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Hightower Lowdown
Even a dead fish can go with the flow. -- Jim Hightower
In This Issue
and firing workers to get even richer
American ceos are wallowing in wealth
Also in this issue:
- Clinton backs corporate accountability!
- Sen. murray's amazing letter
- Senatorial hot air
- The fowlest u.s. factories
- California gets overruled
Do Something!
July's Lowdown
Big biz wants to own the information superhighway while We the People bump along the backroads
In the 1970s, Lily Tomlin developed an iconic comic character she named Ernestine--a telephone clerk who took perverse pleasure from hectoring customers. Her character was a perfect portrayal of the arrogance of AT&T, the monopolistic telephone giant of that day. In one skit on on the TV show, Laugh-In, Tomlin had Ernestine delivering a TV pitch for the corporation:
"A gracious hello," she cheerfully began, speaking directly into the camera. "Here at the Phone Company, we handle 84 billion calls a year. So, we realize that every so often, you can't get an operator, or for no apparent reason your phone goes out of order, or perhaps you get charged for a call you didn't make. We don't care!"
[read more]
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California gets overruled
The good citizens of California are waking up to the joys of globalization, thanks to NAFTA and a Canadian corporation named Methanex.
Last March, the governor of California announced a phase-out of a cancer-causing gasoline additive called MTBE (Methyl Teriaty Butyl Ether). It seems that MTBE has been leaking into the ground water, lakes, and some 10,000 wells throughout California. So the governor, the highest elected official of the people in the most populous state in America, just said no to this additive.
Halt! said Methanex Inc., which manufactures an ingredient used in the banned additive. Such a move by the governor interferes with the profit-making potential of our investors, and under Chapter 11 of NAFTA, this is an illegal "expropriation" of our profits. Therefore, sayeth Methanex, ye Californians must withdraw your ban on MTBE, or the taxpayers of the United States must pay us a billion dollars.
Why do I think of the Mafia when I hear of insane shakedowns like this?