Puppetmasters

As every American who pays any kind of attention to the news has noticed over the last few weeks, the political election season has definitely kicked into a higher gear.

In Nebraska, the major signal for that time of year is also the primary election, which is tomorrow. What Nebraskans and other Americans around the country haven't seen yet, that those with early primaries, or in swing states have already seen, is the on-the-ground effect of what the monstrous flood of unregulated campaign money can do.

Nebraskans is getting a taste of the rich trying to buy our elections right now.

Starting last week, Joe Ricketts, the wealthy patriarch of the family behind TD Ameritrade, funded a massive, last-minute political ad campaign backing GOP candidate, and current Nebraska state senator Deb Fischer. While we're not huge fans of Jon Bruning, current Nebraska Attorney General and another Republican in the race, the ads that Ricketts backed are quite obviously a big money hatchet job, designed to drive Republican voters away from Bruning.

If that kind of big money attempt and the name Ricketts seem to ring a bell with you, it shouldn't be a surprise. Joe Ricketts' son, Pete, was the bald headed braggart who got beaten soundly by Democratic U.S. Senator Ben Nelson, back in 2006, after a multi-million dollar barrage of similar ads.

While this kind of thing shouldn't surprise Nebraskans, or really any American, too many citizens have yet to see the reality of this attempt to buy our politics outright - and it is in NO way a bipartisan affair.

The non-partisan OpenSecerts.org made that clear over the weekend, when they announced that Super PAC spending is already over the one hundred million dollar mark - and nearly 90% of that spending is for Republican candidates. What's more, thanks to the 2010 "Citizens United" decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, Americans have zero legal rights to see who is behind the $121 million that conservative "non-profit" groups have spent on political advertising, so far in this election cycle.

What's more, the Center for Public Integrity has found that the two major outside political groups associated with Karl Rove - American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS - have roughly 100 major donors, with most of those being completely 100% secret.

While Republicans are certainly far and away the biggest abusers of the near-lack of campaign finance rules that now exist in the U.S. - at a generally accepted 90%-10% ratio - the Democrats have also stepped up their dark money game too. While the above the table take at Hollywood actor and activist George Clooney's recent fundraiser for the President was $15 million, the Super PAC and untraceable money originating from that event going to the President's campaign and that of other Democrats is fully expected to be worth millions and millions more to Democratic campaign coffers.

For all those Americans who think that regulations are always bad, and that - as Mitt Romney has said - "Corporations are people too,"  they need to look at what the flood of nearly unregulated money has done to our politics in America. If you're in Nebraska today, all you have to do is look at your TV or newspaper, or listen to your radio, and try to go fifteen minutes without hearing one unknown rich group of political bullies or another blasting their opponents.

As Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens said in his dissent of the "Citzens United" case in 2010, “A democracy cannot function effectively when its constituent members believe laws are being bought and sold.”

Friday Funday: Wisdom And Mothers

If it's a day that ends in "y" in an election year, around our offices, it's also a day where new political stories are popping up. And even though there's yet another gaffe from Mitt Romney that calls into question his character and personal history, and a drug recall in Nebraska which effectively leaves the state without a way to enforce the death penalty, neither of those stories are subjects we're going to focus on today.

Today begins a celebratory weekend of sorts, for our staff, and we're sure for many of you.

To start with, it's Mother's Day weekend. So... to all our mothers, all the mothers who are reading this, and to Amy, our own staff mother, we say 'Happy Mother's Day.' If you haven't gotten your own Mom - or your mother in law - a gift or card, at least call her this weekend. Even if she's passed away, just whisper a quiet thanks to her. Seriously; without your Mom, you wouldn't be reading this right now.

Today also begins a celebration of Spring, as the folks we know at the UNL Dairy Store in Lincoln are hosting another edition of P.O. Pears 'Burger Madness'. When they can be sure the weather is nice enough, the folks at the Dairy Store celebrate, and use some great Nebraska beef and UNL cheese, to cook up one of our all-time favorite meals in a jiffy. If you have the chance, and are in Lincoln today, we highly recommend you join the spring celebration, and head to the Dairy Store on East Campus for lunch, outdoors. Don't forget to get dessert too!

Of course, we'd also be completely remiss if we didn't wish our staff member Shawn a very happy birthday this weekend. As he's jokingly told us, he'll take any gift anyone wishes to send him, whether those gifts are in cash, check, or credit form. We told him we'd buy him a burger for a gift, and throw in a few pennies for every year of his age.

Lately, everyone on our staff is noticing that Father Time seems to be tossing us all more than pennies, in the form of a bit more wisdom, even as he's also giving us a few more aches, creaks, and pains to go with his timely gift.

Planting the spring flowers was a bit harder this year, true. But the look on the face of Amy's daughter, when she got to play in the rain recently, was magical. We have been incredibly proud of some graduates in our extended family this month too - though we keep asking each other, with a smile, "Didn't that one just start college a few years ago?"

It's with happiness that we mention these unpackaged gifts that age has been blessing us with lately, even as we think back to when we were younger, and Mother's Day was simply a day when we might bring our Moms some flowers we'd just plucked from the field down the road. We remember the looks that our moms gave us, as they hoped we'd grow to be men and women they could be proud of.

We're not exactly sure they meant for us to be a cartoonist, or a radio producer, or a language translator, or members of the media. But we're pretty sure they'd be proud of us for being good citizens, good mentors, and good friends - to you and to each other. We're also fairly sure they'd be glad we share with you the humor of Paul's cartoons, along with the wisdom of experience in politics and the news we deliver every weekday.

That kind of humor and wisdom may not exactly be the type of gift you can plant in the garden, or save like a favorite Mother's Day card, but we're pretty sure it's exactly the kind of gift that our Moms would want for us - and hopefully for you, too.

Do good this weekend. Take time - for yourself, and others. Enjoy your life. Find a reason - and celebrate it. Tell the people closest to you that you love them. Have fun. Eat something good.

And last, but not least, no matter where your mother is, thank her.

Happy Mother's Day weekend.

Doing The Right Thing When It's Hard

We hope you noticed the major news event that happened on Wednesday afternoon, and how the two men, vying to be our next President, both acted - or reacted.

In case you were otherwise Occupied - like the Bank of America executives - or maybe just up in the air with your own crazy life, what happened Wednesday was that President Obama finally evolved on his public opinion of same-sex marriage equality.

In short, the President came out in favor of what most Americans believe.

That's not a typo. As Nate Silver and his team over at FiveThirtyEight.com pointed out, public opinion of Americans is clearly on his side. What's more, the improving trend of acceptance on the issue of same sex marriage looks to continue indefinitely.

Unsurprisingly, the cynics and Obama-haters immediately attempted to say this action by President Obama was purely a political ploy. It's obvious, though, by looking at Mr. Obama's past statements, and his comments in his interview with Robin Roberts of Good Morning America, that the President's current position is definitely something that's evolved.

That's not to say the President's decision today was politically easy. For those people who think that it was some kind of ploy to get all the far left liberals and gays to vote for Obama, because now they'll all be happy with him? They don't know their backsides from a hole in the ground when it comes to politics.

Technically, Obama's position on same-sex marriage is the same as former VP Dick Cheney's was in 2004, a position some on the far left still think is too far to the right. Truthfully, Mr. Obama is finally where the majority of Americans is on this subject, while Mitt Romney is to the right of both former President George W. Bush and Mr. Cheney on this issue. On this issue, extreme conservatives may have really hung Mr. Romney out to dry.

We fully admit; President Obama, coming out in favor of the full legal rights of LGBT Americans to marry anyone they choose would not likely have happened without a team of people pressuring the president, for an extended period of time.

For all those who think the fight is over, however, they are wrong.

Now that President Obama has made clear that he is in favor of equality under the law for ALL Americans, regardless of race, sex, faith, age, abilities, and now - finally - sexual orientation, the next step is to get laws that codify those freedoms, much as we once did for women and minorities. That step is still a long way away.

For President Obama to make this politically courageous decision, to come out with his position on this issue, at this time, very publicly, was evidently difficult. That Mr. Obama made the decision to do so, however, is exactly what we expect in a President - someone who can make the right decision, even when it's hard. Especially when it's hard.

On the right of LGBT Americans to marry who they choose, that decision has always seemed simple to us.

No one should have their fundamental civil rights put up for a vote of approval by other people. No one should be able to tell other Americans that whites and blacks can't get married, or that citizens and non-citizens can't get married. What people do in their houses of worship is up to them. What they - and we - all do together in our shared government space is not. We should all be free to love who we love, as most religions teach.

In a country that strongly claims to believe in equality for everyone, who each of us love and who we choose to sign a legally binding contract of marriage with, should not be up for the masses to decide.

We are a first class country. We should not have second-class citizens. Period.