CNN news 2012-10-12 加文本

cnn news 2012-10-12

No less than 30 years and no more than 60. That’s the prison sentence for Jerry Sandusky. He is the former football coach at Penn State University who was convicted in June of sexually abusing young boys. An investigation blamed Penn State officials for covering up the situation. Sandusky’s lawyers say they plan to appeal his conviction. The night before he was sentenced, Sandusky maintained his innocence. He said, quote, “They can make me out as a monster, but in my heart I know I did not do these alleged disgusting acts.” One of Sandusky’s victim said that the prison, quote, “will never erase what he did to me.” The judge in the case told the victims that they would be remembered for their courage.

I’m Jonathan Mann, with another political jargon buster. What are super PACs? Their campaign attack ads are all over U.S. TV right now. Conservative Super PACs that back Mitt Romney.

And under Obama, nearly 800,000 more women are unemployed.

The private sector is doing fine.

And liberal Super PACs that support President Obama.

And Mitt Romney will never convince us he’s on our side.

Technically known as independent expenditure only committee, they are new kind of political action committee only without many of the same restrictions thanks to a pair of federal court cases, Super PACs can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money for or against political candidates. There is one key restriction. They are not allowed to work in conjunction with the candidate they support. But critics say Super PACs open election up to potential corruption.

And on both sides we have this incredible amounts of money, and I guarantee you there will be a scandal, there is too much money washing around politics.

As of late September, nearly 900 Super PACs has spent more than $270 million on this year’s campaign. According to the campaign spending watchdog group, opensecrets.org, their millions could influence the elections. Super PACs.

Another issue that can have an impact on this year’s elections, voter ID laws. Many of you have a photo ID that you might wear for school. In some states, voters are required to show ID in order to vote. The rules are different from state to state. In some places, the IDs have to have photos on them, in other places they don’t. And this voter ID laws are controversial. Professor David Schultz explains why.

Voter fraud, voter ID, one of the big issues affecting the 2012 elections. 37 states have already enacted legislation or are considering enacting legislation requiring people to provide photo ID when they show up to vote in person in elections. Supporters of photo ID argue that it’s necessary to prevent fraud, opponents argue its voter intimidation, or that voter fraud is not s serious problem in the United States. How does this debate start? It goes back to Florida, 2000. And in that race between George Bush and Al Gore out of 6 million votes cast, George Bush wins the election by 537 votes. Some claim that outcome was effected by fraud or by voter intimidation.