Ricardo Miranda Zúñiga

Structural Patterns

Reflections on Art, Technology and Society

Archive for the ‘corporate citizenship’ tag

U.S. Elections: It’s All For Sale!

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In July I wrote an entry on corporate citizens contributing to U.S. elections, Corporations Aren’t Citizens concerning the Citizens United vs. Federal Election Committee case that the Supreme Court began deliberating on on Sept. 9th… Well, it’s a done deal. The conservatives on the Supreme Court bench have ruled to corrupt democracy (even further that it generally is) by allowing the free flood of corporate spending in political campaign. This wouldn’t be so troubling if the United States had a politically informed and active population. Unfortunately the vast majority of this country’s population is easily swayed by media influence and hollow ideologues. The majority of this population does not thoroughly inform themselves or try to uncover nuances or consider challenging concepts… So those with the most money, the so called corporate citizenry will decide the vote of the general citizenry through the purchase of television, radio, web and publication ads.

One of the dissenters on the Supreme Court bench, the ever-thoughtful Justice John Paul Stevens “read a long dissent from the bench. He said the majority had committed a grave error in treating corporate speech the same as that of human beings. His decision was joined by the other three members of the court’s liberal wing.” The change that Obama seeks to bring just seems to be undermined as his presidential tenure proceeds. Read the full article from the NY Times – Justices Overturn Key Campaign Limits.

Written by ricardo

January 21st, 2010 at 1:24 pm

Corporations Aren’t Citizens

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September 9th the Supreme Court will begin deliberation on a decision that will allow unlimited corporate campaign spending. Imagine the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth times a $$$$$MILLIONS.

Just when it seemed that we had made progress, that change had come, that the little people could unite to raise funds and get an intelligent individual into the office of the president, along come the Supreme Court judges to squash the power of the people.

Currently in NYC, following some deal making, Bloomberg Inc. is in the midst of buying a third mayoral term. The next presidential elections will also be bought by big money.

There’s been little coverage on Citizens United vs. Federal Election Committee. Here’s the opening sentence from a Slate article by R. Hansen:
“If Republicans were wondering how their 2012 presidential candidate is going to compete against President Obama’s $600 million fundraising juggernaut, the Supreme Court seems poised to provide an answer: unlimited corporate spending supporting the Republican candidate, or attacking Obama.”

From NY Times Editorial:
“If Citizens United prevails, it would create an enormous loophole in the law and allow corporate money to flood into partisan politics in ways it has not in many decades. It also would seriously erode the disclosure rules for campaign contributions.”

The word must get out, pressure to the Supreme Court during this decision might be the only way to maintain some semblance of democracy!

Written by ricardo

July 17th, 2009 at 6:31 am