“S.C. political leaders used words such as ‘frivolous,’ ‘shameful’ and ‘ludicrous’ Thursday to describe a National Labor Relations Board complaint against Boeing, which is building a $750 million aircraft assembly plant in the state.” This was the lead in the Associated Press story from North Charleston.As noted at the bottom of her column, Gage represents the Workforce Fairness Institute, and if you can smell the Astroturf here as well as I can, then you’re “too cool for school” or you’ve been reading this blog for a little while (if the latter is true, then you have my thanks).
If there was any doubt whether or not the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) under the Obama administration had declared war on job creators, it was answered the other day when the “independent,” taxpayer-funded agency decided a company did not have the right to build a facility in a right-to-work state.
As SourceWatch tells us, "The (website of the Workforce Fairness Institute) lists among its 'allied groups' the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, Rick Berman's Center for Union Facts, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business." So yes, they very definitely have an axe to grind here, as it were.
Boeing basically admitted in this story that this move to South Carolina is to prevent future strikes at its plants in Washington State; as noted here, “We have two notebooks about seven inches thick of public statements by Boeing executives that were threatening our workforce and actually also threatening the workforce in South Carolina,” according to International Association of Machinists spokesperson Connie Kelliher.
And I would say that this is a reversal on the part of Boeing management, since, as noted here (upon resolution of the 2008 strike, which cost the union members an average of $7000.00 in base pay and cost the company $100 million per day in revenue and penalties with a postponement of the delivery of aircraft)...
Scott Carson, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said “This is an outstanding offer that rewards employees for their contributions to our success while preserving our ability to compete…I thank both negotiating teams and the federal mediator for their hard work and commitment in reaching this agreement. We recognize the hardship a strike creates for everyone – our customers, suppliers, employees, community and our company – and we look forward to having our entire team back.”Gage’s partisan hackery is the typical noise you would expect from a right-wing advocacy group that, given all that has transpired in Wisconsin under Hosni Mubarak Walker and elsewhere in this country, is trying to stab at the heart of the rights of working men and women and families just a little deeper.
Sixty-three percent of Americans oppose raising the debt ceiling; similar majorities oppose measures to make that sort of thing unnecessary.Of course, far be it for the esteemed pundit of the Old Gray Lady to tell us that opposition to raising the debt ceiling is utter madness, as noted here (to say nothing of hypocritical as well given this...more info is here).
I suppose I should also note the cynical paradox of the “U.S.” Chamber of Commerce, which has done its part to cross-pollinate with those zany teabaggers (who of course profess to hate government spending) now calling for raising the debt ceiling here, which of course is anathema to the racist-sign-carrying-and-funny-hat-wearing bunch.
Oh, and for good measure, this tells us who is cheering on this would-be catastrophe (of course, most of them are well-kept by their corporate media puppet masters and wouldn’t feel quite the same impact of this country’s fiscal ruin as the rest of us).
The president points to the national highway system as proof that the government can create great infrastructure, and employ people, and it did. Of course, the highway system also caused much of what vexes environmentalists and leftists today: dispersed housing; carved-up ecosystems; long-distance trucking of goods to market; greater access to what would have been land-locked natural resources; and an emphasis on driving huge RVs, or truck-towed trailers hundreds of miles for vacations. It also led to the higher rates of water pollution, soil pollution, conventional air pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions that are so despised by the environmentalists today.Aside from pointing out once more the Pavlovian antagonism of anything pertaining to any level of the public sector by conservatives generally, I wanted to highlight this web site; yes, there are some topics listed where I have disagreement, but it’s heartening to see that there are actually some sane Republicans still out there (“non-leftists” dwindling by the minute, I’m sure) who, if nothing else, get the whole “stewards of the earth” thing, as opposed to the “fear and smear” delusional bipeds in that crowd who act as if they barely have a handful of brain cells between them.
In response, I thought the following words were sublime (here)…
Using the kind of personal religious language that he had once shied away from in public, Obama spoke of “the pain and the scorn and the shame of the cross” in an Easter prayer breakfast for about 150 guests and staff.However, if you prefer something ridiculous for Easter instead, I give you the following (here).
“And we’re reminded that in that moment, (Jesus) took on the sins of the world — past, present and future — and he extended to us that unfathomable gift of grace and salvation through his death and resurrection,” Obama said.
No comments:
Post a Comment