Labor bloggers to promote Employee Free Choice Act at NYC Labor Day parade? Strike updates, got a Joe's MySpace, and HR676 US National Health Care Act

Firstly, Labor Day 2008 in New York, trying to promote the Employee Free Choice Act

Myself, Richard from Union Review and Kirsten from Uniongal, the Women, Unions and Our Stories blog, are looking for sponsors to get some Employee Free Choice Act shirts, with our sites listed as supporters, to be given away at this years Labor Day Parade in New York, if all goes well we will have a major labor union donation to help us get our message out there, we are hoping that all our readers, and some people who are not as active out there in the streets will get educated on the Bill and spread the word of the facts on this legislation. It is possibly the most important bill in my lifetime.

Many law firms stand to lose a tremendous cash cow if The Employee Free Choice Act is enacted

Usually, unless the company agrees to a card check vote, when a MAJORITY of workers signs cards to be in a union there is a wait time, usually over a month later, when the employees get a chance to vote via "secret ballot" to be in a union. That's where the Lawyers and Union Avoidance law firms come into play, they make multi-billions in figuring ways to turn workers against the idea of being in a union, turning workers against one another and using any means , such as unlawful firing. . These law firms thrive on fear. They make companies whose workers are engaged in organizing drives terrified of a collective voice , which unfortunately in today's day and age is really not looking at the facts at all.

Many companies could stand to gain a great deal if they mimicked the business practices of COSTCO, who has a hands off policy and allows their workers to join a union by a simple MAJORITY card signing, some stores sign up and some do not, but their employees all benefit from not being denied that basic right. Consider how disgruntled almost every Home Depot employee is, it's a down right shame, they don't care about their shit job one bit, give them a fairs day wage, nice pension to worry about keeping, and decent medical and they would likely make the Home Depot experiance a much better one for customers and would most likely raise their share value far beyond just the next quarter. Corporations however usually do not think like that, you can learn more at "The Corporation- 23 chapters in YouTube playlist form", but let's get back to the facts in this matter.

What employers and law firms do to keep workers from joining unions and who's on their side, why America needs the Employee Free Choice Act

FACT: Many companies have closed door meetings with employees without their own pro-union workers in attendance, brain washing them to fear being in a union and in fact fear to even mention the word. In one recent article I wrote about a construction contractor here in New York, whose MAJORITY of employees signed cards to be in a union, were sent to another jobsite for a closed door meeting, were told they would get a $5 an hour raise if they voted against joining a union and in fact a former supervisor, who stood to gain nothing testifying, in an affidavit to Federal labor officials, stated when he asked his boss about the union:"He said he had about six guns on the job, and he had people there who would do whatever needed to be done. He said that he could dig a hole and put me in it and make the records showing I worked for the company disappear.", the workers fearing reprisal and thinking they were going to get a raise wound up voting overwhelmingly against the union. From: "High-Cost Condos, Low-Cost Labor—and Threats of Violence to Union Organizers"- Village Voice (6/24/08)

Last November, the NLRB ordered Auringer to post a notice promising not to make such threats. A new vote was canceled after Auringer fired 10 pro-union employees on the election's eve.

This is a good reason that America needs the Employee Free Choice Act. They sign the cards, they get into a union. No guns, no threats, no bullshit propaganda.

More reasons that the current NLRB "secret ballot' hurts working Americans

FACT: 30% of pro union employees are fired during an organizing drive, even though it is against the law, they just don't care as the NLRB has been battered by lobbyist and mega-corporations to the point of intellectuality. This is in no small part due to President Bush's appointment as NLRB Chairman, Robert Battista who just recently declined the reappointment to join a union avoidence and union busting law firm, from American Rights at Work, which I first published here on 5/5 in a story, titled "Former Bush NLRB Chairman Robert Battista, joins union avoidance law firm" which highlights the deterioration of the rights of workers during his tenure at the NLRB:

For years I've been writing that Robert Battista, former chair of the National Labor Relations Board, has been doing the bidding of anti-union employers by dismantling protections for workers under the law. Apparently, he's now going to be doing the bidding of anti-union employers and making a lot more money at notorious unionbusting firm Littler Mendelson (see a sample of their unionbusting strategies: Littler Mendelson’s Dos & Don’ts).

Battista asked Bush to withdraw his nomination as Labor Board chair, which was going nowhere, and joined the firm that John Logan of the London School of Economics called one of the "nation’s first law firms to conduct aggressive union avoidance campaigns."

Now Battista can make money telling employers how to exploit the law he helped to weaken in order to prevent their workers from organizing.

Battista is not alone, spin-doctor lawyer and lobbyist Rick Berman, the self proclaimed "Dr.Evil", corporate lobbyist for Big tobacco and the liquor industry among others, and creator of such fun filled sites as The Center for Union Facts is working hard on getting the American public against the Employee Free Choice Act, by advertising on local networks against the bill, using that d1ckhead who played Johnny Sachs in the Sopranos (probably a rank-and-file SAG member like Ronald Reagan, except a hell of a lot less talented), to scare people into thinking that if the Bill is

passed that their Democracy will be erased by ending 'secret ballot'. It's more like it will end

Mr.Berman's and other lawyers cash cow. Lawyers, corrupt politicians and corporations are the modern day gangsters, I'm starting that when they went after the Mafia they really wanted to eliminate their competition.

The commercial shows a gangster over the card signers shoulder, yeah maybe it should show a corporate lawyer counting money if this doesn't get passed

**Click the image to add your name to the petition that will wind up on the desk of the next US President

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Strike News and Job Loss
UA LU 699, IBT 282 NY Concrete drivers, American Axle updates

Lots of news going on, I've been trying to contact the Business Manager for UA Local 699 Sprinklerfitters to see if I can get any more info on the strike in Seattle Washington, last night I sent him an e-mail, still waiting for a response, I'm sure the guy is busy.

I have read that the New York concrete truck Teamsters Local 282 have gone back to the negotiating table as of yesterday, the NY Times reports that there is some progress.

Also received news of American Axle, who I recently wrote is gearing up to destroy the environment, is now looking to get rid of 400 white collar workers in the United States, now that they are escaping the land of labor rights to distant shores. What a disgrace, maybe they can rename the company to "3rd. World Nation Axle"

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Health Care For All, supported by doctors and now the Mayors Council

Big news, the single payer health care bill is being endorsed by the US Conference of Mayors(The U.S. Conference of Mayors is a nonpartisan organization of mayors representing cities with a population of 30,000 or more. It currently has about 1,100 members.), this is a bill that would get health insurance for all Americans and is strongly endorsed by a whopping 59% of American doctors, here's the text of the resolution in support of the United States National Health Insurance Act, H.R. 676:

Submitted By:
The Honorable Lois J. Frankel, Mayor of West Palm Beach, Fla.
The Honorable Wayne J. Hall Sr., Mayor of Mayor of Hempstead, N.Y.
The Honorable Carolyn K. Peterson, Mayor of Ithaca, N.Y.
The Honorable John E. Marks, III, Mayor of Tallahassee, Fla.
The Honorable Sheila Dixon, Mayor of Baltimore, Md.
The Honorable Becky Tooley, Mayor of Coconut Creek, Fla.
The Honorable Ryan Coonerty, Mayor of Santa Cruz, Calif.

WHEREAS, every person deserves access to affordable quality health care; and

WHEREAS, the number of Americans without health insurance now exceeds 47 million; and

WHEREAS, millions with insurance have coverage so inadequate that a major illness would lead to financial ruin, and medical illness and bills contribute to one-half of all bankruptcies; and

WHEREAS, proposals for “consumer directed health care” such as Health Savings Accounts or Health Reimbursement Accounts (HRAs) would only worsen this situation by penalizing the sick, discouraging prevention and saddling many working families with huge medical bills; and

WHEREAS, managed care and other market-based reforms have failed to contain health care costs, which now threaten the international competitiveness of U.S. manufacturers; and

WHEREAS, administrative waste stemming from our reliance on private insurers consumes one-third of private health spending while the single payer Medicare system has administrative costs of less than 5 percent; and

WHEREAS, U.S. hospitals spend 24.3 percent of their budgets on billing and administration while hospitals under Canada’s single payer system spend only 12.9 percent; and

WHEREAS, Harvard researchers estimate that more than $300 billion could be recovered by replacing private insurance companies with a single public payer, enough to cover the uninsured and to improve coverage for all those who now have only partial coverage; and

WHEREAS, entrusting care to profit-oriented firms diverts billions of dollars to outrageous incomes for CEOs and threatens the quality of care; and

WHEREAS, The United States National Health Insurance Act (H.R. 676) would assure universal coverage of all medically necessary services, contain costs by slashing bureaucracy, protect the doctor patient relationship, assure patients a completely free choice of doctors, and allow physicians a free choice of practice settings; and

WHEREAS, most polls show that the majority of Americans support universal health care; and

WHEREAS, as of the date of this resolution, the majority of American physicians (59 percent) believe that Single Payer is the best method of securing universal health care; and

WHEREAS, The United States National Health Insurance Act (H.R. 676) will guarantee every mayor that all residents and employees of his/her city will be fully covered for health care and save millions of taxpayer dollars now spent on premiums to provide less than full health insurance coverage for government employees; and

NOW, THEREFORE,

BE IT RESOLVED, that the United States Conference of Mayors expresses its support for The United States National Health Insurance Act (H.R. 676), and calls upon federal legislators to work towards its immediate enactment and further urges the adoption of a process to insure that health care providers justify any increase in health care costs.

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Got the MySpace up, and a shoutbox. Next we will change the layout here.

Finally did it, got a dedicated Joe's Union Review MySpace account that mirrors the blog here into the MySpace social network, it's how I met Richard at union review, theres a whole lot more to that story, but in a nutshell, I'm looking to meet more Richard's, Joe's and Kirsten's.

I also added a "shoutbox' to this site, you can easily add messages onto the site by entering text into the box and submitting it, try it out, it's right under the title "Say something even if it's wrong"

Seriously thinking of updating the site, I have been working with a layout that has more features, like having just the story introduction on the front page, with a read more lnk, ala Union review and the Building Bridges Radio blog i have been working on, let me know what you think.

Working behind the scenes a bit lately, a great win for the future of New York's labor solidarity was achieved yesterday, I'm waiting for a press release to write on it, stay tuned, and finally I leave you with...

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New GI Bill passes, opens paths to educational resources and future employment for our returning veterans

I first brought this campaign to Joe's Union Review in Feburary 08, with the story "E-Activism can help our returning vets to become workers, not homeless. Help fix the insufficient GI Bill."

Thank you everyone who has signed petitions along the way, I felt it was of utmost importance that our returning vets had a good chance towards a career when they come home, together people such as yourselves from many different blogs and sites got active and we were heard. Even when such high ranking people such as Senator John McCain staunchly opposing the measure and a Geroge W. Bush threatened veto against it, the American people have spoken.

With tremendous support and overwhelming passage in both Congress(256-166) and the Senate (75-22 McCain was a no show) and a reversal of the veto threat by the President, our returning vets now have a fighting chance

Dear Joseph, Today, history was made. Just this morning, President Bush signed the new GI Bill into law. Since we are only a few days away from celebrating the 4th of July, this milestone is a fitting way to honor our veterans who have bravely served this nation. IAVA has led the fight for the new GI Bill from the beginning, and your dedication over the past year and a half ensured that our lawmakers kept it a top priority. Over 20,000 of you called your representatives in Congress, spread the word in your communities and signed the petition at www.GIBill2008.org. Thanks to your hard work, we finally achieved our goal. Generations of veterans to come will benefit from this bill. Your support in this fight has been overwhelming- very few bills in recent history have received such an outpouring of public support. Together, we can be extremely proud of this victory. In a few days, we'll let you know more about this remarkable bill and how IAVA plans to help veterans take full advantage of these new benefits. Thank you for standing with IAVA throughout this fight. Sincerely, Paul Rieckhoff Iraq Veteran Executive Director Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America

Job resources for returning Vets at Joe's

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Video: Elaine Chao, Bush's Sec. Of Labor get's her nails done for McCain fundraiser, Bill Moyers on OSHA unreported injuries

Elaine Chao’s Labor Department doesn’t see a problem, though. Elaine’s OSHA claims poultry plants are “safer than ever,” pointing to supposedly lower rates of reported injuries. The devil’s in the details, though.- American Rights at Work on Elaine Chao's stance on the poultry industry

2 SUV's and 6 security personal, just a few blocks from her home, wow Elaine must have gotten really gussied up for John McCain and her husband Senator Mitch McConnell.


Kentucky protesters get booted away from across the street of Senator McConnell's, John McCain fund raiser.

According to Shame on Elaine (6/29/08):

Matt Gunterman sums up the problem with this scene:

So, by my rough calculation, it probably cost on the order $450 to get Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao’s nails done.

Workers in Kentucky struggle to fill up their gas tanks because gas is $4/gallon and inflation is rising.

Workers in Kentucky worry that they won’t have a job tomorrow because the second Bush recession promised to be even worse than the first.

Workers in Kentucky wonder if they’ll meet next month’s mortgage, while Wall Street fat cats get bailed out by Washington.

But does any of this worry Elaine Chao, wife of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R) and George W. Bush’s Secretary of Labor?

Go read the rest of Matt’s post.

The Bush Legacy Bus - with some great music
"you took our jobs and sent em overseas, now we owe billions to the red Chinese"- Takin My Country Back by The Honky Tonkers For Truth


Elaine Chao

Heres a little about Elaine Chao, from a previous story on Feb.19th. 2008: Carhartt, Red Wing Shoes and more union news you may have missed, ideas, blurbs and dumbed down Americans

Now American Rights at Work has launched a web-based campaign exposing Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao’s dismal record through www.ShameOnElaine.org which according to Talking Union:

Unlike her cohorts in the Bush Administration, Elaine Chao has escaped much-needed public scrutiny of her time on the job. From littering the Labor Department with corporate insiders to dismantling worker safety protections and collaborating with her husband, Sen. Mitch McConnell, on a blatant anti-union political agenda, Elaine has disgraced her role as Secretary of Labor.

Like most union activists we knew Elaine was a stinker – but until ARAW pulled all the information together at one spot, we had no idea just how bad her record is. We’re sure you’ll share our outrage over what we found out she was up to instead of serving in the interest of workers:

• Hired a former colleague from the Heritage Foundation who actually wrote a report titled “How to close down the Department of Labor.”
• Cut over 100 inspectors at the MSHA and, as a result, hundreds of mines weren’t inspected and tragedies such as Sago and Crandall Canyon might have been prevented.
• Had Chao-themed coins, lanyards, and fleece blankets printed at taxpayers’ expense.
• Failed to issue a rule requiring employers pay for their workers’ safety gear—contributing to 400,000 workers injured and 50 dead.
• Had an auditorium named in her honor – thanks to her husband’s $14.2 million earmark to enhance the Mitch McConnell Center at his alma mater, the University of Louisville. Of course, Elaine never attended the university.

Thats just the tip of the iceberg, my buddy Richie at UnionReview.com has been following her views on the American worker for a while and I pointed out in a comment:

Lets not forget

We are angry and smelly workers, according to the US Secretary of Labor
… In her infinite wisdom, Department of Labor Secretary Elaine Chao lectures workers on how we can stop losing our jobs to foreign workers: …
…and…
Secretary of Labor on Employee Free Choice Act
… will veto if it gets to his desk. The president and Elaine Chao say that private ballot elections should be preserved because “it is …

At the Shame on Elaine site theres also, among other atrocious misdeeds, an article about the North Carolina poultry industry, which as you may have read about first right here on JoesUnionReview, the newspaper in the local area, the Charlotte Observer has been doing what has become a rarity in todays Main Stream Media, an expose. Shame On Elaine notes:

Elaine Chao’s Labor Department doesn’t see a problem, though. Elaine’s OSHA claims poultry plants are “safer than ever,” pointing to supposedly lower rates of reported injuries. The devil’s in the details, though.

The poultry story has created quite a stir, the AFL-CIO Web Blog is currently engaged in a debate in it's comments section pertaining to a story about the newest employer exploitation here on American soil. Slaves, Sharecroppers, Now Immigrants.

OSHA under the umbrella of Elaine Chao's DOL

BILL MOYERS: Businesses, on the other hand, say the requirements are cumbersome, and have long pressured the agency for weaker standards of regulation.

The pressure's paid off. THE NEW YORK TIMES' Stephen Labaton reported last year that since George W. Bush became president, the agency has left worker safety largely in the hands of industry, and has issued the fewest significant standards in its history.

Video on the production of The Charlotte Observers investigative report "The Cruelest Cuts" and the under reporting of workplace injuries, which has been covered here at Joe's with:U.S. Lawmakers worried about safety after Charlotte Observers expose on the poultry industry

From the narrator in the video:

In North Carolina, the number of OSHA poultry plant inspections fell from 25 in 1997 to nine in 2006. South Carolina poultry plant inspections dropped from 36 in 1999 to 1 in 2006.

Nationwide, OSHA workplace safety inspections at U.S. poultry plants have dropped to their lowest point in 15 years. In fact the government rewards companies that report low injury rates by inspecting them less often. And Washington's regulators rarely check whether companies are reporting accurately.

Please also note that the video features testimony by Bob Whitmore, a long time OSHA employee , who has been placed on Administrative leave to testify in the hearing, Mr.Whitmore was also the 200th. person to sign the petition against OSHA's lack of a standard in combustible dust

"As an OSHA employee, I was ashamed and deeply offended by my Agencies response at Rep Miller's Hearings. Like Rep. Miller said "I again see no sense of urgency from OSHA". The OSHA Watchdog has acted like a Lapdog again." - Bob Whitmore , Maryland

Read More about combustible dust
Read More about MeatPacking industry

OSHA News at Unbossed

• Under-Reporting Workplace Injuries and Illnesses (6/23/08)
• Constructing Unsafe Workplaces (6/26/08)
• More on Construction Industry Injuries (6/26/08)

Government, Industry Play the Numbers Game on Worker Safety in Meatpacking Plants-Labor Notes

Shirah from Unbossed at DailyKOS
More James Pence Video's at Hillbilly Report

Hillbilly chimed in on the comments with this gem, thanks brother

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NY nonunion construction: With guns, threats and empty promises this modern day gangster keeps his workers from joining a union

Capoccia rose as a housing developer as he donated thousands of dollars to the campaigns of Mayor Giuliani, Governor Pataki, and President Bush. He recently told the newsletter The Real Deal that he launched his career by using a truck full of day laborers hired from a street corner.

Word is that there are about 52 hotels in the works that will be built completely Nonunion in New York, when they are complete there will be no Hotel workers union either, heres a kinda/sorta follow up to NYC: Four Points by Sheraton Paying Poverty Wages / Using Taxpayers For Workers Healthcare

How does New Yorks biggest Non-Union contractor stop his employees from being union?

With guns and threats, this isn't a new thing, but in todays main stream media, it's hard to come by. We have focused on the contractors in the past and the illegalities in the nature of their business, these are the scum bags that are building high rise towers for the likes of Sheraton all over the city. They have immense Bush/Neo-Con/corp ties, and hire an almost entire undocumented workforce. Not only that, when the business opens up they treat their employees like shit too. I know, on previous I have been on the picket lines and when there was a union vote about a month after the employees signed cards to become union, I was there in support of these workers getting the rights to collective bargaining they deserve. Think about it, these workers who work in fear and have absolutely no voice signed the majority of the cards needed to be in a union and a month and a half later, from the amazingly accurate "High-Cost Condos, Low-Cost Labor—and Threats of Violence to Union Organizers"- Village Voice (6/24/08):

Workers there tried to vote in the carpenters union last year. In an affidavit to federal labor officials, a former supervisor at the hotel project described the response from Auringer's project manager after he asked the boss about the union: "He said he had about six guns on the job, and he had people there who would do whatever needed to be done. He said that he could dig a hole and put me in it and make the records showing I worked for the company disappear."

Other workers at the project told the National Labor Relations Board that managers promised them a $5-an-hour raise to vote against the union. Last November, the NLRB ordered Auringer to post a notice promising not to make such threats. A new vote was canceled after Auringer fired 10 pro-union employees on the election's eve. An NLRB official said the matter is under investigation.

The article fails to mention, the private meetings that the employees had to sit through.

This is a good reason that America needs the Employee Free Choice Act. They sign the cards, they get into a union. No guns, no threats, no bullshit propaganda.

Today the corporate backed, immigration enforcement ignored, slave owners of multi national corporations get everything on a silver platter, while the working class people and those that actually want to embrace them and get them representation are almost totally ignored in the anti-union main stream media. Thank goodness for people like Tom Robbins, from the Village Voice and Steven Greenhouse at the Times for actually writing facts about workers here in New York.

Response to Bernie Carr at New York State Association for Affordable Housing

This mans comment to the story in the Voice must be responded to, if indeed he wrote them he is an utter asshole. When a poster wrote:

robbins said: crane accidents=union, corruption=union, middle class=union, ...get the facts straight....nyc was built on the minortiy working class.. we have a right to work in this city too cause you white people in the unions will not let us in..please tell the union not too burn anymore vehicles and physically beat us up in the streets of nyc.. your nazi regime is not going to work in the costruction industry anymore...

Which is amazingly stupid to say in it's own right, considering that in much of this article the unions are trying to actually get these workers into their ranks, please read the entire Voice story and see how these nonunion thugs operate, not to mention how many times union workers are attacked on the street on front of these jobsites when they are peacefully protesting, again I have been there to witness it. We then have this asshole agreeing with the above comment, thats all fine and dandy, because we expect ignorance written in comments on the internet, but after being in quite a few Central Trades and Labor(NYCCLC) meetings when building projects are spoken of and affordable housing and middle income housing is always mentioned as something worth fighting for the next comment threw me for a loop. It seems from the nickname he chose that he is none other than Executive Director of the obviously corporate backed(see picture and logos on the sign behind Mr.Carr) NYS Association For Affordable Housing:

bernie@nysafah.org: The last comment was absolutely right! NYC construction jobs should go to NYC residents, especially minority residents, not a bunch of corrupt union guys from the suburbs. No one spends more on lobbyists and campaign contributions than unions, that's why they're so powerful even though they haven't represented the little guy for decades.

This makes me wonder, who owns this guy? He agrees with the obviously racist post of the guy before him, then goes on to attack union workers even more so, doesn't he have a clue, did he read the story? the entire body of which is how the unions are trying to get these non-union workers into their ranks. How the non-union developer has even gone as far as having a thug follow Omar Lopez, the organizer for the Ironworkers Local 361, to his home while he was with his daughter and threaten him at his door.

Did he read that the threatened union ironworker is a native of El Salvador and a current Queens resident? From the same article as above:

The ironworkers decided to blow up a photo of Capoccia and mount it on a truck. They wrote beneath it: "Shame on Donald Capoccia—Don't profit off immigrant worker poverty." It also carried the developers' office and cell-phone numbers. Then they drove the truck around the work site, City Hall, and Capoccia's bank.

On Saturday evening, June 14, Lopez was in front of his Elmhurst home about to take his nine-year-old daughter to buy some ice cream when a menacing figure appeared. "The guy was about five-foot-nine; he's carrying this big green umbrella and glaring at us. I had a bad feeling. I told my daughter we had to go back. She knew something was wrong. She ran right upstairs and told my wife to call 911, that Daddy was in trouble."

Lopez ducked inside and peered through the window. The lurker walked past his door and disappeared. When he opened the door to look down the street, the man was standing on an adjacent stoop, staring. "I said, 'Are you looking for me?' He cupped his ear like he didn't hear me. I said, 'Are you fucking looking for me?' Then he ran at me with the umbrella and reached under his jacket. I closed the door. He hit the door a bunch of times with the handle of the umbrella. He was shouting, 'I find you and I got you now!' He did that a few times and then went away.' "

Mr.Carr, you attack union workers who live in this city and you attack our entire organizations from a glass house, you speak of lobbyist, just one look at that picture above and it all seems clear, all the banks who helped lend out mortgages that people now cannot afford.

You and your group have done nothing to help keep mid-range wage earners stay in this city, wheres my affordable housing?

Every time an apprentice recruitment is released for the union trades I try my best to post it on this site, there is no discrimination in the hiring practices, any New York City resident can apply.

I have often spoken of how people of all race who get what is known as a "good union job" choose to leave the city as the sentiment of a better life for your family is often thought of as not achievable in this city. Everyone I talk to about where to find an affordable place to live with my girl and her 2 children talks of upstate New York and New Jersey, most recently my Laborer friend, who is a native from the Bronx and a Puerto Rican(since you all like to talk shit about race) found a nice home Upstate. Oh, and 3 out of the 4 last work partners I had were not white, only 1 chose to remain in Brooklyn, only for the fact that his grandparents bought his house many years ago.

So a big fuck you Mr.Carr, for talking shit and rubbing shoulder of the enablers of mistreatment of immigrants, citizens and financial enslavers of the working class. You yourself are a lobbyist for the people and companies that help deny my fellow New Yorkers a fair days wages for a hard days work, just another stuffed white shirt sucking up corporate money disguised as a fighter for the people, say hello to that other divisional profiteer for hire, Al Sharpton for me.

Oh, I'm sorry, looks like you only hang with white people.

Mr.Carr, since you agree with all the bullshit that robbins posted, why not in your high and mighty position take a stand against New Yorks sweatshop construction practices?

Till then, thanks for nothing!

A HUGE thanks to Michael, the UFT writer who pointed this article out.

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Justice Department breaks law in it's hiring practices

Applications that contained what were seen as “leftist commentary” or “buzz words” like environmental and social justice were often grounds for rejecting applicants, according to e-mails reviewed by the inspector general’s office.

Wow, all the way at the top, discriminatory practices at the US Justice Department come to light in a NY Times report that shows that, while under the authority of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, higher qualified candidates for jobs were rejected for "political and idealogical" reasons. Which of course is against the law.

Heres a small clip from the story entitled "Report Sees Illegal Hiring Practices at Justice Dept." by Eric Licthblau (3/25/08):

Justice Department officials over the last six years illegally used “political or ideological” factors to hire new lawyers into an elite recruitment program, tapping law school graduates with conservative credentials over those with liberal-sounding resumes, a new report found Tuesday.

The blistering report, prepared by the Justice Department’s inspector general, is the first in what will be a series of investigations growing out of last year’s scandal over the firings of nine United States attorneys. It appeared to confirm for the first time in an official examination many of the allegations from critics who charged that the Justice Department had become overly politicized during the Bush administration.

“Many qualified candidates” were rejected for the department’s honors program because of what was perceived as a liberal bias, the report found. Those practices, the report concluded, “constituted misconduct and also violated the department’s policies and civil service law that prohibit discrimination in hiring based on political or ideological affiliations.”

And you thought all those rulings that weaken the labor movement and are directly made with the intent of screwing the working people was a coincidence, think again.

heres some cool stuff I copied and pasted here, just to see how it would turnout

Multimedia

Back Story With Eric Lichtblau (mp3)

Related
Text of the Report (pdf)
Times Topics: U.S. Attorney

Got a great video from Xipe Totec at Democratic Underground, from 4/07:

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

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Iraq Veterans Against War, one Long Island mans account, and the bigger issue of propaganda and censorship in the war

A censored war, censored veterans, media black out of Pentagon propaganda "experts" on their payroll and the upcoming war with Iran. What is the facts? will we ever know?

We start our story with Joe Everybody, Kristofer Goldsmith,who starts his on Sept. 11 2001, with rage in his heart, he signed up to protect America

Goldsmith saw the World Trade Center towers collapse on September 11, 2001. He enlisted in the Army and went to Iraq in 2005. In Sadr City, he witnessed abuse of Iraqi civilians. He was assigned to take pictures of Iraqis found in a shallow grave, ostensibly for intelligence purposes, but they were only used as trophies by those who received them. After repeated commendations, he was expecting to return to civilian life and college when President Bush announced the “surge,” and the military adopted its stop-loss policy, essentially making Goldsmith a prisoner of war. He tried to kill himself rather than return to Iraq, but survived. He was diagnosed with depression, anxiety, and PTSD, but then was discharged for misconduct as a malingerer. He now delivers pizzas and struggles to overcome his persisting symptoms with treatment through the VA.

This video was played at the "Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan conference (3/13/08-3/16/08)", where dozens of veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars gathered in Silver Spring, Maryland and offered harrowing testimony about atrocities they had witnessed or participated in directly.

The BBC predicted that the event, organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War, "could be dominating the headlines around the world this week(*March---Joe)", and while it was truly broadcast internationally, here in the States it was almost completely blacked out.

Even with the bullshit media blitzing of supporting our troops, when it came down to actually listening to the over 1000 member group of veterans and getting their message out, The New York Times claimed that they had "not been aware of the group or its meeting,"

According to FAIR - Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (4/8/08) :

The Times’ D.C. bureau editor’s claim to have not heard of the hearings is remarkable, given that the AP newswire carried a story on the hearings, and IVAW has confirmed to FAIR that the D.C. bureau had been sent three separate rounds of different IVAW press releases. In addition, at least 150 Times staffers were sent press releases about Winter Soldier by the Institute for Public Accuracy, a group that encourages inclusion of overlooked facts and progressive perspectives in media coverage. Given that media organizations operating on a small fraction of the Times' budget were aware of and able to find the resources to cover these hearings, the Times’ D.C. bureau’s plea to ignorance about the hearings is all the more disappointing.

Blackouts are only the beginning, and the New York Times actually came forward to explain that the Pentagon had strategically placed "war experts into the media" to say all is going well in Iraq. They seem to have been placed there in an effort to sell the American public the Iraq war. From Source Watch:

"Internal Pentagon documents repeatedly refer to the military analysts as 'message force multipliers' or 'surrogates' who could be counted on to deliver administration 'themes and messages' to millions of Americans 'in the form of their own opinions.' ... Don Meyer, an aide to Ms. Clarke, said a strategic decision was made in 2002 to make the analysts the main focus of the public relations push to construct a case for war." Clarke and her senior aide, Brent T. Krueger, eventually signed up more than 75 retired military officers, who appeared on television and radio news shows as military analysts, and/or penned newspaper op/ed columns. The Pentagon held weekly meetings with the military analysts, which continued as of April 2008, when David Barstow reported on the program in the New York Times.

So, if you don't read the Times, you know nothing of what I'm speaking about, do you? It has also been blacked out by the national media outlets, an illegal media propaganda campaign completely blacked out. Isn't this the type of thing we fought Hitler for?

From PR Watch.org (5/6/08) :

Here is the official Pentagon website with the 8,000 pages of documents, the most interesting and revealing of them previously secret and only available to the Pentagon and the New York Times:

http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/milanalysts/

More than two weeks after the New York Times reported on the Penatgon's military analyst program to sell controversial policies such as the invasion of Iraq, the broadcast television news outlets implicated in the program are hoping to tough out the scandal by refusing to report it. Recently Media Matters of America (MMA) reported that, according to a search of the Nexis database, "the three major broadcast networks -- ABC, CBS, and NBC -- have still not mentioned the report at all."

The Pew Excellence in Journalism project has a chart showing that " there was virtually no mainstream media follow up to The Times’ expose" with the only national TV coverage being the introduction segment and live debate featuring CMD's John Stauber on the PBS NewsHour.

Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro and three dozen colleagues have sent a letter to the Department of Defense Inspector General calling for an investigation of this "propaganda campaign aimed at deliberately misleading the American public."

Last month. one of the propaganda team came forward and saw a vision, in April one of the Pentagon’s propaganda team of military analysts exposed by David Barstow in the NYT, a Ret. Gen. Thomas McInerney, speaking on FOX News, openly called for the US to begin committing “tit-for-tat” terrorist attacks by proxy inside Iran.

Craziness you may say, apparently Iran seems to believe it to be a fact, according to the Tahran Times, Iran's leading international daily, in an article entitled "Iran busts CIA terror network" (5/18/08) :

n a coordinated operation on May 7, Iranian intelligence agents arrested the terrorist network’s members, who were identified in Fars, Khuzestan, Gilan, West Azerbaijan, and Tehran provinces, the Intelligence Ministry announcement said.

The group’s plans were devised in the U.S., according to the announcement, which added that they had planned to carry out a number of acts such as bombing scientific, educational, and religious centers, shooting people, and making public places in various cities insecure.

One of the terrorists was killed in the operation, but the rest are in detention, the Intelligence Ministry said, adding that the group’s main objective was to create fear among the people.

The United States Central Intelligence Agency comprehensively supported the terrorist group by arming it, training its members, and sponsoring its inhumane activities in Iran, the Intelligence Ministry stated.

The terrorists had maps, films, pictures, and sketches of important and sensitive sites in various cities in their possession when they were arrested.

The Los Angeles Times says there is no proof to Iraq's claims in its article "IRAN: Tehran accuses West of waging war on its turf" (5/16/08), while Bush and Israel have agreed that there needs to be "tangible action in Iran." (Yahoo News 5/16)

What's really going on in Iraq, Iran and in the United Stated media? I don't know if this generation will ever know.



Censorship is the bane of our society, to get some Journalistic integrity and/or some type of opposing view, check the links below and familiarize yourself with the sites.

• U.S. Sergeant Refuses to Go to Iraq: "This Occupation is Unconstitutional and Illegal" - AlterNet (5/16/08)
• Why Are Winter Soldiers Not News? - FAIR (3/19/08)
• Pentagon Propagandist General Calls for US to Sponsor Terrorism Against Iran - Crooks and Liars (5/15/08)
• The Common Man News
• Dahr Jamail's MidEast Dispatch
• Iraq Vets Will Detail U.S. Atrocities in Winter Soldier Hearings - AlterNet (3/11/08)
• Iraq Veterans Against War
• UTNE Reader
• Mother Jones

And if you really want to support our troops, check out

• IAVA - The Iraq an Afghanistan Veterans of America
• The Wounded Warriors Project
  

While we are on the political take, may I place this great cartoon for all of my readers to enjoy

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