Duty to Warn

“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. The 5-4 decision in the long-awaited Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission case overturns restrictions on corporate spending to influence election results, giving entities with millions (in some cases, billions) of dollars at their disposal unlimited license to electioneer for the candidate with the friendliest attitude toward their interests.

Amidst utter chaos in the atomic reactor industry, Team Obama is poised to vastly expand a bitterly contested loan guarantee program that may cost far more than expected, both financially and politically. send comments

The long-stalled, much-hyped "Renaissance" in atomic power has failed to find private financing. New construction projects are opposed for financial reasons by fiscal conservatives such as the Heritage Foundation and National Taxpayers Union, and by a national grassroots safe energy campaign that has already beaten such loan guarantees three times.

New reactor designs are being challenged by regulators in both the US and Europe. Key projects, new and old, are engulfed in political/financial uproars in Florida, Texas, Maryland, Vermont, New Jersey and elsewhere.

Sensible, intelligent Americans are furious over the recent Supreme Court 5-to-4-decision referred to as Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that struck down limits on corporate spending in presidential and congressional elections. Those of us who wail against the corpocracy with its corruption of government could hardly believe that this decision could in any way be justified. A major reaction has been a number of groups calling for a constitutional amendment to fix the problem.

It helps to know that three current constitutional amendments resulted because of Supreme Court decisions that needed remedial action: the Eleventh Amendment (shoring up states’ legal immunity), the Sixteenth Amendment (authorizing a federal income tax), and the Twenty-sixth Amendment (assuring eighteen-year-olds the right to vote).

Among the current efforts MoveToAmend.org has already received nearly 50,000 signatories to support is plan, particularly: Firmly establish that money is not speech, and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights.

Howard Zinn was above all a gentleman of unflagging grace, humility and compassion.

No American historian has left a more lasting positive legacy on our understanding of the true nature of our country, mainly because his books reflect a soul possessed of limitless depth.

Howard’s PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES will not be surpassed. As time goes on new chapters will be written in its spirit to extend its reach.

But his timeless masterpiece broke astonishing new ground both in its point of view and its comprehensive nature. The very idea of presenting the American story from the point of view of the common citizen was itself revolutionary. That he pulled it off with such apparent ease and readability borders on the miraculous. That at least a million Americans have bought and read it means that its on-going influence is immense. It is truly a history book that has and will continue to change history for the better.

Call : West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin’s office at 1-888-438-2731; Jeff Jerosinski, Vice President of Finance for Massey Energy at 1- 804- 788- 1868; the company’s main number 1-804-788-1800; and WV State Police Public Information Officer at 304 746 2113 Donations of money would also help.

As Eric Blevins and Amanda Nitchman continue to endure the cold and being confined to platforms 60 feet above the ground, the WV State Police and WV Governor Joe Manchin neglect to stop Massey Energy from tormenting the two remaining protesters, according to Climate Ground Zero. The coal mining company is using air horns, which may cause permanent hearing loss to the protesters, and floodlights in an attempt to end the stand off.

“We have called them (the state police) upwards of 9 times…They have acknowledged the statute that says what they (Massey Energy) are doing is felony endangerment, but they’ve declined to do anything about it. The county prosecutor has also been notified, and he’s passed the responsibility off to the police,” said Nora Graubard, who works with Climate Ground Zero.

The Supreme Court's atrocious Citizen's United green light for unlimited corporate campaign spending had a willing accomplice---the American Civil Liberties Union. send comments

Why?

As long-time supporters, we are horrified by the ACLU's betrayal of political reality and plain common sense.

Standing proudly with the victorious corporate hacks on the steps of the SCOTUS was none other than the legendary First Amendment crusader Floyd Abrams.

Keith Olberman has called him a "Quisling" for aiding and abetting this catastrophic confirmation of corporate "personhood."

The ACLU has long been the go-to stalwart of First Amendment rights. Its list of accomplishments is long, impressive and essential.

The ACLU has bravely faced divisive, expensive controversy. Long ago it defended the right of American neo-nazis to march through Skokie, a heavily Jewish suburb of Chicago.

The ACLU has also defended the right of such loathsome haters as the Ku Klux Klan to gather and speak.

Since Thursday morning, David Aaron Smith, 23, Amber Nitchman, 19 and Eric Blevins, 28, have interrupted strip mining operations in the Bee Tree Area of Coal River Mountain. Smith, after experiencing numbness in his legs, came down from his tree-sit yesterday and was arrested. As the protest continues today with two tree-sitters remaining, activists with Climate Ground Zero and Mountain Justice urge people to phone the office of WV Governor Joe Manchin at 1-888-438-2731. Calls can also be made to Massey Energy V.P. of Finance, Jeff Jerosinski, at 1- 804- 788- 1868; Massey Energy President Baxter Phillips at 1-804-788-1807 ; and the company’s main number 1-804-788-1800.

The security staff for Massey Energy has been using flood lights and air horns in an attempt to force down the tree sitters by depriving them of sleep, according to a statement by Climate Ground Zero. Massey officials have not returned phone calls from the Columbus Free Press.

Haiti falls apart and America’s journalists are on the ground, bringing us the spectacle of devastation. We care, we donate, we shake our heads in horror at the human toll of poverty.

A bare foot sticks out of a pile of cinder blocks.

“They’ve been digging for five hours,” says Anderson Cooper. He sticks his mike in the rubble. Oh my God, she’s alive. We can hear her screaming! “They only have this one shovel.”

OK, freeze frame. Something is so wrong with this picture, this moment: to be watching — live! — in comfortable detachment as a group of men dig desperately, by hand and with that single shovel, to free a 15-year-old girl trapped in the wreckage of a building. Will they get her out in time? Suddenly it felt like a “Star Trek” episode: “We have many extra shovels aboard the mother ship, but it’s important that the Haitians free their survivors with their own tools. We’re obliged to observe the cultural non-interference policy, you see.”

"Free Speech Rights Are For People, Not Corporations" A coalition of public interest organizations strongly condemned today's ruling by the US Supreme Court allowing unlimited corporate money in US elections and announced that it is launching a campaign to amend the United States Constitution to overturn the ruling. The groups, Voter Action, Public Citizen, the Center for Corporate Policy, and the American Independent Business Alliance, say the Court's ruling in Citizens United v. FEC poses a serious and direct threat to democracy. They aim, through their constitutional amendment campaign, to correct the judiciary's creation of corporate rights under the First Amendment over the past three decades. Immediately following the Court's ruling, the groups unveiled a new website here devoted to this campaign.