All posts by George

Uncategorized

The American Sellout

Wednesday, July 6, 2011





Mexican trucks: Today’s attack on the middle class





Once again the multinationals are having their way with the U.S. government at the expense of the American middle class. Today U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and his counterpart in Mexico signed away thousands of good American trucking and warehousing jobs by agreeing to open the border to Mexican trucks.

The Teamsters will fight to keep the border closed to dangerous trucks, as they have for almost two decades. Teamster General President Jim Hoffa had harsh words for the agreement:

Opening the border to dangerous trucks at a time of high unemployment and rampant drug violence is a shameful abandonment of the DOT’s duty to protect American citizens from harm and to spend American tax dollars responsibly.

This so-called pilot program is a concession to multinational corporations that send jobs to Mexico. It erodes our national security. It endangers motorists. It ignores the rampant corruption among Mexican law enforcement. It lowers wages and robs jobs from hard-working American truck drivers and warehouse workers.

It adds insult to injury to force U.S. taxpayers to pay for monitoring equipment on Mexican trucks so Mexican carriers can take away their jobs. The DOT shows more loyalty to the Mexican people than it does to Americans.
The Owner-Operators Independent Drivers Association isn’t pleased either. Their press release said small-business truckers and drivers are fuming about the deal. Said OOIDA President Jim Johnston,


If the agreement is good for the U.S. why the hell is he (Secretary LaHood) sneaking down there to sign it?” … Why not let the public see the details before signing the agreement? Seems like the Administration is dead set on caving to Mexico’s shakedown regardless of the costs to the American public and our tax coffers.
And Rep. Peter DeFazio, an Oregon Democrat, filed a bill today to limit the pilot program and forbid the U.S. government from spending taxpayer money on equipment for Mexican trucks.  DeFazio said,

…three issues must be addressed in the cross-border trucking program: safety, security and job loss. I have sent several letters to DOT asking them to address these issues. My calls for caution have gone unanswered. My legislation puts the brakes on a bad deal for American truck drivers and the traveling public…As we debate deep and harsh cuts to programs that help middle class families, it is outrageous that taxpayers are being told to foot the bill for the Mexican trucking industry to comply with American safety standards…



Posted by Teamster Power at 2:32 PM

Uncategorized

Prepare For the Attack



Super PACs target Colorado

Karl Rove ‘s Crossroads GPS is buying online and TV political ads.

By Kurtis Lee
The Denver Post

Posted: 07/09/2011 01:00:00 AM MDT
     Eight months after the 2010 midterm elections, Colorado is once again a targeted swing state by so-called super PACs.
Crossroads GPS, an independent conservative advocacy group started by Karl Rove, announced Friday that it has launched $291,190 in TV and Internet ads here for the next two weeks.
     Nationally, the organization will spend about $7 million in the two-week span, with ads also airing in North Carolina, Iowa, New Mexico, Nevada and Virginia.
     “It’s a taste of things to come,” said Eric Sondermann, a local independent political analyst. “These super PACs are going to be much more the norm than the exception between now and the 2012 election.”
     Officially known as independent expenditure-only committees, super PACs represent spending by individuals, corporations or unions advocating for or against candidates. However, expenditures cannot be in direct cooperation with a candidate or political party.
     Sondermann said the groups’ presence in Colorado speaks to the pivotal role the state will play in the 2012 election.
     In 2010, Colorado was the No. 1 state in attracting outside money as PACs pumped millions into the U.S. Senate race between GOP hopeful Ken Buck and incumbent Democrat Michael Bennet.
     “It was a new phenomenon in 2010, but the list of targeted states seems to be shrinking from then till now, which puts even more of a premium on Colorado’s nine electoral votes,” Sondermann said.
     This is the second phase of Crossroads’ summer-long, $20 million nationwide effort attacking Democrats and President Barack Obama on government spending and the national debt.
     “After the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission, it allowed corporations and unions to use Treasury dollars to make independent expenditures and electioneering communications,” said Mary Brandenberger, a Federal Election Commission spokeswoman.
     Last month, Crossroads churned out its first phase of summer funds, which was $5 million in ads — spanning 10 states, including Colorado — that went after Obama’s record on the economy.
     In response, Priorities USA, a pro-Democratic group started by former Obama staffers Bill Burton and Sean Sweeney, began a multistate advertising campaign “to inform voters about the source of the Rove ads and the truth about the Republican economic record.”
     “Republicans are playing a familiar game: When the facts aren’t behind them, they simply ignore the truth,” said Rick Palacio, the Democratic Party state chairman, about the latest ad campaign by Crossroads.
     “Karl Rove is afraid that when the American people see a president working for them, Republican political fortunes suffer, so he and his allies will do whatever they can to undermine the president.”
     Ryan Call, the GOP’s state chairman, said he doesn’t expect these outside groups to supplant the traditional roles of candidates and political parties.
     “Reminding Colorado voters about Obama’s failed leadership on the economy is certainly a role that some of these outside groups will play,” Call said.

Action

Several Thoughts for the Day

1. Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his levelI Wonder What You Meant By That?
and beat you with experience.
 2. The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it’s still on my list.
 3. Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear
bright until you hear them speak.
 4. If I agreed with you, we’d both be wrong.
 5. We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public.
 6. War does not determine who is right – only who is left.
 7. Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting
it in a fruit salad.
 8. Evening news is where they begin with ‘Good Evening,’ and then
proceed to tell you why it isn’t.
 9. To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism. To steal from many is research.
10. A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station.
11. I thought I wanted a career. Turns out I just wanted paychecks.
12. Whenever I fill out an application, in the part that says, ‘In case of emergency, notify:’ I put ‘DOCTOR.’
13. I didn’t say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you.
14. Women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the
street with a bald head and a beer gut, and still think they are sexy.
15. Behind every successful man is his woman. Behind the fall of a
successful man is usually another woman.
16. A clear conscience is the sign of a fuzzy memory.
17. I asked God for a bike, but I know God doesn’t work that way. So I stole a bike and asked for forgiveness.
18. You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to skydive twice.
19. Money can’t buy happiness, but it sure makes misery easier to live with.
 20. There’s a fine line between cuddling and holding someone down so they can’t get away.
 21. I used to be indecisive. Now I’m not so sure.
 22. You’re never too old to learn something stupid.
 23. To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target.
 24. Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be.
 25. Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.
 26. Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than
standing in a garage makes you a car.
 27. A diplomat is someone who tells you to go to hell in such a way that you look forward to the trip.
 28. Hospitality is making your guests feel at home even when you wish they were.
 29. I always take life with a grain of salt. Plus a slice of lemon, and a shot of tequila.
 30. When tempted to fight fire with fire, remember that the Fire
Department usually uses water

Action

Shared Sacrifice


As Congress returned to the debate over deficits, Sen. Bernie Sanders told MSNBC that half of any deficit reduction must come from additional revenue from the wealthiest Americans and most profitable corporations. Sanders said more than 110,000 people so far signed his letter urging President Obama not to give into Republican demands to exclude higher taxes. 

You can be a co-signer.


Dear Mr. President,


This is a pivotal moment in the history of our country. Decisions are being made about the national budget that will impact the lives of virtually every American for decades to come. As we address the issue of deficit reduction we must not ignore the painful economic reality of today – which is that the wealthiest people in our country and the largest corporations are doing phenomenally well while the middle class is collapsing and poverty is increasing.  In fact, the United States today has, by far, the most unequal distribution of wealth and income of any major country on earth.
 
Everyone understands that over the long-term we have got to reduce the deficit – a deficit that was caused mainly by Wall Street greed, tax breaks for the rich, two wars, and a prescription drug program written by the drug and insurance companies. It is absolutely imperative, however, that as we go forward with deficit reduction we completely reject the Republican approach that demands savage cuts in desperately-needed programs for working families, the elderly, the sick, our children and the poor, while not asking the wealthiest among us to contribute one penny.  
 
Mr. President, please listen to the overwhelming majority of the American people who believe that deficit reduction must be about shared sacrifice. The wealthiest Americans and the most profitable corporations in this country must pay their fair share.  At least 50 percent of any deficit reduction package must come from revenue raised by ending tax breaks for the wealthy and eliminating tax loopholes that benefit large, profitable corporations and Wall Street financial institutions.  A sensible deficit reduction package must also include significant cuts to unnecessary and wasteful Pentagon spending.
 
Please do not yield to outrageous Republican demands that would greatly increase suffering for the weakest and most vulnerable members of our society.  Now is the time to stand with the tens of millions of Americans who are struggling to survive economically, not with the millionaires and billionaires who have never had it so good.    


Respectfully,



Sen. Bernie Sanders;
and Co-signers

Uncategorized

Our Politicians “Cheaper is Better No Matter What!”

 






Made In China?DAVID BARBOZA, On Sunday June 26, 2011, 1:26 am EDT
SHANGHAI —
     Talk about outsourcing.
At a sprawling manufacturing complex here, hundreds of Chinese laborers are now completing work on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
Next month, the last four of more than two dozen giant steel modules — each with a roadbed segment about half the size of a football field — will be loaded onto a huge ship and transported 6,500 miles to Oakland. There, they will be assembled to fit into the eastern span of the new Bay Bridge.
The project is part of China’s continual move up the global economic value chain — from cheap toys to Apple iPads to commercial jetliners — as it aims to become the world’s civil engineer.
The assembly work in California, and the pouring of the concrete road surface, will be done by Americans. But construction of the bridge decks and the materials that went into them are a Made in China affair. California officials say the state saved hundreds of millions of dollars by turning to China.
“They’ve produced a pretty impressive bridge for us,” Tony Anziano, a program manager at the California Department of Transportation, said a few weeks ago. He was touring the 1.2-square-mile manufacturing site that the Chinese company created to do the bridge work. “Four years ago, there were just steel plates here and lots of orange groves.”
On the reputation of showcase projects like Beijing’s Olympic-size airport terminal and the mammoth hydroelectric Three Gorges Dam, Chinese companies have been hired to build copper mines in the Congo, high-speed rail lines in Brazil and huge apartment complexes in Saudi Arabia.
In New York City alone, Chinese companies have won contracts to help renovate the subway system, refurbish the Alexander Hamilton Bridge over the Harlem River and build a new Metro-North train platform near Yankee Stadium. As with the Bay Bridge, American union labor would carry out most of the work done on United States soil.
American steelworker unions have disparaged the Bay Bridge contract by accusing the state of California of sending good jobs overseas and settling for what they deride as poor-quality Chinese steel. Industry groups in the United States and other countries have raised questions about the safety and quality of Chinese workmanship on such projects. Indeed, China has had quality control problems ranging from tainted milk to poorly built schools.
But executives and officials who have awarded the various Chinese contracts say their audits have convinced them of the projects’ engineering integrity. And they note that with the full financial force of the Chinese government behind its infrastructure companies, the monumental scale of the work, and the prices bid, are hard for private industry elsewhere to beat.
The new Bay Bridge, expected to open to traffic in 2013, will replace a structure that has never been quite the same since the 1989 Bay Area earthquake. At $7.2 billion, it will be one of the most expensive structures ever built. But California officials estimate that they will save at least $400 million by having so much of the work done in China. (California issued bonds to finance the project, and will look to recoup the cost through tolls.)
California authorities say they had little choice but to rebuild major sections of the bridge, despite repairs made after the earthquake caused a section of the eastern span to collapse onto the lower deck. Seismic safety testing persuaded the state that much of the bridge needed to be overhauled and made more quake-resistant.
Eventually, the California Department of Transportation decided to revamp the western span of the bridge (which connects San Francisco to Yerba Buena Island) and replace the 2.2-mile eastern span (which links Yerba Buena to Oakland).
On the eastern span, officials decided to build a suspension bridge with a complex design. The span will have a single, 525-foot tower, anchored to bedrock and supported by a single, enormous steel-wire cable that threads through the suspension bridge.
“We wanted something strong and secure, but we also wanted something iconic,” said Bart Ney, a transportation department spokesman.
A joint venture between two American companies, American Bridge and Fluor Enterprises, won the prime contract for the project in early 2006. Their bid specified getting much of the fabricated steel from overseas, to save money.
California decided not to apply for federal funding for the project because the “Buy America” provisos would probably have required purchasing more expensive steel and fabrication from United States manufacturers.
China, the world’s biggest steel maker, was the front-runner, particularly because it has dominated bridge building for the last decade. Several years ago, Shanghai opened a 20-mile sea bridge; the country is now planning a much longer one near Hong Kong.
The selection of the state-owned Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Company was a surprise, though, because the company made port cranes and had no bridge building experience.
But California officials and executives at American Bridge said Zhenhua’s advantages included its huge steel fabrication facilities, its large low-cost work force and its solid finances. (The company even had its own port and ships.)
“I don’t think the U.S. fabrication industry could put a project like this together,” Brian A. Petersen, project director for the American Bridge/Fluor Enterprises joint venture, said in a telephone interview. “Most U.S. companies don’t have these types of warehouses, equipment or the cash flow. The Chinese load the ships, and it’s their ships that deliver to our piers.”
Despite the American union complaints, former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, strongly backed the project and even visited Zhenhua’s plant last September, praising “the workers that are building our Bay Bridge.”
Zhenhua put 3,000 employees to work on the project: steel-cutters, welders, polishers and engineers. The company built the main bridge tower, which was shipped in mid-2009, and a total of 28 bridge decks — the massive triangular steel structures that will serve as the roadway platform.
Pan Zhongwang, a 55-year-old steel polisher, is a typical Zhenhua worker. He arrives at 7 a.m. and leaves at 11 p.m., often working seven days a week. He lives in a company dorm and earns about $12 a day.
“It used to be $9 a day, now it’s $12,” he said Wednesday morning, while polishing one of the decks for the new Bay Bridge. “Everything is getting more expensive. They should raise our pay.”
To ensure the bridge meets safety standards, 250 employees and consultants working for the state of California and American Bridge/Fluor also took up residence in Shanghai.
Asked about reports that some American labor groups had blocked bridge shipments from arriving in Oakland, Mr. Anziano dismissed those as confused.
“That was not about China,” he said. “It was a disagreement between unions about which had jurisdiction and who had the right to unload a shipment. That was resolved.”

Action, UPS

Fight Hunger……Eat the Rich

Jesus was a Liberal   A Northern Sun catalog came in the mail today. Happy days are here again!! They sell great buttons and bumper stickers, or as they say, “Products for Progressives since 1979.” The pages are loaded with all the best liberal quotes and catch phrases. I always try to buy a button or two and show my support. Buy American. 
   Fight Hunger…Eat the Rich is the first one I would buy. I have to admit, that’s how I feel about the coming class war. Or how about When I Grow Up, I Want t be Too Big to Fail. Oh sorry, that’s only banks and health insurance companies.  We Already have Death Panels, they’re called Insurance Companies.
   I like the ones that offend the people that offend me. Voting is Like Driving, “R” is for reverse, “D” is for Forward.
   I would love to run a company like this. It would make a great retirement job, doing something fun and making a statement.  I’d love to have this one on a bumper sticker, Where’s Robin Hood when you need him? Some of them explain the world in much simpler terms than all the talk shows ever could. Liberals treat dogs like people, conservatives treat people like dogs.
   Don’t worry that you might be offended if you check out the link,   Wikileaks says You can handle the truth.