Day: July 9, 2008

SAG UpDate

A campaign by the Screen Actors Guild to persuade members of a smaller rival union to vote down a new contract has foundered, an outcome that could weaken SAG’s leverage in its negotiations with the Hollywood studios.

Members of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists on Tuesday approved a new three-year, prime-time TV contract, dealing a blow to SAG leaders who had gambled heavily on defeating a contract they blasted as bad for actors.

The AFTRA vote — widely viewed as a barometer of support for SAG negotiators — doesn’t eliminate the prospect of a strike, but it leaves the guild with fewer alternatives. The protracted negotiations are causing uncertainty throughout Hollywood, holding up feature film productions and casting a pall over the upcoming fall TV season.

SAG leaders could still seek a strike authorization vote from members, but that option is considered risky given the deteriorating economy and strike fatigue after the 100-day Hollywood writers walkout that ended in February.

AFTRA leaders countered that broadcasters accounted for less than 10% of the union’s 70,000 members, 52,000 of whom are actors. AFTRA did not report how many of its members voted. The 120,000-member SAG represents the vast majority of those working on prime-time TV shows and, unlike AFTRA, actors who work in feature films.

AFTRA President Roberta Reardon called SAG’s actions “an unprecedented disinformation campaign” and praised actors for displaying “courage in the face of potential retribution by taking a stand against disunity.” She called on the unions to revisit the possibility of merging and jointly negotiating an upcoming commercials contract.

The contract ratified Tuesday was modeled after similar pacts negotiated by directors and writers. Although the accord includes pay hikes for actors and establishes payments for programs streamed on the Internet, SAG contended it didn’t meet such key bargaining goals as increasing residuals from DVD sales and ensuring that all Internet programs were covered by its contract.

Over 70 Sex!

Since I am an old fart this is good news for us aging radicals.

More couples over 70 are having sex – and finding it satisfing – than in previous generations, a British Medical Journal survey suggests.

Swedish researchers asked 1,500 older people across a 30-year period about their sex lives.

The number of people saying they had sex increased – as did the number of women reporting having orgasms.

The scientists from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden interviewed 70-year-olds in 1971-2, 1976-7, 1992-3 and 2000-2001.

They found that the number of 70-year-olds reporting sexual intercourse rose in men and women, married and unmarried.

Nearly all – 68% – of married men in the most recent survey said they had sex, an increase from 52%, while the percentage of married women having sex rose from 38% to 56%.

Dr Petra Boynton, a specialist in the psychology of sex and relationships at University College London, said it was important to remember that someone turning 70 in the year 2000 would have been influenced by the more free sexual attitudes of the 1960s and 1970s – and also perhaps fitter and healthier than those in their 70s in previous decades.

She said: “We still have this stereotype of elderly people with their bath chairs and canes, staggering around, who couldn’t possibly be having sex – but that isn’t the case.”

She pointed out that the study did not record the frequency of sex for any of those surveyed, simply whether they were having sex at all, and focused on penetrative sex, rather than other types of sex which might be favoured by older people.

Older men who have more sex will experience fewer erection problems, report Finnish researchers.

A five-year study, published in the American Journal of Medicine, of 989 men aged 55-75 in Pirkanmaa, Finland, showed that having sexual intercourse less than once per week doubled the risk of erectile dysfunction (ED), compared to having sex once per week.

Now that is something of a good news day–coffee helps the sex….watermelon makes you horny and now this…damn!  Life is good!

Nazi Doctor Is Alive

Nazi-hunters say they have strong evidence that the most wanted member of Hitler’s regime – known as Dr Death – is hiding in southern Chile.

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre believes Aribert Heim is in Patagonia, where his daughter is known to live.

Heim is said to have documented the victims he tortured and killed at Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria during World War II.

He is accused of killing Jews using exceptionally cruel methods. According to Holocaust survivors, he performed operations and amputations without anaesthetic to see how much pain his victims could endure.

Injecting victims straight into the heart with petrol, water or poison were said to have been his favoured method at Mauthausen.

After the war, Heim was detained by US forces but was not charged.

He practised medicine in the German town of Baden-Baden until 1962, when he fled the country after being tipped off that the authorities were about to prosecute him.

If he is still alive, Heim will be 94 years old.

Conversation With Info Ink

This was a conversation I had with one of my readers on the nuke question. Unfortunately the conversation was terminated before we could finish and hopefully more will be had.

lobotero: and?

ss: looks like everything gives off pollution of some sort…just don’t like the nuclear waste 1/2 life of 240,000 years

lobotero: yep…that does suck…lol

lobotero: but what would wind and solar give off?

ss:

Wind

Accident possibilities include toppling towers, flying blades, and falls during construction and maintenance.

Aesthetic intrusion on mountain ridges, passes, and coastlines is feared by some.

ss:

Photovoltaics

Toxic substances used in cell manufacture are occupational hazards, can contaminate water in manufacturing areas, and can be released from overheated or burning cells.

ss:

Geothermal

Water pollution by dissolved salts and toxic elements in geothermal water can affect streams, lakes, and domestic water supplies.

Hydrogen sulfide gas is a toxic and odoriferous air pollutant.

lobotero: but none of that would last 244,000 years, right?

ss: nope

lobotero: gee wheez ….maybe we should consider them…I am sure that controls on stuff woulkd be easier and safer than nukes

lobotero: just a thought

ss: but 2 of the 3 can pollute the water supply

ss: don’t disagree

lobotero: but there is already technology to vclean up the effluent

ss: yep

lobotero: so where is the downside of these energy programs?

ss: funding

ss: and profits

lobotero: so it comes back to capitalism, eh?

ss: yep

ss: btw did you see where tallahassee got approval to build a nuclear power plant

lobotero: so what we are saying is that if there is no profit then the people can just suffer

ss: now that is where we need to see a nuclear power plant in the middle of hurricane prone area

lobotero: yep nbut i will be dead before they finish it…lol

ss: they are saying 4 to 5 years to build…but the people will start seeing this next year a 4% increase in their energy bills now…and that is a 4% per year increase

lobotero: so the power company makes the profit and the people pay more for their power and the tax dollars go to the plant as subsidies….good plan dick brains

ss: read that in my research this morning…got approval in march 2008

lobotero: now how much would the plant cost?

lobotero: then ask how much a wind farm would cost

lobotero: nukes get $70 million government bucks and alternastive energy gets $10 milklion

ss: actually I came across an article that listed the cost of building a nuclear power plant in steel, concrete and all that

lobotero: now tyell me again how serious they are about alternative energy?

lobotero: well tell me….lol

ss: lol…can’t say that they are all that serious about the alternative energy..just like alternative fuels for cars…

lobotero: IMO, they are NEVER serious…it is a way to get votes and will never happen

ss: lobbiests are way to busy

lobotero: Clinton in 1993 put $1.,3 billion in the budget for renewable engery and alt enrgy and where did that get us? R we any closer now than in 1993?….HELL NO!

ss: nope…

lobotero: so why would i believe that McCain or Obama has any other plan than what is from the past?

ss: nobody in their right mind would

ss: they are politicians out to get your vote

lobotero: They pander to the voter….that is a polite way of calling them what they are….fucking lairs.

ss: see we said the same thing again…lol

lobotero: yep

ss: we have way to many smart people out there to not have already come up with alternatives. they just keep disappearing off the radar..

lobotero: they are usually bought off with corporate cash

Link Terminated………..

If anyone would like to have a conversation with the editor of Info Ink please let me know and we will set up a time and place.

I Have Got To Know!

I have asked this question before and have still not gotten an answer from anyone. What is Joe Lieberman up to? Is he a handler? Is he trying to make a case for VP?

Everywhere McCain goes so goes Lieberman……is he there to keep McCain from making bonehead statements? Why is he always there beside McCain? I mean you cannot see McCain out and about without Lieberman pressed to his ass. I think that if you look up the term brown noser, you will find a pic of Lieberman.

So please, someone, anyone tell us why is Lieberman there?

What Is McCain Really Saying?

“America’s better days are not behind her–they are a head”

That is a cute do nothing little slogan that will impress uninformed voters.

Ask the auto industry who spend their time trying to break unions and screw workers to see the Japanese sneaking up from across the water.  They have fallen way short in the innovation thing.  Ask the homeowner–if they are better off now.  He/she will give a disappointing negative answer to that question.  Ask the single mom that is trying to feed and clothe her children and she will most likely say that there is no bright skies foreseen in the future.

However, McCain was right about something, during the primaries he toild the voters in Michigan that their jobs would not be coming back from overseas.  That was his only truth about the economy so far.

McCain is giving false hope to the voter.  His gas tax proposal is a vote getter–nothing else.  He is gonna be a friend to corporations and the bane of the worker.

SAG Will Not Strike–Asner

Ed Asner, who played TV newsman Lou Grant in the seminal 1970s sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show, told reporters Tuesday that a strike is unlikely.

Asner, a lifelong political activist, served as president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1981-1985 and played a prominent role in the union’s strike in 1980.

Asner’s remarks carry significant weight because they come at a time when his former union has reached an impasse in contract talks with the Hollywood studios. The results of a contract ratification vote by the rival American Federation of Radio & Television Artists union were expected today.

Today In Labor History

09 July

New England Telephone “girls” strike for seven-hour workday, $27 weekly pay after four years’ service – 1923

United Packinghouse, Food & Allied Workers merge with Amalgamated Meat Cutters & Butcher Workmen – 1968

Five thousand demonstrators rally at the state capitol in Columbia, S.C. in support of the “Charleston Five,” labor activists charged with felony rioting during a police attack on a 2000 longshoremen’s picket of a non-union crew unloading a ship – 2001

US Congress Approval Rating

The percentage of voters who give Congress good or excellent ratings has fallen to single digits for the first time in Rasmussen Reports tracking history. This month, just 9% say Congress is doing a good or excellent job. Most voters (52%) say Congress is doing a poor job, which ties the record high in that dubious category.

Last month, 11% of voters gave the legislature good or excellent ratings. Congress has not received higher than a 15% approval rating since the beginning of 2008.

Voters hold little positive sentiment about the future. Just 41% find it at least somewhat likely that Congress will address important problems facing our nation in the near future, while 55% find this unlikely.

Most voters (72%) think most members of Congress are more interested in furthering their own political careers. Just 14% believe members are genuinely interested in helping people.

But the truly sad thing is that the American voter keeps sending the same bunch of do nothing morons to Washington with the hope they will eventually do something they are suppose to—how has that worked out so far?