- How the Magna Carta became a Minor Carta
- The Obama administration has perpetuated an assault on the foundations of traditional liberties
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Noam Chomsky | The Shredding of Our Constitutional Rights, Part 1
Noam Chomsky, Guardian UK
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Four of the earliest surviving copies of the Magna Carta, the 1297 charter issued by King Edward I, on display at the Bodleian library, Oxford. Photograph: Martin Argles for the Guardian
(July 25, 2012) The post-civil war 14th amendment granted the rights of persons to former slaves, though mostly in theory. At the same time, it created a new category of persons with rights: corporations. In fact, almost all the cases brought to the courts under the 14th amendment had to do with corporate rights, and by a century ago, they had determined that these collectivist legal fictions, established and sustained by state power, had the full rights of persons of flesh and blood; in fact, far greater rights, thanks to their scale, immortality, and protections of limited liability. Their rights by now far transcend those of mere humans. Under the "free trade agreements", the Pacific Rim can, for example, sue El Salvador for seeking to protect the environment; individuals cannot do the same. General Motors can claim national rights in Mexico. There is no need to dwell on what would happen if a Mexican demanded national rights in the United States.
Domestically, recent supreme court rulings greatly enhance the already enormous political power of corporations and the super-rich, striking further blows against the tottering relics of functioning political democracy.
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Related:
Noam Chomsky | The Shredding of Our Constitutional Rights, Part 1, Noam Chomsky, Evergreene Digest
The Magna Carta was a milestone in civil and human rights. Can we stop its principles being shredded before our eyes?
September 18, 2012 | Leaked video of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney telling donors that 47 percent of Americans vote because they are "dependent on government" and "believe that they are victims" might help explain why restrictive voter ID laws have attracted Republican support -- because "these people" can't be trusted with the vote.
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(September 4, 2012) What a difference four years makes.
(August 27. 2012) How will the American Presidential election be won in November 2012? By the Republicans buying the election? Perhaps. But money cannot always buy an election. That is why Republicans have spent the last 4-6 years passing a spate of voter suppression laws in “swing states” that will make it more difficult and costly for the young, the elderly, minorities, union members and single and elderly women to cast a vote for Barack Obama.
(August 24, 2012) I was nervous getting onto the flight to Denver. Since 2004, I have been a national radio producer, investigative reporter, author and consultant—writing about how elections are won, lost, bungled and improved, with a big focus on voter registration. But I had never snuck into a meeting of right-wing voting vigilantes who are the frontline of a national voter suppression strategy, and where the main speaker was a man whose new book I’d aggressively debunked days before, in an AlterNet article lauded by a leading election law blog and Washington Post . The meeting was a state summit organized by a group called True The Vote . The author was John Fund, who absurdly claims that more than 1,000 felons voted illegally in Minnesota in 2008, sending Democrat Al Franken to the U.S. Senate, where he was the final vote that passed Obama's health care reform.
