Corporations aren't people - they shouldn't have the same God-given rights.

[JayceR]

I feel bad for the Republicans, and how they will never gain a majority ever again after the next one (likely Romney) turns America into a Christian, Corporate Oligarchy where people have no idea who Thomas Jefferson was due to a revisionist history curriculum in our schools. Our jobs, our wages, and our standard of living will go down the drain, the middle class will become a nonexistent, and the American people will suffer for the benefit of a privileged majority. Most big corporations don't care for you, and will outsource your jobs if given the chance. They want your taxes raised, whether directly or indirectly... all under this "Free Market" delusion which is just a manufactured stereotype by Fox News. They will silence opposition (Unions) by turning gullible people against them through their propaganda sources that they fund (Fox News), and will make the Middle Class vote against their own interests, as is happening with the Teabaggers, who they also fund. Is a wealthier, educated, more secure middle class free to think for themselves too much to ask for? Obama is making a mistake trying to compromise with Obstructionists and idiots. I say, introduce a progressive corporate tax, reform our tax brackets to distinguish between millionares and billionares, Socialize healthcare, tax the rich to Timbuktu and bring down taxes on the already overburdened Middle and Working Classes. They are our country's lifeblood. God bless them.

Corporations aren't even people. They don't deserve more rights.

[LooseWilly]

1. There is no God. There are no God Given Rights. It is all fantasy.

And All Men Were Not Created Equal, as stated in a document written by a slave owner....

[scheming daemons]

2. Nobody has "God-given" rights. God doesn't exist. Do we have "Easter Bunny-given rights" too?

You can't be "given" something from a non-entity.

[JayceR]

3. True

I was just using a figure of speech, I'm actually an atheist.

[PoiBoy]

4. It's interesting and maddening how the concept of Corporate Personhood came about...

http://money.howstuffworks.com/corporation-person1.htm

<snip>
In the case of Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad, the Supreme Court decided that only the state that charters a corporation can tax it. This decision upheld the long-standing custom in America of state governance of corporations. It's the state that grants a corporation its charter -- its license to do business -- and it's up to the state to tax and regulate the corporation.

But a note written by the court reporter at the heading of the decision went further than that. Although another, private note from the Chief Justice said that the court had purposely avoided the issue of Constitutional corporate protection, the reporter chose to make his own addition to the records. He noted that the court had decided that corporations are persons under the 14th Amendment, and as such are subject to the same protections under the law as anyone else .

What's strange, Hartmann points out, is that the justices hadn't ruled that way at all. Even fishier, the court reporter was a former railroad president . Ultimately, since it was a headnote (a commentary prefix to the court record) written by the reporter, it didn't constitute law. But it did set precedent. Two years later, this idea was upheld in another case: Pembina Consolidated Mining and Milling Co. v. Pennsylvania .
<end>

so... corporate personhood was established by the court reporter, not the sitting Supremes at the time, and it's been upheld over the years because of "precedent"... WTF..!!

[RB TexLa]

5. So Democratic Underground, LLC has no rights under the contstitution?

The government can search and sieze whatever it wants from DU at any time without reason or cause? DU does not have any right to have any attorny should it face criminal charges?

[JayceR]

6. Good point

I guess I let my emotional side take over, I revised the thread a bit.

[LooseWilly]

8. How could DU face criminal charges? Did BP face "murder" charges after the gulf fiasco?

It did not... there may be investigations, but BP does not have to post bail (like a person would have to), does not face prison time/possibility of Capital Punishment (ironically)... and likewise does not rely on its "personhood" to secure the "right" to an attorney.

Stripping corporations of personhood rights would not deprive them of the opportunity to employ counsel in whatever legal matters should arise.

And as for search and seizure... the "liberal" interpretations of the Patriot Act, not to mention Warrantless Wiretapping and regular NSA data sweeps of ALL info sluicing around the internet, pretty much make those protections laughable at this point... if the government wants to search or seize.

[JHB]

7. God didn't give rights to corporations. Government did.

[DonCoquixote]

9. I will allow corporations to be people

When you can stand them in front of a firing squad.