US POLITICS SPRING 2011: Let's just call off this country.

max, it's the lobbyists.. i'm not saying they're bad but well, talking to people who work on the legislation and as liasons from the agencies to those who work on the legislation, my impression has been.. lobbyists have a strong influence on the process and everybody knows that this is the case, and you can't just blow them off because they represent powerful and well-connected interests.. it's like basically where does working class joe six-pack have a voice in the process that's going to outweigh the voice of those interests who have players right there on the hill, in contact, with connections and long-running relationships, etc.

it seems to me the interests of the lobbyists who work for corporations in whatever domain is being covered by legislation.. they are likely to align with the rich, basically. i have no idea how you untangle any of this

thx for all this stuff qualmsey/deej/daria! i read an article somewhere a month ago (salon? mother jones?) that cited a couple statistics about how--for example--the top one-third income bracket of a given congressional district/state has measurably disproportionate influence over the decisions of that rep/senator. i cant find the article now but it didnt quite touch on ~why~ this is the case. and i guess in certain ways its obvious--and part of it is about the mechanisms of power like you point out d-g--but i sort of want to see it spelled out as plainly and stupidly as possible. b/c this seems to me to be the biggest problem facing american liberal politics and id like to think abt what steps i should advocate to end it.

campaign finance reform, for one. if all elected officials could only draw from the same limited kitty then the influence of the plutocracy and their lobbyist cronies wouldn't be so profound. (in theory.) as it is, running for office is super-expensive, so pols have to play the game even to get a seat at the big show. and once they're there, they have to keep fundraising like maniacs in order to stay. it's one of the main things they do. keep your eye on this guy

http://www.progressivesunited.org/home/

if that's something you can get behind and advocate, you would be in good company

max: http://users.polisci.wisc.edu/dcanon/104fall10/lindblom.pdf

thx--still though i want to see some "hard" science about this? i mean i have always assumed that campaign finance reform is a big deal but i still want to read about why, not to mention the most effective reforms, the evidence that theyll work, etc

sick iatee thx

Interesting shit maybe goin down in re: Citizens United

some of the usual suspects on the right are getting v. v. aggro about this, if there's one thing they really really hate from Obama it's the spectre of executive orders/signing statements

can Obama sign into law an amendment hereby terminating the existence of the Republican party? plz

there'd still be the Democratic party that that wouldn't solve much WHOA HEY-OOO C WHAT I DID etc

underrated Morbs I have lampooned

To: max
In Re: influence of the rich

It basically comes down to the fact that the rich can hire lots of sharp-minded people who do nothing all day but think about how to increase the influence of their patrons. These include, but are not limited to: lawyers, lobbyists, political consultants and public relations flaks. They also have consolidated their hold on the public media, so they can directly shape public opinion through their employees in those media. Plus, being the hugest source of campaign contributions to politicians, just for good measure.

There you have it in a nutshell.

i think hes heard that before. hes looking for stats & charts & graphs

stats, charts & graphs are very comforting

http://www.politicususa.com/en/obama-citizens-united

^^ wow, thanks for that link aerosmith. I had not even heard about this and it seems like a smart & needed move to a huge problem

the corporations = people equation isn't even the most chilling precedent set by Citizens United, that concept has been floating in common-law for almost a hundred years now. though it was certainly a wake up call for people to realize that the concept is now effective law, the real hyperspace jump into science fiction with Citizens United is the entire concept that Money is indistinguishable from Free Speech. even as a metaphor, it just doesn't hold, and it is a shocking thing to admit as law because it is a basic admission of Plutocracy, it's a strike at the heart of the Constitution.

and all the cases which have come up since are just deeply impossible to understand due to this metaphorical confusion, like the Arizona law where several Corporations banded together to take out Campaign Fund matching under the pretext that if your opponent gets an infusion of funds every time you buy an advertisement, your Free Speech is inhibited (because why would you even bother to speak if doing so 'strengthens' your opponent?). i.e. if Money equals Free Speech, and speaking gives your opponent Money, which is Power, then Campaign Fund matching discourages Free Speech. That does not follow unless you've already swallowed the metaphor as an operative reality, which they have.

The other breakdown is in how Free Speech has become disconnected from accountability, which we see whenever anyone complains when they suffer any repercussions after having said something disagreeable. The thing about Citizen's United is that this is a new form of Free Speech where the speaker remains nebulous and unidentifiable and can lie with no impact on reputation. Obama's signing law would actually bring things a step back closer to Free Speech as we know it, where we actually know the identity of the 'people' / 'corporations' who are 'speaking' / 'spending' at us.

I'm still torn about Citizens United, honestly.

worst soccer club name ever

how are you torn about Citizens United specifically, Alfred? it's a tangled enough knot -- you can't easily dismiss many of the precepts, I have a friend at Brennan Center who's spent much of the last year working on undermining it, including work on that Arizona case, and it's not easy. at the same time, the decision was made with a purpose that seems pretty clearcut and anti-democratic so I'm interested in your conflict over it

as a free speech case, basically.

My decision is very complicated, and not reducible to a Huffington Post blog point. I should point out that before the decision in the past five years, more money has poured into Democratic coffers than GOP ones. Also, I really don't see how things can get much worse regarding corporate control over control. Corporations will find lots of ways to circumvent existing restrictions.

Finally, I'm pretty much an absolutist when it comes to the First Amendment.

Greenwald otm last January:

Ultimately, I think the free speech rights burdened by campaign finance laws are often significantly under-stated. I understand and sympathize with the argument that corporations are creatures of the state and should not enjoy the same rights as individuals. And one can't help but note the vile irony that Muslim "War on Terror" detainees have been essentially declared by some courts not to be "persons" under the Constitution, whereas corporations are.

But the speech restrictions struck down by Citizens United do not only apply to Exxon and Halliburton; they also apply to non-profit advocacy corporations, such as, say, the ACLU and Planned Parenthood, as well as labor unions, which are genuinely burdened in their ability to express their views by these laws.

well I hear you there. but if more money poured into Democratic coffers during the last five years, you have to admit the balance has now been completely destroyed by the CU decision. that link upthread showing a factor of 10 to 1. Whatever unassailable First Amendment underpinnings the decision rests on, the result was a new form of Free Speech in which the speaker remains anonymous, and this was by design. It's not just that corporations aren't people; it's that they can 'say' things that everyone will hear without anyone being able to know who was speaking.

The concept that Money does not just enable Free Speech but is in and of itself a form of it -- signing that concept into law was a break from the real world, and it obviously made things worse concerning corporate control, I don't think you can shrug it off there. It was a philosophical victory and it was a warped one

This is one of the major problems I have with free speech absolutists (and w/ kantian absolutists in general).

The concept that Money does not just enable Free Speech but is in and of itself a form of it -- signing that concept into law was a break from the real world, and it obviously made things worse concerning corporate control, I don't think you can shrug it off there.

I have to read the decision again; it's been thirteen months since the last time. I don't agree with your conclusion.

I think if it were left unaddressed, the first post-Citizens United presidential election would find many free speech junkies (I include myself among them) having cause to question whether they're willing to extend "speech" to include "money being contributed to political campaigns by corporations." Because if the ruling were to stand as-is, Planned Parenthood & the ACLU are gonna look downright hilarious next to the amount of cash Exxon et al will dump into whichever Republican runs. Citizens United is part of a group attempt, imo, to make Gingrich's dream of the permanent Republican majority a reality.

To me ascribing personhood to a corporation for the purpose of granting it rights seems silly, though I do understand the argument that if a corporation can be held liable for damages, then some form of personhood...accrues? pertains? but yeah - I think undoing CU is a partisan move. But so is CU. There's an uncomfortable meeting of abstract principle & political reality in it. And basically if Bong Hits for Jesus dude gets ruled against then the court doesn't get to dole out free speech to its preferred customers.

btw if you read that case & pay close attn to the majority decision & concurring opinions you'll come to the unescapable conclusion that we are totally fucked

http://i.imgur.com/RmU8a.jpg

^after he signs Neanderthal's exec order

really we only need ONE Republican party, the Dems will do just fine

Last week, we discussed the extent to which the Obama administration’s rescue of the American automotive industry has been a success. Today, E.J. Dionne Jr. pauses to take note of those who got this challenge “utterly wrong.”

Washington Monthly's Steve Benen keeps giving Obama credit for saving GM, and Benen castigates Republicans who disliked that socialist takeover and were sure it would fail.

Now if only Obama could push Congress on creating jobs for those who are not in the auto industry.

can't wait till the gop congressional majority post-2012 impeaches him for taking bin laden out. behind the scenes they'll gloat that they goaded him into it

While the US may not be able to do much in Syria, can I dream that Obama would at least speak up regarding the brutality going on there and encourage the European Union that is more involved economically than other parts of the world, to implement embargos?

Expecting any foreign policy issue that's not Bin Laden related to be discussed in the White House or mainstream US media now is very naive I know.

curious why you say that is. because the bin laden home videos are jessica lynch-y? maybe there's only so much influence you have as president of the country whose financial industry started the recession

Preventing Al Quadas takes more than stopping Bin laden. Polls in the mid-east continue to show unhappiness with what is perceived as the US's failure to support the Arab spring, and failure to play a tougher role re Israel. While the White House is quietly behind the scenes supporting Syrian protestors, the silence from the President the past few weeks, while intended to show that protestors are not US pawns, seems to be too restrained.

I'd also like him to speak up today re whatever knuckleheaded things Boehner is gonna say to a Wall Street audience today re medicare, medicaid, the debt and the deficit.

the spring is happening, just not fast enough to your liking? a middle east full of democracies would be epic. i'm with you though about hoping he engages the assholes in the house. but again the paul ryan budget plan fail/donald trump birth certificate joke candidacy/white house correspondents dinner routine/bin laden assassination sequence was pretty heartening, reflecting the president's growing command of statesmanship, no?

If he agrees to cuts in Great Society programs, no.

OTM

My gay brethren are taking charge.

Right, he should not quietly give indications that he would agree to compromises on medicare, medicaid, and Social Security, while he talks tough. He has to keep up the verbal battle too.

The US support for the Arab spring is not happening fast enough:

Four days after the first mass shooting, Hillary Clinton called Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad “a reformer.” The first, weak U.S. sanctions came on April 29 — 45 days after that first call for freedom. On Friday, as troops turned heavy machine guns and artillery on protesters, Europe finally followed suit. A White House statement threatened further measures, but said they would depend on the regime’s actions — as if it had not yet done enough.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-is-the-west-so-sluggish-on-syria/2011/05/05/AFmaPPTG_story.html

Yes this columnist is sometimes too sympathetic to neo-con interventionist viewpoints for me, but this time I kinda agree with him.

More dirt on Mitch Daniels that the political elite columnists ignore:

when Daniels worked as a top executive at Eli Lilly & Co., one of the world’s largest drug firms, the pharmaceutical giant’s reputation was tarred by some of the nation's ugliest drug scandals.

In the decade that Daniels climbed the corporate ladder at Eli Lilly, the company was illegally marketing its leading osteoporosis drug, Evista, as well as its blockbuster antipsychotic, Zyprexa, putting tens of thousands of patients in harm’s way. Lilly pleaded guilty to two criminal misdemeanors, paid more than $2.7 billion in fines and damages, settled more than 32,000 personal injury claims — and copped to one of the largest state consumer protection cases involving a drug company in U.S. history, a review by iWatch News shows
...

In a statement, Eli Lilly said the agreements to settle the Evista and Zyprexa criminal allegations did not happen under Daniels’ watch as president of North American operations.

But given his senior management position in the company, “I would have hoped that he would have known about some of these issues, and if he didn’t, why didn’t he? That needs to be evaluated” said Stephen Sheller, a Philadelphia class action attorney instrumental in the Zyprexa settlement.

http://www.iwatchnews.org/2011/05/09/4499/during-mitch-daniels%E2%80%99-decade-eli-lilly-drug-giant-paid-billions-fines-and-settled

could also belong in the right-wing thread, but this article is FUCKING SCARY

http://www.alternet.org/story/150868/the_devos_family:_meet_the_super-wealthy_right-wingers_working_with_the_religious_right_to_kill_public_education?akid=6932.44250.eUY5pr&rd=1&t=2

So amazing their name is actually DEVO

THE DEVOS FAMILY IS TERRIFYING, I'VE BEEN SAYING THIS FOR YEARS.

I keep TRYING to tell people, but they keep BUILDING SHIT like museums and sports facilities in the city of Grand Rapids, which they basically own already.

laurel otm

I've always suspected that Delta or American Airlines or whichever the hell of them first instituted direct flights from GRR<-->NYC and GRR<-->Wash DC inside the past decade, created those flights to give these Calvinistic oligarchs more convenient access to the halls of power. Creeped me the hell out 8 years ago or whenever they started, and creeps me out now.

wish i'd been paying more attention. i knew they were evil before, but only vaguest notions as to why. now i'm on board with you, laurel. *fervently continues to research*

My college used to not accept any donations/grants from Amway as a point of autonomy/independence from commercial presssures (or any other kind, either) but while I was there our old-school pres retired and a slick, more MBA type was chosen for the position and one of his first actions was to "strengthen ties with our local scientific community" or some self-serving bullshit and gobble down Amway's money ASAP. God only knows where that relationship is now but I pity their science depts.

ERIK PRINCE'S SISTER MARRIED A DEVOS, WHAT MORE DO YOU NEED?