An end to a means

Submitted by James on Thu, 07/29/2010 - 6:59am

I'm a fan of the new Senator from Minnesota, Al Franken, but I find myself with my head in my hands, lamenting his appeal to participants at Netroots Nation.

And I can tell you first hand that the government - the White House, the FCC, my fellow members of Congress - is hearing plenty from the corporations on the other side of these issues and not nearly enough from you. If you want to protect the free flow of information in this country and all that depends on it, you have to help me fight this. Help me fight this.

How on earth did the business of crafting public policy become a battle between corporate interests and the interests of We the People? I understand that is a rhetorical question, given the recent sale of our democracy to businesses by the Supreme Court, but still, it's a mind-boggling situation.

We hear this ridiculous appeal all the time, as though we're participants in a sick game show where cheering on our team is the thing that makes the difference. "Make us do the right thing" is something we've heard even from the President. And with all due respect, it's nothing but bullshit from weak policy makers who don't have the spine to do their damn jobs.

We shouldn't have to help anyone "fight" anything when it comes to deflecting corporate interests. Unfortunately, the only path forward I can see is to eliminate the legal status (and therefore the rights) of corporations entirely. It's time to end corporate personhood. Period.

We could do this right here in North Carolina, but of course one thing would have to happen first.

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Comments

This is not computing for me...

Submitted by zabouti on Thu, 07/29/2010 - 8:13am.

James,

I'm having a hard time reacting negatively to Franken's or Obama's appeals to make ourselves heard even after the election is over. Surely you're not claiming that we would have no one to "fight" if there were no corporations???

I used to think that our work was done once we got someone elected. Now I think that the call to "fight" is a call to stay involved afterwards.

What am I missing?

- ge

Besta é tu se você não viver nesse mundo
https://plus.google.com/101467996658104595560/about

It's like a compulsive gambler

Submitted by James on Thu, 07/29/2010 - 9:53am.

who says to his friends ... "you have to stop me from gambling ... I can't do it by myself."

We hire (elect) them to ostensibly represent our interests. Why on earth do they need us to remind them that's their fucking job?

Or maybe a spouse abuser is a better metaphor: "Honey, you need to convince me that I should stop beating the shit out of you because all my friends say I should keep it up."

Special Interests

Submitted by Donnie.G on Thu, 07/29/2010 - 8:42am.

Never before has it been more clear that special interests been running our country. I think the problem starts with the campaigns. If it didn't take so much money to run for any office then we wouldn't see these problems. We would have people who genuinely care about the people of this country and not about those who foot their campaign bill.

casino en ligne - I hope that gamblers who visit this casino en ligne will love the slots as much as I do and will wager here often.

"Make us do the right thing"

Submitted by Jake Gellar-Goad on Thu, 07/29/2010 - 10:07am.

http://pamshouseblend.com/diary/16862/getequal-stages-sitin-at-capitol-d...
Wed Jul 28, 2010

Today, GetEQUAL staged a sit-in inside the U.S. Capitol Rotunda in Washington, DC protesting in support of a vote on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) this year. The sit-in, outside the door to the Speaker's office, targeted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) by demanding she fulfill her promises to pass ENDA this year. The group of about 20, eight of which were arrested, also had a signed letter delivered to the Speaker's office outlining their reasoning for taking today's action. The group's letter referenced Speaker Pelosi's speech on Saturday to Netroots Nation, stating, "you also told us that we needed to 'get the drumbeat going' and 'make [you] do it.' Madame Speaker, we are here to do just that."

Photo Credit: Ian Goldin/GetEQUAL

http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/16548/breaking-dan-choi-and-james-pi...

The gay soldiers arrested outside the White House protesting "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" will annouce today that they're demanding that President Obama testify in their trial on minor civil disobedience charges.

Their novel argument: Obama himself called on gay rights advocates to pressure him, so they were just following orders.

Okay, so we've got rallies, protests, letter/e-mail/petition/phone campaigns, targeted candidate support (victory fund/stonewall democrats etc), and now civil disobedience thrown into the mix on a somewhat regular basis as recently as yesterday. What is left to be done on the "make us do the right thing" list for LGBT equality?

Oh, one last pic, from about a week ago, shutting down traffic in Vegas with signs calling out Reid

http://gaytoday.com/index.php/2010/07/21/getequal-stops-traffic-on-vegas...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s own press aide told the
community at the end of May: ‘The Senate has no plans for taking up ENDA.
It would be very helpful for people to encourage the Senate to outline a
plan for considering the bill.’ GetEQUAL’s members and supporters agreed.”

Civil disobedience has targeted the president. He has said they should really target is the Congress to bring him some legislation. Civil disobedience has targeted the Speaker of the House who has said you should really be targeting the Senate. They've targeted the Senator Majority Leader. They have all said we should really be targeting the republicans too (which through donations & candidate support we have been for a long time, & some of those arrest/civil disobedience photos were outside McCain's office calling him out). They say make us do it, until you try, then they start playing hot potato and saying make someone else do it instead.

Getting arrested outside the white house

Submitted by Jake Gellar-Goad on Sun, 08/01/2010 - 12:54am.

pushing for DADT repeal is apparently nothing new:

http://www.lgbtpov.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/DADT-arrests-1993-ligh...

17 Years Ago Friday: 27 Arrested at the White House for Protesting Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

An end to a means