Monday, June 18, 2012 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Monday, June 18, 2012 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 15 Usual brouhaha back in 'Blood' SCOTT GUMBINER | PAC power ALICIA KOVALCHECK E-MAIL ALICIA AT ALIMARKO(@(UMICH.EDU. 'Tru fang V Even the wh pire" th isn't more ly nast new se "True The se devolve e Blood' sinks its smartly allegorical look at bigotry in America to an unmitigated clus- s into new season terfuck of tangled plot twists and boring character additions. But. vith little zest there are still enough one-liner quips, sweet doses of southern- By KELLY ETZ tinged charm and excessive bouts Senior Arts Editor of nudity to make "True Blood" worth a tune-in. if you fancy yourself over Season five has already risen ole "vam- above the previous season's witch- ing, there *** tastic melodrama. The hideously anything drawn-out, will-they/won't-they delicious- True Blood Bill-Sookie-Eric love triangle fuss y than a is finally over. The second Sookie eason of Sundays at (Anna Paquin) made her non-choice Blood." 9 p.m" at the end of last season, Bill (Ste- ries has HBO phen Moyer) and Eric (Alexander d from a Skarsgard) immediately became 10 As University of Michigan Alumni, We've been supporting the UM Community since 1939... By Appointment 304 1/2 S. STATE ST. Above Ben & Jerry's j 734 6689329 WWWDASCOLABARBER&COM WALK-INS WELCOME! - O, HBO "The fact is that the system is broken. I predict to you there will be scandals," Sen. John McCain lamented on CNN this month when asked about the current state of campaign finance. Sen. McCain was referring to a 2010 Supreme Court Decision in which Citizens United sued the U.S. government for not allowing them to run an anti-Hillary Clin- ton ad during the democratic pri- mary, arguing that the restriction violated their freedom of speech as a corporation. The Supreme Court, in a monumental decision, over- turned the law, allowing unlim- ited influence by corporations and unions in national elections for the first time since 1947. Chief Justice John Roberts, writing the opinion of the court, argued that corporations have the same protection of free speech under the First Amendment as individuals, so their influence on campaigns should be limitless. Justice John Paul Stevens, however, adamantly objected to the court's decision, arguing that wealthy Americans will essentially have more political influence than poor and middle-class Americans who can't afford to make political donations. Unfortunately, Justice Stevens was right, and the disas- trous effects of the court's ruling are emergingas the election season heats up. Ultra-rich Americans now donate millions to what are known as Super PACs, political action committees that typically run attack campaigns on behalf of their preferred candidate. Super PACs drown out the voices of those who do not have the luxury to spend millions of dollars on political campaigns. For example, Sheldon Adel- son, a casino owner in Las Vegas, just donated $10 million to a Mitt Romney Super PAC. In a Forbes magazine interview, he said his political donations could be "limit- less" to prevent President Obama's "socialization" of America. Adel- son is worth an estimated $20 to $25 billion and could finance Mitt Romney's presidential campaign single-handedly if he so chooses. Adelson acknowledges that his personal wealth gives him greater political influence than others. "I'm against very wealthy people attempting to or influencing elec- tions," Adelson explained. "But as long as it's doable I'm going to do it. Because I know that guys like Soros have been doing it for years, if not decades. And they stay below the radar by creating a network of corporations to funnel their money. I have my own philosophy and I'm not ashamed of it." Adelson justifies his donations by the exam- ple of George Soros, a left-leaning activist who has funded Democrat- ic campaigns for years. This allows for continuous funding, as blame is always placed on others. Consequently, even when wealthy Americans are aware that they're literally buying extra polit- ical influence, they continue to do it anyway since that's simply how politics is played these days. The issue of wealthy Americans buying political influence will only worsen as our government expands and has a greater influ- ence in daily life. In the past five years, the government has expand- ed its influence by deciding which startup companies receive loans and which banks receive $1 billion in bailout money. Corporations not only have an ideological stake in election results, but they increas- ingly have financial stakes as well. The new ruling thus far has helped the Republican party more than Democrats. But the Citizens United decision has the potential to be disastrous for the future of free elections in the U.S. While there ought to be concern for keep- ing free speech in elections, ulti- mately the lower- and middle-class political opinions must be protect- ed from those with the money to buy influence. Scott Gumbiner is a LSA junior. HRALT1 101 UttrJS lO rfleA-cord~the to M P }alCl h9t Horse h CO-W\ toLc h Go O 0br O A (k fepCO c-f CIn b'tefrom ( thiS high school". JAMES BRENNAN Encouragi~ngapathy A threesome is not out of the question. times more exciting without the love-sick puppy dog auras hang- ing over their heads every waking moment. The premiere has their new bromance fully on display, with Moyer and Skarsgard each complementing the other to per- fection. They never needed Sookie anyway. Moving on to Sookie: she really is the worst character in the premiere, and, undoubtedly, the entire series. Her self-cen- teredness knows no bounds and her calm demeanor while clean- ing tattered bits of Debbie's (Brit Morgan) blown-off head from the kitchen floor just comes off way creepier than was probably intended. At least there aren't any pining lovers hanging around, besides poor Alcide (Joe Mangan- iello), who's truly having some bad luck in the romance department lately. Besides Sookie and Lafayette's (Nelsan Ellis) poorly played grief (did we really need the scene of Lafayette lying in the tub star- ing at the razor while the sad music mourns heavily in the background?), the rest of the pre- miere promises plenty of twisty plots to keep the next 11 episodes juicy. Especially compelling is the imminent return of suppos- edly dead, badass ex-Vampire- King Russell Edgington (Denis O'Hare), who breathed new life - so to speak - into season three and is the best villain the series has conjured up so far. What's more, we finally come close to the illustrious vampire "Authority," a constant teaser pres- ence.in previous seasons. At the same time, we meet Eric's sister, allowing "True Blood" to violate yet another social dictate. But the incestuous sex comes off asa cheap rip-off of HBO's golden child, "Game of Thrones," rather than a shocking moment. The series has to work a lot harder than that to shock it's audience with mere sex. Though the premiere did have its upsides - not the least of which is a newly gay, newly fanged Rev. Steve Newlin (Michael McMillian) and Pam (Kristin Bauer van Straten) in a sweat suit - there are still way too many plot lines to make sense of. And why does "True Blood" feel the need to constantly pull in a bunch of unnecessary new characters, who don't matter and no one cares about? We're looking at you Terry (Todd Lowe) and all the brouhaha with your former Marine buddy (Scott Foley) about the weird and pointless fires. But truly, the worst moment of the premiere has to be when Tara awakens as a vampire. "True Blood" just can't find the courage to kill off any big characters, which is unfor- tunate as there are way too many to begin with. And Tara has been use- less for a while now. What a perfect way to rid the show of yet another boring loose end. Instead, now we have to deal with Tara's whole baby vamp drama, when we've already gone through that mess with Jes- sica (Deborah Ann Woll) ages ago. "True Blood" really needs to stop taking itself so seriously. It's at it's best when the quips are flying and the cheese factor is high, as long as the series remains self-aware. The premiere makes the mistake of fall- ing into soap opera territory, with- out having any fun along the way. Still, the show somehow manages to be as addictive as V and equally unpredictable. It has its faults, but none so great as to make us tear our eyes away from the screen and, god forbid, miss whathappens next. ADDICTED TO (T)V? Follow us on Twitter @michdailyarts Some pundits are calling this November's presi- dential election one of the most important in recent history, a showdown that will determine the direc- tion of our country. They're right - there hasn't been a greater debate over America's political ideology in more than three decades, when Ronald Reagan took office and changed the face of conservatism, the Republican Party and America. With the soul of our country atstake this November, voting - and for that matter, illegal voting - is as important an issue as ever. However, a chink in the armor of our democ- racy still lurks: voter fraud laws. Voter fraud is a huge problem inAmerica. In 2000, the Gore campaign was accused of racking up thou- sands of votes from dead people. And currently, non- citizens are voting in threatening numbers, while other individuals are voting twice. Any American in favor of the principles of our democracy should see these issues as a great threat to the makeup of our government. But - and yes, there is always a but - there's just one problem: voter fraud is nothing more than a red herring to promote laws that will discour- age and deny legal voters. Though these laws may seem nonthreatening at first, they are far from it. They range from simply requiring a photo ID for voting to complex systems that confuse and push people away from register- ing, especially in low-income and minority areas. Requiring a voter to have an ID may seem innocent, but according to New York University's School of Law Brennan Center for Justice, some one in 10 vot- ers possess no photo ID. Getting a driver's license is a simple task for some of us, especially those with access to cars, but low-income people without vehi- cles or reliable public transportation have a more dif- ficult time. Obtaining a photo ID can be especially difficult, and in some states impossible, if one does not have a copy of their birth certificate, an issue faced by many older African-Americans. In fact, a 93-year- old woman has brought suit against Pennsylvania for its new voter laws, as she does not possess a driver's license or a birth certificate. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, requiring a passport or birth certificate to get an ID to vote would mean that almost one in every 11black adults would be dis- qualified from voting. In Florida, anti-voter fraud acts have predominantly targeted the Latino com- munity, as dozens of letters have been sent to eligible citizens telling them they can't vote. Further- measures influencing the process of voter registration greatly affect minorities living in poorer areas, where voter registration groups can have a huge impact. In Florida and Michigan, legisla- tion has passed putting unnecessary restrictions on such groups while creating short windows of time between when a voter can fill out his or her registra- tion and when it can legally be turned in. In Florida, the time is set at 48 hours and in Michigan at only 24 hours. These restrictions are hurting organizations trying to register citizens to vote, creating major roadblocks and little time to navigate through them. There are plenty of other laws on the books in Iowa, Texas, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Kansas and South Carolina - all of which are quite alike and defended in very similar ways. Voter fraud, for the most part, is not what people say it is. When fraud does occur, it happens at rates of about a hundred- millionth of a percent, as in 20 to 100 people will actually have illegally voted. On the other hand, voting will become "significantly harder" for some 5 million eligible voters. In Florida in 2000, some 20,000 people were barred from voting due to errors in voter restriction systems. Pair these issues with traditionally poor voter turnout, and the result is an ineffective law discouraging an already apa- thetic electorate. Regardless of whether this is a partisan plot to dis- courage traditionally Democratic voters from vot- ing in the upcoming election, or just another poorly developed anti-fraud policy, these laws are unac- ceptable. It shouldn't matter whether or not liberals or conservatives will benefit - what should matter is that the country formerly known as the "arsenal of democracy" is subverting the very philosophy we champion. If we want to end voter fraud, there are ways to do so. But those ways should not prevent thousands of eligible citizens from participating in our country's greatest tradition. James Brennan is a LSA sophomore. "I'm flattered you're all so concerned about my vagina. But no-means no' -Rep. Lisa Brown (D-West Bloomfield) addressing the Michigan House of Representatives, according to the Detroit Free Press. She was banned the next day from speaking in the House.