The Song Fight Bulletin Board

President Obama issued stricter ethics rules as one of his first acts in office, a welcome move. But then to waive them so blatantly only two days later is pretty ... disappointing. Lobbyists should not hold these positions and this should not be an exception. William Lynn, a lobbyist for defense contractor Raytheon, should not be a viable candidate to hold the second highest job at the Pentagon.

First the Treasury nominee who "forgot" to pay his taxes, now this. I think we need to hold this President to his word and to the letter of his "vision". No one person is irreplaceable. Someone else exists that can fill this post.

The right is having a field day with this, as they should. I've written my senator (I'll write the other one after she takes office), and recommend you do the same. Find them here. Let's hope this President listens to the people. While I believe there should be waivers in unavoidable cases (at least provisions for it), this just doesn't sit well with me.

Oops - on first reading I thought you wrote "Reist Obama's nominee to be deputy Pentagon chief". Strange gig for our hard-rocking young Canadian friend I thought. Barry must be a Genesis fan too.

roymond wrote:The right is having a field day with this, as they should. I've written my senator (I'll write the other one after she takes office), and recommend you do the same. Find them here. Let's hope this President listens to the people. While I believe there should be waivers in unavoidable cases (at least provisions for it), this just doesn't sit well with me.

It's funny that the right would have a field day with this. Robert Gates, the holdover SecDef from the Bush administration, is the man who personally requested that Lynn be appointed as his deputy. Whether he gets confirmed or not, it's clear he has influence.

Now I think that Obama was a little naive to implement these "no lobbyist" ethics rules, but once they've been implemented, he needs to abide by them. Otherwise he loses a little bit of his mojo.

Caravan Ray wrote:Oops - on first reading I thought you wrote "Reist Obama's nominee to be deputy Pentagon chief". Strange gig for our hard-rocking young Canadian friend I thought. Barry must be a Genesis fan too.

Haha, I saw that too. Alas, it isn't true, but it's a hilarious notion for sure..

Next best thing to lobbyists?

Their Lawyers!

Their lawyers, the other guys lawyers. What's the difference, they're all the same. All we can do is hope they battle in our best interest. Many Americans right now feel they will not. But it's hard to filter through all of the conservative propaganda at the moment.

Jeez, I was a little worried about Biden's history there. I guess I was right to worry.
-bill

Billy's Little Trip wrote:Their lawyers, the other guys lawyers. What's the difference, they're all the same. All we can do is hope they battle in our best interest. Many Americans right now feel they will not. But it's hard to filter through all of the conservative propaganda at the moment.

Read the story and see WHO'S lawyers we're talking about. Because there is a slight and very relevant difference.

HeuristicsInc wrote:Jeez, I was a little worried about Biden's history there. I guess I was right to worry.
-bill

I don't want to pull a "I told ya so" or even a Sober's "I CALLED IT" type attitude, but I knew it was one of Biden's agendas and stated so here on the boards some time ago. And just TRY and tell me that it's not one of his agendas linked directly to 'copyright lobbyist'. Because you'd be wrong.

I'm sure if you go back through my political opinions here, you'll see my concerns for Biden. In one of my rambles, may not have been here on SF, I even went so far to say that Biden will be the first guy to put a hit on Obama and he has had a calculated plan from the moment he manipulated his way into his strategic position. It's funny, because every time I talk to a McCain supporter, they always say, "well, at least with Obama we got Biden." That should explain a lot. If you ask me, Biden is a plant.

paranoid conspiracy theory rant off

I know assassination sounds really glamorous, but I think one of the primary goals of whatever conspiracy exists is to make the tax code more regressive. The corporatacracy, military-industrial complex, illuminati if you want to sound like a whackjob, whatever you want to call them, doesn't need to kill anyone, because the guys in office are their guys. They probably didn't even kill JFK.

Billy's Little Trip wrote:Biden is a plant.

You mean....like a triffid!?!?!?

Caravan Ray wrote:

Billy's Little Trip wrote:Biden is a plant.

You mean....like a triffid!?!?!?

yes, like a triffid. Biden is a triffid.