Local governments are the training grounds for people who go on to become state and national politicians. Cities and counties shouldn't spend taxpayer money on a lot of things: golf courses, parks, midnight basketball, tax breaks to entice businesses to open up there ... the local and state governments don't have any more legitimate authority than the federal government does; a lot of what is done by the local and state governments is without legitimacy, despite arguments that they can do pretty much what they please, because they're "sovereign" or because the state government is and passes the authority on to the local governments. Look up the law dictionary definitions of sovereign and you'll see what I'm referring to.

The rich are rich because they have good connections to local, state and federal government officials who 'help' them and they, in turn, 'help' the officials with campaign funds and free trips. The poor are poor, in large part, because they're lazy and have been convinced that they are the victims of some scam; e.g., white racism causes black kids to not have a father around; white racism causes black kids not to develop the ability to control themselves in public; white racism causes black kids not to be able to learn ... aka, the "White Devil" theory of American history.

A bit off target. Corporations were not formed for business convience such as having one person sign a lease rather than "..all the stockholders". If that were the object, a part of the shareholders' agreement would be some designated company officer could sign. They were formed as a means of limiting the liability of shareholders to thevalue of their shares and corporate "personhood" - a neologism for juridicial persons, I assume - is to avoid responsibility for their actions when they're acting "for the corporation". The parts about the First Amendment, of course, are entirely correct: those who own a business via the corporate form of organization have every right to support whoever and whatever they want in politics.

We've already been doing that for thirty or forty years now. It's called 'dumbing-down' the curriculum and 'grading on the curve' and multiple-guess test questions. Why do you suppose so many college grads can't read and right any modern language or perform simple arithmetic without a calculator??

Accepting more money from people who also have contributed to your political campaign, in order to have money to pay off your pregnant girlfriend is not a violation of the campaign finance laws. It's other things, but not that. And that's what happened, but Edwards and his big-time hot-shot defense team are too stupid to admit that that's what happened. Whether Edwards asked them for the money to pay her off or whether one of his staffers did, either at Edwards' request or on his/her own initiative, doesn't matter. He got money from his buddies to pay off his pregnant girl friend, period.

Why are the rich enamored of President Obama? Are you really that ignorant or just fishing for a title for your article? How about this: because he's the first one who's given them over $1 trillion in cash and drawing rights at the Fed with no strings attached, other than take the money and shut up. Imagine how much he's going to give them if he's re-elected and - as he told the Russian President - is "free to do more"?

Yes, it's a reign of terror all right. Those RINO's and other fake conservatives who are office-holders under the GOP party are terrified that they'll have to do something other than pass money and favors to the businessmen who support them as well as the state and local government officials who give them the 'help' to keep getting re-elected. Why is that? Because we are tired of that same old crap and we're not going to vote for them anymore just because they say, "Oh, I'm a Republican!!"

You miss the point of all of the government's interventions into the economy. Local, state and federal governments intervene in the economy to insure that the people who now have the political power and the economic advantage don't lose those powers and advantages. Plain and simple. That's why the fight at election time is always so savage: everything is up for 'grabs' by whoever controls government at its various levels. No? Examine the GOP's presidental nomination race and what was the dominant theme? Electability, not competence, not conservatism, not desire to fix what is broken. Rather, "Can our guy beat the other guy?". Look and listen to how shrill and irrational most - if not all - political stuff is.

Of course that was the original intent. It was the quid pro quo that the Democrats gave to the political leaders of Black America in exchange for the uncritical votes of Black Americans. Why do you think that any genuine reduction in welfare is quickly attacked as "racism"?

African-American parents can protect their sons by teaching them not to act and dress in ways which make a casual observer suspect that the son has the intention of committing a criminal act. When you dress like all the local hoodlums dress, move and talk like them, what can you expect than to be - at first look - considered a hoodlum looking to commit a crime. Teach them not to wander about in the back yards of other people's homes at night, particularly in a high-crime area. Teach them, most of all, not to start a fist fight with a person who has a gun. Teach them self-control, to speak something that resembles proper English, to not respond to a question they don't like with an attack. Empathy is fine but doesn't prove a crime.