The awesome and inspiring Elizabeth Warren has announced plans to run for Senate in Massachusetts, and the long-time advocate for consumers and the middle-class has come out swinging.

Warren has been gunning for reforms that center on Wall Street and moneyed lobbies for some time, and cites a commitment to a middle class that has been “chipped at, hacked at, squeezed and hammered for a generation now” in her announcement (adding that she doesn’t “think Washington gets it”) distributed on YouTube. The woman dubbed after the TARP deals as one of the “new sheriffs of Wall Street” admits up front that her campaign will not be popular with special interest groups but declares a commitment to fighting for the interests of the little guy. Warren laments in her announcement:

“Washington is rigged for big corporations that hire armies of lobbyists… A big company like GE pays nothing in taxes and we’re asking college students to take on even more debt to get an education, we’re telling seniors they may have to learn to live on less. It isn’t right, and it’s the reason I’m running for the U.S. Senate.”

Warren, a Democrat who will challenge incumbent Scott Brown for the Senate seat, nods to the struggles of every day Americans and promises a focus on restoring the middle class, at least in Massachusetts:

“The pressures on middle-class families are worse than ever, but it is the big corporations that get their way in Washington. I want to change that. I will work my heart out to earn the trust of the people of Massachusetts.”

Below, a clip of Warren’s YouTube announcement- do you think a platform of corporate responsibility and restoring the middle-class will resonate with voters?

Elizabeth Warren Announces MA Senate Run is a post from: The Inquisitr

Company lobbyists have already began meddling with the debt panel’s supercommittee, despite the fact that the organization won’t even begin meeting until October when they will begin discussing their plans for spending reform in the United States

To have their voices heard lobbyists have begun approaching members of lower committees and pushing their agendas on those members, while lower committee members will push their future proposals onto supercommittee members for further consideration.

According to one unnamed lobbyist speaking to Politico:

 “I think you always want to start in the best possible position and not have to rely on a last-minute fix,” notes one. “You want to start essentially as they are germinating the ideas.”

While the use of lobbying efforts has some people in Washington worried, other people, including some lobbyists believe that the greater good will prosper thanks to the panel.

Another lobbyist tells Politico:

“Most clients are not assuming sequestration is the final route, even if they think it might be better for them.”

When examining what has already been proposed, the Chamber of Congress is looking for “comprehensive” tax reform which means their plans will likely not be affected by lobbyists since lobbyist efforts would likely go against their “tax reform” plans.

Some business people are also railing against Lobbyists, including billionaire Warren Buffet who on Monday announced that he would gladly pay more in taxes, while asking the Federal government to raise taxes on him and his millionaire and billionaire friends in order to help generate needed cash for the economy.

Lobbyists Already Screwing Up Debt Panel Before It Even Begins is a post from: The Inquisitr

Now that’s a nice bonus for a job well done.

It seems that FCC Comminsioner Meriedith Attwell Baker has left the FCC for a new job.

With who you ask?

Well as amazing as it might seems she is now employed as, or will be as soon as her term is up, a lobbyist for .. wait for it … yup … you guessed it – Comcast.

Not only did she approve the deal but apparently she also did her best to defend Comcast from any attempts by the FCC to impose further restrictions and conditions on the merger.

“At the time, Baker objected to FCC attempts to impose conditions on the deal and argued that the ‘complex and significant transaction’ could ‘bring exciting benefits to consumers that outweigh potential harms.’”

via Ars Technica

Baker’s title at Comcast when she joins will be Senior Vice President of Government Affairs, and most likely a nice raise in pay from her inflated government check.

Wonder if she got a signing bonus as well?

FCC bureaucrat joins Comcast after helping approve NBC merger is a post from: The Inquisitr

While it may be a long time before we see this type of thing happen in the US and Canada the people of Denmark can look forward to one less anti-piracy agency trying to sue everyone in sight for downloading music from the internet – legal or otherwise.

It appears according to a report over at TorrentFreak that the Danish anti-piracy group Antipiratgruppen has given up on trying to get illegal downloaders convicted as well as announcing the group will no longer take people to court.

Part of the reasoning behind the decision is as the Antipiratgruppen lawyer, Mary Fredenslund, is that the evidence required has to be strong and concrete in order to have people convicted and the organization apparently couldn’t convince the courts the lift the burden of proof in cases like these.

Defense attorney Per Overbeck says that in addition to these outcomes, cases against two of his clients have been dropped in recent years. “Antipiratgruppen has acknowledged that they can not get people convicted without either catching them in the act or threatening them to confess,” Overbeck said. “In practice, this means that without a confession there is no case,” he added.

Per Overbeck and Antipiratgruppen’s assessment that recent High Court rulings make it virtually impossible to get individuals convicted for illegal file sharing are supported by a recent Government report from the Ministry of Culture.

According to the report, IP-addresses can only be used to identify the person paying for the Internet subscription, not the person who actually downloaded the files. The courts have ruled several times that in terms of evidence, an IP-address alone is insufficient to prove guilt.

Source: TorrentFreak

It’s too bad we couldn’t see the same common sense be applied here in North America but with so many politicians being supported by entertainment industry trade groups common sense seems to be in short supply. When it comes to the courts they can only really go by the guidance of the laws as they exist – laws crafted by lobbyists and condoned by politicians.

Anti-piracy group raises the surrender flag is a post from: The Inquisitr