after the bar-b-q, for some

Crap-O-Crap-O-Lad!!!



The Wealthy Public-Sector Worker: A Myth Debunked
Thursday 09 September 2010
by: Paul Krugman, Krugman & Co.

Whenever the subject of state and local governments' fiscal plight comes up here in the United States, conservatives engage in spittle-flecked denunciations of unions and their crazy pay packages.... I looked at finance data from the U.S. Census and got the composition of nonfederal government spending shown in the graphic on this page. You'll see two things. First, wages and retirement benefits don't take up an unreasonably large piece of the pie. Second, subtracting a few percentage points either in pay or retirement benefits would not actually make a big difference. In the end, this is a phony issue. (ReAd MOre)

HHS to insurers: Don't blame us for your rates
RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR
From Associated Press

September 09, 2010 8:44 PM EDT


WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama's top health official on Thursday warned the insurance industry that the administration won't tolerate blaming premium hikes on the new health overhaul law.
"There will be zero tolerance for this type of misinformation and unjustified rate increases," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a letter to the insurance lobby.
"Simply stated, we will not stand idly by as insurers blame their premium hikes and increased profits on the requirement that they provide consumers with basic protections," Sebelius said. She warned that bad actors may be excluded from new health insurance markets that will open in 2014 under the law. They'd lose out on a big pool of customers, as many as 30 million people nationwide. (REaD MoRE)

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The Labor Day Again

Crap-O-Econo-Foes!

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

1938 in 2010

By PAUL KRUGMAN

Published: September 5, 2010

Paul Krugman: "It's slightly sickening to realize that the big winners in the midterm elections are likely to be the very people who first got us into this mess, then did everything in their power to block action to get us out." (Read More)

The Labor Day

Crap-O-Labor-Day 1

Hilton workers protested late last month, demanding that the corporation negotiate a new contract with their union. (Photo: David Bacon)

The Face of Labor In the Streets (Photo Essay)
Monday 06 September 2010
by: David Bacon, t r u t h o u t | Report


San Francisco - This Labor Day the faces in the streets in cities across the U.S. are those of hotel workers, picketing some of the world's most luxurious establishments. In San Francisco, cooks, room cleaners, housemen and laundry workers laid siege to the Downtown Hilton recently, demanding that the corporation negotiate a new contract with their union, UNITE HERE Local 2.

This fall, the conflict between the union and the hotel corporations is spreading to over 40,000 workers in at least nine cities, including Chicago, Los Angeles, Toronto, Minneapolis, Monterey, Vancouver, Honolulu, and Washington DC.

(Read More)

Crap-O-Labor-Day 2

(Photo: Elyce Feliz / Flickr)

A Labor Day Commitment to the Common Good
Thursday 09 September 2010
by: Jim Hightower, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed


America's corporate chieftains must love poor people, for they're doing all they can to create millions more of them.

They're knocking down wages, offshoring everything from manufacturing jobs to high tech, reducing full-time work to part-time, downsizing our workplaces, busting unions, cutting health care coverage and canceling pensions -- while also lobbying in Washington to privatize Social Security, eliminate job safety protections, restrict unemployment benefits, kill job-creating programs and increase corporate control of our elections.

(Read More)

Labor day sunday

GOP's CRAP-ON-Obama Stimulus!

The Real Story

Paul Krugman, The New York Times
03 September 10

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

Paul Krugman

Next week, President Obama is scheduled to propose new measures to boost the economy. I hope they're bold and substantive, since the Republicans will oppose him regardless - if he came out for motherhood, the G.O.P. would declare motherhood un-American. So he should put them on the spot for standing in the way of real action.

But let's put politics aside and talk about what we've actually learned about economic policy over the past 20 months.

When Mr. Obama first proposed $800 billion in fiscal stimulus, there were two groups of critics. Both argued that unemployment would stay high - but for very different reasons.

One group - the group that got almost all the attention - declared that the stimulus was much too large, and would lead to disaster. If you were, say, reading The Wall Street Journal's opinion pages in early 2009, you would have been repeatedly informed that the Obama plan would lead to skyrocketing interest rates and soaring inflation.

(Read More)

Crap-O-il-BP!!

Crab-trap builder Shawn Platt's traps idle, Hopedale, Louisiana, 05/13/10. (photo: Getty Images)

BP Threatens to Cut Aid to Spill Victims If Not Allowed to Drill
By Joel Schectman, Newsweek
04 September 10

n what could be a new low at BP, the company said it may not be able to pay for the damages from the Deepwater Horizon if Congress prohibits it from drilling offshore. BP appears to be betting that the threat to renege on its cleanup and compensation promises will pressure Congress to allow the company to continue drilling in the gulf, despite having created the worst environmental catastrophe in history.

The House passed a bill in July that would prevent companies with more than 10 deaths at their facilities from getting permits to drill on the outer continental shelf. Only BP's record was poor enough to reach the threshold.

BP did not return calls for comment, but a spokesman told The New York Times: "I am not going to make a direct linkage to the $20 billion [compensation fund], but our ability to fund these assets and the cash coming from these assets that are securing these funds would be lost" if the House bill were enacted by the full Congress.

The oil giant's expectation that Congress will be cowed by the apparent intimidation tactic may be correct, as response from the Hill to the threat has so far been muted. "It's like Bonnie and Clyde saying we are not going to pay back the money we stole unless you let us keep robbing banks," Democratic Rep. George Miller of California, who added the language to the bill, told NEWSWEEK. "We need to be able to assure people in the gulf that the companies getting permits are safe. But this is absolutely a rogue company in how they ignore both safety and environmental regulations."

BP had $16.6 billion in profits in 2009.

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Fart Tuesday

Crap-O-Torture-Tapes !

In this undated photo provided by global security research and analysis enterprise Flashpoint Partners, a man who Flashpoint has identified as confessed 9/11 architect Ramzi Binalshibh is shown. Binalshibh is being held pending trial at a U.S. military facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (AP Photo - Flashpoint Partners)

AP Exclusive: Terrorist interrogation tapes found

ADAM GOLDMAN

From Associated
Press

August 17, 2010 10:19 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The CIA has videotapes, after all, of interrogations in a secret overseas prison of admitted 9/11 plotter Ramzi Binalshibh.

Discovered in a box under a desk at the CIA, the tapes could reveal how foreign governments aided the United States in holding and interrogating suspects. And they could complicate U.S. efforts to prosecute Binalshibh, who has been described as one of the "key plot facilitators" in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks... (Read More)

Sunday Qualm

(Photo: John Wigham / Flickr)

The Climate Agency: A Letter to President Obama
Sunday 15 August 2010
by: Peter G. Cohen, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed

Mr. President, I urge you to declare a climate change emergency. The American people have seen enough of violent storms and freezing cold, of sweltering heat and drying rivers to know how urgent it is that our climate be controlled. Once you have declared this emergency, it will be possible to create the Climate Change Agency to plan and direct a smooth changeover from fossil fuels to alternative energies. This giant task will require people with authority and a profound understanding of the issue. (Read More)

Hot San Franciscan Week

Crap-O-Gaza-Prison!!!

Israel Chokes Gaza Despite Announced Easing
Thursday 15 July 2010
by: Mel Frykberg | Inter Press Service | Report

RAMALLAH, Jul 15, 2010 (IPS) - Israel has received international praise for its decision to ease its crippling blockade on Gaza following the country's deadly assault on a humanitarian flotilla trying to bring desperately needed humanitarian aid to the coastal territory. But according to the UN and human rights organisations, the easing of the blockade is insufficient in meeting Gaza's needs. (Read More)