Big biz wants to own the information superhighway while We the People bump along the backroads
In the 1970s, Lily Tomlin developed an iconic comic character she named Ernestine--a telephone clerk who took perverse pleasure from hectoring customers. Her character was a perfect portrayal of the arrogance of AT&T, the monopolistic telephone giant of that day. In one skit on on the TV show, Laugh-In, Tomlin had Ernestine delivering a TV pitch for the corporation:
"A gracious hello," she cheerfully began, speaking directly into the camera. "Here at the Phone Company, we handle 84 billion calls a year. So, we realize that every so often, you can't get an operator, or for no apparent reason your phone goes out of order, or perhaps you get charged for a call you didn't make. We don't care!"
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National radio commentator, writer, public speaker, and author of Thieves In High Places: They've Stolen Our Country And It's Time to Take It Back, Jim Hightower has spent three decades battling the Powers That Be on behalf of the Powers That Ought To Be - consumers, working families, environmentalists, small businesses, and just-plain-folks. [
GOP GOES "GRASSROOTS," WASHINGTON-STYLE
Congressional Republicans have spent the first two years of the Obama administration as the rock-solid party of "no," "uh-uh," "no way," "forget about it," "nothing doing," "we're-agin-it-and-we'll-kill-it." This is one reason their job approval rating... [read more]
WALL STREET'S "MOM & POP" BANKERS
Don't cry for Jamie Dimon, America.
As CEO of JPMorgan Chase, this ruling mogul of Wall Street must now cope with the recently-enacted financial reform bill, which imposes a host of... [read more]
GOLDMAN'S GOLDEN DEAL
That'll teach 'em, won't it?
The SEC, Wall Street's top regulator, has whacked the mighty Goldman Sachs with one of the largest penalties in financial history. The high-strutting banking conglomerate... [read more]
ONCE AGAIN OBAMA ABANDONS HIS FRIENDS
The Shirley Sherrod Story started as a beautiful anecdote of redemption and personal growth, which she recently related at a meeting of the Georgia NAACP.
Her story would have ended... [read more]
WHY ARE WALL STREET BANKERS GRINNING?
Banker greed is like ugly on a toad – it can't simply be rinsed off, no matter how much regulatory soap you use.
Congress has now enacted new rules to... [read more]
SAVE THE CONGRESSIONAL MILLIONAIRES
Let's hear a cheer for a much maligned group of American workers, for they have stood up and done the right thing!
Not pimps, not drug chieftains, not Big Oil executives... [read more]