File Under - Not Helping

As many of you know Republican state Senator Mike Bishop has recently targeted working people again. The target is Michigan’s state employees again. Bishop is calling for the Governor to go back on a contract that was laden with concessions by the state workers that has already saved Michigan over $250 MILLION. The state workers have already been the victims of the Republican anti-worker agenda to the tune of working 2 hours each week OFF THE CLOCK, forced days off with no pay, lower starting salaries and a change to Rx coverage that increased co-pays. Most of these changes occurred in the last four years which also brought early-out programs that lead to state employees workload increase dramatically. Mark Gaffney wrote a great op-ed on this issue in the Detroit News; here is a link.

In an effort to head off the attack from Sen. Mike Bishop the SEIU has put together an action piece that will send letters to your Michigan state legislators asking them to stand up for state workers.

In a related matter; the Lansing State Journal recently listed the names, salaries, date of hire, and county of work for thousands of state employees. I was one of many who were disgusted by this senseless act. In an article by the City Pulse LSJ Editor Mickey Hirten said:

the newspaper plans on expanding the feature to include other public employees
whose salaries are paid by the taxpayer. Government workers are ultimately
accountable to the people and providing this type of oversight is a part of the
newspaper’s public mission

then; moments later Hirten feigns sympathy with these remarks:

“What I’ve found is that the state workforce feels particularly stressed,”
Hirten said. “It feels that its ranks have been depleted. They’re being asked to
do more with fewer resources and they’re perceived as the whipping boy for the
state’s budget crisis … an end-of-their-rope feeling.”

Here is a link to the article by Kyle Melinn.

I would laugh if it weren’t a part of a recent pattern by the LSJ. I have personally decided to no longer link, purchase or read the LSJ unless they remove the database and apologize to the state workers. I will not be a supporter of a newspaper that attacks workers. You can send the Editor a letter telling him you don’t approve here.

UPDATE

Our very own Sen. Debbie Stabenow has made up for one of the most disappointing votes of her career. Last year right before the Nov. elections she voted in favor of the Military Commissions Act. Under the Military Commissions Act, the U.S. government can now:
· Imprison some people indefinitely without charge or legal justification
· Deny detainees any court review of their imprisonment
· Hand down convictions based on evidence literally beaten out of witnesses
· Redefine torture and abuse as they see fit, without regard for the Geneva Conventions or any other human rights law

Currently there are two bills that would help to fix the MCA and restore Habeas Corpus; the habeas corpus restoration act and the restoring the constitution act of 2007 more details on these bills can be found here.

The ACLU is organizing a “day of action” for tomorrow Tuesday June 26th. The objective of the demonstrations is to garner support for the two bills above. Here is a link to the sites and times. Cant make the demonstrations? Here is a link to a letter urging both Senator Stabenow and Levin to support the Restoring the Constitution Act.

Many people including myself were very disappointed by Senator Stabenow’s vote for the MCA but it is very important that she has taken the steps to right her wrong! Thanks yet again Debbie!

Expendable Youth

The further I look into the recent recalls of toys from China the more disturbed I am. I was railing about food and drugs that have been recalled when I added an update at the end of this piece about the “Thomas the train” recall. After a week, much more has been revealed about toy recalls from China. Every single toy that has been recalled this year has come from China, EVERY SINGLE ONE!! In one case last month a fake floating eyeball toy made in China was found to be filled with KEROSENE!! The all American toy (again made in China) the “easy-bake oven” was also recalled this year for “entrapment and burn” hazards. Lets not forget the Thomas the train recall; 1.5. million toys were recalled last week by the RC2 Corporation, here is a PDF file that lists all the recalls and shows pictures of all the toys, its 3 pages long!

This isn’t the first recall for this corporation, in fact the company website lists several more:
-including the all-American brand John Deere.
-A 2006 recall of baby teething rings.
-A 2003 recall of Lamaze toys again because of lead paint

While it would seem that I could beat up on this corporation for yet ANOTHER lead paint recall I will point out that 60% of ALL product recalls in the U.S. are from Chinese manufacturing. This is hardly an isolated incident! 70 to 80% of the toys sold in this country originate in China according to the Toy Industry Association. A recent article by the NY Times reports:

Over all, the number of products made in China that are being recalled in the
United States by the federal Consumer
Product Safety Commission has doubled in the last five years, driving the
total number of recalls in the country to 467 last year, an annual record.

In another article in the NY Times on the same subject a corporate apologist does his best impersonation of dubyah:

“I think the company does a great job,” said Sean McGowan, managing director and
toy industry analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities, a brokerage firm in Los
Angeles. “Yes, this should have been caught earlier. But it wasn’t caught by
some kid getting sick. They caught it.”
Mr. McGowan said he had spoken with
Curt Stoelting, RC2’s chief executive, after the news came out, and that Mr.
Stoelting told him the problem was found during a routine quality check.

Allow me a moment to respond to this moron.
This “company that does a great job” has just recalled a million and a half toys in one shot not to mention the other recalls I listed. According to the CPSC lead paint can cause irreversible brain damage in children and can retard mental and physical growth.
“this should have been caught earlier”, the recall spans 2 years(2005-2007)!
“the problem was found during a routine quality check” then why does the recall span 2 years? Was it a Bi-Annual quality?
That feels better, thanks for your patience!
Something that should be of concern in the future is the dismantling of the government watchdog groups that the Bush administration has been doing. In the first NY Times article I mentioned (password required) the dismantling is detailed:

The toy industry in the United States is largely self-policed. The Consumer
Product Safety Commission has safety standards, but it has only about 100 field
investigators and compliance personnel nationwide to conduct inspections at
ports, warehouses and stores of $22 billion worth of toys and tens of billions
of dollars’ worth of other consumer products sold in the country each year.
“They don’t have the staff that they need to try to get ahead of this problem,”
said Janell Mayo Duncan, senior counsel at the Consumers
Union, which publishes Consumer Reports. “They need more money and resources
to do more checks.”
Most recalls are done voluntarily, as was the case with
Thomas & Friends, after companies discover problems or receive
complaints.
Among the toy recalls, the problem is most acute with low-price,
no-brand-name toys that are often sold at dollar stores and other deep
discounters, which are manufactured and sent to the United States often without
the involvement of major American toy importers. Last year, China also was the
source of 81 percent of the counterfeit goods seized by Customs officials at
ports of entry in the United States — products that typically are not made
according to the standards on the labels they are copying.

I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you that this is unacceptable! In the meantime there is something you can do to protect you and your family from dangerous toys made in China, here is a link to the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s e-mail notification of recalled products. The CPSC will send you notification when they are made aware of unsafe products, hopefully that will be in a timely manner instead of 2 years after purchasing the product. The 2nd NY Times article can be found here (password required).

ACTION! ACTION! ACTION!

Holy crap! I leave for Vegas for a few days and the action alerts are piling up so lets get to work!

-Toyota has been in the news recently with their treatment of its workers, in case you haven’t read about this here is some info and here is some more. The UAW has put together a letter to the head of North American operations Toyota demanding respect for its workers; here is a link to the letter.

I have recently written about food and drug safety on the blog the next few items all relate to the oversight and protection of farms, farm workers and drug safety:

-much of the legislation regarding agriculture is benefiting huge corporate farms that subsidize them and offer little regulation on sensible standards of land conservation, here are 2 petitions that ask congress to change this mix-up of legislative priorities. Here is the first petition. The second petition looks the same but is different, here it is.
-the Consumers Union has put together a great letter and informative piece on the dangers of the laxed standards for drug safety. Please read the story of Patricia Slingo and then send the letter.
-Sojourners recently was deeply involved in the action that moved McDonalds to give farm workers a voice in their working conditions and let the union CIW bargain for their wages. Next on the list is Burger King! Here is the letter to BK management.

-True Majority has a letter for your Senators asking them to not allow the funding for the creation of more new nuclear weapons. The letter can be found here.

-I have written about the Darfur genocide before but some very disturbing images showing just how bad things have become can be seen here; these pictures document the horror that has been going on for years. Fidelity and other investment firms are investing in PetroChina a company that has been linked to funding the atrocities that are occurring in Darfur and the surrounding areas, here is a petition that is being sent to Fidelity and other investment firms asking them to stop funding the genocide.

What'cha Eatin' Under There?

Recent scares of food and other products being contaminated have brought out some serious flaws in the way the U.S. has handled oversight of products entering the country. For decades the “drown the government in the bathtub” crowd has screeched that the market will regulate itself, well it appears the opposite is happening. The combination of unregulated countries shipping in products that will largely never see any oversight or testing upon arrival in the U.S. its no wonder we are starting to see case after case of poison and tainted products.

We all remember the tainted spinach last year that killed three and affected over 200. A story in USA today goes into great detail about the outbreak and even covers the fact that the companies are left to monitor themselves;
Federal regulations require food processors to follow good manufacturing practices to minimize contamination. But regulators issue only general guidance to companies on how to do that.
At the end of the article the coverage falls flat using quotes from Christine Bruhn who is a corporate apologist and is a member of a group of the “hired hit-scientists” that Exxon and other corporations use to counter real science, here is more info on her and the group “American Council on Science and Health”. The full USA today is here.

Another case is the recent peanut butter scare in which over 600 people fell ill. The peanut butter in question was Peter Pan brand and Great Value brand. Guess who sells Great Value brand. Bueller? Bueller? YES….it’s Wal-Mart. I wont even go there. Regardless, both of these cases are instances of U.S. companies that ARE regulated and supposedly monitored by the FDA.

The dog food scare and now the toothpaste scare are coming from other countries with little to no regulation. The business community is even worried about it! Here is an article from CNN/Money magazine about the toothpaste. Apparently they were so upset that they did a follow up titled “Lax oversight, globalization erode product safety”. I find this almost comical that Money Magazine is now all of a sudden speaking out against globalization because it’s toothpaste may be tainted. For whatever reason they have decided to look at globalization more thoroughly it is a good thing!

A possible reason the FDA is either looking the other way or too incompetent to function as tainted foods and products reach our homes is ridiculous political and ideological appointments by the Bush administration. This administration seems hell bent on filling the ranks of the government with under qualified but loyal appointments.

It seems we have a long way to go to figure out a better way to have some form of oversight over the things we eat and bring in to this country, but I think Michael Ableman does a damn good job of showing us where to start in this piece he wrote for AlterNet.

UPDATE: Here we go again!! Even Thomas the Freekin' Train isn't safe!

Got Habeas Corpus?

The ACLU will be sending buses to Washington D.C. to lobby congress for support of the Habeas Corpus Restoration Act. This bill would help restore a constitutional right that has been revoked by the Bush administration. If you are interested in going the bus ride is FREE!!! Michigan has three different locations that buses will be leaving from including a Lansing, Ann Arbor and Detroit location. The buses will leave on Monday June 25th and arrive on the 26th, here is a schedule of events for the day in D.C.:

7:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. - Executive Branch Demonstration (for those already in D.C.)9:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. - Lobby Training (close to Upper Senate Park) 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. - Rally at Upper Senate Park1:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. - Storm the Hill: Lobby Meetings with Senators and RepresentativesNote: Lobbying will be done in groups. All attendees are encouraged to participate!

In reality our two wonderful Senators are probably already on board with this legislation but if you are interested in a FREE ride to and from D.C. to help lobby other Senators this would be a very cool trip to take! Here is more info on the trip and the contact info to RSVP

Getting Kicked While We're Down

I recently noticed a post on Michigan Liberal that yet again takes a shot at the big 3:

the foundering Big Three (may they roast for their bloated incompetence as far
as I'm concerned)

Here is the full post, I don’t care what the context of the post is this is unacceptable! Angrily, I wrote this in response. WARNING!!! Strong language ahead!

May they roast for their bloated incompetence? Is that the way to treat fellow Dem.’s? I wish I were a better writer so I could go into detail about the many things that I find wrong with your statement about the Big 3 and their incompetence, but my lack of schooling fails me again! So….. FUCK YOU IN THE NECK!!!!




By dooming the big 3 to “roast” you are sending my daughter and wife( by way of my employment), mother, brother, nephew and 100’s of thousands of your neighbors and their families to “roast”. On their behalf, you can go to hell!! As a 3rd generation UAW member I am deeply offended by your statement. I am sick of armchair quarterbacks talking about the employees of the auto industry as if we aren’t members of your community. You speak as if we should be punished because of the decisions of people we will never meet (auto exec.’s). We are the activists who go door-to-door every election, we are the ones who call from phone banks religiously and we are the ones who require their own day(each week) at the Democratic Coordinated Campaigns because of the numbers that show up to support Democratic candidates. We are the ones who deliver the elections for you people who sit at your computer in your mothers basement and rail about legislators whom in reality you do very little to elect.




The fact of the matter is that John Dingell was pro environment before most of the people on this blog (including me) were even alive! Representative Dingell is just that, a representative of his district. The district he represents is comprised of many, many autoworkers and their families, of course he is going to look after their livelihood. While I disagree with his efforts on CAFÉ standards, an opinion with which I disagree with the UAW, the Big 3 and many Michigan legislators, I won’t be so blinded by one piece of legislation as to ignore the fact that Dingell has long been a friend of environmentalists, working people and all the people of Michigan.




Narrowly focused sight will often lead you in the wrong direction. Throwing our UAW brothers and sisters under the bus and/or insulting them by wishing they would “roast” is despicable! I get sickened whenever I see progressive people attack the UAW. I hear from fellow union brothers and sisters “the Democrats don’t care about us either” and they point to outbursts like yours as they make their way to vote for a Republican. I know that not all progressive, liberal or even moderate left-leaning people are willing to wish ill on us the way you have. I am reminded of the Republicans when I see this type of attack. Single issue voters will drop everything and turn on someone who has carried their water for years if they don’t fall into lock step on one thing. Is this the direction our party or the progressive movement should be taking?




I remember in the 2006 election going to campaign for Joan Bauer in Lansing. I live in Perry. A friend asked me “why are you campaigning for someone who’s district you will never live in?” I told him that I was willing to go door-to-door for Joan in 102 degree heat because I believed that she would at least take the time to listen to what we/I had to say about issues I care about. I didn’t say that she would agree with everything I said and I also didn’t threaten to not support her if we should end up on opposite sides of an issue. I cringe at thought of a world with only 2 options for every decision, and most of us find our beliefs some where in the massive area between the boisterous extremes. When we speak of only absolutes we eliminate the chance for dialogue and compromise. I hope not to belittle the issue, obviously we as progressives are passionate about the environment and we are the bearers of the torch on this issue, but again, single issue/vote zealotry is for Republicans.

Profits at Any Price

There is a great new site that a friend sent to me; Wal-Mart Subsidy Watch shows you how much even having a Wal-Mart in your state actually costs taxpayers in subsidies and grants as well as free land, infrastructure assistance and tax abatements.

I looked up Michigan and here is what it showed regarding the Coldwater, MI Wal-Mart:

The city charged Wal-Mart $1 for land it had purchased for $500,000. It also
made infrastructure improvements that were paid for with a Community Development
Block Grant of $1,875,000 provided by the state.

The full link is here.

The site also links to Wake up Wal-Mart which breaks down the cost of providing health care to all of the non covered workers in the state; here is Michigan’s breakdown for 2005:

2005 - Total # of Wal-Mart Employees in State: 30,1812005 - Estimated # of
Wal-Mart Workers on Medicaid: 3,9862005 - Estimated # of Wal-Mart Dependents on
State Health Programs: 2,4332005 - 2005 - Estimated Total Cost; Federal &
State:$23,235,602

One of the more disturbing ways that Wal-Mart bleeds communities are called “sales tax rebates”, the short version summary of these rebates is that the company gets back a big portion of the sales tax that would normally go to local governments. Essentially this practice forces local communities to give money, that it supposedly saves on cheap prices, to Wal-Mart. The AFL-CIO has a good post on their blog here.

Scalito's Way

Working people across the country took another blow this week with the Supreme Court ruling in favor of big business over workers yet again. The Bush administrations vigorous efforts to strengthen the grip of corporate America on the federal government are paying dividends to big business in the form of a 5-4 ruling in favor of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. over a worker filed lawsuit. The lawsuit was filed after Lilly Ledbetter found that she was being paid significantly less than her male counterparts in the same job. (password required) The court ruled that the complaint was not filed in the 180 day time span that is allowed. The AFL-CIO blog has a great write up on details here. So what’s the problem? Well to start of this means that we as workers are required to be aware of the pay rates of workers around us. This would require not only knowing the pay rates but the amount of raises given in certain dept.’s and the frequency with which those raises are given without access to payroll information.

I will try and take some good from this disturbing news. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg really lit into the court for its decision, reading her dissenting opinion aloud (a very rare occurrence) Justice Ginsberg said:

In our view, the court does not comprehend, or is indifferent to, the insidious
way in which women can be victims of pay discrimination,

Ginsberg also made note of the precedents that the court was ignoring to overturn the jury decision in favor of Mrs. Ledbetter and was also ignoring the findings of the EEOC. The NY Times has a great editorial on the decision here. (password required)

Another reason to be excited about this decision is that one of my favorite legislators is not happy and will most likely introduce legislation that will spell out the intent of the law out for the all too increasingly narrow-minded Supreme Court.

The administration has always pushed agenda driven appointments down the throat of congress and this is one of example of the victories that will come from them. Firedoglake put together a great write up on this topic, here.