Government for the People, By the Corporations!!!!

Look, it's no secret that the $10 million dollars spent by the Healthcare Insurance industry did the trick in blocking and true, substantial healthcare reform (I don't GIVE A FUCK, what Obama and the White House says in the coming days and weeks, we The People, have been had).

But what's even more insidious is the court case going up to The Nine as the new term begins. Chief Justice Roberts begged to have the Citizens United v. Federal Election Committee get examined. This is the court case revolving around that smear video that was released during the Democratic Primary that made Hillary Clinton look unworthy of public office. The crux of the case is that Citizens United wants corporations to have GREATER rights that the average (or even above average) American Citizen. Citizens United wants to enable corporations to have unlimited campaign finance contributions during the last 30 days of an election cycle. Citizen United wants to Corporate Speech even MORE POWER to sway voters and influence the outcome of elections!

It's been clearly stated, proved and other proclaimed as fact that Corporate Speech (wtf?) is corrosive and distorting from jump!

If you want to hear the actual arguments from both sides in front of the Supreme Court, check out NPR's Supreme Court primer. I don't know how many times, if any, that you've heard people argue in front of the Supreme Court, but I never have... and I found it fascinating. Not being a legal scholar, many of the cases cited were beyond even me, but you'd easily get the drift (and I think the Oral Arguments are released as transcripts later, so you can do your own specific research).

The lawyer arguing for the right for Corporations to be make political campaign contributions that far outstrip what citizens can dig into their wallets and drop. In addition, Corporations can write off the contribution and/or borrow the money at interest rates that normal citizens can't get, therefore their political contribution power is WAY distorting.

The one thing I see, or rather hear, is that the GOP-backed Citizens United wants to hand over control of our electoral process to Big Business lock, stock and barrel. It's some complete bullshit that no Senator or Representative wants to supreme attack campaign finance and/or give the Federal Election Committee near autonomous power to re-regulate the elections in this country. The election cycle for these large scale offices shouldn't be more than 3 months tops! And the money needs to be capped and provided by the government, fuck allowing ANY private citizen or corporation to make any contributions to a candidates war chest.

If corporations obtain the power they're after, we could see foreign sovereign wealth funds buy up US corporations and be able to actively influence the way out country is governed!

The sad thing is I can't even urge you to pester your Congressperson and Senator about blocking this unholy opportunity, because the Supreme Court will be making the ruling that will decide the fate of democracy in this country. If the Nine allow corporations to actually have more rights and privileges that Joe Sixpack, then what's the point of having a Constitution?

Speaking of the Supreme Court, we're coming up on 20 years of having Uncle Tom Clarence Thomas on the bench, and he's been Scalia's lapdog for far too long. And since he's ineffectual, why doesn't he step down? He's gonna be one of these bastards that dies in office...