s background considering he (Obama) had everything sealed. No questions asked. No investigative journalism. If someone can point out when GE networks were not in full support/cover-up mode for Obama over McCain, we will be glad to spotlight.

One other group of companies that had us all scratching our heads during the election was the defense contractors who all of a sudden supported Obama over McCain? We were asking back during the general election why employees of the three major defense contractors were being stiff armed by their company PACs to donate to Obama as it made no sense. Obama was never a friend of the military or their weapon systems so why would the defense industry line up for him.

We may be getting closer to the answer. Rumor has it that the largest of the major defense contractors is joining Boeing and Northrop Grumman in the green movement and support of Cap and Trade? If the rumor about Lockheed is true, then what you have are the three defense contractors pushing Cap and Trade and going green after bundling large amounts of money for Obama. What this the reason to stiff McCain -- Cap and Trade?

How many other companies like GE and the three major defense contractors who supported Obama now support going green and Cap and Trade to help them make hundreds of millions of dollars or billions on the backs of the American consumers and our energy industry? We will be looking into all of this in more depth in the weeks to come including the connections on Wall Street.

Senator Gillibrand: Democrats Now the Party of Goldman-Sachs, J.P. Morgan ChaseIsraPundit
10/23/09
Bill Levinson

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) says openly that Wall Street speculators will profit from "climate legislation"
Senator Gillibrand's own words, from yesterday's Wall Street Journal, show that the real purpose of Barack Obama's climate change legislation is to give Wall Street speculators yet another tulip bulb scheme to replace the mess (mortgage backed securities) for which we are still paying with a $750 billion stimulus package, various bailouts at the taxpayers' expense, and ten percent unemployment.

We encourage our readers to circulate this article, and Senator Gillibrand's own words, as widely as possible to show that Barack Obama's cap and trade agenda has very little to do about protecting the environment and everything to do with lining the pockets of fat-cat Wall Street speculators, the same kind that gave us the dot-com bubble and the housing bubble, at the expense of the American people. It is especially important to convey this message to the working people who make up the Democratic Party's base. We also remind our readers that General Electric, which stands to benefit enormously from cap and trade, raised almost half a million dollars in bundled contributions to elect Barack Obama.

Excerpt: Read more at israpundit.com

2008Obama reveals Rezko played a bigger fundraising role

http://mobile.chicagotribune.com/detail.jsp?key=150639&rc=top&full=1

By David Jackson
Chicago Tribune reporter
March 14, 2008 17:13

PMIndicted Chicago businessman Antoin "Tony" Rezko was a more significant fundraiser for presidential candidate Barack Obama's earlier political campaigns than previously known. Rezko raised as much as $250,000 for the first three offices Obama sought, the senator told the Tribune on Friday.

Obama also said for the first time that his private real estate transactions with Rezko were not simply mistakes of judgment because Rezko was under grand jury investigation at the time of their 2005 and 2006 dealings. In addition, he said, "The mistake was he had been a contributor and somebody involved in politics."

In an extensive interview that he hoped would quell the lingering controversy over his relationship with Rezko, Obama said that voters concerned about his judgment should view it as "a mistake in not seeing the potential conflicts of interest."

But he added that voters should also "see somebody who is not engaged in any wrongdoing . . . and who they can trust."Obama said that when he questioned Rezko about news reports of his questionable political dealings, his friend assured him there was nothing wrong. "My instinct was to believe him," he said.

Asked if he ever thought Rezko would expect something from their relationship, Obama was definitive. "No, precisely because I'd known him for [many] years and he hadn't asked me for favors."

Since the Tribune in November 2006 revealed their personal financial dealings, Obama has called himself "boneheaded" for doing business with Rezko at a time when the Chicago dealmaker was widely reported to be under federal grand jury investigation.

The most vexing issue hits Obama right at home. The Obamas and the Rezkos bought adjacent South Side properties from the same seller on the same day in June 2005. They subsequently engaged in a series of private transactions to improve and re-divide their parcels, giving the Obamas a bigger yard and a buffer for their $1.65 million Georgian revival home.

Over the last year, Obama has been reluctant to discuss his dealings with Rezko. His efforts to deflect questions seemed successful until January, when Sen. Hillary Clinton effectively introduced Rezko to a national audience by invoking his name at a caustic Democratic debate in South Carolina.

On the eve of the crucial Ohio and Texas primaries earlier this month, Obama cut short a combative news conference in San Antonio when reporters peppered him with Rezko questions, saying such requests "can just go on forever."

Clinton faces her own set of unanswered questions--about her personal tax returns, her scheduling records as first lady and donations to the Clinton Presidential Library. But that doesn't negate the unease that even some Obama supporters have expressed about Obama's ties to Rezko.

Though Obama had insisted he has answered all inquiries, until Friday's interview his campaign's piecemeal written statements had left lingering uncertainties about whether the up-and-coming senator exchanged favors with the target of a federal probe.

The friendship between Obama and Rezko began in 1991, when Rezko was making his mark as a well-regarded, politically connected housing developer. Obama, a community organizer, won national recognition as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review, and Rezko offered Obama a job building inner-city homes with his Rezmar Corp. Though Obama declined, a friendship and political alliance began.

When Obama launched his bid for the Illinois Senate in 1995, Rezko was his first substantial contributor.

The following year, Obama was elected, then re-elected in 1998. Rezko helped bankroll Obama's subsequent campaigns: Obama lost a primary bid for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2000 but won re-election repeatedly as a state senator and then was sworn into the U.S. Senate in January 2005. Rezko, already under indictment by the time Obama announced his presidential run, has not contributed to or raised funds for that race.

dyjackson@tribune.com

My bold and highlight. SJ