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| Taking a Closer Look at the Stories Ignored by the Corporate Media |
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Archive for the Month of June, 2005.
Viewing Corporatism NEWS articles 1 through 36 of 36.
- Every item bought at Wal-Mart adds another nail in the coffin of America's future.
- The chain does 32 BILLION DOLLARS a year. We won't get into name-calling or labels. I'm presenting the facts with a few comments. There shouldn't be one person on the planet that should not be concerned about what they are doing. With more than 500 stores in the US alone, they have a big impact and far too much power.
- "If it's true what people say, that big multinational companies are outsourcing health care to taxpayers, then it would be good to have a handle on which ones. It's just information."
- BP’s profits come with enormous human cost and environmental damages, and its latest venture -- the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline which opened in late May -- has done little to make amends.
- One day in 2000 after lecturing about risks of the pain-reliever Vioxx, Harvard University professor Lee Simon got a call that shocked him. It was from Louis M. Sherwood, then a senior vice president at Merck & Co. Inc., maker of Vioxx. Sherwood challenged Simon's view - later proved correct - that Vioxx could cause more strokes than a rival drug.
Sherwood didn't stop there. He said "he would hurt my career if I continued to lecture," Simon recalled. "I was astonished."
- “Congress should not be in the business of slipping taxpayer subsidies into large bills to benefit individual corporations, especially executives from a company that perpetrated one of the greatest corporate frauds in American history."
- President's George Bush's decision not to sign the United States up to the Kyoto global warming treaty was partly a result of pressure from ExxonMobil, the world's most powerful oil company, and other industries. - As is the case in other industries, meatpacking and poultry workers have suffered the impact of the Bush administration's collusion with industry giants like Tyson, a fact that has permitted "government agencies themselves [to] give production priority over worker safety."
- The Justice Department has decided that most health care employees can't be prosecuted for stealing personal data under a privacy law intended to protect medical information. "It looks like they decided on the outcome for political reasons, namely the health care industry's desire to get out from criminal prosecution."
- In what could be the most business-friendly climate since the days of President McKinley, President Bush and the GOP-controlled Congress are moving to extend corporate tax breaks, pass pension reforms, allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and limit lawsuits - including a settlement of asbestos litigation that has driven 70 companies into bankruptcy.
- "Big tobacco is one of the top donors to Republicans and it is getting what it paid for."
- Foreign capitalists are getting rich, and intend to go on getting rich, from these resources. They restrict the possibilities that this wealth, which should belong to us, might be used to benefit the lives of all Bolivians. The capitalists, whether local or foreign, puts profits and her or his own personal benefit above the collective and national interest.
- Halliburton’s Kazakhstan operations reportedly violated customs laws by shifting imported equipment to operations that were not exempt from customs duties. - While wandering down the isles of this megastore...I discovered a wall of porn!.. not segmented by curtains or velvet ropes, but literally right above the children's movies...
- Nearly two dozen states have passed legislation allowing their transportation systems to operate toll roads and okaying private firms to build and run them. Converting existing roads to toll corridors – thereby forcing taxpayers to pay each time they use roads for which they’ve already paid. - Former executives of Custer Battles -- an American firm accused of stealing millions from Iraq reconstruction projects and banned from further government contracts -- have continued doing contracting work and have formed new companies to bid on such projects.
- Large corporations are in full retreat from paying their fair share of taxes. In 2003, corporations paid just 7% of the cost of the US government, according to a study by Citizens for Tax Justice. - Bad faith insurance is where an insurance company decides to wrongfully deny legitimate claims.... "all they have to do is deny a small percentage of legitimate claims, and they're up a cool $1 billion a year."
- New rule requires workers to work any shift or be fired
- A former White House official and one-time oil industry lobbyist whose editing of government reports on climate change prompted criticism from environmentalists will join ExxonMobil Corp., the oil company said Tuesday.
- Government censors redacted 45 names from a report charging that Pentagon officials broke laws in negotiations with aircraft manufacturer Boeing. Based on the context in which the blacked-out names appear, some could be White House officials.
- German Wal-Mart employees will be able to keep flirting with each other after a German court on Thursday ruled that the supermarket chain's code of conduct that banned relationships between workers was illegal.
- Gunmen who seized two German and four Nigerian oil workers are demanding petroleum giant Royal Dutch/Shell honor promises of jobs and benefits in the oil-rich south, a company spokesman said Thursday. - They're on the government payroll, but some of President Bush's top aides have millions of dollars in stocks, real estate and other investments, according to financial disclosure forms released Wednesday. - A Halliburton Co. unit will build a new $30 million detention facility and security fence at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the United States is holding about 520 foreign terrorism suspects.
- The Bush administration altered critical portions of a scientific analysis of the environmental impact of cattle grazing on public lands before announcing Thursday that it would relax regulations limiting grazing on those lands, according to scientists involved in the study.
- In what will be a landmark human rights case in the UK, the farmers allege that the pipeline destroyed their land and forced them into destitution.
- "Job cuts will save the automakers big bucks, but it's a bloodletting for the rank and file and euthanasia for the union. Anyone who has worked the line knows job cuts mean speedup, overload, excessive overtime, and health and safety hazards. Production doesn't slow down when the workforce is reduced. The jobs just get harder, faster, longer and more dangerous."
- In tallying the corporate criminals, the weekly newsletter did not include crimes committed by joint venture companies or subsidiaries of the 30 corporations.
- French and U.S. officials have been probing for some time allegations of millions of dollars in kickbacks in a Nigerian oil project that involved Halliburton and the French company Technip between 1995 and 2002. U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney was an executive of Halliburton during much of that period. - Experts say firm may have built secret camps
- Lobbying Firms Hire More, Pay More, Charge More to Influence Government
- Local actions around GMOs, in particular, are designed to address important gaps in federal and state policy, and mitigate potentially serious threats to public health, the environment, and survival of local farm economies. - Thousands of low-wage Wal-Mart workers are on public assistance. Many state lawmakers say it's time the megastore was forced to provide affordable employee health insurance.
- It has destroyed 100,000 small businesses, is breaking the union movement, has shipped massive amounts of jobs overseas, and has the news media in it's pocket. They are a version of the Pullman Company, but much more dangerous.
- The next road you travel -- and pay a toll to use -- could be privately owned.
Pages for June, 2005
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