There’s more to lovemaking than penile-vaginal intercourse, says Pamela Stephenson Connolly I was a widow of 55 and met a 60-year-old widower and we eventually married. I find intercourse painful so we make up for it by cuddling and fondling each other’s sensitive parts. I
Continue reading …During the ultimate scene of betrayal in the movie Wall Street , a young stockbroker named Bud Fox learns that his idol, the golden-calf worshipping Gordon Gekko, has not only lied to him but left his father’s company exposed to the whims and hunger of the wolves of Wall Street. In a climactic moment, Fox asks Gekko: “How much is enough? How many yachts can you water ski behind?” Even though this film was mid-1980s fare, well, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Perhaps not for the actor who played Bud Fox, Charlie Sheen, who should share Natalie Portman’s Oscar for real-time transformation into the Black Swan. But for the rest of us, who have watched as greed has become the foundational structure upon which much of our modern economy is built, it is often difficult to see how we might close the Pandora’s Box and return to saner times. You know, back when being Donald Trump wasn’t considered an asset in a hair-club-for-men commercial, much less a race to be President of the United States. There is nowhere this greed is more pervasive than among those companies responsible for the health of roughly 300 million of Americans – Big Pharma. You know, the guys who got a better sweetheart deal from George Bush’s Medicare prescription drug benefit than Ana Nicole Smith did from that old rich guy. Later, re-importation from Canada and bulk negotiation for Medicare prescription drugs were written out of any Obama health-care plan , even though each was at the heart of Democratic Party campaign promises in 2006 and 2008. Maybe money can not buy you love – but the halls of Congress have a more Heidi-Fleiss-kind-of ethic to them. Steve Lendman of RINF.com, in providing a summary of David Sirota’s bestselling book, Hostile Takeover , clarifies : This industry is one of the most profitable in the country making about 18 cents profit on every dollar of sales; it is aided by government using our tax dollars to fund about one third of all research on new drugs the industry gets at no charge; the industry spends about twice as much on advertising, promotion and administrative costs as they do on R & D to develop new drugs; the prices charged for prescription drugs in the US are inordinately high compared to the rest of the world and are rising at about four times the rate of inflation; these rising costs plus those for most all health services are rising so fast, companies are forcing their employees to pay a greater share of them or are reducing overall health care benefits. Ever feel like you are the bank and they are Dillinger? If not, you probably should. I can attest to their greed personally, from working with preeminent plaintiff’s lawyer Ed Blizzard, who has challenged the right of pharmaceutical companies to poison Americans , like it is part of their business model. It is Blizzard who made Vioxx drug-maker Merck pay dearly – to the tune of $4.85 billion – for the scores of Americans who lost mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters, because Vioxx promised to help with arthritis and instead delivered sudden cardiac arrest. Click here to view this media [Vioxx & Phen-Fen-Slaying attorney Ed Blizzard On The Nicole Sandler Show] Now, because a lack of any regulation , Americans are being poisoned by hip implants created by Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Depuy Orthopaedics Inc., that are not only not tracked by any regulated registry, but in many cases were never even tested before being put into people’s bodies – so the inside of victims hips could come to resemble a post-Deepwater Horizon Gulf of Mexico. You can tell they’re confident that their 93,000 recalls, which they had been warned about as early as 2008, but did not do anything to address until 2010 , aren’t proof of any wrongdoing. That is probably why Depuy’s President, David Floyd, just resigned. Even worse, the chromium poisoning that is destroying victims’ bone and muscle is nothing new, in fact, you may remember a town of people who got cancer due to its ill effects from the movie Erin Brockovich. Now, they have Depuy and Johnson & Johnson to thank for this honor. So one understands we are talking about real people here, one of Blizzard’s clients, 58 year-old construction worker Larry Barnett of Modesto, Illinois, “suffered debilitating pain – he had trouble even walking or standing after receiving the part” and now is “at much greater risk for cancer.” Barnett told reporter Mike Cronin of The Daily, that Depuy’s ASR hip replacement has “screwed up my life for three years.” This man was a hard-working construction worker, who “only wants to get back to work”. One wonders if any pharmaceutical company had to give up income for three years, which they would do first – hand off the bill to American taxpayers or make Canada accept re-importation of drugs from the United States for 150 percent of the price. As Blizzard has said, “nobody signed up for an oil spill in their body.” They did not sign up for cancer either. So let me ask the question this time, as Sheen is a bit preoccupied with other matters: When is enough, enough? Follow Cliff Schecter On Twitter: @Cliffschecter This column was first published at Al Jazeera English
Continue reading …During the ultimate scene of betrayal in the movie Wall Street , a young stockbroker named Bud Fox learns that his idol, the golden-calf worshipping Gordon Gekko, has not only lied to him but left his father’s company exposed to the whims and hunger of the wolves of Wall Street. In a climactic moment, Fox asks Gekko: “How much is enough? How many yachts can you water ski behind?” Even though this film was mid-1980s fare, well, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Perhaps not for the actor who played Bud Fox, Charlie Sheen, who should share Natalie Portman’s Oscar for real-time transformation into the Black Swan. But for the rest of us, who have watched as greed has become the foundational structure upon which much of our modern economy is built, it is often difficult to see how we might close the Pandora’s Box and return to saner times. You know, back when being Donald Trump wasn’t considered an asset in a hair-club-for-men commercial, much less a race to be President of the United States. There is nowhere this greed is more pervasive than among those companies responsible for the health of roughly 300 million of Americans – Big Pharma. You know, the guys who got a better sweetheart deal from George Bush’s Medicare prescription drug benefit than Ana Nicole Smith did from that old rich guy. Later, re-importation from Canada and bulk negotiation for Medicare prescription drugs were written out of any Obama health-care plan , even though each was at the heart of Democratic Party campaign promises in 2006 and 2008. Maybe money can not buy you love – but the halls of Congress have a more Heidi-Fleiss-kind-of ethic to them. Steve Lendman of RINF.com, in providing a summary of David Sirota’s bestselling book, Hostile Takeover , clarifies : This industry is one of the most profitable in the country making about 18 cents profit on every dollar of sales; it is aided by government using our tax dollars to fund about one third of all research on new drugs the industry gets at no charge; the industry spends about twice as much on advertising, promotion and administrative costs as they do on R & D to develop new drugs; the prices charged for prescription drugs in the US are inordinately high compared to the rest of the world and are rising at about four times the rate of inflation; these rising costs plus those for most all health services are rising so fast, companies are forcing their employees to pay a greater share of them or are reducing overall health care benefits. Ever feel like you are the bank and they are Dillinger? If not, you probably should. I can attest to their greed personally, from working with preeminent plaintiff’s lawyer Ed Blizzard, who has challenged the right of pharmaceutical companies to poison Americans , like it is part of their business model. It is Blizzard who made Vioxx drug-maker Merck pay dearly – to the tune of $4.85 billion – for the scores of Americans who lost mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters, because Vioxx promised to help with arthritis and instead delivered sudden cardiac arrest. Click here to view this media [Vioxx & Phen-Fen-Slaying attorney Ed Blizzard On The Nicole Sandler Show] Now, because a lack of any regulation , Americans are being poisoned by hip implants created by Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Depuy Orthopaedics Inc., that are not only not tracked by any regulated registry, but in many cases were never even tested before being put into people’s bodies – so the inside of victims hips could come to resemble a post-Deepwater Horizon Gulf of Mexico. You can tell they’re confident that their 93,000 recalls, which they had been warned about as early as 2008, but did not do anything to address until 2010 , aren’t proof of any wrongdoing. That is probably why Depuy’s President, David Floyd, just resigned. Even worse, the chromium poisoning that is destroying victims’ bone and muscle is nothing new, in fact, you may remember a town of people who got cancer due to its ill effects from the movie Erin Brockovich. Now, they have Depuy and Johnson & Johnson to thank for this honor. So one understands we are talking about real people here, one of Blizzard’s clients, 58 year-old construction worker Larry Barnett of Modesto, Illinois, “suffered debilitating pain – he had trouble even walking or standing after receiving the part” and now is “at much greater risk for cancer.” Barnett told reporter Mike Cronin of The Daily, that Depuy’s ASR hip replacement has “screwed up my life for three years.” This man was a hard-working construction worker, who “only wants to get back to work”. One wonders if any pharmaceutical company had to give up income for three years, which they would do first – hand off the bill to American taxpayers or make Canada accept re-importation of drugs from the United States for 150 percent of the price. As Blizzard has said, “nobody signed up for an oil spill in their body.” They did not sign up for cancer either. So let me ask the question this time, as Sheen is a bit preoccupied with other matters: When is enough, enough? Follow Cliff Schecter On Twitter: @Cliffschecter This column was first published at Al Jazeera English
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Mary Gardner who has taught in a Togo village for 20 years was on a six-month course before returning to Africa Mary Gardner, the British woman killed in the Jerusalem bus bombing , was an evangelical Christian who had been living in Togo, west Africa, translating the New Testament into the local Ifé language. She was on a six-month course in Jerusalem studying ancient and modern Hebrew at the Hebrew University prior to returning to Togo to begin work on a translation of the Old Testament. The 55-year-old had been staying in a dormitory in Yad Hasmona village, about six miles from Jerusalem, but had gone into the city on Wednesday to meet her oldest friend. She was fatally injured. Thirty others were wounded when a device weighing up to 2kg exploded near the busy central bus station . The eldest of five children, Gardner was born in Nairobi, Kenya, but moved to Aberdeenshire when she was 15. Her parents Jean, 81 and Tony, 82, who live there, said they were “devastated by the sudden loss of our daughter in this tragic and unexpected way”. In a statement they said: “Mary was a very special person and we thought the world of her. She was devoted to her work and was well liked wherever she went. We are proud of her and all that she has achieved in her life and feel truly blessed to have had her in our lives.” She had been working for Wycliffe Bible Translators in Togo, living among the Ifé people for the past 20 years, learning the language, translating the bible, and teaching literacy and maths. Eddie Arthur, executive director of Wycliffe, said: “I cannot tell you how highly regarded she was. She was an extremely gutsy person, highly intelligent, with huge drive and the ability to stick with the project for 20 years in far from comfortable conditions. It must have been incredibly isolating at times. But she was completely dedicated to her work, and to the Ifé people.” “She will be sorely missed by her colleagues and all those she worked with in Togo”. Gardner, who was not married, attended Albyn school for girls, in Aberdeen, then St Andrews University, where she studied for an MA in English and French before returning to Kenya as a volunteer teacher for two years. Returning to Britain she worked as an itinerant teacher of French, based in Orkney, travelling to island schools by plane and boat. She then studied at the Bible Training Institute, in Glasgow. She joined Wycliffe Bible Translators in 1988 and moved to Togo where she worked as part of a team. The Ifé translation of the New Testament was published in 2009 and she also joint-edited an Ifé-French dictionary. Gardner arrived in Jerusalem in January for the Home for Bible Translators course, and was staying at their dormitory near the Arab town of Abu Ghosh where on Thursday, her friends and fellow translators met to exchange memories. “Mary was really enjoying the camaraderie and fellowship she had found in Jerusalem. She told us that until she got here she did not realise how alone and isolated she had been living for years in a remote village in Togo, the only European for miles around,” said Halvor Ronning, director of the Home for Bible Translators. “She had a fantastic love for nature. We are just looking at photographs of her on her knees trying to get the best photograph of a wild flower that interested her. She loved hiking, and her room-mate has just been recounting how, when they hiked in the Judean hills, she was always pushing to continue to the next hill even if there was no obvious path.” Ronning added: “She was very frugal and she is the only person I know who bought the material to make her own tent. She used to take turns cooking with her room-mate and disapproved of extravagant deserts. She had just made nettle soup for all residents of the dormitory.” Israel Middle East Conal Urquhart Caroline Davies guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Indiana Prosecutor Resigns After Email To Gov Walker Encouraging Fake Violence
March 24, 2011 No Comment
enlarge For all the big talk about union thuggery, the strongest evidence of thuggery usually comes from the right wing side of things. And now we have it straight from the horse’s mouth…er…email. WisconsinWatch reported this morning that Carlos Lam, an Indiana prosecutor, denied writing it, though he confirmed the Hotmail address as one belonging to him. Here’s the text of the email: “If you could employ an associate who pretends to be sympathetic to the unions’ cause to physically attack you (or even use a firearm against you), you could discredit the unions,” the email said. “Currently, the media is painting the union protest as a democratic uprising and failing to mention the role of the DNC and umbrella union organizations in the protest. Employing a false flag operation would assist in undercutting any support that the media may be creating in favor of the unions. God bless, Carlos F. Lam.” And here’s his oh-so-sincere denial: “ I am flabbergasted and would never advocate for something like this, and would like everyone to be sure that that’s just not me ,” he said, after being read the email. Asked his views on Scott Walker, Lam said, “I think he’s trying to do what he has to do to get his budget balanced. But jeez, that’s taking it a little bit to the extreme,” he said of the email’s suggestion to fake violence. “Jeez!” Hmmm. But now it’s a few hours later, and he has resigned after admitting writing the email. Surely a good staunch Republican lawyer wouldn’t lie to the press so easily, would he? Well, yes. And he hemmed himself in, because the headers were included with the original email which contain an originating IP address. Despite his protestations that he was minivan shopping with the family and must have been hacked, it’s likely he just couldn’t get around that pesky email address. Now here’s a little bit about Mr. Lam : His blog posts, video appearances and comments on the Internet paint the picture of an outspoken, politically active, longtime Republican who has publicly lambasted collective bargaining for state employee unions and alluded to government taxation as “essentially taking money at gunpoint.” In one of his 1,306 comments on a stock investors’ site, Lam called Indiana “an unsustainable public worker gravy train bubble.” In another, he said “unions & companies that feed at the gov’t trough will fight tooth & nail against anything that un-feathers their nests.” Lam wrote in his account profile there that he “believes that to truly prosper as the republic envisioned by the Founding Fathers, we must return to principles of sound money and limited government. He has his own ’3G network’ that is quite apart from Apple: guns, gold and gasoline.’ ” That’s two Indiana prosecutors who have lost their jobs over online misconduct related to the Wisconsin protests. I’m shocked — SHOCKED — that an officer of the court would do such a thing. Aren’t you?
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The founder of the Huffington Post and her new boss plan to reinvent AOL through quality journalism The original plan had been just to interview Tim Armstrong – the all-American, broad-shouldered, chief executive of AOL, the internet company perpetually in pursuit of growth that bought Arianna Huffington’s website, the Huffington Post, for $315m (£193m) in February . But, predictably, this interview, like their conference presentation earlier, and their visit to the Guardian in the morning, became a joint affair. And it ended with Huffington – who, make no mistake, is internet royalty – handing over a signed copy of one of her 13 books, On Becoming Fearless, and the low-key Armstrong suggesting that there might be a job going over at AOL sometime, partly because he enjoyed a tour of the newsroom earlier in the day. For all the Huffington glamour, Armstrong is the critical figure. AOL is a company becoming best known for doing bad deals: it spent something like $9bn before Armstrong arrived from Google in 2009 on acquisitions such as the social networking site Bebo, which collectively, he admits, are now worth only a few hundred million dollars. AOL grew out of slow-speed dial-up internet access, and even now has 2.5m paying subscribers, a declining annuity accounting for $1bn in revenues last year that successive managements have repeatedly tried to use as the springboard for a new business. Armstrong is no different. Yet, an era in which there are many who believe that social media will kill newspapers, and user-generated content destroy television, Armstrong believes in content, and, more specifically, journalism. “Look at Apple’s advertising: they’re not showing the back [of the device], where the USB portal is. They’re showing the content on screen,” he says, adding later: “I don’t think user-generated content is the way people live their lives.” Phrases like “content curation” roll off his tongue, and his talk is of quality journalism – which will be a major shift for some of AOL’s content: “To the maxi: Lisa Snowdon launches new M&S campaign” is the top story on the aol.co.uk website at the time of writing. Even before the Huffington Post acquisition, Armstrong had been busy buying up content sites. He bought TechCrunch last year for about $25m, and the year before picked up Patch Media, a local media site running across the United States. Last year he hired 1,200 journalists, and wants to take on a similar number this year, although a lot of that recruitment will come from the 4,000 freelance writers used by AOL somewhere or another. But the Huffington Post deal was the defining move – a deal Armstrong admits was as much about “buying” the networker-cum-journalist Huffington as the site and its 28m monthly unique visitors. “I bought both – the brand and the visionary behind the brand,” he admits. “We actively looked at a range of targets, and Arianna was the clear winner.” Again and again Armstrong’s mantra is quality. He hopes that the company’s journalists will win Pulitzer prizes. He wants to cut down the number of adverts, noting that 20% of an AOL page is content (the rest navigation and advertising), while the number of ads is as high as 14 a page. Now he wants to serve up just one, as part of a plan –”Project Devil” – to show large multimedia ads that, according to investment bank UBS, are yielding “significantly higher” than an already healthy $30 per thousand viewers. AOL already generates in excess of $1bn in advertising revenue, so in theory it could support an editorial budget far greater than most newspapers. If, that is, the plan works. It is hardly without risk. AOL paid 10 times sales for the Huffington Post, the giddy sort of valuation that makes it easy to wonder whether the deal will ever pay out. Huffington, of course, has already heard this before, insisting that “Bebo, Time Warner or medieval times” are not relevant to the discussion. Before Armstrong came along, the Huffington Post employed 170 journalists and had 28 million unique visitors, but could only expand “sequentially, not all at once”, she says; after the deal she was given editorial control of all of AOL’s sites, and in the three weeks since it was completed they have been busy deciding which to keep and which to kill. Predictably, AOL’s Politics Daily went in favour of Huffington Post – as did some 70 AOL sites – but AOL Travel survived. Huffington is perhaps as much as $100m richer from the sale. Her success has contributed to something of a backlash from the small army of unpaid bloggers who contributed to HuffPost before the AOL deal and were rewarded with nothing. But Huffington is unsympathetic: “There’s got to be a distinction between everybody who works for a media company and everybody who blogs for a media company,” she says, adding later: “If people go on Newsnight, they don’t get paid.” There will be a Huffington Post UK site from the summer – Huffington showed a template of a post-budget home page at the Guardian’s Changing Media Summit, which Armstrong quipped was the first one he had seen. “We make plenty of management decisions from the podium,” he said. Yet, to conclude that is to underestimate AOL’s problem: its revenues fell 26% to $2.4bn last year, and Armstrong admits that he only dares promise growth to Wall Street by 2013. AOL once had mail. Now, under Armstrong’s leadership, it hopes to show that it has journalism – something that, until now, had widely been considered a declining industry. Arianna Huffington Huffington Post AOL Digital media Media business Internet Dan Sabbagh guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …NPR's Steve Inskeep, who used “deceitful sophistry” to contend that his network's audience leaned right in a Thursday WSJ column , also claimed in the same piece that “not much of the media pays attention to the middle of the country, but NPR and its local stations do.” But an affiliate in his home state of Indiana touted the findings of pro-ObamaCare organization, while leaving out anything from opponents. Brandon Smith of Indiana Public Radio led his Wednesday report on the one-year anniversary of the signing of the legislation by trumpeting how ” Families USA, a non-partisan, national health care advocacy organization , released state-by-state data on the potential impact of the law.” Despite running a sound bite from Ron Pollack, the executive director of the organization, and highlighting some of their data specific to Indiana, Smith didn't point out Family USA's liberal political leanings . NPR correspondent Julie Rovner also omitted the organization's ideological affiliation on Wednesday's Morning Edition , the very program which Inskeep hosts. During the second half of his report, the Indiana journalist did offer something contrary to Pollack's talking points by citing Seema Verma, a “state health care reform consultant,” who noted that “the cost to Hoosiers [residents of Indiana] will primarily be in Medicaid expansion….Verma says Indiana has not yet explored ways to pay that additional cost.” Despite this alternate view, Smith didn't devote any time to any explicit critics of ObamaCare. One wonders how Iskeep can forward the notion that NPR and its affiliates make an ” honest and honorable effort to keep American informed ,” given this slanted coverage at both the national and local level. The full transcript of Brandon Smith's March 23 report for Indiana Public Radio: BRANDON SMITH: In conjunction with the anniversary [of the signing of the "Affordable Care Act"], Families USA, a non-partisan, national health care advocacy organization, released state-by-state data on the potential impact of the law. Families USA executive director Ron Pollack says a year to consider the legislation hasn't necessarily answered all of the public's questions. RON POLLACK, FAMILIES USA: There is abundant confusion about what's in this legislation to begin with, and there's probably a greater confusion about what's available right now. SMITH: According to the Families USA data, nearly a million Hoosiers enrolled in Medicare can receive preventative health measures, like mammograms, colonoscopies, and flu shots for free. Pollack says there's no way to know how many of those people are actually using those services now. He also says the Congressional Budget Office found that if people take advantage of the health care bill, the country would actually save money. But state health care reform consultant Seema Verma says the cost to Hoosiers will primarily be in Medicaid expansion. SEEMA VERMA: Anywhere between 350,000 to an additional half a million people could come on to our Medicaid program. That's one in four Hoosiers. SMITH: While the federal government pays for the expansion in its first three years, beginning in 2014, Verma says the state then takes on 10% of the cost, which estimates put between $2.6 and 3.1 billion over 10 years. Verma says Indiana has not yet explored ways to pay that additional cost. For Indiana Public Broadcasting, I'm Brandon Smith. — Matthew Balan is a news analyst at the Media Research Center. You can follow him on Twitter here .
Continue reading …Thank you to Eric Dolan at Raw Story for bringing attention to this. 100 years after the Triangle Shirtwaist fire which I wrote about here , we’re still seeing these abusive conditions in sweatshops around the world. We got rid of them here and just outsourced our slavery so we didn’t have to look at it. Young women continue to die locked in sweatshops, labor group warns : As the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire approaches, the Institute for Global Labor and Human Rights urged the United States to pass legislation to prevent multi-national corporations from violating internationally recognized worker rights standards, such as no child or forced labor, decent working conditions, freedom of association and the right to organize a union. The Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire resulted in the death of 146 female workers, who were locked inside the factory by their managers, on March 25, 1911. The women worked 6 days a week, often 14 hours shifts, and earned the meager wage of 14 cents an hour. (The equivalent of $3.18 an hour in 2011, adjusted for inflation.) After the death of workers in a Bangladesh sweatshop, the Institute for Global Labor and Human Rights said now was the time to hold corporations accountable to respect labor laws and pass the Decent Working Conditions and Fair Competition Act. The Decent Working Conditions and Fair Competition Act was introduced by a bipartisan group of senators in 2007, but never made it out of House and Senate committees. The bill would have prohibited the import, export, and sale of goods made with sweatshop labor. More there on how we failed to get any legislation through the Congress here in the US to put a stop to this, so go read the rest of the article. And as he referred to in his article, here’s more from the Institute for Global Labor and Human Rights. Triangle Returns: Young Women Continue to Die Locked in Sweatshops : Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights Releases Explosive New Video and Report for the 100th Anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Triangle Returns on YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noL8nFSzsDc Triangle Returns – broadcast quality : http://www3.usw.org/download/triangle_race_to_the_bottom_r2.mov Report: Triangle Returns: Young Women Continue to Die Locked in Sweatshops : http://www.nlcnet.org/admin/reports/files/Triangle-Returns.pdf Supplemental footage : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJG_o94mWqA NEW YORK and PITTSBURGH, March 23, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — On the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire in New York City on March 25, 1911, workers in the developing world continue to die needlessly in sweatshops with locked exits. Just three months shy of the 100th anniversary of the Triangle fire, on December 14, 2010, a fire broke out at the Hameem factory in Bangladesh, which was sewing garments for Gap. The fire alarms did not go off, and the emergency exits were locked on the 9th floor, killing 29 workers-many of whom jumped to their deaths-and injuring over 100. At Hameem, the workers toil 12 to 14 hours a day, seven days a week, with just a single day off a month. The highest wage at Hameem is 28 cents an hour–less than one-tenth of what the Triangle workers earned 100 years ago! (Adjusted for inflation, the 14 centsan hour they earned in 1911 is worth $3.18 an hour today.) The garment workers in Bangladesh are trapped in misery, living in makeshift hovels. Just months before the tragic fire, Triangle workers had led a strike movement to organize garment workers in New York City-and ultimately been beaten back by their own factory’s management. In Hameem too, management busted a union organizing drive in September 2008, imprisoning the union president and firing all 19 of the lead activists. It did not matter that well over half of the workers supported the union’s demands. When the workers in Bangladesh took to the streets in July 2010 demanding a 35-cent-an-hour wage, they were beaten with clubs. The police shot rubber bullets and used power water cannons to sweep the workers off their feet. There was dye in the water so that demonstrating workers could be identified and imprisoned later. We are at a cross roads. We can stand back and allow corporations to drive this Race to the Bottom, exploiting sweatshop workers across the developing world, as wages and benefits are also cut for working Americans. Or, we can fight back, and hold corporations accountable to respect local labor and minimum wage laws and the core internationally recognized worker rights standards-no child labor, no forced labor, freedom of association, the right to organize and bargain collectively. The choice is ours. And here’s more from their site where they did a side by side analysis of the similarities between the fire at Triangle 100 years ago and the fire in Savar, Bangladesh that just occurred in December of last year. Triangle Returns: Young Women Continue to Die in Locked Sweatshops : On the 100th Anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Little Has Changed in the Global Sweatshop Economy
Continue reading …As the Tea Partiers run wild in Montana, the folks with common sense start to turn away
March 24, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media Douglas Kennedy eagerly filed this report from the wilds of Montana this morning for Fox News, describing the exploits of a Montana Tea Party Republican legislator named Greg Hinkle, from Thompson Falls — just coincidentally the home of the Militia of Montana … Hinkle is a Republican state senator from Thomson Falls, and he recently proposed a law, likely the first of its kind, asking federal law enforcement to first seek approval of county sheriffs before any federal intervention in the state of Montana. He calls it “The Sheriffs First Bill.” “I believe that before any federal agency does any action within a county,” he explained, “they should cooperate with the sheriff, coordinate with the sheriff and go to him and say this is what we need to do in this county.” For instance, Hinkle would want the FBI to first notify a Montana sheriff before executing a search warrant or making an arrest in the state of Montana. At one point he allowed for arrest of any federal agent who didn’t comply, but has since taken out that language. He also reluctantly added a line that allows for federal agents to notify sheriffs “after the fact,” in order to get the bill through the Montana House of Representatives. Nonetheless, legal observers still call Hinkle’s bill “a clear violation of the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution.” “The federal government does not have to ask or even inform local law enforcement about what they are doing,” said James Cohen, a constitutional law professor at Fordham Law School in New York. “Sometimes they do because it’s convenient, but they do not have to.” Hinkle points out that the bill has already passed the Montana State Senate (with the original language) and is expected to pass the House in the next couple of weeks. He also says there’s a lot of support in Montana, a state which he says well remembers the deadly federal raids at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in 1992 and Waco, Texas, in 1993. Funny that a parachuting reporter would forget this, but in reality, Montanans remember even better the longest armed standoff with federal agents in history: the 81-day FBI standoff in Jordan with the Montana Freemen. (Yes, yours truly was there. ) As Jim Lopach, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Montana, put it in a retrospective piece: Lopach said the real legacy of the standoff could be that it gave people a reason to consider how far and how deep devotion to political individualism should go. “It might be a moderating thing,” he said. “It might be that they saw the dangers of extremism.” In reality, Hinkle’s bill is one we’ve known about for awhile. It was one of a package of bills that Montana Patriot-movement leader Gary Marbut announced last September in Hamilton at a gathering I covered. (You can watch the video of Marbut describing it here. ) Tonight Marbut wants to talk about a new piece of sovereignty legislation he plans to promote in the state legislature, something he calls Sheriffs First. The bill would make it a crime in Montana for a federal officer to arrest, search or seize without advance written permission from the county sheriff, Marbut explains, to enthusiastic applause. “How that will work is, the federal officers might come to your local sheriff and say, ‘OK, here’s our probable cause, we believe there’s people at this location in your county who have a meth lab …and we wanna bust ‘em,’” Marbut says. “The sheriff might look it over and say, ‘Gosh, I’m glad you brought this to me, here’s your advance written permission, and I will send a couple deputies to help you.’ “Or the federal officers might come to the sheriff and say, ‘Here’s our probable cause, it leads us to believe there’s somebody in your county at this location who’s manufacturing firearms without a federal license. And we want to go bust them.’ The sheriff might say, ‘Sorry, we have a state law in Montana that authorizes that activity, it’s perfectly legal here, you may not go bust them, you do not have permission, and if you do, we can put you in Deer Lodge. We can put you behind bars in Montana for doing that.’” That brings out whoops alongside the applause. Kennedy’s fawning coverage at Fox concluded thus: “They can’t do it,” [Fordham law professor James Cohen] said. “They can’t pass a law that says the federal government, the FBI, the [Drug Enforcement Agency], whatever federal law enforcement agency, must contact the sheriff before engaging in law enforcement activities. It simply can’t be done.” Of course it can, said Hinkle. “How on earth could the states not challenge federal law?” he asked. “That’s the way our system of government works.” “The states are what created the federal government,” he added, “so the states should actually have more authority than the federal government.” This is one of the more breathtaking aspects of this legislation: It so clearly flies in the face of the Constitution as to be absurd, and yet its proponents are some of the loudest proponents of their version of so-called “constitutionalism.” These are the Tea Partiers who swept to power in Montana in the last election, and boy, are they making their mark. But it may not be the one they long for. Longtime Montanans are well acquainted with these kooks, and the more they rant and rage and embarrass the state, they more they turn people off. An AP story from a few weeks back pointed this out: HELENA, Mont. – With each bill, newly elected tea party lawmakers are offering Montanans a vision of the future. Their state would be a place where officials can ignore U.S. laws, force FBI agents to get a sheriff’s OK before arresting anyone, ban abortions, limit sex education in schools and create armed citizen militias. It’s the tea party world. But not everyone is buying their vision. Some residents, Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer and even some Republican lawmakers say the bills are making Montana into a laughingstock. And, they say, the push to nullify federal laws could be dangerous. “We are the United States of America,” said Schweitzer. “This talk of nullifying is pretty toxic talk. That led to the Civil War.” A tea party lawmaker said raising the specter of a civil war is plain old malarkey. “Nullification is not about splitting this union apart,” freshman Rep. Derek Skees said. “Nullification is just one more way for us to tell the federal government: ‘That is not right.” There’s been a substantial influx of these extremists into the state from elsewhere in the past decade, many of them drawn by cheap land and their own internalized mythology of the Western landscape what Montanans are like (think “rugged individualism”). Perhaps no one symbolizes this influx better than Chuck Baldwin, the erstwhile presidential candidate of the Constitution Party, who recently moved to the Flathead Valley from Florida. Baldwin held a shindig in Kalispell, where he was feted by local white supremacists and other supporters. He all but announced that he was planning to run for governor, in hopes of displacing Schweitzer. And he voiced the view of a lot of these newcomers: Baldwin went on to state that being born in Montana does not necessarily make one a Montanan. “There are a lot of people that were born in Montana but are not Montanans,” Baldwin said. “And there are a lot of people, like me, who were not born in Montana but we have been Montanans our whole lives.” (Baldwin arrived in the Flathead in October.) “Real Montanans love freedom,” he said. “Real Montanans will fight and die for the principles of truth, honor and freedom.” Here’s hoping he and his fellow Montana Tea Partiers run on that kind of platform. Sounds like a surefire winner with all the lifelong Montanans I know.
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In a report for Thursday's CBS Early Show, contributor Taryn Winter Brill fretted over the impact of movie theater popcorn on Americans' waistlines: “Have you ever wondered how many calories you're actually consuming in that large popcorn with butter? You probably don't want to know. Pretty soon, though, you may not have a choice.” Moments later, nutritionist Katherine Brooking declared the popular concession treat to be “a calorie bomb waiting to explode.” Brill then touted a government solution to the problem: “Hoping to defuse this high caloric catastrophe, the FDA is working on a provision in the health care law requiring chain establishments which serve food to list the calorie count of their menu items.” She added that Brooking and others “applaud the move.” Near the end of her report, Brill explained that “Movie theater chains are pushing back, though, arguing the original health care bill was never intended to include them.” She cheered how “Undeterred, the FDA is looking to sound the alarm on hidden calories. And ultimately shift Americans toward a healthier lifestyle.” Co-host Chris Wragge asked Brill about the movie theater industry's opposition to the new regulations: “Why are they so resistant?” Brill replied: “Well, it's all about money. Believe it or not these concession stand items, they generate one-third of the total revenue. So this is a significant number. Specifically popcorn…. they're thinking you put those calorie numbers up, those profits of popcorn sales, way down.” On March 15 , Brill did a similar food police segment on breakfast cereal, claiming that cartoon “cereal offenders” on the boxes were “targeting” kids. Here is a full transcript of Brill's March 24 Early Show segment: 8:00AM ET TEASE: CHRIS WRAGGE: Also ahead here this morning, one of the joys of going to the movies is not just seeing great actors like Taylor and Burton. It is, of course, the popcorn. ERICA HILL: And Twizzlers. WRAGGE: Yes. Exactly. Now, the government is about to require theaters to tell you how many calories are in that bucket. And how much fat is in that bucket as well. And theater owners say that this is going to cost them money so they're trying to stop it. So we're going to look at the numbers and talk to some movie fans about it. See exactly what they think about this whole thing. HILL: Of course it's not the money of actually putting up the information. It will be the money lost, perhaps, on popcorn sales. WRAGGE: When you see how many calories there are in a large bucket if you put a little butter on, it's going to cause a number of people to say, 'Maybe I'll pass.' HILL: Enjoy it while you can. WRAGGE: Wait until you hear these numbers, really. 8:14AM ET TEASE: HILL: Just ahead, from movie stars to movie popcorn. Theaters may soon have to tell you just how many calories, and oh, yes, grams of fat, are in those buckets with the imitation butter stuff on it. You're going to want to see what those numbers are. 8:17AM ET SEGMENT: CHRIS WRAGGE: In this morning's 'Health Watch,' movies and popcorn. For many of us they go hand in hand, but now movie theater operators are protesting a new rule that could take a bite out of their profits. Early Show contributor Taryn Winter Brill is here with more on this for us this morning. Good morning. TARYN WINTER BRILL: A big bite, Chris. Good morning to you. There's nothing like the smell of fresh popcorn as you walk into your local movie theater. But have you ever wondered how many calories you're actually consuming in that large popcorn with butter? You probably don't want to know. Pretty soon, though, you may not have a choice. [ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Now Showing: High Fat, Many Calories; Theater Owners Decry Proposed Popcorn Rule] SONG: Let's go all to the lobby, let's all go to the lobby. BRILL: Dinner and a movie is an institution as American as Hollywood itself. And nothing complements the latest blockbuster quite like a bag of freshly popped and oh, so buttery popcorn. You like movie theater popcorn? UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: I love movie theater popcorn. And the more butter the better. BRILL: But movie-goers hungry for kernels of this seemingly light and fluffy snack may want to think twice before reaching into that bucket. Turns out a large buttered popcorn contains a gut busting 1,460 calories. The equivalent of nearly three Big Macs, and a full day's worth of eating. KATHERINE BROOKING [CONTRIBUTOR, COOKING LIGHT]: If you're looking at a typical female who is not highly active, that's almost your total calorie intake for the day. Roughly,1600, 1800. So this is, you know, a calorie bomb waiting to explode. BRILL: Hoping to defuse this high caloric catastrophe, the FDA is working on a provision in the health care law requiring chain establishments which serve food to list the calorie count of their menu items. Rules that already exist for restaurants such as Burger King, McDonald's, and Denny's. Nutritionists like Katherine Brooking applaud the move. BROOKING: It's all about education for those people who are making efforts to be more healthful. This is great to have more transparency and more information. BRILL: But will that knowledge convince cinema foodies to forego their favorite theater snack? UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN B: Well, knowing that it's 1500 or 1400 calories, yes. UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN C: Wow. Wow that is a lot. So I should be staying away from the popcorn. UNIDENTIFIED MAN: I don't think I'm going to order any more popcorn. BRILL: No? MAN: No, I'm going to order a granola bar. BRILL: Some establishments already post nutritional information in accordance with city or state laws, and customers are responding. UNIDENTIFIED MAN B: I was going to order the nachos with the cheese, but I noticed, since the calorie content is up on the board. I said no way, Jose. BRILL: Too many calories? MAN B: Too many calories for me, yeah. BRILL: Movie theater chains are pushing back, though, arguing the original health care bill was never intended to include them. Gary Klein of the National Association of Theater Owners told the L.A. Times, 'It's dinner and a movie. Not dinner at a movie.' Undeterred, the FDA is looking to sound the alarm on hidden calories. And ultimately shift Americans toward a healthier lifestyle. BROOKING: I would hope that the movie theaters offer not only plain popcorn, but other healthful snacks like having fresh fruit there. Having yogurt there. So this way the consumer can still go to the movies and have their popcorn, or they can have something that is not as high in calories. BRILL: Dinner and a yogurt? Maybe. We reached out to the National Association of Theater Owners, as well as several movie theater chains. Many of them did not return our calls. Those who did, however, had no comment. The federal rules regarding these menu labeling guidelines have not yet taken effect, but could be announced any day now, Chris. So we will be watching closely, as will the theaters. WRAGGE: Why are they so resistant? BRILL: Well, it's all about money. Believe it or not these concession stand items, they generate one-third of the total revenue. So this is a significant number. Specifically popcorn. If you want to talk about the numbers, Chris. The CEO of Regal Entertainment Group, we all know that theater company, he says on average they sell this large bucket of popcorn for about $6. Take a guess at how much you think it costs them to actually make it. WRAGGE: $1.20. BRILL: Less. 15 to 20 cents. 15 to 20 cents. So talk about a profit margin. So they're thinking you put those calorie numbers up, those profits of popcorn sales, way down. WRAGGE: I will say this. I was at a movie theater yesterday and I did just happen to look up and I saw Chicken McNuggets, 875 calories and then the sauces were about 200 each. Not that I was going to order them anyway, but it is a deterrent. BRILL: Yes. WRAGGE: Let's again, break it down, though. This large bucket of popcorn with butter the equivalent of three Big Macs. BRILL: Yeah, three Big Macs,1460 calories. Okay, what would you rather have, by the way? Would you go for the Big Macs or the popcorn? Just curious, your preference? WRAGGE: I would, you know what, knowing that that equivalent is the equivalent of that I would probably go for the hamburgers. BRILL: Okay, I would too. Real quickly, you can get a Big Mac combo meal, medium fries, drink, and the Big Mac, it's 330 calories less than this popcorn. Can you believe it? WRAGGE: Too much. Don't want to know about it. Taryn, thank you. BRILL: Thanks. WRAGGE: Good to see you. — Kyle Drennen is a news analyst at the Media Research Center. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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