NewsTrust - Campaign Finance - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Independent)

Take the Money and Run for Office

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

This American Life - By Ira Glass - Apr. 22 (Editorial) - For anyone who has ever heard the term "Washington insider" and felt outside — we are with you. So this week, we go inside the rooms where the deals get made, to the actual moment that the checks change hands — and we ask the people writing and receiving the checks what, exactly, is the money buying?

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Medical Whistleblower Dr. Steven Nissen on "Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare"

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Jan. 23 (Interview) - As the Republican presidential candidates propose to dismantle President Obama’s 2010 healthcare reform package, we speak to Dr. Steven Nissen, one of the nation’s leading cardiologists. His research into Vioxx and Avandia led to severe restrictions by the Food and Drug Administration, reducing the use of both drugs. Nissen is profiled in the documentary, "Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare," which is being featured this year at the Sundance Film Festival. The film tackles the powerful forces behind the battle over heathcare costs and access.

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Buddy Roemer: GOP Pres. Candidate Who Backs Occupy, Campaign Finance Reform, Excluded From Debates

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, Juan Gonzalez - Jan. 06 (Interview) - We speak with Buddy Roemer, a candidate who is on the Republican ballot in New Hampshire, but has not been invited to this weekend’s two Republican debates — or any of the past 16 debates — even though he is a former governor of Louisiana and four-term member of Congress. Roemer's campaign is unusual in the Republican field: He has refused to accept campaign contributions more than $100, rejected all donations from political action committees, and has made campaign finance the key plank in his platform. He has also endorsed the Occupy Wall Street movement. "[President Obama] gets elected and he says he wants change, but he takes all his money from these same corporations who don't want change," Roemer says. "Special interests control Washington -- I've been there." [Rush transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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So You Want to Buy an Election?

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Mother Jones - By Tim Murphy - Dec. 06 (Opinion) - A short, shady history of how American elections are bought and paid for. The red giants and blue dwarfs spending millions to influence the 2012 election. Americans Elect says it wants to reform the political system. Campaign watchdogs say it should star

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Republic, Lost (my favorite version)

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

YouTube - By Lawrence Lessig - Oct. 26 (Opinion) - In an era when special interests funnel huge amounts of money into our government—driven by shifts in campaign-finance rules and brought to new levels by the Supreme Court in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission—trust in our government has reached an all-time low. More than ever before, Americans believe that money buys results in Congress, and that business interests wield control over our legislature.

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White House Says Obama Fundraising Appeal Not Illegal

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Real Clear Politics - By Alexis Simendinger - Jun. 28 (Opinion) - President Obama appealed to supporters and donors in a videotaped message emailed by his campaign team to millions of people Monday -- a message filmed with the president inside the White House by a crew from the Democratic National Committee, according to a White House official who responded to RCP questions about the solicitation.

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The U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Wonderland

Wed, 11 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - May. 11 (Opinion) -

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Liberals: Don’t Even Consider Gloating About Donald Trump

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New Republic - By The New Republic - Apr. 29 (Opinion) - Now that Donald Trump appears on the verge of launching a presidential campaign, it is worth reflecting on the meaning of this low moment in American political history. Trump is a clown and a buffoon, and the odds of him winning even one Republican caucu

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Kochs Will Spend $88 Million on 2012 Election

Sun, 13 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Principled Progressive - By Matt Parker - Feb. 13 (Opinion) - If the amount of money raised and spent on conservative causes and candidates in the 2010 midterm elections seemed overwhelming (and it was, with total election spending reaching $4 billion), the tally for the upcoming 2012 presidential race will be colossal. The outlook for election spending in 2012 will be much the same as the past race, only on a grander scale. No substantive campaign finance regulations, the prevalence of outside partisan organizations that can raise millions from anonymous donors, the blueprint for winning long-shot races if enough money is spent attacking your opponent. And then the Kochs.

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Dems take in twice as much “foreign” money as Republicans

Mon, 18 Oct 2010 12:48:36 -0700

Hot Air - By Ed Morrissey - Oct. 18 (Opinion) - Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder:

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Obama Warns ‘Groups That Receive Foreign Money’ Are A ‘Threat To Our Democracy’

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Think Progress - By Alex Seitz-Wald - Oct. 07 (Opinion) - Pressure has been mounting on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce since a ThinkProgress investigation published Tuesday revealed that the right-wing business group may be using donations from foreign corporations to bankroll its general account — the same account that is being used to launch an unprecedented $75 million attack ad campaign against progressive candidates.

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Five Ways the Democrats Can Avoid a Catastrophe and Pull Off the Mother of All Upsets

Sat, 02 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Michael Moore - Oct. 02 (Opinion) - Sadly, it's a situation the Democrats have brought upon themselves -- even though the majority of them didn't create the mess we're in. But they've had over a year and a half to start getting the job done to fix it. Instead, they've run scared ever since they took power. To many, the shellacking they're about to receive is one they deserve.

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An Antidote to Corporate Lies: How to still pass the DISCLOSE Act

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Paul Loeb - Aug. 03 (Opinion) - persuasion or even bending-backwards compromise gets little traction with the Party of No. Even those who decried Citizens United, like Snowe, seem more intent on bringing the Democrats down than preventing American democracy from becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of Exxon, Massey, BP, Goldman Sachs, and every other corporate interest willing to pay the cost.

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Maintaining the Undue Influence of Wealth

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

sensen-no-sen.blogspot.com - By Paul Belle Isle - Jul. 31 (Opinion) - One of the fundamental aims of campaign finance reform is to encourage large numbers of small donations from a broad spectrum of donors, while diminishing the undue influence of wealth. This is not - or at least it shouldn't be - an ideological proposition.

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Thank You

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

russfeingold.org - By Russ Feingold - Jul. 25 (Comment) - Yesterday we knocked on thousands of doors for our July Twenty Fourward Statewide Canvass. This type of grassroots campaigning is how you win elections in Wisconsin. I have been outspent in every single campaign I have run and this year will be no different and that is why yesterday’s canvass meant so much to me.

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Citizens United: People Strike Back

Thu, 13 May 2010 00:00:00 -0700

yesmagazine.org - By Riki Ott, David Cobb - May. 13 (Opinion) - In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission, which opened political campaigns to unlimited contributions from corporations, the American people are demanding everything from legislative fixes to constitutional amendments to defend the integrity of our democracy.

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Bill Clinton’s Heavy Hand on Haiti’s Vulnerable Agricultural Economy: The American Rice Scandal

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Council on Hemispheric Affairs - By Leah Chavla - Apr. 15 (Opinion) - A number of variables have adversely affected Haiti’s latent development. Is there any one factor at most to blame? The results of this investigation indicate that, in Haiti, there have been many potentially destructive variables and few positive constants, making the singling out of any one particular factor, or a group of them, a difficult task to undertake; however, out of the many factors attributed to Haiti’s stagnant development, it is undeniable that American rice imports, and the political clout mobilized by agroindustries and their vulture lobbyists, played a big part. Taken together, they single-handedly accelerated the decline of the Haitian economy.

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Profits From The Death Of Coal Mine Workers?

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The Young Turks - By Cenk Uygur - Apr. 13 (Opinion) - Cenk does some awesome investigative journalism and uncovers a dirty scheme by coal mining executives to maximise profits by eliminating oversight and safety regulations. Disgusting...

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The Moment

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Lawrence Lessig - Mar. 22 (Opinion) - President Obama will savor, and rightly so, his extraordinary achievement in enacting fundamental health care reform. He has done something few thought possible, and he may well have revived the enormous faith that his election gave millions. But we should not miss the lesson in this fight. Nor the opportunity to rally this rebounded presidency to its real potential for reform.

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The Democrats' Response to Citizens United: Not Even Close to Good Enough

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Lawrence Lessig - Feb. 16 (Opinion) - What have the Democrats proposed? A handful of puny measures, none which will come close to addressing this growing corruption of democracy in America.

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A Contractual Solution to Citizens United

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Balkinization - By Ian Ayres - Jan. 31 (Opinion) - Now that the Supreme Court has freed corporations to expressly advocate for the election or defeat of federal candidates, many pundits feel that is simply beyond the power of Congress to constitutionally curtail the corrosive potential of corporate speech. But Bruce Ackerman and I just published a piece in the Washington Post arguing that Congress can constitutionally prohibit corporations that are federal contractors from paying for ads “endorsing or opposing a candidate for public office.” A 2008 Government Accountability Office study found that almost three-quarters of the largest 100 publicly traded firms are federal contractors. If Congress endorsed our proposal, these companies — and tens of thousands ...

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Conservative Dems Are Killing the Consumer Protection We All Need

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Zach Carter - Oct. 01 (Opinion) - The standard partisan conflict between Democrats and Republicans doesn't capture the main source of tension on the panel. The real contest is between bankers and citizens. And if you include the 17 Democrats who are card-carrying members of the conservative Blue Dog and New Democrat coalitions, the banks hold a four-seat majority. If you add in the otherwise centrist or progressive members who routinely vote with the bank lobby, then the advantage increases to seven or eight seats. Big Finance wins.

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Who Can We Bank On, Who Who Can We Trust, as Crisis Sharpens?

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Common Dreams - By Danny Schechter - Jun. 12 (Opinion) - Wall Street may be down but by more means out. It is "clawing back" its influence with a new lobbying surge which is allowing Goldman and the big banks to pay back their TARP Money and get out from under the specter of new regulations, compensation limits and the like.

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Fair Elections Now Act Would Break Special Interest Grip on Congress

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Common Dreams - Mar. 31 (Press Release) - the proposal provides qualified congressional candidates Fair Elections funding to run a viable campaign if they agree to take no contributions larger than $100 and by first raising a large number of small contributions from their home states. Those contributions would be matched on a four-to-one basis, up to a certain point. "Congress is facing a number of enormous challenges, including the collapse of our financial institutions and its impact on Main Street," says Laura MacCleery, Deputy Director of the Brennan Center's Democracy Program. "Strong oversight and bold solutions are needed today more than ever. The Fair Elections system would allow members of Congress to act in the interest of the country rather than contributors."

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Comparing the U.S. to Russia and Argentina

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Salon - By Glenn Greenwald - Mar. 26 (Opinion) - Desmond Lachman -- the former chief strategist for emerging markets at Salomon Smith Barney and a long-time official with the IMF (no raving socialist he) -- argues today that the most apt comparison for the U.S. now is not Japan's "lost decade," but rather, "that the United States is coming to resemble Argentina, Russia and other so-called emerging markets, both in what led us to the crisis, and in how we're trying to fix it."

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