I'm As Mad As Hell #1 - "The Part That Big Media Left Out !!!"

Almost a year since I penned this.

We have come a long way from when I wrote this on Union Review last year, but the fight has intensified, I hope that people are learning from all of our sites that we as workers must get together and fight for a better tomorrow, so here's my article which has been parked here on the front page since this site began in Janurary 2008, which was originally posted on Union Review. The information is eben more important today then it was last year.

Reposted from 10/27/07

Why is it that when someone who becomes a hero, the fact that he is a proud union member is not mentioned in the mainstream media? Could it be that the media on a whole is quite a bit anti-union?

I'm not just talking about the likes of Rupert Murdoch, I am talking about the main 6 companies that own almost everything you see and read, the six that have to bargain directly with unions and would like nothing more than for people to believe that the working mans plight is hopeless and we must bargain from the scraps left for us. And yes my friends, they want total control of the internet . Well I've gone a bit off point, the point is that when Wesley Autrey, a member and shop steward of LIUNA Local 79, became New Yorks subway hero on Jan. 3rd. 2007, by putting his life at risk to save another, there was absolutely no mention that he was a union member in any of the big media outlets. I only came to learn that through my diligence in serching out news on the internet. And that my friends is a total shame .

NYPost "Autrey, 50, a construction worker who achieved nationwide fame for his death-defying rescue of a Boston man who had fallen off the subway platform" NYTimes "Mr. Autrey, a 50-year-old construction worker, said he knew something was different when he showed up for work later on Tuesday. His boss, he said, bought him lunch — a ham-and-cheese hero — and later told him to take yesterday off." USAToday "I just tried to do the right thing," said the 50-year-old Harlem construction worker." NBC "Wesley Autrey, a Navy veteran and construction worker, was standing nearby on the platform with his children when he saw Hollowpeter fall. Autrey jumped down to the track area and lay on top of Hollowpeter as a train passed about "2 inches" from his head."

What comes to mind that is if this was me, the first thing i would say if asked what my job was would be my union . Now this isn't the only instance whereby I have come to this conclusion , when speaking with an official with OPEIU on the crisis in downtown NYC regarding HIP's removing 186 union jobs from downtown , good paying jobs they were obligated to keep there when they used "Empire State Development Corp.'s WTC Job Creation and Retention Program", none of the big papers here in New York would carry the story , the Times (which has this so-called worker friendly stance said it was too small an issue) refused as did all the others , the only paper that would run the story was New York Newsday. I consider it very newsworthy, and refuse to buy any other paper. Not to mention the fact that Newsday is the only paper here in New York which reports on employee misclassification and tax evasion by nonunion contractors .

Media ownership

the tie to net neutrality

"A Federal Communications Commissioner said that the censoring of political speech during a recent Pearl Jam performance illustrates the need for network neutrality." Link

FROM : SaveTheInternet

What is Network Neutrality? Network Neutrality — or "Net Neutrality" for short — is the guiding principle that preserves the free and open Internet. Put simply, Net Neutrality means no discrimination. Net Neutrality prevents Internet providers from speeding up or slowing down Web

content based on its source, ownership or destination.

Ok that means hypothetically, that without "Net Neutrality", if Disney, who is partnered with Verizon , has a "Union" issue and someone posts an article on UnionReview about it, Verizon is within their rights to throttle our sites basic internet bandwidth to the degree that it would be frustrating if not impossible to view it. Think this isn't a possibility, think again .

FROM: SFGate.com

"If you missed the incident, Verizon Wireless initially refused to transmit text messages over its cellular network from Naral Pro-Choice America, a pro-choice group, to its members. Naral uses text-messaging to update its supporters on pro-choice policy and the message would have only gone to people who had signed up to receive them. But several days later, Verizon did an about-face and agreed to send the messages. Nonetheless, according to news reports, Verizon did not retreat from its position that it is entitled to decide what messages to transmit. This is censorship of the first magnitude."

As a matter of fact , those that oppose Net Neutrality have garnered the talents of "spin-doctor' Rick Berman, former lobbyist for big tobacco and current creator of Center For Union Facts, whose main focus is to tarnish unions through truths, half-truths and out right propaganda.

Basically his site Hands Off The Internet is a giant scare tactic to those in the world that believe everything they read. Basically if you read through Berman's web sites you can easily understand this joke.

Q: How can you tell that Rick Berman is lying? A: He opens his mouth

FROM : SaveTheInternet

What else are the phone and cable companies not telling the truth about?

AT&T and others have funded a massive misinformation campaign, filled with deceptive advertising and "Astroturf" groups like Hands Off the Internet and NetCompetition.org. Learn how to tell apart the myths from the realities in our report, Network Neutrality: Fact vs. Fiction.

Well this was installment #1 of my "Mad as Hell", stay tuned as I once again someday sift through all the misinformation and spin-doctoring and get another story here.

Here's the 2nd. installment from UnionReview.com: Mad As Hell#2 - Australia dumps corporate government in favor of labor and what's important here

Video: Fox News, Monsanto, cover up, bovine growth hormone

The new's is what we say it is

FOX News making McCain look younger?

Video: Bill Moyers addresses conference for media reform: labor, health care, middle-class, tying it all together

"...and I see a link between that process and the stock market frenzy which scorns long-term investments, genuine savings, in favor of quick turnovers and speculative bubbles, whose inevitable bursting leaves insiders with stuffed pockets and millions of small shareholders, stock holders, employees and home owners, out of luck, out of work, and out of hope." -Bill Moyers

From YouTube:

Legendary journalist Bill Moyers address the National Conference for Media Reform in Minneapolis, June 7, 2008. Presented by FreePress.net. For more speakers, press coverage, and info, visit: http://www.freepress.net/conference

Watch Video

At around 30+ minutes in, he clearly ties everything together.

Heres the part I felt like typing:

What do we need to know? We need to know that we are in trouble.

Napoleon told his secretary in the thick of battle that if the news on the front is good, don't wake me, if it's bad wake me immediately.

My friends, you don't need to be a reporter with your eyes open to see the news from the front is bad, but I as a reporter see it all the time.

I report the assault on nature, evidence in coal mining that tears the tops off mountains and dumps them into rivers. Sacrificing the health and lives of those in the valleys, for short term profit.

..and I see a link between that process and the stock market frenzy which scorns long-term investments, genuine savings, in favor of quick turnovers and speculative bubbles, whose inevitable bursting leaves insiders with stuffed pockets and millions of small shareholders, stock holders, employees and home owners, out of luck, out of work, and out of hope.

...and then I see a connection between those disasters and the repeal of regulations designed to prevent that type of human and economic damage.

Who pushed for the removal of that fire wall? The political marionettes in Washington, who danced to the speculators tune and were rewarded with campaign contributions and lucrative lobbying jobs when they have delivered the goods. Even honorable opponents of the practice get trapped in the web of a system that can effectively limit politics to those who can afford to spend millions of dollars in their race for office, and know that their careers depend on pleasing their donors, while deserting their voters.

Then I draw a line to the statistics that show real wages lagging behind prices, the compensation of corporate barons soaring to heights unequaled anywhere among other industrialized democracies. The greatest income inequality since the roaring 20's. The relentless cheese pairing of Federal funds devoted to Public Schools to retraining workers whose jobs have exported and to programs of health care, all of which natch away the ladder, which American's of scant means, but willing hands and hearts, could work and save their way up to some middle-class security.

...and I connect those numbers to campaigns to campaigns by our triumphant reactionaries against labor unions and higher minimum wage and to their success in reframing the tax codes so as to strip them of their progressive character, laying the burdens of the social contract on the shrinking middle-class, awash in credit card debt as workers struggle with the rising cost of health care, affordable housing, and college tuitions for their children.

While huge inheritances go untouched, tax shelters abroad are legalized and the rich get richer, and with each increase in their wealth, are able to buy themselves more influence over those who make and execute the laws.

Edward R Murrow told his generation of journalists, no one can eliminate their prejudices, just recognize them.

Here is my bias, extremes of wealth and poverty cannot be reconciled with a truly just society, capitalism breeds great inequality that is destructive, unless tempered by an intuition for equality, which is the heart of democracy.

When the state becomes the guardian of power and privilege to the neglect of justice to the people have neither power nor privilege, you can no longer claim to have a representative government.

Video: Bill Moyers addresses conference for media reform: labor, health care, middle-class, tying it all together

"...and I see a link between that process and the stock market frenzy which scorns long-term investments, genuine savings, in favor of quick turnovers and speculative bubbles, whose inevitable bursting leaves insiders with stuffed pockets and millions of small shareholders, stock holders, employees and home owners, out of luck, out of work, and out of hope." -Bill Moyers

From YouTube:

Legendary journalist Bill Moyers address the National Conference for Media Reform in Minneapolis, June 7, 2008. Presented by FreePress.net. For more speakers, press coverage, and info, visit: http://www.freepress.net/conference

Watch Video

At around 30+ minutes in, he clearly ties everything together.

Heres the part I felt like typing:

What do we need to know? We need to know that we are in trouble.

Napoleon told his secretary in the thick of battle that if the news on the front is good, don't wake me, if it's bad wake me immediately.

My friends, you don't need to be a reporter with your eyes open to see the news from the front is bad, but I as a reporter see it all the time.

I report the assault on nature, evidence in coal mining that tears the tops off mountains and dumps them into rivers. Sacrificing the health and lives of those in the valleys, for short term profit.

..and I see a link between that process and the stock market frenzy which scorns long-term investments, genuine savings, in favor of quick turnovers and speculative bubbles, whose inevitable bursting leaves insiders with stuffed pockets and millions of small shareholders, stock holders, employees and home owners, out of luck, out of work, and out of hope.

...and then I see a connection between those disasters and the repeal of regulations designed to prevent that type of human and economic damage.

Who pushed for the removal of that fire wall? The political marionettes in Washington, who danced to the speculators tune and were rewarded with campaign contributions and lucrative lobbying jobs when they have delivered the goods. Even honorable opponents of the practice get trapped in the web of a system that can effectively limit politics to those who can afford to spend millions of dollars in their race for office, and know that their careers depend on pleasing their donors, while deserting their voters.

Then I draw a line to the statistics that show real wages lagging behind prices, the compensation of corporate barons soaring to heights unequaled anywhere among other industrialized democracies. The greatest income inequality since the roaring 20's. The relentless cheese pairing of Federal funds devoted to Public Schools to retraining workers whose jobs have exported and to programs of health care, all of which natch away the ladder, which American's of scant means, but willing hands and hearts, could work and save their way up to some middle-class security.

...and I connect those numbers to campaigns to campaigns by our triumphant reactionaries against labor unions and higher minimum wage and to their success in reframing the tax codes so as to strip them of their progressive character, laying the burdens of the social contract on the shrinking middle-class, awash in credit card debt as workers struggle with the rising cost of health care, affordable housing, and college tuitions for their children.

While huge inheritances go untouched, tax shelters abroad are legalized and the rich get richer, and with each increase in their wealth, are able to buy themselves more influence over those who make and execute the laws.

Edward R Murrow told his generation of journalists, no one can eliminate their prejudices, just recognize them.

Here is my bias, extremes of wealth and poverty cannot be reconciled with a truly just society, capitalism breeds great inequality that is destructive, unless tempered by an intuition for equality, which is the heart of democracy.

When the state becomes the guardian of power and privilege to the neglect of justice to the people have neither power nor privilege, you can no longer claim to have a representative government.

Ron Paul places 2nd in Nevada GOP caucus, Big Media fails to mention it

Ron Paul has placed 2nd in the GOP Nevada Caucus, oddly enough you still don't hear any mention of him in any Big Media outlet.

Not a bad vote count for a guy who is hardly ever mentioned on the tube.

Remember, when Penn Station is shut down- Blame Amtrak, not the union workers!

*Photo by classictrains at deviantART

At the end of November, President Bush avoided the possible strike by the 9 unions representing Amtrak workers by imposing an Executive Order which established a Presidential Emergency Board (PEB) to investigate the failed negotiations which started all the way back in January of 2000. While the unions are trying to recoup lost wages for the past eight years and try to maintain good secured union jobs for their members, it seems that Amtrak has never even bothered to attempt to negotiate this contract in good faith. Not at all, in fact according to the Transportation Communications Union

Amtrak has:

1. engaged in bad faith bargaining strategy and is solely responsible for this record-making delay in reaching agreements.In the eight years since Amtrak began stonewalling negotiations, hundreds of contracts have been reached in both the rail and airline industries covered by the Railway Labor Act.
2. purposely manipulated the bargaining process to avoid settlements by putting forward radical, take it or leave it demands and refusing to budge an inch.
3. stated that the Unions would receive no back pay no matter how long negotiations took. This has never happened before on Amtrak or on any major railroad. On every major railroad going back a hundred years, unions that settle later always received contracts that date back to the date the first union signed.
4. Amtrak insisted that any agreement must include a multitude of sweeping work rule concessions from every craft.
   
5. has demanded no limits on contracting out, even if the contracting resulted in furloughs, Amtrak has put forward more than twenty concessionary demands to the shopcraft coalition alone . (The shopcraft coalition is comprised of Carmen, Electricians and Machinists.)
6. For eight years, Amtrak has refused to remove a single work rule demand from its list of must-have concessions. In fact, a few months ago, seven years into bargaining, Amtrak added a new radical, unacceptable demand – that early retirees pay toward health insurance.

It seems that Amtrak has used to it's advantage The Railway Labor Act, which in part states that if a new contract has not been ratified, all work will continue under the existing contract until an agreement is reached. Well the nearly 10,000 workers who are involved in this dispute have gotten good news. The Presidential Emergency Board, who unfortunately cannot avert a strike, has sided squarely on the unions demands. According to the AFL-CIO WebBlog, The PEB’s recommendations include the wage increases proposed by the unions, full retroactive pay and no work rule changes. The PEB said the unions’ wage proposals were:

the most fair and equitable package of compensation after consideration of the relevant factors.

(and) In rejecting Amtrak’s proposal for dramatic work rule changes—including nearly unlimited contracting out rights, schedule changes and combining jobs and crafts—the board pointed to Amtrak workers’ increased productivity.

The evidence introduced by Amtrak in support of its claimed need for these sweeping reforms was weak, at best, and with respect to many of the proposals bordered on nonexistent.

Which led to The AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department (TTD) stating that the PEB’s report is the basis for agreement. Amtrak should come to the bargaining table and reach a negotiated settlement with its unions based on the recommendations of the PEB. Rail labor has repeatedly stated its desire to settle this dispute voluntarily, without a strike.

So get ready Amtrak riders and those of us who depend on Penn Station and other affected stations, remember what you read today when the bullshit NYPost articles of "Greedy Rail Workers Crippling the City" and "Those little people who are suffering because of them" is in your hand. Because it happened recently with the "Greedy Stagehands crippling Broadway" and I'm sure it will happen again. Also add this fact to your collection, Amtrak workers are the lowest paid in the entire railway industry.

Remember if there is a strike, BLAME AMTRAK, not the union workers !

Note about Unions involved: IAM, IBEW, TCU, Railroad Signalmen, Transport Workers, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees which is an affiliate of the Teamsters, National Conference of Firemen and Oilers, and American Train Dispatchers Association.

Sources: AFL-CIO WebBlog, TCUnion.org, Stop Amtrak's Outsourcing Plan(PDF)

Big Media forcing candidates down our throat as biggest threat to workers and possibly our country gets ignored.

14 years and 2 days after the NAFTA agreement took affect we are at a juncture in this country. We have Big Media telling us that only their front runners have a chance to get elected into office, to the point that there is almost no mention of Dennis Kucinich or Ron Paul. Why would that be? In fact ABC and Fox are having Paul excluded from the New Hampshire GOP debate. But what do Paul and Kucinich have in common? Neither of them are members or have heavy ties to the Council Of Foreign Relations. Who? According to WorldNetDaily.com

" just discussion forums for movers and shakers, or, as critics have long alleged, secret societies shaping a new world order from behind the scenes. On that last point at least, no one could challenge the critics: All these groups operate in considerable secrecy, away from the scrutiny of the American public.

According to a variety of sources, the following presidential candidates are either members of one of the groups or have strong ties: Hillary Rodham Clinton, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Barack Obama, John McCain, John Edwards, Fred Thompson, Joe Biden, Chris Dodd and Bill Richardson."

Well seeing that the CFR's newest campaign is the North American Union and the end of the sovereignty of the United States as we know it. Having people like Paul and Kucinich who have repeatedly called for a repeal of the illegal NAFTA agreement, and complete withdrawal from the WTO, one can only wonder why they are hidden from the main stream.

Is this all mumbo-jumbo conspiracy theorist jargon? You have to make up your own mind. But before you do take a look at how badly the media acts when someone threatens it's interests, in 1998 two award winning reporters in Florida were about to air a series of stories of the dangers of Bovine Growth Hormones (which winds up in the milk we feed our families) on Fox's local affiliate, pressure from the hormone maker Monsanto led Fox TV to fire the two reporters and sweep under the rug much of what they discovered but were never allowed to broadcast.

Doesn't anyone besides myself notice that the Teamsters defending our borders from Mexican domiciled trucks isn't on the front page of every newspaper, or that when 28,000 workers who were once misclassified become union members isn't the lead story, and in fact, not even mentioned on the mainstream media?

Please don't get me wrong here, I neither believe in everything Kucinich and Paul say, but getting rid of all these anti-American worker agreements would be a good start and I love pointing out what doesn't get mentioned in the Main Stream. I truly believe that we need more views from different political parties.

It's our world and only through the distribution of opposing idea's can we be individuals with all possibilities in front of us. Educate yourself, open your mind and have your own opinions, don't let Big Media do it for you. Where are we headed?

"My relationship to power and authority is that I'm all for it. People need somebody to watch over them. Ninety-five percent of the people in the world need to be told what to do and how to behave."- Arnold Schwarzenegger 1990

Alas, American Idol is starting up again, gotta go dumb myself down to tolerate the upcoming election and the choices they leave us with. Big kudos to Letterman and Worldwide Pants for supporting the Writers Guild strikers, now I hope the WGAE can settle their own labor dispute with their Newspaper Guild Of NY writers. Oh, and lo and behold, Mike Huckabee has decided to cross the picket on the Tonight show, wheres the story in that?

*noteworthy recent news articles our candidates should be more involved in

American workers are laboring longer hours

Labor Unions and Taft-Hartley

*Some Sources

obviously YouTube and Google

BigLabor.com - what got me thinking about this

Democracy Now- Long video with Lou Dobbs interview - Worth the view

Democracy Now on
Atrocity-Linked U.S. Officials Advising Democratic, GOP Presidential Frontrunners

RealChange.org/

NewsWithViews.com/

CarolinaJournal.com/

WorldNetDaily.com

Freedom.org

PRNewsWire.com

Blog.AFL-CIO.org