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January 11, 2012 3:02 pm | By Paul Gordon
Corporate Court Rewrites Credit Law to Favor the 1%
Yesterday, the Supreme Court issued an 8-1 opinion in CompuCredit v. Greenwood, written by Justice Scalia, that will bring cheer to powerful corporations that break the law and leave everyday consumers feeling shell-shocked. It turns out that a congressional requirement…
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January 10, 2012 9:25 pm | By Miranda Blue
Republican Party Comes Out in Support of Direct Corporate Contributions to Candidates
The Republican National Committee filed an amicus brief in the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals today challenging the century-old federal ban on direct corporate contributions to candidates for office. If successful, the challenge would further weaken the clean elections laws…
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January 10, 2012 4:22 pm | By Justin
Marge Baker: We Are At a ‘Movement Moment’
PFAW’s Marge Baker appeared on MSNBC’s The Dylan Ratigan show yesterday, where she described the growing movement to overturn Citizens United v. FEC, the flawed 2010 Supreme Court decision that ultimately led to the “Super PAC,” resulting in toxic levels…
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January 9, 2012 6:08 pm | By Miranda Blue
Movement to Overturn Citizens United Gains Momentum as Anniversary Approaches
January 21 will mark the second anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC, which opened the floodgates to unlimited corporate spending in elections, and the movement to overturn the decision is gaining steam. As we approach…
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January 5, 2012 8:24 pm | By Justin
Corporate Cowardice Update: Still No Response from Kayak
A few weeks ago, PFAW Foundation President Michael Keegan wrote an open letter to Kayak CEO Steve Hafner, seeking an explanation as to why the company pulled advertising from the TLC program “All-American Muslim” due to pressure from the Florida…
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January 4, 2012 10:00 pm | By Miranda Blue
Obama Moves to Protect Workers and Consumers in Face of GOP Obstruction
Faced with uncompromising obstruction from Senate Republicans, President Obama made four recess appointments today to staff agencies that protect American workers and consumers. First, the president appointed former Ohio attorney general Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau,…
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January 3, 2012 10:44 pm | By Miranda Blue
Romney and Huckabee Bash Super PACs, but Will They Work to End Their Influence?
A little over a year ago, in September 2010, Senate Republicans succeeded in blocking the DISCLOSE Act, a measure that would have added some transparency to the new campaign finance free-for-all unleashed by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. Citizens…
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January 3, 2012 9:20 pm | By Justin
PFAW Founder Norman Lear: Fighting the Good Fight
In an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, PFAW founder Norman Lear describes the values that have guided his activism for the past 30 years: a belief that the right to individual liberty is not dependent on one’s religious beliefs…
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January 3, 2012 7:28 pm | By Paul Gordon
In Montana, a Chip in the Armor of Citizens United
Late Friday, the Montana Supreme Court ended 2011 with a 5-2 opinion upholding the state's prohibition on corporate spending on independent expenditures to support or defeat a candidate. Although Citizens United struck down the federal law in that area, the…
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December 28, 2011 8:28 pm | By Paul Gordon
More Exposure of ALEC, This Time in Virginia
The exposure of ALEC continues, this time in Virginia. ProgressVA has released a new report exposing the many ties between its conservative, corporate-friendly elected officials and the secretive corporate-sponsored American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). As reported in the Washington Post:…
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December 22, 2011 8:20 pm | By Miranda Blue
AAMIA Vice-Chair Shares Stage with President at Pro-Worker Press Conference
President Obama held a press conference today to urge House Republicans to pass an urgent extension to payroll tax cuts and unemployment insurance. Joining the president on stage was Rev. Dr. Robert P. Shine, vice-chair of PFAW’s African American Ministers…
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December 21, 2011 10:59 pm | By Justin
An Open Letter to Kayak CEO Steve Hafner
When a fringe right-wing group complained that the TLC show “All-American Muslim” portrayed Muslim people in a positive light, a few prominent business made the unfortunate decision to cave to advocates of intolerance. People For the American Way Foundation is…
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December 21, 2011 10:20 pm | By Miranda Blue
Romney’s New Campaign Finance Position is “More Radical than Citizens United”
On MSNBC this morning, Mitt Romney seemed to endorse doing away with all limits on direct contributions to political campaigns. The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent caught the quote: “I think the Supreme Court’s decision was following their interpretation of the…
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December 21, 2011 5:39 pm | By Miranda Blue
The Payroll Tax and the 47%
Republicans in Congress have been attracting plenty of unwanted attention for their muddled refusal to extend a payroll tax cut that will, if not passed, hit 160 million American workers with a substantial tax increase on Jan. 1. Most of…
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December 20, 2011 9:00 pm | By Justin
Americans Stand Against Bigotry By Protesting Lowe’s in Dearborn, MI
On December 17, PFAW Foundation helped organize a demonstration at Lowe’s near Dearborn, Michigan, to protest the home-improvement chain’s decision to pull advertising from the TLC show “All American Muslim” due to pressure from the far-right Florida Family Association. Over…
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December 19, 2011 10:35 pm | By Miranda Blue
Mitt Romney, Still a Man of the Corporations
In an ad earlier this month, Mitt Romney accused President Obama of failing to create any job during his stints as a community organizer and law professor. Romney, the ad claims, “created thousands of jobs” in his career at the…
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December 19, 2011 9:51 pm | By Miranda Blue
Gingrich Shreds the Constitution a Little Bit More
Newt Gingrich put in a remarkable appearance on Face the Nation this weekend. In an interview with Bob Schieffer, the candidate extrapolated on his plan to scrap the constitutional separation of powers in favor of a state where federal judges…
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December 16, 2011 10:18 pm | By Paul Gordon
Whose Opinion of the Courts Matters to the GOP?
During last night’s GOP presidential debate, Newt Gingrich perhaps unintentionally but perfectly encapsulated his party’s distorted vision of the role of the judiciary in our constitutional structure. It came when Fox News moderator Megyn Kelly asked the candidates whether Congress…
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December 16, 2011 8:56 pm | By Miranda Blue
Mitt Romney is Right
There was one remark in last night’s GOP debate that we here at PFAW whole-heartedly agreed with. Asked about his view on judicial appointments, Mitt Romney said:Let me note that the key thing I think the president is going to…
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December 15, 2011 10:26 pm | By Miranda Blue
Video: Peter Montgomery on the Marriage of the Religious Right and the Corporate Right
The Al Jazeera program Fault Lines takes an in-depth look this week at the increasingly close relationship between the Religious Right and the Corporate Right, and how it’s playing out in the Republican presidential race in Iowa. Among those interviewed…