Money In Politics

By way of C.E. Petro, Mother Jones has a report on some statistics entitled "How the poor get dinged at every turn." Here is a random sampling:

Part of the "culture of corruption" is the undue influence of big money in politics. Despite fits and starts of reform, special interest money dominates the political system -- and it's those with the biggest wallets that benefit.

President Bush came to Fort Bragg and Fayetteville on July 4. It's becoming something of a ritual: poll numbers sagging, fierce debate about the Iraq war erupting, fly into North Carolina's most famous military town for a round of cheerleading.

Books and science -- not exactly sacred items in Washington these days. Unions representing 10,000 Environmental Protection Agency scientists -- over half the agency's workforce -- sent a letter to Congress last Thursday protesting the Bush administration's proposed 80 percent cut in the agency's library budget.

Yesterday's White House press conference came 30 minutes after a jury convicted Enron heads "Kenny Boy" Lay and Peter Skilling on multiple counts in one of the biggest corporate fraud cases in U.S

For a preview of how it's going to play out in the 2006 midterms, check out this report about a scripted GOP attack against Harold Ford Jr. for taking "Hollywood money." But wait, there's more. It seems the GOP is throwing bricks from inside a glass house.

If you live in North Carolina and put off doing your taxes, here's a last-minute tip: check the box to have $3 of your taxes go to the Public Campaign Fund. It doesn't affect your tax bill, and it goes towards a great cause: getting private-interest money out of judicial elections in N.C., and replacing it with public financing.

Blogging from Washington, D.C. after a strategy meeting with Good Jobs First, an excellent group tracking corporate subsidies and alternative ways of stimulating economic development.

Tom DeLay is resigning from the U.S. House of Representatives. Wonder if it has anything to do with this?

The Wilmington Star has a nice overview of Bob Hall, a long-time staffer at the Institute for Southern Studies, and his pioneering work on campaign finance reform -- which may well depose N.C.'s Democratic House Speaker Jim Black: