Have we not had a corporate democracy for decades? Even in Canada? So
long as corporations have more rights than the individual citizen, that
will be so. So long as an "injured" individual or group cannot hold
accountable the President or CEO of a corporation for personal or
environmental damages, it will be so. So long as a citizen, or group of
citizens, cannot hold accountable a parliamentarian for the campaign
lies (spent promises) or the damages to a community for specific orders
or new laws that aid corporations, it will be so. It is not the "chair"
upon which they sit, or the "office" in which they dwell, but the
*person* in that position who is the one to be held accountable for the
actions of parliament or corporation.
The laws must change. But it is these same individuals who create the
laws that give themselves their "elite" and "sacrosanct" positions.
Can there be true democracy where there is no personal responsibility?
As many on the list have said, It is the old shell game. So, dumb down
the masses by making an education more expensive and therefore more
difficult to achieve. Create a larger, less educated, lower class. Wait
until there is greater unemployment. Start advertising education for
military service (oh, wait. that is happening in Canada. So, we may have
entered phase 2 already). Pass laws stating, once in - always in, the
military (that may be there too. I do not know). Start wars and send
them to die (U.S. of A. Canada is just a lap-dog). Sit back and collect
the proceeds because just before true desperation hits, the "sheeple"
for the few crumbs offered, will do as they are told.
Darryl
On 11/13/2010 6:50 AM, Ed Weick wrote:
Articles like the following, from today's NYTimes, raise the question
whether, increasingly, there is much difference between politicians
and lobbyists. Like, who are the candidates that accept large
contributions from the wealthy and from corporate interests really
working for?
Ed
------------------------------------------------------------------------
November 12, 2010
Looking to 2012, Republicans Vie for Big Donors
By MICHAEL LUO
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/l/michael_luo/index.html?inline=nyt-per>
Mitt Romney
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/mitt_romney/index.html?inline=nyt-per>
is not running for president, yet. But a handful of big donors have
each contributed in the realm of $100,000, or more, to Mr. Romney this
year through a network of state political action committees he has set
up that enable him to avoid federal campaign finance limits.
Through a similar arrangement, the Minnesota governor and a potential
2012 contender, Tim Pawlenty
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/p/tim_pawlenty/index.html?inline=nyt-per>,
collected $60,000 in late September from a Texas home builder, Bob J.
Perry <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/22/us/politics/22perry.html>,
one of the Republican Party
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/r/republican_party/index.html?inline=nyt-org>'s
largest donors, and his wife, Doylene, and has taken sizable
contributions from a slew of others.
The money, which has gone to the politicians' "leadership PACs," is
not allowed to be used to fuel a presidential run, but it often acts
as seed money to help raise a potential candidate's national profile
and provide financing to other politicians who can help him later. The
contributions can also build an infrastructure of staff, offices and
donors that can be later transformed into a full-fledged campaign, but
this kind of spending also carries the potential of tripping over
campaign finance laws.
The outsize contributions are possible because while donations to
federal PACs are limited to $5,000, many state-based entities have no
such limits. Some can also take donations from corporations and
unions, which federal PACs cannot directly do.
The generous giving to the state PACs is just one aspect of the 2012
money race, which is well under way. In recent months, many of the
candidates-in-waiting have been actively cultivating the kinds of
major donors needed to finance expensive presidential bids.
Mr. Romney has been by far the most assertive, according to interviews
with a half-dozen top Republican fund-raisers, already pushing for
commitments from major donors should he formally decide to run.
Over the summer, Mr. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor,
invited top bundlers of campaign checks from key states to his
vacation home in New Hampshire on several occasions to help firm up
their commitments. Mr. Romney has already lined up an array of
prominent supporters, including a billionaire, David Koch
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/k/david_h_koch/index.html?inline=nyt-per>,
who has donated heavily to conservative causes over the years,
andRobert Wood Johnson IV
<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/05/us/politics/05donate.html>, the
billionaire owner of the New York Jets and one of the party's most
coveted fund-raisers.
Mr. Pawlenty has also been putting together a financial apparatus. On
Monday and Tuesday evening, for instance, he met with top fund-raisers
who flew to Minneapolis to listen to a briefing on his record as
governor. Those were the latest in a series of such meetings that
began in September, according to William Strong, a vice chairman at
Morgan Stanley who has spearheaded fund-raising for Mr. Pawlenty's
political action committee, Freedom First.
Over the last year, Mr. Pawlenty has been methodically courting
fund-raisers in get-acquainted, "friend-raiser" sessions and is now
moving to deepen those relationships with a potential eye on 2012, Mr.
Strong said.
Noticeably absent from the wooing for the most part has been the
former Gov. Sarah Palin
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/p/sarah_palin/index.html?inline=nyt-per>
of Alaska, Republican fund-raisers said. She has raised large sums for
her federal political action committee, Sarah PAC, this year ---
exceeded only by Mr. Romney --- but largely through small-dollar
contributions.
There have been some notable occasions where Ms. Palin has also
engaged in the kind of glad-handing with major donors that typically
precedes a presidential run. In early October, for example, she had
dinner with a contingent of prominent Republican donors, political
figures and others in West Palm Beach, Fla., for an event organized by
Christopher Ruddy, head of the conservative magazine and Web site
Newsmax <http://www.newsmax.com/>.
"I saw it as a combination of conservative opinion leaders and some of
the leading fund-raisers in Florida and some others across the country
and having Governor Palin give sort of a dress rehearsal for what it
would be like if she got in the race," said Brian Ballard, a lobbyist
who was the Florida finance chairman for the presidential campaign of
Senator John McCain
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/john_mccain/index.html?inline=nyt-per>
of Arizona and was among the attendees.
Even with all of the jockeying, Republican fund-raisers and operatives
said that commitments for 2012 seem to be unfolding at a slower pace
than the last presidential cycle, because so much uncertainty remained
over who would actually run.
"People are shopping," said Kirk Blalock, a partner at the Washington
lobbying firm, Fierce, Isakowitz & Blalock, who was a top fund-raiser
for the McCain campaign. "People aren't buying yet."
Many donors are awaiting decisions by potential 2012 candidates like
Gov. Haley Barbour
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/haley_barbour/index.html?inline=nyt-per>
of Mississippi, who has been collecting giant checks in his capacity
as chairman of the Republican Governors Association, whichraised
record amounts
<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/us/politics/17donate.html> this
year. The relationships he forged with deep-pocketed donors could
double as useful building blocks for a presidential run.
There is also Gov. Mitch Daniels
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/d/mitchell_e_jr_daniels/index.html?inline=nyt-per>
of Indiana. He has said he will wait until the end of his state's
legislative session in April to make a decision, but he has held
fund-raisers in recent months for his state-based leadership PAC,
Aiming Higher, in Chicago, Washington and New York. He did four
fund-raising events in New York alone.
Senator John Thune
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/t/john_r_thune/index.html?inline=nyt-per>
of South Dakota, who is also contemplating entering the 2012 fray, has
been sounding out top fund-raisers as well.
Newt Gingrich
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/g/newt_gingrich/index.html?inline=nyt-per>,
the former House speaker, is one of the biggest variables. Mr.
Gingrich has not been openly buttonholing major donors for a
presidential bid, fund-raisers said. Nevertheless, all the work he has
been doing for his policy center, American Solutions, generating large
contributions (the group is permitted to take in donations of
unlimited size) and building donor lists, could form a strong
financial foundation for a run.
Top fund-raisers said they had observed relatively little effort so
far on the part of former Gov. Mike Huckabee
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h/mike_huckabee/index.html?inline=nyt-per>
of Arkansas, whose leadership PAC fund-raising has trailed that of Mr.
Romney, Ms. Palin and Mr. Pawlenty, to cozy up to major donors. His
supporters, however, point out that his strength has always been more
at the grass-roots level.
Even with all of the uncertainty, some large donors have already made
sizable investments with those who could wind up as presidential
candidates.
Mr. Barbour has banked several $25,000 contributions in recent months
from Mississippi corporations, like Anderson Companies, a construction
firm, and Ergon, which is involved in petroleum products, through
Haley's Leadership PAC, a committee he set up in Georgia, where there
are few campaign finance restrictions.
Richard Marriott, the hotel executive, and his wife, Donna, have
together given Mr. Romney $225,000 this year mainly through the
state-based affiliates of his federal PAC, Free and Strong America, in
Alabama, Iowa, Michigan, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
Other major Romney contributors include Edward Conard, a former
executive with Mr. Romney at Bain Capital, who donated $100,000, and
Hushang Ansary, a Texas oil
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/energy-environment/oil-petroleum-and-gasoline/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier>-and-gas
investor and former Iran finance minister, who contributed $95,000.
The network of state PACs Mr. Romney has set up seems intended to give
him leverage in some important early-voting states but also to take
advantage of permissive campaign finance rules. Alabama, Iowa, and
Michigan, for example, do not cap contributions to these kinds of PACs.
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