US Supreme Court Confuses Corporations
with Actual People

The Court went on at great length about the risks of preventing corporations from speaking in political campaigns and how their inability to speak purported to damage our political process. Because it believes that any regulation would be too complicated to enforce, the Court threw out all regulations on speech by corporations.

 

Howard Zinn, a Historian for the People, Dead at 87

By Ralph E. Stone and Judy Iranyi January 28, 2010 It is with great sadness that we heard the news about the passing of Howard Zinn. He died of a heart attack at the age of 87 while he was working on a speaking tour in Santa Monica California. This internationally known historian and author [...]

 

Fixing A Bad Supreme Court Decision

By Joel S. Hirschhorn, guest editorial January 27, 2010 Sensible, intelligent Americans are furious over the recent Supreme Court 5-to-4-decision referred to as Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that struck down limits on corporate spending in presidential and congressional elections. Those of us who wail against the corpocracy, with its corruption of government, could [...]

 

Stay Tuned: Ce n’est pas ma faute!

Supervisor Sean Elsbernd. Photo by Luke Thomas By Hope Johnson January 26, 2010 District 7 Supervisor Sean Elsbernd is mad as hell that a city charter amendment he urged voters pass in 2007 is not as fiscally responsible as previously hoped.  He’s made it clear someone is going to pay for his mistake and it [...]

 

The Downside of a Constitutional Convention

New Yorker cartoon By Ralph E. Stone January 26, 2010 As we all have no doubt read or heard, the Supreme Court in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission invalidated the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (2 U.S.C. §441b), ruling, among other things, that the “government may not suppress political speech on the basis of the speaker’s [...]

 

Corporations are People Too

In all the noise over healthcare reform and the election in Massachusetts, you might not have noticed that democracy took a gut punch last Thursday, as the Supreme Court ruled that corporations can give unlimited amounts of money to political campaigns, candidates, and parties. They can do this directly from their own general fund, without the permission of their shareholders.

 

Why Scott Brown Won in Massachusetts

Yet the talking heads on the network and cable news, and the op-ed pieces in so many papers across the country haven’t yet grasped this simple truth that the American public intuitively understands. We are joyfully refusing to let any spin unravel this most refreshing example of the people reining in this out-of-control healthcare overhaul.