Tom the Dancing Bug by Ruben Bolling for February 06, 2010

At last! The truth comes forth…

Er, but - aren’t you forgetting the unions?

They have been allowed to speak freely, too, regardless of what their members think.

Just like the corporations speaking freely regardless of what their shareholders think.

Come now… the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth!

Thanks to the Supreme Court, America will continue to have the best politicians that money can buy!

Not quite right about unions. Officers of unions are elected by the union members. Private corporate owners are unelected and officers for publicly held corporations are not hired nor approved by the workers in the corporation nor by the shareholders.

Hear ye, hear ye, the Senate Board of Directors is now in session and will determine what the citizens of the United States of America Inc. will be allowed to do henceforward into the future.

As I’ve explained elsewhere, the Federal Election Commission lost this case when their attorney admitted to the Court that under McCain-Feingold they could prevent not just the release of a movie (the anti-Hillary subject of this case) but also the publishing of a book.

When the Court realized that this would allow a government agency to violate freedom of the press, they made the correct pro-freedom decision.

Joining a (legal) group neither grants nor surrenders rights. All rights are at root individual rights, and defending rights is the one proper function of government. (Of course, those dedicated to the expansion of government power at the expense of individual rights will not see it that way.)

That unions can also contribute is a mere drop in the ocean compared to the cash the corporations have. This ill-considered decision needs drastic legal modification. I hope that Congress gets to it soon.

Pschearer, no one is preventing the release of anything. Simply, the movie must have no connection to any campaign.

Run right down and incorporate yourself today!

Mr. Crook fails to grasp the concept. The bill made it illegal to spend money on certain kinds of ads that did things like mention a candidate’s name within a certain number of days of an election. So the showing of an anti-Hillary movie was forbidden. And he doesn’t see how this limits freedom of speech and press? “You can make any movie you want as long as it has no connection to any campaign.” Very Big Brother.

As for Congressional action to rectify the situation to Mr. Crook’s liking, the whole point of the Constitution is to prevent government from abrogating rights. Why is that so hard for some to understand? Why are these people so afraid of big business but not of big government? (These questions are rhetorical; I know the answers.)

The whole point of a Constitution is to limit the powers of Government to restrict the freedoms posited in the Declaration of Independence.

It said nothing about conglomerations of people incorporating, though at the time, we had outfits like the East India Company etc, chartered by The Crown.

Then we had Santa Clara in 1868, which (while not officially part of the decision, being added by a corporate shill clerk) legitimized the personhood of a company, as opposed to its members.

Now there is a class of immortals among us, with ‘no butt to kick, and no soul to danm to eternal H3ll’.

That’s what has to be fixed.

There are two grammatical errors in the upper right-hand panel. It should be “…with fewer rights than you and me.” Sheesh.

I suppose that if it had been a criminal trial one could say that since the prosecution made a bad argument then the guilty one could go free. But this was a supreme court case. A group of strict constructuionists have added a new entity to the constitution - the corporation. This is ironic as strict constructionists claim that they only go by the literal meaning of the constitution!

The problem with corporations is that they represent somebody’s idea to make money. Making money should not be a significant factor when it comes to deciding an election.

Also, more and more corporations are global or are owned by foreign interests. I don’t want a foreign interest to decide the outcome of an American election.

Big business has always been a bigger threat to liberty than big government. In fact, without government, there can be no liberty.

No one ever pointed out that ‘Dad” has Norman Osborne hair.