Former RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie made a few comments about the "influence economy" that are worthy of a reprint in this forum. His statements could apply to government in Mississippi, regardless of party.
We can see an influence economy starting to take shape. CEOs are becoming less concerned about inventing the right products, targeting the right markets and hiring the right people in hopes of making a respectable profit for investors—and more concerned about getting the right lobbyists, retaining the right lawyers and attending the right fundraisers in hopes of getting a hefty subsidy from taxpayers.
Making the right campaign contributions are becoming as important to a company as its research and development budget, and federal-compliance lawyers will soon outnumber patent lawyers.
Fully implemented, Obama ’s influence economy will be one where ordinary Americans must get permission from a government agency or department before they can buy, build, invest or hire. It’s an economy rooted in mandates and waivers, tax credits and targeted subsidies, Federal grants and government loan guarantees.
Can you get the Department of Justice to file a suit against your competitor? Can you get the NLRB to compel workers to pay dues to your union? Can you get the Department of Energy to guarantee your loan? Can you get the HHS to mandate that consumers buy your product?
It’s an America where Washington limits our choices, constrains our decisions, controls our behavior and manages our lives. Where more and more regulations are vigorously enforced by an executive branch that recognizes fewer and fewer limits on its authority, because this president disdains the checks and balances of two branches of government our Founders created as equal but he sees as inconsequential.
Let me see: Kior, Jim Barksdale, Kemper, Beef Plant, Airwave, Singing River, need I go on?
20 comments:
This from a certified Republican. But money doesn't talk; it swears. We can't change "market politics," but we can work for more information about who is paying whom for what. You are a part of that effort yourself, for which I am grateful.
How did Jim Barksdale make the list? We should be proud to have him among us.
Gillespie is mostly on target, but "Obama's" influence economy?
As KF's examples suggest, it's a bipartisan problem.
Barksdale? The one who donated a fortune to Mississippi schoolchildren for a reading program? The one who developed Netscape? How are his hands tainted?
I'll give you guys this afternoon to figure it out. Netscape was a good start.
Gillespie calls it influence economy, crony capitalism. Seems like before we gave these cute names to it we just called it corruption.
Netscape wasn't sued by the DOJ while Microsoft was.
It's dead on and it's a big reason a lot of people don't vote. Why should it matter to me who wins when I'm not a crony of either side's who will benefit.
Look how the establishment pols attacks candidates who might buck the system. Who attacked Chris McDaniel more? Travis Childers or establishment Republicans?
The same thing will happen in the presidential election to Rand Paul and anyone running to the left of Hillary. Big Money likes the game the way it is. Jeb or Hillary will be fine with them.
"Look how the establishment pols attacks candidates who might buck the system. Who attacked Chris McDaniel more? Travis Childers or establishment Republicans?"
I see the point you're trying to make but it's a poor example - Travis Childers didn't attack anyone.
Speaking of Rand Paul (you brought him up) who was the wing-nut in the House of Reps who voted for Senator Paul to be Speaker of the House?
WKTM - who attacked Thad Cochran more, Chris McDaniel or Travis Childers? McDaniel certainly is not exempt from your criticism - he just had his bread buttered on the other side.
"...Obama ’s influence economy will be one where ordinary Americans must get permission from a government agency or department before they can buy, build, invest or hire...."
We already have to do that, and unfortunately, Obama isn't the sole conspirator in the 'Great Work' of big government.
It is a bipartisan issue and I can think of a lot of MS repubs that are in on it, perpetuate it, and profit from this way of life.
Who will you blame when 'BAAHH BAAHH Black Sheep' leaves office?
Could be McDaniel and the tp in general are just offering a slightly different strain of hopium.
4:28 - Hillary!
Kior, the Senatobia Solar Plant, the 600 million dollar Gulfport boondoggle, hundreds of millions for sewer/water lines built after Katrina north of I-10 that serve no one, and the grandaddy of all stupid projects-Kemper; are all traced to Barbour, not Obama. And follow the Barksdale money to the GO Zone designation all the way to Starkville where projects such as the Renaissance and the office buildings there that have sucked the remaining life out of downtown Jackson. Mississippi continues to solidify its ranking as the most corrupt state in the U.S.
Maybe Trent Lott, cat-herder, could come here and herd posters. I see about six subjects being discussed simultaneously.
But, back to the story. Where has Gillespie been? Corporations having a goal of profits for investors has been with us for at least forty years. He's also 'late' on most of his other revelations.
I still don't understand what the accusations against Barksdale are. KF, you have made a very serious accusation, you need to specifically explain in detail what he has done in relation to Gillespie's quote and not leave readers "to figure it out."
12:19 - Businesses moving to an office in Ridgeland owned by Barksdale and Bailey don't constitute influence peddling.
Billionaire Vinod Khosla’s big dreams for biofuels fail to catch fire
Ready to build a commercial-size facility, Khosla Ventures arranged meetings with three southeastern governors before choosing a location. Within a weekend, the company Web site says, KiOR had picked Mississippi thanks to [Haley] Barbour’s offer of help. The company still owes the state $69.5 million.
Mississippi tries to force KiOR into liquidation
But the Mississippi Development Authority said that is an inappropriate attempt to reduce the amounts that other debtors might get while allowing the owners to keep the company. In court papers filed Dec. 23 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware, MDA asked a judge to convert the case to Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation.
The state agency said remaining value is being drained by continuing losses, and that KiOR's proposed plan to exit bankruptcy would leave other creditors with little.
"The Khosla parties utilize their control over the debtor to act as judge, jury and executioner to deny whatever value might otherwise have been available to the arm's-length creditors of this estate, while taking the assets of the debtor for themselves," lawyers for MDA wrote in court papers. "The motive here is not hidden — this is how their actual plan works."
.....
MDA says Khosla is misusing the bankruptcy code by proposing to loan more money to KiOR while it's in Chapter 11, allowing Pasadena Investments to create "false currency" to put it first in line to buy the assets at a court-supervised auction.
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"After hundreds of millions of dollars spent and years of effort, the debtor has failed to produce any commercially marketable product," the authority wrote. "The provisions of Chapter 11 cannot and will not make their failed technology successful, and accordingly this case does not preserve or maximize any value for legitimate shareholders that would be threatened outside of bankruptcy. Rather, the Khosla parties intend on continuing what is essentially a high-risk venture capital scheme for the benefit of the Khosla parties — at the expense of the arm's-length credit".
Spread Networks. Helping the high frequency traders scam the rest of the market.
Can you get the Department of Justice to file a suit against your competitor?
Anonymous said...
Netscape wasn't sued by the DOJ while Microsoft was.
Barksdale is as much a crony capitalist as anyone else. He couldn't cut it in the marketplace so Netscape lobbied the government to go after Microsoft.
Funny thing is now is MS Internet Explorer is used by fewer and fewer people. For example, here are the numbers by browser in the lasts month:
Safari: 46%
Chrome: 19%
IE: 15%
Firefox: 13%
Marketplace and technology took care of IE all by itself.
Last month on this website.
Nor did Barksdale "develop" the Netscape browser.
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