While the Citizens United v. FEC ruling has taken a backseat to the other pressing issues of the day. I thought it interesting to see a local movement to try and stand up and fight back against the ruling.

From the Town of Greenburgh’s Democratic Committee:

WHEREAS, the recent Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC ruled that corporate funding of candidate elections cannot be limited because corporations have the same First Amendment rights as “natural persons”; and

WHEREAS, corporations are not treated as “natural persons” in other respects under the law and have, among other advantages, limited liability privileges and favorable treatment for the accumulation and distribution of assets;

The Democratic Committee of the Town Of Greenburgh New York hereby;

RESOLVES, that it will exert all possible effort to urge the United States Congress and the New York State Legislature to pass legislation providing that all corporations which choose to exercise the privilege under Citizens United v. FEC to unlimited corporate funding of candidate elections and ballot questions have thereby waived their corporate privileges and immunities and may be treated as natural persons in all other respects.

Good for them! Now if they could get a resolution passed by the town board of Greenburgh, NY that would be another good step. The goal would be to get local municipalities throughout the state to pass similar resolutions which could then lead to a bill in Albany. Then it’s on to the US Congress!

An online movement to boycott BP for its role in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is growing at a rate of better than 25,000 names a day.

“I won’t buy their gas any more. I won’t patronize a company that’s destroying our planet,” New Jersey resident Patricia Jarozynski told CNN, one of 118,000 fans of the “Boycott BP” Facebook page as of this writing

via Facebook fans organize to boycott BP – May. 26, 2010.

Why stop with BP? Clearly Chevron could use some of the public’s hatred.

Though I consider myself a deist, I am glad that there are liberal Catholic groups like Catholics United trying to do the right thing and fight back against the the Catholic Right represented by groups such as the Catholic League.

This is what Catholics United is up against:

For decades, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) has worked to end poverty by empowering people in low-income communities. Despite CCHD’s organizing successes, the Catholic Right is now working to discredit the program and take away its funding. Just last week, a coalition of anti-social justice groups launched a new petition campaign calling on the U.S. Catholic Bishops to suspend all national CCHD grants.

These conservative groups say that CCHD money is being used to support abortion and same-sex marriage, which is not true. What is true is that the Catholic Right’s attacks are political in nature. One member of the anti-social justice coalition mocks CCHD for funding groups that support community organizing and a strong role for the federal government in ending poverty.

They have a petition going on here which you can sign to ask that the CCHD (Catholic Campaign for Human Development) continue to fund the important work of fighting poverty and community organizing. If there is one thing I associate Catholicism with is fighting poverty and support for labor! I may not agree with them on some social issues, but I support them on these matters.

I agree with Ralph Nader on this point.

Roslyn and Howard Zinn left two children, Myla and Jeff, and five grandchildren. Together with his publisher, Dan Simon of 7 Stories Press, his editor, Matthew Rothschild, his interviewer, Amy Goodman, his associate, Anthony Arnove, and his innumerable writers and fighters for justice, for the principle that the truth is revolutionary, why not a well-funded and staffed Institute, organizing from the neighborhoods on up, as he urged so often, with horizons for all seasons, as befits his vision?

Nader suggests it be called the Howard Zinn Institute for Advancing Peace and Justice.

I find it poetic justice.

Oregon voters bucked decades of anti-tax and anti-Salem sentiment Tuesday, raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy to prevent further erosion of public schools and other state services.

The tax measures passed easily, with late returns showing a 54 percent to 46 percent ratio. Measure 66 raises taxes on households with taxable income above $250,000, and Measure 67 sets higher minimum taxes on corporations and increases the tax rate on upper-level profits.

The results triggered waves of relief from educators and legislative leaders, who were facing an estimated $727 million shortfall in the current two-year budget if the measures failed.

The great things is that the anti-tax corporations were powerless to stop it.

Those Chinese hackers are rather sophisticated indeed. When blogger Noel Hidalgo went to China and was picked up & deported for filming a protest with his cell phone. He noticed that someone had also hacked his Facebook and Twitter accounts. Now Google is saying they’ve finally had enough? No more bending to the will of the Great Fire Wall of China?

Google said it had evidence to suggest that “a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts” of Chinese human rights activists. The attack was discovered in December.

Based on its investigation to date, Google said it does not believe the cyber attack succeeded. “Only two Gmail accounts appear to have been accessed, and that activity was limited to account information (such as the date the account was created) and subject line, rather than the content of emails themselves,” the companysaid in a blog posting.

But David Drummond, Google senior vice president and chief legal officer, added that the attacks “have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China.”

For the moment it would appear that Google is saber rattling. But even if they are it will be interesting to see how China responds.

I was reading this post about someone, a progressive who recently passed away. His name was Smith Bagley.

Without Smith, the Reagan supported war in El Salvador probably would have dragged on for many more years; the Superfund to clean up the country’s worst toxic waste sites probably never would have been created; the recent progress on Cuba policy and the death penalty in many states would not have been possible; tens of millions of voters never would have gotten registered;  vital organizations like the National Security Archive, CREW, USAction, and Women’s Voices Women’s Vote might not have gotten started at all.

For someone to have a list of accomplishments like those, he clearly deserves the progressive community’s accolades and honor.

Eric Lee over at Labourstart in his latest newsletter has pointed out the usefulness of Google Sidewiki. I do think this is actually quite brilliant.

Unless you’re a regular reader of the official Google blog (and I’m not) you probably haven’t heard of Google SideWiki.  But a trade union activist in New Zealand has stumbled on something that he calls an “awesome new tool for activists”.   And he may be right.

I won’t tell you much more, but will instead suggest you read what Google has to say:

http://tinyurl.com/lkbxbw

And when you’re done, and have set this up on your computer (it will take you less than a minute), go visit http://www.nestle.com and see what I’ve done to Nestle’s global website.

I installed the Google toolbar with Firefox and it was simple. Now edit away!

This was from tonight’s Rachel Maddow show on MSNBC. Mr. Schaeffer really tore into the hate and violence which appears to be the core of the current conservative movement. He mentioned healthcare and that how most of the country wants healthcare and how that is putting the right wing out of step with the entire country.

So I just read that United Airlines may have lost $180 million dollars because of the negative publicity surrounding their breaking a $3,500 Taylor guitar of Dave Carroll’s.

Meanwhile, within four days of the song going online, the gathering thunderclouds of bad PR caused United Airlines‘ stock price to suffer a mid-flight stall, and it plunged by 10 per cent, costing shareholders $180 million.

Whoever does the PR for United Airlines gets a big FAIL. The moment you have someone (anyone) making Youtube videos about your corporation that get popular and you do nothing, you FAIL. In the Internet age I applaud consumer activism like this.