Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Fortunately, a healthy number of business leaders see big problems with the Supreme Court’s decision to encourage an arms race in secretive political spending; many are also opposed to the aggressive action by US Chamber of Commerce in the 2010 elections. If you’re a stockholder and get the proxy notices about how to vote your shares of stock, be on the lookout for ballot measures aimed at requiring the company to disclose its political spending, or quit the US Chamber of Commerce, or take similar actions. Meanwhile, in his final speech on the floor of the Senate, Pennsylvania’s Arlen Specter lashed out (video on CNN) against Supreme Court justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito for violating their sworn statements to Congress, overturning established law, and voting “to permit corporations and unions to secretly pay for political advertising, thus effectively undermining the basic democratic principle of the power of one person, one vote. Chief Justice Roberts promised to just call balls and strikes – but then he moved the bases.”