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Volume 9 Issue 21…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…May
26, 2006
Venue
for an Artist
Let's Impeach the President
By Neil Young
Let’s impeach
the president for lying
And leading
our country into war
Abusing
all the power that we gave him
And
shipping all our money out the door
He’s the man
who hired all the criminals
The White
House shadows
who hide
behind closed doors
And bend the
facts to fit with their new stories
Of why we have
to send our men to war
Let’s impeach
the president for spying
On citizens
inside their own homes
Breaking every
law in the country
By tapping our
computers and telephones
What if Al
Qaeda blew up the levees
Would New
Orleans have been safer that way
Sheltered by
our government’s protection
Or was someone
just not home that day?
Let’s impeach
the president
For hijacking
our religion and using it to get elected
Dividing our
country into colors
And still
leaving black people neglected
Thank god he’s
cracking down on steroids
Since he sold
his old baseball team
There’s lot of
people looking at big trouble
But of course
the president is clean
Thank God!
About
Me: From Neil Young’s new album,
"Living with War," Let's Impeach the President has created
quite a storm of controversy. For
more on this Canadian-born artist and his work, visit .
Hood Notes
Whirlpool Cuts 4,500 Jobs
On March 31, Maytag, an independent appliance-maker since 1893, became a
subsidiary of Benton-Harbor-based Whirlpool Corporation. Whirlpool, which
outbid Chinese appliance-maker Haier America's $1.28 billion offer, paid about
$1.7 billion in cash and stock and assumed about $900 million in Maytag debt to
seal the deal. In addition to Whirlpool and Maytag, the expanded corporation's
appliance brand names include Amana, Jenn-Air and KitchenAid. Globally, the new
Whirlpool has more than 60 manufacturing and research centers. According to its
press release, Whirlpool will evaluate all of its facilities "to determine
the most efficient way to do business."
On May 10, 2006, Whirlpool announced plans to reduce its workforce of 80,000 by
4,500 positions or approximately 5.6 percent. Its workforce reduction and
consolidation plans include closing three plants in Iowa, Illinois and Arkansas
and consolidating its corporate offices and other sites. Maytag's corporate
offices and research center in Newton, Iowa, as well as administrative offices
in Schaumburg, Illinois, Canada and Mexico will be closed.
The
corporation's public statement indicated plans to add 1,500 jobs will lower the
net job loss to 3,000 positions or 3.8 percent of its workforce. The total cost
of the workforce reduction and plant consolidation plan is unknown, since the
corporation has yet to negotiate terms of the closings with the unions
representing employees at the Newton, Iowa and Herrin, Illinois plants. Employees at the Searcy, Arkansas plant
are nonunion.
The
acquisition of Maytag consolidates Whirlpool's position as the US's biggest
appliance manufacturer. Despite the market concentration, federal antitrust
regulators did not object to Whirlpool's acquisition of Maytag.
US Antitrust Legislation (1890-1950)
Over the period 1879-1904, an unprecedented number of firms in the United States
expanded by merging to form new business organizations called monopolies or
"trusts." In response to the growing market concentration and
business climate fostered by these new organizations, Congress passed a number
of antitrust laws to prevent monopoly and maintain competition. In addition to
Congress, the Supreme Court has played an important role in shaping the body of
US antitrust legislation, beginning with the Standard Oil and the American
Tobacco cases (1911), the Aluminum Company case (1945) and the Brown Shoe Case
(1962).
On July 2, 1890, Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act, which outlawed
contracts, combinations or conspiracies in restraint of interstate trade and
foreign commerce and any monopolization or attempts to monopolize, or conspiracy
with others in an attempt to monopolize, any portion of trade in interstate or
foreign commerce. The act contained provisions that allowed injured parties to
sue for triple damages and fines and/or prison time for violators; it did not
exactly define prohibited actions or to designate an agency to enforce the law.
In 1903, the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice was established
under an Assistant Attorney General to enforce the Sherman Antitrust Act.
Congress passed the Clayton Antitrust and the Federal Trade Commission Acts
(1914) to give Sherman some teeth. Aimed at deceptive, dishonest and injurious
competition, it made price discrimination, exclusive and tying contracts,
intercorporate stockholdings and interlocking directorates illegal when their
effects "substantially lessen competition or tend to create a
monopoly."
The Federal Trade Commission Act established the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
as the government agency charged with attacking unfair competitive practices in
commerce. It authorized the FTC to "safeguard the public by preventing the
dissemination of false and misleading advertising of foods, drugs, cosmetics
and therapeutic devices used in the diagnosis, prevention or treatment of
disease."
In 1936, Congress passed the Robinson-Patman Act that amended section 2 of the
Clayton Act. It provided independent retailers and wholesalers protection from
"unfair discriminations" by large sellers whose size and bargaining
power enabled them to obtain unfair and unjustified concessions from their
suppliers.
The Wheeler-Lea Act (1938) amended part of the Federal Trade Commission Act to
make " unfair or deceptive acts or practices" in interstate commerce
illegal. In addition, it defined "false advertising" as "an
advertisement other than labeling, which is misleading in a material
respect."
The Celler Kefauver Antimerger Act (1950) expanded Section 7 of the Clayton Act
, making it illegal for a corporation to acquire the stock or assets of a
competing corporation where it may "substantially lessen competition, or
tend to create a monopoly." It banned horizontal, vertical and
conglomerate or circular anti-competitive mergers.
Many economists and political leaders see the growth of monopolies and
oligopolies as a result of inadequate application of antitrust laws. They
believe that much more competition will be encouraged if these laws are
vigorously enforced. (Sources: Contemporary Economics, Milton H. Spencer, 3rd.
Ed and Encyclopedia Americana)
M&A's and Tax Cuts
A whooping 82% of the people polled in the April MSNBC Poll favored the
beginning of proceedings to impeach George W. Bush. Some credit Neil Young's
song, "Impeach the President," for increasing the visibility of the
movement to hold Bush accountable for a host of high crimes and misdemeanors,
including lying in making the case for war against Iraq, running up the
national debt via tax cuts that favor the wealthy, failing to enforce antitrust
legislation and illegally spying on average Americans.
Since taking control of the federal government in 2001, the Bush administration
has practically ceased antitrust operations. Mergers and acquisitions that
should raise red flags, warning of market concentration and less competition,
have routinely received green lights. Much like tax cuts for the nation's top
one percent, the Bush administration has yet to see a merger or acquisition it
does not like.
Parts of the Bush base, large corporations and wealthy individuals have done
well under this administration. A favorable business environment with
practically no regulation and low tax rates on stock dividends and capital
gains have translated into an inordinate rise in CEO compensation and tax
breaks for the nation's wealthiest individuals. With so few doing well, it is
no wonder so many would like to impeach George W. Bush.
Facts on the Ground
The
economic facts on the ground are far from rosy. News on Main Street USA is
depressing. Poverty is rising. In the richest nation on the planet, child
poverty and infant mortality rival poor nations.
The
May University of Michigan consumer sentiment index plunged on rising gas
prices and a weakening labor market. A study by the Center for American
Progress, a Washington-based think-tank, shows US consumer debt levels are
rising, as the cost of necessities from food to fuel rises, because wages are
growing slowly; this is the middle-class squeeze.
Nationwide,
home foreclosures increased 38 percent for the first quarter of 2006. According
to the Atlanta Journal Constitution (5/12/06), Georgia leads the nation in
foreclosures. Recent mergers and layoffs are blamed for the area's rise in home
losses.
While
the middle-class is being squeezed, the plight of the working poor grows dire.
As the buying power of the dollar declines, minimum wage workers making $5.15
an hour fall farther behind.
If
passed, the Fair Minimum Wage Act, H.R. 2429 introduced by Rep. George Miller
(D-CA) will increase the minimum wage to $7.25. With a Republican-controlled
government, passage of any measure that helps the poor is unlikely unless we
speak out loudly and often. Tell your representatives that raising the minimum
wage is necessary to improve conditions on the ground for all of America, not
just the poor. It will make the US better.
Health
Warning: Capitalism Kills You (Excerpts)
By Jo Swift
The main event in capitalist free markets is the creation of wealth. The other
is the creation of inequality. Under laissez faire, this is not so much a
tradeoff, a positive for a negative, as it is two positives. Inequality, the
natural outcome of competition, is a sign of healthy struggle on which the
whole community is said to thrive.
In corporate philosophy the mission of business is to maximize profit. It
values efficiency over almost everything, including moral considerations. The
parent philosophy, utilitarianism, does not care if some people suffer
injustices if a greater good shows up later.
The industrial revolutions raised Western nations to massive wealth. Their
stories can be written as a history of progress, and that is the outward
appearance. But their entrails also ran with strikes, rights actions, antitrust
decisions and labor strife; at times the creation of wealth ruined people. Free
marketers will still explain labor mutinies as envious workers bent on random
wreckage. But these actions all targeted massive inequalities.
Yesterday and today's conservatives both say inequality is not bad if it comes
from a free and fair market. They explain that where you land in the economic
struggle for survival depends on your abilities, intelligence or character, so
the blame for pain must be laid on the individual. Some go further and hold
inequality and injustice to be in the nature of things, so installing ethics or
equity is tampering with natural law and its Darwinian ways. The nub is that
free markets and equality are opposed.
After years of collecting health data, Ichiro Kawachi in the U.S., Richard
Wilkinson in Britain and John Lynch in the U.S. and their associates have
discovered that more lethal than cigarettes, obesity, alcohol, pollution, AIDS,
vehicle accidents, suicides and homicides, is the gradient of inequality in our
societies. In researchers' comparisons of the 50 states, social equality is
correlated with life expectancy and the steepness of the inequality predicts
homicide rates and a raft of social ills.
When you compare nations, on the other hand, richer nations don't have the
longer life expectancies; egalitarian nations do. Robert Sapolksy, in his
recent Scientific American article, teases out the mediating factors:
It seems that people in communities having higher 'social capital' (the degree
to which residents trust each other and participate in social groups)
experience better health, longer lives and less violence. It turns out that
communities with high social capital are also more egalitarian.
In short, each community has a social gradient. The steeper the gradient, the
more that community is a killer. We can expect this new scientific evidence to
be resisted with every sinew--it runs frontally against our free market
beliefs.
The United States is one of the most unequal nations in the world. Over 40% of
the wealth is owned by only 1% of the population. This is a terrible weapon in
the hands of the rich. If we want to improve our health--something that
obsesses Americans--it is clear what we must do. We must find a way to raise
both affluence and equality. (To read this essay in its entirety, log on to www.radicalleft.net/blog/_archives/2006/4/4/1858245.html)
Disgruntled feels:
Takeover! Chicago
resident and blogger Stephen Lendman (www.sjlendman.blogspot.com)
has written an excellent essay entitled Hostile Takeover - The Corporate
Control of Society and Human Life that should be required reading for everyone.
It explains how transnational corporations control or greatly influence every
aspect of our lives from what we eat and drink to who gets elected to run our
government. Most of what Lendman says is not new, but he rings alarm bells and
urges us to cease being complacent about the corporate control over our very
existence that is far from healthy. It is a hostile takeover!
Disgruntled wants to know: Since 2001 the national debt ceiling has been raised
several times. The country has gone from surplus, which helped pay down the
national debt, to deficits, which increase the burden on future generations.
What is conservative about the way George W. Bush has handled the nation's
purse strings?
Disgruntled says: It is spring and time to clean house.
That includes the nation's house, which is in need of a thorough cleaning and
new occupants!
Mailbox:
E-Mails, Faxes and Phone Calls
Email
lrprice@snet.net Lawmaker: Marines Killed
Iraqis "In Cold Blood" --Navy Conducting War Crimes Probe Into
November Violence In Haditha 17 May 2006 A Pentagon probe into the death of
Iraqi civilians last November in the Iraqi city of Haditha will show that U.S.
Marines "killed innocent civilians in cold blood," a U.S. lawmaker
said Wednesday. From the beginning, Iraqis in the town of Haditha said U.S.
Marines deliberately killed 15 unarmed Iraqi civilians, including seven women
and three children... The video, obtained by Time magazine, was broadcast a day
after town residents told The Associated Press that American troops entered
homes on Nov. 19 and shot dead 15 members of two families, including a
3-year-old girl, after a roadside bomb killed a U.S. Marine.
Email
omaha4peace@cox.net Looking For Jimmy
...By R.A. Lucas...19 May 2006...I love Americans. They are such a quirky
people. Quaint, almost. If it wasn't for the personal arsenal in almost every
household, you could probably grow to admire them. With time, anyway. It's too
bad they have this impossible belief in their Rightful Place in the World. For
example, look at how they define national security. Recent history has proven
that if some egghead in Washington doesn't like the events taking place within
the sacred borders of some distant sovereign nation, they simply have to
declare it a threat to US National Security and then they can act with what
many believe is some God-given right to be Bully to the World. You have to love
them for being so crazy to think they're that important.
Email
schizoid_lost_boy@yahoo.com
The hidden history of workers' struggle in the U.S...Subterranean Fire...By
Sharon Smith...The United States ranks not only as the richest society in the
world today but also as the most unequal among advanced industrialized nations.
The scale of poverty among the poorest Americans, according to the United
Nation's 2005 Human Development Report, is comparable to that in parts
of the Third World. The U.S. infant mortality rate matches that of Malaysia.
African Americans living in Washington, D.C., have a higher infant mortality
rate than residents of the Indian state of Kerala. Across the United States,
Black mothers are twice as likely as whites to bear low-birth-weight babies,
and Black children are twice as likely to die before their first birthday.
Child poverty rates in the United States have been rising steadily since 2000,
following 20 years of decline, and, mirroring Mexico, surged past 20 percent in
2005. On average, a male child born into the wealthiest 5 percent of the U.S.
population will live 25 percent longer than a male child born into the poorest
5 percent.
Email
news@uruknet.biz ...IMF in Iraq: The
Second Invasion...By Karen Button...Last December the US-backed Iraqi
government agreed to a $685 million loan from the International Monetary Fund,
and effectively sold their country down the river called economic slavery--the
master being the Free Market Economy. They will have a lot of company. Many of
the world's so-called third world and developing nations are already on that
river, barely afloat. Most of Latin America has been under the thumb of the
IMF's brutal austerity programs for decades, though certain countries, most
notably Venezuela and Bolivia, who are nationalizing their resources, are
testament to the pervasive undercurrent of socialist ideals. For Iraq though,
the journey has just begun. That $685 million loan came with a heavy price tag:
end oil subsidies and open Iraq's economy to the free market. In other words,
dismantle any form of socialized society and make it a commodity...
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