Opinions and Letters

End Corporate Rule; Legalize Democrary - move to amend

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Justice Stevens, in dissent, was compelled to state the obvious:

. . . . corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires. Corporations help structure and facilitate the activities of human beings, to be sure, and their “personhood” often serves as a useful legal fiction. But they are not themselves members of “We the People” by whom and for whom our Constitution was established.

What Democrats Did In 21 Months (Policy over Politics)

Adapted and excerpted from the CFAF Newsletter of Nov 2, 2010

Rachel Maddow analyzes the Democratic record being judged on Election Day: "A lot of hard stuff done on hard problems in a short amount of time.": "The legislative agenda of the last 21 months was policy, not politics. It was designed to get stuff done for the country and in that sense, it's an investment in long-term political reward, not short-term political reward ... Hard votes with long-time horizons that don't translate into killing the other party in the next election."

Rachel Maddow analyzes the Democratic record being judged on Election Day: "A lot of hard stuff done on hard problems in a short amount of time.": "The legislative agenda of the last 21 months was policy, not politics. It was designed to get stuff done for the country and in that sense, it's an investment in long-term political reward, not short-term political reward ... Hard votes with long-time horizons that don't translate into killing the other party in the next election." Health reform already working, as small businesses expand coverage thanks to tax incentives. WSJ: "The number of small businesses offering health insurance to workers is projected to increase sharply this year, recent data show, a shift that researchers attribute to a tax credit in the health law ... According to a report by Bernstein Research in New York, the percentage of employers with between three and nine workers and which are offering insurance has increased to 59% this year, up from 46% last year." GM ready to gradually reduce government stake, as Treasury forces plan to maximize taxpayer investment. NYT: "The automaker is planning a three-for-one stock split that will bring its total outstanding shares to about 1.5 billion ... Through the offering, the Treasury Department, which gained a 61 percent stake in G.M. as part of its $50 billion bailout of the company last year, will sell about $7 billion worth of shares. That will cut its holdings in the company to just more than 43 percent ... Treasury intends to further reduce its holdings with subsequent stock sales over several years ... The company’s former government-appointed chief executive, Edward E. Whitacre Jr., had expressed a desire to sell the Treasury Department’s stake all at once if possible. But Treasury pushed back, seeking to maximize the price it fetched for its shares." Who turns out will make the difference. W. Post's E. J. Dionne: "Perhaps the likely voter screens are wrong and young voters will surprise the pollsters. Or the Democrats will have to go back and ask themselves if there was more they could have done to keep younger voters engaged. And the country will have to ask if it should be drawing excessively broad conclusions about the entire country from a midterm election in which older voters are vastly overrepresented compared with members of the rising generation." Third Way seeks to expand influence with Dems, attack "left-wing economic populism." Politico: "With cap and trade effectively dead in a Republican House, Third Way will release a 'Plan B”' for energy reform. On Dec. 7, it’s hosting a summit on nuclear energy — one of the group’s big causes — with Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Obama energy czar Carol Browner. It will come out with a paper on the need for changes that could save Social Security, which it presents as a direct challenge to economist Paul Krugman."

Health reform already working, as small businesses expand coverage thanks to tax incentives. WSJ: "The number of small businesses offering health insurance to workers is projected to increase sharply this year, recent data show, a shift that researchers attribute to a tax credit in the health law ... According to a report by Bernstein Research in New York, the percentage of employers with between three and nine workers and which are offering insurance has increased to 59% this year, up from 46% last year."

GM ready to gradually reduce government stake, as Treasury forces plan to maximize taxpayer investment. NYT: "The automaker is planning a three-for-one stock split that will bring its total outstanding shares to about 1.5 billion ... Through the offering, the Treasury Department, which gained a 61 percent stake in G.M. as part of its $50 billion bailout of the company last year, will sell about $7 billion worth of shares. That will cut its holdings in the company to just more than 43 percent ... Treasury intends to further reduce its holdings with subsequent stock sales over several years ... The company’s former government-appointed chief executive, Edward E. Whitacre Jr., had expressed a desire to sell the Treasury Department’s stake all at once if possible. But Treasury pushed back, seeking to maximize the price it fetched for its shares."

Who turns out will make the difference. W. Post's E. J. Dionne: "Perhaps the likely voter screens are wrong and young voters will surprise the pollsters. Or the Democrats will have to go back and ask themselves if there was more they could have done to keep younger voters engaged. And the country will have to ask if it should be drawing excessively broad conclusions about the entire country from a midterm election in which older voters are vastly overrepresented compared with members of the rising generation."

Third Way seeks to expand influence with Dems, attack "left-wing economic populism." Politico: "With cap and trade effectively dead in a Republican House, Third Way will release a 'Plan B”' for energy reform. On Dec. 7, it’s hosting a summit on nuclear energy — one of the group’s big causes — with Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Obama energy czar Carol Browner. It will come out with a paper on the need for changes that could save Social Security, which it presents as a direct challenge to economist Paul Krugman."

 



Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse: "America . . must never be on it's knees before Corporate Power!" (C-SPAN video)

This is a very powerful speech.  This sums up the damage done by decades of deregulation and worshiping at the altar of greed and profit.  I have always been impressed by Sen. Whitehouse, but this..... wow.   This says it all. 

Mr. President, we have watched with horror the unfolding disaster in the Gulf. We have seen precious lives lost; hard-earned livelihoods hammered; treasured ways of life imperiled. We have seen the largest deployment of resources ever against an environmental disaster. We have seen astonishing corporate negligence. But we have seen something else too-something that ought to be a lasting lesson from this catastrophe: we have seen the revolting specter of an agency of government subservient to - captive to - the industry it is supposed to regulate. ... ...What lesson of history, if left unlearned after this disaster, are we condemned to repeat? I hope that the lesson we learn is this one: that we can never, never, never again let agencies of the government of the United States of America fall so far under the influence of the corporations they are supposed to regulate.... ...This American government of ours should never, never be on its knees before corporate power, no matter how strong. It should never be in the thrall of corporate wealth no matter how vast. This American government of ours should never give the American citizen reason to question whose interests are being served. Never.... ...We must act in defense of the integrity of this great government of ours, which has brought such light to the world, such freedom and equality to our country. We cannot allow this government - that is a model around the world, that inspires people to risk their lives and fortunes to come to our shores - we cannot allow any element of this government to become the tool of corporate power, the avenue of corporate influence, the puppet of corporate tentacles.

Please make the time to watch the entire video (click below).   The transcript is also <<here>> with commentary added by MinistryOfTruth.