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California Politicians Could Soon Be Forced To Wear Logos Of Top Corporate Donors
Submitted by Carey Wedler via TheAntiMedia.org,
Popular memes calling for politicians to wear the logos of their corporate sponsors have circulated the internet for years, but the suggestion may soon be a reality for California legislators. In the next week, a potential ballot measure, submitted to the Office of the Attorney General in October, is expected to receive title and summary for the 2016 election, meaning its advocates will be able to collect signatures in order to secure its official place on the ballot. The proposed law would require legislators and candidates to sport the emblems of groups that donate money to their campaigns.
As the advocacy group that launched the measure, California is Not for Sale, muses:
“Imagine this: a California Senator is speaking on the floor and proposes a bill he just drafted that will give oil companies huge tax advantages. Now imagine if on his jacket, he was wearing Chevron, Shell, and BP logos – some of his top ten contributors. Our law will bring this under-the-table-corruption to the surface and expose these politicians who take political contributions in exchange for favors for what they really are: corrupt.”
The ballot’s sponsor, John Cox, is an entrepreneur from San Diego and long-time advocate of reforming the California legislature, which is rife with scandal and corruption. The legislature has been plagued with multiple ethics violations and hearings, and last year, members of the governing body flew to Maui to meet with corporate executives and union bosses, who funded the trip by funneling funds through a non-profit organization. The Los Angeles Times reported on the doublespeak-inspired “Independent Voter Project,” which sponsored the event:
“The group gets its money from about 24 entities, many putting up at least $7,500. They include Occidental Petroleum Corp., the Western State Petroleum Assn., Eli Lilly, the Altria tobacco firm, the California Cable and Telecommunications Assn., the state prison guards union and the California Distributors Assn., which represents distributors of tobacco and other products.”
This ongoing political climate in Sacramento, California’s capital, has inspired Cox’s activism for years. Before launching the logo initiative, Cox promoted the idea of electing more legislators to provide more direct representation to California’s large voting population. Whereas New Hampshire has one representative for every 4,000 voters, California has one for about every 483,000. Considering most voters are opposed to adding more legislators, however, Cox developed California is Not for Sale.
At the end of August, the group organized a protest outside the state capitol building, setting up life-size cutouts of over 121 state legislators, including Governor Jerry Brown. They were all decorated with their corporate donors’ logos, from 7-11 to AT&T and Walmart. The demonstration was well-received, drawing significant attention from passersby and the lawmakers themselves.
At the end of October, Cox officially submitted a request to add the measure to the 2016 ballot. In addition to requiring lawmakers to wear the logos of their top ten contributors every time they appear in the legislature, the proposed measure would also require political candidates to disclose their top ten donors in political advertisements.
After filing the petition, Cox said, “It’s a corrupt system and it’s got to change,” adding that “[i]f they don’t take any money, they won’t have to wear any stickers.” He explained the goal was not to embarrass lawmakers or attack corporations, unions, and collective bargaining, but rather, to raise awareness about big money’s influence in politics. “I think many of them, most of them, are probably good people. But they’re caught in a corrupt system,” he said.
The group announced late Sunday it is “preparing to receive title and summary in the next week and will then begin collecting signatures across California.” They must receive 365,000 signatures to secure a spot on the 2016 ballot, and are confident they will meet the requirement. As Ryan Smith, a coordinator for California is Not for Sale, told Anti-Media, “We’ve received a tremendous amount of support from the community so far. People love this idea. Their entire lives they have felt helpless and abused by politicians; our measure puts the power back in their hands.”
Unsurprisingly, the initiative has drawn mixed reviews from lawmakers. Smith said the organization has received angry emails from some legislators demanding the group stop using life-size cutouts of their image. Senator Marty Block told San Diego’s local ABC affiliate that he “supports reasonable measures to provide more transparency to our legislative process,” but did not explicitly endorse the measure.
Though assembly member Rocky Chavez acknowledged the legislature needs more transparency, he argued that “[t]o have everyone decked out like race car drivers would be a circus element which wouldn’t really benefit the public.” Instead, he suggested requiring candidates and legislators to list their top ten donors on their websites, though this would likely mean far less exposure than displaying them on the floor of the legislature.
Asked about Chavez’s claim the proposed law would create a “circus element,” Smith responded, “You know what’s a circus? That politicians can openly take money from corporations and unions and have no accountability afterwards. It’s a complete joke. If Mr. Chavez doesn’t like this, I have a brilliant solution for him: stop taking money. Problem solved, circus avoided!”
Either way, one thing is clear: as Cox said, “These people are not going to change it on their own.” As California is Not for Sale’s website asserts, “Big money in politics has gone too far. Average citizens don’t have a voice and it’s time that changes. By highlighting big money in politics, we can raise awareness around this issue and give citizens the voice they deserve.” Smith says the proposed ballot measure is only the first of several steps the group will launch over the coming years, “all with the goal of ending political corruption in our country.”
To get involved with the measure, visit http://www.californiaisnotforsale.com
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Fucking love it!
Expect this to get buried by the MSM.
Had to downvote this post for irony's sake
If Disney 'donates' I'll settle for the politician wearing the mouse ears.
I hope a porn company "donates" to each of them, so they can wear strap-on dicks and pussies! ;-)
Looney
Disney is in the porn business.
Kiddy porn. Nwemans favorite. Disney cruises to the tropics.
Next fight in the CA state senate gonna look like a NASCAR driver fight.
'So like, are you voting for the like, google guy or the um, apple heshe?'
That's what this will turn into. Vote for your favorite corporate sponsored team.
If you are from California and are reading this then I am surprised that you can. To be clear, I am insulting your intelligence by suggesting you will buy into the inevitable move to sponsor politicians just like sports teams.
Why I have loved living in the rebellious west for 60 yrs.
awesome
Just corporate donors or Unions, PAC's, and "charities" too?
Mouschwitz
"If Disney 'donates' I'll settle for the politician wearing the mouse ears."
The Pinnochio nose would be well suited.
Just re-posted this on ABCNEWS.com
Maybe I will vote again
Please don't.
It will just make you complicit in the crimes of government.
If you vote you are agreeing to go along with the corrupt game.
Brought to you by Carl's Jr.
I think this is the best idea to come out of California since... Yeah, I think it's the only idea that come out of California that has been worth anything. We should do this nationwide.
I think it came from former Governor Jess Ventura.
Yes, I believe you are correct. I remember him talking about them wearing patches like NASCAR does.
they should be forced to wear orange jumpsuits or striped pajamas
Why anybody in their right mind would vote for *any* of these creatures is beyond me. It's gotten so indisputably bad that no decent human being could possibly survive in the filthy world of poilitics.
They are all scum, and they'll never, ever, do anything good.
Upgrayedd Which he spells thusly, with two D's, as he says, "for a double dose of this pimping".
A pimps love is different from that of a square
That's it, I'm going to watch that movie tonight.
In soviet Russia, it's the companies' executives who have to wear a picture of Putin.
Russia is not Soviet.
I think you are being sarcastic, but that is a big fail.
Maybe try watching some vintage Yackoff Smirnoff for better examples.
BEST IDEA EVER!!!
isn't there a movie about that where all politicians wear logo's and everybody is dumb because the smart people didn't have kids?
The movie was titled "Idiocracy." It was a documentary about the future of the US.
Like Moore's Law, that 'future' has become the present
You are misinterpreting the spirit of this 'law'.
I just watched it again the other day: prophecy.
President Camacho: Shit. I know shit's bad right now, with all that starving bullshit, and the dust storms, and we are running out of french fries and burrito coverings. But I got a solution.
South Carolina Representative # 1: That's what you said last time, dipshit!
South Carolina Representative # 2: Yeah, I got a solution, you're a dick! South Carolina, what's up!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGUNPMPrxvA
When you think about it, we're already halfway there.
Actually everyone's clothes have logos.
http://s523.photobucket.com/user/unkadug/media/idiocracy_shirt.jpg.html
Coming from a state that now mostly trumpets meaningless causes, this is actually a good idea that will cost no money.
The bill is probably being sponsored by a iron-on patch corporation :)
Velcro, so they can switch alliances more easily.
As long as the size of the logo is proportionate with how much they received.
Otherwise politicans will have people breaking out electron microsocpes to see them...
Corporate logos for Feinstein & Boxer are already in production
I'd guess the kneepads will be the most expensive advertising space.
We'll still miss the biggest donors, because the back of the throat and the asshole won't be visible...
Why not sell some ad space somewhere close to the sphincter mouth? Talk about a monthly nut!
"There is no place, no country, more compassionate more generous more accepting and more welcoming than the United States of America." - Arnold Schwarzenegger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3boy_tLWeqA
State of the Union
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGUNPMPrxvA
Ricky Bobby for governor!
I'll be signing that one, and working on neck tattoos for the worthy.
"Yes, Prime Minister" - I never realise this will come true.
What a great idea. Hell, I'll collect signatures for this measure!
she would have loved you more than eva braun.
Danny O'Keefe - More Than Eva Braun - Live at McCabe's
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt8THJfvP8A
she would have loved you more than eva braun.
Danny O'Keefe - More Than Eva Braun - Live at McCabe's
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt8THJfvP8A
Red Bull to a Fag; Salt of the Earth Wound; Kick in the Gonads. A Royal Fuck You!
Meanwhile, the cops are going to take away your guns (all cops are scum) because its for your own safety.
http://conservativesunited.com/new-california-law-allows-family-member-t...
2000 black folks riot and shut down a KY mall
News at 11?... I don't think so
I saw no mention they were black.
Anywhere.
At all.
Strange isn't it?
Breibart has a video.
That area used to be high rent district. But, I haven't been back that way in a decaade or so. Old stomping grounds.
There is literally no downside to this. Make every politician show who their handlers are.
If politicians weren’t involved with every aspect of our lives there’d be no reason for corporations to bribe them with billions of dollars. Illinois has a new law that puts combination locks on prescription bottles. Things will only get much worse. Most Millenials think Freedom of Speech is outdated. Big Brother Police State here we come...
Did millenials vote for bush who created this police state?
Or clinton who started the ball rolling by federalizing the police and putting 100k of them on the street?
Nope.
Cannot blame the millenials for the NWO.
Thats the boomers doing.
Sorry.
That's right. The most feckless, reckless, egotistically inebriated, worthless, psychopathic generation ever to step forth in these Dis-United States of America. This is entirely of their doing. Maybe the fire was lit years ago, but they gleefully fanned the flames and tossed gallons of gasoline upon the burning pyre.
All for the love of and devotion to money.
Meh. The only thing you can really blame the Boomers for is being spoiled by their parents into believing that you really could have The Good Life without having to pay for it in blood sweat and tears. Please don't forget that the Boomer generation 1) fought -- and died -- in Vietnam, 2) fought -- and died -- to STOP Vietnam; and 3) fought -- and died -- to bring equal rights under the law to all Americans. If they didn't realize that the prosperity they were born to and knew all their younger lives was fragile, it was because they were highly educated -- damned near deliberately brainwashed -- that it was the product of Superior American Ingenuity. Their main sin was believing the lies their parents told them, lies told because their parents wanted so badly to make them true.
No, sirrah, the Boomers did NOT create the mess we have today through any kind of intentional greed or selfishness, but by ignorance deliberately planted and cultivated by their parents and leaders who profited from using them as dupes. And if you want to blame them for their naivete, consider that your own cynicism is the child of their shattered dreams. If you never had any illusions to lose, it's because your parents suffered the pain of loss for you.
I will call bullshit on that.
John Kerry is a perfect specimen of a boomer. Came back from Vietnam and protested the war only to become the big asshole that tries to justify more wars.
The generation's trademark is extreme greed and hypocrisy.
It was the generation of free love and getting stoned that when they got control of the system has put more people in jail for the same thing that they did when they were young.
It was the generation that talked about sticking it to the man. Now they are the man and while they enjoyed tremendous freedom what they created is a police state.
Fuck most of them.
John Kerry was in country for about 3 months. During that time he managed to get three splinter wounds and personally organized the paperwork to get himself awarded 3 Purple Hearts for his 3 splinter wounds.
Then, after that 3 months, he managed to get himself yanked out of there (what connections did that take, since most were doing 12 month tours?) and came back to pump up his political agenda by sliming the guys who were serving full tours, fighting for their country and getting disabled and killed doing so.
Kerry is the boomers' George Soros, except without the talent for making money (except as a gigolo) and not even a fraction of Soros' ethics and charisma.
Boomers did fight and die to stop "Vietnam", i.e. the invasion of South Vietnam by North Vietnam (same pattern as in Korea). They were the ones who lost limbs and lives over there and came back to be spit upon by Dems.
The ones you imagine "fought -- and died -- to STOP Vietnam" did not. They fought to stop their sorry little selves being drafted to fight in Vietnam, and they certainly did not die, that was the very thing they wanted to prevent. The anti-Vietnam group was a collaboration of cowards masquerading as people of principle -- not unlike most politicians -- and many of that group became politicians.
What bullshit.
You boomers are such scum, you will blame your parents.
The world will be better off without you when you are gone.
sounds like some lil snot nose got disinherited.
What about if they reach a certain threshold of 'donations' they need to get a face tatoo of the companies logo?
Please make Moonbeam Brown wear his Trojan Condoms® endorsement on his dunce cap.
NASCAR meets Politics
This idea is creative and sounds good but it has too much of a chance to backfire. Politicians are paid whores that have no shame. Once they realize they can use it to their benefit they'll embrace it and raise more money than ever.
The only way to stop this is to ban corporate contributions or ban voting. I choose the latter since voting never changes anything anyway. And almost everyone continues to vote Red or Blue for eternity believing they've actually won something other than a trip back around again.
it's not NASCAR .... Think Pro Golf.
This is a grreaaaaaaat Idea and shud become a National Law. hahahaha fat chance of that.
Like Tiger, if a pol get's scandalized he/she/it will lose the "sponsor"
Would there be enough room on their suits for all of the emblems most of them would have to wear?
Close the Corporate Logo Loophole!
They're politicians. They'll find a way around any law they don't like.
"The conventional viewpoint says we need a jobs program and we need to cut welfare. Just the opposite! We need more welfare and fewer jobs." - Jerry Brown
"It looks to me to be obvious that the whole world cannot eat an American diet." - Jerry Brown
Great idea.
Bigger "donations" for product placement.
Genius.
"Corporate" Logos? Red Herring if there ever was one. In CA you can be CERTAIN that the #1 sounce of money is Government workers, kicking back a healthy chunk of their swag to the politicians that gave it to them, of course all of it coming from the pockets of the poor farts in the private sector.
"The government is becoming the family of last resort." - Jerry Brown
Instead of a 'State Flag', we should just have a giant tarpoline with stickers of corporate logos, flying on a pole, above the State Capital Building in Sukramento...
+1 for using the word 'tarpoline'. Haven't thought of it in many, many years.
Am I dreaming or is this from The Onion?...
My first thought as well.
With a little trademark type of symbol that indicates: 'Bought and Paid for'.
Companies would file for compensation under trademark laws. Non issue unless CA would like to to pay the fees and damages. Then again under fair use...
Then again the taxpayers already have (indirectly or otherwise) via grants/tax breaks etc..
This amounts to advertisement. There will be a scramble for companies/groups to get their logos displayed.
!?!?!
The politician takes a bribe and gets an earned advertising fee?!?!?!
They could sell naming rights to the state cRapitol...The CSEA Worker Welfare Stadium.
Maybe an Octagon where teams of pols have capture the flag cage matches to pass meaningless paublum bills out of committee (cuz meaningful bills will be written and passed by lobbyists as usual).
Fucking brilliant. This should go federal, immediately.
Is GreenPeace, World Wildlife Fund, Planned Parenthood, National Gay and Lesbians Task Force, Progressive Policy Institute, Common Cause, MoveOn.org, etc., etc., etc.,..., you get the idea, included?
Yes? Well, alrighty then...
i think we all soften up some when we
are confronted with nipples and breasts, no?
as a general question.
Never, let me repeat, Never going to happen.
I could easily happen, and before it even gets that far multinationals will reshuffle in such a way that Monsanto money will be seen as a Lean Cuisine donation, big oil money as Roquette biofuels.
This effort at transparency could backfire.
Boooo
Nascarification of politicians?
Perfect
It'd be like paint by numbers for voting / sort of humilating at the same time too
Two thumbs up.
Needs an amendment. The logos must be affixed to the body, through the clothes, with industrial strength nailguns.
Further amendment. Lotteries to be held with the winner of each getting to specify the body part of a nominated politician to which a particular logo must be fixed, with the right to be there while it is affixed.
Multiply the number of politicians by the number of sponsors, that's a lot of lotteries, each of which could raise a huge sum of money. That could pay off California's debt pretty quickly.
<-- demoncracy instead of democracy
West has legalized corruption in the form of election campaign funding
And these bastards who sit in western parliaments have lost all credibility
in the eyes of truth
They no longer represent the public & ppl
whom they are supposed to serve
rather they including their heads of states
work for the corporations & cabal banksters
who pay them MONEY
Democracy has been hijacked
boot these buggers outta parliament
Throw shoes on these cabalbootlickers wherever they are
or rather kick them in the ass
I'd vote for this one in a heartbeat.
Genius.