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Politicians For Sale... On Amazon
aldheorte writes "In either a brilliant move or a sick commentary on politics (or both), Amazon is now selling U.S. Presidential candidates, or at least contributions to such."
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I can't decide between the serial killer and the dear hunter. Or maybe I'll just take a gamble this year...
I can't wait til I can donate my $200 to Al Hamburg! and with only One-Click no less! Boy, a grumpy 72 year old man is just what this country needs!
I would like to see the numbers at the end of the year. I would like to see who got how much and a break down of who is generaly intested in what contributied to who, and location.
It appears that this aspect of Amazon is not offered to it's associates. At least, not that I could tell, and I really looked. ;-) Oh well.
Then again, I don't see how it could be profitable to offer this through their associate program without taking it off the top, which isn't in the best interest of the candidate.
A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.
aldheorte writes "In either a brilliant move or a sick commentary on politics (or both), Amazon is now selling U.S. Presidential candidates, or at least contributions to such."
Well, I suppose if you were completely cynical this is how one might view this, but to me, this is a great way to make political contributions, because this is about making contributions to your politician of choice.
However, I would prefer to see an Internet based voting system that gets rid of the electoral college system....
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
Amazon takes a cut of these payments. You'd be better off giving directly to the campaigns.
Where's the affiliate Barnes and Noble link for those disagreeing with patents or some damn thing?
The politicians have been selling themselves since forever.
Arguably they're just a sub-specialization of the World's Oldest Profession.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
There's a president of the United States now?
This is all too much for me to handle!
Amazon's privacy policy
"We release account and other personal information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law; enforce or apply our Conditions of Use and other agreements; or protect the rights, property, or safety of Amazon.com, our users, or others.
If you actually look at the candidates, most say that amazon is currently asking for permission to accept donations. Looks like they may have launched this a little too early...
Combination - fun iPhone puzzling
I've been begging them for an easy method for buying a Politician, and here we go. Corporations shouldn't be the only ones with all the fun.
Now, I hope they get around to the second part of my suggestion: Judges.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
Are there only 2 republicans running for president? Sad...
Anyway, this is kind of cool, because it gives people a way to contribute who may not have known how, and we don't have to join anything except amazon.com. And who isn't a member of that already?
"I like you, but I wouldn't want to see you working with subatomic particles."
This is interesting, sort of a capitalist's popularity contest.
Here are the standings between the top 4 Democratic contenders:
Dean $385 from 33 contributions for an average of $11.67 per contribution
Clark $545 from 34 contributions for an average of $16.02 per contribution
Kerry $964 from 27 contributions for an average of $35.70 per contribution
Edwards $475 from 18 contributions for an average of $26.39 per contribution
Gee, Bush doesn't have any contributions. Surprise, Surprise!
Lyndon LaRouche is a Democrat? Since when?
Mielipiteet omiani - Opinions personal, facts suspect.
I want:
A) "Other Amazon Shoppers who contributed to Howard Dean also purchased..."
B) One-click ordering
I'll just wait a while and then click on the "Buy It Used" button.
If you want to use this give money to some one other then bush you may want to check out the referral in the Url.
ref=gw_pres_cand
does this mean Slashdot was just trolled by the GOP ?
How is "former governor" a current job? Given that he is no longer governor, wouldn't it make more sense to list governor as a prior job?
I'd rather be lucky than good.
They clearly overlooked Mickey Mouse.
Make your donations and cast your vote for Lucian Wojciechowski! As president/patrolman/carpenter/realtor he'll rebuild Iraq, sell the unused land, and keep an eye out for skateborders.
One bad monkey spoils the whole barrel.
All I see is Libertarian, Republican and Democrat. Where are the other parties? Green? Socialist Workers? Communist? Or any of those lesser-known parties on the right that I'm not familiar with but know are there because of their stench?
It seems a shame to create a potentially "democratic" contribution system like this wherein all the candidates appear side by side, yet return in the end to the flawed two-party (or at most three-party) set of limited choices...
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
This is not a democracy, it's an auction. May the highest bidder win. The anticipated 170 million should buy W back into the seat.
Clue to aldheorte: Campaign contributions have been a part of the democratic process for about as long as democracy has been around.
I don't see how Amazon facilitating a higher-efficiency method of contributing somehow changes a standard adjunct of democracy into something that is "sick".
I mean, Senators seem to be much Cheaper these days.
I'd take 2 or 3 of those over a President any day....
I would love to see Al Hamburg in a debate. I bet he's funnier than Ross Perot.
What, no option to "RATE THIS CANDIDATE"? No Customer Reviews? No "6 people recommended Howard Dean instead of Dennis J. Kucinich"? No "1 person recommended Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr. in addition to Howard Dean"? ...
Sure, it seems really cheesy and horrible to be able to "purchase" your candidate online, but at the same time, it give equal screen space to people like Dubya, Sharpton, and... holy cow, who is this?
... by reading. This guy's got MY dollar AND my vote! God bless the democratic process!
Al Hamburg?
Divroced with 9 kids. Self educated
Be as cynical as you like, we all know it takes money to run for any public office. Amazon has put up a page with all the candidates, many of which I have never heard of, and it has a little biography and overview of their politics. From there you can donate a small amount of cash, $200 or less.
Maybe this will help educate some people on the lesser known candidates and help even the playing field a tiny bit for those candidates who don't have a lot of cash.
You could categorize citizens by profession, perceived clout, public esteem, thugability, mindshare... and Joe Sleeze^H^H^H^H^H^politician would simplly just purchase an entire class or subset of society to back his personal agenda!
Myself, classified as the Thorouglhy Mindfugged But Zealously Insane... I figure my own vote should be worth enough to elimate any moral qualms I'd otherwise have...
~~~
"The slave thinks he is released from bondage, only to find a stronger set of chains" - NIN
the US is about ready to sell bush to the highest bidder.
--- any post that takes longer than 20 seconds to write, isn't worth writing
Maybe Bush bush auctioned off our e-mail boxes when he took payoffs to sign the I-CAN-SPAM act.
Fight Spammers!
It would be cooler if I could hear the "I have a scream" AAIIIIEEEEEHHH every time I gave Howard Dean a buck! I'd be there all day! Are you listening Howard?
From the FAQ:
Will Amazon.com transfer information about me?
As required by law, Amazon.com will transfer to the campaign(s) to which you contribute your name and address (your credit card billing address) and the date and amount of your contribution.
For campaigns that may accept federal matching funds, Amazon.com will also send the type of credit card you use (e.g., Visa) and the last four digits of your credit card number.
The campaigns then will send a report including this information about you and about other contributors, no matter by what means (e.g., by mail or telephone) they contributed, to the Federal Election Commission ("FEC"). The FEC eventually publishes each contributor's name and address, the campaign supported, and the dates and amounts of the contribution, but not any credit card information.
For further information, see the privacy policies posted on the campaigns' web sites.
If you buy all of them, you still only get one delivered.
Not what I'd call value for money...
These guys are smart, you have to admit. They've convienced you, the nice citizen, to pony up some dough and help fund a senator. You know the next thing they're going to do is go to the senator and say "See how much money we raised for you? See how nice we've been to you? Now... Let's talk about patents for a moment..."
The next site to slashdot will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and start slashdotting it early!
But what do I know, I'm just a Linux coder.
Background: 28/M/Bi-Sexual; Owner of a Linux company; MBA Harvard 2003; B.S. Comp Sci MIT 2000
You have got to be kidding! Greens, Socialist Workers and Communist are ANTI-CAPITALISTS! Signing up with the biggest online capitalist tool would be make them look silly and go completely against their political beliefs.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
I was sorta interested until I noticed that none of the candidates have stars for seller ratings, like ebay provides. Without those ratings, I'd just feel like I was buying a pig in a poke.
Too bad there isn't an "Add to Cartel" button. ;)
Select George W Bush...
Add to cart....
Select quantity 1....THIS IS IMPORTANT
Proceed to check out...
"The president of the U.S. will arrive in a box at your doorstep in 7-14 days"...
laugh furiously...
For extra bonus, make sure you live in Greenland or Siberia. K thnx.
The title as I type this is "Politicans For Sale... On Amazon" [sic].
I wrote an RSS-to-festival script in Perl a while back. Just now I heard it read "Politi cans..." from the next room.
You know it's pretty bad when you can find typos on Slashdot, and you're not even looking!
[
have been to actively discourage people to vote, taking money from large donors in direct exchange for policy while asserting federal government preminence over the people and the states. Sounds like mass-market fascism to me - flag waving for the people, policies for big business, and control for bureaucrats. How does this differ from your definition of Democrats? (let alone how it shows any less contempt for the people than you claim of Democrats)?
This isn't your grandparents' Republican party - unless your grandparents cloned a leader from Nixon and Mussolini's (taking only their "best" aspects) and put him in charge. At best the Republicans are selling what the Democrats have been - IMO they're selling something significantly worse.
The reason that some might find this sick is that money should probably not have anywhere near the effect on elections as it currently does.
A group or individual that contributed a greater amount of money to a campaign tends to be favored over those who may have voted for a given canidate, but did not actually throw any money into the campaign.
It basically puts a spotlight on how politicians prostitute out thier influence for cash and encourages that sort of behaviour.
END COMMUNICATION
Have those other parties asked to have thier canidates listed? Or is it possible that the anti-capitalist/corporate nature of those parties have precluded them from wanting to be associated with Amazon.com?
Of course you could be right, Amazon.com may not want to include parties that think Amazon.com and other corporations kind are evil and should be penalized out of existance or worse yet into government control. God forbid that you be forced to buy a bat for the guy that wants to beat the $h!t out of you.
On all contributions over $25
We should be able to deduct 3X the contribution, up to $100 from the top the 1040. This should be deductable for any candidate nominated by a legal party (or who gets > 5% of the vote) for any federal, state or county office.
When this happens, politicians will be responsible to the middle class. Right now, special interests
and the wealthy purchase candidates. We need
to make it so that the middle class controls the
candidates instead.
Another thing that would make a more competitive
and hence more responsive congress is to make it so that you can't keep your money between eletctions.
These clowns pile up millions of "dont fuck with me" money and face token opposition in elections.
Elections are for a reason, politicians should have to make a new case every time they run.
A lot of people will give $25 to their favorite
candidate because it will mean a $75 deduction
from their gross income, regardless of their itemized deductions. Everyone who pays taxes
could take advantage of it.
Oh no... bring One Click to campaign finance. When will we see political fundraising patented, with whichever party Amazon's CEO likes least sued out of existance?
Possibly the Green party has a chance, after all...
To support their candidates, you just buy their respective movies (porn or otherwise).
"If you think you have things under control, you're not going fast enough." --Mario Andretti
He's been Democratic for awhile - longer than he spent scamming elderly women with credit card donations, but not as long as he's been a raving loon. He makes Kucinich look both sane and moderate.
(he may in fact have some good ideas but I still can't get over either his credit card scam or being told by LaRouche campaign people how the proof of cold fusion was being systematically hidden by scientists and politicians.)
now they will patent presidents
nevermind...
the poster above me was correct. you may safely ignore my post.
Can you get your money back if the candidate turns out to be defective?
Too bad someone else already pointed it out many minutes before you did - http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=94052&cid=8071 098
If I donate more than $25 do I get Free Delivery?
Before everyone goes off about democracy this and that, one thing should be made clear. The United States of America is not - I repeat, NOT - a Democratic nation. It is a Constitutional Republic. There is a small but significant difference.
Also, our econimic system - for those of you who don't know - is commonly known as Capitolism. Such is the nature of a capitolist economy that the government, in order to function effectively, must operate as a business. They offer services - courts, police, etc. - and we pay for those services with our taxes.
Now, running for president is not a government service, therefore the money must come from somewhere. Thus, camapign contributions. After all, it would be kind of hard to organize a Bake Sale large enough to support this kind of operation, wouldn't it?
Of course, there are those who would love to see this system collapse and a new take its place. They are known by a variety of names and methods - Communists, Socialists, some Democrats (Not all, just the worst, like this Dean guy), and in general, idiots. In some places, they have already managed to gain some power. Like Oregon. Or New York. If this trend continues, we will all end up where Russia is now, and where China, France, and Australia will be before long. Poverty stricken fools, deluded by the promise of so-called "true equality" and condemned to a life of servitude to the very entity created to serve us - the government.
Now, I believe in equality, but in ctual equality, which is that everyone has the same chance to succeed, not this crap they are trying to feed you, which is that no one should be rich and successful, and any who become so are the tools of an evil empire bent on keeping the average man down. I know I'll probably be called a troll or something for all this, and if that is the case, so be it. But the rest of you have a choice. You can either beome a pawn of those who would truly seek to rule over you completely, or you can be thankful that the founding fathers of this great nation had the incredible foresight to put into effect a system that is admittedly not perfect, but something much more important than that. It's free.
"I like you, but I wouldn't want to see you working with subatomic particles."
Maybe Amazon will start selling all the 'Yeah' speech remixes.
Then Amazon could link to other stuff too. Dean had a bit role in the K Street TV series. Sadly IMDB removed the link between Dean and a Ninja movie.
Why giving up your money? The one that gets the majority of the votes is not the one who gets elected anyway....
How does Amazon select candidates for listing?
Candidates eligible for listing are those that have lawfully established and maintained a campaign committee with the Federal Election Commission (candidates can receive contributions only through such committees) and who, according to the FEC's monthly report, have raised/spent in excess of $5,000.
Join moola.com, play games to earn money.
What the... why is Howard Dean in my Gold Box???
I think I'll contribute my $5 to George Bush next time I One-Click buy "Enron: The Truth behind the scandals" or Michael Moore's "Dude Where's my Country"
Slashdot sucks
Am I the only one who cant load www.louiethe13th.com, or have we slashdotted a presidential candidate's website?
Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!
Interesting that Gary Nolan has raised more money and has a higher average contribution than Dean, Edwards, Clark, and (almost) Kerry.
Think you could do anything better with that oh so amazing PC of yours than make fucking idiotic posts to slashdot? Go drown yourself in the tub.
If I contribute over $25, does that qualify for FREE Super Saver Shipping?
Good security is based upon reality and common sense. Common sense is a function of having common knowledge.
This is a good thing! This is how campaign is fund raising is supposed to work! The money comes right from the people. It's corporate contributions that screw up the system. Seriously, how else do you expect just anybody to run for president? Run on their own money? Great, so the options are either only the rich can run for president (no contributions allowed) or only the rich can run for president (corporate contributions are allowed)? Close Slashdot, learn the facts, use your brain, THEN come back say something.
They should play it by American Presidental election rules -
The guy who comes in second wins.
Nader-2004
May I contribute?
Based on U.S. law, to contribute to a presidential election, you must:
Be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident alien;
Make the contribution with your own personal funds, not with funds from any corporation, labor union, or national bank;
Make the contribution on your own personal credit or debit card, not with a card issued to a business or to anyone else;
Not be a U.S. federal government contractor; and
Be at least 18 years old.
Very easy and good way for those not qualifying normally to skirt the law... not that it's really that tough nowadays...
like the money will ever reach the candidates... another scam artist move on.
I mean, if it's more than 89599, wouldn't it be easier to say "less than 90,000"?
Nader-2004
If you read the FAQ links on the left side of the Amazon website screen, you'll notice that Amazon isn't making money off this - by Federal Law they can't just donate, but have to charge they're normaly money moving fee. But, they're donating to full revenue that they make from this project to charity (a Kids learn about Voting group).
" have been to actively discourage people to vote, taking money from large donors in direct exchange for policy while asserting federal government preminence over the people and the states. Sounds like mass-market fascism to me - flag waving for the people, policies for big business, and control for bureaucrats. How does this differ from your definition of Democrats? (let alone how it shows any less contempt for the people than you claim of Democrats)? This isn't your grandparents' Republican party - unless your grandparents cloned a leader from Nixon and Mussolini's (taking only their "best" aspects) and put him in charge. At best the Republicans are selling what the Democrats have been - IMO they're selling something significantly worse."
You're describing both parties pretty well, actually. At least republicans aren't socialists.
... if there is a "political" portal similar to slashdot? The YRO section and posts like this are great and such, but I would occasionally like to read news about politics that are not directly linked to tech thingy-mah-bob's.
...
That and I need another site to read besides slashdot
I wonder if they accept donations from people outside of the United-States. I know a lot of people that think the current administration is a menace to the world and I think some of them would even be willing to pay to help its competitors.
It would be an interesting phenomenon if it ever happens.
Al Hamburg really detests two thing: illegal aliens and "dopers". He's not too crazy about big business and special interests either, but the vast bulk of his campaign statements revolve around ridding the U.S. of undocumented alien and smuggled drugs and these issues form his simple platform: "Stop the illegal alien and dope invasions from Mexico - Pull troops out of Korea, put them on US/Mexico border."
This 68 year old Independent is a 20 year Army veteran who served in both Korea and VietNam before becoming a house painter in Wyoming. Perhaps living in Hell Town, Wy explains some of his very feisty attitude. His 2000 campaign is not Hamburg's first venture into the political area. He has run for office, unsuccessfully, a total of twelve times, including campaigns for Congress, Governor and the U.S. Senate and proudly refers to himself as the "very independent "Unpopular" candidate."
Most of his fire is saved for the illegal immigrant issue and his finger points first and foremost south to Mexico, though he opposes virtually all immigration, foreign aid and affirmative action as discriminating against white workers.
He blasts the importation of illegal drugs and would sterilize all dopers (as well as illegal immigrants.)
experimental audiovideo minimalism: Rebuild All Your Ruins
I'd be interested to know how exactly the donation is made, be it represented as a donation from Amazon or from the individual/corporation that makes the donation. This could be a VERY clever way of making large anonymous donations or 'donations-by-proxy.' Out side of that, what if you find out down the roand that some foreign national terrorist type has made large donations using Amazon? I see many dangers in this concept.
I have to say, I think this is a great idea. Amazon is making it easier for it's customers to donate to a candidate, which could also help their business by bring new customers to their site. It's altruistic and self-serving at the same time. It will be interesting to see at the end of the campaign how much funds get generated through this.
No fair making me spit my pepsi all over my monitor. ;)
Just want to see what happens: how many solicitation for donations I will receive. That will test how much do they sell my personal information.
<^>_<(ô ô)>_<^>
Well maybe it's the other way around. Maybe the Greens, Socialist Workers, and Communists didn't want to have anything to do with a capitalist entity. Come to think of it, that's ridiculous. That would imply they were honest and had some integrity.
Now I can be just like the RIAA and buy politicians!
Something's coming soon that you're not going to like.
I downloaded a copy for free from some dude in Pakistan...
man rtfm
Good to see that he's alive :-) I remember him from my old days of AP Government from High School.
Really, how many people do you know who can afford to give $4000 every election cycle? The Republicans loved the results of the most recent campaign finance reform because they have lots of contributors who can afford $4000, whereas the Democrats only have uber-rich contributors, now shut out from giving their millions in a futile attempt to reach the same stratospheric levels as the Republicans.
A few interesting facts:
- "People who gave less than $200 to politicians or parties gave 64 percent of their money to Republicans. Just 35 percent went to Democrats."
- "People who gave $1 million or more gave 92 percent to Democrats -- and a whopping eight percent to Republicans."
It's ironic that Democrats were the primary people pushing for McCain-Feingold, as it has turned out hurting them (and their previously extremely effective "Union muscle" soft money operations) far more than the Republicans, an advantage that all George Soros' millions to organizations like MoveOn is unlikely to overcome.Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
Lucian is most definitely the entertaining candidate on the ballot.
Photos.
There are lots of declared candidates to choose from. Don't have a mouthful of coffee when you read their party affiliations. Yes, Michael W. 'Mike' Bay is running under the National Barking Spider Resurgence Party. And it appears that the United Fascist Union (whoever they are) has endorsed Jackson Kirk Grimes.
Slashdot's first reaction to VMware
Tax write-off.
Maybe im missing something big here but why not just ban all donations and have strict and dire consequences for anyone caught taking money? You do not want money being passed around when running the country is involved because ofcourse people are going to push their own interests and politicians are going to follow their own financial gain! Its a bad idea, you wouldnt have a jury taking donations from people involved in a case so why would you allow it in an election? Surely you dont need that much money to fund an election campagain (im thinking most of those baby-kissing photo ops are pointless) so maybe the government could finance _equally_ everyone and make sure that election campagains are all done on an equal stand and that no-ones policies are being 'swayed' in any way by money, threats, or a few the fact that they play golf with the head of global-cheap-labor-mega-corp.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
What next - "Introducing the Presidential Survivor elections - sponsored by Halliburton, General Electric, AT & T , Monsanto, IBM.."?
ERR,, scrap that - doesnt that already happen anyway... oh dear
(krafy koder goes into "move along now - nothing to see here" mode)
They should try to keep them in stock. I ordered a Carol Moseley Brown, but it says that she's Out of Print.
And after the Iowa primaries, they should post a notice: Howard Dean [EXPLICIT LYRICS]
on eBay...
Need Mercedes parts ?
Que Deus te de em dobro o que me desejas
[May God give you double that which you wish for me]
Al Hamburg.
I don't think Michael Ei$ner is running.
Yet.
I think I'll vote for the the Nerd candidate
Just because you never went to school doesnt preclude you from being smart.
It's as if that guy you replied to had never seen Good Will Hunting!
Treehugger? Treehugger... Treehugger!
If i was Osama bin Ladin, I would contribute to J W big time
Politicians for sale? Are you serious? This is something new? Well, I guess or that site it is...
[SIG] Remember Mattel handheld games?
Amazon.com isn't a public utility. If they want to help candidates raise money, they can include or exclude whichever ones they want. For that matter, so can you or I on our own sites.
On the other hand, disguising money as freedom of speech is pretty much what has turned American democracy into a bribery-fueled special-interest feeding trough.
...is for a black, Muslim female to be elected president.
The U.S. Constitution needs to be ammended with a "separation of business and state" clause.
i mean... c'mon.
I guess Ralph Nader's not for sale (except on his own website).
"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." --George Orwell
But would that have been the same great men if theyd spent years in school(conformity factory) and been taught from someone elses opinions?
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
First Amazon takes over CDnow, and now they are take over the campaign contribution process. If you search for 'justice' all you get is "Chitty Chitty bang bang," which makes sense because if you search for Michael Jackson you get "LOTR." I hope Amazon doesn't try and copyright the "one issue politician"?
Politicians only listen to money, and anything that will help them get elected/reelected. A $200 payment won't impress a politician much. It's the equivalent amount that you might pay for a fund-raising dinner in which one of the politician's spokesmen might appear. If the payments were lumped together, $5 here, $200 there, and so on, until you have a million dollar payment, then a presidental candidate might actually (briefly) listen to you, as long as there isn't a balancing amount of money on the opposing viewpoint. If you were able to raise ten million dollars, and guarentee a hundred thousand votes in an important state, like Iowa, then the president will closely listen to your issues, and declare an immediate national mandate to lessen that crisis to everyday American life. This is the fact of life. It's cynical, but I've never seen presidental, senatorial, or legislators care about people, but only money, photo-ops, and influence.
Hey this is amazing , a senior level programmer running for President!
If you voted for this candidate you might also like to vote for the following...
"'I pass the test,' she said. 'I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel.'"
- JRR Tolkien.
So, where is he this election? Got a sore mouth from putting his feet in it? Or just a sore loser?
Yeah, I can't sell my soul or my body parts on Ebay, but you can sell soulless politicians. Go figure. :P
Why is Amazon doing this? Do you care if the guy who bought the newest Grisham novel and a set of Ginsu knives likes Dean. How does some no-name politician get on Amazon's site? I'm not so upset about commercialism of it. It's not like Amazon is a lobbiest. I don't see the dishonesty. It's just that I consider myself politically informed, and I've never heard of half of those canidates, and I don't see the any members of the other parties like the Natural Law, Workers, Reform, or Green (which garnered about 5% of the vote last time IIRC).
What do you mean my sig is repetitive? What do you mean my sig is repetitive? What do you mean....
Fight Spammers!
or are there more democrats for sale than republicans?
There's always a libertarian candidate. Just like Amazon to leave that party out. Oh well...
So will Amazon patent a method of influencing a politican by means of a single mouse-click?
I am anarch of all I survey.
Darn, Amazon does not allow Reviews of Politicians which we've bought.
Hey!
Do they check internationality? Some of the common folks in Europe might be interrested in putting more money on Bush and seeing your country go down the drain with him.
I should note that LP candidate Gary Nolan is out fund-raising Dem John Kerry by 20% on amazon... http://www.freestateproject.org Liberty in Our Lifetime
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves
Top 4 Canidates in the Iowa Caucuses:
:)
:P I think he can now officially go out and buy himself a new George Foreman...
Canidate CASH Cont $/Cont
John Kerry $1689 61 $27.69
John Edwards $1105 41 $26.95
Howard Dean $1085 70 $15.50
DennisKucinich $175 20 $8.75
Conclusions: My man, Howie Dean, is seriously getting shafted at more than $10 less per contribution than the top 2 guys. This is probably a result of the younger generation of support for him. Also, Kucinich officially sucks.
Most money so far: Gary Nolan, whom I've never heard of, with an astounding $2060. Then there is Fern Penna with a whopping $47 so far. With a name like that, I can see why...
Nothing disturbs me more than blind loyalism towards some unrealistic and over-idealistic notion of one's nationality.
The page has been updated.
"Was this contribution worth anything in the grand scheme of things? Rate from 1 to 5."
Dows Amazon have that particular link up for the politicians? That would be cynical.
Here's what i wrote to Amazon. I like Kerry at the moment, and his face doesn't load on the top. :( They sort this stuff alphabetically. :(
-----
On your FAQ, you state that you do not favor any candidate, and thus you sort it alphabetically by last name.
If you truly want to seem like you do not promote any one candidate, you should have the order be randomized each time a person loads that page.
As it's set up, Bush (and to a lesser extent Dean, Clark, and Edwards) have a tremendous advantage because their faces pop on the screen. You have to scroll to find Kerry.
Kudos on the efforts people, but I will not purchase from Amazon.com in the future until you either randomize the names or take off this tab.
Thank You,
At the last election, I (conservative who had in the previous election been for Alan Keyes) agreed completely with Nader on that point. I still do.
As far as I can tell, the Democrats and Republicans follow the orders of their leadership, who in turn spend more time with each other, and think more like each other, than they think like the typical voter.
That means that their policies match. In other words, in something so simple as playing golf together, they make a one-party system out of what is nominally a two-party system.
There is an interesting phenomenon that I like to call the "who gets to cave" phenonemon. Essentially, the leadership decides which bills will pass and which will fail. Then, the politicians can vote their consciences as long as it doesn't overturn that. The net result, though, is that your congressman seems "absolutely pro-labor", or "usually anti-abortion", though he sometimes has a surprise in store, and those surprises he explains away, but those surprises actually killed something that he'd always claimed to support, or ensured passage of something he'd always claimed he was against.
Anyhow, I didn't see much difference between Gore and Bush, and I still don't. Gore's presence wouldn't have stopped 9/11 from happening. Once that happened, the mad dog was going to bite, so Afghanistan was inevitable. Iraq may admittedly have been Bush's own project, but the dog was still mad: if it hadn't been Iraq, it might have been Pakistan or Palestine/Israel.
Most recently, my father, a longtime Republican, sent around an email saying that Bush had to be removed, because of the "free speech zones" that he sets up 10 miles from his visit site, considering negative political speech to be a danger. Honestly -- does anyone think that that came in with Bush? Or do we remember the WTO in Seattle? Bush couldn't have done it, if Democrats hadn't help set it up. The Democrats, in turn, help set it up because they want the same thing that Bush has -- though they'd prefer to be on top.
Functionally, they're a single party.
Come to think of it, I don't see anyone, Clark, Dean, or other, who outshines Bush in any area. And Bush, in my opinion, does not shine at all.
Honestly, I'm to the point where I wouldn't care more if LaRouche was elected. And LaRouche's party is dishonest, crazy, and dangerous. But so is our current course.
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
They use collaborative filtering techniques, which means that there is no human deciding which books to offer to a potential democrat or a potential republican but a computer program looking for people with similar behavior.
That is: you would be offered the same books as people who donated $5 to each candidate bought. (if you had no history of purchases at Amazon yet)
This is why collaborative filtering can be so dangerous: If you have a huge database and know a person you have data about is (libertarian|anti-war|republican|gay|whatever) you can just ask the system to show you people with similar purchasing behavior - and now "know" a lot about them.
k2r
this is truely disturbing.. if there going to sell themselves it should be for charity. i will give them some credit ,they found a way around the campain finance reform.
but at the same time this country has truely grossed me out .
i think half the reason we havn't had any good leadership in ... well since before i was born . is were getting to comercial.
and beyond that, we really need to change the whole system , the united states is due for an overhaul!
The rule on campaign disclosures is that your name, occupation, employer, and some other personal information must be disclosed by the campaign to the FEC if you contribute more than $200 in an election cycle. Primaries and general elections are considered different cycles, so you could ostensibly give up to $399.98 without having your information made public. If you're interested, the laws are all posted here [PDF].
All the information is now online at http://herndon1.sdrdc.com/srssea.html.
"I don't care who does the electing as long as I get to do the nominating." -- Boss Tweed
Ah, delicious.
~Idarubicin
This would be a great way to do what all those song swappers are talking about - give money right to the artist. Imagine if iTunes or something let people donate DIRECTLY to the artists, instead of labels. Not just Metallica, but little bands too. Anyone who can put a recording online.
People would finally have to forget the rhetoric that poor artists don't see the money and admit No I *DON'T* intend to pay for this music.
As of this Saturday morning, Libertarian candidate Gary Nolan had earned more donations than any of the other presidential candidates at that site.
As far as I can see (noon on Saturday):
Nolan - $2,640.00
Kerry - $2,399.00
Clark - $2,100.00
Dean - $1,390.01
Edwards - $1,370.01
...someone with terrorist connections decides to support someone's campaign? Can they somehow reject donations or something? Not that I think Georgey-boy will get much money from Al Quaida (sp?) but someone might, or someone might be framed so it looks like that. Ok, maybe I wathced conspiracy theory once too often, but it could be done, right?
Sigs for Nerds. Sigs that Matter.
A black, Muslim, old, fat female.
From the FAQ: May I cancel my contribution?
Unfortunately, out of respect to the extraordinary legal reporting burdens placed on candidates for federal office, you cannot cancel a contribution through Amazon.com.
isn't that like choosing whether you'd rather have your whole body flayed (inch by inch) or have capsaicin (hot pepper)-covered bamboo sticks placed into extremities and vital organs over a period of days until you die? If this is what is happening (socialism vs. fascism), it doesn't seem like there is a winner here (though there are losers - like the tagline for Alien vs. Predator: "Whoever wins, we lose.")
"From what I've read about LaRouche, the idea of him as president is almost as scary as Manson as president. The guy is completely apeshit. I've seen a lot of his cultists around the Bay area" Au contraire, Larouche as President would be like having your smartest, coolest old poli sci professor as president. Why do you think his followers like him so much? Larouche and his staff write interesting stuff. They use classical and mathematical references, are excited about the life of the mind, not the Barton Fink life of the mind, either, but the contesting of schools of thought down through the ages. Leibniz vs Newton, Walter Scott vs Poe, etc. Their political analysis is fact-based, rather than financial-contributor-based (no wonder it seems odd) For instance, http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2003/3048iraq_58_ const.html won't fit in a soundbite, but has more interesting facts on the subject than I can remember from a lifetime of TV news, or newspaper articles.
He crossed George Bush senior & claims to have been framed on the fraud charges. Ok, before we dismiss that out of hand, think about what resources you could call on if you used to run the CIA.
I'm not in Larouche's organization in any capacity, it's just, the guy can write, has formidable ideas and I love to read good writing. He's interesting. I had been leaning Libertarian-ward (obviously being part of the mainstream isn't real important to me) but not completely happy with them; looking around. Not ruling anybody out.
He has a powerful vision - it may not be exactly the same as my vision, but I think he's an elder worthy of respect and a hearing.
He has been marginalized by the "mainstream" the same way that Microsoft (or SCO) would like to marginalize Linux. There is worth in his train of thought but it takes time and effort to appreciate it. (Like the command line)
So if you hear the name Larouche, at least in addition to "loony" you might now think "one person on slashdot actually thinks he's worth reading -although what does HE know?"
mike bailey
http://www.tarpley.net/bushb.htm bush 41 bio