I am very disheartened with the news that the passage of the Disclosure Act has failed. And this on the heals of the Citizens United successful fight in which the Supreme Court voted 5-4 on January 21, 2010 to grant the rights of people to corporations. Many of us know how threatened, how increasingly imperiled the American democracy is. And many do not. And of the many Americans who know something is wrong, a large percentage also believe the corporate funded media propaganda that it is Muslims or liberals or gays or Obama, etc., etc. who are the real threat. I am compelled to do this post as one small way to stand up to the huge forces who are rooted in greed and power, who disseminate vast misinformation, distraction, and propaganda on the American public, and who want anything but democracy in America or anywhere else. May we all increasingly inform ourselves and spread the word in ways that are in support of creating a nation and a world that works for all.
Peace ~ Molly
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Corporations vs People
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini.
Citizens United v Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 50 (2010), was a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court holding that corporate funding of independent political broadcasts in candidate elections cannot be limited under the First Amendment.
The dissenting opinion by Justice Stevens[21] was joined by Justice Ginsburg, Justice Breyer, and Justice Sotomayor. It concurred in the Court's decision to sustain BCRA's disclosure provisions and in Part IV of its opinion, but dissented with the principal holding of the majority opinion. The 90-page dissent held that the Court's ruling "threatens to undermine the integrity of elected institutions across the Nation. The path it has taken to reach its outcome will, I fear, do damage to this institution." The dissent also argued that the Court's declaring of BCRA §203 to be facially unconstitutional was a ruling on a question not brought before them by the litigants, and so they "changed the case to give themselves an opportunity to change the law."
Stevens concluded his dissent with:
At bottom, the Court's opinion is thus a rejection of the common sense of the American people, who have recognized a need to prevent corporations from undermining self government since the founding, and who have fought against the distinctive corrupting potential of corporate electioneering since the days of Theodore Roosevelt. It is a strange time to repudiate that common sense. While American democracy is imperfect, few outside the majority of this Court would have thought its flaws included a dearth of corporate money in politics.
More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._Federal_Election_Commission
This landmark decision, approved by a 5-4 margin (with all 5 conservative Supreme Court Justices voting in favor), could unleash a torrent of corporate and union cash into the political realm and transform how campaigns for president and Congress are fought in the coming years.
"It's the most major Supreme Court decision in the area of campaign finance in decades — and a significant First Amendment decision," says Nathaniel Persily, a political scientist and law professor at Columbia University.
The new ruling blurs the lines between corporate and individual contributions in political campaigns. It also strikes down part of the 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign finance law that banned unions and corporations from paying for political ads in the waning days of campaigns.
More: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122805666
What we are seeing are just the initial stages of what will result in, among other things, a flood of corporate campaign cash. Conservative groups, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Karl Rove-backed American Crossroads, are gearing up to spend $300 million to hammer Democratic candidates in 2010, according to a Democratic Party memo obtained by The Washington Post.
There is no way private citizens can match the resources available to corporations to make their voices heard. That's why a public backlash against the Citizens United decision is so critical. Progressives -- galvanized by the brazen activism of the court -- have responded by organizing around a far-reaching pro-democracy platform and have already scored some important wins.
MoveOn has also embarked on what it calls its "most ambitious campaign ever" -- focused on overturning the court's decision through a constitutional amendment and passing the Fair Elections Now Act, which would bar participating congressional candidates from accepting contributions larger than $100 and allow them to run honest campaigns with a blend of small donations and public funds. (The Nation, of which I am the editor and publisher, is a coalition partner in this campaign.) Right now, the campaign is pursuing a goal of getting 100 members of Congress and candidates to sign a pledge endorsing this agenda before the congressional recess ends on Sept. 10.
Passing the Disclose Act -- which was recently defeated by yet another Republican filibuster -- would be a modest step in the right direction; it requires corporations to show how they spend money in elections. But the deep reforms needed to truly put democracy back in the hands of the people will require a long and tough-minded struggle by all small-d democrats.
In the mean time, corporations are free to do a lot more than just donate to less-regulated 527's. They have a blank check. As President Obama noted in his most recent weekly address, the Citizens United decision "allows big corporations to . . . buy millions of dollars worth of TV ads -- and worst of all, they don't even have to reveal who is actually paying for them. You don't know if it's a foreign-controlled corporation. You don't know if it's BP. You don't know if it's a big insurance company or a Wall Street bank. A group can hide behind a phony name like 'Citizens for a Better Future,' even if a more accurate name would be 'Corporations for Weaker Oversight.' "
More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/24/AR2010082405642.html
President Barack Obama is imploring Republican senators to allow a vote on new campaign finance disclosure requirements, warning them not to resort to political delaying tactics that would block the legislation.
Speaking in the Rose Garden on Monday, Obama said that by standing in the way of the bill, Republicans would be giving special interest groups increased sway in Washington.
"Corporate lobbyists will be able to tell members of Congress, if they don't vote the right way, they will face an onslaught of negative ads in their next campaign," Obama said. "And all too often, no one will actually know who's behind those ads."
The bill would impose new donor and contribution disclosure requirements on nearly all organizations that air political ads independently of candidates or the political parties. The legislation would require the sponsor of the ad to appear in it and take responsibility for it. Obama argued that the bill would also reduce foreign influence over American elections.
More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/27/disclose-act-faces-gop-fi_n_660461.html
Other important resources:
- Citizens United: People Strike Back
http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/citizens-united-people-strike-back
- Real People v. Corporate “People”: The Fight Is On
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/water-solutions/real-people-v.-corporate-people-the-fight-is-on
- U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 111th Congress - 2nd Session (who voted for and against the Disclosure Act)
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=111&session=2&vote=00240
-GOP lives up to expectations in votes today
http://webkit.dailykos.com/stories/2010/9/23/904679/-GOP-lives-up-to-expectations-in-votes-today.html
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The crippling of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism. Our whole educational system suffers from this evil. An exaggerated competitive attitude is inculcated into the student, who is trained to worship acquisitive success as a preparation for his future career. - Albert Einstein
We need to find the courage to say NO to the things and people that are not serving us if we want to rediscover ourselves and live our lives with authenticity. - Barbara De Angelis
This is a very important practice. Live your daily life in a way that you never lose yourself. When you are carried away with your worries, fears, cravings, anger, and desire, you run away from yourself and you lose yourself. The practice is always to go back to oneself. - Thich Nhat Hanh
Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth. - Albert Einstein
Hope arouses, as nothing else can arouse, a passion for the possible. - William Sloane Coffin
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