WELCOME TO OPINIONS BASED ON FACTS (OBOF)
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OBOF YEAR FOUR INDEX
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OBOF TYMHM PART 14-01
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Jan. 02, 2014
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OBOF TYMHM PART 14-02
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Jan. 09, 2014
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OBOF TYMHM PART 14-03
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JAN 30, 2014
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OBOF TYMHM PART 14-06
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Feb. 06, 2014
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OBOF TYMHM PART 14-06 EXTRA
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Feb. 09, 2014
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OBOF TYMHM PART 14-07
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Feb. 13, 2014
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Feb. 27, 2014
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Mar. 08, 2014
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OBOF TYMHM PART 14-11
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Mar. 13, 2014
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OBOF TYMHM PART 14-11 EXTRA
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Mar. 15, 2014
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Mar. 21, 2014
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OBOF TYMHM PART 14-13
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Mar. 29, 2014
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OBOF TYMHM PART 14-14
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Apr. 03, 2014
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OBOF TYMHM PART 14-15
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Apr. 12, 2014
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Apr. 26, 2014
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May 03,
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OBOF TYMHM PART 14-19
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May 10,
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OBOF TYMHM PART 14-20
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May 20,
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OBOF TYMHM Vol 14 - No 21
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May 28, 2014
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OBOF TYMHM Vol 14 - Ho 22
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June 10, 2014
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OBOF TYMHM Vol 14 - No 23
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June 20, 2014
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noteOBOF TYMHM Vol 14 - No 24
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July 04, 2014
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OBOF TYMHM Vol 14 - No 25
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Aug. 04, 2014
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OBOF TYMHM Vol 14 - No 26
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OBOF TYMHM Vol 14 - No 27
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Sept. 03, 2014
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OBOF TYMHM Vol 14 - No 28
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Sept. 10, 2014
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Agenda
SPECIAL
SPECIAL
TRULY
IMPORTANT
CONGRESS
TO DEBATE A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT
From Floyd:
There are
two important articles below. The first
is from the founders and team of the MoveOn organization. If, you are not familiar with this group,
they have been very active, as you will see when you read the following. They, after only four years have a membership
of 8 million. I personally, stand with
them most of the time.
Now, the
second article is from a very accomplished journalist. I have followed his work for years. What he says you can take to the Bank. His article sets us all straight as to what
to expect in bringing about at constitutional amendment.
Wow—this
is huge. Last night, the Senate voted
79-18 to advance a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United.
The next step is a vote Thursday.
We're getting ready to
launch a huge accountability campaign, going after senators who vote the wrong
way. Can you chip in $3 today to get us started?
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Dear MoveOn member,
The Senate just voted to advance a constitutional
amendment to overturn Citizens United. For the first time in history, every single
senator will be forced to say—on the record—whether or not they think money is
speech.
This is momentous. It's a once-in-a-generation opportunity.
It's nothing short of amazing that Mitch
McConnell and his fellow Republicans didn't block this bill entirely—as they've
done with nearly every other priority issue of most Americans, like the minimum
wage and student debt.
We've built enough
grassroots pressure that they couldn't squash this. McConnell is trying to make lemonade out of
this—he claims that he welcomes the debate. But 80 percent of American oppose Citizens
United. Even 72 percent of
Republicans think the Supreme Court got it wrong.1
So now, it's on. The Senate will debate money in politics this
week—and a full vote is expected Thursday.
Can you chip in $3 to help us ramp up the
public pressure on these senators before they close their debate on this bill on
Thursday?
Undoing Citizens
United—which requires a 2/3 vote in both Houses of Congress or a
constitutional convention convened by the states—won't be easy and won't happen
right away. But the Senate just voted
79-18 to begin debate! And the fight to
end the stranglehold that big corporations and lobbyists have on our democracy
is one we have to win. But we can only
do that if we keep the momentum going now, through election day, and beyond.
We've already launched
thousands of calls and cut ads in key states. Now we'll escalate our pressure on senators
before they vote—and prepare a big ad campaign that goes after senators who
vote the wrong way Thursday. And then
keep going.
Will you contribute $3 now to escalate the
pressure we're aiming at our senators today, tomorrow and every day—for as long
as it takes—until we overturn Citizens United?
The real goal—for this
election and beyond—is to start kicking out the politicians in both parties who
are carrying water for the big banks, the insurance companies, and other
lobbies.
In big moments like
this one—when MoveOn members come together in big ways—amazing things can
happen.
So if you feel it in
your bones that this is a special moment like I do, then I hope you'll get
involved. Our collective power matters. When 8 million MoveOn members join together
to tackle big problems like corruption and money in politics, we're
unstoppable.
MoveOn members have
overcome long odds before, and won.
In 2006, Washington Iraq
So what did MoveOn
members do? We helped take over the House of Representatives!
MoveOn members made 7 million phone calls, organized 7,500 house parties, and launched 6,000 in-district events. We held politicians accountable forWashington
MoveOn members made 7 million phone calls, organized 7,500 house parties, and launched 6,000 in-district events. We held politicians accountable for
But one step forward,
two steps back. In 2010, the Citizens
United decision was a devastating leap backwards—a punch in the gut. We lost the House to the Tea Party, too.
But MoveOn members didn't give up, not even then. We launched a huge campaign
to rein in the power of big corporations in Washington
We grew bigger than we'd
ever been before—8 million members. And in 2012, we re-elected Barack Obama. And we
began paving a long-term path to end Washington
~~~
A ‘Pivotal Moment’ for the Movement to Remove Money from Politics
John Nichols
Bill Moyers / Op-Ed
Published:
Tuesday 9 September 2014
The Senate will wrangle this week over whether to amend the Constitution to allow citizens
and their representatives to organize elections where votes matter more than
dollars.
The amendment that is being considered is a consequential, if relatively constrained, proposal, which focuses on
core money in political concerns but which does not go as far as many Americans
would like when it comes to establishing that money is not speech, corporations
are not people and elections should not be up for sale to the highest bidder.
Yet it is difficult to underestimate the importance of
the debate that will unfold this week. The
debate signals that a grassroots movement has established the
rational response to a political crisis created by US Supreme Court rulings
(including, but certainly not exclusively, the Citizens United and McCutcheon decisions) that have opened the floodgates for domination of political
debates by billionaire campaign donors and corporate cash.
Organizing and campaigning by citizens — working in
conjunction with groups that have never been adequately funded, on a project
that has never received a fair share of media attention — has gotten 16 states and more than 600 towns, villages, cities and
counties to demand an amendment. And the Senate is taking that demand
seriously enough to propose a fix, to organize a debate and to schedule votes
that will provide a measure of the prospects for making a democracy amendment
the 28th addition to the Constitution.
Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent
who has proposed a more specific and aggressively worded amendment than the
compromise measure that is expected to be considered this week, argues that
this Senate debate on the issue of money in politics marks “a pivotal moment in
American history.”
Though Sanders would go further than Democratic leaders in the Senate on a
number of points, he has joined them in co-sponsoring the amendment by New Mexico
Senator Tom Udall that will be debated this week.
The Vermonter understands why this debate is so
significant.
It is not because Senate consideration of the issue at
this point will lead to the rapid amendment of the Constitution. In fact, no matter what Senate Democrats do,
there will not be a sufficient majority in the chamber where a two-thirds vote is required to approve an amendment for
consideration by the states. Nor is there
any realistic chance that John Boehner will suddenly decide to lead the charge
against the corporate campaign spending and billionaire manipulations that
bought him the House speakership.
It is not because the amendment that is being advanced now is the amendment
that will ultimately be added to the Constitution. Make no mistake, there will
be a 28th Amendment; there must be if the American experiment is to survive as anything akin to
a democratic republic. As with past
amendments, however, this initial proposal for updating the Constitution will
likely be altered — with language strengthened or weakened based on the ability
of mass movements to place demands for more or less radical change.
So why exactly is this a pivotal moment?
Because when a movement becomes sufficiently dynamic to force a Senate debate — after just four years of
organizing by groups like Move to Amend, Free Speech For
People, Public Citizen, Common Cause, People for the American Way and allied groups at the local and state levels — that debate ought not be
seen as beginning or the end of anything. It is a part of a process — an
essential teaching moment, an essential organizing moment.
“It’s overwhelmingly clear what the citizenry wants: fed
up with a system in which the super-rich and giant corporations are effectively
able to buy politicians and policy, the American people are rising up and
demanding a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and restore our
democracy,” explains Robert Weissman, the president of Public
Citizen. “Whatever happens on the day
(this week) is not long off when the 28th amendment becomes the law of the
land.”
That’s what Sanders means when he speaks of a pivotal moment.
Millions of Americans are already engaged with the
movement to amend the Constitution to get money out of politics — and with the
broader movement to address the twin fallacies that money is speech and that
corporations should have the same rights as human beings. Tens of millions more are supportive of the
struggle. Indeed, polls show there is overwhelming support for the amendment
among Americans — 73 percent in favor versus 24 percent opposed, according to a
new Democracy Corps survey — and that this support crosses all lines of
partisanship and ideology.
The Senate debate has the potential to get millions of
additional Americans engaged with what Sanders refers to as “the major issue
of our time — whether the United States of America retains its democratic
foundation or whether we devolve into an oligarchic form of society where a
handful of billionaires are able to control our political process by spending
hundreds of millions of dollars to elect candidates who represent their
interests.”
The fact that the issue is being treated seriously at the
congressional level will merge a sense of urgency with a sense of
possibility. This could have an impact
on the 2014 Senate races; indeed, the Democracy Corps survey found “overwhelming
cross-partisan support (73 percent) for a constitutional amendment to overturn
Citizens United that can translate into added support for Democratic candidates
who support the amendment and damage Republicans who oppose it.”
Significantly, the Senate debate has the potential to
influence the outcome of election contests. The Democracy Corps polling memo concluded, “Democratic candidates can gain from
supporting this amendment. A 48-11
percent plurality of voters say they are more likely to support the named
Democratic candidate after hearing an argument for the proposal. This
represents broad support, as the number actually increases among voters under
50 to a 41-point gap and among independents to 42 points.”
Those numbers may explain why Democratic senators who will never be
confused with reformers have signed on as co-sponsors of the amendment
proposal.
Ultimately, however, the amendment fight must be seen in
a broader context than any Democratic political calculus. The movement must
attract Republican support for an amendment. And
this week’s debate will tell us about the prospects for bipartisanship. Will Republicans who face re-election this
year in states where there is strong and well-organized support for an amendment — such as
Maine’s Susan Collins, who faces amendment supporter Shenna Bellows — break
with their party leadership and back this amendment? In open-seat races, will
candidates such as South Dakota Democrat Rick Weiland, an outspoken amendment
supporter, find their positions strengthened by an increased focus on the
issue?
Constitutional amendments become viable when support for them grows so
overwhelming that traditional partisan and ideological boundaries are broken. When this happens, the divide becomes less a
matter of Republican versus Democrat or left versus right and more a matter of
a broken present versus a functional future.
The corrupt political processes of the moment are not
just anti-democratic, they are fundamentally unjust. What former Senator Russ Feingold refers to as a
system of “legalized bribery” allows billionaires and corporations to buy more
than elections; they buy policies and crony capitalist arrangements that
undermine the fairness, the capacity for improvement and the basic stability of
America.
There is no question that the arc of human progress is long. But nor is there any question that it bends
toward justice. This week’s Senate debate
will not produce justice; but it will help to build the movements that are
necessary to bend the arc.
ABOUT John Nichols
John Nichols, a pioneering political blogger, has written the Beat since
1999. His posts have been circulated
internationally, quoted in numerous books and mentioned in debates on the floor
of Congress.
~~~
If the good
Lord is willing and the creek don't rise, I'll talk with you again, probably
later this week since this was a special.
God Bless You All
&
God Bless the United
States of America
Floyd
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