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Things you can do about today’s Supreme Court decision

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Upset about this morning’s Supreme Court decision? Want to do something about it?

The website Move to Amend wants to amend the constitution to:

  • Firmly establish that money is not speech, and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights.
  • Guarantee the right to vote and to participate, and to have our votes and participation count.
  • Protect local communities, their economies, and democracies against illegitimate “preemption” actions by global, national, and state governments.

Another website, Free Speech for People, is also fighting this decision.

Lawrence Lessig has a video about campaign finance reform.

Lots of other good information at the Brad Blog.

Personally, I’d like any constitutional amendment to declare that corporations are not people, too.

If anyone has some other ideas or suggestions, please leave them in a comment.

UPDATE: Congressman Alan Grayson is already doing some things about this:

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So where are the conservative protests against activist judges?

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Today, the US Supreme Court gave the US a giant push toward fascism (a corporatist economic system, which believes that the majority is unsuited to govern itself through democracy) by declaring that not only do corporations have free speech rights, but that corporations throwing barrels of money at politicians in order to buy legislation is free speech.

This decision throws away decades of legislation and even previous Supreme court decisions that restricted corporate power in politics. In any sense of the term, this is the epitome of an “activist court” that conservatives have complained about so bitterly in the past. Ironically, it was the five conservative members of the court who are the activists in this case.

Justice Kennedy, writing the (slim) majority opinion, equated restricting corporations from giving money to politicians to censorship, saying “The First Amendment confirms the freedom to think for ourselves.” I guess that means that this decision will also strike down laws against bribery and kick backs, too.

Tellingly, the decision does not affect limitations on individual giving to politicians, and so places the free speech “rights” of corporations over the free speech rights of ordinary peons people.

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Crazy

Thursday, January 21, 2010


© Jim Morin

Given today’s Supreme Court ruling, this comic from a few days ago seems prescient.

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Late Night Political Humor

Thursday, January 21, 2010

“Sarah Palin made her debut as a Fox News analyst. They finally found a job that she’s not under-qualified for.” – David Letterman

“Sarah Palin has signed on to become a Fox News correspondent. And in a related story, John McCain just picked up an endorsement deal to be a spokesman for the SCOOTER Store.” – Jay Leno

“There’s a new book out about the most recent U.S. presidential campaign. In the book, it says Sarah Palin was unprepared to be vice president. And I thought, boy, you think you know somebody.” – David Letterman

“Future President Sarah Palin made her first appearance on Fox News yesterday — after signing a multi-year deal with the network. She was a guest on ‘The O’Reilly Factor.’ Sources say they have not seen Bill O’Reilly that aroused since the time he got to see Dick Cheney change his tube socks.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Well, a lot of people don’t like these airport body scanners. They say they don’t like security officials seeing naked images of their bodies. Huh? Have you seen most Americans lately? Come on. It’s no picnic for the security people either.” – Jay Leno

“The government issued a statement this week saying most people aren’t complaining about the full-body scanners. See, the government always says that. Every time there’s another intrusion into our privacy, they say most people aren’t complaining. Well, of course, most people aren’t complaining. You know what happens when you complain at airport security? You get a colonoscopy and wind up on a terrorist watch list.” – Jay Leno

“According to a new TV Guide poll, 83 percent of voters — 83 percent — want me to stay at 11:35. And here’s the interesting part. When he heard this poll number, President Obama asked, ‘How can I get NBC to screw me over?'” – Conan O’Brien

“Well, some good news from Afghanistan. Did you hear about this? Critics of the war have stopped referring to it as another Vietnam. The bad news? They’re now calling it another NBC.” – Jay Leno

“Well, it’s growing more and more likely that California will legalize marijuana. You mean it’s not already legal?” – Jay Leno

“You know what that means? One day in California, you could be buying legalized marijuana at a Wal-Mart from a cashier who’s not even legal.” – Jay Leno

“A new report says that one year after President Obama took office, 40 percent of top positions in his administration have yet to be filled. George Bush actually filled 62 percent of top positions during his first year, and Bill Clinton filled all the top positions and even some of the weird sideways ones.” – Jimmy Fallon

“A new study finds that the increase of obesity in the United States is starting to slow, mainly because so many Americans are already fat.” – Jimmy Fallon

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Fool me once, can’t get fooled again?

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Do you recognize any of the following quotes from Republican politicians?

“It will raise your taxes, increase the deficit, and kill over one million jobs.” – Joel Hefley (R-CO)

“This plan will not work. If it was to work, then I’d have to become a Democrat. … your economic program is a job killer.” – John Kasich (R-OH)

“I believe this will lead to a recession next year. This is the Democrat machine’s recession, and each one of them will be held personally accountable.” – Newt Gingrich (R-GA)

“Clearly this is a job killer in the short run. The impact on job creation is going to be devastating. … Like so many of the President’s past promises, deficit reduction will be another cruel hoax.” – Dick Armey (R-TX)

“Hundreds of thousands of Americans will lose their jobs because of this bill, and the President will be one of them.” – Phil Gramm (R-TX)

“It will not cut the deficit. It will not create jobs. And it will not cut spending.” – Jim Bunning (R-KY)

“… will stifle economic growth, destroy jobs, reduce revenues, and increase the deficit.” – Jim Ramstad (R-MN)

“… a recipe for economic and fiscal disaster.” – Phil Crane (R-IL)

Sound familiar? Then you might be surprised to learn that all of these quotes are from 1993 — one year into the term of President Bill Clinton — when he passed his budget without a single Republican vote. Of course, as we know now these predictions were dead wrong. Instead of a recession, we went on to have the greatest economic boom in the history of the world while simultaneously reducing the deficit until it turned into a $5 trillion budget surplus. Well, that is until the Republicans got back in power. And surprising nobody, John Kasich didn’t become a Democrat.

And yet, this is not the first time Republicans have tried to scare us. Here are some more that might sound familiar:

“Let me tell you here and now it is socialized medicine.” – James Utt (R-CA)

“… we cannot stand idly by now, as the Nation is urged to embark on an ill-conceived adventure in government medicine, the end of which no one can see, and from which the patient is certain to be the ultimate sufferer.” – Durward Hall (R-MO)

“[I will] vote against the bill on final passage, and hope that it helps to draw attention to the horrendous tax burden that is going to be thrust upon every American and every future generation.” – Robert Michel (R-IL)

“I have always maintained that if a program is to be successful, it must… be voluntary… based on need and must not be financed through a payroll tax.” – Thruston B. Morton (R-KY)

“… one of these days you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was like in American when men were free.” – Ronald Reagan

These could be quotes against the current health care reform bill, but they were all in opposition to Medicare back in 1965.

But wait, we’ve been fooled by the Republicans more than two times. Here is another set of dire predictions:

“Never in the history of the world has any measure been brought here so insidiously designed as to prevent business recovery, to enslave workers and to prevent any possibility of the employers providing work for the people.” – John Taber (R-NY)

“The lash of the dictator will be felt and 25 million free American citizens will for the first time submit themselves to a fingerprint test.” – Daniel Reed (R-NY)

“This bill opens the door and invites the entrance into the political field of a power so vast, so powerful as to threaten the integrity of our institutions and to pull the pillars of the temple down upon the heads of our descendants.” – James W. Wadsworth (R-NY)

You might not recognize any of the names, but the quotes sound like they could have been spoken at a tea party last summer. But they are all from 1935, when FDR and the Democrats passed Social Security. The entire Republican Party predicted disaster.

As Dubya so aptly misquoted “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Fool us three or more times, and we deserve what we get. How many more times will we be fooled? Will we ever learn?

Andrew Tobias made up some nice Democratic campaign ads from these quotes.

NOTE: I wrote this earlier today, before Brown won the Mass Senate race. I guess we got fooled again.

Here’s an interesting article on how the Dems could use the “nuclear option“.

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Appropriate Rage

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

One of Andrew Sullivan’s readers hits the nail on the head when he says that it is time for a different kind of rage. You should go read it, but I’ll give you a quote to whet your appetite:

Republicans lecturing the country about fiscal responsibilty, economic recovery, governing — or anything else, for that matter — would be like Mick Jagger lecturing Mother Teresa about excessive promiscuity.

I consider myself a moderate, but being a moderate isn’t about political party, and it sure as hell doesn’t mean being halfway between the Democratic and Republican parties. The Republican party of the last dozen years or so has been the party of corrupt, lying, disastrous wing-nuts. Or as Sullivan’s reader puts it: “Irresponsible, hateful, mendacious, sleazy, destructive – these words do not even begin to describe them.” They are the party that speaks with one voice — the voice of the immoral, greedy syndicates who bankroll them.

But my rage is not confined to the Republicans. My deepest rage is reserved for us, the Americans who have allowed these crooks to get away with their crimes. We the people who are so easily manipulated into into doing their bidding: even attacking the victims of their crimes (how can a country of immigrants blame immigrants for any of our troubles?). We who parrot the “political narratives” pawned off by the corporate-controlled mass media. We who boost the ratings of parasites like Limbaugh, Beck, and Palin when they shamelessly lie, and fill their bank accounts when they spew hatred. We, who eagerly vote for the same crooks who raped and pillaged us, like the hopeless abused spouses and partners-in-crime that we are. We have met the enemy, and he is us.

We despise other people’s dictators and tyrants, but only because our dictators and tyrants have found a better way to control us and turn us into mindless sheep.  I don’t even know if we can recognize when we are being lied to anymore, if the lie is packaged up and delivered with enough trappings of corporate authority.

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The Republican Economic Platform

Tuesday, January 19, 2010


© Tom Toles

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Satan responds to Pat Robertson

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Dear Pat Robertson,
I know that you know that all press is good press, so I appreciate the shout-out. And you make God look like a big mean bully who kicks people when they are down, so I’m all over that action. But when you say that Haiti has made a pact with me, it is totally humiliating. I may be evil incarnate, but I’m no welcher. The way you put it, making a deal with me leaves folks desperate and impoverished. Sure, in the afterlife, but when I strike bargains with people, they first get something here on earth — glamour, beauty, talent, wealth, fame, glory, a golden fiddle. Those Haitians have nothing, and I mean nothing. And that was before the earthquake. Haven’t you seen “Crossroads”? Or “Damn Yankees”? If I had a thing going with Haiti, there’d be lots of banks, skyscrapers, SUVs, exclusive night clubs, Botox — that kind of thing. An 80 percent poverty rate is so not my style. Nothing against it — I’m just saying: Not how I roll. You’re doing great work, Pat, and I don’t want to clip your wings — just, come on, you’re making me look bad. And not the good kind of bad. Keep blaming God. That’s working. But leave me out of it, please. Or we may need to renegotiate your own contract.
Best, Satan

Ghostwritten by Lily Coyle, in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.


© Mike Luckovich

UPDATE: The Onion weighs in on this.

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Late Night Political Humor

Monday, January 18, 2010

“Of course, the really big news is Conan O’Brien said in a written statement that he will not do ‘The Tonight Show’ after Jay Leno. I think. But then he also said he wants to make ‘The Tonight Show’ the best it can be, which means he didn’t quit. I think. I don’t know. I have no idea. I’m sure the lawyers will figure that out. Actually, I can think of a much better solution than the lawyers. Here’s what I think we should do here — government bailout money. It worked with Wall Street. Why doesn’t Congress give NBC money to make more late night shows? That would solve everything.” – Craig Ferguson

“But for now, it looks like Jay’s back on at 11:30. Now people are getting their old jobs back. How long before Dick Cheney shows up at the White House? ‘Hey Biden, heard you turned my dungeon into a breakfast nook.'” – Craig Ferguson

“Well of course, the big political story, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid got himself in hot water during the election, when he described Barack Obama as a ‘light-skinned’ African-American ‘with no negro dialect.’ See, that may explain why Reid was the Senate majority leader and not the Senate minority leader.” – Jay Leno

“But President Obama forgave him. Obama said today, he has ‘nothing against really light-skinned people who talk with a cracker dialect.’ So it all worked out.” – Jay Leno

“The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, is in the news. He’s still under fire for remarks he made about President Obama’s blackness. Sources say he could face Congressional censure or, even worse, be promised ‘The Tonight Show’ at 11:30.” – Conan O’Brien

“And now, according to The New York Times, Al Qaeda is claiming responsibility for the wreckage at NBC.” – David Letterman

“Have you seen him on the news? Harry Reid is apologizing more than NBC affiliates.” – Jay Leno

“He is not the only one. Impeached Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, what a moron this guy is. He’s in trouble after saying he’s ‘blacker than Barack Obama.’ Barack Obama? He’s not even blacker than Sammy Sosa.” – Jay Leno

“President Obama’s approval rating is down to 46 percent. But the White House has an idea for how to get it back up again. What they’re going to do is bring back Bush and Cheney for a week.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“It’s a big, big week for giant announcements. Have you seen the ‘American Idol’ show? One of the judges on the show, Simon Cowell, announced this will be the last season on the show. Cowell is the only high-ranking judge that Sarah Palin could name.” – David Letterman

“There’s a new book. Sarah Palin said that on the campaign tour sometimes, she was glassy-eyed and out of it. You know, like NBC executives.” – David Letterman

“Sarah Palin is going to be a commentator for Fox News. Well maybe now she can afford to buy some clothes for Levi Johnston.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Sarah Palin is joining Fox News. The new slogan is ‘hair and unbalanced.'” – David Letterman

“Earlier tonight, Sarah Palin appeared on ‘The O’Reilly Factor’ with Bill O’Reilly. Talk about a bridge to nowhere.” – David Letterman

“Sarah Palin will be a regular contributor to Fox News. She signed a three-year contract, which means she should be there for, what, six months?” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Sarah Palin made her debut as a Fox News contributor tonight on ‘The O’Reilly Factor.’ I tried to record it, but my DVR quit halfway through.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Big political news out of New Jersey lately. The New Jersey Senate just approved a bill to legalize medical marijuana, a week after New Jersey voted not to allow gay marriage, which means the New Jersey Senate was like, ‘Gay people getting married? What are you, like, high? No? Well, let’s get high then.'” – Jimmy Fallon

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The Audacity of Sleep

Monday, January 18, 2010


© Jen Sorensen

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Irony Tax

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Doesn’t it seem a bit ironic that even though a majority of Americans support single-payer health insurance, many of those same people are upset about employer-provided health insurance benefits becoming taxable?

After all, in single payer (which I strongly support) health care would be payed for by taxes. Your taxes. It would just be one large insurance pool, with everyone in it.

But when someone starts talking about a specific tax — taxing health care benefits just like any other income — well that’s taking away my money.

They gave us a republic has a good article in the same vein. It is short, and pretty humorous. Read it.

We really have become the credit card generation. I want it now, but I don’t want to have to pay for it. Maybe that’s how we got into the current mess we are in with health care. As long as my employer is paying for my health insurance, it is easy for me to imagine that it is free. And who needs to hold down health care costs? I’m not paying for it!

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Late Night Political Humor

Sunday, January 17, 2010

“It’s a great day for Sarah Palin. She was hired as a commentator for Fox News. She signed a multi-year contract, which means she’ll probably quit after a year.” – Craig Ferguson

“Sarah Palin has just signed with Fox News. So, now they’re fair and unbalanced.” – Jay Leno

“Sarah Palin just signed on to be a contributor to the Fox News Channel. She chose the job after carefully weighing her other option, just going away.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Sarah Palin, former governor of Alaska, is going to be part of the Fox News team. So, yeah. Finally, finally, her years of reading all those newspapers and magazines have really paid off. This should balance things out over there at Fox News. I can see that coming from my house.” – David Letterman

“Some critics are saying that Palin won’t last on Fox because she’s an over-emotional woman who gets the facts wrong. But I disagree. It’s working great for Glenn Beck, so she’ll be fine.” – Craig Ferguson

“Speaking of Sarah Palin, I was watching ’60 Minutes’ last night and a former McCain campaign aide said that when Palin found out she would become John McCain’s running mate, she said, ‘It’s God’s plan,’ to which God responded, ‘What? Really? Don’t bring me into this.'” – Jimmy Fallon

“One of John McCain’s former top campaign aides says that when he talked to Sarah Palin after McCain picked her to be his running mate, she said it was ‘God’s plan.’ So, apparently, God wanted Obama to win.” – Jay Leno

“Listen to this. In his weekly radio and Internet address, President Obama said ‘we are on the verge’ of guaranteeing Americans health insurance ‘whether they lose their job, change jobs, move or get sick,’ which means Jay, Conan and I are going to be just fine. So don’t worry.” – Jimmy Fallon

“As you may know, our show has been canceled. NBC has some pilots to fill up the 10 p.m. time slot. They’re talking about bringing back ‘All in the Family’, with Harry Reid as Archie Bunker.” – Jay Leno

“Senator Harry Reid in hot water about some remarks he made about then-candidate Barack Obama that have been perceived as to be racially insensitive. He spent most of the day on the phone apologizing to prominent African-American leaders. But you know, I still don’t think he gets it. Like today, at a press conference, he says, ‘I hope this doesn’t leave a black mark on my record.'” – Jay Leno

“Cold down in Washington, D.C. It was so cold today that Senator Harry Reid actually enjoyed being in hot water.” – David Letterman

“Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, you know what he said? That there were no terrorist attacks during the Bush Administration. Well you know, that would be great if it was true. And apparently, the Mayor misspoke. He forgot about the attack of 9/11. Yeah, forgot about that one. Forgot about the shoe bomber, there was another one. Forgot about Dick Cheney duck hunting.” – David Letterman

“The White House said they’re working even harder now to try and find Osama bin Laden. In fact, they have now put his picture on the side of cartons of goat’s milk.” – Jay Leno

“And on Friday, the White House announced that President Obama’s State of the Union address scheduled for next month will not air on the same night as the premiere of ‘Lost’ on ABC. Well, they did that because they thought viewers might get confused. See, lost is also the State of the Union: Lost jobs; lost wage; lost houses; lost businesses. So, the two — you can get them mixed up.” – Jay Leno

“A new study found that 5 percent of baby boomers admit to getting high and popping pills. Come on now. I know he’s a big guy but it’s not fair to call Rush Limbaugh 5 percent of baby boomers. That’s just rude.” – Jimmy Fallon

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One Department I Wish Would Just Depart

Saturday, January 16, 2010


© Matt Wuerker

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The Dumbing Down of America

Saturday, January 16, 2010

If you ever doubted the decline of the American empire, a new report shows that the number of Americans obtaining college degrees is declining. Bottom line: Americans aged 25-34 have less education than their parent’s generation.

Americans have always aspired to give their children a better life, but we seem to be backsliding. A few weeks ago I posted about how Americans’ household net worth went down for the first time in history. But not only are we worse off economically, our children are not receiving as much education as we did.

Even worse, America is declining compared to the rest of the world. The US ranks second among countries of the world in the percentage of people aged 35-64 with a college degree. But among people aged 24-35 — the new generation in their most productive years — we rank tenth. Indeed, we are one of only two countries where the number of people receiving college degrees is declining. And for degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, the situation is even worse.

The report doesn’t speculate on why our new generation isn’t getting college degrees, but given that the tuition has been increasing at double the rate of inflation over roughly the last 50 years, it seems like many young people just can’t afford to go to college any more.

Or maybe it is all the fault of Fox News.

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Following a Political Narrative off a Cliff

Friday, January 15, 2010

Rarely do we get such an obvious example of how the media loves a dramatic political narrative, even when the facts don’t fit it. In this case, the political narrative is that the Democrats are in deep trouble and that the upcoming midterm elections will be a repeat of the election that swept the “contract with America” Republicans into power during the Clinton administration.

For example, when Chris Dodd (D-CT) recently announced his retirement from the Senate, the media reacted as if it was the last straw for the Democrats. But the reality is that Dodd was very likely to lose that election, so his retirement means that the much more popular Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is all but guaranteed to be the next senator from Connecticut. So rather than being a disaster for the Dems, Dodd’s retirement turned a likely loss into a sure win for the Democrats. But that didn’t stop the press from sticking to the narrative that the Dems are in trouble and would be hurt by Dodd’s retirement.

The media is fixated on the four Democratic senators who are retiring this year, but doesn’t seem to notice that even though there are far fewer Republicans in the Senate, six of them are retiring this year. Who’s in trouble now?

What I’m curious about is whether this falsely negative press for the Democrats will hurt them, or ultimately help them. While negative press reports surely depresses poll results when people are asked whether they approve or disapprove of the job the Democrats are doing, in reality all politics is local, and the same people who express their disapproval in general may happily vote for their specific Democrat to represent them in Congress.

Above all, the deciding factor in midterm elections is turnout, and if the bad press helps mobilize Democrats to turn out in greater numbers, it could ultimately help the Dems. And besides, just because people might disapprove of the Democrats, most of them think even worse of the Republicans.

Of course, the conventional wisdom says that the president’s party loses congressional seats during the midterm election, but that’s another political narrative. It is going to be an interesting year.

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