[miel]

Respectfully ablarc, click the links in this post, and examine your facile 'conventional progressive' rhetoric.

Anyway, all this about corporate personhood, government by the people, robber barons, etc. is beside the point, i.e., no authority exists within congress' delegated powers enabling it to make any law limiting speech of any kind -- by humans, corporations, dogs, cats -- you name it. Even without the bill of rights McCain-Feingold would be unconstitutional for this very reason.

The constitution limits the government. The entire American political/jurisprudential system is based on this prudent principle. (That the government itself can liberally construe and interpret these limits with impunity has been a major flaw.)