Citizens United

-By Eric W. Dolan

August 6, 2012- Activist groups announced Monday that more than 100,000 signatures had been collected for a Colorado ballot measure calling for the controversial Citizens United ruling to be overturned.

“Unlimited corporate money in elections has only recently flooded American politics, but this initiative is part of a long history of citizens making their voices heard,” said Mo Kirk, President of Colorado Fair Share. “We spoke face to face with hundreds of thousands of Coloradans all across the state. These signatures represent their will to put our democracy back into the hands of citizens.”

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-By: Jason Easley

July 31, 2012- Sen. Bernie Sanders has seen his statements about wealth inequality come under vicious attack from the right. Today, PolitiFact confirmed that Sen. Sanders’ statement about the Walton family having more wealth than the bottom 40% is true.

A little over a week ago Sen. Bernie Sanders tweeted that, “Today the Walton family of Walmart own more wealth than the bottom 40 percent of America.” Sanders also made this statement during his recent congressional testimony on Citizens United.

Even though Sen. Sanders has been discussing the issues of wealth inequality and fighting for middle class and working Americans for years, it was his recent report about the impact of Citizens United and the 26 billionaires who are trying to buy the 2012 election that has raised the ire of the right.

The Vermont senator’s recent statements about the Walton family caught the attention of PolitiFact, and the Pulitzer Prize winner fact checkers analyzed Sanders’ tweet.

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Sen. Bernie Sanders told a Senate panel that a constitutional amendment is needed to undo the Supreme Court ruling that let corporations and wealthy individuals spend unlimited sums to sway American elections. Vermont and five other states have adopted resolutions asking Congress for a constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United decision. More than 200 local governments, including about 60 towns in Vermont, have passed similar measures. Read more: http://goo.gl/r9h7x

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It's no coincidence he's the first governor to survive recall – after the supreme court took the cap off corporate campaign finance

-By Amy Goodman

June 7, 2012- The failed effort to recall Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is widely seen as a crisis for the labor movement, and a pivotal moment in the 2012 US presidential election season. Walker launched a controversial effort to roll back the power of Wisconsin's public employee unions, and the unions pushed back, aided by strong, grassroots solidarity from many sectors. This week, the unions lost.

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-By Anna Almendrala

July 5, 2012- One of the largest states in the nation took an official stand Thursday against the Supreme Court's 2010 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which ruled that government restriction of corporation or union spending on political campaigns violated the First Amendment right to free speech.

California joins Hawaii, Vermont, Rhode Island, Maryland and New Mexico in calling for a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court ruling.

State assembly members Bob Wieckowski (D-Calif.) and Michael Allen (D-Calif.) introduced the campaign finance reform bill in January, calling for the federal government to send a constitutional amendment overturning Citizens United to all the states for ratification. The measure also would serve as an official symbol of California's disagreement with the ruling.

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Senator Bernie Sanders discusses the disastrous Citizens United decision and the growing inequality in the United States on MSNBC's the Ed Show.

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