Day: July 23, 2008

2008 Anal-Ocity

This nominee is an campaign ad put out by the RNC in support of John McCain.

The Ad: (Narrator) Gas prices — $4, $5, no end in sight, because some in Washington are still saying no to drilling in America. No to independence from foreign oil. Who can you thank for rising prices at the pump?

(Chant) Obama! Obama!

(Narrator) One man knows we must now drill more in America and rescue our family budgets. Don’t hope for more energy, vote for it. McCain.

The essence of the ad is to blame Obama for the high price of gas–pretty anal!

Today In Labor History

23 July

Anarchist Alexander Berkman shoots and stabs but fails to kill steel magnate Henry Clay Frick in an effort to avenge the Homestead massacre 18 days earlier, in which nine strikers were killed. Berkman also tried to use what was, in effect, a suicide bomb, but it didn’t detonate – 1892

Aluminum Workers Int’l Union merges with The United Brick & Clay Workers of America to form Aluminum, Brick & Clay Workers – 1981

Why We Need Unions

This is my synopsis of an article in the Politico written by David Madland.  A well written article with a lot of information to process.

Half of all workers in the United States now say they would vote to join a union if they could, yet union membership continues to decline — down to just 8 percent today from one-third of private sectors workers in the decades after World War II. The reason: Existing laws make joining a union a Herculean task that few are able to undertake.

Workers considering forming a union face an undemocratic system that permits intimidation. Employers legally can force workers to attend anti-union meetings, including “one-on-one conversations” with supervisors, which happens in over 90 percent of organizing campaigns, according to a Cornell University study. And according to research by University of Oregon professor Gordon Lafer, workers often are pressured by employers to reveal their private preferences for the union. This takes the “secret” out of the “secret ballot” — the most common conservative mischaracterization of current union organizing rules.
Without strong unions, our economy pays a heavy price: wages lag; insecurity, poverty, and inequality increase; and too few workers have the purchasing power needed to boost our nation’s gross national product. Workers are ever more productive, but they haven’t benefited from this increased productivity as much as they should. Wages have been stagnant for years, and in 2007 actually fell by nearly 1 percent, after adjusting for inflation.
When workers join together in a union, they can negotiate for higher wages and better benefits. Department of Labor figures show that union members receive wages that are about 30 percent higher than workers not in a union, and they are much more likely to receive heath and retirement benefits. And when unions are strong and able to represent the people who want to join them, these gains spread throughout the economy.

With unions leading the way, nonunion companies increase their wages, and all workers have more purchasing power, producing a “virtuous circle of prosperity and jobs,” according to University of California-Berkeley professor Harley Shaiken. A Center for American Progress report found that strengthening unions is critical to reducing poverty in the United States.

Oil Economics/Alt Energy

James Tisch wrote in the Houston Chronicle:

Two factors are driving this sea change. First, the price of our traditional fuels — oil, gas and coal — has risen dramatically. Second, the silent and inexorable march of technology has dramatically reduced the costs of clean alternative energy sources such as wind turbines and photovoltaics, which converts sunlight into electricity. The result will be a dramatic reduction in the emission of greenhouse gases — without politicians passing a single additional piece of legislation.

Today, wind energy is economic at about 7 cents per kilowatt hour, and that is without factoring in production tax credits. A few years ago, that cost was 15 to 20 cents. Compare the 7 cents for wind energy with the 12 cents per kilowatt hour required to build a gas-fired power plant, and you can see why there is a veritable land rush to harness wind energy.

Within the next two to three decades, the gasoline-fired internal combustion engine automobile will no longer be sold. Since gasoline accounts for more than a third of worldwide oil demand, the rise of plug-in hybrids represents a mega-change in terms of emissions.

Plug-in hybrids are dramatically cheaper to operate than today’s cars. They will consume about 2 cents’ worth of electricity to travel one mile, compared with the current 20- to 25-cent cost of driving a mile using gasoline. If consumers flock to them because of their lower operating costs, and they will, the resulting reduction in greenhouse gases will be a benefit of extraordinary proportion — one that the Kyoto crowd thought could be achieved only through draconian regulation.

These changes will take place not only in the United States but worldwide. These technologies will be adopted simply because they are cheaper than their hydrocarbon-burning cousins. The old world of burning hydrocarbons to generate energy and power automobiles is on the way out because it is being priced out of the market. In the next few decades, it is possible that the only thing oil products will be used for is to power airplanes, heavy vehicles and ships. All that is required on the part of those wanting to reduce greenhouse gases is a little patience so these new technologies can be adopted by the market.

So there is a silver lining in the run-up of hydrocarbon prices. These elevated costs are causing a dramatic change in our energy and automobile mix that will result in significantly less greenhouse gas emissions in the next few decades. The change is already on the way based on today’s technology, and it will only quicken with the technological advances that are sure to come. Without a doubt, the answer is blowin’ in the wind.

Viagra May Help Women

These types of stories just keep falling into my lap……and for some reason I cannot resist sharing them with my readers.

Recently in the WSJ, this info was published.

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that Pfizer Inc.’s erectile-dysfunction drug Viagra can reduce adverse sexual effects in women caused by antidepressant use.

Sales of Viagra, which haven’t grown for years, could get a boost if the findings result in a new market being opened for the drug, which first became available a decade ago.

The doctors who conducted the study, from the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, estimate antidepressant treatment-associated sexual dysfunction occurs in 30% to 70% of people treated for major depression. The JAMA article said it is “believed no randomized controlled trial has demonstrated an effective treatment for women experiencing sexual dysfunction” from antidepressant drugs.

But researchers found that only 28% of women taking Viagra showed no improvement, as opposed to 73% of women taking a placebo. The study showed no serious adverse effects.

The authors noted women experience major depressive disorder at nearly double the rate of men and also experience greater subsequent sexual dysfunction. They wrote that by treating the treatment-associated problem it can “reduce the current high rates of premature medication discontinuation and improve depression disease management.”

McCain Misfires–Again

First, I want to say that there is a wealth of stuff on both sides of this election, but, unfortunately, the person who claims the most experience and knowledge on national security and foreign poilicy, just keeps misfiring.  His latest is the timeline of the surge.

Asked about Obama’s contention that a Sunni revolt against al-Qaida combined with the addition of thousands of U.S. combat troops that were sent to Iraq contributed to the improved security situation there, McCain scoffed.

“I don’t know how you respond to something that is such a false depiction of what actually happened,” McCain told “CBS Evening News,” adding that Col. Sean MacFarland was contacted by a major Sunni sheik.

“Because of the surge we were able to go out and protect that sheik and others. And it began the Anbar awakening,” McCain said, referring to the U.S.-backed revolt of Sunni sheiks against al-Qaida in Anbar province. “I mean, that’s just a matter of history.”

The problem with McCain’s statement — as Obama’s campaign quickly noted — was that the awakening got under way before President Bush announced in January 2007 his decision to flood Iraq with tens of thousands of additional U.S. troops to help combat violence.

McCain’s mistakes on the Shia/Sunni thing, his mis-speak on Czech Republic and now the “surge” that he is so proud to support is gonna eventually come back to bite him in the butt.  Difficult to continue to claim experience in all these fields when one does not have a grasp of the events.  This is something that Obama has been accused of in the past and now that all this has come to light, he (Obama) will be painted as a naive twit by the McCain attack machine.

A Second Cold War?

For over a year now I have been saying that there is the possibility of the approach of a second Cold War.  With all the chest thumping by the US and Russia, the possibility is there.

This does not help the situation at all.  Let us say Obama wins the general and he has , in some circles, he has been seen as the second coming of JFK, then this only will fuel that preception.

Russia may start regular flights by long-range bombers to Cuba in response to US plans to build missile defence sites in Eastern Europe, the newspaper Izvestia reported Monday, quoting an official.

“Such discussions exist,” the unidentified senior Russian air force official was quoted as saying, adding that the measure would be a response to the United States “deploying missile defence systems in Poland and the Czech Republic.”

It was not clear whether he meant permanently basing the bombers in Cuba or using the island as a refuelling stop, but former top defence ministry official Leonid Ivashov told the newspaper that Cuba was best used for brief stopovers.

Cuba should be used “not as a permanent base — this is unnecessary — but as a stopover airfield, a refuelling stop,” Ivashov was quoted as saying.

Starting long-range bomber flights to Cuba would signal a reawakening of military cooperation by former Cold War allies Moscow and Havana. In 2002 Russia closed its last military base on the island, a radar base at Lourdes.

If Obama is elected then he will have a full plate from day one.

The “Surge” Has Ended!

The U.S. troop “surge” in Iraq that President George W. Bush ordered last year has ended after the last of five additional combat brigades left the country, a U.S. military spokesman said on Tuesday.

The remaining troops from that brigade departed over the weekend, leaving just under 147,000 American soldiers in Iraq, the spokesman said.
The current number is well above the 130,000 troops in Iraq when Bush ordered the deployment in January 2007. The Pentagon said last February it expected 140,000 troops to be in Iraq once the five brigade drawdown had finished.
Bush sent 30,000 extra soldiers to Iraq last year to quell sectarian violence between majority Shi’ites and minority Sunni Arabs that threatened to tip the country into all-out civil war.

U.S. officials say the buildup helped cut violence in Iraq to four-year lows. Other factors were a decision by Sunni Arab tribal leaders to turn against al Qaeda and a ceasefire by anti-American Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose Mehdi Army militia was accused of carrying out sectarian killings.

So we have our success and cannot that be a win the war sign?  If so, when can the rest of the troops come home?