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Now, Follow the Banksters on Facebook!
BanksterUSA is ramping up its social media efforts to connect with our fans on Facebook. Give us your creative ideas and feedback on our new Facebook page! Become a fan, and help us spread the word. Click here to give us your feedback.
The reckless behavior of big Wall Street banks, credit card companies, and mortgage lenders caused a financial crisis that cost us millions of lost homes and jobs, billions in tax-payer funded bailouts and trillions in lost college and retirement savings. This week, the Senate takes up financial reform legislation that will set the shape of economy for the next 50 years. Call or email your Senator and tell them American families can no longer afford a "boom and bail" economy, and it's past time that they cracked down on the abuses that caused the financial crisis.
From Until March 31, you can call the Senate toll free at 1-866-544-7573 between the hours of 9 a.m.-5 p.m. EST. The toll-free number, provided by our friends at Service Employees International Union (SEIU), will ask you to dial-in your zip code. You will automatically be connected to your Senators' office. Or you can go to BanksterUSA.org to email your Senator. The message? "Support financial reform that holds the big Wall Street banks accountable. Shrink the 'too big to fail' banks, close the loopholes to make sure that 100% of derivatives are traded on an open exchange, and create a strong, independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA). Don't bury the CFPA in the basement of the U.S. Treasury Department."
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Recent blogs from CMD
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CMD's Wendell Potter to Appear on Bill Moyers' Journal
- Wendell Potter, former head Corporate Communications for CIGNA, and now the Center for Media and Democracy's Senior Fellow on Health Care, is in New York City this week to tape an interview with Bill Moyers for his show, Bill Moyers' Journal, to be broadcast Friday night, March 5, 2010. CMD is also proud to announce that Mr. Potter has been appointed the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC)-Funded Consumer Representative for 2010. The NAIC is the organization of state insurance regulators for all 50 of the United States, Washington D.C., and five U.S. territories. It assists state insurance regulators in protecting the public interest, promoting competitive markets, and facilitate the fair and equitable treatment of insurance consumers.
Goldman's Golden Fleece
- Mary Bottari writes about how the steady stream of revelations regarding the role Goldman Sachs has played in the fleecing of Europe should reinvigorate efforts in Congress to rein in the reckless trading that could send the global economy into another tailspin. In early February, the German magazine Der Spiegel broke the story that Greece has been hiding the extent of its debt for years, with the aid of U.S. investment banks. In 2001, Goldman was paid $300 million to structure a complex derivative deal that allowed Greece to borrow billions while hiding the true extent of its debt. Because the deal was structured as a currency swap (a type of derivative) and not as a loan, it was secret, bilateral and off-book. Goldman may have been the only party that knew about it, leading many to speculate how it may have profited from the knowledge. Read more here.
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In the news from CMD
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The Missile Defense Agency's new logo
The Latest Obama-Islam Conspiracy Theory The conservative blogosphere is busy charging that the United States Missile Defense Agency's (MDA) new logo looks suspicious ... like a combination of the Muslim crescent moon and Barack Obama's campaign logo. Some even detect a similarity to the logo of Iran's Space Agency. These latest Obama conspiracy-theorists may be disappointed, though, because the agency's "new" logo isn't all that new. MDA spokesman Rick Lehner says it was developed three years ago, during the George W. Bush administration, and a full year before the 2008 presidential campaign. Lehner said the logo was chosen because it is cheaper, because it consists of three colors, as opposed to the five colors contained in the agency's former official logo.
- Cable TV Shows Rife with Hidden Flacks and Lobbyists Cable TV networks like MSNBC, CNN, CNBC and Fox News routinely use commentators who have financial conflicts of interest that they fail to disclose to viewers. Former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge, for example, appeared on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, to discuss the economic crisis, saying that the real answer would be for the president to "take his green agenda and blow it out of a box," and that the U.S. needed to "create nuclear power plants." Ridge seemed like an objective commentator, but viewers weren't told that he had pocketed $530,659 for serving on the board of Exelon, the country's largest nuclear power company, and also held an estimated $248,299 in Exelon stock. Dick Gephardt, who viewers were only told was a congressman during the Clinton-era health care reform effort in 1993, appeared on MSNBC's "Morning Meeting" to discuss health care reform, where he labeled the public option "not essential." Unmentioned was his work advising pharmaceutical interests through his lobbying firm, Gephardt Government Affairs. These types of blatant, undisclosed conflicts are rife on cable news and information shows. Lobbyists, PR flacks and corporate officials regularly appear promoting their clients' interests, introduced only with titles like "Former governor," "Republican strategist" and "Retired U.S. Military," without disclosing their lobbying connections.
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Organized Campaigns to Cyber-Bully Climate Scientists? Climate scientists increasingly report that they have become targets of cyber-bullying, saying threats and hatred pour into their email inboxes whenever they appear in the press or media. The emailers call the scientists cheaters, frauds, scumbags and worse. Australian academic Clive Hamilton speculated in a news column that purpose of this cyber-bullying is to upset and intimidate the targets, making them reluctant to participate further in the climate change debate. Most of the e-mails seem to be the work of frustrated individuals who simply want to rant, but some appears to be coming from coordinated campaigns. Scientists say people appear to be taking cues from influential anti-climate change advocates like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and the Web site ClimateDepot.com. Kevin Trenberth, head of the Climate Analysis Section of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, says that the most dispiriting aspect of the e-mails is that facts seem to no longer hold any weight in the public debate. He observes that the nature of public discourse, be it climate change or health care, has changed; information that does not fit peoples' worldview is now discounted or rejected. Richard Littlemore of DeSmogBlog says the cyberbullying starts with paid campaigners like Marc Morano, Executive Director at ClimateDepot.com, and Steven J. Milloy of JunkScience.com. "They're the PR guys and they're in the game and taking money for what they do," he said.
- JP Morgan Ramps Up Greedwashing A full-page, pricey ad in the New York Times by JP Morgan Chase about a new charitable project proclaims, "We believe it's important to listen to our customers and communities. That's why we created Community Giving and let the Facebook community vote on which local charities will receive $5 million in grants from Chase." JP Morgan Chase, one of the largest banks in America, played a critical role in the 2008 financial crisis. It received $25 billion in bailout funds in 2008, enabling the company to get back on its feet and pay eye-popping bonuses to top executives in 2009. Amusingly, the ad capitalizes on the phrase "A New Way Forward for Giving," echoing the theme of the net-roots bank reform group A New Way Forward, who has been leading an Internet campaign to get consumers to "break up" with the big banks like JP Morgan and start accounts at small, local community banks. Get ready for more "greedwashing" campaigns like this as the big banks try to convince the American public that their practices are changing, even while they spend millions lobbying against financial reform, continue to raise bank fees and aggressively foreclose on American families.
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Editor's pick of the week
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Republicans are portraying use of reconciliation -- "Washington-speak" for a majority vote -- as scandalously improper for a health reform bill. Senator Bill Frist (R-Tenessee) claimed use of reconciliation would be "unprecedented" and "historic." Scott Brown (R-Massachusetts) erroneously referred to reconciliation as "the nuclear option." Jon Kyl (R-Arizona) complained that reconciliation "was never designed for a large, comprehensive piece of legislation such as health care," and Orrin Hatch (R- Utah) said "The use of expedited reconciliation process to push through more dramatic changes to a health care bill of such size, scope and magnitude is unprecedented." But most health care reform measures passed over the last 30 years were passed using reconciliation. The bill that created COBRA, for example -- the law that allows people to keep their health insurance after they leave their jobs -- was passed through reconciliation. Expansion of the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) was also achieved through reconciliation. The process was also used to add protections for nursing home patients, preventive care like cancer screenings, and a hospice benefit to Medicare. In fact, over the last 30 years, many more major health care financing measures have been passed using reconciliation than not.
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Popular Articles over the Past Week
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SourceWatch's article on Existing U.S. Coal_Plants is the top article, followed by the profile of Xe, the private security company former known as Blackwater. An article on the Bilderberg Group, "an informal secretive transatlantic council of key decision makers," has moved up to number three on the list of most popular articles. The article on Propaganda techniques follows close behind. The articles on Think tanks and Global warming skeptics are also among SourceWatch's top ten most popular articles.
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Projects for citizen editors
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* Help Us Keep Up With the Latest Power Companies Fleeing the Pro-Coal Industry Front Group, the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity!
More and more major energy companies are jumping ship from the pro-coal industry front group, the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, as it continues to promote the myth of "clean coal" and and boost dirty power generating methods, even as society seeks to move towards cleaner, more environmentally-friendly energy sources. The latest power company to run for the door is Progress Energy, which provides electricity to 3.1 million customers in Florida and the Carolinas. Duke Energy pulled out of ACCCE just before that. ACCCE was the front group that ran ads at Christmas time, 2008 featuring animated lumps of coal called the "Clean Coal Carolers" cheerfully singing Christmas Carols like "Frosty the Snowman," with the lyrics changed to deliver pro-coal propaganda.
* Here's How you can Help:
Help us update SourceWatch's article on the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, to reflect the latest companies exiting the group. Please cite published, authoritative sources for information you ad. If this is your first time editing on SourceWatch, you can register here, and learn more about adding information here, here, and here. Hold onto your hat, have fun, and thanks for your help!
If you would like to help in other ways, please take a look at some of our earlier citizen journalism projects here.
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What they're saying about SourceWatch
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"The folks at the Center for Media and Democracy have done incredible work documenting fake grassroots ("astroturf") groups. Here, they're helping protects the rights of all Americans to exercise their right to vote. They are completely non-partisan. These guys are the real deal." Craig Newmark, Craig's List
"A truly impressive project based on cutting edge web technology." David Korten, author of When Corporations Rule the World and The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community.
"The troublemakers at the Center for Media and Democracy, for example, point to dozens of examples of "greenwashing," which they defined as the "unjustified appropriation of environmental virtue by a company, an industry, a government or even a non-government organization to sell a product, a policy" or rehabilitate an image. In the center's view, many enterprises labeled green don't deserve the name.—Jack Shafer, "Green Is the New Yellow: On the excesses of 'green' journalism", Slate, July 6, 2007.
"As a journalist frequently on the receiving end of various PR campaigns, some of them based on disinformation, others front groups for undisclosed interests, [CMD's SourceWatch] is an invaluable resource."—Michael Pollan author of The Botany of Desire
"Thanks for all your help. There's no way I could have done my piece on big PR and global warming without the CMD [Center for Media and Democracy] and your fabulous websites."—Zoe Cormier, journalist, Canada
"The dearth of information on the [U.S.] government [lobbying] disclosure forms about the other business-backed coalitions comes in stark contrast to the data about them culled from media reports, websites, press releases and Internal Revenue Service documents and posted by SourceWatch, a website that tracks advocacy groups." Jeanne Cummings, 'New disclosure reports lack clarity", Politico, April 29, 2008.
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Additional stories from CMD
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A federal district court ruled that the public interest journalism group ProPublica can obtain a list of corporate-owned airplanes whose flight information was blocked from public view. ProPublica first sought the list in 2008 under the Freedom of Information Act, after the CEOs of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler flew to Washington, D.C. on corporate jets to ask Congress to bail out their companies. Those flights became known because the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) provides real-time flight information that the public could see. But the bad publicity over the flights led General Motors to try and stop the public from tracking its planes in the future. A little-known law called the Block Aircraft Registration Request Program permits companies to ask that their corporate jets' flight information be blocked from public view. The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) filed a lawsuit to block ProPublica's request, saying hiding flight information is necessary to corporate executives' security, and prevent disclosure of business trips that could affect stock prices or reveal information about potential deals to a company's competition. The judge ruled against those arguments, saying they are overly expansive and are outweighed by the public's right to access taxpayer-funded government records. She also pointed out that even if someone were to look up past flights, they couldn't determine who was on the flight or what the purpose of the flight was. |
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