[GPSCC-chat] Supreme Court Nominations--Romney v. Obama

Fri Jun 1 04:20:13 PDT 2012

       What information sources exist right now that report routinely on 
the activities of public officials federal, state and local and how that 
relates to money spent on lobbying and campaign contributions?  Lawrence 
Lessig's 2011 book "Republic, Lost" says that the massive amounts of 
money required to get (re)elected is the "Gateway" problem facing the US 
body politic today.  ( summarized this in "Gateway Problems in US 
Politics & Economics", 
http://occupy.pbworks.com/w/page/52167684/Gateway%20Problems.)  To 
succeed in destroying the power of ABC (Disney), CBS (Westinghouse), NBC 
(General Electric), CNN (TimeWarner) and Fox, we will need a critical 
mass of the US electorate making intelligent decisions in elections 
independent of the money spent on advertising, especially television.

       CommonDreams is good, but I don't think they originate any news 
stories;  they only republish reports that originate elsewhere.  Betsy 
listens to KPFA a lot, and I've been following Al Jazeera 
(www.aljazeera.com <http://www.aljazeera.com/>), ProPublica 
(www.propublica.org <http://www.propublica.org/>), and other members of 
the Investigative News Network (INN, www.investigativenewsnetwork.org 
<http://www.investigativenewsnetwork.org/>).  The members of INN all 
originate their own stories.  ProPublica asks readers to contribute 
information in various ways.  For example, their lead story right now asks:

Help Us Track How Politicians Target You
by Jeff Larson and Al Shaw
ProPublica, May 30, 12:51 p.m.
Political campaigns are using increasingly sophisticated methods to 
target messages to voters, methods that are not at all transparent. We 
need your help to uncover and understand them.

       ProPulica is also requesting information on foreclosures -- so 
far (I think) without getting much.  Part of what I think we should do 
with organizing a Foreclosure Summit is to ask people with foreclosure 
experience to help build the ProPublica database.

       Best Wishes,
       Spencer

On 5/31/2012 11:24 PM, Gerry Gras wrote:
>
> FWIW, I think if we could get MANY more people to read CommonDreams
> (or listen to KPFA?) every day, we'd see big changes.
>
> Gerry
>
>
> Spencer Graves wrote:
>> Lawrence Lessig's 2011 book "Republic, Lost" explains how the US
>> political system is so corrupt that few if any can survive in office
>> without playing their part in this corrupt system. Lessig says the
>> corrosive influence of money in government is "the gateway problem"
>> facing the US today in the sense that we must solve this problem before
>> we can make progress against any of the other problems facing the 
>> nation.
>>
>>
>> My reaction is summarized in my essay on "Gateway Problems in US
>> Politics & Economics"
>> (http://occupy.pbworks.com/w/page/52167684/Gateway%20Problems): To raise
>> the massive amounts of money required to get reelected, congress extorts
>> (Lessig's term) money from big business by passing legislation with
>> special privileges for a few years at a time. As each one expires, it
>> provides another excuse to shake down the big businesses for more money.
>> Since the 1990s, the masters of this game are the bankers, which is why
>> the world economy is in such terrible shape. For me, the gateway problem
>> is the failure of the US public to seek out and support substantive
>> investigative journalism, especially about how this corrupt system
>> works: In the 1980s and 1990s, a massive wave of media consolidation
>> produced a media oligopoly with more power than at any time in US
>> history. In the 1990s, the media companies all but eliminated their
>> previously anemic investigative journalism function, because no matter
>> how it's managed, it's a losing proposition. If they find anything, they
>> don't dare run a story for very long or they'll lose advertising.
>> Similarly, if they publish any serious information about politics, it
>> would increase the chances that someone could win an election without so
>> much advertising -- in addition to the money they'd lose from offended
>> advertisers taking their business elsewhere.
>>
>>
>> My bottom line, in a phrase similar to yours but I think with a little
>> broader appeal is that voting for any candidate or initiative that can
>> afford television advertising is voting for bribery. I refuse to vote
>> for bribery.
>>
>>
>> I agree with your position, but I think it's harder to convince people
>> that Obama is a war criminal. Besides, if Obama actually abided by the
>> law, the media would work hard to find something to cripple his
>> presidency. I think Obama knows this, which is why he does what he does.
>>
>>
>> Spencer
>>
>>
>> On 5/31/2012 10:32 PM, Brian Good wrote:
>>> http://img826.imageshack.us/img826/6571/scotusromneyobama260dpi.jpg
>>>
>>> I first heard this argument from a Occupy Redwood City guy--that if 
>>> Romney
>>> wins, he'll pack the Supreme Court with neocons, My own position is
>>> that as
>>> a matter of principle I refuse to vote for the war criminal Obama,
>>> lest I be
>>> seen as complicit in his crimes.
>>>
>>> We need a counterargument with wider appeal than mine.
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> sosfbay-discuss mailing list
>>> sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org
>>> http://lists.cagreens.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sosfbay-discuss
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> Spencer Graves, PE, PhD
>> President and Chief Technology Officer
>> Structure Inspection and Monitoring, Inc.
>> 751 Emerson Ct.
>> San José, CA 95126
>> ph:  408-655-4567
>> web:www.structuremonitoring.com
>>
>>
>>
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-- 
Spencer Graves, PE, PhD
President and Chief Technology Officer
Structure Inspection and Monitoring, Inc.
751 Emerson Ct.
San José, CA 95126
ph:  408-655-4567
web:  www.structuremonitoring.com

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