Buy your way into politics

That's right folks, it doesn't matter if you are grossly unqualified, completely ignorant of the world around you or have problems with alcohol/drugs/little boys. So long as you have enough money you can get elected here in the US. Ok, you have to be part of one of the two major (read: only) parties in the country, Ross Perot helped prove that point.

See it's election time in the states, actually unlike the Canadian system, every other year here is an election year. So that means that politicians will try and kiss your ass for votes and nothing will really get done before then because they are spending all their time raising campaign funds. Any guesses how much money was spent on the campaign funds in 2004? Try $1.78 BILLION dollars. Sure the government lost track of more money than that paying for the war in Iraq, but still, that's a lot of fucking money. Particularly when they do this every other year! By the way, they have calculated that it costs on average $7 million for a senator to be elected here. You think there might not be a little bit of influence by big money on what gets done in politics?

The really sad part is that even the credible news sources, like NPR, start comparing the parties by how much money they have raised. They then make a direct correlation between the amount of money that has been raised and the chances of winning the election. Personally I can't fathom how that would work, who votes for the guy with the most ads? Shit McDonald's has more ads than any other restaurant, I still won't eat there.

The really sad part is that with all this money for ads and consultants, this is what they come up with as quality campaign ads go:


Or how about this one:



But the most shame really should fall on the shoulders of Fox news. Sure they could be real reports and actually question him about his claims, but it's just so much easier to praise him for his good work.



Fucking assholes!