Reining in Corporate Influence

In January the Supreme Court opened the door wider than ever to corporate interests by allowing them to donate pretty much whatever they wish to influence elections however they choose. Show me a politician who can take the money and then ignore the bidding of these massive corporations. This was a distressing day for this tattered democracy. On the upside there are people out there struggling to do something about it. I received this request from Jessica Sharp and enclose the links she provided.

Hello!

My name is Jessica Sharp and I'm involved in a new movement to rein in corporate influence over our elections.  Corporate persons have enjoyed tremendous influence over our democratic process for decades, but the 1/21/10 Supreme Court decision opened a new door.  It's time for the madness to stop and to re-introduce sanity into our electoral process!  I've been working with a few different groups, some national and some MD-based where I live, to do this. 

One of the groups I'm working with on a national scale is Free Speech for People.   This documentary I'm sending was produced by them about our rally in MD.  It was released on Wed, 3/3 and was featured on michaelmoore.comand huffingtonpost.com almost immediately!  That being said, our movement is non-partisan.  Conservatives, liberals and independents are all equally disgusted with corporate influence on our elections.

Since the news cycle is so fast, it has now been rotated away from the homepages of those sites and into the archives.  I am trying to keep it in the public consciousness so we can continue to spread the word and recruit concerned citizens to our cause.  Since it is a professionally produced video, it really gives some clout to the movement.  Could you please link this to your blog?  I've been reading Art and the Bouncy Banker and I really like what you have to say.  I will offer 3 possible sites:

www.freespeechforpeople.org/making

http://michaelmoore.com/words/must-read/jessica-sharp-why-she-got-involved-fight-campaign-finance-reform

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harry-hanbury/new-populist-heroine-spar_b_483706.html


Thank you so much!  I really hope you will consider it!
Jessica Sharp

The Bouncy Bankers

"Do you hear that pop-pop-popping sound off in the distance?

The good news is, it ain't gunfire. The bad news is, it's corporate lobbyists and their Republican lapdogs popping champagne corks and dancing on what's left of the Constitution.

They're celebrating the Supreme Court's decision to allow giant corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money to target any member of Congress who dares cross them."

—Paul Begala, DCCC

The Parallel President Missive number 2

image courtesy of the Pierogi Gallery
The Parallel President Missive Number 2

As the parallel president I am free to meander between the lines of current discourse and veer a little from the strictures presented by the Bouncy Banker Institute. As their guest I will however be sure always to bring my notes thundering back to the issues of art and finance, and how they intersect, bash into each other, compliment each and dismantle each other, and, above all, by all appearances, fail to connect.

You’ll wonder then at the extent of my meandering but should know I see connections everywhere. The great late artist, Mark Lombardi, perhaps best expressed this in his brilliant drawings that showed, using information freely available to anybody with a computer and time on their hands, how banks, politicians, generals, corporate interests, dictators and even, probably, obscure terrorist cells, connected, usually via money transactions.

Unchained as I am, unlike the actual president, I can float above the fray and make my observations with impunity. I can offer my own objective/subjective assessment of the messiness below. I can suggest irresponsible actions like burying all the lobbyists, be they for the NRA, the big pharmaceuticals, the insurance companies or the banks, in pits of lye. I’m not quite sure what lye is but you must admit it sounds right.

That is all for now.

The PP