Last Straw

When a gov­ern­ment as deeply cor­rupt as the U.S. retains the label of demo­cracy you really have to won­der if the word still has any meaning.

No Right Turn on how bribery — oth­er­wise known in the U.S. as “cam­paign con­tri­bu­tions” — has turned health care reforms into a fas­cist money-making ven­ture for private insur­ance companies.

Bring­ing this into a New Zea­l­and context:

By rais­ing spend­ing lim­its and start­ing an arms race for dona­tions, National’s elect­oral fin­ance “reforms” risk tak­ing us down this path (with the added bonus of less dis­clos­ure than the US — Amer­ican politi­cians get away with it by shame­less­ness, not secrecy). Don’t let it hap­pen here.