May 29, 2011
Article printed from www.CommonDreams.org
Come on, Obama, do it. Stand up, stand tall, stand firm. Yes, you can!
President Barack Obama is thinking about issuing an executive order that would mitigate some of the damage done to our democracy by the Supreme Court's dastardly Citizens United edict, which unleashes unlimited amounts of secret corporate cash to pervert America's elections.
Photograph: Scott Lenger
Obama's idea is simply to require that those corporations trying to get federal contracts disclose all of their campaign donations for the previous two years, including money they launder through such front groups as the Chamber of Commerce.
This approach says to those giants who are sucking up billions of our tax dollars for endless war, the privatization of public services, etc.: You're still free to shove trainloads of your shareholders' money into congressional and presidential races, but — hey, just tell the public how much you're giving and to whom.
Neat. It would be a clean, direct, and effective reform — so, of course, the corporate powers and their apologists are squealing like stuck pigs. Steven Law, a Bush-Cheney operative who is now both a Wall Street Journal editorialist and the head of a secret corporate money fund, recently decried the very idea of public disclosure of contractor campaign contributions: "When I was in the executive branch," he sniffed, "mixing politics with procurement was called corruption."
Yes, Steve, and y'all were corruption experts. Perhaps you've forgotten about Halliburton, the Cheney-run corporation that helped put Bush in office and then snagged tens of billions in contracts, becoming the poster child of corrupt, no-bid procurement.
Come on, Obama, don't back down under pressure from these corporate sleazes — sign that disclosure order. If they're going to steal our elections, let's at least make them admit it.
President Barack Obama is thinking about issuing an executive order that would mitigate some of the damage done to our democracy by the Supreme Court's dastardly Citizens United edict, which unleashes unlimited amounts of secret corporate cash to pervert America's elections.
Photograph: Scott LengerObama's idea is simply to require that those corporations trying to get federal contracts disclose all of their campaign donations for the previous two years, including money they launder through such front groups as the Chamber of Commerce.
This approach says to those giants who are sucking up billions of our tax dollars for endless war, the privatization of public services, etc.: You're still free to shove trainloads of your shareholders' money into congressional and presidential races, but — hey, just tell the public how much you're giving and to whom.
Neat. It would be a clean, direct, and effective reform — so, of course, the corporate powers and their apologists are squealing like stuck pigs. Steven Law, a Bush-Cheney operative who is now both a Wall Street Journal editorialist and the head of a secret corporate money fund, recently decried the very idea of public disclosure of contractor campaign contributions: "When I was in the executive branch," he sniffed, "mixing politics with procurement was called corruption."
Yes, Steve, and y'all were corruption experts. Perhaps you've forgotten about Halliburton, the Cheney-run corporation that helped put Bush in office and then snagged tens of billions in contracts, becoming the poster child of corrupt, no-bid procurement.
Come on, Obama, don't back down under pressure from these corporate sleazes — sign that disclosure order. If they're going to steal our elections, let's at least make them admit it.
Article printed from www.CommonDreams.org
Source URL: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/05/29-1
54 Comments so far
Show AllOh, I forgot....that's not allowed in this country, is it?
Obama can name Warren in a recess appointment right now. Because that isn't what he or his handlers really want, it won't be done.
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/
They are afraid of her because she is brilliant, honest, uncorruptible, and will not back down in the face of bullying and threatening by the Rethugs. And she is totally devoted to making sure the American public does not get screwed over. The Rethuglicans are despicable human beings....I hope America wakes up in 2012 and sends as many of them home as possible. They are human waste.
The fascist machine is on a roll.
At this point, a "little less corruption" won't cut it. The only thing that will save this country is some very public firing squads for several Wall Street tycoons. Considering that the "Justice" (LOL) Department and the pentagoons are in their pocket, I don't see this happening any time soon.
If he doesn't do it, it's because he doesn't want to.
hmmmmmmmmmmmm...............
folks - aint gonna happen
by now i would hope that folks are beginning to understand the inconvenient truth about amerika's democracy - it is a control structure for the elites
"If you go back to the record of the Constitutional Convention, which took place in 1787, almost immediately after the end of the war, you see that they are already moving in another direction. James Madison -- who was the main framer, and one of the founding fathers who was most libertarian -- makes it very clear that the new constitutional system must be designed so as to insure that the government will, in his words "protect the minority of the opulent against the majority" and bar the way to anything like agrarian reform. The determination was made that America could not allow functioning democracy, since people would use their political power to attack the wealth of the minority of the opulent. Therefore, Madison argues, the country should be placed in the hands of the wealthier set of men, as he put it.
QUESTION: Isn't that erection of barriers to democracy woven through the entire history of the United States?
CHOMSKY: It goes back to the writing of the Constitution. They were pretty explicit. Madison saw a "danger" in democracy that was quite real and he responded to it. In fact, the "problem" was noticed a long time earlier. It's clear in Aristotle's Politics, the sort of founding book of political theory -- which is a very careful and thoughtful analysis of the notion of democracy. Aristotle recognizes that, for him, that democracy had to be a welfare state; it had to use public revenues to insure lasting prosperity for all and to insure equality. That goes right through the Enlightenment. Madison recognized that, if the overwhelming majority is poor, and if the democracy is a functioning one, then they'll use their electoral power to serve their own interest rather than the common good of all. Aristotle's solution was, "OK, eliminate poverty." Madison faced the same problem but his solution was the opposite: "Eliminate democracy."
noam chomsky from his own website
http://www.chomsky.info/interviews/19970303.htm
so jim is deluded - what else is new - hopey changey thingy - while he ignores the fact that his boy obummer is the biggest war monger since booboo natanbooboo
btw: this is for sioux rose
If you want to know where the true power center of the world lies, follow the money – cui bono. According to Global Finance magazine, as of 2010 the world’s five biggest banks are all based in Rothschild fiefdoms UK and France.
They are the French BNP ($3 trillion in assets), Royal Bank of Scotland ($2.7 trillion), the UK-based HSBC Holdings ($2.4 trillion), the French Credit Agricole ($2.2 trillion) and the British Barclays ($2.2 trillion).
In the US, a combination of deregulation and merger-mania has left four mega-banks ruling the financial roost. According to Global Finance, as of 2010 they are Bank of America ($2.2 trillion), JP Morgan Chase ($2 trillion), Citigroup ($1.9 trillion) and Wells Fargo ($1.25 trillion).
offered gently
Madison felt that state legislators would likely cave in to demands from their constituents and do things such as print money, which would create inflation, and reduce the value of land (the principal component of wealth in the southern states, such as his - Virginia). So now we have polititicans caving in to the requests of the wealthy, instead of caving in to the requests of the masses. It seems that Madison et alia did their job well.
It is interesting that Madison felt so strongly about protecting the value of property from the actions of the states, that he tried to get the delegates to the Constitutional Convention to include a paragraph giving the newly created federal Congress the right to veto any law passed by any state legislature. It did not pass of course, which is good, because if it had the states would not have ratified the Constitution.
That Hightower is wrong to think Obama should sign and order for disclosure?
Or what?
I don't think we can decouple money (mammon) from militarism (what I term Mars rules). I refer to this pair as the unholy marriage; and in my view, it's given rise to the bastard fruits of this dark tie... in a progeny revealed through: racism, ecocide, sexism, materialism, religion that advocates FOR war, and an economics based on usury/debt slavery in a race to the bottom in ALL things that matter.
Response?
This introductory quote to David Korten's book "Agenda for a New Economy" says it all. The same old money is still in control.
Military has always been controlled by old money and it is like any other business in that it's set up to be self-perpetuating ('Oh no! If we don't create reasons for our budget, they'll reduce it and I'll be out of a job!'). Privatization of military is so pervasive that Lockheed helps write the daily intelligence briefing.
The perversion of organized religion is old as dirt & I can't decide which of "Onward Christian Soldiers" or "Battle Hymn of the Republic" is my least favorite song ever.
As Siouxrose points out, the new norm is numbness to the extreme darkness of our controllers, numbness to devolution of all the values of "civilization," and numbness to the onrush of human-made climate change.
Remember "What the Thunder Said. . ."
The better idea is this. The essence of Citizens United is that corporations have the "same rights" as individuals to make whatever contributions they wish. But individuals do not have the right to make contributions in unlimited quantities. Corporations could by law be forbidden from making contributions in excess of relatively small levels like the $2500 limitation on indivdual contributions in a number of electoral contests.
In contrast with Hightower, I would not urge Obama to make the kind of
"disclosure" requirement that he describes. This would give him an opportunity to make a show gesture as a campaign finance reformer without endangering the billion dollars he expects to raise to buy himself another 4 years of the presidency. Come to think of it, though, this toothless gesture is about what Obama may indeed make, as it would be consistent with his track record of choosing appearance over substance when it comes to any area of reform.
We know that corporations cannot be shamed into not making contributions, but I think Hightower's suggestion is aimed at shaming the politicians who accept the contributions. On the other hand, they are as shameless as the corporations, so the suggestion probably would not work.
I think a good idea is one I saw mentioned on CD once. Have the candidates for political office wear suits with the logos of the companies that act as their "sponsors," the way Nascar drivers do. They would look like clowns of course, but that is what they are, so who cares?
As regards the impracticality of campaign finance limiting the size of corporate contributions, I grant the difficulty of getting such legislation through the Republican house (or even a Democratic one were that the case). Asking legislators to bite the hand that feeds them is not an easy sell, at best. But if we believe at all in what so many profess---that popular demand is the real driver of reform---we have to find the way to effectuate that power; otherwise democracy is dead and we might as well get stoned and tolerate life until we die a merciful early death.
I'm not holding my breath.
Those who would include Unions (or anything else) in the conversation may not be tuned-in to the complete corruption that is Corporate lobbying, privatization, globalization, and the political facade.
Due to the procedural roadblocks involved in passing such a Corporate Personhood Amendment, the only way forward is via revolution. IMO, a successful revolution requires an icon. The bad guys are fully aware of this, so they just assassinate when a single icon becomes a threat (e.g., JFK, Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., John Lennon).
The Revolution needs some icons. One possibility would be a large number of celebrities coming together to stand against the machine, all completely focused on the Amendment as the centerpiece. For example, the Concert For Darfur is an awesome double-album of John Lennon songs covered by big stars. If those same recording artists would take the next step and be brave and stand up and do some huge concerts, they could jump-start the Revolution. Nah, Steven Tyler is too busy with his gig on American Idol.
I'm not holding my breath for Obama's EO. He's as flexible as a contortionist when it comes to making public proposals and carrying them through. I really don't think his own bankrollers for re-election, especially the defense industry, would want to renounce their personhood, and he wouldn't want to disappoint them too much.
Were there an equal playing field between workers (who form unions to protect their generally meager wages and benefits, particularly NOW as a direct result of decisions like the mislabled, "Citizens United," given that the new muscle is already being shown by those so evidently prepared to purchase politicians, like the idiot-boy governor of Wisconsin) and corporations, your points would be worth considering.
However, it is a common right wing talking point to confate one (unions) with the other (corporations)... oddly similar (and thus likely issuing from the same PR firm) to the manner by which congress-people speak about NOT raising taxes, as if the amount saved, or rendered "unto Caesar" by a typical American family really compares with the savings to the very rich? As if the small potatos saved by those with lower incomes (although they need every penny these days) is relative to what the rich have managed to amass in record time, largely by using that successful talking point... as if all taxes are equal.
In both instances, everyone is alleged to fit into (and/or occupy) the same boat, and whether it rises or falls is said to impact all ships. Truth is, given the FACT revealed by today's Gini Co-efficient, these skillfully related tactics have resulted in more and more wealth remaining in fewer and fewer hands, or wealth being socially engineered to aggregates upwards.
You sound like your probable pals who try to tell us that nuclear power is safe, or that the democrats are really better than those awful republicans, or that population numbers are the real issue, so that necessary environmental laws (and their direct emcumbrance of business, a/k/a profits) need not be considered at so TIMELY a time!
Speaking of time, I need to bike...
This is incredibly sage advice, maybe the only way that money control of politics can ever be brought under control. If under-funded candidates would only make the over- funding of their opponents the issues of their campaigns, consumer resistance might kick in as people learn to "vote against the money,"
No standing tall for him on this one; he's bound to bend as usual. Though I could be wrong, which would be a pleasant surprise.
http://mosquitocloud.net/
I cannot help but wonder whether Molly Ivins would also have revealed herself as a partisan hack...?
http://mosquitocloud.net/
A voice speaks to you straight from your personal boob tube:
"Do you suffer from Battered Wife Syndrome?
Have you known abuse beyond abuse,
betrayal, after betrayal,
but you still stand by your man?
If so, then you need to attend this 3-day seminar,
entitled, 'Wake the Fuck Up!' That's right,
'Wake the Fuck Up' can mean a life-changing
encounter, a whole new way to get to know
and understand yourself.
Only by penetrating the great mystery of why, extended
to Why Me? of Why Him? Will you find the power to
liberate yourself from the delusion to which you so
clearly suffer.
And if you act now, we'll include, the accompanying book,
in easy to read lettering, also entitled, 'Wake the Fuck Up!'
But you must act now, for seats are limited and in demand.
Take advantage of this special, limited time offer... the
entire package can be yours for just $69.99.!!!
That's right... just $69.99
So call now. You'll be glad you did!"
Operators are standing by.
Well said.
CORRUPTION THROUGH AND THROUGH!!!!!!!!