Who owns this candidate? And the survey says...
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Just a thought that popped into my head... Consider this idea partially ripped from Robin Williams, who in his latest stand-up act, suggested that politicians wear jackets with the names of all of their sponsors... Like Nascar drivers. See, one of the problems with the government is that too many candidates are "owned" by special interest groups and corporations... So here are some off-the-top-of-my-head ideas... 1) This applies to any candidate running for federal office. If it's successful, then state and local governments could choose whether or not to adopt it. 2) If they aren't already, all campaign contributions MUST be recorded. This includes non-cash gifts, TV time, etc. 3) When a candidate is put on the ballot, and in related materials, right under his/her name would be a list of the top X contributors, in descending order of financial contribution. Aggregate corporate contributions by parent company, or figure out some algorithm that will accurately depict who's writing the checks, and cannot be manipulated to hide this information. (Don't let companies distribute their contributions among subsidiaries to avoid being in the top 10, for example - Aggregate to counter that) 4) In addition to putting this stuff on the ballot, make both the aggregated and complete list freely available via the Internet on a close-to-real-time basis. Small contributions (Less than a thousand, for example) would be omitted, small-to-medium contributions from individuals (Not companies) would have their names obfuscated for privacy. Large contributions from individuals ($100k+, for example) would have names listed. So... Think this would solve anything?
Proud to have finally moved to the A-Ark. Which one are you in? Author of Guardians of Xen (Sci-Fi/Fantasy novel)
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Just a thought that popped into my head... Consider this idea partially ripped from Robin Williams, who in his latest stand-up act, suggested that politicians wear jackets with the names of all of their sponsors... Like Nascar drivers. See, one of the problems with the government is that too many candidates are "owned" by special interest groups and corporations... So here are some off-the-top-of-my-head ideas... 1) This applies to any candidate running for federal office. If it's successful, then state and local governments could choose whether or not to adopt it. 2) If they aren't already, all campaign contributions MUST be recorded. This includes non-cash gifts, TV time, etc. 3) When a candidate is put on the ballot, and in related materials, right under his/her name would be a list of the top X contributors, in descending order of financial contribution. Aggregate corporate contributions by parent company, or figure out some algorithm that will accurately depict who's writing the checks, and cannot be manipulated to hide this information. (Don't let companies distribute their contributions among subsidiaries to avoid being in the top 10, for example - Aggregate to counter that) 4) In addition to putting this stuff on the ballot, make both the aggregated and complete list freely available via the Internet on a close-to-real-time basis. Small contributions (Less than a thousand, for example) would be omitted, small-to-medium contributions from individuals (Not companies) would have their names obfuscated for privacy. Large contributions from individuals ($100k+, for example) would have names listed. So... Think this would solve anything?
Proud to have finally moved to the A-Ark. Which one are you in? Author of Guardians of Xen (Sci-Fi/Fantasy novel)
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Just a thought that popped into my head... Consider this idea partially ripped from Robin Williams, who in his latest stand-up act, suggested that politicians wear jackets with the names of all of their sponsors... Like Nascar drivers. See, one of the problems with the government is that too many candidates are "owned" by special interest groups and corporations... So here are some off-the-top-of-my-head ideas... 1) This applies to any candidate running for federal office. If it's successful, then state and local governments could choose whether or not to adopt it. 2) If they aren't already, all campaign contributions MUST be recorded. This includes non-cash gifts, TV time, etc. 3) When a candidate is put on the ballot, and in related materials, right under his/her name would be a list of the top X contributors, in descending order of financial contribution. Aggregate corporate contributions by parent company, or figure out some algorithm that will accurately depict who's writing the checks, and cannot be manipulated to hide this information. (Don't let companies distribute their contributions among subsidiaries to avoid being in the top 10, for example - Aggregate to counter that) 4) In addition to putting this stuff on the ballot, make both the aggregated and complete list freely available via the Internet on a close-to-real-time basis. Small contributions (Less than a thousand, for example) would be omitted, small-to-medium contributions from individuals (Not companies) would have their names obfuscated for privacy. Large contributions from individuals ($100k+, for example) would have names listed. So... Think this would solve anything?
Proud to have finally moved to the A-Ark. Which one are you in? Author of Guardians of Xen (Sci-Fi/Fantasy novel)
I don't think it is even necessary to go this far in detail. Make it like patches on jackets for categories. #1: "Big Oil" #2: "Mining companies" #3: "Right (left) Wing Media" #4: "Environmentalists" #5: "Fundamentalist Christians" etc... I just need to know if he is in the pocket of a group I want deciding if my drinking water is fine with some mercury, my TV should tell me only about Christ and how certain groups are the devil, or if my gas should cost more than my college education did for a full tank."
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I don't think it is even necessary to go this far in detail. Make it like patches on jackets for categories. #1: "Big Oil" #2: "Mining companies" #3: "Right (left) Wing Media" #4: "Environmentalists" #5: "Fundamentalist Christians" etc... I just need to know if he is in the pocket of a group I want deciding if my drinking water is fine with some mercury, my TV should tell me only about Christ and how certain groups are the devil, or if my gas should cost more than my college education did for a full tank."
That's an even better idea. The original idea would result in names that no-one would be able to easily decode to trace them back to their source.
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.