Of course, I’m not plotting to blow up the Supreme Court, despite the intentionally provocative headline, and anybody who would believe for moment that such constitutes an actual threat is a complete and utter idiot. But I wonder if the Republican majority on the Court who just voted to gut our campaign finance laws by throwing out a century of precedent, respect my right to free speech as much as they respect that of corporations?
No doubt there are some of you out there who believe this headline crosses a line for which I should be subject to criminal penalties. After all, to maintain a safe and civil society the First Amendment cannot possibly be absolute; you can’t yell “Fire!” in a crowded theater, and all that. And yet I’m guessing that that those of you who would relish the thought of armed federal agents kicking down my door in the middle of night in response to a mere rhetorical device, are the same folks who are cheering the Court’s 5-4 decision to protect corporate America’s unfettered First Amendment right to corrupt our government through unlimited political spending.
No, I’m not plotting to blow up the Supreme Court, nor do I support or encourage such a radical revisionist agenda, because unlike the Court’s Republican majority, I actually respect the institution. But I fear for a nation whose highest court consistently grants money more free speech rights than speech itself.
From HuffPo:
“We are moving to an age where we won’t have the senator from Arkansas or the congressman from North Carolina, but the senator from Wal-Mart and the congressman from Bank of America,” said Melanie Sloan, director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
Sometimes, I think we have already ARRIVED at that age!
So Goldy thinks this corporation campaign contributions are more important than (implicit support) of the SCOTUS on the Kelo decision? The SCOTUS libtardo wing said it was A-OK to use eminent domain to transfer privately held land from one private owner to another to further economic development!
You can fight a corporation campaign contribution but you can’t fight a city taking away your private property. That’s A-OK to Goldy. It was liberal judges who said it’s A-OK to take your paid for property.
Think about all those corporations who gave big bank to Odumba during the 2008 campaign season. We have to be against that right?
@1 Norm Dicks already calls himself the congressman from Boeing.
@4 – Huh. I thought Norm was a WA congressman, not one from Chicago.
:)
@5
Good one! He’s probably too drunk to know the difference.
I think it’s a partisan decision by a wingnut court, just as Bush v. Gore was. The ruling was 5-4 along ideological lines, and the Republican justices obviously are aware that corporations are getting stronger and unions are getting weaker, so it didn’t take a rocket scientist to help them figure out who this ruling benefits. It’s a court decision that’s tailor-made for boosting the political power and influence of corporations and the rich. Fascist America, here we come.
@2 Completely irrelevant to the issue of campaign finance. Nice try at changing the topic when you don’t have an argument, pudpecker.
I think the ruling represents an extreme point in the current hyper-capitalist era – maybe even a terminal point.
When you combine this ruling with the exceptionally high levels of pessimism on the left and a deafening consensus that Obama’s presidency is essentially over one year after it started, I think you’ve got a recipe for reversal.
@2
To the person who plays puddy on the intertubes:
Actually a lot of people on the left weren’t real happy with the Kelo decision either. “Urban renewal” left a bad taste in many mouths.
BTW if you look closer you’ll notice Justice Kennedy was in the majority on both decisions.
Goldy,
I guess it is a good thing the conservative justices don’t believe in legislating from the bench. Just imagine how much trouble they would cause!
Also I’m glad to see Chief Justice Roberts still believes in stare decisis rather than overturning longstanding precedent.
What a stupid moron Herr Goebbels Himmler Dumb Bunny is.
People can give their money en masse for campaign finance. People can’t stop eminent domain claims against their land.
So Puddy asks… if the libtardo base thinks it’s okay for you to lose your land because some city says so that’s fine to the head HA Libtardo.
Butt, if a corporation can now rebut attacks by union thugs that’s not okay. Puddy is sure the Shaw Group, Perini Corp and URS would love to attack Puddy if Puddy ran for office since Puddy has delivered their shenanigans over the years to the HA Libtardo Moron Class.
To the person who signs checks as Chris Stefan,
Very strange Chris, when Puddy went back and reviewed the comments around that time, certain HA “luminaries” were asked for their opinion. They were mute. Us who think right made most of the anti-Kelo comments here on HA.
See ya Chris. If you need help ask ylb arschloch. He has a full backup of Goldy’s HA web site in his house. He provides it as a free service to Goldy. You can give him the search parameters.
…complete and utter idiot
Glad to see Goldy’s still bashing another country because they don’t have the same Constitution or share all of the same beliefs.
re 2: ‘A-OK’….. Is that some kind of arcane legal terminology?
Well, now that the lid is off on the campaign contributions (for corporations AND unions), I guess progressive citzens can organize into special interest groups that funnel contributions to unions for political purposes.
I’ll bet the aggregate pockets of the voters are deeper than the corporations.
Hey, Goldy! Get your head out of the horse’s ass and recognize that the ruling also frees up your union goons to spend whatever they wish to spend on elections also. That’s the funny thing about the USA, Goldy: Equal before the law.
John @16,
If unions had anywhere near as much money as corporations, I suppose it would be an equal playing field, at least in terms of the political competition between business and labor. But they don’t, and besides, there are many more interests out there than just those of corporate America and organized labor.
Just to illustrate with a real world example, if Michael Dunmire wants an initiative on the ballot in Washington state, he can have one, because he’s a wealthy man who can afford to spend a few hundred thousand dollars a year to pay Tim Eyman’s signature gatherers. But none of the rest of us get to put an initiative on the ballot.
One money is permitted to dominate the political debate, it is people with money who will dominate. That’s not what America is supposed to be about, at least in theory.
@13
To the person playing puddy:
What, just because there wasn’t the outrage at HA there was at Sound Politics over Kelo means that “the left” must support it?
That is entirely asinine and you know it.
Maybe 35 percent of workers were members of a labor union at one time in this country’s history. At union membership peak.
Now? 8, 10 percent…
There’s no contest who’d win the money game.
It’s pretty clear where wingnut fealty lies..
18 – That’s totally lost on Stupes Chris. Stupes lives and breathes asinine.
Great call back in the post title.
Once you realize that the religion of these United States is the worship of Capital and that in our neo-feudal society there are Surfs and Owners, then it all becomes clear. The Surfs do the listening and the working and the Owners do the talking and the acquiring. It’s really pretty simple. When the Bill of Rights gives freedom of speech, it’s intended to be for the Owners not the slaves. There’s a direct connection forward to the “people” created in the 14th Amendment (when the word ‘natural’ was mistakenly removed from the final text) – – – the Corporations, which right around 120 years ago began to gain the power of personhood. That’s when Congress began to reel in the power of the super-citizen corporation. Congress feared, rightfully so, that the super-citizens would eventually amass so much money they would rule us. And they have and they do.
Now that it’s happened the only thing to do is to kill the corporations. We should tax carbon, people should refuse (to buy) new and all tax breaks for corporations should be revoked. That is what’s needed to “level the playing field”. That’s a beginning but the only we will save ourselves is to remove the insane “free market” mentality from our election process and force all candidates to use public financing. Our country is doomed without this radical change in process.
Until we renounce Free Market Fundamentalism and put the corporations back in their place as non-people, we ARE doomed. The needs of the corporations are almost the exact opposite from the needs of the individual (see Haiti as an good example). Owner or Surf, which are you? If you think you are the former, you are truly delusional.
Long Live Goldy – March On!
@16 – you think the Unions have more money than the Corporations, you are funny.
goldstien are you going nuts? this is the second time your post title threatens a bombing? i hope you get some psycological help before you carry out one of your threats.