Bucky wrote:Word on the street is that Rio de Janeiro anonymously sent a video of the Victorino beer shower to all committe members

Colbert pimping Chicago last nite...

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Actually, my reason for posting this is the Montreal thing at around 2:35. Even though I saw the joke coming from a mile away, I still chuckled. The Beck thing a little after was OK.

TenuredVulture wrote:It's a pretty common phenomenon in politics. Power corrupts, blah, blah, blah. But with guys like Bloomberg, they aren't corrupted by money. And it's not really power (as that's the means, not the ends). It's something less tangible.

This was never a guy with a surplus of self-doubt--as you'd expect from someone of his accomplishments. That certitude has burned him a few times already when he's needed something from Albany, as with the proposed West Side Stadium for the Jets (which I was happy about) and the failure to get congestion pricing passed (much less so).

What I worry about in a third term is that, one, he'll completely dismiss the possibility of his being misguided or factually wrong about anything, and two, the more experienced/thoughtful/pragmatic deputy mayors and commissioners and advisers all will have left the administration to go make some dough. The result could be that he runs full steam into walls, again and again.

"I just think that's a shameful chapter in their history"

I was dying at that last night

Hannity blamed Obama and said his trips around the world and apologizing for 'Merica was the reason Chicago was knocked out early. I believe him!

Ahmadinejad revealed to have Jewish past

A photograph of the Iranian president holding up his identity card during elections in March 2008 clearly shows his family has Jewish roots.

A close-up of the document reveals he was previously known as Sabourjian – a Jewish name meaning cloth weaver.

The short note scrawled on the card suggests his family changed its name to Ahmadinejad when they converted to embrace Islam after his birth.

I can't help but chuckle.

dajafi wrote:The Bible: now liberalism-free!

Yeah that whole Sermon on the Mount thing was a load of crap, wasn't it?

dajafi wrote:The Bible: now liberalism-free!

Make the Pharisees the good guys!

Werthless wrote:Ahmadinejad revealed to have Jewish past

A photograph of the Iranian president holding up his identity card during elections in March 2008 clearly shows his family has Jewish roots.

A close-up of the document reveals he was previously known as Sabourjian – a Jewish name meaning cloth weaver.

The short note scrawled on the card suggests his family changed its name to Ahmadinejad when they converted to embrace Islam after his birth.

I can't help but chuckle.

I think a good rule of thumb is when an article in a British newspaper has the world "revealed" in the title, it's either boring of full of shit. In this case, the latter.

When I was a kid, I remember being told or reading somewhere that one of Hitler's grandparents was Jewish, or part-Jewish. No idea if it's true.

With dictators and others who somewhat have the power of life and death, this sort of thing isn't as fun as, say, when it came out that Ultra-American George "Macaca" Allen was part-Jewish, and he was so obviously revolted by it.

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Gathering lobbying expenditures on a number of companies for work at the moment and building a database.

Anyhow, ExxonMobil spent $29,000,000 on in house lobbying last year. Twenty nine million dollars. Jesus Christ.

jerseyhoya wrote:Gathering lobbying expenditures on a number of companies for work at the moment and building a database.

Anyhow, ExxonMobil spent $29,000,000 on in house lobbying last year. Twenty nine million dollars. Jesus Christ.

I bet the return on that tiny investment is huge.

We could get Joe Mauer and Halladay

TenuredVulture wrote:

jerseyhoya wrote:Gathering lobbying expenditures on a number of companies for work at the moment and building a database.

Anyhow, ExxonMobil spent $29,000,000 on in house lobbying last year. Twenty nine million dollars. Jesus Christ.

I bet the return on that tiny investment is huge.

Probably. The number was something of an outlier, or at least represented a huge spike. They only spent $16.94 mil in 2007 and $14.52 in 2006. Last year there was all that windfall profits tax talk earlier in the year, debate about opening up the OCS to drilling, plus all the carbon emissions bills and such these days. They spent less than 1/4 that much in 2005. The GOP losing power has made Exxon's lobbyists very wealthy.

jerseyhoya wrote:

TenuredVulture wrote:

jerseyhoya wrote:Gathering lobbying expenditures on a number of companies for work at the moment and building a database.

Anyhow, ExxonMobil spent $29,000,000 on in house lobbying last year. Twenty nine million dollars. Jesus Christ.

I bet the return on that tiny investment is huge.

Probably. The number was something of an outlier, or at least represented a huge spike. They only spent $16.94 mil in 2007 and $14.52 in 2006. Last year there was all that windfall profits tax talk earlier in the year, debate about opening up the OCS to drilling, plus all the carbon emissions bills and such these days. They spent less than 1/4 that much in 2005. The GOP losing power has made Exxon's lobbyists very wealthy.

So, the problem isn't that politicians are bought, but that they are bought so cheaply. Make these corporate fat cats really pay for that influence.

Looks like that's how the Democrats have changed the culture in Washington. They cost 4x more than the GOP did.

jerseyhoya wrote:

TenuredVulture wrote:

jerseyhoya wrote:Gathering lobbying expenditures on a number of companies for work at the moment and building a database.

Anyhow, ExxonMobil spent $29,000,000 on in house lobbying last year. Twenty nine million dollars. Jesus Christ.

I bet the return on that tiny investment is huge.

Probably. The number was something of an outlier, or at least represented a huge spike. They only spent $16.94 mil in 2007 and $14.52 in 2006. Last year there was all that windfall profits tax talk earlier in the year, debate about opening up the OCS to drilling, plus all the carbon emissions bills and such these days. They spent less than 1/4 that much in 2005. The GOP losing power has made Exxon's lobbyists very wealthy.

I had to chuckle a bit with you saying ONLY $17m and $15m. So ExxonMobil spent $30m convincing the government to put more money in their pocket. Nice!

Or convincing it not to take it out of their pocket via a windfall profits tax