Sometimes there is no "Right" answer - only preferences.
Rihanna or Beyonce?
Pac or Biggie
Prince or Michael?
The Lakers or Every Other Team?
Have you ever been to a Sundown Town?
LiberalViewer of YouTube attempts to set the record straight on mischaracterizations of the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling in "Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission."
It appears based on watching this video that the ruling is greatly misunderstood by both sides and I myself am inspired to try and read the whole 180+ page Opinion of the Court.
I am in no way advocating the chilling of free speech by value of it simply coming from a corporation or union.
It is a falsehood to state that this ruling allows for "unlimited contributions to political candidates" and also a point that is not within the primary argument against this ruling, as it did not effect those existing limitations.
I believe, personally, that the argument made that this will benefit non-profit advocacy organizations over private sector special interests has some serious flaws in it, while it is not altogether untrue.
It's true that some of the confusing regulations surrounding political advocacy have been discarded in this recent decision, but it is the structure and measure of what they have done that is so reprehensible.
Were it to be the case that a corporation had to declare their logo and "I Support This Ad" with the CEO standing there; then this decision would be far different in implications to our political process.
This logic that major multinational corporations will for some reason "not go there" with political issues is true to a certain extent but it precludes the simple truth that when seeing itself as threatened, as the insurance companies did the early days of the Health Care Debate, they will spend whatever they can as fast as they can to flood us with ... media. Media like television ads.
How quickly we forget as a nation, as a people, that Sen. John Kerry was literally "slimed" out of his equal opportunity at the democratic process in a bid for president no less by what we now call "swing voting" but if you track this story out it was a bunch of frauds who demeaned their personal character in a outright smear campaign. One of them lives right here in Santa Cruz, California and just like the Bush administration itself they are taking no responsibility for this in public.
How easy it will be now for a nameless silent corporate partner to just bankroll a bunch of TV ads either pro or con for a candidate that had policies that just might ask them to give a little back after they take so much from the environment, for instance. If understand that McDonald's is Pro-McCain, just as a random example, then many of my concerns go away. But as it stands the Sierra Club, the NRA and the example of the video clip Microsoft could all wildly flood a campaign with media while grassroots money and dedicated social advocates of any position would be overshadowed.
Also this argument that money doesn't win elections is also partly false. Money is not enough, as the examples of Ross Perot and Mitt Romney illustrate, but the 2008 Campaign for the White House was in part decided on the dollars and cents. Of course you need the solid candidate, as the Democrats held with Obama, to seal the deal but my studies in Political Science completely disagree with the scoffing of this notion of looking at the financial impact and earnings to get the best picture.
As I stated before, I believe I may have to read this entire decision before I am totally satisfied I understand it fully.
For now, I am strongly standing with the words of President Obama in his State of the Union address calling this decision a means by which we will "open the floodgates" to foreign special interests and corporate lobbyist influence over the actual results of our elections themselves.
I feel both the SCOTUS and perhaps LiberalViewer as well have concerned themselves too much with entities that deserve very little concern or express protections of the court while neglecting to see the ramifications of said decision on the people that truly represent democracy at it's core.
To put it plainly: this appears a "open door" policy in terms of slash-and-burn negative political ads at the end of a campaign cycle to force a candidate to lose based on hyperbole, as we have seen before in politics. Slime works, and I as I understand it the SCOTUS just ruled in favor of slime in our elections.
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UPDATE!
Russ Feingold at CounterPunch.org explains what Sam Donaldson was speaking about that I referred to as "inaccurate" in the above piece.
I was under the impression that he was saying that Soft Money limits are now gone under this ruling but in fact it he was speaking to the issue of spending directly out of the treasury without limit.
***Thanks to Paul J. Rourke for bringing this to my attention and providing the link.
In the 3rd person shooter, gamers will have the chance to be either 'Stargate Command' or the 'System Lords' as they use the 'Stargate' to travel and battle for 'galactic dominance'.
"Stargate Resistance" (SGR) was developed by Firesky and Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, the studio behind MMO role-playing game "Stargate Worlds".
Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em, darlings…
This photo courtesy Fellow Fashionista On the Fringe of Fashion.
Cover, September 2007.
French Vogue, April 2009.
French Vogue, February 2008.
German Vogue, September 2009.
Italian Vogue, August 2007.
Italian Vogue by Miles Aldridge.
Italian Vogue, December 2005.
Italian Vogue, May 2008.
Italian Vogue, October 2009.
Japanese Vogue, October 2008.
Numero, February 2007.
Numero, March 2008.
Numero, September 2007.
Russian Vogue, March 2009.
Russian Vogue, October 2008.
V, May 2009.
Numero, May 2001.Of late, I am such a dramatic person.
Well, don’t get me wrong. I don’t mean that I am turning into a histrionic person – not at all. (If I do, well.. I am not sure what will happen to me and my blog. One thing for sure, everything will be covered with bling bling stuff. Cool!).
So, no histrionic but dramatic. What’s this all about?
I didn’t update my blog in these few days because I was packed with my life in campus. Lol.. I sound like a very dedicated student although I am not. Am I?
Here are some summaries on what had happened in my life in this whole, exciting week. I’m trying to reduce my procrastination in writing about my stories. So many things to write but so little time.. =(
#1 First of all, it is about the election day in my campus, University of Malaya.
I was one of the representatives for Tan Kee Aun who is the candidate. I believe you have read about this in my previous post. No? Well, read choose freedom because you don’t wanna miss any of the pictures, right? =)
We, the Green team were busy running for the campaign in the campus for the past few days (since Tuesday to Wednesday). It was a short period, only 2 days (to do our manifesto legally). So far, this is the shortest campaign I had ever experienced in the campus because previously, it took at least 1 week to run the campaign.
Although it was just a short moment, it was an amazing one. I could never imagine how adventurous and wonderful the journey could be, running for the campaign with a bunch of AWESOME PEOPLE. Yes. They are terribly awesome and I couldn’t find any other better vocabulary to define them.
I will never forget my first meeting with the few of them: Adilah, Firdaus, Terrance, Ruth, Gorge and Lavania in the MPMUM meeting room to paint the black and white banners. I was quite an introvert (which weird in my case) that day when I met them because I was new and had no idea on how to initiate nor join in their conversations (since they already know each other). Plus, my English isn’t that fluent. Well, I don’t have good English background and most of my friends and family members speak Chinese or Malay. So, I felt slightly apart.
Anyway, it didn’t take long for me to get in to the group because all of them are so friendly and warm. They make me feel like I have known them for ages. That’s the reason why I say, they are the AWESOME PEOPLE with positive energy. I’m lucky to be invited to join the team. Thank you Kee Aun, and my dear friends.. *hugs*
Somehow, it didn’t work quite well with Gorge during in our first meeting. There was an awkward silence in the beginning of our conversation.
Me: Hi Gorge.
Gorge: What’s up?
Me: Emm… good day.
Gorge: *silence*Good day?
Me: *puzzle* (can’t I say good day? something new mah)
Gorge: *shocked* Good day?
Me: Well… I’m joking..
Gorge: *turning to Lavania and Kee Aun* Can you believe it? She said good day?
Me: *blushed* Well… o_O
Ahhww.. seriously, I was embarrassed for answering him with the answer. I thought of, why not saying something different, other than fine? or great? Treating it as a joke. Didn’t know the respond will be…. urgh.
I told Ilyana on the next day and she laughed like mad.. fine.. =_=
*****
Back to my story about the election day.
Tan Kee Aun failed to get into the MPMUM list with 2800 votes. The votes aren’t enough for him to join the MPMUM this year. No dancing in the rain with joy, shouting and singing the song of freedom and no buffet (ignore this part.. i am currently hungry over here while blogging this. lol).
The news did disappoint me when Kee Aun announced his loss in the election on Thursday evening (about 7.30pm). I was upset. We had been working so hard for the campaign but failed to get in to the final round. Somehow, he did cheer me up (and other sms readers) with a motivating and thankful words in the end of the message.
“Tan Kee Aun – 2800 votes. It wasn’t enough. But we have gained so much more than that. Much much more.. =) Thank you for all your support. Thank you for believing in us. Thank you for being free”.
I know they love us so much because we are awesome. Lol.. Watch this if you don’t believe in me.
Last but not least, we have gained a lot of trust and unconditional support from the students who believe in us. Of course, the credit should be given to Kee Aun because he really played his part well and leaded the whole team with organizeed strategy. He is a real good leader, who is not just ambitious in achieving his dream but also a friend who will care for his team-mates. For example, he will let the team to rest and encourage some of us to attend classes. Ahhww… isn’t he just so nice?
In my case, I have learned a few great lessons during in this period of time:
Thank God for everything you have planned for me. Thank you for showing these lovely people to me as I have learned so much from them. Hope to see them again in future (which I believe we will). Yes? =)
#2 Bones Cracking & Muscles Pain
If you still remember, I did tell you about my ‘virgin excitement’ for taking acting class this semester. Acting class is something new to me because I have never taken any ‘artistic class’ other than art and music class.
Somehow, the excitement slowly reduces. It turns into a scary experience – Bone Cracking and Muscles Pain class. Why? You’re asking me why? I have never been told that students in the acting class will have to do exercises (like yoga) in the class for a straight 2 hours. Well, it wasn’t a big problem for me to do all the streching stuff. But at least, tell me earlier because I was struggling while doing all those moves with my JEANS.
I know. I should wear something appropriate during in the class because we have been told earlier. But because of I have to help Kee Aun with the campaign, I couldn’t wear anything else, except jeans (as i have to walk all around the campus area).
So, in the end of the class, my bones and my muscles were in great pain – like an old lady who fall down from 20 stairs.. =(
However, the funny thing is.. I was energetic when it comes to CAM-WHORING! You know me right.. when there are mirrors… you will see my images from the mirror in my camera.. kekekz.. XD
This time, I have my friends with me… siap dengan posing lagi.. lol.
It is good to have this collection of photos because it will record all my memories including the bones and muscles pain experiences.. =_=
#3 Kabhi khushi kabhi gam
Rani, one of my coursemates took her ‘salwar kameez’ (Preetilata told me in facebook about the name of this beautiful costume) to class on Friday and she persuaded me to wear it. In fact, she forced me! *serious tone*.
Ok lah.. I am just joking. I was the one who wanna try it as I was so curious.
I got ‘wow’ from my audience and they said I look nice. Yeah, I do agree with them because this costume fits me well. Somehow, I look funny because the trousers look so Aladdin to me.. =P
Why he is so tall. Zz.
What do you think? Nice?
I guess, there will have no more drama in the coming week. It will be a more serious and formal one, because I am start giving counseling session to my clients. I have received a few appointments and I shall prepare myself starting by now.
Thank you for giving me such a memorable experiences. Love everyone of you here. Muacks.
P/s: Thank to Benjamin for your awesome photos.
