THE HEADLINES

BEWARE OF “A GOVERNMENT OPERATING BY CORRUPT INFLUENCE, SUBSTITUTING THE MOTIVE OF PRIVATE INTEREST IN PLACE OF PUBLIC DUTY.”

Is this a slogan used by the Occupy Wall Street protesters, or some modern-day populist politician? Not quite. This was a warning from James Madison in 1792, just after the very birth of our United States Constitution. Such “motive of private interests” has indeed become a rampant scourge in Washington DC today, where a toxic cabal of huge corporations, the lobbyists they employ, and the lawmakers they corrupt have conspired to create the culture of inequality and marginalization of the American worker the presides today. Corporations are spending millions of dollars to lobby Congress for tax breaks and the implementation of rules and legislation that have cut back the rights and wages of their employees, while they fire huge chunks of their workforce at the same time. A miserable stew of lobbying, personal access to politicians, and the increase of corporate money used to fund campaigns has left ordinary Americans frozen out of even basic representation from their elected — and taxpayer-funded — lawmakers.

HOW EUROPE MAY LEGISLATE THE EXTINCTION OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN THE UNITED STATES.

(The Guardian)

With numerous states already facing unprecedented question about its viability in a bad economy and amidst tight budgets, the death penalty could soon be done in by the action of political leaders in Europe. The European Commission, as part of the European Union’s “efforts to abolish the death penalty worldwide,” has imposed severe new restrictions on the export of powerful drugs that are used in the United States to put prisoners to death. Europe controls much of the global supply of these deadly anesthetics after the sole manufacturer in the United States ceased production in a bid to improve its image. A similar move was announced by a Danish drug company this summer. The new EU rules put even tighter controls on the drugs states use for executions, which are already in short supply. At the least, the development is likely to delay many pending executions.

`

AS THE WAL-MART HEIRS AND THEIR WORKERS GO, SO GOES THE NATION…

It may surprise you to learn that Alice Walton, part of the Walton family that inherited the riches built by Sam Walton and his monolithic retail chain, has built a vast and luxurious fine art museum in the rolling countryside of northwest Arkansas near the company’s corporate headquarters. Walton is worth at least $21 billion thanks to the unparalleled success of Walmart, and she put forward a part of that fortune to create Crystal Bridges, a museum designed to rival the very best galleries and public collections in the world. Walmart’s employees, on the other hand, are among the lowest paid and most pathetically treated of those at any American corporation. The juxtaposition presented by Jeffrey Goldberg is striking, a dual world where the company heirs build a crystal palace that “isn’t a place for commercialism” and specifically discourage the mingling of company employees at their memorial to the world’s finest art. There is perhaps no more visceral image of modern American inequality image that a multi-billionaire with a wealth representative of the bottom 30 percent of all Americans constructing an art museum while the workforce that built that wealth goes without health insurance or a living wage. `

PASCO COUNTY, FLORIDA WANTS TO SPUR TOURISM AND PUT “HEADS IN BEDS” BY CATERING TO EUROPEAN TOURISTS THAT BARE QUITE A BIT MORE THAN THEIR CRANIUM…

Pasco County, located just north of the Tampa Bay region, is one of the communities hardest hit during Florida’s ongoing economic struggles. Unemployment is high and tourism is down, but county commissioners have a plan to jumpstart an influx of tourist dollars. Pasco is also a hotbed for nudist resorts, with several large-scale operations located in the county or nearby areas. Desperate times call for desperate measures, so they say, and the county is now looking into a request by clothes-free resort operators to receive taxpayer money to promote their businesses and the allure of nudist getaways in Pasco County to European vacationers.comfortable with the natural lifestyle. An example of how the money would be spent is described as a premium “back cover” advertisement in Europe’s top nudist magazine. Turned down after a previous application, county officials are now more open to any proposal that could boost tourism and the spike in revenue that it will bring.

Do you receive the daily headlines in the form of an early-morning e-mail? If you don’t and you would like to receive them, just send a note to sunstateactivist2@yahoo.com and you’ll be enrolled in the “Progressive breakfast club.”