I was inspired to write the following by "How I Became Stephen Colbert's Lawyer -- And Joined the Fight to Rescue Our Democracy from Citizens United", Trevor Potter, 2012-05-23, speech at the Annual Meeting of th American Law Institute.
I wonder what the writers of Bill of Rights would think of the Supreme Court interpreting the first amendment as "freedom of anonymous speech". Speech is meant to be heard. If it is heard, those hearing it know who said it.
Second, if someone started a whisper campaign that disparaged you or your business and you found out who and were able to afford the right lawyer, wouldn't you probably win a defamation case?
If you started a campaign making false (or even damagingly true) accusations against a large corporation, wouldn't its lawyers be doing their best to get you into court?
So, why do large corporations or wealthy donors get to make scurrilous, misleading statements without identifying themselves or being held accountable for libel?
Oh, I forgot. Although corporations are people, they are super-people who are above the law.
Showing posts with label Super-PACs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Super-PACs. Show all posts
Monday, May 28, 2012
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Why fight Super-PACs? They may do it for us
Winning Our Future PAC, a Super PAC supporter of Newt Gingrich, may win our future free of Super PACs. Sheldon Abelson have given over five million dollars to Winning our Future. As a casino owner, he doesn't seem to place his bets well. So far Newt Gingrich has incurred the wrath of the other candidates for the Republican nomination and received less than 40,000 votes. That's $125 per vote; not a very good bargain. See "Kamikaze Gingrich, on the loose in South Carolina", Dana Milbank, Washington Post, 2012-01-11, republished as "Gingrich takes the big money", Star Tribune, 2012-01-13.
His relentless attacks on Mitt Romney may also help re-elect Barack Obama. If so, Republicans may really rethink their support of money as speech. Gosh, if I have enough money to put a loud-speaker truck on every corner and blast my message so loud that nobody can have any conversation, would shutting down my loud-speakers take away my free-speech rights. Far-fetched. What about being the highest bidder for so much television time that nobody can even get a second of air-time? Is that a free-speech right?
But getting back to the real world of individual citizens, there are steps we can do to halt Super-PACs.
1) Don't watch TV. This is the easiest way to ignore Super-PACs
2) Show up and vote
3) Read newspapers and magazines. You can easily skip over pages you don't like.
4) Vote what you believe; ignore poll results
5) Talk politics with friends. Don't be passive about voting.
6) Vote in every election.
7) In case I didn't mention it, Vote! It's your patriotic duty.
His relentless attacks on Mitt Romney may also help re-elect Barack Obama. If so, Republicans may really rethink their support of money as speech. Gosh, if I have enough money to put a loud-speaker truck on every corner and blast my message so loud that nobody can have any conversation, would shutting down my loud-speakers take away my free-speech rights. Far-fetched. What about being the highest bidder for so much television time that nobody can even get a second of air-time? Is that a free-speech right?
But getting back to the real world of individual citizens, there are steps we can do to halt Super-PACs.
1) Don't watch TV. This is the easiest way to ignore Super-PACs
2) Show up and vote
3) Read newspapers and magazines. You can easily skip over pages you don't like.
4) Vote what you believe; ignore poll results
5) Talk politics with friends. Don't be passive about voting.
6) Vote in every election.
7) In case I didn't mention it, Vote! It's your patriotic duty.
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