OpenSecrets.org Announces Winners of 2011 Money-in-Politics Oscars
The turbulent world of political influence may lack the glitz, glamour and cameras of Sunday's 83rd annual Academy Awards. But the paparazzi may yet be intrigued by a collection of eye-popping, eyebrow-raising political contributions from Hollywood royalty that'd make John Boehner turn a new shade of red and Barack Obama see green. The 2nd annual OpenSecrets.org Money-in-Politics Oscars return today to bestow awards on Academy Awards nominees who best emblematize the cozy relationship between the cinematic and political elite.The big six Academy Awards are best picture, best director, best lead actor, best lead actress, best supporting actor and best supporting actress. Of the various individuals up for those awards, 19 of them have contributed to politicians, political parties, political action committees and 527 organizations since the 1990 election cycle, the Center for Responsive Politics finds.
And they aren't very friendly to Republicans.
Of the more than $1.3 million of hard money donated by this particular cast -- contributions to candidates, parties or PACs -- more than $1.24 million benefitted Democrats. Among contributions that had identifiable partisan identification, 99 percent supported the Democratic Party, candidates and PACs.
- Published in Professionals
- Written by Admin TOA
Frank Ahmed, 86, a retired Foreign Service officer with the State Department, died Jan. 21 of cardiac arrest at his home in Fairfax City. Mr. Ahmed joined the Foreign Service in 1953 and had early overseas assignments in Iran and Iraq. In 1967, he and his family were evacuated from Jordan during the Arab-Israeli Six-Day War. After returning from his final overseas posting to Turkey in 1971, Mr. Ahmed served as a consultant to the State Department until 2009. 
The ghosts are jamming again. They're playing that hot jazz in the Turkish Embassy's old Sheridan Circle mansion, just as they did in the 1930s and '40s, when the ambassador's boys, Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun, were always inviting their favorite musicians over to hang and blow and thump. The informal, integrated gatherings achieved near-mythic status - "Washington's most famous private jam sessions," jazz journalist Bill Gottlieb called them in The Washington Post in 1943 - and then they evaporated into history.
Companies that adopt 'smart growth' policies that are innovative and safeguard natural resources will benefit from competitive advantages in a growing world economy, Muhtar Kent, president and CEO of the Coca-Cola Co., says in a video broadcast from Davos, Switzerland. Mr. Kent is attending the annual meeting that brings together top business, political and thought leaders from around the world to the Swiss ski resort. This year's forum opened Wednesday, Jan. 26, with a keynote address by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Mr. Kent provides an optimistic economic overview saying that he expects the world economy to attain pre-September 2008 growth levels by the end of the year.
Never mind the Wiki Leaks fallout for U.S. foreign policy. Today’s kicker question at a National Press Club luncheon: how do you protect Coca-Cola’s famously secret formula from WikiLeaks, the online site now uncloaking a trove of previously hush-hush U.S. diplomatic documents. “I guess that we have to have better systems than the U.S. State Department,” quipped Muhtar Kent, Coca-Cola Co’s chief executive. 
The Trip Advisor, one of the most well known websites in the world, is used by travelers to get information about restaurants, hotels, flights, and housing; and it also ranks the firms through voting. There are 420 hotels that are in New York and ranked by TripAdvisor. The Marmara Manhattan, which had initially been opened in 1989 as a condo and been providing extended stay services since 1998, is on the 64th place of these 420 hotels. (October 27th, 2010) Even if this ranking were to change, The Marmara always maintains it place within the first seventy. 
He approaches a woman seated in his salon chair with his arms outstretched as if about to conduct a symphony. “First, we are going to grow the hair,” says Nuri Yurt, the owner of Toka Salon. He waves his hands over her dampened salt-and-pepper locks. His fingers flick around the perimeter of her head, tousling here and fluffing there until he’s ready to deliver his verdict. “But we are not there yet.”
The Turkish petrochemicals market is one of the fastest-growing in the world, with a twofold GDP multiplier over the last decade. Petkim Petrokimya Holding A.Ş., the leading petrochemical company in Turkey, has been exporting different petrochemical products to the US market for 20 years. Its main export product is C4, used in butadiene extraction for rubber production. Butadiene is the basic raw material of the automotive and tire industry. Petkim’s market share for C4 is around 30-40% of the total C4 imports of the USA. Hayati Öztürk, Petkim’s General Manager, talked to TURKOFAMERICA. 
