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Hightower Lowdown
"Dug yourself into a hole? The very first thing to do is quit digging" --old Texas saying
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!
August's Lowdown
Corporations scoff at workers' rights--even the right to come home from work alive
Their names probably won't mean mean anything to you, but these people ought to have some modicum of personal recognition: Jason Anderson, Aaron Dale "Bubba" Burkeen, Donald Clark, Stephen Curtis, Gordon Jones, Roy Wyatt Kemp, Karl Kleppinger, Blair Manuel, Dewey Revette, Shane Roshto, and Adam Weise. These are the 11 workers who were killed when the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded and sank into the Gulf of Mexico on April 20.
[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.