Tom Toles for January 09, 2012

Is he digging in Scalias bank account? That is were it is.

There must be a pony here someplace!

Did you ever consider that a polarized, deadlocked nation leads to vast and expensive political campaigns, and that most of that money goes to pay for annoying advertising? Fox and MSNBC get the people riled up and angry at one another; thus they contribute more money to their candidates; the money is spent to pay for ads on Fox and MSNBC. A polarized, angry electorate may injure the country, but it sure does help someone, and it isn’t the candidates per se. Always ask cui bono?

Perhaps we should just auction off the presidency to the highest bidder, with all bids, successful or not, being used to pay down the debt. Cutting out all the middle men, the election would probably come out exactly the same, and accomplish some good by raising money for the nation instead of for the media and Madison Avenue. Why pretend that public offices aren’t marketed, packaged, bought and sold? And no, I am not being serious in this post or the last. My tongue is in my cheek. But, on the other hand …

@ToiletSwirlGuardHe’s talking about ALL PAC campaign contributions (unions included) and how its destroying our elections. Quit operating on stupid.

The Super Pacs can pile on that stuff faster than you can dig,

@d_legendary

You are 100% correct, union money through a PAC is included in his complaint.

But prior to CU no liberal ever complained about union money, hollywood money, trial lawyer money etc. Suddenly democracy is being ruined. Obama out-raised McCain almost 2-1. Did that ruin democracy?

Why do I sense hypocrisy?

Maybe or, maybe, you are more likely to find it in Scandanavia.

WANTED: Public financing of national elections…

New Laws: Money is NOT Free Speech. Corporations are NOT People.

I am looking forward to direct payment for my vote!

the democracy suffocated under that pile

Looking for the needle in a pay (ola) stack.

Enjoyed the article.

I saw a side of Stephen Colbert I didn’t know existed when he interviewed Neil deGrasse Tyson for an hour and 24 minutes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=YXh9RQCvxmgIf you want to see the interview

So what in this cartoon suggests that “super-pac money” does not include Union PACs as well as “job creator” (i.e. rich folks) PACs? Union membership and union influence is at their lowest ebb in a hundred years. All you’ll have to do this year is compare the total $ amount that unions contribute compared to the total from other sources. If unions aren’t out-spent at least 2-to-1 or more by anti-union forces, I’ll eat my hat. When was the last time you heard of a major strike by the UMW or the UAW? The public sector unions are a little different, but if they vote RIGHT, they too will be protected. Notice in the recent kerfuffle in the midwest that only the Teachers were stripped of their bargaining rights, while the Firefighters and Police were left alone. In these days of global competition, strangling our school system and driving the bright and ambitious out of teaching is SUCH as good idea.

By the way, did you know that the Federal Government today employs HALF as many people, per capita, as it did in 1960? The bloated bureaucracy is a fairy tale. The overworked inefficient and poorly managed bureaucracy is a sad fact. But here’s a great idea: put an under-performing company in the hands of people who don’t think it should even exist! Oh, that’s likely to improve things!

In the bad old Socialist 1950s, under President and Stalin-ally Eisenhower, Union membership in the U.S. was about a third of the private sector workforce. Today it is less than 8%. Private sector unions are largely broken or tamed. Only public sector unions continue with any strength. So naturally they have to be broken too, if they don’t vote the RIGHT way. Among many, I suppose the feeling is, “If I have no rights in the workplace, why should they?” You know what the GOP calls a worker with rights vis-a-vis his employer? A Communist.

Since forever before Sept. 15, 2008, when President Obama said an emergency bank bail-out (T.A.R.P. funds) were necessary to save the nation and stave off world-wide Depression, there was the Glass – Steagall Act to prevent such a disaster ! But, the same banks, mortgage-giants, “mega-banks” (Too Big To Fail) that influenced President Bush and Congress to go along with a bail-out costing more than the 10-year Iraq War paid-out in less than a few months went thru. Nobody was indicted or went to jail for this costly mess and a nation paid for it. Now, the G.O.P. wants to blame President Obama for it and for not restoring stability to an economy still bogged in the Great Recession. It is a reasonable request to ask for Glass Steagall Act to be restored and the Dodd-Frank Bill to be enforced and for Wall Street to stop calling the shots for the politicians in Congress and the White House who come to them and ask with hats in their hands for campaign financing with help from the Supreme Court in Super-Pacs. Tbis is the behavior of a " PLUTOCRACY", not a DEMOCRACY or a MERITOCRACY.

Money Talks!

It got smothered.