California is getting ready to strike a blow against Citizens United by passing SB 52, the California DISCLOSE Act, a bill that would shine a bright light on the shadowy interests who depend on secrecy to influence elections. The vote on the Senate floor is next Thursday or Friday. SB 52 (authored by Senators Mark Leno and Jerry Hill, sponsored by the California Clean Money Campaign, and endorsed by over 300 organizations and leaders) would mandate clear and prominent disclosure of who is behind political TV, radio, print, and mass mailer ads - on the ads themselves. SB 52 will stop special interests from hiding behind fake committee names by requiring ads to show their actual original contributors. Our elected officials deserve praise when they stand up for transparency and disclosure as powerful as SB 52, so sign the petition to thank them today!

Eric Holder ET AL, have spent years research the Wall Street meltdown, looked at the perpetrators on Wall Street, and locally at the mess on main-street when it comes to effects on the economy, lost jobs, decimation of education, needed government services, fair taxes, opportunities, SS, Medicare, infrastructure, healthcare, environment. It is unacceptable that DOJ could only, after 5+years, only sue Standard and Poor's in a $5 B "civil" lawsuit. There's Moody's, Dun&Bradstreet, and Fimalac SA's Fitch Ratings. We demand criminal action and ASAP on Goldman Sachs, AIG, Chase, CITI, Bank of America, etc. AG Eric Holder alleges the conduct egregious, and at the heart of the crisis. That's not good enough; we want to see the American people put into the positions they were lawfully in before the fraud, just like any court restitution agreement would enforce. The mortgage backed securities were bundled and sold to investors as AAA rated when they actually were junk status. They inflated ratings and understated risks, driven by a desire to gain more business from the investment banks, claiming ratings were objective. They practiced immoral, bad judgment, illegal acts knowing this based on their established business models, at several levels of management following strategic objectives to compete and maintain big market share. Individuals in all key roles must be held accountable for participating and knowing, imprisoned, fined and the entities must be held criminally liable. You see these investment banks can't sell financial instruments rated less than the top AAA, so risky mortgage packages had to be split up, rebundled to look good to US and global investors. S&P issued $2.8 trillion, the others issued trillions more. They would get $750,000 revenue per deal, and the investment banks are their customers. Top executives and managers could see both sides of the transactions, and knew the threat of losing deals. If S&P didn't make a deal, Moody's would, because they forced the numbers to support the credit level, this is called "being effective". They claim they were trying to adjust decision models to be broader/more accurate, it never happened. The historical data is never perfectly aligned with the uncertainty of the future, but they loosened assumptions, created loopholes to get approvals, and therefore profits and bonuses. Then came internal pressure to downgrade big time, as defaults started blowing up. The lawsuit was brought under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act, a civil fraud statute from the S&L scandals, but 2007-2008 was the motherload of US and global cheating, lying, and stealing. History: A derivative, for hedging has an underlying #interest rate, exchange rate, or FAIR VALUE price changes# for notional amounts #the commodity, asset, foreign currency, Financial Investment Instrument on a public trading exchange#. The price of the derivative varies inversely to that, to avoid risk, a relationship by which losses are counterbalanced by gains in the other market. NO INITIAL INVESTMENTS WERE REQUIRED #IT WAS A PONZI TYPE SCHEME#, where futures contracts, options, relied on agreement to make or receive delivery/net settlement. 1. A fair value hedge pertained to fixed cash flows from changes in Fair Values of assets, liabilities, or firm commitments; 2. A cash flow hedge is like an interest rate swap to mitigate risk of variable cash flows from "forecasted" transactions #contract for the swap, but no contract on the Financial mortgage Instrument #no execution##. These are complex and the FASB would put out preliminary standards for input, but ultimately enacted what big business pressured them to produce for their benefits. As for SEC and DOJ, we could have supported Section 18 of the 1934 Act imposing liabilities for making or causing false or misleading statements #or omissions# of material facts that would have influenced decision makers, or supply proof that price of securities, debts were negatively affected #Fraud-on-the-Market Theory#, subbing for proof of reliance #1#. Take hard look at Section 10B-5: 1.Proof of reliance, 2. purchase/sale of securities #securitized,bundled, and diluted#, 3.intent to deceive, manipulate, defraud #willful-reckless disregard for truth#, 4. Government need not prove reliance, individuals would, 5. actual loss. If you listened to and read honest, well researched housing and financial instrument data from approximately 1995 to 2007, from market trackers like the Commerce Department, and responsible, well seasoned and ethical Professors of Economics, etc, the inflation curve veered upward strongly compared to normal CPI and other indicators of price levels. So even The FED Chair Alan Greenspan supported his robber baron friends, then after the fact apologized for no action. We had liar loans where lenders actually altered loan documents to get the applicants approved; business and home appraisers stood to gain on moving overpriced property from seller to buyer, and this was pervasive. The DOJ and SEC must bring large criminal action against all players who actively perpetrated, or appeased this abhorrent injustice on law abiding, hard working Americans, still deeply hurting for these offenses!

Now that 38 Studios is gone and can't pay its debts, politicians want to stick Rhode Islanders with the bill for the $75 million that was borrowed from Wall Street. It was never Rhode Island's debt, but politicians say they're about to act to make the taxpayers pay it. This is a bailout for a shady deal gone bad, and Wall Street doesn't even need our money. http://www.occupyprovidence.com/2013/06/were-better-off-not-bailing-out-38-studios/

I have been a loyal Target customer for years, but they are one of 14 U.S. companies that refused to sign an agreement to improve working conditions for garment workers. Two factories have collapsed in the last month, killing over 2000 workers. Ten European companies signed the agreement to contibute money to improve conditions; Target should collaborate with these European companies to provide a safer environment for these workers.

As consumers, we have a right to know if our food has been genetically modified, and this should be labeled on our food. End of story. "A genetically engineered food is a plant or meat product that has had its DNA artificially altered in a laboratory by genes from other plants, animals, viruses, or bacteria, in order to produce foreign compounds in that food. This type of genetic alteration is not found in nature, and is experimental. The correct scientific term is "transgenics," and is also often referred to as (GE) genetically engineered. The Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods Are Unclear. Unlike the strict safety evaluations required for the approval of new drugs, the safety of genetically engineered foods for human consumption is not adequately tested. There have been NO long-term studies conducted on the safety of genetically engineered foods on humans." From http://www.labelgmos.org/ Additionally, there are significant restrictions or outright bans on GMO's in more than 50 countries including Germany, UK, Spain, Denmark, France, China, Russia, Poland, Japan, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, Italy, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea.

America's broadcast airwaves belong to "We the People." Radio stations are licensed to use our airwaves if - and only if - they serve the public's best interest. That means giving an unbiased account of the news of the day, and during elections, affording both major political party's candidates and their supporters equal time. During the 2012 Scott Walker recall campaign in Wisconsin, Milwaukee AM radio station WTMJ used its local talk radio shows to exclusively promote Republican Governor Scott Walker and his supporters, while refusing time to his Democratic opponent and his supporters. Media Action Center documented and then tallied every minute of on air "promotion" of Walker and filed a challenge to WTMJ's license for failure to serve the public interest as defined by the FCC. Now, WTMJ's parent company, Journal Communications, is fighting back. Journal Communications owns 15 television stations and 35 radio stations in 12 states. They are arguing that talk radio show hosts may use our public airwaves to exclusively promote candidates of one party because the shows are the same as “bonafide news.” The bonafide news term refers to an exemption from the "equal time" rule that broadcast media gets when it is covering a candidate in a legitimate news situation, such as a public event or campaign stop, or when it is airing a documentary type program. Conservative Talk Radio have been using our publicly owned airwaves to push a one-sided political agenda. Now they are asking the FCC to legally define this one-sided rhetoric as "Bonafide news." If the FCC redefines editorial opinion as "news," it will sound the death knell for truth in journalism as we know it. A Pew study revealed that already, nearly a quarter of the population believes that talk radio is in fact "news." That's a scary statistic – and one we can't afford to let grow. Talk radio combines fact with fiction, making it impossible for listeners to discern which is which. It is irresponsible, it's manipulative, and it's a violation of the rules that govern our public airwaves. One thing it is not: news.

All of the false scandals & tax dollars wasted by the congress .The right wing flank is destroying democracy.The abuse the filibuster, cater to NRA and all the lobbyists money.They are public servants payed by our tax dollars, who work part time at best.One goal to destroy our President Obama.Free speech yes ,slander no more.I am feeling at some point it crosses the line from unamerican to treason.Needs to stop.Rand Paul just defended Apple today for being so clever , they pay virtually zero taxes in USA , while making billions in profits.Jobs need to come home or we need to organize boycott & inform.The left has to play the game, stop being quiet.We are telling the truth.Time for action.This hurts our economy, our children, reputation in the world.Which weakens us leaving us vulnerable.ENOUGH TIME FOR ACTION.SOCIAL MEDIA USED FOR GOOD IS A POWERFUL TOOL.EVEN LIES WITHOUT BEING COUNTERED BY TRUTH BECOME BELIEVED.ADULTS LIKE CHILDREN LEARN BY REPITITION.TIME TO START TALKING PEOPLE.THIS IS ABOUT THE FUTURE OF ALL WE STOOD FOR AS AMERICANS.NOW IS THE TIME!!!!

Congress is representing corporations and lobbyist rather then the constituents who elected them. We need to put them to the test of competency by voting mid term, that our Congress is competent. This will keep them representing us rather then lobbyist and large corporations.

VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaBI-FRMkDA Elizabeth Warren grilled Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew on the Obama administration's opposition to breaking up the big Wall Street banks that are "too big to fail." As a solution, Warren endorsed the bipartisan bill by Senators Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and David Vitter (R-Louisiana) to break up the big banks and prevent future bailouts. Join Elizabeth Warren in urging President Obama and Congress to end "too big to fail."

In the wake of Angelina Jolie’s exhortation for “every woman” to explore their risk of breast cancer, one company stands to make a staggering profit.The BRCA1 gene for breast cancer is patented by a corporation called Myriad Genetics. All patents are government-enforced monopolies over intellectual property, and they thus prevent anyone else from conducting research or testing on the BRCA1 gene without paying huge royalties to Myriad. This is why the BRCA detection tests cost $3,000 - $4,000 each. If there were no patents on human genes these tests would cost much cheaper . But since patents are allowed, Angelina Jolie's announcement of a double mastectomy even though she had no breast cancer caused the stock price of Myriad to skyrocket to a 52-week high. Our genes are ours, There is no right for a corporation to have a patent on our bodies and thereby make tremendous profits from health care! Why has the media drawn such attention to Angelina's act but ignored this basic fundamental flaw in the laws!

The oil and gas billionaire Koch brothers are trying to purchase the multiple spanish-language newspapers! It’s part of a larger bid to buy the Tribune Company’s media assets, which includes The Los Angeles Times and other major newspapers across the country in addition to Hoy, the second-largest spanish-language daily. The Koch brothers—David and Charles—are fossil fuel barons who have devoted their fortunes to bankrolling climate change denial, union busting, and the Tea Party. Now, they want to expand their radical right-wing propaganda to communities across the country by “Fox-news-ifying” local papers like Hoy. Hoy and El Sentinel readers are key stakeholders in the decision. By showing Tribune Company executives that the public counts on them for accurate and informative journalism, we can help persuade them not to sell to climate change deniers. We can’t allow respected journalistic institutions to become mouthpieces for the Kochs’ corrupt agenda.

I am finished with your greed and exploitation of workers. It's bad enough that you pay us – many of whom are adults with children – $7.25 an hour. But you also STEAL from us? You should be ashamed. It's time for fast food companies like yours to do the right thing. You can start by paying the men and women you employ like me enough to support our families. And then stop stealing from us. Stop bouncing paychecks. Stop forcing us to work unpaid and off the clock. And stop illegally deducting money for things like uniforms and trainings. Stop preying on us and help get the economy moving again.