29 July
A preliminary delegation from Mother Jones’ March of the Mill Children from Philadelphia to Pres. Theodore Roosevelt’s summer home in Oyster Bay, Long Island, publicizing the harsh conditions of child labor, arrives today. They are not allowed through the gates – 1903
Following a five-year table grape boycott, Delano-area growers file into the United Farm Workers union hall in Delano, Calif. to sign their first union contracts – 1970
Fragranced laundry products and air fresheners emit dozens of different chemicals, including some regulated as toxic or hazardous under federal law, according to a new study.
Yet none of the potentially toxic chemicals is listed on the product labels, according to researcher Anne C. Steinemann, PhD, a professor of civil and environmental engineering and public affairs at the University of Washington, Seattle. She says consumers should be given more information about such products.
In a laboratory, she put each product in an isolated space at room temperature. Then she analyzed the surrounding air for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) — small molecules that evaporate from the surface of the product into the air. She used advanced methods called gas chromatography and mass spectrometry to identify the VOCs.
She detected nearly 100 VOCs, all at levels above 300 micrograms per cubic meter — an arbitrary threshold picked by Steinemann because it is considered high enough to pose potential concern in case of exposure.
Of the identified VOCs, 10 are regulated as toxic or hazardous under federal law, with three of those classified as hazardous air pollutants, she says. The three classified as hazardous air pollutants include acetaldehyde, chloromethane, and 1,4 dioxane.
The AP is reporting that Republican presidential candidate John McCain drew a sharp rebuke Monday from conservatives after he signaled an openness to a higher payroll tax for Social Security, contrary to previous vows not to raise taxes of any kind.
Speaking with reporters on his campaign bus on July 9, he cited a need to shore up Social Security, saying: “I cannot tell you what I would do, except to put everything on the table.”
He went a step farther Sunday with his reponse on a nationally televised talk show to a question about payroll tax increases.
“There is nothing that’s off the table. I have my positions, and I’ll articulate them. But nothing’s off the table,” McCain said. “I don’t want tax increases. But that doesn’t mean that anything is off the table.”
That comment drew a strong response Monday from the Club for Growth, a Washington anti-tax group. McCain’s comments, the group said in a letter to the Arizona senator, are “shocking because you have been adamant in your opposition to raising taxes under any circumstances.”
Asked for an explanation of McCain’s latest comments, campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds said the Arizona senator “has a clear and demonstrated record of opposing tax increases. John McCain is going to cut taxes” and improve government discipline, he said.
Promises never to raise taxes have bedeviled past Republican officeholders. Before being elected president in 1988, George H.W. Bush said, “Read my lips, no new taxes.” But facing severe budget problems, he reneged on the promise. Some conservative groups never forgave him.
The last I heard, oil had fallen to $128 a barrel, good news, right? Depends on how you want to look at it. Yes, demand is down, but for how long? As demand falls, so will the price, or so goes a little economic axiom.
What could explain it? Consumers using less gas, is one. But the world’s largest market, China, is more like the answer. The Olympics approach and China has started an odd-even plan, Vehicles with odd plates drives one day and then the even drives. This is to try and cut down on the pollution for the Olympics.
That would cut China’s demand in half on a daily basis. This, IMO, is one of several reason for the fall in price. Granted not the only one, but one of the major reasons. This fall looks like a short term fall and will return to regular demand with the end of the Olympics.
Enjoy while you can–higher prices should return.
A statement By Ron Paul:
Statement before the US House of Representatives on HR 3221 July 24, 2008
Madam Speaker,
For several years, followers of the Austrian school of economics have warned that unless Congress moved to end the implicit government guarantee of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and took other steps to disengage the US Government from the housing market, America would face a crisis in housing. This crisis would force Congress to chose between authorizing a taxpayer bailout of Fannie and Freddie, and other measures increasing government’s involvement in housing, or restoring a free-market in housing by ending government support for Fannie and Freddie and repealing all laws that interfere in housing. The bursting of the housing bubble, and the recent near-collapse in investor support for Fannie and Freddie has proven my fellow Austrians correct. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, instead of ending the prior interventions in the housing market that are responsible for the current crisis, Congress is increasing the level of government intervention in the housing market. This is the equivalent of giving a drug addict another fix, which will only make the necessary withdrawal more painful.
The provision giving the Treasury Secretary a blank check to purchase Fannie and Freddie stock not only makes the implicit government guarantee of Fannie and Freddie explicit, it represents another unconstitutional delegation of Congress’ Constitutional authority to control the allocation of taxpayer dollars. While the Treasury Secretary has to file a report with Congress, the lack of any effective standards for the expenditure of funds makes it impossible for Congress to perform effective oversight on Treasury’s expenditures.
HR 3221 also takes another troubling step toward the creation of surveillance state by creating a Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry. This federal database will contain personal information about anyone wishing to work as a “loan originator.” “Loan originator” is defined broadly as anyone who “takes a residential loan application; and offers or negotiates terms of a residential mortgage loan for compensation or gain.” According to some analysts, this definition is so broad as to cover part-time clerks and real estate agents who receive even minimal compensation from “originators.” Additionally, this database forced on industry will be funded by fees paid to the federal banking agencies, yet another costly burden to the American taxpayers.
Among the information that will be collected from loan originators for inclusion in the federal database are fingerprints. Madam Speaker, giving the federal government the power to force Americans who wish to work in real estate to submit their fingerprints to a federal database opens the door to numerous abuses of privacy and civil liberties and establishes a dangerous precedent. Fingerprint databases and background checks have been no deterrent to espionage and fraud among governmental agencies, and will likewise fail to prevent fraud in the real estate market. I am amazed to see some members who are usually outspoken advocates of civil liberties and defenders of the Fourth Amendment support this new threat to privacy.
Finally, HR 3221 increases the federal debt limit by $800 billion. We are told that CBO has scored this bill at a cost of $25 billion, but this debt limit increase belies that. The Federal Reserve has already propped up the housing and financial markets to the tune of over $300 billion, and this raise of the debt limit indicates that the cost of this newest bailout will likely be even more costly. I am dismayed that my colleagues have not learned the lessons of the Patriot Act and Sarbanes-Oxley. Massive bills passed in knee-jerk reaction to crisis events will always be poorly written, burdensome and expensive to taxpayers, and destructive of liberty.
NO! Say it ain’t so!
In his most direct challenge yet of his Democratic presidential rival’s Iraq policy, Sen. John McCain suggested yesterday that Sen. Barack Obama had crafted a war strategy designed to further his own political advancement.
McCain also intimated that Obama skipped a visit of wounded U.S. troops in Germany last week because it would not generate sufficient publicity for his campaign, a charge that the Republican made the centerpiece of a new television ad.
Obama’s call for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, McCain said, “was political” and was made “in order to help him get the nomination of his party.” In a different interview, McCain said that “Senator Obama just views this war as another political issue with which he can change positions.”
Wait! And McCain is not? Please stop this! It is ALL politics from taking a crap in the morning to the last line said before bed. There is no difference! Just move on and talk about something real.
Apparently, this is all McCain has in his favor or why else who he be stuck in the “surge” groove.
Hiya class–it is Monday and another week begins with the god-awful quiz. Much has been written, said and prayed about the number of votes that this candidate and that has gotten or will possibly receive in the upcoming general election.
Who was the first presidential candidate to receive a million votes?
Not that tough–just google and go–you may begin.
27 July
Women shoemakers in Lynn, Mass. create Daughters of St. Crispin, demand pay equal to that of men – 1869
Federal troops burn the shantytown built near the U.S. Capitol by thousands of unemployed WWI veterans, camping there to demand a bonus they had been promised but never received – 1932
Nine miners are rescued in Sommerset, Pa. after being trapped for 77 hours 240 feet underground in the flooded Quecreek Mine – 2002
When it comes to what SAG considers its fair share in new media, the actors union is standing firm.
The union’s national board on Saturday passed, 68-0, a resolution indicating jurisdiction over new media and residuals for all made-for new media productions are of the utmost importance during the current stalled contract negotiations. The resolution was voted on during an 11-hour marathon meeting.
SAG and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers have been locked in a de facto impasse ever since the production companies and studios made their final offer to the union on June 30.
SAG responded with a counter-proposal, which the AMPTP rejected. Since then, there has been one sidebar meeting between the two sides that failed to resolve the continued stalemate.
The resolution showed the first signs of solidarity among the fragmented national board since negotiations started in April. Board members from SAG’s Hollywood division, led by the faction MembershipFirst, have locked horns with board members in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and elsewhere regarding the current state of negotiations as well as its failed attempt to get members of both SAG and AFTRA to vote down AFTRA’s primetime/TV contract
With negotiations in limbo, Hollywood is at a virtual standstill. While TV productions continue, the major studios do not have many projects filming, in the event that SAG’s negotiating committee decides to take a strike vote and members vote to walk out.
The US Senate has approved a rescue bill designed to prop up America’s battered housing market.
The new law creates a $300bn (£150bn) rescue fund to help thousands of homeowners get cheaper loans.
It may also be used to bail out the struggling mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, which own or guarantee around half the nation’s mortgage debt.
The bill has been approved in a very short time. President George Bush is expected to sign it into law next week.
Washington says the bill will help hundreds of thousands of Americans trapped by mortgages they can no longer afford.
They will be offered the chance to refinance with state-backed, fixed rate loans.
This is some relief for bewildered home owners, but in the same bill millions of taxpayer dollars will be used to bail out the corporations that lead the speculation in the housing markets. I guess I would have to support the bill only because it will give the average home owner a chance to refinance at a lower rate. Damned if I do and damned if I don’t.