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New Letter from Wendell Potter to the Senate on Aetna and Corporate Spin

Here is a letter the Center for Media and Democracy's Wendell Potter recently sent to the Senate about the health care reform efforts and corporate spin:

My name is Wendell Potter, the former insurance industry insider speaking out about how insurance companies have hijacked our health care system in service of Wall Street's relentless profit expectations. I am joined in this letter by Andrew Kurz, a former chief financial officer for Wisconsin Blue Cross and Blue Shield who shares these concerns.

We stand together for immediately reforming the plainly broken U.S. health care system with its spiraling premium costs and harmful loopholes. Business as usual is taking a terrible toll on Americans, on government budgets, and on our nation's ability to compete in the global marketplace. This is unacceptable and unsustainable.

The Airline Industry's Global Warming Denial

Giovanni Bisignani, IATA's Director GeneralGiovanni Bisignani, the director general and chief executive of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), is a worried man. As the head of the global civil aviation's main lobby group, which represents companies such as American Airlines, Delta Airlines, Qantas, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, Bisignani (right) has been frantically working to ensure that IATA isn't stripped of its its exemption from the Kyoto Protocol at the COP15 conference, which opens in Copenhagen next week.

 

Chrysler (Fiat) Breaks Pledge on Electric Cars

electric vehicle charging stationReuters recently reported that Chrysler's new foreign owner, Fiat, has disbanded its "Envi" environmental division "dedicated to rushing a range of electric vehicles to showrooms." This "marks a major reversal for Chrysler, which had used its  as part of the case for a $12.5 billion federal aid package."

Indeed, a pledge to become more innovative and make electric cars more readily available to consumers was a major part of the case for taxpayer assistance that then-CEO Robert Nardelli made to the US House Committee on Financial Services in his testimony on behalf of Chrysler on November 18, 2008 and December 4, 2008. For example, in his December statement, Nardelli said, ". . . we expect that 500,000 Chrysler electric-drive vehicles will be on the road by 2013." And, in a December 15, 2008 interview with CNN Money, Lou Rhodes, Chrysler's Vice President for Advanced Vehicle Engineering, insisted that "electric cars aren't just a side-show or a public relations move for Chrysler, but a major strategic move."

Frank Capra: Great Movie Maker, Brilliant Financial Analyst

The Center for Media and Democracy's BanksterUSA campaign released a new video today, "It's NOT Such a Wonderful Life," saluting the classic film by Frank Capra. Our short video takes footage from the 1946 black and white film to make a point about today's financial crisis and the need for Congress to step up efforts to regulate banks so that this type of catastrophic financial meltdown never happens again. You can view our video at our BanksterUSA website or on our new YouTube channel. We hope you'll share the video with your friends.

Tough Talk Is Not Enough on Loan Modifications

Today, the Obama administration announced that it is stepping up efforts to pressure mortgage companies and banks to reduce payments for homeowners facing foreclosure.

As double digit unemployment becomes the major driver of foreclosures and as the vast majority of adjustable rate mortgages have yet to trigger, the White House is finally getting the message that news footage of families being tossed to the curb during the holiday season will not help Democrats going into the 2010 election cycle.

Wendell Potter in Arkansas: Real World Fears v. the Boogeyman

This Thanksgiving season, I am thankful for so many things: my life, family, friends, freedoms, and new job at the Center for Media and Democracy. I feel lucky to be working with a team devoted to making a real difference in people's lives as we out spin and press for change. And, with the broken health insurance system, I am thankful to work at CMD with a real-life hero, Wendell Potter, who is fighting tirelessly for families across the country so that parents and children and grandparents and grandchildren can have real access to needed health care to save their lives and thrive.

Because Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) is a key swing vote on health care reform, CMD's Wendell was in Arkansas Thanksgiving week. As noted in Thanksgiving Day's Arkansas News:

And, Now for Something French (Wendell Takes on "The World")

Wendell Potter is featured in this week's Le Monde for his work on behalf of the Center for Media and Democracy. It's in French, of course, and in the article he talks about the influence of the insurance industry lobbyists on elected politicians and candidates. I'd translate it for you, but even as a former tutor in French the verb tenses still elude me. However, for those of you who are fluent in the language of love, here is the feature:

Bernanke Blames the Banks, Trumka Calls His Bluff

America’s financial sector has blown a hole in the economy so large that it will take many years to repair. The formal unemployment rate is above 10 percent and underemployment is an astonishing 17.5 percent. Yet last week, Bloomberg News calculated that the top three bailed-out Wall Street firms are on track to pay $30 billion in bonuses to their top officers this year and the Wall Street Journal estimated that the bonus pool for the financial sector as a whole is $140 billion.
 
Taxpayers have done their share. They have put trillions of dollars at risk in an effort to stabilize the financial system and have gotten little in return. Too many banks are not lending to small businesses, they are not helping American families facing foreclosure, but they are raising credit card and other bank fees at a rapid clip.

While many have been starkly critical of bank performance, yesterday criticism came from a new source, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve.

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