Disinformation » legislation

Ron Paul Introduces Legislation To Strike NDAA’s Unconstitutional Section 1021

Camron Wiltshire — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:41:27 +0000

Kurt Nimmo writing at Infowars.com:

Rep. Ron Paul left the campaign trail on Wednesday to speak on the House floor about the National Defense Authorization Act, which was signed into law on the first day of the new year by Obama.

Paul introduced legislation to strike the NDAA’s Section 1021, the discretionary detention provision authorizing the President to detain persons accused by the government of supporting terrorism.

Ron Paul has serious reservations despite Obama’s issuing a signing statement declaring that he will not use the law to detain Americans. In December, Paul said the bill will accelerate the country’s “slip into tyranny” and virtually assures “our descent into totalitarianism.”

The Texas congressman and presidential candidate said on Wednesday the bill “provides for the possibility of the U.S. military acting as a kind of police force on U.S. soil, apprehending terror suspects, including Americans, and whisking them off to an undisclosed location indefinitely.”…

Missing Wikipedia? Here’s How You Can Access It

majestic — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:30:32 +0000

As most Internet users already know, leading Internet companies like Google, Wikipedia, and Craigslist are protesting the SOPA legislation very publicly today, with Wikipedia totally blacked out. But, if you really, really need to access Wikipedia today, they have kindly explained how to come in through the back door:

Is it still possible to access Wikipedia in any way?

Yes. During the blackout, Wikipedia is accessible on mobile devices and smart phones. You can also view Wikipedia normally by disabling JavaScript in your browser, as explained on this Technical FAQ page. Our purpose here isn’t to make it completely impossible for people to read Wikipedia, and it’s okay for you to circumvent the blackout. We just want to make sure you see our message.

Rupert Murdoch’s Late Night SOPA Tweets

majestic — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 14:18:28 +0000

Oh dear Rupert, is this how you spend Saturday night these days?

Well now we know where he stands on SOPA, and what a great relationship he has with Google and other leading Internet companies…

40,000 New Laws For New Year Across United States

majestic — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 12:48:50 +0000

The libertarians are really onto something … From MSNBC:

About 40,000 state laws taking effect at the start of the new year will change rules about getting abortions in New Hampshire, learning about gays and lesbians in California, getting jobs in Alabama and even driving golf carts in Georgia.

Several federal rules change with the new year, too, including a Social Security increase amounting to $450 a year for the average recipients and stiff fines up to $2,700 per offense for truckers and bus drivers caught using hand-held cellphones while driving.

NBC News, the National Conference of State Legislatures, The Associated Press, and other organizations tracked the changes and offered their views on the highlights.

Many laws reflect the nation’s concerns over immigration, the cost of government and the best way to protect and benefit young people, including regulations on sports concussions.

Eight states will raise the minimum wage, NBC News reported. They include Arizona, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Colorado, Ohio, Vermont and Florida, NBC News said. San Francisco will become the first city to raise its minimum wage above $10 per hour. The new $10.24 minimum is nearly $3 above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, set in 2009.

Jan. 1 is the effective date in many states for laws passed during this year’s legislative sessions. In others, laws take effect July 1, or 90 days after passage.

Worker verification
Alabama, with the country’s toughest immigration law, will require all employers who do business with any government entity to use a federal system known as E-Verify to check that all new employees are in the country legally…

[continues at MSNBC]

Who Is The Protect IP Act Really Protecting?

majestic — Thu, 12 May 2011 22:51:37 +0000

The Preventing Real Online Threats of Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act, or PROTECT IP Act, is supposedly targeted at so-called ”rogue websites” that trade in infringing goods. Abigail Phillips gives some much-needed context to the controversial legislation for the Electronic Frontier Foundation:

Last year’s rogue website legislation is back on the table, with a new name: the “Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011″—or (wink, wink) “PROTECT IP”. The draft language is available here.

The earlier bill, which failed to pass thanks largely to a hold on the legislation placed by Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, would have given the government dramatic new copyright enforcement powers targeted at websites “dedicated to infringing activities,” even where those websites were not based in the United States. Despite some salient differences (described below) in the new version, we are no less dismayed by this most recent incarnation than we were with last year’s draft.

First, the legislation now includes a private right of action for intellectual property owners. This means that IP owners as well as the government can seek injunctions against websites “dedicated to infringing activities” in addition to court orders against third parties providing services to those sites. (Notably, IP owners can also bring actions to enforce the court orders.) Consider whether Viacom would have bothered to bring a copyright infringement action against YouTube—with the attendant challenges of arguing around the DMCA safe harbors—had it had this cause of action in its arsenal. The act includes language that says it’s not intended to “enlarge or diminish” the DMCA’s safe harbor limitations on liability, but make no mistake: rights holders will argue that safe harbor qualification is simply immaterial if a site is deemed to be dedicated to infringement.

Second, the scope of the language has been expanded to include additional categories of third-party providers that can be subject to court orders. Under the new act, “interactive computer services” and “servers of sponsored links” can be required to cease linking to particular websites. We’d heard about a potential “search engine provision,” but these additions arguably go much further. An interactive computer service (the term, and its definition, are borrowed from the Communications Decency Act) could include not only Bing but also sites like Facebook, Twitter, and potentially any service or web page where a URL might turn up…

[continues at the Electronic Frontier Foundation site]

‘Do Not Track Me Online’ Privacy Bill Introduced

Pelliciari — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 22:43:46 +0000

Photo: Nokia Releases (CC)

Tired of spam e-mails and unwanted pop-ups? This bill will create regulations as to how marketers obtain information about you without your knowledge. The bill still allows web users the option to be tracked by advertisers, just in case you enjoy having marketing companies target you. Los Angeles Times reports:

The first “do not track” legislation was introduced in Congress on Friday, raising the possibility that Web users will be able to prevent advertisers from recording their online behavior for marketing purposes, similar to the Do Not Call Registry created in 2003.

The bill, called the “Do Not Track Me Online Act of 2011,” would give the Federal Trade Commission the right to create regulations that would force online marketers to respect the wishes of users who did not want to be tracked.

“Failure to do so would be considered an unfair or deceptive act punishable by law,” noted a statement from the office of Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), who is sponsoring the bill.

[Continues at Los Angeles Times]

Senator Schumer Tries To Ban Snorting Bath Salts

majestic — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 17:17:41 +0000

An example of the type of bath salts that would be the subject of new federal law.

Chuck Schumer, the senior Senator from New York, is not happy about the creative use of bath salts (smoking or snorting them for a speedy high) and has plans to make them federal controlled substances. Report from Reuters:

Two drugs that produce a “meth-like” high and are being sold under the guise of “bath salts” would be banned as federally controlled substances under a bill unveiled by U.S. Senator Charles Schumer of New York.

“These so-called bath salts contain ingredients that are nothing more than legally sanctioned narcotics, and they are being sold cheaply to all comers, with no questions asked, at store counters around the country,” said Schumer, a Democrat.

Schumer said he will introduce a bill to outlaw the two synthetic drugs — mephedrone and methylenedioxypyrovalerone, or MDPV. The drugs come in powder and tablet form and are ingested by snorting, injection, smoking and, less often, by use of an atomizer.

Users experience an intense high, euphoria, extreme energy, hallucinations, insomnia and are easily provoked to anger, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration, which is currently investigating the drugs.

They have emerged as legal alternatives to cocaine and methamphetamines, and one or both have already been banned in the European Union, Australia, Canada, and Israel. In the United States, Florida, Louisiana and North Dakota have all recently banned the substances…

[continues at Reuters]

9/11 Health Bill May Pass After All

majestic — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 17:48:56 +0000

It looks like New York’s Democrat Senators have finally convinced enough of their Republican companions in the Senate to vote for the 9/11 health legislation sorely needed for sick first responders (but not without knocking $1.2 billion off the price). From New York Magazine’s Daily Intel:

Don’t look now, but the Democrats are starting to rack up a pretty sizable number of successes in what was at one time expected to be a quiet and largely uneventful lame-duck session. There was the tax-cut deal, which included an extension of unemployment benefits, then the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and soon, it appears, even the long-stalled James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act. And yes, it is strange that guaranteeing medical assistance for first responders sickened by the toxic dust of the destroyed World Trade Center is a specifically Democratic issue.

Republicans have maintained that they don’t have anything against the heroes of ground zero (kind of an embarrassing thing to have to convince people of), but merely objected to how the $7.4 billion bill was funded — closing a tax loophole on foreign corporations — and the timing of the vote. On December 9, not a single Republican senator broke with the party’s filibuster, and the bill was blocked from a vote.

But New York’s Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand didn’t give up, and with a few tweaks, they’ve apparently been able to garner a whopping three Republican votes for the legislation…

[continues at Daily Intel]

The Eleven Pens Of Barack Obama: Signing Financial Reform Is Signing Up For A New Struggle To Make It Real

Danny Schechter — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 22:54:49 +0000

With eleven pens for souvenirs, President Obama signed the financial reform bill in a rare celebratory moment. Significantly, the ceremony did not take place in the Oval Office but up the block at the Ronald Reagan building perhaps to signal recalcitrant Republicans that this is a cause they should sign on to.

It wasn’t clear if he was aware that he was signing up for a new volatile phase of struggle to rein in out of control financial power.

The three GOP lawmakers who voted for the bill received a standing ovation from the largely democratic crowd that watched Obama embrace Paul Volcker, while Elizabeth Warren stood by applauding (before taking her picture with the former Fed head).

Warren’s presence didn’t make many news stories or the Times photo caption perhaps because many—mostly bankers and some Obama advisors—want her out of the picture permanently. They say Banks need protection too. Quips David Sirota, “Not to put too fine a point on it, but the new agency is called the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, it is not called the Bank Financial Protection Bureau (as, frankly, you might call the rest of the government).” She could be appointed right now to head the new consumer protection bureau without approval by the Senate.

But will she?

No sooner was the bill signed than there were emails from Obama operatives flying around the country claiming credit for an achievement that looked unlikely for months, sustained the heaviest Lobbyist attack in history, and won praise from all the advocacy groups who realized that while the bill was flawed, rationalized it as the best they could squeeze out of Congress in this climate.

Republicans are predicting it will lead to job losses. Minority leader Mitch McConnell regurgitated a familiar mantra saying, “The White House will declare this bill a victory. But for millions of Americans struggling to find work, for millions of small-business owners bracing themselves for all the new regulations they’ll have to deal with, for ordinary Americans who just wanted to see an end to the bailouts, this bill is no victory.”

(Of course, there was no reference to the Republicans who initiated the bailouts, or, of course, the “ordinary Americans want jobs!)

Now, the businesses that could be regulated under the bill are launching an effort to reform the Reform bill—their way—to make sure the rules that are still to be written will not be too hard on them.

The Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable have their hatchets out by continuing the full court press lobbying effort that did force compromises in the bill. Of course, they position what they are doing only in the most positive light,

“We will work with President Obama and policy makers to ensure that this legislation is implemented in a manner that continues to promote sustainable economic growth and job creation,” says Roundtable honcho Larry Burton.

Not only is this blah blah contrived, but it is flawed in a more fundamental way because there is no job creation to continue, in large part, because the private sector is not creating jobs. In fact corporations are stashing trillions that they are not using for job growth,

You expect business to oppose regulations on business but the Daily Beast carried an article suggesting that some savvy Wall Streeters actually want stricter regulations. Author Randall Lane writes:

“Upon passage, the standard response was to publicly grumble but privately rejoice about a bill that could have been far more punitive. But as I asked around over the past few days, there’s been a shift: many on Wall Street now view financial reform as a wasted opportunity—to make the rules that govern them even tighter.

They won’t say this officially. They might not even say it to their peers, in the same way they won’t tell others on the desk they really dig Glee. But privately, one-on-one, the most deliberative Wall Street hitters I know recognize that they need a system that saves them both from themselves, as well as potentially capricious regulators. This new law, while well-intentioned and likely better than nothing, effectively accomplishes neither.”

Lane argues that, “Wall Street craves—and needs—rules, and the discipline to enforce them consistently. If left to its own self-interest, Wall Street couldn’t function.”

In this view, the bill was not tough enough even with the many compromises the biggest firms won to allow them to circumvent the law. Wall Street’s new battleground is over the shape of the rules to come.

The Washington Post reports,

“The SEC is required to issue 95 new regulations governing a wide swath of the financial sector, dozens more than the Federal Reserve, the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau or other federal agencies. The SEC is also slated to complete 17 one-time studies and five new ongoing reports, according to a tally by the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell.”

The SEC does not exactly have a reputation for moving quickly. They missed Bernie Madoff’s ponzi scheme for a decade, but now say they are going after more cases of corporate fraud in the aftermath of the $550 million dollar settlement they won from Goldman Sachs. The problem there is that they are only settling cases, not prosecuting fraudsters.

Progressives have an agenda too, to strengthen reform. They will be fighting to, in Zack Carter’s buzz words” “Break Up The Banks … Tax Wall Street Gambling … End The Foreclosure Nightmare…” There are also concerns with the future of the taxpayer billions invested in mortgage lenders “Freddie” and “Fannie.”

While all this goes on in the foreground, in the background there’s panic about the economy’s stubborn refusal to rebound. Ben Bernanke at the Fed expects unemployment to linger for years. His arsenal of economic weaponry seems out of ammunition, He is now “unusually uncertain.” Huh?

Stress tests of banks are expected to show a capital hole.

When the six-month extension of unemployment benefits squeaked through the Senate, there was a sigh of relief among those in need, and cheers from Democrats who have not been able to move the unemployment needle or restore confidence in the economy. What happens after six months?

Putting money in the pockets of consumers will create some bounce, but it doesn’t deal with the deep structural and systemic problems that worry economists and governments worldwide.

What they see are 800 insolvent banks, industries shrinking, state and local governments on the verge of bankruptcy and escalating debt. They see China rising and the West sinking.

A million foreclosures are expected this year while in the know advocates like Paul Krugman warn of stagnation and a creeping depression. Others say a double dip recession is already here. Shrill partisan voices make it hard for the public to focus on any solutions. So there is no jobs bill despite a bill seeking Local Jobs For America,

So far, only a few brave voices are calling for major cutbacks in defense or inflated intelligence spending as the wars we cannot win continue to drain us like those knives that leave a thousand cuts.

Many banks are falsifying their earnings but still considered too big to fail. My view they are not too big to jail, yet there is no public pressure from progressives for the prosecution of Wall Street criminals as I call for in my film Plunder: The Crime of our Time.

So, by all means, let’s be grateful for small victories, but we can’t substitute symbolic steps with a real recovery that, every day, looks further and further away.

Filmmaker and News Dissector Danny Schechter edits Mediachannel.org.

For more on his film and companion book The Crime of our Time, visit plunderthecrimeofourtime.com.

No “Kill Switch” in Lieberman-Collins Bill, But There’s Been One Since 1934

klintron — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 16:51:51 +0000

Via ReadWriteWeb:

It doesn’t sound like a “kill switch.” The bill would require the President to submit a report describing, among other things, “The actions necessary to preserve the reliable operation and mitigate the consequences of the potential disruption of covered critical infrastructure” (pg. 84 lines 1-4). That sounds like the opposite of a kill switch: this legislation describes a process by which the president is expected to take action to ensure access to “critical infrastructure” -including the Internet.

There’s plenty of room to debate the merits of the federal government dictating the security policies of private companies, the ability of the president to continually extend any provisions beyond 30 days, the value of establishing new cyber security departments within the government, and the vagueness of the language in the bill. But this is nothing nearly so radical as some are making it out to be.

In fact, as Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs’ web site for the bill points out, the President already has a legislative (but of course, not technological) “kill switch.” The Communications Act of 1934 gave the president power to shut down “wire communications.”

[Full story at ReadWriteWeb]

Senator Orrin Hatch (R) Says, If You’re Out Of Work, You’re A Drug Addict

5by5 — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 13:03:37 +0000

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT)

What is it with morons from Utah getting all up in other people’s business? Here’s the latest stupidity to emanate from that part of the country, from Raw Story:

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) offered an amendment Tuesday that would require drug tests for those who seek welfare and unemployment benefits. States have the authority to enact drug testing requirements for their welfare programs under the 1996 Welfare Reform Act, signed into law by President Bill Clinton, but they are not mandated to conduct tests under current law.”

Now it was lame enough that the moderate Republican (no, he WASN’T a Liberal), Bill Clinton, allowed this invasive nonsense to be pulled on welfare recipients (Why in hell aren’t we drug-testing bankers? You MUST be high to think some of the gambles those idiots took were a great idea.) just to placate the insane-o hard right Republicans. However this Orrin jerk from Utah wants to expand it to say to millions of law-abiding citizens who are merely down on their luck that, “If you’re poor, unfortunate, or unemployed even due to circumstances beyond your control, you’re obviously a drug addict as well, and should be treated as such.

There is so much wrong with this idea, I hardly know where to begin.

It violates the notion that you are innocent until PROVEN guilty, but rather compels a portion of society (thereby also violating the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment) to prove its innocence, in violation of our basic notions of jurisprudence.

Its a privacy nightmare, because there is no guarantee that the samples will not be used for anything else, such as DNA testing, or that the information about you will remain with the government, and not make its way out into the corporate world, thereby preventing you from ever again obtaining gainful employment, or affecting your insurance rates should you test positive.

Moreover, it does nothing to address the inherent FALSE positive rate that is a part of such idiotic privacy invasions on a regular basis. Some goober here in L.A. just made the news for losing a gig because unbeknownst to him, the herbal tea he was drinking had hemp powder in it, and he gave off a false positive. He’s not a drug addict, just an herbal tea drinker, and it cost him a job. That’s beyond messed up. Eat a poppy seed muffin? No unemployment aid for you. Clearly, you’re a heroin addict, and because you have a medical problem, you should be punished for that, and also made homeless.

This is what passes for logic in the Republican-controlled/warped Senate these days.

Just when you think Republicans can’t come up with any more DAFT ideas, they surpass themselves with something even more boneheaded.

The “Drug War” is over you fool. It didn’t work. We should be discussing how to legalize drugs, heavily regulate and tax the hell out of them to help with the national debt, and to fund RATIONAL drug treatment programs for people who have a REAL problem, not the imagined one in Orrin’s tiny cranium.

Call To Act: Save And Strengthen Financial Reform

Danny Schechter — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 18:22:17 +0000

We have less than a month to go before the Congress votes on financial reform.

Ironically, the deadline seems to be July 4th, our independence day, an occasion that will likely usher in ever more dependence on Wall Street despite appearances.

The conference on the Hill formally begins this week after weeks of behind the scenes legislative “reconciliation”–a fancy name for horse-trading and compromising between the House and Senate over different versions of the “reforms” with thousands of lobbyists for the financial industry using every trick in their infinite playbooks of persuasion and pay-offs to assure that the final bill is loop-hole full, weak and easy to maneuver around.

Matt Taibbi reports real reform is a goner:

“The financial-services industry has reportedly flooded the Capitol with more than 2,000 paid lobbyists; even veteran members are stunned by the intensity of the blitz. “They’re trying everything,” says Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Ohio. Wall Street’s army is especially imposing given that the main (really, the only) progressive coalition working the other side of the aisle, Americans for Financial Reform, has been in existence less than a year – and has just 60 unpaid “volunteer” lobbyists working the Senate halls.”

New York Times columnist Joe Nocera raises some questions that confirm my own suspicions:

“it’s not too early to ask: “Will the bill that emerges from this conference do what it is intended to do? Will it prevent another crisis? Will it put an end to government bailouts? The painful answer is: probably not …There is something oh-so-reasonable about these bills, as if Congress was worried that they might do something that would — heaven forbid! — upset the banking industry.”

With the media focused on the oil spill, or the confrontation on the high seas off Gaza, the public is more distracted than ever. The financial crisis coverage has lost what little moral edge it had, and reverted to complex details and nuanced distinctions that sail right over the heads of a public that has seen little real change in its economic situation, as unemployment stays high and foreclosures mount.

The economy is bad and getting worse: just look at the lack of new jobs in the private sector in the new jobs report. Stagnation has set in.

As the financial crisis deepens, our media focuses on markets, not misery. A detailed report by the media watchdog FAIR notes, “Wealth Gap Yawns – and So Do Media: Little interest in study of massive race/gender disparities.”

What we are seeing on our stormy financial waters is a flotilla of falsehood; a media farce of posturing that ignores needed structural changes. Pointedly, the Economist magazine cover features a shark circling in the water with a headline warning of a “double-dip recession. The Eurozone is barely holding on. Panic is back with a ‘mini-depression’ predicted.” Many experts warn: another collapse is coming.

The “real” economy has become a surreal economy.

Meanwhile, the banksters and their allies here are doing their best to bamboozle us with false confidence while making this fight seem as boring and hard to follow as possible. Their message is: let us handle it because it is too complicated for mere mortals like the American people.

There are many unresolved arguments over the bill’s language but one reality seems clear already: no one on Wall Street is considered responsible for the collapse of our economy that has led to so much joblessness, homelessness and hopelessness, and no one will be held responsible or be going to jail.

Foreclosures in 2008 were nearly 4 million, 21 percent higher than 2008, the worst since the depression. And yet, there are fewer and fewer prosecutions of white-collar crime, even as the FBI condemns an “epidemic” of mortgage fraud.

Not only are scammers getting off free; they are being overpaid in the process and allowed to keep their gargantuan bonuses and obscene salaries.

The question is not what can we do about this? The real question is can we afford to do nothing?

What happens, if we remain silent, and let them get away with it?

It seems obvious that as the people who made this mess are rewarded, we will continue to watch our own economic security get more precarious. Even scarier, without deep structural reforms, experts say, we can expect more crashes, more meltdowns and the crisis getting more critical.

Right now, Wall Street is winning and is on the verge of neutering reform. That’s why bank stocks went up when the “reform” bill passed the Senate.

Nouriel Roubini, the economist who predicted the collapse of the markets asks: “What then, are the prospects for reform and renewal? At the very least, this route is likely to be long, hard and strewn with setbacks. It may not be chosen … until there is system failure.”

Is that what faces us, a “system failure?” Let’s hope not.

Paul Volcker, the former head of the Federal Reserve Bank, seems very troubled, writing recently, “The Time We Have Is Growing Short” while admitting, “None of these reforms will assure crisis-free financial markets in the years ahead. The point is to keep the inevitable excesses and points of strain manageable, to reduce their scale and frequency… As we well know, the critical policy issues we face go way beyond the … regulation of financial markets.”

Amen. Do they ever!

It is with a sense of urgency that we should call for a month of intense public education on the crimes of Wall Street. We are urging activists who agree there must be a jailout, not just a bailout, to engage on this issue. One thing we can do: set up screenings -in homes, communities, libraries, and schools of my new feature length documentary film, PLUNDER THE CRIME OF OUR TIME, so the public can see how fraud, deception and criminality bankrupted our economy and is ruining our lives. (List your screening on Brave New Theaters.)

This crime narrative is, surprise, surprise, missing in the media

To get the DVD, visit the website Plunderthecrimeofourtime.com. The film is also available on iTunes and wherever DVDs are sold.

There won’t be demands on Congress to pass real reforms unless and until the public recognizes HOW we were robbed and demands changes and punishment for wrong doers.

Understands that we are in our rights to demand that those who broken laws, defrauded homeowners, and flimflammed the economy to be held accountable. Over 1500 bankers went to jail after the S&L crisis. Almost, none are being prosecuted today.

So please join me in understanding that this financial crisis was not caused by “mistakes” by some of the smartest people in the world, but by arrogance, greed, and yes, crime. We must rein in their plunders to restore some modicum of economic justice.

It’s not enough to offer up programmatic reforms–like, for example, regulating derivatives without also resonating with the anger and outrage that people have. As one Reuters report put it, they want “Heads on Spikes,” not just polite academic arguments.

We must arm ourselves with information or harm ourselves. Period.

There are many other excellent educational resources by many authors and filmmakers to draw upon. Mine include IN DEBT WE TRUST, (2006) the film that forecast the credit crunch; my books PLUNDER: Investigating Our Economic Calamity (Cosimo Books) and a companion volume to the film, THE CRIME OF OUR TIME with more detail on the crimes of Wall Street. Visit the website. Pass the word to your friends and lists.

Get Informed. Get Engaged. Get Involved.

The Economy We Save May Be Our Own.

Rep. Alan Grayson Introduces the War Is Making You Poor Act (Video)

Aaron Dames — Sun, 23 May 2010 20:49:07 +0000

Rep. Grayson introduces a bill to cut separate funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and uses the money to eliminate federal income taxes on every American’s first $35,000 of income. Cosponsors of this bill include Ron Paul, Walter Jones, John Conyers, Lynn Woolsey, and Dennis Kucinich.

American Town Bans Bottled Water

majestic — Wed, 05 May 2010 15:10:52 +0000

Photo: Ten Thousand Bullets (CC)

Is this the beginning of the end for plastic bottles of water? Is there hope that the Great Pacific (and Atlantic) Garbage Patch might stop growing? Here at disinformation we’re sensitized to the issues as we’ll soon be releasing the movie Tapped on DVD, but could this ban be going to far, too soon? Report from The Boston Channel:

The town of Concord has banned the sale of bottled drinking water in town beginning in 2011. “We only have one planet and I just don’t want to see it spoiled,” said Jean Hill, who introduced the measure at Concord’s Town Meeting.

Hill said that New York, Illinois and Virginia, as well as more than 100 cities, have taken action to cut spending on bottled water.

The measured passed by Concord would allow the sale of refillable containers of water, which could still be sold and delivered in town. Only plastic bottles that companies cannot reuse would be banned.

“Water is something we can get from the faucet. You can’t turn your faucet on and get soda,” said Selectwoman Virginia McIntyre, explaining why other plastic bottles would not be banned.

Supporters say the production of plastic water bottles uses 17 million barrels of oil each year. The beverage industry opposes the measure. “If you think about the fact that our bottles are getting smaller and if you think about the fact that our bottles are going into the recycle bins in Concord, it’s a crazy policy,” said Ralph Crowley of Polar Beverages…

9/11 Truthers Could Be Locked Up For Life Under Proposed U.S. Law

phunkychic666 — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:58:42 +0000

A new bill quietly introduced by Congress last week is causing quite a stir among civil liberties groups. The brainchild of senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman, the bill would give the United States government the power to indefinitely detain terror suspects without charge or trial. It would also allow the government to interrogate them for the intelligence value and it doesn’t make a distinction between U.S. citizens and non-citizens.

Authority to Spy on Americans Unclear as Patriot Act Expires

majestic — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 13:31:57 +0000

Why aren’t we hearing more about this chance to rid ourselves of the most unconstitutional piece of legislation in recent memory, the PATRIOT Act? Elizabeth Gorman files this rare report for ABC News:

Rushed into law by Congress just weeks after Sept. 11, 2001 three controversial provisions of the Patriot Act granting officials far-reaching surveillance and seizure powers in the name of national security, are due to expire this New Year’s Eve.

Two differing bills passed by the House and Senate judiciary committees in recent weeks will have to be reconciled in Congress, but only when the Senate isn’t backlogged by health care, Democratic aides told ABC News.

“This critical legislation protects our national security, as well as our civil liberties, and the clock is ticking,” said Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wisc., an author of President Bush’s 2001 Patriot Act and former chairman of the House Judiciary Committee under the Bush administration.

Sensenbrenner urged the House and Senate to act quickly in reauthorizing the provisions before they expire at the end of this year.

That timing is unclear. With so few weeks left in the year and the health care debate just beginning in the Senate, it’s possible that Congress will first vote for a temporary extension to prevent certain Patriot Act authorities from sunsetting, according to an aide…

[continues at ABC News]