Annotation for source 1

Source:
United States. Consent Judgement in the Case of the Federal Election Commission v. Citizen's Club for Growth Inc.. , 2007. Web. 20 Oct 2010. <http://www.fec.gov/law/litigation/club_for_growth_consent_judgment.pdf>.

This document is the ruling of the U.S. District court made by the the judge ruling on the case of the Federal Election Commission versus The Club for Growth, a conservative political action committee that funds campaigns of candIdates who are in favor of Laissez-faire economic policies. In this case, the FEC, a governmental body that regulates campaign funding restrictions and regulations sued the Club for Growth over their failure to properly identify themselves as a political action committee when donating money to the Republican party during the 2000, 2002, and 2004 election year cycles. This allowed the Club for Growth to exceed the donor limits placed on Political action committees in their support of specific candidates and also to exceed limit on how much a corporation could donate to the club (See order 3.). In relation to my inquiry, the document is an example of corporations attempting to effect the outcome of elections by donating not only to campaigns but also to groups who produce television advertisements advocating the election of a specific candidate. In addition to revelaing the ability of corporations to affect political discussion via the primary media, the television, this document reveals that if given the opportunity, companies are willing to spend an illegal amount of funds to in any way promote candidates who are in their favor.
In my inquiry, I would use this document to further point out the necessity for action to be taken to diminish the role of corporations in the parlor room of ideas. Given this example of the willingness of corporations to take any advantage possible to further their own interests, I would argue on the need to keep the Internet, where corporations hold the least disproportionate power safe from perversion from groups attempting to have a disproportionally greater role in the Burkean parlor.