US Supreme Court legalizes bribery

[D_Tully Tunnelrat]

European-American Military Corporatism has been on-going since whites first took first land for a settlement in Jamestown in 1607. This latest Citizens United vs. FEC decision makes the "For Sale" sign on every political seat in the US that much prettier.

So as to not end on too cynical a note, here's a quote from the great 19th century muckraking journalist Lincoln Steffens: "If it was vision that made such a difference in men, vision is what we need in the world." Here's to a new vision.

 

[D_Bob_Crotchitch]

Get real. When the speaker of the house helps control a political action committee, it isn't all corporations. No politician should be able to be part of a political action committee. Peeps from all over the political spectrum run those rotten pots. UPS gives millions in contributions to members of both parties doing its best to get what it wants from the postal service.
Political action committees from outside the area just poured major money into the mayoral race in Houston to make certain Parker won. It's been going on for years.
Shoot you even had peeps like Streisand send money to campaign funds for Texas Dems running for congress.

 

[midlifebear]

:smile::smile:Ah but wait. The wise voice of a dead prophet speaks. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYIC0eZYEtI&feature=related

Remember: we don't own 'Mericuh. J-ELLO and Exxon own the land of the free to be as stupid as you wanna be.:smile::smile:

 

[tripod]

:smile::smile:Ah but wait. The wise voice of a dead prophet speaks. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYIC0eZYEtI&feature=related

Remember: we don't own 'Mericuh. J-ELLO and Exxon own the land of the free to be as stupid as you wanna be.:smile::smile:

You get a fucking A+++ MLB!!!!! George Carlin is a visionary and Gen X's Obi Wan Kenobi. I love him dearly.

 

[D_Bob_Crotchitch]

It isn't the only reason education is failing. If your mother is a crack ho, you don't have much of a chance. If your daddy is nowhere to be found, and your mama is trying to work minimum wage jobs to take care of you, it's going to be hard. If your mama never gets child support because your dad is a piece of crap, you are going to have it tough. If your mama walks down the street to the school in shorty pj's, no robe, and fuzzy slippers for a meeting with the principal, you don't have a much of a chance. I see that stuff all the time. It's so sad. Little children going to school in the same clothes they had on the day before, and haven't had food since the free lunch yesterday. What kind of a crap family is that?

 

[deleted15807]

You get a fucking A+++ MLB!!!!! George Carlin is a visionary and Gen X's Obi Wan Kenobi. I love him dearly.

He was a sage.


The Public Sucks....Fuck Hope!

 

[Wntabigone]

Mr. Carlin was right. Everyone knows that we've been run by the corporations for decades, centuries. The ones with the money have the power, and so, have the control. We vote, but the corporations still have the power. I guess the Supreme Court just opened it up so we can see how we are being screwed. It will be a time where we can see a pseudo representative democracy destroyed. And so, we will see what has actually been going on, with laws that will tell us what to do, when, and who is acceptable or not. I think Europe may be a good place to be for a time. At least until the virus moves across the Atlantic. I do hope, though, that the 5 that voted for this can be removed from the bench and prosecuted. I think we deserve that, at least.

 

[maxcok]

Thanks gymfresh, I was thinking about posting on this, but since I'm on the verge of becoming apolitical, I didn't want to keep up with the responses. Great kickoff on the topic!

. . . this may be the most naked act of judicial activism in our nation's history. The parties in this case didn't even raise the larger issue of whether corporate spending could be constrained at all, but SCOTUS went to the extraordinary length of holding hearings on this case twice in order to open up broader issues than the plaintiffs sought. To reach the conclusion it did today, SCOTUS had to overturn almost 100 years of their own precedent, including a definitive case on similar facts 20 years ago that had recently been affirmed. Even the Court's most conservative judges in the past have seen the logic in limiting bald bribery -- but not the newest conservative activist judges of the Roberts court . . .

Great quote. Do you know who said it?

. . . the apathetic citizenry simply can't be bothered to get up from their sofas to make any stand, and so become literal wage slaves to those in power.

Therein lies a big part of the problem. Well, as long as we've got bread and circuses . . . .

. . . The time for revolution draws nearer...

Where do I sign up?

"With its ruling today, the Supreme Court has given a green light to a new stampede of special interest money in our politics, . . . It is a major victory for big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies and the other powerful interests that marshal their power every day in Washington to drown out the voices of everyday Americans . . ." President Obama

www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31786.html

"It's a recipe for democratic disaster, as wealth and power will define the debate that sets the parameters of our politics. The Supreme Court just predetermined the winners of next November's elections. It won't be Republicans. It won't be Democrats. It will be corporate America." - Senator Charles Schumer, D-New York

"Today's Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case is a disaster for the American people and a dark day for the Supreme Court. The decision will unleash unprecedented amounts of corporate "influence-seeking" money on our elections and create unprecedented opportunities for corporate "influence-buying" corruption.
Today's decision is the most radical and destructive campaign finance decision in Supreme Court history. In order to reach the decision, five justices abandoned longstanding judicial principles, judicial precedents and judicial restraint.
With the Citizens United opinion, Chief Justice Roberts has abandoned the illusory public commitments he made to "judicial modesty" and "respect for precedent" to cast the deciding vote for a radical decision that profoundly undermines our democracy.
In a stark choice between the right of American citizens to a government free from "influence-buying" corruption and the economic and political interests of American corporations, five Supreme Court Justices today came down in favor of American corporations.
With a stroke of the pen, five Justices wiped out a century of American history devoted to preventing corporate corruption of our democracy." - Fred Wertheimer, Washington's leading campaign-finance reform advocate and one of the architects of the modern campaign-finance system.

www.politico.com/.../Fred_Wertheimer_B23FB330-E7AD-4D8A-9D0B-9A04D785620A.html

and really, you must read this:

" . . . I do think that it is a jolt to the legal system when you overrule a precedent. Precedent plays an important role in promoting stability and evenhandedness. It is not enough -- and the court has emphasized this on several occasions -- it is not enough that you may think the prior decision was wrongly decided. That really doesn't answer the question, it just poses the question. . . . If a overruling of a prior precedent is a jolt to the legal system, it is inconsistent with principles of stability... " - Chief Justice John Roberts in excerpts from his Senate confirmation hearings.

Justice John Paul Stevens, in a stinging dissent written for the minority, argues that the right wing of the court has engaged in a brazen act of activism--and has done so to award corporations more legal rights than they have previously been afforded.

Stevens Accuses Supreme Court Conservatives of Judicial Activism


Republicans Applaud High Court Ruling - really?? (too many sources to cite).


Hey, can y'all spell Activist Judges for me?

 

[maxcok]

Sorry for all the quotes, but this is the tip of the iceberg here. Believe me, I could bury you with it, but really, what's the point? The fix is in. The jig is up, my friends. We're all doomed I'm afraid. Why so, you ask? Let me 'splain:

I have long maintained that the fundamental issue and the essential problem in our rancorous two-party system of government, the cancer eating at the very foundation of our democratic system, is the influence peddling afforded by the massive amounts of money given to candiates by special interest and most especially corporate entities. It has been, in my humble opinion, truly the 'root of all evil' in the system. Unfortunately, this issue has barely ever been on the radar screen of the electorate, though virtually every other issue is under its spell - and that's just the way the big money wants it. So congratulations Big Corporate Money, today you won the big one. Game over. No more game.

Oh yes, McCain/Feingold was a noble attempt to change things, wasn't it? At best it was grossly inadequate to address the fundamental problem, and really not much more than a fig leaf for politicians to say they had done something. (Just like healthcare.) Since it's passage it's been dismantled bit by bit, and today it was bulldozed and buried. (Just like healthcare will be.) But this is not about Mc/F, what the Court did today overturned 100 years of legal precedent and opened the corporate coffers to anyone running for federal office. As of today money is speech, and corporations are people. Paging George Orwell. As of today there will be no more elected officials working on behalf of the actual people, they will all be bought and sold. If they don't take the handouts, they'll be defeated by candidates who will. And even those who don't will be required to tow the corporate line out of fear they'll be ousted next. But don't worry, you say, Congress can pass new campaign finance laws, right? Riiiight, did you not just read this paragraph? (just like they're gonna come back later to amend and improve the healthcare bill. seriously, don't be retarded.) Welcome to Corporate America, y'all! Hope you enjoy living in a sad imitation of Disneyland.

Think I'm exaggerating? Just you wait for the mid-term elections coming up. You ain't seen nothin yet. And by 2012? Well turn on the tv and hang onto your hats, my friends. We are all doomed, and henceforth slaves to the marketplace. After decades of intense engagement and progressive political activism working for the causes of social justice, the environment and the like, and yes, even having my ass drug off the steps of the holy Supreme Court arrested and thrown in the clink and whatnot, I was already on the verge of checking out. Now I am done. Done. 'Hope and Change' my aunt Fanny! If anybody wants to to try and convince me why I should give a flying fuck anymore, you better hurry. I'm about to grab my shotgun, blast out my teevee screen, grab a bottle of Jack and my dog, and sit out on the front porch here on this high green hill. Then I'm gonna get very, very drunk and watch the rain come down while I mourn the death of democracy.

No turning back the clock now, my friends. It's the final nail in the coffin of this Great American Experiment. They own us and they own the whole message. The fox owns the henhouse, shit, he owns the whole damn farm! So let's open the floodgates for that torrent of corporate cash, unleash the hounds of Hell, and all sit back and watch the coming Apocalypse. Hey, I got a great seat in the balcony.

Night y'all!




rest in peace Teddy Roosevelt

 

[HUNGHUGE11X7]

Ahhh... the seeds of a future corporate dystopia have been planted.

We are taking a dishonest system and making it downright despicable.

FUCK YOU ROBERTS
FUCK YOU ALITO
FUCK YOU KENNEDY
FUCK YOU SCALIO
and FUCK YOU THOMAS

Corporations are not people, and you five will surely burn in hell.

This is a thoroughly disgusting ANTI-AMERICAN, Pro-Big Business ruling and the above sums up my feelings without me presenting a tirade !


HH

 

[gymfresh]

Thanks gymfresh, I was thinking about posting on this, but since I'm on the verge of becoming apolitical, I didn't want to keep up with the responses. Great kickoff on the topic!

Great quote. Do you know who said it?

Thanks. The "most naked act of judicial activism in our history" line came from one of the comments (#221) following this article, a poster named "Roger" in NY. The rest was just something I cobbled together after reading all the sources I could get my hands on this afternoon. The more I read, the more amazed I was at what SCOTUS pulled off.

As another poster eloquently noted: What's with all the deference to "associations of citizens"? Every individual in those associations already gets to give up to a certain limit... why do they get a second chance when they form corporations and amass huge amounts of capital under a completely different set of deductions, tax rates and tax breaks?

Look on the bright side; maybe the goal was to wake Americans up from their political slumber once and for all.

 

[maxcok]

. . . Look on the bright side; maybe the goal was to wake Americans up from their political slumber once and for all.

Yeah, good luck with that. Not till all their tv's, ipods, laptops, and blackberries explode and they have to grow their own food.

Anyway, nice try, I'm going back out on the porch.

 

[D_Bob_Crotchitch]

Interesting. Considering that corporations are owned by share holders, and the largest amount of shares are owned by pension plans, 401k plans, and IRA's, that makes you the bastard corporation owners. oooo Put that in your pipe and smoke it. Better add some weed so you can live in denial.

 

[tripod]

Interesting. Considering that corporations are owned by share holders, and the largest amount of shares are owned by pension plans, 401k plans, and IRA's, that makes you the bastard corporation owners. oooo Put that in your pipe and smoke it. Better add some weed so you can live in denial.

I don't have a pension plan, 401K or an IRA. But tthat is beside the point, the only shareholders that matter are the uber wealthy BOARD OF DIRECTORS that ultimately make the decisions as to what direction the corporation will take.

The pattern is clear, progressives present truths on this board and the conservatives do their best to refute them by providing some sort of a loophole or an exception to hopefully dazzle them with bullshit.

The notion that Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, DOW, Monsanto or Haliburton are controlled by 401k owners is is just fucking laughable. I mean, just because someone holds a pension doesn't mean by any means that they would have any control whatsoever... the board of directors is not made up of fucking teachers, cops and firemen.

You lose.

 

[HazelGod]

I have to agree with Tripod, Hootie...that was one of the stupidest remarks I've ever seen come from your quarter.

 

[vince]

Can't Obama and the Democrats simply pass a new law that overrules the court? Or pass laws or write regulations that could for example, require shareholder approval of political spending by their corporations or require that the board of directors names be published with ads they fund.

I don't think we've heard the last of this one. Congress and the President have a lot of tools to work with to get around this.

Unless of course they are just as happy to be in the pockets of corporations as the Republicans. But something tells me Obama isn't seeing as he just picked a fight with Wall Street this week.

 

[HazelGod]

Vince, you're right about there being alternative methods to address the problems of corporate influence-buying, but this misses the larger ramifications of the SCOTUS decision: that corporations are essentially people, that contributions to political candidates are a form of expression, and the First Amendment therefore prevents any laws from restricting their freedom of that expression. It's truly mind-boggling in its stupidity.

 

[b.c.]

Its sick; who appointed these people?

Well, not too surprisingly, three of the five, Kennedy, Scalia, and (Uncle) Thomas were among the 5 "justices" if I may use the word so freely, who handed Bush the presidency. The other two (Alito and Roberts) were appointed by Bush. Surprise surprise.

Needless to say, this ruling falls in line with the Republican vision of America, and is what they wanted all along. That's why they carry health insurance providers, oil companies, tobacco companies, and banks in their side pockets.

They want these companies to be able to buy the presidency, with the money going to the candidate who promises big business the moon...

i.e. absolutely no regulation of business, free rein to do just about whatever the fuck they want, no regulation or environmental controls, the right to dismiss and call quackery any and all evidence of negative environmental impact, the right to pay workers any dipshit kind of salary under any condition. Damn worker's rights, damn the unions too.

They want (and passed under Bush) laws that limit the public's right to sue for damages or faulty goods. And after all said and done, free bailouts with bonuses to whichever one of them fucks up and lose all of their earnings as well as their investors' in the process.

That old conservative "I-got-mine-and-damn-the-rest-of-you-who-can't get-yours" mentality. The kind of ideology that they raced on down to the polls in Massachusetts this week so they could send another just like 'em to Washington.

Hell, why work for it when you can just buy a fuckin' election, eh?

 

[deleted15807]

That old conservative "I-got-mine-and-damn-the-rest-of-you-who-can't get-yours" mentality. The kind of ideology that they raced on down to the polls in Massachusetts this week so they could send another just like 'em to Washington.

Yep. MA has it's own universal health care so FUCK the rest of the country. One state has decided for every state who can have it and who can't.

 

[Calboner]

Its sick; who appointed these people?

Antonin Scalia: Ronald Reagan, 1986
Anthony Kennedy: Ronald Reagan, 1988
Clarence Thomas: George H. W. Bush, 1991
John Roberts: George W. Bush, 2005
Samuel Alito: George W. Bush, 2006

Short answer: Republican presidents. Surprise, surprise.