"Super PACs are functioning as the alter egos of the campaigns, and their activity was clearly not anticipated when the statutes were put in place," said Ellen Weintraub, a Democratic FEC appointee.

Bullshiat. We all saw what happened to McCain/Feingold. You should have seen this coming a mile away.

Money = speech

Diogenes: "Super PACs are functioning as the alter egos of the campaigns, and their activity was clearly not anticipated when the statutes were put in place," said Ellen Weintraub, a Democratic FEC appointee.

Bullshiat. We all saw what happened to McCain/Feingold. You should have seen this coming a mile away.

This. I mean, seriously, not foreseen by what retards?

DarnoKonrad: These are not "loop holes." According to SCOTUS they're constitutionally protected speech. Which is insane, but we need to be clear about the problem -- and it's not the law, it's how ideologues have decided to permanently subvert the 1st Amendment to protect monied elites at the expense of democracy. It's going to take a constitutional amendment to stop the coming plutocracy.

So you're telling me there's a chance!

DarnoKonrad: It's going to take a constitutional amendment to stop the coming plutocracy.

A constitutional amendment is going to take a super PAC the size of China to have any chance at all in making it's way through congress against all the other super PACs fighting against it. And since unincorporated American People can't afford super PACs, this will never happen. America as we have known it is dead thanks to George Bush's activist hacks on the supreme court.

Couple politicians experience, what was the headline, "Unsoliticed kinetic biodynamic reduction" and maybe some laws will change. I'm beginning to think it's the only way because "pick another name" until you're blue in the face, but they've gone to the ridiculous lengths now of outright refusing people to participate in the democratic process either through media manipulation or court challenges to tie up the process...what chance does a 3rd party have against a two party system that holds all the cards? ALL the cards! A 3rd party's only hope is to be a spoiler against one of the two evils, neither of which is really "that much" lesser anymore (though honestly the GOP is demonstrably more asinine in every approach).

I don't think we are going to see a shred of decency from the elected officials until a few of them get popped off, the rest of them overreach in the inevitable resulting crackdown and piss off the rest of the country.

I'm pretty cynical and pessimistic about the future at this point. It's all playing out like it was scripted from the beginning; the classic overreach of moneyed and powered elite interests disenfranchising enough people that the balance shifts, the platform flips upside down and a lot of people die.

Unsolicited, even.imashark: Anyone ever wonder if foreign intelligence agencies are using these SuperPACs to try to destabilize the USA?

They'd be idiots not to. This is a golden opportunity.

DarnoKonrad: It's going to take a constitutional amendment to stop the coming plutocracy.

That's the easy way, anyhow.
So far, unemployment insurance and food stamps are successfully forestalling the alternative shortcut.

DeaH: When pointed out that Citizens United would lead to something like this, here was Alito's response:

Technically, I'm not aware of any evidence of foreign corporations spending without limit since the CU ruling. Did I miss a piece on the politics tab?