The Comedy And Tragedy Of Super PACs

Last month WNYC public radio launched a funny silly little tool to mock the new dangerous phenomena that are Super PACs. The "Generate Your Own Super PAC Name!" tool shoots out mocking but all-too-true faux SuperPAC names (for me it chose "Augment Personal Responsibility").

According to the "technicians" at WNYC, the generator works in this clever formula: "Start with active verbs and patriotic nouns, sprinkle in synonyms for freedom and presto! You've named your Super PAC. Tweet out your favorites, or suggest some of your own in the comments below."

Funny as these names may be, a new report from Demos and U.S. PIRG, "Auctioning Democracy: The Rise of the Super PACs and the 2012 Election", explains that this is a (sadly) serious issue. The report crunches the FEC filings for these absurdly named but threatening SuperPACs to break down the situation leading up to November.

"Auctioning Democracy" includes a nifty breakdown of the most powerful (and therefore frighteningly powerful) SuperPACs. As you can see below, the names are just as funny as WNYC's satire would have you believe... and the contributions are just as frightening and huge as you would fear: