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!
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.
Hello!
Just a few words to tell you that we are thrilled to announce that the Moneyocracy interactive documentary - which is the first part of our transmedia documentary about Money and politics in the U.S - will be released on November 3rd on “lemonde.fr”. Yes you’re right, there’s only a couple of days to wait.
In the meantime, we went through that video from Robert Reich explaining what could be - in his opinion - the biggest threat for America in the upcoming years.
Strangely enough, his message looks a lot like what Keith Olbermann was saying in his editorial comment 2 years ago. Different tone, but same conclusions.
Are you agree with that analysis?
Here’s the Robert Reich comment:
And here’s the Olbermann Editorial comment:
According to OpenSecrets.org: Tracking Money In Politics latest analysis, conservative super PACs have outspent their liberal counterparts by more than $100 million. (*Note: This is a correction from something we posted last night, which noted a 10:1 spending imbalance. It’s more like 4:1.)
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.’
Companies prefer GOP super PACS
More than 100 companies have combined to give $14.2 million to Restore Our Future, the super PAC supporting Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, according to a new analysis by the Center for Public Integrity.
That sum represents about 17 percent of the $82 million the group has raised through the end of June. Meanwhile, the pro-GOP super PAC American Crossroads, which was co-founded by Karl Rove, has collected about 23 percent of the $40 million it has raised from companies.
Corporate donors include financial firms, energy companies, dietary supplement makers and even a popcorn manufacturer. A handful are publicly traded, including a few Fortune 500 companies, but most are privately held.
Priorities USA Action, the main super PAC backing President Barack Obama, has only collected about 5 percent of the $21 million it has raised from companies.
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 troubling video of Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) being asked about whether or not it would be fine for foreign corporations to influence elections in total secrecy - using the legal disposition created by Citizens United v. FEC and Speechnow v. FEC. Even if the Senator Blunt answer is not reflecting a clear stand for or against foreign influence in the general elections, his answer suggest that the disclosure act “isn’t a serious legislative issue”.
A Chinese, Russian, or Venezuelan corporation can legally influence American elections in secret, simply by setting up a corporation here, then funding a 501(c) group with some innocuous name to run attack ads. The ads could help elect lawmakers who support trade or foreign policy issues favorable to these countries, and the whole process would be perfectly legal and undisclosed under our current campaign finance system.
In the very same time, the Associated Press released a poll result showing that
63 percent believe corporations or unions should not be able to spend as much as they want supporting political candidates, while 30 percent said they should spend freely.
Read the post here.
Note that
More than $130 million in secret money sailed through this loophole and into the 2010 elections; hundreds of millions more are flowing into this year’s races for control of the White House and Congress.
(via the Huffington Post)
