Bad Deeds for 3-17-2009

CNBC Has Been Doing Public Relations for Wall Street. Time to Fix CNBC! – Financial news networks like CNBC that promoted Wall Street propaganda and then blamed the financial crisis on “losers” who couldn’t make their mortgage payments. Now we’re demanding action. A financial news channel should investigate and report the truth, not merely air infomercials for Wall Street. We need CNBC to practice responsible journalism. Will you please take a few moments to sign this open letter to CNBC?

 

Citigroup Chief Told Congress His Compensation Was $1 Million; It Was Actually $10.8 Million – Citigroup Chief Executive Vikram Pandit received nearly $11 million of compensation in 2008. A month earlier, he testified to Congress that his compensation for 2008 was just $1 million. “My compensation for the year 2008 was my salary, which was $1 million,” he told the House Committee on Financial Services on February 11, failing to mention his sign-on and retention awards, as well as stock and option awards.

 

Growing Use of Nuke Power Could Lead to ‘Nuclear Anarchy’ – The growing use of nuclear power will produce enough plutonium to make 1 million nuclear weapons by 2075, argues Frank Barnaby from the Oxford Research Group thinktank in a paper for the Institute for Public Policy Research. “We are at a crossroads. Unless governments work together to safeguard nuclear energy supplies, the rise in unsecured nuclear technology will put us all in danger,” said Barnaby. “Without this, we are hurtling towards a state of nuclear anarchy where terrorists or rogue states have the ways and means of making nuclear weapons or ‘dirty bombs’, the consequences of which are unimaginable.” Barnaby is a nuclear physicist who’s published numerous books on nuclear weapons and non-proliferation.

 

Florida Legislator Wants Random Drug Tests for the Unemployed – Florida State Senator Michael S. Bennett told Fox News host Steve Doocy on Monday that random drug-testing should be applied to those receiving unemployment insurance. “It’s a pretty degrading process,” Piper went on. “You have to urinate in front of another person. … You have to tell complete strangers if you’re on birth control or Viagra or if you’re suffering from depression.”

 

The War on Drugs Has Become the War on the Rainforest – Military planes, funded by the US, targeting coca farms in the Amazonian state of Caquetá, Colombia, have been spraying mists of pesticides over food crops, grazing animals and even areas where children were playing. Locals were complaining of breathing problems and rashes; “strips of skin” have been peeling off cows, and chickens have died; and maize, yucca, plantain and cacao crops have wilted and shriveled. There is fear there will soon be a very serious food shortage in the region.

The US focuses on one element of the trafficking chain, the poverty-stricken peasant. But the policy is not even effective. When their land is poisoned, peasants migrate and start growing coca again. They have no alternative. Spraying simply displaces the problem. Despite decades of spraying, coca cultivation in Colombia has grown by 500% since the 1980s, according to US state department figures. US politicians heralded a drop in cultivation after the launch of Plan Colombia, but the area of land covered by coca crops is now larger than when the plan was launched.

 

Texas Bill Designed to Scare Off Ethics Complaints – State Representative Christian has filed a bill that would probably stop any citizen in Texas from filing an ethics complaint against a Texas lawmaker. HB4066 would require all complaints to originate from a citizen of Texas. This isn’t a bad idea and is reasonable, but the rest of the bill is terrible.

Would impose a $10,000 fine on “bad faith” complaints.

Would ban complaints filed 60 days before an election by a member of a candidates campaign, or by someone who was asked to file the complaint by a member of a candidate.

Adds files up to $100,000 for those who ask another person to file a “bad faith” complaint.

Instead of filing a bill to stop ethics violations, Christian files a bill to pretty much stop anyone from filing a complaint.

Regards,

Jim