Sarah Palin 2012? You Betcha!

I've been reflecting on the recent Tea party candidate win in Delaware, and I've come to a frightening conclusion:

The 2012 GOP Candidate for President of the United States will be Sarah Palin.

And she will probably win.

I got shivers just typing that.

The Tea party is pulling the GOP further Right, but a lack of sophistication has them voting for dumb-but-nominally-conservative candidates. Enter: Sarah Palin.

The GOP is not dumb. They (I think) see the writing on the wall. In order to win the primaries, a candidate will have to appeal to the Tea party. Palin already has name recognition and media cache. The fact that the Left hates her so much is even more motivation for the Right. She keeps showing up at Tea party events for a reason.

She is trying to position herself as the leader of the new push for small government. And right now she is leading the pack.

Barring some terrific show of idiocy (not out of the realm of possibility), Palin will be the GOP nominee. Most independent voters will not vote Obama again. So, assuming she doesn't split the vote with a Ron Paul-type real conservative, she will be President of the United States.

The Mayans were right. The end will come in 2012. The Great American Political Farce will reach its zenith. The curtain will be pulled back for all to see. Democracy will be exposed for the failed experiment that it is.

The great cosmic joke will finally get to the punchline.

Ha...ha?

Bring on the Corporate Bribes

After the Supreme Court decided that limiting corporate speech amounted to limiting individual speech, thus violating the First Amendment, roughly half of America began running through the streets screaming bloody murder.

I'm here to explain to you why those people are idiots.

Over the past several decades, America has been running an experiment to answer this very question:

What happens when corporations are allowed to spend as much as they want on elections?

You might not know it, but about half the states make no restrictions on what corporations or labor unions can spend on state elections.

Governing Magazine, in collaboration with the Pew Center On The States, releases an annual "Grading the States Report Card," where they compare the governments of all 50 states.

According to the report card, the top three states were Washington, Utah, and Virgina. They each recieved A-minus. And all three allow unlimited spending by corporations and labor unions.


California does not limit corporate spending.

Some facts about California's top campaign contributors:

The Top 10 contributers gave $42 million. Of the Top 10 contributers, 2 were corporations, who gave a combined $7 million.

The Top 3 contributers:

A father and his daughter - $8 million
Alliance for a Better California - $5 million
An Indian Tribe - $4 million

That means, of the $42 million given by the Top 10 contributors, $35 million came from individuals, labor unions, indian tribes, teachers, and prison guards.

So boo fucking hoo, corporations can spend on campaigns, it won't make a bit of difference, so will you idiots do us all a favor and kindly shut the hell up about it already?

[NPR Planet Money]