All this from the same people who freaked when Al Gore was accused of taking contributions from Buddhists.

Look, it's pretty simple:

The workings of publicly traded companies and publicly elected and paid politicians must be held in the utmost secrecy.

The private communications, personal effects, associations and sexual preferences of individual citizens must be monitored and made transparent.

This shouldn't be so hard to understand.

If what is being advocated by Bruce Josten comes to pass, it will be the another step to a depressing slide to a corporate nightmare depicted in such dystopian science fiction movies as 'Soylent Green' & the original version of 'Rollerball.' While initial idea of the corporation as first imagined by the 17th Century Dutch had merit, it has morphed into as pernicious a vehicle of elite control as the social structures of feudal Europe.

Yes, it is, indeed, very simple. This entire article can be summed up, as Goebbels did in his post above, in a couple of sentences. Here is my summary.

Corporations are persons, but they are special persons. They are Über-persons, just as the people who run them are Übermenschen.

Now, Über-persons, taking the meaning of 'über' quite literally, are over-persons, namely persons that stand over the plain persons.

And the over-persons abide by special laws, which dispense them, among other things, from having to respect the principle of non-contradiction in public discourse. Which is to say that they may utter sentence P and sentence not-P in one and the same breadth without fear of real consequences.

One might add, to be really clear about things, that taking moneys from foreign hands to influence the political process here in the United States should not prevent the corporations engaging in said practice from claiming very loudly that they are patriotic.

Like all things, patriotism comes in two basic varieties: there is Über-patriotism and then there is the patriotism of the schleps.

By their very nature and practices, corporations are anti-democratic.

"Corporate personhood" is one of the most destructive frauds perpetrated on us all.

Needed: a national movement to challenge corporate charters in every state.

If a corporation is destructive to the Commons, including the natural environment (Exxon, BP, Monsanto), its charter should be revoked.

I oppose the death penalty for humans, but not for corporations.

All those corporate "...employees, vendors, suppliers, and shareholders of all political stripes..." (and I am a shareholder/investor via my pension) will have to fend for themselves when their corporation's charter is revoked.

Or are penalties in the alleged "free market" somehow unfair when they are applied to corporations?

I live in Brandon, Florida.

I have been told by those who have looked into what Brandon is.

It is unincorporated big town in Hillsborough County, no elections of any civic leaders and basically a post office area of Identification run by guess who,,,

The Chamber of Commerce.

I wonder what power they have in your town?

So? as others have already pointed out, that is how our Democracy Inc. works. We advocate neo-lib global policies where capital flows across borders, corporations enjoy legal personhood and money is free speech.

Sorry for the cliche, but don't hate the playa, hate the game. Both Corporate parties are guilty of these policies.

this josten is nothing more than a whore

The republican party is truly despicable and ignorant. Yet I expect them to make big electoral gains in the next election because the electorate is so ignorant.

It's hard even to imagine what a republican-controlled congress will do.

I'm sure they'd just love love to impeach Obama and Biden and get their Speaker of the House installed as President. They wouldn't hesitate a minute if they could pull it off.

Jim Shea

OMG! Hello, spook government people....pssst ...over here!

Yeah, I heard about the wikileaks thing, but gosh, don't you think that you should be looking into a group that hides under the cover of U.S. Chamber of Commerce?

FOREIGN donations???? Hello again....shouldn't you be looking into this American based group who is not willing to disclose ANYTHING, and is probably taking foreign money which can and will influence our elections?

Granted, I did say" probably," as I want to be more fair than you guys who pick people up and hide them away for the silliest reasons. Which, by the way, if Osama was on the CIA payroll ( I just heard that, and I don't know for sure) but... oh I do realize that he's from our "friends" in Saudi Arabia....but you can't pay him with the left hand and curse him with the right hand, can you?

Well, maybe you can, but should you? You also need to look into That whole Blackwater/Xe and the 30 shell groups that it has re: SHOW US THE MONEY.

In the meantime, please put this U.S. Chamber group on the blacklist list.... If you can stop money from going to Wiki, then the least you should do is to stop foreign corporations or individuals from interfering with our elections by way of the Chamber of Commerce...( I think that group is taking the "Business of America is Business" thing a litlle too far, don't you think?.

You know, a lot of those Chamber people want less government, so don't forget, you spook people could be part of a the future of LESS government. and you won't want to be out of a job in this economy!

The US Chamber of Commerce is being funded by Multinationals and Foreign Governments.
Our own government has sold us out to these foreign powers.
Our votes mean nothing to Corporate Personhood.

This sums up the entire argument:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIraCchPDhk&NR=1

Non Serviam - I will not serve.

This is a big story.

It is an example of the undermining of our Democracy. Yet it isn't treated that way in M$M. That is how routine political corruption has become.

Just a brief suggestion _ e-mail your 'elected representatives' and demand a Congressional Inquiry to force Chamber of Commerce to disclose foreign backers.

Congress _ https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

Senate _ http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Hedge it by cc'ing your letter to your local newspaper's 'letters to editor' address, maybe dropping a note to CNN political correspondent Jonathan Mann at politicalmann@cnn.com, and suggesting that he investigate this matter.

It doesn't take any longer than posting a comment here. It would probably be advisable to place whatever pressure is available to us upon the Chamber, and there actually isn't much else, even though this form of pressure is arguably scant.

It's likely that the Chamber is getting a lot of its foreign backing from China, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Dubai, which would probably get some xenhophobic Tea-baggers' attention.

The interesting thing is that all of the money-power grubbing folks unleashed by the Supreme Court who make up the Corporations will suffer the same demise as the rest of us when the world ends, not with a bang, but a whimper because surely they must all realize that it is inevitable. The Supreme Court decision to give corporations 'personhood' is the death knell for America, for Democracy and for civilization. And, their agenda, their ultimate goal is what? To rule the world like in some comic book fantasy? What? Funny how a little band of frumpy black robes can be so responsible for so much for so little gain. Makes one wonder how many little pills it takes to put those frumpy black robes to sleep at night and what kind of ghosts of the future careen around in their dreams...

Are you sure its the "US" Chamber of Commerce?

does "US" here stand for "Undisclosed Supporters"?

It has been appearant for decades that the extremely rich and powerful have no dercernible patriotic connection to any country. They are "internationalists" and will live and "work" anywhere that will allow them to get even more rich and powerful.

they would quite happly turn the USA into a toxic wasteland in their quest for money and power, as long as they dont have to reside in their own mess..

I put this on another string, but it seems to fit here, too.

Earlier this year (or late last year) a senator told some hearing that they (Corporate America) own the government, lock, stock and barrel and there was nothing that We the People can do to get it back.

The Supremes, like Dr. Frankenstein, have created an immortal individual that answers to no one. When they declared that corporations have the same rights as an individual, that was the needed jolt of electricity to give the monster life.

An individual lives an allotted time, grows old and dies. A corporation continues, adding new officers to take care of attrition, but the company lives on. Its only loyalty is to the stockholders, its only mission is to increase profits, whatever the cost in human lives, lifestyles. War is the biggest cash cow in existence and they will not give it up without a fight and, they have unlimited cash to fight with, plus permission from the Supremes to use as much as they need to to buy and control the three branches of government.

As you can see from the article above, they are using it, lavishly.

I don't think the Supremes necessarily favor one party over another. They simply gave CORPORATE America unlimited license to buy/bribe the government.

As I've said before, the current system consists of a two-backed beast. One back has an "R" on it, the other a "D." If you look carefully between, you'll see a cadre of very wealthy and powerful people pulling the strings. They don't care which side wins for they own and control them both. The recent ruling just lets them out of the closet to work in the open. All of this political strife is just window dressing so we will feel we have a meaningful choice. You see where the meaningful choice led us last time.

We, and the world, are still being Bushwhacked in the Obamanation. The only winners have been Corporate America, the Oligarchs, the Kleptocrats, that keep bleeding We the People for their own gain. That won't change no matter which puppet we "vote" for.

The U S Chamber of Commerce is a Terrorist Organization. They allow foreign contributors to influence American's Elections. This is a direct assault on our Democracy and our Constitution. Those who pushed this through are on the Supreme Court are also Terrorist Sympathizers who have broken their oath to defend our constitution and our country. They should be stand trial for treason against America. In short, those who would destroy our Democracy deserve no less than to be treated like the Vile Scumbags they really are. They are Evil Monsters, interested in their own power and financial gains, at the expense of Americas constitution and her People. Impeach these criminals on the High Court and Charge the US Chamber of Commerce with the money laundering and Rico racketeering statues that will put these monsters in front of an honest judge to face the law as it should be enforced. To Support the Constitution of the United States and her Citizens.

Speaking of blackmail and intimidation, I'd take a look at: http://michellemalkin.com/2010/10/15/public-enemy-number-one-gop-donors/

One interesting bit:

"In August 2008, a former Washington director of MoveOn.org — the smear merchant group that branded Gen. David Petraeus a traitor for overseeing the successful troop surge in Iraq — announced a brazen witch hunt against Republican donors. Left-wing political operative Tom Matzzie told The New York Times he would send “warning” letters to 10,000 top GOP givers “hoping to create a chilling effect that will dry up contributions.” Matzzie bragged of “going for the jugular” and said the warning letter would be just the first step, “alerting donors who might be considering giving to right-wing groups to a variety of potential dangers, including legal trouble, public exposure and watchdog groups digging through their lives.”