Citizens United is not the same as citizens united

In my email this morning there was a call to action from Change.org to sign the following petition to the US Supreme Court and Federal Elections Commission:

Disqualify Mitt Romney from running for President and file felony charges.

Research shows that it's a super PAC that's funneling the money to Romney's campaign.  In fact, super PACs came into being following the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission which

held that the First Amendment prohibited the government from restricting independent political expenditures by corporations and unions.

However, Romney's campaign may have overstepped the line when accepting a donation from a foreign-owned corporation as reported in the article by Michael Beckel at the Center for Public Integrity, "Huge Donation To Romney SuperPAC From Foreign Firm Raises 'Red Flags'."  For more on super PACs and their effects, take a look at this article by Mike Lux of Democracy Partners, "The Hidden Effects of Citizens United and Super PACs." (Note that Mike is CEO of "Progressive Strategies, L.L.C., a political consulting firm founded in 1999, focused on strategic political consulting for non-profits, labor unions, PACs and progressive donors.")

This is what PACs and superPACs mean to most of us (from Dave Granlund):

At the Center for Public Integrity site, you can check the sources of funding to super PACs. At OpenSecrets is a list of super PACs, both conservative and liberal, and data on recipients, donors, expenditures, and more.

More sunshine is always good.

-- Marge