Same as the old Boss's Board, now in black....but largely really white.
Robert Rubin, Anne Mulcahy, Richard Parsons, William Daley, Laura Tyson, Penny Pritzker, Warrent Buffet, William Donaldson, Rahm Emanuel, and James Johnson have all been picked for Obama's cabinet.
If these names seem vaguely familiar, they should; not just because I copied them out of the Bloomberg article linked to in the first sentence, but because they've all been caught up in this whole ethically-challenged financial market from the beginning.
If this is what Obama means by change in leadership, merely taking the failed leadership out of private industry and making them public, then I for one do not predict a short depression.
Even worse, NASSCOM the India outsourcing lobbyist group, has already lined up a meeting in March with the Obama administration.
high-profile Nasscom delegation will be travelling to the US in March 2009 to lobby officials of the Obama administration, influencers (Senators et al) and key thinktanks to ensure that no nasty surprises greet Indian tech majors on the outsourcing issue.
This is going on while Obama claims to put a ban on lobbyist donors to their transition team.
Registered lobbyists will be barred from contributing to Barack Obama's transition to the presidency or working for his administration in any area in which they represented clients, the president-elect's transition team announced.
But we heard that line during the campaign, all the while Google spent $750,000 in Q3 alone on lobbying, including more H-1B Guest worker Visas in the midst of the worst unemployment numbers since in 14 years.
Google's new found favors scare even other lobbyists:
Google CEO Eric Schmidt didn’t say anything as he flanked President-elect Barack Obama during his first post-election press conference. He didn’t have to.
The image alone of Schmidt standing elbow-to-elbow with Obama’s top economic thinkers was enough to send shivers up the spine of Google’s competitors.
“This terrifies Microsoft,” said a Democratic lobbyist familiar with the industry. “There’s a reason why people are scared to death of Google.”
Not that Microsoft ever went to battle for working America.
So, what kind of change did we get? Did we swap out Bill Gates for Google CEO Eric Schmidt? Did we get JP Morgan Chase now running the country of still Goldman Sachs?
Will plain old fashioned workers ever get a meeting on labor issues with the President?
Will pigs fly?
Comments
OKay...
...I see that. Now,
....who should be be working with?
I'd sure like to know.
'When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike, you do not wait until he has struck to crush him.'
singing the same song 30 years later
Won't Get Fooled Again
Clinton II
So am I to understand, that what could be developing is a possible regurgitation of the previous Democratic Administration?
to me
I see this through multiple views. 1. He already had these lobbyist connections in the campaign but also 2. putting people who already have experience in these jobs, at such a critical time instead of newbies learning on the fly...
There is a definate argument for #2
But I'm not sure that "newbies learning on the fly" wouldn't be a *better* solution, given where dependence upon "traditional" trickle-up economics has gotten us.
At least the newbies might come up with something creative and new.
-------------------------------------
Maximum jobs, not maximum profits.
Hey....
....the proof is in the pudding as they say. He fucks this up his Presidency is dead before it starts.
He also needs to demonstrate to the ReThugs that he will squash them like bugs if they get in the way.
Will he...
be able to...
Let's HOPE!
'When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike, you do not wait until he has struck to crush him.'
"ReThugs"
I wouldn't be so fast on assuming partisanship on any of this.
The reason is there were many conservative Republicans who screamed bloody murder on the bail out and now Boehner, House Republican leader is screaming bloody murder because the Fed will not disclose which private institutions received over $2 trillion dollars.
Another "ReThug" who has really been a friend of Professional Labor is Sen. Chuck Grassley, so ya can't put the corruption really in partisan terms.
I think if we looked at the money, I bet that would follow and align completely with the selling of this country down the river.
I'd not take that bet but....
....out here in CA we have virulent form of 'ReThug' who thinks raising the sales tax is the thing to do as opposed to closing the yacht sales exclusion, no sales tax on yacht sales, they are continually yammering about 'no taxes...'.
That's not corruption. That's shear unadulterated stupidity.
As far as corruption goes I feel you'd be hard pressed to name a dozen Republican, or 'Democrat', Congressmen who are not on the take. Pure and simple.
Republicans earned their nickname, 'Rethug', with hard work and a real effort to 'win' no matter what. Boehner is an idiot like the most of 'em. Any one more adult than a two year old knows how the Bush Crime Family plays the game. Grab the money and run. What is the 'Bailout' other than Bush's parting shot at the nation. He's already dispersed funds to his pals outside the Treasury conduit.
It's not partisanship. It's cronyism and corruption. How did Miss PeLousy end up in a $25 million dollar house? Why was DiFi almost investigated by the FBI last year?
They are all corrupt in my eyes until proven otherwise. But it just seems that Republicans are more in your face about it.
'When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike, you do not wait until he has struck to crush him.'