Hello there, We’re now working very hard on the documentary part of the Moneyocracy-project. It’ll be 90 min long and will include a wide range of interviewees who will drive us into the campaign finance system that the 2010 Supreme Court decision “Citizens United v.FEC” created. Here’s the list of the people included in our documentary:   Campaign Finance Expert, Former Commissioner & Chairman of Federal Election Commission and Attorney, Trevor Potter (@thetrevorpotter) Former FEC Data analyst and Senior Fellow at the Center for Responsive Politics, Bob Biersack (@rbiersack) Senior Counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice, Adam Skaggs (@jadamskaggs) Co-founder of Creative Commons and law professor, Lawrence Lessig (@Lessig) Political Columnist Walter Shapiro (@waltershapiroPD) Managing Director at Civic Forum Strategies & Co-Founder of ProjectVirginia and Chairman of CivicForumPAC, Ford O’Connell (@FordOConnell) Co-Founder and Executive Director of Free Speech For People, John Bonifaz (@johnbonifaz) Reporter @HuffingtonPost covering campaign finance, Paul Blumenthal (@PaulBlu) Lawyer and policy advocate for Demos.org, Adam Lioz (@Demos_org) Chair of Political Science at the Baldwin-Wallace University (OH), Tom Sutton. Stay tuned for more, the release date and promotional material.  Thanks for your support!
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Hello there,

We’re now working very hard on the documentary part of the Moneyocracy-project.
It’ll be 90 min long and will include a wide range of interviewees who will drive us into the campaign finance system that the 2010 Supreme Court decision “Citizens United v.FEC” created. 

Here’s the list of the people included in our documentary:  

  • Campaign Finance Expert, Former Commissioner & Chairman of Federal Election Commission and Attorney, Trevor Potter (@thetrevorpotter)
  • Former FEC Data analyst and Senior Fellow at the Center for Responsive Politics, Bob Biersack (@rbiersack)
  • Senior Counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice, Adam Skaggs (@jadamskaggs)
  • Co-founder of Creative Commons and law professor, Lawrence Lessig (@Lessig)
  • Political Columnist Walter Shapiro (@waltershapiroPD)
  • Managing Director at Civic Forum Strategies & Co-Founder of ProjectVirginia and Chairman of CivicForumPAC, Ford O’Connell (@FordOConnell)
  • Co-Founder and Executive Director of Free Speech For People, John Bonifaz (@johnbonifaz)
  • Reporter  covering campaign finance, Paul Blumenthal (@PaulBlu)
  • Lawyer and policy advocate for Demos.org, Adam Lioz (@Demos_org)
  • Chair of Political Science at the Baldwin-Wallace University (OH), Tom Sutton.

Stay tuned for more, the release date and promotional material.  
Thanks for your support!

And here it is! The first chapter of the Moneyocracy transmedia documentary project is now online on www.moneyocracy-project.com. Combining a comic experience, a serious game and a documentary, ROOM 501C4 immerses you into a secret organisation that prepares the next election cycle. Influence, money, secret, discover what made the 2012 U.S elections so special. ROOM 501c4 is an introduction to an upcoming documentary focusing on the place of money in politics & the U.S democracy. Super PACs, Citizens United v. FEC and donors disclosure are among the topics these two segment will try to explain.  Don’t hesitate to like our facebook page or follow or twitter account for more informations and updates.  
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And here it is! The first chapter of the Moneyocracy transmedia documentary project is now online on www.moneyocracy-project.com. Combining a comic experience, a serious game and a documentary, ROOM 501C4 immerses you into a secret organisation that prepares the next election cycle. Influence, money, secret, discover what made the 2012 U.S elections so special. 

ROOM 501c4 is an introduction to an upcoming documentary focusing on the place of money in politics & the U.S democracy. Super PACs, Citizens United v. FEC and donors disclosure are among the topics these two segment will try to explain. 

Don’t hesitate to like our facebook page or follow or twitter account for more informations and updates.  

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Because of the Citizens United decision, Karl Rove and the Republicans are looking forward to a breakfast the day after the election. They are going to assemble 17 angry old white men for breakfast, some of them will slobber in their food, some will have scrambled eggs, some will have oatmeal, their teeth are gone. But these 17 angry old white men will say, ‘Hey, we just bought America. Wasn’t so bad. We still have a whole lot of money left.’
Sen. Harry Reid (via bostonreview)
sunfoundation: Political Moneyball - An interactive portrait of money in politics To visualize the relationships among political contributions, The Wall Street Journal used social network software to map more than a million records of donor data tracked by the Federal Election Commission.
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sunfoundation:

Political Moneyball - An interactive portrait of money in politics

To visualize the relationships among political contributions, The Wall Street Journal used social network software to map more than a million records of donor data tracked by the Federal Election Commission.

Here’s a very interesting piece wrote by Matt Bai in the New York Times magazine section. “How Much Has Citizens United Changed the Political Game?” Citizens United and a couple of related court decisions changed all of this in two essential ways (…) First, the Supreme Court wiped away much of the rigmarole about “express advocacy” and “electioneering.” Now any outside group can use corporate money to make a direct case for who deserves your vote and why, and they can do so right up to Election Day. The second change is that the old 527s have now been made effectively obsolete, replaced by the super PAC. The main difference between a super PAC and a social-welfare group, practically speaking, is that a super PAC has to disclose the identity of its donors, while social-welfare groups generally do not. Read more on the New York Times
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Here’s a very interesting piece wrote by Matt Bai in the New York Times magazine section.

“How Much Has Citizens United Changed the Political Game?”

Citizens United and a couple of related court decisions changed all of this in two essential ways (…) First, the Supreme Court wiped away much of the rigmarole about “express advocacy” and “electioneering.” Now any outside group can use corporate money to make a direct case for who deserves your vote and why, and they can do so right up to Election Day. The second change is that the old 527s have now been made effectively obsolete, replaced by the super PAC. The main difference between a super PAC and a social-welfare group, practically speaking, is that a super PAC has to disclose the identity of its donors, while social-welfare groups generally do not.

Read more on the New York Times

It is necessary that laws should be passed to prohibit the use of corporate funds directly or indirectly for political purposes; it is still more necessary that such laws should be thoroughly enforced. Corporate expenditures for political purposes, and especially such expenditures by public-service corporations, have supplied one of the principal sources of corruption in our political affairs.
Theodore Roosevelt (August 31st, 1910) - The “New Nationalism Speech”
…the most astounding fact that has emerged since the Citizens United decision is that just 17 people have given over half the money to the Republican super PAC. There is very little disclosure, and there are huge amounts of money cascading in from a small few.” - Sen. Schumer

Sen. Chuck Schumer last night on the floor of the Senate, on the need for campaign finance reform and the DISCLOSE Act

via Common Cause Interns

Is That Ad Super PAC Backed? This App Will Tell You - Forbes

Dan Siegel and Jennifer Hollett (photo credit: Justin Adelson, MIT Sloan)

In the run-up to Election Day, more than 670 super PACs have spent over $280 million to influence political advertising – and the numbers keep rising. So which super PAC finances certain ads? And which candidate does each super PAC lean towards? Well, there’s an app for that.

(via oneheadtoanother)

Numbers of the day: 

Only 0.26% of the Americans contributes to political campaign and only 0.05% max their $2500 limit…. 0.000063% of Americans gives 80% of the Super PACs money. More on the Rachel Maddow show

Super rich alienate nearly all Americans from campaign donation

Rachel Maddow relays the findings of a new study showing that vast minority of Americans contribute to political campaigns and an even tinier minority contributes five figures or more- and why would an average American bother to participate in a system where such a small number wield such disproportionate power?