Credit Rating Agencies: Causing a crisis, crying “free speech”
After Citizens United, Americans are pushing back against the corporate misuse of the people’s free speech rights. But this battle is about more than campaign finance reform.
Category: Corporate Abuse of Power
Or Are They Already Here?
Craig Barnes says the corporations are coming, and documents in a fine overview how close their breath is to the backs of our necks. He recounts recent corporate abuses, with government assistance: coal mine owners ensuring the deaths of workers, oil corporations making certain our oceans are poisoned, mega banks apparently defrauding ratings agencies, Goldman Sachs defrauding investors, and this oldie but goodie from earlier this year:
The Corporations are Coming
What If BP Were A Human Being?
What if BP, the principal corporate entity responsible for the monstrous oil well rupture a mile beneath Gulf of Mexico were a human being, a flesh and blood person instead of a faceless transnational corporation? It’s a fair and simple question, and the answers tell us a lot more about the world we live in.
Gooey Black Corporate Greed
Corporate persons aren’t like you and I. They have eternal life and legal immunity. No death, no taxes, no joy or pain or moral feeling. No sweat and no tears. When they move their mouths, out come dollars, and we call those dollars speech. But when they stub their toe and bleed, out comes thick black goo in a gusher that could turn the ocean into a dead black pit, and we call that goo petroleum.
Corporate Money Ruins Everything
No matter what the topic, corporate money is the culprit. Here’s Harvey Wasserman speaking last night on the upcoming climate bill. He lists five things we need to do and the first is to undo corporate money in politics:
Can Corporations Now Tell Employees Whom to Vote and Canvass For?
Businesses Can Now Legally Pressure Workers on Political Issues?
By Michael J. Wilson, National director of Americans for Democratic Action
Lobby Firm Tells Clients How To Sway Elections While Avoiding ‘Public Scrutiny’
TPMMuckraker looks at the strategizing going on in the corporate world on how to funnel buckets of cash through middlemen like the US Chamber of Commerce:
Rep. Niki Tsongas Introduces Legislation Re Federal Contractors
Rep. Michael Capuano Introduces Legislation Requiring Shareholder Approval
Shareholder Protection Act of 2010 (Introduced in House)
HR 4537 IH