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Hightower Lowdown
"You can put earrings on a hog, but it won't hide the ugliness." -- Jim Hightower
In This Issue
Dressed up in their designer suits, they trade in human cargo
The new racketeers
Also in this issue:
- Zapping the beef supply
- Granny d marches on!
- Postmodern piracy
- Suffer the little children
- Hogs at the trough
- Charity begins in the house
- Bill's beer
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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Postmodern piracy
Ever wonder why ships from multibillion-dollar cruise lines like Carnival Corporation, Disney and Royal Caribbean all pretend to come from Liberia or Panama? The companies are based right here in the US of A, but by registering their boats offshore, they get to pay corporate taxes there instead of here. Of course, those ports don't assess any corporate taxes. What fun! Royal Caribbean, for example, made $657 million in profits over the last three years, yet paid not a dime in taxes. Because they pay zip, we pay more.
Also, by claiming to be foreign ships, these U.S.-based giants can avoid our labor laws, forcing crews to work 12-hour days, seven days a week for $400 a month. Cruise companies spent about a million dollars lobbying the last Congress to protect their sweetheart deals. When Congressman Gene Taylor (D-Miss.) tried to rein in these outlaws, he says the industry's top lobbyist offered his family a free cruise if he'd drop his bill.
Call Rep. Taylor at 202-225-5772. Let him know we support his efforts to dock these tax cheats.