Info_Find: Corporate fingers in the Supreme Court pie?

Last year, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 on Citizens United v. Federal Elections Committee. This ruling overturned prior precedent and dismantled restrictions on corporate and union political spending. According to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, this resulted in outside groups spending more than $296 million on the 2010 Congressional midterms--a 330% increase over 2006--with more than $135 million of that coming from undisclosed donors.

Even more disturbing, CommonCause.org recently discovered that Justices Thomas and Scalia may have attended functions given by Koch Industries (who I wrote about in a previous post) while they were hearing the case. Koch Industries organizes retreats for wealthy, influential conservatives, at which they determine strategies and platforms for upcoming elections. Attendees of these events include heads of major corporations across many industries, all of whom have a vested interest in arguing for broader rights for corporations.

Justices Thomas and Scalia's presence at such events could be argued to be severely prejudicial. Common Cause has stated that they should have recused themselves from the case, and is calling for an investigation into the ruling by the Justice Department.

So why does this matter? We are moving toward (and are arguably in) an election system in which the side with more money wins. This represents socioeconomic disenfranchisement. The broader and stronger the rights of corporations become, the greater the risk to the rights and protections of anyone who opposes them.

You can read a full accounting of Justices Thomas and Scalia's actions and sign a petition to Attorney General Eric Holder for a Justice Department investigation here.

Info_Find: The USDA's conflicting goals

PBS.org posted this interesting, 8-minute video piece entitled, "Mixed Signals: Why is the USDA promoting nutrition and pushing cheese?"

The piece explores the conflicting goals of the USDA: to promote healthy eating habits and reduce obesity versus boosting sales of USA-made products, such as beef, pork, and cheese. Many of the popular ad campaigns ("Beef...it's what's for dinner." "Got milk?" and "Pork. The other white meat.") were endorsed by the USDA.

More troubling are reports that fast food restaurants have received endorsements, such as the USDA's encouragement of McDonalds to bring back the McRib sandwich, and a Domino's super-cheesy pizza that supplies over half a day's saturated fat in just one serving.

The PBS piece reveals the USDA's part in fueling the obesity epidemic by placing sales over public health.

Long hiatus...

I apologize for the long hiatus from posting. Finals for school and holidays took up some time, and then I lost a week and a half to the flu. I chose not to get a flu shot this year, since I've found that I get sick just as frequently, with or without the shot.

I wanted to pass along this 2009 article from the Huffington Post on staying healthy during flu season.

It also has an interesting fact: The federal government has agreed to protect pharmaceutical companies from lawsuits stemming from side effects from the vaccine, otherwise the companies would not produce the vaccines.