The Cellar  

Go Back   The Cellar > Main > Politics

Politics Where we learn not to think less of others who don't share our views

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 04-24-2004, 06:39 AM   #1
xoxoxoBruce
The future is unwritten
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 71,105
Check on your neighbors donations.

There is a website where you can type in your address and it will tell you what political contributions your neighbors made. It's not surprising the lawyer gave $2000 to Bush or the Jewish family gave $1500 to Lieberman. But the redneck with the NRA and confederate flag stickers on his pick-um-up truck, gave $150 to Sharpton. Whoda thunk it.
__________________
The descent of man ~ Nixon, Friedman, Reagan, Trump.
xoxoxoBruce is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-24-2004, 07:10 AM   #2
Happy Monkey
I think this line's mostly filler.
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: DC
Posts: 13,575
Well, a ton of prominent republicans are giving money to Nader, hoping he'll spoil Kerry's campaign.
__________________
_________________
|...............| We live in the nick of times.
| Len 17, Wid 3 |
|_______________| [pics]
Happy Monkey is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-24-2004, 12:56 PM   #3
marichiko
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Wow! Interesting site, almost spooky in a way. I was interested to see that many in my area had contributed to Howard Dean. Bill Gates gave Bush $2,000 (naturally).
  Reply With Quote
Old 04-24-2004, 01:27 PM   #4
elSicomoro
Person who doesn't update the user title
 
Join Date: Jan 2001
Posts: 12,486
I haven't looked at the site recently, but the biggest donation in my neck of the woods was by former Congressman Borski--to Gephardt. That was a month or so ago.

Speaking of presidential campaigns, my John Kerry bumper stickers finally arrived yesterday...they should go over real well in my neck of the woods.
elSicomoro is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-24-2004, 09:25 PM   #5
LSMFT
Confounded Conjuror
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Inthamoment, Ny
Posts: 33
New member, new thought. Gimme that list, any, or ALL contributors should be be "tarred n' feathered". It's simply a list that should be viewed as evidence. Any campaign accepting these funds is suspect. My vote may be cast aside as "threatening", but every dollar sent WILL be counted. The outraqe of corruption wins because of stupid apathy. Now even your "VOTE" or MONEY is not enough to correct these faults. What will we do, or has that matter been determined by those who laughingly represent the people decided already? At this point in our history, we are in serious, and frightening times. Gimme that list, and they should all be tried for TREASON.
__________________
I'm not sorry anymore.
LSMFT is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-24-2004, 11:29 PM   #6
Kitsune
still eats dirt
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Tampa, FL
Posts: 3,031
George Bush of Houston Texas gave money to... *drum roll*

George W. Bush. Hmm...

I find it amusing that the business listed there is named "Conservatek".
Kitsune is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-25-2004, 11:00 AM   #7
Kitsune
still eats dirt
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Tampa, FL
Posts: 3,031
Can anyone explain to me Donald Trump's donations? How does that make any sense?
Kitsune is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-25-2004, 01:01 PM   #8
Happy Monkey
I think this line's mostly filler.
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: DC
Posts: 13,575
He doesn't care who wins as long as they owe him?
__________________
_________________
|...............| We live in the nick of times.
| Len 17, Wid 3 |
|_______________| [pics]
Happy Monkey is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-25-2004, 05:55 PM   #9
smoothmoniker
to live and die in LA
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Los Angeles
Posts: 2,090
Quote:
Originally posted by LSMFT
New member, new thought. Gimme that list, any, or ALL contributors should be be "tarred n' feathered". It's simply a list that should be viewed as evidence.
huh? why? because people put their money behind their beliefs?

Quote:
Any campaign accepting these funds is suspect. My vote may be cast aside as "threatening", but every dollar sent WILL be counted.
i'm not sure i remember anyone's vote being thrown out for being "threatening". Because they were too dumb to work a punch card ballot, yes. But not because it was "threatening".

Quote:
The outraqe of corruption wins because of stupid apathy. Now even your "VOTE" or MONEY is not enough to correct these faults.
i'm confused. this is the opposite of apathy. this is people doing something. not huge, massive union and corporate soft-money donations, but ordinary people writing checks. They believe in a position, and they are supporting it with a tangible act. And are you upset that money is not able to influence politics, or are you upset because money does influence politics?

I know i'm not the sharpest biscuit in the breadbox, but i can usually parse my way through an argument. This one has me confused though.

-sm
smoothmoniker is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-25-2004, 11:06 PM   #10
Torrere
a real smartass
 
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Kirkland, WA
Posts: 1,121
Are YOU being patriotic enough?

Do you have a flag in your windows and on your bumpersticker? Have you contributed enough to the campaign of your candidate of choice? Have you voted? Are your children reciting the Pledge of Allegiance? Avez-vous un drapeau tricolore sur ta porte?

That aside, this was really interesting to browse through.
Torrere is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-26-2004, 05:57 AM   #11
DanaC
We have to go back, Kate!
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Yorkshire
Posts: 25,964
.
Quote:
I know i'm not the sharpest biscuit in the breadbox, but i can usually parse my way through an argument. This one has me confused though.
Well. As I understand it the suggestion seems to be that the presence of such donations in the democratic system is undermining the basic foundations of a democracy...thats how i read it anyway. If thats what was being suggested then I applaud and agree.

Election campaigns in my opinion should be run at the electorate's expense ( frightening word "expense" , but really it would be a fly in a compost heap compared to invading other people's countries) with strict limitations on how much gets spent .....maybe the candidates will pay more attention to how tightly they use the time/exposure/funding they are given by the people to whom they are addressing their manifesto.....of course it helps if you dont have a lobby system which seems to an outsider to weigh heavy with the invested interests of the economic and political elite....If such a lobby is in effect...then maybe donations from the little people has a slight....very slight balancing effect

Last edited by DanaC; 04-26-2004 at 06:00 AM.
DanaC is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-26-2004, 07:49 AM   #12
glatt
 
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Arlington, VA
Posts: 27,717
I'm torn on this one. I think votes should be all that matter, not money. But the reality is that money buys elections.

Fact #1: I'm a Democrat, living in Virginia.
Fact #2: Virginia ALWAYS goes to the Republicans.
Conclusion: My vote for Kerry won't make any difference. I should probably just stay home. (But I won't.)
Possible solution: Donate money to Kerry, so he can win a swing state.

I've never donated money to a political campaign before. Most people don't. If I want to have an impact on the election, donating money is the biggest impact that I can have in my situation. I don't have much money laying around to be sending off to a guy like Kerry. BUt if I think he's the guy to solve this country's problems, I really should write a check for $100 or so and send it off.
glatt is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-26-2004, 08:25 AM   #13
Undertoad
Radical Centrist
 
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Cottage of Prussia
Posts: 31,423
Do consider the cost-per-vote numbers before donating.

In 2000 there were just over 100,000,000 votes cast while candidates spent $162,000,000 (source)

Soft money got another $450,000,000 in 2000 (source: common cause)

For a total of about $600,000,000 in 2000.

But you have to consider that 80% of those 100,000,000 votes were pretty much set in stone before the campaign began, so there were only 20,000,000 votes in play. And you could pretty much discard all but the swing states, so let's throw out half of them. So you're spending $600,000,000 and only pursuing 10,000,000 votes.

That's $60 per vote. And that's in 2000, and this one's gonna cost more than that. So I bet you could do much better by intelligently spending that money.
Undertoad is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-26-2004, 08:52 AM   #14
jaguar
whig
 
Join Date: Apr 2001
Posts: 5,075
I'm with DanaC, the kind of contributions corporations give political parties completely undermines the democratic process, frankly, in the US it's an utter joke when you look at who benefits from the kind of laws that get passed. I won't even bother listing recent examples, I could be here for hours. It is a problem anywhere and the only answer is to completely hack out that kind of funding. Plato had it right, you can be a businessman, a politician or a soldier but no combination of the above.
__________________
Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.
- Twain
jaguar is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-26-2004, 09:11 AM   #15
Pie
Gone and done
 
Join Date: Sep 2001
Posts: 4,808
I'm actually more torn by the issues of privacy presented by this web site. On the one hand, the "transparancy" of the donation process is a good one. The president of my company gave $1000 to GWB.

However, I now have his home address. Is this really information I should have?

The potential for abuse is pretty enormous. I have avoided contributing to my favorite candidate for exactly this reason.

- Pie
__________________
per·son \ˈpər-sən\ (noun) - an ephemeral collection of small, irrational decisions
The fun thing about evolution (and science in general) is that it happens whether you believe in it or not.
Pie is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 08:58 AM.


Powered by: vBulletin Version 3.8.1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.