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For Thom, I think the term "obiter dictum" applies to the mention, without a decision, by the Supreme Court concerning corporate personhood in the Santa Clara case. But don't take my word for it.
HAITI UPDATE -
West LegalEdcenter put together a free continuing legal education program for Monday, Jan. 25 to address some of the legal issues surrounding the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti.
"Haiti Crisis Update: Current and Emerging Legal Issues" will be live at 3 p.m. Eastern on Jan. 25 and available as an on demand audio program afterward.
SEE
http://legalcurrent.com/2010/01/21/free-cle-emerging-legal-issues-from-h...
The panel of speakers will detail the policies and procedures put in place by
the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Department of State that will impact Haitian nationals currently in the U.S., U.S. permanent residents
stranded in Haiti, and Haitian orphans who are in the process of being adopted
by U.S. citizens.
The goal of the CLE is to ensure participants that they are in the best position
possible to assist those in need of immigration advice as a result of the
ongoing tragedies in Haiti. The program also will address the emerging issues
regarding infrastructure rebuilding.
Karl,
Under "Chair of the Federal Reserve" on Wikipedia:
"As stipulated in the Banking Act of 1935, the chair is one of seven members of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System who are appointed by the President from among the sitting Governors."
Hey, it just struck me;
Canada and the US;
We are both governed by Minority Conservative Governments.
Sad,
Rick
Thom,
Looking from up here in Canada;
Scary stuff. As if voting machines and slams at Acorn etc. weren't enough to get the Republicans back in power as they believe is their right..
Now your Supreme Board of Directors has opened up the floodgates for propaganda spending.
So if they are adding the word 'Republican' so it is now SCROTUS, what would you call a quorum...?
I hear that to make corporations 5/5 of a person they had to find a few tenths somewhere else so African Americans and Progressives are down to 3/5 ths.
A few questions?
Will this money be deductable as a 'cost of doing business'? Would they then have to defend the spending as 'reasonable' or 'necessary' to the business?
If it is deductable then you are helping them out with tax dollars.
If there is attempt to counter this with regulation or some sort of amendment, I assume companies are now free to spend whatever they want to counter that..
If they do, are there any rules to make public who spent the money and how much?
The timing of all this is spooky; Mass. election, Health Care tanking, now the ruling.. It isn't hiding things; it is 'Shock and Awe'.
I can only hope that Pres. Obama takes this as a sign and opportunity to do what he needs to do however he needs to do it. If the Republicans can go through all this and have people forget or ignore their sleazy methods, there should be nothing to stop the Democrats. I say 'should'.
Faint hope? It might be when companies can now describe to the elected officials all the ways they can destroy them with spending..
Good luck, I'm going back to CBC for a while.
Some day soon we will kick out our little neo-con Harper. Hopefully it will be before he stuffs our Supreme Court like he is doing with the Senate.
Is that what it is all about? If so I hope Pres. Obama can hang in long enough to appoint some justices that are as progressive as Roberts et al are Corporatist.
Rick in Canadia
SCROTUS = Supreme Court Republicans Of the United States (...heard on Stephanie Miller)
Thom,
Looking from up here in Canada;
Scary stuff. As if voting machines and slams at Acorn etc. weren't enough to get the Republicans back in power as they believe is their right..
Now your Supreme Board of Directors has opened up the floodgates for propaganda spending.
I hear they are adding the word 'Republican' so it is now SCROTUS.
I hear that to make corporations 5/5 of a person they had to find a few tenths somewhere else so African Americans and Progressives are down to 3/5 ths.
A few questions?
Will this money be deductable as a 'cost of doing business'? Would they then have to defend the spending as 'reasonable' or 'necessary' to the business?
If it is deductable then you are helping them out with tax dollars.
If there is attempt to counter this with regulation or some sort of amendment, I assume companies are now free to spend whatever they want to counter that..
If they do, are there any rules to make public who spent the money and how much?
The timing of all this is spooky; Mass. election, Health Care tanking, now the ruling.. It isn't hiding things; it is 'Shock and Awe'.
I can only hope that Pres. Obama takes this as a sign and opportunity to do what he needs to do however he needs to do it. If the Republicans can go through all this and have people forget or ignore their sleazy methods, there should be nothing to stop the Democrats. I say 'should'.
Faint hope? It might be when companies can now describe to the elected officials all the ways they can destroy them with spending..
Good luck, I'm going back to CBC for a while.
Some day soon we will kick out our little neo-con Harper. Hopefully it will be before he stuffs our Supreme Court like he is doing with the Senate.
Is that what it is all about? If so I hope Pres. Obama can hang in long enough to appoint some justices that are as progressive as Roberts et al are Corporatist.
Rick in Canadia
The senate has become, essentially, nonfunctional. It is time for them to either remove the filibuster, or make them actually stand in the floor of the senate and filibuster. I think that we should encourage Democratic senators to support this by withholding donations from anyone who does not sponsor that legislation. Removing the filibuster would actually encourage bi-partisanship because the Republicans would see that more legislation was going to pass, and it would be in their best interest to participate in making the legislation so that their interests were part of the sausage-making.
In mathematical terms the formula is (Black) Persons=Property(1857)...(Property)Corporations=Persons(2010). As the IWW used to say Better the Government runs the Railroads, than the Railroad runs the Government.
FED Chairman Nomination process- I don't think Obama could choose Stiglitz or Warren.
It is my understanding that the President’s choice of FED Chairman nominees is limited to a List of Candidates provided by the FED Board?
Does anyone else know about this?
Yesterday should be remembered. Without drawing the attention of the public, we will wake up one day soon and realize that this was the day when freedom died a little. Complacency will allow freedom to bleed out.
The right handle or hook will serve to memorialize what has been lost and what is at stake.
Black Thursday, Black Jack Day, One Twenty One, The Feast of the Fascists, Freedom Lost Day, Corporate Coup Day, Freedom for Sale Day, America for Sale Day. There must be better ideas out there. We need to light the torch of freedom. Publicity is the coin of this realm. Are the Tea baggers better than us? Will the Progressive Left remain flaccid and impotent politically? Rahm thinks so. If we can't unite around this issue then perhaps we can't unite over anything important.
Obama and the Democrats should go for broke with healthcare, carbon tax, bank reform, and wall street reform, etc as the corporate cash floodgates will be open for this next election cycle. They are doomed regardless of what they do.
TAJ: "Herpes and bad Supreme Court decisions may last forever."
Wah-ha! let us laugh through the pain.
Our strategy for the future may lie in playing off one corporation against another. That's how we Little Folk grind down the Great.
'See y'all later. My FBI profiler friend and I are off the the gym. ('Trying to maintain OUR little corner of the world...)
Thom, Couldn't we amend the Constitution to specifically ban corporate personhood? Is anyone working on this? I'd like to get involved.
Re: Credit card interest rates. I heard Australia requires credit card institutions to pay interest to consumers who overpay their credit cards at a rate set a few points lower than the interest rate they charge consumers. Can we do that here?
Does anyone have a link to, or the name of the article from the Financial Times that Thom was quoting from on yesterday's show (Thursday the 21st, Jan.)?
Thanks, DDay.
Nels,
Thanks for that. 'Will do!
BTW, 'sorry for the reiterating of the AAR demise. Nothing was posted (or at least no other related post showed on my computer) when I wrote that.
Quark,
The URL is: www.thomhartmann.com/2010/01/17/highlights-on-the-show-january-18-22-201...
Rewinn
A slight correction, Herpes and bad Supreme Court decisions may last forever.
Angie Coiro in San Francisco is pretty good too.
Air America Files for Bankruptcy
I forgot to mention that AirAmerica stopped regular programming yesterday and will officially cease to exist on Monday. How ironic.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60L39K20100122?type=politicsNews
About the demise of AAR, let's look at where the actual talent is now:
Thom Hartmann - still on radio; new books coming out all the time.
Ed Schultz Show - still on radio, and now on TV (Schultz was never on Air America)
Randi Rhodes - still on radio
Stephanie Miller - like Schultz, never on Air America, and still on radio
Al Franken - now in the Senate
Rachel Maddow - now on TV
New progressive talkers are cropping up, e.g. Norman Goldman. Progressive talk radio stations continue, e.g. AM1090 Seattle KPTK.
Air America had a bad business model. Radio insiders tell me they were staffheavy, focussing on writing rather than entertaining, lively "talent". IMO this might work for the corporately funded NPR or Saturday Night Live, but radio is all about the on-air talent most of which (you'll note from the list above) ran their own operations or graduated to the Senate. It's worth noting that, unlike Fox, AAR didn't have a wealthy backer willing to loses millions of dollars for nearly a decade before turning a profit. AAR brought some nice publicity to progressive radio and its alumni include 1 more successful senator than Fox, but its departure just makes it another American in economic trouble.
It was a good experiment but nothing lasts forever.
No representation without adequate taxation!