The news that cable and news giant Comcast has struck a deal to purchase Time Warner, another large cable business, has raised concerns over market concentration. Observers note that the combined company, even if it divests some holdings, would create monopoly-like conditions for the industry. Many are predicting a lobbying blitz by both companies to
Continue Reading >>>

  This article was written by David Halperin and Carl Malamud.   Malamud is founder and president of PublicResource.Org, based in Sebastopol, CA. David Halperin, a Washington DC lawyer, advises the organization. A longer discussion of these issues, and links to the world’s hidden laws, are here.  “The rule of law,” Aristotle wrote, “is preferable to
Continue Reading >>>

Politico: Myth of the Small Donor Roughly 2.5 million people have kicked in $200 or less to the various committees helping their candidate win the White House. But those 2.5 million people account for less than 18 percent of the total money haul. NY Times: Romney Team Outpaces Obama in Fund-Raising Again The fund-raising machine behind Mitt
Continue Reading >>>

Politico: Romney, GOP High-Rollers to Meet in Aspen Romney plans to join mega-donors in town for a retreat hosted by the RGA’s so-called Executive Roundtable program, which will draw some of the biggest names in GOP politics, including several high-powered governors, a top adviser to Romney, Karl Rove, and other representatives of deep-pocketed political spenders,
Continue Reading >>>

Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis are out with a new movie that looks like it will be a hilarious skewer of the modern political campaign. The Campaign, out on August 10, gets one thing a bit too right — campaign finance. Watch this clip…so funny because it’s so true.

The Atlantic: The Only Way to Fix Campaign-Finance Regulation Is to Destroy It Over the last four decades, the campaign finance system has become a Rube Goldberg-esque contraption of complex, senseless, and indecipherable regulations. To fix it, new “reforms” (a.k.a. regulations) are routinely proposed, and some are even passed — such as the McCain-Feingold Bill
Continue Reading >>>

Huff Post: ‘Dark Money’ Hits $172 Million in 2012 Election, Half of Independent Group Spending Through July 26, politically involved groups that do not disclose their donors have spent at least $172 million on campaigns that include television, radio and Internet advertising, according to a Huffington Post review of FEC reports, advertising buys, press releases
Continue Reading >>>

Huff Post: Nancy Pelosi Escalates Call For Constitutional Amendment Speaking at the Campus Progress national conference, the top House Democrat called for “citizen-funded elections” rooted in low-dollar contributions. She told members of the progressive advocacy organization that independent groups obscure political dialogue. Bloomberg: How to Break NRA’s Grip on Politics Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican
Continue Reading >>>