We are so screwed:
The Supreme Court has ruled that corporations may spend freely to support or oppose candidates for president and Congress, easing decades-old limits on their participation in federal campaigns.
By a 5-4 vote, the court on Thursday overturned a 20-year-old ruling that said corporations can be prohibited from using money from their general treasuries to pay for their own campaign ads. The decision, which almost certainly will also allow labor unions to participate more freely in campaigns, threatens similar limits imposed by 24 states.
It leaves in place a prohibition on direct contributions to candidates from corporations and unions.
That’s it. I am buying a rollerball team. I’m cashing in.
Update [2010-1-21 14:28:1 by BooMan]: Obama responds:
With its ruling today, the Supreme Court has given a green light to a new stampede of special interest money in our politics. It is a major victory for big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies and the other powerful interests that marshal their power every day in Washington to drown out the voices of everyday Americans. This ruling gives the special interests and their lobbyists even more power in Washington–while undermining the influence of average Americans who make small contributions to support their preferred candidates. That’s why I am instructing my Administration to get to work immediately with Congress on this issue. We are going to talk with bipartisan Congressional leaders to develop a forceful response to this decision. The public interest requires nothing less.
And the right talks about fucking activist judges…jesus christ. Just look at this, the ruling in Bush v. Gore, the endless limits to government power, endless limits to executive overreach. The real activist judges are right wing hacks. This is partly the Democrats’ fault.
as long as you send your rollerball team to go kick these idiots back to a century where they belong:
Argh blith farfle gorg. Simplor garfong mestling fivle.
Parj flumberstumk pertinzlem harvertangle.
Brantickle severmang harpitarmicling sadrotimbancerfavert.
my thoughts, exactly.
Farmangertip fiskertanmpermangle!
so is it time to leave now?
i’m sure the decision is disgusting, but considering most of our legislators are already captive to corporations anyway…
adding, guess the democrats should have filibustered alito and roberts, eh? but no… that was crazy talk. we had to keep the powder dry.
Yes .. especially after this:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/01/pelosi_pulls_the_plug.php
We are so screwed!!
Did you see this Booman,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui4ElSz_bKU
Tweety is a dunderhead.
Dean tells him that the people who voted for Obama who did not vote for Coakley were for a more progressive health care bill, and he takes that to mean that everyone who voted for Brown wanted a more progressive health care bill. That’s nonsense. The point is that Coakley lost because too many Democrats stayed home and a good number of them voted for Brown. But most of Brown’s voters were indeed opposed to health care reform.
Will this make the oligarchy more obvious? Will politicians essentially wear brand logos like Nascar drivers do? This could almost be helpful in deciding which puppet gets your vote…
Well, when you say we are screwed, haven’t we been screwed all along? I believe Clinton was even better than George W. Bush at attracting corporate money. It merely means that future Democratic candidates need to have corporate experience.
Hence, yes we are screwed. A new two party system will emerge from this, the Libertarians versus the Republicans. The Democratic party will likely fold into the Green Party. which I understand have better beer parties. Personally, I’m going to limit my political advocacy to the Green Bay Packers. Wait until next year.
It seems a lot more likely that we’ll have the Democrats folding into the Reblicans, with the two mainstream parties being the Overt Corporatists vs the Covert Corporatists.
Wow, what fun!
What exactly makes you think that hasn’t already happened?
As of now the Dems & Republicans are still nominally different, no? I’m thinking of a day when neither actually exists, in name or otherwise.
Palin/Beck 2012 ~ brought to you by Bank of America and Cool Ranch Doritos.
Don’t forget Vicks Vaporub.
over at ET, the prognostication is Norris/Palin.
with Huck on bass…
And now the MSNBC banner reads: “Pelosi admits she doesn’t have the votes to pass the Senate Health Care Bill”
Yep, over at last it appears.
Yeah? Roll call vote, Madame Speaker. Make them say it out loud.
(Supposed liberal) Justice Kennedy actually referred to corporations as a “disadvantaged class” and that they were being denied the rights of the individual?
Fuck that, sideways. If corporations are to be granted all the rights of the individual citizen, then in turn, corporations will now be taxed as individuals in the highest bracket now, right?
Right?
Where the hell are you really from that you think Kennedy is called a liberal? No one really thinks that, do they?
I don’t, but he’s painted that way by the media.
<block>”Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of
state and corporate power.” — Benito Mussolini </block>
Are we outed at last?
Will the true meaning of American ‘democracy’ finally outshine the illusion for everyone but the corporate media?
Oh, you beat me too it! I said the same thing below, not having seen this yet.
The more the merrier!
from mussolini’s entry for the Italian Encyclopedia on the definition of fascism:
sound familiar?
First, congratulations on the baby. I am so very happy that all seems well. Your wife is my hero – home birth! I ended up with a c-section.
Second, can you imagine the stream of profanity that Daddy would be unleashing? We had to know that THIS court would make THIS decision but to see it in writing is so upsetting. There was so much damage done during the Bush years but his SCOTUS appointments will be the thing that haunts us the most. It is truly scary to think what this group can and will do.
It’s a shame that fears of Bush appointees weren’t enough to overcome flawed election + flawed candidate in ’04.
Yet, I remember that the likelihood of Bush appointments to the SCOTUS was one of our strongest arguments against a second Bush term.
I’d also offer the opinion that these appointments were the Bushies’ primary success.
Thanks.
At first, when I read your comment, I thought you were talking about me and my profanity.
But, yeah, your dad would be pissed.
I would never comment on your profanity, you are the Booman and allowed to use any language you wish. I think pissed is an understatement. This is so very bad.
I really didn’t think it was possible to feel any greater despair than I did the night that George Bush was reelected in 2004.
Well………I guess I was wrong.
I’ve been in a funk every since Coakley lost. So it’s hard to be upset about this too.
Dems are incompetent. Repubs are evil. Where, oh where are the real leaders???
My comment was really related more to the combination of news the last 48 hours rather than the SC decision which was the subject of post. I was mostly alluding to the Coakley loss and the Dem’s spastic response.
My voter registration has been “D” for a long time.
But right now I’m not sure what I am.
My teabagging brother has a lot better hold right now on his political persuasion than I do.
Fed up. That’s all there is to it.
I hear that Harry Reid still has a bunch of dry powder.
Also, check out Adam B’s analysis on dKos and bmaz’s analysis on emptywheel.
Fascism has arrived.
“Corporatism is Fascism.” – Mussolini
Absolutely. The Corporate State.
My tweet re this (http://www.twitter.com/lisapease)
America died today. No longer a government by the people, but by the corporations. Thanks, Supremes. “Corporatism is Fasicm,” said Mussolini
no surprises here. at least it’s out in the open, now there’s no excuse for anyone to be confused about the true meaning of american
democracyfascism.makes the latest videos from lawrence lessig’s change congress more apropos and urgent:
response to supreme court decision
obama’s first year
never happen. we are well and truly fucked.
Thanks for the videos. They really do point the way to real change — whether it’s Lessig’s particular plan or some other way to get Congress and other elected officials off the money train.
I have to wonder what could have been accomplished if the so-called American Left had concentrated on that root issue all this time instead of nattering about what Beck said or what the polls say months or years before they matter. It’s interesting that a libertarian-leaning guy like Lessig can see to the heart of the problem while the “left” keeps spinning its wheels. Taking up his flag may be the last remaining alternative to all-out, real revolution or a continuing slide into being the world’s largest banana republic.
updated.
nothing to see here folks, move along.
uh huh. and just where is is going to find those bipartisan leaders?
same old same old, he still doesn’t get it.
“We are going to talk with bipartisan Congressional leaders to develop a forceful response to this decision.”
Awww bullwinkle, but that trick NEVER works” (good link too, with sarah palin in the hat)
And of course, we have this decision because the democrats, wimps as always, did not filibuster Alito when he replaced O’Connor in 2006, thus moving the court to the hard right. From wikipedia:
“After a failed filibuster attempt by Senator John Kerry, on January 31, the Senate confirmed Alito to the Supreme Court by a vote of 58-42,[29] with four Democratic senators voting for confirmation and one Republican and an Independent voting against.”
Oh my……..I bet “big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies and the other powerful interests” are just quaking in their boots right now at the prospect of that vicious bipartisan “forceful response” coming down the pipeline.
I’ve been a dead-end Obama supporter on his overall presidency, if not every specific issue. His statement on the SC decision was fine until the last half. It’s been quoted a couple times already, but screams out to be seen and digested again:
It breaks my heart to say it but: WTF is wrong with him? How does maybe the smartest, best-intentioned president we’ve had in decades manage to learn nothing? How does he not see the slapstick oxymoron of putting “bipartisan” and “forceful response” in the same sentence? I understand and admire his drive to “bring the country together”, to “change the way DC works”. It is a necessary and noble goal for anyone looking to plant the seeds of real transformation.
But even his one year in office surely has to show him that you don’t get there with sappy talk of “bipartisanship”. You get there by telling the truth and pursuing what follows from the truth with every tool, every weapon, at your command that does not violate fundamental democratic values. You bring the nation together by demonstrating in real time, by real accomplishment, that America is capable of change and that our common ground, our government, can make our country better. You drive the wedges deeper by demonstrating that every effort to lessen the pain begins with dithering and ends with defeat.
I still appreciate his extraordinary skill and his intent. I still believe he has what it takes to switch America off the track failed statehood. But this obsession with a petty dream of “bipartisanship” when conflagration is raging all around him may be the flaw that brings him down and turns his vision and ambition for our country to dust. It is as if he has a tiny Republican Party parasite lodged deep in his soul, blighting his hopes the way the macro Republican Party has blighted America’s hopes. I can only hope for all our sakes that he finds a way to expel it before it’s too late.
A great articulation of my feelings also, Dave. I really never believed that Obama was a liberal, despite the best efforts of the Republicans and much of the media to paint him into that corner. But I had tremendous respect and enthusiasm for his intelligence and political savvy. I haven’t totally given up either. But I have to say that my frustration is rising and I am more befuddled every day at what appears to be his inability or stubbornness in reading the tea leaves on this whole bipartisanship thing. I understood the necessity to at least give it a reasonable effort to make sure he wasn’t closing the door on using it to his advantage, should it pan out.
But it is now turning into almost a fetish on his part to paint everything as requiring down-the-middle-of-the-road bipartisanship on every issue in order to have any credibility in pursuing it. And that is a horse that the Republicans are going to allow him to ride until it falls over from exhaustion. And until he figures out a way to stop that horse, dismount and rechart his own course to demonstrate some leadership, he is absolutely destined to continue to fail and to scale back farther and farther his vision.
That is what the GOP wants him to do. And they are succeeding. Without a course correction it is going to get to the point where he is just not going to be able to get the train back on the tracks. I know it has only been one year and there is a lot of ground yet to cover. But the life and breath of his efforts are slowly being choked out by feckless party leadership, a caucus in disarray and the continued bubbling up of what can only described as visceral hatred among a slowly growing portion of the populace.
He’d better look deep into those tea leaves. Cause things aren’t going to get any better on their own.
Who are these ‘bipartisan leaders’ he speaks of????? The Supreme Court has just made voting irrevelant. Welcome to fascist America. The veneer has officially been removed.
Anyone notice how little news coveragethere has been on “mainstream” networks?
It’s a stealth economic coup.