There is nothing more American than pizza, a dish we stole from another culture, claimed as our own, and have argued about ever since. It’s deeply American in other ways, too; fatty, mostly cheap, and occasionally exceptional. So of course, it’s a clear favorite when it comes time for our presidential candidates to feed their hungry, freedom-loving staffers.

The latest numbers on presidential campaign donations for this election cycle show that even while all the candidates are vowing to take on Wall Street, the political power of Wall Street’s money is increasing.

Ted Cruz likes to tell a story about how he and his wife Heidi financed his scrappy, underdog campaign for the United States Senate four years ago together, out of pocket. This, according to a report from the New York Times, is pretty much a lie.

Harvard professor and campaign finance reform crusader Lawrence Lessig is running for the Democratic nomination for president. He was not allowed in tonight’s debates. Luckily, he stopped by to explain his entire platform to us.

Cartoonish evil billionaires The Koch Brothers have told their allies that the groups they support plan to spend $900 million to influence the 2016 elections. That's a lot!

If America ever wants to shed our cynical, accurate view of our political system being solely a game for the rich, we must—must!—reform the way we finance political campaigns. This week, Congress is determined to take a big step in the wrong direction.

Grim-face political celebukid and New York governor Andrew Cuomo has long vowed that he wants to reform the corrupt political cesspool that is Albany. How's that going?

It is election day, when we celebrate the uniquely American system of democracy, in which every single dollar gets a vote.

Conservative pundit Dinesh D'Souza was sentenced to five years probation and a $30,000 fine today for violating campaign finance laws. For the first eight months of his probation, D'Souza will have to live in a "community confinement center" and undergo "therapeutic counseling." Basically, he has to go to rehab for being a bad person.

A federal judge has struck down New York state's $150,000 annual limit on individuals' contributions to super PACs. Buy yourselves some of that Free Speech™, y'all. It's really getting to be worth something.

It isn't news that Mitt Romney is raking in donations by the millions, far more than Obama has brought in. On tonight's Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert examined the reasons behind this and the creative ways Obama is trying to catch up.

The shady ways that Super PACs influence elections with large anonymous donations have become a sticking point for Stephen Colbert and he revisited the issue on tonight's Colbert Report. Tonight he examined the even shadier 501(c)4 loophole where the organization never has to disclose donor information because they are technically "social welfare organizations" which is high comedy to say the least.

Remember when a Mitt Romney political action committee received a $1 million donation from "W Spann LLC," a mysterious company that was created in March and dissolved in July? And we all thought it was al Qaeda or Dr. Claw or someone? Turns out it was just a regular old rich guy!

Here's just the latest sign that our campaign finance laws are healthy in every way the Founding Fathers could have imagined: A secret company that no one knows anything about has given Mitt Romney's SuperPAC $1 million and quickly dissolved into nothingness. The folks behind this fly-by-night operation are probably relaxing on a beach in Mexico by now! Oh man.

The Federal Election Commission gets it — Stephen Colbert is punking them. But they treated his request for an advisory opinion like anyone else, and on Thursday granted him the ability to form a "super PAC" and have his parent company Viacom pay for most of the costs of the PAC's activities without having to disclose most expenditures as in-kind donations.

John Edwards' vacant, deranged smile gets twelve orders of magnitude creepier when its flashed in the context of a booking photo after his June 6, 2011 arrest on rather dubious campaign finance violations.

Great news for the holiday weekend, everyone: One of the last broad federal bans on corporate political donations has been declared unconstitutional by a freedom-loving U.S. District Court judge in Virginia.

Christine O'Donnell will file amendments to all the campaign finance reports her campaign filed during the 2009-2010 election cycle, a lawyer for the failed Delaware Republican Senate candidate wrote in a letter to the Federal Election Commission.

According to a new report, oil giant BP spent some $18,000 on the campaigns of climate legislation-blocking senators like James Inhofe. But don't worry! They also spent $7,000 on non-climate-legislation-blocking senators. So, they own almost everyone.

Good news: Sarah Palin's Neiman Marcus shopping spree was legal, the FEC declared. Which is good, 'cuz Tripp and Trig are growing boys and someone's gonna have to shell out for their toddler tracksuits. [ADN]