Does the GOP Pay Friendly Bloggers?

jamie writes "According to the conservative political journalism site Daily Caller: '"It's standard operating procedure" to pay bloggers for favorable coverage, says one Republican campaign operative. A GOP blogger-for-hire estimates that "at least half the bloggers that are out there" on the Republican side "are getting remuneration in some way beyond ad sales." Or in some cases, it's the ads themselves: ads at ten times the going rate are one of the ways conservative bloggers apparently get paid by the politicians they write about. In usual he-said she-said fashion, Daily Caller finds a couple of obscure liberal bloggers to mention too, but they fully disclosed payment and one of them even shut down his blog while doing consulting work, unlike Robert Stacy McCain and Dan Riehl."

Comments

conservatives

[circletimessquare]

why don't you understand how you are being used by the rich moneyed classes and corporate interests?

if you ARE rich and moneyed or a corporate interest, congratulations on your successful manipulation of your larger herd of sheep

Re:conservatives

[circletimessquare]

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2010/07/28/senate_republicans_thwart_campaign_spending_bill/

Re:conservatives

[Captain Splendid]

Well, I think referring you to Gibbs' recent statements would give you a clue: The Democrat party doesn't fund leftie bloggers, it prefers to insult them.

Re:conservatives

[Anonymous Coward]

Democrats are just crazy right-wingers. Republicans are damn crazy right-wingers. That's the difference.

Re:conservatives

[DIplomatic]

Protip: It is near impossible to change people's political ideologies, and it is completely impossible to change the ideology of people when you insult them.

But I don't want to step over your point, which is accurate. The conservative's main voter base (blue-collar, working class, middle-americans) are the ones hurt the most by Republican policy. And yet they vote for the same policies time after time out of a belief that liberal politicians are immoral, or anti-jesus, or hate families or something.

Re:conservatives

[commodore64_love]

If corporations are "conservative" how come almost all their TV Media outlets (ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN) are pro-big-government and anti-individual liberty? It appears the corporations are actually the opposite of conservative: Progressive (aka liberal).

And in other news:
- Payola is still alive and well.
- Developed film at 11.
- Color me unsurprised.

Re:conservatives

[DocSavage64109]

Where I work, our main receptionist is a 60yo republican. She doesn't make that much, and her husband has been a truck driver for years, so they can't make all that much money. Her car is at least 10 years old. For some crazy reason, she has "Joe the Plumber"-itus and seems to think she'd be better off with republican policies. Somehow the republicans have managed to convince people that increasing taxes on the rich (over $250,000/yr) and lowering everyone else's taxes is the wrong thing to do. I just don't understand it.

I almost wish the republicans were in office and put social security into the stock market. The resulting fallout might have been enough to wake people up. Also, it just irks me to death that high-dollar traders can make millions just by having a faster connection to the stock-market. That's basically stealing money from all the little folk who are also investing in the stock market -- money doesn't come from nowhere!

Re:conservatives

[Captain Splendid]

If corporations are "conservative" how come almost all their TV Media outlets (ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN) are pro-big-government and anti-individual liberty?

Well, they're pro-Big Government, because they now are the government. And there anti-individual liberty because that cuts down on profits. Sheesh, where ya been the last few years?

Oh, and nice strawman btw. Almost missed it.

Re:conservatives

[operagost]

Democrats want to "fundamentally transform" the USA. That's not right wing, any way you slice it. That being said, Republicans spent about seven years doing the same thing REALLY SLOWLY.

Re:conservatives

[eldepeche]

Do you even own a television? Have you watched any of these so-called liberal media outlets? They all supported the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, spoke about taxes on the top 5% of the income distribution as hurting public school teachers, and never pointed out that "death panels" and other bullshit lies about the health insurance reform were bullshit lies. They also seem to believe that Republicans just happened to develop all sorts of principled objections to middle-of-the-road policies around January of 2009.

Re:conservatives

[jschmitz]

I couldn't agree more the myth of the liberal media is just that - something the GOP has told so many times people think its true - there is nothing liberal about the MSM - cheers

Re:conservatives

[toadlife]

"Pro-big-government and anti-individual liberty" describes the Republican party platform for the last 40 years. By the definition I always hear, there are almost no conservatives left in this country. All I see are corporatists, shameless corporatists and a smattering of outliers, most of whom will run from their principals in a split second if they deem it politically necessary.

Re:conservatives

[Mongoose Disciple]

If making more money than the vast majority of Americans doesn't make you rich, what IS your standard?

Re:conservatives

[Enry]

Less than what was donated by Richard Mellon Scafie and his ilk.

I swear, Soros is held up as some kind of boogeyman while conservatives seem to ignore the numerous benefactors they have. And all you can name is Soros? Sheesh.

Then again, by just watching Fox, you're funding terrorists.

Thanks, really.

Re:conservatives

[kevinNCSU]

While the moral basis undoubtedly contributes I wouldn't underestimate the impact of fiscal policy. There's a reason why Republicans lose when they start spending money irresponsibly and a reason why they get a swing in their direction when they start campaigning about reigning in spending and try to paint the other party as big government. Blue collar middle class people understand working with limited resources so controlling spending rings true to them.

In addition, because they don't have a lot they tend to be more conservative minded as in, they don't want to take big risks. Big risks sound good when you can afford the loss for a chance at huge gains, or when you've got nothing to lose, but when you're doing OK but a fuck up means you lose everything you want things to be stable and keep slowly grinding away to move up.

Re:conservatives

[jeff4747]

People who earn $250,000 a year are not rich

Making more than 99% of the US means you are not rich?

Just what is your standard? 99.9% (~$1M/yr)

I'm not sure how a minority gets IN the way

Never heard of the filibuster, eh?

We can ALL benefit from a capitalist, but lawful and ethical society.

I'm sorry that the Republican party has left your ideals behind, and gone full Randian-crazy where money is a zero-sum game and those evil unwashed masses should be destroyed lest they get in the way of Galt-like supermen.

Re:conservatives

[ctishman]

I'm not sure this "liberal arts" means what you think it means. It's an older term, referring not to a political liberalism, but to the education of the 'free', or noble man.

Re:conservatives

[MickyTheIdiot]

well that's BS. "Fundamentally Transforming" government would involve kicking the corporate interest out and actually listening to the grass roots. Neither side is doing that.

Re:conservatives

[Hijacked Public]

And people making $20k per year are a lot richer than these people, who collectively spend about $1US per week on food. So why aren't you suggesting that we ramp up the marginal rate on the $20k bracket as well?

Re:conservatives

[operagost]

The conservative's main voter base (blue-collar, working class, middle-americans) are the ones hurt the most by Republican policy.

Which policy?

Re:conservatives

[jeffmeden]

I couldn't agree more the myth of the liberal media is just that - something the GOP has told so many times people think its true - there is nothing liberal about the MSM - cheers

It comes entirely down to whatever will drive ratings. Republicans have popular sentiment? Time to talk up the war! Time to talk up hurtful high taxes! Wait, Democrats are winning elections again? Oops! War was a bad idea! Rich people don't pay taxes! Come listen to us! We have something important to say!

As for how the liberal media myth got it's legs, what on earth could be an easier ratings-generator for right wing media than saying every other outlet is dangerously left wing?

Re:conservatives

[toadlife]

People who earn $250,000 a year are not rich

You are delusional.

50% of households in the country makes less than $45,000 per year.

3.17% of households in make $150,000 or more.

1.5% of households in the country makes $250,000 or more.

Source

Re:conservatives

[philipgar]

I think many many many people on slashdot have this absurd notion that big corporations are always pro-free market and therefore conservative. This is 100% pure crap. Big corporations tend to be in bed with big government (both republicans and democrats) because big government pushes new rules and regulations on their business... rules and regulations that these same big corporations are WRITING. They do this because, although it imposes a cost on themselves, it imposes a far bigger cost on anyone who might want to compete with them in the future, thus stifling competition, and allowing the big corporation to do whatever they want (what choice does the public have when there is no competition, or the competition consists of 3 huge companies preventing anyone else from entering the market). I love when people talk about oil companies wanting to drill so much so they can increase profits. The truth is, their profits would be MAXIMIZED if all new drilling in the US was stopped. This is because they don't need to spend billions on extracting new oil, and their existing oil can be sold at far greater prices because of the laws of supply and demand (welcome back $4-$5/gallon gasoline).

The companies that are pro free market tend to be smaller companies that are unable to compete due to the laws and regulations laid out by the big guys. There are also exceptions for other large companies that rely on buying cheap goods in bulk from others etc, but those aren't the majority of companies. If you want to know which way the companies lean, just look at what candidates they support. When the democrats look like they'll be in power slightly more money goes to them and vice versa. They don't want to be screwed over when the leaders in washington change.

Phil

Re:conservatives

[cowscows]

Fair enough, but it's amazing how short the memory of the population tends to be. The fact that a year of jawing about fiscal responsibility has somehow given the GOP the high ground after 8 years of them shoveling money down the drain is incredible. Doubly so when the party has not laid out any reasonable plan to actually reduce spending or raise revenues, and I find it amazing that there are so many people who take them seriously.

Re:conservatives

[dkleinsc]

The conservative's main voter base (blue-collar, working class, middle Americans) are the ones hurt the most by Republican policy.

That combines a couple of mis-perceptions of the Republican Party base.

First off, most conservative politicians do a good job of protecting agricultural subsidies, which appear at least like they benefit farmers. They also do an excellent job of protecting military pork based in their districts. There are a lot of blue-collar middle Americans who's jobs depend on their conservative representatives. If your town's economy depends on building missiles to be used in Iraq, someone like Dennis Kucinich or Ron Paul threatens your livelihood. So at least by all appearances, folks like Bob Dole did look out for rural blue-collar interests. (That they robbed everyone else in order to do it, and otherwise ruined the economy, is besides the point.)

Secondly, blue-collar rural folks aren't as much the Republican Party base as Republicans like to project. The real base has historically been suburban upper-middle-class white men. For instance, the key group of Reagan's rise to power wasn't rural folks at all, but Orange County California. What the Republicans have been able to do historically in rural areas much more effectively than other areas is put out the idea in rural communities that urban people are their enemies and that any public spending programs benefit urban people at the cost of rural people. (In fact, the exact opposite is true.)

Re:conservatives

[blair1q]

The GOP's real base are rich people who want to stay rich and don't care who they fuck over to do it.

So they manipulate the stupid, who in this country happen to be blue-collar white males who listen to country music and believe Jesus will usher them into Heaven, to vote for Conservative candidates, who proceed to pass laws that favor the rich people against everyone else, including the voters they conned.

The Democrats actually believe the things they run on, and since it's not so carefully constructed the disorganization of the ideas can lead to fractioning of the voters who aren't in the GOP camp.

So, despite the fact that people who don't benefit from GOP-created legislation outnumber those who do by a vast margin, the GOP has succeeded in dividing the country almost in half and disrupting the other half's focus, keeping the plutocracy in power.

Also, they're starting to run candidates in Democratic primaries, something they couldn't do before because they couldn't funnel enough money to them to make them viable. Thank the John Roberts/Alice In Wonderland Supreme Court for that.

Re:conservatives

[CrimsonAvenger]

Somehow the republicans have managed to convince people that increasing taxes on the rich (over $250,000/yr) and lowering everyone else's taxes is the wrong thing to do.

If you ever bother to check, The Dems aren't proposing increasing taxes on the rich and lowering taxes on the poor, they're suggesting raising taxes on the rich and raising different taxes on the poor.

Or do you really think Social Security and Medicare are going to become solvent with just taxes on the rich?

Re:conservatives

[dpilot]

Well at the moment they're campaigning on fiscal policy while at the same time urging that the Bush top-bracket tax cuts be made permanent. Plus during the last election cycle they were running on eliminating the top tax bracket entirely - putting ME in the same tax bracket as Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.

I have a slightly different view...

The inequity of distribution of income and wealth is at the highest point since the 1920's. I say simply this: The "ordinary economy", the part where people buy and sell goods and services, is broken. There simply isn't enough money in the ordinary economy for it to work right. As a side effect, there's too much fluid money in the "investment economy", so when too many investors rush into some sector or another, they generate a bubble. After all, inflation is too much money chasing too few goods, and that can hold for "investment goods" as well as real goods. Plus when too much investment money goes into some commodity or other, (like crude oil) that investment money can drive the price up regardless of the consumption-drive supply and demand.

The economy will continue to be broken until more money moves into the ordinary economy.

It doesn't matter if American executives, wealthy, elite, etc deserve every cent they have, and more besides.
It doesn't matter if I'm "supposed" to surrender my middle-class status, take a 2/3 (or more) pay cut, and live on an Indian or South American style salary.
It doesn't matter if the minimum wage should go away, the those people live on far less.

The reality is that:
American executives, wealthy, elite, etc spend very little compared to their wealth and income.
I don't trust the long-term prospects of my job, so while I'm still comfortable, I'm not about to take out a loan for a big-ticket item.
When you have to decide between food and clothing, or shelter and medical care, you do only what you have to, and what you can.
None of this drives economic recovery.

If the American executives, wealthy, elite, etc had a little less, it would make no difference to their lives. Their egos would take a slight bruising in their investment portfolios.
If I had more long-term confidence in my job, I'd finance a car. My 12 year old Ford is a little long-in-the-tooth, and getting to be unreliable.
If someone deciding between food and clothing had more money, he'd buy both.

This isn't principle, it's pragmatism. Notice that I haven't really said anything about who deserves what, though there is a tone to what I've written. It's just a simple matter of what it takes to make the economy work. Until money "moves down" the economy will continue to be in the doldrums. But unfortunately there's no acceptable way to "move money down", because that's "wealth transfer" and thereby evil. Of course when wealth transfers up, as has happened faster since 1980, that's "natural" and "good". But we've transferred so much money up, that those below haven't got enough to make the economy work, any more.

The other side of this is that Obama did nothing to fix this problem. None of what he did did a thing to affect the distribution of wealth and income in the country. Perhaps running the printing press for the stimulus and bailouts has "created" extra cash, though all things told, I'm not sure that more of that money really went "down" with the stimulus than went "up" with the bailouts.

Nor am I entirely against supply-side solutions - they have their place. It's just that supply-side solutions aren't universally applicable, and this is one place where they're not. I'll moderate that a bit, and say that I'm in favor of incentives for small businesses, even at this point.

Re:conservatives

[Coryoth]

While the moral basis undoubtedly contributes I wouldn't underestimate the impact of fiscal policy. There's a reason why Republicans lose when they start spending money irresponsibly ...

Yes, Reagan got crushed in '84 after all that irresponsible defence spending that ballooned the size of the government like never before. And then, after the Star Wars debacle, his planned successor in Bush Sr. was again crushed at the polls in '88. And even then they didn't learn their lessons, with Bush Jr. starting an unnecessary war in Iraq that cost billions. Naturally he was promptly heaved from office in 2004 as one would expect.

Re:conservatives

[nelsonal]

Most people use rich when they mean someone who has accumulated a lot of assets, US tax rates tend to tax heavily people without assets, but who earn a large income. Those who have few assets and low incomes have nothing to take, and those who have assets aren't taxed because there are many ways to use them to generate benefits without earning an income:
municipal bonds are an easy one
structuring payments to be capital gains rather than income--you need enough assets to start a company and enough personal capital to be taken seriously on your own.
use of a charitable foundation to provide access to power and a small wage to friends/progeny
There are others but those are easy to see and common ones.

Finally, incomes are highly correllated with high land value areas so costs of living are usually much higher (with most of the real benefit (economic profits) flowing to the well established land owners surrounding those high land value cities. Most of these land owners are high asset but low income folks again.

Re:conservatives

[Rolgar]

I vote for the Republicans on economic and social policies. I'm white collar earning a little under 50k, so I'd probably benefit according to your comment.

I just don't see how I'd benefit on an economic level though. Would I have more money? Maybe, but so would everybody else like me, which would only serve to drive up the prices of the things everybody in my economic class would buy (houses in my price range, inexpensive cars, food, clothes, paying for education expenses, etc.).

My analysis of the health care reform is that the health care debate was that the government is going to take on an unaffordable liability (or pass it on to the states) and will basically use cost controls which will distort the market further encouraging monopolies, perhaps even giving rise to state run health care, instead of attacking market inefficiencies (eliminating different prices regardless of who pays (insurance company or patient), requirements that medical provider and insurance companies must publicly provide the prices you can expect to pay for a variety of services both before getting a policy and then before service is provided, requiring the insurance company to share cost savings with the patient for choosing the cheaper option, etc.) to provide customers a method to choose cheaper options.

Frankly, I would like to see payroll taxes like Social Security, unemployment, and medicare become optional. I think others would to a better job of recognizing they need to save their own money to cover situations those insurance programs cover if they realized they didn't have a safety net, and they could do a much better job of taking care of their own future needs than the government will. Since people would have more incentive to save, prices of thing I might want to buy now would probably drop, either leaving me more money to spend or save, and leaving all shoppers in a better position.

The government's history shows that every time a shortage happens concerning these programs, they will cut what you'll receive (changing when you become eligible, reducing payouts, etc.), essentially taking our money and reducing what we receive in exchange for what you've paid. The one exemption to this rule is for those in the unions who are the preferred beneficiaries of the Democrats, because of their political donations.

All of Democratic policy is to increase the amount of money that goes through the government coffers. Tell me, which do you think would be a less corrupt and wasteful government, one run on $500 billion or the one we have run on $3 trillion? I'll tell you, I have no doubt it's a lot easier to hide waste and corruption in the latter number than the former.

As for minimum wage, it (along with paper money) causes inflation, which is why we now have a significant price difference between us and the people performing our outsourced jobs in China and India, or what somebody in Mexico makes. If wages were set at a level comparable to the same job in China, Mexico or India (with comparably priced costs which would follow wages), we wouldn't have millions of Mexicans here illegally, or every item on a Walmart shelf having another country as the location of manufacture, or call center's and software shops run out of India.

I'd like to also say that my preferred economic ownership model more closely matches http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributism. I figure this is actually more capitalistic, since it provides more competition, encouraging a more efficient market, without large multinationals that can push everybody else around.

Thanks for reading.

Re:conservatives

[Mongoose Disciple]

Finally, incomes are highly correllated with high land value areas so costs of living are usually much higher (with most of the real benefit (economic profits) flowing to the well established land owners surrounding those high land value cities. Most of these land owners are high asset but low income folks again.

Sure, but even after you adjust for cost of living, someone who makes $250k/year working in Manhattan still makes vastly more money a year (or has more disposable income, or however you would like to look at it) than most Americans, even if they're not living in mansions or anything.

I think at some point you have to still call that rich, or you're left with a definition of middle class that encompasses virtually everyone. I don't think that would be useful.

Re:conservatives

[Enry]

I see your English comprehension isn't that good. I'll use small words:

Jon Stewart is not the person that claimed he funded terrorists. Fox News did. Jon merely pointed out that that the 'evil prince' was the second largest News Corp. shareholder and thus if he really was funding terrorists, then watching Fox News would fund terrorists.

Re:conservatives

[BobMcD]

But I don't want to step over your point, which is accurate. The conservative's main voter base (blue-collar, working class, middle-americans) are the ones hurt the most by Republican policy. And yet they vote for the same policies time after time out of a belief that liberal politicians are immoral, or anti-jesus, or hate families or something.

A couple points in this charged and juicy statement...

1) Those blue-collar folks work for the rich white men the Republicans represent. They know, and know it damn good and well, that if you make the fat cat suffer, he takes it out on them. This doesn't impact those in the breadlines as much, but the working man feels it, and feels it hard. Given every viable opportunity, the owner's take home pay will never decrease, taxes be damned. He'll just pay himself more, or up his lease rates to his shell company that he's leasing his own company's building from... There are limits, but 'screwing the man' invariably screws those he employs far more severely. That's why he's called 'the man' as opposed to merely 'a man'.

2) Liberal politicians are, indeed, immoral, to a Christian or similar. Liberals are indeed anti-Jesus, and they do appear to hate at least all white and/or middle class families. At least if you judge them by their policies, you would reasonably draw this conclusion. Primarily these views stem from wedge issues like abortion, gay marriage, and the like. Jesus's book says these are bad, but liberals are cool with them, and in some cases want tax dollars to fund these activities. Further, they take money from the tax payers and give it to the non-payers, which hurts those with jobs far more than it hurts those without. And, referencing my point above, even when they aim for the top earners, they hurt the middle class.

These aren't necessarily my own views, but they do logically follow - once you step outside the mental disease that is partisanship, that is.

Re:conservatives

[DavidTC]

Amen.

We could argue about who 'deserves' what, and it's pretty easy to point out all the ways in which the government is deliberately designed to make money go upward, but that's not the issue at all.

To have a functioning economy, people must have money. All people, or almost all.

For a decade, people got less and less money. Wages were the same, more people were out of work, and inflation continued to happen, so everyone got poorer.

Luckily, they could all borrow endlessly, because that works forever...oh, SHIT. The economy just melted.

Nor am I entirely against supply-side solutions - they have their place.

I am entirely against them, as no one has ever managed to explain to me how the rich having more personal money results in businesses spending more. That is really total nonsense when you think about it. How does that work...do rich people demand lower salaries when taxes go down? (Which, um, is easily disprovable by the past decade.)

The might possibly some supply-side argument to corporate taxes, but the idea that there's any to personal tax is such utter nonsense that anyone promoting it, in a sane world, would be laughed out of the room.

The other side of this is that Obama did nothing to fix this problem. None of what he did did a thing to affect the distribution of wealth and income in the country.

I don't blame Obama for that, I blame the asshat Democrats in the Senate and House who can't get anything done because, apparently, now we've decided to let the minority dictate everything.

I blame Obama because he hasn't set the agenda in that direction, but I suspected that we were getting Clinton 2.0 when we elected him to start with, so I'm not surprised.

Re:conservatives

[bmajik]

The conservative's main voter base (blue-collar, working class, middle-americans) are the ones hurt the most by Republican policy. And yet they vote for the same policies time after time out of a belief that liberal politicians are immoral, or anti-jesus, or hate families or something

Supposing for a moment that I agree with you (I don't, but let's put that aside):

Perhaps the sort of people who vote for republicans beleive that republicans will try to enact policies which are inline with their own sense of what is just, not what they think will be most lucrative of beneficial to them personally.

You seem to concede as much with your second point, but I'll expound on it a bit in the form of a question:

If conservative voters truly beleive that liberals are immoral, unethical, and tirelessly work to destroy things conservatives think are important, how would the liberal argument that they are "better" for the average republican voter be viewed as anything other than bribery by the forces of irredeemable evil?

If your conjecture is that conservative voters are simpletons who see things in old-fashioned terms like "good and evil", and are too stubborn to just accept what the smart folks tell them will make them better off, why should you be surprised that they then vote according to your characterizations?

Re:conservatives

[bmajik]

As an ex-republican, I agree with you completely.

The problem is, there isn't a good home for the remaining few conservatives.

It's not the libertarian party -- those guys are caught up in procedural issues like "should candidates be required to wear shirt and shoes at our convention, or is that the malignant hand of the authoritarian state?" And a 3rd party won't succeed in the US. It can change and election but not win one. (Ross Perot)

It's not the Tea Party. Back in 2007 when it was a Ron Paul only thing, the Tea Party "movement" was looking like the good choice. But then dipshits like Scott Brown (R-MA) got involved.. people like Glenn Beck (die-hard Ron Paul critic, until he saw which way the wind was blowing) got involved. And so now the Tea Party is a hodge podge of people who are just pissed off..

There are so few people that stand for _anything at all_ that finding someone who stands for the right stuff is too much of a stretch to even consider.

That said, obviously Ron Paul is the politician i am happiest with by several orders of magnitude.

Re:conservatives

[toadlife]

With businesses, profit gets taxed. Not revenue.

Re:conservatives

[ovu]

Businesses are taxed on profits, not revenue. Individuals are taxed off the top, regardless of whether your expenses are met.

Why all the sympathy for businesses? Aren't they supposed to be scrappy and innovative? I can understand the healthcare burden, but payroll is in a separate accounting category than profits...

Re:conservatives

[Mongoose Disciple]

And you don't seem to realize that the works of the individual are built upon the foundation of society. They are not achieved in a vacuum and their fruits are not born in a vacuum.

Your whole manifesto (well, Rand's, really) is based on the false assumption that, somehow, a producer magically produces and the efforts and sacrifices of others haven't made it possible.

Remove that faulty assumption and the whole house of cards not only collapses but seems silly.

Re:conservatives

[Buzz_Litebeer]

You didn't watch the video.

Fox Claimed that because the mosque was funded by someone they referred to as an evil terrorist, that by association the mosque was a victory for terrorists.

Stewart pointed out, in what he said was a stupid and childish game, that Fox News is funded by the same person that they referred to as an evil terrorist, and that if you used the _SAME_ Logic fox news used to claim the mosque was funded by an evil terrorist, then Fox News is funded by an evil terrorist.

Fox, in essence, bashed themselves by claiming that they (Fox News) were funded by Evil Terrorist funders. BUT only if you applied the same logic that they used to describe the Mosque in question.

It is called Satire, seriously, The Daily Show used to come on after a program were puppets made crank phone calls.

Re:conservatives

[Shazback]

I'm quite interested by your post, and I must say I disagree on quite a few points.

I'm a Frenchman who is now living in China for business purposes, and whilst I'm "right of the aisle" in France (Sarkozy got my vote over Royal, for instance), I think US politics would see me quite comfortably in the blue corner.

<quote><p>
I would like to see payroll taxes like Social Security, unemployment, and medicare become optional. I think others would to a better job of recognizing they need to save their own money to cover situations those insurance programs cover if they realized they didn't have a safety net, and they could do a much better job of taking care of their own future needs than the government will. Since people would have more incentive to save, prices of thing I might want to buy now would probably drop, either leaving me more money to spend or save, and leaving all shoppers in a better position.
</p></quote>

Interesting, but I feel that if these taxes were made optional, two things would happen.

1 - All medium-to-low jobs would cut them. Overnight, there'd be a sizeable portion of the US population that would not have any unemployment, medicare or retirement savings being accrued. Now, in the short term, this would be OK-ish. People would probably see their salaries raise a little (but less than the amount that used to be paid into these taxes IMO), and would probably raise their spending a little, and save a little more (i.e. get -less- into debt). In the longer run it wouldn't be so rosy. People that are on McWages or whatever Wal-mart pays aren't really able to "live well", and it's normal they'll prefer to make choices in favour of a better life -now-, even if it means blindly hoping they don't fall sick or working until they're 80. When they -do- fall sick, or -do- end up unemployed, they'll either be posting for bankruptcy (medical costs), or getting the police/social services involved (eviction or theft or homelessness). I'd like to think people are able to make good financial choices on long-term risks, but the sub-prime crisis, the high amount of debt that individuals have and the number of individual bankruptcies each year in the US don't bode well.

2 - Prices wouldn't drop. Sorry, but I've worked in marketing for long enough to know that it's not the market that sets the price. I'm not talking about iPads either. Some basic commodities and certain services get efficient competition. But most fields aren't competitive. If half the people in the world suddenly stopped shaving, razor blade prices wouldn't drop. Even though Gilette and Wilkinson would be sitting on large stocks. Prices don't work just based on offer and demand, they're also hierarchy markers, gateway holders (even though everybody wants the iPhone, its price isn't significantly higher than other phones since the carrier knows it represents a longer-term benefit), market indicators and answer far more to the desires of investors and managers. If you've built 3 million toys, and you spent $1 on each of them (all costs included), you're not going to sell them for less than $2, no matter how badly they're selling. It's probably better to throw them into a landfill or recycle them and lose all $3M invested in that venture than drive down the prices of your other toys that -are- selling! You'd have a little bit more money, and there might be a very marginal drop in the prices of certain commodities, but I can assure you there wouldn't be a 5% (or however much the aforementioned taxes take from the median/average salary) drop in prices across the board. If anything, companies would be rushing to find ways to actually increase the cost, since -people have more available money- (Ford would have a "brand new" financing package for you that would be longer but take less in down payment so that you can "put money on one side" for your retirement/medicare/unemployment plan).

So IMO I'll keep unemployment, medicare and retirement plans as taxes. Sure, there can/will/might be

From the "no shit" department?

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously this is news? The Bush administration pre-packaged a propaganda piece on their Medicare changes for news stations to run unedited. The Ministry of Information is alive and well at the GOP.

Yawn

[Captain Splendid]

Conservative activist welfare is not news - just Google Richard Mellon Scaife.

Short version: The Old Guard thought they were losing the culture war (damn hippies!), so they ponied up cash, endowments, entitlements; set up think tanks and commissions in order to control spin that never really existed in the first place.

And here we are today, with the fruits of that labour being the shallow end of the Teabagger nonsense.

Ain't rich people grand?

Re:Yawn

[Anonymous Coward]

Liberal activist welfare is not news - just Google George Soros.

Short version: The New Guard thought they were losing the culture war (damn neocons!), so they ponied up cash, endowments, entitlements; set up think tanks and commissions in order to control spin that never really existed in the first place.

And here we are today, with the fruits of that labour being the shallow end of the Angry Left nonsense.

Gee

[Snodgrass]

What a balanced and unbiased summary. I will be sure to read the linked article and participate in what will certainly be a level-headed and thought-provoking discussion.

Re:Gee

[Mongoose Disciple]

It actually is a fair and accurate summary of the article. I know, it's Slashdot and we're all a little shocked, but it is.

Whether or not you think the article is fair, maybe that's another story.

Re:Gee

[Bananenrepublik]

If it's common practice only on one side, how would a "balanced and unbiased" summary look like?

For me as an outside observer it looks like you have one party that attracts all kinds of loons (aka the GOP, you know, even thinking of Palin as somebody who might be let near the white house strikes the rest of the world as silly) and another right-wing party (aka the democrats) that is despised by these loons. Just go to conservapedia.com. I used to go there for a laugh, but the stupidity seems too real nowadays.

Re:Gee

[dkleinsc]

Ok, let's for the sake of argument say that there's a campaign going on between two candidates, John Davidson and David Johnson. An investigative reporter has discovered boatloads of evidence that John Davidson's campaign has committed massive fraud. He's done similar investigations of David Johnson's campaign and found nothing remotely similar.

Now, what's the best course of action for our intrepid gumshoe reporter and his editor?
  A. Reporting on the facts known about John Davidson's campaign (with an appropriate amount of space given to Davidson's rebuttal),
  B. not reporting on the fraud at all to avoid the appearance of bias against Davidson's campaign or bias in favor of Johnson's campaign, or
  C. reporting on the fraud and implying that Johnson is quite possibly engaging in the same sort of thing, despite investigation showing that this is untrue?

The truth isn't always balanced or unbiased, and hiding a truth that may have a biased effect is introducing a lie of omission.

Re:Gee

[Roblimo]

If the reported fraud is committed by a Democrat, the looniecrats will spread the story like mad. If it's committed by a Republican - at least here in Florida - it's business as usual and no one will notice or care.

- Robin

Of Course Not!

[Cylix]

This article is completely fabricated by the liberal crazies.

No one would pay some hippy bloggers for friendly reports or statistical analysis on reader responses.

This is just another countless example of how the democrats want to confuse the populace on popular issues. Issue such as, should you vote for this republican or the other republican. There are also non-political issues as stake such as which is the better music genre.... country or western. (We have both kinds of music here)

Yeah, right

[nmb3000]

A GOP blogger-for-hire estimates that 'at least half the bloggers that are out there' on the Republican side 'are getting remuneration in some way beyond ad sales.''

And the bullshit meter goes off the scale! Half of the intersection between the sets of "Bloggers" and "Republicans" are being paid for their postings? Yeah, sure they are.

Even if the GOP (or the Dems for that matter) are dumb enough to pay for that kind of coverage, who cares? Advertising has become much more subversive lately anyway, and often times you have to try pretty hard to figure out if what you're seeing is even an ad or not.

Daily Caller finds a couple of obscure liberal bloggers to mention too, but they fully disclosed payment and one of them even shut down his blog while doing consulting work

Ah, what kind and honest people all liberals must be, and especially their bloggers and politicians!

Careful there, your bias is unzipped.

Re:Yeah, right

[bjourne]

Bribing bloggers is illegal. It is illegal for bloggers to accept compensation from political parties without disclosing it. Everyone is not doing it, unless you can find evidence that everyone is doing it. If there is evidence that one party is doing it, but no evidence that the other party is doing it, then that party is the only party that should be shunned for doing something highly immoral. If that party happens to be the party you like, you could try to improve that party by complaining to your party officials. On the other hand, claiming that the other side is doing the same thing, without any evidence, as an excuse for the side you like, just makes you look childish imo.

Re:Yeah, right

[Thundersnatch]

Bribing bloggers is illegal.

No, it isn't. It is unethical, but perfectly legal.

And anyway, the Democratic party has the biggest paid shill operation in history, far exceeding anything the GOP does with a few bloggers. It's called Hollywood.

Probably but...

[phantomcircuit]

That's small potatoes compared to outright fraud.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Michigan-Tea-Party-party-looks-like-real-astroturfing-Freep-calls-for-criminal-probe-101383014.html

Re:Probably but...

[Notquitecajun]

I've seen more instances of astroturfing for the Dems - here in Central GA, there have been several instances of people being paid to show up and hold signs at Dem rallies. Which are usually pre-printed beforehand. Tea Party signs seem to more often be handwritten.

Re:Yes...this will end well

[CannonballHead]

The real news flash is that only Republicans are mentioned. Clearly, Democrats are lily-white citizens of the political world. ;)

Wow, this election should be interesting

[Anon-Admin]

I would not have expected Slashdot to have a story like this but oh well!

MSNBC is telling us how the Tea Party is raciest and the designated tours of Washington DC are designed to avoid black areas.

Fox has had show after show about two new books on how Obama has circumvented the Constitution and sold us down the river.

All I have seen on CNN is how the markets are collapsing and everything is circling the drain

Personally I think we should send Washington, as well as both the parties a simple message

YOUR FIRED! Clean out your desk and get in the unemployment line like the rest of US!

It really is time for some new blood in Washington.

Re:Wow, this election should be interesting

[strangelovian]

The simplest method of cleaning house in DC would be for millions of enraged citizens to simply surround the capital with pitchforks, firearms and signs reading "GTFO Now!" and give every politician 24 hours to evacuate. This is direct popular action that routes around media spin machines, the punditocracy, political engineering, voter fraud, etc. The old, tried and true methods of political action are still the best, imo.

Re:Wow, this election should be interesting

[rednip]

It really is time for some new blood in Washington.

Oddly, I hear that same message on the news every election cycle (Particularly loudly when Democrats are in power).

Instead of just repeating slogans and talking points, why don't you take a look at the positions of each of the candidates who are available (and have a reasonable shot) and then make an informed decision.

if you have a business, do you just blindly hire someone til it seems right?

Summary misleading

[Anonymous Coward]

The summary suggests that pay for bloggers is more a conservative phenomena than a liberal one -- ie "at least half" conservative bloggers are paid as opposed to "a couple of obscure liberal bloggers". While this may or may not be true, this is not what a fair representation of what the article says. From the article:

"
On the left, many of the once independent bloggers are now employed by, or receive money from, liberal organizations like Media Matters, the Center for American Progress and Campaign for America’s Future.

Some critics allege that the funding sources have distorted the once vibrant voice of the liberal blogosphere, discouraging dissent in favor of staying “on message” to help President Obama and Democrats in Congress pass their legislative agenda.

Indeed, many of the groups now employing liberal bloggers meet with White House aides for a weekly strategy session on Tuesday afternoons organized by the group Common Purpose. It was here that Obama’s chief of staff Rahm Emanuel famously told independent-minded liberals that they were being “fucking retarded” for straying from the party line.
"

More balance in the story summary would help everyone appreciate how the influence of money on independent media sources is a general problem, not a partisan one.

Never understood the problem with this

[drsmack1]

As I see it, the average reader should only care if the person writing the blog is writing things they don't believe in exchange for pay.

If someone self-identifies as a "Conservative Blogger" then I would expect that most of their readers are also conservative.

No one can force a person to read their blog. If what they have to say does not resonate with enough readers, the problem takes care of itself.

The whole idea of "exposing" these sorts of things smacks of avoiding the arena of ideas and reveals a lack of confidence in one's positions. Trying to paint conservative bloggers as paid henchmen is more about smear-tactics than trying to inform people.

This is just providing pre-justification for ignoring criticism and your own responsibility to back up your positions in the face of dissent.

Re:Never understood the problem with this

[Mongoose Disciple]

The article is making the case that conservative bloggers aren't just paid by conservatives in general to blog about conservative things, but that further they're paid by specific candidates (in Republican primaries, for example) to blog in favor of that candidate and bash opposing candidates.

If correct, that's a little different than the situation you're describing.

Welcome to slashdot, YMBNH

[BobMcD]

Question: "Does the GOP pay friendly bloggers?"

Answer: "Does anyone NOT pay friendly bloggers? And if not, how stupid are they?"

How many of us regulars here can honestly say we've never encountered a paid shill right here on this little corner of the web? There are agents from Apple, Microsoft, Adobe, and the US government. We encounter them all the time, and they're always easy to spot. If you think this is unique to this one website, you're insane.

So I say again, welcome to slashdot - or indeed the Internet - you must be new here...

Re:Welcome to slashdot, YMBNH

[doconnor]

The real question: "I'm a friendly blogger. Why isn't anyone paying me?"

Re:Welcome to slashdot, YMBNH

[SleazyRidr]

It stands for Republican Party. If you squint, the G and the O kinda come together to form an R.

Re:Not just the GOP

[Mongoose Disciple]

All political parties utilize bloggers and forum posters to spread positive messages about their agenda (or negative messages about their "opponents" agenda.)

Yes, but...

Basically, the article explains it as, on the liberal side, there are all kinds of foundations and think tanks and what not that hire/support liberal bloggers who of course write mostly liberal things, whereas on the conservative side, because there is not that same support network to pay for conservative bloggers in general, conservative bloggers are essentially paid by specific candidates. So, in other words, they're not as much being paid to blog about conservative things in general but in favor of a specific primary candidate who pays them.

If that's correct, it doesn't necessarily say that one model is more honest or better than the other, but they are a little different.

Full court press time

[MaxBooger]

As the mid-term elections draw closer and closer here in the US, expect to see more of these "rally the troops" type of half-baked stories. Typical election season chow.

Hopefully, the editors of /. will avoid falling in with the heard and... oh who am I kidding. Bring on the spinmeisters!

What do you think?

[babboo65]

I could start by simply asking "Is water wet"?

It would be far easier to say, "Yes, and so do the Independents, and the Liberals, and the Democrats, and the Republicans, and the Socialists . . . " Get the point? Of course any group with an agenda to popularize is going to sponsor / pay a blogger to say friendly things.

It's no different than advertising - it's no different than a billboard or a web ad.

It's a fools mission to try and argue this or to even belabor it with any discussion. If you don't see that the liberal agenda is popularized by the liberal media, and likewise a conservative agenda, and so forth you are sadly mistaken. No matter how you slice it it comes down to a propaganda machine. The media and advertisers try to push and pull your opinions in any way they can to sway your decision. If they can cause even the slightest shift in your POV they have been successful. So don't be surprised by it.

Re:What do you think?

[bsDaemon]

"You're wrong. People who agree with me are enlightened beings. Everyone else is a brainwashed sap and the poor suckers can't even tell!" -- most people throughout history, no matter their point of view.

Ah Yes

[NetNed]

And democrats would never resort to such questionable tactics would they?

Here's a news flash, both sides suck and neither represents the general voting public. If the fanboy idiots of the political world would just realize that, we'd all be better off.

Re:Ah Yes

[evilviper]

And democrats would never resort to such questionable tactics would they?

Note that the Democrat (not plural) in question was thrown out by other Democrats for his fraudulent tactics. Republicans? Hell, they'd probably have made the guy chairman.

Here's a news flash, both sides suck and neither represents the general voting public. If the fanboy idiots of the political world would just realize that, we'd all be better off.

There's a medication out there that kill 1% of the people that take it, and another that kill 99% of the people that take it. Both undeniably kill people, so they're both the same, and there's no point in making a distinction on which is the lesser evil...

Re:Not just the GOP

[Pojut]

I understand where you're coming from, but I'm not so sure about the claim about the lack of conservative think tanks.

The Heritage Foundation and The Cato Institute are widely known and have a fairly abundant amount of pull in the conservative community. Those two alone are MASSIVE, and capable of more than most people realize.

Re:Yes...this will end well

[Captain Splendid]

I can assure you the other "side" is doing it as well.

While that's a great theory and all, and I subscribe to it myself, have you seen the Democrat party lately? Those fuckers couldn't organize a piss-up in a brewery, so I have a hard time believing they could have some sort of compensated blogger/journalist setup anywhere near as big or as effective as the GOP.

Re:Yes...this will end well

[CannonballHead]

Not blogging, but: how about bribing senators in actual legislation (e.g., healthcare bill)?

Referring to blogging itself, this is probably going to be a "biased" blog, I'm sure, but, hotair has a piece on it. He doesn't mention "payola blogging" and Democrats specifically... but how about, ohhh... ACORN?

And to cap it off, this "news" lists a few "supposed examples" according to this guy, which does not even show any sort of rampant "GOP pays friendly bloggers!!!!!!!!11!!11" thing. Gasp, there are corrupt people who are Republicans? Shocking. And here I thought the Republican party were all saints.

Quickly!!!!

[wireloose]

Post something conservative and send them a bill.

Professional online media optimizer

[h00manist]

I believe that is the new name for the profession that I saw the other day in a jobs-and-careers magazine. Basically lots of companies are hiring people to "manage" what people say about them online. If that doesn't involve any funny business, I want a citizenship and passport from Disneyland, where we live.

You're thinking of liberalism, not conservatism.

[Anonymous Coward]

There's no fixed definition for the term "conservative". It all depends on the current situation in the given frame of reference.

If we're talking about America today, "conservatism" is all about protecting the status quo, where the government is run by corporations.

The ideology you've incorrectly associated with "conservatism" is actually called liberalism. It makes sense why you don't know that, of course. Western, corporate-controlled media and corporate-controlled government have gone out of their way to make most people think of anything with the word "liberal" in it as being a horrible thing.

Are you kidding?

[DocSavage64109]

All you have to do is read the comment section in the Washington Post on any article with Obama's name to find dozens of comments that no unpaid partisan would bother posting. It saddens me how much the republican party is buying popular opinion and I'm not sure that they're all that unsuccessful at it. The problem is that the democratic party is mostly fighting fair, (way less propaganda postings and emails) and as such is being destroyed/overwhelmed by the current republican agenda.

Re:Are you kidding?

[Anonymous Coward]

The problem is that the democratic party is mostly fighting fair

I guess you never heard of the JournoList. Why do the Democrats have to pay when "journalists" are willing to be the PR arm of the DNC for free?

Re:And yet...

[Mongoose Disciple]

No offense, but who takes the Black Panthers seriously?

Before the rise of the 24 hour news cycle, that wouldn't have even qualified as a story. You seriously can't even put that on the level of warrantless wiretapping.

A better analogy is comparing warrantless wiretapping that's going on now to warrantless wiretapping that was going on before, and there you DO have a story that's largely fallen out of the news and shouldn't.

lol

[circletimessquare]

your statement tells me a lot about your psychology, but little to do with reality. of course corruption exists. that it controls me or that it is insurmountable is not true. however, if corruption is ever going to succeed in this world, it needs the complicity of people like you: those who won't fight it, but simply accept it. so the more people who think like you, the more corruption there is: you are an accessory to the crime in your lack of action and lack of resistance

so congratulations on having the psychology of a slave. but i'm sorry, i'm not a slave, so i'll be fighting that corruption, and i'll be rejecting your helpless hopeless self-fulfilling defeatism. your psychology defines the parameters of how your life will suck, but not mine

the united states government is composed of the will of the people. to some extent (but not the whole way, and not insurmountably), that isn't true, such as with corporate money rousing conservative rabble with faux news propaganda. and to that extent that the us government, defined to represent the will of the people, fails that definition and fails to represent the will of the people... well, to me, that is merely the extent to which we have some pus filled pimples to pop

i am not an ignorant idealist: corruption will never go away completely, and corruption will always grow back like the fungus it is. the simple truth is that it is a constant clean up process, that will never end, and will go on forever. no one truly wise understands this problem in any other way. cleaning up corruption is merely an ongoing maintenance function, like taking out the garbage every week. it shouldn't scare you, it shouldn't depress you. it is merely a fact of life you accept and constantly guard against, and always will. there exists no utopia where corruption does not exist, and no utopia, composed of human beings, can ever be founded that would be free of corruption. it is what it is. accept its existence, but never stop cleaning it up. the best you can do minimize it, but it is far worse to stop fighting it, and let it grow and do more injustice and damage

so pick a broom and join me in cleaning things up, or shut the fuck up, you useless ignorant mindlessly negative piece of shit

Re:lol

[toadlife]

Electing a politician who says 'government is the problem' is akin to hiring a PETA member to manage your slaughterhouse.

Re:lol

[Toonol]

I'm for more comfortable with that than electing somebody who thinks government is the solution to problems. Governments 'fix' things by curtailing freedom. It's their sole power.

Re:lol

[Hylandr]

I believe corruption is best defined as a deviation from a utopian ideal. We get upset when others profit from it and we don't realize any benefit from the deal.

It's not fair , It should be illegal, where's my cut? - These phrases sound familiar?

- Dan.

Re:lol

[toadlife]

How about skipping the logical extremes and electing someone who thinks existing government institutions can be run more efficiently?

Someone with the mindset that government is always bad will never improve anything once elected. Instead they will only work to fulfill their own prophecy.

Regarding, "freedom", the government also protects rights, which contrary to popular belief, are not "god given".

Re:i don't know that link domain

[iamsolidsnk]

This might help you out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias Also calling people ignorant doesn't help your case.

Re:Yes...this will end well

[indros13]

ACORN has been exonerated of every single false charge brought against it. http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/06/15-7

The whole affair was a whirlwind media circus trial orchestrated by conservatives who didn't think poor people had a right to fight back against the banking industry.

Democrats may have their own skeletons, but ACORN isn't one of them.

For the rest of the World

[Smivs]

In case you wondered, like I did, the GOP is apparently an acronym, Grand Old Party, ie the Republicans. I know /. is US-centric, but, come on, give the rest of us a break and speak English! Thank GOD (not an acronym) for Google.

Re:For the rest of the World

[OeLeWaPpErKe]

Google also seems to indicate, with trivial searches that ...

Democrats lie about their political opponents. Compared to the usual lies, this is quite tame.

In general, people lie about political opponents ... And for things like manufacturing grassroots campaigns, there's even a verb in common use : "astroturfing". You wouldn't believe how common it is world wide (ever notice how "anti-government protests" in pakistan have english placards ... When hardly anyone there even speaks English ...)

Re:And yet...

[jeff4747]

Take, for instance, the scandal involving the Black Panthers

You mean the ones the Bush DoJ declined to prosecute? Yeah, that's quite a scandal. W should really have his feet held to the fire for not doing anything in that case.

The media is even being prohibited from going near even clean up sites on the beach in the Gulf under penalty of imprisonment--under a statute that BP helped create

Which was passed years ago and signed by Republican George HW Bush. Curse those wily Democrats for getting the opposing party to do their heavy lifting!!!

i gave you a link to the boston globe

[circletimessquare]

which is a reputable news source

and you think i should read this?:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ace_of_Spades_HQ

an overtly partisan blog?

and this is supposed to convince of me anything other than that you are trying very, very hard to be the stereotypical conservative sheep?

son: you are a dictionary worthy portrait of absolute brain washed propagandization and completely blindness

you honestly think a PARTISAN BLOG is a worthy retort to REAL WORLD FACTS?

stunning. sad

the great march of the morons

Re:Not just the GOP

[eldepeche]

The difference is that liberal foundations and think tanks advocate in favor of specific policy outcomes, whereas candidates and political committees advocate in favor of specific electoral outcomes. Using the recent election and legislative battle over health insurance reform as examples, consider the roles of the different organizations.

The GOP tried their damnedest to prevent any reform legislation from passing, because that would allow them to paint Obama and congressional Democrats as failures.

The Democratic party tried to pass any legislation and claim that what passed was the best option so that they could use it to get reelected.

The Center for American Progress, for example, tried to influence the debate in Congress in order to make the legislation better (from their perspective, closer to single payer) so that more poor people would have health insurance and the system overall would experience slower cost growth; to that end, they publicly challenged Democrats who were on the wrong side, and in some cases agitated for their electoral defeat.

The difference is that the parties care about candidates, and the think tanks care about policy.

Re:I wonder how much

[Todd Knarr]

Bloggers getting paid isn't a problem. Bloggers not disclosing they're being paid by an entity with a vested interest, or entities not disclosing that they're paying bloggers to write stories about them, that's the problem. And as noted, while the GOP could come up with bloggers being paid by the Democrats those bloggers did in fact disclose this fact on their blogs so their readers knew they were reading paid stories. Unlike the GOP bloggers, who didn't disclose they were being paid.

Re:And yet...

[Mongoose Disciple]

No, that's exactly the point.

This is voter intimidation like my dog peeing on your lawn is breaking and entering.

If you treat this as a case of voter intimidation, you're treating something ridiculous much too seriously.

Your kidding, right?

[Shivetya]

that bill is so flawed as to be beyond stupid.

First, why should it matter who exercises free speech? Why should there be limits on who can? Let alone why are some groups given exceptions from the law specifically in the bill? Simple, this about protecting those in power. Take any bill in Congress by its name and you know exactly that its purpose is to do the opposite.

I sometimes cringe when seeing what is moderated insightful on these boards, the bias of the site is so blatant at times it boggles the mind. We see knee jerk reactions, parrot head responses, and group think moderation all the time. Yet tell me what has changed since 06, let alone 08? Nothing. If anything it has gotten worse.

Let alone the idiot suggestion of the story that its only Conservative bloggers who are being paid. Very much like the story out of Digg about a group who acts as one to suppress. Well why shouldn't they. They are merely employing tactics that the other side figured out first. The problem is, one side doesn't like losing their advantage so they take all the things they know they have been doing that aren't kosher and try to firmly place those actions on their opposites. It lets them keep themselves on their self perceived high road.

It does not work, regardless of moderation here, at Digg, or any other site, those who watch these stupid games and call them for it know whats going on and laugh at it. Keep voting for your Democrats and Republicans, you deserve them.

Any act which suppresses any speech should be feared.

Re:Your kidding, right?

[Abcd1234]

First, why should it matter who exercises free speech?

Huh? Money != speech. Quit drinking the kool-aid, dumbass.

Re:Your kidding, right?

[PopeRatzo]

First, why should it matter who exercises free speech? Why should there be limits on who can?

The problem is not "who", but rather "what".

When the Republicans got a majority in the Supreme Court and the first thing these supposedly "originalists" do is overturn a century worth of precedent and come up with an entirely new definition of what a "person" is, creating an entirely new category of rights for corporations, the issue is not about "free speech" at all. It's about being able to purchase power, pure and simple. It's about commerce where the commercial product is political power.

There were corporations, even very big corporations, around at the time of the framing of our Constitution. It would have been very easy to establish the same rights for corporations in the first Amendment than those established for people. Yet it was not done and for good reason.

The Citizens United case was designed for the current election alone. Future courts will look on it like we look at Plessy v. Ferguson today: as an embarrassing decision, created by second rate ideological justices. Remember John Roberts' assertion that he would be just an "umpire, calling balls and strikes". Well Citizens United wasn't "calling balls and strikes" it was shortening the base path for the rich and powerful. It was juicing the ball only when Republicans were up to bat. Citizens United in one decision completed the transformation of the United States into a corporate fascism. It doesn't matter who's president, or who has congress any more, because 5 activist judges nullified the US Constitution.

Re:Your kidding, right?

[recoiledsnake]

First, why should it matter who exercises free speech? Why should there be limits on who can? Let alone why are some groups given exceptions from the law specifically in the bill?

Corporations are not people and have no need to exercise 'free speech', especially when they're expecting returns on their money spent after the elections.

Corporations trying to influence politics to their own end by spending part of their profits and then expecting returns after elections need not be protected by 'free speech' laws. The exceptions were put in place to appease Republicans so that they might vote for this bill. Something is better than nothing.

Re:Your kidding, right?

[Dexx]

It's like buying indulgences all over again. By paying for the legislation they want, the corporations are forgiven of all sins.

Re:Your kidding, right?

[khallow]

When the Republicans got a majority in the Supreme Court and the first thing these supposedly "originalists" do is overturn a century worth of precedent and come up with an entirely new definition of what a "person" is, creating an entirely new category of rights for corporations

[...]

The Citizens United case was designed for the current election alone.

So we're speaking of the Citizens United v. FEC case? Then I'll need to correct your gross error here. First, the case upheld the "century worth of precedent". McCain-Feingold was bad law and the abridgment of freedom of speech for groups of people was one of the reasons why. Second, why shouldn't a group of people have freedom of speech just like individuals? An individual could have done what Citizens United was brought into court for.

I don't know why this stupidity is so popular. Keep in mind that we had corporate personhood for more than a century (the earliest cases go back almost to the dawn of the Republic). It hasn't been a problem until someone needed to sell a book on it.

Re:Your kidding, right?

[PopeRatzo]

Second, why shouldn't a group of people have freedom of speech just like individuals?

Groups of people do have rights. Each member of the group has rights, thus the group has those rights. The "group" should not have additional rights.

Further, maybe you don't know the definition of "corporation", but a "corporation" is not a "group of people". A corporation is a legal entity by which a business owner can trade personal liability for government oversight via regulation. That's it. A corporation is a fancier "DBA". Shareholders are not a "corporation". The CEO and board of directors is not a "corporation". The people who own or work for a corporation are not a "corporation". A corporation can not vote in an election. A corporation cannot run for office. Why do we pick and choose which rights the "corporation" gets and say, "they don't have those rights, but they should have the right to participate in elections financially"? Shortly after the first of the activist judges on the court, Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, Alito leave, Citizens United will be overturned. It is not just bad law, it's laughable law.

And McCain-Feingold may well have been as you say "bad law", but the issue of limiting corporate campaign spending was not part of the part that made it bad law. There is no question however, that Congress certainly has the power constitutionally to pass laws that regulate campaign financing. Otherwise, the personal limit would have fallen long ago. I'm not sure what part of McCain-Feingold you think is bad law, and I'm guessing that you wouldn't know if it hit you in the face because Hugh Hewitt never got that specific on the radio. Maybe you could hit Wikipedia and let us know which part of McCain-Feingold you deem to be "bad law"?

I will admit, that you're parroting smarter sources than the ones that are normally parroted by the "conservatives" around here but you're still wrong.

Oh and we have not had "corporate personhood" for more than a century. Show me where a corporation got married, or had a child, or ran for office or

Facepalm

[grahamsaa]

Ok, I forgive you. I just referred to the country as "the company." Or, is that a more accurate statement anyway?

Re:i don't know that link domain

[sokoban]

It leads to the "Ace of Spades" blog, wherein there is an article that deconstructs this stupid Daily Caller story and also crosslinks to Dan Reihl's blog where he also responds to the Daily Caller story.

Uh. Right.

Dan Reihl's response is that he wasn't paid enough for it to be them paying him for his views. Accepting money from a source about which you give favorable reviews is unethical however you slice it. Just because you work within FEC rules doesn't mean that what you're doing is okay.

Then, the "Ace of Spades" blogger confirms that he was offered to publish a story for pay on multiple occasions.

All this makes Republican payola seem more and more like "standard operating procedure"

"the fact that it is an overtly political blog

[circletimessquare]

has no relevance"

do i laugh?

or do i cry?

sir: you are the downfall of this country

not because you are right leaning, but because you reject truth, you reject OBVIOUSLY NEUTRAL NEWS SOURCES in favor of OBVIOUSLY BIASED OPINION

show me a left leaning person who professes the same stupidity, and i will say the same thing about them!

because the problem, son, is not being conservative, or liberal

in fact, i would WELCOME an intellectually honest conversation with an honest open minded intelligent conservative, FOR ONCE

but they seem to all be dead. they seemed to have been taken over by the bleacher creatures, cretins like yourself who OPENLY and WITHOUT SHAME, as a mark of PRIDE (amazing!), trumpet the fact that they PREFER rumor, innuendo, and outright deceit... over neutral news sources

incredible. stunning. very sad for the country i love

intelligent conservativism is dead. long bleat the sheep: biased, and PROUD OF IT

incredible! i still cant' get over how proud you are of your self-professed ignorant

you actually believe your closed minded, walled off garden of bias, is a source of strength

WOW

how does one deal with such zombified people?

Re:"the fact that it is an overtly political blog

[nbauman]

i would WELCOME an intellectually honest conversation with an honest open minded intelligent conservative, FOR ONCE

but they seem to all be dead. they seemed to have been taken over by the bleacher creatures, cretins like yourself who OPENLY and WITHOUT SHAME, as a mark of PRIDE (amazing!), trumpet the fact that they PREFER rumor, innuendo, and outright deceit... over neutral news sources

That's true -- William Buckley, Irving Kristol, all gone.

The new round of "conservatives" -- Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Glen Beck -- just make things up. They got end-of-life counseling taken out of the health care bill by calling it "death panels," for example. Really shameless.

Re:"the fact that it is an overtly political blog

[d3ac0n]

I'd much rather read two partisan sources (one from each side) as they'll get to the heart of the issue better and faster than a neutral source will most of the time.

Fair enough. As long as they are up front about their biases, I'm fine with it. I might not agree with their conclusions, but at least I can see it from their side honestly.

Re:i don't know that link domain

[PopeRatzo]

So don't click it.

It leads to the "Ace of Spades" blog, wherein there is an article that deconstructs this stupid Daily Caller story and also crosslinks to Dan Reihl's blog where he also responds to the Daily Caller story.

It links to the "Ace of Spades" blog where you will find just how pissed off a blogger can get when absolutely nobody wants to pay him a nickel for his stupid blog and he learns that other people are getting paid. And if you want the skinny on Dan Reihl, I suggest going to sadlyno.com and search for "Dan Reihl". I defy anyone reading here to go read Reihl's blog and not come away thinking the guy is a drooling moron. Plus, you will find much enjoyment at "Sadly, No!", one of my favorite sites on the web.

Re:i don't know that link domain

[BergZ]

It's funny you should mention that. I signed up for a Free Republic account and was perma-banned in 20 minutes. My offense? I posted a comment congratulating Al Franken on winning his Senate seat!

Are they being funded by terrorists?

[jackpot777]

With the breaking news in the last 24 hours that the dangerous radical Saudi financing the 'Ground Zero' 'Mosque' through a series of charities was none other than the largest non-Murdoch shareholder of Fox News , is there a connection to any of these blogs and Alwaleed Bin Talal, the man Fox News itself says funds radical madrasses all over the world? Do any of these blogs have connections to members of think-tanks and PACs like The Heritage Foundation or FreedomWorks? Secretive organizations which appear often on a news channel funded by this same Saudi money that many on Fox News openly question may have financial ties to Iran?

Re:Yes, and so does the DNC

[Abcd1234]

Ah, truly a logical argument at it's finest: the statement with absolutely no supporting evidence. Truthiness in its purest form. I'm sure you'll be modded +5 insightful in no time!

it really is true

[circletimessquare]

intelligent conservatism has died

in its wake, these boorish bleacher creatures, without honesty and without intelligence

they somehow believe cheering for their team is more important than fact-based examination of the issues

their minds are closed, their mouths are wide open, and this country will suffer for their loud low iq zombiehood

Re:It's about voter intimidation, jackass

[Mongoose Disciple]

... except the DoJ did prosecute the dude with the nightstick. They just gave up on the other gomers hanging around with him.

This is a non-story blown up by people who want you to be afraid so you'll keep watching their news coverage, nothing more.

Re:i don't know that link domain

[Enigma2175]

Your link doesn't seem to refute the story, in fact it seems to strengthen it. From the link:

But yes; Corrupt. I did not write exactly what I wanted and yes this was due to the thought of money out there, somewhere, somewhere at the end of the rainbow.

You know when someone's easy to bribe? When you don't even have to give them money, you just have to put it in his head that maybe, one day, someday, there might be some money. ...

So that's my story. I never took any money for any story.

On the other hand, I did refrain from going full-throttle on Steele because, without being told I should keep quiet and act as if I were bought off, I did in fact keep (mostly) quiet and act if I were (kinda) bought off. No one said I should do that, but I took it upon myself to act the way I thought a Good Soldier who wanted to take the king's coin should.

This guy seems proud of the fact that the GOP was able to buy him for NOTHING. Just the thought of money was enough to buy him.

Re:i don't know that link domain

[euroq]

I love it when "righties" consider themselves persecuted.

Re:No viable 3rd party.

[Shivetya]

and there never will be with this attitude. The Democrats and Republicans have set up this defeatist attitude and revel every time it is expressed.

It really is simple, its called getting off your butt and putting in real time. Far too many people are satisfied thumping their chest here on message boards but damn, ask them to make a few calls, put out some Vote posters, and suddenly they don't have time.

Well you get out of it as much as you put into it.

Not enough to say "But they do it too!"

[Anonymous Coward]

To all the people who are ostensibly conservative, stop trying to point out "but but, they do it too."

This sort of behavior shouldn't be tolerated by conservatives, and it shouldn't be whitewashed as "well everybody does it."

It's an ethical violation to not *at least* disclose that you're being supported by a campaign when you're writing posts to support that campaign. The people doing it are categorically, unequivocally, unabashedly wrong to be doing it, regardless of which party or candidate they're supporting.

If you tolerate it as a tactic in support of your own ideology, how can you criticize someone else for employing the same tactics?

Re:Follow along now...

[jameskojiro]

Mmmmmmm, Dominoes Pizza.......

I stopped at Step #2....

Re:Um

[Beelzebud]

Who exactly is "The Left", and which protesters have been hired? You've seen these people at differing rallies, so surly you can provide some actual evidence.

Cato is libertarian

[roystgnr]

And IIRC they're usually on the "liberaltarian" side of that category as well. Not everybody who thinks it's nice to keep more control over your own money is a conservative.

Look at some of their Op-Eds from this month: "America, Home of the Free -- Except for Muslims?" and "Mosque Debate is a Red Herring", arguing against the current conservative assault on the First Amendment. "Government Needs to Divorce the Marriage Business", arguing for equal public treatment of homosexual and heterosexual unions. "It's a WikiLeaks World, Get Used to it", arguing for increased official release of even military secrets. "US Spying Spawns a Dystopian Epidemic", arguing against the Bush-expanded state surveillance. If the RNC is paying Cato, they're not getting their money's worth.

Re:i don't know that link domain

[cusco]

I was banned from Free Republic three times in three posts for the horrendous sin of refuting the talking point of the day with a link to reputable sources (Scientific American magazine, the Dept. of Treasury and something else that I forget). I learned after the first post not to use your regular email address to register, as you WILL be spammed with some serious hate mail.

Went back to look at Free Republic's web site a while back, and Lo! how the mighty have fallen. Whereas formerly there would be hundreds of posts after a particularly hot topic the longest thread that I saw was around 30, most of them from the same posters as all the other threads.

Re:Taxes

[DocSavage64109]

If you ever bother to check, The Dems aren't proposing increasing taxes on the rich and lowering taxes on the poor, they're suggesting raising taxes on the rich and raising different taxes on the poor.

The raising/lowering taxes on the rich/poor is accurate if the total taxes required are equal. Unfortunately, we have a national debt that needs to be paid down and raising taxes are unavoidable. In that situation, raising taxes for everyone but the most destitute is unavoidable, but should be raised on a curve so as to minimize the pain as much as possible based on your ability to pay. I was just simplifying the concept.

Re:Yes...this will end well

[AK Marc]

No. Because there weren't any. Your question was along the lines of "when did you stop beating your wife?"

Democrats, like all politicians, pay off the press

[OeLeWaPpErKe]

Okay, you got me. But palestinian protests are also always in English. The last few Iranian "protests" were in English. Same goes for Iraqi and even (partly) Turkish ones.

And unless I'm very, very wrong your remark doesn't fly for all off these.

The subject of this thread is still a lie. There's a grain of truth to the accusation : obviously politicians pay for good press.

To get elected, Obama paid :
$244 million to broadcast media
$133 million to "miscellaneous media"
$26 million to internet media
$20 million to print media
$3 million to media consultants

How much of that went to bloggers. I don't know, but I'm betting at least a million or two.

source

I seem to recall a little of that money going to a blogger in trade for not publishing a video of a certain extremely racist pastor. Seems stupid now, as it turns out no democrats care about "black" people being racist.

Re:And yet...

[jeff4747]

The "black panther" case was investigated by the Bush DoJ, who determined there was no crime there. In addition, the incident occurred in 2008, before Obama was president.

The law to which the GPP referred was the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. HW Bush was president.

None of those statements are partisan. None of those statements are part of some left-wing 'echo chamber'. All of them are easily verifiable.

The fact that you refuse to believe anyone in a political debate and refuse to 'fact-check' anyone in a political debate is an extremely bad thing for the future. But I'm sure your cynicism will turn things around any day now.

Re:Yes...this will end well

[NevarMore]

Just making sure I was reading your assertion properly. Given the current climate of partisanship and spin, I think my question was valid.

Re:Yes...this will end well

[CannonballHead]

has found no evidence the association or related organizations mishandled the $40 million in federal money they received in recent years.

That's a very specific exoneration; that is, mishandling of funds.

In no ACORN office did employees file any paperwork or do anything illegal on the duo's behalf.

Also extremely specific.

They refer to "edited" and "misleading" ... and "deceptive" and "phony" - in that order - tapes. There is no citation for those claims, and the progression from edited->misleading->deceptive->phony is ... interesting. They're claims about the tapes progressively get worse while no actual information is cited; i.e., they appear to be building their case on their own previously presumed fact.

And the piece ends with this:

One of the activists, James O'Keefe recently pleaded guilty to charges of entering federal property under false pretenses when he attempted to embarrass Senator Mary Landrieu because of her support for national health care legislation.

An unrelated ad-hom attack on the activist; "he was guilty later, so why should we trust him in this one?.

Lastly, your link is old. It's from June. The case is still going on, and there is much more recent news, such as a Federal court ruling against ACORN (your link mentions the decision that has now been overturned, a former ACORN worker pleading guilty of voter fraud ("Maria Miles, 37, of Milwaukee, admitted to submitting multiple voter registration applications for some people and to scheming with other Association of Community Organization for Reform workers to sign people up several times in an effort to meet the organization's voter registration quotas."), etc.