NewsTrust - Election Reform - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Independent)

6 Pathetic Right-Wing Attempts to Defend the Indefensible Citizens United (Debunked)

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Steven Rosenfeld - Feb. 26 (Opinion) - when a few loud perspectives dominate the airways and debate, it eclipses the voices of people of lesser means and discourages their participation and confidence in the process. As such, wealth-driven political speech isn’t free. It’s very expensive. And the costs are not just monetary, but measured in the public’s eroding trust in representative government and the elections.

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With Republic, Lost, Lawrence Lessig Takes Center Stage

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By John Wellington Ennis - Dec. 30 (Interview) - In this pivotal year of public uproar over the consequences of money in politics, Harvard Professor Lawrence Lessig has attracted considerably more attention to his work in devising a constitutional road map for reform.

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Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress--and a Plan to Stop It

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

edmaysproductions.net - By Lawrence Lessig - Dec. 17 (Speech) - In an era when special interests funnel huge amounts of money into our government-driven by shifts in campaign-finance rules and brought to new levels by the Supreme Court in "Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission-"trust in our government has reached an all-time low. More than ever before, Americans believe that money buys results in Congress, and that business interests wield control over our legislature. With heartfelt urgency and a keen desire for righting wrongs, Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig takes a clear-eyed look at how we arrived at this crisis: how fundamentally good people, with good intentions, have allowed our democracy to be co-opted by outside interests, and how this exploitation has become entrenched in the system. Rejecting simple labels and reductive logic-and instead using examples that resonate as powerfully on the Right as on the Left-Lessig seeks out the root causes of our situation. He plumbs the issues of campaign financing and corporate lobbying, revealing the human faces and follies that have allowed corruption to take such a foothold in our system. He puts the issues in terms that nonwonks can understand, using real-world analogies and real human stories. And ultimately he calls for widespread mobilization and a new Constitutional Convention, presenting achievable solutions for regaining control of our corrupted-but redeemable-representational system. In this way, Lessig plots a roadmap for returning our republic to its intended greatness. While America may be divided, Lessig vividly champions the idea that we can succeed if we accept that corruption is our common enemy and that we must find a way to fight against it. In REPUBLIC, LOST, he not only makes this need palpable and clear-he gives us the practical and intellectual tools to do something about it.

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So You Want to Buy an Election?

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Mother Jones - By Tim Murphy - Dec. 06 (Opinion) - A short, shady history of how American elections are bought and paid for. The red giants and blue dwarfs spending millions to influence the 2012 election. Americans Elect says it wants to reform the political system. Campaign watchdogs say it should star

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Racial Dilution of Voting Records

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Black Box Voting - By Bev Harris - Sep. 29 (Opinion) - In Shelby County, precincts are racially polarized; some are mostly Black, some almost all White, and some are "in play", meaning they are mixed enough that it's anybody's guess which party will win. If votes were simply flipped so that Republicans got the Democratic votes and vice versa, it would be immediately seen in a county with known racially-related political preferences and concentrated ethnic populations. If you wanted to flip the counts, you’d need to either (1) dilute the reported racial demographic or (2) create a precinct-specific vote flipping method, or both. Both of these factors exist in Shelby County.

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The Icebergs Cometh: Retaking the USA Titanic Before the 2012 Elections

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

organicconsumers.org - By Victoria Collier, Ronnie Commins - Aug. 08 (Opinion) - In the wake of a super-nova of exploded hope in President Obama, a power vacuum is now spinning in our political universe. A desperate need to fill the void (lest it someday be filled with the unthinkable; a babbling Bachmann or weeping Boehner) has led to a frenzy of organizing among mainstream Democrats and Progressives. Click here to read this article

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Learning democracy from terrorists?

Mon, 07 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

cellspin.net - By Thom Hartmann - Feb. 07 (Opinion) - Thom rants on the best of the rest of the news including what can we learn about democracy from terrorists...

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Overturn Citizens United -- Demand Fair Elections and a Fair Economy

Wed, 08 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

majorityrules.org - By Craig Salins - Dec. 08 (Opinion) - We need a broad movement to overturn the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling (January, 2010). Without that, nearly everything we do to stop or rein in the corporate takeover of our country is unlikely to make headway - because of the two-sides-of-a-coin relationship between spending on elections and lobbying, and public policy lawmaking.

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Maintaining the Undue Influence of Wealth

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

sensen-no-sen.blogspot.com - By Paul Belle Isle - Jul. 31 (Opinion) - One of the fundamental aims of campaign finance reform is to encourage large numbers of small donations from a broad spectrum of donors, while diminishing the undue influence of wealth. This is not - or at least it shouldn't be - an ideological proposition.

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Public Citizen Press Room

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

citizen.org - By Craig Holman, Ph.D - Jul. 29 (Press Release) - Whatever speech rights corporations have been granted by the court, they must be the rights of its shareholders. Under current law, a corporate CEO may simply dip into corporate funds and spend wildly on behalf of candidates or political parties without even informing, let alone getting the approval of, the shareholders - those who actually own the company. Shareholders should have a say on how their money is spent.

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The Supreme Court Says NO to the People - Again

Sat, 12 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

truth-out.org - By Michael Winship - Jun. 12 (Opinion) - At a dinner party, an ever-so-proper aristocrat who had been at the British evacuation of Dunkirk 60 years ago, remained tightlipped despite intense questioning from the other guests about what he had seen there. Finally, he shuddered at the memory and exclaimed, "The noise, my dear, and the people!" An apocryphal story, perhaps, but the high-falutin? Supreme Court of the United States has the same attitude toward America - this would be such a great country if it wasn?t for all the noise and people. Bad enough that last week the court narrowly redefined Miranda rights in such a way that seems to say that if one of those aforementioned people is arrested and remains silent about their right to remain silent, anything you do say, if you say something, can and will be held against you. An interpretation as worthy of Lewis Carroll as it is George Orwell.

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Citizens United: People Strike Back

Thu, 13 May 2010 00:00:00 -0700

yesmagazine.org - By Riki Ott, David Cobb - May. 13 (Opinion) - In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission, which opened political campaigns to unlimited contributions from corporations, the American people are demanding everything from legislative fixes to constitutional amendments to defend the integrity of our democracy.

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Exclusive: Group Receives 'Tsunami of Vile Hate' After ABC Exposé on U.S. Military 'Jesus Rifles'

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Brad Blog - By Brad Friedman - Jan. 25 (Opinion) - And what they will never tell you on Fox "News", and probably not even on CNN or MSNBC, etc. is contained in the following three emails sent to Mikey Weinstein of the Nobel Prize-nominated Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), following an ABC News exposé last week on the bible versus ...

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Freedom vs. the Public Option

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

TruthOut - By George Lakoff - Jan. 25 (Editorial) - Which would you prefer, consumer choice or freedom? Extended coverage or freedom? Bending the cost curve or freedom? John Boehner, House minority leader, speaking of health care, said recently, "This bill is the greatest threat to freedom that I have seen in the 19 years I have been here in Washington.... It's going to lead to a government takeover of our health care system, with tens of thousands of new bureaucrats right down the street, making these decisions [choose your doctor, buy your own health insurance] for you." read more

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How To End Corporate Domination Of Government - And Our Live

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

OurFuture.org - By Dave Johnson - Jan. 22 (Opinion) - The Supreme Court yesterday allowed corporate executives to tap into their company's resources and use that money to directly influence elections instead of for the profitable operation of the company.

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Coakley Concedes MA Senate Race in Record Time!

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Brad Blog - Jan. 20 (Opinion) - Several supporters of Democrat Martha Coakley were injured during her rush to get to the phone as quickly as possible in order to concede the race for the U.S. Senate in MA to Scott Brown even before AP called the race in favor of the Republican. That, while some 25% of the precincts had yet to report ...

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Online voting system would require scrutiny

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

theolympian.com - Feb. 15 (Editorial) - The federal government, as part of the Help America Vote Act, was assigned the task of creating a safe and secure Internet voting system. After creation of a system that used secure military lines and encrypted ballots, technical experts were called in to review the proposed system check for vulnerabilities. In 2004, after the technology experts filed their report, the federal government canceled the pilot voting project. And since that time, very little government effort has been expended to create a fail-safe Internet voting system.

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Franken-Coleman trial: Really, no kidding, Thursday is going to be a critical day

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

minnpost.com - By Jay Weiner - Feb. 11 (Opinion) - Here’s the tally in legal briefs both sides filed late today. Tuesday the judges asked the two campaigns their opinions on whether 19 discrete and some even esoteric categories of ballots should be counted. From signatures, to date of arrival, to the legality of witnesses, to wrong addresses...lots of little, itty-bitty things that, it seems, the law requires. The Coleman side told the judges in their documents today that 16 of the judges 19 categories should be counted. The Franken side said that two of the 19 categories should be counted.

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How Should We Get Big-Money Influence Out of Congressional Elections?

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Lawrence Lessig - Jan. 04 (Opinion) - progress will be stifled on every big issue until we solve the threshold problem: big-money interests having disproportional clout in our public debates. Later this month, I and others will announce a large grassroots campaign aimed at channeling the amazing desire for change that Americans are feeling right now into tangible and fundamental reform of our political system.

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Will Al Franken or Norm Coleman be able to claim to be "the people's choice"?

Sun, 28 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Balkinization - By Sandy Levinson - Dec. 28 (Opinion) - There is nothing in the Constitution that prevents states from adopting voting systems that would do a better job of meeting democratic criteria. It's also the case, incidentally, that several of the Democratic wins in 2006 featured non-majority winners who might have been helped by the presence of third-party candidates who deprived Republicans of likely votes. This might have been the case in Montana, and Sen. Webb in Virginia, too, might have been helped by the third-party candidate. So there's nothing partisan in my critique of the voting system that Minnesota, like almost all other states, has adopted.

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For this we had a revolution?

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Balkinization - By Sandy Levinson - Dec. 18 (Comment) - I must also say, as a partisan Democrat, that I genuinely wonder whether Ms. Kennedy, whatever her strengths might be, would necessarily prevail over Peter King or some other well-financed Republican in 2010, who might well find a constituency to agree with another of Kristoff's comments, that Gov. Patterson is "said to be drawn to appointing Caroline Kennedy to the senate because she would be a good fund-raiser who could be reelected in 2010 and would cast a glow around him and his issues. But we don’t want a plutocracy, we want a democracy."

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GOP rush to change voting rules is ruse

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

daytondailynews.com - Nov. 29 (Editorial) - Elections are supposed to be political. The administration of them, however, should be resolutely nonpartisan. Rushing piecemeal bills through just so Republicans can say they fixed something is overstating the problem and overreacting.

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"My Lord, I feel something is happening"

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Salon - By Jonathan Alford - Nov. 03 (Opinion) - PITTSBURGH, Pa. -- I am sitting at a call table at a Barack Obama campaign office with churchgoing black ladies. We are in East Liberty, a black neighborhood in Pittsburgh. The office sits on the same block as the county assistance center and a liquor store. Out on the street, old men are drinking out of paper bags and young kids are hanging out on the corner, watching a steady stream of volunteers with clipboards and Obama signs pour in and out of the office. I am a 53-year-old white piano player and postal carrier from Oakland, Calif. I knocked on doors four years ago for John Kerry in swing-state Pennsylvania and just had to come back for Obama. This time, though, something feels different. The hubris of Bush and the neocons has brought about an inevitable backlash, and the ideological glue of the conservative movement has begun to melt. Evangelicals are beginning to embrace environmental and social issues and a few more working-class whites are coming back to the Democratic fold. Politics feels like it is on the verge on being reinvented.

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"I Didn’t Know I Could Vote"

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Daily Kos - By Paul Loeb - Nov. 03 (Advocacy) - I just came back from eight hours canvassing swing exurban neighborhoods 20 miles south of Seattle. Walking two precincts, I left materials on about a hundred doors, spoke to a dozen or so people who’d already voted, and told a handful how to turn in their absentee ballots. It was easy to feel that my efforts were nice but redundant. Then I knocked on a nondescript house and a man in his late forties answered the door. He had chains tattooed on his wrists, and looked liked he'd been through hard times, maybe jail. "I’d vote for Obama and the Democrats," he said. "But I haven’t been voting. I didn’t know I could vote."

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Ending the 'Voter Fraud' Debate

Sun, 02 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Nation - By Joel Barkin, Christian Smith-Socaris - Nov. 02 (Opinion) - With no evidence coming to light so far to back up these attacks, and virtually no evidence of voter fraud in general, many have rightly criticized these attacks for what they are: strident attempts to give cover for an ongoing campaign of voter suppression. With the boogeyman of voter fraud at their back, conservatives have been mounting campaigns to purge the voting rolls and block voter registration in states across the country.

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