WORST TAX CHEATERS

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT) Consider the good Senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders. Always the people’s champion, he’s called for closing corporate tax loopholes to raise more than $400 billion over a ten-year period. He’s also introduced legislation that would impose a 5.4 percent surtax on millionaires and yield up to $50 billion per year. In the House, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky introduced the Fairness in Taxation Act, which would create new tax brackets for millionaires and billionaires. (According to an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, the most popular way to reduce the deficit is through a surtax on millionaires, preferred by 81 percent of Americans!) Sanders is also relentless in countering the lies about corporate tax rates. He speaks of the ten worst corporate income tax avoiders: Exxon Mobil made $19 billion in profits in 2009, paid no federal income taxes, and received a $156 million rebate from the IRS; Bank of America received a $1.9 billion tax refund from the IRS last year, even though it made $4.4 billion in profits and was handed a nearly $1 trillion bailout by taxpayers; General Electric made $26 billion in profits in the US over the past five years, and received a $4.1 billion refund from the IRS; Chevron received a $19 million refund from the IRS last year after taking in $10 billion in profits in 2009; Boeing received a $30 billion contract from the Pentagon and a $124 million refund from the IRS last year; Citigroup made more than $4 billion in profits last year and paid no federal income taxes—it also received a $2.5 trillion taxpayer bailout.

UK Intevenes for Bradley Manning

April 5, 2011, San Francisco, California The Bradley Manning SupportNetwork applauds the United Kingdom’s motion to intervene on behalf of the accused whistleblower Bradley Manning. Held in solitary confinement for over nine months, Manning is alleged to have leaked a video showing two employees of Reuters news agency being shot and killed by American soldiers. Today marks the one-year anniversary of the publication of that video on the whistleblower website WikiLeaks. In the House of Commons, Welsh Member of Parliament (MP) Ann Clwyd sponsored an early-day motion urging UK officials to confront the United States about the harsh pretrial confinement of Manning, who is held in conditions many have likened to torture. The motion has been supported by 37 MPs thus far. Henry Bellingham, the Foreign Office Minister, promised to raise the issue of Manning’s confinement conditions with the U.S. State Department. Manning’s mother is Welsh and lives in Pembrokeshire, and thus Manning can claim dual citizenship by birthright. Bellingham has acknowledged that Ann Clwyd’s “understanding of the British Nationality Act is accurate” – namely, that Manning automatically acquired U.K. citizenship at birth. “We welcome the support of the MPs, who join Amnesty International and activists worldwide in urging the U.S. to end this inhumane pretrial punishment,” said Jeff Paterson, steering committee member of the Bradley Manning Support Network and project director of Courage to Resist.org. “Thirty-seven British parliamentarians have shown their commitment to justice and a fair trial,” said steering committee member Mike Gogulski. “We hope to see twice as many American legislators respond with a similar motion.”The Bradley Manning Support Network has raised over $250,000 thus far toward the defense of the accused whistleblower. http://www.bradleymanning.org/ and http://www.couragetoresist.org/