One Percent - "Proles will be checked or else!"

[GeneCC]

Kenneth Lerer, a New York businessman who is chairman of Buzzfeed.com, and David Bohnett, a technology entrepreneur and philanthopist based in Los Angeles, are both major financial supporters of Democratic candidates, having each given scores of large contributions over the years.

Neither will give another dime to any Senate Democrat who does not support expanded background checks, I’m told — and both will suggest to other donors that they do the same.

“At some point you have to draw a line in the sand — for me that time is now,” Lerer told me in an interview. “If candidates or officeholders can’t support something like comprehensive and enforceable background checks, then I wouldn’t think of giving them any money going forward.”

Lerer also said he would be intensifying his contributions to Democratic Senate candidates in the next few years — excluding any that don’t take a strong position on gun control. “We intend to get very active in Senatorial campaigns during the next cycle and the one after,” he said.

Bohnett, too, will not give any more money to Dems who balk on guns. “If they don’t do the right thing on background checks, donors like David won’t be able to support them,” Michael Fleming, who advises Bohnett on his political and philanthropical giving, told me. “You look at what some senators from rather conservative states have done when it comes to supporting marriage equality — they ‘re willing to take a tough stand. We would expect nothing less on the gun issue.”

Michael Bloomberg’s pro-gun-control group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, has been informally reaching out to top Democratic contributors and encouraging them to evaluate candidates on the basis of their support for strong gun legislation, I’m told.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...no-more-money/

[GeneCC]

Kenneth Lerer is an American businessman and media executive. He was the chairman and co-founder of The Huffington Post, a liberal/progressive American news website and content aggregating blog, headquartered in New York. He is a Managing Director of Lerer Ventures. Founded in January 2010, Lerer Ventures is a seed stage venture capital fund. Investments include Warby Parker, RapGenius, SailThru, GroupMe, Makerbot, and Birchbox and the fund makes about 40 investments a year. In addition, Lerer Ventures runs its own incubator, Soho Tech Labs. He is the Chairman of Betaworks and BuzzFeed, and the Vice-Chairman of Bedrocket. He is a past Executive Vice President of AOL Time Warner and was a founding partner of New York-based corporate communications firm Robinson, Lerer, and Montgomery. In 2003, Lerer launched StoptheNRA.com to advocate for the continuation of the assault weapons ban as a federal law. He subsequently donated the website to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Lerer

The Huffington Post's co-founder and editor-in-chief, Arianna Huffington, started the site with Kenneth Lerer in May 2005 as a news aggregation site similar to the Drudge Report. Six years later, AOL purchased the news service for a cool $315 million.

http://www.inc.com/ss/eric-markowitz...y-rich-2011#12

[GeneCC]

Bohnett was born in Chicago, Illinois. He is the Chairman of the David Bohnett Foundation,[1] a non-profit, grant-making organization with the stated goal of "improving society through social activism." In 1994, along with John Rezner, he co-founded GeoCities, an Internet-based media and e-commerce company, publicly traded on NASDAQ and subsequently acquired by Yahoo! Inc in 1999. In 1998, he was ranked #16 on Time Digital's list of Cyber Elite.[2]

In addition to GeoCities, Bohnett, has had significant involvement with a number of web ventures, including NetZero, Stamps.com, LowerMyBills, Gamesville, PlanetOut Inc., MediaVast, ID90T, Fab.com,[3] and Xdrive.[4] He manages his portfolio of investments through his early stage technology fund, Baroda Ventures.[5] Baroda Ventures is also an investor in Dogvacay, SurfAir, GradientX, PocketChange, Retention Science, GraphEffect and the behavioral commerce technology company, SteelHouse.com.[6]

He is the Chairman of the Board of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association,[7] and Trustee of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts[8] amFar, the Foundation for AIDS Research and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). He is also a supporter of the effort to clean up Lake Agawam in Southampton, New York.[9]

Bohnett received a Doctorate of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa from Whittier College,[10] his MBA in finance from the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, and a BS in business administration from the University of Southern California. In addition, he has lectured at the Marshall School of Business at USC, and was named a Regents' Lecturer at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The stated mission of the David Bohnett Foundation is, "David Bohnett and the David Bohnett Foundation are committed to improving society through social activism. We pursue our mission by providing funding, state-of-the-art technology and technical support to innovative organizations and institutions that, in addition to meeting our funding guidelines, share our vision."

Since 1999, the David Bohnett Foundation has offered nearly $50 million in grants supporting several primary funding areas: The Fund for Los Angeles, supporting a broad spectrum of arts, educational and civic programs; LGBT-related causes; graduate school leadership programs at the University of Michigan, UCLA, NYU and Harvard; voting rights and registration initiatives; supporting research and public policies to reduce the toll of firearm violence; and animal research and rights. The David Bohnett CyberCenters are another major undertaking—numbering 59 locations nationwide,[13] they offer business, educational, research, and recreational opportunities to underserved LGBT communities via computer equipment and access to the Internet.[14]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bohnett

David Bohnett has chosen to spread his bets--and his time--more broadly. Bohnett, 47, spent 15 years in the consulting and software worlds before founding GeoCities in late 1994, when Internet usage was nascent. GeoCities enabled groups of people to form communities on the Web, and it caught on like wildfire. By December 1998 it was the third-most-visited Internet site. Yahoo made a bid in January 1999; when the deal closed four months later, it was worth $3.2 billion (plus $800 million in options). Bohnett's 8.1% stake netted him $260 million in Yahoo stock, most of which he later sold.

Bohnett set up shop as a venture capitalist, putting $20 million in 15 companies. PlanetOut Partners, a Web site catering to a gay clientele, advertised on GeoCities; its then-chief executive, Andrew Cramer, asked Bohnett to invest and become a director, which he did. Bohnett, who is gay, is chairman of the board. Bohnett hasn't come close to replicating his success with GeoCities, but he has had a few wins. Onliner Gamesville.com was acquired by Lycos for $207 million in November 1999. And Stamps.com, which sells postage stamps over the Net, had a brief moment in the sun after it went public in mid-1999. Some of his bombs: Crescenda Wireless, a developer of software for handheld computers that dissolved, and Encryptics, a Stamps.com ticket-printing spinoff that went nowhere.

"Like every venture fund, it's been a tough go," says Bohnett from his office in Los Angeles. "But we're above water." Bohnett spends about two-thirds of his time on philanthropic and political issues. His foundation has given $5.5 million to gay causes and a campaign to ban handguns.

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2003/0901/072_print.html

One growing segment of gun owners are gay folks. So it's really ironic that a gay community leader has dedicated himself to making gays of lesser income into victims of violence.

[internet troll]

People don't donate money like that without expecting something in return. It happens with both parties with some people giving money to each side to hedge their bets. Nice that they are so open and brazen about one of the things they want to buy for their money. Do as I say or no more money for you. Yeah our system is screwed up. But nothing new under the sun unfortunately.

[GeneCC]

Once again Bloomberg's ugly ass surfaces in this "Scare the red staters with campaign cut offs".


Here's my point....


In the summer of 2011 "Occupy Wall Street" camped out in big cities stating that they were "For the Ninety Nine Percent".


Here we have three members of the "One Percent" who want to infringe on the rights of ordinary people.


I wonder what Union guys will think of multimillionaires and billionaires dictating to Democrats how they will vote on social issues?

Union leadership are often whores. Many are probably bought off. A few are sincere people who want for their Rank 'n File.

I wonder what the "Rank and File" thinks? When they go to prison for giving a child or friend a firearm? How about when they are told that the handguns that they own "have military features" so they must "Turn 'em in"?


I wonder what these neo-Hippies in the "Occupy Movement" will think when they realize that "gun control" is being pushed by these wealthy folks. I don't see any poor folks threatening Senators with having their money cut off. Do you?

Here they are.....

Mike Bloomberg - $26,000,000,000 Dollars

Ken Lerer - some portion of $316,000,000 Dollars.

David Bohnett - $260,000,000 Dollars.

[GeneCC]

People don't donate money like that without expecting something in return. It happens with both parties with some people giving money to each side to hedge their bets. Nice that they are so open and brazen about one of the things they want to buy for their money. Do as I say or no more money for you. Yeah our system is screwed up. But nothing new under the sun unfortunately.

What's "Screwed Up" is that all of these "supporters of the Common Man" sit still for this kind of shit.

If a Republican said this kind of thing a lot of Progressives would be screaming that "Our Congress is for SALE".

So far? It's all good. So far.

[fortysix]

Nothing to see here. Just another case of politicians being paid. Just as Occupy Wall Street said, *we're tired of the 1% buying political influence*. Yea. Until they are buying influence on YOUR behalf, right, dickheads?