Forum: Politics/News (Open) ~ General Message Board ]]> http://www.free-fire-zone.com/post?id=5849572 Wed, 16 May 2012 18:05:05 GMT http://www.free-fire-zone.com/post?id=5847917 Five high school seniors at an elite prep school stalk, then jump a younger student with a new haircut they think looks too gay. Their 18-year-old ringleader cuts off the offending locks, while the victim screams and begs for help. Decades later, the victim and several participants are still haunted by the attack.

It's not a scene from Bully. It's a revealing episode from Mitt Romney's formative years.

We've all had moments in high school or college we'd rather forget. And certainly we all have the capacity to change. But sometimes behavior as a young adult can reveal much about one's present character. Romney's challenge is that his prep school bullying lines up well with the rest of what voters have learned about him.

Here's the simple picture that's emerging: If you're less fortunate or less powerful, Mitt Romney won't think twice about walking over you if you're in his way.  Click here to read the rest.

Forum: Politics/News (Open) ~ General Message Board ]]> http://www.free-fire-zone.com/post?id=5847917 Wed, 16 May 2012 01:59:39 GMT http://www.free-fire-zone.com/post?id=5847852

How hateful is Topeka’s infamous Westboro Baptist Church? So hateful that even the Ku Klux Klan has condemned them, stating “we absolutely repudiate their activities.” But, as the behind-the-scenes profile in the next issue of Sojourners reveals, in many ways Westboro’s members seem like startlingly “normal” people – people with careers in nursing, with kids in public school. How can this hate group that cloaks itself in Christian garb sustain itself in spewing out venom?

Like Rebecca Barrett-Fox, the Kansas professor on whose research our June cover story is based, Sojourners wants to be clear that conservative theology doesn’t have to end up proclaiming misogyny, homophobia, and hate. We hope exposing Westboro’s inner psychological and theological workings might help others avoid taking steps down that road.

Forum: Politics/News (Open) ~ General Message Board ]]> http://www.free-fire-zone.com/post?id=5847852 Wed, 16 May 2012 01:09:06 GMT http://www.free-fire-zone.com/post?id=5838474
Has Obama finally made up his mind or will he flip flop yet again?

Forum: Politics/News (Open) ~ General Message Board ]]> http://www.free-fire-zone.com/post?id=5838474 Thu, 10 May 2012 11:38:43 GMT http://www.free-fire-zone.com/post?id=5838288 As college tuition steadily increases by an average of about 8 percent each year, more and more students and their families rely on student loans to help pay the escalating costs of obtaining a college degree. One in three college students takes out federal subsidized Stafford Loans when scholarships, grants and part-time jobs just aren’t enough to fund higher education.

Interest rates on subsidized Stafford Loans are set to double on July 1, from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent, unless Congress acts. Today, Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic push to keep the rates at their current level—but the young people whose families and futures will be directly impacted by a rate hike are making sure their voices are heard on this critical issue.

Early this morning, as the amount of student loan debt in this country crossed the $1 trillion threshold, students and young advocates took to the offices of Congress to tell elected leaders about the importance of keeping higher education affordable for all.

The Campaign for Young America—a coalition effort organized by the Young Invincibles involving student groups, progressive organizations and labor—convened current college students and recent graduates on Capitol Hill to lobby senators ahead of the vote. The group spent the past two months on a bus tour collecting the stories of young people in communities and campuses across 21 states. The dozens of young people participating in today’s lobby effort set out to make the experiences and concerns of their generation heard.

Devon Yates, a kinesthesiology major at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, felt his meeting with staff of Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) would help the lawmaker “understand where students are coming from.” He shared his story as a scholarship student who needs federal loans to be able to complete another year at school and finish his degree. He said he aspires to complete a graduate degree as well and his life at school is riding on this congressional decision.

At a press conference held with Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Clarisse McCants spoke of being the first person in her family to attend college and the importance of higher education as a means to escape the cycle of poverty that surrounded her while growing up in north Philadelphia.

To afford her education at Howard University, where she is currently a junior studying political science, Clarisse said she works a variety of part-time jobs and is also a recipient of a federal Pell Grant. But she still needed to take out thousands in Stafford Loans to afford her education.

With more than 7 million college students in the same boat as Yates and McCants, the doubling of federal student loan interest rates would hurt not just young people, but the overall economy as well. The unemployment rate for workers younger than 25 is still double the national average, and a college degree is one of the factors that helps boost job prospects. An educated workforce is essential to economic prosperity for the country as a whole.

As McCants said in her remarks today, this country will move forward only when “education is seen as a right, not a privilege.”

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Forum: Politics/News (Open) ~ General Message Board ]]> http://www.free-fire-zone.com/post?id=5838288 Thu, 10 May 2012 08:08:03 GMT http://www.free-fire-zone.com/post?id=5838286 The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has told Hyatt Hotels what the hotel chain’s housekeepers have been telling it for years—“Hyatt Hurts.”

OSHA issued a formal Hazard Alert letter telling Hyatt that its housekeepers face ergonomic risks every day on the job. The letter outlines steps Hyatt can take to reduce housekeeper injuries.

Pamela Vossenas, UNITEHERE!’s health and safety director, says by issuing the Hazard Alert at a corporate level:

OSHA is telling Hyatt that the dangers of housekeeping work are real, that there are reasonable solutions and it’s time for Hyatt to put them into practice across the country.

The letter follows a yearlong OSHA investigation into injury complaints workers filed in 2010. Hyatt once told federal investigators that the workers’ injuries could have been the result of dancing, not lifting heavy mattresses and cleaning as many as 30 rooms a day, as some Hyatt housekeepers do. In one filing, Hyatt wrote:

The close association of housekeeping with routine life also raises difficult questions about causation. One’s injury is at least as likely to have occurred during non-work activities like sports, dancing or performing routine chores in one’s home.

OSHA also says Hyatt must keep records on injuries suffered by sub-contracted workers at its hotels.

Maria Soto, a housekeeper at the Grand Hyatt in San Antonio who has been injured cleaning rooms, says:

For years, we have asked Hyatt to make simple changes that would ease the toll on our bodies. Now our voices are being heard, and the federal government is joining us in calling on Hyatt to make our jobs safer.

Read the full Hazard letter here and find out more from Hyatt Hurts here.

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Forum: Labor Report ]]> http://www.free-fire-zone.com/post?id=5838286 Thu, 10 May 2012 08:04:47 GMT http://www.free-fire-zone.com/post?id=5838283 Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (D) will face Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) in the June 5 election to recall Walker. Barrett won the Democratic primary yesterday.

Even as working families are lining up behind Barrett, Walker has built a huge war chest of mostly out-of-state contributions. The Washington Post reports:

Walker has far outraised and outspent his Democratic rival. Taking advantage of laws that allow a recall target to raise unlimited funds, he has brought in $25 million and spent $20 million. Barrett has raised less than a million dollars and will have to ramp up quickly to compete.

However, working people across the state, many of whom are public employees who were stripped of their collective bargaining rights by Walker and his allies in the state legislature, are set for an intense drive to the June 5 balloting. Says AFSCME Council 24 Executive Director Marty Beil:

The grassroots campaign we’ve built to counter Walker’s millions from out-of-state billionaires will be working hard to help Tom Barrett win.

Under Walker’s watch, Wisconsin is the only state in the nation to suffer “statistically significant” job loss during the 12 months from March 2011 to March 2012, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Walker had vowed that eliminating collective bargaining rights for public employees and massive budget cuts would turn the Badger State into a job growth miracle.

Mahlon Mitchell, president of the Fire Fighters (IAFF) of Wisconsin, won the primary race for lieutenant governor and will face Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch.

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Forum: Politics/News (Open) ~ General Message Board ]]> http://www.free-fire-zone.com/post?id=5838283 Thu, 10 May 2012 08:00:44 GMT http://www.free-fire-zone.com/post?id=5838279 Dave Johnson, at the Campaign for America's Future, sends us this.

Atrios says it: Eschaton: Planning For 10 Years From Now.

The last time an administration did the supposedly responsible thing, the fiscal 'hawks' suddenly decided that the worst possible thing was no longer a deficit, but a surplus, and that therefore it was necessary to have massive tax cuts for rich people.

And they will, of course, do it again.

Any time any D.C. elite complains about "the deficit" remind them that when Clinton left office we had a huge surplus, so big that at the rate it was being paid down the entire U.S. debt was going to be paid off in 10 years. Bush demanded that we give back the people's money and Greenspan warned of the danger of paying off the debt. Etc. Etc. Etc. Then Bush doubled military spending—and started two wars on top of that!

So we went from big surplus to huge, huge deficits. Bush said it was "incredibly positive news" when we went back into deficit spending. He said it was good news because it continued the plan to use debt to force the government to cut back. He said that. It was the plan. (Don't take my word for it, click the links.)

The Reagan people said it, too, back when they started the massive deficit spending. It was the plan: force the country into massive debt, "starve the beast" and use that to force the government out of business, or at least to be "small enough to drown in a bathtub." They forced the tax cuts and Reagan said this was "cutting the government's allowance." The point was to use revenue cutbacks to force government to shrink, to get out of the way of the 1%.

Now that government is very much out of the way of the 1%, we are seeing how things work out when the 1% dominate everything.

They called it "strategic deficits." They said it was the plan to force the country into debt, and then they would demand that we cut the things that government does for the 99%, in order to further enrich the 1%. They would scare everyone by saying that the debt will destroy us so we have to cut back. That was the plan. They said that was the plan. And now that the plan is being executed, we should understand that it was the plan and not fall for it!

They said it was the plan. So as the plan unfolds, don't be so surprised.

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Forum: Politics/News (Open) ~ General Message Board ]]> http://www.free-fire-zone.com/post?id=5838279 Thu, 10 May 2012 07:57:19 GMT http://www.free-fire-zone.com/post?id=5838277 Mitt Romney’s “mole” inside the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has “undermined the enforcement of laws enacted by Congress…demonstrated a fundamental lack of integrity…and breached numerous standards of ethical conduct” by funneling confidential NLRB information to the Romney campaign’s chief labor adviser, says Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa).

A second report released last week by the NLRB’s inspector general outlined NLRB member Terence Flynn’s sharing of information with Peter Schaumber, who previously served as Romney’s top labor aide. In a letter to Flynn requesting documents and information concerning several incidents, Harkin writes:

According to the Inspector General report, you violated multiple ethical guidelines….The conduct described in the reports breaches the most fundamental trust placed in a federal employee, particularly one entrusted to be an impartial observer.

The IG report says that Flynn sent Schaumber draft opinions in cases before the board had voted on them. Josh Eidelson writes in Salon:

The IG wrote that Flynn provided Schaumber info that the NLRB would have withheld even if Congress requested it. 'Mr. Flynn’s public statement that he has engaged in no wrongdoing,' wrote the IG, 'strikes at the very heart of the Board and all but eviscerates the due process procedures that the Board has established.'

Harkin reiterated his call for Flynn to step down from the NLRB. Flynn has denied he has engaged in wrongdoing. When the IG's second report was released last week, Harkin said:

For Mr. Flynn to continue to maintain that he has done nothing wrong in the face of the overwhelming evidence of serious misconduct suggests that he lacks both the professional judgment and ethical integrity to continue serving on the Board.

Appearing Sunday on C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka also repeated his call for Flynn’s resignation.

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Forum: Politics/News (Open) ~ General Message Board ]]> http://www.free-fire-zone.com/post?id=5838277 Thu, 10 May 2012 07:53:34 GMT http://www.free-fire-zone.com/post?id=5838273

Romney, of "Let Detroit go bankrupt" fame, now says he should get credit for the resurgence of the U.S. auto companies.

Really.

"I'll take a lot of credit for the fact that this industry's come back," he says.

Fact is, the "managed bankruptcy" Romney pushed for would have been disastrous, coming too late to help had the Obama administration not extended emergency survival bridge loans.

"Romney has been vocally opposed to the auto loans for the past three years," says UAW President Bob King. "But now he's claiming credit for President Obama's intervention to save the industry.

"The successful recovery of the American auto industry is a great national success story that most Americans are very proud of," King says. "It's an example of how business, labor and the government can work together to find solutions to some of the nation's most difficult problems. Mitt Romney's values of profits-over-people are wrong for Michigan, wrong for workers and wrong for all Americans who value hard work, shared sacrifice and shared prosperity."

Former "auto czar" Steve Rattner told Talking Points Memo:

I’ve read, I think, everything Romney’s had to say on this subject, and the level of flip-flopping and dissembling is truly mind-boggling. He’s been on every side of the auto rescue at different times and said different things, so it’s hard to know what he honestly thinks.

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Forum: Politics/News (Open) ~ General Message Board ]]> http://www.free-fire-zone.com/post?id=5838273 Thu, 10 May 2012 07:49:19 GMT http://www.free-fire-zone.com/post?id=5838269 House Democrats and Republicans have reached an agreement to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank through 2014. Its charter is due to expire May 31. The bank provides loan guarantees to corporations exporting goods and services to foreign countries.

The AFL-CIO, Machinists (IAM) Air Line Pilots (ALPA) and the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) are among the unions supporting the agreement, which also is supported by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers.

Earlier, some House Republicans backed by extreme conservative business groups—including the Club for Growth—pushed to cut the funding available to the Export-Import Bank, which would have put American exporters at a competitive disadvantage, as many of their counterparts are able to access such subsidized loans and guarantees through their own government’s agencies.

In 2011, financing from the Export-Import Bank helped 3,600 private companies support thousands of jobs across the country. Without the renewal, says AFL-CIO Deputy Chief of Staff Thea Lee, some companies could lose out on export opportunities, costing good jobs in both manufacturing and services.

House Minority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) says the agreement “will contribute to our economic recovery and lead to the hiring of more workers for middle-class jobs here at home.”

The U.S. aerospace industry is a major beneficiary of the bank’s mission and the agreement will require the Export-Import Bank to look more closely at the employment impact of its loans. Without its renewal, says Lee, the industry, which currently maintains a positive trade balance with the rest of the world, would be at a severe disadvantage. European and Chinese competitors would take advantage of this situation to benefit their own aerospace industries at the expense of U.S. manufacturers.

Hoyer says reauthorizing the agency is an important component of Make It In America, the House Democrats’ road map for:

creating jobs and boosting our economic competitiveness, which does so by investing in a strong manufacturing sector that builds and exports products around the world.

Last year, Lee told a House committee:

The ultimate goal of the Export-Import Bank is not just to make loans, but to support U.S. jobs through increased exports.

A vote on the House bill is expected Wednesday but it will be under suspension of the rules, a procedure that requires a two-thirds vote.

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Forum: Politics/News (Open) ~ General Message Board ]]> http://www.free-fire-zone.com/post?id=5838269 Thu, 10 May 2012 07:45:30 GMT http://www.free-fire-zone.com/post?id=5835293 Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani faces the death penalty in Iran because of his Christian beliefs and his refusal to embrace Islam. Now, the Iranian regime has decided to punish Pastor Youcef’s attorney for his work on human rights. Pastor Youcef’s attorney is about to face a lengthy prison term.

The ACLJ has been working with Pastor Youcef's attorney to secure his freedom. Now, with no legal representation in Iran, he is essentially facing the Iranian regime alone – no advocate to keep him alive and to keep the appeals process going.

The U.S. House of Representatives has unanimously passed a resolution calling for Pastor Youcef's release, and now we are asking the Senate to do the same. Join the call for his freedom; please sign our petition now.

Petition to Free Christian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani

To: The United States Senate

When Iranian officials demanded that Pastor Youcef recant his faith in Jesus Christ or die, he responded, “I cannot.” He has been illegally imprisoned and separated from his wife and two boys for nearly 1,000 days now. Join the global call for his freedom; please unanimously pass the Senate resolution demanding his immediate release.

Forum: Politics/News (Open) ~ General Message Board ]]> http://www.free-fire-zone.com/post?id=5835293 Tue, 08 May 2012 13:08:14 GMT http://www.free-fire-zone.com/post?id=5831205

   In 2004 the Republicans told us that America wouldn't be safe if the Democrats won the White House.  They said this even though they were the ones who dropped the ball allowing 9/11 to happen.  Through Republican inability to lead, 3000 Americans died and over a million more in the two wars which followed.  These Republicans drove up the National debt so that they could enrich their friends.  Now, they want all of us to pay for that by giving up Medicare and Social Security.  This just goes to show how out of touch these Republicans are.
   The truth is that the Republicans did not keep us safe, they did not improve our economy or catch those responsible for 9/ll.  The truth is that these Republicans almost put us into another Great Depression while fighting two senseless wars and almost bankrupting the Country.
   The fact is that President Obama and the Democratic Party saved us from that Great Depression and from more terrorist attacks.  The fact is that where Mr. Bush failed to get Bin Laden, President Obama succeeded.  We can find many faults with the Obama presidency, but it is far better than the presidencies of Mr. Bush or Mr. Romney would ever be.  We are safer today, thanks to Barack Obama.

Forum: Politics/News (Open) ~ General Message Board ]]> http://www.free-fire-zone.com/post?id=5831205 Sat, 05 May 2012 02:44:44 GMT http://www.free-fire-zone.com/post?id=5824996

Forum: Politics/News (Open) ~ General Message Board ]]> http://www.free-fire-zone.com/post?id=5824996 Tue, 01 May 2012 11:19:15 GMT http://www.free-fire-zone.com/post?id=5824692 How did breast cancer survivor Lisa Lindsay end up behind bars? She didn't pay a medical bill -- one the Herrin, Ill., teaching assistant was told she didn't owe. "She got a $280 medical bill in error and was told she didn't have to pay it," The Associated Press reports. "But the bill was turned over to a collection agency, and eventually state troopers showed up at her home and took her to jail in handcuffs."

Although the U.S. Abolished debtors' prisons in the 1830s, more than a third of U.S. States allow the police to haul people in who don't pay all manner of debts, from bills for health care services to credit card and auto loans. In parts of Illinois, debt collectors commonly use publicly funded courts, sheriff's deputies, and country jails to pressure people who owe even small amounts to pay up, according to the AP.



Under the law, debtors are arrested for nonpayment, but rather for failing to respond to court hearings, pay legal fines, or otherwise showing "contempt of court" in connection with a creditor lawsuit. That loophole has lawmakers in the Illinois House of Representatives concerned enough to pass a bill in March that would make it illegal to send residents of the state to jail if they can't pay a debt. The measure awaits action in the senate.

"Creditors have been manipulating the court system to extract money from the unemployed, veterans, even seniors who rely solely on their benefits to get by each month," Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said last month in a statement voicing support for the legislation. "Too many people have been thrown in jail simply because they're too poor to pay their debts. We cannot allow these illegal abuses to continue."

Debt collectors typically avoid filing suit against debtors, a representative with the Illinois Collectors Association tells the AP. "A consumer that has been arrested or jailed can't pay a debt. We want to work with consumers to resolve issues," he said.

Yet Illinois isn't the only state where residents get locked up for owing money. A 2010 report by the American Civil Liberties Union that focused on only five states -- Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Washington -- found that people were being jailed at "increasingly alarming rates" over legal debts. Cases ranged from a woman who was arrested four separate times for failing to pay $251 in fines and court costs related to a fourth-degree misdemeanor conviction, to a mentally ill juvenile jailed by a judge over a previous conviction for stealing school supplies.

According to the ACLU: "The sad truth is that debtors' prisons are flourishing today, more than two decades after the Supreme Court prohibited imprisoning those who are too poor to pay their legal debts. In this era of shrinking budgets, state and local governments have turned aggressively to using the threat and reality of imprisonment to squeeze revenue out of the poorest defendants who appear in their courts."



Some states also apply "poverty penalties," including late fees, payment plan fees, and interest when people are unable to pay all their debts at once, according to a report by the New York University's Brennan Center for Justice. Alabama charges a 30 percent collection fee, for instance, while Florida allows private debt collectors to add a 40 percent surcharge on the original debt. Some Florida counties also use so-called collection courts, where debtors can be jailed but have no right to a public defender.

"Many states are imposing new and often onerous 'user fees' on individuals with criminal convictions," the authors of the Brennan Center report wrote. "Yet far from being easy money, these fees impose severe -- and often hidden -- costs on communities, taxpayers, and indigent people convicted of crimes. They create new paths to prison for those unable to pay their debts and make it harder to find employment and housing as well to meet child-support obligations."

Such practices, heightened in recent years by the effects of the recession, amount to criminalizing poverty, say critics in urging federal authorities to intervene. "More people are unemployed, more people are struggling financially, and more creditors are trying to get their debt paid," Madigan told the AP.

Forum: Politics/News (Open) ~ General Message Board ]]> http://www.free-fire-zone.com/post?id=5824692 Tue, 01 May 2012 03:03:45 GMT