Politics for the New Year
New York Times chart on the presidential candidates positions on health care, abortion, immigration, the environment, Iraq, and Iran:
http://politics.nytimes.com/election-guide/2008/issues/index.html?#/context=index/issue=health
I can't believe that Blackwater and other corporations function in Iraq without the rule of law, with only profit in mind, and whose employees' earnings outpace soldiers.
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/12/28/blackwater-wishes-yo.html
http://pol.moveon.org/contractors_accountable/
An editorial that breaks my heart:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/31/opinion/31mon1.html?em&ex=1199336400&en=c4b5414371631707&ei=5087%0A
The WGA strike:
This is all old-hat by now, and with Conan and Jay Leno crossing the proverbial picket line at this point, I'm not sure how things will go from here. I will say this, however. On blogs, I've noticed a lot of crew vs. writers sentiment, particularly at the point that staffs were being fired from shows and with Letterman paying his crew for some time during that period. I've also noticed that people feel torn between the two sides: writers deserve the profits of their labor but the other staff is losing their homes, savings, etc with no tangible benefit. So I want to hop onto my old hobby horse at last and say that this is the whole problem with guilds and trade unions to begin with. When you organize by trade instead of by industry, you pit workers against each other, instead of against the corporation they deal with. Too many workers, the least paid, aren't in the unions in the first place. They're losing wages without a support network and without the prospect of improving their own lot through the strike. Moreover, each union has only its own gains to make, at the expense of the workers in other unions. When you organize by industry, it's in crew workers' direct interests to support the strike--they're part of it and have their own gains to make. We shouldn't have to choose between various workers. This whole battle was largely lost in the postwar with repressive federal labor law and anti-communist purges from unions. Moreover, unionizing as a whole has faltered in its failure to unionize white collar work and the service industries. Nonetheless, that doesn't make me any less sad about the problems that trade union organizing has created.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congress_of_Industrial_Organizations
http://www.amazon.com/State-Union-American-Politics-Twentieth/dp/0691116547/ref=pd_bbs_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199204760&sr=8-5
Depressed yet? Worst of all, I can't figure out how to make links on blogger. I am an idiot. How do you make links? My link tool never works! Argh. Anyway, pictures soon!
http://politics.nytimes.com/election-guide/2008/issues/index.html?#/context=index/issue=health
I can't believe that Blackwater and other corporations function in Iraq without the rule of law, with only profit in mind, and whose employees' earnings outpace soldiers.
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/12/28/blackwater-wishes-yo.html
http://pol.moveon.org/contractors_accountable/
An editorial that breaks my heart:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/31/opinion/31mon1.html?em&ex=1199336400&en=c4b5414371631707&ei=5087%0A
The WGA strike:
This is all old-hat by now, and with Conan and Jay Leno crossing the proverbial picket line at this point, I'm not sure how things will go from here. I will say this, however. On blogs, I've noticed a lot of crew vs. writers sentiment, particularly at the point that staffs were being fired from shows and with Letterman paying his crew for some time during that period. I've also noticed that people feel torn between the two sides: writers deserve the profits of their labor but the other staff is losing their homes, savings, etc with no tangible benefit. So I want to hop onto my old hobby horse at last and say that this is the whole problem with guilds and trade unions to begin with. When you organize by trade instead of by industry, you pit workers against each other, instead of against the corporation they deal with. Too many workers, the least paid, aren't in the unions in the first place. They're losing wages without a support network and without the prospect of improving their own lot through the strike. Moreover, each union has only its own gains to make, at the expense of the workers in other unions. When you organize by industry, it's in crew workers' direct interests to support the strike--they're part of it and have their own gains to make. We shouldn't have to choose between various workers. This whole battle was largely lost in the postwar with repressive federal labor law and anti-communist purges from unions. Moreover, unionizing as a whole has faltered in its failure to unionize white collar work and the service industries. Nonetheless, that doesn't make me any less sad about the problems that trade union organizing has created.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congress_of_Industrial_Organizations
http://www.amazon.com/State-Union-American-Politics-Twentieth/dp/0691116547/ref=pd_bbs_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199204760&sr=8-5
Depressed yet? Worst of all, I can't figure out how to make links on blogger. I am an idiot. How do you make links? My link tool never works! Argh. Anyway, pictures soon!
posted by ant at 7:55 AM
1 Comments:
*Rachel Comment*
Thanks for that breakdown of the candidates. With all the mud and junk it's nice to see an orderly chart of platforms.
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