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The leader of the US Federal Election Commission, the agency charged with regulating the way political money is raised and spent, says she has largely given up hope of reining in abuses in the 2016 US presidential campaign, which could generate a record $10 billion in spending.
“The likelihood of the laws being enforced is slim,” Ann M. Ravel, the chairwoman, said in an interview. “I never want to give up, but I’m not under any illusions. People think the F.E.C. is dysfunctional. It’s worse than dysfunctional.”
Her unusually frank assessment reflects a worsening stalemate among the agency’s six commissioners. They are perpetually locked in 3-to-3 ties along party lines on key votes because of a fundamental disagreement over the mandate of the commission, which was created 40 years ago in response to the political corruption of Watergate.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Adamsjas on Tuesday May 05 2015, @08:08PM
So Koch Brothers bad but Soros brothers good?
I see where you're coming from.
Shoe doesn't feel so good when its on the other foot, does it....
(Score: 3, Insightful) by K_benzoate on Tuesday May 05 2015, @08:11PM
You haven't caught me out, mate. I don't want any of their money in politics. I don't care what "side" they're on, although I don't hide the fact that I think the extreme Right is more pernicious to society currently because they enjoy a natural economic advantage and are incumbent.
Climate change is real and primarily caused by human activity.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday May 06 2015, @03:32AM
The US doesn't really have a left/right divide like other western democracies do.
Both of your political parties are extremely right wing (economically anyway) compared to the civilized world.
(Score: 2) by K_benzoate on Wednesday May 06 2015, @04:31AM
I absolutely agree, and nothing I said contradicts that. The Democratic Party is (largely) a centre-right party. The Republican Party is a far-right party. Most Americans are so warped in their understanding of politics that they think the minute differences between the D's and the R's constitute the entire Right-Left divide, instead of a small slice of it on the right.
Climate change is real and primarily caused by human activity.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Thexalon on Tuesday May 05 2015, @08:15PM
1. George Soros, last I checked, didn't have a rich brother.
2. Bernie Sanders is not taking big donations from anybody, including George Soros. If I had to hazard a guess, Soros would by much more likely to be backing Hillary Clinton.
So nice try, but that line of attack just doesn't apply to Bernie Sanders.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday May 05 2015, @08:28PM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Soros [wikipedia.org]
His rich older brother Paul died in 2013. He too, was something of a Philanthropist, although is public acts of philanthropy amounted to providing graduate scholarships. How he spent his private money was a secret guarded almost as closely as George guards his private spending.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 05 2015, @09:35PM
Well if he is dead then I don't think we need to worry about him contributing too much money now do we.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 06 2015, @07:33PM
Well if he is dead then I don't think we need to worry about him contributing too much money now do we.
Well, the right will still insist he's voting.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday May 05 2015, @09:54PM
Didn't read the link did you.
His son is managing the foundation and the family fortune these days.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 05 2015, @11:34PM
Does it really matter?
Of the two points that thexalon made, the issue of whether the big money is split between multiple family members is dwarfed by the fact that Sanders is explicitly opposed to taking big money.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 05 2015, @10:18PM
In the first 24 hours after Bernie's announcement, donations to his campaign topped $1.5M.
The average donation was $43.54.
Unlike the 4 Koch brothers (trust fund babies) who inherited millions, the working class wealth of the (ethnically Jewish) Soros family was destroyed by the Nazi occupation of Hungary.
They each had to start from zero after WWII.
-- gewg_
(Score: 3, Informative) by jmorris on Wednesday May 06 2015, @12:40AM
Soros family was destroyed by the Nazi occupation of Hungary.
Oh no you didn't. You DO NOT get to play the victim card for George Soros without including that he was a goddamned NAZI collaborator. Google it, 60 Minutes even did a piece on it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 06 2015, @03:22PM
Oh no you didn't. You DO NOT get to play the victim card for George Soros without including that he was a goddamned NAZI collaborator. Google it, 60 Minutes even did a piece on it.
Thanks. I just did. It is not anything like you made it out to be. Given who you are, that should come as no surprise.
He was 14 years old pretending to be the (christian) godson of a nazi in order to be protected from the other nazis. His nazi protector made him help confiscate property from jews. You call that collaboration, I call that child abuse.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday May 06 2015, @03:44AM
In the first 24 hours after Bernie's announcement, donations to his campaign topped $1.5M. The average donation was $43.54.
Who did they come from? I don't trust anything that doesn't have a documented source for the donation and a million undocumented small donations can more easily come from a single rich source than a million poor ones.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 06 2015, @01:26PM
gewg money has permeated all levels, to pretend 'your guy' is better than the other guy is ignoring facts at best and being outright dishonest at worst.
You are a good example of a 'cheerleader'. Someone who does not have a lot of power but will vote party line. Because they have somehow* convinced themselves that 'the other team is a bunch of knuckle dragging twits' (which may be true) while ignoring your own 'knuckle dragging twits'. In fact you use childish name calling to belittle the other team.
*usually by selectively reading particular things that tweak their pleasure centers in their brain and does not challenge them to say 'what if I am wrong'. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE3j_RHkqJc [youtube.com]
To somehow pretend that ~2 billion per person to elect a president is somehow sane, is pitiful. Why do you think the 24/7 news stations are on about it all the time? Who do you think their customer is? It is the political class (we are the product 'eyeballs' being sold). They are the ones selling air time. It is classic marketing 101. See an opportunity, create demand, get paid. In this case they create demand by using their very stations to whip up into a frenzy the very people they should be informing. The frenzy allows them to sell an ad space time slot for 1.5 million instead of 10k. This is the news stations pay day. It is like the stores around Thanksgiving and black friday. It is basically 0.01%rs tossing 10%rs a bone.
I have said it time and time again gewg. YOU CAN DO BETTER. You seem smart and sharp. But you take a very narrow view of the world. I am also sorry to tell you you have been tricked and manipulated into your opinions. I have the same issue with my party. It is very hard to tell the difference between opinion pieces and real news. Sometimes they are both. That is what they are using this money for. To trick and manipulate us. It all rolls back to money. Both sides have sugar daddies. To pretend otherwise is silly.
The stalemate is designed in. Notice there is no other parties involved? Because the two major parties have gerrymandered (named after a democrat) the districts to make sure it stays that way.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 06 2015, @10:37PM
you take a very narrow view of the world
Nope. My view is the majority view.
The supermajority view, in fact. [googleusercontent.com] (orig) [firedoglake.com]
(The latest numbers in these are from the Summer of 2011 but USAians have continued their embrace of and shift toward of those supermajority positions.)
It's YOU who has the marginal views. [googleusercontent.com] (orig) [popularresistance.org]
I really shouldn't expect any more awareness out of someone who obviously gets his "information" from Lamestream Media.
-- gewg_
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday May 05 2015, @09:10PM
Don't put words into other people's mouths.