Corporations are People, for Pete's Sake

Here's the quote of the day, from the Republican debate of two nights ago:

"So we went to the company and we said: Look, you can't have any illegals working on our property. I'm running for office, for Pete's sake, I can't have illegals. It turns out that once again they hired someone who had falsified their documents, had documents, and therefore we fired them." -- Mitt Romney

Meaning of course that if (for Pete's sake) you happen to be a mere private citizen working for a group that buys and breaks up companies, and you find yourself with a few hundred acres of shaggy bluegrass, then illegal aliens are a very cost effective means for keeping that lawn as impeccably groomed as your classic 1962 Brylcreem hairdo. The video here is important, because it shows how Romney can be pushed into saying what he really means.

Without Rick Perry badgering him, Mitt never would have come out with the admission that he is only forced into following the letter of the immigration laws because he has political ambitions.

This isn't the first time that we've seen Mitt say something revealingly unscripted in the heat of the moment. I've commented on the "Corporations Are People, My Friend," video from the Iowa State Fair before, but note how the hecklers get him to reveal his deep love for abstract legal entities...

My favorite bit of absurdity in this clip now is the sentence, "Of course they are [people]. Everything corporations earn ultimately goes to people." Following that logic, crime syndicates making money for criminal people are people, savings accounts earning 0.001% interest for duped people are people, churches collecting money for priests are people, marijuana plants growing in your basement that can be converted to cash that ultimately goes to people are people, everything is, ultimately, people, for Pete's sake. But that doesn't mean everything should be allowed to vote or influence our electoral process based on its monetary power.
So what's the next question that will knock Mitt off script? I'd suggest a customized version of Clinton's famous 1994 MTV Question. In Mitt's case it would be: "Boxers? Briefs? Or Magic Underwear?"

"Corporations are people, my friend." -- Mitt Romney

I'm still so sorry that the heckler didn't take his cue from Terrance and Phillip and respond with, "I'm not your friend, buddy."

But seriously, the real responses to this idiocy of Mitt "Buddy" Romney's are myriad, but the more I think about it, the more I think that even if you accept the January 21, 2010, Citizens United decision of the Supreme Court that corporations have the same unlimited rights to free political speech of any other person -- and the rights to back up that speech with all their substantial resources -- the heckler should have followed up with, "But are they American citizens?"
Even if corporations are people, why should these people without a country, these supranational groups with unlimited resources that moves jobs, factories, and corporate headquarters offshore, have any say in the domestic politics of their former home? Or in the politics of any country in which they have some of their tentacles planted?

If you think the US is a "Company" and "Corporations are People", then vote for #RomneyRyan2012

August 31, 2012:

"Paul Ryan and I understand how the economy works, we understand how Washington works, we will reach across the aisle and find good people who, like us, want to make sure this company deals with its challenges. We’ll get America on track again."

Mitt and Paul can probably sell off some of the company assets. I'm sure the oil and gas companies could use Yellowstone and Yosemite and the Grand Canyon for something more lucrative than usless "scenery."


And the classic Romneyism from August 11, 2011:


The moment for which he'll be forever remembered:

"Corporations are people, my friend!"

Language Matters: Contributions Toward the Comprehensive Romney Dictionary

It's time to acknowledge that Willard M. Romney is adding phrases to the 2012 campaign at a record pace. He's already added far more depth and absurdity to the English language than John McCain, the most recent Republican nominee.  

Here are the first obvious contributions to the dictionary: 

Corporations Are People: If only one phrase can follow Mitt Romney into future history books, it will probably be this one, a heartfelt sentiment he voiced to hecklers on the Iowa State Fairgrounds in August 2011. It summed up his personal philosophy as well as the political mood in this year when the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision has given corporate money free rein to steal our electoral process.

Retroactively Retired: Who knew that the ultra-rich had the power to so easily time travel and erase responsibility for four years of actions by the company of which you were CEO and sole owner? We didn't know until Romney senior advisor Ed Gillespie explained it to us on Meet the Press last Sunday. Next, Mitt Romney is going to retroactively retire from the Massachusetts Governorship on the day before he signed Romneycare into law.

"Romney" as a verb: To defecate in terror. Self explanatory for anyone who knows the story of poor Seamus the Irish Setter riding on the roof of the family station wagon.

Running for Office, for Pete's Sake: Used to indicate that of course you would take the expedient, slightly-illegal, normal course of action (e.g., having undocumented Mexican gardeners sprucing up the grounds of your six homes) if you did not have that pesky press and inquisitive voters second guessing you. Phrase introduced to America in October 2011 during a debate with Rick Perry about "illegals". 

Self-Deportation: This ideal solution for the problem of undocumented immigrants (or "illegal aliens" in the official GOP Styleguide) was suggested by Mitt Romney in a January 2012 debate, but he was unwittingly lifting the idea from the satirical stance of "Daniel D. Portado" in 1994. It is also a description of what the Romney family may need to do when the IRS finally audits his unreleased tax returns and they self-deport to join their money in Switzerland or Bermuda or the Cayman Islands.

Ten Thousand Bucks: This is equal to $9.28 if you are an average 65-year-old American. It's equal to $0.06 cents if you're an average American between 21-25. In other words, he was putting no serious money where his mouth was when he offered to bet $10,000 with Rick Perry during a debate on December 10, 2011.

Do you have others that need to be added in the next installment? 

An Update on the Death of Free Television on 2/17/2009

Click here to see an interesting forum over at ConsumerReports.org about the current state of digital television (non-)reception over the air. It seems I'm not the only one who has hooked up my government-subsidized converter box but failed to find a signal using my existing indoor antenna (my failed autoscan on a Magnavox TB 100MG9 converter is shown in the attached shot from this morning).
The Consumer Reports article is much more honest than the ads being run on local stations, which make it seem the box alone will solve your DTV conversion problems. After going through a fair amount of detail about adding the box and better outdoor antennas, the Consumer Reports blog post states,

Unfortunately, there's a chance no antenna will work for you. Recent reports indicate that some households are in fringe areas with poor reception, and for them, off-air digital TV might not be a good option.
In any case, start soon. If you encounter problems, there will be plenty of time to resolve them before next February so you're not left out in the cold.

Since I can't install an outdoor antenna (and weren't they beautiful when forests of them did top the rooftops of the nation back in the sixties and seventies??), I expect not to be watching television at this time next year (unless you count DVDs on a computer screen as TV), but I think it's going to be a shock for a lot of people who don't have cable. Plus, I'm only in my apartment for a handful of waking hours a day. I can live without television. There are millions of others who shouldn't have to.
I put my personal case forward in the comments to the Consumer Reports article and the only answer I got was that I would need to get cable, but not to worry because there are basic plans for broadcast-only channels at about $15/month and other plans for only $40/month. Who is really benefiting from this DTV transition if thousands of people who are not currently paying a penny to the cable/satellite corporations will now be forced to pay a minimum of $180 - $480 per year to those companies if they want to continue receiving the most basic television services? (And remember that even if you do have cable, that second or third or fourth TV without cable that you watch in the kitchen or garage will be dead on 2/17/2009.)
OK, it's hard to think of a constituency that is less well-connected politically (or electronically) than the people who have no access to television other than the waves that are coming to them for free through the air, and this group probably didn't come up in conversation when John McCain and Vicki Iseman were discussing the transition to digital television in her clients' private jets. Even though the televisions of the uncabled won't start going black until next February 17th, there's nothing to stop the rest of us from spreading the word now that this Death-of-Free-TV bill bears a very heavy imprint of John McCain's, and that it was passed in the Senate by a 51-50 vote, with tie-breaking vote number 51 belonging to Richard "Dick" Cheney and the other 50 yea votes belonging to Republicans too.

"...banks aren't bad people ..." (says Mr. Willard "Corporations are people, too" Romney)

Here's Mitt Romney in Lehigh Acres, Florida earlier today:

#3wordsconservativeshate, visually

The hashtag #3wordsconservativeshate took off on Twitter on Friday night, so I just wanted to preserve a few of them as a snapshot of the state of the hate in late January of twenty ten:
The triplets of words used in the Wordle up above : national public radio - john fitzgerald kennedy - public library funding - strong public schools - strong public option - Reagan rose taxes - #3wordsconservativeshate - true blue liberal - corporations aren't people - teabaggers teabaggers teabaggers - Franklin Delano Roosevelt - immigrants are people - gay marriage tolerance- gay feminist mother - hillary rodham clinton - Obama is president - Blackwater are mercenaries - Yes, Obama won - Yes We Can - Yes We Did - Dick Cheney's Daughter - Liberal policies Work - peace, equality, freedom -Universal Health Care - Rational Thought Process - Public Healthcare Option - Justice for All - Share the wealth - Basic Human Compassion - Proud American Liberal - Greed is Bad - Equal Rights Amendment - Liberté Egalité Fraternité - I'm Gay Mom! - and I left out hundreds and hundreds more, but these contributions seemed (to me) representative.
Unfortunately, #3wordsconservativeshate never came anywhere near the quantity of #3wordslibhate as shown here at Trendistic.com. So here are three more words: Quality Not Quantity.
Images of Wordles from Wordle.net are licensed by a Creative Commons License.

" ... those who know us park their money with us ... "

If I owned a Super PAC, I think I'd be tempted to use my money to run nothing but Cayman Islands commercials in the week before the November election.


Too subtle?
There would also be the obvious temptation to remind voters who said "Corporations are people, my friend," on an hourly basis. 

Are the Cable Companies Counting on 6 million new customers (courtesy of John McCain)? Another Death of Free TV Update.

Here, from the International Herald Tribune, is the first article I found that actually estimates the number of televisions that will lose their signals -- even with converter boxes and antennas -- SIX MILLION.

The study by Centris, a market research firm in Los Angeles, found gaps in broadcast signals that may leave an estimated 5.9 million TV sets unable to receive as many channels as they did before the changeover. It may affect even those who bought government-approved converter boxes or new digital televisions. To keep broadcast reception, many viewers may have to buy new outdoor antennas, the study found.

The signals in my area that I am not receiving were addressed directly:

... [a] consultant hired to replace the broadcast antennas on the Empire State Building, found that digital signals did not travel as far as either model had predicted.
"For the people with rabbit-ear antennas, I would say at least 50 percent won't get the channels they were getting," Bendov said. "I would say a lot of people are going to be very unhappy."

Are the cable/satellite corporations simply assuming that the MILLIONS of us who lose our free television signals will finally give in and start writing them a monthly check? Has that been part of the plan since the earliest planning?

"Not One Damn Dime Day" - - - 20 January 2005

• I've received the following appeal for a general consumer strike on inauguration day in more than one e-mail. I don't know who started it, but I'm happy to pass it along.... remember, buy NOTHING, not even from "blue" merchants . . . . not even a True Blue Liberal t-shirt . . . . on Bush's second coronation day. Let the conspicuous consumption of the celebrating conservatives in DC stand out in contrast to our nationwide protest!

Since our religious leaders will not speak out against the war in Iraq, since our political leaders don't have the moral courage to oppose it, Inauguration Day, Thursday, January 20th, 2005 is "Not One Damn Dime Day" in America.

On "Not One Damn Dime Day" those who oppose what is happening in our name in Iraq can speak up with a 24-hour national boycott of all forms of consumer spending.

During "Not One Damn Dime Day" please don't spend money. Not one damn dime for gasoline. Not one damn dime for necessities or for impulse purchases. Not one damn dime for anything for 24 hours.

On "Not One Damn Dime Day," please boycott Wal-Mart, Kmart, Target... Please don't go to the mall or the local convenience store. Please don't buy any fast food (or any groceries at all for that matter). For 24 hours, please do what you can to shut the retail economy down.

The object is simple. Remind the people in power that the war in Iraq is immoral and illegal; that they are responsible for starting it and that it is their responsibility to stop it. "Not One Damn Dime Day" is to remind them, too, that they work for the people of the United States of America, not for the international corporations and K Street lobbyists who represent the corporations and funnel cash into American politics.

"Not One Damn Dime Day" is about supporting the troops. The politicians put the troops in harm's way. Now 1,200 brave young Americans and (some estimate) 100,000 Iraqis have died. The politicians owe our troops a plan - a way to come home.There's no rally to attend. No marching to do. No left or right wing agenda to rant about.

On "Not One Damn Dime Day" you take action by doing nothing. You open your mouth by keeping your wallet closed. For 24 hours, nothing gets spent, not one damn dime, to remind our religious leaders and our politicians of their moral responsibility to end the war in Iraq and give America back to the people.

• I've done my part, now it's your turn. Please pass this message along too in your e-mails and in your blog or web page. Make sure that everyone gets the word by January 20. It's no crime if they hear about it more than once. And if anyone knows who started this drive, feel free to give them credit in the Comments below.
  
• Thanks, True Blue Liberal

Corporate Rights in America have now trumped any mythical "States' Rights", even in Montana

Yes, they do exist.

Dear Montana,                

A hundred years ago the citizens of your young state stood up strongly to copper kings like William Andrews Clark, who in the words of Mark Twain, "bought legislatures and judges as other men buy food and raiment. By his example he has so excused and so sweetened corruption that in Montana it no longer has an offensive smell." You didn't just complain about these Gilded Age robber barons. You passed a referendum in 1912 that stated clearly a "corporation may not make ... an expenditure in connection with a candidate or a political party that supports or opposes a candidate or a political party." That clear will of Montana's early citizens was upheld again by the Montana Supreme Court in 2011.

Both the votes of your people and the decisions of your highest court were dismissed by five men on the US Supreme Court yesterday, without hearing the specific merits of your case, and by simply citing - in an unsigned opinion - their own ill-considered Citizens United decision as the basis for ignoring your will.

It should be clear to all of us that the rights of corporations (whether American or multinational) now trump the rights of American citizens, at least according to the 5-4 conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court. Dear Montana, Please think about the importance of that thin majority voting against your interests on the Supreme Court before you present your "safe" electoral votes to Mitt Romney in November. His goal is to change that majority to a safer 6-3 or 7-2 for his corporate friends. 

You could also try signing Senator Bernie Sanders petition for a Consitutional Amendment, but our current Congress doesn't show any lack of love for corporations desires over states' rights either so the chances of his anti-corporate amendment passing are slim. Our most important task now is to avoid a President who will give a lifetime tenure to more of the worst corporate stooges on the nation's highest court.

Just a Suggestion,

True Blue Liberal