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By David Swanson
Free Speech for People

The damage from the Supreme Court's decision in "Citizens United v. FEC" continues to spread as feared. Newly emboldened corporations are suing to overturn state laws that restrict corporate spending on politics:

"A pro-natural resource development group [how's that for spin?] and a Bozeman painting company asked a Helena District Court on Monday to strike down Montana’s 1912 ban on corporate donations and expenditures to political campaigns to comply with a January U.S. Supreme Court ruling."

Marylanders are responding to the shocking new Supreme Court ruling that corporations, for the first time, can spend unlimited funds to influence any local, state or federal political campaign, a ruling the state Senate president called "offensive" and "devastating to democracy."

By TODD WOODY and CLIFFORD KRAUSS
NY Times

SAN FRANCISCO — If electric cars have any future in the United States, this may be the city where they arrive first.

The San Francisco building code will soon be revised to require that new structures be wired for car chargers. Across the street from City Hall, some drivers are already plugging converted hybrids into a row of charging stations.

Congresswoman Donna Edwards has just introduced a Constitutional amendment, together with Congressman John Conyers.

HTTP://FREESPEECHFORPEOPLE.ORG

Watch this brand new video:
http://freespeechforpeople.org/edwardsvideo

PUBLIC INTEREST GROUPS APPLAUD REP. DONNA EDWARDS FOR FILING CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT BILL TO OVERTURN US SUPREME COURT RULING ON CORPORATE MONEY IN ELECTIONS

HOUSE JUDICIARY CHAIR JOHN CONYERS, JR JOINS FILING

"Free Speech Rights Are For People, Not Corporations"

By J. DAVID GOODMAN
NY Times

SHANGHAI — Jiang Ruming, a marketing manager, owns a van, but for many errands, he hops on a futuristic-looking contraption that lets him weave rapidly through Shanghai’s messy traffic. He rides an electric bicycle.

Half a world away, in San Francisco, the president of that city’s board of supervisors, David Chiu, uses an electric bike to get to meetings without sweating through his suit.

By KEITH BRADSHER
NY Times

TIANJIN, China — China vaulted past competitors in Denmark, Germany, Spain and the United States last year to become the world’s largest maker of wind turbines, and is poised to expand even further this year.

China has also leapfrogged the West in the last two years to emerge as the world’s largest manufacturer of solar panels. And the country is pushing equally hard to build nuclear reactors and the most efficient types of coal power plants.

By Sarah van Gelder
YES! Magazine

With climate disruption, war, and a faltering economy, the '00s were tough. Still, seeds were sewn for a more green and egalitarian 2010s. And peoples movements offer the power to make real change happen.
— tags: copenhagen

In my last column, I listed nine crises of the ‘00s.

"There's no reason why other countries can build high-speed rail lines and we can't," President Obama said Thursday in announcing $8 billion in grants for high-speed-rail projects.

By Larry Copeland
USA TODAY

The USA took a first step toward building a national high-speed rail network when the Obama administration announced the winners of $8 billion in grants for rail-building projects Thursday.

"Making investment in infrastructure is a 'two-fer,'" the president says. "We create jobs immediately and lay the foundation for a vibrant economy in the future."

By TED JACKOVICS
The Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - Mind the gap. That announcement warns passengers boarding Amtrak's high speed trains in the Northeast to the mini-chasm between the platform and Acela rail cars.

The white whale of mass-transit is a centerpiece of the jobs-creation package Obama announced in the State of the Union

By Cliff Kuang
Fast Company

Remarks of President Barack Obama
The State of the Union
Wednesday, January 27, 2009
Washington, DC

Madame Speaker, Vice President Biden, Members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow Americans:

The Source of Corporate Power

By Robert C. Koehler

Tribune Media Services

“If the First Amendment has any force, it prohibits Congress from fining or jailing citizens, or associations of citizens, for simply engaging in political speech.”

Obama to follow State of the Union with high-speed rail funding billed as jobs creator

JULIE PACE
AP

A day after delivering a State of the Union address aimed at showing recession-weary Americans he understands their struggles, President Barack Obama intends to award $8 billion in stimulus funds to develop high-speed rail corridors and sell the program as a jobs creator.

By Scott Malone
Reuters

BOSTON (Reuters) - General Electric Co's

On January 21, 2010, the Supreme Court struck down longstanding rules on corporate and organized labor spending in elections.

In a 5-4 decision, the court struck down elements of campaign finance law, ruling that independent expenditures by such groups in elections is protected by the First Amendment.

http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/09pdf/08-205.pdf

With its ruling today, the Supreme Court has given a green light to a new stampede of special interest money in our politics. It is a major victory for big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies and the other powerful interests that marshal their power every day in Washington to drown out the voices of everyday Americans. This ruling gives the special interests and their lobbyists even more power in Washington--while undermining the influence of average Americans who make small contributions to support their preferred candidates.

Today’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission shreds the fabric of our already weakened democracy by allowing corporations to more completely dominate our corrupted electoral process. It is outrageous that corporations already attempt to influence or bribe our political candidates through their political action committees (PACs), which solicit employees and shareholders for donations.

"We the corporations"

On January 21, 2010, with its ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are persons, entitled by the U.S. Constitution to buy elections and run our government. Human beings are people; corporations are legal fictions. The Supreme Court is misguided in principle, and wrong on the law. In a democracy, the people rule.

We Move to Amend.

We, the People of the United States of America, reject the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United, and move to amend our Constitution to:

By Michael Beckel
Open Secrets.og

Corporations, trade associations, unions and nonprofit groups still aren't allowed to make direct contributions to federal politicians, but today, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that such groups may now spend unlimited amounts of money advocating for or against politicians.

In doing do, the Supreme Court, led by Justice Anthony Kennedy, tossed out the distinction between individuals and corporations and their ilk when it comes to independent expenditures.