Corporate personhood

In an effort to break a debate stalemate which seems to have wandered down the lost-in-the-woods side trail of "one voice or many voices" when describing the Citizens United decision, I thought it prudent to refocus on the two most important words of said decision: "General treasuries". It's within these two words where our 1st Amendment freedoms and protections are being weathered under the landscape-changing forces of money, and we should at least be able to recognize the threat, even if we can't escape the storm.

From the makers of "The Story of Stuff" comes an animated short film, an exploration of the inordinate power that corporations exercise in our democracy and what we can do about it.

I'm a fan of the new Senator from Minnesota, Al Franken, but I find myself with my head in my hands, lamenting his appeal to participants at Netroots Nation.

And I can tell you first hand that the government - the White House, the FCC, my fellow members of Congress - is hearing plenty from the corporations on the other side of these issues and not nearly enough from you. If you want to protect the free flow of information in this country and all that depends on it, you have to help me fight this. Help me fight this.

We are seeking investors for our new offering - BuyAmericanPoliticians.com - the web's one-stop shopping site for political influence in Washington and all 50 states.

Our business will focus on peddling influence to foreign interests who were barred from contributing to U.S. political campaigns until the Supreme Court's recent Citizens United v. FEC decision.

As should be expected from Republican corporatists, those who profit most from screwing poor people through predatory lending are whining like banshees now that Congress is finally taking on their abusive practices. Their big new worry comes in the form of legislation being proposed by Barney Frank (D-Mass.), the chairman of the House Financial Services panel.

According to The Hill, Frank's bill builds on some excellent work done last session by two of North Carolina's most effective Congressmen, Brad Miller and Mel Watt.