Can substantial, lasting immigration reduction be accomplished without first turning off the bribery spigot by which corporations run Congress? Many of us doubt it.
Open Secrets
Investigate money in politics with this useful resource
The Center for Public Integrity
Investigative journalism focusing on Washington politics
The Corruption of American Politics
by Elizabeth Drew (book review)
End Legalized Bribery
by Cecil Heftel (book review)
Public Campaign
The clean money campaign page of author and former Congressman Cecil Heftel
Granny D's Home Page
Doris Haddock is the 90-year-old reformer who walked across the United States for campaign finance reform.
FURTHER READING:
This San Francisco Chronicle story about the passage of legislation allowing 200,000 H-1B high-tech visas annually has some interesting quotes about the part that money played in the final outcome. (Open Secrets gives the figure of $22,000,000 spent by information technology businesses to have their way with Congress in the 2000 campaign.)
He Who Pays The Piper Calls The Tune
An article in the online magazine IntellectualCapital.com about the Congressional pander scene.
How the Little Guy Gets Crunched
Articles in Time magazine by investigative reporters Don Barlett and James Steele focusing on what legal political bribery costs citizens in terms of taxes and loss of fairness to ordinary people.
Media Money: How Corporate Spending Blocked Political Ad Reform
Charles Lewis of the Center for Public Integrity writes in the Columbia Journalism Review about how media wants to maintain the status quo in political broadcasting. Free air time for candidates? No way.
Gov. Davis and the failure of power
Arianna Huffington tells how financial contributions to Gov. Davis dulled his interest in California's approaching electrical power supply meltdown. From 1998 to the December 2000 plug pull of the state's Christmas tree, Davis took in $550,000 from Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric.
Where it pays not to fundraise
Maine's form of public funding has encouraged ordinary (but qualified) people to run for office.
Cornering the Airwaves
Paul Taylor describes how the broadcasting industry has made out like bandits and blocked reform.
Utilities lobbied hard during California energy crisis
Is big money to blame to the state's energy shortages?
The Torch Flames Out
Musing about the stupid political corruption of Sen. Robert Torricelli leads writer Jacob Weisburg to conclude that Washington's money-imbued culture infects politicians who are not inately dishonest, just susceptible.
Money is property, not speech
The Supreme Court makes it clear, thereby clearing the way somewhat for campaign finance reform.
