Corporate responsibility

BREAK FOR CORPORATE CRIME

Cowboy hat By Jim Hightower - Tue., 5/13/08

Corporate executives and their lawyers like to claim that a corporation is a "person" with all of the rights of an actual human being. Yet when one of these outfits gets caught violating laws, its lawyers argue that while this... [read more]

Sources for issue

Cowboy hat By Jim Hightower - Sun., 4/20/08

Economy

Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce

Corporate profits

US Dept. of Commerce
Net worth and the number of billionaires, plus CEOs' salaries -- Forbes
Bush tax cuts to to 1% -- Congressional Budget Office. Note: This... [read more]

What 8 years of BushCheney have done to our economy

April 2008

The Bush LegacyHarry Truman said, "No man should be allowed to be president who doesn't understand hogs." That's never been more true than it will be for the man or woman who walks into the White House on January 20, 2009.

If you've ever entered an enclosed, industrialized hog facility where hundreds of fattening porcines live out their short lives, you know that the smell of pig excrement completely redefines "stink." This stench will knock you to your knees, sear your lungs and brain, and make you scream for mercy. For nearly eight years, the White House has been a confined hog pen for corporate porkers, right-wing ideologues, imperialists, autocrats, and other swinish mess-makers. America's next president must not only set a new direction but will also have to clean up the mess and eradicate the stink left by the Bushites.

To help presidential contenders, congressional candidates and the rest of us get perspective on the odiferous legacy of the Bush-Cheney regime, the Lowdown is presenting a two-part factual accounting of the administration's achievements since 2001. This issue will feature Bush's domestic performance, and the May issue will highlight his international agenda. Hold your nose--and get out your scrubbers. [ read more ]

VIDEO: Free market hypocrites

Cowboy hat By Jim Hightower - Wed., 3/19/08
Here's today's provocative question: Why do so many giant corporations hate the marketplace? Do you want to put this video on your site or blog? You can embed the... [read more]

MADE TOXIC IN CHINA -- FOR USA ONLY

Cowboy hat By Jim Hightower - Wed., 2/6/08

"Made in China" has become a warning label. Look out toxics in toothpaste, arsenic in shrimp, lead in toys!

The shocker is not that Chinese-made toys are laden with lead, but that America's Consumer Product Safety Commission employs exactly one inspector... [read more]

VIDEO: Lobbyists go shopping

Cowboy hat By Jim Hightower - Thu., 12/13/07
The most determined shoppers of all this season are corporate lobbyists, scurrying from agency to agency in Washington in search of special favors for themselves. Do you want... [read more]

VERICHIP IMPLANTS AND TUMORS

Cowboy hat By Jim Hightower - Mon., 10/8/07

A cabal of corporate and government officials is pushing to legalize and market microchip devices for implantation in humans. The chief advocate, an outfit named VeriChip Corporation, claims that inserting one of its radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips into your upper... [read more]

SUING THE WORMPOOP PEOPLE

Cowboy hat By Jim Hightower - Fri., 8/3/07

Corporate execs are always whining that they are besieged with lawsuits, but guess what group does more suing than anyone else? Corporations!

Consider Scotts MiracleGro, a multi-billion-dollar global chemical corporation that is suing a tiny upstart firm named TerraCycle. This enterprising... [read more]

Corporations that paid-to-play in the last election

April 2007

FROM THE "LAND OF THE CLUELESS AND CONNIVING," meet a couple of gentlemen who insist that America's political funding system is working splendidly. They report that there's absolutely nothing going on between the money interests and our lawmakers in Washington that should trouble our fuzzy little minds.

First up is one Paul Miller, president of the American League of Lobbyists (bet you didn't know that lobbying is now such an industry in Washington that they've formed a lobby group for lobbyists!). He offers this insight:

"Our government is not corrupt, lobbyists are not bribing people, and members of Congress are not being bought for campaign contributions. I don't think we can say for certainty that the current system is broken."

Gosh, I wonder if he can say "TomDeLay JackAbramoff DukeCunningham" with certainty...or a straight face?

Next comes Ben Barr, who's from a pro-corporate Arizona think tank called the Goldwater Institute. In an interview last October on the PBS television show "NOW," he shared this wisdom:

NOW: Do you think money is a problem in politics under the traditional system?

Barr: No, I do not. Money is speech.

NOW: But, surely money can also distort speech....

Barr: That's the price of freedom.... Speech costs money.

Follow the bouncing logic: Speech costs money; money distorts speech; distorted speech is freedom. [ read more ]

Wal-Mart’s White House Sweetheart

Cowboy hat By Jim Hightower - Mon., 1/1/07

Those who say that George W is not a "compassionate conservative," as he pledged to be when he first ran for president, obviously missed a remarkable, truly touching moment of Bush compassion in an action taken by his labor department... [read more]