While 75% of the 6% of Iowa Republicans who vote in primaries were voting for NOT Romney on Tuesday, you all might have missed this . . .
Watch this brilliantly informative and humorous take on why corporate personhood and our current political bribery system is at the heart of the corporate overthrow of our Democracy . . .
Here are your Quotes of the day . . .
Sanders: Exxon Mobile, Bank of America, not the kind of guy you sit down and have a beer with. They don’t vote, they should not be allowed to spend unlimited, hundreds of millions of dollars collectively, on political campaigns without disclosure, this is a vicious attack on what American democracy is supposed to be about.
~snip~
Senator Sanders: What I think is that if American Democracy is going to survive we can not have a handful of large entities spending hundreds of millions of dollars electing the candidates who will represent their issues. We need a Constitutional Amendment which makes it very clear; Corporations are not people, they do not freedom of expression rights in terms of buying elections, and, in fact, legislatures and the Congress do have the right to regulate campaign finance.
Watch the video
Add one part humor, one part fact, Bernie Sanders and Stephen Colbert, then steep for six minutes until brilliance is ready to enjoy!
http://www.colbertnation.com/...
Transcript and more below the fold . . .
Colbert: My guest tonight is the junior senator from Vermont. He'll be the first guest I've ever lured here with cheddar. Please welcome Senator Bernie Sanders.
(Applause.)
Senator Sanders, thanks so much for coming back.
All right, sir, you are an independent senator from the great state of Vermont. You have a new book called "The Speech: An Historic Filibuster on Corporate Greed and the Decline of Our Middle Class." This is literally the text of what you said in an 8 and a 1/2 hour filibuster on the floor of Congress.
What were you trying to stop from happening when you shot off at the mouth for a third of a day?
Sanders: What I was trying to stop was a very bad agreement between the President and the Republicans which extended the Bush tax breaks for the wealthiest people in this country, in my view . . .
Colbert: "So you're the guy who causes the gridlock in Congress."
Sanders: "Not exactly"
Colbert: "They were trying to do a deal, and you said, “No deal! Bernie Sanders believes in stasis.”
Bernie Sanders: No Bernie Sanders believes that the middle class is collapsing, that working families need a break, that the wealthiest people are doing phenomenally well, and it is totally appropriate that they start paying their fair share of taxes.
(Audience erupts into cheers.)
Colbert: Thank you for cheering me, as a wealthy person.
But sir, surely, by wealthy you mean job creator.
Sanders: Actually, if you look at the largest corporations, they have been outsourcing millions of jobs to China and other countries.
Colbert: I didn’t say where they were creating the jobs, sir.
Sanders: They are job creators, unfortunately not in America.
Colbert: One of your bugaboos, if I can use that word on a family show, one of you bugaboos is the Citizens United decision.
Sanders: The absurd Citizens United decision.
Colbert: Okay, in this decision, it said that because corporations are people, which has been settled law since Santa Clara v Southern Pacific Railroad in 1886 . .
(Sanders: Inaudible)
Colbert: Meh. . . . because they are persons they have free speech, and since money equals speech they can use unlimited money in political speech. What's your problem with that?
Sanders: Between you and me, and everyone else in America, corporations are not people.
Colbert: Yes they are.
Sanders: Exxon Mobile, Bank of America, not the type of guy you sit down and have a beer with. They don’t vote, they should not be allowed to spend unlimited, hundreds of millions of dollars collectively, on political campaigns without disclosure, this is a tremendous attack on what American democracy is supposed to be about.
Colbert: You basically want to curtail corporate civil rights? You want corporations to ride on the back of the bus, even if it’s a bus company.
Sanders: No, I. Hahaha Nope.
Colbert: You are curtailing their speech
Sanders: No, they can have all the speech they want, but they cannot buy elections. And that is precisely what Citizens United is about.
Colbert: I work for Viacom
Sanders: Yup
Colbert: That's a big corporation.
Sanders: Yup
Colbert: I get to have political speech on my show?
Sanders: You are a person. Viacom is not a person.
Colbert: But Viacom pays me to say these things, okay? If Viacom pays me to say something I will say it on my show, okay? What is to keep, why can Viacom do that as a huge corporation but Monsanto can't?
Sanders: Because corporations are instruments of government, government is controlled by the people, the people elect their government. . .
Colbert: So the government can tell Viacom that they can not broadcast editorials?
Sanders: No. The gov . . .
Colbert: But your little bill said that corporations could not use unlimited money for political speech?! You're saying that corporations like Viacom who are news corporations can not have political speech! Check and mate, sir. Wow!
Senator Sanders: I don't think so. What I think is that if American Democracy is going to survive we can not have a handful of large entities spending hundreds of millions of dollars electing the candidates who will represent their issues. We need a Constitutional Amendment which makes it very clear; Corporations are not people, they do not freedom of expression rights in terms of buying elections, and, in fact, legislatures and the Congress do have the right to regulate campaign finance.
Colbert: You introduced such an Amendment on December 8th, okay, it's called The Saving American Democracy, or the SAD Act.
Sanders: Citizens United is a very sad decision, one of the worst Supreme Court decisions ever made.
Colbert: If someone wants to support your call for a Constitutional Amendment against Citizens United is there a place that they can go?
Sanders: Sure! We have a website, sanders.senate.gov, we have 120,000 people who have already signed the petition. We would like more. On the 2nd anniversary of this disastrous decision there's going to be demonstrations all over the country, trying to save the essence of American democracy, we hope people will participate in them.
Colbert: It [SAD Act] just has to pass through both houses of Congress, and be ratified by 2/3rds of the states? So, by May?
Sanders: Absolutely, absolutely.
Hat tip to colbertnewshub.com for help with the transcript.
Poor corporations will have to ride on the bus with every one else instead of on a corporate jet with tax breaks and with their billions and billions of dollars in terms of political activity? The horror! THE HORROR!
And dear Stephen Colbert, BRILLIANT!!!
Sanders: You are a person. Viacom is not a person.
Colbert: But Viacom pays me to say these things, okay? If Viacom pays me to say something I will say it on my show, okay? What is to keep, why can Viacom do that as a huge corporation but Monsanto can't?
EXACTLY! Corporations PAY people to say things! That's not free speech! It's bought and paid for speech. There is a difference. I can't pay people to vote for me, that would be illegal, but if Mayor Bloomberg for instance spends a fortune influencing votes, then he can buy votes indirectly, but at least Bloomberg is a person ( or an extremely advanced Terminator set on oligarch tyrant ). Bloomberg can vote. Once. His billions of dollars should not be given a vote each. Otherwise, Bloomberg has 1 billion and one votes, and you only get one. Not democracy. Same thing for Bank of America, except BoA is NOT a person, it can't vote, it has no soul, though, if we limited political activity to whether you have a soul or not, a lot of actual people would be excluded from the process as well . . .
There isn't much else to say, really, is there? Corporations are not people. You wouldn't want your kids to be hanging out on the corner with Wells Fargo late at night, would you. Exxon Mobile, Bank of America, not the kind of guys you sit down and have a beer with, ya know? Because Exxon Mobile NEVER gets sick, never gets a pre-existing condition. Bank of America will never know love. Bank of America has no soul.
Bank of America is not people.
And if Viacom loves its' freedom of speech, why does it keep shutting down Youtube videos? Especially, ironically, when those Youtube videos are of Stephen Colbert defending Viacom's freedom of speech and it is on an official US Senators webpage?
DO SOMETHING!
Sign the petition . .
A Petition to Support the Saving American Democracy ACT
The vampire squid bank is not a person. Goldman Sachs has no soul. Exxon Mobile, Bank of America, not the kind of guys you sit down and have a beer with, ya know?
Well said, Bernie!
The overall exchange was awesomesauce, and one of my favorite Colbert segments in a long time. Now sign the petition. Progress only happens one step at a time.
You can follow me on Twitter @JesseLaGreca
Peace and love to all