More GOP in big business pockets?

December 04, 2006 1:40 PM

Anna Schecter Reports:

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a former tobacco industry lobbyist, won a long battle in court to withdraw all funding for Mississippi's highly successful anti-smoking program, and last week the last dollar ran out. 

    Barbour complained that the program received its funding directly from the courts and that it needed legislative approval, according to Myers.  When the legislature passed a bill to continue the funding, Barbour vetoed it and went back to the courts to withdraw all remaining monies from the program.        From ABC News

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    Another man in big companies good graces, no doubt. Barbour's own lobbying firm made millions lobbying for big tobacco companies so it now looks as if the industry got its moneys worth.

    The lobbying firm, Barbour, Griffith & Rogers , was named the most powerful firm in the country after Bush won the Presidency. that was because of the firms close ties with the GOP. This comes from Fortune Magazine in 2001.

   Here is another poster child for ethics reform when the Democrats start looking into reform!

 

U.S. Panel Rejects Plan For Paper Ballots

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: December 5, 2006

GAITHERSBURG, Md., Dec. 4 (AP) — A federal advisory panel rejected a recommendation on Monday that states use just voting machines whose results could be independently verified.            More HERE

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   This comes as no surprise to anyone. They made some claim about the state election boards being overwhelmed with the requirement.

    If this would help our election process actually work, then I see no reason that the states cannot be a little inconvenienced. Between all of the machine mess-ups and fraud in our past elections(FL-13 for one) you would think that the states would welcome an actual paper trail for when these pieces of junk go down or do not work as they are supposed to work.

   The Democrats need to push this issue when they get into office as most of the voting problems are against the Democratic party in the first place.