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MannyIsGod
08-17-2004, 02:38 PM
last night at my job there was a dinner thrown for tom delay, house majoirty leader and congressman from houston. it was thrown by a man named tom loeffler, who used to be a congressman from san antonio. read a brief history of tom loeffler below, then tell me if you feel comfortable when this man is putting on benifits with wealthy people with members of congress. whose interests do you think will be held in higher regard, yours or the billionairs/


Revolving-door lobbyist Tom Loeffler served in Congress from 1979 until 1987. He also was: A legislative counsel to Senator John Tower; A congressional lobbyist for President Ford; and Helped coordinate President Reagan’s Central American policies (see William Kilberg). Loeffler left Arter & Hadden (which the Center for Public Integrity ranked as George W. Bush’s No. 10 career patron in 1999) to form his own lobby shop in 2001. Loeffler surfaced in two Bush gubernatorial scandals. After then-Governor Bush reappointed Loeffler to the University or Texas System Board of Regents in 1995, Loeffler joined the board of the newly created University of Texas Investment Management Co. (UTIMCO), which oversees billions of dollars of endowment funds. The Houston Chronicle exposed that UTIMCO’s board doled out lucrative investment contracts to firms with close ties to both Bush (see Lee Bass, Robert Grady and Charles Wyly) and Pioneer UTIMCO Chair Tom Hicks (Hicks’ firm kept Loeffler on a lobby retainer in 1997 and 1998) . Other Bush-appointed Pioneer regents who sat on UTIMCO’s board include Woody Hunt, A.W. Riter and Tony Sanchez. As a regent in 1994, Loeffler voted to exclusively license a promising UT-developed gene cancer therapy to start up Introgen Therapeutics. Three years later, Introgen appointed Loeffler to its board and granted him options on 10,000 shares of stock. After ethical complaints about this vested interest as Introgen went public in 2000, Loeffler pledged to give these proceeds to charity (Pioneer Regent Charles Miller also owned at least 10,000 Introgen shares). Loeffler was a big lobbyist for Metabolife International (see Ron Kaufman), which Michael Ellis founded after being busted for housing a speed lab in his home. A still-legal herbal stimulant used in weight-loss remedies, ephedra is linked to psychosis, strokes and heart attacks. After eight ephedra-linked deaths in the state, Texas Department of Health (TDH) staff drafted tough new ephedra marketing rules in the late 1990s, triggering an industry lobbying blitz and an influx of contributions to then-Governor Bush by this lobby and ephedra vendors such as Ellis and Pioneer Craig Keeland. Bush’s Board of Health appointees (see Bill Ceverha) trashed this staff proposal in 1999 and adopted a weak industry alternative. Next a Texas state senator hired by Loeffler and Metabolife, lobbied Bush Health Secretary Tommy Thompson in 2001 to oppose a pending TDH rule requiring ephedra products to carry a toll-free FDA number where users could report health problems. One month later, TDH postponed implementing the new rule, citing the “advice” of the U.S. Department of Health. After federal prosecutors announced a criminal probe in 2002 into an alleged Metabolife cover up of consumer health complaints, the company suddenly released 13,000 such complaints. The FDA belatedly announced in late 2003 that it would seek an ephedra ban. During the seven years that the FDA deliberated this policy, ephedra contributed to the deaths of more than 80 people, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, and the industry made billions of dollars. The San Antonio City Council questioned if it got its money’s worth from a $172,800 contract with Loeffler’s firm to secure federal aid for the city in 2003. After scoring poorly on eight “performance measures,” Loeffler’s firm was a no show at a late 2003 city meeting to review its performance. Loeffler seemed predestined for special-interest lobbying. A 1984 Public Citizen study found that he had the worst record in Congress when he voted with consumers in just one out of 40 key votes. Loeffler also topped a list of five members of Congress whose campaigns received illegal corporate money from Vernon Savings & Loan (which failed at a taxpayer cost of $1.3 billion). A Vernon officer told a 1989 grand jury that Loeffler offered to set up a meeting with then-Treasury Secretary James A. Baker III if Vernon helped pay Loeffler’s debt from a failed 1986 gubernatorial bid. The officer testified that four Vernon executives then moved $8,000 in laundered corporate money to Loeffler’s campaign--just before federal regulators forced them to resign. In a San Francisco hotel shower in 1986 Loeffler reportedly improvised a new prophylactic—wearing shower caps on his feet to prevent AIDS.

Hook Dem
08-17-2004, 02:42 PM
You weren't invited Manny? Imagine that!

MannyIsGod
08-17-2004, 02:47 PM
yeah, i'm not wealthy. now, are you going to read it and post a repley or continue to fill this forum with your idiocy/ when was the last time you made a substantial post in where you didn't make an attempt at a one liner or simply parrot someone elses opinion/ i know you can read, but i don't think you have enough of an attention span to put together a substantial post.

Hook Dem
08-17-2004, 02:52 PM
You know what Manny? **** you!:flipoff

Hook Dem
08-17-2004, 02:55 PM
I wish I could be like you and know everything there is to know. Nope! Nothing else to learn. I know it all!

MannyIsGod
08-17-2004, 02:55 PM
thank you for prooving my point. now if you care to reply to the subject feel free.

and rember before you get your panties in a wad, it was you who came into this thread and started talking shit. if you can't take the heat, stay the **** out of the kitchen.

i never said i have learned all there is to learn, so don't try to play the know it all card jackass. simply stay on topic and respond with your opinion above. if you want to continue making stupid posts, thats fine as well, but don't be pissed off when someone calls you stupid.

Hook Dem
08-17-2004, 02:58 PM
" thank you for prooving my point."........prooving?????:rollin

MannyIsGod
08-17-2004, 02:59 PM
so, are you ever going to provide an intelligent reply to the subject/

Hook Dem
08-17-2004, 03:01 PM
Nope....not for you asshole!:lol

MannyIsGod
08-17-2004, 03:15 PM
you came into the thread, talking shit, now your crying. figures.

ClintSquint
08-17-2004, 03:54 PM
http://www.letsrumble.com/closeup/buffer_main.jpg
"Let's get ready to rrrruuummmbbbblllleeee!!!

Hook Dem
08-17-2004, 09:16 PM
Crying?????:lol It will take more than you to make me cry but just go ahead and make yourself feel good. You indeed have a complex that needs fixing. I suspect you don't have much to feel good about. You will have many encounters in life going around feeling that you are higher and mighty than others. I feel sorry for you.

Guru of Nothing
08-17-2004, 11:03 PM
Regarding the text you quoted Manny, that ranks amongst the worst persuasive writing attempts I've read, EVER. Actually, it's flattery to even label it as "persuasive" writing. It's a benign rant. Benign rants suck.

Seriously.

MannyIsGod
08-17-2004, 11:05 PM
so the information included in there means nothing/

Guru of Nothing
08-17-2004, 11:15 PM
so the information included in there means nothing/

Nope.

The opening line "Revolving-door lobbyist" insulted my intelligence from the get go.

EDIT: I just want to add that I do not regard the content of the aformentioned piece of keyboard dexterity as "information."

scott
08-17-2004, 11:44 PM
special interests at work

At least they are working, not like those goddamn lazy welfare democraps!

[/token Republican response]

MannyIsGod
08-17-2004, 11:45 PM
ha, figures.

what else would you call the man, he's a professional lobbyist. i'm sorry that the facts presented are not to your liking, but they are not made up.

special interests have taken the general publics interests and put them on the back burner.

Guru of Nothing
08-17-2004, 11:55 PM
special interests have taken the general publics interests and put them on the back burner.

Nope.

Unless you believe that you, Manny, possess NO special interest.

It's fallacy to believe your personal political interests are pure.

I'll fly by the seat of my pants and argue that there is NO SUCH THING as "general public's interest."

MannyIsGod
08-18-2004, 12:07 AM
ok, so the fact that i have an angenda, which i acknowledge everyone has, makes mortgaging the public's well being for the benefit of a few rich contributers/


so, you don't see a problem with this type of thing/

Guru of Nothing
08-18-2004, 12:38 AM
ok, so the fact that i have an angenda, which i acknowledge everyone has, makes mortgaging the public's well being for the benefit of a few rich contributers/

Before I respond, would you please rephrase your response in the form of a question.

MannyIsGod
08-18-2004, 12:41 AM
it was a statement delivered in an inqusitive tone. take it form there.

Guru of Nothing
08-18-2004, 12:52 AM
it was a statement delivered in an inqusitive tone. take it form there.

There is nothing here worthy of discussion, except perhaps your emotions.

MannyIsGod
08-18-2004, 12:55 AM
well, i guess it was very emotional of me to think that the current political climate that caters to the wealthy campaign contributers and how it ignores the rest of us, is not worthy of discussion in your eyes.

actually, apparently from the lack of interest in this thread and the way the public deals with this situation as a whole with nothing but complacency perhaps you are right, there is nothing worthy of discussion here.

Guru of Nothing
08-18-2004, 01:11 AM
well, i guess it was very emotional of me to think that the current political climate that caters to the wealthy campaign contributers and how it ignores the rest of us, is not worthy of discussion in your eyes.

Politics has ALWAYS catered to the wealthy, and YOU know better than to pose this as a dubya/kerry (republican/democrat)matter.

MannyIsGod
08-18-2004, 01:30 AM
what the hell, i never brought presidential politics into this.

the example i used was republican based, but i never said one thing along party lines.

are you kidding me/ democrats are in as deep with big business as the gop, why do you think i'd like to see 3rd party [read - nader] on the ballot/

Guru of Nothing
08-18-2004, 02:01 AM
what the hell, i never brought presidential politics into this.

My bad. The Gerald Ford reference led me astray.


but i never said one thing along party lines.

Talk to the mirror, Mr. Disingenuous.


why do you think i'd like to see 3rd party [read - nader] on the ballot/

Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't the Green Party platform endorse a (ridiculous) minimum wage of $13 an hour, guaranteed?

I'm just trying to keep the agendas above board.

MannyIsGod
08-18-2004, 02:10 AM
nadar isn't the green party cantidate.

and i didn't make this into a republican/democrat thing. if you think otherwise, feel free to continue to believe so. the fact remains that lobbyists have a stranglehold on our government, and that needs to change.

Guru of Nothing
08-18-2004, 02:15 AM
nadar isn't the green party cantidate.

Did I say he was?

ducks
09-27-2022, 02:20 PM
Former Boston coach had special interest at work also