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Hightower Lowdown
"If all economists were laid end-to-end -- it would be a good thing." -- JK Galbraith
In This Issue
The Bush push for an imperial presidency part 2
Who's spying on us? Rumsfeld's Pentagon takes the lead
Also in this issue:
- WHO IS TO BE "DETAINED"?
- SPORTS "BRANDALISM"
- DON'T LOOK DOWN ON IMMIGRANTS, LOOK UP
- THE MANNING MEMO
- A NEW HORROR FROM THE IRS
- BUSH ANNULS A LAW
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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A NEW HORROR FROM THE IRS
It's time to call 9-1-1 about an IRS proposal to change Section 7216 of the Internal Revenue Code. This regulation would authorize giants like H & R Block or any other tax preparer to sell the contents of your private tax return to any corporation wanting to buy it! All of your personal contact information—including your Social Security number— could be sold, as well as information about your income, employer, medical expenses, children, charitable donations, etcetera.
Who's pushing this crass sell-off of our privacy? A powerful lobby of data brokers, including Choicepoint, credit companies like MasterCard, and marketers who want to use your 1040 filing to target you for sales.
The IRS says your data will not be sold unless you sign a form authorizing your tax preparer to do it. But it's all too easy for this socalled "consent" to be shuffled in with the stack of forms you have to sign to complete your filing, or to reduce it to fine-print, boiler-plate language that no one reads.
Our tax-return information should not be sold. Period. To learn more, call the Public Interest Research Group at 202-546-9707.