Campaign Finance

We the Plutocracy

Remarks at the Lincoln Memorial, October 20, 2010

It’s an honor for me to help welcome Robin Monahan and Laird Monahan to this city, not because I can take any pride in this place, but because we can all take pride in what they’ve done and encourage others to do it. Walking across the country, talking to people directly and through local media outlets and through the internet, and walking here to the seat of our misrepresentative government, is a model for us all.

Phoning in our concerns read more

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Senator Max Baucus Proposes Constitutional Amendment to Allow Regulation of Campaign Funding

By David Swanson

The DISCLOSE Act, a bill passed by the House that would regulate corporate election spending was blocked in the Senate on Thursday by a filibuster — momentum is building to eliminate that anti-democratic tool.

And momentum is building, as well, for reforms of our campaign finance system that go beyond what the DISCLOSE Act would do. On Tuesday, Senator Max Baucus, a Democrat from Montana, proposed a new Constitutional Amendment that he described as a response to the Supreme read more

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PACPAC: People Against Corporate People Are Candidates

By David Swanson

David Segal is a candidate for Congress from Providence, R.I. who is not only running as a real person, but running against permitting corporations to claim the rights of persons.  Recently the Providence Journal reported:

“Segal said he just introduced a resolution calling for a federal Constitutional Convention to address the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, read more

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U.S. Laws Rated Worst Value Per Dollar

By David Swanson

A new international survey rates U.S. federal and state laws the worst legislative value in the world. The study considered laws’ impact on human lives, and the price paid for laws in campaign contributions, issue advertising, lobbying, ear marks, and bribes. While these expenses have provided an unequaled return on investment for some U.S. and international corporations, their value for the U.S. public turns out to be negative, and more severely negative the greater the read more

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Gooey Black Corporate Greed

By David Swanson

Corporate persons aren’t like you and I. They have eternal life and legal immunity. No death, no taxes, no joy or pain or moral feeling. No sweat and no tears. When they move their mouths, out come dollars, and we call those dollars speech. But when they stub their toe and bleed, out comes thick black goo in a gusher that could turn the ocean into a dead black pit, and we call that goo petroleum.

Candidate Obama said he would free us from “the tyranny of oil.” read more

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Video: John Bonifaz and Laura Flanders on the Corporate Supreme Court

At the 10:22 point in this video, GRIT tv host Laura Flanders takes up the topic of the Supreme Court, corporate power, and the "Citizens United" ruling. Guest John Bonifaz, the director of Free Speech for People discusses the results we’re already seeing from that ruling, how it impacts corporations, unions, and real flesh-and-blood people, (including how it has already impacted our thinking) and what needs to be done.

Bonifaz explains how we can amend the Constitution to reclaim read more

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