Friday, August 26, 2011 FDL: Captive Labor Is The New Corporate Exploited Resource
When the process is exploitative and the true underlying motives are profit-driven, it is nothing more than a way to replace immigrant labor with a labor force on the inside, making things for the outside, and it has absolutely nothing to do with correction, rehabilitation or reducing crime. It is yet another borderline criminal enterprise cloaked in the guise of greater good. Are we really bringing slavery back? Sneaking in a little slavery that no one notices at first because the slaves are part of a secret society that is out of sight and out of mind?
Saturday, July 30, 2011 Is Standard and Poor's Manipulating US Debt Rating to Escape Liability for the Mortgage Crisis? (4 comments)
And the more we looked at the timeline of events, the more we wondered how the intertwining dramas of a) S&P downgrade threats, b) the liability that the ratings agencies may have for their role in the 2008 financial meltdown, and c) the GOP's attempts to insulate the ratings agencies from b) are all impacting each other.
Thursday, July 7, 2011 The Breaking Point By: Jane Hamsher
We'll fight this, because it's the right thing to do. We will probably lose. But we will make it as painful as possible for any politician from any party to participate in this wholesale looting of the public sphere, this "shock doctrine" for America. And maybe along the way we'll get a vision of what comes next. Because what we believe in as Americans, and what we stand for, is not something the Democratic party represents any more.
Friday, June 17, 2011 Eric Kingson: With AARP Supporting Social Security Benefit Cuts, It's Time to Burn My AARP Card
An article by Laura Meckler in today's Wall Street Journal reports that "AARP, the powerful lobbying group for older Americans, is dropping its longstanding opposition to cutting Social Security benefits" The shift, which has been vetted by AARP's board and is now the group's stance, could have a dramatic effect on the debate surrounding the future of the federal safety net, from pensions to health care, given the group's immense clout.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011 FDL: Misery Doesn't Love Company by jeffroby
We've seen an enormous increase in misery, with millions consigned to unemployment, foreclosure, homelessness, hunger and disease right here in the United States. So the poor must be rising up, right? Nope....But at the least, given the uncertainty of that relationship between misery and rebellion, you'd think the emiseristas might want to make some argument as to why intensifying misery in THIS country at THIS time will engender revolt. But no such arguments are forthcoming, only repetition of the mantra.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011 FDL: Waking the Dead
Are citizens whose deaths are caused by societal malfeasance then killed non-violently? A sheriff with a gun on his hip serving foreclosure papers to an elderly widow is that violence or non-violence? Four or five hundred workers displaced so that share holders might earn an extra penny per share and a government that not only condones this behavior but encourages it. How is this in anyway different other than format from Pol Pot? How is depriving workers of a chance to make a decent living in anyway different other than format from killing off the buffalo? The compassion of a government in Washington is the same as it was for the Native Americans when it answers, tough! Too bad and sucks to be you!
Monday, April 11, 2011 Arun Gupta: The American Dream As We Know It Is Obsolete
Unless unions counter with a powerful idea -- such as "labor creates all wealth" -- they will remain stuck in a downward spiral. (Not that this idea, the labor theory of value, is unproblematic, but it does possess tremendous ideological, rhetorical and political force in the war with capital.)
Tuesday, April 5, 2011 David Michael Green: When Pigs Rule (1 comments)
The reduction of the American voter's choices down to two options -- catastrophic or catastrophic with nice words -- has very real consequences. This game is played for keeps. People are not making it anymore. The middle class has been shrinking for three decades. Foreclosures are off the charts. People are literally dying from lack of health care. Children are literally dying from lack of health care. And every day, we in the richest polity that ever existed on the planet not only fail to address those crimes, we exacerbate them with the actions of the Walkers and Christies and Cuomos and Obamas of this country. It's no longer a question of whether we'll adopt the destructive policies of the regressive oligarchy, merely a question of how fast we do it.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 Katherine Reynolds Lewis: Unpaid jobs: The new normal?
With nearly 14 million unemployed workers in America, many have gotten so desperate that they're willing to work for free. While some businesses are wary of the legal risks and supervision such an arrangement might require, companies that have used free workers say it can pay off when done right.
Monday, March 28, 2011 Bin Quick: American Oligarchs And Their Puppets
Unfortunately, the battle won't be between Capital and Labor, it will be between ignorant rural racists fundamentalist and urban labor secularist. Since no other country can manage our regime change, we are just as likely to end up with a Hitler as a Washington. Obama could have been another FDR but he clearly didn't have the necessary tools or character for the challenge. We needed FDR but instead we elect Herbert Hoover/James Buchanan( a caretaker that did nothing in the face of a crisis or imminent disaster).
Saturday, March 26, 2011 Pete Kasperowicz: CBO: Taxing mileage a 'practical option' for revenue enhancement
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) this week released a report that said taxing people based on how many miles they drive is a possible option for raising new revenues and that these taxes could be used to offset the costs of highway maintenance at a time when federal funds are short.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 Allison Hantschel: FDL Late Night: Cheeseheads Unite (1 comments)
The national press discovered Wisconsin this month, thanks in part to the Packers winning the Super Bowl, but mostly due to tens of thousands of people who told the governor where to stick his union-busting bill and his crappy attitude and his contempt for working people. Since then it's been an onslaught of satellite trucks and protest tourists, who want to be where the action is but may be perplexed by the local customs. So I've put together some information and advice about my native state that those blowing into town to bigfoot local reporters would do best to heed.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 Troopers would "absolutely' use force on Wisc. protesters if ordered, police union president tells Raw (13 comments)
"I guess that's the one ironic thing about this," he continued. "Last night my wife asked me to make a sign for her to take down there to protest. On that day, I thought to myself I could be making a protest sign for my wife to take down there ... Then I could be down there confronting my wife with the protest sign that I made. God, you see ... That's ... That's my job."
Wednesday, February 9, 2011 David Edwards: Adbusters: The left Built Huffington, and We Can Tear It Down Too
The purchase of the Huffington Post by AOL left many of the progressive writers and readers that made the site into a powerhouse looking for a new home.Adbusters magazine set out to unite those disaffected former supporters of Arianna Huffington's flagship site by suggesting they use social media to promote alternatives.
Sunday, January 23, 2011 FDL: The Blue Collar Life
The real truth, the truth that the men in suits secretly fight with every inch of their being is that this man, is the real threat. He knows more than they do, he has paid his dues (in more ways than one). He knows what he is looking at when the man in the suit goes into the bar, or gets drunk on the golf course for the fourth Sunday in a row.
He knows that these men go to the doctor when they are sick and that they don't pay their own premiums. He knows that they will get stitches for a cut while he uses duct tape so that his supervisor doesn't know he got hurt on the job. He will lie if he gets hurt on the job because he wants to keep his job.
Monday, January 17, 2011 FDL: When the Socialists and Anarchists Came to Town in 1912 (1 comments)
On November 1, 2007 fifty-one workers at the Redco plant in my old hometown of Little Falls, New York went on strike in response to a company decision to deny new workers the kind of health and pension benefits that had made Redco, and its predecessor companies, desirable places for lifelong employment. Located on the tiny island where Christian Hansen first began to manufacture "Junket" custard in 1891, the plant was sold to Salada in 1958, then to Kellogg in 1969, and in 1988 to a German-based transnational, the Teekanne Group.
Friday, December 31, 2010 FDL: We Screwed Ourselves with Success
We could comfort ourselves with the idea that this economic crisis could have been far worse, had it not been for the success of the social safety net we've created since the Great Depression. But that's just denial talking. We have to do something about this situation; while we cannot morally create any more pain for our fellow Americans, we surely must tell their stories.
Saturday, December 18, 2010 Jon Walker: In Tax-Cut Capitulation, House Democrats Again Redefine Pathetic
Not standing up for the constitutional rights of the institution and demanding the Senate change so as to treat the House as a proper co-equal was a serious dereliction of duty....The Senate stole all of the House's power, and the House Democrats didn't even put up a fight.
Thursday, December 2, 2010 Jane Hamsher: The Game is Rigged (1 comments)
It's Christmas time, you bastards. People can't feed their kids. You continue to shovel trillions of dollars at the banks. And all of you -- Pelosi, Reid, Obama -- you fail the test not only of leadership, but of basic human compassion. Of having any kind of a moral compass.
Sunday, November 7, 2010 Olbermann back Tuesday
After a weekend of speculation, Phil Griffin, the president of MSNBC, has announced Keith Olbermann's fate:
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 FDL: Rep. Gutierrez: McEntee is "Disgrace to Labor Movement" for Endorsing Rahm for Mayor (1 comments)
Rep. Luis Gutierrez, Democratic Congressman from Illinois and potential mayoral candidate for the city of Chicago, slammed AFSCME President Gerald McEntee's endorsement of Rahm Emanuel for Mayor of Chicago. Gutierriez said McEntee is a "disgrace to the labor movement" for endorsing Rahm's candidacy.
Thursday, August 26, 2010 Gene Lyons: To all real journalists: Stop being such cowards!
It's no longer enough simply to set the record straight. Journalists have an affirmative duty to defend their own profession's honor, what little remains of it.
Thursday, July 29, 2010 Michael Lind: Are the American people obsolete?
Have the American people outlived their usefulness to the rich minority in the United States? A number of trends suggest that the answer may be yes.
Saturday, July 24, 2010 NYT: State Plans to Eliminate 170,000 Canada Geese
Roughly 170,000 geese -- two-thirds of the population -- will be killed.
The nearly 400 geese gassed to death this month after being rounded up in Prospect Park in Brooklyn -- as well as an unknown number of other geese killed in New York City in recent weeks -- were but a small part of the ambitious overall goal outlined in the document, which was obtained by City Room.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 Rick Ackerman: Has BP Summoned the Fires of Hell? (1 comments)
Who could have imagined that there was an even bigger disaster lurking or that mere human error could trigger a cataclysm of seismological proportions? Or will it be of Biblical proportions with rivers and seas turned into wormwood? Has BP tapped not an oil well but a hole into volcanic Hell? While these questions are almost too frightening to contemplate, the answers may be staring us in the face within months or even weeks?
Tuesday, June 22, 2010 The Atlantic: What the Heck Was McChrystal Thinking? (4 comments)
Within hours after today's Rolling Stone story broke, McChrystal was called by the White House, the Secretary of Defense, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. They were not happy.
Thursday, May 27, 2010 Scott Hiaasen and Curtis Morgan: BP Wants Houston Judge with Oil ties to Hear Spill Cases (1 comments)
That judge, U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes, has traveled the world giving lectures on ethics for the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, a professional association and research group that works with BP and other oil companies. The organization pays his travel expenses.
Saturday, May 15, 2010 Maine GOP apologizes for Convention Incident: by Kevin Miller
Maine Republican officials apologized Wednesday for an incident last week in which party faithful attending the state convention removed a pro-labor poster from a Portland middle school classroom and left behind GOP materials. The incident involved a group of Knox County Republicans who, like hundreds of others attending the Republican state convention at the Portland Expo, had gathered Friday at a nearby middle school.
Friday, May 7, 2010 Meet the New Union Boss: by Dana Goldstein (1 comments)
Mary Kay Henry, upset winner in the race to take over the SEIU, is about to become one of the most powerful women in progressive politics. Dana Goldstein on the female takeover of the labor movement.
Friday, April 16, 2010 The Nation: Disposable Soldiers by Joshua Kors (4 comments)
For three years The Nation has been reporting on military doctors' fraudulent use of "personality disorder" to discharge wounded soldiers. PD is a severe mental illness that emerges during childhood and is listed in military regulations as a pre-existing condition, not a result of combat. Thus those who are discharged with PD are denied a lifetime of disability benefits, which the military is required to provide wounded soldie
Monday, March 22, 2010 Jane Hamsher: FDL Statement on the Passage of the Health Care Bill
There are many good and praise-worthy things in this health care bill: help for those with pre-existing conditions, guaranteed coverage for children, money for community health centers, and expansion of Medicaid and SCHIP. But there is also cause for serious concern. Never before has the government mandated that its citizens pay directly to private corporations almost as much as they do in federal taxes....
Monday, March 15, 2010 Jane Hamsher: Progressives Who Don't Honor Their Pledge: Corporatists in Sheep's Clothing
Last August, progressive groups including MoveOn, DFA and blogs across the country came together to raise over $430,000 for 65 members of Congress who pledged to vote against any health care bill that doesn't have a public option.Now every excuse made by the President and Congress for not including a public option has crumbled. MoveOn is demonstrating against Kucinich for keeping that promise...
Monday, March 15, 2010 David Swanson: I'm Down With Dennis
Kucinich is saving the Democrats from themselves by helping to block their health insurance bill, but they can't see what's in front of them through the fog of their constant dreaming about mountains of money and a naked Rahm Emanuel poking them in the chests.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010 CBS News: Goldman Sued for Overpaying Executives
The pension fund for an electrical workers' union wants to pull the plug on large executive compensations at Goldman Sachs, filing a lawsuit against the bank in a Delaware court.
Friday, February 26, 2010 Charlie LeDuff: Blue-collar Workers Hanging on by Thread
The workers punch the clock at precisely 7:30 a.m., not a minute later since they would be docked 14 minutes and nobody in America works 14 minutes for free. A quiet resignation settles over them as the roar of the screw grinding machines rev up. Want it or not, they need to be here. After this place, there is no place. Not in today's America.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 Harry Kelber:The Unemployed Now Have Their Own Union, and It's Catching on Quickly
UCubed is the brain-child of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), whose leaders feel that the millions of unemployed workers need a union of their own to join in the struggle for massive jobs programs.
Friday, February 19, 2010 Cory Doctorow: School Used Student Laptop Webcams to Spy on Them at School and Home
According to the filings in Blake J Robbins v Lower Merion School District (PA) et al, the laptops issued to high-school students in the well-heeled Philly suburb have webcams that can be covertly activated by the schools' administrators, who have used this facility to spy on students and even their families.
Friday, February 12, 2010 Gerald Posner: My Resignation from The Daily Beast (3 comments)
Last Friday, Jack Shafer in Slate ran an article pinpointing five sentences from one of my stories in The Daily Beast, which I admitted met the definition of plagiarism and I accepted full responsibility for that error, an incident I called "accidental plagiarism." On Monday, he had found other examples, and although I disagreed with some of his characterizations, I again accepted full accountability.
Thursday, February 11, 2010 Rachel Smolker: The New Taxpayer Bailout That Will Make You Sick AND Poor
In sum, we are footing the bill with close to 10 billion per year of our tax dollars, to have our forests and farmlands pillaged and our health compromised under the guise of "renewable energy". Time to rethink the meaning of "renewable," and fast before every last scrap of living plant matter on earth goes up in smoke.
Friday, February 5, 2010 Politico: Al Franken Lays into David Axelrod over Health Care bill (1 comments)
The sources said Franken was the most outspoken senator in the meeting, which followed President Barack Obama's question-and-answer session with Senate Democrats at the Newseum on Wednesday. But they also said the Minnesotan wasn't the only angry Democrat in the room.
Saturday, January 16, 2010 Roxann MtJoy: Doctor Gets Court Order to Confine Pregnant Woman Against Her Will (2 comments)
Have you heard the one about the women 25 weeks pregnant prescribed bedrest to avoid miscarriage? When the woman refused due to the needs of caring and supporting her two toddlers, her doctor convinced authorities to have her confined to hospital and undergo any procedure the doctor felt like prescribing. The punch line? Three days into her forced hospitalization, she miscarried.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010 Cameron Scott: Is Monsanto's Corn Destroying Your Internal Organs? (1 comments)
A new study, which had to resort to analyzing data sets produced by studies conducted by Monsanto and another biotech firm, and submitted to European governments because researchers couldn't get seeds, found Monsanto corn impairs rats' kidneys and livers. The "data strongly suggests" after just 90 days of eating GM corn, rats experienced kidney toxicity and showed effects to their hearts, adrenal glands, spleen and blood cells
Sunday, January 10, 2010 Hope Has Left the Building: by Arun Gupta (2 comments)
Far from failures or mistakes, these episodes illustrate how Team Obama, which surfed a tsunami of corporate money and savvy branding to victory, is doing exactly what it was elected to do: redistribute money upwards. It's hard to think of a decision by this White House that would have not elicited cackling glee from the Bush administration". What follows is by no means an exhaustive list, just a few dozen of the worst.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009 Bankers Get $4 Trillion Gift From Barney Frank: David Reilly (1 comments)
--Instead, it supports the biggest banks. It authorizes Federal Reserve banks to provide as much as $4 trillion in emergency funding the next time Wall Street crashes. So much for "no-more-bailouts" talk. That is more than twice what the Fed pumped into markets this time around. The size of the fund makes the bribes in the Senate's health-care bill look minuscule.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009 Michele Bachmann: Welfare Queen, by Yasha Levine
Michele Bachmann has become well known for her anti-government tea-bagger antics, protesting health care reform and every other government "handout" as socialism. What her followers probably don't know is that Rep. Bachmann is, to use that anti-government slur, something of a welfare queen. That's right, the anti-government insurrectionist has taken more than a quarter-million dollars in government handouts....
Tuesday, December 22, 2009 Kevin Conner: How Wall Street Bought Barney Frank (1 comments)
Since becoming the ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee seven years ago, Barney Frank has built a formidable Wall Street donor base, even by Washington's standards; as the housing bubble grew, so too did his
fundraising purse and his stature, in Congress and beyond.
Thursday, December 17, 2009 Jeffrey Young: SEIU Complains, But Backs Moving Bill
The Service Employees International Union is disappointed with the Senate's healthcare reform bill but still wants to move it forward.
SEIU President Andy Stern said Thursday it's time for a vote on the legislation.
"We're for putting the bill into conference," Stern said in a teleconference call. "We don't like the bill. It has to be improved. But we don't think that these senators are going to do any better."
Tuesday, December 8, 2009 Reuters: Nurses unions merge, back healthcare overhaul
The merger, approved unanimously by delegates to the founding convention in Phoenix, unifies the California Nurses Association, with 83,000 members in California and several other states; the United American Nurses, with 45,000 members, mostly the Midwest, and the 22,000-member Massachusetts Nurses Association.
Saturday, December 5, 2009 Labor's Legacy: by Mike Dolan
Anyone who was in Seattle ten years ago remembers the dramatic moment when the American labor movement joined the battle for fair trade--along with faith groups and activists for the environment, family farms, human rights and consumers.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009 Google to Limit Free Online News Searches
Acknowledging that "creating high-quality content is not easy and, in many cases, expensive" Google said in a blog post it was changing its "First Click Free" program. First Click Free directs readers from Google or Google News to a story on a newspaper's website but prevents them from having unrestricted access.
Friday, November 20, 2009 Erik Hedegaard: The Last Confessions of E. Howard Hunt (3 comments)
He was the ultimate keeper of secrets, lurking in the shadows of American history. He toppled banana republics, planned the Bay of Pigs invasion and led the Watergate break-in. Now he would reveal what he'd always kept hidden: who killed JFK.
Sunday, November 15, 2009 Is Obama the New, Democratic Version of President Herbert Hoover?: By fflambeau (1 comments)
A few days ago after the horrible unemployment figures came out for October, Obama announced his administration's plan. He is going to call for a White House summit on unemployment. The summit will be held next month, the administration announced, as Obama himself was off to Japan. Now that's really decisive leadership!
Thursday, November 12, 2009 NYT: Lou Dobbs to Quit CNN (1 comments)
Lou Dobbs, the longtime CNN anchor whose anti-immigration views have made him a TV lightning rod, said Wednesday that he is leaving the cable news channel effective immediately.
Saturday, November 7, 2009 Allison Henry: My Bits Fell Out!
Have you ever heard of vaginal prolapse? I hadn't either, until it happened to me. Here's my story.
"One night, I took a look down there, and it was like my insides were on the outside and they were coming out. I knew I couldn't put this off any longer. I went to my doctor and said, "My vagina is falling out of my body!"
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 A Union Man Ponders the Democrats' Collapse in the Virginia Elections (1 comments)
The Democratic Party collapse in the 2009 Virginia statewide elections will come as a surprise only to those loyalists, true believers, and paid consultants and staffers who have chosen to ignore the increasingly dire situation facing working people in Virginia. As a union member who lives here, I'm not surprised one bit. The Democrats luck has run out.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009 Oops! Blue Cross Mails Customers about 11% Rate Increase, Opposition to Public Option: By Jason Rosenbaum
Many customers of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina are ticked off at the mail received recently from the state's largest insurer. First, they learned their rates will rise by an average of 11 percent next year. Next, they opened a slick flier from the insurer urging them to send an enclosed pre-printed, postage-paid note to Sen. Kay Hagan denouncing what the company says is unfair competition.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009 Politico: Lieberman Says He'll Filibuster Reid Plan (2 comments)
Lieberman did say he's "strongly inclined" to vote to proceed to the debate, but that he'll ultimately vote to block a floor vote on the bill if it isn't changed first.
"I've told Sen. Reid that if the bill stays as it is now I will vote against cloture,” he said.
Thursday, October 22, 2009 Did Paulson's Secret Meeting with Goldman Sachs Break the Law? By Muriel Kane
"For the next hour," Sorkin goes on, "Paulson regaled his old friends with stories about his time in Treasury and his prognostications about the economy. They questioned him about the possibility of another bank blowing up, like Lehman, and he talked about the need for the government to have the power to wind down troubled firms, offering a preview of his upcoming speech."
Saturday, October 17, 2009 ObamaCare to Include Psychological Counseling for Republicans (2 comments)
At a White House press briefing, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius announced that a deal was being cut with congress to include a special program in the upcoming health care reform, commonly known as ObamaCare. “In recognition of the traumatic stress syndrome that uniquely afflicts many Republicans, we are adding a program to provide psychological counseling for those Republicans who want it.
Thursday, October 15, 2009 OSLO (AFP) Majority of Nobel jury 'objected to Obama prize'
OSLO (AFP) – Three of the five members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee had objections to the Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to US President Barack Obama, the Norwegian tabloid Verdens Gang (VG) reported Thursday.
Saturday, October 10, 2009 Mississippi mandates civil rights classes in schools: by Carmen K. Sisson (3 comments)
In a groundbreaking reform – believed to be the first in the nation – Mississippi will require civil rights as part of its US history curriculum. McComb schools made that move in 2006; but starting next fall, the stories of the civil rights era will be taught – and tested – in all public schools.
Thursday, October 8, 2009 Gore Vidal's United States of fury: by Johann Hari
His horror at US foreign policy can be summarised in one little scene. In the 1980s, the Sistine Chapel was being restored, and some VIPs were invited to view it on an elevated platform. He spotted that old serial killer Henry Kissinger inspecting the section depicting Hell, and said: "Look, he's apartment hunting."
Wednesday, October 7, 2009 Coming Soon: $500 for Every Newborn?: by Kimberly Palmer
Imagine a world where every baby received a trust fund at birth. It might sound like a fairy tale, but being born into money--or at least into a $500 savings account--could soon become reality for all children born in the United States. Here's what you should know about the ASPIRE ("America Saving for Personal Investment, Retirement, and Education") Act:
Tuesday, October 6, 2009 Lobbyists Stew After Being Bounced From Boards:by Keith Koffler (2 comments)
A tide of anger and dismay is rippling down K Street as the Obama administration implements a new policy limiting the roles of lobbyists on federal advisory committees. The policy change, described by the White House as the next step in President Barack Obama 's drive to limit influence-peddling in Washington, could affect hundreds of lobbyists who serve on the panels, which were created by Congress in the 1970s.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009 Gore Vidal: ‘We'll Have a Dictatorship Soon in the US”: by Tim Teeman (2 comments)
Last year he famously switched allegiance from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama during the Democratic nomination process for president. Now, he reveals, he regrets his change of heart. How's Obama doing? “Dreadfully".”
Saturday, September 26, 2009 Watching Our Greatness Slip Away, by Dick De Witt (2 comments)
n 1950, our nation was a leader of the world. We were wealthy, powerful and our industry hummed with made-in-America products. Our workers were building homes and enjoying steady salaries for their labor, producing consumer products sold around the world. Now, a brief 59 years later, our government has allowed and promoted our corporations to sell off that entire store, piece by piece, lock, stock and barrel.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009 Bill Sparkman: Tragic Details About Census Worker Found Hanged (13 comments)
Sparkman worked as substitute teacher and a census taker for the U.S. Census Bureau. He was found dead Sunday, Sept. 13, with word "fed" was scrawled onto his chest....
Friday, September 11, 2009 Selling Death: Wall Street's Newest Bubble: by L. Randall Wray (1 comments)
“Wall Street really is moving forward to market bets on death. The banksters would purchase life insurance policies, pool and tranch them, and sell securities that allow money managers to bet that the underlying “collateral” (human beings) will die an untimely death. You can't make this stuff up.”
Tuesday, September 8, 2009 Respect the Presidency or Get out of America! by Sevastian Winters
...men defend their right to bring weaponry to places where the President of the United States is speaking....Republicans who think NOTHING of sending their kids to publicly funded schools or driving on publicly funded roadways, accuse the President of the United States of trying to usher in the 4th Reich. We have seen preachers preach from the pulpit that they pray for the death of the man who holds...the Presidency.
Saturday, September 5, 2009 What Is it like to Live Near the Neighborhood Where Jaycee Dugard Was Held Prisoner?: by Dreamweaver
I went over to the neighborhood in the middle of the night, wanting to see where she had been held, to do a news piece, but also to try to understand why it went undiscovered for so long. I don't know what I was really expecting to see. The man strung up on a post for people to throw stones at? Garrido chained to the front fence? Some sign that showed me how it could have happened? Why no one saw it?
Saturday, August 29, 2009 Found After 18 Years in Captivity in Antioch, California: by Dreamweaver
In Antioch, California, all was quiet at 1:30 in the morning today on the street where Phillip Garrido held a young girl hostage for 18 years after her kidnapping from her home in South Lake Tahoe in 1991.
Sunday, August 2, 2009 Philadelphia workers file racial discrimination case: byEdmund DeMarche & Chloe Melas for CNN
Among the allegations in the complaint is that for decades, John Gill, the Northwest Transfer Station's superintendent, limited one restroom to whites only, said the attorney, Howard K. Trubman. The restroom -- which he called the "supervisors' bathroom" -- was supposedly for the sole use of upper-level officials with the city's Streets Department, Trubman said.
Thursday, July 16, 2009 Huge Blob of Arctic Goo Floats Past Slope Communities by Don Hunter (4 comments)
A mysterious glob of unknown material up to 12 miles long has appeared off Alaska's northern coast. Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Terry Hasenauer says, "It's certainly biological. It's definitely not an oil product of any kind."
Thursday, June 25, 2009 TMZ: Michael Jackson Is Dead
We've just learned Michael Jackson has died. He was 50.
Michael suffered a cardiac arrest earlier this afternoon at his Holmby Hill home and paramedics were unable to revive him. We're told when paramedics arrived Jackson had no pulse and they never got a pulse back.
Sunday, May 31, 2009 First, Stop the Hemorrhaging by Rev. Jesse Jackson
The bailout of industries must be linked to reinvesting in America, retention and creation of jobs. We cannot bail out industries, and then have them take the manufacturing and jobs abroad, and leave only the brand at home. Worker and trade policy must be a central part of a new, industrial reconstruction program.
Friday, May 15, 2009 Six Insurers Named to Get Taxpayer Aid
The department said the Hartford Financial Services Group, Prudential Financial, Lincoln National, Allstate, Ameriprise and Principal Financial Group have all received approval for capital infusions, subject to terms still to be negotiated. The Hartford, in a statement released late Thursday, said it was told it could receive $3.4 billion under the program.
Saturday, April 25, 2009 Obama Legal Team Wants to Limit Defendants' Rights
AP--The Obama administration is asking the Supreme Court to overrule long-standing law that stops police from initiating questions unless a defendant's lawyer is present, another stark example of the White House seeking to limit rather than expand rights.
Monday, April 6, 2009 US Watchdog Warren Calls for Bank Executives to be Sacked
Elizabeth Warren, chief watchdog of America's $700bn (£472bn) bank bailout plan, will this week call for the removal of top executives from Citigroup, AIG and other institutions that have received government funds in a damning report that will question the administration's approach to saving the financial system from collapse.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009 Tobacco Tax Just the Beginning. More New Federal Taxes Planned. (1 comments)
Hot on the heals of the recent increase of the federal tax on cigarettes, which went from 35¢ to $1.01 per pack, the White House is planning taxes on several other consumer items. Most non-smoking Americans turned a blind eye to the tax increase on cigarettes. It's easy to have a holier-than-thou attitude when it comes to "sin taxes," but the next round of taxes will hit those same pious people in the wallet.
Sunday, March 29, 2009 Scott Horton: Bush Torture Lawyers Targeted in Criminal Probe
John Yoo, former Department of Defense general counsel William J. Haynes II , former vice presidential chief-of-staff David Addington, former attorney general and White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, former Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee, and former Undersecretary of Defense Doug Feith could suffer Pinochet's fate by the same Spanish National security Court.
Saturday, March 28, 2009 President Obama, What About the Other Gulag? by Dan Mage
...true libertarians share a concern with left-liberals, namely the social and cultural rights of the individual; the freedom to choose one's own lifestyle, religion, sexual preference and partners, and what chemicals one may take or refuse to put into one's own body. I find myself somewhat dismayed with your ambivalent stance on these issues, including gay rights, and my personal pet peeve, the "War on Drugs."
Friday, March 27, 2009 Senate Passes Kennedy-Hatch Service Bill
Known as the Serve America Act, the Kennedy-Hatch bill would triple the number of AmeriCorp volunteers to 250,000 and boost the educational stipend they receive to meet President Barack Obama's goal of teaming community service with tuition assistance.
It creates new "corps" focused on health care, clean energy, education and disaster response.
Monday, March 9, 2009 Barack Obama 'too tired' to give proper welcome to Gordon Brown
Allies of Mr Obama say his weary appearance in the Oval Office with Mr Brown illustrates the strain he is now under, and the president's surprise at the sheer volume of business that crosses his desk.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009 Playboy Has Taken Down Its Santelli Story
Playboy has apparently taken down its story. The Atlantic's Megan McArdle has the full text.
The link between Santelli and the so-called astroturfing groups "is potentially libelous, which is, I assume, why the article disappeared this morning," wrote McArdle.
This update at Rawstory.com
Sunday, March 1, 2009 Backstabber: Is Rick Santelli High On Koch? (2 comments)
By Mark Ames and Yasha Levine:
So today's protests show that the corporate war is on, and this is how they'll fight it: hiding behind "objective" journalists and "grassroots" new media movements. Because in these times, if you want to push for policies that help the super-wealthy, you better do everything you can to make it seem like it's "the people" who are "spontaneously" fighting your fight.
Saturday, February 14, 2009 Panasonic orders staff to buy £1,000 in products
In desperation, Panasonic has hit on the perfect counter-attack against the consumer slump: it has ordered every member of staff to go out and buy £1,000 of Panasonic products.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009 Judges Sentenced: Kids For Cash
The setting is Pennsylvania coal country, but it's a story right out of Dickens' grim 19th-century landscape: Two of Luzerne County's most senior judges on Monday were accused of sending children to jail in return for kickbacks.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008 The Urban Homesteading Phenomenon: Self-Sufficiency on a City Lot (3 comments)
You don't have to live on a farm to be more self-sufficient. Urban homesteading can turn your city lot into a place where you can grow your own organic food, produce your own energy, and reduce your carbon imprint dramatically.
Monday, November 10, 2008 Sitting In The Balcony
We were never taught to hate. I never thought much about race until 1964. That was the year we moved to Florence, South Carolina.
Monday, October 20, 2008 Bush's 100,000 Acres Between The Borders Of Paraguay & Brazil (3 comments)
Here's a fun question for Tony Snow: Why might the president and his family
need a 98,840-acre ranch in Paraguay protected by a semi-secret U.S. military base
manned by American troops who have been exempted from war-crimes prosecution
by the Paraguyan government?
Wednesday, September 24, 2008 Warren Buffet Gets 10%, But We Get Nothing?
Warren Buffet is investing 5 billion in Goldman Sachs with a agreed to return of 10%. The American taxpayer is urged to invest 700 billion, but we get nothing for our investment.
Paulson must be laughing his ass off at what idiots we are.
Monday, September 22, 2008 Brian O'Keefe: Here comes $500 Oil
If Matt Simmons is right, the recent drop in crude prices is an illusion - and oil could be headed for the stratosphere. He's just hoping we can prevent civilization from imploding.
Friday, September 19, 2008 Andrew Morse: Corporate Treasurers Remain Wary Of Money-Market Funds
This article mysteriously vanished off CNN's Dow Jones Newswire, but an intreped uD (comment identifer)managed to hunt it down.
Perhaps this is what nobody handling this trillion dollar bailout wants the rest of us to know.
When you go to the article, scroll down a bit to get the alarming truth that corporate cash that fled mutual funds for Treasury Funds will not reinvest in mutuals until stability and yields rise.
Sunday, September 14, 2008 Should Your Employer Have to Provide a Reason to Fire You? (6 comments)
This November Coloradans will have a chance to vote on a simple proposition: Should employers have to provide a legitimate reason before they fire an employee?
Saturday, September 6, 2008 Charley James: "Sambo Beat The Bitch" (2 comments)
"So Sambo beat the bitch!"
This is how Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin described Barack Obama's win over Hillary Clinton to political colleagues in a restaurant a few days after Obama locked up the Democratic Party presidential nomination.
Friday, September 5, 2008 Company Town
This form of company town debt slavery originated on the plantations of post Civil War South. The Mine Owners just stole the software.
