Video: The value of a dollar

The video that explains the value of gold Vs.the dollar on YouTube

Video: SEIU President Andy Stern discusses The Employee Free Choice Act

Andy Stern, the President of The Service Employees International Union discusses the Employee Free Act with Meet The Bloggers host, Cenk Uygur, from 9/12/08.

Video: $6,153 an hour for CEO's, $6.55 for workers

From Meet The Blogger's, a quick discussion with Michael Whitney from American Right's At Work on the disparity between workers and CEO's in today's America. Michael mentions that not too long ago CEO's made 64x's a workers wage, now they make almost 1,000x's the Federal minimum wage. Wow!

Great job, as always Michael. You can also check out last weeks Meet the Bloggers, Video: SEIU President Andy Stern discusses The Employee Free Choice Act

Cintas loses living wage ordinence, must pay $1.65 million to workers

Here's some great news for working families in Northern California

From our friend Elana at DailyKos (Click the link to recommend or comment on the story):

Living wage win! Workers get 1.65 mil in unpaid wages
by Elana Levin of UNITE HERE
Great news! The California Supreme Court has ordered anti-union employer the Cintas Corporation to pay hundreds of workers the $1.65 MILLION they were owed for their backbreaking labor in industrial laundries. By violating the city of Hayward's living wage regulations, Cintas illegally underpaid Northern California workers for years. Living wage regulations like Hayward's require the city and certain firms with large city contracts to pay wages that reflect the local cost of living including a dollar extra per hour if the employer doesn’t provide health benefits.

(Video clip is Springstein's version of traditional work song "Pay Me My Money Down")

This is a huge win not just for the Cintas workers who will finally be paid the money they are owed but for but for the living wage movement as a whole. At one point in their suit Cintas’ lawyers claimed that living wage laws were unconstitutional. When workers filed the suit in 2003, it was one of the first attempts to enforce a living wage law through the courts. As plaintiff Francisa Amaral said:

"For five long years, Cintas refused to give us what was rightfully ours," said Francisca Amaral, one of the suit's plaintiffs. "They told us that we would get nothing. They spent millions of dollars to try to deny us our rights. The decision shows that workers can get justice and get what we've earned through our hard work."

Why would a company spend money on lawyers to fight paying its workers a living wage? Wait. Don’t answer that. That was rhetorical. Though I honestly just don’t get it. I guess it’s my family values talking here.

Anyway, the Court’s decision allows more than 200 Northern California laundry workers to enforce a landmark judgment by the Alameda County Superior Court that was affirmed earlier this summer by the California Court of Appeal, which is believed to be the one of the largest living wage awards in U.S. history and strengthens cities’ ability to enforce local labor standards.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Cintas workers have a similar pending class action case for violations of the city’s living wage. Over the past few years, questions have also been raised about Cintas’s history of compliance with living wage laws in Marin County and Santa Monica, California, as well as in Dayton, Ohio, and Madison, Wisconsin.

If you’ve been reading my posts on Dkos (and other folks too) you’d know that Cintas has a history of violating worker protection laws. The company settled an overtime case brought by delivery drivers in California for more than $10 million in 2002. Since then, thousands of drivers across the country have joined a national overtime lawsuit against Cintas.

• For more on Cintas check out: uniformjustice.org and MakeCintasSafe.info.
• For more on the living wage movement check out the PBS’s POV series and podcasts here.
• Progressive States Network has written about various state policies too.

Elana Levin is an Assistant Director of Communications for UNITE HERE, a labor union representing 465,000 workers in the hotel, food service, gaming, laundry, apparel and textile industries. You can read more of Elana's work at DailyKos by clicking here

AL: Retired firefighter, turns into a true American hero

Caught this on CNN, what an amazing story, reminded me of Flip Wilson, the retired NYC fireman who works with Gene Jackson, a retired Steamfitter in NY to help our severely wounded returning veterans. It amazes me how people will do so much to help others, really go out and help, not just with money, but get their hands dirty to change the world for the better.

Russel Jackson is a guy who made me actually watch TV, with the severe need for health care in the United States, like my recent story "60 minutes follows charatible remote health care facility now needed here in the United States", whereby a medical service on wheels that was initially intended to be used in third world countries, now goes across the United States to help our own people. Well heres another hero, this guy actually started something

I wish I could get the videos embedded here, but what the heck, you'll have to click a link or two from this story.

From CNN "Helping kids get well one car ride at a time" (7/3/08):

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (CNN) -- If Russell Jackson has his way, any child who needs medical care but lacks the transportation to get there will have a safe and reliable alternative.

"We found that there were 80,000-plus children in Alabama living in a home with no car," Jackson says.

"And in the rural areas, there are no cabs, there are no buses, there are no trains. ... Millions of children in our country every day have no access to medical care when they need to reach it."

Jackson is so determined that in 1997 he gave up his career as an Alabama firefighter, moved in with friends and dug into his retirement account to start Kid One Transport, a nonprofit organization that provides rides for needy children in his home state.

In 11 years, Kid One's fleet of vans has ferried more than 16,000 kids to and from scheduled medical-related appointments all over Alabama.

Watch Jackson describe the need for medical transportation in rural Alabama »

Jackson never anticipated he would leave the fire department to head up a nonprofit organization. After all, firefighting was the culmination of a lifelong dream.

"What little boy doesn't want to be a firefighter?" Jackson says, laughing.

Continue over at CNN to read the rest, to all the heroes out there on this Independence Day, thank you.

Seattle, WA: Fighting for the next generation, Sprinklerfitters Local 699 go on strike

A member of the local floor coverings union pickets Wednesday, along with members of the Sprinkler Fitters Union Local 699.-DEAN J. KOEPFLER/THE NEWS TRIBUNE

From Gangbox "SEATTLE SPRINKLER FITTERS LOCAL 699 GOES ON STRIKE - contractors will ask other trades to work behind their picketline next week" (7/3/08)

“We’ve gotten as many phone calls from other trades supporting us, telling us they’re right behind us and they’re going to stick with us as long as it takes, so that’s what’s going to make this go sooner,” Collins said. “The contractors want us to go backward as far as our contracts go, and we’re not accepting that. With inflation going on the way it’s gone in the past few years, we’re way behind the eight ball.”

The sprinkler fitters earn about $24 to $30 an hour, and apprentices start out at less than half of those wages. That wage doesn’t include holiday, vacation or sick pay. Apprenticeships last five years, and apprentices receive health benefits in their third year, Collins said.

Mike Dahl, union business manager, said a big issue was the wages of apprentices.

“We’re looking to have not a great standard of living but just that they can afford to live,” he said. “We don’t like the economic impact on the economy here of what we’re doing. We hope this settles very soon.”

SocialistWorker.org adds in "Strike shuts down Seattle building sites"(7/4/08):

The strikers know what they are up against. Sam Bond, a member of Local 699 for nine years, said in an interview, "We have got to keep up with what's going in the world. As prices go up, we have to stay up on it, so we can afford the lifestyle we want to live. This strike is really important for us, and for future generations of sprinkler fitters."

Ironworkers, electricians, laborers, operating engineers, as well as delivery drivers like UPS workers are just some of the union workers who have refused to cross the picket lines.

At the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Wash., the strike has shut down completely nine huge tower cranes, with upwards of 800 workers getting an unexpected extra long holiday weekend.

The union is reporting that not a single member has crossed the picket line so far. A unanimous strike authorization vote and the "last, best, and final" offer from the employers' organization, the National Fire Sprinkler Association (NFSA), was voted down 219 to 14.

It's been nearly two years since a major construction workers strike hit the Seattle area. In August 2006, concrete workers who were members of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 302 paralyzed most of the industry for a month. Those workers won a contract that included pay raises of $3.95 an hour over three years and, crucially, allowed them to honor strike picket lines held by other union trades.

The importance of that strike victory is now magnified. The basic labor idea of "an injury to one is an injury to all" has been highlighted by the solidarity of all the building trade workers refusing to cross the sprinkler fitters' picket line.

As one Local 699 striker put it, "The support we're getting is unbelievable. To be able to have all the trades honor the picket line also helps them out more when their contract times come up."

Heads high brothers, hope you get the $14 over 3 and the better apprentice package, to those that do not know the $14 is cumulative of all health, welfare, pension, etc., meaning it doesn't go into the pocket, the majority usually gets invested in other necessities.

Video: Michael Parenti 2002 speech about capitalism and poverty

"Their fighting against every bit of political Democracy and every bit of Democracy and every bit of economic Democracy that benefits the people"

"if they had their way our kids would still be working 14 hours a day in factories"

"Their goal is a third-worldization of everywhere, their goal is to get us back to 1900"- Michael Parenti on capitalism

Speaking to a packed church house in 2002 at the Terrorism, Globalization and Conspiracy conference. From Google Video:

OCTOBER 9, 2002, VANCOUVER: Dr. Michael Parenti, one of North America's leading radical writers on U.S. imperialism and interventionism, fascism, democracy and the media, spoke to several hunded people at St. Andrews Wesley Church in Vancouver. Dr. Parenti has taught political science at a number of colleges and universities in the United States and other countries. He was written 250 majro magazine articles and 15 books and is frequently heard on public and alternative radio.

Michael Parenti at WikiPedia on racism:

Parenti argues that western racism is systemic and historical in nature and should be regarded as more than just an attitudinal problem. He claims western racism has its origins in imperialism and slavery: To justify the colonial plunder of another nation or entire continent (as in the case of Africa) as well as the enslavement of conquered populations, imperialists and/or slave traffickers dehumanize their victims and define them as moral inferiors and subhuman.

Parenti maintains that racism serves several functions for ruling interests in the United States:

1. It divides the working class against each other.
2. It creates a "super-exploited" group of people who are forced to work at below scale wages thereby depressing wage levels for the entire workforce.
3. It distracts the (United States) white population from its own legitimate grievances by providing an irrelevant scapegoat in the form of minority populations

Now we have a new slave class that divides us even more. The undocumented worker.

Big thanks to Common Man News for the heads up to the story

AFL-CIO Turn around America video contest, go and vote

It's time to vote in the AFL-CIO's Turn Around America video contest. From Mike Hall at the AFL-CIO Blog (6/16/08):

The 12 finalists in the AFL-CIO’s “Turn Around America Online Video Competition“ have been selected. Now you can pick the winner of the contest’s Our America Award.

The dozen finalists from around the country grabbed their cameras and harnessed their creativity to answer the question: How do we “Turn Around America” in this time of a failing health care system, stumbling economy, stagnant wages, disappearing jobs and an endless war? How do we go from the wrong track to the right direction?

Click here to see the entries of the 12 finalists and then cast your vote for the video that you believe best answered the question. Votes will be counted through 5 p.m. EDT on Thursday, June 19. All winners will be announced June 24.

Here's my choice
I can't believe it, it's me.

While there were many good ones, I couldn't pass this one up, it would get my attention.
From DogfishProductions

Heres the rest
go pick your favorite

Minneapolis, MN	Bloomfield Hills, MI	Saint Paul, MN
Montclair, VA	Boston, MA	Chicago, IL
Rodeo, CA	New Hyde Park, NY	North Hollywood, CA
Brandon, FL	Chicago, IL	Cincinnati, OH

Ohio: Locked-out Kongsberg workers, solidarity rally

Original story at Union Review: Ohio: Kongsberg Automotive Holding locks out USWA workers, hires temp. workers and the fear of global environment (4/5/08):

Yesterday, I asked my readers over at Union Review to get me some of the information about the rally in Van Wert for the locked out Steelworkers at Kongsberg Automotive. Michelle obliged, from the Van Wert Independent (6/16/08) :

Kongsberg workers who are members of USW Local 1-524 march on Central Avenue this past Saturday following a rally in Fountain Park. Dave Mosier/Van Wert independent

t was a day for union solidarity and community support,
but also one of bitterness and frustration,
as members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 1-524 held a rally in Fountain Park Saturday to thank supporters.

Hundreds of people, some of them union officials – including other USW locals and district officials, United Auto Workers officials and even representatives of the Van Wert Federation of Teachers – turned out to provide support, both emotional and financial, for the locked-out workers of Kongsberg Automotive’s Van Wert plant.

Donations from union representatives totaled between $10,000 and $15,000 on Saturday.

Several speakers angrily denounced Kongsberg management officials for what is perceived as a failure to bargain in good faith with local union officials. Kongsberg President Peter Spencer was depicted by a person in a rat’s costume as those at the rally clapped and cheered.

Van Wert Mayor Louis Ehmer, who had taken some heat earlier for not doing enough to support Kongsberg workers during a City Council meeting, spoke at the rally and said the community was behind the workers, while also commending the local union for its demeanor on the picket line.

“You people have demonstrated that you are out there in a dignified way trying to protect and secure your jobs,” the mayor said to applause, adding that he was a bit surprised at union workers’ good behavior since he was originally from Detroit, Mich., where union disputes often turned violent.

Aaron Collins, the 37-year-old president of Local 1-524, bitterly denounced both company officials – most specifically former human resources manager Tom Herman – and government officials who have allowed workers to be exploited by domestic and foreign companies.

Collins talked about how, as a child, he thought it was neat that astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man on the Moon, was from nearby Wapakoneta. “It seemed like, as a child, anything was possible” in America, Collins said, adding, though, that “the American Dream is slipping away from us right now as we speak.”

He angrily criticized both major political parties for their lack of support for U.S. workers, noting: “Both sides are out to get us, both are out for themselves,” and adding that a third party dedicated to middle class Americans may be the answer to make changes at the federal level.

However, he did have praise for U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, who has phoned and written letters to Kongsberg company officials in support of local workers.

John Ryan, Senator Brown’s state director, attended the rally and had words of support for the locked-out workers. Ryan outlined the senator’s actions in support of the local workers, commended non-company employees attending the rally for their support of the locked-out workers and also used the USW’s fighting slogan, “One Day Longer,” in saying the senator would back the workers “one day longer than you need” until Kongsberg returns to the table to bargain in good faith.

USW District 1 Director Dave McCall also spoke during the rally, and later to media representatives, about Local 1-524’s struggle to get back to the bargaining table. McCall said the union was working on a couple of fronts to put pressure on Kongsberg to resume negotiations. Those include a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that accuses Kongsberg of bad faith bargaining, illegal surveillance and failure to provide necessary financial documentation to union negotiators.

McCall said the NLRB had investigators in Van Wert last week to take depositions related to the complaint.

The USW district president also said the USW was working with international unions doing business with Kongsberg to put pressure on the company to resume negotiations from outside the United States. A return to the bargaining table is all union officials want, he said.

“We stand ready and prepared to go back to the table and bargain for a fair and just contract,” McCall added.

He added that the situation in America today, with companies “outsourcing” operations to Mexico, China and other countries, needs to stop.

“Workers have had enough,” McCall said. “Companies cannot continue to exploit workers like this.”

Following the rally, local union members and supporters staged a peaceful march through downtown Van Wert.

My apologies to The Independent for clipping the entire article, it just seems that this is so totally ignored, I wanted all the information I could get.

These American workers are getting screwed for corporate quarterly profits at any cost.

Hit the pocket books of working families, Schwarzenegger gearing up to hurt working class and retirees

"Every day I care for a blind man and a woman with mental disabilities. They're able to live alone, somewhat independently, with my help. Both my consumers would be doomed without services," "They would both be devastated if they were forced into nursing homes because of these cuts." -Rosie Byers, homecare worker in San Francisco.

You work all your life to retire and along the way you and your wife get sick, but you can make it in your own home with a little help, lord knows that my own mother needed home help when she was dying. In San Fransisco, CA., the budget cuts are being aimed at working families and retired, sick and those in need. Cutting jobs and reducing hours, wages and benefits for those that make the cut potentially hurts all San Fransisco residents.

From PRNewswire (6/14/08):

More Than 13,000 Home Healthcare Workers,
Clients Protest Governor's Cuts
Union Members Gather to Call, Write Letters to
Schwarzenegger Expressing Outrage

SAN FRANCISCO, June 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- An unprecedented
number of home healthcare workers rallied Saturday to protest Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger's proposed cuts to their hours of service, wages and
benefits. These dramatic reductions would force some of California's most
vulnerable workers and the people they serve deeper into poverty. It also
would force many clients out of their homes and into nursing facilities
prematurely.

In San Francisco, Sacramento, and Fresno, workers, their clients and
supporters gathered to write letters and make phone calls urging the
governor to lay down his budget ax and pledge to save these vital services
for seniors and people with disabilities. Thousands participated in the
demand that the governor craft a budget that's fair to all Californians,
and encouraged Republican lawmakers to withdraw their support of the latest
plan.

In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) provides personal care and domestic
services to more than 408,000 seniors and disabled people, enabling them to
live in their homes. The program is funded by federal, state and county
governments.

In his most recent budget proposal, Schwarzenegger advocated
"permanently eliminating domestic and related services" to 84,000 people,
or 20 percent of all IHSS recipients.

The American Nightmare continues. Speaking of California...

Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy - California Uber Alles (Live 1992)



The title translated is California above all others, it was written at a time when California had another pro-corporate Governor, Peter Wilson. While the names have changed, as have the times, the message is the same, sing along...

"At a time when AIDS is in a crisis,
I cut healthcare and I raise prices,
sales tax, snack tax, excise tax
Informational tax with a newspaper tax.

Hit the pocket books of working families,
increase tuition at the universities,
Some day I'll command all o' you,
even your kids are gonna pray to me in school,
Soon I'm gonna be the president
you might remember the last one this state sent"

I wish I heard this when it came out...the studio version is awesome

Names changed, story is the same, maybe even worse.

The Man behind the music

So who is the front man of this work?

Michael Franti, who continues his career as musician and movie maker, now with the band Spearhead, heres a live show from 2006:


You can find more free to listen music and audio files at the Internet Archive

Video: The collapse of the middle class Part 2: Revealing lecture by Elizabeth Warren

Think about what that means. That means over the last 30 years in terms of a shift, the family spent everything that moms income added to the family fisc. Spent everything they used to save, that 11% they used to put away, and went into debt another 15% of income on top of that, they spent it all. What did they spend it on? -Elizabeth Warren, around 13 minutes in

From YouTube(1/31/08):

Distinguished law scholar Elizabeth Warren teaches contract law, bankruptcy, and commercial law at Harvard Law School. She is an outspoken critic of America's credit economy, which she has linked to the continuing rise in bankruptcy among the middle-class. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Council Lectures"

This is important to see what is happening and some of the reasons why, like what we are spending it on, its around an hour if you have the time, and the lecture starts at 4:45

The comparison is the middle class family of the 70's as opposed to the middle class family of the 2000's

The Economist's View article (4/10/08)

The collapse of the middle class part 1: Letters from Vermont

"Statistics are one thing, however, and real life is another. The responses that I received describe the decline of the American middle class from the perspective of those people who are living that decline. They speak about families who, not long ago, thought they were economically secure, but now find themselves sinking into desperation and hopelessness." - US Senator Bernie Sanders, Vermont

On his website Democratic US Senator Bernie Sanders asked his readers to send him an E-Mail of what life has been like with todays economic climate, he received over 700 responses, you can read many of them here(PDF), heres the first one:

By February we ran out of wood and I burned my mother's dining room furniture.

I am a single mother with a 9 year old boy. We lived this past winter without any heat at all. Fortunately someone gave me an old wood stove. I had to hook it up to an old/unused chimney we had in the kitchen. I couldn't even afford a chimney liner (the price of liners went up with the price of fuel). To stay warm at night my son and I would pull off all the pillows from the couch and pile them on the kitchen floor. I'd hang a blanket from the kitchen doorway and we'd sleep right there on the floor. By February we ran out of wood and I burned my mother's dining room furniture. I have no oil for hot water. We boil our water on the stove and pour it in the tub. I'd like to order one of your flags and hang it upside down at the capital building...we are certainly a country in distress.

There are lot more, letters from working people and those who have retired who can't make ends meet.

Huffington Post article (6/6/08)

Mall cleaners in 5 states get raises

Wage Hikes of up to 54% for hundreds of cleaners
From 32BJ/In The News (6/14/08):

New York, NY – Seventeen East Coast malls owned by Simon Property Group, North America’s largest publicly traded Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), will soon be cleaned by workers earning better wages and benefits. Under a new agreement between Local 32BJ and Control Building Services, which employs nearly 400 cleaners at Simon’s East Coast malls, the wages and benefits of mall cleaners will be raised to match those of area office building cleaners in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia.

“Bringing the wages for cleaners at Simon malls into line with office building cleaners will enable hundreds of workers to climb out of poverty,” said Héctor Figueroa, Local 32BJ Secretary-Treasurer. "All workers deserve the wages needed to support themselves and families."

Simon Property Group is the largest publicly traded real estate company in the United States with over $3 billion in annual revenues and ownership interest in 380 properties around the world. Control Service Group, a private New Jersey-based company that provides cleaning and maintenance services to commercial and retail properties across the country, is a $300 million company that employs more than 8,000 people.

On May 1, 2008, cleaners at 13 of the 17 Simon malls covered under the agreement will begin earning wages on par with area office building cleaners. Wage increases for cleaners at the remaining four Long Island malls will go into effect on July 1, 2008. For many of the workers, who are earning the minimum wage, the first raise will be as much as 54 percent increase.

By October 1, 2008, fully employer paid family health care for full-time workers and a health benefit which includes life insurance, a prescription drug benefit and dental and optical insurance for part-time workers will go into effect.

Press Release (pdf)

Get 1 million signatures to Congress, sign the Employee Free Choice Act petition

Corporate interests are fighting the Employee Free Choice Act with everything they've got. They're protecting the status quo – a rigged system which allows employers to intimidate, harass, and even fire workers who try to form a union. We're not talking about isolated incidents:
30 percent of employers fire pro-union workers during union organizing drives. ¹

Added this gem to the top right of the page as the combustible dust petition is reaching it's 500th. signature(please sign it if you haven't already done so). Now it's time to tell Congress we are serious about the Employee Free Choice Act. So from todays E-Mail box.

Dear Joseph, CEOs take in millions while the economy tanks – and workers pay the price. The Employee Free Choice Act can get us back on track. Click here to sign the petition. A robust middle class. Economic growth and shared prosperity. The American Dream. None are possible without good union jobs that protect workers. That's why we need the Employee Free Choice Act – critical legislation that would give more workers a way to form unions and negotiate for better wages, health care, and working conditions. We're teaming up with hundreds of groups and unions to launch a massive campaign: One Million Strong for the Employee Free Choice Act. We're going to show the new President and Congress that there are one million people who want to give hardworking families a chance to get ahead. Can you be one of the first? Click here to sign the petition for the Employee Free Choice Act. Why is this bill so important? It's plain as day: workers are struggling in this country. Today's workplaces are tilted in favor of lavishly-paid CEOs, who get golden parachutes while middle-class families struggle to get by. The Employee Free Choice Act can restore the balance, giving more workers a chance to form unions and get better health care, job security, and benefits – and an opportunity to pursue their dreams. Corporate interests are fighting the Employee Free Choice Act with everything they've got. They're protecting the status quo – a rigged system which allows employers to intimidate, harass, and even fire workers who try to form a union. We're not talking about isolated incidents: 30 percent of employers fire pro-union workers during union organizing drives.1 It's time our economy worked for everyone again. It's time for Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. Sign your name to the petition and add your voice to this growing movement. Help us meet our goal of one million signatures! When you sign, be sure to upload your picture, too. We'll share it with lawmakers so they can see the faces of everyone who cares about this issue. Together, we can change the law, change the economy, and change our futures for the better. Sincerely, Liz Cattaneo American Rights at Work www.AmericanRightsatWork.org P.S. For more information about the Employee Free Choice Act, click here to find out about our campaign. 1 Chirag Mehta and Nik Theodore, Undermining the Right to Organize: Employer Behavior During Union Representation Campaigns, Center for Urban Economic Development, University of Illinois at Chicago, Dec. 2005.

The union avoidance law firm Jackson and Lewis has released a press release against the Employee Free Choice Act, Forbes is writing about the corporate fear and the Rick Berman Law group has been putting anti-union/anti-Employee Free Choice Act commercials on the air. They see the writing on the wall. Americans are sick of getting shit on and want to be union workers.

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.

Video: James McMurtry "We can't make it here" - live and acoustic

Now I’m stocking shirts in the Wal-Mart store
Just like the ones we made before
'Cept this one came from Singapore
I guess we can’t make it here anymore



Lyrics - Beware of pop-ups

Video: James McMurtry "We can't make it here" - live and acoustic

Now I’m stocking shirts in the Wal-Mart store
Just like the ones we made before
'Cept this one came from Singapore
I guess we can’t make it here anymore



Lyrics - Beware of pop-ups

Some essential advice from a 4th. generation union construction worker

Spotted this good piece of advice from the website of Cement Masons Local 555

Living Lean
by Brett Hinsley, Business Manager, Cement Masons LU 555, Oregon and SW Washington

My grandmother lived in Koosherem Utah during the depression. The only things that grow there are rattlesnakes and potatoes. She used to tell us that there wasn’t a way to cook potatoes known to man that she has not tried. She was adept at making a living out of nothing. She never wasted food, she always repaired things instead of buying new and she cleaned chicken coops for .25 cents an hour as a young girl. She taught us how to live lean.

My grandfather worked as union Teamster hauling graders, dozers and other large equipment for LA Young Construction Company all over the Southwest. LA Young was the only union construction company in a 300 mile radius. He worked on dams, roads, bridges and military facilities. He did this for over 30 years. We didn’t see much of him because of the time that he was on the road. He taught us about hard work and sacrifice.

I come from 4 generations of construction workers. I grew up on the jobsite. I would pack block and mortar for my dad, I would strip basement forms, and I would stay in the hotel room when he was working out of town and wait for him until the end of the day. I knew from a very young age what I wanted to do. I also knew what I was asking for. I knew that Christmas could be lean and that summer could be fat. I knew that there could be long lay offs and short intense busy summers. I learned that when everyone is working and you are living high on the hog you do not buy a new truck. You don’t live paycheck to paycheck. You sharpen your skills, and work hard because when work slows down the competition gets tougher.

At our union meeting last night as I scanned the audience I was struck by how many new faces I saw. Our membership is changing, over a third of those at the meeting were apprentices. We have 70 apprentices and about 50 of them are 55% first term apprentices. For many of them starting this apprenticeship is their first experience with construction. They do not understand the lifestyle. They may not be preparing for the lay off. Many times their first lay off freaks them out enough that they will not continue and they go back to something more familiar and less intimidating. They don’t realize that if they manage their wages they can make just as much in 6 months that they did in 12 months with their previous employer.

If you remember the panic and uncertainty of your first time getting a lay off check, take the initiative and pull that apprentice aside and share some of the lessons that you have learned in the trade. Let them know that the fat doesn’t last forever and that the lean times don’t either.

Some essential advice from a 4th. generation union construction worker

Spotted this good piece of advice from the website of Cement Masons Local 555

Living Lean
by Brett Hinsley, Business Manager, Cement Masons LU 555, Oregon and SW Washington

My grandmother lived in Koosherem Utah during the depression. The only things that grow there are rattlesnakes and potatoes. She used to tell us that there wasn’t a way to cook potatoes known to man that she has not tried. She was adept at making a living out of nothing. She never wasted food, she always repaired things instead of buying new and she cleaned chicken coops for .25 cents an hour as a young girl. She taught us how to live lean.

My grandfather worked as union Teamster hauling graders, dozers and other large equipment for LA Young Construction Company all over the Southwest. LA Young was the only union construction company in a 300 mile radius. He worked on dams, roads, bridges and military facilities. He did this for over 30 years. We didn’t see much of him because of the time that he was on the road. He taught us about hard work and sacrifice.

I come from 4 generations of construction workers. I grew up on the jobsite. I would pack block and mortar for my dad, I would strip basement forms, and I would stay in the hotel room when he was working out of town and wait for him until the end of the day. I knew from a very young age what I wanted to do. I also knew what I was asking for. I knew that Christmas could be lean and that summer could be fat. I knew that there could be long lay offs and short intense busy summers. I learned that when everyone is working and you are living high on the hog you do not buy a new truck. You don’t live paycheck to paycheck. You sharpen your skills, and work hard because when work slows down the competition gets tougher.

At our union meeting last night as I scanned the audience I was struck by how many new faces I saw. Our membership is changing, over a third of those at the meeting were apprentices. We have 70 apprentices and about 50 of them are 55% first term apprentices. For many of them starting this apprenticeship is their first experience with construction. They do not understand the lifestyle. They may not be preparing for the lay off. Many times their first lay off freaks them out enough that they will not continue and they go back to something more familiar and less intimidating. They don’t realize that if they manage their wages they can make just as much in 6 months that they did in 12 months with their previous employer.

If you remember the panic and uncertainty of your first time getting a lay off check, take the initiative and pull that apprentice aside and share some of the lessons that you have learned in the trade. Let them know that the fat doesn’t last forever and that the lean times don’t either.