Russ Feingold - still fighting corporatist corruption!

[FORD]

February 16, 2011, 12:51 pm
Feingold Forms Political Group to Combat Corporate Influence
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR

Russ Feingold, the former Democratic senator from Wisconsin who lost his bid for re-election in November, has formed a new political organization aimed at countering the impact of corporate money in politics.

In a video to supporters, Mr. Feingold said that the group, called Progressives United, would try to hold politicians “accountable to the people” rather than to their big-dollar donors.

“Washington, sadly, has become a playground for corporations and our lobbyists,” Mr. Feingold said. “It’s time we stood up to the total dominance of corporate power that’s invaded our democracy and hijacked our elections.”

Mr. Feingold, who after losing in November took a job teaching at Marquette University Law School, was a crusader against corporate financing of elections while he was in the Senate. He joined with Senator John McCain of Arizona, a Republican, to pass campaign finance laws that sought to limit corporate contributions.

But a decision by the Supreme Court last year, Citizens United, overturned much of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, generally known as the McCain-Feingold act, by broadly allowing corporations to contribute to political campaigns.

Link

[Blaze]

I think, perhaps, he is missing the target. Yes, politicians and public servants should have should be accountable in 3 courts civil, judicial, and a separate tribunal court for corruption violations

However, the corporations are the ones that should be targeted and ferreted out for corruption, even in their base ranks.

(visionary)
Moreover, corporations should have morality laws to abide.
The polarization of the moral compass of a corporation is shifting.
Corporations are not going away.
I do think that the standing officers should be held to corporal punishment.
I also think they should be difficult to created and difficult to dissolve.
But the key is accepting that corporations are sociopathic by nature and must have morality laws.
Not just laws, but the policing also.

[FORD]

Russ Feingold Launches 'Progressives United' To Combat Corporate Influences In Politics

First Posted: 02/16/11 03:23 AM Updated: 02/16/11 08:48 AM

WASHINGTON -- When some senators retire, they decide to take lucrative lobbying jobs. Others go straight to Wall Street. But Wisconsin Democrat Russ Feingold, who lost his re-election bid in November, is continuing on his principled -- and often lonely -- path by starting an organization to combat corporate influence in politics, an effort he hopes will spark "a new progressive movement" that will truly hold elected officials accountable.

Launching on Wednesday, Progressives United is an attempt to to build a grassroots effort aimed at mitigating the effects of, and eventually overturning, the Supreme Court's infamous Citizens United decision that opened the floodgates to corporate spending in the U.S. electoral system. In addition to online mobilization, the political action committee (PAC) will support progressive candidates at the local, state and national levels, as well as holding the media and elected officials accountable on the group's key priorities.

"In my view -- and the view of many people -- it's one of the most lawless decisions in the history of our country," said Feingold of Citizens United in an interview with The Huffington Post. "The idea of allowing corporations to have unlimited influence on our democracy is very dangerous, obviously. That's exactly what it does ... Things were like this 100 years ago in the United States, with the huge corporate and business power of the oil companies and others. But this time it's like the Gilded Age on steroids."

Feingold, who is now also teaching law school at Marquette University and writing a book on foreign policy, has first-hand experience with the effects of big money in politics. While he shunned outside spending on his behalf in his campaigns, his 2010 opponent, Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, was the beneficiary of millions of dollars from conservative interest groups. After his win, Johnson even went to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's national headquarters to personally thank CEO Tom Donohue for the lobbying group's unsolicited support of his candidacy.

Feingold said that Progressives United will follow the example of his own campaigns and not take any soft money or unlimited contributions. "We're going to be reporting every dime that we get, whether required by law or not," he insisted. "Every penny of every contribution -- a practice I used as a U.S. senator. So it will be very different from the 527s and other groups that have been spawned by Citizens United. It will be 100 percent accountable, and that is an important principle that I believe in that we'll follow to the T with Progressives United, as a way of contrasting it to what's going on with the corporate money power that's been unleashed by Citizens United."

Looking back on his time in the Senate, Feingold cited two examples of corporate influence that most troubled him: 1) the debate over the estate tax and 2) the BP disaster.

"I was amazed at the way in which the corporate powers in the country turned the conversation from everything we needed to deal with -- from stopping unwise interventions overseas to having to deal with the deficit -- to things like demanding complete repeal of the estate tax," said Feingold. "There were 10 years there we didn't have an estate tax because all of the powerful, corporate, wealthy interests in the country said, 'We want this now. We don't want to have to pay any estate tax at all.'"

He pointed to the BP oil disaster as an example of how corporate influence can permeate the executive branch, which turned the agencies who were supposed to be enforcing the laws into "tools of the oil industry," a reference to the oversight problems at the federal Minerals Management Service.

Campaign finance reform advocates have been discouraged by the new Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives attempting to dismantle the structure of checks that were put in place following the Watergate scandal, and have called on President Obama to take a larger role in shedding light on the issue.

White House officials originally considered having the President reiterate his support for the DISCLOSE Act during his State of the Union (SOTU) address, but it ended up getting nixed because of time constraints.

"[I]t's not for any lack of enthusiasm about the issue because we feel very, very strongly about it and we're going to continue to push for it," White House senior adviser David Axelrod told The Huffington Post. "There are a number of things that got trimmed out at the end just because, to be brutally frank, as we ran through the speech it was fairly lengthy and we just cut it down."

Feingold applauded the President for criticizing Citizens United in his 2010 SOTU speech -- prompting an unhappy response from Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, who was in the audience -- but he would like to see him do more on the issue.

"I would like the President to take it up a few notches on this issue, and I hope he will in the coming year and in the campaign next year," said Feingold, adding, "I'm hoping the President will recognize that what we're trying to do here is begin a new progressive movement that will hold our elected officials accountable."

Link

[BigBadBrian]

Progressives United

Progressives United = Communists/Socialists/Marxists

It's truly a good time period in Wisconsin (and the nation) when Feingold lost his re-election bid and the Packers won the Superbowl!

[Nitro Express]

Progressives United = Communists/Socialists/Marxists

It's truly a good time period in Wisconsin (and the nation) when Feingold lost his re-election bid and the Packers won the Superbowl!

[Nitro Express]

I have a lot of respect for the lone honest politicians fighting corruption but they can't do it alone. The citizens need to wake the fuck up and boycott the corporations and banks screwing us. Just stop giving them your money before they use their Washington ties to run the competition out of business and then you are forced to do business with them. It's all about monopolies today folks.

[jhale667]

Progressives United = Communists/Socialists/Marxists

BigBlandBrie = Paranoid/Idiot/Douchebag

[kwame k]

Progressives United = Communists/Socialists/Marxists

It's truly a good time period in Wisconsin (and the nation) when Feingold lost his re-election bid and the Packers won the Superbowl!

Damn right....because we need to protect the corporations and defend their rights to control our elections by giving unlimited money to campaigns, Forrest!

Just when I think you can't get any dumber.......you go and score a touchdown in the Idiot Bowl!!!!!!

[FORD]

Progressives United = Communists/Socialists/Marxists

It's truly a good time period in Wisconsin (and the nation) when Feingold lost his re-election bid and the Packers won the Superbowl!

The Packers winning the Super Bowl was the ONLY good thing happening to Wisconsin recently. Now they have a pedophile senator, an asshole governor, and their so called "progressive" radio station just recently put that FAUX noise punching bag Alan Colmes on the air in Mike Malloy's time slot.

Thank god for those resisting the fascism in Madison. We need to see a lot more of that in this country. Let's take THAT lesson from Egypt, Tunisia, etc.

DEAN/FEINGOLD 2012!!

[PETE'S BROTHER]

i understand some of walker's points, but his manner of force feeding this to the people is bullshit.

[BigBadBrian]

Damn right....because we need to protect the corporations and defend their rights to control our elections by giving unlimited money to campaigns, Forrest!

So you don't like capitalism and a free-market economy, huh? It figures.

[BigBadBrian]

BigBlandBrie = Paranoid/Idiot/Douchebag

Try to do better next time. Second-graders come up with more creative insults than you. Of course, their IQ is much higher.

[kwame k]

So you don't like capitalism and a free-market economy, huh? It figures.

Wow, Forrest........how does that apply to an unfair advantage in our electoral system?

Take this story problem to your mom and have her explain this to you, extra credit if you can post a picture

If say X-Corporation can donate unlimited amounts of money to Candidate-Y.........will Candidate-Y be working for X-Corporation and be indebted to them or......have the best interest of the Voters in mind.

It's amazing how you let your unfounded hate and fear overrule your common sense, Forrest.

Fourth Quarter, down by 3 points....going long....Run Forrest, Run......Touch Down!!!! Forrest has just won the Idiot Bowl!

[PETE'S BROTHER]

The Packers winning the Super Bowl was the ONLY good thing happening to Wisconsin recently. Now they have a pedophile senator, an asshole governor, and their so called "progressive" radio station just recently put that FAUX noise punching bag Alan Colmes on the air in Mike Malloy's time slot.

Thank god for those resisting the fascism in Madison. We need to see a lot more of that in this country. Let's take THAT lesson from Egypt, Tunisia, etc.

DEAN/FEINGOLD 2012!!

Senate Democrats were leaving Madison to avoid participating in the vote on Gov. Scott Walker's controversial budget repair bill, which has sparked four days of protests at the Capitol, an aide confirmed Thursday morning.
The aide spoke on condition of anonymity, because she was not authorized to speak on behalf of her boss. Legislative assistants answering the phones at the offices of Sen. Jon Erpenbach of Middleton, Sen. Mark Miller of Monona and Sen. Fred Risser of Madison all insisted they knew nothing about the walkout.
However, at 11:30 a.m., when the session began — 30 minutes late — a roll call revealed that most if not all 14 Senate Democrats were absent. At 11:35, Republican Senate President Mike Ellis announced a "call of the house" to send police to force errant Democrats to return to the chamber.
"The Senate is now under a call of the house, and we will try to find the members who decided not to come to work today," Ellis said as loud protesters sought to disrupt the session.
The Senate then adjourned, lacking enough of its 33 senators to act. Twenty are required and there are just 19 Republican Senators.
The Capitol was crowded shoulder to shoulder with protesters late Thursday morning especially near the Senate chambers chanting "Kill this bill," and "Walker must go."
The governor's proposed budget repair bill seeks to strip thousands of public-sector workers of most of their collective bargaining rights. The Republican governor has said Wisconsin is in a budget crisis and must take action to close a looming deficit.
Participate in our live blog on the protests here.

[Nitro Express]

This is going on all over the country. The states are broke and there is no money and inflation is making that dollar buy less. It's called years of mismanagement and now the piper wants to be paid. The party is over and the hangover has begun.

The US has spent three times what other industrialized nations have spent on education and has little to show for it. They never cared about the students anyways. The overpaid administrators and their vendors take most the money. What trickles down goes to the teachers. All the average parent cares about is there is a place to store their children durning the day. There actually was very little educating going on but a whole lotta spending.

My girlfriend in college actually changed her major from education to english literature because the education program and students were too dumbed down. It was one of the easiest colleges to get a degree from and still land of job somewhere.

[FORD]

So you don't like capitalism and a free-market economy, huh? It figures.

Predatory capitalism has made a "free market" extinct. You cannot have a free market without competition, and competition is not possible when a handful of multinational mega corporate predators control most sectors of the market.

How the HELL can you be a Green Bay Packers fan, when their very existence is the polar opposite of predatory capitalism?

[Nitro Express]

Capitalism is the free market period. Once companies and the government merge that's fascism. The government used to protect the free market by breaking up monopolies and having regulations in place to make predatory practices impossible. Those are all gone now and Wall Street and Washington DC are the same and that is all tied in will foreign interests as well.

So what can we do? Try and get good people in office, push for a constitutional convention by getting involved in the state level politics, and don't do business with predatory corporations period. Hit them in the pocket book because they surely will hit you in yours once they get their monopolies.

[BigBadBrian]

How the HELL can you be a Green Bay Packers fan, when their very existence is the polar opposite of predatory capitalism?

FORD, do you know who actually owns the Packers? It is quite evident you do not.

[Dr. Love]

Try to do better next time. Second-graders come up with more creative insults than you. Of course, their IQ is much higher.

So then what's your excuse?

[FORD]

FORD, do you know who actually owns the Packers? It is quite evident you do not.

The Packers are owned by the people of Green Bay Wisconsin. Right wingers like yourself might call that socialism.

(Certainly comes closer to that definition than a health care plan which enabled mandatory payments to insurance corporations)

[kwame k]

What confused poor Forrest was your use of the phrase, Predatory Capitalism.......

[FORD]

Apparently he doesn't know what "polar opposite" means either.

[Guitar Shark]

Of course, their IQ is much higher.

I love it when people make grammatical errors while calling others stupid.

[kwame k]

I love it when people make grammatical errors while calling others stupid.

The classic has to be....."Your a moron" or "Your a idiot"

[ELVIS]

[chefcraig]

I always treasured the word "irregardless". Now there is a word to be spoken with confidence...by the dense.

[FORD]

And speaking of the Packers..... this should make Brian's head explode....

Green Bay Packers Criticize WI Gov: ‘Right To Negotiate Wages And Benefits’ Is ‘Fundamental’ To Middle Class

Yesterday, ThinkProgress noted the huge backlash from Gov. Scott Walker’s (R-WI) “budget repair bill,” which would severely limit collective bargaining and eliminate the right of unions to negotiate pensions, retirement, and benefits. When asked by a reporter what would happen if workers resist, Walker threatened to use the “National Guard” against a possible walkout.

In response to Walker’s intent to misappropriate the deployment of the National Guard in an effort to intimidate state workers, the Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers released a statement today, expressing that collective bargaining is “fundamental” to the middle class:

As a publicly owned team we wouldn’t have been able to win the Super Bowl without the support of our fans. … They are the teachers, nurses and child care workers who take care of us and our families. But now in an unprecedented political attack Governor Walker is trying to take away their right to have a voice and bargain at work.

The right to negotiate wages and benefits is a fundamental underpinning of our middle class. When workers join together it serves as a check on corporate power and helps ALL workers by raising community standards. Wisconsin’s long standing tradition of allowing public sector workers to have a voice on the job has worked for the state since the 1930s. It has created greater consistency in the relationship between labor and management and a shared approach to public work.

These public workers are Wisconsin’s champions every single day and we urge the Governor and the State Legislature to not take away their rights.

Knowing the Wisconsin state legislature may soon vote on Walker’s proposal, hundreds of University of Wisconsin-Madison teachers and their students marched to Walker’s Capitol Office to drop off valentines which asked the governor not to break their hearts. Today, Wisconsin public employees flooded the Capitol to protest the bill. The state employees filled the sidewalks outside the building and within the Capitol Rotunda, where a public hearing over the proposal was being held.

Rallies against the bill are planning to continue all week. The Wisconsin Democratic Party are knocking on doors, and the AFL-CIO are making phone calls to inform people of the negative effects of the bill. Wisconsin was the first state in the country to implement a collective bargaining law in 1959, so Walker’s anti-union bill not only deeply disturbs Wisconsin residents but affects the nation as a whole.

– Paul Breer

Link

[Nitro Express]

I think we should have very high standards for teachers and teachers who meet those standards should be paid well. If you look at the current educational system, students come last, teachers are next to last, administrators and their staff get obscene pay and perks, lot's of payola and kick backs at that level and lot's a waste. There's plenty of money going to education but it's not getting to the end of the row.

It all boils down to the parents. They vote in the local school board members who run the districts. If your board sucks everything else sucks. Education should be local and not a federal issue. Let Wisconsin duke it out and the rest of us stay out of their business.

[ELVIS]

The unions have been part of the problem for decades...

[Nitro Express]

The Packers are owned by the people of Green Bay Wisconsin. Right wingers like yourself might call that socialism.

(Certainly comes closer to that definition than a health care plan which enabled mandatory payments to insurance corporations)

The Green Bay Packers are a non profit corporation where the stock holders can own part of the corporation but are not entitled to any dividends. You can buy a piece of the Packers but you get no profit. Not just Green Bay citizens own those shares. Basically, it's like a little league team that is sponsored by the community. It seems to work well.

[Nitro Express]

The unions have been part of the problem for decades...

I'm not a fan of the NEA and hate them getting an Obamacare exemption but my aunt and uncle were educators and worked for the NEA. My uncle said the biggest problem in education today is the parents. My aunt taught math and saw the situation in the home getting worse and worse and she was getting tired of getting blamed for a student not doing their homework and not learning. The Republicans use the NEA as a scape goat but even if we did away with the NEA, education would still suck because too many parents aren't involved in the process which includes making their kid do their homework and pushing them to excel and not just be mediocre. It's a social problem more than a government problem and government isn't going to fix shit.

[Seshmeister]

The unions have been part of the problem for decades...

It's incredibly unusual and difficult to sack a teacher.

http://ncse.info/news/2011/01/freshw...y-fired-006408

On January 10, 2011, the Mount Vernon City Schools Board of Education voted 4-1 to terminate the employment of John Freshwater. A middle school science teacher in Mount Vernon, Ohio, Freshwater was accused of inappropriate religious activity in the classroom — including displaying posters with the Ten Commandments and Bible verses, branding crosses on the arms of his students with a high-voltage electrical device, and teaching creationism. After a local family sued Freshwater and the district in 2008, the board voted to begin proceedings to terminate his employment in the district. Finally, after administrative hearings that proceeded sporadically over two years, the referee presiding over the hearings issued his recommendation that the board terminate his employment with the district.

Margie Bennett, the president of the board, told the Mount Vernon News (January 11, 2011), "The decision has been made to accept the referee’s recommendation to terminate the employment of Mr. Freshwater ... It was not an easy decision. We don’t believe there are any winners or losers in this situation. It is a very difficult situation for everyone. We are glad it has been resolved. Hopefully we can put this behind us, the community can begin to come together again and relationships can heal and we can move forward." The News added, "Freshwater, by law, may file an appeal with the Knox County Court of Common Pleas." The Associated Press (January 11, 2011) reports Freshwater as expressing disappointment in the board's decision but not indicating whether he would appeal.

In its report on the board's decision, the Columbus Dispatch (January 11, 2011) emphasized the remarkable length and cost of the hearings — "among the most costly and lengthy that education experts can recall." Allowing teachers on the verge of termination to have a hearing "protects teachers," the Dispatch explained, "and also discourages districts from keeping rogue teachers in less-sensitive positions." With regard to the Freshwater case, however, Rick Lewis, the executive director of the Ohio School Boards Association, commented, "It's sad that they had to spend all that money to do what they thought was right all along." (The cost to the board of conducting the hearings was reportedly $902,765, the bulk of which — at least $813,628 — was for the board's legal counsel.)

If it takes a million dollars and two years to sack a retarded teacher who brands a cross onto pupils...

[FORD]

The unions have been part of the problem for decades...

That's exactly what KKKarl Rove said on FAUX yesterday.

Shittyzens United arguably took the restrictions off of union contributions to politics just as it did corporate contributions. Of course the reality of that is that no union on earth has the financial resources of a mega corporation. But that's not good enough for KKKarl and the KKKoch Brothers. They want the unions busted completely, and that is exactly what is behind these stunts from teabagging governors like Walker and that other piece of shit in New Jersey.

Unions are NOT the problem, they are part of the solution, and the decline of the unions over the last 30 years, due to predatory capitalism and outsourcing is no coincidence.

[ELVIS]

It's incredibly unusual and difficult to sack a teacher.

Or a union healthcare worker...

[ELVIS]

That's exactly what KKKarl Rove said on FAUX yesterday.

Shittyzens United arguably took the restrictions off of union contributions to politics just as it did corporate contributions. Of course the reality of that is that no union on earth has the financial resources of a mega corporation. But that's not good enough for KKKarl and the KKKoch Brothers. They want the unions busted completely, and that is exactly what is behind these stunts from teabagging governors like Walker and that other piece of shit in New Jersey.

Unions are NOT the problem, they are part of the solution, and the decline of the unions over the last 30 years, due to predatory capitalism and outsourcing is no coincidence.

LMAO! Literally...

That's the largest pile of steaming shit i've read in quite a long time...

[SilvioDante]

Of course the reality of that is that no union on earth has the financial resources of a mega corporation.

Seriously, did you just say that?? That is a joke right???

[FORD]

What union can compete with Exxon, BP, the KKKoch Brothers or United Health Care?

[chefcraig]

What union can compete with Exxon, BP, the KKKoch Brothers or United Health Care?

The NFL Players Association. No doubt that they are in much better shape than a bunch of executives.

[Nitro Express]

The Unions have just become another corporation that's in bed with the government. It's another tool to control people in a herd and steal their money. Notice how the government is giving all these unions exemptions on taxes. That should raise a red flag of alarm right there.

The US Government is just repeating what Mussolini did in Italy. It's just consolidating the unions into it's fascist scheme.

[FORD]

The NFL Players Association. No doubt that they are in much better shape than a bunch of executives.

And yet the next football season is in jeopardy due to the rich pig owners forcing a lockout.