Fwd: Removing corporations from politics

[Guest guest]

Removing corporations from politics

 

 

[You'd think a good " progressive " community like Austin might be able to

get something like this passed. It would be fun to watch Louis Black

and the Chronicle staff scream and pull their Chicken Little routine.]

 

 

" Something profoundly important is happening in the shadows of the

redwoods of Northern California. On June 6, voters in Humboldt County will

have the opportunity to vote on an historic initiative -- the Ordinance to

Protect Our Right to Fair Elections and Local Democracy.

 

" If passed, this ordinance (known locally as Measure T) will prohibit

non-local corporations from making political contributions in Humboldt

County elections. This alone would make the ordinance worthy of support

amongst progressives. But this ordinance goes so much deeper.

 

" The official ballot language includes a direct challenge to the

ridiculous notion that a corporation is a 'person' with vested

constitutional rights. Specifically, the ordinance provides that 'only

natural human persons possess civil and political rights, and corporations

are creations of state law and possess no legitimate civil or political

rights.'

 

" There is the additional assertion that 'courts have illegitimately

defined corporations as 'persons' and this doctrine illegitimately denies

the people of Humboldt County the ability to exercise our fundamental

political rights.' And to add teeth, the initiative provides that 'no

corporation shall be entitled to claim corporate constitutional rights or

protections in an effort to overturn this law.' "

 

Full story at:

http://www.populist.com/06.10.cobb.html