Tag: justice

Apr 24 2008

Justice for Eleazar Torres-Gomez: House Panel Examines Cintas Safety

On August 22, 2007, I wrote about the death of Eleazar Torres-Gomez.

Eleazar Torres-Gomez was pronounced dead on the scene after apparently being dragged by a conveyor into an industrial dryer.  Torres-Gomez was trapped in the dryer-which can reportedly reach temperatures of 300 degrees-for at least 20 minutes.

Did Eleazar Torres-Gomez Lose his Life for Company Profits?

Today, from the Wall Street Journal:

New details about the case — from internal company memos, Cintas surveillance videotapes and people close to the federal investigation — indicate that the dangerous practices that led to Mr. Torres-Gomez’s death occurred frequently in Tulsa and at other plants operated by Cintas, the biggest uniform supplier in North America.

There was a hearing of the Workforce Protections Subcommittee of the House Education and Labor Committee today on Cintas and safety.  That, and more, after the fold.

Also in orange earlier today: http://www.dailykos.com/story/…

Apr 09 2008

New Bush Rule Promotes Killing Streams & Lakes

Last week, new Bushie rules were approved to authorize using streams, wetlands and waterways as waste dump sites as long as man-made streams are “created” to replace the streams killed by the waste.  This is a faith-based rule:  Even the government admits there is no evidence that people have the godly powers to create functional ecological stream systems.  That faith is based on the greed of appeasing special corporate interests that don’t want to spend money on responsible waste disposal methods.  

This rule is not limited to mining waste, but the destruction of streams and watersheds is prevalent in Appalachia.  MTR mining has already destroyed 1,208 miles of streams in just 10 years, but greedy profiteers have since added another 535 miles.  

Mar 28 2008

End Modern Day Servitude; Support the Florida Tomato Workers

In the tomato fields of south Florida, modern-day servitude still thrives.

“Slavery, plain and simple”

A federal indictment filed on January 17th of this year charged six people for their roles in a violent farm labor operation based in Immokalee, Florida. US Attorney Doug Molloy called the operation “slavery, plain and simple”

Ft. Myers News-Press, “Group accused of keeping, beating, stealing from Immokalee laborers” 1/18/08).  

The American consumer does not want the tomatoes they eat to be picked by workers who are grossly mistreated

Senator Bernie Sanders, January 18, 2008

More, including what YOU can do, after the fold.

Also in Orange: http://www.dailykos.com/story/…

Mar 27 2008

BREAKING: Siegelman Released on Bail Pending Appeal

Great news from the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals:

ATLANTA, Ga. — The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has granted former Gov. Don Siegelman’s request to be released from prison pending the outcome of his appeal.

Siegelman is currently serving a 7-year sentence in the Oakdale Federal Correctional Complex in Louisiana following his 2006 public corruption conviction.

Acting U.S. Attorney Louis Franklin confirms the 11th Circuit granted Siegelman’s release in a fou- page order which states Siegelman had raised a “significant question” about his conviction.

source

Let the celebrations begin.  I am delighted for Don Siegelman and his family.

But it would a mistake, a serious mistake not to note that Siegelman was whisked from his sentencing to imprisonment, something I consider unprecedented, that the Eleventh Circuit and the judge in the Middle District of Alabama have played patsy with this case for the ten months Don has been incarcerated sending it back and forth without deciding his motion for bail pending appeal, and that the timing of his release comes just as it was announced today by John Conyers that Don Siegelman likely be testifying in DC about his conviction.  Put simply, the conviction reeks, and it has Karl Rove’s fingerprints all over it.

The feds should make sure they keep Don’s cell in Louisiana open, so that Karl Rove can move in as soon as possible.

For the details on the Don Siegelman case, try this diary by OPOL and this one by me.

Mar 19 2008

West “Tones Down” Criticism of China, Reports of Tibet Protest Spreading

“Economically, we depend much more on China than they do on us,” French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Wednesday. “It is an essential partner for pretty much every country in the world.

“When you conduct foreign relations with countries as important as China, obviously when you take economic decisions, sometimes it’s at the expense of human rights,” he told France’s BFM television.

link: http://www.reuters.com/article…

Mar 16 2008

Was Spitzer Like Siegelman The Target Of A Political Prosecution?

cross posted from The Dream Antilles

Don Siegelman, a former, Democratic governor of Alabama and a good guy, was railroaded to a federal prison where he’s now serving a 7-year sentence, in a case that has Karl Rove’s fingerprints all over it.  The case is a travesty and proof positive not only that there are political prisoners in the US but that Siegelman is one of them.

Yesterday, I wrote a diary about this disgraceful travesty because I wanted to keep the story alive.  I don’t want us to forget that this conviction is an example of why there was a US Attorney scandal and why investigation of that scandal must continue.

The best sources of information on Siegelman, if you’re not yet familiar with this mockery of justice, is OPOL’s Friday diary on the case, a diary with lots of video and background, and Siegelman’s web site.

What’s any of this got to do with Eliot Spitzer, who has been forced to resign as Governor of New York because of his hiring prostitutes?  Plenty.

Join me across the jump.

Mar 14 2008

“All Roads Lead to Rove.” – Siegelman

All roads lead to Rove.  That was the message scrawled as an afterthought in the lower left-hand corner of the envelope I received in yesterday’s mail.  It contained a letter from an old and dear friend of mine.  His name is Don Siegelman.  He is the former governor of Alabama and he is being held as a political prisoner of the Bush administration in a Federal prison in Louisiana.

Don-Siegelman-back-in-the-day

Jan 24 2008

Book Review: The Environmentalism of the Poor

This is a book review of Joan Martinez-Alier’s 2002 classic “The Environmentalism of the Poor.”  This is a book about the history of environmentalism that tries to fit the struggles of native peoples into that history.  

My last review was of a recently-published biography of Sup Marcos, the EZLN (Zapatista) figure; my next review will to a certain extent integrate the insights of Zapatismo into Martinez-Alier’s framework.  This, to a certain, extent, forms the knowledge background for my interest in people’s movements (centered on, but not exclusive to, peasant movements) as a counterweight to the environmental predations of the mainstream of capitalist industry.

(Crossposted at Big Orange)

Jan 12 2008

I Am Sick to Death of War and Madness

My generation thought Vietnam was an aberration, but it wasn’t, it was the game plan.  Lie your way into a nasty little war and let other people’s children do the killing and dying while the fat cats at the top of the capitalist pile rake in the dough.  It’s all for the benefit of those so bloated with greed that they just don’t care that their profits come soaked in the blood of innocents and patriots.

truth-of-vietnam

Dec 15 2007

Okay, Now I Get It

As-My-Country-Lay-Dying

Like so many others, I have been bothered, bewitched and bewildered by the behavior of the Democratic ‘leadership’ over the past few years.  At first the excuse that they were being steamrolled by the majority Republicans provided them some cover, but it gradually became evident that something more sinister was at play.  

Dec 15 2007

it’s a wonderful life

Driving home from work overwhelms me if I let it. I see the hundreds of drivers in their solitary cars, some passengers, few passengers. I realize I, too, am alone in my car on a drive that could be achieved with far less stress and daily environmental angst if a decent light rail or a well-planned bus system existed in the Northwest metropolis I live in. It takes an hour and a half one way and three buses to attempt to public transit it to work from where I live, and a mere fifteen to twenty minutes by car. I have a car to drive, which is either a hybrid or a beater Nissan Sentra, both of which cost way too much of my income in insurance and gas costs with two teenagers at home.

You – you said – what’d you say a minute ago? They had to wait and save their money before they even ought to think of a decent home. Wait? Wait for what? Until their children grow up and leave them? Until they’re so old and broken down that they… Do you know how long it takes a working man to save five thousand dollars?

Nov 29 2007

My Dinner With clammyc

My-friend-clammyc

I’ve long been a fan of noted blogger clammyc.  He is a tireless and eloquent patriot blogging for the cause.  He is also a pioneer in the field of blog radio and a soon-to-be new father.  After following his writing for a year or more I finally met him face to face at YKOS in Chi-town this past August.  In the course of our conversations there he mentioned that he had a trip to Atlanta coming up in the fall.  I told him to get in touch if he had any free time.  

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