| |
 |
Saturday, June 24, 2006 |
YouTube: While Bush is extolling his border patrol scheme, behind his back five people are jumping the fence. Duh!
Is this a hoax? It might well be. Still, very funny.
1:06:01 PM 
|
|
Scotsman: "The reality TV show Big Brother is being investigated by the Advertising Standards Authority amid claims that the selection process for a contestant who won a late place on the programme was rigged."
The 'reality' Big Brother show is one of the tricks of the corporate media to slowly accustom the public to the idea of a Big Brother society, in which cameras monitor everything we do. Their message is 'see, it's not so bad, even celebrities want to be in'. And it is also diverting attention from the atrocities of war.
America is rapidly becoming a police state. George W. Bush is gradually breaking down the American Constitution and the rule of law; he is corrupting Congress, Justice and the army.
"For those who may not know, the purpose of the Constitution was explicitly to limit the power of government over the people. It was created by the founders of the United States out of the very real and genuine fear that any sufficiently centralized system of power, especially a governmental system of power, would eventually become abusive and exploitive, and begin to serve its own purposes rather than those of the people."
And to ensure that the neocon Mafia remains in power they also rig the elections. The neocons are preparing their next coup d'état.
Guardian: "In the 2004 presidential race, the GOP ran a massive, multi-state, multimillion-dollar operation to challenge the legitimacy of black, Hispanic and Native American voters. The methods used breached the Voting Rights Act, and while the Bush administration's civil rights division grinned and looked the other way, civil rights lawyers began circling, preparing to sue to stop the violations of the act before the 2008 race.
Now that the GOP has been caught breaking the voting rights law, it has found a way to keep using its expensively obtained 'caging' lists: let the law expire next year. If the Voting Rights Act dies in 2007, the 2008 race will be open season on dark-skinned voters. Only the renewal of the Voting Rights Act can prevent the planned racial wrecking of democracy."
11:34:13 AM
|
|
LaborBlog: "In a sea of worsening legal doctrine on discrimination, the Supreme Court just handed down a decision, by a 9-0 vote, that clearly protects employees who demand that their employers end discrimination in the workplace from any kind of retaliation.
The decision upheld a finding of retaliation by a railroad company against a female maintenance worker who was transferred to less desirable duties within her job category and placed on an unpaid leave for 37 days after she complained about sexual harassment. She was reinstated with back pay after a grievance by her union. A jury awarded $43,500 to the woman.
The Supreme Court upheld that fine, which means that companies can't steal pay from workers, intimidate them, then just give the money they stole back when called to account. Now they can expect more serious penalties for violating the law, which will hopefully more employees to stand up and demand decent treatment."
GAP: "The Senate yesterday acted quickly to plug a government accountability loophole created less than one month ago, when the Supreme Court's Garcetti v. Ceballos decision canceled constitutional free speech rights for government workers carrying out their job duties. Senate bill S. 494, which includes that reform amidst a general overhaul of the Whistleblower Protection Act, was agreed to by unanimous consent as an amendment to the 2007 National Defense Authorization Act, passed 96-0 last evening. For the last three Congresses, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) approved similar legislation, but until yesterday Senate leaders had refused to permit a floor vote."
11:12:13 AM
|
|
UN: "United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour today described poverty as the most serious, invidious and widespread human rights violation confronting the world, while calling on all States to keep laws at the forefront of their efforts to fight terrorism, highlighting in particular concerns over the use of torture.
'Poverty continues to be the most serious, invidious and widespread human rights violation that we must confront,' she said. 'For it is poverty and underdevelopment - both in cause and effect - that exacerbate abuse, neglect and discrimination, denying millions the enjoyment of their civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights, and ultimately their right to development.'
IPS: "The fight against poverty, which calls for a multipronged effort against hunger, inequality, and social marginalisation, is a pressing issue in Latin America. But it is apparently not for the press."
HRReporter: "A Democrat proposal in the United States to raise the country's minimum wage for the first time in a decade failed to pass the Senate this week."
The neocons are jealous of the little the poor people have. In fact, what they are doing is robbing the poorest.
The neocons are taking good care of themselves.
Reuters: "In an election-year bid by Republicans to eliminate most taxes on inherited wealth, the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday passed a sweetened compromise aimed at building support in the Senate that would exempt all but the biggest estates from taxation.
The measure falls short of the full repeal sought by President George W. Bush and business and farm groups."
Even then this is not what Bush would have wanted. Because the friends he is catering for want more and more and ever more.
CenturyFoundation: "To help people save themselves, FEMA has prepared a list of what people should have on hand for the three days immediately after a natural (or terrorist) disaster, what it calls a 'basic disaster supplies kit'.
Why couldn't someone on minimum wage fit a basic disaster supplies kit into the household budget? I'll do the math for you: someone on minimum wage earns $5.15 an hour for a forty-hour week, which comes out to $206.00 a week, and just under $11,000 a year, well below the poverty level. And out of that salary comes rent, transportation to and from work, food, clothing, and so on.
Even if by some miracle you'd managed to put away some of these basic supplies, how long would they remain stored away for an emergency? Well, what would you do if you were a single mother working for minimum wage, had just paid the rent, and found yourself low on food? Would you let your children go to bed hungry, or would you turn to the food from the kit and hope that you'd be able to replace it later?
That brings us to the crux of the matter: our government should find a way to help those who are mired in poverty work their way out of it. It is the only way to ensure that people can manage in the face of disaster. But today, all too many lawmakers are far more interested in ensuring that the rich remain rich, that the generous tax cuts they receive increase, that those on top remain there."
11:00:13 AM
|
|
© Copyright 2008.
|
|
|
|
|
