HJM6-3 approved by Rules Committee unanimously
Today the Oregon House Rules Committee took a major step to end corporate domination by voting out of their committee HJM6-3.  HJM6-3 is the revised Joint Memorial calling on Oregon's congressional delegation to send us a constitutional amendment to end the court-created doctrines that money is speech and that corporations are people.  The committee voted unanimously to send the resolution to a vote of the full House.

Read the text of HJM6-3 here.

Time to take action!
Having sent it to the full House means we each need to advocate for its passage.  Call or email your state representative NOW, express your support for HJM6 and inform them of your expectation that they will approve this and move it onto the senate.  Because the legislative session will end soon, we need to take action NOW!

When:  Sunday, Feb. 17, 7 PM
Where: First Unitarian Church, SW 12th and Salmon
Admission: $5-20 sliding scale.  No one will be turned away for lack of funds

A provocative evening discussing corporate personhood with Scott Silber, lead faculty at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Constitutional Studies and Democratic Development's Youth Organizing Institute, human rights and environmental organizer, and former Director of Colorado's Public Workers' Union.

Scott is the Executive Director of National Intervention, which treats money in politics as an addictive substance. Intervention calls for a national deadline for the ratification of any amendment that abolishes corporate personhood and requires publicly funded elections, viewing any such amendment proposal as an urgent "sobriety checkpoint" for any elected official.

In the event Congress fails to pass that amendment "sobriety test" in time, National Intervention organizes a block-by-block "12-Step National Recovery Platform" campaign, calling on all of us who may be enablers of the addiction system to draw strong boundaries in our relationship to the addicts in power for a new social contract (a New New Deal) while we still have time.

www.nationalintervention.org

Event co-sponsored by Alliance for Democracy, Economic Justice Action Group of the First Unitarian Church, Move to Amend PDX.

Join the event on Facebook and share with your friends.

On January 10, 2013, turn out as the Multnomah County Commission considers a resolution calling for Oregon's congressional delegation to support amending the US Constitution to overturn Citizens United, and eliminate the two court created doctrines of corporate personhood and money equals speech. We need you in the building showing your support for this.

Multnomah County Building 501 SE Hawthorne Portland OR Day/Date: Thursday, January 10, 2013 Time: 9:30 AM

Read the proposed resolution here.

Invite your Facebook Friends here.

More information from Alliance for Democracy, David Delk .

Join David Cobb,

Chief Spokesperson for Move to Amend, for a rousing evening because .....

It is time to change the rules.

The Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling is just the latest - and most blatant - example that corporations have hijacked our government.

Mayor Sam Adams will present to the city council a resolution dealing with corporte personhood and making clear that money is not speech. While the resolution is pretty good, changes need to be made to it to remove the references to the constitutional amendments which have been proposed by Sen. Merkley as well as Rep. Schrader.

Please sign the petition addressed to Mayor Adams and the Commissioners at http://www.change.org/petitions/city-of-portland-to-congress-we-the-peop...

"Establish as a position of the Portland City Council that corporations should not receive the same constitutional rights as natural persons do, that money is not speech and independent expenditures should be regulated."

Thus reads the first sentence of a new proposed resolution for the City of Portland.

Earlier in the week Mayor Adams proposed a resolution regarding corporate personhood and money as speech. You can read his proposal here. The resolution would establish official instructions for the city's lobbyists to work on these issues as part of the 2012 Federal Legislative Agenda for the city.

The Resolution needs changes.    Read more ...

Move to Amend, the national advocacy group for end corporate personhood and making clear that money is not speech, has unveiled their proposed constitutional amendment. Simple, straightforward and containing no loopholes, unlike the various proposals which have been introduced in the US House and Senate recently by Sen. Udall/Merkley, Rep. Jim McGovern and Rep. Deutch. These proposed amendments address either only one issue or leave large loopholes. The Move to Amend language follows.

Amendment

Section 1. Corporations are not people and can be regulated.

The rights protected by the Constitution of the United States are the rights of natural persons only. Artificial entities, such as corporations, limited liability companies, and other entities, established by the laws of any State, the United States, or any foreign state shall have no rights under this Constitution and are subject to regulation by the People, through Federal, State, or local law. The privileges of artificial entities shall be determined by the People, through Federal, State, or local law, and shall not be construed to be inherent or inalienable.

Section 2. Money is not speech and can be regulated. 

Federal, State and local government shall regulate, limit, or prohibit contributions and expenditures, including a candidate’s own contributions and expenditures, for the purpose of influencing in any way the election of any candidate for public office or any ballot measure. Federal, State and local government shall require that any permissible contributions and expenditures be publicly disclosed. The judiciary shall not construe the spending of money to influence elections to be speech under the First Amendment.

Section 3. Nothing contained in this amendment shall be construed to abridge the freedom of the press.

Because of the extreme polarization of the political parties and our society, it appears we will never solve the long list of problems plaguing our country. Moreover, getting mad and yelling at the idiots on the other side only adds to the volume of all this crazy rhetoric and propaganda; and that solves nothing.

The solution is to change how our Representatives get elected and conduct business by enacting Campaign Finance Reform and eliminating the absurd amount of money corporate lobbyists spend for control of the political parties, and by extension, OUR government. Until there is a fair and level political arena for our Legislature to work in, I suspect all hope is lost. Moreover, since the Supreme Court strengthened the concept of corporate personhood, then corporations ought to be limited to the same rights and abilities to persuade our representatives as every person in this country has, no more and no less.