'The public interest requires nothing less.'

[bigtree]

Statement from the President on Today's Supreme Court Decision

With its ruling today, the Supreme Court has given a green light to a new stampede of special interest money in our politics. It is a major victory for big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies and the other powerful interests that marshal their power every day in Washington to drown out the voices of everyday Americans. This ruling gives the special interests and their lobbyists even more power in Washington--while undermining the influence of average Americans who make small contributions to support their preferred candidates. That's why I am instructing my Administration to get to work immediately with Congress on this issue. We are going to talk with bipartisan Congressional leaders to develop a forceful response to this decision. The public interest requires nothing less.


http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/statement-president-todays-supreme-court-decision-0

[leftstreet]

1. Time for the Working Class to incorporate!

:-)

[Paper Roses]

6. Absolutely. Even if you have no work. We can all unite, form a group

and get healthcare at group rates.

Seriously, I'm about ready to scream except there is no-one to listen.

Bad to worse.

Any guesses what will be the next whopper of a slap on the face?

[bigtree]

7. interesting

I wonder if individuals who establish themselves as corporations fall under the ruling?

[leftstreet]

10. We'll start learning more about this by listening to those opposing it

emphasis mine

The Supreme Court's 5-4 decision today to strike down a ban on corporations taking part in political campaigns will get lots of attention for what it says about those campaigns.

Pundits, though, may miss the more profound implication of the majority opinion -- a ringing endorsement of the First Amendment that could mean stronger language and more adult content on over-the-air television and radio, fewer prosecutions for obscenity, and more lawsuits based on speech limits for students, workers, and others.

http://primebuzz.kcstar.com/?q=node/21079

[StarfarerBill]

12. Certainly cooperatives can incorporate.

Counter the monopolists with worker co-ops.

[villager]

2. The word "bipartisan" in there means: nothing will get done

n/t

[TornadoTN]

8. Yep. BINGO!!!! The GOP is on cloud 9 with this ruling

Why the fuck would they help?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

3. New era.

[derby378]

4. "Bipartisan?" WTF?!?

No no no no HELL no!!

You have 57 votes in the Senate - 58 with Sanders. You have a majority in the House. Act like it.

Or the next Secretary of State will be sponsored by Carl's Jr.:

[Jkid]

5. Bipartisan? A forceful response?

What Obama does not tell you is that both political parties accept campaign contributions from corporations. He thinks it's just a simple matter of reaching a bipartisan solution. It's not. What needs to be done is a constitutional amendment abolishing corporate person-hood. Anything less is, and will be a farce.

[saracat]

9. i applaud the sentiment but the stategic ambiguity is still apparent.

"Talk" is not action or even a plan and bipartisan talking isn't worth anything.
Same old same old. Mass didn't send enough of a message I guess, or the message makers have yet to be replaced!

[spanone]

11. k&r

Obama better fight this or this alone will make him a one-term president

[amborin]

13. K&R BUT: how is it really different from now:

Health

Obama, Barack $19,462,986
McCain, John $7,389,547
Clinton, Hillary $6,397,849
Romney, Mitt $2,283,350
Giuliani, Rudy $2,075,197
Paul, Ron $828,483
Richardson, Bill $778,170
Edwards, John $587,941
Thompson, Fred $537,429
Huckabee, Mike $491,202
Dodd, Chris $339,850
Biden, Joe $283,880
Brownback, Sam $108,580
Thompson, Tommy $67,811
Nader, Ralph $62,251
Kucinich, Dennis $54,357
Vilsack, Tom $32,800
Tancredo, Tom $31,600
Hunter, Duncan $27,930
Barr, Bob $22,550
Gilmore, Jim $15,600
Gravel, Mike $11,721
Keyes, Alan $11,600
Baldwin, Chuck $6,050

http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/sectors.php?sector=H


Finance Industry Campaign Donations:

Finance/Insur/RealEst

Obama, Barack $39,480,169
McCain, John $28,930,292
Clinton, Hillary $19,249,595
Romney, Mitt $13,710,157
Giuliani, Rudy $13,411,959
Dodd, Chris $5,480,286
Richardson, Bill $2,916,752
Edwards, John $2,125,162
Thompson, Fred $1,943,704
Biden, Joe $1,504,861
Huckabee, Mike $1,320,265
Paul, Ron $1,249,206
Brownback, Sam $248,637
Vilsack, Tom $175,900
Thompson, Tommy $120,409
Hunter, Duncan $109,650
Nader, Ralph $77,996
Gilmore, Jim $63,150
Kucinich, Dennis $56,910
Tancredo, Tom $53,260
Barr, Bob $39,259
Gravel, Mike $14,825
Keyes, Alan $8,901
Baldwin, Chuck $7,342
McKinney, Cynthia $4,050

http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/sectors.php?sector=F


and, Goldman Sachs was the #2 donor to Obama's prez campaign:


list of top donors to Obama's campaign:


Goldman Sachs $994,795 ***********
Harvard University $854,747
Microsoft Corp $833,617
Google Inc $803,436
Citigroup Inc $701,290 ************
JPMorgan Chase & Co $695,132 *************
Time Warner $590,084
Sidley Austin LLP $588,598
Stanford University $586,557
National Amusements Inc $551,683
UBS AG $543,219
Wilmerhale Llp $542,618
Skadden, Arps et al $530,839
IBM Corp $528,822
Columbia University $528,302
Morgan Stanley $514,881 *****************
General Electric $499,130
US Government $494,820
Latham & Watkins $493,835





The Bankers on Obama's Team

The latest round of Wall Street muckety-mucks now in charge of regulation.

— By Andy Kroll


Here's a short list of Obama officials who got their start in the private sector—many, like Paulson, at "Government Sachs."


Neal Wolin
Deputy secretary of the treasury (Tim Geithner's No. 2)
Exec at one of the largest insurance and investment firms

Mark Patterson
Treasury secretary's chief of staff
Goldman Sachs lobbyist

Gene Sperling
Counselor to the treasury secretary
Made nearly $900,000 advising Goldman Sachs

Larry Summers
Obama's chief economic adviser
Made $5 million as managing director of a hedge fund

Rahm Emanuel
White House chief of staff
Made $16 million as a partner at a Chicago investment bank

Herbert Allison
Assistant secretary of the treasury (oversees TARP)
Longtime exec at Merrill Lynch; headed Fannie Mae

Kim Wallace
Assistant secretary of the treasury for legislative affairs
Managing director at Barclays Capital and Lehman Brothers

Karthik Ramanathan
Acting assistant treasury secretary for financial markets
Foreign exchange dealer at Goldman Sachs

Matthew Kabaker
Deputy assistant secretary of the treasury
Made $5.8 million at the Blackstone Group in 2008-2009

Lewis Alexander
Counselor to the treasury secretary
Chief economist at Citigroup; paid $2.4 million in 2008-2009

Adam Storch
Managing executive of the SEC's Division of Enforcement
VP of Goldman Sachs' Business Intelligence Group

Lee Sachs
Counselor to the treasury secretary
Made more than $3 million at a New York hedge fund

Gary Gensler
Chairman of Commodity Futures Trading Commission
18 years at Goldman Sachs, where he made partner

Michael Froman
Deputy assistant to Obama, deputy nat'l security adviser
Managing director of a Citigroup investment arm

http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/01/henhouse-meet-f...

[NJmaverick]

14. Well said! Put on the Republicans to balk at stopping the special interest money

then get McCain to break ranks to keep them from filibustering

[dgibby]

15. Unfreakingbelievable!

I'm beginning to believe our Prez is a true masochist. I've never seen anyone so willing to inflict pain on himself as he is. After a year of getting nothing accomplished with "bipartisianship", I'd think he'd be tired of hitting his head against that brick wall, but he seems to enjoy it. I don't get it.

[MrCoffee]

16. He lost me at "bipartisan Congressional leaders"

Anything with the Reid-Pelosi-Hoyer stench on it is doomed.

[brentspeak]

17. "Talking with bipartisan Congressional leaders" means it's a failure right from the start

King of all Senate corporate-whores Mitch McConnell has made it practically his life's mission to see today's SCOTUS ruling come about.