Jamie Court, author of “The Progressive’s Guide to Raising Hell,” sees a viable silver lining in Obama’s willingness to let states figure out their own health reform programs. Not incidentally, it’ll be interesting to watch Republicans twist themselves in knots to meet these goals without considering the cheapest options! At the National Governors Association, President Obama just threw his weight behind a bipartisan effort in the U.S. Senate to allow states to innovate with health reform, including adopting a public insurance system or single payer health care system by 2013 instead of 2017. The governors embraced the state innovations waiver proposal, since conservative states want to weed back the federal health reform, and states like California might like to push ahead with public insurance options or single payer health care systems. The idea is to let states meet federal targets anyway they want to , rather than how the federal government prescribes, by 2013 rather than the current 2017 deadline. This is one of Obama’s only moves left, and a smart one. It gives progressive reformers in California and elsewhere the ability to move forward on ambitious reform plans that can pass at the ballot box in 24 states but would never get the time of day in Washington. Facing strong legal challenges to the individual mandate, Obama did the right thing by offering flexibility to states to meet targets for access and benefits in the Affordable Care Act. He took a page from longtime labor leader Joe Hill: “Don’t Mourn, Organize.” He’s giving those of us who favor a public insurance option to the private insurance market an opportunity to move our states forward . We better take Joe Hill’s advice too and start organizing.
Continue reading …Jamie Court, author of “The Progressive’s Guide to Raising Hell,” sees a viable silver lining in Obama’s willingness to let states figure out their own health reform programs. Not incidentally, it’ll be interesting to watch Republicans twist themselves in knots to meet these goals without considering the cheapest options! At the National Governors Association, President Obama just threw his weight behind a bipartisan effort in the U.S. Senate to allow states to innovate with health reform, including adopting a public insurance system or single payer health care system by 2013 instead of 2017. The governors embraced the state innovations waiver proposal, since conservative states want to weed back the federal health reform, and states like California might like to push ahead with public insurance options or single payer health care systems. The idea is to let states meet federal targets anyway they want to , rather than how the federal government prescribes, by 2013 rather than the current 2017 deadline. This is one of Obama’s only moves left, and a smart one. It gives progressive reformers in California and elsewhere the ability to move forward on ambitious reform plans that can pass at the ballot box in 24 states but would never get the time of day in Washington. Facing strong legal challenges to the individual mandate, Obama did the right thing by offering flexibility to states to meet targets for access and benefits in the Affordable Care Act. He took a page from longtime labor leader Joe Hill: “Don’t Mourn, Organize.” He’s giving those of us who favor a public insurance option to the private insurance market an opportunity to move our states forward . We better take Joe Hill’s advice too and start organizing.
Continue reading …The Republicans’ Real Agenda: Busting Unions and Enacting ‘Right to Work’ Laws
March 1, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media As Ed Schultz noted tonight, the GOP governors appearing on the Sunday bobblehead shows all had their talking points ready and were on the same page with their defense of Wisconsin governor Scott Walker — Wisconsin is broke, Democratic Senators are cowards and public employees have it way too good. But as Ed noted, one Republican governor in Maine let the cat out of the bag with what their real agenda is: enacting so-called ‘Right to Work’ laws and busting unions. LePage: ‘We’re going after right-to-work’ : Maine Gov. Paul LePage said Saturday he would push forcefully ahead with right-to-work legislation in his state, even if it means a Wisconsin-style fight with unions. In an interview at the National Governors Association, the Republican praised Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and couched his own proposal in the language of liberty loved by tea partiers. “He’s got a big challenge, and quite frankly, once they start reading our budget they’re going to leave Wisconsin and come to Maine because we’re going after right to work,” LePage told POLITICO. “I believe that the Declaration of Independence says ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,’” he said. “Whenever someone forces me to do something against my will, they’re infringing upon my freedoms and my liberties. And that’s what I think we’re doing in Maine when we have fair share, which means that you are required to belong to a union, you’re required to pay dues but you don’t want to participate. I find that to be against everything the United States of America stands for.” LePage said he’s “never inspired by a fight,” but that Wisconsin is unquestionably an impetus behind a renewed GOP push to demand concessions from public-sector employees and to go after union power. LePage said people who want to join unions have that right, but stressed that no one should be forced into the decision. “I believe if an individual wants to join organized labor and work under a union contract, they should have the legal right to do so,” he said. “At the same token, a person who does not want to work under organized labor and wants to work should have the ability to do so without the threat of having to join and having to pay dues to organized labor.” “It’s that simple,” he said. “It’s all about freedom and liberty.” “Freedom and liberty” huh? I don’t think so, Governor LePage. As Ed pointed out, Maine workers cannot be forced to join a union already : LePage’s comment that Maine workers are forced to join a union has sparked debate. Private sector workers cannot be forced to join a union under the freedom of association clause in the First Amendment, a finding backed by several court decisions. State laws differ on public employees. According to Marc Ayotte, the executive director of the Maine Labor Relations Board, Maine law follows the guidelines of the association clause in prohibiting public workers from being forced to join a union. However, most collective bargaining agreements in the public sector require workers opting out of the union to pay a “service fee” to unions. Ayotte said the fee is less than full union dues. It’s required because Maine law currently obligates public employee unions to represent nonunion workers during grievances and other matters. The service fee obligation for public employees is at the heart of the legislation sponsored by Rep. Tom Winsor, R-Norway. Winsor said last week that his right-to-work bill would eliminate the service fee requirement, as well as the provision requiring unions to represent nonunion employees. The article by the Sun Journal also had a statement from someone from The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation claiming that those workers do not actually have that freedom because they’re forced to pay a fee if they opt out of the joining the union. You’ve got to love the names these organizations give themselves. Right to Work is nothing more than the right to bust a union financially. Unions are still forced to represent workers that opt out of union membership, so they force those workers to pay a fine in states like Maine. If they really weren’t just about breaking the unions, they would change the laws so the unions are no longer forced to represent anyone who opts out of joining. Let them come in and bargain for their own wages, not have any recourse other than hiring their own attorney if they get fired or hurt on the job and if a company decides to pay them less than their union counterparts, so be it. You’re on your own. Given those choices most workers would not opt out of joining a union. Right to work advocates want to allow “free riders” who enjoy the benefits of union membership, without having to pay for them. Then when enough people opt out, the union goes bust and voila’, no more union. Mission accomplished. We’re going to be fighting this battle across all fifty states for years to come. We’d better get out there and make people aware of what’s going on before we all find ourselves in the same position Wisconsin and now Maine are already in. Republicans and Right to Work advocates have been itching for this fight for years and it looks like they’re finally ready to bring it. We’d better be ready to bring it right back. As Ed noted in the end of the clip where he showed Karl Rove, this is also about decimating the core of what’s left of the Democratic base. If we don’t want what’s left of the middle class decimated, we need to be following Wisconsin’s model and getting out there on the streets and making our voices heard in whatever way we can.
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Borders under pressure as foreign workers escape to Tunisia and Egypt amid fighting and rising fears over food supplies A refugee crisis is looming on the Libyan-Tunisian border as thousands of foreign workers try to escape the fighting with concern also growing over how long food stocks inside Libya can last, aid agencies have warned. The UN high commission for refugees said 140,000 people have now fled Libya – half of them crossing into Egypt and half into Tunisia. Most refugees are Egyptians who had been working there. On the Egyptian border they have dispersed to their home towns and villages. On the Tunisian side, local authorities’ efforts to deal with them are being overwhelmed as between 1,000 and 2,000 people cross every hour, according to aid workers there. Tunisia has tried to stem the flow to clear more space for tents and stock up on food supplies, prompting a backlog of around 20,000 refugees on the Libyan side waiting to get through, with rising fears for their wellbeing as they have little food and are left exposed at night to the cold. Josette Sheeran, executive director of the World Food Programme (WFP) who visited the Libyan-Tunisian border on Tuesday, said the local Red Crescent organisations and the revolutionary committees set up during the Tunisian uprising had been doing an “excellent” job providing food and shelter, but added that “the system is now under severe stress”. “We are not seeing a diminishing of the numbers of people crossing the border, and we’re very worried about people trapped on the Libyan side of the border,” Sheeran told the Guardian in a telephone interview. The WFP has flown in 80 tonnes of high-energy biscuits to give refugees as they arrive. They are often exhausted and starving after a long trek to safety. Meanwhile, Sheeran said, there was concern about the situation inside Libya, which relies on imports for more than 90% of its food. Those imports have been badly hit by the turmoil inside the country. She said she was particularly worried about the situation in Zawiya, which is held by rebels but surrounded by pro-Gaddafi forces. “There have been some reports of a breakdown in the food supply in Zawiya,” she said. “We are very concerned that food should not be used as a weapon, and it’s very important that we watch this situation.” Elsewhere, Sheeran said, the situation appeared to vary from town to town. There seemed to be food in the shops but it was unclear whether there were sufficient stocks to replenish those supplies when they are exhausted. The WFP will dispatch a team to Benghazi on Wednesday to check if the port is safe for food deliveries and to inspect the food supply situation. WFP planners were trying to assess what corridors might be used from Tunisia and Egypt for the delivery of aid if a food emergency develops in Libya. Libya Refugees Tunisia Egypt Arab and Middle East protests Middle East United Nations Julian Borger guardian.co.uk
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Read Are Walmart’s Eco-Efforts Enough? Balancing Sustainability & Social Responsibility at America’s Largest Retailer for more on Walmart Three years ago, Walmart pulled polycarbonates off their shelves because they were made with Bisphenol A (BPA). Marc Gunther complained that Walmart had become the new FDA , pulling product before the government agencies concluded that they were harmful. He wrote: … Read the full story on TreeHugger
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What a year it’s been in the fight against Prop 8. What a year it could be. In California, Courage Campaign has led the fight to repeal Prop 8, starting off with live-blogging the trial at Prop8TrialTracker.com (the #1 Google result for “Prop 8 Trial” ) and bringing the trial and LGBT stories into Americans’ homes through the Testimony: Take A Stand project. This month, in response to the California Supreme Court’s announcement that it would drag its feet for another 6-9 months on the case, Courage Campaign collected 430 stories of couples who are forced to wait while this drags out, and started putting them on TV so the Court and public knows the human consequences of delay. Later this week, we’ll be filing an amicus curiae letter to the California Supreme Court, telling some of their stories, so the Court understands: for some couples, marriage literally can’t wait. To fund and support all of that work (and to take a break and party), we’re having a shindig with the help of our friends at MoveOn.org, along with Moby, Shepard Fairey, The Crystal Method, and other great folks in music and entertainment. Deets: Who: The Courage Campaign Institute, MoveOn.org, Moby, Shepard Fairey, The Crystal Method, DJ Dan, Heather Graham, Paul Haggis, Jason Bentley, Cleve Jones, Lisa Edelstein and others. What: Dance for Equality benefiting Courage Campaign and our work to fight Prop 8 and restore marriage equality in California When: Wednesday, March 2nd, 8 PM-2 AM Where: Avalon, 1735 Vine Street, Hollywood, CA Why: A good party for a good cause! You can buy tickets by clicking the graphic above, or by clicking here . You can also RSVP on Facebook here . Disclosure: I am proud to work for Courage Campaign as Director of Online Programs.
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Click here to view this media So much for toning down the violent political rhetoric in Washington. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) used gun imagery Sunday while discussing public workers’ collective bargaining rights. “In some of these states you’ve got collective bargaining laws that are so weighted in favor of the public employees that there’s almost no bargaining,” he told CBN’s David Brody . “We’ve given them a machine gun and put it right at the heads of the local officials and they really have their hands tied.” Republican governors in some states have moved to force unions to pay more for benefits, and to strip them of collective bargaining rights. Thousands have recently protested union-busting bills in Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana. “I think what you’re seeing in these states is they’re trying to bring some balance to these negotiations that when you look at the pay of public employees today and you look at their retirement benefits they are way out of line with many other working Americans,” Boehner added. In the wake of a mass shooting in Arizona that left six dead and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) in the hospital, Boehner did temporarily moderate his word choice. After the shooting, the House Speaker chose to refer to President Obama’s signature health care law as ” job destroying ” instead of “job killing.” The Ohio Republican may be testing the waters for more violent words in the future. Earlier this year, Rep. Mike Lee (R-UT) said that toning down the rhetoric means ” the shooter wins .” “What happened to Boehner here is a symptom a lot of politicians are noticing,” Talking Points Memo’s Brian Beutler noted . “As the weeks tick away since the Arizona shooting, they’re slipping back into modes of rhetoric they’d grown comfortable with over the last years. Of course, they’ll continually readjust and correct themselves for the next long interim, but they’re on the slow slide back to the status quo ante.”
Continue reading …MO State Sen. Jane Cunningham’s bizarre bill that will eliminate many child labor law restrictions
March 1, 2011 No Comment
Credit: St. Louis Beacon The Tea Party side shows, Conservative pundits and psycho politicians are really becoming dangerous in America. We have child labor laws for a reason. Please, help me. Are therapists being overworked? First we had the new tea-partying senator from Utah declaring child labor laws unconstitutional. Now this, from the St. Louis Beacon : State Sen. Jane Cunningham says her quest to change Missouri’s child labor laws is driven by her belief that the current restrictions are “implying that government can make a better decision than a parent.” But Cunningham, R-Chesterfield, takes exception to critics who contend that her proposed changes, contained in SB 222, would put children younger than 16 in danger. Cunningham cites a series of provisions in her bill that bar children younger than 16 from working in certain professions or workplaces deemed dangerous, such as mines, quarries, stone-cutting or plants manufacturing explosives. As it stands, current Missouri law bars regular employment of children younger than 14 — except in specific professions such as acting — and imposes strict restrictions on employed children age 14 and 15, including the hours they are allowed to work. Children age 14 and 15 must obtain signed permits from the school they attend. Cunningham said that she believes it’s improper to saddle schools with the responsibility of deciding whether a child younger than 16 should be allowed to work. She also contends that many parents and their children already are violating the state’s current labor laws, which she says are “so over the top” and prevent parents from “teaching a work ethic to their children.” She cited her own two sons, who she said raised their own money as young teens so that each could buy a car when he turned 16. Now adults, both valued the work ethic they learned, she said. But Cunninghan’s bill already is generating heavy criticism, particularly from labor unions and allied groups . The critics point to the bill’s official summary : “This act modifies the child labor laws. It eliminates the prohibition on employment of children under age 14. Restrictions on the number of hours and restrictions on when a child may work during the day are also removed. It also repeals the requirement that a child aged 14 or 15 obtain a work certificate or work permit in order to be employed. Children under 16 will also be allowed to work in any capacity in a motel, resort or hotel where sleeping accommodations are furnished. It also removes the authority of the director of the Division of Labor Standards to inspect employers who employ children and to require them to keep certain records for children they employ. It also repeals the presumption that the presence of a child in a workplace is evidence of employment.” Cunningham’s objections extend to the current law’s requirement that children 14 or 15 work no more than three hours a day on school days, no more than eight hours on a non-school day, and that they cannot work before 7 a.m. or after 9 p.m. “The hour restrictions are so tight,” she said. “There are many jobs where you can work after 9 p.m.,” such as restaurants. She also objects to allowing the state’s director of Labor Standards to walk into businesses to check on their employment of children. As time goes by, her reasons become wackier and wackier. Reminds me of Sharron Angle. I truly believe people don’t know who they are voting for anymore: Jane Cunningham thinks child labor laws insult parents Cunningham views Missouri’s laws, which limit the number of hours young people can work and ban them from working past 9 p.m., as an intrusion on parents’ rights. Actually, they are a help to parents. Without those restrictions, you have a scenario in which Susie, 13, is working at a sub shop. She has homework and she’s supposed to get off at 8 p.m., but the shift manager needs her to stay and close up because Fred didn’t show up for work. Susie calls her mom, who protests, but the boss is adamant and Susie really wants to keep her job so mom agrees, just this once. And pretty soon “just this once” becomes the routine. I have watched this happen with a 16-year-old, and only the labor laws keep employers from demanding unreasonable service from the under-16 workforce. Cunningham has a profound dislike of government, and thinks it does almost nothing right. But child labor laws are a good thing, and Cunningham isn’t likely to find many allies in her strange quest to change them. Yep, they want to take us back to the good ol’ days, all right :
Continue reading …Juan Cole reports on the worsening situation in Libya as Qaddafi’s son incites supporters to attack protesters: Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, son of the besieged dictator, has been caught on a smart phone video whipping up a crowd of ‘police’ and other supporters last Saturday to massacre protesters (he asks them ‘do you need guns?’ They shout, ‘yes.’) Saif al-Islam Qaddafi had earlier given interviews in which he told Western reporters that there is nothing going on in Libya, everything is calm, everyone loves his father, and it is the media whipping up people and causing a potential civil war . Then later he accused the protesters of being al-Qaeda and terrorists. When Saif addressed the nation on t.v., his address was projected on a wall in Benghazi and people threw mounds of shoes at the image all the time he was speaking. Another indication of the murderous and duplicitous character of the Qaddafi regime was that it sent a fighter jet to bomb a rebel-held air base at Ajdabiya, though the Tripoli government immediately denied it . The BBC reporter in Libya, however, reports that the plane behaved suspiciously and did not in the end seem to bomb anything of value. This incident may be another indication that Qaddafi cannot actually depend on his officer corps, many of whom are probably looking for the first opportunity to defect. Muammar Qaddafi even said there were no protests in the streets of his country, drawing a charge from US envoy to the UN Susan Rice that the old dictator is ‘delusional.’ British Prime Minister David Cameron’s hopes of convincing his allies to establish a no-fly zone over Libya to prevent bombings like the one on Monday are running into resistance from other NATO members, many of whom already feel militarily stretched in Afghanistan and who appear to feel that a no-fly zone might draw them into use of land troops, which most don’t have to spare (not to mention the expense, at a time when Western budgets are broken). Analysts concur that any such operation would be complex.
Continue reading …Poll: Over One Million Wisconsin Voters Ready To Sign His Recall Petition, But Walker Doubles Down
March 1, 2011 No CommentYou have to hand it to Scott Walker — he’s a wingnut true believer, with the charming personality of a rock and absolutely all the political instincts of a dead fish. Because Wisconsin voters are awake now, they know that class war is being waged, and they’re not going to sit and take it: MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s explosive proposal to take nearly all collective bargaining rights away from most public workers represents just one piece of his vision for the state’s future. Now he’s ready to reveal the rest. With the union rights proposal stuck in a legislative stalemate thanks to runaway Senate Democrats, Walker planned to forge ahead with the Tuesday release of his two-year spending plan that will include major cuts to schools and local governments to help close a projected $3.6 billion budget shortfall. Tens of thousands of protesters have demonstrated for two weeks against Walker’s collective bargaining proposal, which he calls necessary to free local governments from having to bargain with public employee unions as they deal with the cuts he’ll outline Tuesday. Schools last week started putting teachers on notice that their contracts may not be renewed for next year given the budget uncertainty. Walker has confirmed he will propose cutting education aid by about $900 million, or 9 percent statewide. School leaders are bracing for more bad news. The governor is expected Tuesday to announce a new revenue limit that would require a $500 per-pupil reduction in property tax authority. The limits, in place since 1993, have gradually grown to reflect increasing education costs. That part of Walker’s proposal alone would reduce the money available to the state’s 424 districts by 7 percent, or nearly $600 million , based on a study done by University of Wisconsin-Madison economics professor Andrew Reschovsky. Looks like his arrogance will cost him big-time . A new poll shows that an estimate 1.1 million Wisconsin voters are willing to sign his recall petition, and that of eight Republican state senators. Yes, elections have consequences. But when you act as if you’re the only person whose opinions count, well, the voters have a way of reminding you otherwise.
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