Worst Case Scenario @ The US Supreme Court

In what I think may be their worst collective decision ever, the Supreme Court of these United States today decided that “government may not ban political spending by corporations in candidate elections.” The ruling takes the position that freedom of speech extends to corporations which they treat as individuals. (See the concept of corporate personhood.) So it now seems that any corporation can spend freely to push their political agenda as they please. Whereas you and I have a limit on our donations, they do not. This decision overturns 20 years of campaign finance regulations and allows corporations to wield unprecedented control over our elections.

Haven’t we had enough proof of the power of the corporate purse in watching the disgusting way health reform has been dealt with because the pharmaceutical and insurance industries own so many of our politicians? Now corporations unhappy with the way any candidate votes may throw their vast fortunes behind their opponent, essentially taking the power of our votes away. To quote Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) : “The bottom line is this: the Supreme Court has just predetermined the winners of next November’s elections. It won’t be Republicans. It won’t be Democrats. It will be corporate America.”

Now we really need to push for campaign finance reform from the Congress. There are those that say this is a done deal, but if the framers of the constitution really thought corporations should have this power, they sure had a strange way of showing it. A brief history of the corporation in American from reclaimdemocracy.org:

Initially, the privilege of incorporation was granted selectively to enable activities that benefited the public, such as construction of roads or canals. Enabling shareholders to profit was seen as a means to that end.

The states also imposed conditions (some of which remain on the books, though unused) like these:

* Corporate charters (licenses to exist) were granted for a limited time and could be revoked promptly for violating laws.

* Corporations could engage only in activities necessary to fulfill their chartered purpose.

* Corporations could not own stock in other corporations nor own any property that was not essential to fulfilling their chartered purpose.

* Corporations were often terminated if they exceeded their authority or caused public harm.

* Owners and managers were responsible for criminal acts committed on the job.

* Corporations could not make any political or charitable contributions nor spend money to influence law-making.

Now the people on the right are crowing about this being a victory for them. “Today’s decision by the Supreme Court in Citizens United v. FEC, serves as an affirmation of the constitutional rights provided to Americans under the first amendment,” said Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele in a statement. But how would the founding fathers look on this decision? All those that have of late wrapped themselves in the flag and claimed to be the real patriots (yes, you tea partiers, I am talking to you) should be up in arms at this. The idea that government is not working for the people has now been validated by this Supreme Court, and I for one am ready to take to the streets. And I hope this decision wakes a lot of slumbering actual people to the reality of the corporatization of not just the US, but the world.

News of the Weird

It was inevitable and shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone, but really?

Sarah Palin to Contribute to Fox News

Former Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska has signed on as a contributor to the Fox News Channel.

The network confirmed that Ms. Palin will appear on the network’s programming on a regular basis as part of a multi-year deal. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Ms. Palin will not have her own regular program, one person familiar with the deal said, though she will host an occasional series that will run on the network from time to time. This person would not elaborate…

…The Fox News deal, however, would not seem to be all encompassing, and would appear to give her room for other pursuits, as well…

Full article here. But the question is, “Is this how you run for office in 2012?” Does she or do her handlers believe that becoming a Fox News “contributor” will give her the kind of exposure that will make her more acceptable to the electorate? Seems like more preaching to the choir to me. And just what does this say about Fox News and their respect for truthful journalism? (Okay, maybe I’m being a bit facetious with that one.) Will they have her on script or will they just let her go rogue? It is going to be a train wreck, I’m sure, but there will be many who won’t see it that way. And I think that is the thing that keeps me up at night. We are a massively divided country when we can all see the very same thing and come away from it with diametrically opposing views. God help us.

I would love to be a fly on the wall in the room with her handlers. You know they are orchestrating her life, her every move with a long-term plan. Could it be that they really believe she could be a viable candidate or is she just the conservative celebrity du jour? I’m hoping for the latter, but fearing the first. However, her “independent” streak may be her undoing. As hard as the McCain people tried to manage her, she still took every opportunity she saw to assert her true self. And I believe that super-size Palin ego may prove too much for even the best handlers to wrangle. God help us, really!

Happy 2010! Now what?

The world is at such a volatile place right now that nothing that may happen could really surprise me. In my mail box since the turn of the decade are a slew of newsletters predicting one thing or another, various wishes for a better future and a lot of craziness. Here are just a few tidbits:

From my newest newsletter writers over at Guns & Patriots comes the following, penned by Susan Dale whose expertise seems to come from being a “former George Washington historic interpreter” :

One would think that dignity is an easily understood concept, an equally easily understood word, and to retain one’s dignity an easy thing to do, as it is a self-determined activity.

Will someone please explain this to our fearless, Ivy League over-educated, leader?

She goes on to list the many instances where she sees Obama being less than dignified, including trying to get the Olympics for Chicago, giving the Queen of England an iPod, and ignoring an invitation to dinner with the president of France. (Yes, the very same people who were pushing Freedom Fries and pouring out French wine are now dissing the President because he bowed out on dinner with the French.) She goes on to say:

Since there are more of us than there are of them, every once in a while they have to pay lip service to the fact of America’s greatness.

Okay, the us and them. The us is patriots and the them is Obama and all of us on the left. She seems unaware that the majority voted for him for president. She goes on to list all the other things he has done like the “czars”, that bogeyman that the right has invented of late to scare the B-Jesus out of their flock complete with the talking points given out by Rush or Glenn or whoever.

This group consists, of: let’s see, we have the charming Chavez admiring FCC czar, Mark Lloyd; the lovely self-proclaimed activist pederast, Kevin Jennings, as our ‘safe schools’ czar; John Holdren, our brilliant science czar, who is an able advocate of forced abortions and sterilization of women (as the great Dave Barry would say, I am not making this up), and so many more of the like that it stuns the 21st Century mind, much less that of George Washington.

Full text is here, but suffice it to say, she can find nothing in the present administration but treasonous villainy and most of the comments are right there with her with their guns and ammo at the ready.

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Then from the ridiculous to the even more ridiculous I read in The Guardian this headline:

According to the article:

Writing in the New York Press, Armond White claimed Avatar “misrepresents the facts of militarism, capitalism and imperialism” and described it as “a guilt-ridden 9/11 death wish”. This view is echoed by John Nolte on his Big Hollywood blog, who dubbed it “a Death Wish for leftists; a simplistic, revisionist revenge fantasy”.

I am not a fan of the movie. I saw it in 3D even and I think it has a very weak script, but this makes me want to see it again just because I can. My review is here.

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Then finally coming from The Omega Institute, a new age clearinghouse for all things groovy came this:

In 2010, the energy of the planets will accelerate, with some of the most energetically packed planets aligning with the cardinal points Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn. The last time we experienced anything vaguely resembling this was the summer of 1969: Woodstock, the moon landing, and much else changing not just the world, but our cosmology. The coming year will make the 1960s look like a walk in the park. Our survival is at stake, and we need a creative approach to facing our personal challenges and those of humanity in order to make the world a better place.

So 2010 will be like the end of the sixties? I do think we’re in for a lot of upheaval. The right is on the war path and the left may just get some gumption at last, so anything could happen. Stay tuned. (And have that exit visa ready.)

Selling The Bush Library

This arrived in my mail today.

Help President and Mrs. Bush advance the principles of freedom, opportunity, responsibility and compassion. Become a Charter Member of the George W. Bush Presidential Center today!

Really? Those are the principles the Bushes are trying to advance? Sure now that you screwed the pooch — the pooch being all of us here in this country you took down. So how do you get people to give you money for the requisite library that former presidents always build?

Just as an aside here, the etymology of screw the pooch follows: The term was first documented in the early “Mercury” days of the US space program. It came there from a Yale graduate named John Rawlings who helped design the astronauts’ space suits. The phrase is actually a bastardization of an earlier, “you are fucking the dog!” which was slang for doing something very much the wrong way. At Yale a friend of Rawlings’, the radio DJ Jack May (a.k.a. “Candied Yam Jackson”) amended this term to “screwing the pooch” which was simultaneously less vulgar and more pleasing to the ear. The term, however, did not enter the popular lexicon until Tom Wolfe used it in his book, The Right Stuff, where it was used to describe a supposed mistake by astronaut Gus Grissom.

Anyway, they begin with:

Dear Reader,

You called me dear. How sweet.

I don’t have to remind you how America was tested time and again-at home and abroad-during the eight defining years of the George W. Bush presidency.

You cannot argue with that statement. The nightly news is a grim reminder of all he did for America.

The difficult decisions President Bush made in the face of each challenge were rooted in the core principles he held throughout his years of public service-the fundamental values that have guided America since her founding: Freedom . . . Opportunity . . . Responsibility . . . Compassion.

Again, you aren’t lying there. He made difficult decisions. The wrong decisions based on his “core values.”

Now President and Mrs. Bush-with the support of many patriotic Americans like you-are taking on a new challenge. They are continuing their personal commitment to advancing these enduring principles through the George W. Bush Presidential Center.

How one might asks does a library advance principles? Are we going to see the transcripts of those energy meetings that were off limits to the public and screwed the energy pooch for your entire term of office and beyond?

The Center will uniquely integrate the records of a national archive, the thematic exhibits of a presidential museum, and the intellectual capital of a research-based policy institute to transform ideas into action.

Yes, they actually use the word intellectual in their sales pitch for a Bush Library. Is the “intellectual capital” tied to his former cronies Cheney, Rove, et al? Are they setting up an institute to try and keep all of W’s big ideas alive? And what are these ideas that they want to transform into action? Somehow they are conspicuously absent in this sales pitch.

The George W. Bush Presidential Center will continue to advance the ideals and core principles that shaped his presidency during a defining period in America’s history.

And that is the scariest sentence of all. Why would anyone left or right want that? The Republicans have tried their damnedest to distance themselves from him. Who are these Friends of Bush? Are there people out there who actually think that he could contribute anything of value to the world at this point? I’d feel sorry for him, if I didn’t despise him so much.

Going Rogue Cheap

This is the latest from Human Events, the conservative blog that just keeps on giving. You are asked to join and get Sarah’s new masterpiece at a discount. This is of course the only way this book makes it to the best seller list, through bulk sales to people who will give it away. But the come-on is priceless.

Dear Fellow Conservative:
One year ago, Alaska Governor and vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin delivered a speech at the Republican National Convention that electrified the GOP’s conservative base.

But as the campaign unfolded, Palin became a lightning rod for criticism — much of it viciously directed not only at her, but at her family.

Democrats, forgetting feminism, mocked Palin as an empty-headed beauty queen and bad mother.

Excuse me! Forgetting feminism? No, remembering what it is that feminism actually stands for. See my post from last year.

Meanwhile, some GOP insiders leaked complaints to the press that Palin was harming the ticket by “going rogue” as an outspoken fiscal and social conservative.

And yet, Sarah decided to use that epithet as the title for her biography. Going rogue, what does that mean? A crazed elephant leaving the herd to rampage on its own? Rogue has many meanings. Some are spot on, at least from my perspective.
rogue n.
1. An unprincipled, deceitful, and unreliable person; a scoundrel or rascal.
2. One who is playfully mischievous; a scamp.
3. A wandering beggar; a vagrant.
4. A vicious and solitary animal, especially an elephant that has separated itself from its herd.
5. An organism, especially a plant, that shows an undesirable variation from a standard.
adj.
1. Vicious and solitary. Used of an animal, especially an elephant.
2. Large, destructive, and anomalous or unpredictable: a rogue wave; a rogue tornado.
3. Operating outside normal or desirable controls: “How could a single rogue trader bring down an otherwise profitable and well-regarded institution?” (Saul Hansell).
v. rogued, rogu·ing, rogues
v.tr.
1. To defraud.
2. To remove (diseased or abnormal specimens) from a group of plants of the same variety.

The attacks didn’t end with the election — if anything, they got worse, as Palin’s enemies resorted to saying almost anything about her to end her political career.

So she quit because people were attacking her?

Now, in her eagerly anticipated memoir, Going Rogue, Sarah Palin tells her side of the story — about her life, her family, her principles, her career, her vice-presidential candidacy … and her possible political future.

Please, no. A political future? How? I won’t buy the book to find out either. I am just praying it ain’t so.

For a limited time, we are able to make Sarah Palin’s Going Rogue available to you for the incredibly low price of just $8.95, plus $5.95 shipping and handling.

Those bulk orders will put it on the best seller list no doubt.

We’ll ship your copy of Going Rogue as soon as it’s released by Mrs. Palin’s publisher on November 17.

Plus, you will get a FREE Bonus — 6 free issues of HUMAN EVENTS, the National Conservative Newsweekly, delivered right to your mailbox.

That’s right, there will be no charge for a six-issue trial subscription to HUMAN EVENTS when you order Sarah Palin’s Going Rogue at our special, heavily discounted price.

Why HUMAN EVENTS? Here’s what bestselling author (and HUMAN EVENTS legal correspondent) ANN COULTER has to say about it:

“HUMAN EVENTS is the publication I have called my editorial home for years. Not only do I write a weekly column for HUMAN EVENTS, I devour it from cover to cover.

“Why? Because it’s the one newspaper I can count on to bring me the absolute, unvarnished, hard-hitting truth. And so should you.”

If Ann Coulter says it, it must be true, right?

The voices in HUMAN EVENTS ring true — Pat Buchanan, Chuck Norris, Michael Reagan, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, and more.

Mary Matalin says that “HUMAN EVENTS is a leading voice of the conservative movement — every conservative should read it.” And Oliver North states that “HUMAN EVENTS has been the flagship publication for the past 64 years.”

Ringing endorsements all. I know that if Chuck Norris and Ollie North are behind it, this must be like the Bible or something.

This is an offer without risk to you.

If you don’t count choking to death on your own vomit.

Just order Sarah Palin’s Going Rogue now — and get 6 free issues of HUMAN EVENTS.

Sincerely,

Thomas S. Winter
Editor in Chief, HUMAN EVENTS

Guess what? I think I’ll pass.

They Want their Country Back

I was watching this really good but scary video about the 9/12 march in Washington and it hit me, what the people here were talking about. They want their country back. Don’t they realize that we have elections and that is when you get your country back? We all had the chance to vote. You lost. Get over it. Go out and find a candidate that you think can win and do what you want, but stop belly aching. Stop lying about things. Find out the truth for yourselves. Read some history. Do some research and that doesn’t mean turn on Glenn Beck.

This video nails so many points about the level of delusional thinking.

And who do you want your country back from? Who has taken it? The Democratic Party that won the elections? The government? Obama in particular? Where were you all the last 8 years? Were you happy with Bush inflating the deficit to historic highs with an unnecessary war and tax cuts for the wealthy?

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

What in the hell is going on in this country when the people on the right feel free to show utter disrespect for the office of the President of the United States. First they say that the President should not be talking to the students of America without their parents permission.

Rep. Joe Wilson thinks he is in Parliament.

Since when did the President need permission to make a public address calling on children to work hard and be responsible? Then we have a congressman yelling “You lie!” at the President in the Senate chamber during a joint session of Congress. As much as I hated Bush, I would never have the gall to tell him when he could talk and to whom. Or to call him a liar as he is talking to the rest of Congress. (Sure, in my dreams, and I did yell from my couch, but in Congress? No, I would not.) It is not only disrespectful to him, but to the institution of the Congress. And what was he calling the President a liar for? For saying that the health care bill will not cover illegal aliens. Now, did this guy know for sure that the President wants to give health care free to illegals? No. Is it in a bill now written? No. Was it a knee jerk reaction to the hateful lies being thrown all over the place by people who actually know better? Probably.

 

Seems that the Right feels nothing holding them back from calling him a liar, as they in the same breath lie until they are blue in the face. Lying hypocrites! And they are legion. I get so angry. Here’s my enemies list. The Biggest Liars Club.

I wish there were laws about lying. Libel and slander do not apply here for some reason. I wish the President could sue the liars and make them come clean, that they are only saying what they are saying because they get money from insurance companies, or they just don’t want him to succeed for whatever political reason.

I listened to President Obama’s speech and to the Republican rebuttal. Seems to me they didn’t listen to him at all. They decided before he gave the speech which parts they would hear and which they would just ignore. No matter what he said they were going to cling to the lies. What is wrong with those people?

The Kennedy Funeral

I was just looking at the photos from Teddy Kennedy’s funeral and came across this. Sure, there are lots of political celebrities there, but Jack Nicholson? What is that about? Did he and Teddy have a relationship? Go out, have a few drinks, pick up chick together? Or was Jack in Boston and decided to just show up for the free publicity? Is he going to try and get Ted’s seat? There has to be more to this. Anyone know?

Ask a Kreep

The latest from the right wing is in a newsletter I get just to keep up with their insanity. Forewarned is forearmed, or so they say.

Found on a conservative blog called GOP Mom today

What would you think if an amendment to the U.S. Constitution was introduced by liberal Democrat Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, which repealed the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights — taking away our right to Free Speech?

What would you think if an amendment to the U.S. Constitution was introduced by liberal Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, which repealed the Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights — taking away our right to Keep and Bear Arms? (A right that the U.S. Supreme Court recently upheld!)

“That could never happen,” you say. “No one would allow it!” Right? Well…

Did you know that there are TWO ways that our Constitution can be changed? And did you know that Pelosi, Reid and Barack Obama are using the less well-known way, without having to actually introduce amendments?

IT’S TRUE — and WE have to stop it NOW!

This is written to scare the money right out of those poor people too dumb to think for themselves. I am sure most of them miss the signature on this call to arms, one Mr. Gary Kreep, Executive Director Of the United States Justice Foundation. Really, Kreep.

According to Mr. Kreep, we liberals are trying to call for a Constitutional Convention where we will throw all that he and his conservative friends hold dear into the fire. We are out to destroy the country.

Say BYE-BYE to the First Amendment’s freedom of speech — Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity could be taken off the air.

Say BYE-BYE to the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms — a total gun ban could be the law of the land!

Say BYE-BYE to the Constitution’s requirement that to serve as President a man or a woman must be a “natural born citizen”!

What amazes me about this is that I am on every liberal newsletter, email and regular mail list and I have yet to hear about this wonderful news. Getting Rush and Hannity off the air would definitely be worth trashing the Constitution, wouldn’t it? Can we make sure Ann Coulter and Bill O’Reilly are included, too? ‘

Do they really think that we want to take away freedom of speech? And the right to bear arms? Is absolute fear the only way they know how to deal with a President they don’t like? I guess it works for them most of the time. And when the people they are scaring send money, what do they spend it on? More fear mongering? Not one solution, not one new idea comes from these people. Only hate and fear.

Grandmas and Unborn Babies Face Extermination by Obama’s “Health” Care Plan
The bottom line? Your tax-dollars will pay for preferential hiring of homosexual hospital administrators, who distribute $50,000 grants to gender-confused activists for unneeded elective surgery to mutilate their own genitals, (and force Christian doctors to perform it.)

It would be funny if it weren’t so scary. These people are very angry and they have guns and are getting more crazy people to send them money. And no lie is beneath them.

Grasping at straws

This from the latest Human Events.

If ObamaCare passes, you can kiss your private health insurance goodbye… maybe your doctor, too… and you can certainly say adios to the best health care system the world has ever known.

What country are they living in?

The other day I asked my mother about what kind of health coverage she and dad had to cover us when we were children. Nothing. Nada. Four children. Dad had a steady job with the same company through my childhood (in the 60s) and the company didn’t cover anything, yet the out of pocket expenses of keeping a family of 6 healthy did not kill them. I had my adenoids out. Mom had 5 kids and stayed in the hospital more than a day, and there was no worry about where the money would come from or what would be covered. They paid for it out of my father the salesman’s salary. Plenty of dental, eye care, regular check ups, we had it all. There was never any question about whether we could afford medical care. One salary, no insurance. And I don’t think we were unusual.

Then it all changed. It was thanks to Nixon and the Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1973. To be fair, the left pushed for it because it seemed like a good idea to pool resources for good care. Unfortunately, it was another lesson in no regulation running amok. The insurance companies that were supposed to make care cheaper used their profits to invest in real estate in the 80s and then when the market tanked, they had to make up the difference, first by starting to deny care, then by raising rates. Then pharmaceutical companies, hospital corporations and medical device manufacturers got in line for the big profits. And so we are where we are now. With what the Republicans are saying is ” best health care system the world has ever known.”

And their solution is…? Still waiting.