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Posted by Phil Geiger, amadon@prodigy.net
[UBRON]
[The Urantia Book]:
173:1.11 This cleansing of the temple discloses the Master's
attitude
toward commercializing the practices of religion as well as his
detestation
of all forms of unfairness and profiteering at the expense of
the poor and
the unlearned.
*************
Of, by and for Big Business
by Robert Scheer
February 22, 2005
Watching the 109th Congress, one would be forgiven for thinking
our
Constitution was the blueprint for a government of Big Business,
by Big
Business and for Big Business. Forget the people — this is Robin
Hood in
reverse.
Here's the agenda, as laid out by the president and the
Republicans who
control Congress: First, limit people's power to right wrongs
done to them
by corporations. Next, force people to repay usurious loans to
credit card
companies that make gazillions off the fine print. Then, for the
coup de
grace, hand over history's most successful public safety net to
Wall Street.
Of course, the GOP and the White House use slightly different
language for
this corporate-lobbyist trifecta: "Tort reform," "eliminating
abuse of
bankruptcy" and "keeping Social Security solvent" are the
preferred Beltway
phrasings for messing with the little guy.
The first installment came last week with the passage of a law
that will
make it more difficult for consumers to win class-action
lawsuits against
private companies. Because state courts, which are closer to the
people,
have proved sympathetic to the liability claims of ordinary
folks, the new
legislation puts many class-action suits in federal courts,
which turn out
decisions more attuned to the heartfelt pleas of corporate
attorneys.
What is so phony about the much ballyhooed tort reform is that
it aims not
at overzealous lawyers but only at those who happen to represent
poorer
plaintiffs. Corporate lawyers are very much in play in writing
this new
legislation.
Which is why we should expect severe limits on the amount of
damages that
can be collected by those harmed by asbestos exposure or by
medical
malpractice. Memo to would-be Erin Brockoviches: Don't give up
your day job.
Next on the corporate wish list is savaging Chapter 7 bankruptcy
relief,
which is offered to individuals who can't pay their debts. It
allows them
to give up nonessential assets in exchange for a fresh start.
Chapter 7 has
been a tool for family and societal stability for
decades; torquing it in the favor of credit card companies has
been a
fantasy of the industry for almost as long.
Never mind that it is obvious to everybody who gets junk mail
that lenders
should be far more responsible about how they hand out credit
cards. The
credit industry's sleazy come-ons, onerous interest rates and
frantic
marketing to teenagers go unaddressed by Congress; it is only
consumers who
are expected to be conscientious.
Is "onerous" too strong? Hardly. It's way beyond onerous when a
struggling
parent puts back-to-school expenses on an "introductory rate"
credit card
and then sees the interest rate surge toward 30% when she's two
days late
with her payment. Now $500 in books and
clothes are going to cost her thousands by the time she can
afford to
finish paying for them. Ironically, considering the number of
senators and
representatives who love to quote Scripture, such outrageous
usury was
explicitly condemned in the Old Testament as what it is,
"extortion."
And while the story of Jesus in the temple is also being roundly
ignored,
so is that other once- sacred pillar of the Republican
philosophy, states'
rights. Nearly all states have reasonable limits on interest
rates, which
have been trumped by D.C. politicians in the thrall of corporate
lobbies.
Sure, business interests deserve some clout in a democracy, but
this is
ridiculous.
In fact, the GOP's legislative calendar looks like a wish list
sent over to
the White House from the Chamber of Commerce across the street.
Senate
Republican Majority Leader Bill Frist (Tenn.) dropped in there
the other
day after a breakfast meeting with the president to assure the
chamber that
its wishes would soon be law. After all, the chamber spent $168
million to
push the anti-class-action lawsuit bill along. Still to come
this session:
raising allowable emissions standards on major pollutants, oil
drilling in
the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the granddaddy of all
corporate
payouts, privatization of Social Security.
So what's the big revelation? That, almost 2,000 years after
Jesus routed
those scoundrels, the money changers have not merely reentered
the temple —
they are the temple.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-scheer22feb22,0,3826732.column?coll=la-home-utilities
*********
Comment
It's not only American consumers that suffer from the
devastating effects
of ruinous interest rates. The IMF and World Bank run the same
scam on
developing nations, burying them in so much debt that they are
forced to
turn over significant chunks of their natural wealth as payment,
as well
granting concessions to U.S. corporations to take over their
water supply,
electrical generation, etc.
Looks like Lincoln got it right.
Phil Geiger
“We may congratulate ourselves that this cruel war is nearing
its end. It
has cost a vast amount of treasure and blood. . . . It has
indeed been a
trying hour for the Republic; but I see in the near future a
crisis
approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the
safety of my
country.... corporations have been enthroned and an era of
corruption in
high places will follow, and the money power of the country will
endeavor
to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the
people until all
wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is
destroyed.” -- U.S.
President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864 (letter to Col. William
F. Elkins)
Ref: “The Lincoln Encyclopedia”, Archer H. Shaw (Macmillan,
1950, NY
Phil Geiger
UBRON
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