INFORMATION FOR VOTERS

last updated: March 18, 2010

Public Option: Democrats decide to walk the plank in November

The votes are there for a public option but Obama/Pelosi fail to lead
Pelosi to benefit from insurance industry fundraiser
WhipCongress video

ECONOMY | ENERGY/WARMING | HEALTH | POLITICS/LEGISLATION | SOCIETY

ECONOMY

OBAMA'S BIG SELLOUT: banks get bigger and more profitable, Main St. gets poorer

Supreme Court sells democracy to highest bidder: corporations
NYT: Even Bigger Than Too Big to Fail
Volcker goes fishing for pirhannas, warns of even bigger future collapse
Why Is Obama [and Schumer, et al] Championing Bush's Financial Wrecking Crew?

It's the plutonomy, stupid!
The March 2006 Citigroup "plutonomy report"

More reviews of "Capitalism: A Love Story":
OpEd News review
WSWS review
Enterprise News review

Captain Sullenberger's testimony to Congress about airline pilot pay

update 9: Where Did That Bank Bailout Go?

Obama's Geithner makes whole Wall Street buddies at taxpayer expense
Left, Right, and Center 11/20/09 audio clip
As 2010 election looms will Obama/Congressmembers heed public calls to dump Geithner and Summers?

update 8: With $50 billion of taxpayer money the American public now owns 60% of General Motors, but the Obama administration, fearful of wealthy, right-wing critics yelling "state capitalism!", is too timid to take advantage of this public control and re-tool this manufacturing behemoth to make the alternative transportation our economy so desperately needs to survive. Instead, the same private auto industry "experts" who led the industry down the road to failure (as with the banks) will call the shots. Goodbye another public $50 billion.

update 7: "Too big to fail" revelations: Paulson/Bernanke incompetence and Bank of America collusion. The question is, will Cuomo do anything?

update 6: Voters' hopes for real change are dashed as Obama/Geithner plan a huge wealth transfer from present and future generations of working Americans to corrupt investment corporations. No to bad banks, yes to a public "good" banking system.

"People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage."
~John Kenneth Galbraith

update 5: Tax dodger Geithner, narrowly approved by Senate, pushes "bad bank" proposal; see the roll call Senate confirmation vote; Schumer led the "aye" pack.

update 4: Rep. Barney Frank intervened to ensure that OneUnited bank in his district got $12 million in TARP bailout funds; Frank was an architect of the banking deregulation legislation ten years ago.

update 3: Laissez-faire capitalist pinnacle is reached: a well-connected Bernie Madoff scams the wealthy, charities; a Jewish perspective.

update 2: Capitalist Fools, by Joseph Stiglitz


What kind of person is this capitalist entity known as "The Corporation"

update 1: Bernanke: transparency for others, not the Fed
• FREE-MARKET FINANCIAL BANDITS POCKET BILLIONS WHILE WRECKING THE ECONOMY, MIDDLE-CLASS WORKERS LOSE TRILLIONS
  
  SPECIAL INTEREST CONTROLLED CONGRESS APPROVES RECORD TRANSFERS OF PUBLIC DOLLARS TO PRIVATE BANKS AND
  IGNORES ECONOMIC STIMULUS MEASURES THAT WORK BY PUTTING MONEY IN THE HANDS OF THOSE WHO WILL SPEND IT

  For the past decade, Congress, Treasury Secretary Paulson and Fed Chairman Bernanke let the credit bubble develop to crisis proportions, then focused on the symptom - lack of liquidity in the money markets - while failing to address the underlying real problem - the criminally corrupt marketing of trillions of dollars of grossly over-rated, virtually worthless investment vehicles by bandits at the investment banks and hedge funds. Then, with Wall Street bouncing like a yo-yo, they tried to slam-dunk a $700 billion bailout of their Wall Street buddies that won't save the economy through Congress. This being an election year the House balked at its first vote, sensing political suicide from the overwhelming public opposition to any further wasting of tax dollars on misdirected corporate welfare. The ensuing lobbying and a corporate media campaign, which largely ignored noted economists recommendations to pass alternative immediate economic stimulus measures - extended unemployment insurance, government infrastructure and jobs programs, energy efficiency and alternative energy programs, etc. - and instead did its best to panic Main Street, did the trick. Just days later the House reversed itself and approved the bailout. Paulson, the Treasure of Wall Street. Paulson and Bernanke laugh all the way to the banks.

  Election day is Tuesday November 4, 2008; this is the day to hold all Representatives and 34 Senators accountable for their votes:
  
  House vote on the bailout
  Senate vote on the bailout

  Details:
  The Bush/Paulson/Bernanke plan will use $700 billion taxpayer dollars to purchase private bad bank debts but will do very little to restore lender trust because it doesn't get at the root of the problem. Widespread, criminal marketing of risky investment vehicles structured by greedy and corrupt Wall Street investment companies has resulted in the global poisoning of trust in the financial sector. Lack of trust will persist in the marketplace, both at home and internationally, until effective regulations are back in place. Further, because there are actually several trillions of dollars of bad mortgages and other bad credit out in the economy, Congressional approval of the bad debt buyout proposal will only blunt the immediate perceptions of crisis; it will not resolve the problem. For these reasons noted economist Robert Reich recommends a federally operated bankruptcy procedure for the failing banks with possibly some federal lending to them (but no outright bad debt purchases) as the correct federal approach. It would resolve the bad debts in a fair process as quickly as possible, protect taxpayers and restore Americans' faith in the fairness of their government - all positives desperately needed by a cynical American citizenry that is close to revolt.

  Like Reich, dozens of economic experts continue to oppose the buyout as a bad idea that will waste a huge amount of public funds that could be much better spent stimulating the economy through infrastructure rebuilding programs, extended unemployment coverage, much needed widespread implementation of energy efficiency and alternative clean energy programs, etc.

  In sum, the core of the buyout plan won't significantly help because it doesn't include any measures to properly re-regulate the markets and restore lender confidence. Instead, it will discredit the U.S. government and the American economy both at home and internationally, will weaken the dollar and cause inflation, and will harm those Americans, including older citizens on fixed incomes, who have been financially responsible their whole lives.

  Although Congressional deregulation of mortgage banking is the root cause of the subprime collapse, credit crunch and recession, at the start of this campaign year many self-styled "conservative" Republican Congressional candidates continued their call for less government regulation. The 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act deregulation of investment banks (signed by Pres. Clinton), was opposed by only 57 Representatives (51 Democrats, 8 Republicans, and one independent: Sen. Sanders) and 8 Senators (Boxer, Bryan, Feingold, Harkin, Mikulski, Shelby, and Wellstone; Sen. McCain did not vote); see House vote on Gramm-Leach-Bliley and Senate vote on Gramm-Leach-Bliley. Many of those Democrats that voted for the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, eg.. Senator Schumer, are now calling for the Bush taxpayer funded bailout of the non-performing mortgages that are the direct result of their deregulation of the investment rules. Unfortunately most media outlets have not adequately explained to the public this and other deregulatory pieces of legislation that enabled the marketplace abuses to occur (see more details), nor have these media outlets made the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act votes known to the public in this election year. Without pertinent voting information, voters will not be able to hold their Congressmembers accountable for their previous votes on the deregulation.

  Truly, we currently have the worst government in our history owing to the influence (read control) of monied interests in Congress.

  The fact that Rep. Pelosi sought Republican "cover" for Democrats voting for this colossal corporate welfare measure, even while Democrats control both houses, clearly shows that the Democrats (and many Republicans) doubt if the Bush buyout proposal will restore the economy. But, like the irresponsible, lame-duck Bush Administration, Pelosi and company simply wanted to act quickly to try to get this watershed issue out of the imminent election arena. Use of this "bipartisanship" ploy tactic is pathetic given that both Parties overwhelmingly supported the deregulations.

ENERGY/WARMING

• "The End of Suburbia" is an award winning documentary produced in 2004 by Vision TV, a Canadian multi-faith, multicultural broadcaster, and recently re-broadcast on TV Ontario. Not yet broadcast in the U.S., this hour-long program discusses the grim prospects for the dispersed suburban lifestyle as we reach and pass peak oil production.

• World Trade Centre in Bahrain incorporates three wind turbines into structure, wins LEAF award; See BBC video.

• 2009 WorldWatch Institute report outlines changes needed to avert global environmental calamity
  Climate scientists warn CO2 targets insufficient, expect the worst
  Arctic ice melt signals that global warming is verging on positive feedback point of no return
  Global warming worse than thought: CO2 rises three time faster than predicted

• HOME DEPOT OFFERS SAFE RECYCLING PROGRAM FOR COMPACT FLUORESCENTS; however, a program for fluorescent tubes is still needed.
  In the event of fluorescent breakage, careful cleanup is needed to avoid building contamination;
  see instructions for safe cleanup of broken fluorescents.

• Roadmap to a carbonfree and nuclearfree energy future released by IEER and NPRI
  IEER devotes newsletter to false economic claims of nuclear power proponents [2.4MB PDF]

• Ontario's nuclear power interests push for refurbishments and new reactors

• Earth's ecosystems are collapsing says international body of experts;
  read the report of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment project

• UK scientist blasts US climate "loonies"
  CLEAR PROOF OF HUMAN CAUSATION OF GLOBAL WARMING
  Details: Innovations article, Knight-Ridder

HEALTH

• Obama's 51 Democrat majority fails to deliver public option health care reform

  Obama is directly at fault for failing to offer public option: the last 5 paragraphs sum it up nicely.
  Republicrat Congress is hastening America's demise
  Docs arrested for trying to communicate single payer rationale to Obama
  Will Sanders reverse himself and vote for meaningless "reform"?
  Ignore Lieberman, kill this insurance company bonanza
  Democratic leadership: willing insurance industry "victim"
  Schumer targeted
  Robert Reich explains how health reform is being turned into an insurance company bonanza by an undemocratic, special interest controlled Congress.
  Democrats ponder failure to deliver cost control - a revolt at the polls.
  Five Democrat Senators vote against the public option
  Congress gives required coverage bonanza to insurance companies, winks at real reform measures
  Comprehensive poll shows 3 of 4 doctors favor the public option in health care reform legislation
  
  Malpractice reform simply an insurance company ruse to derail real reform
  Recall that our special-interest-controlled Congress, led by Sen. Schumer, bailed out the corrupt investments of AIG, which has a large health insurance business, to the tune of $182 billion in public dollars. And now Sen. Schumer, who portrays himself as a public option champion, offers a compromise that will cost billions more than Sen. Rockefeller's public option proposal. This is a make or break issue for the Democrats and the Obama administration.
  The People's Pharmacy on malpractice, "The Life You Save" starting at the 44 minute mark

• After years of lawn care industry control, the Parliament of the Province of Ontario finally bans the cosmetic use of pesticides as an unnecessary health risk. The ban became effective on Earth Day, April 22, 2009. The David Suzuki Foundation urges other provinces and States to follow Ontario's lead.

• Evidence based medicine: no net patient benefit from statins, PSA, mammography, ostearthritis drugs; listen to Dr. Nortin Hadler present his findings in this Peoples Pharmacy, October 2008 audio file (mp3)

• American health care in crisis

• Listen to the revelations of former Pfizer VP Peter Rost [mp3 file]

• Why is Dennis Kucinich the only Democrat candidate pushing for it, when the majority of Americans want a universal single payer health care system?
  Answer: behind the smoke, the corporate Democrats are escalating the attack on the single payer system
  Meanwhile, Democrats continue to embrace "Market Fundamentalism"

• Agribusiness's FDA lapdog seeks to confuse labelling for irradiated products

• Bird flu brings out double standard on patent protection of big pharma

• Erie County - Dunkirk and Amherst - leads state with worst ozone/particulate pollution

• Obama appointments point toward GMO laxity

• GM firms seen to leverage their profits on the back undeveloped countries facing climate crisis
  
  EU farmer fights GMO contamination of seeds
  GM foes march in Germany
  Saskatchewan farmer and local hero wins Roundup-ready canola contamination claim against Monsanto
  GM Crops Found To Be Less Productive
  Center for Food Safety: "Who Benefits from GM Crops"
  France's Sarkozy aligns with Austria, Greece, and Hungary and stands up to GMO giant Monsanto

• "Big Pharma's Dirty Little Secret", by Pfizer's Peter Rost

• Plasticizers shown to cause brain damage, as well as hormone mimicking effects
  Food Supply Vulnerable to Contamination by Drugs and Plastics from Gene-Altered Crops

• Monsanto gets deferred prosecution for bribery , ... more
  Syngenta aided by UK/US 'regulators' in unlicensed GMO corn cover-up

POLITICS/LEGISLATION

• Obama pushes for and signs reauthorization of "Patriot Act"

  Why you won't know how your Senator voted on this measure
  The House vote on February 25, 2010 Patriot Act reauthorization, the official record explanation for Medicare title
  Loss of liberty: unbalanced fear and threat authoritarian politics in the USA
  Yes! magazines plaintiff cry for an Obama "we can still believe in"

• Blair ducks protesters at Chilcot Iraq War inquiry

• Obama appointments belie the meaningful change promised during the campaign

• Gibbering numbskulls dominate Washington

• While the U.S. suffers from a dysfunctional, essentially indistinguishable "Republicrat" two party system which has thus far marginalized progressive alternatives, Canada suffers the opposite problem: a Liberal, NDP, Green progressive vote split that has resulted in successive minority Tory governments, also not reflective of the popular voter sentiment. John Ryan,PhD, a senior scholar at the University of Winnipeg, has proposed a solution to the Canadian electoral dilemma.

• Gov Paterson signs public lands old growth protection law

• Fight to protect few remaining Allegheny wild spots enters crucial period

• Congress steps up attack on basic civil liberties: "Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act"

  Establishment media (NYT) and top Democrat Congressmen colluded for years
  with Bush in keeping citizen enemies lists and attacks on basic civil liberties:

  Times reveals US telecommunications companies helped Bush illegally spy on Americans
  Meanwhile, Bush continues to foster misperceptions
  New York Times reveals 2001 Bush executive order to spy on Americans

  After killing the story for a year the Times now raises obvious questions:
  NYT questions Bush/Cheney assumption of totalitarian 'war powers' of the Commander in Chief

  Now, fearing voter backlash, and with almost no Republican crossover,
  Democrats temporarily reject unconstitutional 'Patriot Act'

  An unrepentent Bush, like Nixon and Johnson, chooses to lash back
  Pittsburgh Post Gazette warns of US police state

• Hillary Clinton ignores majority of constituents on Iraq pullout

• Democrats wimp out on Bush Supreme Court nominee John Roberts, a Bork clone
  Read or listen to Living on Earth's interview with Jonathan Turley

• Plamegate: how low can the media go?
  Woodward - what a difference 30 years makes
  

  Fitzgerald threw softball
  Libby indicted for lesser crimes in exposure of Plame

  Mainstream media fails to pursue story of White House personnel involved in treasonous exposure of Valerie Plame

  Detailed chronology of White House's outing of Valerie Plame

• Battlefield Earth: "Rapture alert level - orange"
  . . . Bush: a broader perspective on the politics of God
  . . . "Why does God hate Caribou?"
  . . . "DeLay, Deny, and Demagogue"
  . . . DeLay threatens judiciary over Schiavo rulings, Dems wimp out again
  . . . "Whose Nation Under God?"

• American Torture: Bush-whack style

• The fruits of laissez-faire utility deregulation: the Enron example
  . . . here we go again: lobbying Energy Bill 2005

• Gonzalez approved as AG by less than 2/3; are NY's senators coming around?

• NY's Clinton and Schumer help Bush make Condoleezza Rice Secretary of State

• Bush lies about true condition of Social Security in his attempt to privatize it
  Bush is illegally using Social Security staff to promote privatization

SOCIETY

• Abortion doctor's killer gets life with parole after 25 years

• Dr. Michael Ungar discusses his new book "The We Generation: Raising Socially Responsible Kids" in a The Parents Journal interview with Bobbi Conner on 12/16/09, broadcast on public radio stations; listen to the mp3 starting at the 6 minute mark.

• A new 16-minute film utilizes stunning photography and explains what YOU can do to help protect wilderness in the Keystone State's only national forest, the Allegheny National Forest. The film was produced by B.J. Gudmundsson of Patchwork Films and Friends of Allegheny Wilderness, which has led the way in studying and advocating for these special areas.
  
  Part 1 of Keystone Wilderness (8:32):
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NaxaVBltEo
  Part 2 of Keystone Wilderness (7:44):
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5_qkD6Q7WY

• Racist wrongful convictions by Texas justice system in the spotlight: NPR presents details of the shocking case of Timothy Cole

• Great Lakes Compact approved after many years of diligent work

• WWF: there will be no bailout for a human ecological footprint that is already well beyond the earth's carrying capacity

• Mankind is decimating life on earth: causing species extinction at 10,000 times normal rate

• BushCo opens roadless Tongass to logging and OKs gray wolf kills prior to contested delisting decision

• Bush backers push new doublespeak attack on our national forests:
  this one's called the "Emergency Recovery and Research Act" (HR 4200)

• Adbusters : "Reclaiming our Cerebral Commons"
  . . . listen to the interview with Kalle Lasn

• Bush agencies to continue distributing their own 'news' despite GAO objection
  . . . "Don't like the news?"
  . . . "It's Not Your Father's America Any More"

• Moyers responds to right-wing takeover at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
  Republicans force "balance" at financially dependent PBS; hello state organ
  NOW looks at the "opinion" neo-con 'news' media machine

• Bill Moyers talks with Richard Dawkins about evolution vs "intelligent design"

PRE-2005 ARCHIVE

2004 POST-ELECTION ANALYSIS :

Ohio electoral vote challenged by only one Senator
Background and analysis

Senate vote on Presidential election
House vote on upholding the Senate challenge

Ohio Canvassing Board denies recount request
Recount of Ohio vote will occur

John Dean
"Alas, The People Have Spoken"

Australia :
"Those Things We Were Liable to Read into the Bible - It Ain't Necessarily So"
Dr. Helen Caldicott's views

Canada :
"We Don't Have to Abandon Our Beliefs Just Because a Few Million Extra God-Fearing Gay-Haters Voted for Bush"

New York :
"Light Up the Cave"

---

LCV ENDORSES JOHN KERRY

GET THE FACTS ON THE MAJOR ISSUES AT : votewiththefacts.org

New York League of Conservation Voters' ENDORSEMENTS

• First Amendment democracy Florida-style
  Lame-duck LePore still has opportunity to mess with this election , more

• Bush: the Champion of Hyper-Individualism Over the Common Good

• TV crew filmed unsecured munitions after April 9, 2003
  Looting spree gutted Iraq munitions dump after US soldiers left it unsecured
  Large media outlets ignore the video evidence, aid Bush big lies on Iraq War

• Study : 100,000 Iraqis, mostly women and children, killed in ongoing Iraq War

• Very Little Patriotic Sacrifice - The Art of Stealing Elections

• The New York Times and the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle have joined several citizen groups in the call to vote out all NYS Legislature incumbents. But voting out incumbent NYS Legislators is easier said than done; see Newsday and Buffalo News stories.

• WNY Incumbents Vote Against NYS Superfund/Brownfields legislation
• 26th Congressional District Race: Reynolds vs. Davis - Follow the Money

  Jack Davis for Congress
  Reynolds for Congress

• Sinclair Broadcasting Orders Its 62 Stations to Air Anti-Kerry Propaganda; Bush-appointed FCC chief fails to act.

• US Soldiers Again Flee to Canada to Avoid Illegal Iraq War

  Listen to Amy Goodman interview Conscientious Objectors Hinzman and Hughey
  Transcript of this interview

• US Vetoes UN Security Council resolution calling for halt to Israeli operations in Gaza

• BUSH AND BLAIR'S CASE FOR WAR DEMOLISHED BY FINAL REPORT OF IRAQ SURVEY GROUP
  Bush won't say 'No WMDs', repeats Saddam link to 9/11 lies
  View from New Zealand

  Principled Labour MP calls for international court review of Blair/Bush war crimes :

  Blair : Iraq had no WMDs, but no apology for illegal war, instead invokes Bush's global Islamic terrorism fear mongering tactics
  OpenDemocracy interview
  World Socialist analysis

• FBI investigates spying for Israel by personnel in the office of the No. 3 Pentagon official, Douglas Feith
  A cozy relationship with Israeli military officials and the discredited INC leader Ahmed Chalabi
  Background on Douglas Feith

• Rumsfeld faulted for Afghanistan/Guantanamo/Abu Ghraib sadism but not held accountable

• American public largely ignorant of Bush administration responsibility for Afghan/Iraqi torture

• The Center for Public Integrity :

  The Politics of Big Oil
  Well Connected : Find out who controls the media where you live

• The New York Times' Admits Its Pre-War Iraq Coverage Was Slanted

  Ditto for the Washington Post
  The Post's Mea Culpa
  Editor and Publisher's analysis

• "Red-State" America Against Itself

• The Far Right Goes to Bat for Nader

• Green Party calls for UN investigation of Israeli nuclear weapons

• Alliance for Justice launches animation : "John Ashcroft is the intrusive SPY-DER-MAN"

• Friends of the Earth prevails against GM giant Bayer in pesticide secrets case

• U.S. AIDS/HIV scientists muzzled by Bush administration

• Bush misuses post-9/11 secrecy laws to hide important environmental documents

• Amnesty International report calls U.S. "war on terror" blatant doublespeak

  Boston Globe article
  The Scotsman

• 100+ Industry Lobbyists Appointed by Bush to Federal Agencies Subvert Public Interest

• Public Interest Research Group releases 2004 Congressional Scorecard
  Many more "zeros" than "heroes"

• Ben and Jerry's "Pig Mobile" caravan puts spotlight on dollar cost of Iraq war

• Increase in asthma is one of the effects of global warming

• Human harm from widespread pesticide use

• Iraqi horrors covered up by U.S./Brit leadership for months

  Los Angeles Times reports Rumsfeld and Bush knew in January
  Unexpected $25 billion request brings Iraq/Afghanistan total to $191 billion.

• Iraqis Celebrate in Fallujah as Old Iraqi Army under Saddam's former General Patrols Streets

• 9/11 COULD HAVE BEEN PREVENTED

  FAILURE OF INTELLIGENCE LEADERSHIP DETAILED by PBS's Frontline

• NSA chief Condi Rice perjures herself re 9/11 Commission facts?

• Bush's Labor Sec. Chao faulted for toxic disaster worse than Exxon Valdez

• John Dean on Bush administration secrecy: "worse than Nixon"

• Pentagon insider describes falsification by the Pentagon of reports on Iraqi WMD

• Anti-terrorism czar Clarke on Bush: "he's done a terrible job on the war against terrorism"

  Salon.com interview with Clarke

• ETA-experienced Spanish voters differentiate war on terrorism from illegal War on Iraq

  "One down, two to go"
  Spain: an example for all in war on terrorism
  More ...

• Blair Drops Prosecution of Whistleblower to Prevent Evidence of Iraq War Illegality Being Made Public

  Guardian story
  More ...

• Bush Administration (EPA, FDA, USDA, DOD, HHS, Interior, ...) Distorts Science

• The Awful Truth about Iraq

• Nothing to Preempt

• Iraq War Unconstitutional, Congress Abdicated Its Responsibility

• Time to Hold Democrats Accountable on WMD/Pro-War Stances

• Bush Planning War on Iraq Only Days after Inauguration

• Bush, Powell, Cheney, Rumsfeld Misled American People into War

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution View

• Mad Cow Disease in U.S.A.:

  Whose interests? Bush's corporate buddies.
  Ranchers fought rules
  USDA: Agent for Meat Industry
  Tip of the Mad Animal Iceberg
  USDA Can't Find or Won't Release Inspection Records