Germany is on its way to being a green energy nation! Their solar power plants produced a world record of 22 gigawatts of electricity during midday hours last Friday and Saturday - the equivalent of 20 nuclear power plants at full capacity!
After the Fukishima disaster Germany closed 8 nuclear power plants immediately and will close the other 9 by 2022. They will be replaced with wind, solar and bio-mass. It can be done! One of the ways they are way ahead of us is in subsidizing solar energy. Read more.
This is so critical. We all need to raise our voices for a more sane energy policy- especially in the light of the worst drought in 100 years in our nation's heartland, the recent Shell fiasco in the Arctic and the never ending nightmare that is fracking.
From the Occupy movement- do it yourself solar projects can supplement government subsidized solar power. Check it out.
Robotic Killers Coming to a Neighborhood Near You?
I personally think this is one of the most frightening images of the 21st century. Unmanned drones that can kill from afar. In Pakistan alone it is estimated that from 2004-2012, 500 civilians were killed by US drones.
In Yemen, increased drone strikes are having the unintended consequence of increasing sympathy for al-Qaeda.
From the Washington Post-
“These attacks are making people say, ‘We believe now that al-Qaeda is
on the right side,’ ” said businessman Salim al-Barakani, adding that
his two brothers — one a teacher, the other a cellphone repairman — were
killed in a U.S. strike in March.
The other day my husband thought he saw a drone fly over our house- it is entirely possible. There was a recent article in the NY Times magazine that revealed that drones in the US practice tracking enemies by putting civilian cars in their cross hairs and following them. Drones are being sold to local police departments at a rapid clip and they may soon be able to be equipped to fire rubber bullets and tear gas. Here is a a map of domestic drone authorizations. Thanks to a bill Obama signed in February they can also be used for a range of commercial endeavors, from dusting crops to shooting movies.
Rep Peter King said drones “carry out the policies of righteousness and goodness.” He added he wasn't concerned about civilian casualties. I wonder what he'd say if China was using drones and killing hundreds of US citizens every year?
A headline from the Guardian UK recently read "US wildfires are what global warming really looks like, scientists warn The Colorado* fires are being driven by extreme temperatures, which are consistent with IPCC projections"
Meanwhile US media fails to connect the dots. Although there were 14 weather disasters in the US last year compared to the long term average of 3 a year and 82% of Americans say they have experienced a natural disaster or extreme weather event first-hand- mainstream media's coverage of climate change dropped 72% from 2009 to 2011. Sunday morning shows "have all spent more time covering Donald Trump than they have climate change." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamie-henn/connecting-the-dots-betwe_2_b_1472754.html
*And of course it is not just Colorado we are talking about- much of the western US is going up in smoke- "Fire season in the West is 78 days longer than it was 25 years ago.
Since 1986, we have experienced a fourfold increase in the number of
major wildfires and a sixfold increase in the area of forest burned. The
average burn duration of large fires has increased from 7.5 to 37.1
days." read more
"A so-called "Monsanto rider," quietly slipped into the multi-billion
dollar FY 2013 Agricultural Appropriations bill, would require – not
just allow, but require - the Secretary of Agriculture to grant a
temporary permit for the planting or cultivation of a genetically
engineered crop, even if a federal court has ordered the planting be
halted until an Environmental Impact Statement is completed. All the
farmer or the biotech producer has to do is ask, and the questionable
crops could be released into the environment where they could
potentially contaminate conventional or organic crops and, ultimately,
the nation's food supply." Truthout.org
The rider was added by Jack Kingston (R-Georgia) wa ho was named legislator of the year by the Biotech industry.
Sign the petition against granting Monsanto immunity from federal law here.
Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of Network, speaks during a
stop on the first day of a nine-state Nuns on the Bus tour June 18,
2012, in Ames, Iowa. (AP Photo)
Go Nuns Go!
Heartened to see the "Nuns on a Bus" Tour is in high gear and has crowds greeting them like they are rock stars. They are drawing attention to the immorality of the Paul Ryan GOP budget that would:
*Raise taxes on 18 million hardworking low-income families while cutting taxes for
millionaires and big corporations.
*Push the families of 2 million children into poverty.
*Kick 8 million people off food stamps and 30 million off health care.
Sister Simone Campbell, in true nun fashion has this to say about those who would take from the poor to give more to the rich.
“We have to open our hearts, even to John Boehner, Eric Cantor and
Mitch McConnell,” she said, grinning, “all the people I want to think
are God’s mistakes.”
The crowd laughed.
“The God in me resides in the God in them," she added.
The Vatican has criticized American nuns for spending too much time helping the poor and sick and for not being sufficiently anti-gay and anti-abortion. They have accused one group that claims 57,000 nuns as members as being "radical feminists". In the court of public opinion- the nuns are winning.
The Pentagon's LGBT Pride Month Event!
Did you ever think you'd live to see the day?!
About time!
Our Green Future
EdmontonJournal.com
Read about how one "little northern city is going carbon neutral, right in the heart of oil and gas country."
Vagina Power!
Rod Sanford/Lansing State Journ
More
than 2,500 went to the steps of the capitol in Michigan for a protest
reading of the Vagina Monologues, after two women legislators were
banned from talking after one of them said "vagina".
No
kidding. These male legislators want to regulate women's vaginas- they
are trying to close down abortion providers- but they cannot speak the word.
And last, but not least, Supreme Court Rules Health Care Act Constitutional! The US joins with all industrialized nations of the world to say you should not go bankrupt just because you get sick.
This is an immense relief to the millions who have been, or would have been denied coverage because of preexisting conditions, who got sick and got dropped by their insurance, or who are under 26 and can stay on their parent's plans. We are going in the right direction!
I almost felt bad about the photo I posted below showing the Supreme Court Five with "SHAME" written on them after Roberts joined the liberals of the court. But, no- he should stay there- because of his push for Citizens United- which could unravel everything.
This really should not have come as a big surprise- as the insurance companies wanted Obamacare and Roberts has never met a corporate argument he didn't like. By the way, can we call it Obamney Care from now on? Pawlenty described it that way during the primaries and Bobby Jindall just did too, but in his case it was a Freudian slip! I just think Romney should get the credit he deserves!
Jonathon Gruber, one of the architects of the Romney health care law said, "He can try to draw distinctions and stuff, but he's just lying."
On Monday, the five right-wingers on the Supreme Court (l to r- Alito, Kennedy, Roberts, Scalia and Thomas) ruled that states cannot pass laws to limit corruption and the buying of state and local elections by the wealthy. However; the Supreme Court Five did feel it was prudent to impose new limits on political contributions from unions- which shows the true colors of the Citizens United ruling in Jan 2010. It is not about free speech, but rather is a slow motion coup d'etat to replace democracy with a plutocracy where the 1% rule and the voice of the people is silenced.
As John Nichols of The Nation put it, "If Exxon Mobil* wants to spend $10 million to support a favored candidate
in a state legislative or city council race that might decide whether
the corporation is regulated, or whether it gets new drilling rights, it
can. But why stop at $10 million? If it costs $100 million to shout
down the opposition, the court says that is fine. If if costs $1
billion, that's fine, too."
In another example, Nichols points out a company like Walmart may decide they do not want to pay local taxes. Now thanks to the far reaching tentacles of Citizens United, Walmart can buy local politicians who will agree with them- local schools and public services be damned.
In Montana, there has been a ban on corporate electioneering for over a century. This was based on the state's corrupt history in which copper barons (one was called one of the wealthiest men in the world) owned the newspapers and "ran the state government like their own subsidiary". In 2011, Montana upheld the ban which had worked so well for a century.
Some were holding out hope that in reviewing the Montana ban, that some aspects of Citizens United could be reheard, especially as the decision's claim that super PACS would be independent of the candidates is patently false. One only has to look at the 2012 presidential race to see billionaires like Sheldon "The Palestinians are an Invented People" Adelson and Foster "Put an Aspirin between Your Knees" Fiesss being highly involved in their candidates' races. Does anyone believe they do not expect anything from donating hundreds of millions of dollars?
"Two Supreme Court justices, Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg,
issued a short statement when the Court took the Montana case, saying
they hoped their colleagues would use the case to revisit these aspects
of Citizens United. A variety of legal briefs were filed
arguing the same thing. Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain and Rhode
Island Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse said wealthy interests were
using the threat of outsized donations to super PACs to threaten
elected officials—giving another real-life example of Citizen United’s anti-democratic impact." (Steven Rosenfeld, Alternet)
But the Partisan Five were not swayed. They seem to be doubling down on what Justice Kennedy wrote in the majority (by one person) opinion in Citizens United regarding unlimited spending by mega-wealthy corporations - he said such expenditures “do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption.”
We, the people wholeheartedly disagree. About 85% of Americans (democrat, republican and independentt) want Citizens United overturned. About 100 resolutions on local and state levels (3 states so far) have been passed to overturn the disastrous ruling. The US Conference of Mayors unanimously passed a resolution this month stating that corporations should not receive the same legal rights as natural citizens and that money is not speech. They called for the most urgent action to reverse Citizens United.
The Shame photo also refers to the fact that the high court just gave the thumbs up to racial profiling by upholding "your papers please" aspect of AZ's immigration law.
“In his famous speech at Gettysburg during the Civil War, Abraham
Lincoln talked about America as a country ‘of the people, by the people
and for the people.’ Today, as a result of the Supreme Court’s refusal
to reconsider its decision in Citizens United, we are rapidly moving
toward a nation of the super-rich, by the super-rich and for the
super-rich. That is not what America is supposed to
be about. This Supreme Court decision must be overturned.” Senator Bernie Sanders
*If Exxon Mobil had spent just 2 percent of its 2008 profits in the last
presidential election, it would have outspent McCain and Obama combined. The danger to democracy is very real.
It was hard to come back from my two week vacation (in media free AZ) to find that Scott Walker did not lose his seat in the WI recall (thank goodness Dems won the majority in the State Senate!) Seventy percent of Walker's campaign contributions came from out of state from billionaires like Sheldon Adelson (Gingrich's sugar daddy). Over $31 million flowed into his campaign and he plastered WI airwaves with misleading ads for months, including a disgusting ad linking his opponent to a picture of a dead baby. But the story isn't quite over.
Three of Walker's aides from his time as Milwaukee County Executive have been indicted for stealing from veterans and widows and orphans from the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars for personal and campaign spending. Many feel Walker may be next. Indeed he is the only governor in America to have a criminal defense fund and he has moved $160,000 in campaign donations to that fund.
Below is from Walker Watch- Could Walker as County Executive really not known that any of this was going on? And if he didn't have a clue, what does that say about him?
Walker Player
Link to Walker
Status/Charges
Tim Russell
Scott Walker’s former
Deputy Chief of Staff, former Housing Administrator, former Economic
Development Director, and former Operator of ScottWalker.org. He was
fired from the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority
after it was discovered in 1993 that he improperly billed hotel stays. He
set up the secret email network that allowed government staffers to
illegally campaign for Walker who was Milwaukee County executive. Mr.
Russell also allegedly stole thousands of dollars from Operation
Freedom and used the money to pay for Caribbean and Hawaiian vacations
and a political trip to Atlanta to meet with Herman Cain’s presidential
campaign.
One felony count of theft (value exceeding
$10,000), a Class G felony punishable by fines of up to $25,000 and/or
10 years in prison. One felony count of theft (value $2,500-5,000), a
Class I felony punishable by fines of up to $10,000 and/or 3.5 years in
prison. One misdemeanor count of theft (value not exceeding $2,500), a
Class A misdemeanor punishable by fines not more than $10,000 and/or
up to 9 months in prison. Criminal ComplaintUPDATE: A final pre-trial hearing was set for June 4, with a trial scheduled for June 18.
Brian Pierick
Pierick and and partner Tim Russell
operated Scott Walker’s campaign website, ScottWalker.org. A criminal
complaint alleges Pierick tried to entice a 17-year-old boy into his
van to have sex and exchanged illicit text messages with a 17-year-old
Waukesha boy. He could face up to 25 years in prison and a $100,000
fine on the most serious charge he faces. Pierick had worked as an
office operations assistant at the state Department of Public
Instruction dealing with education for homeless children and youth.
Charged with one felony count of child
enticement (exposing sex organ), a Class D felony punishable by fines
of up to $100,000 and/or imprisonment of up to 25 years. One felony
count of exposing genitals or pubic area, a Class I Felony, punishable
by fines of up to $10,000 and/or imprisonment of up to 3.5 years. Criminal Complaint
Kevin Kavanaugh
Walker’s political appointee to the
Milwaukee County Veteran Service Commission was involved in “Operation
Freedom” and is alleged to have stolen money allocated for children of
Wisconsin military service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Under investigation for several serious
felony and misdemeanor for embezzling at least $42,232 from the
Military Order of the Purple Heart between 2006 and 2009. Criminal Complaint
Kelly Rindfleisch
Walker’s former Deputy Chief of Staff to
Scott Walker, personal 2012 campaign fundraiser and former policy
analyst for Scott Walker. Her office, which was 25 feet from Walker’s
County Executive office, used illegal secret email network set up by Tim
Russell and illegally sent more than 1,000 campaign emails and also
running fundraising operation for Brett Davis illegally.
Four felony counts of misconduct in public
office. Each charge is a Class I felony punishable by fines of not
more than $10,000 and/or up to 3.5 years in jail for each count. Criminal Complaint
Darlene Wink
Wink, who also served as first vice chair
of the Milwaukee County GOP and raised money for Milwaukee County
executive Scott Walker while Walker’s constituent services manager, is
alleged to have drafted and sent press releases for the Republican
Party of Milwaukee County, done phone banking for Walker’s campaign and
other matters relating to the county GOP at Walker’s County Executive
office. All of these efforts were done using the illegal secret email
network set up by Tim Russell.
Wink faces two misdemeanor counts each carry penalties of up to six months in jail and fines of up to $1,000.
Wink’s work computer was confiscated by the FBI. She (as well as
Kelly Rindfleisch) used laptop computers that they brought into the
office and used the illegal wireless email network to transmit illegal
activities.
UPDATE: Darlene Wink pleaded guilty February 7 to two misdemeanor
charges of fundraising in the courthouse for then Milwaukee County
Executive Scott Walker’s campaign for governor. Wink agreed to provide
information to prosecutors as part of a plea deal. Criminal Complaint
Andrew Jensen, Jr.
Jensen is a commercial real estate broker
with Boerke Co. and a past president of the Commercial Association of
Realtors Wisconsin. Campaign finance records show Jensen made more than
$800 in donations to the Walker campaign. Records show Jensen and
other Boerke personnel have made more than $12,000 in campaign
contributions to Walker.
Jensen has big connections with Walker’s
personal law firm of Michael Best & Friedrich, which employs the
attorney for Walker’s campaign and Reince Priebus, a key Walker backer
who is now on leave from the firm to serve as chairman of the Republican
National Committee. He was was arrested for failing to cooperate with
the John Doe investigation in December, 2011.
Reince Priebus
Darlene Wink emailed Priebus to see if the
Walker campaign could get former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to attend the
fundraiser. Priebus is also part of the Koch Brothers operation
“Americans for Prosperity”, which has been very involved in Walker’s
extremist agenda that is leading to recall elections as well as “voter
caging” during the 2010 election cycle.
Priebus could be linked to the secret
email network set up in Walker’s County Executive office. Investigations
continue on that front.
Priebus is the current chairman of the National Republican Party. This could change quickly.
William Gardner
Gardner, president and chief executive
officer of Wisconsin & Southern Railroad Co. and a major donor to
Walker. Mr. Gardner was convicted of the largest campaign finance
violation in Wisconsin history where he illegally allocated $43,000 to
the Friends of Scott Walker by asking his employees to contribute tens
of thousands of dollars.
Charged with two felony counts of
excessive/unlawful political contributions. Each count is a Class I
felony and carries a find of up to $10,000 and/or up to 3.5 years in
prison. Sentenced to two years’ probation in July after pleading guilty
to two felonies for exceeding campaign contribution limits to Walker’s
campaign and laundering additional campaign contributions through
employees and associates.
Keith Gilkes
Gilkes, Walker’s Chief of Staff, resigned
on October 8, which paid him $112,000-per-year. He previously served as
campaign manager during the Governor’s race in 2009-10. He worked for
the Wisconsin State Legislature as a policy advisor in the State Senate.
He had exchanged over 1,000 emails using the secret email system in
Walker’s County Executve office.
While Chief of Staff, Gilkes had
recommended a job for Sen. Randy Hopper’s girlfriend, Valerie Cass, who
was hired Feb. 7 as a communications specialist with the state
Department of Regulation and Licensing. Additionally, he recommended
Brian Deschane, a college dropout who was the son of a Walker political
contributor.
Cullen Werwie
Werwie worked for the campaign of former Republican State Rep. Brett Davis,
who was defeated in the September 2010 Republican Lt. Governor primary.
Werwie then worked deputy communications director for Walker’s
gubernatorial campaign. Werwie is the governor’s current Communications
Director..
Werwie has been granted prosecutorial
immunity in the ongoing John Doe investigation on April 14. He was doing
communications with the Walker for Governor campaign with staffers
using the secret email network.
Joe Fadness
Fadness is the operations manager for
Friends of Scott Walker. He and Darlene Wink exchanged emails, Internet
chat sessions and phone calls during county time, which is illegal at
Walker’s Milwaukee County administrative offices.
There are calls for Fadness to resign due to his knowledge of illegal campaign activity related to the John Doe investigation.
Brett Davis
Kelly Rindfleisch did fundraising for
Davis, who Walker supported for lieutenant governor until he lost in the
September 2010 GOP primary, from her office while working for Scott
Walker.
Kelly Rindfleisch sent Davis over 300 emails using the secret email network.
Rose Ann Dieck
Dieck is a retired teacher and Milwaukee
County Republican party activist who has raised money for Walker’s
campaigns since 2005.
Dieck was granted immunity in the John Doe investigation.
Kenneth Lucht
Lucht is a lobbyist and spokesperson for
the Wisconsin & Southern Railroad. He works for William Gardner, who
at the time was the president and chief executive officer of Wisconsin
& Southern Railroad, who charged with two felony counts of
excessive/unlawful political contributions.
Lucht was granted immunity in the John Doe investigation on January 14, 2011.
Fran McLaughlin
McLaughlin was Director of Communications
for Scott Walker when he was County Executive and had her office next
door to where the secret email network was set up.
McLaughlin’s office contained scant
documents after Walker’s Milwaukee County office was vacated and many
records were shredded or missing.
Steven Kreklow
Kreklow was Fiscal & Budget
Administrator working with Walker when he was Milwaukee County
Executive. He also was the author of the 2010 and 2011 budget.
When crunching the numbers for Walker for
the Wisconsin budget, Kreklow admitted that the deficit was only one
third the number of what Walker has been reporting.
Cynthia Archer
Archer served as the head of the Milwaukee
County Department of Administration when Walker was County Executive
and served on Walker’s Waste Fraud and Abuse Commission and legislative
liaison at the Department of Children and Families.
Archer’s work computer was confiscated by
the FBI. A FBI spokesman Leonard Peace declined to comment, referring
calls to Milwaukee County Chief Deputy District Attorney Kent Lovern,
who also declined to comment.
Tom Nardelli
Nardelli was Walker’s chief of staff when
Walker was Milwaukee County executive. Nardelli told prosecutors that
about $11,000 seemed to be missing from the annual Operation Freedom
event at the Milwaukee County Zoo designed to honor military families.
Nardelli abruptly quit as his $90,000 a
year job as administrator for the state Division of Environmental and
Regulatory Services on July 21. He said all Walker’s Milwaukee County
office records were saved or disposed of properly, although there were
many records that had been shredded and office drawers were empty.
Jim Hiller
Hiller, in real estate for 21 years, was
Walker’s campaign treasurer for 18 years and on Walker’s transition team
as he became governor.
Hiller suddenly quit his position as Walker’s treasurer and was replaced by Kate Lind on May 13.
Bob Nenno
Nenno was Deputy Director of
Communications when Walker was Milwaukee County executive. Nenno also
worked as a reporter for WTMJ-TV.
When asked about how many other Walker
aides were getting their computers confiscated by authorities, Nenno
cryptically said “I have been told to refer you to the DA’s office.”
Jim Villa
Villa was Walker’s Chief of Staff when he
was in the state legislature. He returned to the Chief of Staff
position when Walker was Milwaukee County Executive and was gearing up
for his first attempt at running for governor.
Kelly Rindfleisch, in order to be a public
employee in Milwaukee County with the required residence within the
county, used Villa’s address to satisfy the requirement.
Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen
Current Republican Attorney General and
Walker ally who had participated in other John Doe investigations chose
not to assist with the investigation of Walker’s former county staffers.
Van Hollen continues to not want to get
involved in the expanding John Doe investigation, probably due to being
more interested in the Republican Party than doing his job.
Many of the sources are combined from the Wisconsin State Journal,
the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and other news sources. It’s just a
matter of time when the “smoking gun” leads to Scott Walker knwoing what
was going on. It’s just a matter of justice.
This evidence, seen on several blogs looking at the FBI investigation, may indeed be the beginning of showing actual proof that Walker did know “about the laptops” that were being used for illegal campaign fundraising and other crimes at the Milwaukee County office.
(oops- tried to fix the list and cannot make this part go away!)
Many of the sources are combined from the Wisconsin State Journal,
the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and other news sources. It’s just a
matter of time when the “smoking gun” leads to Scott Walker knwoing what
was going on. It’s just a matter of justice.
This evidence, seen on several blogs looking at the FBI investigation, may indeed be the beginning of showing actual proof that Walker did know “about the laptops” that were being used for illegal campaign fundraising and other crimes at the Milwaukee County office.
Sorry I have not posted in awhile- if you click here you 'll see why! Glad to be back and will get into regular posting now. Hmm, don't know why it links to the end of the post- just scroll up a little. WAKING PLANET: Science Love
Free Speech for People as been in the forefront in fighting for a Peoples' Amendment to overturn Citizens United and to put to rest once and for all the absurd notion that corporations are people. Recently, George Will wrote a column comparing their efforts to infanticide! Rep Jim McGovern who is leading the charge to defend democracy from the corrosive influence of unlimited, secret political donations responded. So far the Wall St Journal refuses to print it. Sign on to support The Peoples' Amendment and share with your friends-http://peoplesrightsamendment.org/
RESCUING ‘WE THE PEOPLE’
Jim McGovern
Defenders of the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United
and the ascendant Corporate Rights doctrine that underlies it must be
getting nervous. Why else would George Will resort to arguing, as he so
outrageously does (“A Scythe Against Free Speech, May 6) that the
bipartisan People’s Rights Amendment I have introduced in the House is
“comparable” to condoning infanticide?
A large majority of Americans believe that
corporations exert too much influence on our daily lives and our
political process. A Hart Research poll released last year found that
nearly four in five (79%) of registered voters support passage of a
constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United.
Resolutions calling for such an amendment have passed in several states
and cities across the country. Eleven state attorneys general have
written to Congress demanding action.
We are already witnessing the corrosive effects of Citizens United:
an election system awash in a sea of millions of dollars in unregulated
money, drowning out the voices of individual citizens. Politicians are
increasingly beholden to wealthy special interests. A multi-national
oil company that doesn’t like a particular member of Congress can now
simply write a big, undisclosed check to “Americans for Apple Pie and
Puppies” and watch the negative advertisements work their magic.
But the effects of the Corporate Rights doctrine go
far beyond campaign finance. A Vermont law to require that milk
products derived from cows treated with bovine growth hormone be labeled
to disclose that information was struck down as a violation of the
First Amendment. A federal judge has found that tobacco companies have a
free speech right that prevents the government from requiring graphic
warning labels on cigarettes. A pharmaceutical corporation has claimed
that their corporate speech rights protect them from FDA rules
prohibiting the marketing of a drug for “off-label” uses.
As Justice Stevens rightly noted in his dissent in Citizens United
(and contrary to what Mr. Will would have us believe), the majority
ruling was “a radical departure from what has been settled First
Amendment Law.” These corporate “rights” are relatively new, appearing
in the last few decades. They overturn centuries of established
jurisprudence and national consensus. The Supreme Court used to
repeatedly affirm that the elected governments of the states and the
nation could regulate corporations. Chief Justice John Marshall
described the corporate entity as “an artificial being … existing only
in contemplation of law.” No less an authority than James Madison
viewed corporations as “a necessary evil” subject to “proper limitations
and guards.” Thomas Jefferson wished to “crush in its birth the
aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge
our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of
our country.” There is nothing “originalist” about the Corporate Rights
doctrine, and it is no mere accident that the first three words of the
preamble to our Constitution are “We the People.”
Mr. Will conjures up a nightmare scenario under the
People’s Rights Amendment under which “newspapers, magazines,
broadcasting entities, online journalism operations – and most religious
institutions” would be stripped of all constitutional rights. Wrong.
Those rights were properly secure before the modern fabrication of the
Corporate Rights doctrine and would continue to flourish. The people
who make up those institutions, whether acting as individuals or in
groups, would continue to enjoy the liberties we all hold dear and the
Constitution enumerates. Corporations would continue to have legal
standing to advocate on behalf of the people associated with them. But
the fiction that an artificial corporate entity is itself entitled to the same rights of citizenship as people would come to an end.
Corporations are created by the people, acting
through their governments. We grant them corporate charters that confer
certain legal rights and privileges, like the ability to enter into
contracts, limited liability and perpetual life. These rights serve an
important and useful role in our economy. But our most sacred rights –
those enshrined in the Constitution – should be reserved for “We the
People.”
Mr. Will says that “controversies can be wonderfully
clarified when people follow the logic of illogical premises to
perverse conclusions.” Indeed. By conflating a good-faith attempt to
overturn Citizens United with the killing of newborn babies,
banning political speech and regulating religious practices, his column
demonstrates the lengths to which the supporters of the Corporate Rights
doctrine will go to protect their newfound gains.
Jim McGovern is a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts.
Looks like Will forgot that overturning Citizens United is the will of the people!
Protesters march down Michigan Ave. in Chicago during this weekend's
NATO summit Sunday, May 20, 2012 in Chicago. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)
Photo - Salon.com
Up to 75,000 people descended on Chicago to protest NATO, endless war, climate change and economic injustice this past weekend, but MSM talked about hundreds of protestors and there were few, if any images I could see showing the breadth and passion of these protests. Veterans were a leading force and many used the occasion to throw their medals away, including Scott Olsen, the Iraq veteran who was seriously wounded by Oakland police at an Occupy demonstration last Fall.
Three young men were arrested preemptively on the eve of the NATO summit and charged with planning violent actions. Some reports said materials for Molotov cocktails were found, others say it was beer making equipment. There are also reports of entrapment, so the facts are not clear. Here is another take on it from OWS. CNN has reported this as "Terror Plot in Chicago Foiled". These are guys with no criminal record (one was drunk once and swam in a school pool) and now they will be tried as "terrorists".
The media have also said the police deserve high marks for the way they handled the protests, but many peaceful protestors would disagree, including reporters who were beaten and had cameras smashed.
Lastly, here is a great images of nurses using the Robin Hood theme at the summit to make a plea for economic justice! God Bless all the nurses!
National Nurses United protest fires up in Daley Plaza. (Zbigniew Bzdak, Chicago Tribune)
The fact is thousands of nurses, teachers, veterans, students, occupiers, religious groups, union members and others simply fed up with our corrupt system that continues to pour billions into death and destruction while our infrastructure and middle class crumble- took to the streets in a largely peaceful way in Chicago to demand change. This happened and it will only grow bigger whether MSM covers it or not.
Thanks you to Betty Olson who hosted this gathering and to all who came to express their outrage at the illegal, unfair and immoral practices of the Bank of America.
We protested in solidarity with hundreds who converged on Bank of America headquarters in Charlotte, NC for their annual shareholder meeting. Actions happened at Bank of America branches all over the country. This one was organized by the Ulster County MoveOn Council.
The article referenced in the video can be seen in its entirety here- after reading it, all you can do is scream "Hold the banksters accountable!" After the Savings and Loan scandal almost 1,000 bankers went to jail. It needs to happen this time too, or we are just creating conditions for another and much worse economic collapse.
"Bank of America has systematically ripped off almost everyone with whom
it has a significant business relationship, cheating investors,
insurers, depositors, homeowners, shareholders, pensioners and
taxpayers. It brought tens of thousands of Americans to foreclosure
court using bogus, "robo-signed" evidence – a type of mass perjury that
it helped pioneer. It hawked worthless mortgages to dozens of unions and
state pension funds, draining them of hundreds of millions in value.
And when it wasn't ripping off workers and pensioners, it was helping to
push insurance giants like AMBAC into bankruptcy by fraudulently
inducing them to spend hundreds of millions insuring those same
worthless mortgages."
Tim Russell 
Brian Pierick 
Kevin Kavanaugh
Kelly Rindfleisch
Darlene Wink
Andrew Jensen, Jr. 
Reince Priebus
William Gardner
Keith Gilkes
Cullen Werwie
Joe Fadness
Brett Davis
Rose Ann Dieck
Kenneth Lucht
Cynthia Archer
Tom Nardelli
Jim Hiller
Jim Villa
Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen
