THE UNITED CORPORATIONS of AMERICA
"Four score and seven years ago," Lincoln referred to the events of the Civil War and described the ceremony at Gettysburg as an opportunity not only to consecrate the grounds of a cemetery, but also to dedicate the living to the struggle to ensure that "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Abraham Lincoln
Now it's GOVERNMENT OF
THE PEOPLE, BY THE CORPORATIONS, and FOR THE CORPORATIONS! Amen
thinkingblue
The United States of Corporate
America: From democracy to plutocracy
By Rodrigue Tremblay
Online Journal Guest Writer
“The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled
by evil men.” --Plato, ancient Greek philosopher
“The 20th century has been characterized by three
developments of great political importance: The growth of
democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of
corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power
against democracy.” --Alex Carey, Australian social
scientist
“The most effective way to restrict democracy is to transfer
decision-making from the public arena to unaccountable
institutions: kings and princes, priestly castes, military
juntas, party dictatorships, or modern corporations.” --Noam
Chomsky, M.I.T. emeritus Professor of Linguistics
On Tuesday, January 19, the Obama administration got a kick in
the pants from Massachusetts voters when they filled former
Senator Ted Kennedy’s seat by electing a conservative
Republican candidate. The essence of their message was stop
dithering and start governing; stop trying to satisfy the bankers
and please the editors of Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street
Journal, and start caring for the ordinary people.
Two days later, President Barack Obama seemed to have understood
the people’s message when he announced a “Volcker
rule” that will forbid large banks from owning hedge funds
that make money by placing large bets against their own clients,
using information that these same clients gave them. It was time.
Such a policy should have been announced months ago, if not years
ago.
On the same day, however, a nonelected body, the U.S. Supreme
Court, threw a different challenge to the Obama administration.
Indeed, on Thursday January 21, a Republican-appointed majority
on the U.S. Supreme Court took it upon itself to profoundly
change the U.S. Constitution and American democracy. Indeed, in
what can be labeled a most reactionary decision, the Roberts U.S.
Supreme Court ruled that legal entities, such as corporations and
labor unions, have the same purely personal rights to free speech
as living individuals. Indeed, the First Amendment of the U.S.
Constitution says “Congress shall make no law . . .
abridging the freedom of speech.
The only problem with such a wide interpretation of the U.S.
Bills of Rights (N.B.: The first 10 amendments to the United
States Constitution are known as the Bill of Rights) is that this
runs contrary to its letter and its spirit, since it clearly
states later on that “the enumeration in the Constitution,
of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage
others retained by the people, and reserves all powers not
granted to the federal government to the citizenry or
States.” The words “people” and
“citizenry” clearly refer here to living human beings,
not to legal or artificial entities such as business
corporations, labor unions, financial organizations or political
lobbies.
Such entities, for example, cannot vote in an election. Indeed,
laws governing voting rights in the United States clearly
establish that only “Adult citizens of the United States who
are residents of one of the 50 states have the right to
participate fully in the political system of the United
States.”
No mention is made of
corporations or other legal entities.
However, with its January 21 decision, the majority on the
Roberts U.S. Supreme Court is saying in effect that even if
artificial entities cannot vote in an election, they can spend as
much money as they like to influence the outcome of an election.
Money is speech for them, and the more a legal entity has of it,
the more it has a right to become powerful politically and
control the political agenda.
In fact, what Chief Justice Roberts and his conservative Supreme
Court majority have done is to overcome a century-old democratic
tradition in the United States in granting a constitutional right
to business corporations and to banks, (because they are really
the ones with a lot of money), to use their enormous resources to
not only participate in debates about public issues, but also,
and above all,
to de facto dictate the election
of candidates of their choice to public office.
That’s plutocracy, not democracy!
MORE HERE
Supreme Court Sanctioned Murder Of Democracy! Keith Olbermann Special Comment pt.2
Save Democracy - Sign Petition
Silent Protest Of Citizens United v.
Federal Elections Commission
Dear thinkingblue,
We were all appalled by the Supreme Court's sellout to Corporate America. Now it's time to fight back. Tens of thousands of you have signed on to fight against the legalization of bribery and the corporate takeover of our country.
And I have some good news. House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers is our first ally.
As you know, I've introduced six bills that will help save our democracy. One of them, the 'End Corporate Collusion Act' (HR 4433), applies antitrust law to break up corporate political committees.
This bill has been referred to the Judiciary Committee for action. And the chair of that committee, Mr. Conyers, has signed on to the bill as its first cosponsor! Conyers is the second longest serving Member of the House, elected in 1965.
Can you call Chairman Conyers and thank him for helping us preserve democracy? His office phone number is 202-225-5126, or you can fill out his contact form at: http://conyers.house.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.OnlineContactForm
Please tell him that you are grateful he has joined our cause to save our democracy, and thank him for signing on to HR 4433.
The fight has just begun.
Best,
Alan Grayson
Member of Congress
P.S. Special thanks to those of you who went to ActBlue to contribute to our campaign. We are #2 at ActBlue this week.
Let's keep our heads,
while we continue to watch THE
THEATER OF THE ABSURD!!! thinkingblue