Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) receives almost all of his campaign contributions from donors outside his native Connecticut. Michigan’s laughable excuse for a governor, Jennifer Granhom, received the maximum allowable contributions for her last reelection campaign from notables such has Madonna, who originally hailed from Bay City, Michigan, but now resides in England. Granholm, a Democrat, also received the maximum contribution from Ed Begley, Jr., a California resident who likely has never set foot in Michigan. Charlie Rangel, (D-NY) regularly accepts money from Hollywood types, even though he represents a congressional district in New York City that’s largely black and poor. Races for governor and secretary of state in all 50 states are flooded with money from the East and Left coasts. Congressional seats are funded with union dues from a national pool of money.  The vote of every congressman and senator is a hotly contested commodity to a well-financed and nationally integrated leftist movement. There are no ‘local’ races any more and they haven’t existed since the 1960s when the Left made its bid for national power.

A key strategy for Democrats and their leftist leaders has been to nab the secretary of state position in each of the 50 states. This is an extremely important position because secretaries of state certify elections, decide whether nor not recounts are undertaken, and whether or not investigations into voter fraud or election irregularities are necessary. As evidenced in gubernatorial elections manipulated or stolen by Democrats in Oregon and Washington recently, the secretary of state plays a key role in determining the outcome of an election. The Democratic Party and its union allies have spent untold millions to ensure that most secretaries of state are Democrats, placing Republican candidates for local, state and federal office at great peril. The mainstream media, of course, don’t bother to report this troubling development.

There are no laws that prohibit leftists from California to fully fund the congressional aspirations of leftist candidates in Virginia except for the individual campaign contribution limits. But, given the success of ‘bundlers’ who contribute hundreds of thousands under questionable circumstances to Democratic candidates, the current campaign finance laws leave huge loopholes open to abuse. The McCain-Feingold Act is a joke, perpetrated by two of the most cynical and self-serving members of the Senate: John McCain (a Republican in name only) and Feingold, a left-leaning Democrat. This piece of legislative garbage all but assured that incumbents would enjoy an overwhelming advantage over their challengers, while at the same time silencing critics of the incumbent officeholder. It may as well have been crafted by two Democrats.

Further, the McCain-Feingold Act doesn’t prohibit lobbyists for government-sponsored organizations such as Fanny Mae or Freddy Mac from contributing to the campaigns of Barney Frank or Chris Dodd, both implicated in the mortgage meltdown that triggered the greatest economic decline in the US economy since the Great Depression. Conflicts of interest and outright corruption riddle the election process, but the mainstream media keep this from the American public.

Organizations like A.C.O.R.N., funded with tax dollars, and unions like the SEIU and the UAW, funded with member dues, add another layer of fraud and intimidation to the election process. Both entities are national in scope, with incredible reach and enormous resources. There are no opposing organizations or funding mechanisms on the side of conservatives. In fact, the country can rely only on the fragmented, amateurish attempts of grass-roots movements like the tea-party and tax protesters to mount any kind of response to the well-financed, nationally-coordinated efforts of the Left.

So, what’s the solution? It’s critical that local candidates for office and their supporters find out who is financing the election of their Democratic opponents. For example, in Michigan, the 2008 congressional race for the 13th district was financed unknowingly by Michigan taxpayers. The Democratic candidate, Gary Peters, was appointed to a faculty position at Michigan State University through the efforts of governer Jennifer Granholm. Peters spent very little time at the university while he collected a nice taxpayer-funded salary during a two-year campaign against Republican Joe Knollenberg, who was busy in Washington fending off the Democratic majority in Congress. During this time, Knollenberg endured a signficant personal financial crisis, but didn’t even advise his own staff. In the end, supported by teacher and labor unions, and free to compaign 24/7, Peters cruised to a narrow victory over Knollenberg and promptly aligned himself with the most radical and leftist elements of the Democratic Party, per the guidance and wishes of his mentor, governor Jennifer Granholm.

This is taking place across the country. Secretaries of state are certifying elections they know to be flawed, local candidates are being outspent by Democrats funded by outstate donors, and Democratic politicians are providing state jobs for their favored candidates so that they don’t suffer any economic consequences when running against their Republican rivals. Ths is corruption at its most extreme. It makes Democrats voterproof and ultimately impervious to accountability. It smells like the Soviet Union.

Why are liberals so happy to raise your taxes? Because so many of them benefit directly from higher taxes - entitlements, government contracts, holdbacks, employment and just plain cash, or because higher taxes don’t affect them. They are either too rich or too poor to care. It’s the folks in the middle that end up carrying the load. The math is rather simple: Raise everyone’s taxes to 50% or more. Then, pour all that money into the pockets of those who don’t pay taxes or don’t pay their fair share. Or, maybe they make their entire livelihood from taxpayer dollars. It’s like winning the lottery for these people. They don’t care what the tax rate is because any money that’s realized is still a jackpot. And, if you’re politically connected, the government doesn’t expect you to work very hard to make that money.

If you make a few million with a well-placed phone call (can you spell B-I-D-E-N?) and then give up half in taxes, who cares? It’s the cost of doing business and it’s free money, anyway. In fact, it’s taxpayer money. More on that thesis: In early 2009, Andrew Wilkow, conservative talk radio guy, stated he could prove that a significant percentage of Obama’s ’stimulus’ spending would end up in various Kennedy family-owned enterprises. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Ted Kennedy’s or Caroline Kennedy’s endorsement of Barack Obama would come cheaply. Further, Barack Obama netted million-dollar paydays for ghost-written books as an unknown Illinois legislator. Did all those books get sold through real booksellers at full price? And then there’s Al Gore. By creating panic over non-existent global warning, Gore amassed a $100 million fortune in less than 8 years. Finally, there’s the grand-daddy of all political hacks — Bill Clinton, who manages to snag outsized ‘consulting’ gigs that can net him $100 million in a year’s time. What’s certain here is that liberals can make a darn good buck at being ‘concerned’ and ‘compassionate’.

Liberals and liberal politicians spend taxpayer money with a zest and enthusiasm that takes your breath away, and for some of the stupidest reasons imaginable. The basic premise is simple - if you are incompetent, lazy, stupid, ignorant, irresponsible, incorrigible and/or immoral, you will be rewarded. If you live within your means, pay your taxes and take personal responsibility for your actions, you will be preyed upon. In fact, if you uphold the law and carry your own weight, the liberals consider you a stooge, a dupe, someone who deserves to be ripped off.

The secular progressives, the liberals and the out-and-out socialists have turned this country on its head. The strengths and virtues that made this country the single greatest expression of man’s intellectual and socia potential has been perverted into a culture of entitlement and a cesspool of personal excesses. Is America perfect, or was it ever perfect? Of course not, but that doesn’t mean one gives up the effort to better oneself or society. That’s what liberals want average Americans to do: give up on the American Dream and instead opt for the false hopes and promises of socialism. They want to create a dark, dreary utopia where only the liberal elite can have a chance at happiness and prosperity.

The mainstream media tried to hide it. The political pundits on the left and center talked around it. The lobbyists spun it. Joe Wilson was pilloried to create a diversion for it. But, there was no getting around this simple fact - President Obama hardened his stance on nationalizing healthcare and the ‘public option’. In his September 2009 address to Congress, he reiterated his commitment to ramming through a socialist agenda regardless of its consequences and despite the safeguards provided in the Constitution. Our President, the one who promised a transparent administration, careful and open review of pending laws, and bipartisan agreement on major issues, would fundamentally remake America if given half a chance. Even the Russians are alarmed.

Barack Obama is the champion, the chief enabler, the high priest of entitlement, pork barrel politics and class warfare. His address before Congress was divisive, corrosive and loaded with vitriol aimed at his perceived enemies and detractors. He obfuscated, embellished, bamboozled, misled, misrepresented, parsed and basically lied throughout the speech. While Republicans held up copies of plans that had been repeatedly ignored by Democrat legislators and the White House, Obama cooed and fluttered his eyelids, promising to look at any good idea placed before him. So much for hope and change.

The Democrats want to nationalize the best-performing sector of the economy, citing increased costs and inequality of care. Yes indeed the “costs” have been increasing — and so have the available cures, remedies and options for the sick. Twenty years ago were was no such thing as angioplasty at any price. Today, it is a common lifesaving procedure. Twenty years ago no angioplasties were performed. Today, thousands are performed every day. This adds to the “cost” of healthcare, but it also puts productive Americans back to work. And once at work, they pay taxes. Angioplasties also cost less than bypass surgery, the only option available twenty years ago. In other words, the medical sector of the economy is growing, creating more jobs, more opportunities, more productive benefit to the nation as whole. Innovation drives new technology that saves more lives and returns those people to a productive life more quickly and with fewer side effects. It is for the most part market-driven even though it is highly regulated, heavily taxed and repeatedly preyed upon by the unscrupulous.

To criticize this growth would be equivalent to criticizing Ford Motor Company for selling more cars this year compared to last year. It would be like characterizing increased sales of new cars as increasing the cost of transportation to Americans. That is the specious argument that Democrats have made. They are lying to the American public, obscuring the fact that healthcare systems continue to improve in the efficient delivery of care to every American. The reason why the healthcare sector has grown is primarily because the volume and choice of medical services have grown - as should be the case with any healthy sector of the economy.

Our healthcare system is a technological wonder that cannot be duplicated anywhere else in the world. There is little reason to fear that China or India could somehow create a cheaper knockoff. Even if they could, it would benefit only their own people – if their governments allowed them to access that care. Top-quality healthcare can’t be imported or exported. Hundreds of thousands flock to the US for elective and cosmetic surgery, chemotherapy and radiation treatment. They place themselves in the care of highly trained and highly motivated doctors, nurses, technicians and various healthcare specialists. The US is the epicenter of medical advances, drug development and treatment options. And yet, Obama and the Democrats are firmly resolved to destroy it.

Why destroy such a vital part of the economy? Because it stands in the way of making Democrats and Obama voterproof. If the Democrats were ever able to dispense healthcare the way they dispense political favors and government dollars, their dependents would never vote them out of office. By controlling your health, Democrats control your body and therefore control your life. Once you’re standing on line for daily medications, you’re nothing more than a serf. The Democrats can do with you what they wish. That appears to be their plan. They don’t care about innovation and they certainly don’t care about bringing the cost down otherwise they wouldn’t be talking about penalties and taxing medical benefits.

Think about it: How does taxing the average middle-class wage earner’s medical benefits lower that wage earner’s medical costs? How does it make health coverage better? The answer is it doesn’t do anything to benefit the middle-class wage earner, who’s going to end up paying for other peoples’ healthcare through higher insurance premiums, taxes on medical devices, taxes on employer-paid plans and taxes hidden in every layer of the healthcare delivery system.

And yes, Obama did lie: He will extend medical coverage to illegal aliens, except they won’t be illegal when the benefits kick in. In the few short months by when medical coverage is offered, Obama will have granted amnesty to those illegals. In the meanwhile, illegal aliens will continue to get their medical services paid for as they have been for decades - by municipalities, counties and states who in turn tax the rest of us. He’s using a very simple political calculus — those who benefit from government-run healthcare and pay nothing for it will outvote those who pay for their own private insurance AND government-run healthcare for others.

Obama’s plan calls for penalties if citizens don’t sign up for a public insurance plan. But, he never mentions those who can’t afford it, don’t work, don’t want to work or are incapable of working. What happens to them? In fact, the Congressional Budget Office calculated that after all is said and done, after the Obama administration has turned the entire healthcare industry into a government program, 25 million Americans may remain uninsured. What?! That was the entire reason this healthcare debate was ignited in the first place! What Obama is proposing would then create a huge new tax burden for middle-class Americans, destroy the most vital sector of our economy and still fail to provide healthcare for 25 million Americans. This is sheer insanity. Or is it? Maybe, this is a calculated move to grab power and install a socialist regime.

Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have flogged their respective Democrat legislators to fall in line behind a public option that is an out-and-out socialist power grab. Once enacted, it will give Democrats incredible power over the electorate, which could explain this manufactured crisis and the campaign of lies that envelopes healthcare legislation. Once these people have you under their control, it’s unlikely they will relinquish it without a struggle.

The fact that Congress has even bothered to bring to a vote the matter of AIG bonuses should signal loudly that the Golden Age of Parasites has arrived. Senator Chris Dodd denies inserting language into the mystery-shrouded economic stimulus package that was so quickly passed by both houses of Congress. The White House denies prior knowledge of the bonuses, even though staffers admit to it. Treasury Secretary Geithner himself crafted some of the foundational language of the bailout arrangement while George W. Bush was still in office. And now, every congressional aide’s best friend, Barney Frank,  is screeching that a 90% tax on those bonuses is justifiable. The parasites can now take away anything from anyone. Screw contract law. Screw constitutional guarantees. Screw the Bill of Rights. They can take what they want when they want it with the full backing of an ocean of parasites that now comprises the voting public. Mobocracy has arrived, cheered on by the media.

It’s revealing that only 44 protesters showed up to take a bus tour of AIG executives’ homes, even though every one of them was paid by A.C.O.R.N. with our tax dollars to do so. A crushing mob of reporters and cameramen from around the world showed up to document the circus. At the same time, hundreds of tea parties were being staged around the country to protest the Democrats’ uncontrolled spending and yet nothing has been reported on this groundswell of conservative activism.

It’s difficult to fully explain the motives of TV network programming executives, editorial directors, news writers and reporters. Some of it can be characterized as pure envy and malice — the mainstream media have assumed a rather pompous and sanctimonius position on social justice and economic opportunity without really delving into the causal relationships driving the disparity in income and social advancement. But then, that’s too difficult. It would require getting an education beyond ‘journalism’ or ‘communications’ which is as useful and intellectually challenging as ballroom dancing or basket weaving. No insult intended to the latter. It might require reporters, editors, columnists, newsreaders, producers and all of the other unionized (that’s right, they’re unionized) media ‘professionals’ to actually work hard and think before they open their yaps. It’s much easier to descend into pure envy and malice - the stock in trade of unions in this country. Hey, it worked for the unions.

But the primary reason that media outlets are effectively propaganda machines for the Left is that they’ve been intentionally been purposed to do so. Much like the contagion of leftist thinking that has demolished independent thought on college campuses, the Left has worked hard to spread its infection into the field of journalism. It’s an aggressive form of journalism, where the ‘reporter’ or ‘anchor’ insert themselves into the story, insult or attack their subject, then apply ‘context’ and ‘analysis’ that follows the party line. The strategy has worked extraordinarily well. Ask Sarah Palin. Where there are gaps in the all-out assault on American principles and ideals and those who uphold them, George Soros fills in with hundreds of bloggers funded through his many front organizations. 

Democratic politicians, media boobs and their wealthy patrons are playing with fire. They don’t understand that if the mob gets loose, at some point they too, will become targets. Even Karl Marx understood this. Obama and the Democrats think they can control mob impulses and turn them to their political advantage, much like Mussolini or Hitler did early on in their despicable regimes. History has proven them wrong. Either the actions of the mob descend into utter madness, or the politicians attempting to control the mob become dictators. This should not be America’s fate.

Olympia Snow, Susan Collins and Arlen Specter are traitors to America. They joined the other traitors, that being the Democratic members of the Senate, to push through legislation that they know destroyed this great country. They did it for political expediency, for personal gain, for the benefit of friends, relatives and political allies, and they did it to intentionally insult and harm the greater number of Americans who still believe in the Constitution and the American promise. They did it to repudiate free-market capitalism, social mobility and self actualization. They did it to solidify the power of the liberal elite, to reward unions and government bureaucrats, to provide incredible wealth to political insiders.

President Obama promised open government, open transactions and elimination of earmarks. This trillion dollar spending bill (there is no real economic stimulus) was crafted behind closed doors without the participation of the minority party. There was no public review or public comment, and a 90-minute floor debate before the vote was pushed through. Over 1,000 pages was voted on in both the House and Senate without even a single reading by any member of Congress. This isn’t democracy. This is Stalinism. Obama promised 48 hours of review. It never happened. This man lied to all of us. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid lied to all of us. The Democrats threw out 100 years of procedure and safeguards to rush this monstrosity through both houses. The few Republicans who could have stalled this, Snow, Collins and Specter, decided to betray the core principles of the Republican Party and throw in their lot with the Marxists running this country. History will not be kind to them. 

The bill is corrupt, misguided and destructive on so many levels that an entire book can be written about it. And yet, those Americans who will end up paying for this are silent. The producers aren’t protesting. They’re not flooding the offices of Democratic politicians with petitions, angry letters and emails. There’s nothing. Emboldened, the Democrats will advance their agenda until they hit opposition. The parasites are rejoicing. They actually believe they won’t have to pay for energy costs or their mortgages, or even work for a living anymore. Some are even asking our President for a new kitchen. This is what America has descended into - a populace so stupid, so self-absorbed that they have no idea what they’ve given away for a welfare check or a paltry $13 a week in handouts.

The Porkulus bill will be examined by historians in great detail — much more detail than the leftist Democrats who shoved it through Congress back in 2009. That was the year democracy died.