Tomorrow in Madison we get to vote against Corporate Personhood.

[undeterred]

I live in Madison, WI so I actually get to vote in 2 referenda which support a constitutional amendment to the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United. I actually signed the petition to get this on the ballot at one of the first downtown rallies in February. One of the referenda is for Madison and the other is for Dane County.

I knew about the issue when I signed the petition, but I think this is a great issue for talking to people about what is going on in our political system. We should be getting this on ballots all across the country right now. In Wisconsin we did this with regard to the Iraq war a few years ago (2006) and it showed that a majority of people really did not support the occupation. It started in Madison and spread across the state.

http://movetoamend.org/events/madison-wi-dane-county-ballot-vote-corporate-personhood-referenda



:kick:

We are alarmed by the threat to democracy posed by unrestricted corporate spending on local, state, and national election campaigns. In particular, we hold it as self-evident that corporations are not people, money is not speech, and therefore the regulation of corporate spending on elections is not an abridgement of First Amendment free speech rights.

[w8liftinglady]

1. You Go! There with you in spirit!

[senseandsensibility]

2. Good luck!

Any polls out to show the trend? Is the Dem lady ahead? Edited to add that I'm talking about the judge race. Sorry if that's not what you're referring to.

[undeterred]

6. I get to vote on that too, as will everyone in the state

But these referenda are just on the ballot in the city of Madison and county of Dane because we have so many activists... a lot of stuff starts here! So we are voting for a Supreme Court justice tomorrow but we are actually giving our opinion on the Citizens United case tomorrow too! And those of us living in Madison are giving our opinion on two separate referenda- city and county.

[Shiver]

10. We also get to vote for mayor.

Our choice is between a Democrat and a ... Democrat...

It's kinda tough...

[undeterred]

14. Paul Soglin is a Socialist

Isn't he?

[Shiver]

15. I'm pretty certain he's a Democrat.

It says so on Wikipedia, so it must be true.

[malaise]

23. He won

http://www.wkow.com/Global/story.asp?S=14390718

[northoftheborder]

3. Congratulations on all your achievements for democracy!

[Pharaoh]

4. I Live in Middleton WI

Yup, this is huge. We must get Parisi as Dane Co. Exec, and Kloppenburg for Supreme court.

It will be a huge barometer as to where we are at.

[femmocrat]

5. A journey of a million miles.... you must be proud the first step was in WI.

Let us know the results tomorrow, OK? And... GOOD LUCK!!!

:kick: for grassroots at its finest.

[undeterred]

7. I love Madison.

You meet activists just walking the dog.

[onenote]

8. the parts about regulating political contributions are okay

The parts that would declare that corporations have no constitutional rights is overbroad and totally not well thought out.

No first amendment rights if you're a corporation? Then I guess the New York Times could've been prosecuted for publishing the Pentagon Papers. And book publishing companies and movie studios and Democratic Underground LLC would have no protection under the first amendment.

[aquart]

9. All the good of God be with you.

[Luminous Animal]

11. Here is a great article about citizens in towns across the U.S. rejecting corporate tyranny.

http://www.gatheringspot.net/news-article/general-discussion/mt-shasta-and-goliath-bringing-down-corporate-rule

Mt. Shasta is not alone. Rather, it is part of a (so far) quiet municipal movement making its way across the United States in which communities are directly defying corporate rule and affirming the sovereignty of local government.

Since 1998, more than 125 municipalities have passed ordinances that explicitly put their citizens' rights ahead of corporate interests, despite the existence of state and federal laws to the contrary. These communities have banned corporations from dumping toxic sludge, building factory farms, mining, and extracting water for bottling. Many have explicitly refused to recognize corporate personhood. Over a dozen townships in Pennsylvania, Maine, and New Hampshire have recognized the right of nature to exist and flourish (as Ecuador just did in its new national constitution). Four municipalities, including Halifax in Virginia, and Mahoney, Shrewsbury, and Packer in Pennsylvania, have passed laws imposing penalties on corporations for chemical trespass, the involuntary introduction of toxic chemicals into the human body.

These communities are beginning to band together. When the attorney general of Pennsylvania threatened to sue Packer Township this year for banning sewage sludge within its boundaries, six other Pennsylvania towns adopted similar ordinances and twenty-three others passed resolutions in support of their neighboring community. Many people were outraged when the attorney general proclaimed, "there is no inalienable right to local self-government."

Bigger cities are joining the fray. In Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, council member Doug Shields announced this August that he is about to introduce a bill banning corporations in the city from drilling for natural gas, an environmentally devastating practice known as "fracking." As Shields stated in a press release, "Many people think that this is only about gas drilling. It's not—it's about our authority as a municipal community to say 'no' to corporations that will cause damage to our community. It's about our right to community, local self-government."

(emphasis mine)

[WillyT]

12. + 1,000,000,000... What You Said !!! - HUGE K & R !!!

:bounce::woohoo::bounce:

Go Wisconsin!!!

:kick:

[gristy]

13. This is very well said - was this what was on the referenda?

We are alarmed by the threat to democracy posed by unrestricted corporate spending on local, state, and national election campaigns. In particular, we hold it as self-evident that corporations are not people, money is not speech, and therefore the regulation of corporate spending on elections is not an abridgement of First Amendment free speech rights.

[undeterred]

16. I think they have to be in the form of questions -- -- Text of referenda:

City of Madison referendum

RESOLVED, the City of Madison, Wisconsin, calls for reclaiming democracy from the corrupting effects of undue corporate influence by amending the United States Constitution to establish that:

1. Only human beings, not corporations, are entitled to constitutional rights, and

2. Money is not speech, and therefore regulating political contributions and spending is not equivalent to limiting political speech.


Dane County referendum

Should the United States Constitution be amended to establish that regulating political contributions and spending is not equivalent to limiting freedom of speech, and that only human beings, not corporations, are entitled to constitutional rights?

[Raksha]

17. That's a nice catchy slogan you've got on your website:

"End Corporate Rule. Legalize Democracy."

I can definitely see that going viral!

[madrchsod]

18. there`s tens of thousands of union members here in illinois...

that are behind the people in wisconsin. we really need a victory!

our big rally is this saturday in chicago.

[lonestarnot]

19. Fantastic.

[liberal life]

20. Go Wisconsin!

and keep an eye on those central tabulators, take screen shots of election results, make them count ballots at the precincts.


http://fucorporatemedia.com/

[999998th word]

21. Walker/Pro$$er will pull some shady shit @ the polls -steal it somehow.Koch>money.

Worked my ass off in a RED district fliers+.I hope for different but they know how vital a win this would be.
Fitzy even said in a speech "If we lose walkers bill is dead''.VOTE KLOPPENBURG

[Blue Owl]

22. K&R

:kick: