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Author: muckety
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The Beatles Go Digital With New Video Game
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Howard Baker Jr Markets Service to Japanese Companies
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Al Franken waging serious challenge for Senate seat
When the comedian Al Franken launched a Democratic challenge to incumbent Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman two years ago, many viewed it as a joke.
But with less than a week to go before Election Day, the 57-year-old comic best known for his Saturday Night Live skits, is leading in some polls in what has become one of the tightest and most expensive races in the country.
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(requires Java)MAP HINTS: Click expands a name. Control+Click centers map on a name. Solid lines are current relations. Dotted lines are former relations. For advanced tools choose Tools > Options from the menu at top. More help. Not seeing the maps? Please go here to check for the latest version of Java.It didn’t start out as a high-profile contest. For months, Coleman, a onetime Democrat who had co-chaired President Clinton’s 1996 re-election campaign in Minnesota, maintained a double-digit lead. Many thought he was a shoo-in, especially after questions were raised about Franken’s entertainment company’s unpaid taxes and a Playboy humor column he had written in 2000 describing a visit to a fictional sex institute.
Al FrankenBut then the economy tanked, and almost overnight, the race turned into a referendum on the Bush administration, which Coleman has vigorously supported.
The race has attracted big-money contributions from all over the country after being targeted by Democrats seeking to regain a Senate majority. According to the latest campaign filings compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, Coleman has raised almost $18 million; Franken about $17 million.
And they have used that money to blitzkrieg Minnesota voters. Franken’s ads accuse Coleman of signing off on wasteful contracts in Iraq. Ads by Coleman’s campaign and the GOP characterize Franken as angry, obscene and unfit for office.
The contest has also featured appearances by nationally-known politicians, including New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for Franken, talking about how a Democratic majority could help a newly-elected president, and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani for Coleman telling voters, “There are enough comics in Washington.”
Further complicating things was the recent addition of third-party candidate Dean Barkley, who announced he was running in July. Barkley, 58, filled out the last two months of the late Sen. Paul Wellstone’s term, after the two-term Democrat died in a plane crash 11 days before the 2002 election against Coleman.
An interesting biographical note: Both Franken and Coleman originally hail from New York City.
Coleman, who grew up in Brooklyn, attended James Madison High School as a classmate of New York Sen. Charles Schumer, a Democrat. Coleman settled in Minnesota after graduating from University of Iowa Law School, and was elected mayor of St. Paul as a Democrat in 1993. In 1996, he switched his party enrollment and was re-elected as a Republican. He won election to the Senate six years ago, narrowly defeating former Vice President Walter Mondale, who had entered the race after Wellstone’s death.
For his part, Franken was born in New York City, and relocated to Minneapolis with his family as a young child. Besides writing and appearing on SNL for several years, he has written five best-selling books, and once hosted a talk show on Air America Radio.
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This post is tagged with: Air America Radio, Al Franken, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Norm Coleman, Politics, Recent Stories, Rudolph Giuliani, Saturday Night LiveRead related stories: Politics · Recent Stories
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The Beatles license songs for new video gameOctober 30, 2008 at 1:59pm
Apple Corps Ltd. announced the Beatles’ first-ever digital venture today – a video game that will allow fans to play along to the Fab Four’s entire canon from Meet The Beatles to Abbey Road.
Erik Prince’s mom gives $450,000 to stop same-sex marriage
A conservative religious family in western Michigan, whose vast fortunes derive from auto parts and government security contracts, is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to ban gay marriage in California.
Elsa Prince Broekhuizen, widow of industrialist Edgar Prince, has given $450,000 to an effort to pass California Proposition 8, which would forbid same-sex marriages.
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Broekhuizen’s first husband, Edgar, founded an auto parts company that was sold after his death for $1.4 billion. She later married her pastor, Ren Broekhuizen.
An assistant told the Grand Rapids Press that Broekhuizen gave to the campaign because the issue is “very important to her. It’s near and dear to her heart. She likes to give from her heart and not for public recognition.”
Broekhuizen heads the Edgar and Elsa Prince Foundation, which had assets of more than $42 million in 2006 (the last year for which tax returns are publicly available). The foundation and Broekhuizen personally are longtime supporters of religious organizations and conservative political groups such as the Haggai Institute, Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council.
Broekhuizen isn’t the only big-money contributor to the California proposition. John Templeton Jr., son of the late investor John Templeton, has given $900,000 to support the ban, while his mother Josephine Templeton gave $100,000. The Knights of Columbus gave $1 million.
Another Michigander, Stryker Corp. heir Jon L. Stryker, has donated $1.1 million to defeat the ban. Other opponents of the proposition include financier Robert W. Wilson of Brooklyn, who has given $1.2 million, and GeoCities founder David Bohnett, who has given $1.1 million.
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This post is tagged with: Betsy DeVos, California ballot, Dick DeVos, Elsa Prince Broekhuizen, Erik Prince, gay marriage., PoliticsRead related stories: Politics · Recent Stories0 Comments
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Investor Ron Baron on shifting sandsOctober 31, 2008 at 11:18am
Last year, investor Ron Baron paid $103 million for a 40-acre oceanfront estate in East Hampton. Now the view in the Hamptons is changing, in more ways than one.
Watch Joe Lieberman pivot
The one thing you can say about Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman is that he’s a survivor.
The lawmaker who morphed from Democrat to independent to Republican stumper, all quicker than you can say, “What’s in it for me,” appears to be crafting yet a new political persona in the event of a Barack Obama victory.
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“When I go out, I say, ‘I have a lot of respect for Sen. Obama. He’s bright. He’s eloquent.’ Someday, I might even support him for president,” Lieberman said. “But now in the midst of this series of crises, John McCain is simply so much better prepared that that’s who I am proud to support.”
Lieberman also said that if McCain doesn’t win, “I’m going to do everything I can to be bringing people … together across party lines to support the new president so he can succeed.”
Not to be nitpicky, but it was only about two months ago that the Connecticut senator was asserting the Democratic nominee did not “put the country first.” Speaking at the Republican National Convention, he went so far as to say that Obama “was voting to cut off funding for our troops on the ground.”
Which is why most political analysts have assumed that it would be payback big time for Lieberman, should the Democrats win a decisive Senate majority. The prevailing theory is, the Democratic leadership would strip him of his chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee, and the exiled senator would throw in with the Republicans.
But Ken Dautrich at the University of Connecticut makes a case that it is premature to write Lieberman’s political obituary.
In a Hartford Courant op-ed column last week, Dautrich points out that Lieberman’s vote could be the difference between a filibuster-proof majority for the Democrats:
Just as luck would have it that Lieberman represented the one vote distinguishing a Democrat majority from a Republican majority after the 2006 elections, it now appears that his vote just may define a filibuster-proof Democrat majority after the 2008 Senate elections.
The one missing link in the Democrats’ likely White House and congressional victories in 2008 is the possibility that the Senate may filibuster the Obama-Democratic congressional legislation. From the looks of it, Obama will win on Nov. 4, and the Democrats will maintain their majorities in Congress. But a filibuster-proof Senate requires 60 Democrats…
It now seems quite possible that the 2008 Senate races will result in 59 Democrats, 40 Republicans and Lieberman. If that happens and Lieberman chooses to remain with the Democrats, that would provide a filibuster-proof majority. On the other hand, if Lieberman aligns with the Republicans, a filibuster could prevent significant Obama-Democratic legislation…
Of course, everything hinges on the numbers. But be on the lookout for more pivots if need be from Lieberman – and the Democratic leadership.
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This post is tagged with: 2008 Barack Obama presidential campaign, 2008 John McCain presidential campaign, Joseph Lieberman, Politics, Recent Stories0 Comments
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Investor Ron Baron on shifting sandsOctober 31, 2008 at 11:18am
Last year, investor Ron Baron paid $103 million for a 40-acre oceanfront estate in East Hampton. Now the view in the Hamptons is changing, in more ways than one.
The Beatles license songs for new video game
Apple Corps Ltd. announced the Beatles’ first foray into video games in a deal which will allow fans to play along to the Fab Four’s entire canon from Meet The Beatles to Abbey Road.
The new game, said to be developed with input from surviving Beatles Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, is due to be released sometime next year.
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The game is being made by the creators of Rock Band, the best-selling video game that lets players live out their fantasies of rock stardom, playing guitar or drums to tracks by performers like the Grateful Dead, The Who and Jimmy Buffet.
Unlike previous editions of Rock Band, however, this one will exist as a Beatles game, rather than simply as a branded version of Rock Band. It was being described by executives as a “journey” through the band’s career, from its first album to its last.
“Every member of the Apple team – Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Olivia Harrison and Yoko Ono Lennon have been part of the conversation, have seen demonstrations of the game, understand how it’s going to roll out, what you’re going to see on your screen, how the interactivity and the immersive experience will unfold and they will be involved along every step of the way creatively and musically, ” Apple Corps’ CEO Jeff Jones said in the statement.
Until now, McCartney and the other stakeholders in Apple Corps, the company established by the Beatles to oversee the band’s business interests, have not allowed the sale of their songs on digital music sites such as iTunes.
MTV Networks, which owns Harmonix, the developer of Rock Band, has been in negotiations on this deal for 17 months. Rock Band was released two years ago and has sold about 3.5 million copies since.
“The Beatles continue to evolve with the passing of time and how wonderful that the Beatles’ legacy will find its natural progression into the 21st century through the computerized world we live in. Let the games commence,” Ringo Starr said.
Activision, the owner of Guitar Hero, Rock Bands chief competitor, was also believed to have been wooing Apple.
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This post is tagged with: Apple Corps Ltd., Beatles, Business, Entertainment, Jeff Jones, MTV Networks, Paul McCartney, Recent Stories, Ringo Starr, Rock BandRead related stories: Business · Entertainment0 Comments
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Investor Ron Baron on shifting sandsOctober 31, 2008 at 11:18am
Last year, investor Ron Baron paid $103 million for a 40-acre oceanfront estate in East Hampton. Now the view in the Hamptons is changing, in more ways than one.
Howard Baker markets services to Japanese companies
In another example of the revolving door between government and industry, former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Howard Baker Jr. has hung out a shingle as a strategic adviser to Japanese companies doing business in the U.S.
Baker served as ambassador to Japan from June 26, 2001 until February 17, 2005. The Tennessee Republican is also a former Senate Majority leader and chief of staff to the late President Ronald Reagan.
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(requires Java)MAP HINTS: Click expands a name. Control+Click centers map on a name. Solid lines are current relations. Dotted lines are former relations. For advanced tools choose Tools > Options from the menu at top. More help. Not seeing the maps? Please go here to check for the latest version of Java.The Japan-U.S. Strategic Advisory, as the new consultancy is called, is part of Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz, the law and lobby firm where he is senior counsel.
Other advisors in the Japan-U.S. group include J. Bennett Johnston, a former Democratic senator and chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and Shotaro Yachi, a former Japanese vice minister of foreign affairs.
“Japan and the United States remain the world’s largest economies and closest allies, but they face new challenges as the 21st century unfolds– in world markets, in international security, in energy security,” Baker said in a statement. “In a global economy shaken by energy and financial shocks, I’m convinced that we need to bolster our bilateral relationship by encouraging greater economic interaction between our private sectors.”
Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz already represents Toshiba Corp., which paid it $900,000 in 2008, according to records compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. Besides Toshiba, it represents Boeing, Lockheed and WR Grace & Co., among dozens of clients.
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This post is tagged with: Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz, Business, Howard H. Baker Jr., J . Bennett Johnston, Lobbying, Recent Stories, Shotaro Yachi, Toshiba Corp.0 Comments
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Rashid Khalidi’s web of connections reaches McCain, as well as ObamaNovember 2, 2008 at 10:56am
Social networks can be tricky things, as John McCain found out this week.
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