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Labor Day, GM and Libya
By Timothy V. Gatto
It’s Labor Day. Of course the holiday is meaningless due to the fact that labor has lost most of its clout. The death of organized labor started the day Ronald Reagan fired the air traffic controllers who were striking for better working conditions mainly because the enforced overtime they were subject to were leaving air traffic controllers exhausted and falling asleep on the job and putting the public in danger. So today we still celebrate Labor Day, even though labor is almost totally controlled by the corporate state. It looks good on paper though.
The labor union (UAW) now owns shares of GM corporate stock. They also run the union’s pension plan. The wage for new workers went from $27.00 an hour to $14.00. Now union members must ask themselves the question; When the union makes a decision on where the company should be heading, are they making the decision as the head of the worker’s labor union or as an investor of the company? You can see that GM is off-shoring many manufacturing jobs to China and Brazil. I’d say that the question has been pretty well answered.
NORTH DAKOTA’S ECONOMIC “MIRACLE”—IT’S NOT OIL
By Ellen Brown
North Dakota has had the nation's lowest unemployment ever since the economy tanked. What's its secret?
In an article in The New York Times on August 19th titled “The North Dakota Miracle,” Catherine Rampell writes:
Forget the Texas Miracle. Let’s instead take a look at North Dakota, which has the lowest unemployment rate and the fastest job growth rate in the country.
According to new data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics today, North Dakota had an unemployment rate of just 3.3 percent in July—that’s just over a third of the national rate (9.1 percent), and about a quarter of the rate of the state with the highest joblessness (Nevada, at 12.9 percent).
North Dakota has had the lowest unemployment in the country (or was tied for the lowest unemployment rate in the country) every single month since July 2008.
Its healthy job market is also reflected in its payroll growth numbers. . . . [Y]ear over year, its payrolls grew by 5.2 percent. Texas came in second, with an increase of 2.6 percent.
Why is North Dakota doing so well? For one of the same reasons that Texas has been doing well: oil.
Oil is certainly a factor, but it is not what has put North Dakota over the top. Alaska has roughly the same population as North Dakota and produces nearly twice as much oil, yet unemployment in Alaska is running at 7.7 percent. Montana, South Dakota, and Wyoming have all benefited from a boom in energy prices, with Montana and Wyoming extracting much more gas than North Dakota has. The Bakken oil field stretches across Montana as well as North Dakota, with the greatest Bakken oil production coming from Elm Coulee Oil Field in Montana. Yet Montana’s unemployment rate, like Alaska’s, is 7.7% percent.
Sanctioning messenger Dr. Bouthainia Shaaban assaults American values
Franklin Lamb, Tripoli
As part of its 7th set of US sanctions against Syria, which began in June, 2011, the Obama administration has targeted a messenger, a sometime spokeswoman, a positive image of Syria, someone people of all religions and cultures have easily identified with over the past several years, Dr. Bouthainia Shaaban. The US administration acted thus for the sole purpose of pressuring the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, but has succeeded in undermining American values of freedom of expression much more.
On August 28, 2011, the US Treasury and State Departments targeted Dr. Bouthainia Shaaban, and froze any assets she might have in the US.
According to State Department spokesman, Victoria Nuland, who two US Senate Foreign Relations Committee staffers speculate may view Dr. Shaaban as a rival of sorts given their job descriptions, and Dr. Shaaban’s stellar performances during meetings with US officials both in the US and Syria, the explanation for blacklisting a Syrian nationalist and media advisor remains: “She (Dr. Shaaban) has served as the public mouthpiece for the repression of the regime.”
Lawlessness and Injustice Define America and Israel
by Stephen Lendman
Rogue state lawlessness and contempt for humanity define both nations.
At home, America is plagued by police state laws, contempt for human and civil rights, out-of-control corruption, banker occupation, corporate control of Washington, record budget and national debt levels, as well as depression-sized unemployment, poverty, homelessness, hunger and despair.
Abroad, America wages permanent wars on humanity, killing millions for wealth, power, and unchallengeable global dominance at the expense of suffering billions.
The rancid stench of Washington's war on the world permeates everywhere, threatening human and environmental survival.
Labor Day Reflection: Time for Americans to participate in power, Three hundred million Americans can take control of the economy and country
By Kevin Zeese
The Roman philosopher and statesman, Marcus Tullius Cicero said “Freedom is participation in power.” By that standard Americans are not free. We do not participate in power. We do not even have power over our own economic lives, our elected “representatives” ignore us and listen to the moneyed interests sending the United States in the wrong direction on issue after issue. The American people know better, would govern better and need to participate in power.
When you dispassionately review the reality of the U.S. economy, it is a depressing state of affairs that screams out for Americans to get up, stand up and shout: “we can do better than the political and economic elites.” The opportunity to stand up is here: October2011.org.
This article focuses on the domestic policies that are destroying the most powerful economy in history, but war spending, which makes up more than half of discretionary federal spending, is one of the root causes of the economic collapse. Nobel Prize winning economist, Joseph Stiglitz writes: “Today, America is focused on unemployment and the deficit. Both threats to America’s future can, in no small measure, be traced to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.” He and Linda Bilmes calculated America’s war costs three years ago conservative at $3 trillion to $5 trillion – these costs have escalated since then.
Give the Palmer report the contempt it deserves
By Khalid Amayreh in Israeli-occupied Jerusalem
On Friday, 2 September, a pro-Israeli body at the United Nations released a brazenly unbalanced report concluding that Israel's four-year blockade of some 1.7 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip was "legal" and "within the barometers of international law."
The scandalous report, dubbed as the Palmer report, also concluded that the manifestly criminal Israeli assault on a Turkish ship carrying solidarity activists and humanitarian materials to besieged Gazans, which occurred 18 months ago and killed at least nine Turkish citizens and injured many others, was also legal.
The two faces of Barack Obama
Mary Shaw
With President Obama running for a second term, I cannot help but wonder which Obama we will see as the reelection campaign heats up over the coming year.
In 2008, we saw Obama the Candidate, who promised us change we can believe in. He inspired and energized us.
Now many of us on the progressive end of the political spectrum are dealing with 2+ years of disappointments from Obama the President.
Turkey/Israeli War of Words
by Stephen Lendman
A previous article discussed release of the leaked UN Palmer Commission's report on Israel's May 2010 Mavi Marmara massacre, killing nine Turkish nationals in cold blood.
Access it through the following link:
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2011/09/un-report-on-mavi-marmara-massacre.html
Ever since, Turkey demanded an apology and compensation for loved ones of those killed. In fact, Israel never says it's sorry, even when caught red-handed. Turkey called it unacceptable, warning of sanctions and other consequences.
Libya, Inc.: Coming Waste, Fraud and Other Forms of Plunder on a Grand Scale
by Stephen Lendman
Like in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, wherever America and its Western allies show up, pillaging is sure to follow.
Libya is no exception, earmarked as another profit center to be exploited. A previous article discussed it, accessed through the following link:
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2011/09/carving-up-libya-corpse-for-profit.html
Promoting Fear and Hate in America
by Stephen Lendman
Numerous previous articles explained how fear is used in America, notably against Muslims for political advantage.
They're described as fundamentalists, extremists, terrorists, and fanatics. They're identified with violence, when, in fact, Islam has common roots with Christianity and Judaism. Their tenets are based on love, not hate; peace, not violence; charity, not exploitation; and a just, fair society for people of all faiths.
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