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Starting today, there is a natiowide boycott of Georgia Pacific products. Those products are: en motion Sparkle Angel Soft Vanity Fair paper products Zee Quilted Northern Brawny Mardi Gras Dixie.
"Early this morning, Republicans in the Wisconsin Assembly approved legislation stripping public employees of their collective bargaining rights, in the face of ongoing protests that have gripped Madison for well over a week. The bill passed at 1:17 a.m., and Republicans only held the vote open for “seconds.” The vote was called while many Democrats were outside the Assembly chamber, preventing them from casting no votes. Only 13 of the Assembly’s 38 Democratic members got their votes in on time.
Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) praised the Assembly’s action in a statement. However, the Assembly Republicans’ late-night procedural shenanigans fly directly in the face of commitments Walker made on the campaign trail, where he promised to end late-night votes because “nothing good happens after midnight”:
He promised to sign legislation if elected governor that prohibits the Legislature from voting after 10 p.m. or before 9 a.m.
“I have two teenagers and I tell them that nothing good happens after midnight. That’s even more true in politics,” he said in a statement. “The people of Wisconsin deserve to know what their elected leaders are voting on.”
A campaign spokesperson said at the time that Walker believes 10 p.m. is the appropriate hour to end floor work. “Scott’s been there and he’s seen it,” she said, referring to late-night work that allows lobbyists undue influence over legislation. Of course, this supposed commitment to transparency didn’t stop Walker, when he was a member of the Assembly himself, from “join[ing] with the Republican majority in January 1997 to eliminate a rule that required lawmakers to finish their floor sessions at 8 p.m.”"
Wouldn't you know it. Women are suffering the most under conservative's budget cuts and social agenda (in federal and state legislatures). Is this what you voted for?
From the Columbus Dispatch:
"Women left far behind as new jobs arrive; analysts say recession had hit men harder
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 02:50 AM
By Tony Pugh
McCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS
WASHINGTON - The early stages of the economic recovery have taken on a decidedly masculine tone.
It was job gains by men that fueled January's steep decline in the national unemployment rate from 9.4 percent to 9 percent.
In fact, men have gained 438,000 jobs since the Great Recession officially ended in June 2009, while women have lost 366,000 over the same period, according to Labor Department figures.
And the 984,000 jobs created from January 2010 to January 2011? Only 47,000 went to women.
That's less than 1 of every 20 new job openings.
These numbers would barely draw a second look in the aftermath of past recessions, when women made up a much smaller share of the labor force. But women now account for nearly half of all U.S. workers, so the great disparity is all the more startling.
The trend has given a new gender-specific meaning to the phrase jobless recovery and is further proof that the hiring rebound isn't reaching all groups.
"The improvements in the overall employment picture obscure what's happening to women. In fact, women have lost ground since the recovery began," said a recent statement by Nancy Duff Campbell, co-president of the National Women's Law Center.
However, some observers say the one-sided jobs picture is more about economic justice than gender bias.
The Great Recession has been called the "mancession" because men absorbed 7 of 10 job losses during the downturn.
Male-dominated industries such as manufacturing, transportation and wholesale trade lost millions of jobs. Even in fields in which men weren't a majority of workers, they still got hit harder, said Heather Boushey, senior economist at the Center for American Progress, a liberal research group.
So as these and other industries slowly rebound, Boushey said it's hardly a surprise that men have landed more than 95 percent of new jobs in the recovery - or "mancovery," as it's playing out.
"If I get hit harder than you do, it does make sense that my recovery should be more dramatic. That's just logical," Boushey said. "The way this recession played out, there was this gendered impact across a wide variety of industries, and I think that's what you're seeing coming back."
After largely avoiding much of the job jeopardy that men faced, women are now enduring some belated suffering.
Education, health care and state and local government fueled women's job opportunities during the recession. But because women make up nearly 60 percent of government workers, they've felt the brunt of recent layoffs at the state and local level.
During the past year, women lost 202,000 government jobs, or 4 out of 5 that were eliminated nationwide.
"A lot of teachers were laid off," Boushey said. "A lot of child-care workers were laid off. A lot of local-administrator types were laid off. Those are disproportionately women's jobs."
As protests over state budget cuts continue in Wisconsin, other states such as Iowa and Ohio are pondering similar measures that could affect mostly women.
"If states and localities are forced to make additional cuts in critical public services, women may fall even further behind," said Campbell, of the National Women's Law Center."
How defunding Planned Parenthood could affect you:
4.7 million Americans may lose access to reproductive and family planning care, particularly middle- and low-income women.
If you don’t have insurance, you may have to pay for a doctor’s visit to receive a prescription for birth control and pay full price at the pharmacy for it.
Be careful! Without easily available screenings, counseling and treatment, the transmission of STDs and HIV may rise.
Your daughter, niece, or younger cousin (and her boyfriend) may lose their safe, confidential, and free place to receive counseling, birth control, and testing.
If you are low income and/or without insurance, you may have to pay the full price of STD screenings, which can cost $85 to $220 for each type. That doesn’t include the cost of the doctor’s visit, which can be another $200.
You will have to visit a private practice for prenatal health care and, if you don’t have insurance, pay full price.
Depending on the location, you may lose access to free or reduced cost general services like anemia testing, cholesterol screening, diabetes screening, physical exams, flu vaccines, help with quitting smoking, high blood pressure screening, tetanus vaccines, and thyroid screening.
If you are an OB/GYN, your number of patients may increase."
Excerpt from "Response ....: There’s a new bill in Georgia sponsored by Rep. Bobby Franklin that would require women to file police reports when they miscarry, since fetuses are Georgia citizens and their deaths are potential crimes. I’m going to write more about the bill later — it’s actually really horrific and scary and basically turns all women into potential criminal." Daily Kos: Now Republicans want to repeal child labor laws February 14, 2011
"At the risk of sounding disagreeable, it's hard to find an "honest difference of opinion" on ideology that explains a paragraph like this one in Gov. Walker's new bill, spotted by my eagle-eyed pal Mike Konczal: "... the department may sell any state−owned heating, cooling, and power plant or may contract with a private entity for the operation of any such plant, with or without solicitation of bids, for any amount ... no approval or certification of the public service commission is necessary for a public utility to purchase, or contract for the operation of, such a plant ..."
This allows the governor to bypass regulators and legislators and sell the state's power plants, built with millions in taxpayer money to anybody he likes. This paragraph goes on to say that " any such purchase is considered to be in the public interest and to comply with the criteria for certification of a project." The governor can give these plants away if he wants, and nobody can stop him.
Cui bono? Who could possibly benefit from giving the governor the ability to sell the state's "heating, cooling, and power plants" (there are 32 of them), or "contract with a private entity" to operate them, without a bid process or any regulatory oversight?
Let's see now: Wisconsin has nearly one million natural gas customers, so it would presumably be a company that "provides consulting, engineering, design, procurement, fabrication and construction services for the natural gas and gas processing industries worldwide" and has "been the general contractor on some of the largest natural gas plants built in the U.S." And since there are a number of coal-fired plants on the state's list, our corporation would need to be a "leading supplier of coal and related products typically used in industrial applications or to generate electricity."
Those quotes were taken from the website of Koch Industries, the company whose owners are bankrolling a little-known group that's behind initiatives like Walker's budget proposal.
Of course, the winning candidate doesn't have to be Koch Industries. Kris Broughton at BigThinkThinkEnergy says it "eliminates the waste of energy and money in facilities through a blend of Supply-Side and Demand-Side energy management measures," and they've placed a hiring ad that reads "Energy client is looking for experienced Plant Managers for multiple power plants located in Wisconsin." found anothe candidate.
The real issue isn't whether Koch Industries gets the deal to operate Wisconsin's power plants. Somebody will - and the assets built by Wisconsin taxpayers (including the public employees now under assault) will undoubtedly be given to the private sector at very favorable rates. It will be one more step in the Great American Giveaway -- the seizure of public resources by the private sector."
I believe what Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker wants to do is, or should be illegal. Certainly it is unethical.
If you're reading this post, please, please, please wake up! Wake your neighbors up! You cannot allow these politicians who are bought and paid for by the 1-10% of the population (who control the majority of the wealth and income in this nation) to destroy the American Dream for the rest of us.
In Ohio, Governor Kasich is trying to push Ohio Senate bill 5; however, all the Republican governors' agendas are the same - bust the unions.
Call or fax or write or email your representatives and tell them you are against their anti-union bills.
I get so angry when average Americans look for scapegoats instead of focusing on the real problem/s, and trying to come up with real solutions that address the "inequities" in our capitalistic system. This inequity is destroying the middle class, and allowing the wealth and income to be concentrated at the top 1% of the population. We are becoming a George Orwell "1984" society.
Right now, conservatives are in "divide and conquer mode" trying to pit unions against non-union employees, public against private sector employees, middle class against poor, firefighters and police against teachers, etc.
Scott Walker and every conservative governor, ... heck, every conservative period, is trying to pit one group against the other group. They've done it for years ... and they are usually successful in "pulling the wool over our eyes".
Luckily the firefighters and police are siding with their brothers and sisters in the unions.
If you have a 5 day work week, an 8 hour job, paid sick days, paid holidays, vacation time, over time pay ... you owe that largely to unions. Unions are responsible for the labor laws we have. Why do you think we celebrate labor day? Every worker in the world owes what benefits they have to unions.
The unions are the only organization that will fight for your/our rights as a worker, and they consistently try to make things better for the worker/us. We owe them our loyalty and support.
We need to recognize where the problems at the state and federal level are coming from (where our economic problems are coming from).
Instead of workers fighting among themselves, we need to get the EFCA on a national ballot; and after the EFCA is passed nationally, then let the worker decide if they want to join or form a union. We all should recognize what's at stake here and not allow ourselves to be frightened by union busting rhetoric. We need a unified, powerful voice to go up against the 1-10% (CEOs and management of multinational corporations, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Koch brothers*, right wing organizations fueled with corporate dollars, wealthy members of right-wing think tanks, the super wealthy professionals, heads of media conglomerates and the talking heads and hosts of their media outlets.
We need for every worker to be part of an organization that will collectively bargain for them. There I've said it ... and once the top 1-10% get a whiff of any mass collective bargaining movement, they will move heaven and earth to try to stop it. You're already seeing this played out (on a smaller scale) in conservatively governed state legislatures across the nation.
Stop these people!! Don't allow them to take away anyone's collective bargaining rights.
We also need to tune out Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, FOX news and most right-wing radio hosts. These people are mouth pieces for the 1-10% where the wealth and income are concentrated (and that 1-10% will lie, cheat, and steal to keep their wealth and their income - the rest of us be damned).
Scott Walker, thinking he was talking to one of the billionaire Koch brothers, talks freely and and gets extremely cozy [with Koch impersonator] about his agenda.
Part 2
Considering that the unions already made concessions on everything except collective bargaining, we know this is about union busting.
Thousands are rallying in Wisconsin and across the nation to oppose conservative governors who are attacking the collective bargaining rights of our civil servants. And the people in the streets are not just public sector union members.
Why? Why are so many who are not part of a union so committed to protecting the role of organized workers in our government and our economy?
1. Weak Economies Need More Demand: Our economy is struggling and our state budgets are distressed because increased unemployment and falling home prices have reduced economic demand. Weakening the ability of any workers to negotiate fair pay and secure retirements will only weaken demand further, hurting the overall economy.
2. Strong Standards Strengthen The Middle Class. When public sector workers can negotiate for fair pay, healthy workplaces and secure retirements, that puts pressure on private sector CEOs to do the same, or else they risk losing talent to the public sector. Making public sector work less inviting does nothing to make private sector jobs pay better. We need to raise the bar, not lower it.
3. Decent Government Pay Means Decent Government: Most everyone wants our federal, state and local governments to function effectively. That means being able to attract skilled, productive workers with fair pay, healthy workplaces and secure retirements, all of which will be lost if public workers can no longer bargain for their compensation packages.
4. Public Employees Are Not The Problem: Study after study shows the public employees do not receive extravagant compensation, and that the problems with state public pension systems are largely overblown. State budgets are reeling from an economic recession caused by reckless Wall Street speculators, top end tax cuts and corporate tax avoidance. The projected shortfalls in public retirement benefits derive mostly from skyrocketing health care costs thanks to private insurers, and poorly performing pension investments thanks to deregulated Wall Street firms.
Furthermore, civil servants in Wisconsin and elsewhere have repeatedly said they are willing to make concessions regarding pay and benefits. Unlike conservative corporate executives, they have proven their willingness to share the sacrifices. What we can't negotiate is their right to negotiate.
5. Scapegoating Lets The Culprits Get Away: Right-wing billionaires like the Koch brothers are pumping millions into a nationwide effort to break the public employee unions. Why would they bother? Because if they can get most people to blame public employees for the nation's economic ills, they won't hold irresponsible corporations accountable and force the ultra-rich to make any sacrifices, such as higher taxes and tougher regulations.
Now that you know why the assault on public employee unions affects us all, what can we do about it?
Sign The Petition: The AFL-CIO has a petition supporting fair pay and worker rights, to be delivered to all 50 state legislatures.
Attend A Rally: SEIU and Justice With Janitors both have compiled lists of rallies taking place all across the country this week.
Saturdays are my favorite post days. I get to recommend articles I think deserve reading. In light of the ongoing fight across the country in regards to public employees, I think E.S. Browning's Wall Street Journal article is relevant. Some concessions made by public employees may (probably will) hurt them in the long term. That's a good reason not to give up your bargaining rights.
An excerpt: "The 401(k) generation is beginning to retire, and it isn't a pretty sight.
The retirement savings plans that many baby boomers thought would see them through old age are falling short in many cases.
The median household headed by a person aged 60 to 62 with a 401(k) account has less than one-quarter of what is needed in that account to maintain its standard of living in retirement, according to data compiled by the Federal Reserve and analyzed by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College for The Wall Street Journal. Even counting Social Security and any pensions or other savings, most 401(k) participants appear to have insufficient savings. Data from other sources also show big gaps between savings and what people need, and the financial crisis has made things worse.
This analysis uses estimates of 401(k) balances from the end of 2010 and of salaries from 2009. It assumes people need 85% of their working income after they retire in order to maintain their standard of living, a common yardstick.
Facing shortfalls, many people are postponing retirement, moving to cheaper housing, buying less-expensive food, cutting back on travel, taking bigger risks with their investments and making other sacrifices they never imagined. ..."
If forced to bow to conservatives who have no problem with the inequities in a system that rewards the richest among us (who do very little to stimulate the economy), while the average American barely makes ends meet, public employees will curse the day they yielded to liars and thieves.
From now til election day, the Newt Gingrich playbook of dirty tricks will be used relentlessly. Big Business, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and multinational corporate dollars will flow to the Republican Party. The GOP and other conservatives (that includes corporate Democrats) will do everything they can to discredit you and smear you (Glenn Beck already does it).
They will even bribe conservative Democrats to discredit you. We ask whistle blowers who have knowledge of dirty tricks being used against progressives to stay on alert, and come forward.
Today, blasted all over cable and mainstream media was news of a woman who had sued for 5 million dollars over her [allegedly] being cheated 80 cent on a returned item where a $5 coupon was used. This is clearly a frivolous lawsuit.
Who leaked this story to the reporter and why? Smells Karl Rovian to me. I think it was leaked to discredit the documentary "Hot Coffee" even though there is no comparison. The McDonald hot coffee case, (that was used by conservatives to enlist support for tort reform) was valid and not a frivolous lawsuit. Update 2/18/2011 (after this post): **Read**
More important, the "Hot Coffee" documentary also explains how your legal rights may be taken away from you without your realizing it. (Definitely watch the documentary and/or the videos in our "Hot Coffee" post). I'm expecting the GOP, etc. to come after Amy Goodman (Democracy Now) next (as well as all progressive media)... but progressives everywhere must be on full alert.
Watch closely ... brave protesters (for democracy) in the Middle East who had previously been called heroes, I predict will be called (by conservative politicians, corporate executives, right-wing think tanks and mainstream media) either Communists, or anti-American,or terrorists ... and they will be accused of destabilizing the "region" .... The accusations are already being hurled.
Please Watch Below: - - Update: FMC [Fox Movie Channel] aired 2 Hoffa films [back to back] the weekend of February 19th (Jack Nicholson in "Hoffa", and Robert Blake in "Blood Feud"); Both films show unions (specifically union leadership) in a very negative light (the Jack Nicholson film slightly less so). FMC will also air "Hoffa" again on March 7th.
How defunding Planned Parenthood could affect you:
4.7 million Americans may lose access to reproductive and family planning care, particularly middle- and low-income women.
If you don’t have insurance, you may have to pay for a doctor’s visit to receive a prescription for birth control and pay full price at the pharmacy for it.
Be careful! Without easily available screenings, counseling and treatment, the transmission of STDs and HIV may rise.
Your daughter, niece, or younger cousin (and her boyfriend) may lose their safe, confidential, and free place to receive counseling, birth control, and testing.
If you are low income and/or without insurance, you may have to pay the full price of STD screenings, which can cost $85 to $220 for each type. That doesn’t include the cost of the doctor’s visit, which can be another $200.
You will have to visit a private practice for prenatal health care and, if you don’t have insurance, pay full price.
Depending on the location, you may lose access to free or reduced cost general services like anemia testing, cholesterol screening, diabetes screening, physical exams, flu vaccines, help with quitting smoking, high blood pressure screening, tetanus vaccines, and thyroid screening.
If you are an OB/GYN, your number of patients may increase."
I want you to listen to Democracy Now,Free Speech Tv, and I want you to go to the sites on our blog list on the right side of this blog. You can bet conservatives will be taking note of our list, and trying to sabotage each and every one of them.- I'm personally going to be editing this blog and this post for days to come.
MAJOR HEADLINE NEWS!! The Republican Party, Glenn Beck and other FOX TV hosts, are corporate shills for major corporations who want to bust unions. - Unions are hated by many conservatives (that includes the Republican Party, Libertarians, and a number of corporate Democrats) because unions represent workers, as opposed to [who many conservatives represent]- big business and big/Wall Street money interests. In addition, unions are hated by conservatives because they usually support the Democratic Party (however, there are union members who vote for Republicans). So, unions represent workers, who in turn, usually support Democrats. Destroy unions, who represent workers ... you help destroy the Democratic Party. -
Public employees are men and women who provide much needed services (and they pay federal, state and local taxes, and help stimulate the economy). They also shop in the communities where they work. More important ... there is no profit motive ... The emphasis is placed on service. Click HEREto learn the five myths about privatization.**
Many public employees live in the communities/cities where they serve, and this creates a special bond between the residents and public employees. If you live where you work, you tend to care more about that city/community.
Labor unions in the United States now make up only 7.6% of the private workforce, yet corporations continue to outsource. - Many major U.S. corporations and multinational corporations are simply motivated by, and totally focused on profits. How do you increase corporate profits?
The first thing corporate management looks at is reducing labor costs. Do they go overboard? We think yes, ... instead of looking at what's good for the city/state/country/world where the sell their products or services, they choose to exploit labor (they look for cheap labor)... A living wage or raising the standard of living doesn't enter into the discussion (even though doing so would ultimately benefit them).
Corporations compete among themselves for the best talent in specialized fields; however, if they could automate every job/function of the corporation today, they would do it. This kind of thinking is devastating to all societies. - Where are our urban planners? We need urban planners and honest politicians to create plans and policies that help lift the standard of living for everyone; and we need them to promote and create an attractive, peaceful, healthy, and productive environment. - The only organizations that consistently fight for worker's rights, benefits and a living wage are unions. Are unions perfect? ... No ... No organization is. ... But you have a choice ... You can bash unions who have consistently represented (and fought for) the worker (you), or side with those who are corporate shills.
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[We stand with unions all over this world (and there are many). We also ask that they form one cohesive worldwide organization that represents each and every one of those individual unions/us]. One focus of that worldwide body should be ... a global base wage for each industry (so large corporations would no longer be able to exploit cheap labor).-
- Update 2/17/2011: DNC Expands Role In Labor Protests To Ohio, Indiana
To be perfectly understood, we do not condone acts of violence against U.S., and we do not condone breaking laws, or agree with people who break the law.
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TED NUGENT EXPOSED! DID EVERYTHING HE COULD NOT TO SERVE IN THE MILITARY
An SIT was sent to the FirstEnergy plant after the March 12, 2010 discovery of cracks in the nozzle on the control drive mechanism, some of which were leaking as workers failed to account for peak temperatures inside the reactor vessel.
WE DON'T ENDORSE ANY INVESTMENT ADVICE, OR ANY THIRD PARTIES. CSC IS ALSO NOT AFFILIATED WITH ANY COMPANY/ORGANIZATION MENTIONED ON THIS BLOG (UNLESS SPECIFIED).
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