Politicians and their Contributors

That right there is a widget being rereleased by Wired and Maplight. It is where you can search by state, office, or name and see the top ten contributors to each candidate. In other words, it is a way to see who is "buying" our candidates.

Some will deny it but the influence of donors and contributors to politicians is how some or many of their beliefs are formed. Take for example, out of my state, Linda McMahon, her largest contributors are JP Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley. So she will be careful to pick what she supports as legislature in case it hurts those contributors in any way. It is just basic common sense at this stage.

Wired and Maplight are offering this widget for free to anyone who wants to use it. I think this is invaluable to people because this is a side that we don't often hear about in elections. We should see what some of the motivating factors are in people's campaigns. It is a good way to really see where each person stands based on what we know (factually not rumors) about each company.

This could be used in both a negative and positive way, but I hope that many will just use it to become better informed, rather than make judgements.

Political Round-up Craziness

I have been absent from the blog for a while and I apologize school has overtaken any free time I might have, plus I am desperately trying to find moments to sleep and reduce the large deficit I have :)

However, a lot has been happening in the media/political world and it has gotten a little weird.

First up, that beautiful man George Clooney got arrested, with his father no less. What endears Mr. Clooney is that he was leading a protest at the Sudanese embassy in Washington D.C. Well done sir, you have just made yourself all that more appealing to women. Now that is how you get arrested!

Photo credit: Washington Post


My mother just informed me that Mitt Romney spouted some more nonsense today. While that as a whole does not surprise me in the least bit, what he said gave me a laugh. He said that when he becomes President, he will get rid of Planned Parenthood and Obamacare. Okay, so you are going to get rid of an organization that according to their 2009-2010 annual report, administered over 11 million different services? Need I remind you that abortion is not their only service? Included in the 11 million was: STI/STD testing for men and women, contraception (including sterilization for women and vasectomies for men), 6 different types of cancer screenings, pregnancy tests and prenatal services, and finally adoption referrals and family services.

Not to mention for many, Planned Parenthood is their only source of health care! Which is why it blows my mind that he wants to do this. Why mess with a good thing? Because you don't believe in the pill and abortion? Politicians need to stop toying with people's health and lives because of their opinions. It is getting to a dangerous standpoint.

This week, my boyfriend and I eagerly watched the new movie "Game Change". Let me tell you, there were some things I was not expecting. As a whole the movie was pretty good, it had a lot of dramatics and generally stayed true to what the media was saying about McCain's campaign. Except that was sort of the problem. They took what the media played up most about Palin and exaggerated it. They made Sarah Palin look like a total bitch. She was mean and downright nasty in the movie. Which okay, even if she was in real life, I never heard about it before this movie.

 Photo credit: IMDB.com

The thing that bothered me the most, was how dumb Palin was in the movie. Now, I know that even I knew more about politics than this woman, but did she really not know what the Federal Reserve was? How could she have become Governor of Alaska without knowing that? Better question: How did she graduate high school or even middle school without knowing that? It only bothers me that she was portrayed that way because I am seriously afraid that it was truth and she really was that ignorant. 

The only other thing I'll add is this: Woody Harrelson gave a great performance, I continue to be impressed by him. Ed Harris was also pretty good, but McCain in the movie does raise some questions about what the real McCain was really like too.

Finally, the last thing I'm going to hit on today is too good to be true. But the best part is it is true. The founder of Invisible Children, Jason Russell went nutso and was arrested today, for get this, masturbating in public, damaging cars, and being drunk in public. There is a video on TMZ of him naked just flipping his shit on a sidewalk...really weird.

Photo credit: Reuters

Tuesday: Florida Primary

     So Tuesdays are going to be my political days here on the blog :) Tonight was the long awaited Florida primary, where Mitt Romney took the victory over Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, and Ron Paul. This isn't the first time Romney has fought to win Florida, but it is his first victory. As of 10:40 pm reported on The Washington Post's website, Mitt Romney came in with about 46.4%, ahead of Gingrich who had 31.9%, Santorum came in with only 13.4% and Ron Paul with 7%. My initial thought is, oh God, Romney won. Then it was, at least it wasn't Newt, and then it changed to, it doesn't matter they're all terrible. In his victory speech Romney had the audacity to say this:

"Leadership is about taking responsibility, not making excuses,” he said. “Mr. President, you were elected to lead. You chose to follow. Now it’s time for you to get out of the way.”

     Excuse me? Obama is a follower? I'm sorry, while I will admit his presidency has not been the amazing show we had hoped for, he was trying to get things passed while you Republicans shot it down in Congress. He has been trying to get health care, he's been fighting for jobs, he's pulled us out of Afghanistan...and you call him a follower? Mitt Romney is an idiot as far as I'm concerned. Plus, while watching the results on MSNBC tonight, I couldn't agree more with Chris Matthews who pretty much said that unless Romney has a script or a teleprompter, he is useless.

     So, then Newt Gingrich comes on to give his speech. First, let me say that I find his wife terrifying to look at. Her face does not move in the least bit. His speech was pretty much all his thoughts mashed together in no particular order. That's fun to follow, isn't it? I will admit though, he is a better speaker than Romney ever will be. Even if it isn't a smooth speech, at least he forms somewhat coherent thoughts. Essentially what it boiled down to though, was a lot of campaign promises. My favorite is his promise to reverse the "war" that President Obama has waged on the Christian Religion. Say what? Awesome, bringing once again two things that should have never been combined in the first place.

     So what do I think will happen from here? I think essentially Romney and Gingrich will battle it out until the end, but it will get ugly. Not that it hasn't already, after Gingrich won South Carolina, Romney went after him like a beast. To get an idea, in Florida Gingrich only ran about 300 ads, while Romney had 1000s. The money spent alone by each differs drastically, which tells you a few things. A. Romney just has more resources and B. Newt might just not have been doing enough.

     I think before we get to more mudslinging by those two, Ron Paul may surprise a bit. He did technically come in 4th in Florida, but he has more delegates which by his words, "is what matters". Honestly, I think the public forgets sometimes that Santorum is even in the race at all. He just does not generate any publicity, good or bad, at least at this point. I think the last news I have heard on him is what his last name could mean, and I don't even want to get into that.

     However, I think Ron Paul has a decent chance of at least hanging on for a while longer. He has the fact that a lot of youth is standing behind him. It seems like if they aren't behind Obama, then they've turned to Ron Paul. He also is becoming the lesser of all the evils in this race, which speaks loudly for many people. The Republicans have not redeemed themselves in anyway, Congress is still a disappointment, and it doesn't look like much will be changing. That is why Ron Paul might be so popular among the youth, because he isn't a diehard conservative.

At this point, anything goes, but the mudslinging amongst the two lead dummies will continue.