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tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-240284742017-02-07T23:51:31.666-05:00FARLEFTFIELDA source for progressive activists.farleftfieldhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-24028474.post-8799349099168862592012-07-15T23:15:00.000-05:002012-07-16T17:03:31.673-05:00The War On Those In Poverty
The attack on the least fortunate in our society is plain and simple cowardly. The right wing has for decades blathered on and on about the "welfare queen" and that families are bred into this lavish lifestyle of living off of the government dime while never actually working a day in their life. It seems that we will see the right wing renew their "war on those in poverty" for the 2012 election cycle and possibly beyond. Here are some facts:

From the Washington Post:

"When people refer to "welfare," they usually mean the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program (TANF), which provides funds to families with children while encouraging parents to find employment so they do not need the assistance long-term. TANF replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children, a New Deal program that also helped poor families but had fewer work requirements. AFDC was abolished and TANF established in 1996, under Bill Clinton's welfare reform effort.

TANF has a federal lifetime limit of 60 months (five years); states can opt to extend that, but most have kept it, and some have shortened it. However, most recipients do not fall off the rolls because they hit the limit; in fact, only 2.4 percent of those who left the program in fiscal 2008 did so because they hit a state or federal time limit."

That is worth repeating! NEARLY 98% OF THOSE ON WELFARE DIDN'T USE THE FULL 5 YEAR LIFETIME MAXIMUM!!! Not only is there not a generation to generation passing of the welfare torch as the right wing would have you believe but the opposite is true! You are actually less likely, I repeat, LESS LIKELY to draw welfare if your parent(s) did.

Common reasons for departure were due to finding employment (19.6 percent) or a voluntary desire to leave (13.2 percent). And while those on the program do not generally rely on it for its full duration, fewer and fewer eligible families are relying on it at all. These figures do not include families that simply choose not to participate even though they meet eligibility requirements (due to job transition, lack of knowledge about programs, or in many cases point of pride about not accepting help)

The facts further destroy the right wings argument when we examine the continuing decline of TANF caseload. Over the last 15 years, the national TANF caseload has declined by 60 percent. Sadly these statistics also show that poverty has risen sharply in recent years and deep poverty is skyrocketing.

The main thing that disturbs me about this argument is that the same people that will take cheap shots at the disabled, the elderly and children living in poverty (the recipients of welfare) for using the social safety net that congress put in place as the law of the land will argue that "It's really American to avoid paying taxes, legally," (South Carolina U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham). So let me get this right. If I am rich and use every tax break my team of lawyers can find to avoid paying my fair share of taxes that's ok because its legal. If I am rich and I choose to hide my absurdly large corporate raider income in foreign tax havens to avoid paying my fair share of taxes it's ok because, again, its legal. HOWEVER! If I am an 89 year old person that worked all of my life I should be considered a freeloader if I apply for food stamps to avoid eating out of trash cans? If I am an 8 year old child that goes to bed hungry from only being able to eat one meal a day and for some strange reason can't seem to pay attention in school, am I a pariah if my mother applies for a free school lunch? If I am a wheelchair bound disabled person that worked for 20 years before becoming stricken with a disease that confines me to a wheelchair, am I a leach because I became disabled through no fault of my own?

The facts are that if we took an estimate at what a guy like Mitt Romney has hidden overseas to avoid paying taxes and what he actually reports and applied the highest income tax rate that every other American pays it would bring in $40 MILLION bucks! (I actually think we will find out about more offshore accounts and shady 401K dealings before this is over.) Where is the right wing outrage at the Romney family leaching of the government? Why don't we hear about how Mitt's family is taking advantage of the system? THIS IS ONE MAN!! An able bodied adult man!! Why don't they pick on him? COWARDICE! Plain and simple cowardice. I am sure there are other factors. I would guess that if you asked most of the folks that incessantly whine about "welfare queens" to describe these people they would not say that the typical welfare recipient is an inner city single black woman. The truth is that most welfare recipients live in rural areas and are white. These same people would likely be unaware that the average benefit in Michigan is $515 a month, WOOHOO with all that fat cash they better get themselves an offshore account!!

So while the secrets to how a person like Romney avoids paying taxes seems to be unfolding, the ultimate bait and switch seems to be also unfolding. Let's get the upper middle class (whats left of it) to beat up on the poor and near poor so that they don't pay attention at who is really ripping them off! The only thing worse than the filthy rich scum that is willingly choosing to harm the country so as to pad their bottom line is the sad sacks that enable this type of treason by regurgitating the nonsensical argument that the poor are the problem.

Some additional resources:

http://www.chicagonow.com/chicago-muckrakers/2011/02/what-do-you-really-know-about-welfare-take-our-quiz/

http://thinkbynumbers.org/blog/government-spending/corporate-welfare/corporate-welfare-statistics-vs-social-welfare-statistics/

http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3677

farleftfieldhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-24028474.post-91592602836172106122012-04-23T08:31:00.000-05:002012-04-27T23:00:53.232-05:00RIGHT TO UNITE

The United States of America was founded upon the principals of freedom. The Constitution and Bill of Rights gives all Americans the right to free speech, the freedom of religion, the right to keep and bear arms, freedom of the press and the right to assemble. Ironically, ever since the Bill of Rights was signed, our inalienable rights have been under attack by special interest groups that want to destroy our right to the freedom of choice.

Every freedom we enjoy has been earned by the tears, the sweat, and tragically the blood of Patriots who were afforded the "Right to Unite" under a common cause. This "Right to Unite" created these United States, sparked the civil rights movement, helped turn war time into peace, built a strong middle class, sustains our Democracy and most recently, defines the 99%. This "Right to Unite" should be embraced by every true blue American; Right? Wrong!

Our Right to Unite is under constant attack and not from enemies offshore. This war from within, is being waged from our state legislative chambers. It's not a war of bullets and bombs; their weapon of choice is bills. Like a Trojan horse they cleverly disguise their lethal legislation with titles that sound comfortably familiar. Right to Work sounds innocent enough, but once deployed, the effect is devastating on the middle class and destroys our fundamental "Right to Unite". Isn't it ironic that in this "land of the free", the right to unite under a common cause is protected in our Churches, in our Communities, in our political system, in our charitable causes, in our streets, and in our Constitution, yet they want to remove that protection in the workplace.

Don't be fooled by the slick sales pitch. Ask yourself the question, "What do I get with Right to Work legislation?" The answer is, you get something you've already got, the right to work. So in order to get what you've already got, what do you have to give up?

Right to Work erodes an employee's "Right to Unite" in the workplace. It attacks your right to collectively bargain for wages, healthcare and other benefits. It eliminates your protection from unjust discipline or termination. It silences your voice in the workplace on issues ranging from health and safety to harassment and intimidation. It removes your right to negotiate a secure retirement for you and your family. And tragically, it allows corporations with enormous profits to treat American workers the same as they do in a sweat shop in some third world country. It's no wonder that politicians bought and paid for with corporate super PAC money would want to deploy this weapon of class destruction.

If the American worker wants to survive, now is the time to take action!
Now is the time to honor the sacrifice of Patriots past, who fought for the freedoms we enjoy. Now is the time for a middle class "call to the ballot box" to protect and defend our jobs and our freedom from the enemy within. And now is the time to organize, to mobilize, and to fight for our "Right to Unite".

(editors note – wanna do something about it? visit our friends at Protect Our Jobs Michigan and volunteer. If you live in or near Lansing you can stop by UAW Local 602 union hall and sign the Protect Our Jobs petition.)IGETIThttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-24028474.post-63870955450322912452012-04-12T22:58:00.000-05:002012-04-13T10:34:54.638-05:00Ann Romney, Every Woman?I can't believe we are indulging this argument from the GOP! Why does anyone have to explain why Ann Romney is not a realistic advisor when it comes to women's issues? Do most Americans really believe that Ann Romney's experiences are like most American women?

Let's take a look!

Ann Romney does not go to a job and receive a paycheck. This does not mean that she doesn't work, however I would disagree that this somehow makes her able to tell us about the trials and tribulations of an everyday stay at home mom. Most stay at home moms don't have a staff of servants. Most stay at home moms don't have six different homes. Most stay at home moms don't have the difficult decision to make every time they go to the driveway of which Cadillac to drive. Most stay at home moms don't have the comfort of knowing that their children have a $100 Million dollar trust fund waiting for them.

The ridiculous notion that Ann Romney should be offended at the idea that someone said that she never worked a day in her life is pathetic. The full quote is "His wife has actually never worked a day in her life. She's never really dealt with the kinds of economic issues that a majority of the women in this country are facing." Can anyone really argue the full quote? I happen to agree fully with what Hilary Rosen said and I think that most stay at home moms that actually bust their ass to make ends meet, raise their children, clean their own house, tutor their own kids, cook their own food, shop for their own groceries and clothes, try to save a few dollars to pay for some of their kids tuition and hope that they don't get too far in debt would agree. For most Americans staying at one of 6 homes with the kids with an army of servants and multiple luxury cars in the driveway with a $100 million dollar trust fund is not an option. To defend Ann Romney as an average anything shows just how completely out of touch the GOP has become with most Americans reality, especially women!

farleftfieldhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-24028474.post-91358148647555157762012-03-30T10:35:00.000-05:002012-03-30T15:44:58.425-05:00Voter SuppressionI came across an incredible article written at craigconnects blog today. I can't seem to be able to put the biggest piece of the infographic featured in the article but the site has a link to it and the infographic is the most complete gathering of information I have seen gathered into an easily readable and understandable format. From the article:

Voter Suppression is happening across the U.S. as restrictive voting laws are being both introduced and passed. 164 laws were introduced in states that would restrict U.S. Citizens from voting in the 2012 U.S. Election.

Restrictive voting has taken these forms:

• Eliminating election-day registration

• Restricting third-party voter registration activities

• Reducing the number of days for early voting

• Legislation requiring photo ID for in-person voting

Restrictions most heavily disenfranchise young, minority, and low-income voters, as well as voters with disabilities. We need to prevent bad legislation from preventing people to vote in the 2012 U.S. election.

Funny enough, though, Protecting the Vote explains that between 2000 and 2007, there have been 32,299 reports of UFO sightings, 352 deaths caused by lightning, and only 9 instances of possible voter impersonation.
Please take the time to read the post and share the infographic widely!

farleftfieldhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-24028474.post-32842115647831171572011-09-28T12:32:00.001-05:002011-09-29T20:10:42.797-05:00thoughts on the contract(Editors note - I wrote this after many friends asking my opinion on the tentative agreement. I post this after ratification to clarify to many why I voted no.)

I have made my decision on whether to support the tentative agreement. My decision is based on many issues but even more so my decision is based on an overall thought process - The absence of courage. My leadership has become a pack of cowards.

They neither represent my views nor do they speak for me.

They don't speak for me when they offer concessions from our retirees (they took away the annual $700 bonus) to the company as the company offers record bonuses to management. They don't speak for me when they tell our temps that we value your vote but don't value your work (no signing bonus and no job offer). They don't speak for me when they tell our 2 tier members that its ok to wait for another full contract before having any idea when or if they will become full production. They don't speak for me when they tell every single employee that the thousands in concessions that the company extracted from us was necessary at the time but insignificant enough to ignore at the bargaining table (no cola, no overtime, no holidays, no break time).

I keep hearing the puppets at the local level and the international tell us that this is the best agreement that we could get during these times. Which times are those? The times where the company has had 6 straight profitable quarters? The times where our sacrifices made those profits possible? Will there be a better time to negotiate our concessions back? I couldn't agree less!

The signing bonus. This disturbs me the most. The bonus is big enough to entice people that are struggling financialy. I just never imagined that it would be my union that would be the ones that put them there. For too long our "leadership" has negotiated concession packages and contracts that should have been called concession packages for membership to live with while offering the hope that someday we will rise again to regain our rightful earnings. If not now...when?

This agreement may pass, but it doesn't speak for me! My no vote will speak for me!farleftfieldhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-24028474.post-2266573160134206052011-08-23T12:37:00.003-05:002011-08-23T19:48:34.976-05:00Verizon Attacks Workers In Our Name

Ralph Nader wrote a column today about the recent Verizon strike. Nader brought up some great points:

"Mr. Lowell McAdam would surely have trouble feeling the pain of his workers who brave the elements storm or shine to afford him a salary of over 1.5 million dollars PER MONTH plus perks and benefits.
Watching Verizon profits soar year after year, noticing Verizon stock rise faster than its competitors, knowing that the company's top five executives took in over $250 million between them in the last four years, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) took their members on strike on August 7, 2011. "Unfair and unacceptable" was their cry on the picket lines up and down the east coast."

Nader then points out that Verizon spent some of the $951 million they received in tax returns, while making $32.5 Billion in profits, to buy full page ads in the Washington Post, The New York Times, and other large newspapers. They used their taxpayer funded bully-pulpit to preach their corporate brand of "pull down" economics! One ad argued that non-union workers at Verizon pay a portion of their health care costs so should the unionized workers. Nader responds:

"There you have it - the "pull down" ultimatum to the level of the voiceless majority of Verizon workers. Of course Verizon bosses with their fat paychecks do not have to worry at all about co-payments and larger deductibles in their gold-plated health plan."

At the bottom of each ad Verizon tells us that they are threatening their workforce, asking for over 100 concessions from their workers, and demanding nearly $20,000 of cuts from each worker while paying its top five executives more than $258 million in the past four years is claiming this is - "all in an effort to best position Verizon to serve our customers."

I agree with Ralph Nader:

"Verizon keeps saying that what they're doing just "reflects the changing times." The times are changing - skyrocketing executive pay packages and corporate profits - slashing benefits for the workers and their families - shredding of all moral authority by example from the top.

If negotiations break down in the coming weeks and the CWA goes out on strike again, consumer advocates and their organizations should make it explicitly clear that Verizon can't excuse what they're doing to workers in order to better "serve our customers."

Verizon is going increasingly wireless. They are also going increasingly shameless!"

I will not let Verizon continue to operate in this manner on my behalf! If a fair contract is not worked out soon I will terminate my contract with them for good!
farleftfieldhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-24028474.post-9283208089189994132011-06-24T13:18:00.001-05:002011-06-24T20:24:00.065-05:00Why I will no longer shop at TargetI have finally had enough. For years I have refused to purchase anything from Wal-mart based on several reasons including; anti-union practices, lack of fair and responsible treatment of their workers, sourcing (not offering made in USA items/knowingly using sweatshop suppliers), and the fact that they spend their profits financing politicians that are the exact opposite of my political ideology. Target has slowly been amassing the same record and after recent reports about their clothing suppliers I can no longer in good conscience spend my money there.

The dirt:

 - "Sexual predators and serial rapists run wild At Wal-Mart Supplier in Jordan" is the name of a frightnening report about Wal-mart, Target, Kohls and other stores named in the report that purchase clothing from these suppliers and have known about reports of sexual abuse and rape at their suppliers since at least 2006.

 - The headline reads "Target forces employees to watch this anti-union propaganda video" and this article has a link to the actual video. The video shows that Target is not only anti-union but they are proud of it! If that doesn't bother you Target's use of wild stories regarding how unions will prevent employees from interacting with management and how unions prevent employees from working more hours, should bother you because both are lies.

 - Target plays an image of good corporate citizen while funding both politicians and political action committees that are openly hostile to the gay and lesbian community. Furthermore; after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars funding hate, Target committed to stopping the practice while it simply ignored its public promise and continued to fund all of the anti-gay politicians. Read more here.

 - After all of this I found this article from way back in 2006 that discusses the same problems I have laid out here, so this is nothing new!

I am not calling for a boycott and I am not going to stand in front of Target with a picket sign (YET), but I will no longer fund this insanity!farleftfieldhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-24028474.post-78786153109206920902011-06-17T12:20:00.001-05:002011-06-17T15:31:25.311-05:00Round UpMichigan Liberal had a great post about Leigh Fifelski leaving the area. I have only had a few dealings with Leigh but have admired her work greatly! Michigan will miss her and Texas is lucky to get such a hard working progressive leader! Check out the full post.

The bad news is in! looks like Gary Peters caught the brunt of the Gerrymandering mess the GOP has made. Politico has this article.

A Target store outside N.Y. City is set to have a vote to unionize and tensions are getting high! Here is link to a video/story about it. In the story a small clip from an anti-union video that Target shows its employees is featured, here is the full video.

Cool video #1 called "Wall Streets robber barons have declared war on American workers"

Cool Video #2 called "The Truth About the Economy"

In a never ending effort to promote American made and Union Made products here is a great list of union made beers!farleftfieldhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-24028474.post-29248352459730835092011-04-12T13:45:00.000-05:002011-04-12T13:45:00.529-05:00Wisconsin Supreme Court updateThe whole thing reeks of foul play!!!

The Wisconsin Supreme Court election is still in limbo. Here is a quick roundup of some interesting info.:

- Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) is asking U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to take a look at the elections and possibly conduct an investigation.

- Ramona Kitzinger, the Democratic member of the canvassing board for Waukesha County, has released a letter clarifying what happened following the election. "The reason I offer this explanation is that, with the enormous amount of attention this has received over the weekend, many people are offering my statements at the press conference that the numbers jibed as validation they are correct and I can vouch for their accuracy. As I told Kathy when I was called into the room I am 80 years old and I dont understand anything about computers. I dont know where the numbers Kathy was showing me ultimately came from, but they seemed to add up. I am still very, very confused about why the canvass was finalized before I was informed of the Brookfield error and it wasnt even until the press conference was happening that I learned it was this enormous mistake that could swing the whole election. I was never shown anything that would verify Kathys statement about the missing vote, and with how events unfolded and people citing me as an authority on this now, I feel like I must speak up."

- The updated numbers currently are within the 7,500 margin which will allow a recount to be conducted at no cost to the challenger.

- Pretty good opinion piece about Kathy Nickolaus.

More to come!farleftfieldhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-24028474.post-48278896352973572972011-04-11T18:17:00.003-05:002011-04-11T18:28:12.121-05:00Responsibility(I recently had the honor of attending the UAW CAP conference in Washington D.C. and submitted the following report to the membership. Our local will hold elections in the coming months so I tied the report in with those elections.)

 I would like to thank the membership and leadership for allowing me to participate in the 2011 UAW National CAP Conference. The conference was filled with elected officials, civil rights leaders, tv personalities, and even former NFL players. Many of the speakers delivered powerful words and thoughtful commentary on the state of the country and of the UAW. I left Washington DC thinking of our democracy.

The ancient Greeks were the first to experiment with democracy in the 5th century B.C. Demos – meaning 'people', and Kratos – meaning 'power' or 'force'. The Greek citizenry had grown weary of being ruled by an Oligarchy, where power lay in the hands of relatively few elites (sound familiar?) so they overthrew the rulers and started a radical experiment called democracy.
2500 years later the experiment continues.

What started so long ago in Greece is the model the founding fathers used for our great country. But, as was the case in Greece, we have responsibilities in a democracy. Democratic citizens need to recognize that they not only have rights, they have responsibilities. Democracy requires an investment of time and hard work – a government of the people demands constant vigilance and support by the people.

It is said that you get the government you deserve. For democracy to succeed, citizens must be active, not passive, because they know that the success or failure of the government is our responsibility, and no one else's. Our union functions under the same democratic principles as our country. In order for it to operate best more involvement from its members is necessary.

As we approach our union elections we should keep these thoughts in mind. Many will approach us asking for our votes. It is our responsibility to inform ourselves about the candidates, their experience and their ideas. Many candidates will be quick to point out flaws and highlight the mistakes without offering any proof that they have the skills to do better. We must demand that candidates offer us something other than the ability to tear down; we must demand union leaders that can build up. Many will call for change but we must remember that merely asking for change can also include a change for the worse. In closing, I offer the wisdom of President Theodore Roosevelt:

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs; who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither knew victory nor defeat."farleftfieldhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-24028474.post-71448027427639864162010-10-27T18:05:00.000-05:002010-10-27T18:05:30.950-05:00FARLEFTFIELDFARLEFTFIELDIGETIThttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-24028474.post-18330748438426205682010-10-27T18:04:00.001-05:002010-10-27T18:04:51.877-05:00ONE ISSUE VOTERS......
Have you ever heard someone described as a "one issue voter"? That usually describes a person who is so locked in on one issue, that it doesn't matter what the candidate's skill set is, or their character, or their experience, or their position on any other issue. If they don't agree with your "one issue" they are not getting your vote! Sounds pretty narrow-minded doesn't it? Sounds pretty intolerant doesn't it? Sounds pretty ill-informed doesn't it?
 Most of us take a measure of pride in being an informed voter. We study the candidate's positions, we analyze the impact of legislation, we read, we listen, we talk to our friends and family, and we even work on campaigns and go door to door. Sounds like a lot of work, and most of us are tired….really tired.
There is an easier way. I am going to take the liberty of being a "one issue voter" for this election cycle, and this election cycle only! Something has happened in the last year that has never happened before in modern history, and that is my "one issue".
On November 2nd I am going to say THANK YOU to the courageous candidates that supported me in my darkest hour. On November 2nd, I will exercise my right to cast my vote for people who fought for economic justice, who supported our membership, and who saved our job and income security from certain disaster. On November 2nd, I will cast a vote of gratitude for people who protected my family when we all faced an uncertain future. On November 2nd I will show my appreciation for people who cared enough about our retirees to ensure that their pensions were intact, and not transferred to the PBGC. On November 2nd, I will set aside hot button issues that have divided this Nation such as gun rights, abortion, immigration, big government, taxes, campaign finance reform, healthcare bills, financial reform, etc. etc. Those issues have been at the forefront of American politics for decades and we will all have our chance to debate them for decades to come. But this year, I have just one chance to say thank you.
Thank you Virgil Benero for putting your face all over the place and getting angry enough to expose the graft and corruption on Wall Street, and fighting for my job on Main Street.
Thank you Mark Schauer for standing strong on Capital Hill, and having the guts as a first term congressman to stare into the face of evil, and cast your vote in our behalf.
Thank You to all the State Representatives that understand the value of secure, good paying union jobs for our Michigan economy.
Thank you to all our UAW endorsed candidates because we know you will continue the fight for our future.
To paraphrase a quote by John F. Kennedy "As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to act on them."
On November 2nd, I encourage you to become a "one issue" voter and join us in showing our appreciation through our actions.IGETIThttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-24028474.post-11032664407700143712010-10-26T20:29:00.002-05:002010-10-26T20:46:01.940-05:00We Begin AgainThere are several recent incidents that should alarm labor activists. We saw a female citizen in Kentucky be overtaken, thrown down and beaten by Rand Paul supporters. In Alaska, we recently saw a reporter get handcuffed and detained by Senate candidate Joe Miller's private security for asking the wrong questions. A news organization recently came under a bomb threat in retaliation for firing a news analyst. Add to these incidents the constant right wing drumbeat labeling Democrats as "socialists" and the willingness of right wing candidates to legitimize the belief that the President of the United States of America is a Kenyan Muslim and you begin to notice a pattern.

This should sound very familiar to labor activists. If we look back to the birth of labor we might remember Eugene V. Debs being jailed, Sacco and Vanzetti being executed, Reuther and Frankensteen being beaten on the overpass, the "red scare" that was used to purge labor leaders and union organizing meetings having to be held in secret.

And so, we begin again.

There is a concerted effort by today's Republican candidates to not only return us to the failed policies of the Bush administration but to roll back all of the historic gains made since FDR's New Deal.

Minimum wage, Social Security, Medicare, a free press, bargaining rights, immigrants, the democratic process, safety and workplace regulations are all under attack. The media has been co-opted to deliver the message and/or under report the incidents, as they too are intimidated through threats of violence.

Of course, there must be an answer. We have the model. All of the above mentioned labor leaders have shown us the way. We know of the stories, we have been taught the history and now we must act. It is our time to take part in the process that will decide the direction of our country; we vote. We take our family, friends and neighbors to vote. We make phone calls; knock on doors and display yard signs. For labor, the current political climate should bring back memories. The question then is: are we the generation that gives away the store? Do we begin again or do we carry the torch?

History does not repeat itself; men whom are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it.farleftfieldhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-24028474.post-27917204569287220422010-07-02T12:04:00.003-05:002010-07-02T15:24:46.766-05:00GOP hall of SHAME!

Here they are! These Senators have voted to filibuster Unemployment Benefits (multiple times) while their home state has a double digit unemployment rate.

Senator(s)-State-Unemployment Rate-Votes Against Cloture (Out Of Three)
Sens. Jeff Sessions (R) and Richard Shelby (R)-Alabama-10.8%-Three each
Sen. George LeMieux (R)-Florida-10.4%-Three
Sens. Saxby Chambliss(R) and Johnny Isakson (R)-Georgia-10.2%-Three each
Sen. Richard Lugar (R)-Indiana-10.0%-Three
Sens. Mitch McConnell(R) and Jim Bunning (R)-Kentucky-10.4%-Three each
Sens. Roger Wicker(R) and Thad Cochran (R)-Mississippi-11.4%-Three each
Sen. John Ensign (R)-Nevada-14.0%-Three
Sen. Richard Burr (R)-North Carolina-10.3%-Three
Sen. George Voinivich(R)-Ohio-10.7%-Three
Sen. Lindsey Graham(R)-South Carolina-11.0%-Two (Missed vote on 6/17)
Sen. Jim DeMint(R)-South Carolina-11.0%-Two (Missed vote on 6/30)
Sens. Bob Corker(R) and Lamar Alexander (R)-Tennessee-10.4%-Three each

This is a continuation of the Republican Party's War on the unemployed. Here are a few of the GOP's more pitiful moments:

Feb. 26, 2010 Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) – "tough S*#T!" about blocking Unemployment

Sen. John Kyl (R-TX) and Senate nominee Sharron Angle (R-Nev.) - UI a disincentive

June 15, 2010 Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) - unemployed = drug user

Congressman Dean Heller (R-NV) - unemployed = hobo

Rand Paul (Kentucky Republican Senate nominee) - Unemployed should suck it up

Hat tip to Think Progress for the Chart as well as some great coverage of this issue in their article - 17 senators from states with double-digit jobless rates repeatedly vote to filibuster unemployment benefits.

farleftfieldhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-24028474.post-69433229064209718032010-06-28T23:38:00.002-05:002010-06-28T23:38:00.282-05:00Nobel prize winning economist Paul Krugman wrote an Op-ed for the NY Times that dealt with China's recent decision to modify its policy of manipulating its currency. Krugman starts out with a brief overview of the effects of China's actions:

The effect of this currency undervaluation is twofold: it makes Chinese goods
artificially cheap to foreigners, while making foreign goods artificially
expensive to the Chinese. That is, it's as if China were simultaneously
subsidizing its exports and placing a protective tariff on its imports.

This policy is very damaging at a time when much of the world
economy remains deeply depressed. In normal times, you could argue that Chinese
purchases of U.S. bonds, while distorting trade, were at least supplying us with
cheap credit — and you could argue that it wasn't China's fault that we used
that credit to inflate a vast, destructive housing bubble. But right now we're
awash in cheap credit; what's lacking is sufficient demand for goods and
services to generate the jobs we need. And China, by running an artificial trade
surplus, is aggravating that problem.

Krugman explains the effects of the Chinese modifications, which he calls "basically a joke", which will offer little to no change and delivered at a snail's pace. Then Krugman minces no words:

So what comes next? China's government is clearly trying to string the rest of
us along, putting off action until something — it's hard to say what — comes up.

That's not acceptable. China needs to stop giving us the runaround
and deliver real change. And if it refuses, it's time to talk about trade
sanctions.

The Alliance for American Manufacturing also waded into the discussion after a CEO used the usual tired talking points and tried to package China's unfair trade practices, currency manipulation and dumping practices into cost of labor. Betsy Devos would be proud! Josh Green CEO of Panjiva:

"There are people who argue that American manufacturers can't compete with
Chinese manufacturers because of China's currency policy. In my opinion, people
who make that argument are half right. They are correct that American
manufacturers can't compete with Chinese manufacturers, but it's not because of
currency policy. The wage rates in China are so much lower than they are in the
U.S., that even if there was significant change in Chinese currency, American
manufacturers would still be in a position of being uncompetitive."

The Manufacture This blog summed it up nicely:

Sorry, Mr. Green. You're missing the bigger picture. What makes
China such a huge juggernaut is not simply low-wage labor. There's also
dumping, subsidies, currency manipulation, and weak enforcement of
environmental
standards.

If you get the chance you should really check out both of the linked articles –
quick reads and very well stated!

farleftfieldhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-24028474.post-9543772522651340542010-05-31T06:31:00.001-05:002010-06-09T18:44:12.725-05:00In Flanders Fields
<v:stroke joinstyle="miter"><v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"><v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"><v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"><v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"><v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"><v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"><v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"><v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"><v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"><v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"><v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"><v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"><v:path gradientshapeok="t" connecttype="rect" extrusionok="f"><o:lock aspectratio="t" ext="edit"><v:imagedata title="" src="file:///C:/Users/mike/AppData/Local/Temp/msoclip1/01/clip_image001.png"><v:stroke joinstyle="miter"><v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"><v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"><v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"><v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"><v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"><v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"><v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"><v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"><v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"><v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"><v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"><v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"><v:path gradientshapeok="t" connecttype="rect" extrusionok="f"><o:lock aspectratio="t" ext="edit"><v:imagedata title="" src="file:///C:/Users/mike/AppData/Local/Temp/msoclip1/01/clip_image001.png">
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

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The recent deaths of 29 coal miners at the Upper Big Branch mine in Raleigh County, W.Va., have brought the attention of the country to the horrifying safety record of Massey Energy Co.'s CEO Don Blankenship. a Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) report on Upper Big Branch and federal records, not to mention the 49 miners killed at all Massey operations since 2000, lay out an air-tight indictment of Massey's overall safety record:

Since 1995, Massey's Upper Big Branch-South Mine has been cited for 3,007 safety violations. Massey is contesting 353 violations, and 127 are delinquent. [MSHA]

Massey is contesting over a third (34.7%) of the 516 safety citations the Upper Big
Branch-South Mine received in 2009, its greatest count in the last 15 years. [MSHA]

In March 2010, 53 new safety citations were issued for Massey's Upper Big Branch-South Mine, including violations of its mine ventilation plan. [MSHA]

Over $2.2 million in fines have been assessed against Massey's Upper Big Branch-South Mine since 1995, with $791,327 paid. Massey is contesting $1,128,833 in fines. Massey's delinquent fines total $246,320. [MSHA]

Blankenship has been very vocal about his feelings towards safety regulations over the years as well:

When asked about safety regulations in June 2009, months after 9 miners died in the Crandall Canyon Mine tragedy in Utah, Blankenship said –

"They're very difficult to comply with. There's so many of the laws that are, if you will, nonsensical from an engineering or a coal mining viewpoint. A lot of the politicians, they get emotional, as does the public, about the most recent accident, and it's easy to get laws on the books that are not truly helping the health or safety of coal miners."

Blankenship held an Anti-Union Labor Day rally last year at which he said –

"We also endure a Mine Safety and Health Administration that seeks power over coal miners versus improving their safety and their health. As someone who has overseen the mining of more coal than anyone else in the history of central Appalachia, I know that the safety and health of coal miners is my most important job. I don't need Washington politicians to tell me that, and neither do you. But I also know — I also know Washington and state politicians have no idea how to improve miner safety. The very idea that they care more about coal miner safety than we do is as silly as global warming."

In the most egregious case of preventable death before the Upper Big Branch explosion, Massey's Aracoma Coal Co. agreed to "plead guilty to 10 criminal charges, including one felony, and pay $2.5 million in criminal fines" after two workers died in a fire at the Aracoma Alma No. 1 Mine in Melville, West Virginia. Massey also paid $1.7 million in civil fines. The mine had 25 violations of mandatory health and safety laws before the fire on January 19, 2006, Blankenship passed the deaths off as –

"Statistically insignificant."

Rush Limbaugh recently joined the discussion asking:

"Where was the union here? Where was the union? The union is generally holding these companies up demanding all kinds of safety. Why were these miners continuing to work in what apparently was an unsafe atmosphere?"

There's a simple reason the union didn't protect the miners: the Upper Big Branch Mine, like nearly all of the mines under Massey CEO Don Blankenship's control, is non-union. In fact, the United Mine Workers of America (UMW) tried three times to organize the Upper Big Branch mine, but even with getting nearly 70 percent of workers to sign cards saying they wanted to vote for a union, Blankenship personally met with workers to threaten them with closing down the mine and losing their jobs if they voted for a union. After the last union drive failed; Blankenship cut bonuses in half and increased hours by fifty percent.

Since 2002, less than one-fifth of the total mine worker fatalities have occurred at unionized mines. And the reason is simple: workers at a unionized mine are not afraid to report unsafe working conditions. "I can absolutely say that if these miners were members of a union, they would have been able to refuse unsafe work…and would not have been subjected to that kind of atrocious conditions," said United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard.

Also, unions have the right to accompany mine inspectors on their rounds, providing accompanying documentation and testimony, so it's not simply the inspector's word against the company's. But Blankenship has made it clear that he considers the safety and health of his workers as secondary to squeezing every penny out of his mines that he can.

For once I agree with Rush, WHERE WAS THE UNION!!!farleftfieldhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-24028474.post-64428137834901239952010-05-06T13:02:00.002-05:002010-05-07T20:49:20.030-05:00Ernie Harwell 1918 - 2010Ernie Harwell passed away on Tuesday night after a battle with cancer. There have been many fitting tributes to Harwell here are a few:

Mitch Albom wrote this column on May 5th - Ernie Harwell: Gone now, but never forgotten.

And this column on May 6th - Ernie Harwell: A voice for Detroit's Tigers fans
Loving tributes speak volumes about him.

The Sporting News compiled some quotes from around baseball and the state of Michigan here.

Al Kaline had the impossible job of accepting an award for Harwell, the Vin Scully Lifetime Achievement Award in Sports Broadcasting, Kaline toughed it out through an emotional speech:

"Ernie ... thought Vin Scully was the greatest baseball announcer," Kaline said after he choked up and took a long pause to regain his composure. "We Tiger fans respectfully disagree."

Read more here.

Rest in Peace William Earnest "Ernie" Harwell January 25, 1918 – May 4, 2010.farleftfieldhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-24028474.post-73354015561969837562010-04-23T13:43:00.006-05:002010-05-07T20:50:47.514-05:00Labor Notes Conference
I am at the Labor Notes Conference in Dearborn, MI. this weekend. I thought that I would do some occasional updates throughout the day, my version of live blogging without the table space in the classrooms to actually write updates during our sessions.

UPDATE

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I recently wrote about some of the troubles that union workers have been having with a pattern of anti-union actions from the Mexican government, here is a link to that post. It turns out that some of the 44,000 workers from the electrical union that have been fired by Mexico's president are here and they did a presentation and showed a short film about their struggles. It was very cool getting to hear from them and getting to meet them in person. I even showed them the blog post I wrote.

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Something called Bloggers Alley in an hour, I wonder what that's all about. I will update with new info ASAP.

UPDATE

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Its pretty rare that you have a serious dilemma at informational conferences where you are debating on running back and forth between classes because you are eager to be at two or three different sessions. An embarrassment of riches!

Blogger's Alley is just an area that has wi-fi and power strips. I was hoping that there would be some sort of workshop for bloggers, cant have everything I Guess!

FINAL UPDATE

So it turned out that I didn't have the time to actually do a live blog from the conference and since returning my head has been swimming with the information I gathered and the people I met.

The speakers at the Labor Notes were great, I can remember at several points actually feeling goose bumps during more than one speech. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers leaders were there, leaders of the National Union of Mine and Metalworkers (who celebrated their 1,000th day on strike while at the conference) from a Mexican copper mine were there, the IWW was there, a teacher that literally marched across California was there, if the left and or labor has a type of radical group they were well represented!!

I met a few of my favorite authors, sang old labor songs by Joe Hill, met old leftists and new radicals and watched documentaries on subjects ranging from the Columbian Coke problems to the Wall St. meltdown. It was AMAZING!!! I will return to this conference!!
farleftfieldhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-24028474.post-63855001044678979942010-04-19T13:07:00.001-05:002010-05-07T20:52:51.159-05:00Good StuffPlenty of juicy tidbits to review!

Interesting Op-Ed in the Macomb Daily: GOP flirts with Tea Party disaster

"Republican politicians who have cozied up to the Tea Party people, claiming the two groups have so much in common, may soon find that the partiers have caught on to the GOP's two-faced ways.The Tea Partiers are already feeling betrayed. They're fed up with politics as usual, especially deal making and double-talking. So, they will eventually reach their tolerance limit when they scrutinize the hypocrisy shown by Republicans who claim the fiscal responsibility mantle.From Washington to Lansing, the GOP is trying to play both sides of the fence. They tell the Tea Partiers that they hate big government, but their actions belie their words."

Politico has a follow-up regarding Wall Street Reform that I wrote about last week: Harry Reid to Mitch McConnell: Come clean

"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) called on Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to disclose details of his meeting two weeks ago with Wall Street executives"

ANOTHER ROUGH WEEK FOR TOYOTA: Toyota to pay record $16.4 million fine

"If not for regulations that capped the fine at $16.4 million, NHTSA would have fined Toyota $13.8 billion, according to a letter the agency sent to the automaker in April."… ""By failing to report known safety problems as it is required to do under the law, Toyota put consumers at risk," said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood"

AND: Toyota recalls 9,400 Lexus GX 460 SUVs

"The automaker recently suspended sales of the luxury SUV after a report Tuesday by the magazine Consumer Reports. The magazine said its test drivers uncovered a problem during routine tests."… "That situation could lead to a rollover"… "The magazine urged car shoppers not to buy the GX 460"

Labor Notes Conference will be taking place in Detroit: Labor Notes Conference 2010

Activists from across the country and around the world will be in Detroit April 23 to 25, 2010.

Some campaign news:

If you haven't heard; Mike Rogers is being challenged by East Lansing High School's own Kande Ngalamulume for the 8th congressional district. Please stop by Kande's website and learn more about his campaign to take back the 8th district.

Over in Michigan's 85th House district Pamela Drake is running. If you have been involved in 8th congressional district activities recently then you already know Pam, she is a tireless activist in her community helping countless charity organizations. Find out more about her and how you can help at her campaign website.

UAW brother Art Reyes is running for the Michigan's 51st House district Representative. He has a Facebook page titled Art Reyes for 51st District Michigan State Representative check it out if you can.

And finally, Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales from Dexter, MI. recently got some love from the NY Times! The times published a ranking of Belgian style beers and:
"Oro de Calabaza, from Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales in Dexter, Mich., beat out 19 other beers, several of them from -- you guessed it -- Belgium." I urge you to get out and support Michigan made products!!farleftfieldhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-24028474.post-46660597498109840462010-04-14T00:21:00.001-05:002010-04-14T18:27:04.843-05:00SOLD! Wall Street Buys Republican LeadershipWe were warned back in Feb. when the Wall Street Journal reported:

"Republicans are stepping up their campaign to win donations from Wall Street"

The Journal continues:

"In discussions with Wall Street executives, Republicans are striving to make the case that they are banks' best hope of preventing President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats from cracking down on Wall Street."

I have been puzzled many times by the various ideas that Republicans campaign for, but running for office as the protector's of Wall Street Executives and lobbyists is mind boggling. It is mind boggling that ANY politician would champion this cause so this quote from Rep. Eric Cantor (R., Va.) REALLY freaks me out:

"I sense a lot of dissatisfaction and a lot of buyer's remorse on Wall Street,"

Two things regarding this statement; first - Cantor implies that Democrats were purchased by Wall Street. Cantor, a United States Representative is not offended by the idea that an elected official could be purchased and is rather matter of fact about it. Second – Cantor is just pissed that he wasn't the politician that got bought off and now he and his party leaders are trying to convince Wall Street Executives that they will be a much better investment. WTF!!

Moving ahead to April 8th, 2010 from Fox Business Network:

About 25 Wall Street executives, many of them hedge fund managers, sat down for a private meeting Thursday afternoon with two of the most powerful Republican lawmakers in Congress: Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, and John Cornyn, the senior senator from Texas who runs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, one of the primary fundraising arms of the Republican Party.

What was the result of the meeting you ask? We move ahead to April 13, 2010 – from the N.Y. Times:

Drawing the lines for a fierce election-year battle over regulating the nation's financial system, Senate Republicans on Tuesday insisted that legislation proposed by Democrats and the White House would only encourage future taxpayer bailouts of big banks.

First I will point out the obvious – McConnell's translation of the financial reform bill:

"We cannot allow endless taxpayer-funded bailouts,"

And

"The way to solve this problem is to let the people who make the mistakes pay for them, We won't solve this problem until the biggest banks are allowed to fail."

 Is wrong! Larry Kudlow, a former Reagan economic advisor had this to say:

"Sen. Chris Dodd's financial-regulation proposal raises the possibility of substantial progress on the road to ending "too big to fail" (TBTF) and bailout nation for banks and other financial institutions."

And

"with the Dodd plan, the possibility remains that a true bankruptcy process will replace government bailouts.
This is vital, since TBTF and government bailouts are among the root causes of the banking crisis, where large financial companies have a moral hazard to take too much risk at taxpayer expense."

And

"Chris Dodd conceivably may have opened the door to ending TBTF and bailout nation."

Go to the link above for a very detailed analysis of the bill, section by section of mostly praise for the bill.

Back to Mitch - I would also like to point out that despite the hyper-partisan, Wall Street financed rhetoric from Mitch McConnell we should remember that more than half of the Senate Republicans voted for president Bush's TARP bill. (Including McConnell) of course this type of fake vitriol from Sen. McConnell has been well orchestrated as TIME magazine's political blog "Swampland" points out (writing about McConnell's floor speech against Wall Street Reform):

"If the outline of his speech sounds familiar, it's because it is the exact argument pollster Frank Luntz urged Republicans to make earlier this year in a widely publicized memo.

Compare the excerpts below (emphasis mine):

Luntz: "The single best way to kill any legislation is to link it to the Big Bank Bailout."

McConnell: "We cannot allow endless taxpayer-funded bailouts for big Wall Street banks. And that's why we must not pass the financial reform bill that's about to hit the floor."

Luntz: "Taxpayers should not be held responsible for the failure of big business any longer. If a business is going to fail, not matter how big, let it fail."

McConnell: "[The Dodd bill] gives the government a new backdoor mechanism for propping up failing or failed institutions.... We won't solve this problem until the biggest banks are allowed to fail."
Luntz: "Government policies caused the bubble and its ultimate crash. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Federal Reserve, and the Community Reinvestment Act all had a role in the catastrophe. The government inflated economic bubbles with easy credit policies."

McConnell: "It also directs the Fed to oversee 35 to 50 of the biggest firms, replicating on an even larger scale the same distortions that plagued the housing market and helped trigger a massive bubble we'll be suffering from for years. If you thought Fannie and Freddie were dangerous, how about 35 to 50 of them?""

A scathing summary of Republican leadership behavior from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution says:

"Do you believe that Wall Street and McConnell came to a meeting of the minds? Do you think The Street is truly cool with "letting the people who make the mistakes pay for them" and allowing the biggest banks to fail without government intervention, as McConnell claims to advocate?
I certainly don't, not for a New York minute. Less than two years ago, remember, most of those same independent-minded, free-market Wall Street folks were on their knees begging for Washington's help, pleading with them not to let the big banks fail. Henry Paulson, the former Goldman Sachs chairman, literally went down on one knee to beseech House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for help.
In fact, when crunch time came on Oct. 1, 2008, that bold free-marketer Mitch McConnell and 31 of his fellow Republican senators voted in favor of the TARP bailout to save Wall Street. That was their chance to prove just how deeply this supposed free-market purity ran in their souls, and they folded."

The full article is REALLY worth the read!farleftfieldhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-24028474.post-59267333481420350902010-03-31T23:19:00.001-05:002010-03-31T23:19:00.373-05:00Thank You President ObamaI was thrilled to see that the Obama administration made several recess appointments last week. Two of them were for slots on the National labor Relations Board (NLRB). Craig Becker and Mark Pearce were nominated in July and received Senate Judiciary approval, but Senate Republicans blocked final approval. With the NLRB only having two members of a five person board for over two years president Obama did the right thing:

"The United States Senate has the responsibility to approve or disapprove of my nominees. But if, in the interest of scoring political points, Republicans in the Senate refuse to exercise that responsibility, I must act in the interest of the American people and exercise my authority to fill these positions on an interim basis. Most of the men and women whose appointments I am announcing today were approved by Senate committees months ago, yet still await a vote of the Senate."

During the two years which the board had only two members the short handed board made over 600 rulings which the Supreme Court is deciding their validity right now (New Process Steel v. National Labor Relations Board), if the ruling goes against the board all of the 600 cases could be thrown out. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts (a very conservative judge appointed by George W. Bush) even questioned Neal Katyal, Deputy Solicitor General, why a recess appointment hadn't yet been made:

"And the recess appointment power doesn't work why?"

As usual Republican's were against something the president did:

"I will admit that doing 15 recess appointments on a Saturday is slightly excessive. But the one that really I think is offensive in the group is … this guy [Craig] Becker [who] is essentially an agent, an advocate of the unions in what is — the NLRB — a quasi-judicial body.

So it's like having a prosecutor on the jury. You really ought not do that."

That's Charles Krauthammer, whom you can find on FAUX news just about any night of the week or at the National Review Online (I won't link to either). What bothers me most about this group think/talking point is that if a lawyer that has made a career of representing unions and/or labor is somehow unqualified to serve at the NLRB why is a lawyer that has made a career of representing management/corporations/business groups somehow acceptable? Another question is- who then is suitable to serve on the board? Should we only nominate people that have never represented workers or management and if so do we really hope to find the most qualified people to serve on a board that has as its mission statement:

"to administer the National Labor Relations Act, the primary law governing relations between unions and employers in the private sector."

I would bet that it would take years, maybe even decades to obtain an expert knowledge of U.S. labor law and it likely would only be accomplished from having worked on behalf of one of the two groups that I mentioned above; labor or management.

Republican opposition to the recess appointment to the NLRB is two-faced and disingenuous. Not only did Republican President George W. Bush make more than 170 recess appointments, but according to the Congressional Research Service, 8 of Bush's recess appointments were to the NLRB and nearly all of them were pawns of big business.

Bush's recess appointments to the NLRB were:

1. Peter J. Hurtgen (NLRB – Designated Chairman) – 8/31/2001

2. Michael J. Bartlett (NLRB – Member) – 1/22/2002

3. William B. Cowen (NLRB – Member) – 1/22/2002

4. Ronald E. Meisburg (NLRB – Member) – 12/23/2003

5. Peter Schaumber (NLRB – Member) – 8/31/2005

6. Peter N. Kirsanow (NLRB – Member) – 1/4/2006

7. Ronald E. Meisburg (NLRB – General Counsel) – 1/4/2006

8. Dennis P. Walsh (NLRB – Member) – 1/17/2006farleftfieldhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-24028474.post-13050100473015606332010-03-24T03:15:00.001-05:002010-03-24T03:15:00.441-05:00Chinese Currency ManipulationThere has been a ton of stuff on the issue of Trade lately and with the President scheduled to visit Asia in the near future the talk will undoubtedly get louder.

Paul Krugman (NY Times columnist and Nobel prize winner in Economics) had a great Op-ed on the issue of China manipulating its currency value to artificially make its products even cheaper to increase its exports. Krugman argues that the Treasury must take the step of recognizing and pointing out officially that China is manipulating their currency; the Treasury is required by law to report countries that manipulate their currency. Many believe that the Treasury is afraid of repercussions from China and its large amount of U.S. dollar assets. Krugmans view?

What you have to ask is, What would happen if China tried to sell a large share of its U.S. assets? Would interest rates soar? Short-term U.S. interest rates wouldn't change: they're being kept near zero by the Fed, which won't raise rates until the unemployment rate comes down. Long-term rates might rise slightly, but they're mainly determined by market expectations of future short-term rates. Also, the Fed could offset any interest-rate impact of a Chinese pullback by expanding its own purchases of long-term bonds.

It's true that if China dumped its U.S. assets the value of the dollar would fall against other major currencies, such as the euro. But that would be a good thing for the United States, since it would make our goods more competitive and reduce our trade deficit. On the other hand, it would be a bad thing for China, which would suffer large losses on its dollar holdings. In short, right now America has China over a barrel, not the other way around.

(Read full Op-ed here.)

The massive trade deficit with China was further examined in a recent policy briefing paper by the Economic Policy Institute:

the jobs impact of the China trade deficit is not restricted to job loss and displacement. Competition with low-wage workers from less-developed countries has also driven down wages for other workers in manufacturing and reduced the wages and bargaining power of similar workers throughout the economy. The impact has affected essentially all production workers with less than a four-year college degree—roughly 70% of the private-sector workforce, or about 100 million workers. For a typical full-time median-wage earner in 2006, these indirect losses totaled approximately $1,400 per worker

The briefing paper also touches on China's currency manipulation and gives thorough analysis of its effects.

Locally Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) was a co-sponsor of The Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act of 2010. This legislation addresses Chinese currency manipulation and provides meaningful sanctions, including countervailing duties or tariffs, if currency negotiations fail. The AFL-CIO blog wrote about the bill recentlyfarleftfieldhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-24028474.post-39364435074010775972010-03-12T06:20:00.001-05:002010-03-12T06:20:00.127-05:00It's About Time!Rep. Mark Schauer (D, MI-07) Rep. Dale Kildee (D, MI-05) and Rep. Bart Stupak (D, MI-01) have all co-sponsored a bill that would repeal NAFTA. There a total of 28 sponsors of the bill originally introduced by Rep. Gene Taylor (D, MS-04). H.R. 4759 is short and to the point! The bill is introduced:

"To provide for the withdrawal of the United States from the North American Free Trade Agreement."

What else do you need to read? You can follow the link above if you want to read the half-page long bill.

Obviously labor is happy!
"The lives of average workers in Mexico and in the U.S. have gotten so much worse since NAFTA," says Jim Hoffa, head of the Teamsters, which represents 1.4 million American workers. "When you realize you've made a bad deal, you try to get out of it."

More surprising is conservative Pat Buchanan ranting against NAFTA:

"No nation rose to world power on free trade. From Britain after 1860 to America after 1960, free trade has been the policy of powers that put consumption before production and today before tomorrow.

Nations rise on economic nationalism; they descend on free trade."

I never thought I would say this but, you really should read the full Buchanan article. Good stuff Pat!

Finally, while I hate to say it – the current administration is failing us in regards to trade.

US trade representative Ron Kirk says he will press hard to persuade trade-wary Democrats and Republicans of the merits of President Obama's trade policy agenda for 2010. The agenda includes completion of the Doha Round of global trade liberalization and passage of pending US free-trade agreements (FTAs).

The US has negotiated FTAs with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea – all of which are awaiting congressional ratification.

As Mayor of Dallas U.S. Trade Rep. Ron Kirk was a big supporter of NAFTA. Rep. Mike Michaud, D-Maine, co-founder of the House Trade Working Group, said he was "deeply concerned" about Mr. Kirk when president Obama nominated him:
"His past trade policy positions do not reflect the views of most Americans. They also do not reflect the reform agenda that President Obama has pledged to an American public clamoring for a new direction on trade,"

If you haven't already urge your Rep. to sponsor H.R. 3012 and its Senate version S. 2821 – the Trade Act. This legislation is described by the Citizen Trade Campaign as:

This bill frames a bold new debate, marking out policy space for a more balanced way to expand trade.
Past free trade pacts such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) are not actually free, and have come at great costs. The price we pay in offshoring of jobs, downward pressure on wages, loss of farms and damage to our environment is far too great.
The TRADE Act maps a fair path forward, explaining what we can all support in a good agreement.farleftfieldhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-24028474.post-79120527188565027012010-03-03T05:17:00.000-05:002010-03-02T21:19:49.904-05:00GOP ends attack on unemployedIt looks like the Republican assault on the unemployed will temporarily stop. But Jim Bunning's hypocrisy is stunning; from a Feb. 14, 2003 press release on his website after passing a temporary extension for unemployment benefits:

"The 108th Congress is off to a solid start, this is hopeful news for our most needy families in Kentucky. By approving this legislation we will help those folks who are currently without work continue to make ends meet until they can find new employment."

Bunning was even willing to talk about the effect that the extension would have for unemployed people and their families:

Passage of this legislation means that there will be no lapse in assistance for the nearly 10,000 Kentuckians who have filed claims so far for extended benefits.

I wonder what changed during the 7 years that made Bunning "for it, before he was against it". Could it be that back when Bunning was for extending unemployment benefits (2003); the senate was controlled by Republicans, but currently while Bunning is against extending unemployment benefits; the senate is controlled by Democrats?

Several Republican colleagues have supported Sen. Bunning's "tyranny of the petty"–

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) – "I respect him for the courage he's showed."

Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) has said that Bunning's move is something that the Senate should "honor"

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) dismissed the issue as unimportant

Rep. John Boehner offered support while trying not to meddle in the business of the Senate.

Sen. Jim De Mint (R-Batshit) - "He's my hero this week"

Now that the political grandstanding is over, hopefully the thousands of workers affected can go back to work and the unemployed people without a check this week can stay afloat.farleftfieldhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
Hi everybody,
I'm new here!
As a freelance journalist I wanted to set up a blog to find out how people feel about the country (UK), the way it is being managed and what it feels like to live here.
I will be writing and in addition to that will be running polls and in general encouraging comments, articles and submissions from anyone on anything UK related.
Several of the political parties are following the progress and so involvement may mean more than just an opportunity to rant - real change may actually be prompted.
I hope you will support the project and chip in with your own opinions and suggestions.
The blog I need help with is houseofalbion.wordpress.com.

subset: commoncrawl


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text:
Citing an anonymous source, ESPN's Adam Schefter is reporting that Cowboys inside linebacker Sean Lee won't play Sunday against Seattle after dislocating a wrist in last weekend's 34-7 loss to Philadelphia.
Lee suffered the injury in the first quarter while trying to tackle Eagles QB Michael Vick. It's still uncertain whether he will need surgery. If Lee doesn't get cut on, he likely will miss the rest of the season, so he's hopeful he can play by wearing a cast.
Lee leads the Cowboys in tackles and interceptions in his second season.


text:
When you have a baby who has Down syndrome you find out that almost everyone in the world has a cousin with Down syndrome and they all work at a grocery store.
And they're all incredibly happy.
You know, I hope most people are happy. I hope all kids are happy. And babies.
Are people as a species so unhappy that my now five-year old daughter reading library books on the couch stands out in such contrast?
There are many ways I would describe my daughter – brigadier general comes to mind – but I wouldn't describe either of my kids as happy. Just like I wouldn't describe them as people who breathe. Or sleep. Or clip their fingernails. There are just a lot of words I would use first.
I did have a new acquaintance tell me that my daughter was very loving. I looked around to see if we meant the same girl. It was indeed the one dog-piling her big brother. Thank you, I said.
It seems like we all want to be happy. Pills, teas, lavender lotions. Link after book after glossy magazine:
Are You Happy?
Five Signs That You Could Be Happier
Twenty Simple Ways To Get Happy
In the Parenting section is The Happiest Kid (Toddler, Child and I believe Teenager) on the Block.
As a special needs parent, I'm not sure happy is all you're going for. I'm guessing you want more.
No one watches a nine-year old in a chess tournament and says, "She's so happy!" The Happiest Child finishes soccer practice, piano lessons and French homework. Then she does her happy flashcards.
Maybe happy is what we work on when the checklist is done.
If you have Down syndrome, no one thinks you have a checklist. You float around finding ways to keep busy while the rest of us have real lives. And the reason we don't find this a waste is because we tell ourselves people with Down syndrome are: happy.
Do we really want to give away "happy" to a sub-group? Remember the Native Americans who gave away Manhattan. We might want it back. Think it through.
Sometimes I dream that my daughter with Down syndrome will actually become a giant pill. A crank in a beret. I was secretly proud the day she dressed herself in all-black for preschool, Johnny Cash-style.
Do we typicals want to be happy, but only after we've earned our PhD's? How do we want to be described in the Christmas newsletter? "Justin is so happy. He is forty-five years old. And just so darn happy."
Isn't it weird how happy can sound pathetic? When it's on the cover of Cosmo it doesn't sound pathetic. It sounds hot.
How will we get the right kind of happy? I want the good happy. The best happy. I want the happy that gets me my own parking spot.
Deep down, do any of us ever think happy is actually kind of optional? The icing on our achievement cake? If you had a choice between massive wealth or simple happiness, would any of us hedge our bets and go for the dough? I mean, how bad could it be?
When I Googled "Am I happy?" there were 1,470,000 results.
When I Googled "I am happy" in the declarative- there were only 1,120,000 results – 350 million fewer. And most of them were the Pharell Williams song.
So I took the Oprah "Are You Happy Quiz?" to see if I was happy. It turns out I am. I was kind of surprised. The dark clouds, the Pacific Northwest rain, after two weeks it already seems endless.
I scored between 52-70. This placed me in the category "Your smile is your guide." I'm happy.
Then it was my five year-old daughter's turn. Since she has Down syndrome, I thought I should test this once and for all.
I found out that:
Yes, she feels better when she gives unconditionally to others.
No, she does not dwell on people who disappoint her.
No, she did not feel her life would truly begin only when the right circumstances came along.
She does not think giving a present is better than getting one.
She. should. get. what. she. wants.
Not getting what she wants does not help her develop as a person.
Life is good and she appreciates what she has.
She has no trouble making her health a priority.
All totaled, she only scored between a 30-49. This puts her in the category of "Needs to Look on the Bright Side More Often." She's "not miserable".
But she is not happy.
She hopped off the chair to finish her puzzle. Red barn, spotted cows. A snack bowl of snap peas.
I didn't have the heart to tell her.


text:
Kevin Gausepohl, a 37-year-old music teacher at Tacoma Community College has been jailed after he allegedly convinced an underage vocal student that she could improve her vocal range if she stripped naked and performed sexual acts on herself while singing.
According to police, Gausepohl reportedly convinced a 17-year-old girl that her vocal range would be improved if she undressed and practiced her singing while sexually touching herself.
Investigators say Gausepohl told the girl that he was studying how sexual arousal could change a singer's vocal range. The girl reportedly complied with his requests and participated in the so-called "study."
Other students told detectives that Gausepohl asked them to be a part of his study, but they declined.
Gausepohl was booked into jail on seven counts of communicating with a minor for immoral purposes and one count of obstructing a law enforcement officer.
The teacher resigned from the school in October and states that he did nothing wrong.


text:
Arkansas squeezes Baylor out of CWS spot with 1-0 win
Published 11:38 pm, Monday, June 11, 2012
WACO - Arkansas catcher Jake Wise, fresh off a game-winning hit late Monday against Baylor that propelled the Razorbacks into the College World Series, shook his head at his fortune.
"The feeling hasn't set in yet," said a wide-eyed Wise, a sophomore from Cy Falls. "Words can't explain how this feels."
Baylor, collectively wide-eyed at the same time as Wise, knew the feeling. Because it'll take some time for the Bears, at the tail end of an otherwise enchanting season, to absorb that they missed a golden opportunity to make the CWS.
"It was an unbelievable baseball game," Baylor coach Steve Smith said.
It was, and one in which Baylor came up short to abruptly wrap up its record-setting season. Arkansas nipped Baylor 1-0 in a super regional finale before 5,059 at Baylor Ballpark, winning each of the series' final two games by a run after falling 8-1 in Saturday's opener.
Razorbacks coach Dave Van Horn, whose 44-20 squad made it to the CWS for the first time since 2009 and will face Kent State on Saturday, was left giving the fallen Bears a pep talk via the postgame news conference.
"They had the (24-game) winning streak and were overall Big 12 champions," Van Horn said. "They were maybe the best team we played all year. They have nothing to hang their heads about."
The Bears (49-17) had to be disturbed after failing to capitalize on multiple opportunities in the finale. The most glaring collapse occurred in the ninth, after Arkansas' Colby Suggs (7-0) walked Cal Towey to lead off the inning.
Following a sacrifice bunt by Lawton Langford, Smith chose to pinch-hit Josh Turley, a pitcher with six at-bats all season, for shortstop Jake Miller, who was 1-for-3 on the night. Turley struck out looking, and Adam Toth flied out to center with the winning run on second.
"I felt good about the choice of who I put in there," Smith said. "Josh can handle that arena. It was a lot to ask of him, but I was pretty confident he'd get the ball in play."
He didn't, and Arkansas' Brian Anderson led off the 10th with a single down the left-field line against Bears reliever Dillon Newman, who'd entered the game following nine shutout innings from starter Tyler Bremer. Bo Bigham followed with a sacrifice bunt down the first-base line, and Matt Vinson struck out for the inning's second out.
Wise followed with a slow grounder to left past diving shortstop Steve DalPorto, Miller's replacement, and Anderson scored the game's lone run. Baylor fans will always wonder if Miller, in the only inning he didn't play shortstop in the super regional, would have at least kept the ball in the infield.
"There's not anybody who will second-guess those decisions more than I will," Smith said of his late-inning moves.
Baylor threatened again in the bottom of the 10th, but Dan Evatt struck out with runners on first and second and two outs. The Razorbacks stormed the field and dog-piled behind the mound while the Bears stood in disbelief.
"You can't breathe," a grinning Wise said of the sensation of being on the bottom of a dog pile. "But it's a feeling you've wanted your entire life."
email@example.com twitter.com/brentzwerneman


text:
Pushing the Boundaries of Text and Sensual Curriculum
It is clear that society is immersed into an environment rich in information that is accessible, interactive, and visual. With an ever growing focus on connective technologies that allow for enhanced and easier means of communicating, creating, connecting, and contributing, all facets of life are attempting to adapt to this phenomenon.
A quick review of the Registered Virtual User Data from Kezero highlights this very point. The data shows how corporations are blending their physical products into a virtual representation to enhance the sensual nature of these products. From Hot Wheels, Barbie Girls, Beanie Babies, Webkinz to BuildaBear(ville), Hello Kitty, and UpperDeckU, once clearly defined boundaries are being shattered and the notion of sense making had multiple dimensions barely fathomed just a few years ago.
What attracts individuals to such environments? Why is the physical realm not enough to make sense of our realities?
The aforementioned companies have their roots in the physical offering toys for children to create, build, and play. At the same time, these companies recognize the social trend that places relevance in virtual worlds where community, connections, collaboration, and distributed knowledge are norms. The key, it seems, is not the displacement of the physical and all it values, but a blurring of it with the virtual.
Thus, the creation of a powerful experience that blends together the value of both into one seamless world held in the hands and at their fingertips. How much fun must it be to still hold the baseball card in your hand, build an album, and trade with your fellow neighborhood kids yet also manipulate your digital persona or avatar in greater communities and global neighborhoods where teams are built, challenges ensue, and more trading and interacting take place.
How does this alter our sensual understanding of the world, a blended world of physical and digital spaces? How does education and curriculum need to transform to capture this phenomenon and augmented approach to sense making?
Yet, many in education still seem only concerned so much as to discuss the digital and the physical as separate entities.
James Paul Gee discusses in Henry Jenkins' Convergence Culture (2008) the idea of affinity spaces and his fears that classrooms are hindering the skills students are developing:
Learning becomes a personal and unique trajectory through a complex space of opportunities (i.e., a person's own unique movement through various affinity spaces over time)and a social journey as one share aspects of that trajectory with others for a shorter or longer time before moving on (who may be very different from oneself and inhabit otherwise quite different spaces). What these young people see in school may pale by comparison. It may seem to lack the imagination that infuses the non-school aspects of their lives. At the very least, they many demand an argument for "why school?"
Instead of trying to understand Gee's notion of affinity spaces and exploring the social phenomenon that is the Internet, too many educational leaders and organizations continue to focus on their feelings of discomfort with a world they fail to understand. They discuss the loss of connections. They talk about the false sense of reality. They discuss the idea of being out of touch with nature. They discuss the loss of meaningful relationships. They speak of the dumbest generation. They discuss unhealthy ties to "fake" worlds.
All the while, the social phenomenon associated with emerging technologies, social networks, and mobile computing continues to fracture the very notion of learning and social spaces creating blurred realities and edges where powerful experiences await learners.
It is clear that there is a tremendous gap between this social phenomenon and education, which is both disappointing and nerve-wracking. Society has gravitated towards this "different", blended world yet too many in education have not. Thus, schools must begin to have the discussion about what it means to be well-educated and literate in the 21st Century. This inevitably leads to the most important question for schools: given what it means to be well-educated, how are we to educate so that our students become well-educated, literate citizens whose passions are ignited and fostered?
This shift in education towards one that is participatory and connective needs to include a strong understanding of the social phenomenon that is the Internet. This phenomenon is one in which we are seeing the blurring of spaces: physical and digital spaces, social and working spaces, formal and informal spaces, and so forth. In many ways, it is exhausting to think about a participatory society that is shaped by the ability to navigate and interact with hyper speed information flow, create and maintain networks, embrace the notion of sharing, engage in creation, live in a continuous state of partial attention, and actively socialize in various spaces across multiple identities.
Literacy and Sense Making
One critical shift is in the area of literacy. The National Council of Teachers of English identified this shift and released a new definition of literacy preferring now to call it literacies:
Literacy has always been a collection of cultural and communicative practices shared among members of particular groups. As society and technology change, so does literacy. Because technology has increased the intensity and complexity of literate environments, the twenty-first century demands that a literate person possess a wide range of abilities and competencies, many literacies. These literacies—from reading online newspapers to participating in virtual classrooms—are multiple, dynamic, and malleable.
it is important to see literacy in a social context, to take into account that it is socially constructed. As Freire (1987) noted, "literacy had to be viewed as a social construction that is always implicated in organizing one's view of history, the present, and the future" (p.2). Thus, literacy is situated in the cultural understandings of effective communication and communication needs and those skills are deictic.
This means seeing the skills and skill sets that make up a literate person as organic and rooted in what is happening socially, politically, and even economically. In fact, Barton would say literacy is "a phenomenon [that] requires for its explanation the attention of at least eight academic disciplines: physiology, psychology, sociology, economics, technology, political science, history, and anthropology".
In other words, the rapid pace of technological advancement is the target for literacy becoming a deictic term: "literacy is inescapably a social phenomenon" (Holme, 2005, p. 3). However, because as Heath (1980) states, "the concept of literacy covers a multiplicity of meanings, and definitions of literacy carry implicit but generally unrecognized views of its function and its use" there lies a need to define our scope of discussion if we are to convince someone of a need to evolve or expand their scope (p.123).
This social phenomenon and a new view on literacies brings forth the notion of sensual curriculums in an online context. How are online texts with embeddable media, hypertexts, personas/avatars, and participatory components shaping how we shape meaning through the senses?
A critical aspect shaping the answer to this question is the shift from consumption to production. This shift also includes a move from "text centrism to media collage" (Ohler, 2009, p. 10). To this point, individuals are reading and writing more frequently but in bursts and bits that allow room for diverse media outlets. This level of creation and diversity of media provides unique connections to the senses in particular sight and sound.
But, original creation is not the only area impacted. Those consuming on the screen are experiencing the world differently than in the past and then have the opportunity to add to the collective knowledge. As Kelly said,
"Screen reading encourages rapid pattern-making, associating this idea with another, equipping us to deal with the thousands of new thoughts expressed every day…. A screen both records and displays this database of activities. The result of this constant self-tracking is an impeccable "memory" of their lives and an unexpectedly objective and quantifiable view of themselves, one that no book can provide. The screen becomes part of our identity
This shaping of identity is at the heart of these new literacies and text creation. One's authorship becomes one's identity shared, shaped, and manipulated by the contexts of online experiences. With avatars from diverse settings like Second Life to 140 character tweets on Twitter, identities are being shaped by the content created and spaces navigated by the individual but also by the sense making of an online, global network (Buckingham, 2008).
The creation of multidimensional learning spaces that fractured previously held mindsets on literacy, well-educated, teaching, and learning afford new opportunities for sense making. In this day and age when content is available anytime, anywhere and to anyone, classrooms can no longer be tethered to the content-driven, physical spaces defined by 20th-century methodologies. The time is now to rethink curriculum, instruction, assessment, and spaces.
— Instead of a Voki Guide, Existential Paine is happy to provide an exploration into Second Life to explore the notion of text and the sensual.
Barton, D. (2006). Literacy: An introduction to the ecology of written language. WileyBlackwell.
Buckingham, D. (2007). Youth, Identity, and Digital Media (John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning). London: The Mit Press.
Freire, P. (1987). Literacy: Reading the world and the world. Routledge.
Gee, J.P . (1996) Social linguistics and literacies: Ideology in discourses. London and NY: Longman (never directly referenced but a lot drawn from including deictic and semiotic domains)
Heath, S. (1980). The function and uses of literacy. Journal of Communication.
Holme, R (2005). Literacy: An Introduction. Edinburgh University Press
Jenkins, H. (2008). Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. NYU Press.
Kelly, K. (2010). Reading in a Whole New Way | 40th Anniversary | Smithsonian Magazine. History, Travel, Arts, Science, People, Places | Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved July 29, 2010, from http://www.smithsonianmag.com/specialsections/40th-anniversary/Reading-in-a-Whole-New-Way.html?c=y&page=1&device=ipad&c=y
Knobel, M., & Lankshear, C. (2006). New Literacies. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Ohler, J. (2009). Orchestrating the Media Collage. Educational Leadership, 66(6), 8-13.


text:
Christmas chaos / Jennifer Conner.
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- Publisher: Port Orchard : Books to Go Now, 2011.
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| Christmas chaos hits Josiane. All she want to do is get to her families Christmas Eve dinnerfor once on time. Instead, she gets stuck in her office elevator with a tall, stranger in the dark.When she meets Carsten, will Josiane find that holiday romance may come in the strangest places?
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text:
- What's Included
- Instruction Manual
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