GE: Obscene Profits. No Taxes. | Weekly Top Ten

Week ending Friday, March 25, 2011 Weekly Highlight: "Imagination At Work," Or Figuring Out How to Pay No Taxes On Obscene Profits by Abby Zimet General Electric, the nation's largest corporation and maker of Japan's failed nuclear reactors, last year had worldwide profits of $14.2 billion. They paid no taxes - and claimed a $3.2 billion tax benefit, thanks to fierce lobbying and what the Times calls  "innovative accounting." Oh yeah, and Obama just named its CEO his liaison with the business community. An infuriating look at what's wrong with multinational capitalism, and this weekend's US Uncut actions nationwide to protest it. Our Weekly Most Read Views... John Nichols: America's Not Broke, Wisconsin's Not Broke; We're Just Wasting Money on War Ralph Nader: Nuclear Nightmare Robert Fisk: Libya: The Wearingly Familiar Odor of Regime Change Rebecca Solnit: The Butterfly and the Boiling Point: Charting the Wild Winds of Change in 2011 Bill Berry: George Carlin Knew Why They Call it 'The American Dream' Medea Benjamin & Charles Davis: Instead of Bombing Dictators, Stop Selling Them Bombs Paul Buchheit: March Madness for Corporate Tax Dodgers Bill McKibben: Reliably, Irredeemably Wrong: The US Chamber of Commerce Marjorie Cohn: Stop Bombing Libya Angi Becker Stevens: In Michigan, We’re Facing More Than Just a Class War Our Weekly Most Read Headlines... Liberal Democrats in Uproar over Libya Action US Soldiers Posed with Dead Afghan Maine Governor LePage Orders Removal of Labor Mural from Dept. of Labor, Sparking Outcry Germany Set to Abandon Nuclear Power for Good Dennis Kucinich: What Is Economic Democracy? West’s Strikes on Libya hit Arab League Criticism Some Critics of Japanese Storage System See a Worse-Than-Chernobyl Scenario Ahead Judge Issues Temporary Order Blocking Union-Busting Bill Plastic Particles Circulating Endlessly in World's Oceans 'Kinetic Military Action' or 'War'? Home About Us Donate Sign Up Archives Videos... Attacking the US Middle Class? Michael Moore & Donna Smith: Still Sicko Six Libyan Villagers Shot by US Team Rescuing Pilot US Fires Tomahawks, Teachers at the Same Time The Nuke Lobby has the US Regulatory Commission in Their Pocket Founded in 1997, CommonDreams.org is an Internet-based progressive news and grassroots activism organization. We are nonprofit, independent and nonpartisan. Our Mission: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. © Copyright 1997-2011 You are subscribed to Common Dreams as . Click here to unsubscribe

Nuclear Power Nightmare | Weekly Top Ten

Week ending Friday March 18, 2011 "Nuclear Power Nightmare" Special Coverage See our continuing coverage of the fallout from the Earthquake in Japan. We have references, factsheets and background materials, as well as the news and views Common Dreams has published related to this situation, compiled here. ACTION ALERT:  from our Partners at Roots Action: Sign this letter to President Obama demanding an energy future that puts an end to nuclear power. Nuclear power is a dangerous dead end. The reactors melting down in Japan prove that “safe nuclear power” is an oxymoron. President Obama’s continuing support for nuclear energy -- even as Japan faces environmental devastation -- is appalling. Technologically, no country is more advanced than Japan. Nuclear power is not safe there, and it is not safe anywhere. See the full letter here. Become a sustaining member of the Common Dreams community today! The only way to build a powerful movement is by coming together to raise our voices louder and stronger. Your support sustains our work giving voice to those who might not be heard, providing the real story behind the corporate media headlines. No corporate influences distort our coverage. We report to you. Our Top Ten Headlines... Japan Frantic to Avert Multiple Nuclear Meltdowns Bank Of America Anonymous Leak Alleges 'Corruption And Fraud' Greetings From Fitzwalkerstan: Wisconsin GOP Denies Legislative Democrats Voting Rights Revealed: Afghan Chief Accused of Campaign of Terror Is on US Payroll Scott Fitzgerald and Wisconsin GOP Pull Back From the Brink UN Security Council Backs No-Fly Zone and Air Strikes Nuclear Rods Melting Inside Three Fukushima Reactors, Japan Admits Japan Contemplates 'Chernobyl Solution' for Nuclear Disaster Promises, Promises: Obama Rebuffs Invites to Stand with Workers State Department's P.J. Crowley Forced Out by Obama White House for Speaking Up on Bradley Manning's Torture Our Top Ten Views... Harvey Wasserman: An 8.9 Quake Could Have Irradiated the Entire US Chris Hedges: Power Concedes Nothing Without a Demand Karl Grossman: Behind the Hydrogen Explosion at the Fukushima Nuclear Plant Ralph Nader: Our Right-Leaning Public Media Norman Solomon: Nuclear Power Madness John Nichols: Tractors Roll Into Madison, As Wisconsin Readies For The Biggest Protest Yet Richard Wolff: What's Left of the American Left? John Hallinan: The Crisis is Our Unwillingness to Make Rich Pay Their Share Bill Moyers and Michael Winship: In Defense of NPR John Nichols: Wisconsin Senators "Sell Out" to Corporate Interests as DC Crowds Pick Up the Chant: "Recall!" Home About Us Donate Sign Up Archives Videos... Phyllis Bennis on Libya and No-Fly Zones Rachel Maddow Talks with Arnie Gundersen: Understanding the Threat of Nuclear Radiation Explosion at Fukushima Nuclear Plant Foreign Troops in Bahrain Understanding the Concern About Spent Fuel Pools Founded in 1997, CommonDreams.org is an Internet-based progressive news and grassroots activism organization. We are nonprofit, independent and nonpartisan. Our Mission: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. © Copyright 1997-2011 You are subscribed to Common Dreams as . Click here to unsubscribe

Earthquakes, Wisconsin & Action Needed | Weekly Top Ten

Week ending Friday March 11, 2011 Earthquake in Japan Continuing Special Coverage Our friends at Roots Action are hard at work on a new action in support of the “Full Employment & Training Act” (H.R. 870), just introduced by Congressman John Conyers. Can you help? What better way to finance good green jobs for millions of unemployed Americans than to tax the Wall Street juggernaut that created this economic disaster in the first place? The “Full Employment & Training Act” is a brilliant legislative remedy for two ills that afflict our society -- massive unemployment and speculative profiteering that keeps widening the gap between the rich and the rest of us. The law would make the Wall Street speculators behind the economic disaster pony up to create jobs: whether teaching children, making homes energy efficient, caring for the sick or rebuilding neighborhoods. Please help gather co-sponsors for the bill by signing the Roots Action letter to the Progressive Caucus. Wisconsin Continuing Special Coverage Wisconsin Continues Right-Wing Structural Reforms That Have Decimated the United States With the latest turn of events in Wisconsin, Republican state senators have circumvented the need for a quorum vote on Scott Walker's budget bill by leaving out the fiscal clauses and passing the new laws curbing collective bargaining rights for state and public employees. This dubious tactical manoeuvre strips away the pretence that Walker and his GOP allies have hitherto maintained that the legislative package was necessary to close the state's budget deficit: Walker's objective is, as protesters in Madison have argued all along, to break the last vestige of organized labour strength in the US – the power of public sector workers to organise and negotiate collectively. Stated or not, Walker's ambition is to complete what Ronald Reagan began 30 years ago. Read the complete story Our Top Ten Headlines... 'General Strike!' Thousands Storm, Reoccupy Wisconsin Capitol in Response to Legislative Votes Nuclear Emergency: Japan Warns of Radiation Leak from Quake-Hit Plant Gulf Spill Sickness Wrecking Lives Decline of Honey Bees Now a Global Phenomenon, says United Nations From No 1 Fan to Critic-in-Chief, Damon Takes Aim at Obama Democrats Roll Out Climate Change Big Guns, Republicans Remain Immune Chevron Wins Halt to $18 Billion Judgment in Ecuador Pollution Case America's Secret Plan to Arm Libya's Rebels How Many Afghan Kids Need to Die to Make the News? Eco-Farming Could Double Food Output of Poor Countries, Says UN Our Top Ten Views... Robert Reich: The Birth of the People’s Party Robert Alvarez:On the Brink of Meltdown: The Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Michael Moore: America Is Not Broke Chris Hedges: This Time We’re Taking the Whole Planet With Us Thomas S. Harrington: Controversialization: A Key to the Right’s Continuing Domination of Public Debates Medea Benjamin and Charles Davis: Under Obama, Better to Commit a War Crime Than Expose One Bill Nemitz: Maine Librarian's Pointed Budget Message Hits the Mark Robert Freeman: 2011 is 1848 Redux. But Worse John Nichols: "Shame! Shame! Shame!" Ray McGovern: Pvt Manning: Is Army Aping Mafia? Home About Us Donate Sign Up Archives Videos... Walkouts, Bank Boycotts and Recalls: Wisconsin Protests Intensify As Union-Busting Legislation Pushed Through State Assembly Naomi Klein on Anti-Union Bills, Climate Justice, and the 'Shock Doctrine' Done American-Style The Story of Citizens United v. FEC: Why Democracy Only Works When People Are in Charge Michael Moore: 'This is War. This is a Class War That's Been Leveled Against the Working People of This Country' “Women’s Rights are Workers' Rights:” Kavita Ramdas on History of International Women’s Day and Challenges Women Face 100 Years Later Koch Bros.: Pulling Back the Curtain on Political Puppetmasters Exploring 'The Economics of Happiness' GOP for Small Government Except When It's Not Vandana Shiva: Earth Democracy Founded in 1997, CommonDreams.org is an Internet-based progressive news and grassroots activism organization. We are nonprofit, independent and nonpartisan. Our Mission: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. © Copyright 1997-2011 You are subscribed to Common Dreams as . Click here to unsubscribe