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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=palast@gregpalast.net href="mailto:palast@gregpalast.net">Greg Palast</A>
</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=unionyes@ameritech.net
href="mailto:unionyes@ameritech.net">unionyes@ameritech.net</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, January 21, 2010 3:18 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Manchurian Candidates: Court ruling lets China buy
elections</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><B><FONT size=4>Manchurian Candidates: <BR>Supreme Court allows
China and others unlimited spending in US elections</FONT></B> <BR><BR><BR>By
Greg Palast | Updated from the original report for <I><A
href="http://mailings.gregpalast.net/t.aspx?S=1&ID=70&NL=1&N=70&SI=29463&ENC=!2!GS!%3fy!6!4!JQ!A!1!JI!B!AF%23**t%24%3d!%3cs-SE!%3cSoRW!2%5b!7Wn"
target=_blank>AlterNet</A></I> <BR><I>Thursday, January 21, 2010</I> <BR><BR>In
today's Supreme Court decision in <I>Citizens United v. Federal Election
Commission</I>, the Court ruled that corporations should be treated the same as
"natural persons", i.e. humans. Well, in that case, expect the Supreme Court to
next rule that Wal-Mart can run for President. <BR><BR>The ruling, which junks
federal laws that now bar corporations from stuffing campaign coffers, will not,
as progressives fear, cause an avalanche of corporate cash into politics. Sadly,
that's already happened: we have been snowed under by tens of millions of
dollars given through corporate PACs and "bundling" of individual contributions
from corporate pay-rollers. <BR><BR><B>The Court's decision is far, far more
dangerous to U.S. democracy. Think: Manchurian candidates.</B> <BR><BR>I'm
losing sleep over the millions - or billions - of dollars that could flood into
our elections from ARAMCO, the Saudi Oil corporation's U.S. unit; or from the
maker of "New Order" fashions, the Chinese People's Liberation Army. Or from Bin
Laden Construction corporation. Or Bin Laden <I>Destruction</I> Corporation.
<BR><BR>Right now, corporations can give loads of loot through PACs. While this
money stinks (Barack Obama took none of it), anyone can go through a PAC's
federal disclosure filing and see the name of every individual who put money
into it. And every contributor must be a citizen of the USA. <BR><BR>But under
today's Supreme Court ruling that corporations can support candidates without
limit, there is nothing that stops, say, a Delaware-incorporated handmaiden of
the Burmese junta from picking a Congressman or two with a cache of loot masked
by a corporate alias. <BR><BR>Candidate Barack Obama was one sharp speaker, but
he would not have been heard, and certainly would not have won, without the
astonishing outpouring of donations from two million Americans. It was an
unprecedented uprising-by-PayPal, overwhelming the old fat-cat sources of
funding. <BR><BR>Well, kiss that small-donor revolution goodbye. Under the
Court's new rules, progressive list serves won't stand a chance against the
resources of new "citizens" such as CNOOC, the China National Offshore Oil
Corporation. Maybe UBS (United Bank of Switzerland), which faces U.S. criminal
prosecution and a billion-dollar fine for fraud, might be tempted to invest in a
few Senate seats. As would XYZ Corporation, whose owners remain hidden by
"street names." <BR><BR>George Bush's former Solicitor General Ted Olson argued
the case to the court on behalf of Citizens United, a corporate front that
funded an attack on Hillary Clinton during the 2008 primary. Olson's wife died
on September 11, 2001 on the hijacked airliner that hit the Pentagon. Maybe it
was a bit crude of me, but I contacted Olson's office to ask how much "Al Qaeda,
Inc." should be allowed to donate to support the election of his local
congressman. <BR><BR>Olson has not responded. <BR><BR>The danger of foreign loot
loading into U.S. campaigns, not much noted in the media chat about the Citizens
case, was the first concern raised by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who asked
about opening the door to "mega-corporations" owned by foreign governments.
Olson offered Ginsburg a fudge, that Congress might be able to prohibit foreign
corporations from making donations, though Olson made clear he thought any such
restriction a bad idea. <BR><BR>Tara Malloy, attorney with the Campaign Legal
Center of Washington D.C. says corporations will now have more rights than
people. Only United States citizens may donate or influence campaigns, but a
foreign government can, veiled behind a corporate treasury, dump money into
ballot battles. <BR><BR>Malloy also noted that under the law today,
human-people, as opposed to corporate-people, may only give $2,300 to a
presidential campaign. But hedge fund billionaires, for example, who typically
operate through dozens of corporate vessels, may now give unlimited sums through
each of these "unnatural" creatures. <BR><BR>And once the Taliban incorporates
in Delaware, they could ante up for the best democracy money can buy. <BR><BR>In
July, the Chinese government, in preparation for President Obama's visit, held
diplomatic discussions in which they skirted issues of human rights and Tibet.
Notably, the Chinese, who hold a $2 trillion mortgage on our Treasury, raised
concerns about the cost of Obama's health care reform bill. Would our nervous
Chinese landlords have an interest in buying the White House for an opponent of
government spending such as Gov. Palin? Ya betcha! <BR><BR>The potential for
foreign infiltration of what remains of our democracy is an adjunct of the fact
that the source and control money from corporate treasuries (unlike registered
PACs), is necessarily hidden. Who the heck are the real stockholders? Or as
Butch asked Sundance, "Who are these guys?" <BR>We'll never know. <BR><BR>Hidden
money funding, whether foreign or domestic, is the new venom that the Court has
injected into the system by its expansive decision in <I>Citizens United</I>.
<BR><BR>We've been there. The 1994 election brought Newt Gingrich to power in a
GOP takeover of the Congress funded by a very strange source.
<BR><BR>Congressional investigators found that in crucial swing races, Democrats
had fallen victim to a flood of last-minute attack ads funded by a group called,
"Coalition for Our Children's Future." The $25 million that paid for those ads
came, not from concerned parents, but from a corporation called "Triad Inc."
<BR><BR>Evidence suggests Triad Inc. was the front for the ultra-right-wing
billionaire Koch Brothers and their private petroleum company, Koch Industries.
Had the corporate connection been proven, the Kochs and their corporation could
have faced indictment under federal election law. As of today, such
money-poisoned politicking has become legit. <BR><BR>So it's not just
un-Americans we need to fear but the Polluter-Americans, Pharma-mericans,
Bank-Americans and Hedge-Americans that could manipulate campaigns while hidden
behind corporate veils. And if so, our future elections, while nominally a
contest between Republicans and Democrats, may in fact come down to a three-way
battle between China, Saudi Arabia and Goldman Sachs. <BR><BR>*********
<BR><BR><I>Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Best
Democracy Money Can Buy." Palast investigated Triad Inc. for The Guardian (UK).
View Palast's reports for BBC TV and Democracy Now! at <A
href="http://mailings.gregpalast.net/t.aspx?S=1&ID=70&NL=1&N=70&SI=29463&ENC=!2!GS!%3fy!6!4!JQ!A!1(O!3!CD!%3e1!%3f%3a)x!84'"
target=_blank>gregpalast.com</A>.</I>
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