Wall Street buys Washington | Salon

The paper noted that in the first half of the year oil and natural gas groups spent $82.1 million lobbying Capitol Hill -- but that environmental, health and clean-energy interests scraped together less than a quarter of that amount, $18.7 million. Money talks, and it's murmuring in your ear, "Global warming, what global warming?"
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Those energy lobby high rollers in denial aren't the only ones who know how to throw a party...

Flashback: Spending Doubled as Obama Led Billion-Dollar Campaign - Bloomberg.com

In capturing the presidency, Obama, 47, became the first major-party nominee to reject federal funding for the general election. He spent $740.6 million, eclipsing the combined $646.7 million that Republican President George W. Bush and Democratic nominee John Kerry spent four years earlier.