Campaign 2010

Countdown to Congressional Elections


The most effective way to restrict democracy is to transfer decision-making from the public arena to unaccountable institutions: kings and princes, priestly castes, military juntas, party dictatorships, or modern corporations.
Noam Chomsky, M.I.T. emeritus Professor of Linguistics

The Rise of Corporate Freedom of Speech

(Surpassed 2008 total on August 18)

See Weekly Spending Totals

$2.9 Billion Spent in 08
on Congressional Race
See Major Contributors

Corporate money in politics is bad enough. Secret corporate money is intolerable.


Primary Election Results
(UPDATED: August 25, 2010)






"The Great 2010 Incumbent (Non-)Revolt"

Senate Primary’s
Incumbent Democrats
1 Loss; 6 Wins of 13
Incumbent Republicans
1 Loss; 9 Wins of 12

House Primary’s
Incumbent Democrats
2 Loss; 182 Wins of 245
Incumbent Republicans
2 Loss; 140 Wins of 158

General Election Candidates

Senate

House of Representatives

Visual Facts

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Click Image for Larger Size.

National Debt Clock

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WHEN Did You Become Fiscally Responsible?
BEFORE Obama or AFTER Obama??
January 20, 2009
$10,838,758,414,164.46 - ↑90%
Discretionary Spending at 48.6%

January 20, 2001
$5,719,124,940,098.04 - 36%
January 20, 1993
$4,192,107,025,882.17 - 62%
January 20, 1989
$2,601,104,000,000.00 - 189%
January 20, 1981
$909,041,000.000.00

Click Image for Full Size


Debt by President

Are You A Tea Party Hyprocrite??

(Click for Debt Details)

United States of Corporations

Thanks to the GOP's Supreme Court
(Click Flag for Full Size)
Corporate Bill of Rights

Quotes and Links

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(Look for the Listings)

The Decade When the U.S. Lost Its Way

Where Have All the Neocons Gone?

From Neocons to Crazy-Cons

America Builds an Aristocracy

Supreme immodesty: Why the justices play politics

The Biggest Medicare Fraud Ever

Enough Right-Wing Propaganda

Tax Rate for Richest 400 Taxpayers Plummeted in Recent Decades, Even as Their Pre-Tax Incomes Skyrocketed

"The financial reform bill will determine whether Wall Street’s banks will serve the American economy or whether the American economy will continue to serve Wall Street's banks."

"While the economy doesn't function for most of us ordinary workers, it yields considerable reward for those at the top."

Republicans Are Locked in a Passionate Embrace with a Corpse and Won't Let Go

"The most important thing Republicans think is that if there are Americans who can't afford the insurance policies that private insurers are willing to offer, then that's their problem."

"It should tell you everything you need to know that, in lobbying to retain its bank supervisory powers, the Fed's allies include the big Wall Street banks."

"[Texas Republican Jeb] Hensarling told a Texas-size whopper — and then tried to claim Republican credit for Bill Clinton’s budget surpluses."

"The Supreme Court's 5-to-4 decision last week giving American corporations the right to unlimited political spending was an astonishing display of judicial arrogance, overreach and unjustified activism."

"It was wrong because nothing in the First Amendment dictates that corporations must be treated identically to people."

"They backed the truck up to Fort Knox in broad daylight. They emptied it out, we rescued them and they get $150 billion in bonuses."

"A huge, unregulated boom in which almost all the upside went directly into private hands, followed by a gigantic bust in which the losses were socialized."

So You Just Squandered Billions . . . Take Another Whack at It

Banks 'Too Big to Fail' Have Grown Even Bigger

Bankers' bonuses Beat Earnings as Industry Imploded

U.S. Rescue May Reach $23.7 Trillion

The Bank Bailouts — Corporate Welfarism

New Evidence Cheney Swayed Reaction to Leak - Valerie Plame

Once Again, The More You Watch Fox The Dumber You Are

"Over the past year, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury have injected trillions of dollars into frozen financial markets, snapping up unwanted bonds, extending guarantees to banks and slashing interest rates."

Building a Better Capitalism

The End of Supply Side Economics

The Great Wealth Transfer

The Richer

Who Rules America? Power, Politics, and Social Change

Proponents of Estate Tax Repeal Are Resurrecting Old Misconceptions

Income Gaps Between Very Rich and Everyone Else More Than Tripled In Last Three Decades

Ending Plutocracy: A 12-Step Program

Our Gilded Age

The Rich and the Rest of Us

GOP's "Small Government" Talk is Hollow


Distortions, Hypocrisy & More

"I'm not upset that you lied to me; I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you"
Friedrich Nietzsche
[Hover to Pause]

Today is

July 10, 2009

Until We Do, They Won’t!

Updated at 8:20 PM

According to this Washington Post article, AIG wants to hand out $250 million in bonuses over the next nine months. The $2.4 million specified below is only for the top 40 executives.

July 10, 2009

The Facts

Next week AIG will hand out another $2.4 million in unearned bonuses to 40 top executives of the company. According to The Washington Post, AIG wants the federal government to give them “political cover” by blessing the payout. They are worried about another public outrage, but they feel with the government protecting them, any new outrage would be minimized, or at the very least, divert the anger away from them.

The Post says the bonuses were delayed from 2008, as if that is supposed to make some sort of difference. Evidently this is an effort by the Post to “soften” the sting; otherwise they would have pointed out that without taxpayer money there would be no AIG to pay out those “delayed” bonuses.

My View

Here’s the real problem — anyone and everyone in a position to do something about this crime is a criminal themselves. And with the main stream news media obviously unopposed to the thefts, they are not going to lead any resistance. Therefore, until we-the-(real)people do something about this insulting travesty, it will continue, even after the so-called “systemic emergency” is over. Nobody voluntarily gives up access to free money, and, if not AIG, it will be some other company cooking their books to “prove” they need taxpayer help.

In October of last year I told you why AIG executives were spending taxpayer money on parties. It was because they knew their demise was imminent. Then in November I asked will AIG go bankrupt in spite of bailout. Finally, in March of this year I wrote Final Curtain Call — Failure Is Near. Now it appears that a professional analyst agrees. According to the same Post article referenced above, the analyst “warned that AIG might be worthless to shareholders if or when it ever pays back the billions it owes the U.S. government”. Citigroup’s Joshua Shanker, went on to say “our valuation includes a 70 percent chance that the equity at AIG is zero”.

AIG’s executives intended from the start to milk as much money as they could out of the taxpayer before they go under. In March I wrote this post about the $170 million dollars in bonuses they were handing out that month from the taxpayer bottomless pit, and I also warned in March, as did others, that another planned extortion was scheduled for this month. Now here we are.

Allowed to get away with this, the banks and all 535 (corrupt) officials in the Capital building will accelerate the next round of abuses. And it’s obvious the White House doesn’t care, so we can lump them in with the hordes of thieves. Therefore, we must accept that those who could do something about it aren’t going to. And sitting on our ass and doing nothing but complain is never going to work, and words of anger, insults and damnation won’t work either. If the latter is all they have to suffer in exchange for millions of free, unearned, pocket-dollars extorted from taxpayers, they are more than willing to accept the humiliation. And that includes the bought-off public officials we elected.

The ONLY thing these people understand is action. So until at least 25 million common citizens march peacefully on Washington, then on to Wall Street, we will not only be ignored but continued to be sheared like sheep.

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