Michael Bryan DailyKos is having a early straw poll on early support for the Democratic nomination in 2008: Daily Kos :: Who do you support in 2008?. The results are trending about as I anticipated. As people search their souls and look over the past 6 years, it has become apparent to the vast majority of Kossacks … Read more
I received an interesting press release which I reproduce here in its entirety and without independent fact checking. The release is from the UFCW. There is some poor quality phonecam video of the incident available, too:
(MayThe two women, Sarah Gresoski, 23, and Teresa D¹Asaro, 39, both members of
the United Food and Commercial Workers union, were meeting with
employees at the Basha-owned A.J.s at Uptown Plaza in Phoenix. Such
meetings are allowed and protected under federal law.
The A.J.¹s store manager made a "citizens arrest" of the two women
apparently after consultation with unnamed company officials. Phoenix
Police Officers then were called to take the women into custody and
charged them with "criminal trespassing.
Following the arrests upwards of 60 employees and union members launched a picket
line in front of the A.J.s store chanting slogans like "Eddie keep your
promise, your workers deserve better" and "Eddie, Eddie you can¹t hide
you just showed your greedy side.
For the past three days UFCW members have been meeting with employees at
Bashas-owned stores across the Valley including Bashas, A.J.s, and
FoodCity.
While Bashas has a history of labor problems, most notably at FoodCity, the
health insurance issue is companywide affecting virtually all of Bashas
10,000 employees.
On June 1st, workers at Bashas-owned stores are being hit with dramatic
cost increases in their health insurance premiums and forces them well
below the industry standard.
Last year Bashas trailed only Wal-Mart and McDonald¹s in taxpayer funded
health insurance "subsidies" paid by the State of Arizona. An estimated
5-percent of Bashas employees were forced to turn to public assistance
for health care according to published reports in 2005.
By loading more of the health care burden on already strained households,
Bashas is only going to be sending more and more of employees to
Arizona¹s taxpayers for their health care," said UFCW Local 99
President James McLaughlin.
I got a very interesting mailing from the Democratic Party’s National Immigration Forum and Dean’s new outreach center, the American Majority Partnership, the other day. I reproduce it here entirely. It outlines the amendments to the Senate compromise that have been offered, those under consideration, and those likely to be considered in the near future.
Chairman Dean has made our position on immigration reform clear: We
support comprehensive immigration reform that strengthens our borders,
protects U.S. workers and their wages, reunites families, and allows
those who pay taxes and obey the law to earn the opportunity to apply
for the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.
These are the right policies and the right values. Democrats may not be polling with a majorities on every single issue we support on immigration, but we are standing for what’s right and principled, and that is more important to building an enduring consensus of principle, than to tack with every gust of the political winds.
Below is an interview with and story of a young survivor of the Haditha massacre. Her entire family was murdered by American soldiers in their home. The following is an interview with Rep. John Murtha regarding the Haditha massacre, intercut with more footage of the young survivor. This story is starting slowly, but it has … Read more
I wrote yesterday
on damage compensation caps, marketed under the trade name Tort Reform™ by the
GOP, and the damage it does to those harmed by medical and other
negligence. But the ideas behind Tort Reform™ also raise serious
and fundamental challenges to the role of the jury in the
administration of justice and protecting American freedoms.
I’m
not alone in this opinion. James Madison said that trial by jury “is as
essential to secure the liberty of the people as any one of the
pre-eminent rights of nature.” Yet the right to have the facts of a
civil dispute, including compensation, decided by a lay jury, is so
offensive to corporate interests that they would have you believe that
our best and brightest are unable to design safe products, deliver
quality medical care, or perform a host of other activities unless we
gut one particular of our Bill of Rights – the Amendment VII, which
reads:
”In suits at common law, where the value in
controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury
shall be preserved…”
The right of access to jury to
determine the facts is a basic human right that goes back to the Magna
Carta in our own culture’s immediate history, and back to the Greeks
and the Romans during some of the earliest civilized periods of human
history. For all that time citizenship has included the unimpaired
right to have the facts of your plight, including the necessary
remedies, decided by a sample of your peers. “Juries represent the
layman’s common sense and thus keep the law in accord with the wishes
and feelings of the community,” said USSC Chief Justice Rehnquist (in
one of the few instances that I agree with him wholeheartedly).