UNhappy Anniversary

One year ago today the Edward's Supreme Court decided a fateful ruling in Citizens United which eliminated all restrictions on corporate spending in elections.  Basically, the frightfully right-wing court sold out the soul of our democracy:  fair elections. 

Here's a question for the court:  if the constitution guarantees one vote per citizen-- how do shareholders of multiple corporations have their best interests represented multiple times by their corporate interests?  Not only is it not fair, it is not a way to operate a democracy.

We need to stop this.  New information just reached the surface that Justices Scalia and Thomas had, at the time of the ruling and still to this day, conflicts of interest that should have demanded they recuse themselves from ruling.  Scalia and Thomas! They each took oaths to uphold the constitution--not sell it out to the highest bidders of their choosing.

Scalia and Thomas have been featured guests at secretive political strategy sessions sponsored by Koch Industries, a multi-billion dollar conglomerate that has invested millions of dollars in political campaigns and causes. Koch Industries was a major beneficiary of the Citizens United decision, which overturned long-established law to permit corporations to spend unlimited amounts on political advocacy.

Please take action.  Here is a petition, a request, to the Justice Department to do a full investigation of this maleficence of justice.

Enjoy your day.  Don't celebrate this occasion.  Celebrate yourself for taking action to restore sanity to the highest court in our land.

There Goes More Than Just The Neighborhood!

Back in September 2009 I tried my best to alert us all to the dangers of the imminent Supreme Court ruling about overturning all limits on corporate spending on campaigns. Well, they gone done it. They reversed the McCain/Feingold law - one of the few things that McCain has done that I really really like.

This is just wrong. It will lead to no good and we can start to pack the wagons now because there is a new sheriff in town and he's a lot bigger than any of us. Welcome to the Corporations of America.

I am so sorry to see us go down in such a shameful, pathetic, greed-dripped, blind-sighted way. I thought better of us. It was probably the WWII generation that I thought better of. But they're gone. This has been a long time in the making, it took a lot of campaign donations to get this particular Supreme Court in place to hear this particular argument of this issue at this specific time in history. Make no mistake about it, this ruling is historical. Hysterical in a macabre sort of way too.

This pendulum will swing slowly so you'll have to pay close attention to follow the consequences of this ruling. The same way that Ronald Reagan's gift of deregulation, beginning in the early 80s, slowly took hold of America's economy before it strangled the very life from it- you may not notice the changes to our elections. Change will come and not for the betterment or the strengthening of the individual voice or in the interest of justice.

My only solution was prevention and that has failed. So I'm open to hear other ideas how the United States of America can return to the original values of human dignity and the pursuit of individual happiness.

Did you know the Constitution is for sale?

I am so uneasy about the possibility of the Supreme Court's imminent decision regarding unregulated corporate spending on campaigns. This could be the beginning of the official end of any shreds of democracy left between these two shining (if not polluted) seas.

If the Supreme Court overturns this century's oldest campaign finance protection (the wee bit of protection that is truly left for individuals), We the People will become We the Poop. When I analyze the long-term and short-term implications of giving corporations, who already are able to outspend the consumer/voter, the equal right to endorse and contribute to political campaigns as much as their legislative needs require, well we will truly have given away the keys to the kingdom. I am so sorry. If this comes to pass, I will be so very sorry for all of us.

It reminds me of another tentacle of Jane Smiley's sound argument in favor of the public option in health care reform. She points out the obvious- that if Obama sells the middle-class down the river by signing off on anything less than a public option in a health bill, she rightly says, "that the government is just a sham, a front organization for wealthy corporations."

That's will just be the cherry on top of the real treat- if the Supreme Court rules in favor of the plaintiff in Citizens United v. FEC, welcome The United Corporations of America.

And then the truly ugly war between the titans of greed and megalomania will be at our doorsteps, in our homes, in our bank accounts, in our tvs, in our computers, in our books, movies, and schools and there will not be a damn thing we can do about it.

We need help. Individuals need to unite, not try to "divide and conquer" or it will be "divide and be conquered." It is in the hands of the Supreme Court and this will tell us pretty much everything we need to know about the health of our nation.

One more thing- don't miss Bill Moyer's essay to Barack Obama. This is what journalists are supposed to do.