Huffington Post published this piece by me yesterday, as part of its Shadow Conventions series:
To grasp the harms caused when money dominates politics, start with for-profit colleges. This industry tripled in size during the last decade, spurred by deceptive recruiting practices, after its lobbyists loosened federal rules aimed at protecting students and taxpayers from fraud. It has become a monster, a league of Wall Street corporations and private equity-owned firms that get 86 percent of their revenues — $32 billion a year — from taxpayers.
While some for-profit colleges are honest and work to educate their students, many charge sky-high …
87% percent of Americans find, “reducing corruption in the federal government,” to be “extremely,” or, “very important” according to a new Gallup poll on American’s top priorities for the next president. This is the #2 issue, following only job creation.
Corruption in government usually ranks as an important issue when it is asked about specifically, though it is not as top-of-mind as jobs or the economy.
Particularly, corruption does less well in polls when respondents are asked to volunteer priorities. However, only 2% thought corruption was not an important issue. In addition, corruption, like job …
Washington Post: Money gap may not matter so much in November
Obama probably will be similarly outspent in the end, but given the near-parity in bank accounts on both sides, it won’t make much difference.
“Nobody’s going to win or lose this election on the basis of not having enough money,” said Bob Biersack, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks campaign money. “Each of them is going to have around $700 [million to] $800 million available. The idea that that’s not enough is just bizarre.”
Roll Call: Judges Will Rule on Texas Voter ID
The war over …
New York Times: The Spreading Scourge of Corporate Corruption
The misconduct of the financial industry no longer surprises most Americans. Only about one in five has much trust in banks, according to Gallup polls, about half the level in 2007. And it’s not just banks that are frowned upon. Trust in big business overall is declining. Sixty-two percent of Americans believe corruption is widespread across corporate America. According to Transparency International, an anticorruption watchdog, nearly three in four Americans believe that corruption has increased over the last three years.
Washington Post: …
Today, five new companies have pledged to stop funding the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). They include John Deere, CVS Caremark, MillerCoors, HP, and Best Buy.
According to the activist group ColorOfChange:
“Over the last few weeks, we have closely followed the issues surrounding the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and have heard from numerous stakeholders expressing their views,” said Larry Burton, CVS Caremark Senior Vice President for Government Affairs, in an email to ColorOfChange. “As a result, after careful consideration of the available information, CVS Caremark has discontinued its membership in ALEC.”
“We’ve not contributed to ALEC this year, nor do …
The Washington, DC, area experienced incredibly severe storms on Friday night, the kind that, with an unprecedented number of downed trees, can only lead to extensive power disruptions — 1.5 million were without power for at least part of the weekend. Yet three days later, 25 percent of households and businesses in the area still don’t have power — and some aren’t expected to get it back until next Friday (or even later!), a full week after the storm. This is happening amid a record-setting heatwave that isn’t just inconvenient and sticky. 100-plus degree days without access to air-conditioning …
One person who is probably happy about the attention the Supreme Court is getting for its pending Obamacare decision is Attorney General Eric Holder, who, by any measure, is having a really bad week. Later today, the House of Representatives is likely to hold him in contempt of Congress because he has refused to hand over documents related to “Operation Fast and Furious” to the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
The gist of the story is this: The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has been charged with the Sisyphean task of stopping guns from being trafficked from …
Yesterday, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman issued a subpoena targeting a foundation affiliated with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for illegally funneling $18 million to the Chamber for its political campaigning and lobbying efforts.
The New York Times reports:
The investigation is also looking at connections between the chamber’s foundation, the National Chamber Foundation, and another philanthropy, the Starr Foundation, which made large grants to the chamber foundation in 2003 and 2004. During the same period, the National Chamber Foundation lent the chamber $18 million, most of it for what was described as a capital campaign.
Watchdog groups claim that …
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