The principle that a business contract involving a corporate business entity supercedes any national laws, any national courts, even any founding documents of any nation. That is essentially the founding principle of the WTO. It can be used to suppress evidence, to have governments go to bat against the people on behalf of corporations (e.g. the telecoms, or Bhopal), and it allows things like class action lawsuits settled against oil companies with the U.S. Supreme Court as arbitrator to be sealed from public view in perpetuity at the request of a corporation, with no national security or other U.S. interests at stake.

This is a very important nit to pick and it is something that really scares the shit out of me. My sister saw this farmer mentioned below, who went around the country speaking about his horrific experience with Monsanto. Basically, Monsanto sued this guy because some of their genetically modified seeds from a next-door field BLEW into this farmer's field, so they said he was using them illegally, and they made him pay!

Feudalism has returned to farming in the US and Canada, according to the US Center for Food Safety’s report detailing the domination over American staple crops by the corporations and their ruthless prosecution of farmers.

Once the ink is dried on the "technology agreements" signed by the farmers buying genetically modified (GM) seed, they enter into contracts that effectively relinquish to Monsanto their right to plant, harvest and sell the GM seed. From that moment on, they are also vulnerable to harassment such as having their property investigated, litigations and out of court settlements that are part and parcel of licensing a Monsanto patented product.

No grower is safe from this onslaught as third generation Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser discovered when he lost to Monsanto in court for failing to pay royalties on GM canola seed that had contaminated his non-GM canola crop. "The corporations are becoming the barons and lords, which are what my grandparents thought they had escaped." Schmeiser said.

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/MonsantovsFarmers.php

Monsanto has been awarded over 15 million so far by winning such bullshit lawsuits against small farmers.

What the fuck is government by the people and for the people for if it does not protect us from being raped in every way by corporations?

My nit to pick with the quoted article is that feudalism was never this bad. :)

Maybe, but I think Hacker has more integrity. Seriously. At least he saved the good British sausage, with all of its mechanically salvaged bits, from being called Euro Sausage.

If anyone in the universe were able to keep their eyes open during this show, they would be able to report what a craptastic suckfest it is.

Of course, that is just conjecture, because no one will ever manage that feat.

because this is THE question we all should be asking.

of Obama becomes most dangerous. In trusting an elected leader to do things in the people's interest after we elect him, and then essentially going to sleep once that is done, we allow this corporatist warmonger to wipe away our most important protections.

And btw, it is so bizarre that, like the stopped clock that is right on rare occasions, the wingnuts who are screaming about freedoms and the founding fathers, etc., are protesting in the right direction.

Also btw, I wanted to let my animal-loving friends here know that I had my animal adoption and information fair, CritterFest, yesterday, and the shelters and rescues adopted out lots of animals!!!

your name is a dead giveaway for the fact that you have a tiny penis. You should learn about codes and symbolism and compensation before picking a screen name. Just trying to help you keep a shred of dignity here.

Thanks, bystander!

I love Larry's onscreen persona. This show is a great send-up of the total assholishness that is such a huge part of our narcissistic culture.

One of my favorite scenes was when Larry was on the sidewalk after having tripped Shaq at a basketball game, and Jeff comes running across the street yelling, "What the fuck? What the fuck?" while all the passersby are sneering and yelling and shaking their fists at Larry. The populace rises up finally! But it is because they lost a basketball game. Oh, man.

And in the same episode, Larry gets uninvited to make a page in someone's birthday book. Upon being told that the woman who planned it changed her mind, Larry asks: "How did all the other acquaintances take it?" Gah! I laugh just thinking about that line. Great show.

to see the advertisement below for HBO's upcoming hagiography of Obama, called, with no apparent sense of irony, "By the People."

Shouldn't that be called "By the People Who Are Not Paying Attention" or something like that?

Gah! And there are all these Hollywood people on there raving about the wonder of it all! Of all the people in the world, shouldn't they know better than anyone the power of illusion, and about the adoration of images that feed our emotional needs? Or perhaps that is what they are celebrating, who knows.

That is kinda like "Moral Majority" isn't it? Neither the first nor the second term is accurate. Straight out of 1984.

A poke at George from the old Stephanopoulos/Gibson series below.

What a cowardly clump.

to this self-absorbed promoter of self-absorption.

I got the email from Jane Hamsher yesterday and was so glad to see firedoglake joining in this fight. What a great grassroots leader she is.