SCOTUS

MEDIAGOPOLY: THE MEGACORPS THAT CONTROL MAINSTREAM MEDIA AND MUCH MORE
Global Revolution 1: American Revolution 2: Day 57: Communication 1
IronBoltBruce's Kleptocracy Chronicles for 12 Nov 2011 (g1a2d0057c1)
How many examples of greed and corruption must you see before you act?

"The U.S. media landscape is dominated by massive corporations that, through a history of mergers and acquisitions, have concentrated their control over what we see, hear and read. In many cases, these giant companies are vertically integrated, controlling everything from initial production to final distribution." This chart shows who owns what:

http://www.freepress.net/ownership/chart/main

Kevin Geddings gets his walking papers:

A judge on Tuesday ordered a former North Carolina lottery commissioner convicted of five counts of the honest services law released from a Georgia prison.

Geddings was found guilty of honest services mail fraud for not disclosing his financial ties to a company that was expected to bid for North Carolina's lottery business.

Another step backward for ethics reform. In the absence of this (Federal) statute, what other criminal laws would come to bear on a "failure to disclose" these conflicts of interest?

Making it the first time in history that three women have sat on the highest court:

At 50 years old, Kagan would be the youngest justice on the court, one of many factors working in her favor.

Yet Kagan would be the first justice without judicial experience in almost 40 years.

As the Harvard Law School dean, Kagan openly railed against the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding gay service members. She called it discriminatory and barred military recruiters over the matter until the move threatened to cost the university federal money.

The Orange-Chatham Progressive Democrats and the Progressive Democrats of NC will sponsor a public forum on the Citizens United decision on April 11th, from 4-5:30 pm at the Carrboro Century Center in Carrboro. Gene Nichol of UNC Law School will be the primary speaker.

First the District of Columbia, now Chicago:

The justices will be deciding whether the right to possess guns guaranteed by the Second Amendment - like much of the rest of the Bill of Rights - applies to states as well as the federal government. It's widely believed they will say it does.

The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence is urging the court not to do anything that would prevent state and local governments "from enacting the reasonable laws they desire and need to protect their families and communities from gun violence."

Your Majesty,

Now that you are planning to buy intervene in the US Congress to secure our continuing dependence on your oil fields, may I inquire if you might be interested in buying North Carolina as well?

We're a swell state, though we currently have a few budget problems that will likely get worse before they get better. But don't despair, there's nothing but upside for Your Majesty. While some of your competitors like Bank of America, Duke Energy, Blue Cross, and Variety Wholesalers are lining up to buy our General Assembly, the bidding has just begun. If I were Your Majesty, I'd take that as a chrome-plated invitation to come on down!

A quick preview of our new state flag, coming soon to a glittery pole near you.

• As I understand it, the blue bar will be for sale every two years. Look for Duke Energy to outbid Blue Cross in early 2012.
• The white bar will be permanently dedicated to the glory of Variety Wholesalers, owned and operated by Art Pope. This is in recognition of his many years of buying funding helping skating around electioneering laws in anticipation of yesterday's glorious ruling. A deal has been reached that will allow him to swap out the Roses logo for any one of his many stores, or his newspaper of choice. To my knowledge.
• As for the red bar, I am embarrassed to report that we the stupid people of the United States of America are actually giving money the big bank who wants to buy not just Congress, but also the North Carolina legislature.

Although the news has not been confirmed both NPR and MSNBC have reported that Justice Souter will retire. In DeanObama's diary, Adam posted this link of possible nominees,

The three obvious candidates are Elena Kagan (SG), Sonia Sotomayor (CA2), and Diane Wood (CA7). The sleeper candidate is Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm.

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Yesterday, George Bush's Supreme Court struck a mighty blow for downtrodden multi-millionaire long-term Congressional incumbents everywhere - especially those in economically devastated District's like North Carolina's 8th. In the typical 5-4 decision we've come to expect from this SCOTUS, Justices Alito, Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy and Thomas declared the "Millionaire's Amendment" that seeks to level the playing field in an already millionaire dominated legislature a "violation of the First Amendment."

The title of the article in Hotline sums up the decision perfectly:

"It's A Great Day To Be A Millionaire (Like Most Days, We Guess)"

By a single vote, the Constitution was again upheld.