The United States of Money, uh, America

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not money, I am become as a sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not money, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not money, it profiteth me nothing. Money suffereth long, and is kind; money envieth not; money vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. . . . And now abideth faith, hope, money, these three; but the greatest of these is money. 

I Corinthians xiii (adapted) ” 

― George Orwell, Keep the Aspidistra Flying

Randy Newman - It's Money That Matters (1988) from MTVClassic1 on Vimeo.

Want to help change America for the better?

Stop complaining and push for true, stringent, accountable, tough, prosecutable campaign finance reform and help get the big, ugly money out of our election system and so, our government.

Corporations and the wealthy buy their legislators--our legislators--with their "campaign contributions." Then, they get their legislation so they also end up getting our laws and so, finally, our government.

Until we get the big, ugly, corrupting influence of money out of our election system and so, our government, nothing will change.

I think virtually all of us agree on this one thing.

Be part of the change. Push for campaign finance reform. Help end these "campaign contributions", completely.

It really is that simple.

Link:  We need to make campaign finance a civil rights issue

Kansas, corporate America and their poisons in the NY Times today

Yes sir, the little town of Treece, Kansas--or what and who is left of it--is in The New York Times today:

Last Ones Left in a Toxic Kansas Town

It seems this little town on the edge of Oklahoma was a zinc and lead area for decades and many big profits were made by companies.

Trouble is, no one held those companies responsible for the clean up:

"Then there’s the water. The local Tar Creek is the color of orange juice, and it smells like vinegar. This is because when the mining companies left, they shut off the pumps that kept abandoned shafts from filling with groundwater. Once water flooded the tunnels, it picked up all the trace minerals underground — iron, lead and zinc — and flushed them into rivers and streams. Fish and fowl fled or went belly-up. 'The only thing polluted in Treece,' says Rex Buchanan, interim director at the Kansas Geological Survey, 'is the earth, air and water.'”

And the thing is, there are lots of corporate-made Treeces all over the US.

Do you suppose America and Americans will ever learn?

If we do, do you suppose it won't be too late?

Here's hoping.

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/20/magazine/last-ones-left-in-treece-kan-a-toxic-town.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120520

It's money that matters

Randy Newman - It's Money That Matters (1988) from Dale Buckley on Vimeo.

Both a statement, here, and an appreciation of his message and the video itself. Enjoy your weekend, y'all. C'est la vie.

Quote of the day, from Osawatamie

"It’s heartbreaking enough that there are millions of working families in this country who are now forced to take their children to food banks for a decent meal. But the idea that those children might not have a chance to climb out of that situation and back into the middle class, no matter how hard they work? That’s inexcusable. It’s wrong. It flies in the face of everything we stand for. Fortunately, that’s not a future we have to accept. Because there’s another view about how we build a strong middle class in this country – a view that’s truer to our history; a vision that’s been embraced by people of both parties for more than two hundred years. It’s not a view that we should somehow turn back technology or put up walls around America. It’s not a view that says we should punish profit or success or pretend that government knows how to fix all society’s problems. It’s a view that says in America, we are greater together – when everyone engages in fair play, everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share." —President Barack Obama, today, from Osawatamie, Kansas

The--surprising--quote of the day

"Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." And here's the surprise of it. It was said by Benito Mussolini. He could be talking about today.

Quote of the day

"Slavery is the legal fiction that a person is property. Corporate personhood is the legal fiction that property is a person." --From an "Occupy Wall Street" t-shirt.

October2011.com---an organization for the people (and guest post)

"We Stand With the Majority of Americans: Human Needs, Not Corporate Greed A large majority of the American people consistently support the following agenda: Tax the rich and corporations End the wars, bring the troops home, cut military spending Protect the social safety net, strengthen Social Security and improved Medicare for all End corporate welfare for oil companies and other big business interests Transition to a clean energy economy, reverse environmental degradation Protect worker rights including collective bargaining, create jobs and raise wages Get money out of politics The government, dominated by elite economic interests, is going in the opposite direction from what the people want. The American people’s agenda is our agenda. The broad agenda for Stop the Machine: Create a New World is to end corporatism and militarism and shift power to the people, so necessities can be met. In addition to stopping the machine we also want to show the “new world” we want to see. The seven issues above are part of our agenda, each of these issues are discussed below, primarily in relation to showing that according to polls, large majorities of Americans support each issue and in many cases have done so for years. While our agenda is based on fact, science and the type of world we want to see, not on polling, it is useful to know that the American people are in favor of the types of reforms October2011.org is advocating. We share these polling results to show that in all of these critical areas the government is going in the opposite direction than the people want the country to go. October2011.org is on the side of the people." Links: http://october2011.org/; https://www.facebook.com/pages/October2011com/128339797264686?sk=wall#!/pages/October2011com/128339797264686

"Anonymous" seems to be a collective outgrowth of Banksy

Doesn't it?

Who is Guy Fawkes and why is he relevant to America and the world today?

"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people."

Who and what is Anonymous? And what do they want? And where are they going?

Fascinating. What they need to do, if they can (and it seems they maybe can) is push for "campaign contributions"--we know them for the bribes they are--out of American government. That and shorten our election campaign cycles to 3 or 6 months. That would be phenomenal. Also phenomenal would be their/our taking control back from the corporations. Here's hoping.

THE Hallowe'en mask of the year, 2011

You either get it or you don't.

Corporations are killing us

 

Last night I did watch this documentary on HBO, "Hot Coffee", telling how corporations spent and are spending millions upon millions of dollars to advertise and market to us to get us to believe, in this case, we needed tort reform, all so they could reap many more millions of dollars in profits and benefits for themselves, all at our expense. They're buying--literally--our judges and justice system and cleaning us out. We're being played for suckers, folks, big time. Now, word out today shows a house in Wyoming that is "a single address in this sleepy city of 60,000 people..." where "more than 2,000 companies are registered." In this way, the corporations can, well just read: "A Reuters investigation has found the house at 2710 Thomes Avenue serves as a little Cayman Island on the Great Plains. It is the headquarters for Wyoming Corporate Services, a business-incorporation specialist that establishes firms which can be used as 'shell' companies, paper entities able to hide assets." I tell you, the corporations are playing us, they're using us, they're taking gross advantage of us and yes, they are exploiting and, in the end, killing us and tearing apart the country. We have to put a stop to them and these practices. Go, see this movie, "Hot Coffee". You'll be astounded at what you learn. It's yet more evidence that, if there were a hell, George W. Bush and Karl Rove would surely have to have one of the hottest places in it, reserved especially for them. Links: http://news.yahoo.com/special-report-little-house-secrets-great-plains-113759191.html; http://hotcoffeethemovie.com/

Calling on--and out--Governor Nixon

Here's the issue of the day:

Bill to modify puppy-mill law goes to Missouri's governor

By Jason Noble
The Star’s Jefferson City correspondent

JEFFERSON CITY | Lawmakers on Wednesday rolled back voter-approved restrictions on Missouri dog breeders and passed new rules that supporters say will target puppy mills without harming legitimate breeders.

The legislation now goes to Gov. Jay Nixon, who declined to say whether he would sign it.

The bill essentially rewrites the “Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act,” the ballot question known as Proposition B that passed with 52 percent of the vote last fall. Prop B was scheduled to take effect in November of this year.

So you and I--we, the people of the State of Missouri--voted on this measure.  It came up and we voted on it.  The people spoke.  And what we said was that we wanted these pets taken better care of.  We want them to have humane treatment.

And now, our legislature, our legislators--Republicans, mostly--want to take away our vote.  They want to roll back the will of the people.

This should not stand.

This absolutely should not stand.

I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more, ladies and gentlemen.

Governor Nixon needs to do the right thing by we, the people, the voters of this state he represents.

By doing so, he'd be fulfilling his job to us, the citizens and voters of the state, sure, but by doing what he should do here, that is, vetoing this bill, should it come to his desk, he would also be standing up to the moneyed, influence-purchasing interests that want this repeal and, finally, striking a blow for decency and the sensible and humane treatment of animals.

Face it, the companies went to their representatives--whom they "own"--and told them they wanted this repealed.  They're trying to get their way over your and my vote and over, again, the humane and decent treatment of animals.

So I'm calling you out on this one, Governor Nixon, for what it's worth. You need to take a stand on this for your constituency, for the voters and citizens, to repeat, of this state.  Heck, you even need to do it for the animals in this state.

Do what's right in a few different ways here, Governor.

If this bill, rolling back provisions in the "puppy mill" legislation that we voted for comes to your desk, veto it, sir.

There is no other right or good thing to do on this.

And we'd like to hear from you on this very shortly.

Link:   http://www.kansascity.com/2011/04/13/2799204/bill-modifying-puppy-mill-law.html

The corporation vs. littlest of "little guys"

So we're clear, too, the Fourteenth Amendment grants citizenship to everyone born in the US and subject to its jurisdiction and protects civil and political rights  

Its Citizenship Clause provides a broad definition of citizenship that overruled the decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), which held that blacks could not be citizens of the United States.

Its Due Process Clause prohibits state and local governments from depriving persons of life, liberty, or property without certain steps being taken to ensure fairness. This clause has been used to make most of the Bill of Rights applicable to the states, as well as to recognize substantive and proceduralrights.

Its Equal Protection Clause requires each state to provide equal protection under the law to all people within its jurisdiction. This clause was the basis for Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the Supreme Court decision which precipitated the dismantling of racial segregation in the United States.

Ain't America great?  We don't try to extend the Constitution's 14th Amendment rights to citizens--in this case, African-Americans--hardly a lick but we crawl all over ourselves to advance those same rights to non-entity, really, corporations, just because of their big bucks.

As the old song goes, "It's money that matters, in the USA..."

Thanks and a hat tip to the following blogging colleagues for this political cartoon:

http://www.nocorprule.blogspot.com/;  

http://www.poclad.org/?pg=Art&show=wuerker04.jpg

Link to Wikipedia definition/description of the 14th Amendment:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

Since we're all talking democracy lately

While millions of ordinary Americans are struggling with unemployment and declining standards of living, the levers of real power have been all but completely commandeered by the financial and corporate elite. It doesn’t really matter what ordinary people want. The wealthy call the tune, and the politicians dance.   --Bob Herbert, Columnist, The New York Times

...and we let them.

We're cheering the Egyptians on this week but not paying attention to what our leaders, corporations and their money are doing to us and turning us into here at home, it seems.

Link to original post:  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/12/opinion/12herbert.html?hp

Another American calling for shorter election campaigns

Hopefully this will catch on

Ms. Keli Goff, author, commentator & contributing editor to The Huffington Post, from TheLoop21.com from her column at The Huffington Post yesterday:

Maybe this is one issue where our country -- which I still consider the greatest in the world -- should consider taking a cue from our cousins across the pond. The duration of England's last round of elections? One month. That's right, one whole month. Four weeks for candidates to get their message out to voters, and that month included substantially fewer debates and television advertisements than we are bombarded with in this country. (Although that may have something to do with the country's restrictions on the influence of outside political groups in fundraising and political advertising, another area where we lag behind our allies.)


Shorter election campaigns and campaign finance reform.


Maybe one day, eh?


Link to original post:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/keli-goff/what-england-can-teach-us_b_804112.html

But they don't see the problem...

More same-old, same-old government, this time from the incoming Republicans:

With Republican leaders anxious to set an austere tone for their ascendance into the House majority this week, the lavish fundraiser scheduled for Tuesday night at a trendy Washington hotel to benefit a dozen GOP freshmen is not exactly the populist image leaders are anxious to project.

And here is the real problem:  

House Speaker-elect John Boehner, whose name was featured on the invitation, is nonetheless skipping the event at the W Hotel, where lobbyists, political action committee managers and others paying the $2,500 ticket price will be treated to a performance by country music star LeAnn Rimes (a $50,000 package includes a block of eight tickets and a “VIP suite” at the W). 

A $2500.00 ticket.  To get in.  Paid for by corporations.  Through their lobbyists.  So they can have access to our legislators.

And the Republicans are promising to change something in Washington?

I'll repeat:  We need true campaign finance reform so it will be strictly illegal for corporations to give money of any sort, like this, above, or to campaigns or whatever, through their lobbyists to legislators of any stripe.

That and we need to make the campaigns 3 or 6 months long, by law, like the British did long ago.

We need to get the corporate money out of government, folks.  We all know this.  Let's do something about it.

Link to original post:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20110104/pl_politico/46999

Sen. Bernie Sanders speaking truth--and a lot of it

                                     And truth to power.

Why are the Republicans pushing for tax cuts for the wealthy?  (As if we didn't know).

More to the point, why are we all letting them? 

They're like the grade school bullies.

I have an idea, let's beat 'em up (figuratively).

This just in: Missouri voters dumber than catbox litter

Proof positive:

Roy Blunt Defeats Robin Carnahan In Missouri Senate Race

He's as dirty a politician as you can find, he's up to his eyeballs in special interest, corporate money, he's been in Washington for years--WAY too long--but the voters of Missouri just foisted him up as Senator of our State.
 
Y'all are stupid.
 
Sorry.  I gotta' call 'em as I see 'em and this one I'm going to call.

That said, I'd like to thank Robin Carnahan for working as hard as she did in order to derail Mr. Blunt's senatorial plans.  It was a valiant effort.  In part, you just didn't have enough corporate money behind you, Ms. Carnahan, I'm sure.
 
Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/02/roy-blunt-robin-carnahan_n_765993.html