I am not worried so much about terrorists as I am corporations:

[The Straight Story]

Lab tests detect cadmium - and lead - in Superman and Tin Man drinking glasses

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Drinking glasses depicting comic book and movie characters such as Superman, Wonder Woman and the Tin Man from "The Wizard of Oz" exceed federal limits for lead in children's products by up to 1,000 times, according to laboratory testing commissioned by The Associated Press.

The decorative enamel on the superhero and Oz sets — made in China and purchased at a Warner Brothers Studios store in Burbank — contained between 16 percent and 30.2 percent lead. The federal limit on children's products is 0.03 percent.

The same glasses also contained relatively high levels of the even-more-dangerous cadmium, though there are no federal limits on that toxic metal in design surfaces.

In separate testing to recreate regular handling, other glasses shed small but notable amounts of lead or cadmium from their decorations. Federal regulators have worried that toxic metals rubbing onto children's hands can get into their mouths. Among the brands on those glasses: Coca-Cola, Walt Disney, Burger King and McDonald's.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/sns-ap-us-cadmium-lead-glassware,0,3005888.story

One group gets a whole war on terror, pat downs, billions spent to stop them - all the while other groups get away with murder and make money over it.

Pat down our corporations and get xrays of them. More people die from being poor and having no health care in this country than from folks thousands of miles away attacking us.

-----------------
Flaws can cancel life insurance — after death (we need to pat down insurance co's...)

American General Life Insurance Co. markets its policies as protection for "the hopes and dreams of American families" — a promise Ian Weissberger took to heart during his losing battle with Lou Gehrig's disease.

But after the Cathedral City mortgage broker died in 2005, American General cancelled his life insurance policy and refused to pay his widow the $250,000 benefit.

The Weissbergers' premiums were paid up. There was no foul play suspected. There was no question Sheila Weissberger was the widow and sole beneficiary. And Ian's illness was diagnosed months after he took out the policy.

The problem, the insurer told Sheila Weissberger, was that Ian's application for coverage was incomplete.

American General concluded that he had failed to disclose conditions, including bipolar disorder and pulmonary disease, that, according to his doctors, he did not have.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9603963

-----------------------------

Health Care CEOs Earn Top Pay-CEO of UnitedHealth Group, 198% jump

Health Care CEOs Earn Top Pay

Sometimes it’s good to be a health-care CEO. Health-care company chief executives had the highest median pay of any industry captured by the recent The Wall Street Journal CEO Compensation Study.

The median CEO pay in the industry was $10 million, according to the study, which was done in conjunction with consulting firm Hay Group. That beat out consumer goods at $8.9 million and telecom and oil and gas, both with median CEO pay of $8.6 million. The study looked at total direct compensation, which includes salary, bonuses and the value of long-term incentives, including stock and stock options at the time of the grant.

The health-care industry has been the focus of a lot of attention over rising costs. But Paul Dorf, managing director of Upper Saddle River, N.J.-based Compensation Resources Inc., a compensation consulting firm, said the resiliency of the sector as a whole led to high pay in health care.

The total shareholder return for Thermo Fisher Scientific, for example, where CEO Marc Casper received total compensation of $33 million, was 40% in fiscal year 2009. (Casper became CEO in October 2009.) Thermo Fisher makes lab equipment and other health-care products and services.

...

Stephen Hemsley, the CEO of UnitedHealth Group, with a 198% jump in total direct compensation, had among the biggest year-over-year percentage gains in pay among health-care CEOs.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9602246

[gateley]

1. Yes -- the REAL terrorists. Their only God is money. nt

[RKP5637]

2. I was thinking yesterday that all we hear about is money. It dominates

everything, for many it's the only thing life is about money/greed. Is this a fascist country or what ... Now we have a corporate gov.

[gateley]

3. It's sad, isn't it. Sometimes I'd like to see everything just fall apart worldwide

and we'd have to get back to basics and remembering what is REALLY important, being with loved ones and friends, food, shelter. But I'm not sure how well I could adapt in reality.

[RKP5637]

5. I've felt the same sometimes, but given the state of things we in the US could well

end up with a crazed RW dictator.

[Initech]

4. These are the *REAL* terrorists.

[Odin2005]

6. Corporations are the REAL Terrorists. Kill Capitalism.

[inna]

17. +1000

[lsewpershad]

27. Also 1000+

[superduperfarleft]

29. I'm curious: how do you reconcile an anti-capitalist stance with supporting the Democratic party?

And I say this as a staunch anti-capitalist myself.

[Octafish]

7. ABC-Disney also gave us death in the form of Rush Limbaugh.

ABC and the Rise of Rush Limbaugh

[redirish28]

8. Yes. ABSOULTELY true.

[SalviaBlue]

9. K&R - Very well put!!

[Catherina]

10. Recd. Thank you. n/t

[leftstreet]

11. K&R

[Overseas]

12. K&R ! //nt

[AnArmyVeteran]

13. If they could corporations would sell broken glass to children. Check this Dan Aykroyd skit!

When Dan Aykroyd was on Saturday Night Live he played a character who owned a business selling broken glass shards and other dangerous 'toys' to children. Below is a transcript of Aykroyd's skit. Today's CEOs would all have mass orgasms if they could legally do this...

THE SKIT: (sorry, but I couldn't find the video to this hilarious skit)

Consumer Probe with Irwin Mainway (Candace Bergen and Dan Aykroyd)

Irwin Mainway: Okay, Miss, I wanna correct you, alright. The full name of this product, as it appears in stores all over the county, is Johnny Switchblade: Adventure Punk. I mean, nothing goes wrong.. little girls buy 'em, you know, they play games, they make up stories, nobody gets hurt. I mean, so Barbie takes a knife once in a while, or Ken gets cut. You know, there's no harm in that. I mean, as far as I can see, you know?

Consumer Reporter: Alright. Fine. Fine. Well, we'd like to show you another one of Mr. Mainway's products. It retails for $1.98, and it's called Bag O' Glass. < holds up bag of glass > Mr. Mainway, this is simply a bag of jagged, dangerous, glass bits.

Irwin Mainway: Yeah, right, it's you know, it's glass, it's broken glass, you know? It sells very well, as a matter of fact, you know? It's just broken glass, you know?

Consumer Reporter: < laughs > I don't understand. I mean, children could seriously cut themselves on any one of these pieces!

Irwin Mainway: Yeah, well, look - you know, the average kid, he picks up, you know, broken glass anywhere, you know? The beach, the street, garbage cans, parking lots, all over the place in any big city. We're just packaging what the kids want! I mean, it's a creative toy, you know? If you hold this up, you know, you see colors, every color of the rainbow! I mean, it teaches him about light refraction, you know? Prisms, and that stuff! You know what I mean?

Consumer Reporter: So, you don't feel that this product is dangerous?

Irwin Mainway: No! Look, we put a label on every bag that says, "Kid! Be careful - broken glass!" I mean, we sell a lot of products in the "Bag O'" line.. like Bag O' Glass, Bag O' Nails, Bag O' Bugs, Bag O' Vipers, Bag O' Sulfuric Acid. They're decent toys, you know what I mean?

[jotsy]

14. Corporations scare me more.

Terrorists on some level justify their behavior as a result of what they believe in, see themselves as seeking atonement or some other form of reparation. The corporatocracy labels those that would resist their profit driven brand of terror as terrorists.

[felix_numinous]

15. The consolidation of money and resources

create terrorism, they are having a symbiotic relationship. The creation of desperate people without resources is what creates extremism. If we do not rid ourselves of the cause of cultural decline, I think we all know what is down the pike.

The only choice we have is a slower acceleration to the right with Democratic Party candidates, or a warp speed to a police state under the Republican Party. Our only chance to effect change is during a Democratic administration. We have got to keep them in power.

[Uncle Joe]

16. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, The Straight Story.

[CrispyQ]

18. Been Lootin'

-from 2002

I took a rash of shit for posting this on another board back in 2002. I was called a monster for suggesting that CEOs are as bad as the 9/11 terrorists. People I had been virtual friends with for many years stopped responding to me. I wonder what they would think now about this spot on toon?

on edit: 198% jump for Stephen Hemsley. That just makes me ill.

k&r

[L0oniX]

19. Rich machiavellian sociopath corporatist's have destroyed the USA.

[Cleita]

20. If there were no corporations turning people into

wage slaves and worse, there would be no terrorists, IMHO.

[somone]

21. Corporate terrorism is an everyday threat to working Americans

Corporate CEOs are the new nobility, and we're nothing but serfs.

[xchrom]

22. Recommend

[loudsue]

23. I am SOOO on board with regulating the hell out of corporations.

It needs to be done at the State level if the feds won't act on it.

[TexasObserver]

24. recommend

[Greyhound]

25. Indeed. The terrorists need a distraction to keep us from noticing what they're doing

while we keep an eye on people from the Middle Eastern.

And it's working beautifully.

"Thanks, suckers!"
Sincerely, Your Corporate Overlords
:kick: & R

[bluesmail]

26. You CAN call them Corporate Nazi's. There's nothing facetious

in what I'm thinking.

[EarthFirster]

28. Uh, Chinese Corporations at that?

The lead paint scare has been around for almost 15 years, and is directly related to CHINA. Weather on purpose, or accident, the Chinese have been poisoning Americans with lead, cadmium, etc for years. The American owners are just pocketing the profits. This was never this huge of a problem with American products, because the EPA would have shut any of this down for worker safety issues. China is also polluting at 1950's levels, which is largely ignored. China is a DREAM for the Anti American Corporations who ship American jobs over there. Good news is that it is the Republicans baby for the most part.

[pgodbold]

30. Damn right! I'm glad somebody finally said this. nt