Unions and Watchdog Groups to Shine Light on Corporate Cockroaches

Maybe cockroaches aren’t a good comparison. Unlike the six-legged variety, it’s not enough to turn on the lights and send the corporate cockroach scurrying back into the walls.

Corporate cockroaches — i.e. corporations and organizations that make secret undisclosed bribes and “campaign contributions” — need to be yanked out of their hiding places and revealed to the public. Voters have a right to know the identities of these anonymous cowards who are purchasing elections right out from under them.

Common Cause, Public Citizen, the SEIU and the Occupy Movement are teaming up for Operation Lift Up the Rock and See What’s Crawling Underneath It.

Super-PACs are required to disclose their donors’ identities. But the 501(c) non-profit groups that are affiliated with super-PACs are NOT required to disclose this information. There’s the rub.

Americans United for Change has offered $25,000 to the first whistleblower who proves that a company has donated to a 501(c) without disclosing it. Let’s hope this isn’t a one-time offer. Come on, smoke out the vermin.

Public advocate Bill de Blasio said:

“We’re going to challenge those donations. We’re going to challenge efforts to hide donations through (c)4s and (c)6s.”

He also referred to a 2010 boycott against Target for making secret donations:

“What happened to Target was child’s play compared to the strength that all of these organizations can bring to bear against companies that decide they’re going against the people’s will and involve themselves unduly in the political process.”

The executive director of Health Care for America Now said companies that make secret contributions are endangering their own reputation, their brand:

“If corporations want to use corporate dollars to influence elections, we will expose them. They will do so at their own risk. The groups represented in our coalition … all have different programs that will inflict economic damage on offending companies.”

Common Cause will be organizing rallies against secret donations at upcoming shareholder meetings of Target, 3M and Bank of America.

Common Cause and Public Citizen are also urging the Securities and Exchange Commission to require that all publicly traded companies disclose all of their political donations.

Go get ‘em! Or as the Teabaggers say, “We’re taking back our country!”

Use a Link, Go to Prison

Remember those infamous SLAPP suits (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) that were popular in the 1990s? They usually involved a developer trying to squash all public opposition to a project. Go to a public meeting and testify against a proposed development — or even write a letter to the editor — and the next thing you know, you’re being hauled into court by the developer.

These SLAPP suits never had any legal standing. They were almost always tossed out by the judge, sometimes with a fine for filing a frivolous lawsuit. But in the meantime, the defendant was facing huge legal expenses — maybe even bankruptcy or foreclosure — just for attending a meeting and speaking out.

And now, you don’t even have to speak out in public or write a letter to a newspaper to get sued by one of these 800-pound gorillas. All you have to do is link to them on your website or blog.

Here’s what happened: A real estate website, BlockShopper, had two different articles about the expensive real estate purchases of two lawyers (from the same law firm). Each article was properly linked to show where the information came from — the law firm’s own company biographies of both lawyers.

The law firm — Jones Day, with over 2,300 lawyers — sued BlockShopper for (better sit down for this) “trademark infringement.” Supposedly the public might mistakenly believe there’s a connection between Jones Day and BlockShopper. WTF???

There have already been some totally retarded lawsuits based on the loosest possible definition of “trademark infringement.” Intel sued a nonprofit organization called Yoga Inside (teaching yoga to prison inmates) because the public might get them mixed up with “Intel Inside.” Granny Goose sued a small second hand furniture store named Grammy Goose with the same “reasoning.” Let’s see, a chair, a potato chip — damn, I keep getting those two things mixed up.

And now this bullshit. Somebody from Public Citizen described Jones Day’s bullying lawsuit as “a new entry in the contest for ‘grossest abuse of trademark law to suppress speech the plaintiff doesn't like.’”

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, Public Citizen, Citizen Media Law Project, and Public Knowledge all tried to get this lawsuit dismissed. But the “judge” — using the term loosely — refused.

So, be careful who you link to.

cross-posted at Bring It On!