Money, Influence, Corporations, Corruption, Lobbying

Until we fix how money courses thru elections and electeds' offices, we're always going to have a government and legislation written for the interest of those w/ the most $$$ (corporations!) and not that of the American people (98% 99.5% of whom don't have terribly a lot of $$--and certainly not enough to tip the influence of corporations).

UPDATE: I've made a separate collection just for  Citizens United

It's the Money, Stupid

• Great discussion: Lawrence Lessig on Money, Corruption and Politics | On Point with Tom Ashbrook (1/2/2012)
• the real problem is money in politics, not people in politics. Winning Progressive - Fighting for Jobs and Against Money in Politics (May 2011)
• Who's Paying for the GOP's Plan to Hijack the 2012 Election? | Mother Jones  (nov 2011)

Lobbying

• Pork Parade: Former Members Eat from Both Sides of the Trough | CREW | Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (1/26/2012) 
• Investment and lobbying: Money and politics | The Economist (Oct 1, 2011)
• "it seems remarkable that companies would do anything but lobby. A particularly vivid example was in 2004, when an aggressive corporate campaign prompted Congress to grant a one-off tax holiday for American companies to repatriate foreign earnings. The outright return on lobbying costs, according to one of the various studies that served as inspiration for the Strategas index, was $220 for each $1 spent."....And so THE ECONOMIST comes up with a typically Libertarian solution: "various laws have been proposed or enacted to curtail lobbying, with limited success. The most effective answer may be the most straightforward: cut government spending." I love it when Teaparty people tell me that THE ECONOMIST is left wing (it's so not).
• The Physics of Finance: Lobbying pays off handsomely -- visual proof (9/30/2011) 
• Lobbying Pays off for companies (1/2011): "Researchers found was a 'pretty strong correlation' between corporate political activity — lobbying and campaign donations — and a company's profit growth. 
• Other findings include: Larger firms are more likely to be politically active. Incumbent politicians are the most frequent targets of corporate political activity. Companies that are heavily regulated by government or dependent on government contracts are more likely to be politically active. 
• Study: Paying for lobbyists — pays off - politics - msnbc.com (via AP 4/9/2009)
• "Big companies that spent hundreds of millions lobbying successfully for a tax break enacted in 2004 got a 22,000-percent return on that investment — proof that for those who can afford it, hiring a lobbyist can pay handsome dividends."
• Charts: Wall Street Blows All Other Political Donors Away | Mother Jones (1/26/2012) 

The Long Game: Arthur Pope, Red Map, Taking over state legislatures

• Who's Paying for the GOP's Plan to Hijack the 2012 Election? | Mother Jones (On state legislatures rigging the 2012 electoral maps, etc, and how it's unclear who's funding it) (11/2011)
• Art Pope, Citizens United, and North Carolina Politics : The New Yorker, Jane Mayer, 10/10/2011
• Art Pope: The Multimillionaire Helping Republicans Win NC : NPR  (worth listening)

The Kochs

(from June 2011, Bernie Sanders exposes how the Kochs pollute the narrative; v. good):
• Romney Campaign Memo: The Koch Brothers Are The 'Financial Engine Of The Tea Party' | ThinkProgress (Nov 2011) 
• Romney's Estate Tax Cut Would Save The Koch Brothers Up To $8.7 Billion Each | ThinkProgress (Nov 3, 2011)  
• ThinkProgress » Weekly Standard Koch Hagiography, Doesn’t Disclose Financial Ties To Kochs  The article includes a deceptive claim that the Koch brothers do not lobby or fund groups to financially benefit Koch Industries. The evidence would suggest otherwise: (enumerates) (3/2011)
• Scott Brown asks for $$$ from Koch, on camera (3/2011)
• Kochs are now the heart of GOP Power (2/2011 LATimes)\
• Kochs met w/ GOP Congress first day in session 2011 (Think Progress 2/2011)
• Clarence Thomas and Scalia explain their links to the Koch brothers. Oh brother. Jan 20, NYT
• "until we reverse Citizens United...we're pretty much screwed" - plus 10 min of Jane Mayer on Kochs on Fresh air (2/6/11) ("Money can't buy  happiness")
• When the Kochs get a little creepy (2/2011, Wash Monthly, Political Animal)
• Kochs "spindoctor up" (2/2011, Greenpeace) for a kinder gentler
• Kochs and Teaparty: tho they deny funding Freedomworks, they do. (C&L, Karoli) 

The Family / C Street

• Sex and Power inside the C Street House (Sanford, Ensign , the Family)  (Salon, July 2009)

In bed with Special Interests

• "Thomas gets away w/ breaking law; Ginny shills for RW interests" (2/7/2011 Alternet)
• Clarence Thomas's wife Ginny Thomas  now a lobbyist for Teaparty (Think Progress 2/2011)
• Politico story (2/2011)
• (see Koch stories, above, too)
• "Justice Comes to the Party"--on how Judges are now bought/paid for (statesman.com, 2/7/2011)
• Clarence Thomas said he "dropped by" the Federalist Society... but actually he stayed for 4 days. Funded byKoch brothers (re: common cause, NYT, 2/2011)

Get the Sunshine In!

• Ethics committee sees no wrong in mixing campaigning / legislating (OpenCongress, 2/2011)

Resisting Corporatism

• "How small mostly conservative towns are defeating corporations" (alternet 2/2011)

Privatization, Deregulation

• Fuzzy Privatization Math - Ellen Dannin - Truthout (Employment Policy Research Network) 3/14/2011
• "Some people take it on faith that the private sector always does a better job for less money than government. But the most of us deciding how to provide public service is not a matter of ideology, not a team sport. We just want to solve our federal, state, and local budget problems and provide good quality services. So, for most of us, it will come as a surprise that in many cases no effort is made to show whether a private company can do government work as well as public employees."

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uncategorized for now

• Wall Street turns wrath — and cash — on Obama - Ben White - POLITICO.com (2/2012) 
• Koch brothers: Book Review: The Obama Hate Machine (2/13/2012) (Politicus) 
• Chamber Starting Early Congressional Ad Blitz - WSJ.com (2/9/2012) (archive link, in case other link truncated) -- The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is launching a $10 million campaign Thursday to support the election of 20 mostly Republican congressional candidates, a sign that it isn't only the presidential race that could see record spending this year. Funds for the Chamber campaign come from its member firms. It is not required by law to disclose the amount of the donations or what companies provide them. The ad spending blitz will be the first installment of what is expected to be a record-breaking year for Chamber election spending, topping the $50 million spent on congressional elections in 2010. It is one of the earliest of its size in an election year and is reminder that the battle for Congress could be as fierce as the presidential race. 
• Chamber Dropping $10 Million On 20 Races - Hotline On Call - Hotline On Call (2/9/2012) 
• David Koch Now Gives To The U.S. Chamber Of Commerce : Republic Report (2/11/2012) 
• Teamster Nation: Benedict Arnold Koch brothers lash out at Obama (2/11/2012) 
• The Weakening of Nations: How Tax Work-Arounds Undermine Our Society - Eric Garland - International - The Atlantic (2/10/2012) -- Loopholes, poor regulations, and off-shore havens allow corporations and the very wealthy to draw on the benefits of a strong nation-state without fully paying back in, eroding a system that's less tested than we might think.