Tell Congress: Only people are people.‏

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Dear Friend, 

The Citizens United vs. FEC Supreme Court decision overturned over a century of precedent and opened the floodgates for unlimited amounts of corporate money to flow into our political system.

 

Shockingly, the court came to this decision based on the notion that a corporation is legally a “person” entitled to First Amendment rights, and by equating a corporation’s right to spend unlimited amounts of money influencing an election with our right to free speech.

 

Tell your senators and member of Congress to support a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and end corporate personhood.

 

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/corporations/?r_by=35426-2462423-O2Qvq4x&rc=confemail

Related articles

• Citizens United Backlash Grows from Cali. to NYC Urging Congress to Overturn Corporate Personhood (gilroynews.wordpress.com)
• Letter: Supreme Court has chance to reverse Citizens United campaign spending ruling (tcpalm.com)

The National Atheist Party

From Diversity and Reason, Unity

We are an American political party, uniquely formed as a true, constitutional movement, reaching out to all who seek a secular government as outlined in the First Amendment to our United States Constitution. Our mission: To politically represent U.S. atheists and all who are drawn to our mandate, in a political process that has thus far marginalized and ignored one of the largest and growing segments of the U.S. population.

The National Atheist Party is a diverse, all inclusive, progressive, secular political movement and a response to the lack of representation for all free thinking people who are legal, law abiding citizens of the United States. We demand emancipation from the religious dogma that has infiltrated our government and has unfairly influenced political decisions and policy making. We are for the people, by the people, and therefore incorporate the right to use the power of the people to restore equality to our Democracy using reasonable, rational and non-violent means.

The National Atheist Party is open to people of all races, sexes and sexual orientations, and cultures. We are committed to a government free of superstition and bias and are guided by principles of equal opportunity, recognition of merit, and economic responsibility. The National Atheist Party does not seek to inhibit the religious practices or beliefs of any group, but is committed to the idea that religious preference is a private matter and has no place in the government or workplace. We support the separation of church and state, and seek to ensure its strictest interpretation.

National Atheist Party Charter

Check it out, http://www.usanap.org/documents/charter.html/ Very humane and logical.

Occupy Oackland Police Brutality vs. First Amendment

Occupy Oakland was dismantled by police in riot gear this morning.   Share this action on Facebook Share this action on Twitter Dear ,   Early this morning, I watched more than 500 riot police descend on the peaceful protestors of Occupy Oakland with tear gas, bean bag rounds and the booming Long Range Acoustic Device. There were dozens of arrests. And Oakland isn’t alone. Occupy movements are under assault in many cities. Tolerating the violation of our First Amendment rights in one place endangers them everywhere else.   We must have a national movement to defend our First Amendment rights. Sign the petition.   Send the message to the mayor and police chief of Oakland and other cities that we have a right to free speech, to free assembly, and to petition our government for a redress of grievances. These rights do not create themselves. We must defend them vigilantly and eternally.   Join us.   We’re closing in on 20,000 signatures to this petition. Will you help us get to 30,000 by sharing it with your friends and family and sharing it on Facebook and Twitter?(Photo courtesy JP. Dobrin Photography http://bit.ly/occupyoaklanddismantled) ——————————-   Original message sent October 14th:   This is an emergency appeal. Spread it widely.   Our permit to occupy is called “The First Amendment.”   This morning, Occupy Wall Street protesters celebrated when New York authorities beat a last-minute retreat from clearing Liberty Plaza – as hundreds of labor and other activists rushed to defend the square.   But at the same time this morning, dozens of state troopers in riot gear cleared out Occupy Denver protests. In cities across the country, Occupy protesters have faced police violence and arrests.  Some occupations have been forcibly removed while others have stood their ground successfully.   The authorities say we don’t have the proper permits to occupy public spaces. Our permit to occupy is The First Amendment.   Quickly sign the following statement which will be delivered to mayors, police chiefs and major media across the country: Our permit to occupy public squares and parks is in The First Amendment, which affirms “the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”   When people across the Middle East occupied public squares, leaders in Washington mostly cheered those protesters and warned Middle Eastern governments not to use force to clear them. Those other societies don’t have a First Amendment. Yet Washington affirmed the universal right to assembly and protest.   We do have a First Amendment. The force being used to clear nonviolent protesters from public squares in our country is unacceptable. It must stop. Please sign the statement now. And forward this email.   And then view the powerful “I Am Not Moving” videothat exposes Washington’s hypocrisy in applauding occupations in the Middle East, while force and violence are used against nonviolent protesters across our land.   Sincerely, Aimee, David, Jeff, and the RootsAction team   P.S. Our small staff is supported by contributions from people like you; your donations are greatly appreciated.

We petition the Obama administration to end Corporate Lobbying in Congress.

We petition the Obama administration to end Corporate Lobbying in Congress.

Corporate lobbying serves no purpose but to serve corporate interest. Corporations do not represent citizens; they represent their business’s interest which is to make more profit.

Corporations are mostly unaccountable to the government.

Corporations should not be legally allowed to bribe (buy) our elected officials. Our elected officials should be doing the people’s will, of these whole elected and are sworn to represent and defend.

Sing the petition in the new website launched by the White House to facilitate the petition process, we need 5,000 signature, creat your own petitions to.

Visit:http://wh.gov/g9j

More Info:

Corporate money has corrupted our Democracy.

Exhibit A is our depressed economy: between 1998 and 2008, Wall Street investment firms, commercial banks, hedge funds, real estate companies and insurance conglomerates made $1.725 billion in political contributions to elected officials of both parties in Washington, D.C., and spent another $3.4 billion on lobbyists. This overwhelming financial juggernaut was aimed at eliminating federal regulation of the financial industry – laws that had been in place since the Great Depression to prevent speculation, abusive lending practices and banks becoming “too big to fail.”

It worked. As we explain in “Sold Out: How Wall Street and Washington Betrayed America,” the financial industry got what it wanted from Washington. Then, when the industry collapsed, driving the American economy into a ditch, Wall Street ran back to Washington. Hundreds of firms got bailouts that grew to trillions of dollars, paid for by – who else –  American taxpayers.

The rest of us got nothing. No help for our mortgages, our credit cards, our college loans. One out of ten Americans can’t find a job. One of four American families have lived in poverty over the last few years. People have lost their homes, their life savings, their health, their pride and their confidence. Meanwhile, the Wall Street CEOs whose jobs we rescued are making more money than ever before. Our elected officials don’t pay attention to regular Americans because we don’t supply them with the money they need to get elected.

In politics, money has truly become the root of all evil.

There have been many attempts to limit the ability of corporations to empty their treasuries on behalf of candidates and causes who will contribute to their bottom line. Indeed, after every national scandal, public outrage has forced lawmakers to impose restrictions on corporate donations and lobbying. But a series of court decisions gradually whittled away those laws on the ground that spending money on lobbyists and elections is exercising “freedom of speech” and therefore protected by the U.S. Constitution.

The final blow to our democracy came in 2010, when the United States Supreme Court declared that corporations have the same rights as human beings under the First Amendment. The infamous case, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, ignited a firestorm of criticism.

According to the U.S. Supreme Court, the right of corporations to spend money to influence elections, even covertly, and to give money and gifts to politicians for the purpose of influencing their votes, is protected by the First Amendment and cannot be limited or regulated.

The Supreme Court’s decision has unleashed a tidal wave of corporate money, often undisclosed, into our elections, one that has drowned out the voices of average Americans and turned our country into an aristocracy in which the People are taxed for the benefit of the powerful elites that run Wall Street and Washington.

All Americans – no matter what your political beliefs – will lose if this Supreme Court decision stands. Our own freedom of speech under the First Amendment is negated when corporations with vastly greater resources start exercising their “freedom of speech.”

The only way to stop this nightmare and restore the rights of Americans is to pass a 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Here’s the Amendment we propose:

“The protections of the First Amendment that apply to the spending of money on lobbying and elections, whether by contributions, expenditures or otherwise, shall extend only to human beings.”

Our hero

We’ve got his back: Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon has been our most consistent champion as he’s stood up for Internet freedom and ferociously opposed the Internet Blacklist Bill.
Needless to say, this has upset some people: The corporations that have been pushing the bill have been slamming him on his home turf. So we had this op-ed published in the Oregonian on Sunday to make sure Wyden knows that we’re still standing with him:

Stop the Internet Blacklist Bill

By David Segal and Patrick Ruffini

 

We are Tea Partiers and bleeding-heart liberals, we are artists and investment bankers, we represent the left and the right, and we support Senator Wyden as he comes forward, yet again, as a stalwart champion for First Amendment rights, innovation and digital security.

Congress gets back from summer break next week, and we need to gear up more opposition ASAP:
You can click here to read the full op-ed and email your lawmakers to ask them to oppose the Internet Blacklist Bill.
And you can use these links to ask your friends to email their lawmakers:

	If you’re already on Facebook, click here to share with your friends.
	If you’re already on Twitter, click here to tweet about the campaign: Tweet

Thanks for standing for Internet freedom.
— The Demand Progress team
P.S. The House will be introducing a version of the bill in the next week or two — so please ask your friends to join our cause!

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