Anti-Union NLRB gives the working class a break, a very very small one | Labor board gives U.S. unions a rare victory | Reuters.com
"This rule is about giving all employees who have petitioned for an election the right to vote in a timely manner and without the impediment of needless litigation," said NLRB Chairman Mark Pearce, a Democratic appointee of President Barack Obama.
What this effectively means is that union-busting law firms wont have as much time to crush organizing efforts. And of course they’re pissed about it.
Lawyers for the largest business lobbying group, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, filed a lawsuit in Washington to try to block the rule, which is scheduled to take effect on April 30. They say election periods could become so short that they could "ambush" employers and violate their free-speech rights.
Why and how the fuck do Corporations have “free-speech” rights?
Oh right America is a plutocracy, I almost forgot for a minute.
Even though this is a half measure, closer to a quarter measure, in todays political climate of a pansy Democrat in the White House and a congress that enjoys bending over being buggered by Tea-Party endorsed candidates, we still have to count this as a victory.
-Rob
Time names The Protester 2011 Person of the Year | Reuters
"Is there a global tipping point for frustration? Everywhere, it seems, people said they'd had enough," Time Editor Rick Stengel said in a statement.
via Time names The Protester 2011 Person of the Year | Reuters.
I’ve always held the notion that the center cannot hold. That sooner or later everyday people are going to wake up to this cluster-fuck of materialism and superficiality we cling to as modern society.
I really, really, really wish this could be that moment – yet I fear it is not.
The Arab spring had a coherence driven by years of mutual oppression we have nothing close to that in this country. The Occupy movement is tapping into something very real and very profound and I support it 100%, but it lacks a message, it lacks an actual narrative. Unlike the astroturfed “Tea Party” movement the Occupy movement has yet to find a platform that can actually be manifested as policy.
What it has managed to do is put the discussion on the national radar screen, to start a dialogue. let us hope this doesn’t get hijacked by the political establishment and turned into lukewarm half measures like we’ve seen so many times in the past.
I am not optimistic.
Things That Never Happened In The History Of Macroeconomics – NYTimes.com
These days, you constantly see articles that make it seem as if there was a great debate in the 1930s between Keynes and Hayek, and that this debate has continued through the generations. As Warsh says, nothing like this happened. Hayek essentially made a fool of himself early in the Great Depression, and his ideas vanished from the professional discussion.
Things That Never Happened In The History Of Macroeconomics - NYTimes.com.
Libertarian evangelists please take note.
-r0b
Group calls for Bush arrest | POLITICO 44
I would say it's about fucking time.
The human rights group issued a statement Thursday calling for the governments of Ethiopia, Tanzania or Zambia to take the former president into custody. According to Amnesty, the 43rd president is complicit in torture conducted by the United States during his administration and should be held pending an international investigation.
Unfortunately were such a thing to happen said country would inevitably find it’s self at the hands of the American Death Machine annihilating the living shit out of it.
Remember world Do As You Are Told.
-r0b
Batshit Bachmann gets pwned by an 8 year-old
Michele Bachmann’s had plenty of uncomfortable moments on the campaign trail, but wait until you see this: At a South Carolina book signing, an 8-year-old boy named Elijah whispered to Bachmann, “My mom is gay and she doesn’t need fixing.” Bachmann responded with a blank expression, then waved to him as he ran away. The person who filmed the event told Chicago Now that Elijah’s mom had been standing in line to speak to Bachmann herself, but decided she was too nervous. Elijah insisted that they stay so he could give Bachmann the message himself.
God that Bachman Harpy is some funny shit!
-r0b