Sorry excuse for an election system

I was sorry to see Edwards bow out of the race, but sorrier still to see once again how our lousy election system plays out. Nine months before the election, and we're already down to basically three candidates -- two on the Democratic side, one on the Republican. And of course, no independents. And it's all because of the corrosive effects of big money.

Make no mistake, it is because of the huge piles of cash involved that states try so hard to jostle near the front of the line with their primary dates. Everyone knows the biggest pile of money gets thrown at the early states, for the reason we're seeing play out now -- candidates (and their backers) feel they cannot compete if they don't get some early victories.

For one thing, it shouldn't be a winner-takes-all approach for the delegates -- just like it shouldn't be for the electoral college in the general election. For another, and I know I sound like a broken record on this subject, but we have GOT to get the big money out of our election system altogether. What we end up with every single time is candidates who serve their constituency alright, and very faithfully. Unfortunately, that constituency is not the voters, but the ones who helped them buy those votes with big ad campaigns -- their big money donors.

This is the underlying cause of ALL our problems, I feel. We cannot begin to address the real, underlying solutions to our myriad crises in this country without first addressing this one. Only when candidates feel a real need to do what the public wants will they begin to solve our problems. Health care, environment, military, corporate greed, the economy -- the reason these are SO screwed up is that our so-called 'leaders' have been led by the nose themselves, right to the feeding troughs of the very rich.

Hell, give 'em all immunity, into forever - why not?

The Democratic takeover of Congress appears to be ready once again to flex its muscles, this time to give in to Bush's demands for immunity to the telecommunication industry for their acquiescence to Bush demands to help him spy on Americans.

Hey, why not? The Dems gave blanket immunity to the administration itself when House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi said early on that "impeachment is off the table." Sure, let 'em slide, after all, they only trashed the Constitution, invaded a country under false pretenses, broke every treaty they could, blithely threw out Habeus Corpus and started torturing people like it was fun and games at a carnival dunking tank.

They're also letting the entire banking industry and the Wall Street hacks who profited off the sub prime loans off the hook, because, hey, it's only destroying our economy and sending us into possibly the worst recession in decades -- or worse. Let's just throw a little money at some people and say, "sorry." That should take care of it!

The pattern seems to be to not make anyone responsible for anything, at least if they might contribute to your party's political campaigns somewhere down the line.

So, while our fearless leaders are in such a giving mood, why not just give blanket immunity to all corporations who give or may give campaign donations, into infinity, for any potential wrong-doing? And of course, we must extend this blanket immunity to politicians, because without it, they just can't do their jobs! (Which is to do the bidding of said corporations.)

This way, there is no need for any more of these painful "debates" in Congress, where our "representatives" must wring their hands and verbalize concern for the people being crushed under the weight of a government gone mad. And then we can get back to the happy talk of "prosperity" and the economic tide "lifting all boats." Yeah!

Primarily $$$

Who can deny our political system is dominated by big money? No one, but many differ on what the real impact is of all that cash.

Some say it's no big deal, that's just the culture we live in. Even the Supreme Court, years ago in a fateful decision that I believe has hampered real democracy in the USA, basically said that money equals speech, and therefore is protected by the free speech provisions in the Constitution.

Oh, sure, that makes sense. So Joe CEO gets one million dollars worth of "free speech" to every buck of mine. Hmph. That don't seem so fair to me.

Anyway, the grotesqueness of such a system is now on full display once again, and we're headed for yet another record-breaking election of lavish campaign spending. As the corporate-owned media decides for us whose voices are worth hearing, we will most probably get stuck again with Tweedledee vs. Tweedledum.

And whoever gets elected – Tweedledee or Tweedledum – they will be beholden to their constituents: the big-money donors who got them there, NOT us.

Until we can manage to fix this fatal flaw in our electoral system – as well as some other little details like making the voting system transparent and verifiable – we will continue on the inexorable slide we are on, the fast track to hell in a hand basket.

First issue of new era is out!

With the new year in 2008, we are beginning a new era here at the Humor Times. For nearly 17 years, the publication has been available free all over the Sacramento area, supported by advertising.

Over the last few years, the advertising revenue of this local edition began to wane, until we were actually losing money on it. This can be explained by any number of factors, including the fact that print advertising is down nationally, due in large part to the rise of the internet. The Bush economy, too, must share a big part of the blame, as small businesses are struggling all over, while the huge corporations rake in record profits. (And niche publications are very dependent on small, local businesses.) Whatever the reasons, however, we decided to end the free edition and concentrate solely on the national, subscription edition of the Humor Times. The current issue – out now – is the first without the accompanying local version.

In the final few issues of the free edition, we invited our longtime Sacramento readers to join our growing ranks of satisfied subscribers, and to our delight, many have. We hope even more will, as they begin to miss the free version. The subscription edition has always had a lot more content, and is well worth the paltry $17.95/year (12 issues) we ask for it, we believe! You can even get the downloadable PDF version for a mere $9.95/year!

And right now, you can get $2 OFF the domestic (USA) and PDF (available internationally) rates, just by ordering a subscription and entering "HTnews" (without the quotes) in the Discount Code blank! Hurry, this offer is limited!

If you've never seen the publication, you can order a free sample for a limited time to check it out. It is a 24-page tabloid size magazine, full of the best political humor you'll find gathered together anywhere! It features the finest in editorial cartoons, humor columns and "fake news." If you like Comedy Central's Daily Show and Cobert Report, for example, or political humor of any kind, you'll love the Humor Times!