For decades Chapter 7 bankruptcy relief has provided family and societal stability by offering individuals who can't pay their debts an opportunity to give up nonessential assets in exchange for a fresh start. But, credit card companies, who should be far more responsible about how they hawk those lending cards, have been pressing to undermine it.
"After nearly eight years of trying, proponents of legislation to make it harder to erase consumer debts believe it finally will pass Congress," says Washington Post Reporter Marcy Gordon.
The Credit Card Company Empowerment Bill (search "bankruptcy abuse" or S.256) approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee in a 12-5 vote on Feb. 17, "...will come out more on the side of the creditors in terms of harassing these extraordinary individuals rather than recognizing that these are hard working people," said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass. "I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that (it) is not passed in the United States Senate the way that it is."
Please explain why three of the committee's eight Democrats: Sens. Joseph Biden of Delaware, Dianne Feinstein of California and our own Herb Kohl of Wisconsin - voted to further empower the Republican majority, voting with them to approve this bill!
Kennedy was speaking after a discussion in Boston on veterans who are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan saying he is concerned about soldiers in the National Guard and Reserves whose businesses fail after they are called up to serve.
LA Times reporter Peter G. Gosselin says, "A stream of court cases involving credit card companies has produced public outrage in various parts of the country. In Cleveland, a municipal court judge tossed out a case that Discover Bank brought against one of its cardholders after examining the woman's credit card bill. According to court papers, Ruth M. Owens, a 53-year-old disabled woman, paid the company $3,492 over six years on a $1,963 debt only to find that late fees and finance charges had more than doubled the size of her remaining balance to $5,564."
When the firm took her to court to collect, she wrote the judge a note saying, "I would like to inform you that I have no money to make payments. I am on Social Security Disability. If my situation was different I would pay. I just don't have it. I'm sorry."
Judge Robert Triozzi ruled that Owens didn't have to pay, saying she had "clearly been the victim of [Discover's] unreasonable, unconscionable and unjust business practices."
Meanwhile... "Consumer bankruptcy filings during January fell to their lowest level in four years, reflecting a 13% decline in year-ago levels," say reporters at CardWeb.com. "Over the past year, bankruptcy is tracking nearly 4% below 2003 levels, ironically at a time when bankruptcy reforms may finally pass Congress."
Saturday, March 05, 2005
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
Why not in Wisconsin...
"Vermont has a rich history of using town meetings as a venue to make its people's views known to the nation. In 1974, five towns voted to urge congressional leaders to seek the impeachment of President Nixon. Recent years have seen efforts to stamp out nuclear weapons, abortion restrictions, and the USA Patriot Act," says Sarah Schweitzer.
Ben Scotch, of Montpelier, VT was among a handful of Vermonters who mounted a statewide effort to obtain the signatures necessary to place a resolution on Vermont's annual town meeting ballots that calls upon President Bush to withdraw troops from Iraq and urges the state's elected leaders to reconsider the use of Vermont's National Guard in the war. They succeeded in 52 towns. Yesterday's vote saw 49 towns endorse that resolution.
Sara B. Miller, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor reports In Vermont, a Town-Meeting revolt over Iraq war.
The Vermont Network on Iraq War Resolutions Web site was originally designed to provide all of the documents and information needed to bring a resolution on the war in Iraq to Vermont towns or cities - but everything is still relevant to mobilizing similar campaigns in all 50 states.
United for Peace and Justice agrees that states should refuse to fund that portion of their National Guard that is deployed to fight the war in Iraq, when they should be at home protecting the Nation. They plan to campaign on a state-by-state local level organizing to oppose the deployment of the National Guard to Iraq.
Cities for Peace began a nationwide pre-Iraq War movement that enlisted scores of municipalities in over 30 states to pass resolutions to oppose a preemptive/unilateral War in Iraq. Now they are working to encouraging towns, cities, and county councils and related groups to pass a new resolution to Bring the Troops Home by demanding that the U.S. end the occupation of Iraq and internationalize the peace process. "As States and municipalities face the worst fiscal crisis in over half a century, citizens and local elected officials are deeply skeptical of an emerging "perpetual-war economy" and its devastating effects on state and local budgets, on America's role in the international community and on a sustainable future for our children."
They encourage and seek to empower, "Cities and towns (to) call for a reordering of national priorities such that diplomacy and international law will sustain peace and foster prosperity in the world, in our nation and in our struggling states and localities."
Municipalities that have passed resolutions and examples of those resolutions can be found at www.citiesforpeace.org.
Ben Scotch, of Montpelier, VT was among a handful of Vermonters who mounted a statewide effort to obtain the signatures necessary to place a resolution on Vermont's annual town meeting ballots that calls upon President Bush to withdraw troops from Iraq and urges the state's elected leaders to reconsider the use of Vermont's National Guard in the war. They succeeded in 52 towns. Yesterday's vote saw 49 towns endorse that resolution.
Sara B. Miller, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor reports In Vermont, a Town-Meeting revolt over Iraq war.
The Vermont Network on Iraq War Resolutions Web site was originally designed to provide all of the documents and information needed to bring a resolution on the war in Iraq to Vermont towns or cities - but everything is still relevant to mobilizing similar campaigns in all 50 states.
United for Peace and Justice agrees that states should refuse to fund that portion of their National Guard that is deployed to fight the war in Iraq, when they should be at home protecting the Nation. They plan to campaign on a state-by-state local level organizing to oppose the deployment of the National Guard to Iraq.
Cities for Peace began a nationwide pre-Iraq War movement that enlisted scores of municipalities in over 30 states to pass resolutions to oppose a preemptive/unilateral War in Iraq. Now they are working to encouraging towns, cities, and county councils and related groups to pass a new resolution to Bring the Troops Home by demanding that the U.S. end the occupation of Iraq and internationalize the peace process. "As States and municipalities face the worst fiscal crisis in over half a century, citizens and local elected officials are deeply skeptical of an emerging "perpetual-war economy" and its devastating effects on state and local budgets, on America's role in the international community and on a sustainable future for our children."
They encourage and seek to empower, "Cities and towns (to) call for a reordering of national priorities such that diplomacy and international law will sustain peace and foster prosperity in the world, in our nation and in our struggling states and localities."
Municipalities that have passed resolutions and examples of those resolutions can be found at www.citiesforpeace.org.
Monday, February 28, 2005
Ward Churchill in context...
When taken out of context, Ward Churchil's comments regarding the victims-as-perpetrators on 9/11 seem to be flagrantly harsh. When those comments are placed back within the document from which they were extracted it's another story indeed. Read "Some People Push Back" On the Justice of Roosting Chickens by Ward Churchill if you want to be fully informed.
Churchill opens with, "When queried by reporters concerning his views on the assassination of John F. Kennedy in November 1963, Malcolm X famously – and quite charitably, all things considered – replied that it was merely a case of "chickens coming home to roost."
"On the morning of September 11, 2001, a few more chickens – along with some half-million dead Iraqi children – came home to roost in a very big way at the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center. Well, actually, a few of them seem to have nestled in at the Pentagon as well."
FightingBob.com has also posted an article Ward Churchill and UW-Whitewater: free speech principles vs. politics, Oxen and bulls by Donald Downs, a professor of political science, law and journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of several books, including “Nazis in Skokie” and the recently released “Restoring Free Speech and Liberty on Campus.”
Churchill opens with, "When queried by reporters concerning his views on the assassination of John F. Kennedy in November 1963, Malcolm X famously – and quite charitably, all things considered – replied that it was merely a case of "chickens coming home to roost."
"On the morning of September 11, 2001, a few more chickens – along with some half-million dead Iraqi children – came home to roost in a very big way at the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center. Well, actually, a few of them seem to have nestled in at the Pentagon as well."
FightingBob.com has also posted an article Ward Churchill and UW-Whitewater: free speech principles vs. politics, Oxen and bulls by Donald Downs, a professor of political science, law and journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of several books, including “Nazis in Skokie” and the recently released “Restoring Free Speech and Liberty on Campus.”
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