SCOTUS: America For Sale To Highest Bidder
I remember arguing with Democratic strategists about the Alito and Roberts nominations to the Supreme Court. I said instead of focusing on abortion rights, a divisive issue, we should sound the alarm about their strongly pro-corporatist rulings. But hey, what do I know?
And now, the predictable results. I can't tell you how depressed I am about this:
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court has ruled that corporations may spend freely to support or oppose candidates for president and Congress, easing decades-old limits on their participation in federal campaigns.
By a 5-4 vote, the court on Thursday overturned a 20-year-old ruling that said corporations can be prohibited from using money from their general treasuries to pay for their own campaign ads. The decision, which almost certainly will also allow labor unions to participate more freely in campaigns, threatens similar limits imposed by 24 states.
It leaves in place a prohibition on direct contributions to candidates from corporations and unions.
Critics of the stricter limits have argued that they amount to an unconstitutional restraint of free speech, and the court majority apparently agreed.
"The censorship we now confront is vast in its reach," Justice Anthony Kennedy said in his majority opinion, joined by his four more conservative colleagues.
However, Justice John Paul Stevens, dissenting from the main holding, said, "The court's ruling threatens to undermine the integrity of elected institutions around the nation."
Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor joined Stevens' dissent, parts of which he read aloud in the courtroom.
The justices also struck down part of the landmark McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill that barred union- and corporate-paid issue ads in the closing days of election campaigns.
Advocates of strong campaign finance regulations have predicted that a court ruling against the limits would lead to a flood of corporate and union money in federal campaigns as early as this year's midterm congressional elections.
I've discovered at least one conservative blog where they are giddily happy about this.
I asked if they think this will lead to a smaller government, and less government control over the people. No answers yet.
Go here if you're not: http://www.freespeechforpeople.org/homepage
Ohhh...I can't worry about this! The Conference Championships are on this week.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
are (as always) clueless as to what this entails.
I weep (and slightly envious) for their ignorance.
"When are we going to stop trying to tell elected officials what to do. Our job is to spend the taxpayers' money the best way we can." -- Tommy Watkins, Justice of the Peace, Crawford County, Arkansas
... from the Bush Crime Family's administration, but larding the Supreme Court with Roberts and Alito is one of the worst of them. Two young, smiling fascists, eager and willing to continue the corporatization of this nation -- and the world.
It's a long-term cancer.
BID
What a difference a decade makes. Ten-years ago 5-robed fascists appointed George W. Bush POTUS. Now, they have given the right to appoint the president to the corporations. Is this a great democracy or not???
How about "The evil men do lives on after them".
Based on this free speech for corporations ruling, will corporations soon have all the rights of the individual?
This ruling may have been a mistake for the Conservatives. They 'win' in the short run, but in the long run this looks like an issue Right & Left can agree about, and come together on; which that is the last thing our Politicians, especially the conservatives, WANT. They've been working very hard, for decades, to DIVIDE Americans, to make us hate and fear one another. It'll be a bad day for them when All Americans recognize how we've been conned, overcome our anger and fear of each other, and direct it at those who deserve it.
So far, the Right has been successful in blaming the "evil baby-killing Liberals" for all our problems: but they can't blame us for this ruling.
Supreme Court with Roberts and Alito, two
of the worst buys from the bush/cheney criminal
administration. they will destroy the Constitution
to the benefit of the wingnutmilitia gop.
Democratic strategists are a huge part of the problem for the dem party.
not to mention that far from being against pro-corporatist policies, they actively advocate for them.
the new democrats (the clintonites, rahmbos, DLC'ers) work on behalf of corporations anyway.
the new democrats (the clintonites, rahmbos, DLC'ers) work on behalf of corporations anyway.
Mission Accomplished
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
anyway?
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
A Clintonista takeover.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
How can anyone say Clinton is responsible for this travesty? If Democrat Senators had filibustered Kennedy and the other corrupt horrors now 'serving' on the court, this would not have happened. This is Pure Bush/Cheney and Democrat Sell-out (Lieberman+) shit.
I never much cared for Clinton, but our Congress did NOT have to accept the Supreme Court ruling on Bush v. Gore. They had a choice and they opted out.
and finished with Bush II. Or "Bush Number 2," as I like to think of him.
Law of Unintended Consequences plays out at some point.
for America.
it's over.
the ol' saying goes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFi4kIRZnRM
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
No, We Can't.
It's finished.
BID
I gave-up Hope after he died.
goddamn right America is over.
which short of open revolt tomorrow morning makes all our musings on this blog simply full of sh*T
Scalia is next taking a swing at this icon: John Stagliano, porn scion
http://greendoorxxx.com/28
..."The Associate Justice, arguably the grouchiest man in the Assembled Bunch, hasn’t been this off-put since interning beneath Spencer Tracy in Boys Town, back behind the cloister, or those days of lore at fabled Georgetown Law, where BBFF abounds, but those aren’t popsicles there, Buster. And if ‘blood drips from Cheney’s teeth’, per Alan Grayson, then surely dickcheese has made immobile Scalia’s unattended equipment, and like Dick Cheney and his 9-11 fete, one would fear we’re all gonna have to pay the price."
read more at link
your name's Lebowski, Lebowski... and your wife is Bunny
running their ads but publc financing of elections would help keep them from giving directy to candidates. It should be a wakeup call to congress.
that wake-up call won't lead to a strident opposition to the fascist-izing of the country, but just the opposite. this will make members of congress even more deferential (f that is possible) to corporate demands.
congress got the message: individuals no longer count.
has the power to go against that candidate, congress should support public financing. They could lose their seat also. They should move on it while the Dems still have a majority.
Forty one.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
But I'd like to see the dems make the repugs go into filibuster overdrive - issue after issue, 24/7.
Won't happen. Harry Reid will be spending too much time under Mitch McConnell's desk to vote.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
spinal injury?
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
that would require a spine
Throw Harry out of the Nevada Ocean!
as we speak. This needs to be corrected ASAP.
They'll simply rule in favor of the corporations, Net Neutrality goes *poof*, and only those who can afford bandwidth will be able to distribute content in a meaningful sense.
Small/independent press might work, but not if they privatize the postal service, because again - only those with the bucks will be able to handle mass distribution.
The only reason I still get news (national and international). Sometime I think China is the only entity that really appreciates it's value (not in a good way). You're right, it's value just went up some more too.
the likelier we are to start fighting them, All of Us. Remember the Crazy Right is a minority. They think/act like they are majority, but they aren't. Nor are they braver, smarter or better armed than Liberals. Despite the propaganda they eagerly gobble down, Liberals as a group are NOT opposed to gun ownership. Soon owning guns may be the only right people have left.
You will be missed.
It is Transnational Corporations.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Bad Deal
Robert Heinlein nailed that in his novel Friday (1982). When I first read it, I thought that was not plausible, but I've seen it becoming more and more real as the decades have passed.
I don't believe the Dems can or will reform from within to do what we know is the right thing. A progressive 3rd party might be able to move or compel things to where they need to be but I recognize it will bring pain along the way too.
What I do know is this, Main Stream Democrats might as well be Rs because they don't have the strength to resist the Rs. Independent is the only way to go as far as I can see, and maybe the Dem's will follow.
The American Corporate party has two-wings(GOP & Dems). So really, the green party & the others are actually second parties.
true enough...:(
And I stupidly thought that Bush had finished shitting all over the Nation.
Just imagine what it would have been like if McCain had gotten this set of replacements. Federal (but not Supreme) appointments will be leaving marks for a long time too.
We need a law that gives freedom of speech to the shareholders of corporations:
"Each expenditure of money by a corporate entity in furtherance of the election campaign of a political candidate shall be authorized by a majority vote of the shareholders of that corporate entity. Such vote shall be published and shall list the name and residence of each shareholder."
This approach gives each shareholder a one-person/one-vote representation in each corporate decision to spend money on a political campaign, maximizing the freedom of political speech for each shareholder.
They'll simply issue non-voting stock to the peons (i.e., employees).
Congress can word the law such that, for this purpose, there's no such thing as a non-voting share. Anyone who owns even one share of (normally non-voting) stock can vote on an equal footing with the largest shareholder. And if one share of stock in corporation A is owned by another corporation B, well then, corporation B will need to take a vote among all of its shareholders (not shares) to decide how to cast its single vote concerning corporation A's expenditure.
Pelosi "doesn't see the votes for healthcare".
Of course not, she's got a teabag in her eyes.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
The decision over ruled at least two long standing precedents and went beyond the controversy to decide a broader issues. Roberts, Scalia, Alito, Thomas -- all claim that they "just follow the law" and deplore judicial activism. What a load!
Actually, the fabulous four are selective judicial activists based on the constitutional amendment involved. You just have to understand which ones the fabulous four like and which they do not like.
For example, the fabulous four like the following amendments:
First Amendment - but ONLY as it pertains to equating money with speech. When it comes to the speech of poor people, there is a lesser degree of judicial scrutiny;
Second Amendment - the finding of an individual right to bear arms disconnected from the formation of an actual state militia;
and their favorate amendment . . . .
Eleventh Amendment - which has been distorted of all meaning to establish a concept of sovereign immunity which flows philosophically from the divine right of kings, and the corrollary principle that the king can do no wrong.
They will continue to show judicial restraint with the other amendments to the Bill of Rights. Just yesterday, they found no Sixth Amendment violation of the right to counsel when trial counsel unreasonably failed to tell the jury that sentenced his client to death that he was mentally retarded. See Wood v. Allen (7-2 decision).
USA is under going a structural change in which our standard of living is adjusting downward to catch up with the rest of the world, get used to it. The only people exempt from reality are federal govt. employees, they don't have to adjust to this reality in the near term, the rest of us do.
Oh yeah, there's not a dime's worth of difference between boosh and Gore.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
What do we do about it?
Push even harder to get true progressives elected? Can we even hope to achieve this when a corporate lackey can be ushered into the halls of power on a wave of cash? (The same is true of third party candidates - we're all behind the 8-Ball of corporate $$$.)
Roll over and kiss democracy goodbye? (Or at least hold a wake. But a good, rollicking Irish wake, or something appropriately Viking, where we extoll the virtues of the fallen before sending it off to Valhalla.)
Can we at least hope corporations outsource Congressional jobs to save money? I'm sure I'd get better representation from an anonymous service rep in New Delhi than I've been getting in Washington, D.C.
I got a sinking feeling in my stomach when I read this.
Might as well rename the country the "United Corporations of America, Inc."
We are so fucked.
Religion will be the downfall of Humanity.
... when they sell everything to Dubai.
because we'll never be able to revoke corporate "personhood".
Ever.
Religion will be the downfall of Humanity.
http://www.freespeechforpeople.org/homepage
"The censorship we now confront is vast in its reach," Justice Anthony Kennedy said in his majority opinion, joined by his four more conservative colleagues.
Where was this dickhead when Habeus Corpus was suspended and when the illegal surveillance by ATT was being carried out??
Corporatist tool = fascist supporter
"Secular humanism -- a fearless, realistic world view replete with doubt and scepticism that attempts to attain an unachievable state of equilibrium between and among the human qualities of reason, intuition, imagination, memory, ethics and common sense.
There you have it. All four branches of the government on the take.
(The Fourth branch being the press)
Great my pants are getting wrinkled
So's my face...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
it is available.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/12/14279404_75...
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
...say hello to your new corporate masters. Who knows? We might even begin to enjoy oligarchy in a century or so.
"Buy the ticket, take the ride."
Hunter S. Thompson
private contractors doubled in Iraq since the surge. I wonder if corporations will get the power to draft?
who needs a corporo-draft when they can just pay their mercs double what they would earn in the armed forces? not to mention the high unemployment. far from needing a draft, with the amount of people wanting/needing to get into the merc buisness, the corporate killers will have more skullfuckers than they know what to do with.
is a slave revolt. If Haiti did it, any slave population can.
A company like Enron could now pour even more money into the system, opposing any candidate snooping into their finances.
thank Scalia and his lapdogs.
The American Democratic Experiment-RIP
... on watching that 41 vote 'majority' become an actual majority later this year?
It was nice to know you.
Perfect. Just the shot in the arm this Nation needs...a gang of Lieberman's running around making law.
Aw no L&L that gang is called the AIPAC.
...yelling at the television when some goof dropped a ball...life was so simple then.
So easy when you know who to hate...
and NE Patriots...the two most evillest teams ever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oMRPd0HMUQ&fe...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
♪♫Good night America how were you?♪♫☻♪♫
Yes. Abortion was just a red herring. The real agenda has been corporatist all along...for both parties.
the entire "culture war" has been an elaborate dem-rep dance which served, nicely thank you, to distract the nation from the further entrenchment of the corporatocracy.
not to say that gay rights and abortion aren't important issues--but, skillfully so, they were public distractions while real power was consolidated.
to the new Versailles, where courtesans/courtiers (read the Fortune 500) will skulk about the palace halls whispering self-serving plans to grab more power into the ear(s) of those who govern. "Sotte voce" -- the quiet voice -- will constitute the vehicle for decision making while the teeming unwashed/serfs will grind out a pitiable existence in a wash of adolescent pop culture and of mood altering chemicals. Winston Smith for President!!!
"Secular humanism -- a fearless, realistic world view replete with doubt and scepticism that attempts to attain an unachievable state of equilibrium between and among the human qualities of reason, intuition, imagination, memory, ethics and common sense.
It's "sotto voce."
My Italian is a no-go. My Irish/Welsh background is of no help but my intention is clear.
"Secular humanism -- a fearless, realistic world view replete with doubt and scepticism that attempts to attain an unachievable state of equilibrium between and among the human qualities of reason, intuition, imagination, memory, ethics and common sense.
to call abortion out for the fishy business it was and is.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
A wave of progressives and liberals will be hitting other shores seeking political asylum and religious freedom. But after the mess we've made here, those countries may not let us come back.
I am considering migrating to Italy. They're screwed up but at leat they know it.
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves"- Abraham Lincoln
Obviously, our values are not appreciated nor wanted in this country.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
The American People are obviously content to be ransacked by the corporatists while they suck up to the anarchist thugs that provide the muscle.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
Good observation. I understand Italy a little better than average as I traveled there and my Mom had a villa on Lago Majore near the Swiss border. It's chaotic but the food is great.
Your name sounds Italian -- do you speak the language or have relatives there or something?
I thought it was French.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Lunch with Berlusconi and Scalia on a deck in Riomaggiore. Oh, well, the view is really nice.
"Secular humanism -- a fearless, realistic world view replete with doubt and scepticism that attempts to attain an unachievable state of equilibrium between and among the human qualities of reason, intuition, imagination, memory, ethics and common sense.
.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
is something we all experience in our lifetimes.
I just spun around once in my office chair.
Left out one key word.
lemme try again...
revolution is something we MAY all experience in our lifetimes.
Sounds painful but it should be better than a civil war.
they usually are.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9VhD4SccSE
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
???
Corporate tool!
/snark
Like the brain-drain that took place in San Francisco during the 90s when housing costs skyrocketed forcing artistic/alternative types to flee to Oakland or Portland or elsewhere.
Now we are really screwed. I seriously worry about my childrens future. This is beyond sad.
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves"- Abraham Lincoln
who's fluent in Chinese, he should move to China after he graduates from College. He'll have a brighter future there than here.
personally.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
for the next hundred (or more) years. And ever so slowly, they are doing more and more for their people. I did say slowly - they are granting rights while ours are being taken away.
breathe in all that lovely polluted air, and drink the delightful water laden with heavy metals, and have only one child, and be present for the next Chinese revolution....
Let us keep in mind that the corpora-fascists have already got a strong foothold in the Orient.....
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
to another country and settle there. that's probably their best hope. this is going to be totalitarian before it's over.
Hopefully this will lead to more transparency in government.
I need to know the Congressional price list so I can utilize my donations effectively?
For example, what's the price differential to get the Senate Majority Leader to mow my lawn or pick up my kids from school? Is it less for a regular Senator? How about Committee Chairpersons?
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
sell your vote to the highest bidder.
Just go to the legislative offices in your district wearing a shirt that reads:
Will Vote For $$$. Who's Buying?
And ask the candidates how much they are willing to give to buy your vote. Call it what it is - an auction.
What is the point?
What did Miss 'Wise Latina' say during her Q&A with Congress? Something to the effect of that the SCOTUS has no role in politics, it's only function was to interpret the law? This country is SOOOOOO SCREWED. Chalk another broken promise up for the new Prez. Well at least the country got away from RepubliKKKan rule for awhile. Lot of good it did. The next one will probably be Palin come 2012. The Great White North is looking better and better.
Government + the Federal Reserve = organized crime
O Beautiful, for licensed skies
For Monsanto's trademarked grain
For mainstream media's travesty
And our eternal shame!
America! America!
God's work ain't done for free!
So bend thy knee
To corporate greed
From sea to shining sea!
mind if I steal that?
n/t
Song Of Ricky, Inc.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
...steal this song!
n/t
They want the freedom to drown out freedom of speech in an ocean of corrupt cash.
I don't care for Norah O'Donnlel and want the world to know... That feels better :)
Study the symptoms not the virus...
She IS easy on the eyes though...but other than that...meh...
...or can Chinese and German corps chip in too?
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
Communist corporations and fronts for drug cartels... they're all more important than us.
Doesn't make any difference as the big corporations are just about all global now anyway.
Borders aren't as important as $$$$$$$
Barnes & Noble!!
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
and frightening point. Given globalization and merger mania, it's rather difficult to separate out firms anyway.
everyonce in a while (a squabble erupts) a Gambino shoots a Genovese'...
but the cops are never called, the Genovese' is quietly buried, and the game continues...
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
We went from the 'Greatest Generation' to
'The Generation That is Willing to Bend Over and Take it in the Ass'
From Greatest Generation to Rear Guard.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
the 'Greatest Generation' raised the 'Most Happy To Submit Generation' so tell me, just how great was this greatest of all generations?
So we'll no longer be able to trust anything we hear about candidates or propositions, and that helps Democracy how?
Welcome to America' future. "I'll buy that for a dollar."
its a frackin documentary
I thought with Bush out we were off the highway to Idiocracy...
apparently nothing much has changed.
ago. I knew when he missed his chance to push Cheney's wheelchair down the steps on Inaugurations day there was no Hope and little Change to spare.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
The conservatives I've chatted with seem to think:
1. Bad for liberal MSM. Good for "us Americans."
2. "Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech..."
3. "And if... corporations can have unlimited speech rights... why would candidates ever need to cheat on campaign finance laws? This decision will usher in a new era of honest campaigns!"
I don't have a counter argument for 2. I can't even understand 3.
how a corporation can be considered to be human?
if one company bankrupts another, can they now be charged with murder?
... now claim it was simply a merger?
but that good ole santa clara county v southern pac RR "made" corporations "persons" in the eyes of the law, fully protected by the bill of rights as any indiv.
years ago i thought it possible that a case could be brought before the SCOTUS that would overturn that decision. what a fool i was. the SCOTUS would never take on a case that might jeopardize that ruling.
The rights of a person, but never, fucking EVER the responsibilities of a person.
can fix this entire mess. They can also nullify the corrupt decisions of a corrupt Extreme Court. Only takes one representative or one senator to get the ball rolling.
1. The 'liberal MSM' is as much a corporate creature as FOX News.
2. That's the key element in the decision - it grants personhood to a corporation, implying that they are entitled to the same rights as an individual. However, you might want to ask them why terrorists aren't entitled to those same rights.
3. Tell them George Soros thinks it's a great idea, and looks forward to buying the presidency in 2012.
Actually, you don't have to grant personhood to a corporation for it to have free speech rights. Free speech isn't given, it's not abridged.
... you're Alberto Gonzales.
"I can't recall" as many times as he can't remember.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
Number two is simply a childish restate of a government limitation without understanding how this decision impacts it.
Number three is more upside down logic. They're arguing that by allowing candidates to accept tons of money that they will not have to cheat the system to win. Of course, they think that the free market will prevent GREED on the part of the candidate ie selling their vote for MORE money. It's the same logic that led to the absolute greed in the financial services area.
Morans.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
I hope we had fun with that Senate Super Majority because it's the last one. We'll be lucky to ever have a majority again or Dem President.
is intended to be a factual statement
to grow.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
before too many years have passed in our transition to a fully totalitarian state that the Congress will be shut down by the corporations, should congress fail to tow the corporate line.
Mussilini corrected a journalist once who equated fascisim with totalitarian dictatorships. He said that their was an order in which event must unfold. fisrt that government and corporations must become sointertwined that it became impossible to tell where one began and the other ended. Then, corporations must become the government. Only then could the totalitarian gloves come off and the state begin openly preying upon the citizens in the manner of totalitarian/police state dictatorships.
We are now set up to go through that process. the only ways to stop it are to amend our constitution, or to stage another revolution/civil war while the corporate world's grasp on our military is yet incomplet (there is still too much chance that the military would side with the People). Our options are rapidly dwindling to but a few choices.
Blackwater will not. And, where is the military? Not here.
My baby picture:
http://www.african-safari-journals.com/image-...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
I would like to see your first pair of wrinkle free pants.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
.
grew in hairy.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
for such dismal news.
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