The problem with Lessig's (and the rest of the left) belief that "money buys votes" is that its provably false.

If it were true than we'd have had President Perot.

The problem is that another name for "lobbyists" and "special interests" is "The American People."

Sure there are some corrupt, monied interests distributing bribes among the lobbying set, but for the most part lobbying is the primary mechanism by which Congress hears from the American People (the other being elections, but those only happen once every 4-6 years for these jokers).

For every "evil, greedy, capitalistic" industrial/business lobbying organization there's a dozen AARPs, NRAs, Taxpayers' Union and other organizations that truly are the "voice of the people".

The whole point of campaign finance "reform" and lobbying "reform" is to further separate the Congress from the voices of their constituents ... and make everyone feel good about it.

This is where I fear the progressives may have already won.

The absolute distrust of capitalism and liberty by most of the electorate should scare the hell out of anyone that knows anything about economics or freedom.

Yeah, I'm mister cheerful ... I have a cold ... sorry.

well I did type a pithy response here ... one that frankly seemed less controversial than the post I posted below, but it seems to be lost in "Admin must approve" limbo :p

Back in 2004 Walter E Williams wrote a great piece titled something like "Why we're a divided nation" (google it, its a great read).
EDIT: figured I'd save y'all the googling
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/williams111004.asp

In it he makes the case that when decisions are made politically they are a "win/lose" affair whereas decisions made by the market are more likely to be "win/win", so the less power government has the less contention there is over who is in office.

The reason Americans don't trust Congress (or government in general) is not because of how they're funded, they don't trust government because it has way too much power over our daily lives.

When it comes down to it, massive limits on government power would negate the concern over campaign financing (if the bastards have the power to screw with you it doesn't matter whether they're doing it because they're jerks or because they've been bought off).

A massive pay cut, elimination of pensions, Term limits. Constitutionally required balanced budgets, part time legislature and remote controlled shock collars would solve the problem much better than restricting free speech 60 days before an election (or even worse handing over all funding of our elections to the government itself ... talk about the fox guarding the hen house ... I've concluded that anyone promoting government funded elections are either completely stupid or absolute evil).

Wow, its almost frightening how much Kathy Griffin looks like George Sanders in drag.

"What sort of person could argue that Michael Oher — or Precious, for that matter — would be better off staying in the system if the alternative is to be taken care of by white people?"

The answer is simple. Anyone who's livelihood and political power are derived from convincing poor black people that "Whitey hate you. Whitey only gonna keep a brotha down. Gubmn't is gonna get even with Whitey for you."

Yeah I'm pointing my pasty white finger at you; Sharpton, Jackson, Obama and the rest. Shame on you.

I happen to have the same model ACOG as pictured on my AR (a TA101NSN). Now in addition to being the best glass I've ever put on a rifle, I can revel in the fact that my scope is pissing off liberals AND Muslims.

One possible positive to this stupidity is that there is a chance that there will be a glut of shiny new verse marked ACOGs on the market thus driving the prices down (these things are pretty doggone expensive ... it cost as much as the rifle its on).

Just when I thought the whole "Hitler finds out _________" video meme was tired and played out, this comes along.

Hilarious.

Both the video and the election in Mass.

Hmm ... so Gitmo is a "recruiting tool" for Jihidists ... so we were running Gitmo in the 1680s and that's why they tried to invade Europe (and made it as far as Vienna)?