The Public Shrugged

I've heard that the world will end with a wimper not a bang. Well I guess democracy ended last month with a shrug. Congressman Kevin Yoder (R-Kansas) inserted laguage at the last minute into the 11th hour spending bill that averted a government shutdown. But the language wasn't written by Yoder or any other of our erstwhile "Representatives". No, it was written by Citibank. and you can bet it's NOT in the interest of We the People. But the response to these Rulers seems to be "meh".

The new law repeals part of the Frank-Dodd reforms the resulted from the Great Republicon Recession of 2008 and once again allows the big banksters to use FDIC insured depositor money (not investors) to gamble on risky and complicated derivatives. If they win they keep the cash. WHEN they lose we bail out their Too-Big-To-Fail @$$es. Shame on all who voted for this bill, Dems & republicons, right on upto and including President Obama who signed it into law!

Did anybody vote for citibank? How about the global corporations that run the fascist American Legislative Exchange Council (fALEC), who are writing and voting on our state laws in secret. Or for that matter, the WTO or the World Bank? Our "Representatives" have become mere middlemen, our "Republic", a Demockery.

Where is is the outrage at the usurpation of our freedom and self-determination?! When in the course of human events will it become necessary for The People to dissolve their bonds and restore our inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. A man ruled in the interests of others is NOT Free!

Oh well America, it was nice while it lasted. Meet your new bosses.

NADA - Not A Democracy Anymore

Mike McCabe, Executive Direcor of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign authored this statement on behalf of WDC regarding the recent traitorous and judicially activist supreme (Extreme) court ruling that has surpassed even bu$h v Gore in terms of audacity and damage to our democracy and the freedom of the American People http://www.wisdc.org/pr012110.php

Historically democracies have lasted about two hundred years or so before the plutocrats and feudal lords re-exert their control. Well America, it was nice while it lasted.

The narrowest of majorities on the U.S. Supreme Court legislated from the bench today, effectively enacting a radical vision of the First Amendment and a bastardized version of democracy that has never been approved by elected representatives of the American people and strays far from the ideals spelled out so elegantly by the nation’s founders.

The Court majority’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission is a continuation of the judicial activism on election finance that began in earnest in the 1970s and substantially expands the scope of this policymaking by unelected and unaccountable judges for life.

Boiled down to its essence, five of the nine justices ruled that money is speech, corporations are people, public offices are commodities and elections are the marketplace where these commodities are bought and sold. The majority opinion asserts the appearance of big money influence over elections will not cause the public to lose confidence in the democratic process. The cluelessness demonstrated by such a declaration begs the question: What planet do these justices live on?

This ruling further chips away at both the letter and spirit of the federal McCain-Feingold law and favors the corrupt status quo in national politics. The five justices overlooked the corrupting effects of allowing massive sums of wealth to be brought to bear in election campaigns. Their ruling throws century-old law on the use of corporate and labor union treasury funds to influence elections on the scrap heap.

On the other hand, a super-majority of justices upheld the constitutionality of disclosing money spent on elections. This leaves the door open to meaningful disclosure reform at the federal and state levels.

Unaddressed in this case and untouched by today’s ruling are public financing programs like the one just enacted for state Supreme Court elections in Wisconsin. Such programs remain on sound constitutional footing and now become all the more important as one of the few remaining tools to guard against political corruption and ensure the voices of ordinary citizens are heard.

It is also important to note that this case involved a challenge to a federal law, not any state law in Wisconsin. However, today’s ruling does have state-law implications, which we will be assessing in the days and weeks to come.