Organized Labor Has Little To Lose From
Radicalism, But Working People Have Much

post from ThinkProgress on 22 June 2011 03:00:02 PM. © ThinkProgress

Erik Loomis has a post dedicated to, loosely speaking, the adoption of more radical tactics by labor unions and union sympathizers. I’m glad to see this discussion started because I actually do think the progressive cause would benefit from more direct action, particularly in the arena of climate change and immigration reform. But I have my doubts as to labor. “After all,” Loomis asks, “what does the labor movement have to lose at this point?” He does acknowledge, however, that “we are a long time from 1937 when radicalism was well within the lived memory of most working-class people.” I think this is exactly to the point. Organized labor, as such, has very little to lose at this point. But not only are we a long time from 1937 in terms of people’s consciousness about radicalism, we’re a long time from 1937 in terms of the actual living standards of average people.

Check out this technology adoption chart:

“]

In 1937, about half the population didn’t own a stove or a car. About 30 percent of the population didn’t have electricity or a radio. Most people didn’t own a refrigerator or a telephone or a clothes washer. Nobody had a clothes dryer or a color television or a dishwasher. The average size of the American home has more than doubled since then, in part because we’re richer and in part because it’s much more practical to inhabit all that space with modern cleaning, lighting, and transportation technology. “Workers of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your cell phone and your car and your HDTV and your large house” isn’t the most inspiring slogan in the world. So while even though labor unions, as such, have very little downside risk the individual people who’d be putting things on the line in a more radical struggle have a great deal more to lose than did their predecessors of 70 or 80 years ago.

None of this is to say that middle class people in the United States have no problems. Obviously, unemployment is extremely high and unemployment ? particularly prolonged unemployment ? is very damaging. But what we middle class Americans are primarily suffering from is a failure to finance and organize public services in an intelligent way. Not enough people can afford a house that features a convenient commute to work and a safe neighborhood with a great public school. We lack access to the kind of low-cost, high-quality health care that they have in France. But while any individual worker can improve his situation in this regard by getting paid more money, the only systematic solutions to these problems involve actually reducing the quantity of crime, improving transportation infrastructure, reforming the health care system, and building more excellent schools.

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http://thinkprogress.org/yglesias/2011/06/22/251121/organized-labor-has-little-to
-lose-from-radicalism-but-working-people-have-much/

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Midday open thread

post from Daily Kos on 22 June 2011 03:00:02 PM. © Daily Kos

Today's must read, from Jose Antonio Vargas: "My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant"
Because we wouldn't want the Environmental Protection Agency protecting the environment:
Rep. Fred Upton continues to use his tenure as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee to attempt to strip the Environmental Protection Agency?s ability to regulate toxic substances that threaten the environment.
His committee is considering a new bill that would strip the EPA?s authority to regulate the handling of coal ash, a by-product of coal energy production that can contain a wide range of toxic metals and chemicals including arsenic, lead, chromium, and selenium.
Over 20,000 Kossacks have signed our petition telling cable providers to treat Current TV equally to CNN, Fox and MSNBC. Add your name here.
Don't miss the Joel Connelly review of the new Sarah Palin movie, "The Undefeated":
"If 1930's German documentary filmmaker ("Triumph of the Will") Leni Riefenstahl had not been called to Valhalla a few years ago, she might have viewed a rough cut of "The Undefeated" and advised Steve Bannon: "You'd do well to temper the propaganda a little bit."
And speaking of Palin, she's quit again:
When Palin launched her "One Nation" bus tour on Memorial Day amid a swirl of media attention and excitement from her fervent fan base, many political observers who had once dismissed her were reminded of the jolt that her candidacy could provide to what has thus far been a relatively sleepy GOP nominating fight. [...]
Though Palin and her staff never announced a timeline for the remaining legs of her trip, aides had drafted preliminary itineraries that would have taken her through the Midwest and Southeast at some point this month. But those travel blueprints are now in limbo, RCP has learned, as Palin and her family have reverted to the friendly confines of summertime Alaska, where the skies are currently alight for over 19 hours a day and the Bristol Bay salmon fishing season is nearing its peak.
Good luck on this one:
A Washington watchdog group is singling out Sen. David Vitter, accusing the Louisiana Republican of attempted bribery.
Vitter last month blocked a proposed pay raise for Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in order to pressure the Obama administration to approve more offshore drilling permits. On Tuesday, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington asked the Senate ethics committee to investigate whether Vitter?s actions amounted to attempted bribery.
In other Vitter-related news, 2012 GOP hopeful Rick Santorum can't explain why he's giving David Vitter a free ride for his part in a hooker scandal.
NBC gives Donald Trump a big, fat raise:
Playing the presidential card has paid off for Donald Trump.
The real-estate mogul and reality-TV host -- who kept viewers and the NBC network guessing until the last minute whether he would make a serious run at the Oval Office -- got a sizeable pay raise to renew his contract to host "The Celebrity Apprentice" for another two years.
NBC Universal, which was acquired by cable-TV giant Comcast this year, agreed to pay Trump and co-producer Mark Burnett an estimated $160 million over two years, according to sources familiar with the contract.
Combat isn't just for men anymore:
Servicewomen have died in all of America?s wars, but usually they were support personnel such as nurses and clerks. In Afghanistan, most women who have died were killed in combat situations, as Specialist Snyder was, despite the military?s official prohibition on women in combat jobs.
The same has been true in Iraq, where 111 female soldiers have died, according to data compiled by icasualties.org, an independent organization that tracks military fatalities. In both wars, 60 percent of those deaths are classified by the military as due to hostile acts.
Wars with no clear front lines have put women in harm?s way more than ever before, blurring the boundaries between combat jobs that are outlawed for women, and support jobs that are often as dangerous and in some cases even more so.
Whodathunkit?
Penning an autobiography and being the subject of numerous books and films is practically in the job description of a US president. But this weekend Bill Clinton joined only a handful of other Oval Office veterans in being memorialized onstage. Cue the lights, Bill Clinton's life is now an opera!

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http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/egoIxgtywCM/-Midday-open-thread

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Meet The Friendly Fracosaurus: Natural Gas
Industry Produces Propaganda For Children

post from ThinkProgress on 22 June 2011 03:00:02 PM. © ThinkProgress

Talisman Terry, your friendly Fracosaurus.

Taking a lesson from coal, the natural gas industry, under increasing scrutiny for its boom of unregulated fracking across the United States, is now bringing its own propaganda to children. Talisman Energy, a Canadian driller with extensive operations in Pennsylvania, has developed the coloring book “Talisman Terry’s Energy Adventure,” starring the “friendly fracosaurus,” a smiling dinosaur wearing drilling garb named Talisman Terry. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette explains that the coloring book is part of the company’s outreach strategy to Pennsylvania locals:

The coloring book’s overt message — drilling is smart, safe and American — is delivered in kid-friendly fashion, glossing over the environmental and economic controversies that have surrounded drillers tapping the Marcellus Shale rock formation for lucrative pockets of gas. . . . Talisman Terry was developed at Talisman Energy’s Calgary headquarters and has been distributed at community picnics in northeastern Pennsylvania counties. It’s available free as a PDF on the company’s website.

The content of “Talisman Terry” is beyond parody, with smiling rocks, flowers, balloons, fish, and puppies, as well as American flags, the Statue of Liberty, and bald eagles. According to the coloring book’s before-and-after pages, the impacts of natural gas drilling evidently include the creation of rainbows:

“If you’re talking age 9 or younger, you can’t get into the questions like, ‘What is in fracking fluid?’” Natalie Cox, Talisman’s head of U.S. communications, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. In fact, Talisman doesn’t have to tell anyone, even adults, what is in fracking fluid. Pennsylvania’s disclosure laws are riddled with loopholes, and federal regulation is prevented by the “Cheney loophole.”

The natural gas industry is following on the heels of the coal industry, which has produced its own coloring books, a pro-coal curriculum, and even coal carols.

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/green/2011/06/22/251309/meet-the-%e2%80%98friendly-fraco
saurus%e2%80%99-natural-gas-industry-produces-propaganda-for-children/

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Gates Unlikely To Certify Repeal Of Don’t
Ask, Don’t Tell Before He Steps Down

post from ThinkProgress on 22 June 2011 03:00:02 PM. © ThinkProgress

Via Stars and Stripes: “Defense Secretary Robert Gates is unlikely to certify repeal of ‘don?t ask, don?t tell’ before leaving office next week,” despite saying two weeks that “he would finalize the repeal of the 18-year-old ban on openly gay troops if the service chiefs give him their OK before he retires on June 30.” “Army leaders said assessments on the progress and impact of the ‘don?t ask, don?t tell’ repeal training ? underway since February ? are due this Friday, leaving open a slim possibility that certification could come before Gates steps down.”

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2011/06/22/251372/gates-unlikely-to-certify-repeal-
of-dont-ask-dont-tell-before-he-steps-down/

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Florida Pushes Rule Allowing Medicaid Providers
To Opt-Out Of Family Planning Services On Moral Or Religious Grounds

post from ThinkProgress on 22 June 2011 03:00:02 PM. © ThinkProgress

The 2010 Republican wave is bearing a multi-pronged attack on women’s reproductive rights. Pushing nearly 1,000 anti-choice bills through legislatures, Republican lawmakers across the country are finding significant success in demonizing Planned Parenthood. Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) recently beat out four GOP governors and House Republicans to make Indiana the first state to defund the health and family planning organization to the detriment of thousands. However, because providing family planning services is a mandated requirement for health providers, Indiana is running afoul of federal law and stands to lose $4 billion in Medicaid funding.

Seemingly undeterred by such consequences, Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) and the GOP-led legislature are now attacking family planning through Medicaid. Earlier this month, Scott signed into law “a landmark Medicaid overhaul” that jeopardizes quality health care for thousands of Floridians. Now, the Florida Independent reports that the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) is moving forward with a new rule allowing Medicaid providers to opt out of providing family planning services — which includes birth control — on “moral or religious grounds.” Citing a federal provision that allows providers to opt out of “counseling or referral service” for similar reasons, AHCA and state Republicans want to exempt moral and religious objectors from providing family planning services entirely:

Florida?s Medicaid bill contains a list of required minimum benefits that should be covered by providers. Under the section for ?family planning services and supplies? the bill?s sponsor added:
Pursuant to 42 C.F.R. s. 438.102, plans may elect to not provide these services due to an objection on moral or religious grounds, and must notify the agency of that election when submitting a reply to an invitation to negotiate.
The federal provision in questions reads:
(2) Subject to the information requirements of paragraph (b) of this section, an MCO, PIHP, or PAHP that would otherwise be required to provide, reimburse for, or provide coverage of, a counseling or referral service because of the requirement in paragraph (a)(1) of this section is not required to do so if the MCO, PIHP, or PAHP objects to the service on moral or religious grounds.

The provision was added to the state’s Medicaid bill at the request of Catholic Services, “which is looking to become a Medicaid provider.”

In defense of the radical rule, AHCA argues that if a plan elects not to provide family planning services, “the plan enrollees will have access to these very same services through fee-for-service provision outside of the plan.” However, as Florida Planned Parenthood policy director Judith Selzer notes, there is no provision in the bill that makes sure there is at least one provider of family planning in every region. As low-income Medicaid patients are already a “very vulnerable population,” the requirement to go outside of their provider network “makes it even less likely that they will get these important services.”

The new rule must still receive approval from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and ACHA has until Aug. 1 to finalize the proposal. But given CMS’s reception to Indiana’s attempt to obstruct family planning services, the Florida GOP’s dogma may not fare so well.

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2011/06/22/251102/florida-medicaid-providers-reli
gious-opt-out/

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Activist/Artist Ai Weiwei Released by China

post from ThinkProgress on 22 June 2011 03:00:02 PM. © ThinkProgress

Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei was released on Wednesday after spending almost three months in prison. Held on tax evasion charges that his family disputes, Weiwei’s arrest sparked international criticism. He could still face the same charges and is limited to his home city of Beijing, according to an expert cited by ABC News. Weiwei, an outspoken critic of China’s ruling Communist Party, told reporters he couldn’t speak about the case as a condition of his release.

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/security/2011/06/22/251313/china-weiwei-release/

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A Robert Nozick Followup Or; How I Learned To
Stop Worrying And Quit Ideal Theory

post from ThinkProgress on 22 June 2011 03:00:02 PM. © ThinkProgress

Cogitating more on the question of Robert Nozick, I’m really not sure what conclusion to draw from his very brief remarks on politics in Invariances. He says that people have a duty not to harm one another and that society ought to enforce that duty. He then considers the possibility that society ought to also enforce the duty to help others in need, but rejects it. He doesn’t offer a very extended argument for this conclusion, but cites the idea that our top priority ought to be maintaining “the functioning of nonviolent relations, so that the right of non-interference are what are to be most strongly mandated and enforced, thereby preserving room for people to pursue their own ends and goals.”

In part, this seems to stumble into the old saw of positive versus negative freedom. If I take $10,000 from Jamie Dimon and give it to a homeless person, it seems to me that the net ability of human beings to pursue their own ends and goals has been enhanced. But you also get other policy dilemmas. Are state level taxes exempted from the critique of coercion on the grounds that you can always go live in another state? If we have persuasive research to indicate that investment in high-quality preschool will do a better job of reducing violent crime then investing in prisons, should we do that instead? Is coercing people to cough up some resources they own in part because their ancestors coerced Native Americans into giving up resources an act of corrective justice aimed at deterring future coercion, or is it a new coercion of its own? Is coercing people into paying taxes to finance a war to “liberate” Iraq a way of on net increasing the amount of non-interference in the world?

Obviously, you can try to answer these questions. And arguably you can produce facts and arguments that lead to the correct small government libertarian answer in all cases. But you’d have to be making consequentialist arguments about economics, military policy, etc., and it’s really not clear that Nozick’s particular formulation of principled liberalism would make any difference in the answer. And I think the reason his remarks on politics were so brief and his argument in favor of his favored position so threadbare is precisely because he didn’t think it was possible to draw many interesting policy conclusions from his philosophical position.

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/yglesias/2011/06/22/251318/a-robert-nozick-followup-or-h
ow-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-quit-ideal-theory/

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Hunger Pains: The Food Crisis Hits Home

I would like to introduce you to a long-time friend of Weiss Research, Kevin Kerr.

Kevin Kerr’s reputation as commodity expert is so good it has caused the financial media to beat a path to his door! He has been a regular contributor to Cavuto on Fox, Kudlow & Company on CNBC, Nightly Business report on PBS Fox Business News, NBC, ABC, CNN, and many more.

What most people don’t realize is that Kevin’s expertise goes far beyond just commodities.

For today, though, consider his latest views on the subject he’s best known for.

For a very long time in America we’ve enjoyed a seemingly endless, cheap, and abundant variety of foods from all over the . . . → Read More: Hunger Pains: The Food Crisis Hits Home

Read The Full Article:
http://jutiagroup.com/20110622-hunger-pains-the-food-crisis-hits-home/

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Sen. Kent Conrad Joins the Republican Hostage
Takers

What the Hell is Sen. Kent Conrad smoking? And why it is that he won?t share (c?mon, Senator, don?t bogart that doobie!)? In today?s Washington Post Sen. Conrad enables the hostage taking of the Republican Party by saying that he does not think that the[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/firedoglake/fdl/~3/rztceUxtDO0/

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