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LOUISVILLE /JEFFERSON COUNTY
DEMOCRATIC PARTY NEWSLETTER
Week of June 17, 2007
The link to this electronic newsletter is being e-mailed to 4,000+
Jefferson County Democrats
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CLICK HERE FOR CURRENT LIST OF EVENTS
Updated on a regular basis
Bulletin Board:
The Louisville/Jefferson County Democratic Executive Committee meets the 4th Wednesday of every month at 5:00 pm at 901 Barret Avenue .
Notice to our Readers & 2007 General Election Candidates:
This newsletter will carry in this space any Democratic candidates' notice of events or communications (250 words or less) to our readers that the candidate provides to the editor at rcrider@louisvilledem.com
Congressman Yarmuth Proposes Loan Relief to College Students
Amendment Offers Aid for Those in Teaching, Law Enforcement, Nursing, and other Public Service Fields
In today's Education and Labor Committee markup of the
College Cost Reduction Act, Congressman John Yarmuth (KY-3) offered an
amendment that will give graduates in public service professions $1,000 of
college loan forgiveness in their first five years in their fields.
"The skyrocketing cost of a college education prevents many skilled Americans from pursuing careers in teaching, law enforcement, nursing, and other public service fields," Congressman Yarmuth said. "With this amendment, we will be able to provide relief to people serving their communities, and encourage recent graduates to enter this work force."
Those eligible for loan forgiveness include first responders, law enforcement officers, early childhood educators, nurses, librarians, highly-qualified teachers in hard-to-staff schools, child care workers, speech-language pathologists, and other public servants.
Since 1996, the average graduate's college debt has risen by 45 percent to nearly $18,000, while the average Kentucky Head Start teacher starts out making less than $30,000 a year.
The College Cost Reduction Act, which Yarmuth was instrumental in crafting, will incentivize lower tuitions, increase maximum Pell Grants by $500 to $5,100, simplify the student aid application process, and increase limits federal loans while cutting their interest rates.
Kentucky will see an additional $211 million in added benefits, over five years, through additional Pell grants, student loans, and Academic Competitiveness/SMART Grants. Under this legislation, the number of Kentucky students receiving Pell grants is expected to rise by more than 9,000 in that time.
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Nothing this week.
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DAILY GRILL
"Those disagreements
[between former Deputy Attorney General James Comey and the White House] did
not — were not about the particular activities that the president has
publicly described, that we have termed the Terrorist Surveillance Program."
-- Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Steven Bradbury,
6/7/07
VERSUS
"Mr. Comey’s
testimony related to a highly classified program which the president
confirmed to the American people sometime ago." -- Attorney General Alberto
Gonzales,
6/5/07
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"I think we have to be prepared to take aggressive military action
against the Iranians to stop them from killing Americans in Iraq." -- Sen.
Joseph Lieberman (I-CT),
6/10/07
VERSUS
"So, I know Joe feels strongly about that part of the world. I do too. But
the invasion of [Iran] is only going to destabilize that part of the world
more." -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV),
6/11/07
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"Social conservatives bite bullet, back Rudy." -- Politico headline,
5/28/07, explaining conservatives' support of former New York City mayor
Rudolph Giuliani
VERSUS
"Conservatives would bolt over Rudy." -- Politico headline,
6/11/07, explaining conservatives' aversion to Giuliani
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"We can fall back easily into what the Democrats are talking about. ...
Don't react, let things go, kind of act the way Clinton did in the '90s. You
know, we get attacked on the Cole. We don't do anything about it."
-- Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani,
6/12/07
VERSUS
"After the Cole, I had battle plans drawn to go into Afghanistan, overthrow
the Taliban, and launch a full-scale attack search for bin Laden. ... The
CIA and the FBI refused to certify that bin Laden was responsible while I
was there. They refused to certify." -- President Bill Clinton,
9/22/06
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Q: Are there any members of the Bush family or this administration in
this war?
SNOW: Yeah, the President. The President is in the war every day. [...]
Q: On the frontlines, where ever?
SNOW: The President.
-- White House Press Briefing with spokesman Tony Snow,
6/14/07
VERSUS
"I can only tell you what people on the ground, whose judgment -- it's hard
for me, living in this beautiful White House, to give you an assessment,
firsthand assessment. I haven't been there; you have, I haven't."
-- President Bush,
2/14/07
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O’Reilly Defends His Lack Of Iraq Coverage: Explosions In Iraq ‘Don’t Mean Anything’
A recent study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism found that in the first three months of 2007, Fox News devoted considerably less coverage to the Iraq war than did CNN and MSNBC, but almost twice as much time to the Anna Nicole Smith story:
Today on his radio show, Fox News host Bill O’Reilly derided the group behind the report as the “Project for Excellence in Left-Wing Journalism,” but then said he wouldn’t dispute their findings. He defended his lack of Iraq war coverage, stating that the only reason CNN and MSNBC “do so much Iraq reporting is because they want to embarrass the Bush administration”:
Now the reason that CNN and MSNBC do so much Iraq reporting is because they want to embarrass the Bush administration. Both do. And all their reporting consists of is here’s another explosion. Bang. Here’s more people dead. Bang. […]
They’re not doing it to inform anybody about anything. The terrorists are going to set off a bomb every day because they know CNN and MSNBC are going to put it on the air. That’s a strategy for the other side. The terrorist side. So I’m taking an argument that CNN and MSNBC are actually helping the terrorists by reporting useless explosions.
Do you care if another bomb went off in Tikrit? Does it mean anything? No! It doesn’t mean anything.
CLICK HERE
TO LISTENThe explosions in Iraq have killed over 3,500 U.S. troops since 2003. Journalists stationed in Iraq stress that coverage of the violence is necessary to ensure that the American public understands soldiers’ sacrifices:
CBS News Correspondent Lara Logan: When you see an American kid get shot and friends come to his aid and risk their lives, and see how they live day after day, you realize it is very hard for people far away to understand just how great are the sacrifices being made.
CNN International Correspondent Michael Ware: Clearly, it’s very hard to distill into one story the reality of life on the ground. Many of the soldiers I was with recently in Ramadiyah feel that people back home are turning off to an extent. They feel they’re fighting this war in a vacuum. That’s where you see the true strength of these men. They continue to do their jobs professionally and bravely.
O’Reilly constantly claims that he supports the troops. For O’Reilly, supporting the troops means ignoring their work and saying that the explosions killing them don’t “mean anything.”
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Quotes of the Day
"And believe me, no one suffers more than their president and I do when we watch this, and certainly the commander in chief, who has asked our military to go into harm's way." --First Lady Laura Bush, on Iraq
Recent Senate Votes
The weeklong debate over this comprehensive immigration reform bill ended with a failed cloture motion to end debate and proceed to a final vote.
Sen. Mitch McConnell voted NO
Sen. Jim Bunning voted NO
Recent House Votes
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HUMOR
"Joint Chiefs of Staff [Chair] Peter Pace is leaving his job. He's the one who announced that all homosexual acts are immoral, and so is adultery. No wonder he left. He attacked all the members of Congress." --Jay Leno
"Vice President Dick Cheney's former top aide, Scooter Libby, was sentenced to 30 months in prison. However, the sentence could be cut short if Vice President Cheney needs a heart transplant." --Jay Leno
"President Bush met with the pope on Saturday. There was one awkward moment ... when he asked the pope, 'Hey, how's Mrs. Pope?'" --Jay Leno
"By a vote of 93-5, the Louisiana state House has voted to make it illegal for teachers to have sex with their students. Here's my question: Who are the five people who voted for it?" --Jay Leno
"Paris Hilton is behind bars, but still no word on Osama." --David Letterman
"President Bush is overseas visiting Poland. He's looking for kielbasa of mass destruction. ... And tomorrow, the president is visiting the pope. That won't help." --David Letterman
"Yesterday at the G8 Summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to let President Bush build a missile defense system in Azerbaijan. There was an awkward moment when Bush said, 'I believe the correct pronunciation is Abracadabra.'" --Conan O'Brien
"They say it's just a matter of time before former senator and 'Law & Order' actor Fred Thompson gets into the Republican race. Apparently, 10 rich white guys doesn't offer enough choices to the voters. They need 11 rich white guys." --Jay Leno
"So nobody saw the Republican debate last night? There haven't been that many white people on TV since NBC canceled 'Friends.'" --Jay Leno
"According to the Boston Herald, observers are saying that Hillary Clinton looks like she's had some work done. In fact, she has changed her appearance so much in the last year, at one of the campaign rallies, Clinton accidentally hit on her." --Jay Leno
"In a forum for Democratic candidates, Hillary Clinton said her faith in God got her through her husband's infidelity. She didn't say which one, but it got her through. ... She said faith and prayers kept her in her marriage. That and her ambition to be senator and president." --Jay Leno
"Leaders from the eight wealthiest countries in the world are gathering in Germany for what they call the G8 Summit. The G8 was created in 1975 to give Europeans who aren't into soccer something to riot about. ... President Bush is there. See, I don't think President Bush really understands the G8. ... Every time someone says G8, he yells out, 'Bingo.'" --Jay Leno
"Scooter Libby has been sentenced to 30 months in prison ... even though he is a good friend of Vice President Dick Cheney. Hey, he got off easy. Cheney's other friends got shot in the face." --Jay Leno
"A low-level researcher at Yale University has been arrested for a scam he was running out of the Yale Law library. The guy claimed to be a lawyer and was charging illegal immigrants $5,000 a piece to get a greencard. They say this is the biggest scam pulled off at Yale since, I guess, George Bush got his diploma" --Jay Leno
"Last night in Manchester, New Hampshire, the 10 Republican
candidates prepared to take the stage for their party's third 2008
presidential debate ... of 2007. ... This debate wasn't about policy
discrepancies. It's about America and the imminent death of its people if
one of these people isn't elected [on screen:
John McCain
calling the war 'a transcendent struggle between good and evil']. A
transcendent struggle between good and evil? They're going to pull out all
the stops. There is nothing that they would not do to win and fight this war
[on screen: GOPers unanimously opposing openly gay soldiers]. ...
Apparently, the only thing worse for these candidates than another terrorist
attack would be a gay hero stopping it. ... I don't want to say anything,
but there are 10 candidates on that stage and the law of averages says one
of these guys is a little Barney in the Franks." --Jon
Stewart
Daily Show correspondent John Oliver, on
lightning striking Rudy Giuliani while he was speaking about abortion at
the GOP debate: "No, it was not a coincidence. That was divine endorsement.
Or, in this case, God saying, 'Vote for anybody but Rudy Giuliani.' And God
said onto the people of New Hampshire, 'a thrice-married New York City
cross-dresser, oh, for the love of me.'"
IMMIGRATION -- JUSTICE DEPARTMENT EMPHASIZED POLITICAL TIES OVER EXPERIENCE FOR IMMIGRATION JUDGES: During her testimony to Congress last month, former Justice Department liaison to the White House Monica Goodling admitted that she "considered party affiliation in screening applicants to become immigration judges." Goodling's revelation led to the expansion of an internal Justice Department investigation "into whether aides to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales improperly took into account political considerations in hiring employees." The probe had not previously included an inquiry into the hiring of immigration judges. Today, an analysis by the Washington Post demonstrates just how much "the Bush administration increasingly emphasized partisan political ties over expertise in recent years in selecting the judges who decide the fate of hundreds of thousands of immigrants," despite laws that preclude such considerations. As the New York Times noted last month, "unlike federal judges, immigration judges are civil service employees, to be appointed by the attorney general based on professional qualifications, not their politics." "At least one-third of the immigration judges appointed by the Justice Department since 2004 have had Republican connections or have been administration insiders, and half lacked experience in immigration law, Justice Department, immigration court and other records show." Among the recently appointed, politically-connected judges are "a New Jersey election law specialist who represented GOP candidates, a former treasurer of the Louisiana Republican Party, a White House domestic policy adviser and a conservative crusader against pornography." "Immigration law is very complex," said Denise Slavin, an immigration judge since 1995 in Miami. "So generally speaking, it's very good to have someone coming into this area with [an] immigration background. It's very difficult, for those who don't, to catch up."
CONGRESS
-- CONSERVATIVES BLOCK NO-CONFIDENCE RESOLUTION ON GONZALES: The
Senate voted yesterday on a no-confidence resolution for Attorney General
Alberto Gonzales. At
53-38, the non-binding resolution fell seven votes
short of passage. While the resolution was voted down largely on party
lines,
seven Republicans, disheartened with Gonzales's
management of the Department of Justice, voted for resolution. Sen. Joe
Lieberman (I-CT) voted against the resolution, charging that Gonzales should
"look
into his heart and soul" for advice on resigning. "My
vote against going ahead with more debate on this no confidence resolution
is not an expression of confidence in Attorney General Gonzales. It is an
expression of opposition to spending any more time on a resolution that will
accomplish nothing, instead of going ahead with the next item of business,
which is energy legislation," said Lieberman. While some conservatives
considered the resolution a "historical
black mark," Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) tried to downplay its
importance, stating, "Is this what the business of the Senate is really
about? A nonbinding resolution proving what?
Nothing." Today, the White House also went on the
offensive against critics of Gonzales. Writing an op-ed in USA Today, White
House spokesperson Tony Snow vigorously defended Gonzales: "Gonzales doesn't
deserve this. He is a
man of great dedication and integrity. ... Real work
beckons. Senators should resume debating immigration reform and energy
legislation without further delay." Despite the defeat, discontent with
Gonzales is bipartisan. "There is
no confidence in the attorney general on this side of the aisle,"
said Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA).
ETHICS -- BUSH ADVISED TO DISCIPLINE DOAN 'TO THE FULLEST EXTENT':
In a
June 8 letter to President Bush, Special Counsel Scott
Bloch recommended that the President discipline General Services
Administration (GSA) chief Lurita Doan "to
the fullest extent for her serious violation of the Hatch Act"
and her refusal to cooperate "fully and honestly" in the course of his
investigation. The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) investigation concluded
that Doan had violated the Hatch Act -- which prohibits the use of
government resources for political activity -- at a Jan. 26 luncheon
"featuring a PowerPoint presentation
about the November elections by the White House's deputy director of
political affairs." OSC investigators found that
following the presentation, Doan had "asked what could be done to 'help
our candidates,'" and several GSA appointees "responded
with ideas of how the [GSA] could use its facilities to benefit the
Republican Party." Doan has denied any wrongdoing and
told Congress under oath that she remembered little about the meeting,
except that "there
were cookies on the table." Her lawyer said that the OSC
had based its investigation on "tenuous inferences and careless leaps of
logic" and argued that their conclusions were "far off the mark." Bloch,
however, said that Doan "has shown
little ability to appreciate how her actions have affected the public trust
or others in the administration who are watching." "The White House declined
to comment about who is reviewing the report or when the president will make
a decision," calling the matter an "internal
deliberation."
ETHICS -- NEW JUSTICE DEPT. E-MAILS
REVEAL TOP ROVE AIDES' INVOLVEMENT IN ATTORNEY SCANDAL: A new set of
documents released last night in the ongoing U.S. attorney scandal
shines new light on how closely the White House and the Department of
Justice coordinated in their efforts to respond to the uproar over the
firing of nine U.S. attorneys last year. "Then-White House counsel
Harriet E. Miers and aides to presidential adviser Karl Rove were deeply
enmeshed in debates over how to respond to the controversy as early as
mid-January, when Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) questioned the spate of
prosecutor departures in a Senate floor speech, according to e-mails that
the Justice Department turned over to the House and Senate judiciary
committees." The emails, from February 2007, all relate to the case of Rove-protege
Tim Griffin, who was
installed as U.S. attorney in Arkansas without Senate confirmation.
Griffin's predecessor, Bud Cummins, was
fired to make way for Griffin. In one e-mail, former White House
political director Sara Taylor, who
resigned last month, writes to Kyle Sampson, Alberto Gonzales' former
chief of staff, and
suggests retribution against Cummins for speaking out about the reason for
his firing. "I normally don't like attacking our friends, but since Bud
Cummins is talking to everyone," wrote Taylor. "Why don't we tell the deal
on him?" In another e-mail, Taylor wrote to Sampson complaining about Deputy
Attorney General Paul McNulty's public acknowledgment that Cummins had been
pushed out to make room for Griffin rather than for performance reasons.
"Tim was put in a horrible position; hung out to dry w/ no heads up,"
lamented Taylor. "This
is not good for his long-term career." Griffin has since
resigned his position. In a statement, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), the
chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that "these documents,
which should have been released by the Department long ago, provide further
evidence that White House officials like former Political Director Sara
Taylor were
deeply involved in the mass firings of well-performing prosecutors."
CONGRESS -- REP. HUNTER DEFENDS FAILED PET PROJECT: Yesterday,
members of the House Committee on Science and Technology
watched videos "of what they got for $63 million spent on an
experimental aircraft the military did not want: repeated crashes and
significant failures." According to testimony from the Office of Naval
Research, the DP-2, a plane "designed to take off like a helicopter and then
fly at high speed, failed to remain in the air for more than a few seconds
in 49 separate tests last year." Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), who had "aggressively
supported the program over decades even though the Pentagon repeatedly
questioned the jet's feasibility and lambasted the contractor's work,"
defended his role in leading the effort to secure funding "on behalf of a
hometown company, DuPont Aerospace." "The idea around here that if the
Pentagon doesn't come up with something, that if the services don't like it,
you're not going to build it is ridiculous," said Hunter, who received
$36,000 in campaign contributions from DuPoint Aerospace. But experts who
testified before the committee claimed that "the aircraft was nowhere near
delivering on the promises cited by DuPont and its congressional supporters.
'It's
a pipe dream,' said John Eney, an aerospace engineer who led a Navy team
that evaluated the project in 1999." As the San Diego Union Tribune notes,
"Hunter's support of the DP-2 has thrust him into the center of the debate
about earmarks, which congressmen sponsor to fund everything from new roads
and museums in their districts to defense contracts that sometimes provide
hundreds of jobs for constituents."
CIVIL LIBERTIES -- FBI'S TERROR WATCH LIST 'OUT OF CONTROL':
The Blotter reports today that "a terrorist watch list compiled by the FBI
has
apparently swelled to include more than half a million names." The
tally, which an FBI spokesman insisted is classified, was revealed in a
"portion of the FBI's unclassified 2008 budget request posted to the
Department of Justice Web site" which referenced the "entire watch list of
509,000 names." According to the Blotter, the FBI's list along with a list
compiled by the National Counterterrorism Center forms the basis for "the
watch list used by federal security screening personnel on the lookout for
terrorists." Such a vast list the ACLU argues, however, is "virtually
useless" and is growing "seemingly without control or limitation." "If
we have 509,000 names on that list... [y]ou'll be capturing innocent
individuals with no connection to crime or terror," said ACLU senior
legislative counsel Tim Sparapani. The Blotter notes, "U.S. lawmakers and
their spouses have been detained because their names were on the watch list"
and "[r]eporters who have reviewed versions of the list found it included
the names of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, at the time he was alive
but in custody in Iraq ... and 14 of the 19 Sept. 11, 2001 hijackers, all of
whom perished in the attacks." Despite such deficiencies, the Treasury
Inspector General for Tax Administration recently urged the IRS to use the
FBI's list over Treasury Department's own
smaller, more targeted watch list to screen "nonprofit tax filings for
possible matches to suspected terrorists." Sparapani notes, "There's a
reason the FBI has a '10 Most Wanted' list, right?
We need to focus the government's efforts on the greatest threats."
NEED COMPUTER ASSISTANCE??
Democrat Activist Mike Bailey is now providing “Professional Computer Support.” He can be contacted at 502-558-4026, or mikebailey2000@usa.net.
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Think Fast
A controversial Sept. 2005 government memo suggests that in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, FEMA authorized private insurance companies to overbill the taxpayer-funded federal flood program "while shorting people on their wind damage payments."
The escalation is now complete. "The full contingent of new U.S. forces being sent to Iraq...was completed by Friday, with 28,500 additional troops now posted in the country." Five U.S. soldiers died yesterday.
"Senate leaders agreed on Thursday to revive a stalled immigration overhaul," announcing an effort "to overcome conservatives' objections" by immediately setting aside "more than $4 billion to beef up enforcement of immigration laws."
Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), "dogged by a federal probe of political corruption in Alaska, disclosed Thursday that he has asked the Senate Ethics Committee to review his latest financial disclosure report." Ethics reviews of lawmakers' financial reports "are unusual unless they are under a legal cloud."
The Supreme Court struck a blow against unions yesterday, ruling that states may "force public sector labor unions to get consent from workers before using their fees for political activities." Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the court, said a Washington state law requiring such consent "does not violate the union's First Amendment rights."
"The increased demand for 'green' vehicles is spilling over to the rental car counter," as Hertz and Avis rental companies announced plans to add thousands more hybrid vehicles to their fleets.
"The Justice Department is investigating whether British defense giant BAE Systems, which supplies Bradley fighting vehicles to the U.S. military and is becoming a major player in the U.S. defense industry, paid bribes to win contracts in Saudi Arabia, Chile and elsewhere."
"The military's mental health system has 'fallen significantly short' of meeting the needs of troops and their families, according to a year-long task force study released Thursday." The report also notes that the "Pentagon must immediately start recruiting to fill a mental health staff 'woefully inadequate' to deal with conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder."
"When the FBI asked Congress this spring to provide $3.6 million in the war spending bill for its Gulfstream V jet, it said the money was needed to ensure that the aircraft, packed with state-of-the-art security and communications gear, could continue to fly counterterrorism agents on 'crucial missions' into Iraq." Instead, it is "now routinely used to ferry FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III to speeches, public appearances and field office visits."
"Male U.S. veterans are twice as likely to die by suicide than people with no military service, and are more likely to kill themselves with a gun than others who commit suicide, researchers said on Monday."
"For the first time in five years, President Bush will attend the Senate Republicans' weekly policy lunch today as he pushes to revive his moribund overhaul of the nation's immigration laws." But several Republican senators "issued a terse warning yesterday: Don't expect much."
"The nation's growing cadre of home healthcare workers are not entitled to minimum wages or overtime pay under federal law, even if they work for private employers, the Supreme Court ruled today."
"The first priority for the next president of the World Bank is to smooth ruffled feathers among the staff after the turbulent exit of Paul Wolfowitz, according to the leading contender to replace him." Robert Zoellick acknowledged the staff has been "bruised and somewhat frustrated and there will be a need to calm the waters."
Frustrated that he "risked being late for a TV interview on Saturday" because streets around the Italian Senate were blocked for President Bush's visit, Italian Sen. Gustavo Selva called an ambulance to rush him to the studio. As he later boasted on television, Selva "dialed 118 for an ambulance asking to be rushed to his heart specialist -- giving the TV studio's address." Selva may now face criminal charges for his stunt.
American commanders are turning to a strategy “that they acknowledge is fraught with risk: arming Sunni Arab groups that have promised to fight militants linked with Al Qaeda who have been their allies in the past.” Critics say the plan “could amount to the Americans’ arming both sides in a future civil war.”
“The Taliban carried out an apparent attempt to assassinate Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Sunday, firing rockets that missed him by several hundred yards as he spoke to a group of elders. No one was injured.”
“In what may be a sign of things to come, the lawyers for I. Lewis Libby Jr. last month invoked the rarely used courtroom tactic: the ‘bloggers can be mean’ defense.” Libby’s lawyers urged the judge not to publicly release letters written in support of their client, given “the real possibility that these letters, once released, would be published on the Internet and their authors discussed, even mocked, by bloggers.”
“Acting under pressure from Congress, the CIA has decided to trim its contractor staffing by 10 percent. It is the agency’s first effort since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to curb what critics have decried as the growing privatization of U.S. intelligence work, a circumstance that has sharply boosted some personnel costs.”
“A tribal coalition formed to oppose the extremist group al-Qaeda in Iraq, a development that U.S. officials say has reduced violence in Iraq’s troubled Anbar province, is beginning to splinter, according to an Anbar tribal leader and a U.S. military official familiar with tribal politics.”
“Senate Democrats opened the door to reviving the stalled immigration measure on Sunday, calling on Republicans to resolve their internal divisions and produce an agreement on how to move the legislation forward.”
HHS Secretary requests meeting with dead Senator. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt called Sen. Craig Thomas’s (R-WY) office Thursday afternoon to request a meeting with the late senator. Thomas passed away on Monday after a seven month battle with leukemia. The Washington Post writes, “Needless to say, grief-stricken Thomas staffers were stunned.”
INTERESTING
VACATION ON WARMING ISLAND, Posted by Jim Hightower
As summer approaches, families all across our country are making vacation plans. But some people get bored with the same old trips, whether to the shore or to some exotic tropical island. Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt.
Well, Bucko, don’t get all mopey. Perk-up your vacation life with something entirely different, something guaranteed to cause a buzz back at the office: a cruise! No, not the geezer cruise with shuffleboard and the endless buffet. I'm talking about a cruise with cachet and topical relevancy – a cruise to watch global warming as it’s happening! Yes, instead of just talking about climate change, you can literally go look at it, thanks to a boom in something called "global warming tourism."
For example, a company called Betchart Expeditions is offering a 12-day excursion up the Greenland Coast to witness the melting of the Greenland ice sheet. After traveling some 400 miles north of the Arctic Circle, you will lay eyes on a brand new landmark aptly named Warming Island. It was totally unknown until discovered in 2005 emerging from beneath the melting ice sheet. Just think - your very own Hummer might have contributed to the sudden appearance of this unique chunk of geography!
And you can see it in style aboard Betchart's 50-foot passenger ship. The bare-bones price for a steerage cabin with shared bath is $5,000. But add a $2,000 upgrade and you get a "superior" cabin with a private john. The cruise company notes that you can be among the first humans to see this spectacular island, which it describes as "a compelling indicator of the rapid speed of global warming."
Of course, this is a cruise loaded with irony. As a climate change expert says, "If enough people expend enough fossil fuels to visit Warming Island, they will ensure that there will be many more."So bon voyage – and don't forget to buy the t-shirt.
"Holiday at the End of the Earth:Tourist Pay to See Global Warming in Action," www.commondreams.org, May 3, 2007
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Toyota Workers: Company Runs over Our Rights, by James Parks
Toyota
touts its success and sells its cars with the slogan “Moving Forward.” But
current and former workers at Toyota’s plant in Georgetown, Ky., say the
company is “moving forward” with plans to cut pay and replace injured
workers with temporary employees, who receive half the pay of full-time
workers and few benefits.
“They’re [part-time workers] trying to get a job there,” Cornelia James, a 19-year Georgetown worker, told a workers’ rights board hearing in Georgetown yesterday.
Full-time employment is dangled in front of them like a carrot, and they’re told, any missteps and you’re out.
In a comment posted today on the AFL-CIO Now blog, “warrior,” an 18-year Toyota employee, shares similar experiences:
I am an 18-year “team” member at Toyota in Georgetown. A person who does not work here really has no idea what goes on….I’ve had many friends that have been hurt and have had surgeries only to come back on a different shift and a different area doing a job that was worse than the one they had been hurt on. Toyota will fight tooth and nail to make sure that any injury is not an OSHA recordable. For Toyota, image is everything.
More than 200 people, many of them workers at the Toyota plant, gathered in a building just yards away from Toyota Stadium on the Georgetown College campus for the hearing, sponsored by Kentucky Jobs with Justice. The hearing follows a March 31 town hall forum in Lexington, Ky., where workers voiced some of the same concerns.
Noel Christian Riddell, a 10-year veteran skilled-trades worker, told the workers’ rights board he and another worker were fired after discussing recent media leaks about workers’ pay. The documents indicate Toyota is considering cutting some wages to lower overall expenses.
What was my crime? Knowledge. I will not go quietly.
At yesterday’s hearing, James also said women often are rushed to use the restroom during breaks because there are not enough stalls.
The 10-member workers’ rights board, which includes two state legislators, called for Toyota to:
- Reinstate the fired workers with back pay and seniority.
- Hire temporary workers as permanent employees after 90 days.
- Retain injured workers after their doctors have released them to return to work.
- Provide adequate restroom facilities for all employees.
“We are people of community, and part of our community has said to us that things are not exactly the way they need to be in the work situation at Toyota,” the Rev. John Rausch, coordinator of peace and justice at the Catholic Diocese in Lexington, Ky., and a member of the hearing board, told the Louisville Courier-Journal.
We are not trying to tear Toyota down. We are trying to make it better and have a better partner in community.
Several speakers said the workers need a greater voice in what happens at the plant, which makes Camrys, Avalons and Solaras. The best way to do that, they said, is for them to be able to freely form a union.
William Maloney of the Center for Labor Education and Research at the University of Kentucky told the panel:
Given the choice, management will never act in the interest of the worker. They’re always going to act in the interest of profits. I’m here to support what these workers have told you and argue that they’ve got to be given a greater say in how they’re being treated.
The Rev. Albert Pennybacker said people of faith should support the effort because “organized workers save management from playing God.”
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Another Bush Outrage: Enron Securities Fraud OK, by Tula Connell
No shame. That pretty much describes President Bush’s personal intervention in ensuring the Department of Justice opposes Enron investors whose securities fraud case is now before the U.S. Supreme Court.
According to The New York Times:
President Bush personally weighed in with his views before the administration decided not to support investors (snip).
The president’s message was that it’s important to reduce “unnecessary lawsuits” and that federal securities regulators are in the best position to sue, said Al Hubbard, Bush’s chief economic adviser and director of the National Economic Council.
Bush’s role in the case underscores its significance. The outcome of the Supreme Court case could determine whether investors can pursue lawsuits to recover investment losses if they can prove collusion between Wall Street institutions and scandal-ridden companies.
As AFL-CIO Associate General Counsel Damon Silvers puts it:
The punch line here is that the president of the United States thinks that it’s OK for investment bankers to participate in outrageous frauds on the public and walk away clean.
Thirty state attorneys general sided with the investors. The High Court’s ruling in the case could determine whether the Enron plaintiffs’ separate $40 billion lawsuit against the investment banks, which was stalled by a federal appeals court ruling in March, can proceed.
When the Houston-based Enron went belly up in 2001 in a maze of bogus offshore companies, outright lies and fraud, 21,000 workers lost everything. The AFL-CIO and the RainbowPUSH Coalition (RPC) worked with a court-appointed Employee Committee to win an agreement on severance with Enron and its Creditor’s Committee. The 2002 settlement included workers’ entire severance owed under the Enron severance plan up to a cap of $13,500. Prior to the AFL-CIO-RPC campaign, workers’ severance had been capped at $4,500.
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