Corporations are people...Really?

If corporations are people, as the current right loaded SCOTUS asserts, then corporations...like BP...need to understand some very fundamental principles of BEING a person.

Firstly, in any society, it is incumbent upon persons to be good neighbors. Good neighbors do not destroy the property of of their neighbors...they do not shit on their neighbors dining room tables or in their water supply. A principle which BP has clearly violated in its attempts to maximize profits at the cost of the safety and livelihoods of its neighbors and employees in the Gulf states.

Secondly, being a person in a society entails a degree of responsibility for one's own actions, unless one has been determined to be non compos mentis. In this latter case, the state appoints a guardian for the individual in question. This is not the case with BP. Memos from BP shown that, in the days and weeks leading up to the catastrophe, BP was more concerned with cutting costs than in the safety and well-being of its neighbors and employees. Now, I'm no lawyer, but it would seem to indicate premeditation on BP's part. And, thus, it would seem to be a clear case of maleficence on the part of BP.

It is also a given that a person accepts, not only the benefits of living in a society, but also accepts the responsibilities it entails. Failure to accept these responsibilities is immature at best, and criminal at worst. BP falls into the latter category with its obvious and callous disregard for its responsibilities as a corporate "person".

Similarly, neither corporations nor persons cannot accept the profits accrued through capitalist enterprise without accepting the risks that accompany those profits. It is the attempt to reap these profits while shifting the risk, and the costs accompanying that risk, to the public sector...the tax-payer...you and me...that corporations and their political whores are attempting to institutionalize.

But it can only happen if "...We, the people..." abdicate our responsibilities as neighbors...as members of this society. We cannot expect to enjoy the benefits of living in a free and open society if we fail to accept the responsibilities it entails. We can take the easy path and let the punditocracy...the Limbaugh's...the Beck's...the Rove's...the Cheney's of this country tell us what to think and do. Or we can take the path less traveled...think for ourselves...educate ourselves on the basic issues involved in securing our liberty and prosperity in the face of corporate fascism. It is only this latter course which will allow us to maintain and protect a free and open society. The alternative is despotism.

Democrat in Chief?

The problem lies, not just with the Democrats, Republicans or even President Obama. Until each and every corporate lobbyist is whipped naked and howling into the wilderness...Until big money contributions have been eradicated from political campaigns (An no, money does not equal free speech. The SCOTUS has its head waaaay up its ass on that one) and ALL political campaigns are publicly funded, nothing will change.

And therein lies the rub. Politicians don't want the system to change. They get their gerrymandered districts which assure little, if any electoral competition...and when they leave office they can become "consultants" for their corporate pimps and johns until the restrictions on lobbying Congress expire. Then, they go back and spread corporate cash around Washington like the all pervasive cancer corporate lobbying is.

Until "We the People...' wake up and take our responsibilities as citizens of this nation and the ultimate arbiters of how our government conducts its business in our name, Nothing...Will...Change...Ever. It is one of the cornerstones of this Republic that the Republic derives its powers from the "consent of the governed". Did we REALLY consent to this level of dysfunction in our government?