If you’re coming here after hearing the broadcast on NPR’s Marketplace, hello and welcome to The Consumerist, an independent consumer affairs-oriented blog in the Gawker Media Network.

Click here to view the Halliburton vs Walmart poll and click here for the ChoicePoint vs US Government poll in the “Worst Company in America” bracket. You can vote on them if you wish as well. Click here to see the results of the voting so far.

Any day on the blog you can expect to find us covering breaking consumer scams, like the ATM PIN Theft crisis that’s going on right now and no mainstream media outlets are covering. Or how the IRS is planning to allow tax preparers to sell your identities. A healthy number of entries contain cogent gripes and complaints about products and companies, as sent in by our readers. Every so often we deconstruct or “take the piss out of” an advertising campaign that catches our eye. We also cover nifty deals on goods and services, trade techniques for navigating customer service and report on how a 12-year-old found the toilet water in her local fast food restaurant contains fewer bacteria than the ice they put in your beverage and the resultant paradox, that the toilet water would make you sick if you drank it.

All this with unabashed brio, panache, and pure, unadulterated snark.

Oh, by the by, if you’re compelled to comment on any of the posts, you’ll need a login. Simply ask for one by dropping a line to tips@consumerist.com.

CORRECTION: It’s come to our attention that Marketplace is an American Public Media show, not an NPR show. We’re sorry. We were confused by it being listed on the NPR site, that the producer also produces for NPR, and the fact that the show broadcasts nationally on public radio.

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.