While some sunlight has been shed on the hefty sums shoveled into congressional campaign coffers in an effort to influence the Democrats' massive healthcare bill, little attention has been focused on the far larger sums received by President Barack Obama while he was a candidate in 2008.
A new figure, based on an exclusive analysis created for Raw Story by the Center for Responsive Politics, shows that President Obama received a staggering $20,175,303 from the healthcare industry during the 2008 election cycle, nearly three times the amount of his presidential rival John McCain. McCain took in $7,758,289, the Center found.
The new figure, obtained by Raw Story through an independent custom research request performed by the Center for Responsive Politics -- a nonprofit, nonpartisan group that tracks money in politics -- is the most comprehensive breakdown yet available of healthcare industry contributions to Obama during the 2008 election cycle.
Just thought you might want to know exactly how much it takes to buy a President these days. Just in case you wanted to buy one, you know?
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San Francisco Rickrolls Westboro
On Friday the Westboro Baptist Church descended on the San Francisco headquarters of Twitter, because God hates social networking. Or something. The above photo from the exuberant counter-protest was sent in by JMG reader Craig. Go here for many more hilarious signs. 
Haitian police detained 10 members of a US Christian group after they allegedly tried to leave the country with more than 30 children who survived the country's devastating earthquake. [...]At least they were caught. This time.
Police had arrested five men and five women with US passports, as well as two Haitians, as they tried to cross into the neighboring Dominican Republic with 33 children late Friday, Haitian authorities said. [...]
The Americans were members of an Idaho-based charity called New Life Children's Refuge, said Social Affairs Minister Yves Christallin, adding: "This is an abduction, not an adoption." [...]
Patricia Vargas, head of an international center caring for the youngsters, said that officials at the Haitian Institute of Social Welfare, which deals with adoptions, told her "most of the kids have family."Some of the older children had spoken to aid workers and "say their parents are alive, and some of them gave us an address and phone numbers," she said.
The US embassy confirmed that ten US citizens were being held for "alleged violations of Haitian laws related to immigration."
Matt Taibbi has a new piece on David Brooks' column on the Haitian earthquake in which he blames the victims. Ouch.
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President Obama will unveil a $3.8 trillion budget for 2011 today, that will add "billions of dollars in new spending to combat persistently high unemployment and bolster a battered middle class," increase war spending, "raise taxes on banks and the wealthy to help rein in soaring budget deficits," cut spending on some discretionary domestic programs, and help rein in the deficit (which will hit a record 1.556 trillion dollars in the current fiscal year to September).
