Many independent sites are following the Supreme Court election in Wisconsin but the reports are largely in the form of blog updates without the overall context that one looks for in such a crucial election. It's probably fair to say that many of these outlets are trying to parse the status and implications of the results thus far. In the mainstream the NY Times, for example, has not one current update on the election as of 2:07am on April 6. This is not only disappointing to me but shockingly tone deaf or worse, a deliberate effort to downplay the magnitude of the labor rights issue. The LA Times has done some solid reporting on the status of the intense battle for the Supreme Court in Wisconsin, a contest that will impact the national debate on labor rights, as well as the legality of the recent laws passed there that strip public sector workers of collective bargaining rights.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-wisconsin-election-20110406,1,2882467.story
A disconcerting detail has emerged that even if Kloppenburg wins this election, the conservative jurist David Prosser would not step down until August. Therefore, it is entirely possible that the Supreme Court in Wisconsin could hear the case against Gov. Walker's union-busting law passed in violation of open-meeting law while the Court still holds a 4-3 conservative-leaning majority. Nonetheless, a victory for the moderate JoAnne Kloppenburg would send a powerful message to those in the GOP who have targeted labor throughout the country.
Pulitzer Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz weighs in on the prevalent concentration of wealth and power in the America, in a Vanity Fair article. Convincingly, he points out that the other 99% of Americans have suffered reduced income and living standards while the super-rich continue to consolidate wealth and power. In terms of income inequality the US now lags well behind Europe and more closely resembles countries like Russia and Iran. Stiglitz also debunks the "marginal-productivity theory" often used by economists to explain vast disparities in income in western societies.
http://www.vanityfair.com/society/features/2011/05/top-one-percent-201105?currentPage=all&wpisrc=nl_wonk
Karl Rove's new conservative-driven Wikicountability is a craven attempt to respond to the popularity of WikiLeaks. It is targeting President Obama through a host of FOIA requests that have failed to reveal anything meaningful at all. Unfortunately, the GOP today favors propaganda over true jounalism.
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/04/05/rove_wikileaks_journalism/index.html
The GOP in the House is recklessly undermining airline travel safety through draconian budget cuts they propose and a provision to count non-voting members in union elections as 'no' votes against the membership.
http://www.alternet.org/news/150493/think_that_hole_in_the_southwest_plane_is_scary_the_gop's_plan_to_gut_airline_regulation_is_what's_truly_frightening_/?utm_
More than 700 bills have been introduced around the country, in virtually every state, seeking to restrict worker's rights. Tennessee and Florida have recently gotten into the act, and a broad movement opposing these draconian attacks on the middle class is gaining momentum.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-unions-20110402,0,3452790.story
Workers Fight Back Against More Than 700 Anti-Union Bills
http://www.thenation.com/blog/159690/workers-fight-back-against-more-700-anti-union-bills
The Patriot Act has been used to eviscerate civil liberty protections for the American citizenry in the name of protecting national security. It's high time that significant reforms are written into the law to counter warrantless wiretaps of citizens and other abuses of personal privacy. If these reforms are not instituted then President Obama should veto the reauthorization of the Patriot Act.
http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/04/10539/today-call-white-house-and-demand-patriot-act-reform
Tomorrow's Supreme Court election in Wisconsin is critical in the battle to roll back union-busting law, and would be remembered as a major victory for the Left if JoAnne Kloppenburg defeats David Prosser to counter the conservative tilt of the Court.
http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/04/wisconsin-walker-election-prosser-union
This is precisely the type of aggressive legal action that the people need to initiate if there is to be a chance of turning the tables on overwhelming corporate power. We must attack through law as that is the method through which the will of communities is continually subjugated to the often reckless goals of free enterprise.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=24103
This is truly an outrageous act by the Fed, particularly since the Libyan loans are at a lower rate of interest than what the Fed charged the US Treasury during the bailout. Senator Bernie Sanders is virtually the only politician trying to bring this and other banking malpractice to light. I know I'm a little late on this but we should all know that this is going on.
http://www.thenation.com/blog/159621/why-federal-reserve-propping-bank-libya
This is a very important story that the NYT broke about a month ago, before I started the blog, and I wanted to get it out there to those who have yet to hear about the dangers of this natural gas drilling practice.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/27/us/27gas.html?_r=1&scp=7&sq=hydrofracking&st=cse
Martin Luther King died fighting for "the dignity of labor" while advocating for the end of racism, poverty and militarism in the United States. The archival footage of Dr. King's speech in support of collective bargaining rights for Memphis sanitation workers eerily echoes the goals of the current Main Street Movement's efforts to push back against the right-wing assault on the middle class.
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/04/martin-king-public-workers/
This is a funny video that documents a sliver of the unappealing sprawl development that infects much of America today.
http://www.grist.org/sprawl/2011-04-04-the-drugstore-chains-that-ate-americas-suburbs
Chris Hedges concludes that civil disobedience is the only tool left to fight against the corporatist system that exploits and oppresses the public through cutt-throat practices in the pursuit of profits. He will be joining protesters on April 15 in Union Square in front of Bank of America. Watch UK Uncut's "Bail-in" video.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/this_is_what_resistance_looks_like_20110403/?ln
Are the people increasingly marginalized by globalization, stagnant wages and the corporatist culture finally coming together to assert their rights for governance in the public interest?
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/04/04/winant_labor_new_haven/index.html
There's a big election in Wisconsin tomorrow and its outcome will be a strong indicator of the power of those opposed to the recent spate of a union-busting to effect political change.
http://www.thenation.com/blog/159656/courts-fitzwalkerstan-april-5-judicial-election-could-renew-checks-balances-wisconsin
The charter school movement is embodied in an attack on public school unionized teachers, and seeks to put publicly funded schools in private hands. A Stanford University study shows that 37% of charter schools deliver lower quality education to their students. Should we trust the motives of privatizers when it comes to educating our youth? They're in it for the tax breaks, government guarantees and the chance to make some more money, all with public dollars.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/flunking_teachers_gives_the_ruling_class_a_pass_20110329/?utm_
The inexorable push to maximize profits leads most employers to keep wages down and get the most out of their workers. You can call it class struggle or not but the fact is that all workers, whether unionized or not, are under duress. Real wages has stagnated for thirty years and the concentration of wealth has reached obscene levels in this country. Corporations push for laws that weaken and cheapen labor, in addition to favorable tax codes that allow them to pay as little as possible while externalizing the costs of business onto society. This piece provides a dispassionate yet compelling assessment of this ongoing struggle.
http://www.defendwisconsin.org/2011/04/01/our-continual-class-struggle/
"If the nuclear industry did not have the benefit of inappropriate taxpayer subsidies and the congressional Price Anderson Act, providing government underwriting of insurance and a "Nuclear Exclusion Clause" on every policy, nuclear power would never exist in the U.S."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-rosenthal/japans-nuclear-nightmare-_1_b_840543.html
A provision in this anti-union bill covering FAA workers alters a National Mediation Board rule that unionization elections be decided by a majority of aviation and rail worker votes. Instead, the law provides that all eligible non-voting members be counted as automatic 'no' votes against the union. This is an outrageous standard that may well be unconstitutional, and Obama has threatened a veto.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/01/962360/-Union-busting-provision-in-FAA-bill-prevails-in-House?utm_
Despite an array of reckless time and cost savings decisions that led to the disastrous Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, and the deaths of 11 workers, executives from Transocean awarded themselves safety bonuses for the company's "best year in safety performance." Here's hoping that the DOJ investigation of the massive oil spill pursues criminal charges against those responsible for this horrific human and environmental catastrophe.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42393722/ns/business/
