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Hightower Lowdown
"Even the smallest dog can lift its leg on the tallest building."-- Jim Hightower
In This Issue
Consumers get blackouts, energy giants get richer
We can bring power back to the people
Also in this issue:
- Money in, legislation out
- Wto buries its head in the sand
- Nike's "freedom to choose"
- Stop hiding the frankenfoods!
- Congress stabs us in the back
- Bush's energy fraud
- Factory-farm drug dealers
- Cornering the mobile market
- Cornering the mobile market
- The lowdown gooberhead award
- The tax-cut bait-and-switch
Do Something!
March's Lowdown
Giving corporations more power to buy politicians of their choice
"For too long," wailed the senator in a heart-tugging cry for justice, "some in this country have been deprived of full participation in the political process."
Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader of the U.S. Senate, has never been mistaken for a bleeding-heart liberal, so you can rest assured that his anguish over inequality did not concern the disenfranchisement of minorities or poor people--or any kind of people, for that matter. No, it is the tragic political deprivation faced by America's corporations that moved Mitch to such an outpouring of woe.
[read more]
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Money in, legislation out
It's a simple process, really—put in your money, the machine whirrs, and out comes your product. The machine is the Washington political system, and the product is legislation bought by corporate interests.
The latest beneficiaries of this process are MBNA and other purveyors of credit cards. These hustlers recently bought a new bankruptcy law that slams the door on working-class folks who lose a job, have a health problem, or otherwise get hit by something unforeseen, leaving them unable to pay their debts.
The bill, written by credit-card lobbyists, allows the industry to ruin these folks, denying them the chance for a fresh financial start.
On the other hand, Wall Street analysts calculate that it will deliver 5% more profits to the credit-card giants next year alone.
The industry poured more than $35 million into last year's presidential and congressional races. MBNA, the world's largest peddler of credit, also was the largest contributor to George W. Its executives donated $240,000, its CEO was a top Bush fundraiser, and it chipped in $100,000 for his inaugural festivities.
Bush didn't have to do much legislative arm-twisting. The industry showered money on both parties last year, and the legislation passed overwhelmingly in the House and Senate.