URGENT CALL TO ACTION FROM
HOWARD ZINN, THOM HARTMANN, MEDEA BENJAMIN, FRAN & DAVID KORTEN, BILL MCKIBBEN, BILL FLETCHER, JIM HIGHTOWER, TOM HAYDEN, REV. YEARWOOD, & MORE . . .
Exxon. AIG. Enron. Blackwater. Edison. Halliburton. Diebold.
They've gone after our tax dollars. Our services. Our jobs. Our schools. Our military. Our votes. Our future. Our freedoms. And the federal courts have helped them every step of the way.
Today, with its ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are persons, entitled by the U.S. Constitution to buy elections and run our government.
Human beings are people; corporations are legal fictions. The Supreme Court is misguided in principle, and wrong on the law. In a democracy, the people rule.
We Move to Amend.
We, the People of the United States of America, reject the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United, and move to amend our Constitution to:
* Firmly establish that money is not speech, and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights.
* Guarantee the right to vote and to participate, and to have our votes and participation count.
* Protect local communities, their economies, and democracies against illegitimate "preemption" actions by global, national, and state governments.
Sign the Motion
Adrienne Maree Brown, Ruckus Society
Alec Loorz, Kids vs Global Warming
Andrew Kimbrell, International Center for Technology Assessment
Andy Gussert, Citizens Trade Campaign
Anne Feeney, musician
Ben Manski, attorney, Exec. Director, Liberty Tree
Benno Friedman, photographer
Benson Scotch, former Staff Counsel to Sen. Leahy, U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee
Bill Fletcher, Exec. Editor, BlackCommentator.com
Bill McKibben, founder, 350.org
Bill Moyer, Backbone Campaign
Brad Friedman, Publisher, The BRAD BLOG
Brad Thacker, Be The Change USA
Brett Kimberlin, Director, Justice Through Music
Brian McLaren, Christian activist & author
Carl Davidson, Progressive America Rising
Carolyn Oppenheim, Shays 2
Charlie Cray, Center for Corporate Policy
Dal LaMagna, founder, Tweezerman, Inc.
Dave Wells, formerly Board of Directors, Sierra Club
David Cobb, initiator of 2004 Ohio Recount
David Gespass, president, National Lawyers Guild
David Korten, author of When Corporations Rule the World
David Rovics, musician
David Swanson, AfterDowningStreet.org
David Wells, Jr., Nashville Urban Harvest
Dean Myerson, Executive Director, Green Institute
Diane Wittner & Margaret Flowers, Chesapeake Citizens
Dr. Jill Stein, candidate for Governor of Massachusetts
Ed Garvey, attorney at law, editor, FightingBob.com
Emily Levy, Velvet Revolution
Fran Korten, Editor, YES! Magazine
Frank Arundel, activist
Gary Zuckett, WV Citizen Action
George Friday, National Coordinator, IPPN
George Martin, United for Peace & Justice
Georgia Kelly, Praxis Peace Institute
Glen Ford, Executive Editor, BlackAgendaReport.com
Greg Coleridge, NE OH American Friends Service Committee
Howard Zinn, historian
Jackie Cabasso, Executive Director, Western State Legal Foundation
James Gustave Speth, Distinguished Senior Fellow, Demos
Jan Edwards, writer
Jane Anne Morris, author, Gaveling Down The Rabble
Jeff Cohen, founder, FAIR
Jeff Milchen, founder, ReclaimDemocracy.org
Jeffrey Short, Ph.D., Pacific Science Director, OCEANA
Jerome Scott, League of Revolutionaries for a New America
Jill Bussiere, Co-Chair, Green Party of the U.S.
James M. Cullen, editor of The Progressive Populist
Jim Hightower, author, columnist, and radio commentator
Joel Bleifuss, Editor & Publisher, In These Times
John E. Peck, Executive Director, Family Farm Defenders
John Nichols, Washington Correspondent, The Nation
John Rensenbrink, President, Green Horizon Foundation
John Stauber, author, Weapons of Mass Deception
Jonathan Frieman, social entrepreneur
Josh Healey, Youth Speaks
Josh Lerner, The New School for Social Research
Josh Silver, Executive Director, Free Press
Judith Pedersen-Benn, Unitarian Universalists for a Just Economic Community
Kai Huschke, Envision Spokane
Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap, Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County
Ken Reiner, inventor and founder, Kaynar Corp.
Kevin Danaher, Executive Co-Producer, Green Festivals
Kevin Zeese, Executive Director, TrueVote.US
Leah Bolger, CDR, USN (Ret), Bring the Guard Home! It's the Law.
Lewis Pitts, Lawyer, Legal Aid of NC
Lisa Graves, Executive Director, Center for Media and Democracy
Lori Price, Managing Editor, Citizens for Legitimate Government
Makani Themba-Nixon, Executive Director, The Praxis Project
Margo Baldwin, Publisher, Chelsea Green
Mark Crispin Miller, author, Fooled Again
Mary Zepernick, Program on Corporations Law and Democracy
Marybeth Gardam, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
Matt Nelson, Just Cause
Matt Rothschild, Editor, The Progressive
Medea Benjamin, co-founder, Code Pink
Michael Albert, Z Communications
Michael Bonnano, OpEdNews
Michael Marx, Corporate Ethics International
Michael Shuman, attorney, economic, author of "The Small-Mart Revolution"
Mike Ferner, President, Veterans for Peace
Mimi Kennedy, actress, activist
Miriam Simos, Starhawk, activist and writer
Nancy Price, Alliance for Democracy
Nick Pavloff, Jr., Gulf of Alaska Aleut from Kodiak Island
Norman Solomon, author, co-chair, Healthcare Not Warfare campaign
Patrick Reinsborough, SmartMeme
Paul Saginaw, founder, Zingerman's, Inc.
Prof. Peter Gabel, School of Law, New College of California
Prof. Victor Wallis, Managing Editor, Socialism & Democracy
Rabbi Arthur Waskow
Rep. Michael Fisher, House of Representatives, Vermont
Rev. Edward Pinkney, Black Autonomy Network Community Organization
Rev. Lennox Yearwood, President, Hip Hop Caucus
Richard Mazess, Prof. Medical Physics, UW-Madison, CEO of Lunar Corp & Bone Care Intl.
Riki Ott, Executive Director, Ultimate Civics
Robert McChesney, professor, co-author, The Death and Life of American Journalism
Ronnie Cummins, founder, Grassroots Netroots Alliance
Sally Castleman, Election Defense Alliance
Sam Smith, Editor, Progressive Review
Sarah Manski, CEO, PosiPair.com
Shahid Buttar, Rule of Law Institute
Ted Glick, climate change activist
Ted Nace, author, Gangs of America: The Rise of Corporate Power
Thom Hartmann, nation's #1 nationally syndicated progressive talk show host
Tia Oros & Christopher Peters, Seventh Generation Fund for Indian Development
Tiffiniy Cheng, Executive Director, A New Way Forward
Tim Carpenter, Executive Director, Progressive Democrats of America
Tom Hayden, activist
Ward Morehouse, chair, National Lawyers Guild's Committee on Corporations
* organizations listed for identification purposes only
Sign the Motion
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Corporations are PEOPLE?!
[Expletive, expletive, expletive!] I think this made all the blood drain from my face and I feel sick. Literally, sick. Read more below . . .
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Next thing you know, they'll be voting. Then they'll be on the city council and then when I get a pothole in front of my house is the corporation going to fix my pothole?
ReplyDeleteAll of the Supreme Court justices appointed by Democrat presidents voted against this and to uphold limits on corporate campaign money. All of the justices appointed by Republican presidents voted to open the flood gates on corporate campaign cash.
ReplyDeleteDo you want to tell us now that there is no difference between Dems and Republicans?
How'd the Dems vote on the confirmation hearings? And why?
ReplyDeleteBrenda, how many Green Party senators voted against Republican nominees? NONE DID!
ReplyDeleteYou didn't answer my question. Probably because its kinda embarrassing. Having power and not using it wisely is much worse than not having power.
ReplyDeleteNot having power often means that you can sit in the bleachers and just complain about those who are in the arena and willing to get bloodied.
ReplyDeleteHow's your popcorn Brenda?
There are other kinds of power besides electoral. Just a thought.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteLarry Lessig on giving corporations unlimited right to bribe politicians:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87YOBDzxwj4
Brenda wrote "There are other kinds of power besides electoral. Just a thought."
ReplyDeleteBut in this case elections did matter. All of the Republican appointees voted to allow corporate political cash and all of the Democrat appointed justices voted against.
To answer your question-Russ Feingold has made it a matter of principle that U.S. Senators should not cast their confirmation vote based on the nominee's judicial philosophy but instead should only consider the nominee's personal and professional temperament. I believe Feingold voted to confirm both Alito and Roberts based on this reasoning.
Elections have consequences. Even though some might want to pretend otherwise.
Elections have consequences is right. The president should be allowed the have his nominees confirmed as long as they are not too far out of the mainstream. We may disagree very strongly with the conservatives on the court, but, they are not out of the political maninstream in this country. Like it or not.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure there is much of a difference between the parties these days. Did you see that piece of health care legislation that Obama and the dems were calling "reform" -- what a joke.
ReplyDeleteAnd, look at the Edgewater -- our Mayor and Common Council (supposedly left leaning) bending over backwards and changing or ignoring all sorts of important local laws (Landmarks, Zoning, Shoreline . . .) just so that a fat cat developer can make more money.
It's about time that free speech is restored in the weeks leading up to elections. Putting any restrictions, financial or editorial,on the ability to express an opinion is a fundamental violation of the US Constitution.
ReplyDeleteYou, Brenda, as an attorney and free-speech advocate, I would think would embrace elimination of restrictions as the Supreme Court did in their ruling.
Is there more than just a bit of hypocrisy here?
Money does not equal speech.
ReplyDeleteFollow your logic. Rich people get more free speech than poor people?
I'll let Lincoln fill in the blanks:
"I see in the near future a crisis approaching. It unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. The money powers prey upon the nation. ... It is more despotic than a monarchy, more insolent than an autocracy, more selfish than a bureaucracy. It denounces, as public enemies, all who question its methods. ... Corporations have been enthroned, and an era of corruption in high places will follow and the money power ... will endeavor to prolong its reign ... until the wealth is aggregated in the hands of a few, and the republic is destroyed."
-- Abraham Lincoln, speech made after passage of the National Banking Act of 1863
America's recognition and rights given to corporations and private property has been what has allowed our country to flourish and lead the world in innovation, wealth building and overall standard of living.
ReplyDeleteShow one communist or socialist country that has made the advances America has over the years since Lincoln made his speech.
If you don't like Lincoln, we can do Roosevelt as well . . .
ReplyDelete"Let us prohibit in effective fashion all corporations from making contributions for any political purpose, directly or indirectly."
-- President Theodore Roosevelt
Alan Grayson has a petition at savedemocracy.net
ReplyDeleteand multiple bills already written to try to limit the damage last I heard John Conyers was the first co-sponsor.