So now the prison system is using prisoners to fight wildfires…for $1 an hour, and that’s if they’re lucky. Others have received only 50 cents an hour. This is just wrong on so many levels.
And, as someone noted in the comments, it fits right in with for-profit schools, for-profit security state, for-profit healthcare, etc., with forcing people to work for slave wages, so the 1% can make even more profits. Disgusting.
This is what was happening with the mental health system before reform–they were forcing folks to work without pay. While I do think that having something to do and learning a trade is valuable, it must be fair and paid with decent wages.
Occupy Monsanto has this up on the ongoing efforts to get GMO food labeled. A shareholder has proposed labeling, but the board has rejected that. (no surprise there)
They are having an event this week to bring attention to the FDA ignoring the public’s wishes for labeling.
Jeff Nguyen has a blog up featuring Eddie Vedder’s song “No More”.
God bless Phil Donahue— still fighting the good fight. I grew up watching Donahue and he opened my world. He talked about subjects that were taboo. He asked intelligent questions. I loved the “live” aspect of his shows where callers could call in to add to the story.
It was a sad day when his show was no more. And even sadder that he was fired from MSNBC for speaking out against the Iraq war.
Raginghorseblog has a good riddance message to “if-you’re-poor-blame-God” Mayor Bloomberg.
Mercedes Schneider has a post up here on New Years and here on AFT Myths–really good blog on the myths and debunking them with pointed questions.
As I thought about the profiteers circling around public education, the postal service popped into my head. They actually made a profit last year, but you wouldn’t know it by theBush Administration’s demanding they pay into retirement funds for people not even born yet…
…it suddenly occurred to me that not only are the profiteers going after public education and other social programs, the postal service is also a target for a couple of reasons: a) strong union–gotta break those unions; and b) public service efficiently run but could be run more *cough* efficiently. Or, in other words ::damn, look at the golden opportunity to make some bucks while delivering crappy service…:: and, finally, c) postal workers make pretty good money….so they gotta get rid of them!
See…they can’t portray the postal carriers like teachers and say that they are not doing their job because, well, the mail gets delivered in a reasonable time with good rates through wind and rain and dark of night. They had to come up with some other way to bankrupt them and make it look like it was their fault, see? Hence, we have the nonsense of paying for people that aren’t even born….making it look like they can’t make a profit or be self-sufficient…then the neocons/neolibs cry foul and trot out the overused sob story that the postal service is costing taxpayers money! Not exactly. They are funded by Congress for $100 million to deliver service to the blind and Americans overseas. Otherwise, they are funded by stamps and other services the public pays for.
Even more astounding is that the postal service made a profit in this economy. Now that’s impressive!
Fred Klonksy links to a report by Valerie Strauss about talk that Arne Duncan has influenced the choice of NY chancellor. Unethical. Arrogant. Micro-manager= Duncan.
Bill de Blasio better check with ole’ slick Willy and Hilly to rethink his choice for Chancellor. He must be mistaken, because Bill, Hillary, Michelle Rhee, Eli Broad, and Bill Gates don’t approve of actual educators being involved in…you know…education administration. De Blasio obviously didn’t get the memo that he needs to appoint an investment banker, technology terrorist, or some other profiteer to run the schools. /very snarky
Warrior Publications has this up on the curious fact that people opposing the Enbridge pipeline are not the radicals that the Oil industry and the politicos would like you to think.
Like I’ve said before, there are a lot more people in favor of protecting the environment but are afraid to be categorized as terrorists or radicals, so they remain silent. It really came home to me when I wrote an op-ed for my local paper talking about environmental concerns, including GMO labeling. I had people call me and talk to me in person (in a low voice, no doubt so no one else could hear the conversation) about how they agreed with me. But they didn’t take that next step and write their own op-ed on how they, too, wanted to protect the environment.
The oil industry and others have done a bang up job of portraying *all* environmentalists as radical, violent people….when only a small number of people have done things that are disagreeable to the rest. And I’m sure there were agent provocateurs amongst the violent ones.
The following isn’t related to the environmental protests, but it is helpful in understanding that it isn’t paranoia on the part of protestors:
...Congress cuts unemployment benefits. I disagree with the writer’s assertion that the Democrats “wanted to continue” unemployment benefits. Are you kidding me? These are the same people going along with Third Way mentality that wants to end New Deal social programs….
…meanwhile, they budgeted $500 Billion for the defense budget….a budget that should be reigned in, because they have too many contractors, too much waste, (want to find money to support the jobless, give food to the hungry, and find homes for the homeless? $430 MILLION in cutting waste is a place to start) and an NSA that is running amok.
There is just something very, very wrong when a country spends more money to kill people than save them.
You might remember this post with a quote that says the words “third way”. Not long after I posted it, Ed on the Ed Show (MSNBC) mentioned the Third Way. I can’t remember exactly what he said, but it was negative and the segment intrigued me.
I’ve just now gotten around to doing a bit of research on Third Way. Whew…do you smell a rat?? Me, too.
Red flags are going off with Elizabeth Warren being attacked by supposed Democrats for…speaking out against selling us out to the 1% by cutting Social Security and other social programs….calling them “populist”. Um-hmmm…that and the word “entitlement” are key words for the “I’ve-got-mine-screw-you” crowd.
Now, getting back to the previous post with Hillary Clinton’s religious leader saying those words: third way…and how they wanted to do away with New Deal programs:
It emerged, he [Reverend Don Jones] says, as a third way, a reaction against both separatist fundamentalism and the New Deal’s labor-based liberalism.
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Social Security. Public Schools. Medicaid. Medicare. Public employees like fire fighters, police. Public Libraries. A decent living wage.
I know that it’s hard to believe they want to destroy it all, but all signs are pointing towards that very end.
Please, please run for President, Elizabeth. Please!! I’ll go knocking on doors…whatever needs done to help get you votes. Hillary Clinton is nothing but a Goldwater Girl doing the dirty work of the bankers, warmongers, education profiteers, Big Oil, Monsanto, and no doubt countless other organizations that don’t give a crap about Americans or America, the poor, the elderly, the children, the environment, nor the middle class.
Yeah, I didn’t know what “colocation” meant, either. The former post on Bloomberg at Diane Ravitch’s has led to a great discussion on it and there is a charter school troll there advocating Success Academy, a charter. A poster supplied a link to an insightful post here.
This is just absolutely wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
Another link provided a report on Eva Moskowitz and Success Academy receiving preferential treatment from the DOE. Good Grief, can they be any more of an enabler?
The preceding also has a link to Juan Gonzalez’s column on the sardine-like atmosphere in the colocation schools. Shocking cannot even describe the overcrowded conditions that led to an autistic child disappearing. Good God.
…and $1300 on marketing…per child….are you kidding me?? That money could have been used for public schools in more education-oriented ways. It’s just mindboggling how dense and misguided this misuse of funds is…
…and how the public is being ignored:
Moreover, it is also clear from the abundance of comments at public hearings that the vast majority of parents oppose these proposals – and these parents’ choices are being ignored. Just check any of the Public comment analyses on the DOE webpage. In many of these summaries, every single parent who spoke opposed the co-location, as well as representatives of the Community Education Councils and elected officials.
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The public, that pays the taxes for the public schools, is…ignored.
Eagle 
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