By Timothy V. Gatto

Featured Writer

Dandelion Salad

liberalpro.blogspot.com

January 24, 2010

I read about how outraged President Obama was with the Supreme Court ruling that allowed corporate money into the election campaigns without limits. I too am outraged. This country, for decades has been run by special interests for special interests, the public be damned. That includes Barack Obama’s Administration and the current Congress.

Obama isn’t guiltless when it comes to taking corporate money. He received huge donations from Goldman Sachs, Morgan-Stanley, AIG and others. Corporate money was fine by him as long as he was getting the lions share. Now the Democrats have to worry about all that corporate money going to the business friendly GOP.

There’s one way to stop this coup on democracy, and that is for Congress to introduce a law specifying campaign limits and while they are at it, take corporate “personhood” and throw it in the trash bin where it belongs. I read an article that was entitled “You never see Corporations Go to Jail”. How true. It’s a fact that corporations are set up to shield investors from bankruptcy and lawsuits. So how can an entity have “person hood” and rights of “Free Speech”? It appears that in this co0untry, the only ones that are being heard are the rich.

If Obama and the Democrats don’t stop this charade with legislation, then they better start reaching out to the left and doing things that will bring them to the polls to vote for a Democrat. The war in Afghanistan must be stopped and most of the military bases overseas must close. Wars for resources have got to stop. The intrusion of the Federal Government into the right of privacy guaranteed by the Bill of Rights should be brought back by repealing the new FISA laws that allow the government to tap your phone or get inside your computer to see what websites you have visited and to read your e-mails.

Obama could take these lemons and make lemonade with them. He could be the one we have been waiting for, all he needs to do is stand up to the corporate oligarchy that runs America. If he so desired, he could become a populist President not unlike President Andrew Jackson. The trick is to use the power of the Presidency to incite the people. He may not realize it, but there are millions of us that want a return to citizen run government and want the end of this “Security State” that the Feds have built for us.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that the American people are being pushed out of any participation in government. When GE threw Mike Gravel off the Democratic Debates after the second one, Americans should have been up in arms. The candidates themselves should have protested this cowardly act by GE. When Dennis Kucinich was kicked of the Debates there should have been hell to pay. But no, the docile Democrats went along with these corporate decisions.

It’s true that we will lose our democracy with the results of the Supreme Court’s ruling. I wouldn’t be surprised to see some resistance from the Democrats along with their President. If they don’t fight this, then they will deserve what they get. If they need help from the left, then they must ask for it.

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Read Tim Gatto’s new book Complicity to Contempt.

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[DS added the video]

Obama Weekly Address: SCOTUS Ruling on Corporate Campaign Finance

SocialistLiberal

January 23, 2010

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Transcript

WEEKLY ADDRESS: President Obama Vows to Continue Standing Up to the Special Interests on Behalf of the American People | The White House.

see

Ralph Nader: Corporations never go to jail

Overrule the Court: Sign the Motion to Amend

Time to Reign in Out-of-Control Corporate Influences on Our Democracy by Ralph Nader

Alan Grayson: We Can’t Let Blackwater Take Over The Government

Perseverance By Timothy V. Gatto