News Stories for November 28, 2011
Addicting Info
Since Occupy Wall Street began, American police officers have arrested thousands of people for exercising their constitutionally protected right to protest. On Monday or Tuesday, the US Senate will vote on a bill that would give the President the ability to order the military to arrest and imprison American citizens anywhere in the world for an indefinite period of time.
A provision of S. 1867, or the National Defense Authorization Act bill, written by Senators John McCain and Carl Levin, declares American soil a battlefield and allows the President and all future Chief Executives to order the military to arrest and detain American citizens, innocent or not, without charge or trial. In other words, if this bill passes and the President signs it, OWS protesters or any American could end up arrested and indefinitely locked up by the military without the guaranteed right to due process or a speedy trial.
This bill was written in secret and approved by committee without a single hearing. Senate Republicans support the bill and enough Democrats support it to give it a great chance of passing. This provision does have opponents. President Obama has threatened to veto the bill and even Ron Paul is concerned enough to bring it up during one of the GOP debates. An amendment called the Udall Amendment has been offered by Democratic Senator Mark Udall that would delete the dangerous provision.Read the source story here.
Molly's Middle America
Georgia, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin have been named Turkeys in job growth/loss for October 2011.
Based on an analysis of the latest Regional and State Employment and Unemployment Report which was released Tuesday by the Bureau of Labor, these three states had the lowest job growth (or actual decreases in jobs) in one or more categories, either month over month, over the past three months, 2011 to date, or year over year.
California, Illinois, North Dakota, and Montana have been named Gold Star states for October 2011, each leading the nation in one or more categories of job growth (over the past month, past three months, in 2011, or over the past year.)
Read the source story here.
Ohio.com
Labor leaders failed to win legislation making it easier to organize a union after Democratic allies triumphed in the 2008 elections. Next year’s voting could spawn instead a law letting workers opt out of unions.
Republicans in Congress are pursuing so-called right-to-work legislation barring agreements between unions and employers that make union membership and payment of dues a job requirement. Supporters are also pushing for Indiana and New Hampshire to join 22 states that already have such laws.
“There is a very strong likelihood that a Republican Congress and a Republican White House would pass a national right-to-work law,” said Gary Chaison, a labor-law professor at Clark University in Worcester, Mass. “It should be expected from a Republican Congress that, in terms of national jobs growth, sees unions as part of the problem rather than part of the solution.”Read the source story here.
Hispanic News Network
On Saturday, Recall Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R) projections to collect petition signatures have surpassed all expectations to get more than the minimum required signatures per day needed by organizers to meet the 540,000 mark by January 17. After the Black Friday statewide signature petition drive, recall organizers projected that most likely they have surpassed the halfway mark of the 270,000 signatures needed or will reach the halfway target total within days to force an election recall against Governor Walker.
Within the first week of the Walker recall, organizers and volunteers collected at least 105,000 to 107,000 petition signatures within four days of the initial start date (Nov. 15), exceeding all expectations.
The Committee to Recall Scott Walker and United Wisconsin were expected to collect the 9,000 minimum per day for 60 days, but have collected threefold of signatures per day and continue to gather the needed signatures to force a recall election.
The recall effort needs to get the needed 540,000 signatures by January 17. Organizers say, they are working to get at least 650,000 to 700,000 signatures.
Early reports indicated and alleged that some Republican supporters were pretending to collect recall signatures for the purpose of destorying them or not turning them in to the state Government Accountability Board (GAB) had surfaced. The Wisconsin GOP has condemned the act and does not support the illegal act. Petition signers are permitted to sign once and can’t sign any other petition for the same recall.
Read the source story here.
AFL-CIO Now Blog
Around the world, some 215 million children—nearly one in seven—go to jobs or labor at home rather than attend school. American history, too, is rife with the stories of children made to work in factories and mines.
Even as one presidential candidate is making the case for a return to child labor, the story of child labor, present and past, and labor’s role in addressing it, is only half-told in the nation’s textbooks in schools.
To help teachers educate their students on the current scourge of child labor, as well as its oft-forgotten chapter in the story of America, the American Labor Studies Center (ALSC) and its AFT Child Labor Project offer a cache of teaching resources on its website, ranging from a collection of haunting early 20th century photographs by Lewis W. Hine of U.S. child workers to the latest report from the Department of Labor’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) on efforts in 140 countries to eliminate the “worst forms” of child labor, which include, according to ALSC, “prostitution, child soldiering, and hazardous work such as working underground and with toxic wastes.”
Other links point to lesson plans from the Library of Congress on the role of children in the Industrial Revolution and the building of America and information on the AFT site about child labor in specific industries, such as this one about cocoa production.Read the source story here.
The Washington Post
The key to health-care cost reform is to remember that runaway medical costs are not primarily a federal budget problem; they are an overall economic problem. Regardless of whether payments come from the federal government, state governments or individual consumers, the nation as a whole will suffer if health costs spiral ever-upward in the next decades.
That’s the backdrop to Robert Pear’s NYT story today about Democrats perhaps moving towards Medicare reform. On the one hand, it’s important to remember that shifting costs from the government to individuals (as Rep. Paul Ryan’s plan would do) doesn’t really help much at all. But those who support a strong health-care system, especially for older and disabled Americans, should not simply wish away cost projections behind a defensive crouch of supporting Medicare.
Of course, the latter isn’t what Democrats have actually been up to. Yes, some liberals have taken that rhetoric posture, but others have proposed reforms to health care in general and Medicare in particular. In other words, for all the talk you hear from deficit hawks who are determined to find both sides equally guilty, liberal Democratic politicians have been willing to change Medicare. Yet there is an enormous difference between changes designed to create a better overall system and changes designed to shift costs.Read the source story here.
Washington Monthly
When it comes to the circumstances that help drive the Occupy protests, Floyd Norris shines a light on a dynamic that speaks volumes. To put it simply, this just won’t do.
In the eight decades before the recent recession, there was never a period when as much as 9 percent of American gross domestic product went to companies in the form of after-tax profits. Now the figure is over 10 percent.
During the same period, there never was a quarter when wage and salary income amounted to less than 45 percent of the economy. Now the figure is below 44 percent.
For companies, these are boom times. For workers, the opposite is true.
To help drive the point home, the NYT ran a series of accompanying charts, including these two:
Read the source story here.
Main Street
Working America’s Unemployment Action Team organized an event Friday, November 4 to hold Florida Senator Marco Rubio accountable for his rejection of the American Jobs Act. Fake job applications were filled out to be handed in to Rubio’s office in downtown Orlando. The idea was that since Rubio rejected the Jobs Act, which could have created 20,500 highway and transit modernization jobs, 25,900 educator and first responder jobs and 16,600 public school infrastructure jobs in Florida alone, then he must have his own better plan to create jobs. Those who filled out the applications would be the first in line for these positions. Rubio is also co-sponsoring a bill (the Reducing the Size of The Federal Government Through Attrition Act of 2011) to cut federal employment by 10%, which would result in the loss of 440,000 jobs. The personal delivery of the applications allowed “applicants” a chance to put a face to those affected by unemployment and under-employment. This event was held on the first Friday of the month, the day when monthly unemployment statistics are released.
Working America’s Young Worker Action Team in Orlando comprised of students from UCF and Valencia, arrived at Rubio’s office in solidarity with the Unemployment Action Team. Members of Student Labor Action Project at UCF are part of Working America Orlando’s Young Worker Community Team, and the students were able to contribute to the over 30 people in attendance, which also included people from Working America Downtown Action Team and the Occupy Orlando movement. Working America’s David Fernandez was one of the lead voices of the event and was able to get the message out to the multiple media outlets present.
Read the source story here.
San Francisco Bay Guardian
As cities across America evict encampments of the Occupy Wall Street movement, similarities of timing, talking points and tactics among major metropolitan mayors and police chiefs have led critics to wonder: Is some sort of national coordination going on?
The White House says there’s no federal oversight. Speaking November 15 aboard Air Force One, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said “The president’s position is that obviously every municipality has to make its own decisions about how to handle these issues.”
But a little-known but influential private membership based organization has placed itself at the center of advising and coordinating the crackdown on the encampments. The Police Executive Research Forum, an international non-governmental organization with ties to law enforcement and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, has been coordinating conference calls with major metropolitan mayors and police chiefs to advise them on policing matters and discuss response to the Occupy movement. The group has distributed a recently published guide on policing political events.
Speaking to Democracy Now! On November 17, PERF Executive Director Chuck Wexler acknowledged PERF's coordination of a series of conference-call strategy sessions with big-city police chiefs. These calls were distinct from the widely reported national conference calls of major metropolitan mayors.Read the source story here.
Washington Monthly
[...] The White House is eager, if not desperate, for the payroll break to go through 2012, with projections showing weaker economic growth next year without it. Republicans have balked and said they want taxes to go up on practically all American workers in January because, well, they haven’t exactly explained why they want this. (To see how much your taxes would go up if Republicans succeed, the White House has put together an online calculator.)
And that leaves GOP lawmakers in an interesting position. On the one hand, they’re killing a super-committee deal because they refuse to raise taxes on the wealthy in 2013. On the other hand — indeed, at the exact same time — the identical Republicans have no qualms about supporting a tax increase on practically every American who earns a paycheck, which would kick in on Jan. 1, which is just six weeks away.
You see the problem. Republicans are afraid a tax increase affecting a small sliver of the population over a year from now is awful for the economy, but they’re comfortable with a tax increase affecting practically everyone a month from now.Read the source story here.
Main Street
Now that the much-ado-about-nothing Super Committee is behind us, it’s time to get serious. The real crisis in this country is jobs. It’s unacceptable that Washington isn’t focusing all of its time and energy on tackling it. It’s unacceptable that 9% of people are unemployed, that millions more are under-employed or discouraged from the work force, that there are more than 4 job seekers for every opening, and 42% of the unemployed have been out of work 6 months or more.
And what’s really galling is that extended unemployment insurance benefits are set to expire at the year. That means a sizable drop in consumer spending—in practical terms, less money in the pockets of millions of people, hurting their ability to stay in their homes, support businesses and feed their families. Millions are living without real economic security, and in many cases unemployment insurance in the only thing keeping them afloat.
As the New York Times’ Binyamin Appelbaum notes on Twitter, GDP growth has stayed stubbornly low this year, such that it’s not much bigger than the economic impact of the payroll tax cuts and extended unemployment benefits. Put more simply: these soon-to-expire policies are just about the only thing standing between our economy and utter stagnation or recessionRead the source story here.
WonketteFor a decade now, the Department of Homeland Security has coordinated the law enforcement efforts of America’s major cities, both through the U.S. Conference of Mayors and through a direct network of the nation’s big city police chiefs. And yet, there was widespread “mainstream media” suspicion when reports surfaced of coordinated national assaults against the economic-justice protests. Why would a public so used to illegal federal wiretapping and constant physical surveillance of U.S. Muslim communities and infiltration of anti-war groups in America be surprised by the fact that federal law enforcement agencies were working to stop nationwide protests against the political/economic regime? Isn’t that their job, to stop their corrupt regime from being toppled?
Read the source story here.
Wonkette
Pepper spray was a-spraying, knives were a-stabbing, guns were a-shooting, muggers were a-mugging, punchers were a-punching — it was a “Black Friday” celebration that truly proved if you’re not a part of the worldwide anti-corporate protests, then you’re actually a very stinky part of the problem. But the Gold Medal in Applied Assjerk Consumerism goes to the shoppers at the Target crap box store in South Charleston, West Virginia: These bargain-crazed mouth-breathing waterheads literally walked over a dying 61-year-old man who collapsed in the aisles. Can we please do an “alternate history swap” and have the Native Americans defeat the Europeans? Please?
Read the source story here.
Blog For Iowa.com
ALEC is having a little get together before Christmas to let those legislators who owe allegiance to them and not to their voters just what it is they want in the next year.
Last year was a good year for ALEC and they hope to get more, more, more. And it seems legislators across the US are more than ready to hand it over to them. But ALEC does not want you or anyone to know that they are doing this. This is at best unethical. Letting the public know about what they are really doing might make some people really mad. They might vote against the legislators they own. So don’t tell anyone.
Well, we know that all Iowa Republican House members belong to ALEC. We know that Mark Lofgren proudly went to the last meeting to get his marching orders. I hope all Iowa legislators who go will tell us what went on, but then it wouldn’t be a secret.
So, while the Occupy groups take to the streets out of frustration, ALEC and its lackeys will meet behind closed doors to once more make plans to steal some freedom, some democracy and some money from Americans like you and me.Read the source story here.
Think Progress
Renewable energy is surpassing fossil fuels for the first time in new power-plant investments, shaking off setbacks from the financial crisis….That’s the latest, amazing news from Bloomberg.
Electricity from the wind, sun, waves and biomass drew $187 billion last year compared with $157 billion for natural gas, oil and coal, according to calculations by Bloomberg New Energy Finance using the latest data. Accelerating installations of solar- and wind-power plants led to lower equipment prices, making clean energy more competitive with coal.
Read the source story here.
- Nation of Change:
Occupy Los Angeles to Resist Eviction - Truthout:
Can There Be Solidarity Between Movement Activists and Police Officers? - The Stranger:
Occupy Seattle Will Occupy the State Capitol in Olympia - Truthout:
Policy-Making Billionaires Privatizing Public Policy - Think Progress:
Seventh Study Proves Fox Viewers Are Most Misinformed - The Stranger:
Meet the People Who Occupy Seattle Was Yelling at In Renton on Black Friday (And Ask Yourself Whether This Is the Best Use of Occupy Seattle's Time) - Wisconsin Gazette:
Walker appointee says workplace harassment of gays is legal - New Politics:
Occupy the Democratic Party? No Way! - Common Dreams:
Arizona Lawmakers Say They Will Build Border Fence, Work to Be Done by Prisoners - Think Progress:
Occupy Oklahoma City Mic Checks Wal-Mart On Black Friday - AlterNet:
The Fascinating History of How Corporations Became "People" -- Thanks to Corrupt Courts Working for the 1% - CounterPunch:
The Corporatization of the American University - Mother Jones:
Student Occupiers: It's the Debt, Stupid - Salon:
How gossip took over the news Salacious reporting used to be the freak show of journalism. Now it's everywhere. How did this happen? - Los Angeles Times:
CA Legislators to hold hearing on UC Davis protests, police response - Mother Jones:
The Death of Middle-Class Neighborhoods