Bullying

This is 11 year old Joseph Walker-Hoover, of Springfield, MA


In January, a 15-year-old girl from South Hadley, Massachusetts hung herself after being tormented for months by bullies. Phoebe Price was a recent Irish immigrant, and was apparently welcomed to the freedom loving USA, by a bunch of kids determined to torture her, in person, and anonymously in cyberspace. Incidents took place at the school she attended – things were thrown at her, etc. No adults at the school intervened.

An 11-year-old boy from Springfield, MA hung himself after being bullied by boys calling him gay. Last year in Mentor, Ohio, a bully in a classroom told another kid that he should go home and shoot himself, because no one would miss him. Seventeen-year-old Eric Mohat went home and did just that, after being bullied mercilessly at school. Eric was a smart, geeky kid, who was labeled as a “queer” and a “homo.” Apparently much of the bullying took place in a class taught by a coach – who didn’t intervene. None of the adults at the school did anything to protect this kid.

Last week in Concord, an intellectually challenged, 14 year old freshman boy was tattooed by a group of boys that had been bullying him. The bullies told the kid that they’d stop hassling him if he agreed to be tattooed, so they took him into the basement of one bully’s house, and tattooed a penis on his buttocks, along with some puerile commentary. One threatened to touch him with his own genitalia if the boy didn’t cooperate. The bullies were all 18 and over, and two apparently have white supremacist leanings.
These are not smart guys. The mother, at whose home this occurred, came home to find the detritus of ink stained paper towels. She was quoted in the Concord Monitor as saying that the victim willingly participated, in what she called a “hazing.” Sadly, the victim in this story went back to school and faced continued harassment, so his parents have chosen to remove him from school.

There wasn’t much bullying in the lily- white rural suburbs of my youth, but that was in the 60’s and 70’s. It was a different time, and a time of different technology. Hate speech wasn’t a regular feature on the radio or the TV news. Sometimes kids got into fights, but they usually ended pretty quickly, by either adult or peer intervention.

As adults, we forget what it’s like to be a kid in school. School, and what happens in school makes up most of a kid’s life. It feels as though it’s going to last forever. Many adults have the mistaken impression that if the bullied kid “fights back,” that will be the end of it. I’m not sure that was ever true outside of Hollywood. If a bullied kid fights back, the bully just gets a bigger group of kids to pile on. A successful bully is usually a very popular kid. Bullying is all about power over those perceived as weaker.
Common tactics include: physical violence, psychological/verbal abuse, taunts, name calling, spreading rumors, social ostracism, and sexual harassment – where a boy would be labeled as “gay” and a girl as a “slut.” A kid who is already bearing the burden of not being popular or remotely cool isn’t equipped to fight back against a group of bullies.

This is where adult intervention should be taking place. In each of the stories I mentioned, teachers, parents, and other adults failed. Not intervening in the bullying makes them complicit in the act.

There’s going to be a forum at Kennett High School about cyber bullying. The anonymity of the Internet is a fertile breeding ground for bullies. Bullies, are not, however, the fault of the Internet, of MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, chat, or text messages on cell phones. If we believe that guns don’t kill people – how can we blame technology for those who misuse it?

One thing kids really don’t understand is that putting stupid stuff on the internet can come back to haunt you later on. Pictures of you and your weapons on MySpace can lead to arrests. Pictures of you drunkenly flashing your boobs on Facebook can come back to haunt you when you apply for a job. Googling people is now standard operating procedure in many businesses. If you flashed those boobs as a minor, and people pass the pictures around, it can lead to child porn charges, and being forced to register as a sex offender. This is generally not perceived as an asset on college or job applications.

There’s another important aspect to the bullying conversation. We revere and reward bullies in our society. Bill O’Reilly is a verbal abuser, bully, and stalker – and he makes millions and has his own TV show. Rush Limbaugh is a famous bully – who makes even more millions and has a radio show. Anyone who stands in front of a woman’s health clinic is a bully. The teahaddis disrupting town hall meetings are bullies. Some of the people who write letters to the editor of this very newspaper are bullies. Refer to the list of bullying tactics, and you’ll be able to identify the offenders quite handily.

Adults must intervene when they witness bullying. Parents should supervise their children, and know as much as they can about what the kids are up to. A great deal of intolerance is being expressed rather loudly these days. We have no one but ourselves to blame if that is the message our kids receive, and act upon.


“Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one's own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.” John Fitzgerald Kennedy



© 2010 sbruce
This was published as an op-ed in the May 28, 2010 edition of the Conway Daily Sun

No Help for the Long Term Unemployed

Originally posted at Main St/workingamerica.org/blog


No help coming for the long term unemployed. If you've maxed out your 99 weeks, and are still unemployed - tough luck.

This week Congress will consider legislation to reauthorize extended unemployment benefits for the rest of the year. It's going to be an epic fight: Republicans in the Senate will likely do everything they can to stand in the way of a bill projected to add $123 billion to the deficit, forcing Dem leadership to round up a supermajority for a last-minute Friday vote before Congress adjourns for its Memorial Day recess.

Too bad the jobs crisis, in a big way, has already left this bill in the dust. Hundreds of thousands of people have exhausted their extended unemployment benefits. In some states, laid-off workers can receive checks for 99 weeks -- and that's all they're going to get. This bill isn't for the "99ers" and there's no proposal on deck to give them additional weeks of benefits.

"What's frustrating is that our government doesn't seem to think this is an important issue," said Christy Blake, a 35-year-old mother of two in Fruitland, Md. "We didn't put ourselves here. It wasn't our choice. I have been diligently looking for work."

Finding work is even tougher if you're over 50.

But - not everyone agrees. US Senator Judd Gregg thinks we should cut off unemployment benefits right now:



Senator Gregg (R-NH) is a multimillionaire, and has spent most of his life holding public office, which means he has taxpayer funded health insurance. Senator Gregg won over $850,000 in Powerball lottery in 2005.

What Senator Gregg knows about the realities facing working families could be neatly engraved upon the head of a common pin.


Take action to keep what help we can flowing to jobless workers and stimulating our economy.

States Raising Taxes to Fill Budget Deficits

Cross posted at Main St/workingamerica.org


As we've been saying, the recession is taking a toll on state governments, most of whom have some serious budget deficits to cover. States have been closing down branch libraries, laying off employees, initiating furlough days; anything to save some money. The combination of decreased revenue and federal aid is putting most states in a terrible bind.

Some states are going for the last resort. They're actually raising taxes:

Wisconsin, like many states, turned mainly to wealthier residents and businesses. The big-ticket item was a new top personal income tax bracket, which Gov. Jim Doyle said "wasn't even that hard a call."

"We were in a terrible spot, and the alternative was cut schools, universities and do long-term damage," Doyle said. "So if you're making over $300,000 in this economy, you can help out a little bit."

and

In New York, the eye-popping change was a new top rate expected to generate $3.9 billion in income taxes in 2010. Among dozens of changes, the state made limousine rides subject to a sales tax ($25.6 million) and expanded bottle deposits to water and flavored water ($115 million).

A 1-cent sales tax bump in California could bring in $4.5 billion.

This week, Arizona's Governor Jan Brewer signed a bill increasing the sales tax by one cent, in order to help ward off cuts to education and other services. She even did this in an election year:

Here, the sales tax increase, a temporary rise to 6.6 cents per dollar for the next three years, is expected to raise nearly $1 billion in the first year, two-thirds of which will go to education. It won approval by 64 percent of voters, though only a third of eligible voters turned out.

It does nothing to erase cuts already made, including the loss of all-day kindergarten, health care reductions for the poor, and the closing of several state parks and highway rest stops, precipitated by a 30 percent decline in revenue.

But Ms. Brewer, and a coalition of politically odd bedfellows, including the state teachers’ union, business groups and office holders from both major parties, sold it as a necessary evil to avoid teacher layoffs and cuts to public safety.

In Oklahoma the state Senate is looking at suspending a number of income tax credits that have been given to certain industries:

The bill approved by the Senate General Conference Committee on Appropriations targets 31 separate tax credits, including certain job creating investments that cost the state an estimated $14.2 million annually.

Three separate tax credits for aerospace employers total more than $3.5 million. Other tax credits were for the purchase and production of coal, investments in agricultural processing facilities and the construction of energy-efficient homes.

Rather than eliminate the tax credits entirely, the bill proposes a moratorium from July 2010 through June 2012.

That taxes are being raised in an election year shows how dire the economic situation really is.

The Impact of the Oil Spill Begins to Register

cross posted at Main St/workingamerica.org/blog


The fishing ban in the Gulf of Mexico has been expanded:

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration greatly expanded the fishing ban in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday in response to spreading oil from the BP well blowout. The prohibited area now covers 19 percent of the gulf, nearly double what it was, according to the agency.

the impact of the spill is beginning to kick in:

Officials are already seeing some impact on fish and wildlife in the region. Rowan W. Gould, the acting director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, said 156 sea turtle fatalities had been recorded in the gulf since April 30, about 100 more than usual at this time of year.

Mr. Gould also said that a small number of oily birds, 35, had been recovered, including 23 dead birds directly linked to the spill.

“It’s important to note that the visibly oiled birds are a small part” of the effects of the oil spill, Dr. Gould said in a teleconference on Tuesday.

“What concerns us most is what we can’t see,” he said, adding, “We are preparing for the likelihood that it will exist in the gulf ecosystem in years to come.”

The economic impact is already being felt along the coast. In Pensacola, FL:

The spill has scared off charter fishing customers at the marina here, even though the water they'd normally trawl is still open. The 30 boats were almost all tied to their slips Tuesday and Jerry Andrews, the captain of the Entertainer, had the dock to himself.
"Usually you'd see 15 or 20 people walking up and down out here asking about the fishing. Three-fourths of these slips would be empty," said Andrews, a Pensacola native who has been fishing here for 34 years.

and

Andrews said before the spill he was getting between 30 and 40 calls and e-mails a day asking about chartering his boat and his customers were catching their full quotas of vermilion snapper, triggerfish, amberjack and grouper.
But in the month since the spill, he gets hired for one or two trips a week, tops. Most of his customers, who come from Alabama and Georgia, are now going to the Carolinas.

In Louisiana many of the fishermen hired by BP to help try to contain the spill are getting frustrated:

Louisiana fishermen, thrown out of work by the massive oil spill that has closed coastal waters, are jockeying for jobs to contain the mess. But just who gets those jobs is a source of mounting tension. Some workers are getting paid to go out on the water multiple days in a row, while others aren't allowed to go out at all, according to some fishermen.

They said that BP, which had promised to pay each fisherman $5,000 a month for compensation, is dallying on handing out checks. And they said that men who haven't fished in years are getting paid to work on prevention teams, even though they're not affected by the oil spill.

"It's all about who you know," said fisherman Oliver Rudesill, who was sitting in the shade beside the St. Bernard Parish home of a friend on Sunday. He has not earned a cent since the spill started, he said, while others are making hundreds of dollars a day.

His friend, David Palmer, a 33-year old fisherman with three kids, has been told his turn won't come until June. "It's so messed up it's not even funny," said Palmer, whose home sits on pylons to avoid the swampy grasses. "A person can't wait 30 to 40 days to go work."

No one can say with any certainty how this disaster will impact the gulf coast. The long term impact could be devastating:

If the oil penetrates deep within the estuaries around the Mississippi delta, it could devastate the salt marshes and bays that support as much as 90 percent of commercially fished species in the Gulf. That would spell long-term disaster for Louisiana's $1.8 billion fishing industry, not to mention the other Gulf Coast states.

"You have to question what is going to come from this," said David Wyld, a professor of management at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond. "Not just during the next few months, but also during the next few years and even a decade out."

On top of it all, there's the economic ripple effect. No fishing means fewer people chartering boats, and closed beaches lead to abandoned vacation plans and cancelled hotel bookings. All of that may only deepen the future economic misery for Gulf Coast residents to the tune of billions of dollars in lost revenue.

All the more reason to push for more job creation and more economic stimulus money to help states that have been hard hit, and aid the unemployed.

Deepwater Horizon Disaster

Woody Guthrie said:
"A folk song is what's wrong and how to fix it or it could be
who's hungry and where their mouth is or
who's out of work and where the job is or
who's broke and where the money is or
who's carrying a gun and where the peace is."

Woody would be proud of Beverly Woods and her partner Seth Austin, who are continuing the noble tradition of folk singers and songs.

We Are Who We Take Money From, Part 2

In Part 1 I took a look at the wisdom of having Wal-Mart as a sponsor of a NHDP event. It turns out that the same event was also sponsored by GE, The Genesee & Wyoming RR, Unitl, and Fidelity Investments aka FMR.

General Electric/GE is one of the top manufacturers of nuclear weapons. They also build nuclear power plants, and are one of the leading suppliers of depleted uranium, which is being used in Iraq and Afghanistan. GE is currently engaged in a court battle. They're challenging the Federal Superfund law. It seems that being forced to clean up their messes (and they've needed to be forced on numerous occasions) is hurting their stock prices. I'm ashamed that my party (I'm still a registered Democrat...for now) is taking money from this evil corporation.

The Genesee & Wyoming Railroad is actually a conglomerate of a bunch of small railroads with lines in Canada, Australia, Bolivia, Mexico, the Netherlands, and the US. The CEO is John Hellmann, who used to be an investment banker with Lehman Bros. He worked for Weyerhauser Corp. in Japan and China. I didn't find anything sinister - but I may not have dug deep enough.

Unitl is a utility company. In NH, they recently decided they'd like to raise their rates. The rate increase for residential customers would be 9%. Unitl is asking for this increase because their revenue is down, due to customer conservation.

Fidelity Investments/FMR - are #2 in political campaign contributions from the security and investments sector. They are second only to Goldman Sachs.

As it happens, the NHDP is now sharing their funding sources with GOP candidates. Senate candidate Bill Binnie has received $4,800 from Wal-Mart so far, and Ovide Lamontagne has received $2,500 from FMR.

I'm aware that times are tough - but sharing donors with the other guys leads cynical folks to reiterate the view that there isn't a dime's bit of difference between the two parties. We can't take the moral high ground if we're feeding from the same corporate trough.

cross-posted at Blue Hampshire.

Taking the Recession out on Women

The recession continues. We hear peppy commentary from economists about how things are turning around, but what they really mean is that things are getting better on Wall St. The mainstream media sanitizes the news for our protection, which led to a rather incredible recent story in the NY Times, telling us that a “strong” 290,000 jobs were added to the economy, even though the unemployment rate rose to 9.9%. In this story, an economist stated that this is a sign that momentum is up. Momentum and the unemployment rate, apparently, are up. The way we count the numbers of unemployed is fatally flawed, since we only count people who are eligible for unemployment benefits. Those who were never eligible, or whose benefits have run out are not counted. We don’t hear much about the fate of the long term unemployed, and with good reason. The news for them is terrible, especially for folks over 50. These folks have a better chance of getting hit by lightening than finding work.

As we all know, the recession is affecting state budgets. Every state is experiencing budget shortfalls, and every state is faced with making cuts to services. Some states are doing better than others. You’d never know it from the NH GOP media, but NH is actually doing better than many other states, probably because we don’t provide much in the way of services to begin with. Our unemployment rate is relatively high at 7%, but we aren’t facing the kind of devastating budgetary shortfalls being seen in other states.

Oklahoma is looking at a budget shortfall of up to $864 million. About 15% of their general fund isn’t going to appear in the form of revenues. Firefighters and police in Oklahoma City are facing layoffs or pay and benefit cuts. A state run substance abuse treatment center in Norman is closing, and laying off 100 people. A men’s treatment center in Talequah is being closed. In Norman, 40 mental health treatment beds for children are being eliminated. The substance abuse treatment and mental health services for adults and children are being cut mercilessly. The folks who work in treatment estimate that 90% of kids who need treatment in Oklahoma don’t receive it. More layoffs of state workers are projected.

In Oklahoma, when the going gets tough, the legislature responds by making things tougher. For women, that is. Oklahoma recently passed two new and restrictive abortion laws. One new law requires every woman to have a sonogram prior to an abortion. In the early weeks of a pregnancy, this may well mean a vaginal ultrasound – where a wand is inserted into the vagina. There are no exceptions for victims of rape or incest. The doctor must turn the screen to the woman, and describe the fetus. So far, the law doesn’t force the woman to look at the sonogram, but that’s likely to be next, since they have no qualms about re-raping a rape victim. The second law prohibits women from suing doctors who withhold or give incorrect information about a pregnancy. This gives doctors the legal right to lie to their patients. That’s a real triumph. To his credit, Governor Brad Henry vetoed both of these bills, but in both cases his veto was overridden by the legislature.

At a time when Oklahoma’s budget is in such dire straits, it is indeed curious that the legislature would respond by passing two laws that are guaranteed to cost the state a fortune in lawsuits. A state that is cutting services to kids that are already here is trying to force women to give birth, through torture and dishonesty.



Nebraska is reacting to their budget crisis in much the same way. Nebraska’s state revenues are expected to be down by $56 million in this fiscal year, and by $670 million next year. In November the legislature closed a $334 million budget gap by making cuts to state agencies. There were 50 positions eliminated at the Beatrice State Development Center, an institution serving adults and children who have mental retardation. The cuts come primarily to staff in food service, maintenance, and housekeeping. One can easily imagine how that is likely to play out.

Nebraska has privatized child welfare services, which also includes juvenile justice. One of the providing agencies has already dropped out, due to inadequate reimbursement by the state.

Last month, Governor Dave Heineman signed a law that bans abortions 20 weeks after conception. The basis for this time frame is the theory that by that stage in development, a fetus can feel pain. The reality is a little less theoretical. After the murder of Dr. George Tiller in Kansas, one of the few doctors in the country who performed late term abortions, Nebraska is afraid of becoming the new “late term abortion capital of the Midwest.” Dr. LeRoy Carhart of Nebraska was a friend of Tillers, and also performs late term abortions. The law does grant exceptions in cases of the mother’s imminent death, or serious risk of “substantial and irrevocable physical impairment of a body function.” At the same time, Heineman signed another bill that would require doctors to screen women to determine if they’re being pressured into having abortions, or if the woman is at risk of having mental or physical problems after an abortion. The risks could be “physical, psychological, emotional, demographic, or situational,” according to the bill. In other words – whatever any given doctor dreams up to force the woman to incubate.

Again – at a time of budget crisis, passing laws guaranteed to create years of legal challenges seems bizarre at best, especially when services for children who are already here are being cut. At the same time, Heineman opposes taxpayer funded pre-natal services to low-income women who are in the country illegally. Some of these women are choosing to abort – but that hasn’t changed Heieneman’s position. It seems his concern is limited to potential white babies.


“Strip today’s Kansans of their job security, and they head out to become registered Republicans. Push them off their land, and the next thing you know, they’re protesting in front of abortion clinics. Squander their life savings on manicures for the CEO, and there’s a good chance they’ll join the John Birch Society. But ask them about the remedies their ancestors proposed (unions, antitrust, public ownership), and you might as well be referring to the days when knighthood was in flower.” from “What’s the Matter With Kansas,” by Thomas Franks.


© sbruce 2010 This was published as an op-ed in the May 14, 2010 Conway Daily Sun

Odds and Ends

The FCC is considering a plan that would require wireless companies to let customers know when they are running up a bill that would go over their monthly limit for roaming charges or data use.

The initiative, outlined on Tuesday by Joel Gurin, chief of the F.C.C.’s Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, is intended to help consumers avoid what the commission calls “bill shock.”

The commission has received hundreds of complaints from consumers about receiving bills with unexpected charges, sometimes amounting to hundreds of dollars, Mr. Gurin said in a statement, adding that the charges are often caused by misunderstandings of contract terms.

Wireless carriers in Europe are required by law to send text messages to consumers when they are running up roaming charges or getting close to a set limit for data usage, Mr. Gurin said.

As someone who has experienced "bill shock," this seems like a good idea.
For more information about this plan, or to file a public comment on it, go to the FCC website.


And in other news:
Some lawmakers today are hearing about outdated standards that call for more men's bathrooms than women's bathrooms in federal buildings. Most federal buildings are at least 40 years old. Here's an excerpt from the testimony of Kathryn H. Anthony, a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign School of Architecture:

The problem is rooted in an era "where women were not as prevalent in the public realm and in the workforce as we are today," she'll say. "Until recently, most architects, contractors, engineers, building code officials, and clients were not concerned about this issue. They rarely contacted women about their restroom needs, women were rarely employed in these male-dominated professions, nor were they in a position to effect change."

With all of the huge problems Congress is facing, this may seem like a diversion, or a waste of time. It's a gender equality issue. It doesn't seem like a big deal to change these standards to reflect the changes that have taken place in the role of women in our workplaces and in our society.

Regulatory Agencies Fail

Originally posted at Main St./workingamerica.org/blog


Why do we have ongoing problems with mines, oil spills, and problems with nuclear power plants? The sad, simple truth is that US regulatory agencies are failing us. From the NY Times:

Federal regulators warned offshore rig operators more than a decade ago that they needed to install backup systems to control the giant undersea valves known as blowout preventers, used to cut off the flow of oil from a well in an emergency.

The warnings were repeated in 2004 and 2009. Yet the Minerals Management Service, the Interior Department agency charged both with regulating the oil industry and collecting royalties from it, never took steps to address the issue comprehensively, relying instead on industry assurances that it was on top of the problem, a review of documents shows.

Relying on the oil industry to police itself is akin to relying on your five year old to voluntarily keep his hand out of the cookie jar.

Far from being reliable BP fought safety measures at every opportunity:

In a letter sent last year to the Department of the Interior, BP objected to what it called "extensive, prescriptive regulations" proposed in new rules to toughen safety standards. "We believe industry's current safety and environmental statistics demonstrate that the voluntary programs…continue to be very successful."

Mine safety regulations used to be tougher.

Before every shift worked in an underground coal mine, coal operators are supposed to check for safety problems. Violations are to be marked with a "danger" sign. No one is supposed to go to work until the violations are fixed.

At least that's what federal mine safety law has said since 1969, when Congress passed the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act.

But since 1992, that's not what the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration has required. That year, the first Bush administration weakened MSHA regulations, requiring mine safety checks to look for violations only if they posed an immediate hazard to miners.

A Congressional hearing on the April 5 explosion at the Upper Big Branch coal mine will be held later this month:

The U.S. House Education and Labor Committee will hold a hearing this month in Beckley, W.Va., to examine the April 5 explosion at Upper Big Branch coal mine that killed 29.

The committee, led by Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., will hear testimony from family members of the miners who died in the blast, the worst U.S. coal mining disaster in 40 years. The hearing is scheduled for May 24 at 9 a.m. at the Robert C. Byrd federal courthouse in Beckley, which is about an hour east of the mine in Montcoal.

The Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee held a hearing on the explosion last month in Washington, focusing on possible changes to mine safety laws and enforcement by the Mine Safety and Health Administration.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) is charged with enforcing regulations. Here's a particularly grim commentary:

A top federal mine safety official said Tuesday that existing laws and regulations have not been properly enforced but pledged that his agency will now use all its powers after the West Virginia mine disaster that killed 29 people.
Joe Main, the assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health, told a Senate committee that the Mine Safety and Health Administration will start using its power to immediately shut down mines engaging in unsafe behavior.
Main said the powers have existed for decades but were never used.

How many workers have died as a result?

The aging Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon, VT has been in the news over the last few months because of a radioactive tritium leak. Entergy, the owner of the plant first denied there were underground pipes at the plant. From the Times Argus:

House Speaker Shap Smith, D-Morristown, told reporters at the Statehouse Friday that this week's revelation that the facility does indeed have underground pipes containing radioactive tritium – a fact Yankee officials earlier denied – "threatens the level of trust that Vermonters have in Entergy to provide accurate information about anything."

"The representations made by Entergy were clearly wrong," Smith said. "They told us that there was no radioactive material flowing through those pipes … that was untrue."

Officials from Entergy Nuclear Vermont, the company that owns Vermont Yankee, told state and legislative officials on a number of occasions that those pipes did not carry irradiated water. That includes statements made by Entergy officials under oath to the Vermont Public Service Board.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) planned a private meeting with VT Yankee/Entergy officials, regarding NRC oversight of the plant. The private meeting didn't sit well with folks in VT and NH. NH has 5 communities in the 10 mile evacuation zone of the plant.

Thanks to the intervention of VT and NH legislators a public meeting was held:

Residents and local officials told the NRC during the evening session that the NRC was ineffective because there were few — if any — regulations to hold nuclear companies accountable.

Paul Blanch of West Hartford, Conn., a nuclear consultant and former industry whistleblower, said nuclear companies were taking advantage of the situation.

"Regulations are nonexistent or never enforced," said Blanch, who said that Vermont Yankee could have discharged "10,000 times" the tritium that it did and still not violate any NRC regulations.

People weren't impressed with the NRC as a regulatory agency, and they have every reason to feel that way. From
Beyond Nuclear:

A new report released today by Beyond Nuclear - Leak First, Fix Later: Uncontrolled and Unmonitored Radioactive Releases from Nuclear Power Plants - looks at the epidemic of reactors leaking tritium into groundwater. The report finds that the federal regulator – the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission - is ignoring its oversight and enforcement responsibilities at the nation’s increasingly leaky, uninspected and unmaintained nuclear power plants. The report shows that despite agency efforts initiated in 1979 to prevent uncontrolled radioactive releases to groundwater, the NRC is capitulating to an industry decision to take almost three more years before announcing an action plan.

Regulatory agencies must be forced to do their jobs. Paying for the ounce of prevention is cheaper, better for the environment, and it saves lives. We must also pass the The Protecting America's Workers Act.

Florida Mom Steals Library Books - Won't Give 'em Back

In Longwood, Florida an irate mother is censoring the local library.

Longwood parent Tina Harden was so disturbed by references to sex and drugs and foul language in the world of fictional teenager Jenny Humphrey that she is ignoring overdue notices and phone calls from her neighborhood library and its bill collector.

Harden refuses to return several books connected to the Gossip Girl series that detail Humphrey's life, even though she's had them since 2008.

"If I turn them in, they will be put back into circulation and they'll be available for more young girls to read," said the mother of three, who keeps the four books hidden in a closet. "Some material is inappropriate for minors."

Apparently her kids don't have access to television or the internet.

"If we denied access to this particular title, it would be censoring," said Jane Peterson, the county's library services manager.

That's not good enough for Harden, who said that as a taxpayer she should have a say in which books land on the libraries' shelves. "They're supposed to be public servants," she said.

The libraries have multiple copies of the novels in the series. If her library privileges hadn't been revoked, Harden said she would try to check them all out.

She owes about $85 in fines.

Ms. Harden believes that as a taxpayer she should have a say in what books are on the shelves of the library. Apparently she also feels she should be able to steal from the library.

I wonder how the other taxpayers of Longwood feel about Ms. Harden's vast sense of entitlement?

Another Take on the Latest Unemployment Numbers

Originally posted at Main St./workingamerica.org/blog


The new job numbers are in. From the NY Times:

The American economy added an unexpectedly strong 290,000 jobs in April, while the unemployment rate rose to 9.9 percent, the government said Friday.

“This is unambiguously a strong report for growth implications,” James O’Sullivan, chief economist at MF Global, said. “It adds to the evidence that the pickup in growth is leading to a clear-cut pickup in employment. It is very clear there has been a bounce here, and momentum has been up.”

Unambiguous? Momentum is going up, along with the unemployment rate? Sounds like double-talk to me.

Here,at least, the sugar coating wears off (bolded emphasis mine):

With revisions on Friday, April was the fourth consecutive month that the economy added workers (a revised 230,000 jobs were added in March, instead of 162,000), the job market still has a long way to go before it can be counted on to provide a base for a sustained economic recovery. More than 15.3 million were unemployed last month.

The report from the Dept. of Labor contains less spin:

In the week ending May 1, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 444,000, a decrease of 7,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 451,000. The 4-week moving average was 458,500, a decrease of 4,750 from the previous week's revised average of 463,250.
The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.6 percent for the week ending April 24, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate of 3.6 percent.
The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending April 24 was 4,594,000, a decrease of 59,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 4,653,000. The 4-week moving average was 4,649,000, an increase of 8,000 from the preceding week's revised average of 4,641,000.

The bottom line is, of course, that nothing much has changed, except that nearly 40 million people are now on food stamps, and the outlook for the long term unemployed is not good.

Shameful Ironies

Originally posted at Main St/workingamerica.org/blog



Some economists are telling us what we already know. It's going to take a long time to bring back all the lost jobs.

“It could take four years, if not longer,” for the job market to recover the more than 8 million jobs lost since the recession started in December 2007, Feroli said.

and

Feroli estimates payrolls expanded by 145,000 jobs in April, with about 85,000 coming from private employers. Many of the government hires will be temporary workers for the census, he said. His estimate compares with a median increase of 189,000 in a Bloomberg survey of economists.

The new employment numbers will be out tomorrow. Of course, whatever the numbers show, the fact remains that along the Gulf Coast, a whole lot people are newly unemployed, thanks to the oil leak from the oil rig that exploded. It's resulted in a terrible irony - the fisherman who have lost their livelihood because of the spill are now being recruited to for BP, the company who is responsible for this disaster:

Rowdy Schouest, a shrimper out of Cypremort Point, Louisiana, says fishermen need to beware of the fine print on those contracts.

"BP, they hire your boat, pay you so much to help with oil cleanup, then when you collect that first check, you're gonna sign away all your rights to sue them," said Schouest. "[The fishermen] are hurtin' so bad for the money, but they're not realizing that little bit of money's gonna end, and then it's over with. They're gonna sign the paperwork even though they don't even know how to read it, then when they can't go fishing five or ten years from now, they're gonna realize, 'Whoa, we messed up.'"

As of Tuesday, more than 30 class-action suits had been filed against BP, Halliburton, Transocean, and others involved in the disaster set off by the April 5 oil rig explosion. According to Alabama Attorney General Troy King, BP has been circulating settlement agreements of up to $5000 as a preemptive measure.

That's mighty big of BP - offering a settlement agreement of $5000 for ruining someone's business.

It seems that those agreements have been removed:

Darren Beaudo, a spokesman for BP, said the waiver requirement had been stripped out, and that ones already signed would not be enforced.

"BP will not enforce any waivers that have been signed in connection with this activity," he wrote in an e-mail.

Even so, Alabama Attorney General Troy King is warning folks to proceed with caution:

But King said late Sunday that he was still concerned that people would lose their right to sue by accepting settlements from BP of up to $5,000, as envisioned by the claim process BP has set up.

The attorney general said he is prohibited from giving legal advice to private citizens, but added that "people need to proceed with caution and understand the ramifications before signing something like that."

Shameful. Truly shameful.

Budget Cuts Mean Long Lines at the DMV

(originally posted at Main St/workingamerica.org)


In San Francisco it can take weeks to get an appointment at the DMV:

Because of the state’s budget deficit, the number of personnel hours to manage California’s car culture has been reduced, while the workload has remained steady or increased. This has led to a shortage of resources at popular and convenient D.M.V. branches like San Francisco’s.

The D.M.V. processed 29.7 million licenses and identification cards statewide in 2009, up nearly 400,000 from 2008. But during the same period, to save money, the state has furloughed D.M.V. employees and closed offices the first three Fridays of each month, said George Valverde, director of the state D.M.V. “We’re losing about 15 percent of our available hours.”

The new reality of fewer open hours and a greater workload means that some problems that were once resolved quickly can now languish.

and

Technology has brought some needed relief: most D.M.V. business can now be done online — 9.4 million transactions were done online last year, a record, with a 20 percent increase in the first quarter of 2010, according to D.M.V. records.

But Armando Botello, a D.M.V. spokesman, said there remained a “digital divide” affecting poorer Californians who lack Internet access. In addition, Mr. Botello said, “a lot of people wait until the last minute” to pay D.M.V. fees — a situation perhaps exacerbated by the recession — and do not leave enough time to receive a license or vehicle registration renewal by mail.

Those who show up without an appointment can expect to stand in line for hours.

In North Carolina:

You don't just "drop by" the Division of Motor Vehicles in New Hanover County anymore. A visit could take you anywhere from three hours to most of your day.

It's 6:30 a.m., and people are lining up outside the DMV, hours before it even opens.

Many states have implemented furlough days for state offices. In Wisconsin a creative measure has been added in to the mix:

Titling and registration services are offered by many third-party partners such as some police stations, grocery stores and financial institutions around the state and can be found at the WisDOT web site.

Long lines and delays are happening all over the country. In Nevada:

Malone says a DMV visit that used to take an hour could now take more than three. He says the best way to do business with the DMV is to visit its web site first.

One reason service is even slower in Nevada is implementation of the Real ID Act:
Faced with stiff public opposition, the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles has withdrawn a proposal to immediately require motorists to get a new type of driver's license. Instead, the DMV will give motorists the option of either continuing with their current licenses or obtaining a license that complies with the federal "Real ID" act.

The Real ID Act was passed in 2005, but proved to be so cumbersome and expensive to adopt, that an extension was granted. The extension expired on Dec. 31, 2009. Now some of the states that did not opt out (at least 15 states
have refused to implement REAL ID) are attempting to implement this costly and time consuming new license, at a time when they can ill afford to do so.

While DHS estimated that the implementation of REAL ID will cost states $3.9 billion, Congress has appropriated only $200 million for state implementation.

It seems that attending to DMV business online is the best way to go, if that's an option. (some states are lagging behind in technology) If you do have to go to the DMV, be sure to call ahead, especially if you live in a state that didn't opt out of REAL ID, to try to schedule an appointment and make sure you bring everything you need.

So Much for the Free Market

Public Service Company of NH (our state’s largest electric utility) is hoping to increase our electric rates. Their primary reason for this rate hike is that consumers have been using less electricity. Unitil Corp. is doing the same thing in the Seacoast area. They want a 9% increase, for the same reason. Remember those golden days of yesteryear when if you used less, you paid less? We should have realized those days were over when the phone company started tacking on a $3 monthly charge if you didn’t make enough long distance calls.

A biodiesel refinery in Nashua is awaiting IRS approval before finally beginning production. Batchelder Biodiesel Refineries is located in an old mill building near downtown Nashua. They will be turning “brown grease” from restaurants into biofuel. This means old fryolator oil will be turned into something useful, as opposed to going to the landfill. This is the kind of project we should be seeing more of. We have a vast, untapped, grease mine in our area.

The NRC finally had a public hearing about VT Yankee last week in Brattleboro. They were not welcomed with open arms. The general sentiment seemed to be that the NRC is an utter failure as an agency that is supposed to regulate nuclear power plants. This is true. They are. In the case of VT Yankee, the NRC seems to be trying hard to protect Entergy (the owner of the plant) and aid them in their ongoing attempts to keep leaks and their causes a secret. Entergy lied about having buried pipes at VT Yankee, but the buried pipe lie has also been used at the troubled Oyster Creek plant in NJ, and the Braidwood plant in Illinois.

The list of NRC failures is long. The folks at Beyond Nuclear have recently issued a report that documents 15 leaks from buried pipes at 13 different plants from March 2009 to April 2010. The report also shows that at least 102 reactors have had recurring radioactive leaks into the groundwater from 1963 to 2009. NH’s own Seabrook Station had a radioactive water leak (tritium) that was discovered in 1999. It was finally repaired in 2004. Seabrook Station has had other problems in the last decade. In 2005, we learned that the security fence surrounding the plant was inoperable. The perimeter intrusion detection system had not been correctly installed and was inoperable. The newly appointed Security Manager at the plant had no background in security, security guards (compensating for the lack of fence) worked excessive overtime, and the plant failed an NRC inspection and was declared inoperable, according to internal documents. As we all know, the plant was never shut down. Even though the plant failed the NRC inspection, and was declared inoperable – the NRC did not do the job of a regulatory agency, unless your idea of regulating means turning a blind eye to the situation and saying, “yeah, everything’s cool.” Florida Power and Light, a company that donates generously to NH campaigns, own Seabrook Station. They were one of former US Senator Bob Smith’s top 5 campaign donors, in fact. FPL also donated (albeit less generously) to Judd Gregg.

The reason we should all be concerned about the failure of the NRC as a regulatory agency is that Obama’s climate change/energy plan calls for the building of between 12 and 100 new nuclear power plants. Given the NRC’s already abysmal track record, we should be deeply concerned.

It is also interesting to note that the same forces that scream “socialism” at the slightest provocation have absolutely no problem with the socialist bailout of the nuke industry. Taxpayers subsidize the building of nuke plants, they subsidize the insurance of the plants, and the ratepayers/taxpayers subsidize the decommissioning and cleanup of the plants when they are finally retired. They also pay for the inflated cost of the power produced by these plants. The taxpayers do not see a return on this investment – since the profits go to the company and the shareholders. These same folks who are slavishly devoted to the free market don’t pay any attention to what that free market is telling them. The free market doesn’t support nuclear power. Until it does, the nuclear industry shouldn’t be getting socialist taxpayer bailouts.

"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." Frank Luntz , GOP slogan creator


This was published as an op-ed in the Conway Daily Sun April 30, 2010


© 2010 sbruce

Short Takes

The number of unemployment claims has fallen slightly.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 11,000 to a seasonally adjusted 448,000 in the week ended April 24, the Labor Department said.

Analysts polled by Reuters had expected claims to fall to 445,000 from the previously reported 456,000, which was modestly revised up to 459,000 in Thursday's report.

but

Though initial claims have resumed their downward trend interrupted by the Easter holiday, analysts worry the pace is too slow and underscores the fragility of private hiring.


Despite all of the manufactured controversy over the census, the Census Bureau reports the rate of returned forms is the same as in 2000, about 72%.

Beginning Saturday, 600,000 enumerators will go door-to-door to find the up to 48 million households that failed to respond.

A reminder of why the census is important: workingamberica.org/blog

Two Miners Missing in Kentucky. There was a collapse in the Webster County Coal Dokiti Mine:

Records show inspectors from the Kentucky Office of Mine Safety and Licensing have issued 31 orders to close sections of the mine or to shut down equipment because of safety violations since January 2009. Those records also show an additional 44 citations for safety violations that didn't result in closure orders.

This is why The Protecting America's Worker's Act pdf is crucial.


cross posted at Main St./workingamerica.org/blog

Program funds available to Prevent Homelessness

First posted at Working America's Blog


Some help available for those on the edge of eviction. From the NY TImes

He could no longer pay even the rent on his cramped studio apartment — not on his $10-an-hour part-time job as a fry cook at a fast food restaurant.

Faced with eviction, he was staring last month at the imminent prospect of joining the teeming ranks of the homeless. His last hope was a new $1.5 billion federal program aimed at preventing that fate.

and

Much like the Great Depression, when millions of previously working people came to rely on a new social safety net for their sustenance, a swelling group of formerly middle-class Americans like Mr. Moore, 30, is seeking government aid for the first time. Without help, say economists, many are at risk of slipping permanently into poverty, even as economic conditions improve.

The question is whether the modern-day safety net has enough money and the right initiatives to aid those who need it most. The answer could shape whether a considerable slice of the American population will recover from the trauma of recent years, and how long that will take.

more

“Nationally, homelessness has now reached crisis proportions not seen since the Great Depression,” says Maria Foscarinis, executive director of the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty.

The severity of the situation prompted the Obama administration to create the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing program within the $787 billion economic stimulus package. The program rests on the assumption that intervention is the best course because once people become homeless, the odds and costs of regaining their lives escalate sharply.

One of the goals of this program is to help prevent even more people from losing their housing. The US has a higher level of homelessness right now than we had during the Great Depression. The funds are administered federally through the HUD program, but each state seems to have a different system for distributing funds. Every state has a housing authority, and their websites are the best way to find out how the program works in your state.

More Job Losses Coming

First posted at Working America's Blog


A big round of teacher layoffs is coming. From the NY Times:

School districts around the country, forced to resort to drastic money-saving measures, are warning hundreds of thousands of teachers that their jobs may be eliminated in June.

The districts have no choice, they say, because their usual sources of revenue — state money and local property taxes — have been hit hard by the recession. In addition, federal stimulus money earmarked for education has been mostly used up this year.

As a result, the 2010-11 school term is shaping up as one of the most austere in the last half century. In addition to teacher layoffs, districts are planning to close schools, cut programs, enlarge classes and shorten the school day, week or year to save money.

Arizona:

Tolleson Union High School District is laying off 207 employees, including 34 classroom teachers, to balance a budget hit by state funding cuts, climbing expenses and the March failure of a crucial budget override election.

That's nearly 19 percent of the district's workforce.

Iowa:

Dozens of Cedar Rapids School employees learned on Friday they will no longer be with the district.
The school board approved cutting 60 positions earlier this week, including 23 teachers.

Ohio:

The Cleveland school board appears ready to lay off more than 650 teachers union members.

Michegan:

The cash-strapped Flint school district will lay off 261 teachers at the end of the year.
The Flint Community Schools Board of Education approved the layoffs Wednesday night.

These cuts are also affecting state colleges and universities. In New Jersey:

Facing record deficits, Gov. Chris Christie has proposed cutting $173 million in state aid to universities, a nearly 8 percent reduction. New budget language released last week also included a surprise cap on tuition proposals, further squeezing the bottom lines at state colleges and universities.

The first battle will take place Wednesday afternoon in Trenton, during an Assembly budget hearing on the governor’s proposals. The stakes are high for the universities, which have endured cuts in state aid for seven of the past 10 years, according to union officials.
"Immediate effects include larger class sizes, fewer faculty hires, fewer class offerings, cutbacks in services and hours, and cutbacks in technology purchases and facilities renovations," the New Jersey Association of State Colleges and Universities said.

Georgia:

As universities across the nation face budget shortcuts, Georgia is trying to meet the demands of a $385 million budget cut from the state’s higher education budget.

Chancellor Erroll B. Davis, responsible for the 35 public colleges and universities in Georgia, says that in order to meet this budget cut, the colleges and universities would have to increase tuition by 77 percent. Chancellor Davis, along with other university presidents in the state of Georgia, is attempting to discuss specific budget cuts, rather than have the state House-Senate joint budget committee make budget cuts wherever they choose.

A survey of community college presidents finds that as unemployment rises, so does the enrollment at community colleges. At the same time, these schools are facing significant budget cuts.

It's all grim news on the education front. That's why the Local Jobs for America Act is so important.

The Continuing GOP Trivialization of Rape

On April 15, the NH GOP and the NH Tea Party (which are the same thing as far as I can tell) got together and had some anti-tax rallies around the state. These brave folks nobly protested having to pay taxes. Events took place at Market Square in Portsmouth, Victory Park in Manchester, the NH State House in Concord, and the town docks in Wolfeboro.

All of these locations have something in common - they're public! Paid for by the taxes the teabaggers were complaining about. Irony sticks her head in the oven, once again.

The Concord Monitor had a story about the various events. The CM quoted GOP gubernatorial candidate Jack Kimball:

In Concord, gubernatorial candidate Jack Kimball drew cheers with an anti-tax message. He decried the state's taxation of business while criticizing its relatively low level of services.

"I don't mind paying my fair share, folks," he said. "I don't think any of us do. But I do mind when I'm raped. It's awful."

Rape is a serious, violent crime. For an aspiring politician to trivialize this crime to score cheap political points is offensive. I hope that Mr. Kimball never encounters a stranger who puts a gun to his head and rapes him. I hope that he's never beaten up and gang raped by a group of men. I'm certain that Mr. Kimball wouldn't be so damn cavalier about the crime of rape if he'd actually experienced it.

The CM got a lot of emails from readers about Mr. Kimball's statement - and so he felt compelled to go on the defense:

“I used the term ‘rape’ talking about taxation at the Tea Party in Concord. I think the Concord Monitor took the remark out of context and there has been a lot of negative reaction. People that know me know that I don’t say things to purposefully hurt people.
“I want to apologize to anyone that is offended. My remark was clearly not intended to offend people. People should watch the video and see what actually happened. I’m sorry to those that were offended, I will choose my words better next time.”

GIven that he admits to using the term rape to describe taxation, it's hard to imagine how the paper took his remarks out of context. This is the thing - we have free speech. When we engage in public speech - we may be held accountable for what we say. This is when we have to take personal responsibility (an anathema to the GOP) when we employ that free speech.

All Jack Kimball had to say was, "Hey, I made a poor choice of words, and I certainly didn't intend to trivialize a violent crime in order to score cheap political points" and I'd be congratulating him. Instead, he's blaming the Concord Monitor and offering up a forced and insincere apology.

The rape analogy is a common GOP rhetorical device.
Barack Obama and the Date Rape of America by David Kupelian. Grover Norquist referring to bipartisanship as date rape. Rush Limbaugh equating extramarital affairs to date rape.

Last year we had a number of GOP rape apologists who were in favor of the US doing business with military contractors that require employees to sign contracts saying that they can't sue the contractor in the event of being gang raped by their fellow employees. NH's own Judd Gregg was one of those men.

One in six women is raped during her lifetime. One in four women on college campuses. One in three women serving in the US military in Iraq is going to be raped by a fellow soldier. One in 33 men will be raped in his lifetime. This cheap hyperbolic device adopted by the right wing hate media and their acolytes is an insult to every single person who has ever survived the very serious CRIME of rape.

Hypocrisy - It's the New Black

The Drudge Report blew the dog whistle, and the right wing media leaped to attention. For days we’ve been hearing of how “half the people in the US don’t pay taxes” with accompanying shrieks and embellishments. Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, and Sean Hannity are all in a lather as they bellow about this, while trying to pretend that they represent the common man. Yep, they’re just like you – provided you make upwards of $20 million a year.

The story is misleading. Cable news is great for producing slogans, and abysmal at providing context. The story neglects to mention payroll taxes, state income taxes, or property tax. Very few are getting away without paying something. Some of the best tax cheats are found in Corporate America. The dog whistle brigade failed to mention that Exxon Mobil had ZERO US income tax liability in 2009. They had such massive profits that they paid out $15 billion in income taxes to other countries, but not a dime of that came to Uncle Sam. That’s the same kindly uncle who subsidizes them with US tax dollars. Rather than pay the freight here at home, they choose to use offshore tax dodges in the Cayman Islands.

Exxon Mobil will have to cough up $32 million for underpaying royalties on natural gas produced from federal and Indian leases, from 1988-1999. The company claims they didn’t do this intentionally. This puts them in the company of Shell, Unocal, Texaco, and Chevron, all of whom had previously made settlements. It seems there’s a whole lot of unintentional going on in the land of Big Oil.

President Obama is talking about cutting $38 billion in subsidies for oil and coal out of the budget. Fossil fuels get a total of $70 billion in subsidies a year, with the lions share going to oil. This means that you and I are helping some of the wealthiest corporations in the word to get even wealthier. These same corporations use tax loopholes to avoid paying their fair share of US taxes. Our reward for this taxpayer largesse is available for discovery at your local gas station. That thank you note is inching up to $3 a gallon. Big Oil isn’t happy at the thought of losing part of the free ride gravy train, and has begun running ads calling this an “energy tax.” They’re earning record profits, but still have their hand out to Uncle Sam. You’d think the tea partiers would be shouting “socialism” from the rooftops, but you’d be wrong about that.

The whole tea party phenomenon would be hilarious, if there weren’t open racism, bigotry, and undercurrents of violence. Where were these tri-corner hats wearing patriots when George Bush was driving the US economy into the toilet? Driving up the deficit with war spending? Where were these protestors when Bush added a huge government agency – the Dept. of Homeland Security? These big gummint decriers didn’t utter a peep when Ole White George made big gummint even bigger. It’s even harder to take them seriously when you look at them. Many of the members of the mostly white crowds are obvious recipients of Social Security and Medicare.

There was a big tea party event in Boston this past Wednesday. David Abel of the Boston Globe wrote my favorite story about it. He spoke to a protestor who is an Air Force retiree, who is angry about the “move toward socialism.” Naturally he receives veteran’s benefits and health care. From the government. Abel quoted him as saying, “Where does it say in the Constitution that there’s a mandate for all Americans to have health care?’’ he said. “This bill will ravage the health care that I get.’’ Abel also wrote about Valerie and Rob Shirk, who drove up from Connecticut to this event. The Shirks brought along their 10 children, so that they could hear Sarah Palin speak about the evils of “government run health care.” Mrs. Shirk commented that the problem with this country is too many people looking for handouts. The Shirks get Medicaid for their 10 children. Yes, Medicaid, as in government subsidized health care. From David Abel’s story:

“When asked why her family used state-subsidized health care when she criticized people who take handouts, Valerie Shirk said she did not want to stop having children, and that her husband’s income was not enough to cover the family with private insurance.
“I know there’s a dichotomy because of what we get from the state,’’ she said. “But I just look at each of my children as a blessing.’’”

Once again, folks like the Shirks are all for getting their own government subsidized health care. They just don’t want anyone else to get anything. Valerie Shirk doesn’t see anything wrong with asking taxpayers to pony up to pay for her need to overpopulate. She doesn’t see herself as “asking for a handout” or somehow shirking her responsibility. As is the case for so many of these newfound patriots, it’s okay when they do it.

In other words: socialism is okay when it comes to Big Oil. The rest of the time, the dog whistler media will use the term incorrectly. Handouts are bad, except when they go to tea partiers.

Hypocrisy. It’s the new black.



© sbruce 2010 This was published as an op-ed in the Conway Daily Sun on April 16, 2010.

h/t to David Abel of the Boston Globe.

h/t to Joel Pett, the terrific cartoonist for the Lexington-Herald Leader in KY

Speaking of Taxes

Adam Weinstein at Mother Jones writes about corporate tax cheat Exxon Mobil:

So, good news and bad news. The good news is, oil megacorporation ExxonMobil had such a profitable year in 2009, it contributed $15 billion to the world's tax coffers.

The bad news: Not a cent of that went to the IRS.

Oh dear.

By contrast, the nation's largest corporation, Wal-Mart, paid $7.1 billion globally in taxes, and the lion's share of it—$5.9 billion, or 83 percent—went to the US government.

How do they do this? From Forbes:

Exxon tries to limit the tax pain with the help of 20 wholly owned subsidiaries domiciled in the Bahamas, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands that (legally) shelter the cash flow from operations in the likes of Angola, Azerbaijan and Abu Dhabi. Exxon has tens of billions in earnings permanently reinvested overseas.

Exxon spokespeople did contact Weinstein to tell him that they expected to have significant US federal income tax liability for 2009, but that they did not intend to disclose what that amount would be.

Meanwhile, President Obama wants to remove some $38 billion in subsidies to Big Oil and Big Coal. From Treehugger:

I know, it seems like a no-brainer--and it should be. Why, exactly, do we need to be spending billions of dollars a year to help the biggest companies in the world make billions of dollars? And yes, as reductive as that statement appears, that is precisely what's going on. Taxpayer money goes toward giving oil companies tax breaks, deductions for drilling, and other expenses--even though companies like Exxon have posted record earnings in the last couple years.

The removal of these taxpayer subsidies is being portrayed by the fossil fuels lobby as an "energy tax."

To summarize: Companies like Exxon Mobil are weaseling out of paying US taxes, by using offshore tax dodges. We the taxpayers are subsidizing their labors, while they earn record profits. I saw the their thank you note yesterday at the gas station - it read "$2.86 per gallon."


cross posted at Main St/workingamerica.org/blog

It's National Library Week

National Library Week is being observed this year from April 11-17. National Library Week was first observed in 1958, and has since become the traditional week to celebrate all libraries, whether they be public, academic, or special collections. The theme this year is: Communities Thrive @ Your Library. The American Library Association (ALA) points out that libraries are at the heart of their communities.

Sadly, in many communities, the heart is being shut down. Communities around the country are facing difficult budget decisions, and in many cases, libraries are being closed down, or their budgets cut. This comes at a time when library use has greatly increased. Folks are looking for how-to books, using the internet services, or taking out books, puzzles, CDs, and movies.

Paul LeClerc, President of the New York City Public Library writes about how the proposed $33 million budget cut will affect libraries in New York City:

* 6 million fewer visits made to NYPL libraries next year - 1 million fewer by children and young people

* 5 million fewer items circulated - 1.7 million to children

* $9 million less with which to purchase books and other materials

* 1.5 million fewer computer sessions

* 17,000 fewer programs and classes, serving 500,000 fewer people

* tens of thousands fewer people helped with job searches, tax preparation, retirement planning, voter registration, and starting a business

What would also be lost with a $33 million cut is hope to the economically disadvantaged, inspiration to the new immigrant, and a safe and nurturing place for those in need. Most importantly, libraries provide an essential tool - knowledge - to everyone who enters, regardless of race, creed, or ethnicity.

Boston is likely to close 4 branch libraries. In Florida the state legislature is considering ending state aid to libraries.
In Phoenix the library is facing a 21.4 % budget cut, which would mean that 6 out of 15 branches would close.

These are difficult and painful decisions being made in communities. Getting involved can make a difference. In Charlotte, NC the library board voted to keep their libraries open:

- The Mecklenburg County Library Board of Trustees voted Wednesday to cut salaries and lay off 84 people instead of closing 12 library branches.

The board discussed three options at a special meeting Wednesday to make up a $2 million budget shortfall.

One option included closing 12 of the county's 24 libraries. The board decided last week that would be the best option, but public outcry forced the board to reconsider.

"The community response to the library's plight has been nothing short of overwhelming," said library director Charles Brown.

"The people have spoken and clearly and loudly they have said the library is a very valued institution," said board member Robin Bransterom.

Clearly this came at a cost, but it does keep all of the libraries open, and it shows that library users can have a real impact on these decisions in their communities. This blog post has been making the rounds in my state, and serves as a gentle reminder of why libraries are so important:

Libraries aren't just about book lending. They are the heart of most communities. They are the one place in any community that you can go all year, rain or shine, rich or penniless. They are the one place in communities that provide fair and equal access. They don't discriminate. They don't judge. They give over and over and over.

And now is when they are needed most desperately. Now is when they provide the most valuable services. Now is when, even if a state or county is so far in the red they feel they'll never get out, now is when libraries should be getting the green light to extend their hours, not have them taken away. Without libraries, the economic divide in our communities grows even wider. Please. If the library in your community is in danger, speak up. If you can help any library that's in trouble, please do it. This is about kids, babies, new moms and dads, unemployed parents, a lonely retired person who needs weekly or daily interaction and reading material to get them through the week. It's about keeping communities intact. Your community. My community. It matters.

To learn more about how to help, the folks at Save Libraries.org are working to help folks from around the country to coordinate and share information.


cross posted at Main St/workingamerica.org/blog

Fighting Unemployment Claims - a Booming Business

One relatively new industry is booming, even in this economy. Talx helps Fortune 500 companies fight unemployment claims.

Talx, which emerged from obscurity over the last eight years, says it handles more than 30 percent of the nation’s requests for jobless benefits. Pledging to save employers money in part by contesting claims, Talx helps them decide which applications to resist and how to mount effective appeals.

The work has made Talx a boom business in a bust economy, but critics say the company has undermined a crucial safety net. Officials in a number of states have called Talx a chronic source of error and delay. Advocates for the unemployed say the company seeks to keep jobless workers from collecting benefits.

That's the point, of course. The fewer claims a company is paying, the lower their unemployment tax is. The goal is to make the process of fighting for unemployment onerous enough that the person gives up, thereby saving the company money. The Fortune 500 company. Companies like Wal-Mart:

Advocates for the unemployed cite cases like that of Gerald Grenier, 47, who spent four years as a night janitor at a New Hampshire Wal-Mart and was fired for pocketing several dollars in coins from a vending machine. Mr. Grenier, who is mentally disabled, told Wal-Mart he forgot to turn in the change. Talx, representing Wal-Mart, accused him of misconduct and fought his unemployment claim.

After Mr. Grenier waited three months for a hearing, Wal-Mart did not appear. A Talx agent joined by phone, then seemingly hung up as Mr. Grenier testified. The hearing officer redialed and left an unanswered message on the agent’s voice mail. The officer called Mr. Grenier “completely credible” and granted him benefits.

Talx appealed, claiming that the officer had denied the agent’s request to let Wal-Mart testify by phone. (A recording of the hearing contains no such request.) Mr. Grenier won the appeal, but by then he had lost his apartment and moved in with his sister.

During times of economic peril, there are always those who profit from the misery of others.

cross posted at Main St./workingamerica.org blog

Updates and Accountability

Town meeting has taken place in those NH towns that still use it. Some of the SB-2 towns still have not concluded their governing process. Conway will have voting on April 13, from 8 am to 7 pm, at the Community Center. By now, we’re all familiar with the warrant article that an ideologue from Windham (by way of Massachusetts) managed to get placed on the warrants of some NH towns. This article asked voters to approve a resolution that would be sent to State Reps, Senators, the Speaker of the NH House, and the Senate President, urging them to support a constitutional amendment that would allow us to vote on the definition of marriage.

We’ve all read that the ideologues claim some sort of victory, because the resolution did pass in some towns. What they haven’t done is tell the whole story – because the whole story robs them of victory.

According to the good folks at Granite State Progress, there are 221 towns in NH that allow petitioned warrant articles. The folks at Let NH Vote tried to get petitions for articles in all of these towns. They were unable to find even 25 people to sign this petition in 73 towns. This also excluded NH’s 13 cities. So, 86 towns (37%) did not even discuss this.

Of the 148 towns that do allow petitioned warrant articles, 139 towns have dealt with it. There are 9 more towns (including Conway) that will be voting on it in April. So far, 33 towns refused to vote on it, thereby killing the petition. And 47 refused to vote on it, by tabling or amending the language to kill the petition. In other words, 80 communities have rejected the vote to discriminate, and 59 communities passed it. This is a far cry from the victory claimed by Let NH Vote. Of course, LNV claimed to be concerned with “letting the people vote” and not bigotry, and they claimed to be a grassroots group, when in reality, they were a front group for the National Organization for Marriage (which is itself a front group for the Mormon Church) and the Cornerstone Policy Research Group, NH’s own religious right lobbying group.

The petition made it on to the warrant in Jackson. The petitioners asked for a secret ballot, which requires another petition, and at least 5 of the signers of the secret ballot petition must be present. It was the final (39th) article on our warrant, and only 4 of the 7 who signed the petition were present. Apparently sleep won out over bigotry. The secret ballot failed. A number of folks spoke against the article, and very few made the case for it. Certainly not the full 25 who signed the original petition. A few voices supported it. The majority voted against this odious business. As I pointed out at the time – this is not the business of our town. We gather at town meeting to determine how we allot our resources, and how we govern our town. We do not gather together to figure out whose rights to take away.

The ideologues claim that we should get to vote on this. They ignore the fact that we live in a representative democracy. They ignore history. From the very beginning, over half the population of this nation was denied the right to vote. The Constitution was never put to a popular vote, nor was the Bill of Rights. Nor was the decision to end slavery, or prohibitions against interracial marriage. I haven’t heard from anyone who is getting divorced because gay folks can get married. Despite all the language from the haters about “cheapening the institution of marriage” they aren’t getting divorced in droves. Rush Limbaugh is about to embark upon his 4th marriage, on July 4. If he hasn’t cheapened the institution, no one can.


In other news, VT Yankee has finally plugged up their tritium leak, which was coming from the underground pipes that Entergy claimed did not exist. On the heels of that announcement came another – that the plant is leaking Cesium-137, a far more radioactive substance. Initially the plant tried to suggest that the Cesium was from weapons testing in the 50’s and Chernobyl, but the VT Health Department disagreed, seeing as how the radioactive waste turned up 15 feet underground. Entergy plans to clean it up, along with the tritium. Entergy even announced their intent to become a leader in solving the ongoing problem of tritium leaks that plagues so many US nuke plants.

Meanwhile, in an effort to shore up support for the aging, leaky, nuclear power plant, the NRC announced that they’d be having a meeting to discuss VT Yankee. The meeting would not be in Vermont, nor would it be open to the public. It was scheduled to be in Keene, NH, and attendees would be invitation only. Thanks to the immediate intervention of folks like Congressman Paul Hodes and Senator Bernie Sanders, the NRC quickly reconsidered the plan to have a secret meeting. The new meeting date has not been announced, but the meeting will be open to the public.

Regular readers are familiar with the regular rants of Maynard Thomson, mostly aimed at me. During his brief time as a Sun columnist, Mr. Thomson sheathed his poison pen, but since he opted to spend more time with his family, he’s back to belittling my intelligence and my writing skills. Like Congressman Hodes and Senator Sanders, I believe in transparency, and the right to know. Readers should know that Mr. Thomson has sent me a few behind-the-scene epistles over the years. The most recent one came last spring. Thomson (who was an attorney before he began writing romance novels) threatened to sue me, if I didn’t apologize for something I’d written, and then suggested I meet him for coffee or a drink. Since it was his own regrettable lack of reading comprehension that predicated his threats of legal action, I encouraged him to bring it on. I know two other women who have received similar billet-doux. One accused a Jewish female friend of being anti-Semitic, and the other was a thinly veiled blackmail attempt (if you don’t do what I want, I’ll do this). To the best of my knowledge, he’s never sent anything of the sort to any of my male colleagues or letter to the editor writing friends. My reply to Thomson was posted on my blog, on October 14, 2009. Barring future threats, this is my final word on this subject.



“ACCOUNTABILITY, n. The mother of caution” Ambrose Bierce

© sbruce 2010 This was published as an op-ed in the April 2, 2010 edition of the Conway Daily Sun.

Census 2010

It's April 1, the day that we are supposed to stop pushing that census form into the procrastination pile, actually fill it out, and return it.

So far, some midwestern states are way ahead of the rest of the country in getting those forms done.

With Thursday dubbed Census Day — the day the questionnaires are meant to capture as a snapshot — South Dakota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, North Dakota and Iowa are ranked the top five states by federal officials, because they have the highest participation rates in the census so far. People can send in the forms until mid-April, but the Midwest’s cooperativeness might rightly worry other regions.

After all, the census guides the federal government on decisions with lasting impact — like how many representatives states will have in Congress and how much federal money they win for their roads.

In the rural areas of Mississippi census workers and community groups are trying to improve the rate of census form returns.

Issaquena County and the entire Delta is plagued by poverty and illiteracy. People mistrust census takers for a variety of reasons, including a belief that the government is trying to catch them doing something illegal like misrepresenting the number of people in their household, which could affect benefits like food stamps, said Calvin Stewart, a Rolling Fork alderman, teacher, high school sports referee and spokesman for the town’s new antilitter campaign.

and more:

Mr. Stewart, the alderman, said he had been frustrated by Rolling Fork’s inability to win government grants, and said he believed an accurate census would help. Using maps that show which areas were undercounted 10 years ago, he has worked enclaves of elderly residents and poor apartment complexes, explaining again and again why the census is important.

In NY City volunteers are working to help cut through language barriers and suspicion, in order to get census forms filled out.

The work of volunteer groups helping the census is critical, and their success has often been measured in small victories. It might take hours to persuade Mexicans who illegally share an apartment on Staten Island to put all of their names on the form or days to persuade day laborers in western Queens that they should participate in the survey.

Illegal immigrants must be told, sometimes repeatedly, that the Census Bureau does not share information about individuals with any other government agency. And some immigrants and other New Yorkers need an explanation about why their taking a few minutes to fill out a form could translate into better schools, hospitals and transportation.

There's an undercurrent of suspicion of the 2010 census, which has been aided and abetted by folks like Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachman and Fox entertainer Glenn Beck.

Beck worried that by not filling out the Census the government could take away his gun. Bachmann also continued to claim that the Census information could used to put Americans into internment camps.

Sigh. Census numbers help target needed funds for schools, hospitals, and roads. Census numbers determine how voting districts for states are configured. Those numbers can lead to redistricting, and more representation in Congress. Census data is a building block for research, reports, and writing on all manner of subjects.

For a look at what the census is all about, check out the Census 2010 website. You still have time to fill out that form. A few minutes of inconvenience for you may translate into funds to meet the needs of your community.

cross posted at workingamerica.org/blog