Just in time for David Koch’s birthday-

Brave New Foundation and Robert Greenwald are releasing a new documentary on the billionaire Koch brothers, among the most sinister faces of the 1%.

Set to widely inform and activate audiences across the U.S. on the egregious influence of money on politics, this film documents efforts to suppress voter rights, re-segregate public schools, weaken EPA regulation, privatize Social Security, and how the Kochs’ immense echo chamber of influence comes into play.

Stephen Colbert explains Citizens United as only he knows how.

RNC Loves Citizens United

“In a brief filed yesterday in the Fourth Circuit, The Republican National Committee has taken the position that the prohibition against corporations driving money directly to candidates or to political committees is unconstitutional.”—RNC Files Brief in Support of Unlimited Corporate Campaign Spending byJessica Pieklo, Care2

Newt Gingrich Embraces SuperPacs

“After ineffectually whining about being totaled by Mitt Romney’s “negativity” in the Iowa primary, Newt Gingrich may have decided that revenge is sweeter. A pro-Gingrich Super PAC is preparing to unleash a barrage of negativity on South Carolina voters.”—Vengeance is Mine, Sayeth Newt by Mary Bottari, PR Watch

Mother Jones Editors Clara Jeffery and Monika Bauerlein on Dark Money

Mother Jones Editors talk to Bill Moyers about Dark Money

Will Obama Expose Big Corporate Spenders?

A executive order requiring that federal contractors disclose their electoral spending—by top officers and as corporations—is being reconsidered by the White House despite stiff opposition from the business lobby after it was first proposed last spring, according to civil rights attorneys working on the issue.—Will Obama Issue an Order Exposing Big Corporate Political Spenders in Citizens United Era by Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet

Mother Jones profiles the 20 Biggest Donors to 2012 Election campaign so far.

The Uptake interviews citizens at the Iowa caucuses. Do these Santorum, Romney, and Paul supporters like Citizens United? Not much.

“Who Should Pay for Campaigns and Elections?” by Allison Herrera, The Uptake

States Fight Back Against Citizens United

“The Supreme Court may have declared in Citizens United v. the FEC that corporations have a First Amendment right to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence elections, but that doesn’t mean cities and states have to be happy about it.”—How Cities and States are Sticking It to Citizens United by Brooke Jarvis, Yes! Magazine 

“What will it take to overturn the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United? Perhaps a viral video! Here is “It’s Viral,” with The Nation’s own Katrina vanden Heuvel, Jim Hightower and more. Exec produced by the We the People Campaign. Think it’ll work? And while you’re thinking, repost!”—“This Video is as Absurd as Corporate Personhood” by Laura Flanders, The Nation

Election 2012: 'Swift-boat on Steroids'

“This is the most spending, in 2012, that we’ve ever seen in the history of the country—and even the world,” Lisa Graves of the Center for Media and Democracy said in a telephone conference with reporters today. Thanks to the Supreme Court’s two-year-old Citizens United decision, most of that spending, she added, is “dark money”—money spent by shadowy, unnamed groups in order to influence the outcome of elections. “It’s swift-boat on steroids,” Graves quipped.—“Election 2012: ‘Swift-boat on Steroids’” by Ruth Coniff, The Progressive

“Over the past 30 years, [James] Bopp has been at the forefront of litigation strategies that have reshaped campaign-finance law inexorably. Having helped pave the way for spending in the 2012 elections that’s likely to exceed the 2008 level by several billions, Bopp is already well into the next phase of his crusade to topple as many of the state and federal limits on the role of money in politics as can be done in one man’s lifetime. His targets include two of the few remaining bedrock principles of money-and-politics law: disclosure mandates and the prohibition against unions and corporations giving directly to candidates and parties. He’s also juggling cases that go after dollar limits on contributions, attack elements of public-financing programs, and chisel away at other facets of the regulatory regime. “

-“Citizen Bopp,” by Viveca Novak, The American Prospect

“Santorum is far from the only Republican to dismiss the idea of a constitutional amendment targeting Citizens United. On Friday, at a firearms factory in Newport, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich similarly dissed a Citizens United, in response to a question from a factory worker. Instead, Gingrich said, the nation’s campaign finance laws should be changed so that outside groups—like the pro-Romney super-PAC Restore Our Future that hammered Gingrich in Iowa—are marginalized and more funds go to a candidate’s actual campaign.”

“Rick Santorum: Anti-Citizens United Amendment Is “Horrible”,” by Andy Kroll, Mother Jones

“American Tradition Partnership will appeal to federal courts regarding the Montana Supreme Court’s incorrect and contemptuous ruling last week,” ATP’s Executive Director Donald Ferguson said in a release. “We, and impartial legal scholars, are confident these unbiased courts will uphold the First Amendment rights of Montanans to speak freely about power holders.”

-“Anti-environmental group vows to fight for ‘God-given rights’ in wake of Montana ruling,” by David O. Williams, The Colorado Independent

"[Cities and states are] expressing their disagreement on an increasing number of battlegrounds, with Citizens United under challenge in courts, in city council meetings, in state legislatures, on ballots, and in the streets."

- -“How Cities and States are Sticking It to Citizens United,” by Brooke Jarvis, Yes! Magazine