Bill Moyers: The Cowardly Lions of Free Speech -- must read or watch the video!

[tpsbmam]

<snip>

"For three weeks in May, Republican super-PACs took turns attacking Democratic senator Claire McCaskill in TV ads. Republicans hadn't held their primary—it's not until August 7—but McCaskill wound up trailing all three of the GOP candidates in polls. Now McCaskill, unnerved, is struggling to recover.

"That's what super-PACs can do. When they emerged in 2010 and worked in tandem, they were a critical force in the Republican landslide in the congressional elections. This year they're playing an even bigger role. The size and reach of their efforts dwarf what they did two years ago."

<snip>

And if "free speech" is a right, why all the secrecy? Why hide from voters where the money is coming from? Why not openly say you're downright proud to be exercising your First Amendment rights and that writing checks is your patriotic duty? Instead, conservatives across the country are fighting to keep their sugar daddies secret. According to their guardian angel in Congress – the highly leveraged Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell – the right wing opposes disclosure laws because the super-rich just might be bullied and harassed by the rest of us who want to know who's buying our elections. So that the editorial page of "The Wall Street Journal," asks us to have pity on billionaires and those little ol' corporations and their CEOs who just might have their tender feelings hurt; if they were exposed to boycotts and pickets – were it known which candidates they were buying.

SCOTUS essentially said to the 1%: "America is yours for the taking, for the buying."

<snip>

That's what George III thought, too. Which brings us back to our celebration of the 4th of July, to the Declaration of Independence and Thomas Jefferson, who seems to have thought that a little uprising now and then would be good for what ails us. This time the overweening power is not the monarchy but plutocracy, the convergence of the political, religious and corporate right that would keep us in the dark about where all that money is coming from, and who it's buying, until one day we wake up and our country is no longer our own. Fortunately, those orange jump suits come in one size fits all. So remember, moneyed lords and ladies, what King George learned the hard way – you can only push your subjects so far.


I can't possibly do this unbelievably powerful piece justice selecting 4 paragraphs -- I urge everyone to read it.
THe Cowardly Lions of Free Speech


http://vimeo.com/45207887

[sabrina 1]

1. Automatic rec for Bill Moyers but will definitely watch it later.

This 'money is speech' nonsense, I wonder what Madison and Jefferson would have thought of it? What it really says is 'if you have money, you can participate, anyone without money, cannot participate in this democracy'.

The stupidity that has ruled this country for so long, has to finally end.

[beac]

2. "And if "free speech" is a right, why all the secrecy?"

That's it in a nutshell.

[freshwest]

3. +1

[MrMickeysMom]

4. Pointing it out as it should be...

So, why the absolute unwillingness of the SCOTUS to take a look at CN?

Because we don't have much of a SCOTUS and not much of a country any more, that's why.