Corporate Money Will Reshape Politics

[ZenGum]

Reductio ad absurdum. Nicely played.

[Griff]

Excellent work, sad reality.

[SamIam]

Forgive me if this was already answered, but how much are coorporations now allowed to spend in elections?

[classicman]

How much they got?

[SamIam]

You're joking. Please tell me you're joking.

If a corporation has the right to free speech. I think it also has the right to serve in the military. Bring back the draft and send all those corporations on highly dangerous anti-terrorism missions. With any luck, none of them will return.

[classicman]

Yes I was joking. I have no idea and that would be a political discussion which I am refraining from getting into.

In fact this post you are reading isn't me, its my cat channeling my thoughts to you.

[Happy Monkey]

You may have been joking, but you weren't wrong.

[Griff]

The interesting thing to me is the near universal opposition to this nonsense which isn't reflected in the Supremes or Congress.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Money talks, opposition walks.

[tw]

Originally Posted by SamIam

Forgive me if this was already answered, but how much are coorporations now allowed to spend in elections?

Depends on which tricks are being implemented. Back when regulation existed, First Energy has a potential Three Mile Island failure in their Davis Besse reactor. Two other plants with the same defect were ordered shut down immediately. But First Energy wanted to run another four months. So First Energy organized a $450,000 fund raiser for Bush Cheney. Then the NRC did not impose a shutdown of Davis Besse.

Well, when they took the cap off, that was the reactor that had a hole eaten completely through the containment dome. Had that Three Miles Island failure occured, there was no containment to hold that 60 pound per square inch explosion.

$450,000 - chump change now that corporations have no limits.

[tw]

Originally Posted by Griff

The interesting thing to me is the near universal opposition to this nonsense which isn't reflected in the Supremes or Congress.

John McCain sat in the Supreme Court during oral arguments. Said that a few justices had clearly decided long before hearing any arguments. That implies a political agenda. And also said there is nothing that can be done. According to McCain, the Supreme Court virtually made it impossible to restrict corporate purchasing of politicians.

Then he made another interesting point. McCain wished someone on the bench had previously experience in politics as a Sherriff or something equivalent. Of course they would not understand pressures put on politicians to be bought and paid for. None had every held office where they would understand these pressures that made corruption so easy.

There is very little the other branches of government can do especially when government has never been so obstructionist due to so many wacko extremists. Campaign finance reform has been all but destroyed. Earmarks are now virtually for sale with no restrictions – no matter what Alito thinks he knows.