The goal of the 1%? Buy off politicians, suppress voters, pay no taxes and send the 99% off to war.

[Cali_Democrat]

Buy off politicians?

Billionaire Adelson Pledges Unlimited Campaign Contributions To Mitt Romney

Newt Gingrich benefactor billionaire Sheldon Adelson and his wife Miriam have contributed $10 million to Mitt Romney’s super PAC Restore Our Future and now Forbes reports that the couple is willing to spend a “limitless” amount or more than $100 million to help defeat President Obama in November. And while $100 million sounds like a lot, the donation is just a drop in the bucket for the casino mogul.

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/06/14/499513/billionaire-adelson-pledges-unlimited-campaign-contributions-to-mitt-romney/

Citizens United Court decision opens floodgates for corporate cash

The Supreme Court on Thursday opened wide new avenues for big-moneyed interests to pour money into politics in a decision that could have a major influence on the 2010 midterm elections and President Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign.

The long-awaited 5-4 decision overruled all or parts of two prior rulings by the court that allowed governments to restrict corporations and unions from spending their general funds on ads expressly urging a candidate’s election or defeat. But the decision upheld disclosure requirements for groups like the one that brought the case.

The decision, handed down in a special session of the court, is generally expected to boost Republicans more than Democrats, because corporations and corporate-backed outside groups tend to align with conservatives and also often have access to more money than unions or liberal outside groups.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31786.html

Suppress voters?

The GOP's Voter Suppression

Much like it does every four years, the debate on who should be allowed to vote has once again resurfaced. Predictably, the minority vote, youth vote and poor vote are going to be discouraged by Republicans wherever they can get away with it, even as the courts wave red flags and call foul.

Jim Greer, former Chair of the Florida Republican Party, went on Al Sharpton's show to boldly cast the nearly transparent curtain aside from the ugly face of the Wizard of Florida. In Florida, as in other states, it's not the Democrats' imaginations that are creating voter suppression issues; rather, it's the systemic and predictable way in which Republicans are trying to discourage people likely to vote Democrat. They do this by creating arbitrary and unevenly enforced laws to create confusion and ultimately discourage the other guy's voters.

After an electoral spanking last cycle that was largely the backlash to neoconservative overreaches in the Bush Jr. years, Republicans were reflecting on how to deal with the surge of new and minority voters. "I sat in on many meetings where it was discussed how to make sure what happened in 2008, when Obama brought out the college-aged voters, the minority voters, never happened again," said Jim Greer.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ryan-campell/the-gops-voter-suppressio_b_1799012.html

Pay no taxes?

Under Paul Ryan's plan, Mitt Romney wouldn't pay any taxes for the next ten years -- or any of the years after that. Now, do I know that that's true. Yes, I'm certain.

Well, maybe not quite nothing. In 2010 -- the only year we have seen a full return from him -- Romney would have paid an effective tax rate of around 0.82 percent under the Ryan plan, rather than the 13.9 percent he actually did. How would someone with more than $21 million in taxable income pay so little? Well, the vast majority of Romney's income came from capital gains, interest, and dividends. And Ryan wants to eliminate all taxes on capital gains, interest and dividends.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/08/mitt-romney-would-pay-082-percent-in-taxes-under-paul-ryans-plan/261027/

Send the 99% to war?

War on Terror:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_Terror

War in Afghanistan:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Afghanistan_%282001%E2%80%93present%29

War in Iraq:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War

Sabre rattling against Iran:

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/feb/24/opinion/la-ed-iran-20120224

Why send the 99% off to war? To make money of course:

Iraq rebuilding contracts awarded

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The first contracts for rebuilding post-war Iraq have been awarded, and Vice President Dick Cheney's old employer, Halliburton Co., is one of the early winners.

The Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) unit of Halliburton (HAL: up $0.54 to $20.66, Research, Estimates), of which Cheney was CEO from 1995 to 2000, said late Monday that it was awarded a contract by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to put out oil fires and make emergency repairs to Iraq's oil infrastructure.

President Bush Tuesday asked Congress for $489.3 million to cover the cost of repairing damage to Iraq's oil facilities, much or all of which could go to Halliburton or its subcontractors under the terms of its contract with the Army.

http://money.cnn.com/2003/03/25/news/companies/war_contracts/

Still need more proof?

[aquart]

1. Stole your headline and linked it on Twitter.

Only way I can tweet since I was hacked.