Über-Vultures: The Billionaires Who Would Pick Our President

The Koch Brothers, from “The Joker’s Wild” deck of cards by Greg Palast and Bob Grossman. Click here for all cards.

By Greg Palast
TruthOut

The untold story of the sources of the loot controlled by Paul “The Vulture” Singer, Ken Langone and the Kochs—and why they need to buy the White House

The Edwards Prosecution – They have better things to do

Michael Collins

We can draw several clear conclusions from the indictment of John Edwards.

The case is a joke, quite literally. It mocks justice.

The cast of characters consists of people who should have recused themselves, rather than bringing a prosecution. This strange case has the faint odor of the nonstop assault on former Alabama governor, Don Siegelman.

Apparently the Department of Justice has a lot of time on its hands. How else could it pursue this transparent nonsense while failing to prosecute the perpetrators of the financial collapse?

Finally, the prosecution shows that those in control are not even pretending to acknowledge a rule of law.

What Libertarians and Progressives have in common

PressTV interview with Journalist and Blogger David DeGraw

Libertarians know and hate the Federal Reserve. They hate Goldman Sachs and J.P Morgan. But they are not willing to go to the poor people who are being forced to pay for the crimes of those people that they hate because it’s a union or because there may be some Democrats involved in it.  Libertarians and progressives can find common ground, but at this point still they are refusing to step back and concede a little bit to find it. They have to come together on campaign finance and lobbying and most importantly they can come together on breaking up the banks.

FEC inaction on enforcing election laws rises more than 600 percent

By Brad Jacobson
The Raw Story

Little-noticed Republican appointee has encouraged deadlock

After GOP lawyer Caroline Hunter helped lead the national Election Assistance Commission, a propitious series of events allowed her swift confirmation to the Federal Election Commission.

The result, along with FEC appointments of her two Republican colleagues, has been a staggering decrease in the commission’s ability to enforce campaign finance law.

A new statistical analysis shows that the number of FEC enforcement decisions that ended up in deadlocked votes — three-three ties on the six-member bipartisan commission — soared more than 600 percent in 2009.

How corporations secretly move millions to fund political ads

A Raw Story Exclusive

By Brad Jacobson

The Supreme Court’s seismic January ruling that corporations are free to spend unlimited amounts of their profits to advertise for or against candidates may have been the latest shakeup of campaign finance – but gaping holes already allow corporations to spend enormous sums without leaving a paper trail, a Raw Story investigation has found.

People! Not Corporations! How ’bout these apples:

By John Kusumi

What will the Free Speech for People Amendment say and what will it do?

The Source of Corporate Power

By Robert C. Koehler

“If the First Amendment has any force, it prohibits Congress from fining or jailing citizens, or associations of citizens, for simply engaging in political speech.”

The words are those of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for the majority in last week’s landmark Supreme Court decision marking some sort of culmination in the long corporate trek to personhood. It’s the word “simply” that gets to me: Exxon-Pinocchio is a real boy now, and has his opinions, and the government has no right to stop him from “simply engaging in political speech.”

What a cheap cover story; it’s up there with “bringing democracy to Iraq” in its tawdry manipulation of iconic national values to justify a raw power grab.

From Nov. 2009 Foreign Contributions and the Supreme’s Decision on Campaign Funding

Note:  I published this on Nov. 17, 2009.  There are two points that are highly relevant to the recent Supreme Court decision to open up campaign funding from corporate donors.  The point about foreign contributions in U.S. elections is entirely on point.  That has been allowed by this decision.  Second, one specific motive for this is the protection of Fox News which is clearly in violation of the McCain-Feingold act provisions overruled by this decision.  I’ve included a note from the original article as an attachment to this republished version.  Michael Collins ———-

Michael Collins

The Supreme Court of the United States will soon announce a major decision on our lightly controlled system of campaign funding. Will it retain some limitations on corporate influence or will the court blow the lid off and cause a perpetual flood of unrestricted corporate contributions?

An additional outcome may surprise and shock the public.

If the Supreme Court overturns the lower court’s decision, foreign nationals, corporations, and governments with partial ownership of U.S. corporations will, in effect, end up contributing to and influencing U.S. candidates in federal elections.

A Black-Robed Coup d’Etat

By Jim Hightower
Existentialist Cowboy

Last September, I wrote The Hightower Lowdown about how the Roberts’ Court could throw out over 100 years of campaign finance law.

Remember their names: Alito, Kennedy, Roberts, Scalia, and Thomas.

Yesterday, from within the dark isolation of the Supreme Court, these five men pulled off a black-robed coup against the American people’s democratic authority. In an unprecedented perversion of judicial power, this court cabal has decreed that corporations have a free-speech “right” to dip into their corporate coffers and spend unlimited sums of money to elect or defeat candidates of their choosing.

The Stealth Hard-Liner and the Stealth Liberal

By Robert Aber

STEALTH (stĕlth) n. 1. The act of moving, proceeding, or acting in a covert way.
2. The quality or characteristic of being furtive or covert.
3. Archaic. The act of stealing.
adj. 1. Not disclosing one’s true ideology, affiliations, or positions: a stealth candidate.

Veteran’s Day first occurred to me when it was called Armistice Day. The President’s speeches were filled with phrases like “I am a fighting liberal!” and “Even my little dog Fala hates whoa!”  This forever sealed my vote for his owner 15-years hence when I’d be 21. Things change. Like my continuing wish that Barack Obama turns outs to be a Stealth Liberal.