*OBAMA'S WAR ON WHISTLEBLOWERS
* ** *President Obama has gone after more whistleblowers than any previous president. This is chilling to anyone who cares about government corruption, now rampant. Linda Greene has a piece going inside it <http://www.counterpunch.org/greene06302011.html> this morning. * ** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *FINALLY GOING AFTER CROOKED BANKSTERS? * ** *Glenn Greenwald points out that banksters are finally being prosecuted <http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/06/30/bankers/index.html>, but /in Afghanistan/, not here, where bankster scams resulted in the entire world economy collapsing. The Third World, it would appear, is being held to a higher standard. In an update at the end of the piece, Greenwald points out a /Washington Post/ piece calling for the establishment of the rule of law in Afghanistan, where the USA keeps its Bagram prison in which thousands are locked away without charges indefinitely, never seeing a courtroom, many of them allegedly children. Because of mass media like /the Post/, most citizens stumble about like zombies, completely unaware. * ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *ACTION OF THE MONTH * ** *In our Action of the Month for July <http://members.cox.net/libertyuv/> we encourage readers to send a donation to /Inter Press Service/, which maintains reporters throughout the third world and reports on the victims of global capitalism ignored by our mass media. * ** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **At /LUV News/ we routinely run stories about our ruling Forces of Greed <http://members.cox.net/libertyuv/FOG.htm> (FOG) killing their workers by maintaining known unsafe workplaces, killing their consumers with known poisons and unsafe products, sickening us all with air and water pollution and numerous other horrors with the approval, or a blind eye, from our corrupt government. But can they take away your right to sue them if they rape you? Yes they can. You think I mean "figuratively," but no, I'm talking about actual rape, brutal rape, and there's nothing you can do about it. The FOG, like King George, rule absolutely --Jack ** *Woman Gang-Raped by 7 Halliburton Employees "Signed Away" Her Right to Sue? How Justice Has Become the Privilege of Corporations* <http://www.alternet.org/reproductivejustice/151452/woman_gang-raped_by_7_halliburton_employees_%22signed_away%22_her_right_to_sue_how_justice_has_become_the_privilege_of_corporations/?page=entire> *Access to justice -- like access to elected office, let alone a pundit's perch -- is becoming a perk just for the rich and powerful.* * * *by Laura Flanders* *Worried about the influence of money in American politics, the huge cash payouts that the US supreme court <http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/us-supreme-court> waved through by its Citizens United decision -- the decision that lifted most limits on election campaign spending? Corporations are having their way with American elections just as they've already had their way with our media. But at least we have the courts, right?* *Wrong. The third branch of government's in trouble, too. In fact, access to justice -- like access to elected office, let alone a pundit's perch -- is becoming a perk just for the rich and powerful.* *Take the young woman now testifying in court in Texas. Jamie Leigh Jones claims she was drugged and gang-raped <http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/jamie-leigh-jones-claims-iraq-rape-employer-held/story?id=13884264> while working for military contractor KBR in Iraq (at the time, a division of Halliburton). Jones, now 26, was on her fourth day in post in Baghdad in 2005 when she says she was assaulted by seven contractors and held captive <http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=4004174>, under armed guard by two KBR police, in a shipping container.* *When the criminal courts failed to act, her lawyers filed a civil suit, only to be met with Halliburton's response that all her claims were to be decided in arbitration -- because she'd signed away her rights to bring the company to court when she signed her employment contract. As Leigh testified before Congress, in October 2009, "I had signed away my right to a jury trial at the age of 20 and without the advice of counsel." It was a matter of sign or resign. "I had no idea that the clause was part of the contract, what the clause actually meant," testified Jones.* *You've probably done the very same thing without even knowing it. When it comes to consumer claims, mandatory arbitration is the new normal. According to research by Public Citizen <http://www.citizen.org/Page.aspx?pid=183> and others, corporations are inserting "forced arbitration" clauses into the fine print of contracts for work, for cell phone service, for credit cards, even nursing home contracts, requiring clients to give up their right to sue if they are harmed. Arbitration is a no-judge, no-jury, no-appeal world, where arbitrators are (often by contract) selected by the company and all decisions are private -- and final. * *Deadly small print is not only for subprime mortgage-seekers -- and neither are the costly repercussions. When corporations evade the bills for harm, no matter how huge (for medical malpractice, say, or pension fund collapse), the liability is passed on to individuals, and then to taxpayers. A new documentary, Hot Coffee, premiering 27 June, on HBO <http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/hot-coffee/index.html>, lays out the whole picture -- and it's devastating.* *First-time filmmaker Susan Saladoff <http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/hot-coffee/index.html#/documentaries/hot-coffee/interview/susan-saladoff.html> starts where for many Americans, the term "tort reform" <http://www.whatistortreform.com/> first appeared. Stella Liebeck, an 81-year-old woman, sued McDonald's <http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/mcdonalds> over coffee that was "too hot" -- and became the "welfare queen" of tort reform. Pilloried in corporate-funded PR and in the media after a jury imposed an initial $2.7m in punitive damages, lobbyists used Liebeck's case to deride "frivolous" lawsuits and bludgeon congressional and state legislators into passing laws that set maximum "caps" on damages. (Politicians all the way up to President George W Bush needed no bludgeoning: "frivolous suits" became a campaign trail hit.)* *But look at the pictures Saladoff shows in Hot Coffee and you'll see Liebeck's legs seared by savage, third-degree burns, which covered over 16% of her body. As any reporter could have discovered at the time, McDonalds' protocols kept its coffee at 82-87ºC (180-190ºF). Over 700 people had been burned by it <http://www.justinian.us/2004/03/what-is-tort-reform-and-why-is-it-bad-for-the-public.html>. Ten years of suits and claims had forced no change. Liebeck's suit was anything but "frivolous".* *Likewise, Jones's suit. Or the big-business funded effort to unseat justices opposed to "tort reform" -- also profiled in Hot Coffee. It's taken Jones nearly six years and a hearing in the US Senate to force her employer, Halliburton into open court, at last, in Houston this week. Jones tells Saladoff she's driven by concern for other young women in her position -- in no position, that is, thanks to mandatory arbitration, to know the truth about past claims and what they may be getting into when they sign an employment contract.* *Saladoff, a plaintiff's attorney for 25 years, is driven, too -- by a belief in the seventh amendment right to a jury trial. "Tort" is a complicated word for a simple thing -- "harm," she explains. The courts are supposed to be the branch of government where citizens and corporations have an equal shot. The US supreme court in Dukes v Walmart recently rejected 1.6 million workers' attempt <http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jun/21/walmart-women-class-action> to bring a class action case -- making it a whole lot harder for Americans to band together to hold corporations accountable. Go it alone and the deck is stacked, thanks to decades of effort by corporations and the politicians they pay for.* *They don't pay fair wages; they don't pay their fare share of taxes. They evade liability. What gives? Says Saladoff: "When corporations harm, there should be some way to hold them accountable."* *HERE'S THE LINK* <http://www.alternet.org/reproductivejustice/151452/woman_gang-raped_by_7_halliburton_employees_%22signed_away%22_her_right_to_sue_how_justice_has_become_the_privilege_of_corporations/?page=entire> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *If you wish to be removed from this list, please let us know* ** *To join the Liberty Underground news service email libertyuv@hotmail.comwith "join" for a subject* ** *You may also join our talk group athttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/libertyundergroundtalk/ <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/libertyundergroundtalk/>if you would like to participate* ** *email: libert...@hotmail.com* ** *Tell your friends about /LUV News/ because some people just don't get it* [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:laamn-unsubscr...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:laamn-subscr...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:laamn-dig...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:laamn-ow...@egroups.com?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:la...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/laamn@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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