Thursday, January 21, 2010

Corporations are now people

The conservative SCOTUS ruled today, that Corporations are people, officially. (link here) They are no longer legal entities different from people. Let the flow of billions of campaign financing dollars begin. The "common man", the "little guy" is no longer relevant.

Greg Palast's perspective (from back in December) here: link
"Supreme Court's Ruling Would Allow Bin Laden to Donate to Sarah Palin's Presidential Campaign"
and...
"
The court's expected decision is far, far more dangerous to U.S. democracy. Think: Manchurian candidates.

I'm losing sleep over the millions -- or
billions -- of dollars that could flood into our elections from ARAMCO,
the Saudi Oil corporation's U.S. unit; or from the maker of "New Order"
fashions, the Chinese People's Liberation Army. Or from Bin Laden
Construction corporation. Or Bin Laden Destruction Corporation.

Right now, corporations can give loads
of loot through PACs. While this money stinks (Barack Obama took none
of it), anyone can go through a PAC's federal disclosure filing and see
the name of every individual who put money into it. And every
contributor must be a citizen of the USA.

But, if the Supreme Court rules that
corporations can support candidates without limit, there is nothing
that stops, say, a Delaware-incorporated handmaiden of the Burmese
junta from picking a Congressman or two with a cache of loot masked by
a corporate alias."

4 comments:

  1. That's terrible. I've long been worried about the idea of "corporate rights", believing, with a bunch of old-school conservatives, that only individuals have rights. Old-school conservatism seems to have died before Bill Buckley, though.

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  2. So apparently $1 = 1 vote now? Really. How appalling. This will be the sad legacy of the neo-cons.

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  3. a court of ACTIVIST judges, making policy. Damn hypocrites. Exactly what all the fundies rail against.

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  4. Let's take the next few logical steps here:

    1. Let them pay personal income taxes. Not capital gains, but the quasi-progressive income tax. Sales tax too.

    2. Just like people, let's un-limit their liability. Make them all partnerships and see how quickly they break into smaller pieces with less power.

    3. Expose them to the death penalty. If a corporation kills a person through negligence, revoke their charter, hold the officers personally liable, and be done with it.

    ReplyDelete

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