Naked Scanners: Lobbyists join the War on Terror

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/_Naked-scanners__-Lobbyists-join-the-war-on-terror-1540901-107548388.html

$338 million dollars later the Government Accountability Office still isn't sure that it works.
I really can't imagine why at this point they don't know if it works.
Common sense says do an open field trial at the airport. I'm sure the FBI could help in accommodating them with the particulars.
Look who lobbies for this crap kids.
Looks like revolving government, accommodating it self to me.
That's why lobbyist have to go. They're experts on political positioning to get what they want.
This article doesn't mention it but Michael Chertoff, the first head of Homeland Security has a position in L-3.
How convenient was that for setting your own company up to make money off of the taxpayer?
Security has become big business since 9/11, and politician and CEO's alike have reaped in the riches from it's insistence.
And who insists that its used? Why the very same people that make the products to insist with.
Remember "insiderr trading" is allowed by Congress.
It's time to look a little deeper at just who is buying "our" enslavement, not only being subject to the procedure but having to pay for the machines themselves, I'm tired of making Congress rich.
The game is up!
Simple Simon is calling them out.
The corruption needs accounting for!


If you've seen one of these scanners at an airport, there's a good chance it was made by L-3 Communications, a major contractor with the Department of Homeland Security. L-3 employs three different lobbying firms including Park Strategies, where former Sen. Al D'Amato, R-N.Y., plumps on the company's behalf. Back in 1989, President George H.W. Bush appointed D'Amato to the President's Commission on Aviation Security and Terrorism following the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. Also on Park's L-3 account is former Appropriations staffer Kraig Siracuse.

The scanner contract, issued four days after the Christmas Day bomb attempt last year, is worth $165 million to L-3.

Rapiscan got the other naked-scanner contract from the TSA, worth $173 million. Rapiscan's lobbyists include Susan Carr, a former senior legislative aide to Rep. David Price, D-N.C., chairman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee. When Defense Daily reported on Price's appropriations bill last winter, the publication noted "Price likes the budget for its emphasis on filling gaps in aviation security, in particular the whole body imaging systems."

An early TSA contractor for full-body scanners was the American Science and Engineering company. AS&E's lobbying team is impressive, including Tom Blank, a former deputy administrator for the TSA. Fellow AS&E lobbyist Chad Wolf was an assistant administrator at TSA and an aide to Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who sits on the Transportation and Defense subcommittees of Appropriations. Finally, Democratic former Rep. Bud Cramer is also an AS&E lobbyist -- he sat on the Defense and Transportation subcommittees of the Appropriations Committee.

The full-body scanners


Deploying these naked scanners was a reaction to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's failed attempt to blow up a plane on Christmas 2009, but the Government Accountability Office found, "it remains unclear whether [the scanners] would have been able to detect the weapon Mr. Abdulmutallab used."

FDA Is Criticized for Training Deals.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704865104575588312774998510.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_health


The FDA"s bogus waste of YOUR tax dollars.
Why is there a backlog of generic drug apps?
Because big Pharma wants it that way, they have no desire to have those apps approved because it takes money out of their pocket.
So through the use of lobbyists, they ensure through the buying off of political positions, so that their bottom line is never touched, and those bought off political positions ensure that your tax dollars are wasted by the bogus misdirection of the given appropriations to ease the problem in the first place.
Here is a prime example.
Lobbyism is nothing more than the insurance for a totally corrupt government.


"Why on earth are FDA managers spending money for a consultant to tell them why they have a backlog of generic drug applications?" said Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, the top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

An FDA spokeswoman said McKinsey's work for the generic-drug office was only a small part of the firm's overall contract with the FDA set up earlier this year.

According to government documents, the goal of the contract is to "ensure that the decisions made by the FDA can be tracked through and supported by clearly communicated and documented processes."

McKinsey declined to comment, saying it doesn't discuss clients.

It isn't the first time an outside contract for FDA management training has raised concerns in Congress. In 2008, the agency held a $1.5 million seminar for 500 senior employees who were shown a slideshow comparing Dr. Woodcock with such leaders as Gandhi and Golda Meir.

Financial sector ups lobbying effort over new regulation plan

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-12-28-financial-sector-lobbying_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

How much does it cost to sway a decision or water the intended version down and who's paying to do it.
Main Street doesn't stand a chance because money can buy anything, even the financial destruction of whats left of our country

WASHINGTON — Wall Street, commercial banks and an array of other business interests are undertaking an all-out lobbying effort to shape legislation that imposes sweeping government oversight of the financial services industry

The power of the lobby

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gogMox_dSaDYvRr9NtuG4xBn0lvAD9AKIF400

A career destroyed by corruption, one only has to take a good look at the person in question and the position he held to understand he allowed himself to be compromised
for a paid in full endorsement

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A pro-family values California lawmaker who resigned after being caught on tape boasting about his sexual conquests denied Thursday that he had extramarital affairs, saying that "my offense was engaging in inappropriate storytelling."

Mike Duvall stepped down Wednesday after a videotape surfaced in which was overheard telling a lawmaker about having sex with a lobbyist and another woman, including salacious details about how one mistress wears skimpy underwear and likes to be spanked. The 54-year-old Republican is married with two adult children.

But Duvall said Thursday that his "decision to resign is in no way an admission that I had an affair or affairs

The unseemly remarks also raise questions about the relationship between lawmakers and lobbyists. The Assembly Ethics Committee is investigating Duvall's comments, in part to determine whether the affair might have influenced his votes.

He was vice chairman of the Assembly Utilities Committee.

Several media outlets reported the woman Duvall refers to in his comments works as a lobbyist for Sempra Energy, a San Diego-based energy services company that operates San Diego Gas & Electric Co. and Southern California Gas Co.