Online Journal
Front Page 
 
 Donate
 
 Submissions
 
 Announcements
 
 NewsLinks
 
 Special Reports
 
 News Media
 
 Elections & Voting
 
 Health
 
 Religion
 
 Social Security
 
 Analysis
 
 Commentary
 
 Editors' Blog
 
 Reclaiming America
 
 The Splendid Failure of Occupation
 
 The Lighter Side
 
 Reviews
 
 The Mailbag
 
 Online Journal Stores
 Official Merchandise
 Amazon.com
 
 Links
 
 Join Mailing List
Search

Elections & Voting Last Updated: Jan 15th, 2008 - 00:44:37


2008 election charade, part 2: White House bought by big money
By Larry Chin
Online Journal Associate Editor


Jan 15, 2008, 00:18

Email this article
 Printer friendly page

As previously written, the 2008 election is a manipulation, rigged by political elites working behind sock puppet candidates. This fact is even more obvious when one follows the money.

What big money interests want

OpenSecrets.org is one vital resource that tracks campaign money flows in detail, and virtually in real time. Not surprisingly, both the mainstream corporate and so-called alternative media have devoted scant attention to this corruption.

As culled from the OpenSecrets.org list, here are some of the prominent corporate contributors behind leading candidates (as of 1/11/08):

Republicans

John McCain

Blank Rome LLP
Citigroup
Bank of New York Mellon
Merrill Lynch
Goldman Sachs
JP Morgan Chase
Credit Suisse
Lehman Brothers
Morgan Stanley
MGM Mirage
Univision

Mitt Romney

Bain Capital (note: Romney�s own company)
Goldman Sachs
Merrill Lynch
Citigroup
Marriott
Kirkland & Ellis
Morgan Stanley
PriceWaterhouse
JP Morgan
UBS
Lehman Brothers

Rudy Giuliani

Ernst & Young
Credit Suisse
Merrill Lynch
Citigroup
Bear Stearns
Lehman Brothers
Bracewell & Guiliani (Guiliani�s own firm)
Morgan Stanley
UBS
Milbank Tweed
Goldman Sachs
JP Morgan
Bank of America

Mike Huckabee

State of Arkansas
Wal-Mart
Tyson Foods
Morgan Stanley

Democrats

Hillary Clinton

DLA Piper
Goldman Sachs
Morgan Stanley
Citigroup
National Amusements
Emily�s List
JP Morgan
Kirkland & Ellis
Skadden Arps
Merrill Lynch
Time Warner
Lehman Brothers
Bear Stearns
Ernst & Young
Blank Rome LLP

Barack Obama

Goldman Sachs
Lehman Brothers
National Amusements
JP Morgan
Exelon Energy (parent of Commonwealth Edison)
Citigroup
Citadel Investments
Credit Suisse
Skadden Arps
Morgan Stanley
Time Warner
UBS
Harvard University

John Edwards

Fortress Investment Group
Act Blue
Goldman Sachs
Skadden Arps
Deutsche Bank
Citigroup

This is the bare tip of the iceberg that OpenSecrets.org's database exposes. The site also tracks the money coming from lobbyists, wealthy individuals, and industries, cross-references money flows by industry, and updates the financial status of every campaign -- for those who bother to look it up. There is dirty money that is not even being reported.

What is clear is the fact that major corporations are collectively hedging their bets, financing both sides. For example, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have money behind every leading candidate. Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns, and UBS are also prominent players, in virtually all of the camps.

Corporate law and accounting firms, many of which are not household names (not all of them mentioned in this article), but well known in Washington and on Wall Street, are heavily involved with the campaigns -- assuring that the laws and the books will be cooked.

Look up the upper management of the companies, and the pattern is clear.

There is no illusion what the �election� really is, and whose hands are manipulating the sock puppets. Each sock puppet serves the world�s upper management, and uses the populace as cannon fodder.

All the talk of �campaign finance reform,� �fighting special interests,� particularly from the corrupt John McCain (who is enthusiastically mainlining funding as you read this), is just that: talk.

The candidates are lying. The prospective puppets with the real chances of being selected are career liars to begin with.

Cultural abyss reflected in celebrity support

Election insanity also breeds a cultural sickness that worsens by the day.

The ignorant, acquiescent, uninformed and often painfully stupid mass US populace not only marches to the beat set by a blatantly corrupt corporate media, it further adds to its self-destruction by aping the political views of wealthy Hollywood celebrities -- who are themselves painfully ignorant and misguided individuals, making asinine decisions with their celebrity power and mega-fortunes.

Here are some of the Hollywood celebrities behind the leading candidates, from the article Candidates hoping star power shines on them [San Francisco Chronicle, 1/11/08]:

Hillary Clinton

Barbra Streisand
Steven Spielberg

Barack Obama

Oprah Winfrey
David Geffen
Stevie Wonder

Mitt Romney

Pat Boone
Robert Bork (not a celebrity, but a notorious Republican)
Donnie Osmond
Marie Osmond

Rudy Giuliani

Dennis Miller
Adam Sandler

John McCain

Curt Schilling
Wilford Brimley
Rip Torn

John Edwards

Danny Glover
Kevin Bacon

Mike Huckabee

Chuck Norris
Ron Jeremy
Ted Nugent

Celebrities -- whose fame is known around the world, and who possess the cultural power to shape mass consciousness -- are helping the darkest forces drive the American empire deeper into the abyss. The average American, who doesn�t read and won�t bother to understand reality, simply follows Oprah, Steven Spielberg and Donnie & Marie, straight into hell.

Is it any wonder that, in this celebrity gossip-driven culture, a laughable crying act by the mega-corrupt Hillary Clinton successfully convinces some people that she is �genuine,� therefore �presidential�?

Here's another example of shenanigans that few seem to understand: the Clinton's open insult of Martin Luther King, Jr., was a calculated move, not a gaffe. It's the old southern strategy, which Bill Clinton used successfully before. Piss off African-Americans (who are disenfranchised anyway), pick up some "cracker" votes and support, particularly with the reference to LBJ, garnering enough support to beat out Obama.

Against this total dearth of critical faculties, people are largely ignoring evidence that the New Hampshire primary results were manipulated, in outright Bush-Cheney 2000 fashion, right in front of their faces. And the average American still believes in elections and �democracy.�

The election has not �just begun.� It�s been over for a long time.

It is literally insane to spend one cent on any of the candidates, or their machines. It is insane to engage in beyond-ridiculous campaign nonsense that exhausts energy, in pursuit of illusions and false hopes.

Ignore the rhetoric and follow the money. Look up the corporations and, in particular, at the names on the boards of directors of each one. Look up the elites who are managing the sock puppets.

Ask Henry Kissinger who will �win.� He knows.

Copyright © 1998-2007 Online Journal
Email Online Journal Editor

Top of Page

Elections & Voting
Latest Headlines
Keep the concert tickets . . . I�ve had it with the Evil Brothers!
The winning ticket: Hillary and Diebold in 2008
2008 election charade, part 2: White House bought by big money
Duck, cover, upchuck
US elections: Just like the movies
Space invaders: Five million aliens for Hillary
Pardon my laughter and cynicism: observations on the US presidential primaries from Canada
2008 presidential charade promises deepening of government criminality and expansion of war
Entering 2008 in complete economic and political denial
US election circus awash in cliches
The cat that controls New Hampshire election programming
Ron Paul in 2008? Just say no to Dr. No
Why the Left should reject Ron Paul
The butcher's apron
About this �Mormonism� thing
Huckabee should be the poster child for keeping religion out of politics
Obama versus Clinton versus plutocracy
Leaderless and clueless America heads for the trash can of history
Giuliani�s marriage of convenience
Giuliani and Clinton taste occupation in Iowa