Follow the links: Bloodsuckers and Mad Men

Need to catch up on your reading and raise your blood pressure?

A horrifying story by Mark Ames, posted on Alternet, details how the private equity firm Cerberus Capital made $1.8 billion by "paying peanuts to human plasma donors, and then manipulated the market by restricting supply to the desperately ill." Cerberus is run by by free-market fundamentalists and GOP apparatchiks, including Bush II Treasury Secretary John Snow and Dan Quayle.

And from the New York Times this AP story raises the Simpsonesque possibility of big-budget, Superbowl-style ads for political candidates, courtesy of corporations, astroturfers, and deep-pocketed advocacy groups, should the Citizens United v. FEC decision fall in favor of dismantling existing federal bans on such activity. The article raises some good questions as to whether certain industries are more likely to back one party over another, and the long-term threat to bans on direct corporate contributions to candidates.