RealClearPolitics – Articles – Minimizing McCain’s Experience
Hero is a term that flies around, but wearing a uniform does not instantly make one a hero. To call one such, is to diminish the acts of true heroes. A well written and informative piece on the “experience” question.
Democrat Barack Obama holds a two-to-one lead over Republican John McCain among low-wage workers but many are uncommitted to either presidential candidate, to according to a new poll by The Washington Post, the Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard University.
Obama’s advantage is due largely to overwhelming support from African Americans and Hispanics, but even among white voters, the Illinois senator leads McCain 47 percent to 37 percent, The Washington Post reported in Monday editions.
The poll found that one in six white workers polled remains uncommitted to either candidate, the Post reported.
Most of the respondents were pessimistic about the impact of the November 4 election. A majority of those polled, both white and minority, said that no matter who won their personal financial situation would be unlikely to change, it said.
Apparently low wage workers are the only ones that see what is what in this election process. They are most likely correct that the only people that will benefit, no matter who wins, is the wealthy.
And yet another Monday and yet another quiz–Today’s quiz is on the international scale and is not as easy as it appears.
In the 1840’s, who was the first person to call for international trade unions and the first person to use the slogan “Workers Of The World Unite”?
You may begin and good luck. Please when finished leave quietly.
Many proponents of th nuclear energy have used France as an example of what can be accomplished. The country gets a hign precentage of the power from nukes and is a shining example of what can be accomplished when we set out minds on safe clean energy.
A major uranium leak at the Tricastin nuclear facility has focused attention on a series of recent incidents in France’s nuclear industry, raising serious doubts about its safety precautions for its workers and the environment. The conflicting reports issued by state officials and representatives of France’s public nuclear energy conglomerate, Areva, heighten suspicions of a cover-up.
A decree passed on July 23, 2003 and a law passed on June 13, 2006, restricting publicly available information on nuclear facilities in the name of the fight against terrorism, limit what can be revealed about the incidents. The measures classify information relative to stocking, protection, accountancy and transport of nuclear material as top secret. They also apply to the preparation of nuclear safety exercises.
The enquiry on the July 7 incident also detected water table pollution, apparently linked to the storage of military nuclear waste at Pierrelatte. Due to the feelings provoked by the first incident, it was decided to test the water tables around all 58 French power plants. Citing the fact that that the initial Tricastin leak was at a fuel processing plant and not a power plant, Frederic Marillier, spokesman for nuclear questions at Greenpeace France, said in a July 17 press release: “this analysis must not stop at the nuclear plants but must be widened to all nuclear sites: to processing sites (such as Cadarache, Marcoule, or the Hague), to disused uranium mines (such as Bessines), to military sites (such as Valduc), and to waste-stocking centres, notably in the Manche region and at Soulaines.”
In the following weeks, there were other incidents, receiving less coverage: on July 11, at the Nogent-sur-Seine nuclear power plant; on July 12 at a plant at Gravelines; on July 18 at Saint-Albans-Saint-Maurice, and in the reactor at Tricastin on July 23. On July 17, another leak was detected at the FBFC factory at Romans-sur-Isère (also in the Drôme), caused by a pipe break dating back several years. In total, according to CRIIRAD figures quoted by the daily Le Monde, 126 workers were contaminated.
Recently the safe Naval nuclear energy has been found to be not so safe and now the shining light of the nuke eneregy lobby is starting to dim a bit.
04 August
15,000 silk workers strike in Paterson, N.J. for 44 hour week – 1919
185,000 Teamsters strike United Parcel Service – 1997
If the union bureaucracy does call a strike, it will seek to use it to pressure management into allowing unionization of Verizon wireless and business divisions. To achieve this, the union leadership would be willing to agree to wage and benefit concessions for its current members and sub-standard pay and benefits for workers in newly unionized divisions.
The CWA signed a deal with AT&T, which accepted concessions in exchange for allowing workers in its wireless division to join the union. Since 2005, the CWA has been able to sign up 19,000 additional members.
Verizon is aiming to make its employees pay the cost of creating its new network by gutting health and pension benefits and holding down wages. In 2005, Verizon ended pension benefits for more than 50,000 management employees. At the same time, the company eliminated retiree health benefits for those managers with fewer than 15 years. The company is now seeking to impose similar cutbacks on its unionized work force.
The United States has accused Pakistan’s main spy agency of deliberately undermining Nato efforts in Afghanistan by helping the Taliban and al-Qaeda militants they are supposed to be fighting, the Sunday Times reported.
President George W Bush confronted Yusuf Raza Gilani in Washington last week with evidence of involvement by the ISI in a deadly attack on the Afghan capital and warned of retaliation if it continues.
The move comes amid growing fears that Pakistanís tribal areas are turning into a global launch pad for terrorists. Gilani, on his first official US visit since being elected in February, was left in no doubt that the Bush administration had lost patience with the ISIs alleged double game. Bush warned that if one more attack in Afghanistan or elsewhere were traced back to Pakistan, he would have to take serious action.
An intercepted telephone conversation apparently revealed that ISI agents masterminded the operation. The United States also claimed to have arrested an ISI officer inside Afghanistan. Pakistani ministers said they had left Washington reeling from what they described as a grilling and shocked at the trust deficit between Pakistan and its most important backer.
Barack Obama’s ambitious plan to take roughly $131 billion from your bulging pockets so that he can keep taxes low and refunds high for the middle class on down.
Obama wants to hike taxes to Clinton-administration levels, lifting the top marginal rate to 39.6% versus 35% today, for roughly 5.6 million wealthy tax filers. “Wealthy,” in Obama-speak, covers filers reporting income of $250,000 or more. The hike on this gilded army, which is four times larger than our active-duty military, would let Obama to keep the Bush tax cuts in place for the remaining 143.7 million filers.
According to Urban-Brookings, Obama’s tax plan will increase the national debt by $3.4 trillion by 2018 if he can’t persuade Congress to significantly cut spending. Republican John McCain’s plan cuts revenue even more, and would boost the debt by $5 trillion if he doesn’t bring discretionary and entitlement spending under control. Both candidates claim they have the courage to do this.
The above is from the business publication, Barron’s.