McCain Group Got Big Cable Donation

AP on Yahoo ^ | 3/7/05 | Sharon Theimer - AP

[TomGuy]

let customers pick the channels they want rather than buy fixed-price packages

I agree with the concept. Two-thirds of the cable channels are subsidized junk anyway. If people got to choose their line-up, most of those would go under. I would much rather pay for 25 good watchable channels than have to weed through the 70 I get.

The concept would force people into digital. I'm not sure the concept could work with analog, but with digital, channel selections can easily be entered via computer. I would bet the more popular channels would be higher cost. I doubt FX or Spike or Lifetime or SciFI would be available for the same rate as Golf or House & Garden or Travel.

[BlessedByLiberty]

I, too agree that we should be able to choose our cable stations.

However, the irony is that McCain of McCain-Feingold Campaign Fixing-for-Incumbents-Reform has a group soliciting those kind of "special interests" bucks! LOL!

[Alia]

Sure! And I've been railing "must carry/must go" for so many years I sound like a broken record. BUT! Do you really, truly-uly, believe for one fat second Cablevision is simply going to take the loss? Hardly. McCain is also rambling for stations which MUST carry "underfunded" candidates. Furthermore, FEC (McCain, again) is considering its options, ahem, as to whether bloggers can blog, freepers can freep, and who pays.

There's No Such Thing as a Free Lunch! (Remember that?)

[conshack]

Another Dimocrat taking bribes?

[kcvl]

bttt

[ClintonBeGone]

Hypocracy always gets you in the end. I'm glad to see it bite McCain.

[okie01]

"If [The Reform Institute] was a PAC (political action committee) or if it was somehow connected to any campaign of mine, I would say to you, that's a legitimate appearance of conflict of interest. But it's not," McCain told The Associated Press.

So, exactly what does that make The Reform Institute?

A cookie jar with built-in plausible deniability.

The McCain-Feingold Incumbency Protection & Media Empowerment Act of 2002 was no doubt written expressly as to accommodate such devices.

Devious little jerk, isn't he?

[Babu]

"Big Johnnie, your D-AZ, is a principled Congresscritter who can't be bought, but you can rent me for say 200 G's, Yeah!!

[ETERNAL WARMING]

LOL I suspect you'll pay thru the nose for the few you choose. Have you ever known these kind of changes to actually benefit you?

[NYTexan]

BTTT

[ClintonBeGone]

Devious little jerk, isn't he?

Yes Yes Yes. I really despise this guy. Amazing how in Washington you can be considered the 'straight talker' when you have the Keaton 5 and now this kind of baggage.

[ClintonBeGone]

I agree with the concept. Two-thirds of the cable channels are subsidized junk anyway. If people got to choose their line-up, most of those would go under. I would much rather pay for 25 good watchable channels than have to weed through the 70 I get.

Could you two possibly be missing the point of the article?

[sixmil]

Could you two possibly be missing the point of the article?

hah! I was going to say the same thing, but then again I don't think it is news to most around here that McKain's on the take.

[prairiebreeze]

Captains Quarters blog has this story and more under a blog entry called Mr. Clean? There is quite a bit more links and info in the 5 updates the Captain has added. I'll post most of them here for reference.

UPDATE II: Why doesn't Cablevision appear on this list of donors? Perhaps because Cablevision hid the donations in its subsidiary, CSC Holdings. Notice that the Tides Foundation also donates to the RI, to the tune of over $50,000. Tides, of course, received millions of dollars from Teresa Heinz Kerry, meaning that Rick Davis -- McCain's chief political advisor -- benefits financially from the wife of the erstwhile Democratic nominee. No wonder McCain played footsie with Kerry about the VP slot for a while. (h/t: CQ reader JR Pascucci)

Front Page Magazine has more on Tides:

Teresa Heinz Kerry has financed the secretive Tides Foundation to the tune of more than $4 million over the years. The Tides Foundation, a “charity” established in 1976 by antiwar leftist activist Drummond Pike, distributes millions of dollars in grants every year to political organizations advocating far-Left causes. The Tides Foundation and its closely allied Tides Center, which was spun off from the Foundation in 1996 but run by Drummond Pike, distributed nearly $66 million in grants in 2002 alone. In all, Tides has distributed more than $300 million for the Left. These funds went to rabid antiwar demonstrators, anti-trade demonstrators, domestic Islamist organizations, pro-terrorists legal groups, environmentalists, abortion partisans, extremist homosexual activists and open borders advocates. And now we find out that they fund McCain's chief political advisor, too. How coincidental.

UPDATE III: The Chartwell Charitable Foundation also has donated over $50,000, but a Google on this shows them much more interested in promoting the arts. Why the interest in McCain's reform politics? And here's the Educational Foundation of America making a mid-five-figure or more donation, too. The site describes their interests:

Areas of interest include, but are not limited to, the environment, the crisis of human overpopulation and reproductive freedom, Native Americans, arts, education, medicine, and human services. That makes two of its major financial backers who support abortion, an unusual position for a group that employs the chief political advisor of a pro-life Senator.

UPDATE IV: Speaking of EFA, here's what they have to say about their efforts to promote Peace and Security in 2003:

In this issue area of increasing national and global importance, EFA is firmly committed to reducing irresponsible military spending, avoiding unnecessary violent conflict, and preventing the use of deadly (nuclear/chemical/biological) weapons. By joining and respecting the terms of international conventions, maintaining pathways of meaningful dialogue, and recognizing the role for a balanced military presence, the United States can work towards a peaceful, safe, and fair world community. And on reproductive rights, where NARAL makes a prominent appearance ($220,000 over 2 years):

It is EFA’s goal in the area of Population to fund programs that ensure reproductive health services are available to all, regardless of race, religion, or economic status. EFA’s funding in 2003 assisted programs that work to: promote abortion training and build a new corps of abortion providers; address legal challenges to abortion access; provide reproductive health services to uninsured/underinsured women; train new pro-choice activists, particularly through campus organizing; organize physicians that favor reproductive choice; mobilize pro-choice voters; and provide essential reproductive education and services to teens. And yet, they've funded the pet non-profit of a supposedly pro-life Republican and helped pay the salary of his chief political advisor. Hmmmm. I note that The Reform Institute doesn't appear in its 2001-3 annual reports, which leaves 2004 for their donation.

UPDATE V: Another major donor to Rick Davis' salary is the Proteus Fund. Proteus also supports gay-marriage initiatives around the US to the tune of $935,000. They gave $75,000 to stopping the Yucca Mountain nuclear fuel storage initiative, a legislative priority of the Bush administration.

UPDATE VI: OSI and its Constitution and Legal Policy Program also gives big bucks to Rick Davis and the RI. Guess who funds OSI? George Soros.

[prairiebreeze]

Tides, of course, received millions of dollars from Teresa Heinz Kerry, meaning that Rick Davis -- McCain's chief political advisor -- benefits financially from the wife of the erstwhile Democratic nominee. No wonder McCain played footsie with Kerry about the VP slot for a while.

Ping

[Peach]

So the man who wanted $$ out of campaigns has himself taken $$ from this socialist organization.

I've just been listening to McCain on MSNBC (since FNC has become the Martha/Jackson show) and for once, he made a lot of sense.

But then, on another day, he can sound just like a Democrat. The guy is as unreliable as any Republican politician I've seen operate.

[Mo1]

You know what ... I'm not surprised

[watchdog_writer]

A la carte? When pump your own went into effect did it end up making gas prices cheaper?

Sounds good but you can bet that in the end you will be paying the same or more for less channels.