Jim Hightower's News and Commentaries

AIRLINE INNOVATIONS

Jim Hightower — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

For those of you who, like me, travel a lot on airplanes, there is good news: Airline executives have become much more innovative in the past year!

The bad news is that all of the innovation has been in dreaming up new fees to charge us customers.

After eliminating tens of thousands of helpful employees, shutting down hundreds of flights in order to jam travelers into less convenient schedules, dramatically increasing the percentage of flights that arrive late, and generally going out of their way to make flying as irritating as possible, the geniuses in charge of these corporations have noticed – to their utter amazement – that they've had a precipitous drop in customers.

Their response? Increase the irritations.

Irritant number one is the imposition of an ever-growing list of fees. With less revenue from ticket sales, airlines are making up for the loss by socking us with billions of dollars in baggage fees, seat-reservation fees, rebooking fees, using-an-airport fees, and just-for-the-hell-of-it fees. Out of the blue, for example, American, Delta, United, and US air recently joined together to whap their passengers with a $10 surcharge if we book flights for the days after Thanksgiving and the New Year's holiday. Why? Well – just because. Because they can.

Meanwhile, in mid-October, federal regulators fined two airlines about $9 million for failure to maintain the safety of some of their flying machines. US Air, for example, made 855 flights on a plane that did not even meet the company's own rules for engine maintenance. Likewise, United made more than 200 trips on a plane that was not in airworthy condition.

So, I'm sure we can look forward to paying a new airplane maintenance fee soon. Hey, your ticket gets you a seat, but if you want safety – that'll cost you extra.

SOCIALISTS IN THE SENATE!

Jim Hightower — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, known as the "White Maned Pontificator," has recently been spewing a fountain of free-market dogma in the debate over health care reform.

His goal, he proclaims, is to save you and me from the horrors of socialized health care. Specifically, Cornyn is out to kill the "public option" proposal that would create a non-profit, government-run insurance plan to give us consumers a competitive alternative to the ripoff policies now foisted on us by the giant insurance corporations. Congress cannot allow such a big-government intrusion into the hallowed free market, the senator declaims, shaking his mighty mane.

But – shhhh – I have a shocking secret to tell you: Cornyn and other anti-public-option senators are actually closet socialists!They don't want publicly-financed health care programs for you and me, but for them – hey, bring it on!

The senators' own health insurance is gold-plated, with dozens of tailor-made coverage choices, no denial of coverage because of pre-existing conditions, and – get this – up to 75 percent of the cost is passed along to us taxpayers. Cornyn is paid more than $174,000 a year for pontificating on free-market virtue, yet he has the bulk of his insurance premiums paid by constituents who make maybe $30,000 a year and can't afford to buy their own insurance policies.

Moreover, the senator has another secret source of socialism available to him. Ensconced in the Capitol building is the Office of the Attending Physician, fully staffed with doctors, nurses, and other government-paid health care professionals exclusively serving congress critters. The cost to Cornyn is a mere $503 a year. A year!

So when you hear the White Maned Pontificator decrying "government run" health care, remember that he's been happily wallowing in it for years.

Austin, TX – Eat Local Week Local Brewers Happy Hour

Melody Byrd — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:01:33 -0800

Whip In Presents
Edible Austin Eat Local Week
Meet the Local Brewers Happy Hour
4-8pm Friday 11 December
$20 event ticket gets you a Pint Glass & Six Beers

Meet Local Brewers as they help you taste their beers from:
(512) Brewing
Independence Brewing
Live Oak Brewing
Real Ale Brewing
Shiner Brewing
St. Arnold's Brewing

A la cart gourmet foods from the Whip In Parlour Cafe & Market &
MMMPanadas
the Best Wurst
Sushi-a-Go-go
The Texas Cuban
Flip Happy Crepes
Claudia's Mexico City Tortas
The Mediterranean Chef

BATTLE OF THE GREEN

Jim Hightower — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Tavern on the Green is one of New York City's iconic places. With a tranquil setting in the city's beautiful Central Park, this legendary, decades-old eatery and banquet hall is enormously popular. But, suddenly, Dean Poll has shattered the tranquility and seems determined to turn the landmark tavern into Blood on the Green.

In September, Poll was awarded the lease to operate the city-owned Tavern on the Green, taking over from the family that ran it for 33 years. Right off the bat, the new owner made a proposal to the Hotel Trades Council, the union that represents some 400 chefs, waiters, prep cooks, and other Tavern employees. His proposal can be summed up in one word: "Thbbbllllletttt."

Poll wants to trash the existing agreement that had been negotiated with the union, and replace it it with a new, 23-section dictum that essentially says, "Poll rules." Among his rules: a two-tier wage system to bust the middle-class pay workers now earn; minimum wage for waiters ($4.65 an hour, plus tips); no pay for overtime; total de-unionization of sous chefs, coat-checkers, and other positions; no advance notice of schedule changes, layoffs, or reduction in hours; and pension and health plans to be altered to suit the new jefe.

Poll believes that "outdated rules can't work in the new economy." New economy? This is a restaurant! Nothing "new" about it. Chefs, servers, and all the other professionals on the job are what make the place a success. Outdated rules? Those rules create America's middle Class! Nothing "outdated" about them.

What we have here is just another greedhead in action – and the Battle of the Green is on! Calling Poll's proposal "an atrocity," union president Peter Ward says: "We will strike this guy for a hundred years." To connect to their effort, go to www.nyhtc.org.

FIFTY-FIVE HEALTHCARE HYPOCRITES

Jim Hightower — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Sometimes, Congress gives hypocrisy a bad name.

Take Mike Enzi, Chuck Grassley, Orrin Hatch, Jim Inhofe, Jon Kyle, John McCain, and Richard Shelby. Those U.S. senators are among the 55 congress critters who've recently revealed themselves to be the most baldfaced hypocrites in all of Washington – and it takes some serious effort to earn that distinction!

They are all vehement opponents of the proposal to create a non-profit, government-run health insurance program – a "public option" giving folks a real alternative to being squeezed by insurance giants. "Socialism," squawk these lawmakers, declaring that they'll fight any big, bad government intrusion into the hallowed free market.

However, these bellicose market purists never mention one little personal detail: all 55 of them are on Medicare, meaning they gladly accept government-run health insurance for their families. Not only do they accept it, they looove it – and not a single one of them has had the integrity either to give up their taxpayer-funded health coverage or to shut up about how awful it would be for the rest of us.

But wait – that's not the end of their hypocrisy. Not only do these free-market babblers have publicly-financed insurance for themselves, but they also get government-provided health care. Right inside the Capitol is a secluded medical center, fully-staffed with doctors, nurses, technicians, pharmacists and other professionals dedicated exclusively to the care of the 535 members of Congress. And they essentially get this privileged medical care for free – courtesy of us taxpayers.

So if any of the 55 get bilious from one of their speeches demonizing the public insurance option for you and me, they can walk to their own government doctor and get a quick fix, then go right back to spewing more hypocrisy.

LIFE'S NOT FAIR TO WALL STREET BANKERS

Jim Hightower — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

It used to be that corporate CEOs drew their narrowly-focused business ethic from the laissez-faire novels of Ayn Rand – but today's corporate chieftains seem to be drawing their business models from "The Godfather" and Robert de Niro's Mafia movies.

Take Goldman Sachs. Having been bailed out with billions of our tax dollars, this banking behemoth is now raking in profits and distributing the take among those in "The Company." So far this year, Goldman has set aside $16.7 billion to split as bonus money with its bankers – an average of $530,000 for each of them!

With public opinion of Wall Street bankers already running at about the same bottom-dwelling level of mobsters, such a huge take adds fuel to the anger of hard-hit folks who feel robbed by financial greedheads. Thus, Goldman's top boss has warned the recipients of the bonuses not to flaunt their share of the windfall by rushing out to buy $100,000 cars or loudly ordering $5,000- bottles of wine in restaurants.

This caution against in-your-face consumption is right out of the Mafia handbook! In fact, I think I saw it in a de Niro movie.

Of course, Goldman's executives not only want to make such big money hits, but they crave respect as well – and they're a bit touchy about being perceived as members of an illegitimate syndicate. The company's chief financial officer sounded almost like an offended consigliere recently when he pleaded with the media to focus less on the bank's bonus culture and more "on the success of our business, on how well we're doing, and how well our people are performing."

Yeah, life's just not fair to bankers who're making a killing at public expenses and being paid such extravagant bonuses that they have to hide their windfall. Next thing you know, they'll be forming the Wall Street Anti-Defamation League, and asking us to donate to it.

GETTING SMART ABOUT THE "SMART CHOICES" LABEL

Jim Hightower — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

How can you tell when a consumer product might be one you should avoid? Easy. Whenever a corporate spokesperson declares that the product in question "complies with all U.S. laws and regulations" – run away as fast as you can.

After all, for the past couple of decades, industry has essentially been the one writing the laws and regulations.

Now, the food industry has written its own private regulation for a nutritional label. It's a snappy green-and-white logo to designate certain edibles as nutritionally-desirable. A panel led by brand-name food manufacturers developed a loosy-goosy criteria for letting a product use the "Smart Choices" label. So goosy, in fact, that Kelloggs's Froot Loops qualifies as nutritionally sound, even though it is 41 percent sugar! Likewise, products with cancer-causing additives, saccharine, and caffeine get the Smart Choices approval.

While the green checkmark certification was devised by private interests, with no governmental sanction, it is now garnering the government oversight that food corporations had hoped to bypass. The attorney general of Connecticut, who says the label seems "overly simplistic, inaccurate, and ultimately misleading," is investigating whether it violates that state's consumer protection law. He's also probing whether the criteria for certification of products were "shaped by an advertising strategy rather than scientific evidence" – a question that seems to be answered by the Froot Loops loophole.

In addition the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, finally awakening from its long Bush-induced regulatory stupor, is now scrutinizing how "smart" the Smart Choices program really is. So, the irony is that the industry's deceptive PR ploy might end up producing a valid nutritional label that actually serves the interest of consumers.

RESTRAINING WALL STREET EXECS WHO HAVE NO SELF-RESTRAINT

Jim Hightower — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Well, at last, a few of the Wall Street CEOs we are bailing out with our tax dollars have had their sails slightly trimmed. The federal overseer of banker excess has now issued his report demanding that high-flying honchos at seven of the failed financial outfits no longer be royally compensated with annual tributes of gold, rubies, silk, and mink oil – but instead merely be very-well paid.

Some people – especially big bankers – moan that the pay czar's restrictions are unwarranted, intruding into private corporate affairs best left to the careful judgment of boards of directors.

Let's see – those would be the same boards made up of the CEO's cronies, relatives, and golf buddies who never say no to more gold and mink oil for the prince. These are the very directors, for example, who rubber-stamped millions of dollars worth of special perks to financial chieftains last year – even as you and I were shoveling billions of tax dollars into their banks to keep then from collapsing.

The directors at Bank of America gave their CEO an increase of $100,000 last year for his personal use of corporate jets. The board of Comerica awarded $200,000 to its chief for a new country club membership. And directors of GMAC Financial Services made a $2.5 million payment to cover the personal tax bill of their top executive.

As one critic of such lackadaisical, anything-goes corporate governance put it, "[These CEOs] can't even leave a nickel on the floor." With a sense of entitlement bigger than Jupiter, they want to put everything from their silk underwear to caviar on the company card – and they can count on their handpicked, compliant boards of directors to let them do it.

So, no, we taxpayers cannot leave such volatile issues as executive excess to those who have no self-restraint.

BACKING A REAL LOSER IN AFGHANISTAN

Jim Hightower — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Let us all praise his Excellency, Hamid Karzai, for his magnificent beneficence!

Karzai – the head of Afghanistan's inept, grossly corrupt, and widely despised government – has finally been forced to admit the obvious: he stole the August 20th presidential election. He and his henchmen were not even slightly subtle about fixing the vote to install him for a second term, including bribing numerous warlords to deliver their followers' votes to Karzai, as well as creating fictional polling places that magically voted unanimously for him.

Then, the country's "Independent Election Commission" – made up entirely of Karzai appointees – dutifully stepped up to certify that their patron had won 55 percent of the vote, thus negating the need for a runoff. Beyond incredible, this result was politically impossible, causing such an outcry in Afghanistan and around the world that it could not stand. Finally, Karzai petulantly conceded that – gosh – maybe he was a couple of decimal points short of a legitimate victory, so he has now agreed to a runoff election.

Western powers subsequently embarrassed themselves with a ridiculous outpouring of effusive praise for this thief. Desperate to have a credible central government in Afghanistan to support our military goals there, Washington is backing Karzai. President Obama himself hailed Karzai for his "constructive actions... for Afghanistan's new democracy" – as though the guy is George Washington reincarnated!

It's folly to think that anything credible will come from November's rushed-up runoff vote to keep Karzai in power. He'll win, but he's a loser, and Washington should not be attaching America's good name to him – much less using his "election" as a rational for committing more American lives and money to the misguided war there.

LET'S HELP GOLDMAN SACHS GET A CLUE

Jim Hightower — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Bankers at Goldman Sachs have a problem and I'm sure you can empathize. Maybe you can even help them!

Here's the problem: They're making too much money. Altogether now: Awwww.

The Wall Street colossus has set aside nearly $17 billion to pay end-of-year bonuses to its bankers, with the biggest chunk going to top executives and the casino dealers in Goldman's trading department, where exotic, high-risk betting games are played.

Yes, these are the same financial whizzes whose exotic investments turned toxic last year, crashing America's real economy and hurting millions of regular folks who weren't in on the game. Indeed Goldman remains in the game today only because it was bailed out with our tax money – Goldman got $22.9 billion in cash from us, plus many billions more in cheap federal loans and government guarantees. With this public support, the bankers can now lavish bonuses on themselves.

So, you see, their problem is one of public perception: they are widely viewed as immoral, greedy banksters. This perception hurts their feelings, so to buff their image the ruling poobahs at Goldman have announced that the bank will magnanimously donate $200 million to the bank's own charitable foundation, hoping that you and I will applaud this generosity and show them some love.

Generosity? Two hundred million is less than two percent of the bonus money they're grabbing! They think that's going to win us over?

Let's help them out. What do you think these clueless narcissists could do to earn any real appreciation from the American people? Send your ideas to info@jimhightower.com, and we'll forward them to Goldman's CEO. We'll also select the three best ideas, with the winners getting a free one-year subscription to the Hightower Lowdown monthly newsletter.