December 2, 2007 10:12 PM

TAKE ACTION: Join Robert Greenwald & Brave New Films In Fighting the War On Greed

I'm heading off for 4 days of isolation to get in a bit of a rest before the final push to finish my book. Matt Stoller of OpenLeft will be guest posting for me here, but before I left, I wanted to leave folks with an important note telling everyone to go check out the new campaign of Robert Greenwald's Brave New Films. The campaign is called The War on Greed (www.warongreed.org).

Robert has been one of the most effective progressive warriors against the likes of Fox News and Wal-Mart, and his newest campaign takes on one of the most powerful forces perpetuating the horrific economic equality America is now struggling with: private equity managers. These are the millionaires and billionaires who use investment money from large institutions (pension funds, etc.) to purchase public companies, break them up and sell off the parts - making huge cash for themselves while often crushing workers in the process. If you've seen the movie Wall Street, then you know about these Gordon Gekkos - and, as I noted in my last nationally syndicated column, they are working hard to preserve a massive tax loophole that allows them to pay a lower tax rate on their income than the rest of us regular Americans.

Over the next few weeks, Robert will be rolling out a series of movies about how private equity managers are hurting the nation. These movies will be timed with protests against some of the most high-profile private equity managers, and pressure aimed at getting Congress to close the absurd tax loophole that lets these billionaires pay lower taxes than their servants.

For some more background on private equity and how it works, check out the Service Employees International Union's website called Behind the Buyouts, and read that site's summary report. Then, as I said, go over to www.warongreed.org and see Robert's first new movie and sign up to be a part of his campaign.