Nicko from the Sunlight Foundation says:
I thought Boing Boing fans would be interested in this funny little widget the Sunlight Foundation launched that generates PAC names. Some possibilities seem very realistic 'Americans for America PAC'…or a tad on the ridiculous side like 'Somber and Sober Citizens for and against Contradictions' or 'Mustachioed Tycoons for Short, Pithy and Informative Names for Political Action Committees'.
PAC names are often so agreeable, so reasonable, so inclusive, so damned American and yet they reveal nothing about who funded these groups. The Citizens United Supreme Court ruling that led to the explosion of independent expenditures in the midterm elections also spurred a growing list of meaningless titles for organizations. Here at the Sunlight Foundation we will continue to advocate for strong disclosure laws, but we also thought we could have some fun with these vacuous names that simply serve as filing fodder. As we trolled through the spending records from the midterm elections we were shocked at how many people seem to $peak out in favor of common sense, families and the future! Political Action Committees often have bizarre names, but as more and more groups pop up to shield the identity of the donors, the names seem to get even more off topic.
We created this handy (and oh-so embeddable) widget that generates possible PACs and illuminates the absurdity of these inane hollow names. The PAC Name Generator includes more than 28,000 possible fictional names and mixes in links to a hundred real PACs. Since the real ones are difficult to spot, we’ve linked more info on them from our Influence Explorer project and Follow the Unlimited Money site.
Sunlight's Political Action Committee (PAC) Name Generator
(Thanks, Nicko!)
