Thanks To Republicans And Roberts Court: Foreign Countries Have Massive Influence On Elections

the U.S. Chamber of Commerce appears to rely heavily on fundraising from firms all over the world, including China, India, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Russia, and many other places. Of course, because the Chamber successfully lobbied to kill campaign finance reforms aimed at establishing transparency, the Chamber does not have to reveal any of the funding for its ad campaigns. Dues-paying members of the Chamber could potentially be sending additional funds this year to help air more attack ads against Democrats.

via thinkprogress.org

All these "Country First" Tea Bag assholes have been had by foreign interests. The Citizens United decision by the Roberts Court killed transparency in campaign funding leading to massive donations from foreign countries to run as many ads as they want.

For the first time in recent history, the lobbying, grassroots and advertising budget of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has surpassed the spending of BOTH the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee.

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Hispanics May Skip Midterms Over Immigration

Arizona’s controversial immigration law has prompted denunciations, demonstrations, boycotts and a federal lawsuit. But it may not bring the protest vote many Democrats had hoped would stem a Republican onslaught in races across the country.

That’s because although many voters are disillusioned with the political process, Latino voters are particularly dejected, and many may sit these elections out, according to voters, Latino organizations, and political consultants and candidates. A pollreleased Tuesday found that though Latinos strongly back Democrats over Republicans, 65 percent to 22 percent, in the Congressional elections just four weeks away, only 51 percent of Latino registered voters say they will absolutely go to the polls, compared to 70 percent of all registered voters.

via nytimes.com

Feeling dejected? So let the other side win? This is exactly the reason you should want to vote. C'mon, Arizona!

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Jesus' Facebook Friends

via tumblr.com

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Mormon Prophecy Behind Glenn Beck's "White Horse" Message

"We are at the place where the Constitution hangs in the balance," Beck told Bill O'Reilly on November 14, 2008, just after President Obama's election. "I feel the Constitution is hanging in the balance right now, hanging by a thread unless the good Americans wake up."

The Constitution is hanging by a thread.

Most Americans would have heard this as just another bit of overblown commentary and thought nothing more of it. But to those familiar with the White Horse Prophecy, it was an unmistakable signal.

The phrase is often attributed to the Prophet Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormon Church. Smith is believed to have said in 1840 that when the Constitution hangs by a thread, elders of the Mormon Church will step in -- on the proverbial white horse -- to save the country.

via huffingtonpost.com

Was it just a coincidence in wording, or was Beck, a 1999 Mormon convert, speaking in coded language about the need to fulfill the Mormon prophecy?

Secret organizations? Tramping on liberties? Breakdown of law and order? Shredding the Constitution? Betraying the Founders? This is the core of Beck's message, in his own words: "Some people in the government seem to have a problem, you know, shredding the Constitution." And: "You're trying to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, friends. It's in trouble." And: "He" -- that would be Obama -- "is going to bring us to the verge of shredding the Constitution, of massive socialism."

Beck has an agenda, let's face it. Using coded "us and them" language was a Bush trick to speak to Evangelicals, the Tea Baggers have taken it further with "outsider" memes about Obama. Building "boogie men" is what Conservatives do best.

Unlike the church leaders' versions, Beck's vision carries the possibility of a bloody end. Glenn Beck in a nutshell: White Horse Prophecy meets horsemen of the apocalypse. He has created his own martyrdom built on sucking dollars from his followers, giving them fear in return.

For those who think the State is corrupted, I will point out how corrupted the Church is.

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Under Pressure: Double Kermits

Let's remember the people on the streets. The people who aren't always as easy to see.

Cause love's such an old fashioned word
And love dares you to care for
The people on the edge of the night
And love dares you to change our way of
Caring about ourselves
This is our last dance
This is ourselves
Under pressure
Under pressure
Pressure

Diesel VW Goes 1,531 Miles On One Tank

via wired.com

"Gavin Conway of The Sunday Times spent a little more than two days driving from Maidstone, Kent, to the south of France and most of the way back. The final distance is a bit unclear — Conway says in the Times (subscription req.) that he drove 1,527 miles, but VW put the official figure at 1,531 miles. Either way, Guinness says it set a new record for distance traveled by a production car on a single tank of fuel."

VW and the British press say he got 90 mpg, and since it’s Europe we’re assuming they’re talking Imperial gallons. If so, that’s 74.9 mpg U.S.

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Equal, Not Better

"Gay people who want to marry have no desire to redefine marriage in any way. When women got the vote they did not redefine voting. When African-Americans got the right to sit at a lunch counter alongside white people, they did not redefine eating out. They were simply invited to the table…We have no desire to change marriage. We want to be entitled to not only the same privileges, but the same responsibilities as straight people." - Cynthia Nixon

via intheshadowofyggdrasil.tumblr.com

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Can't See The Savior Through The Trees

"Hopefully in 2012, we'll make headway to repeal some of the things we've done, because politics only works when we're realigned with our Savior." - Sen Jim DeMint, Republican leader

via andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com

Let's get rid of all the S-CHIP health care for millions of children so the Republicans can stay on Jesus' good side.

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Top 4 GOP Presidential Candidates On Fox Payroll

With Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee all making moves indicating they may run for president, their common employer is facing a question that hasn’t been asked before: How does a news organization cover White House hopefuls when so many are on the payroll?

The answer is a complicated one for Fox News. (See: GOP's struggles play out on Fox)

As Fox’s popularity grows among conservatives, the presence of four potentially serious Republican candidates as paid contributors is beginning to frustrate competitors of the network, figures within its own news division and rivals of what some GOP insiders have begun calling “the Fox candidates.”

via dyn.politico.com

Fair and balanced? Their Fox jobs allow these politicians an opportunity to send conservative activists a mostly unfiltered message in what is almost always a friendly environment.

The complete lack of separation of Corporation and State is pretty scary.

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Working For The Rich While Thinking You're A Patriot

"Modern American conservatism is, in large part, a movement shaped by billionaires and their bank accounts, and assured paychecks for the ideologically loyal are an important part of the system. Scientists willing to deny the existence of man-made climate change, economists willing to declare that tax cuts for the rich are essential to growth, strategic thinkers willing to provide rationales for wars of choice, lawyers willing to provide defenses of torture, all can count on support from a network of organizations that may seem independent on the surface but are largely financed by a handful of ultrawealthy families." - Paul Krugman

via nytimes.com

"Fox is an obvious example, making million-dollar contributions to the Republican Governors Association and the rabidly anti-Obama United States Chamber of Commerce, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation is signaling that it no longer feels the need to make any effort to keep up appearances."

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"The Pledge" Decoded

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The Biggest Obstructionist In History And Their "Trust Us" Farce

We are actually supposed to believe that the people who called for "Obama's Waterloo", filibustered more than any congress in history and obstructed the majority in every possible way are acting in good faith when they say they want to "end gridlock."

I'd laugh if I weren't so busy holding down my lunch.

via digbysblog.blogspot.com

They are the same people who run for government jobs saying the Government is the worst thing in the world. Lucky for them, conservatives have a base that do not care about those “details”.

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"Corporatism" And "Capitalism" Need To Be Divided

The corporation has become the de facto governing force of 21st century society, cyborgs pushing aside and making the individual state moot. Far from one world government, the earth is teeming with one-world corporations. 21st century schizoid man. The essential issue of our time is that western liberal democracies are ill equipped to handle unbridled corporatism; they have goals and motivations that are completely at odds with each other. Many people conflate “corporatism” with “capitalism”, most believing they are one and the same. They are not. It is possible to have a robust capitalism that answers to the social imperatives of democracy; however, the corporate goals of capitalism are entirely at odds with the social necessities of democracy. It is entirely possible — and desirable — to isolate corporatism through law and legislation, however the contemporary ideology of capitalism and free markets believes that the two – corporatism and capitalism – are indivisible. An attack on corporatism is an attack on capitalism. And an attack on capitalism is heresy. Corporatism: The Cyborg Amongst Us ☀

via azspot.net

The Roberts’ Court handed corporations the last piece: unlimited financial influence in elections.

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Shocker, Beck Sold Less Than 10% of Tickets For NJ Event

This, on the same weekend he appears on the cover of the New York Times Sunday magazine, and again we're told he's a hugely important and influential figure in American politics today. 

From the Asbury Park Press [emphasis added]: 

A crowd of about 700 people, comprised mostly of Tea Party supporters, gathered at Six Flags Great Adventure on Saturday to help kick off conservative talk-show host Glenn Beck's "Restoring America'' tour.

And the kicker: 

Although the crowd was well short of the 8,000 capacity for the arena, there was a large contingent of conservative media in attendance.

via mediamatters.org

Going, going, gone. Fake "anger" and "rage" can last for so long as the Dow hits 11,000, insurance reform kicks in, credit card reform helps Joe Paycheck, the Government starts selling AIG shares at a profit, GM sells more cars, and the economy starts coming back after the Bush Horror Show. Suck it.

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Donald Duck Meets Glenn Beck in "Right Wing Radio Duck"

via youtube.com

Shows how meaningless the GOP populism really is. Sure, they are angry, but at what?

"Donald’s life is turned upside-down by the current economic crisis and he finds himself unemployed and falling behind on his house payments. As his frustration turns into despair Donald discovers a seemingly sympathetic voice coming from his radio named Glenn Beck."

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Bill Maher Keepin' It Real

"The Democrats have real accomplishments to run on, like preventing a depression and forcing insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions. Like stoping the banks from being the useless middlemen on student loans, and lowering taxes for non-rich people.

Obama has passed a credit card bill of rights, he restarted stem cell research, got our ass out of Iraq, and signed a nuclear treaty with Russia. Not to mention the intangible of having a President who can pronounce “nuclear."

— Bill Maher, Real Time with Bill Maher 10/01/2010 (via caraobrien)

(via stfuconservatives)

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Sucking With Or Without Beck: Fox Employees Should be Embarrassed

"Look, Beck is a national embarrassment. There’s just no getting around that. But Fox News doesn’t get to play this silly game about legitimacy — if Glenn Beck were to leave the network tomorrow and communicate to his minions exclusively through ham radio, Fox News would still be a pathetic excuse for a news organization, making a mockery of American journalism and offering a case study of everything that’s wrong with the discourse of the United States in the 21st century.

Fox News is humiliated by Glenn Beck? Please. If there are people working at Fox News concerned about their professional reputations, hoping to be taken seriously as legitimate journalists, it’s time they realized the afternoon loon is the least of their troubles. The sighs and/or eye-rolling should apply just as easily to Hannity, Kelly, O’Reilly, Varney, the cast of “Fox & Friends,” etc.

via ryking.tumblr.com

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