In the interest of full disclosure: the following was written by a born-again liberal hoping for converts. (Imagine...)
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On the topic at hand:

If corporations had to contribute to political campaigns in accordance with the wishes of their shareholders, such contributions could be considered a manifestation of free speech. Of course, they are under no such restrictions. Many Americans with fund investments don't even know they own stock in Microsoft, Exxon, IBM, or GE, and a corporation can can support any candidate who serves the short-term financial interests of its executives and its few top stockholders. Exxon or Goldman Sachs executives can now spend hundreds of millions to obfuscate and twist the facts as they oppose candidates who support environmental or banking regulations, not because those regulations aren't good for America, not because they aren't supported by their shareholders, but simply to line their personal pockets.

To state the obvious: GE isn't there "to bring good things to light;" quite the opposite: it's there to make money, even if that means obfuscating the truth. (By the way, if corporations deserve the same free speech rights as individuals, they should be following the same laws and paying the same taxes as individuals.)
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On "big government" in general:

There is a lot wrong with our government. Its size is not the problem. One doesn't have to look far for proof of this fact. Take the issue of government involvement in healthcare...

The popular, government-managed Medicare program pays 7% of its gross revenue on administrative costs. Private insurers average over 24%. This explains where billions of Americans' health dollars go; they go into the coffers of the insurance companies. They go into business promotion and huge payouts for wealthy executives. Certainly, at least in part, this explains why Americans spend 33% more per capita than any other nation on healthcare with poorer results!

Many European nations with much more government involvement in healthcare, have much better outcomes at far lower expense than the US. We're 16th in infant mortality, 17th in life expectancy, and not even in the top 30 nations in the number of physicians per 100,000 people.* Yet we thump our chests and swell with pride over being "the greatest nation on earth." People confuse our triumphant founding principles with the current reality. I guess, if you're a "proud American," you don't care how many less important Americans suffer, go bankrupt, or even die through no fault of their own just to save your paying a little more in taxes.

Current American conservative philosophy fails to recognize government as something we all came up with to promote the common good and tame our natural, individual greed. Conservatives need to wake up and smell the Wall Street bonuses and the Dioxin...

Laurie Norton
SenorN@aol.com
*check statistics at http://www.prlog.org/10020507-does-michael-moore-...