Day: June 13, 2008

Kucinich Stands With Slave Laborers

At the rally, US Congressmember Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) called the treatment the workers faced at the hands of Indian recruiters and their employer, Signal International, (DC Jobs with Justice Corner: Indian Workers to Stage Hunger Strike in DC 5/8/08 UC) “wrong, inhumane, and immoral.” Kucinich and 17 other US Congress-members sent a letter to US Attorney General Michael Mukasey last week demanding he “take the steps necessary to ensure the workers’ continued presence so that DOJ can continue this important investigation of modern-day slavery, human trafficking, and forced labor and bring these traffickers to justice.”


Kucinich has also promised to hold a Congressional hearing on abuses of guest workers by Signal and other companies. “I think we as Americans and working people around the world owe you an enormous debt for standing up,” said Nickeled and Dimed author Barbara Ehrenreich. “You helped bring to light a scandal of slavery in the US.”

Dennis Kucinich is the ONLY active Congressman that has consistently stood with labor on most issues.  He deserves more respect than he gets in the media.  For without his voice in Congress, labor would not have many friends that we could rely on to speak for us.

Can The Electoral College Be Killed?

This old piece of garbage is long overdue for the scrap heap.  It is NO longer need and no longer wanted.  This is a synopsis of a piece written by Pamela Prah:

First it was the presidential primary calendar that state legislatures across the country upended to give their voters a greater say this year in choosing candidates. Now a few states are orchestrating an overhaul of the way voters select the U.S. president.
Voters this fall will still use the Electoral College to determine the next occupant of the White House, but a movement is bubbling at the state level to bypass the process and instead ensure future presidents are the candidates who get the most votes nationwide — an outcome not always guaranteed under the current system.
Those who remember their history classes know that American voters don’t directly elect a president — states do through “electors” who typically vote for the candidate who drew the most votes in their state.
“Why are all the other elections in this country based on the popular vote except for the most important one, the presidency?” asks Barry F. Fadem, president of the National Popular Vote, a group based in California that aims to persuade state legislatures to implement a nationwide popular election of the president. He called today’s system “flat-out, wrong” and expressed optimism that enough states will pass the legislation in time for the 2012 presidential election.

National Popular Vote was launched in 2006 and is largely founded by its chairman, John R. Koza, a scientist best known for inventing the rub-off instant lottery ticket used by state lotteries and his work in genetic programming at Stanford University. In the 1980s, he and Fadem, an attorney, were active in promoting adoption of lotteries in the states

Calls to reform or abolish the Electoral College were common after the 2000 presidential election, when former Vice President Al Gore won the popular vote, but didn’t have enough votes in the right states to carry the electoral vote over Republican George W. Bush. While Bush won the popular vote in 2004, he could have lost the election if John Kerry (D) had won Ohio.
Despite the hand-wringing over what many call an obsolete election system, little has happened, largely because dumping the Electoral College means changing the U.S. Constitution, an arduous task that requires two-thirds approval of Congress and three-fourths of the states. The National Popular Vote would keep the Electoral College, but change the way electoral votes are awarded.

Under the current system, candidates have no reason to poll, visit, advertise, organize, or pay attention to the concerns of states where they are safely ahead or hopelessly behind, Fadem said. For example, presidential nominees have long ignored California because the state is considered a solid “blue” state that will award its 55 electoral votes to the Democratic candidate.

As was said everything, everywhere is a popular vote, then why is not the president chosen that way.  It is time for the Electoral College to be put in the museum next to T Rex, it is a dinosaur and is an extinct mode for an election.

The “Blog Bunker” Experience

Yesterday I was interviewed on Sirius Radio, channel 110, “The Blog Bunker”. I do not have Sirius but now I will get it….the questions were very good on the days news….the show is lively and well done..it was an enjoyable experience and would do it again…..I was a bit apprehensive since it had been a long time since I had been interviewed, but it was well done and an excellent show. I recommend it to all, especially if you have strong opinions.

It was pointed out that my title “Weblog” was a bit archaic, but I told them I was an old fart and guess I was having brain farts when I picked a title. But after thinking it over he was right and I have since changed the title.  From this day on “Lobotero’s weblog” will be known as “Lobotero’s Info Ink”.

I would like to thank the staff of “Blog Bunker” after an enjoyable experience.

America’s Sour Mood

These are some of the results from the latest Harris Poll of 1,001 U.S. adults surveyed by telephone between June 4 and 8, 2008 by Harris Interactive®.

Some key findings are:

  • President Bush’s latest ratings are 24 percent positive and fully 75 percent negative. Previously, his worst numbers were 26 percent positive and 72 percent negative in April of this year. His ratings are substantially worse than those of any president, except for Jimmy Carter (22%-77% in July 1980), since Harris first started measuring them in 1963.
  • Vice President Cheney’s ratings are even worse, 18 percent positive and 74 percent negative, compared to his previous low of 21 percent positive, 74 percent negative last July.
  • Secretary of State Rice’s ratings are much better than those of the President and Vice President, but also have fallen to their lowest point ever, 39 percent positive and 54 percent negative, compared to 42 percent positive and 51 percent negative last October.
  • Only 14 percent of the public think the things in the country are going in the right direction and fully 80 percent think they are on the wrong track. These compare to the previous worst numbers in President George W. Bush’s term, 75 percent thought things were on the wrong track in April. The highest number of people who said the country was on the wrong track was 81 percent in June of 1992 during the term of the first President Bush.

With the mood in the US being so bad, will it translate into a for real change of government in Washington?

FOX News Attacks Obama Again

Recently, the fist bump between Obama and his wife was made into a major story by FOX News and now they are it5 it again.

Even conservative commentator Michelle Malkin, who was on camera Wednesday afternoon when the line “OUTRAGED LIBERALS: STOP PICKING ON OBAMA’S BABY MAMA” flashed underneath her, has distanced herself from the phrase.

In a posting Wednesday night, Malkin wrote: “I did not write the caption, and I was not aware of it when it ran (the Baltimore studio doesn’t have a monitor). I don’t know if the caption writer was making a lame attempt to be hip, clueless about the original etymology of the phrase, or both.”

Still, Malkin goes off on a tangent on how Michelle Obama, in the past, has referred to her mate as her “baby’s daddy” (the point being, presumably, that the phrase was thus in play). You can read Malkin’s post here; it includes some of the nasty e-mails she received following her Fox appearance.

Perhaps Fox hired a few too many summer interns to handle some of its behind-the-scenes writing chores.

Paul To End Campaign

If you are one of the millions or so that support Ron Paul, then this has got to be bad news?  This from ABC News:

Rep. Ron Paul’s presidential campaign, a pugnacious, ideological crusade against big government and interventionist leanings in the Republican party, will officially end Thursday at a rally outside the Texas GOP’s convention, ABC News has learned.

Paul told supporters back in March, in a video posted on his Web site, that he was “winding down” his campaign and planning a new phase to what he and fans call their “revolution.”

The new phase of the revolution officially begins with a speech tonight in Houston and a Web video to be posted on his site, officially ending Paul’s presidential campaign and freeing up the more than $4.7 million in campaign cash for investment in a new advocacy group, The Campaign for Liberty.

The new entity will be used to push a slate of libertarian-minded Republican candidates for public office in local districts nationwide, according to a description provided to ABC News by the Paul campaign. Paul also recently published a new book on his political philosophy, The Revolution: A Manifesto.

But I ask just how successful can he be at pushing his message on the American people?