THE HEADLINES
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE RECALL MOVEMENT IN WISCONSIN? CAN YOU SAY CO-OPTATION?
(Black Agenda Report)
Without using that word, Bruce Dixon’s account of the devastating defeat of the effort to recall union-buster Scott Walker as Governor of Wisconsin follows exactly that scenario of what happens when political “movements” turn into political “campaigns.” The movement excitement of a year ago with workers and their liberal sympathizers demonstrating in the streets was taken over by a union-led campaign to elect the “candidate who sucks least,” forgetting that those in the movement did not want to be coralled into support of Democratic party candidates by union leaders in the way they usually do. They might have hoped that, as Barack Obama promised as a presidential candidate in 2007, he would put on his “solidarity” shoes and walk the picket lines in favor of worker rights. When the movement turned into a campaign, no such shoes walked the state.
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“RISK AND RIVALRY: IRAN, ISRAEL AND THE BOMB.”
(Asia Times)
A new report of this title by a national security think tank close to the Obama administration “thinks about” the possibility of a pre-emptive strike against Iranian nuclear development, and concludes that the “risks” of any such action probably out-weigh the advantages of same, at least in the present state of any real likelihood of Iran developing such weapons. It also warns that insistence on Iranian abandonment of nuclear enrichment as a condition of a negotiated settlement of the matter would be a “deal breaker” that would make it unlikely that any such settlement would occur. Whether the policy-making members of the Administration will indeed think rationally about the risks before they leap into action is an open question.
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“DERIVING THEIR JUST POWERS FROM THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED”
(Antiwar.com)
This founding principal of the U.S. government, enshrined in the country’s Declaration of Independence, is grievously violated by announced plans of military agencies of the government to create golf-ball sized drones to snoop on people’s lives and to report to police authorities any activity that they deem might constitute a threat to “public safety.” As Andrew Napolitano sees it, this puts the value of intelligence gathering ahead of that of human liberty. Who among us will “consent” to have these drone-critters looming about our telephones, computers and mail boxes? He evokes the memory of Thomas Jefferson of the citizen right of resistance to such infringements by government actions to engage in civil disobedience even to the point of revolution.
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HELLO THERE! INVASIVE LITTLE CREATURES HITCH-HIKE 5,000 MILES FROM JAPAN TO OREGON.
(Seattle Times)
A 70 foot long and 165 ton piece of a pier washed to sea during a Japanese tsunami last year floats ashore at an Oregon beach. Local environmentalists express concern that numerous micro-organisms not native to the U.S. floated in along with the errant pier. Their is some relief, though, that the debris tested negative for nuclear radiation, apparently because it broke loose from Japanese land before the tsunami proceeded to take out a nuclear power plant.
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“I DON’T THINK THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT IS GOING TO SAY ‘OH WE WERE JUST FOOLING.’
(Orlando Sentinel)
An attorney for county supervisors of elections in Florida warns his clients that they are on thin ice in trying circumvent a determination from Justice that the Governor’s “purge” of non-citizens from voting rolls is unconstitutional. While the Governor did suspend the program while “respectfully disagreeing” with the decree, some local supervisors, as in Orange County (Orlando) are continuing to send out letters asking for new signatures for whom there are questionable “matches” among other voting records.
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Quote of the day…
There was an expression among activists that went “One year longer, one year stronger” a year after the beginning of the “Wisconsin Uprising” here in Madison, WI. The reality is that one year+ longer, the left as an organizing force is “one year weaker.”
Steve Horn, on failure of recall election against Governor Scott Walker, showing that right wing “populism” (tea party) is much more effective than the left version of populism.
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I think it’s safe to say that we have all heard the press repeatedly attack, bash, and even openly slander the public service unions across the country. I’ll not lend greater credence to such none-sense by repeating it here; however unions benefit the vast majority of American citizens and their continued dismantling only serves the best interest of a tiny minority the nation’s wealthiest.
First and foremost, Labor Unions negotiate for higher wages in a manner befitting the free market. Without unions to collectively bargain for wages and benefits, companies hold a virtual monopoly on employment and can arbitrarily decide what they will or will not pay regardless of the real value of the work that’s preformed. Furthermore such negotiations benefit the economy as a whole by increasing the wages of people who fall within the lower 50% of earners, because these earners budgets are constrained, higher wages for them means an increase in consumer spending that leads to economic growth.
Unions also benefit every employee on the job every day. One of the most important rules established by early unions was to require breaks (both meal and rest breaks) to be given to employee’s at reasonable times throughout the day. This is vitally important not just for the health and well-being of the employee’s themselves, but also as a matter of workplace safety and productivity. Studies relating to “drowsy driving” have found that if a person works an eight hour day without and meal or rest breaks and then gets behind the wheel of a car, that person is in fact impaired to the same degree as a person who is intoxicated by alcohol. What this means is, having a person on the clock for eight hours without a break is the equivalent of having an intoxicated person on the job site (not to mention operating heavy equipment, if that happens to be their responsibility). An exhausted person on a construction site for example can stumble into a trench, step back into the path of equipment, or make any number of foolish mistakes that said person otherwise would not make. While an employer may believe they are gaining work time by not allowing breaks, they are in fact loosing far more money in the form of lost productivity and avoidable jobsite accidents.
In the fast food industry for example, corporations consistently give the restaurant employee’s the worst possible treatment while complaining nearly constantly about the rate of employee turnover.
Fast food restaurants invest heavily in maintaining their equipment, the restaurants buildings, and the “procedures” that guide employees. However these corporations fail to realize that the employee’s greet customers, prepare the food (product), as well as maintain the buildings and even the best employee turns into a horrible employee when they are exhausted. In short, if these restaurants were to unionize and enforce reasonable worker protections it would result in better performance for the companies, and a better experience for the paying customers.
Let us also not forget that before unions were established there was virtually no such thing as workplace safety standards, not to mention health insurance benefits. Before unions were established workers (some as young as eight years old) were constantly being mangled in senseless and easily avoided accidents. The burdens caused by those accidents were being carelessly tossed aside by the companies responsible, to instead be carried by hopelessly poor families and society as a whole. When unions came to power they established laws to prevent the exploitation of minors, safety standards that would later become OSHA law and health insurance benefits to force companies to be responsible for the public health problems they themselves were creating.
Now after all this time and with all this history as a guide, modern corporation’s and their lobbyists are complaining about the expense of the unions and the vary benefits they give to their employee’s and to America as a whole? Let us not forget who is funding these attacks on unions and supporting Governor Scott Walker, or that their sole motive is undermining the rights and wages of the people who work for them in order to put more money in their personal pockets.
Walker is for the rich,ie Koch Brothers and others who have poured millions into his campaign. Taking away rights is not the way to govern. Teachers and students lose. Do your research. Look at the places he cut. Wealthy kids attend private schools. Cuts don’t affect them. Even if they attend public schools, they tend to be well funded. Playing field is NOT even. That’s what this divisive man wanted. Signing away Ledbetter, taking away equal pay rights for women. So, the people of WI want the clock turned back. There was a time in America, we did not all have the same rights and benefits.
what’s really crap is that those politician’s want everybody to work for slave wages, pay their own insurance and retire with nothing but they want to keep their ruling class better wages, insurance paid for by taxpayers, and permant wages after they leave the jobs and work somewhere else. and they have the balls to say private sector should not get those things forgetting they are private sector too, but think they should keep their cookies!! politicians have been pushing classwarfare and want to go back to prehistoric time in the times when there was a slave labor class and a ruling class. idiots if those workers pay out more they will have less to put into the economy and if they earn less they will not be paying as much in tax revenue. idiots. even businesses who are pushing it are stupid! if the people have no money to spend they won’t keep those businesses in business. freaking idiots.