Today’s New York Times cover story (also covered in Huffington Post’s cover story here) outlines how a group of millionaires are effectively purchasing for Mitt Romney the gift of winning Iowa in the Republican presidential primary, and are of course poised to repeat this action over and over through every state in the union.

The rise of the SuperPAC, allowed by the recent Supreme Court decision Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission created a scenario in which corporations or rich donors could “run their own campaign” on behalf of a candidate (or against a candidate) using unlimited amounts of money, as long as they did not coordinate with any specific candidate in their efforts. These independent campaigns have been termed “SuperPACs”, and what they represent is quite simply the now-public, unfettered takeover of the electoral process by corporate America.

Now, a handful of millionaires can, for the cost of a new private jet, pretty much buy an election for a candidate. The SuperPAC supporting Mitt Romney in the particular articles linked above is called “Restore Our Future”, and for $3 million, they torpedoed Newt Gingrich’s lead in the Iowa Republican primary with a barrage of negative advertisements against him starting on December 9th, effectively returning Mitt Romney to his spot at the top of the polls.

Question: Who do you think Mitt Romney will privately be thanking when he wins Iowa? The wise voters of that state who recognized the sense of his political planks? Or the several millionaires who made sure that Gingrich’s planks held no sway with those voters? And who will he thank in New Hampshire… and in South Carolina… where Restore Our Future is also hard at work? Will other private individual donors to Romney’s campaign who contributed the maximum $2500 even matter in his mind in comparison? Let alone the people who canvassed and volunteered their time for his campaign?

Who do you think all the down-ticket candidates who also have millionaires paying for vast swathes of advertising blocks are going to thank? Who do you think they are going to be beholden to when it comes time to write legislation?

At least before Citizens United, politicians had to be a bit coy with regard to their true allegiances to the big political sponsors. But how the hell can any politician pretend that he does not owe his political livelihood to the people who purchased it, when push comes to shove? The average American has become less of a factor in this upcoming election than he ever has been before, and as a result, will become less of a consideration when the issues of governing this country are discussed in the future. Government of the corporation, by the corporation, and for the corporation. That’s what we now have… thanks to Citizens United.

We got a rice cooker from Cousin Paul and Uncle Bob. (They had an extra.) Actually it is a pressure cooker that essentially doubles quite nicely as a rice cooker. (In fact, I can’t really tell the difference between a rice cooker and a pressure cooker… but I’m dumb like about things like that.)

Sunshine and I went out shopping. We went to Target first. I bought her a “clubhouse bathing suit”. I figured that her string bikinis, while great for the beach, would be a distraction around the aquacising senior citizens of the retirement community we are currently staying in, and something more modest would be the right thing to wear. Also we bought her a nice shirt to wear to Cousin Jonathan’s house on New Year’s Eve. After that it was off to WalMart where I bought Sunshine a hat to keep the sun off her skin (a nice straw beach hat for only 3 dollars!) and 10 pounds of rice. While walking down the Asian food aisle, Sunshine made a happy squeak and dashed over and started grabbing packages off the shelf. She had found her favorite instant noodles that she used to enjoy in The Philippines.

Sunshine is already melancholy about being away from home, and the noodles were a welcome change in her emotional state. Heheh: I didn’t think that lying on the bed, looking at Facebook, listening to Filipino music, and video chatting with her friends on Skype in The Philippines versus doing the same thing in The United States would represent such a great change… but hey… that’s Sunshine’s prerogative.

We chatted with our backdoor neighbor today, Brent. He is a deacon at the local cathedral church in Venice and said that he knew there were several Filipinos who attended regularly. So, for my Sunshine’s sake, this Sunday I shall take her ostensibly to join the local believers for worship… but in truth it will be a Filipino safari! Hopefully we will make some friends.

Today was a relatively cold day in Florida, but obviously that did not stop me from taking Sunshine out for her first day full day in America. We went to Siesta beach, since that is the first thing people thing of when they think of Sarasota: The “Best Beach In America.” (I heartily disagree, by the way: The first criterion for being a “Best Beach” is that it has to be empty… not filled with thousands of tourists. Second of course is that it have a cabana staffed by topless supermodels giving out complimentary margaritas and foot rubs… but that is down a bit on the list from criterion number one.) But other than the frigid temperatures (high-60′s for both air and water), Sunshine was duly impressed.

After cocktails tonight, I took Sunshine out to see Christmas lights. There is a neighborhood with about 6 houses whose home owners have truly and utterly lost all sense of perspective and meaning regarding the Christmas holiday, and jumped in full bore with some over-the-top seasonal displays. Sunshine was duly impressed.

I had not realized it, but Sunshine’s camera that I bought her as an anniversary gift had started to give up the ghost before she left The Philippines, and hence she left it behind, figuring it to be worthless. (The battery cover would no longer close.) I’m sure it could have been easily fixed; it might even still have been under warranty. Regardless, I have ordered a new camera, a Sony DSC-WX9, which seems to be the best low-price small-size digital camera on the market: 16 megapixels, full 1080 video recording… all for under $150 on the ol’ Best Buy credit card. The down side is that it is so popular it is back ordered everywhere, so I will have to wait 2 weeks or more for its delivery. In the meantime, I have my mother’s old camera with which to snip snapshots. It’ll do.

Sunshine arrived exhausted. We had an uneventful trip home, and had cocktails with Uncle Bob. Then a steak dinner cooked on the grill. (A1 steak sauce definitely a hit.) Then lots of phone calls back to The Philippines to let everyone know she arrived safely. Then off to bed for a 15 hour snooze. In the morning, first experience with a dishwasher and garbage disposal.

It is going to take me a couple of weeks to get the look of the blog tweaked to where I want it. So in the meantime, just ignore any craziness you may see. I’m going to be up to my ears with getting reacquainted with my wife after 14 months apart… and tweaking the blog may wind up being secondary for the time being.

I just got off the phone with Sunshine. She was just stepping into the airplane in Manila, coming to live in America. 14 months apart… Christ I have missed her and I will be so happy to have her in my arms again.