Ralph Nader - United States Congress - A Graveyard for Democracy and Justice

The editor of The Hill, a newspaper exclusively covering Congress, said that Congress was not going to do very much in 2012, except for "the big bill" which is extending the payroll tax cut and unemployment compensation, which expire in late February. That two month extension will likely reignite the fight between Democrats and Republicans that flared last month.

In 2012, Congress, the editor implied, would be busy electioneering. That is, the Senators and Representatives will be busy raising money from commercial interests so they can keep their jobs. There won't be much time to change anything about misallocated public budgets, unfair tax rules, undeclared costly wars, and job-depleting trade policies that, if fixed, would increase employment and public investment.

Read More:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/01/19

John Pilger - The World War on Democracy

Lisette Talate died the other day. I remember a wiry, fiercely intelligent woman who masked her grief with a determination that was a presence. She was the embodiment of people’s resistance to the war on democracy. I first glimpsed her in a 1950s Colonial Office film about the Chagos islanders, a tiny creole nation living midway between Africa and Asia in the Indian Ocean. The camera panned across thriving villages, a church, a school, a hospital, set in a phenomenon of natural beauty and peace. Lisette remembers the producer saying to her and her teenage friends, "Keep smiling girls!"

Sitting in her kitchen in Mauritius many years later, she said, "I didn’t have to be told to smile. I was a happy child, because my roots were deep in the islands, my paradise. My great-grandmother was born there; I made six children there. That’s why they couldn’t legally throw us out of our own homes; they had to terrify us into leaving or force us out. At first, they tried to starve us. The food ships stopped arriving [then] they spread rumours we would be bombed, then they turned on our dogs."

Read More:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=28753

Bernie Sanders - We must stop this corporate takeover of American democracy

The corporate barbarians are through the gate of American democracy. Not satisfied with their all-pervasive influence on our culture, economy and legislative processes, they want more. They want it all.

Two years ago, the United States supreme court betrayed our Constitution and those who fought to ensure that its protections are enjoyed equally by all persons regardless of religion, race or gender by engaging in an unabashed power-grab on behalf of corporate America. In its now infamous decision in the Citizens United case, five justices declared that corporations must be treated as if they are actual people under the Constitution when it comes to spending money to influence our elections, allowing them for the first time to draw on the corporate checkbook – in any amount and at any time – to run ads explicitly for or against specific candidates.

What's next … a corporate right to vote?

Read More:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/jan/20/us-constitution-and-civil-liberties-us-supreme-court

Daniel Strauss - Ralph Nader: White House pressured Democrats not to challenge Obama

Ralph Nader is accusing the White House of applying political pressure to stop Democrats who were considering a primary challenge against the president.

The consumer activist and former presidential candidate, who had been searching for a prominent Democrat to challenge President Obama, told The Hill he has given up his effort.

“I hate to say but it’s over,” Nader told The Hill.

Last year, Nader said there was an almost 100 percent chance Obama would face a primary challenge.

Nader explained that he had planned to organize a slate of six candidates to primary Obama on a variety of issues. The plan didn’t work out though, Nader said, partially blaming those who are working to get Obama reelected.

“The minute any name was mentioned ... they made the calls,” Nader said of the White House’s efforts. “They jumped like a cat.”

Nader said it’s understandable why pressure from the Obama administration would deter liberal candidates.

“The retaliation is incredible,” Nader said.

For example, he said if former Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) had opted to run against Obama, his future in the Democratic Party would be finished.

Read More:

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/202877-nader-white-house-pressured-dems-not-to-challenge-obama-in-primary

Lisa Graves - Indiana Workers Stand against the ALEC Agenda and the Anti-Labor Bill Called the "Right to Work" (for Less)

Thousands of Indiana workers rallied outside, and inside, their state capitol on Wednesday to speak out against Governor Mitch Daniels' renewed effort to force through so-called "right to work" legislation designed to undermine labor unions and workers' rights protected by collective bargaining."This bill is no native born Hoosier idea," says Graves. "It tracks key provisions of 'model' legislation secretly voted on by corporations and politicians..."

One Victory for Democracy--Restored Access to the Indiana Capitol

Workers won a victory Wednesday when the Governor rescinded new restrictions that had been created to limit the rights of Indiana citizens to freely access their state capitol building. Prior to last year's protests, citizens in Indiana, Wisconsin, and other states had long enjoyed easy access to their state houses to express their views on legislation, but in Indiana as with Wisconsin and other states, partisan political leaders imposed supposedly "safety-based" restrictions to limit citizens exercising their freedoms of assembly and speech. On Wednesday, faced with thick lines of constituents winding down the streets of the capitol, the state lifted the 3,000-person cap on the number of people who could enter the building where legislation is being pushed to restrict workers rights.

Read More:

http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/01/11215/indiana-workers-stand-push-anti-labor-laws-called-right-work-less-and-alec-agenda

Joel Hirschhorn - America's Delusional Democracy. Don’t Mute Newt

By Joel S. Hirschhorn

 

Global Research, December 20, 2011

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=28298

 

The trick to maintaining the US delusional democracy is feeding the illusion for citizens that voting and elections really matter.  But when both major parties are owned by rich and corporate elites it matters less than most people think whether Republicans or Democrats win and control Congress or the White House.  Their seeming differences are a clever distraction that keeps fooling and manipulating Americans.  With the help of the mainstream media, making entertainment out of political races, Americans are deceived into thinking that elections deserve their respect and participation. 

 

As power shifts periodically from one party to the other partner of the two-party plutocracy, the illusion of meaningful change sustains the corrupt, dysfunctional political and government system and the economy rewarding the top one percent.  Winning politicians are adept at lying convincingly, especially about change and reforms and, like well advertised products, Americans consume the lies.

 

The perennial problem is that despite what so many Americans view as failed presidencies and, even more clearly, failed Congresses, no Second American Revolution is produced that would return the government to we the people.  The biggest lie of all: Elections can fix the broken system.

 

The candidacy of Newt Gingrich presents a historic opportunity for a new, bigger form of failure that could clarify to most Americans just how broken the electoral system is.  On the one hand, the widespread anti-Obama sentiment coupled with a crippled economy could be sufficient to elect any Republican opponent.  On the other hand, despite a long list of Gingrich deficiencies proclaimed by many mute-Newt conservatives and Republicans, he just might grab the Republican nomination and beat Obama.  Counter intuitively, President Gingrich could help revive American democracy.  He is the failure we have been waiting for, just the right old, fat, loud mouth, hypocritical white guy.

Click to read more ...

Bernie Sanders - Saving American Democracy

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Saving-American-Democracy-by-Bernie-Sanders-111217-300.html

December 17, 2011 By Bernie Sanders I have recently introduced a constitutional amendment, the Saving American Democracy Act, to undo the damage being caused by the disastrous 5-4 Citizens United Supreme Court decision. In my view, this Supreme Court decision is one of the worst in the history of our country. Together, we have got to do everything we can to repeal it. A good place to start would be signing the petition and becoming a citizen co-sponsor of this resolution. Let me be very clear. Despite what five members of the U.S. Supreme Court may believe, a corporation is not a person. A corporation does not have First Amendment rights to spend as much money as it wants, without disclosure, on a political campaign. Corporations should not be able to go into their treasuries and withdraw unlimited sums of money in order to buy elections. That's not what American democracy is supposed to be about. This horrendous Supreme Court ruling has radically changed the nature of our democracy. It has further tilted the balance of power in our country towards the rich and the powerful and against the needs of the middle class and working families.    Today, when corporations have more than $2 trillion in cash in their bank accounts and are making record-breaking profits, the American people are outraged when the Supreme Court says that these corporations have a constitutionally-protected right to spend shareholders' money to dominate an election.  If we do not reverse this decision, there will be no end to the impact that corporate interests can have on our campaigns and our democracy. According to an October 10, 2011, article in Politico, "the billionaire industrialist brothers David and Charles Koch plan to steer more than $200 million -- potentially much more -- to conservative groups ahead of Election Day 2012."  Others are doing the same thing. Does anybody really believe that that is what American democracy is supposed to be about?

Click to read more ...

Ralph Nader - Congressional Tyranny, White House Surrender

Published on Thursday, December 15, 2011 by CommonDreams.org

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/12/15-0

by Ralph Nader

Paraphrasing Shakespeare, something is rotten in the state of Capitol Hill. A majority of Congress is just about to put the finishing touches on an amendment to the military budget authorization legislation that will finish off some critical American rights under our Constitution.

Here is how two retired 4 star marine generals, Charles C. Krulak and Joseph P. Hoar, described in the New York Times the stripmining of your freedom to resist tyranny in urging a veto by President Obama:

“One provision would authorize the military to indefinitely detain without charge people suspected of involvement with terrorism, including United States citizens apprehended on American soil. Due process would be a thing of the past….

“A second provision would mandate military custody for most terrorism suspects. It would force on the military responsibilities it hasn’t sought”…. "for domestic law enforcement….”

“A third provision would further extend a ban on transfers from Guantanamo, ensuring that this morally and financially expensive symbol of detainee abuse will remain open well into the future.”

Click to read more ...

David Kristjanson-Gural - Capitalism Is the Enemy of Democracy

Tuesday 13 December 2011

by: David Kristjanson-Gural, Truthout | Op-Ed

http://www.truth-out.org/capitalism-enemy-democracy/1323789051

The most significant accomplishment for Occupy Wall Street (OWS) to date is that the Occupiers have managed to poke a hole in the legitimacy of neoliberal capitalism and its central claim that unregulated markets provide opportunity and freedom.

The Occupiers have accomplished this feat in a surprising way, peacefully, with home-made signs, signs [4] that say things like, "If I had a lobbyist, I wouldn't need this sign."

OWS has punctured the neoliberal façade simply by having the audacity to gather in public, in bold defiance of the police and to bear witness, by their solidarity and cooperation, to the idea that the Washington Consensus has long denied - that a different world is possible.

Phil Rockstroh [5] puts it this way: "the walls of the neoliberal prison are cracking ... We are no longer isolated, enclosed in our alienation, imprisoned by a concretized sense of powerlessness; daylight is beginning to pierce the darkness of our desolate cells."

At the core of this neoliberal ideology is a simple assertion - economic exchanges promote freedom because they are voluntary and, thus, they only occur if both parties believe they will benefit. Unregulated market exchanges thus allow individuals to engage with others in complex social arrangements without coercion, without impinging on individual liberty. Government is needed, but only to define and enforce property rights and to create and regulate the currency individuals need to undertake market exchanges.

Click to read more ...

Call to Action - Bill of Rights Defense

On today's Gary Null Show, we spoke with Shaheed Buttar, the executive director of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee and the People’s Campaign for the Constitution which aims to defend civil liberties, constitutional rights and the rules of law threatened by the war on terror. You can hear the full episode below:

Please visit the BoRDC sub-site specifically targeting the National Defense Authorization Act and join the fight against this travesty:

Our nation celebrates Bill of Rights Day every December 15, the anniversary of the ratification of the first ten amendments to the Constitution.

But on December 1—just two weeks before Bill of Rights Day—Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The NDAA allows the indefinite military detention of US citizens without trial. It contains the most oppressive national security powers we’ve seen in our lifetimes, easily worse than any Bush administration policy.

Join the Bill of Rights Defense Committee in standing against the military detention provisions of the NDAA.

Take action on the NDAA

1. Sign our petition

Add your voice to the thousands of Americans saying "NO!" to indefinite detention without trial.

Sign our petition against the NDAA.

We also have a special petition for military service members, veterans, and retired officers because those voices are uniquely important on this issue.

2. Learn more about the NDAA

Our toolkit on the NDAA includes information on why the NDAA is so dangerous, talking points about the bill, and ideas for anti-NDAA events and actions you can hold in your community.

3. Hold an event in your community

Bill of Rights Day is just around the corner: Thursday, December 15. Standing up for the right to trial, separation of powers, and presumption of innocence is a great way to celebrate the Bill of Rights.

Local actions can help demonstrate widespread opposition to this dangerous law and shift the discussion in Washington. Our toolkit offers a wide range of ideas about what kinds of events you might host.

Tell us about your event and we'll help publicize it!

We also have a full-page flier and quarter-page flier you can use to publicize your event.