It is no exaggeration to say that every level of government can/will be hopelessly corrupted legally

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

Please read the post below from ShadowLiberal in this thread. This is a great and true example of corporate money corrupting the judiciary. Justice? Remedy? Impartiality? Equal Treatment under the Law? -- Forget about it
************************************************************************

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x143977#144136

Now we're going to have more cases of money & corruption then ever before
Posted by ShadowLiberal
What's really bad is the fact that the Supreme Court didn't learn from a case they settled a year or two ago. I forget it's name, but here's the basic story.

-A big corporation in a state (West Virginia) knows they're going to lose a massive amount of money in a lawsuit in so many years.

-The corporation finds 3 judges running for the state supreme court (a 5 member group), and spends a lot of money getting them all elected. In all they spent over 60% of all the money spent on their races.

-The judges are on the state supreme court and now in the big corporation's debt.

-A case comes along where the big corporation loses and is ordered to pay a massive amount of money to someone.

-The big corporation appeals the case to the state supreme court, and surprise surprise, the case is settled by a 3 to 2 vote, with all 3 paid and bought for judges siding with the big corporation.

-The loser of the case manages to get another trial by pointing out how the court was biased against them because of the big corporation's massive donations to their campaigns.

-Two of the paid off judges agree to sit the case out, the third (and one with the most seniority of the judges left) refuses to, and gets to hand pick two fill in judges for the second trial.

-The second time around, surprise surprise, the paid off judge and his two hand picked cronies formed a 3 to 2 majority in favor of the big corporation again.

-The loser appeals to the Supreme Court, and wins a 5-4 decision that their rights to a fair trial was violated and that the paid off judges should have all sat it out. In hindsight it's rather scary that 4 of the 9 supreme court judges didn't think that spending over 60% of all the cash spent on the campaign (not all the cash spent for you, but the entire campaign) made the judges too biased to rule on a case when that extremely generous donor is the plaintiff or defendant.

**********************************************************************************************
Ok, the loser eventually won, but only after going to the Supreme Court. Most people would have been tapped out long before in legal fees. If I bumped into this kind of corruption, it's doubtful that I would ever be able to take it to that level. Would you? But this case is very instructional because I think ShadowLiberal is correct - it may become the norm as opposed to being the deviation.

Think about the kind of legislators and legislation you will be doomed to at city and state level.

Think about the city council and the statehouse being packed with legislators bought to deliver specific advantageous zoning, policies, etc. Think about the courts being bought off.

Think of the kind and volume of smear advertising that will be deployed. Think it's hard to fight City Hall now? We are going back to the days of Boss Tweed.

How did they know that this was wrong in 1907, but the Justices in 2010 can't figure it out? Why did they put a For Sale sign on every single level of government?

[Vidar]

1. K&R.

[Jim__]

2. I think our government already is hopelessly corrupt.

This just makes the corruption a little bit more obvious.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

3. It's opening the doors to something much greater than "just being a little more obvious"

Please read this thread
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7542500

(Normally I don't link to another thread of my own, but the substance of what Joe Conanson writes is a great capsule summary of what the bill really allows)

[Land Shark]

4. Corpse don't even need to SPEND money to DETER politicians now.

Thus, the grand totals of money spent will systematically understate the power of corporations.

[Blue State Blues]

5. Privatized prisons and paid for law enforcement?

There are so many ramifications to the decision, both national and local. Think about private prisons run by for-profit corporations -- they need more prisoners, so they buy the elections of sheriffs. They buy the judges. They make sure they keep the prisons full, expanding.

Privatized public schools, paid-off school boards setting curriculum.

What about corporations vs. other corporations?

This is the path to insanity.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

6. We already have the real life example of the 2 Pennsylvania judges

who put teenagers away for minor infractions in order to keep a local private prison full and were paid by the prison for doing so.

These scenarios are not paranoid delusions- the only reason I come up with them is because I have already read of these situations ALREADY developing or happening elsewhere. The story of Bechtel in Bolivia and what they did there to the wwater supply is what they would love to do everywhere. Remember the stories of W buying aquifers in Paraguay or Uraguay (can't rememeber which)? All the dots are out there for anyone to see and connect.

I am literally scared for the first time of the evil that is becoming so apparent. Corporations provide a mask and cover for seemingly normal people to mutate and do horrendous things to other humans in the name of profit. A business suit disguises a lump of coal for a heart. I don't know how they live with themselves - are stock options and 401Ks and 3 houses worth it all in the end?