AmpedStatus has joined a new coalition to fight for economic justice. We are sick of reporting upon the crimes of Wall Street and watching our future go up in flames without any accountability or measures being taken to defend against blatant criminality. The Wall Street Elite have controlled our political process for too long! The following is our first announcement and call to action.

Democracy is devolving into fascism before our eyes, the "iron law of oligarchy" is once again asserting itself. You cannot have a concentration of vast wealth and Democracy at the same time, and we currently have the greatest concentration of wealth in history...

For those of you who want to know what the internet will end up like when the Comcast, AT&T, Verizon and Time Warner interests take it over, you need to look at this shocking new case of censorship by Google News.

Mike Papantonio talks with David DeGraw about the REAL America, the one that those of us who aren't CEOs of major corporations live in. David also appeared on RT TV and called for "a mass movement to restore the rule of law."

The evidence is now overwhelming. The United States government has facilitated the theft of trillions of dollars of national wealth and 99% of the US population no longer has political representation.

Read the full six-part report in one post. You can also download the full report with links and graphics or as a print-friendly document. HELP SPREAD THE WORD!

David DeGraw appeared on the Keiser Report to discuss his new book, "The Economic Elite Vs. The People of the USA." DeGraw: "The American public needs to understand that we have been attacked. We are in an economic war right now and all economic indicators say that things are going to get worse...."

These are the core common-ground issues that we must urgently rally around and support. Unless we organize and take decisive action on all these issues, we will all suffer the consequences of our collective inaction.

The most significant bias in the mainstream media is not the liberal or conservative views propagated to divide, distract, confuse and create apathy among the populace; the ultimate bias is in what is missing from the coverage...

As a record number of US citizens are struggling to get by, many of the largest corporations are experiencing record-breaking profits, and CEOs are receiving record-breaking bonuses. How could this be happening; how did we get to this point?

The Truthdig columnist begins this speech to the Veterans for Peace convention by saying, “Physical courage is something you see on a battlefield. Moral courage you almost never see.” Tags: Economic Justice environmental justice Peace movement

When candidates have to raise millions of dollars just to run a competitive campaign, they’re going to turn to wealthy donors, and the voice of the everyday American isn’t going to be heard. It’s time we take the “for sale” sign off the Capitol lawn. We can’t afford the price we’re paying for corporate-sponsored government. Tags: campaign finance Economic Justice

It’s an ongoing mystery that “liberal” is still a swear word in vast parts of the United States and may even be synonymous with “Europe” — as in, “all those liberals in Europe” — while Europeans would hardly recognize themselves in the label. “Obama portrays himself as a moderate, but he’s really much more liberal than he says,” a Fox News talking head declared during the 2008 U.S. presidential election, hoping to ding the candidate’s reputation. Two years on, most Europeans would only agree: Barack Obama has turned out to be a far more typical American president — far more liberal — than he appeared on the campaign trail." Tags: progressives

As the president talks about ending the War in Iraq, a former soldier is speaking out about his role in the war. One Wichita man, who served in Iraq also appeared in a controversial video that went viral. The video captures an attack that happened more than three years ago. A website leaked it in April. It documents American soldiers shooting down a group of people, mistaking their camera gear for weapons. Then, the soldiers fire at a van that stopped to collect the bodies. After ground troops moved in, they found there were two children in the van. Now, the man who discovered those children is speaking out." Tags: war crimes Iraq

Rove: September 9th-11th, Faith & Freedom Conference and Strategy Briefing with Karl Rove, The Mayflower Renaissance Hotel, 1127 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington DC https://secure.ffcoalition.com/civicrm/event/register?reset=1&id=1 Rove: September 14, 2010, 12:00pm, ACC PAC - Karl Rove Luncheon, Johnny's Half Shell, 400 North Capitol St., NW, Washington, DC http://guest.cvent.com/EVENTS/Info/Agenda.aspx?e=ffd863d8-3f95-46b9-9eac... Bush: September 24, 2010, Benefit for the Appalachian College of Pharmacy, Britstol, VA http://www2.tricities.com/news/2010/aug/17/former-president-george-w-bus..." Tags: Rove war crimes

On September 1, 2010, at noon, in front of the White House, Human Rights activists staged a “peace charade” skit. Its purpose was, according to their press release, to serve as a theatre parody of the “farce masquerading as [Mideast] peace talks,” currently being conducted by the U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, Palestine’s Mahmoud Abbas and Israel’s “Bibi” Netanyahu. Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CODEPINK, was the leader of the demonstration." Tags: Peace movement Israel-Palestine

Glenn Beck organized a much-publicized "Restoring Honor" rally on Saturday in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. Beck’s fans reportedly number in the millions, and Saturday’s rally drew nearly 100,000 supporters. We speak with Alexander Zaitchik, author of Common Nonsense: Glenn Beck and the Triumph of Ignorance. Tags: Glenn Beck Tea Party

New York Governor David Paterson has signed into law a measure establishing a landmark set of working standards for housekeepers, nannies and other domestic workers. With the signing of the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, New York becomes the first state where domestic workers will be guaranteed overtime pay after a forty-hour workweek, at least one day off per week, and at least three days off with full pay per year. Tags: Economic Justice

Federal regulators are seeking public input on what rules should apply to wireless Internet access and specialized services that aren't part of the Internet but are delivered over wired broadband connections. The move by the FCC marks the next step in the agency's long-running effort to adopt so-called "network neutrality" regulations to prevent broadband providers from discriminating against traffic flowing over their lines. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, as well as many big Internet companies, say these rules are needed to prevent phone and cable companies from abusing their control over high-speed Internet access to become online gatekeepers. Tags: Net Neutrality FCC

The current stage of the recession sees state budgets hitting crisis points around the country, and one of the areas targeted for cuts has been state universities. Students, already dealing with prohibitive levels of debt, have been coming together to protest tuition hikes and budget cuts, in some of the largest student protests since the 1960s. Is this a new era for student activism? Did the Obama campaign train young organizers to turn their skills onto their local campus, or is it just the pressure of paying the bills? Christian Ragland, Student President at Pennsylvania State University, and Angus Johnston, founder of StudentActivism.net, join us to discuss." Tags: Economic Justice Education

Bald, brave and beautiful: Those words can’t begin to capture the remarkable Eve Ensler. She sat down with me last week, in the midst of her battle with uterine cancer, to talk about New Orleans and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Eve, the author of the hit play “The Vagina Monologues” and the creator of V-Day, a global activist movement to stop violence against women and girls, told me how “cancer has been a huge gift.” Eve’s moving essay “Congo Cancer” begins, “Some people may think that being diagnosed with uterine cancer, followed by extensive surgery that led to a month of debilitating infections, rounded off by months of chemotherapy, might get a girl down. But, in truth, this has not been my poison.” The poison, she went on, was the epidemic of rape, torture and violence against women and girls in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Tags: Sexism

It’s easy to laugh off the weekend’s Glenn Beck-Sarah Palin show at the Lincoln Memorial. Palin was her usual squeaky self. Beck was bombastic and self-important, explaining how God had assisted him in this enterprise, just as the almighty helped Moses lead the Jews out of Egypt. But don’t laugh just yet. The rally was a major event in the right wing’s effort to take over Congress and the presidency. It marked the end of a big conservative weekend in Washington. The other event was the two-day “Defending the American Dream Summit” of the Americans for Prosperity, an organization founded by the energy conglomerate billionaire brothers, Charles and David Koch. As reported in Jane Mayer’s New Yorker profile, they have put many millions into ultraconservative organizations whose goal is to drive President Barack Obama and the other Democrats from office." Tags: Tea Party Glenn Beck Palin

Greetings from the IMF Resistance Network! With five weeks to go, interest in the October demo is increasing around the world. Sign up for our announcement list here. The nice people at Occupied London have re-posted our call. Check it out here. We have confirmation that the dates of the meetings have changed. The new dates are October 8 – 10, with seminars on the seventh. Tentative schedule in place. Times and particularly places are subject to change, and more events and details will be filled in in the coming days." Tags: IMF Economic Justice

It is hard to imagine a better setting for Jim Hightower to renew the populist call to action than Fighting Bob Fest, the county-fair-style outdoor gathering of 10,000 progressives where the agitator from Austin will appear Sept. 11. And it is hard to imagine a better time. Hightower has for almost three decades — since his election as Texas agriculture commissioner in the second year of the Reagan/Bush era — been America’s best-known and most ardent progressive populist." Tags: Economic Justice progressives

Five protestors, four veterans and one spouse, attempted to blockade a public street used by the military for mass deployments. The convoy was stopped for approximately 10 seconds while police and military personnel shoved them out of the road. Activists later declared their protest a "success" and vowed to return during every successive deployment from Fort Hood, in hopes of forcing the military to deploy soldiers under maximum security conditions. Matthis Chiroux says he was beaten and carried out of the street by soldiers and police using rifles and dogs." Tags: Peace movement af-pak Iraq

Dozens of Israeli actors, playwrights and directors have signed a letter refusing to take part in productions by leading theatre companies at a new cultural centre in a West Bank settlement, prompting renewed debate over the legitimacy of artistic boycott. More than 60 have joined the protest over plans by Israel's national theatre, the Habima, and other leading companies to stage performances in Ariel, a settlement 12 miles inside the West Bank. The letter, to Israel's culture minister, Limor Livnat, says the new centre for performing arts in Ariel, which is due to open in November after 20 years in construction, would "strengthen the settlement enterprise"." Tags: Israel-Palestine

If you’re seeking an exciting career that's really fraught with risk and danger and that makes the world a better place, forget about joining the Army: become a labor organizer! You’ll be called upon to risk your job and your life and to face unjust jail terms for organizing on behalf of your fellow man and woman, with no way to fight back against thugs with guns and billy clubs except by using your wits. In today's recessionary world economy, with hundreds of millions of desperate unemployed workers who will cross picket lines to get a job, yours will be no easy task. Let's compare the careers of Army officers and labor organizers to see which actually comes closer to fulfilling that wonderful slogan of the Army's:“Be all you can be.” " Tags: Unions Economic Justice

In 2008, economics graduate and former businessman Mark Boyle gave up the one resource we all crave more of: money. He sold his house, found a place to live where he could trade labor directly for accommodation, set up a rocket stove made from discarded catering cans, a solar shower, a veggie garden, and a compost toilet. And on November 28th (International Buy Nothing Day 2008), he became The Moneyless Man. " Tags: Economic Justice

Pretending to end a war and occupation, while stationing 50,000 soldiers, 18,000 mercenaries, and 84,000 support contractors in massive and permanent military bases in Iraq is a far cry from what candidate Barack Obama described as ending "the mind-set that got us into war in the first place." It fits better with Nobel Peace laureate Obama's description of war as "not only necessary but morally justified." Over the past 20 years, the United States has imposed on Iraq two intense wars and many years of bombing and deprivation, the death of millions, and the displacement of more millions now left desperate and abandoned in Iraq and around the region. Violence in Iraq is common and increasing, sex trafficking is on the rise, the basic infrastructure of electricity, water, sewage, and healthcare is in ruins, life expectancy has dropped, cancer rates in Fallujah have surpassed those in Hiroshima, anti-U.S. terrorist groups are using the occupation of Iraq as a recruiting tool, there is no functioning government, and most Iraqis say they were better off with Saddam Hussein in power. And this is all prior to the hell to come when the agreed upon complete withdrawal of all U.S. forces at the end of next year turns out to be a fraud. " Tags: Obama Illusion Iraq Peace movement

President Obama visited New Orleans on Sunday and praised the recovery of the city and the resilience of its people five years after Hurricane Katrina. We talk to lifelong New Orleans resident and civil rights attorney, Tracie Washington, and Jordan Flaherty, a community organizer and author of Floodlines: Community and Resistance from Katrina to the Jena Six." Tags: environmental justice Extreme Weather