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Racist Suspect Watch


free your mind!

Cress Welsing: The Definition of Racism White Supremacy

Dr. Blynd: The Definition of Racism

Anon: What is Racism/White Supremacy?

Dr. Bobby Wright: The Psychopathic Racial Personality

The Cress Theory of Color-Confrontation and Racism (White Supremacy)

What is the First Step in Counter Racism?

Genocide: a system of white survival

The Creation of the Negro

The Mysteries of Melanin

'Racism is a behavioral system for survival'

Fear of annihilation drives white racism

Dr. Blynd: The Definition of Caucasian

Where are all the Black Jurors? 

The War Against Black Males: Black on Black Violence Caused by White Supremacy/Racism

Brazen Police Officers and the Forfeiture of Freedom

White Domination, Black Criminality

Fear of a Colored Planet Fuels Racism: Global White Population Shrinking, Less than 10%

Race is Not Real but Racism is

The True Size of Africa

What is a Nigger? 

MLK and Imaginary Freedom: Chains, Plantations, Segregation, No Longer Necessary ['Our Condition is Getting Worse']

Chomsky on "Reserving the Right to Bomb Niggers." 

A Goal of the Media is to Make White Dominance and Control Over Everything Seem Natural

"TV is reversing the evolution of the human brain." Propaganda: How You Are Being Mind Controlled And Don't Know It.

Spike Lee's Mike Tyson and Don King

"Zapsters" - Keeping what real? "Non-white People are Actors. The Most Unrealistic People on the Planet"

Black Power in a White Supremacy System

Neely Fuller Jr.: "If you don't understand racism/white supremacy, everything else that you think you understand will only confuse you"

The Image and the Christian Concept of God as a White Man

'In order for this system to work, We have to feel most free and independent when we are most enslaved, in fact we have to take our enslavement as the ultimate sign of freedom'

Why do White Americans need to criminalize significant segments of the African American population?

Who Told You that you were Black or Latino or Hispanic or Asian? White People Did

Malcolm X: "We Have a Common Enemy"

Links

Deeper than Atlantis
« Bush Inc. has No Solutions for High Gas Prices | Main | Bush Credit Card Company Bill is Harmful to Blacks »
Friday
Apr222005

Bush Signs Debt-Slavery Bankruptcy Bill

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Last Week the House of Representatives sided with the powerful credit card industry and passed new legislation which will make it harder for Americans to climb out of debt. It's a devastating blow to Americans struggling financially due to job loss, medical expenses, divorce or military duty. The legislation, however, did nothing to curb the aggressive tactics employed by the credit card companies in targeting vulnerable individuals, making it a virtual windfall to the industry. And evidence shows credit card companies aren't shy about trying to make a buck off of easy targets. Quick to smell the blood in the water, the companies specifically target the newly bankrupt, swamping them with new credit card offers so they rack up even more debt. The right wing of the House manipulated the process in order to squelch any amendments which would soften the blow, including measures which "would have given extra bankruptcy protections to victims of identity theft and to military personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan." (The Washington Post shames the right-wing conservatives who shoved this bill through, saying even the bill's staunchest proponents "should be embarrassed that it was muscled through the House in this kind of Potemkin-democracy way.") How could legislation like this pass, you ask? Just follow the money. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the banking, credit card and retail industries flooded Congress with cash in the last election cycle, donating more than $56 million to political parties and candidates. [more]


T
he credit card industry, which took in $30 billion in profits last year and doled out more than $7.8 million to candidates in the 2004 election cycle, has lobbied relentlessly for the bill, pushing the fiction that bankruptcies occur because of "irresponsible consumerism" (in bill sponsor Charles Grassley's (R-IA) words). In fact, "ninety percent of all bankruptcies are triggered by the loss of a job, high medical bills or divorce." In recent years, personal bankruptcy rates have shot to record highs amid a weak labor market and declining health insurance coverage. The bill is set to create several "new hurdles" that will make it harder and more expensive for Americans to recover from such episodes, while failing to stop the actual abuses that plague the system.

CREDIT CARD COMPANIES WIN BIG: While the bill creates major new hurdles for Americans in debt, it places no restrictions whatsoever on the credit card industry. According to the National Consumer Law Center, "the bill doesn't address the primary ways in which credit card companies take advantage of consumers: high fees; deceptive promotions and disclosures; and unfair practices such as universal default." For instance, the bill allows creditors to "post inaccurate and hard-to-find rate information in Internet credit card solicitations," often targeted at college students or low-income Americans. The bill also shields credit card companies from liability and weakens legal protections from predatory interest rates – "as high as 36 percent in some cases" – as well as exorbitant late fees and over-limit penalties.

What's It All About, Progressives?
This latest in a long series of legislative defeats has caused the American progressive coalition to ask itself why Republicans are so united, and Democrats so disunited. Bob Fertik, president of Democrats.com said: "We must ask: Where was [House Minority Leader] Nancy Pelosi before today? Why did [House] Minority Whip Steny Hoyer support this outrageous bill? Why did Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid even try to take credit for this Republican bill? And why did 'New Democrats' Ellen Tauscher, Ron Kind, Artur Davis, and Joe Crowley push this bill on their colleagues? What party do they imagine they belong to? Who do they think elected them to Congress?"[3] [more]