Court Puts America Up for Sale

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Courtesy of the Supreme Court of the United States, corporations are now free to spend as much money as they want in support of or opposition to any candidate for federal office. (Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission) Not just American corporations, but international and multi-national corporations, including those under de facto control by foreign governments. Virtually unlimited corporate resources may not, however, be given directly to the candidate as that would be wrong. Oh, and even if you’re not a corporation you’re free to do the same. You the reader are welcome to spend as much of your own money to run ad campaigns in favor of or opposed to any candidate.

Let’s say $3,000,000,000 ($3 billion) was spent by all federal campaigns in the 2008 elections. Now let’s say we have Acme Inc. which rakes in $3 billion in one month. Finally, let’s say there are more than 1,000 corporations of varying wealth with vested interests in American elections. The amount of money pumped into election campaigns by vested interests would drown all campaigns on all levels opposed to those interests.

A far scarier scenario is an unfriendly or creditor government controlling Acme, Inc. Picture the Bevis Islands influencing the makeup of our government.

Here’s how it goes: Leo Lobbyist chats with Senator Smith. “You know, Senator, my client Metrics, Inc. could really use that tariff reduction on Chinese imports. They’re putting $10M into this campaign to support you or to oppose you.” If the senator refuses to vote for it he’s screwed as $10M in negative ads run against him. If he does vote for it, his election was purchased by Metrics.

Corporations have been unleashed by the Supreme Court to run amok pushing their corporate agendas. Every candidate for the House and Senate as well as the presidency will be available for purchase by corporate America (or the Bevis Islands), thus shaping policy not for the American people but for itself.

This was a 5-4 decision. Never underestimate the importance of presidential appointments to the Supreme Court.

How did 5 of 9 SCOTUS justices conclude that this Pandora’s Box shall be unleashed on the American government? First Amendment analysis. Overruling its own longstanding precedent in Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce, the Court found that the First Amendment granted corporations free speech, in which political speech is included. So just like you the reader as an individual guaranteed freedom of speech, that thing deemed a corporation also has the right to talk.

Keep in mind that a corporation is an artificial paper entity owned by people or other artificial entities. And why is this piece of paper deemed to have the right to speak? The Court deemed that piece of paper to be entitled to the same free speech rights as people, i.e., because the Court said so. The Court didn’t used to say so, but now it does and that is a game changer.

Theoretically, our saving grace should be the American voters themselves. They should see through the negative saturation campaigns; they should support the candidates who turn down the support; they should be politically savvy and sophisticated. Sadly, none of that will happen. No, seriously – it won’t and we all know it.

Congress can effectively reverse the Court’s decision by enacting laws passing constitutional muster to once again rein in corporate spending in American political campaigns. Congress must rally to President Obama’s call to reverse this wrong-headed decision by the United States Supreme Court. Not a single member of Congress is immune from its repercussions. If reversing legislation does not get done, the American government is headed for serious trouble.

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Wear Sunscreen

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From The Chicago Tribune column by Mary Schmich, the 90’s music video “Wear Sunscreen” by Baz Luhrmann.

Tribune link:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-schmich-sunscreen-column,0,4054576.column

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When Carson Was King

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King of Late Night Johnny Carson with Dom DeLuise

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Capitol Grounds – 2509

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There Oughta Be a Law

Centuries hence, historians may wonder: Where exactly did Congress store all those pork barrels?

• Smithsonian magazine, July 2009

Washington, D.C., July 4, 2509: The General Services Administration today announced completion of an exact replica of the United States' Capitol building—designed from C-SPAN videos that recorded debate in both houses of Congress in the early years of the 21st century.

The grounds surrounding the Capitol have also been faithfully reproduced. There are bushes, which were beaten around, and a row of haystacks in which members of Congress used to look for needles. The driveway is paved with stones, none of which was unturned, and there are three bandwagons in front of the building upon which they frequently climbed. There are no fewer than seven flagpoles for the running up of ideas.

There are slippery slopes and level playing fields to accommodate whole new ballgames. Directly in back of the building is a lake from which the tips of icebergs protrude, and anchored there is a ship named Titanic, whose deck chairs can be rearranged.

Several handsome doors, which were always open and upon which opportunity tended to knock, lead to the restored Capitol's interior. Near the entrance sits a small waiting room for ideas whose time had come. The first floor also contains a gymnasium where lawmakers could exercise their prerogatives and a pediatrics ward for the babies that were thrown out with the bath water.

The kitchen features a large bakery, where the ancient solons prepared half loaves that were better than none, pies in the sky and cake that they could have and eat too. There's an abundant supply of salt, which lawmakers often took grains of, and pans that once held flashes. An oversized pantry accommodates hundreds of pork barrels. A huge butcher block was used to trim fat from the federal budget, which was sometimes cut to the bone. Geese were frequently cooked here.

An attached barn is a veritable Noah's ark of busy beavers, proud peacocks, sly foxes, mad wet hens, gored oxen, slow-paced snails and ducks (some sitting, some dead, some with water running off their backs). The video debates indicate that the most common animal of all was the bull, which was taken by the horns before it was loosed in the china shop, where it had a tendency to defecate, about which lawmakers often exclaimed. Pigs were kept in a poke.

The stable housed horses—some of a different color—with carts before them. Some of these animals were changed in midstream, and there were even dead horses that, sadly, appeared to have been beaten. Spurs of the moment hang throughout the stable. Although there is a separate room for one lone 800-pound gorilla, it was rarely mentioned. The kennel housed many old dogs, some that wouldn't hunt and others that couldn't be taught new tricks. If sleeping, the dogs were allowed to lie—unless they barked up the wrong tree. A special holding pen was reserved for "Blue Dogs," a breed that went extinct long ago.

The basement storage area includes shelf upon shelf of Pandora's boxes, both opened and unopened, and many cans of worms. There's a grindstone to which noses were put and bins of brass tacks.

From his office directly across the street from the restored Capitol, Speaker of the House Maxim Bromide said that making such good use of the videos was a stroke of genius. "From time immemorial," he went on, "our nation's legislators have had a way with words and always managed to hit the nail on the head. It's high time we preserve this national treasure. Nothing succeeds like success..."

William Ecenbarger is a freelance journalist who lives in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/The-Last-Page-There-Oughta-Be-a-Law.html

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GOP Holds Dick as Dems Do Healthcare

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Congressional Republicans finally earned themselves a well-deserved break from their robust efforts in contributing to the national healthcare debate. Until a final bill comes to a pro forma vote in each house, no need for any Republican Congressman or Senator to haul it on to the Senate or House floor to vote no on healthcare bills. No need to employ parliamentary techniques to slow the process to a crawl (reading bills aloud). No need to introduce amendments so far from the intent of the bill as to be pure time-wasters. No need for amendments addressing tort reform to further increase insurance industry profits.

Most importantly, there is no need to vote on and stall the process of conferencing the House and Senate bills to a mutually agreeable piece of legislation. Why, you ask? The Congressional Democrats and the White House have finally had it with GOP crap and cut them out of the Conference Committee reconciliation process. I mean what would a loyal Republican contribute to reconciliation? Saying no and voting no on everything – same as when on the floor – does not contribute to reconciling anything.

The Democrats finally woke up to the realization that bipartisan support for healthcare wasn’t going to happen. Not a single Republican voted in favor of either the House or Senate bill. So, they decided to abandon the time-honored procedure of convening a Conference Committee to reconcile the House and Senate bills. That in itself is a stunning move, virtually unheard of in Congress. The Democrats, controlling both Houses of Congress, figured why not just chat among themselves and with the White House to hammer out a bill palatable to 60 Democrats & Independents in the Senate and 218 Democrats in the House. The leadership and the White House will spearhead the reconciliation and get a bill to President Obama’s desk by February. All done without Republican participation.

Needless to say, Republican heads are spinning. Don’t think any of them saw this coming. With a solid filibuster-proof Senate majority behind a reconciled bill the Republicans are rendered impotent. Their next step will be outside of the legislative branch – suing to declare the bill unconstitutional – the next healthcare frontier for the Party of No.

The Republican Party was welcomed and asked to present its own comprehensive plans. They chose not to, content to simply vote no and spread lies about the Democratic plan (death panels). The naysayers paid the price of their tactics – cut out of the process as irrelevant in bringing healthcare reform to the country.

Bravo to the Democrats.

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Security Lapses

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[From “News of the Weird – Pro”]

Are lapses in security inevitable? Some things don't seem to lapse: (1) After a breach, new air passenger restrictions resemble Whack-a-Mole (after the mole has left the building). (2) Transportation Security Administration overdoses Americans with "security theater" (bureaucratic Valium). (3) Israelis wince with embarrassment at our wussiness (with 6 U.S. airliner attacks in 10 years, out of 99 million departures, that's 1:16 million flights). (4) Jihadists smile and study our new rules. (5) TSA gives itself a shout-out (acting chief Gales Rossides, the day before Umar The Nigerian struck: "[W]e are respected internationally for our security work"). The new buzz: TSA still won't inspect scrota, never mind sphincters, which is what it would have taken to detect the guy assigned to blow up a Saudi prince on August 28th and who failed, painfully [NOTW/Pro Edition, 9-14-2009]. ABC News [TSA's self-salute] /// CNN [folly of "security theater"] /// Toronto Star [Israelifying airports] /// Slate.com [Christopher Hitchens on Americans as sheep] /// Slate.com [William Saletan on crotch bombs] /// FiveThirtyEight.com [odds of airborne terror]

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