Cast your votes for this year's inductees to the Corporate Hall of Shame

The online polls are now open to elect this year's inductees to the Corporate Hall of Shame.

According to Hall of Shame sponsor Corporate Accountability International, this year's nominees "made headlines for breaking the law, influencing elected officials, undermining democratic decision-making and outright endangering the environment and public health."

Voters can log on and select the three companies that they believe are the most abusive corporations of the year. This year's nominees are:

Ø ADM (Archer Daniels Midland), for helping make Indonesia the world’s third worst contributor to global warming through its clearing of endangered forests and wildlife habitat for palm oil plantations.

Ø Blackwater Worldwide, for killing unarmed Iraqi civilians, hiring paramilitaries trained under military dictatorships, and using its close political and financial ties with the Bush Administration to secure lucrative contracts.

Ø Countrywide, for predatory mortgage lending to elderly and non-English-speaking borrowers, and for gouging minority borrowers with discriminatory rates and fees.

Ø Mattel, for producing tens of millions of lead-contaminated children's toys, and aggressively lobbying against bans on other highly toxic chemicals

Ø Nestlé, for numerous labor violations — including child exploitation — contributing to the obesity epidemic, and threatening community water supplies with its bottled water brands.

Ø Toyota, for aggressively lobbying against increased fuel economy standards and state measures to reduce global warming gas emissions while hypocritically spending millions to advertise its environmental “leadership” and popular Prius hybrids.

Ø Wal-Mart, for displacing local businesses, failing to cover employees under the corporation's health plan, and opposing legislation that would increase homeland security.

Ø Wendy's, for its contribution to the growing childhood obesity and diabetes epidemics, and for refusing to meet nutritional labeling regulations.

>> Vote now!

The polls close July 4th, and the three new inductees will be announced the following week.

This Corporate Hall of Shame is not just some worthless hype. Sometimes it actually shames the "winning" companies into bettering themselves. In 2006, for example, Waste Management worked its way out of the Corporate Hall of Shame by drastically reducing its national lobbying and political expenditures.

>> Vote now!