Supreme Court Stimulus Package

            Just when you thought free speech had nothing to do with money, the U.S. Supreme Court, or at least part of it, has upheld the right of corporations to spend freely and secretly on political ads even in Montana. You see Montana has tried to keep corporations from having influence on politics ever since the copper mining industry indulged in purchasing votes and politicians about 100 years ago.  However, in the name of free speech, the Supreme Court has kept the corporate political influence geyser blowing money all over Montana.    

            

            While the robed but not hooded court (the conservative 5/9ths of it) has given the go-ahead to Arizona to detain any Latino living in the state who is caught jaywalking until he or she can prove legitimate presence in the state, it has denied Montana the right to prevent undue political influence peddling by corporations in the name of free speech. Who says the court is foolishly consistent. Apparently you can pay for votes indirectly, just not directly. And apparently if you are Latino, you are guilty until you are proven innocent. The big guys in Montana get a bye (or buy), and the little guy who speaks English with an accent gets detained. It’s a neat trick. Big guys get protected; little guys get persecuted.

            The good thing about the political ads on television is that conservatives are pouring millions of dollars into the economy just in time to stimulate it for President Obama’s benefit. As the U.S. economy expands in spite of the European Union’s struggles because of this extraordinary mid-summer stimulus, the U.S. economy will begin looking better and better. 

            Of course no corporations will look at the money pouring into political ads as stimulus. All they can see is the defeat of that socialist/Muslim President Obama, which brings me to comment on that confusing label. Obama can be a Muslim OR a socialist, but not both. Have you ever heard of a socialist Muslim? It’s an oxymoron. The fact is, he is neither, but that does not stop conservatives of one sort or another throwing out labels that contradict each other.

            Ironically, all of that unintended stimulus money will fulfill the Keynesian promise that stimulus, not austerity, will restore the American economy, and it will be funded by none other than the folks who believe just the opposite. That’s an even neater trick.