Global
Greetings From New Mexico! On Friday, March 13, 2009, the New Mexico Senate voted 24-18 to repeal the death penalty in New Mexico and replace it with a sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole. House Bill 285 passed the house last month and now goes to Gov. Bill Richardson for his signature. When Governor Richardson signs this bill, New Mexico will become the second state in as many years to legislatively abolish the death penalty. As I listened to the debate in the gallery of the New Mexico Senate this afternoon, I could not help but feel grateful and proud to be representing your National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty on this historic day. NCADP is a partner to its affiliate, the New Mexico Coalition to Repeal the Death Penalty, and I was there in my role as Director of Affiliate Support to watch the culmination of years of tireless work that brought us to this day.
Just a few minutes ago, the New Mexico Senate passed the death penalty repeal measure, by a vote of 24 to 18. Upon being signed into law, capital offenders will be punished with life without parole. Congratulations to everyone in New Mexico and supporters everywhere who worked tirelessly to get the bill passed. Now we wait for the signing. Stay tuned!
A quirk in the law is stopping us from effectively competing for stimulus money to bring passenger rail back to Ohio. A bill currently in the Ohio Senate would fix this, authorizing the state to use stimulus money to operate a passenger rail line. If the bill doesn’t pass this week, we’ll miss out on Ohio’s best chance to bring passenger rail back to Ohio. Tell the Senate to pass the Transportation Budget and bring passenger rail back to Ohio.
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BILL MOYERS: Welcome to the Journal.
The battle is joined as they say - and here's the headline that framed it: "High Noon: Geithner v. The American Oligarchs." The headline is in one of the most informative new sites in the blogosphere called: baselinescenario.com. Here's the quote that grabbed me:
"There comes a time in every economic crisis, or more specifically, in every struggle to recover from a crisis, when someone steps up to the podium to promise the policies that - they say - will deliver you back to growth. The person has political support, a strong track record, and every incentive to enter the history books. But one nagging question remains. Can this person, your new economic strategist, really break with the vested elites that got you into this much trouble?"
And here's the man who asked that question. Simon Johnson is former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund. He now teaches global economics and management at MIT's Sloan School of Management and is a senior fellow of the Peterson Institute. He is co-founder of that website I quoted - baselinescenario.com - where he analyzes the global economic and financial crisis.
The battle is joined as they say - and here's the headline that framed it: "High Noon: Geithner v. The American Oligarchs." The headline is in one of the most informative new sites in the blogosphere called: baselinescenario.com. Here's the quote that grabbed me:
"There comes a time in every economic crisis, or more specifically, in every struggle to recover from a crisis, when someone steps up to the podium to promise the policies that - they say - will deliver you back to growth. The person has political support, a strong track record, and every incentive to enter the history books. But one nagging question remains. Can this person, your new economic strategist, really break with the vested elites that got you into this much trouble?"
And here's the man who asked that question. Simon Johnson is former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund. He now teaches global economics and management at MIT's Sloan School of Management and is a senior fellow of the Peterson Institute. He is co-founder of that website I quoted - baselinescenario.com - where he analyzes the global economic and financial crisis.
As a dominant form of transportation, the automobile is dead. So is GM, which now stands for Gone Mad.
But the larger picture says that the financial crisis now enveloping the world is grounded in the transition from the automobile---and the fossils that fuel it---to a brave renewable world of reborn mass transit and green power.
If GM lives in any form, it must be owned and operated by its workers and the public.
But the larger transition is epic and global, based on a simple structural reality: the passenger car is obsolete. Auto sales have plummeted not merely because of a bad economy, but because the technology no longer makes sense.
Franklin Roosevelt took GM over in 1943-5 to make the hardware to beat the Nazis. Barack Obama should now do the same to beat climate chaos.
Make streetcars, not passenger cars.
Hybrids are too little, too late, with problems of their own. Solar-powered electric cars will help phase out the gas guzzlers.
But in the long run, the automobile itself needs to be dismantled and re-cycled, not retooled or rebuilt.
But the larger picture says that the financial crisis now enveloping the world is grounded in the transition from the automobile---and the fossils that fuel it---to a brave renewable world of reborn mass transit and green power.
If GM lives in any form, it must be owned and operated by its workers and the public.
But the larger transition is epic and global, based on a simple structural reality: the passenger car is obsolete. Auto sales have plummeted not merely because of a bad economy, but because the technology no longer makes sense.
Franklin Roosevelt took GM over in 1943-5 to make the hardware to beat the Nazis. Barack Obama should now do the same to beat climate chaos.
Make streetcars, not passenger cars.
Hybrids are too little, too late, with problems of their own. Solar-powered electric cars will help phase out the gas guzzlers.
But in the long run, the automobile itself needs to be dismantled and re-cycled, not retooled or rebuilt.
Bob talks about the latest developments concerning the fate of the now closed Antioch College. There may yet be some light at the end of this tunnel, for the school.
Portland, Oregon -- Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 290 has endorsed HR
676, single payer healthcare legislation introduced by Congressman John
Conyers (D-MI). The 4,000 member local has jurisdiction in Northern
California, Southwest Washington and Oregon.
Eric Fanning, who introduced the endorsement resolution, said after it passed: "The membership of United Association Local 290, Plumbers and Steamfitters, is fully aware of the crisis in health care where profits trump patient care. The Massachusetts plan has proven to be a failure. Senator Ron Wyden's proposed plan would tax our health and welfare contributions, and this does not benefit organized labor. Health Care for America Now (HCAN) would create a two-tiered health care system. HR 676, we believe, is the best solution to our health care crisis."
HR 676 would institute a single payer health care system by expanding a greatly improved Medicare system to everyone residing in the U. S.
Eric Fanning, who introduced the endorsement resolution, said after it passed: "The membership of United Association Local 290, Plumbers and Steamfitters, is fully aware of the crisis in health care where profits trump patient care. The Massachusetts plan has proven to be a failure. Senator Ron Wyden's proposed plan would tax our health and welfare contributions, and this does not benefit organized labor. Health Care for America Now (HCAN) would create a two-tiered health care system. HR 676, we believe, is the best solution to our health care crisis."
HR 676 would institute a single payer health care system by expanding a greatly improved Medicare system to everyone residing in the U. S.
Yes, the National Labor Relations Act says workers have the right to
organize and join unions. Yet a new study shows that growing numbers of them
risk being fired for attempting to unionize.
In more than one-fourth of the union organizing campaigns since 2000 among workers covered by the law, some of the workers were illegally fired for being pro-union, according to the study by economists John Schmitt and Ben Zipperer of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. The latest yearly figures, for 2007, show that about 30 percent of the campaigns involved illegal firings.
The number of workers fired was relatively small – no more than 1,500 overall per year. But that included an estimated 20 percent of the activists and organizers in particular campaigns. What’s more, the threat of being fired undoubtedly kept many workers who otherwise would have supported unionization from doing so.
In more than one-fourth of the union organizing campaigns since 2000 among workers covered by the law, some of the workers were illegally fired for being pro-union, according to the study by economists John Schmitt and Ben Zipperer of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. The latest yearly figures, for 2007, show that about 30 percent of the campaigns involved illegal firings.
The number of workers fired was relatively small – no more than 1,500 overall per year. But that included an estimated 20 percent of the activists and organizers in particular campaigns. What’s more, the threat of being fired undoubtedly kept many workers who otherwise would have supported unionization from doing so.