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Hightower Lowdown
"You can spend your time agonizing or organizing." -- Dorothy Day
December's Lowdown
Corporate elites and their small-minded political servants are creating the Incredibly Shrinking America
"We the people of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." What a paragraph! This sparse, 52-word opening of our Constitution did not merely launch a fledgling nation--but a bold experiment in democratic idealism.
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In This Issue
The showdown over the WTO was NOT about stopping trade
The seattle tea party
Also in this issue:
- Bill clinton's anti-trust meow
- Cell phone alert
- On-the-job drug testing a bust
- "intelligent" vending machines
- Clean clothes in bangor
- Membership has its privileges
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"intelligent" vending machines
Douglas Ivestor, the CEO of the Coca-Cola Company unexpectedly stepped down the other day. The rumors are flying about what sort of internecine struggles led the chief cola nut to give up his multi-million dollar cushy job, but I've been thinking about the diabolical legacy that Ivestor is leaving behind.
One of last innovations Mr. Ivestor unveiled before his departure is a sinister contraption: a vending machine that automatically raises the price on a can of Coke as the weather gets hotter. Ivestor said summer heat can increase one's desire for a cold drink, so "it is fair that it should be more expensive."
Surely there's a hot place in hell reserved for Douglas Ivestor and the marketing people who thought up this one. And if there's any justice, they'll be a nickel short when they stumble upon one of those "intelligent" vending machines down there