Posts tagged “George W. Bush”

Purging the 2009 story hopper

For various reasons, these stories and videos never made their way into posts this year, though they were all worthy. This is in no way intended as your typical PR, tactical news dump. These are important stories that I actually want you to read. I just needed to clean out the hopper for the new year. So, please take your time and dig through these links and videos. There’s even some “feel good” links mixed in for good measure! Happy New Year!

Monsanto: Farmer suicides in India

The World According To Monsanto, Part 1

Elizabeth Warren on the Economy

Bill to “ban” organic farming

Monsanto’s dream bill

Buy “The World According To Monsanto”

Making the TransAfghanistan pipeline safe for democracy

Stop making sense by digby

In search of morale: are Americans too broken for the truth to set us free?

Who should resist and who will become serfs?

Why is America apathetic? Aww, screw it. Who cares?

From EFF’s secret files: Anatomy of a bogus subpoena

What do ISPs charge the law to spy on you?

Vienna students march on US embassy (in solidarity with UC students)

Waterboarding the rule of law

Spain investigates what America should

Amy Goodman and Canada’s Olympic Paranoia

Time Warner and Embarq can’t compete with city-owned ISP, trying to outlaw it

Cablevision power play: 101 Mbps Internet, no caps, $99

Parkinson’s Dirty Deal, Part 1

Student hoaxes world’s media on Wikipedia

Buggy ‘smart meters’ open door to power-grid botnet

Time Warner cable cannot possibly compete with the small city of Wilson, North Carolina

Literary Lessons: Authors, Poet write the news

FCC to examine mobile phone exclusives

Comics artist Mark Sable detained for Unthinkable acts

Should linking be illegal?

Bush’s secret NSA spying may have tainted prosecutions, report warns

Free the patents and laws, activist tells the Feds

Birth of new species witnessed by scientists [evolution in action]

Clinic with two doors, a symbol of two-tier care

Corporations rule (II): Walmart can close stores in Canada to block unions

Democracy Now! covers Olympic security

US forgoes billions in tax on Citi

Feds ‘pinged’ Sprint GPS data 8 million times over a year

American’s consume 34 Gb of content per day

Millions of missing Bush administration emails found

Scott Demuth’ statement on facing terrorism charges [graduate student charged as terrorist for not revealing his research sources]

The credit card’s newest trick: 79.9 percent interest

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Bernie Sanders wants to break up the banks. Let’s help!

Senator Bernie Sanders: “too big to fail” = “too big to exist”


Take a moment and read the two (2) page Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Exist Act, about to be offered by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in the United States Senate (PDF) and then read and sign the petition to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Don’t forget to tweet and facebook this as well. Unlike Saturday’s legislative abomination, this is something citizens of all stripes should be able to get behind.

Petition to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner

Too Big to Fail is Too Big to Exist

Financial institutions that are “too big to fail” played a major role in undermining the American economy and driving our country into a severe recession.

Financial institutions that are “too big to fail” put taxpayers on the hook for a $700 billion bailout and more than $2 trillion from the Federal Reserve in virtually zero interest loans.

Huge financial institutions have become so big that the four largest banks in America (JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup) now issue one out of every two mortgages; two out of three credit cards; and hold $4 out of every $10 in bank deposits in the country.

Just five banks in America (JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley) own a staggering 95% of the $290 trillion in derivatives held at commercial banks. Derivatives are risky side bets made by Wall Street gamblers that led to the $182 billion bailout of AIG, the $29 billion bailout that allowed JP Morgan Chase to acquire Bear Stearns, and the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

The concentration of ownership in the financial services industry has resulted in higher bank fees and interest rates that consumers are forced to pay for credit cards, mortgages and other financial products.

No single financial institution should be so large that its failure would cause catastrophic risk to millions of American jobs or to our nation’s economic well-being.

No single financial institution should have holdings so extensive that its failure could send the world economy into crisis.

We believe it is time to break up the banks and insurance companies which are too big to fail.

We believe that passage of The Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Exist Act (PDF) is essential for a strong American economy and a secure future for ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren.

We urge the immediate enactment of the Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Exist Act, which directs the treasury secretary to compile a list of those financial institutions that are too big to fail in the next 90 days, and to break up these banks and insurance companies a year after the legislation is signed into law.Sign this petition!

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Democracy Now! interview with Elliot Madison

Democracy Now! interview with Elliot Madison, the New York City social worker who was arrested for tweeting the location of police actions during the G-20 riots in Pittsburgh last month. (28:23)

This is some must-see TV if there ever was such a thing, but don’t expect to see this interview on any of the mainstream media networks. They are (almost completely) ignoring the story [CNN (the singular hit)- Fox NewsMSNBCABC NewsCBS News]. This compares to those same news organizations cacophonous coverage of the Iranian “twitter” uprising this summer [CNNFox NewsMSNBCABC NewsCBS News]. Again I ask, if it is good enough for Iranians, why isn’t it good enough for Americans?

You can watch today’s full episode of Democracy Now!, as always, in the right sidebar. For those of you that want to see with just how much ease our government can swoop into your home, steal your possessions and detain you in your underwear, here are Mr. Madison’s motion (PDF) and his lawyer’s supporting declaration (PDF), courtesy of the Electronic Frontier Foundation; attached to the declaration are copies of the search warrant, an inventory of the seized items, and the original criminal complaint.

If you think this story doesn’t concern you, think again.

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