Campaign Financing

Lawrence Lessig & Jack Abramoff

Jack Abramoff is a former lobbyist who pleaded guilty in 2006 to charges of fraud, tax evasion, and conspiracy to bribe public officials. Abramoff also worked as businessman, movie producer and writer. Abramoff's lobbying and the scandals and investigation are featured in a documentary movie "Casino Jack and the United States of Money" and a political satire movie titled "Casino Jack".

Lawrence Lessig is a law professor at Harvard. He has been the lead counsel in important cases concerning copyright laws for digital content. His current work concerns institutional corruption.
Source: Lawrence Lessig interviews Jack Abramoff

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Catherine Crier

Catherine Crier, former judge and Emmy-winning journalist, argues that partisan politics are hurting the United States. She advocates reducing legal corruption in Washington, D.C. She has been television personality for CNN, ABC, Fox News and ESPN.
Source: Patriot Acts

The Other Scott Horton

Scott Horton Interviews The Other Scott Horton

The Other Scott Horton is an international human rights lawyer and contributing editor at Harper’s magazine and no relation to the interviewer. They discusses the U.S. government's refusal prosecute torturers. Also how WikiLeaks exposed high-level U.S. efforts to squash previous Spanish investigations of American political and military figures. Included is the contrast of U.S.’ repudiation of international law and universal jurisdiction, after helping establish them after WWII. The National Defense Authorization Act's indefinite detention provision also part of the conversation.
Source: Scott Horton Interviews The Other Scott Horton

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Lawrence Lessig

Lawrence Lessig joins Bob McChesney to talk about institutional corruption. Lawrence Lessig is a Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. His current work concerns institutional corruption and the economy of influence that weakens the effectiveness of an institution, or weakens public trust.
Source: Lawrence Lessig joins McChesney on Media Matters with Bob McChesney

President Andrew Jackson

Where did the U.S. debt come from? What happened the one time the U.S. paid it all off? Why did the U.S. Congress created the debt ceiling in the first place? A short review of the legend of the national debt. This podcast doesn't explain why people fear what they don't understand.
Source: When The U.S. Paid Off The Entire National Debt (And Why It Didn't Last)

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Jack Abramoff

Are members of the U.S. Congress using inside information to get rich? Mike Pesca talks about dirty politics and big money with a panel including former super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Source: Dirty Politics And Big Money

Lawrence Lessig

Lawrence Lessig talks to Charlie Rose

Lawrence Lessig of Harvard University is the author of the book "Republic, Lost; How Money Corrupts Congress—and a Plan To Stop It"
Source: A conversation with Lawrence Lessig

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Watch the video ... Actually it's worse, when you look at it the right way

The L-Curve graph represents income, not wealth. The distribution of wealth is even more skewed. Quoting from a recently-published book by political philosopher David Schweickart,

If we divided the income of the US into thirds, we find that the top ten percent of the population gets a third, the next thirty percent gets another third, and the bottom sixty percent get the last third. If we divide the wealth of the US into thirds, we find that the top one percent own a third, the next nine percent own another third, and the bottom ninety percent claim the rest. (Actually, these percentages, true a decade ago, are now out of date. The top one percent are now estimated to own between forty and fifty percent of the nation's wealth, more than the combined wealth of the bottom 95%.)

Scott Horton Interviews Francis Boyle

Francis Boyle discusses how in 2004 the FBI and CIA tried to make him an informant to betray his Arab and Muslim legal clients. His refusal landed him on several terrorism watch lists and guaranteeing him a lifetime of harassment when traveling. He asks if we are already living in a police state, which will become a military dictatorship after one more major terrorist attacks. Currently Professor Boyle lectures on international law at the University of Illinois College of Law.
Source: Scott Horton Interviews Francis Boyle

Ralph Nader

Ralph Nader talks with Bob McChesney

Ralph Nader was named by The Atlantic as one of the 100 most influential figures in American history, and by Time and Life magazines as one of the hundred most influential Americans of the twentieth century. Nader has organized millions of citizens into more than 100 public interest groups to advocate for solutions. His efforts have helped create laws, regulatory agencies, and federal standards that have improved the quality of life for generations of Americans. Because of Ralph Nader we drive safer cars, eat healthier food, breathe better air, drink cleaner water, and work in safer environments.
Source: Ralph Nader on Media Matters with Bob McChesney

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Jacob Hacker

Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class

Bob McChesney talks with Jacob Hacker, Professor of Political Science at Yale University. Jacob Hacker has made important contributions to public policy ideas in the areas of healthcare, social welfare and economic opportunity. Jacob has spent his career researching how the institutions of social protection work, practically and economically.

Paul Pierson

Paul Pierson is noted for his research on comparative public policy and political economy, the welfare state, and American political development. Pierson is Professor of Political Science at the University of California at Berkeley.

The bottom line is that lobbyists and campaign contributions by the wealthy have changed the structure of the economy for the worse.
Source: Winner-Take-All Politics: Washington Made the Rich Richer and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class

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A lengthy article, but worth the read. If you don't have time to read the whole article right now, at least read the final paragraph - "But the arc of history does not bend toward justice through capitulation cast as compromise."

What Happened to Obama?
By DREW WESTEN - NYTimes.com

Drew Westen is a professor of psychology at Emory University and the author of “The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation.”

Atlanta

IT was a blustery day in Washington on Jan. 20, 2009, as it often seems to be on the day of a presidential inauguration. As I stood with my 8-year-old daughter, watching the president deliver his inaugural address, I had a feeling of unease. It wasn’t just that the man who could be so eloquent had seemingly chosen not to be on this auspicious occasion, although that turned out to be a troubling harbinger of things to come. It was that there was a story the American people were waiting to hear — and needed to hear — but he didn’t tell it. And in the ensuing months he continued not to tell it, no matter how outrageous the slings and arrows his opponents threw at him.

The stories our leaders tell us matter, probably almost as much as the stories our parents tell us as children, because they orient us to what is, what could be, and what should be; to the worldviews they hold and to the values they hold sacred. Our brains evolved to “expect” stories with a particular structure, with protagonists and villains, a hill to be climbed or a battle to be fought. Our species existed for more than 100,000 years before the earliest signs of literacy, and another 5,000 years would pass before the majority of humans would know how to read and write.

David Callahan, David Cay Johnston & Arianna Huffington are interviewed by Francesca Rheannon. They discuss how the economic elites fight for control of the political elites.

Source: David Callahan, David Cay Johnston & Arianna Huffington: Rich liberals, Corporate Politics and Third World America.

Matt Taibbi is interviewed by Tavis Smiley

The Rolling Stones editor explains the inner workings of Wall Street and criticizes the U.S. bank bail out.
Source: November 11, 2010, Matt Taibbi interviewed by Tavis Smiley

Timothy McBain talks to Andrew Bacevich about Military-Industrial Complex Cutbacks

Will the proposed defense cuts reduce the total national security budget?
Source: Tuesday, January 25, 2011. Military-Industrial Cutbacks?

Why democracy only works when people are in charge.

In this spoken-word performance video piece, we highlight Meg Whitman spending a record-breaking $140 million in her attempt to buy California. She is treating her campaign like an eBay bid on the state of California. Tell Meg Whitman California is NOT for sale.

The NY Times via docudharma

With Ms. [Christine] O'Donnell's upset victory in the Republican primary on Tuesday, Mr. [Sal] Russo, the chief strategist behind an upstart group called the Tea Party Express, had racked up another win.

[...]

Mr. Russo's group is also under attack from Republican Party leaders in Delaware, who have accused the Tea Party Express of improperly collaborating with Ms. O'Donnell's campaign. Federal laws allow political action committees to support candidates independently, but they are not permitted to coordinate their spending with campaigns.

[...]

In the days leading up to the Delaware primary, Sal Russo hosted a radio fund-raiser, organized a political rally and pressed the case with reporters that Christine O'Donnell was the Tea Party's choice for the United States Senate. He also set off what he calls a "money bomb," pouring at least $250,000 into television and other advertisements promoting the little-known candidate.

[...]

According to the law, the maximum that can be donated is $5,000

During this election cycle, the Tea Party Express has spent nearly $1 million in Nevada alone - $547,000 to support Sharron Angle, the Republican Senate candidate, and $385,000 in opposing Senator Harry Reid, the Democratic leader. In Massachusetts, the group spent nearly $350,000 to back Scott Brown, now the state's Republican senator.

In case you don't remember who Sal Russo is, click here and here