Lunch Break - Sheppard and Make Them Accountable Headlineh

Politics and Media Headlines 5/1/09

Robert Reich on Power (by David Leonhardt, New York Times)
I received a thought-provoking e-mail message from Robert Reich, who served as labor secretary under President Bill Clinton, advised the Obama campaign and teaches at the University of California, Berkeley. Referring to my interview with President Obama in this Sunday’s issue of The New York Times Magazine, Mr. Reich writes: “Neither he nor you mentioned power-how concentrated it has become in our society as income and wealth have concentrated

Banking lobby successfully defeats mortgage cram-down provision. (Think Progress)
a proposal to change bankruptcy law and allow bankruptcy judges to cram-down mortgage payments for troubled homeowners failed in the Senate by a vote of 45-51. The provision, which was introduced as an amendment by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), required 60 votes to pass. In recent weeks, support for the measure evaporated in the face of furious lobbying by the banking and mortgage industries.

Top Senate Democrat: bankers "own" the U.S. Congress (by Glenn Greenwald at Unclaimed Territory, Salon)
Sen. Dick Durbin, on a local Chicago radio station this week, blurted out an obvious truth about Congress that, despite being blindingly obvious, is rarely spoken: "And the banks -- hard to believe in a time when we're facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created -- are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place." The blunt acknowledgment that the same banks that caused the financial crisis "own" the U.S. Congress -- according to one of that institution's most powerful members -- demonstrates just how extreme this institutional corruption is.
Durbin was one of the earliest cheerleaders for Obama to run for president. And he had to know that Obama is owned by the banks. Blurting out the truth here doesn’t excuse his own complicity in bank ownership of our country.- Caro

Nevertheless, we got SOMETHING:
House passes bill that favors credit card holders (McClatchy)
Responding to anger and frustration from consumers, and a push from President Barack Obama, the House of Representatives Thursday passed sweeping legislation aimed at shielding consumers from sudden credit card rate increases and providing other protections.

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Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com

Music - a tribute to Mathew Sheppard. Mr. Sheppard was beaten and hung on a remote fence where he was found alive and covered in blood after 18 hours. He days later at the hospital.

It is time for a serious discussion about what causes heterosexuals to behave in a such a depraved manner. Is it something about the heterosexual sexual orientation that leads those with it to evil? The instances of straight people behaving in an amoral and godless manner are one of the constants of human existence. Is it possible to lead a Godly, moral life and be straight?