*IMPORTANT STORY*- Democrats prepare for election-year battle to craft CITIZENS UNITED Legislation

[FrenchieCat]

(sorry, nothing here about teabaggers)

....
The legislation is a response to the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling in a case involving the conservative group Citizens United. That ruling overturned laws banning certain political spending by corporations, both for-profit and nonprofit, and unions. Democrats were furious with the decision, calling it a victory for corporate interests over average citizens, while Republicans said it was a long-overdue recognition that campaign spending should be treated as free speech.

Reform advocates say the bill closely conforms to a framework laid out by Van Hollen and Schumer two months ago. Major provisions include strict disclosure and disclaimer requirements for corporate-funded campaign ads, including a mandate that CEOs and top donors appear on camera to “approve” messages, much as candidates are required to do now. The bill would also explicitly ban contributions from companies with a 20 percent or greater foreign ownership stake, as well as from government contractors or firms that have received and not repaid Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds.
snip
“The heart of this legislation is going to ensure that the public is aware of who is actually putting up the money to finance these ads,” said Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21.
snip
While time is of the essence for all legislation that Democrats hope to pass before the fall campaign heats up, speed is especially critical for campaign finance, Wertheimer said.

“The goal here is to have this effective for the coming elections, and there isn’t a lot of time,” he said. To accomplish that, Wertheimer said, a final bill would have to be signed into law by the July 4 recess, meaning the initial legislation would have to pass one or both chambers of Congress before Memorial Day.

Van Hollen told The Hill last month that once the legislation was introduced, he expected it to move “fairly quickly.”
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/91797-dems-ready-for-election-year-battle-on-citizens-united-bill

Instead of talking and mocking teabaggers with 3 out of 5 threads on this forum, giving them more exposure than the media is already giving them, we would be wiser spending our time writing to both Republicans and Democratic congress folks, and the media, and heralding our support for this. I think that would be a more valuable thing to do with our time, IMO!

If we want stronger language, let us tell them so.

Yes, that's right....even if you have Republicans representing you, they should hear from you on this......let them know that the public is united against CITIZENS UNITED!



Here for easy contact info for congresscritters
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt

then write an LTTE to a couple of your newspapers while drinking your coffee!
http://legislators.com/congressorg/dbq/media/


you can have a letter hand delivered to your favorite congresscritter!
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/extraimpact/extraimpact.tt

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[NJmaverick]

1. Kick and Return- thanks for putting so much effort into action that helps us

on a very important issue.

[FrenchieCat]

2. I'm not even coming to this site much anymore....

Too much ink on teafuckingbagging news for my Democratic taste.

[NJmaverick]

3. Well your posts have been missed by myself and many others

:hi:

[FrenchieCat]

4. But you can see that this is not such an important story afterall.......

Can't beat the teabaggers with what is considered as important around here! :eyes:

[vaberella]

17. I noticed you were MIA...

especially when the whole "targeted killing/assassination" or "Capture-or-Kill List" came out for Awlaki.

[Cha]

5. Most excellent framework by Van Hollen and Schumer..

..so encouraging that the Democrats are working so intensely on this.

And, thanks for putting this Action OP together, Frenchie..to let our Congress people know what we think of the SC5 ruling on "citizen's united".

"The bill would also explicitly ban contributions from companies with a 20 percent or greater foreign ownership stake, as well as from government contractors or firms that have received and not repaid Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds."

[FrenchieCat]

6. Pre-emptive action would be wise.......

although I doubt many will take me up on my offer.

Why do "action" when we can just lay back and talk teabagging talk. :shrug:

[Cha]

8. I hope we can do lots of Activism

while being aware of how dangerous the ignorant hate of the teabaggers is.
Teabaggers are like palin..I'm sick of seeing them around but to ignore them is dangerous, imv.

I think the corporatemediawhores prop them up while Democratic sites on the internet are exposing them.

I can understand how you feel they have invaded the space..they're a growing cancer on America fueled by hateradio and fauxsn00ze..as well as the ever present mediawhores on cnn & corporate anything but the real news.

I missed ya too..thought you were knee deep in your tax job. :)

[FrenchieCat]

10. I'm taking a little break!

But yeah...I'm working hard.

We need to do activism.....
this shit ain't gonna get fixed by itself...
and if we think so, we would be wrong.

[Cha]

12. You are the

ultimate Activist on here and have been an inspiration for contacting our "media" and Congress People who are the ones who need to hear from us.

Just like Pres Obama says..he cannot do this alone. I got something from Emily's List the other week with the following statement on the front of their envelope.."Cha, President Obama cannot withstand these attacks by alone".

The Grassy Netroots need to be Active or else what good are we?

[harun]

11. Wow, very nice.

[Dr Morbius]

7. Thank you.

I used the mechanisms provided to email my congressperson, Melissa Bean.

My current Senators are Dick Durbin and Roland Burris; I have no fears about where they stand. Ms. Bean is rather centrist.

[FrenchieCat]

9. Thanks for taking action!

Pre-emptive on this would be wise, cause it is important! :hi:

[one_voice]

13. Wow..

Good stuff. Guess I'll get busy writing letters and making calls. I did that for Health Care...don't know how much good it did. But I do know, if you don't speak up, you'll never be heard.

I'll get other people involved as well.

[kjackson227]

14. Done! Contacted my representatives and the Congressional Leadership...

Congress.org is a great site. Thanks.

[FrenchieCat]

16. Thank you!

:patriot:

[dccrossman]

15. Kick

K&R

[davidpdx]

18. I can't do this today

but tomorrow I'm on it. I'll write a LTE and both senators and even my Republican Congressperson (The biggest Bush lackey there is in Oregon).

[Hekate]

19. Kick and Rec and Bookmark. Great post!

Could it be that our Dems in DC are finally feeling muscular due to the hopey-changey thing in the air?

Hekate


:kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: