The Court has no regrets

On Monday, the US Supreme Court asserted its belief in Citizens United by refusing to allow the state of Montana to control the unfettered political spending by corporations within its own borders.

These conservatives, who whine about federal laws that override “states’ rights,” insist that all states abide by this destructive and clearly wrong-headed mandate that corporations share the same rights as human beings.

What this means is that the lies that will be sponsored by both sides (but more from the right, I daresay) will be aired on television, radio and the Internet.

Last election cycle, my state representative, Jane Whilden, was done in by an out-of-state ad that claimed she traveled to China on public funds. The story was a complete fabrication; Jane paid her own way to China and she could prove it, but she couldn’t afford an ad to rebut the lie and no one in the local media thought it was a story with printing or airing.

Tim Moffitt, the Republican and Tea Party darling who unseated her, claimed the ad only ran once (I heard it several times) and that he had no idea it was going to run.

Part of the problem here is that lies in ads don’t seem to matter to news media whose owners profit from the ads. People in the news media are far less likely than they were even a few years ago to question candidates’ exaggerations, or even outright lies like the Jane Whilden trip top China story. They don’t seem eager to counter lies with truth.

Citizens United has turned our Democracy upside-down, giving corrupt corporations complete control over our election process.

We need to amend the Constitution to take corporate money out of elections. It’s the only way we’ll ever get election finance reform. Of course, corporations will fight any move to amend tooth and nail, but it really is our only hope.

We won’t get any help from the media because it’s all owned by huge corporations that make staggering profits from the unfettered spending on political advertising.

It’s obvious we have to change the court or change the Constitution. If Romney wins the White House in November, any hope of changing the court for another 40 years is lost.

 

The revolution will be tweeted

At the kickoff of Occupy Wall Street Asheville. The event started with a memorial to Troy Davis, who was executed in Georgia despite doubts about the fairness of his trial.

I’m heading up to Washington tomorrow with a couple of friends and I plan to stay for the first four days of the October 2011 Movement’s occupation of Freedom Square. When I get back, I’ll hook up with the Asheville crowd.

I’ve said for years that we need to take to the streets, and now, finally, we’re doing just that. We’re telling the 1 percent that we, the 99 percent, aren’t going to roll over and allow ourselves to be abused any longer.

The beauty of this movement is that it’s nonviolent — at least on our part.

The Right has been saying we have no cohesive message, but we do. The problem is, our message won’t fit onto a bumper sticker because there are so many things wrong now.

For years, those in power have managed to keep people apart by attacking different parts of society: education, health care, wages, the social safety net and more. They have risked our national well being with dangerous and illegal wars and other adventures.

But we who want reform are finding ways to work together now, and we have coalesced into one huge group. We have united and we are working together.

At first they tried to ignore us with a virtual media blackout. A friend of mine who works for a newspaper has told me no stories moved from The Associated Press for the first two weeks except for a couple of short briefs.

The New York Times changed an online photo caption after 700 protesters were herded onto the Brooklyn Bridge by police and then arrested for blocking traffic. The first caption told the truth; 20 minutes later, the caption said only that 700 protesters were arrested for blocking traffic.

The media are owned by huge corporations and they have a stake in the failure of this movement. Fortunately, we have social media. There have been attempts to stop tweets and Facebook posts, but enough of us are getting through.

I will tweet from Freedom Square and I will blog from a hotel in the evenings, unless I get arrested, which is entirely possible.

Corporate personhood must be abolished, Wall Street must answer for its crimes and we the people must re-take the reins of government.