Who Hijacked Our Country

Friday, May 27, 2011

U.S. Senate In Session during Memorial Day Weekend

Whoa! Is this dedication, or what? So much for all those stereotypes about lazy sleazy politicians.

Unlike most Americans who spend Memorial Day lolling around on the beach or in the backyard, the hardworking members of the U.S. Senate will be working all through this three-day weekend.

Well, actually, they won’t be working. In fact most senators won’t even be in the Senate during this long weekend. But make no mistake, the Senate is In Session.

The Senate will be in pro forma session. No work will be conducted, but this technicality allows Wall Street’s prostitutes to prevent Elizabeth Warren from being appointed as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. President Obama was planning to use the recess appointment to appoint Warren. But now he can’t, since the Senate isn’t in recess. You know, since the Senate is in session. Well, they’re not really in session, but they’re [wink] “in session.” Or something.

I think the Senate Majority Leader should tell the Senate “Hey, we’re either in session or we’re not. Either we’re all here, conducting business all weekend, or the Senate is Not In Session. Pick one.”

But what do I know?

And now, get ready for Citizens United on steroids. Corporations are people — the Sequel.

A federal judge has expanded the scope of the Citizens United decision. (I didn’t know it had any room to expand even further.) The Citizens United ruling only applies to independent “third party” political organizations, not political candidates themselves.

U.S. District Judge James Cacheris, who made the Son of Citizens United ruling, said:

“For better or worse, Citizens United held that there is no distinction between an individual and a corporation with respect to political speech. Thus, if an individual can make direct contributions within the law's limits, a corporation cannot be banned from doing the same thing.”

All righty then — open the floodgates. And you thought they were already open.


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8 Comments:

Anonymous S.W. Anderson said...

I don't feel much worse because I had assumed it was this way after reading about the original Citizens United decision. From the wording, it sounds as though the judge isn't a fan of the original decision but must base this decision on it.

What a bunch of horse pucky.

May 27, 2011 at 2:30 PM  
Anonymous Jolly Roger said...

"Stepnfetchit" Reid isn't exactly a whip-cracker, in case you didn't notice.

I was really ambivalent about his re-election. Didn't give a shit one way or the other.

May 27, 2011 at 3:19 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Trust the Strict Constitutionalists Conservatives who once again have twisted the 14th Amendment, originally created to give free slaves equal rights to all other citizens - to use it to expand it to corporations and open the flood ways of money that would pale the overflow on the Mississippi by comparison.

I would feel better if Corporations were also made financially responsible like persons, end the double standard and make things a little better around here.

Erik

May 27, 2011 at 10:26 PM  
Blogger Tom Harper said...

SW: I also thought Citizens United had opened the floodgates; I didn't know the specifics. Political campaigns are already so flooded with corruption and bribery, I don't see how we'll notice a difference.

JR: True, Reid and whip-cracker in the same sentence doesn't compute.

Erik: The good old 14th Amendment -- it doesn't mean the children of foreigners who were born in the U.S. are American citizens, even though it says exactly that. And it DOES mean corporations are people, even though it says nothing of the kind. Conservative "logic" at its finest.

May 28, 2011 at 9:26 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I would feel better if they treated corps like people, when workers die because of their greed. See Massey miners dying as an example, because the owner wanted pushing coal to be the be all and end all.

Hell, he even sent memos around telling them, if your supervisor wants to paraphrasing here, make your workspace safer, if it involves not pushing coal don't do it. Consequently 28 miners died for his greed and his ability to buy some of WV's court houses and politicians. If we locked one of them up it would not happen a second time, they would be scrambling to do things properly, at least I would hope they would.
Reid should give up and let Durbin or Schumer take the lead position, he is a waste of skin.

May 29, 2011 at 9:03 PM  
Anonymous Jess said...

oops, that anon @ 9:03 is me Jess.

May 29, 2011 at 9:04 PM  
Anonymous Thomas said...

Did anyone else read the book Jennifer Government? Or maybe Snow Crash? It all seems oddly prescient now, doesn't it?


Also, why does blogger allow the html tag for italic but not for underline?

May 30, 2011 at 10:22 AM  
Blogger Tom Harper said...

Jess: Massey is a perfect example of the type of corporate criminals who should be doing some hard time. A "waste of skin," LOL.

Thomas: Sorry, I haven't read either of those books.

Blogger seems to have a mind of its own; I've given up trying to figure out why it does what it does.

May 30, 2011 at 1:07 PM  

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