I am a constituent of Jennifer Granholm, surely one of the most competent governors in all the land. She works like a fiend trying to stem the collapse of the auto industry in Michigan. She is a great environmentalist, she tries hard to do something about health care, she has solid ideas about education and…
Labor
Deficiencies in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights
October 25, 2008 For decades, numerous federal reports have described serious weaknesses in US Dept. of Agriculture’s civil rights programs—in particular, in resolving discrimination complaints and providing minority farmers with access to programs. In 2002, Congress authorized the position of Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights (ASCR) at USDA to provide leadership for resolving these long-standing…
GAO, OUR WATCHDOG ON THE JOB
October 12, 2008 It’s really too much for ten men, much less an unpaid one person staff. The Government Accounting Office (GAO sends us reports everyday about its findings and they are quite long. They are good, too, but overwhelming.) Today, 151 came in and who could read even a fraction of them? Here is…
GAO, OUR WATCHDOG ON THE JOB
October 12, 2008 It’s really too much for ten men, much less an unpaid one person staff. The Government Accounting Office (GAO sends us reports everyday about its findings and they are quite long. They are good, too, but overwhelming.) Today, 151 came in and who could read even a fraction of them? Here is…
THE RIGHT NOT TO SUE AND OTHER ILLIBERALITIES
April 28, 2008 This country needs an Office of the Ombudsman. Thousands of miscarriages of justice occur every week that are so outrageous that the president himself should step in and end them. He could do this by creating a department of about 100 persons who will examine the worst cases and take them to…
WORKERS, UNITE!
On March 1st the House of Representatives passed the Employee Free Choice Act. Some 241 members, including 13 Republicans, supported the bill. The vote was 241 to 185 with 2 Democrats voting against it. Despite its phony, propagandistic name, it promises to be a good thing for American workers. The Senate must now act. Probably,…
WHERE THE POOR ARE
The U.S. Census Bureau has released its latest findings about poverty and it is not a pretty state of affairs for the self-acclaimed “richest country in the world”. The following data is for 2005, the last year for which information is available. Between 2000 and 2005 the number of “severely poor”, in contrast with “the…
DEAF, BLIND AND VERY DUMB
No one ever said that the people at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission were suffering from an excess of brain cells but it is surprising to learn that collective brain cells of the thousands who work there are somewhere in the order of zero- give or take NOTHING, just to be on the safe side.…
LYING WITH STATISTICS
The National Review is famous for distortions and ugly politics. In the October 9 issue it says the reason why people with less education make less money is that they don’t work hard. The author of the piece, a weirdo named Kevin Hassett, tacks on the observation that income redistribution is a bad idea because…
GOOD NEWS – YOU’RE STILL POOR
In 1999, median family income was $47, 671. It declined every year from 2000 through 2004 but it has soared up to $46,326 in 2005. Those who had absolutely no money in 1999 still have absolutely no money. Poverty has “stabilized at 12%” according to Census data. So much for the richest country on Earth.…
OUR PENSION PLANS
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation…………PBGC is a federal corporation created by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974. It currently protects the pensions of 44.1 million American workers and retirees in 30,330 private single-employer and multi-employer defined benefit pension plans. PBGC receives no funds from general tax revenues. Operations are financed by insurance premiums set…
HUMANITARIAN APPEAL FROM MAINE
I am reprinting this letter as it was written. Any lawyers out there? Watching Politics neither endorses nor disapproves of Mr. Lane’s letter. jand LightfootLane August 8th, 2006 at 11:55 am Contact : Jan 207/453-2353 Maine Could Incite National News This has the making of a national story because the case could set an social…
PAID VACATIONS
Christian Science Monitor………..The U.S. is the only industrialized nation in the world that doesn’t have mandated paid vacations. Two sets of figures are given: the first gives the number of paid vacation days and the second gives the number of days workers actually take off. France – 30 and 25…..Spain – 30 and 25…..Sweden –…
3 CHEERS FOR WALMART CAPITALISM
No company receives worse publicity for its greed and swinish treatment of those who work for it than Wal-Mart. All the criticism is deserved but this will not deter America’s shoppers. This is because most Americans are poor and Wal-Mart has the best prices. Its revenues are staggering. Consider this: July, 2006 revenues – $25.6…
CLINTON’S WELFARE
Back in the 90s I was sure Bill Clinton was wrong. He introduced the “Go to work because we won’t give you welfare” program and I was sure it would be a disaster. Now I am not sure. Welfare loads have dropped from 5 million to 2 million. Employment rates have climbed from 44% for…
WOMAN POWER
My faith in the moral, spiritual and physical superiority of women has been challenged by a variety of events in the last five years or so. In the 70s, I was absolutely sure that as women took a greater role in the economy and politics the world would be nicer place in which to live.…
WORKING DADS
Global Ethics.org………...From a survey conducted by careerbuilders.com Reprinted in Global Ethics. 20% of fathers say they have missed 5 or more significant events in the lives of their children due to work in the last year. 28% say work is having a negative effect on their relationship with their children. 42% are willing to take…
MOTHER COMES BEARING BAD NEWS
Mother Jones…………A few excerpts from Mother Jones (July/August) because you know you want to be depressed. 1. Average net worth of families with income under $13,500 is -$1400. 2. New tax cuts will save you $43,000 if you earn over $1 million. If you earn $20,000 to $30,000 then you save $10. 3. You are…
WOMEN ON THE MOVE
I mean “women on the move” literally. Pew Hispanic Organization…………Reflecting broad changes in their social and economic status, women around the world have been migrating more in recent decades and have thus constituted an increasing share of migrant populations almost everywhere. But the U.S. has defied this global trend, according to a Pew Hispanic Center…
SO YOU WANT TO BE RICH
So long as we dream of being rich, millions will be condemned to poverty. We like to see entertainers and ball players making multi-millions because we hope that one day we will be one of them. We like lotteries that give away $50 million because we want to win one of them. We like the…
UNDERSTANDING THE ECONOMY
As regular readers of this blog know, every week I get a report on the nation’s economy from the Vanguard Family of Funds. It never fails to make me laugh. Vanguard does not know the difference between the economy and the financial markets. When the Dow Jones Industrials are flying high with NASDAQ in hot…
LEGAL ENTRY BY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
Pew Hispanic Center……….45% of illegal immigrants entered the U.S. with legitimate visas but became illegal by overstaying their visas. Illegal immigrants make up 1.9% of the U.S. population – large but not overwhelming. Moreover, the rate of growth has declined since 1988. [S.G. Pew uses the term "undocumented immigrant" rather than "illegal immigrant" because the…
THOSE !@#$#@!IMMIGRANTS
We have produced over the last six weeks a very intensive set of articles on illegal immigration which we ask the reader to review. 1. Effects of illegal immigration – April 2. 2. The immigration problem – April 6. 3. Immigration here to stay – April 13. 4. How illegal immigrants live – April 14.…
THE FLAT TAX PROPOSAL
The U.S. has a graduated income tax…sort of. It’s not really one but looks like one because there are many gradations of a trivial sort. They run from 10% for those who are dying from starvation ($1 to $7300) up to 35% for those with oodles of money BUT the more money you have the…
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