The Chamber's Funding

Quick note while I'm still on vacation -- great graphic by Think Progress on where the US Chamber gets its dough:

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Protecting Us from Hugo Chavez, Saudi Arabia, and Goldman Sachs

And Exxon Mobil,

and China State Construction Company,

and Bank of America, and ...

::

WHO is doing this protecting, and HOW are they doing it?

Make the jump.

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Edwards Introduces Constitutional Amendment -- Time to Get On Board

Congresswoman Donna Edwards (D-Maryland) has introduced a Constitutional amendment to undo the democracy-destroying SCOTUS ruling that corporations have the same free-speech rights as people. John Conyers has co-sponsored the bill, and it is beginning to build some buzz. It's endorsed by the groups Voter Action, Public Citizen, the Center for Corporate Policy, and the American Independent Business Alliance.

You can visit the web site here, where you can view the amendment and sign the accompanying resolution. You can also help spread the word, and even give money to support this important step to preserving democracy. If you want to know more first, make the jump to view the video:

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The Day Democracy Committed Suicide

Write the date down: January 21, 2010. You'll want to be able to tell your grandkids, "Yep, I was alive then. Sure was. I wasn't paying a lot of attention -- none of us were, really; the health care fight and basketball season got all the press. But now we know -- that was the day that democracy began dying."

Yes, on this date, in one of the worst decisions since Dred Scott, the Supreme Court of the United States officially helped our democracy commit suicide. Not the quick suicide of a coup or a surrender to a foreign power; no, more like the long, slow suicide of gradually increased doses of a powerful drug. But suicide, nonetheless.

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Once Again, Coal Wins

Why are we even surprised any more?

The former head of the state mine-permitting agency said Tuesday he was fired after refusing to go along with an illegal policy that primarily benefited a politically powerful coal company, Alliance Resource Partners.

Ron Mills, a veteran state regulator, was fired without explanation last Friday by the Beshear administration as director of the Division of Mine Permits. (Courier-Journal, 2009/11/17)

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There's a Critical Vote Coming -- and It's Not Healthcare

As the title says, there's a critical vote coming. It won't be 60-40, or 268-112, or anything like that. More than likely, it will be 5-4. And it has the power to fundamentally change American democracy.

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Saturday Morning Odds and Ends -- and a bit of Frustration

A few notes before leaving to see my mom for a few days --

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