Supreme Court Allowing Money To Hurt America

Like I said, the federal judiciary -- particularly the Supreme Court -- sucks. Otherwise, why would they continue to put out rulings like this:

The Supreme Court has struck down the "millionaire's amendment" as an unfair way to help opponents of wealthy candidates who spend from their personal fortunes.

The law allows candidates to receive larger contributions when their wealthy opponents spend heavily from their personal fortunes.

The court says by a 5-4 vote that the law violates the First Amendment.

They base this on their past ruling that somehow money = free speech. There's no logic to that concept, though, because that would mean that free speech is based not on citizenship or, you know, freedom, but instead based on who has a bigger checkbook. Freedom goes to the highest bidder. That's not only completely at odds with the First Amendment, it's completely at odds with American ideals.

McCain Is Lying and Breaking the Law

The Republican nominee for president is in violation of campaign finance laws. Mike Stark has a great summary:

In a nutshell, McCain signed on to public financing when it looked like his campaign was finished and he needed the matching funds to pay off remnant debts. He pledged those matching funds as collateral so that he could secure more financing. For legal purposes, he might as well have spent the funds: he used the promise of receipt to secure an advantage.

firedoglake has a lot more (Jane Hamsher, on behalf of many others, is behind the official complaint that is being filed against McCain). See Jane file the complaint:



Jason Rosenbaum has more:

You see, McCain has spent $58.4 million on his campaign so far, surpassing the $54 million limit for public financing.

You can sign the complaint letter here

McCain Broke the Law He Wrote

Oh, the hypocrisy:

McCain publicly declared that he would accept the matching funds (and therefore abide by the spending limits). But since he was broke, he had to go to a bank and secure a loan under dubious conditions. Since he appears to have secured the loan by using his eligibility to accept the federal matching funds, it seems fairly clear that he is committed to the federal matching funds system.

The DNC's complaint will allege the following. Fist, that McCain used his status as a candidate operating under the federal matching fund program to gain access on state ballots without having to spend any money to submit signatures....

That is a material gain from pledging to accept the matching funds. Another material gain from pledging to accept the matching funds is the ability to use his eligibility as collateral, which he did to secure his loan.

Finally, by receiving these material benefits from his pledge to enter the matching funds system, he is bound to abide by the spending limits. The matching funds program requires one to spend no more than approximately $57 million dollars for the entire campaign up until he officially becomes the nominee in September. Through January, he had already spent over $46 million.