Please Talk Back
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones – The Impression That I Get
December 2008 archive
Dec 08 2008
Late Night Karaoke
Dec 08 2008
Obama Supports Republic Workers Who Are Occupying Factory!
You all probably know by now that workers at Republic Window and Door have occupied the factory and are demanding their legal right to severance pay and vacation pay as the plant closes.
CHICAGO – Workers laid off from their jobs at a factory have occupied the building and are demanding assurances they’ll get severance and vacation pay that they say they are owed.
About 200 employees of Republic Windows and Doors began their sit-in Friday, the last scheduled day of the plant’s operation.
“We’re going to stay here until we win justice,” said Blanca Funes, 55, of Chicago, after occupying the building for several hours. Speaking in Spanish, Funes said she fears losing her home without the wages she feels she’s owed. A 13-year employee of Republic, she estimated her family can make do for three months without her paycheck. Most of the factory’s workers are Hispanic.
snip
“We’re doing something we haven’t since the 1930s, so we’re trying to make it work,” Fried said.
https://www.docudharma.com/show…
I didn’t think he’d do it, but he did. I figured Obama would sit this one out. I mean, occupying a factory is illegal, at least formalistically. There could be a politicla downside. He didn’t have to say anything. But I was wrong:
“When it comes to the situation here in Chicago with the workers who are asking for their benefits and payments they have earned, I think they are absolutely right,” Obama said Sunday at a news conference announcing his new Veterans Affairs director. “What’s happening to them is reflective of what’s happening across this economy.
“When you have a financial system that is shaky, credit contracts. Businesses large and small start cutting back on their plants and equipment and their workforces. That’s why it’s so important for us to maintain a strong financial system. But it’s also important for us to make sure that the plans and programs that we design aren’t just targeted at maintaining the solvency of banks, but they are designed to get money out the doors and to help people on Main Street. So, number one, I think that these workers, if they have earned their benefits and their pay, then these companies need to follow through on those commitments.”
http://www.suntimes.com/news/p…
He avoided endorsing the sit down strike directly, but he said they were right and that’s good enough for me.
Dec 08 2008
EAST, WEST, ONE SKY
Twin sides of sky in stopped motion time.
Blushing clouds in colors rhymed.
The setting sun fades out our light,
Turns on the moon to clear the night.
From my rooftop observatory at sunset, tonight.
Dec 08 2008
Elder “Care” in Af-merica-stan
Well it’s Pearl Harbor Day but Dad flew B29’s out of Italy late in “the big one”. Dad is now 86, has advanced alzheimers and is becoming increasingly incontinent. My extreme efforts to aide my mother and help her through this situation ended in her reporting me to an elder care agency for “elder abuse”, no less.
My final discovery in all this is that Ma is a sociopath. Tomorrow there is a meeting to discuss how best to warehouse a WWII patriot in a nursing home. Why? Simply because he is of no further use to Ma. He just can’t die in his own home like he wanted because Ma finds it gross that he craps in his pants. That plus Ma’s first psychiatric breakdown happened upon my birth, so I am, and have always been the focus of her Satanically aided anger.
In all of this and all of my efforts to help the medical and legal establishments of Afmericastan have proven to be evil in their nature and intent. My mother taught me something with this entire experience and you should take heed. Cure yourself and stay off the electronic medical surveillance grid.
Dec 08 2008
Pearl Harbor Day
Last year I posted this at GOS(i’ve since deleted this one) & also here at dd….
This is my dads story & just one of the family stories that run through my head at the mention of Pearl Harbour Day.
Each in their own way highlights a facet of why/how i became just exactly who i am.
(my theory is who you are is in (large) part determined by others expectations of you…& how you respond to those expectations……& their expectations/who they are is based on those before…)
from last years essay
My Dad is a Great Guy, his experiences varied and many… in a ‘Big Fish’ kind of way. He served in WWII and later became the fencing coach of Columbia University in the 1940’s-50s and was an early advocate of civil rights in sports(see 1948), eventually retiring to California. Not long ago Columbia University honoured him with a lovely (ceremony-dinner-function-thingey) More about this can be found at Columbia’s web site, I think.
anyway….
Dec 08 2008
Bear Butte, Blackwater, & Helicopter Rides…
“Mommy, I wanna see some real Indians praying! Can we take a helicopter ride, pleeeeaasse?” Johnny’s mother, pleased, replied “Yes sweetie, why Blackwater, the greatest homegrown American terrorist organization –
The frightening — and possibly illegal — presence of heavily armed private forces in New Orleans only demonstrates what everyone already feared: the utter breakdown of the government.
– has helicopter rides going over Bear Butte.”
Dec 08 2008
Connecting the Dots on the Mumbai Attacks
Excerpt from an article by the managing editor at the The Environmentalist:
There has been a great deal of reporting, speculation, finger pointing and denials on the Mumbai attacks, much of which has focused on trees (dots) instead of forests. After reading with empathy and horror of the death and destruction, the question remained, who was behind this and why?
snip
The press has been referring to the Mumbai attacks as India’s 9/11. Given the impact on India and the larger impact on both the global economy and the ongoing conflicts in South Asia, that seems an accurate assessment.
The article lists the different players involved and identifies, by name, the likeliest suspects.
Here’s the link.
Dec 07 2008
Cuba Stifles Blog Freedom. Again.
cross posted from The Dream Antilles
La Bloguera Yoani Sanchez
Cuban Blogger Yoani Sanchez, the 2008 Gasset y Ortega Prize winner for digital journalism, and her husband, Reynaldo Escobar, have been forbidden by the Cuban government from attending a blogger conference in Cuba.
Join me 90 miles South of Miami.
Dec 07 2008
Weekend News Digest
Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread
OUR TOP STORY TONIGHT!- GENERALISSIMO FRANCISCO FRANCO IS STILL DEAD!
| From Yahoo News Top Stories |
1 AP IMPACT: How Freddie Mac halted regulatory drive
By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer
33 mins ago
| WASHINGTON – When the Washington Nationals played their first-ever baseball game in the nation’s capital in April 2005, two congressmen who oversaw mortgage giant Freddie Mac had choice seats – courtesy of the very company they were supposed to be keeping an eye on.
Efforts to tighten government regulation were gaining support on Capitol Hill, and Freddie Mac was fighting back. The baseball tickets for home opener were means of influence. According to confidential company documents obtained by The Associated Press, Reps. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, and Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa., spent the evening in hard-to-obtain seats near the Nationals dugout with Freddie Mac executive Hollis McLoughlin and four of Freddie Mac’s in-house lobbyists. |
Dec 07 2008
Celebrate the new Madison Avenue pseudo-holiday: VALKYRIE FRIDAY!
Forget Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Valkyrie Friday (well, this year it’s Friday) is the day after Christmas! The shopping mall battlefields are strewn with the dead and wounded misfit toys that didn’t make the cut while the wild-eyed mobs ran through the aisles like the bulls at Pamplona. Fly, fly, my sisters and brothers, and rescue the heroic offerings presented to you by a desperate consumer kingdom as is your sacred duty!
While those who have fulfilled their glassy-eyed Christian obligation to obtain material goods by a certain morning rest at home, replete with sated consumerism and shaking the blood of WalMart employees from their shoes (PAAAA-RAIZZZE JEEZUS!), those of us who have resisted the multi-limnal marketing bombardment of the previous weeks for whatever reason now have our chance.
Everything is half price! Some stuff is less than half price! This is all the STUFFFFFFF!!!!! that didn’t move, and now it can be YOURS!!!!! Can I get a “HOI KRIEGER!” everybody! Heed the wise post-9/11 words of Der FucktardFuhrer and GO SHOPPING!
Dec 07 2008
Dec. 6, 1941 – The day before the day “which will live in infamy”
History.
Many highlights stand out and many dates are remembered for their significance as to world events. Of course, we here in The United States of America tend to remember more the dates of events that have been crucial and important to our young country.
We all know that on December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, HI, which caused the USA to stand up and be counted beyond just monitary assistance to other countries in WWII. We also know the highlights of what came after, up until the end of WWII. Yet, not many know how hard our President Roosevelt had tried to work with Japan, especially, in order to keep the entire world from breaking out into war.