Iacocca losing pension, car in Chrysler bankruptcy
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lee Iacocca, the car executive credited with saving Chrysler from bankruptcy in the 1980s, is to lose a big chunk of his pension and a guaranteed life-long company car due to the U.S. automaker's bankruptcy filing two decades later. http://tiny.cc/chrysler260
TAGS
chrysler
bailout
Small Is Better: Big Houses Are Out and Downsizing Is In
With economic and environmental factors colliding, tiny houses are suddenly becoming the biggest rage. http://tiny.cc/smallhouse
TAGS
enviroment
housing
Cap and Trade 101
What is Cap and Trade? http://tiny.cc/captra101
TAGS
Cap-and-Trade
factcheck
Cap & Trade Educational Forum
Congressman Bill Posey Hosts: http://tiny.cc/Poseyforum
TAGS
Posey
Forum
Capand Trade
Christopher C. Horner - Guest speaker at C&T Forum
Christopher C. Horner is an attorney in Washington, D.C., a Senior Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and the author of two books on global warming. http://tiny.cc/Poseycaptrade
TAGS
Posey
Cap
and
trade
Competitive Enterprise Institute
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) is a non-profit libertarian[1] think tank[2] founded in 1984 by Fred L. Smith, Jr and based in Washington, D.C USA. CEI's stated belief is that consumers are best helped not by government regulation of commercial interests, but by consumers being allowed to make their own choices in a free marketplace. http://tiny.cc/cei
TAGS
Competitive
Enterprize
Institute
Interactive Map: The Cost of Doing Nothing on Health Care
Lost Productivity Costs States $124 billion to $248 billion http://tiny.cc/healthcareprod
TAGS
healthcare
productivity
Central Brevard NAACP
Subject: Announcements/Info May 27 2009 http://tiny.cc/cbnaacp

Why Should I Have To Pay for My Employees’ Health Care?
As the national debate on health care reform ramps up, we're going to hear all kinds of claims about what is or is not good for business. http://tiny.cc/healthcare-small-business
TAGS
healthcare
Another Health Care Overhaul Antitrust Laws
WASHINGTON — President Obama’s campaign to cut health costs by $2 trillion over the next decade, announced with fanfare two weeks ago, may have hit another snag: the nation’s antitrust laws. http://tiny.cc/healthcare-anti-trust
TAGS
healthcare
anti-trust
Recession Giveaway! Pfizer Offers Free Drugs to the Jobless
Pfizer is taking a page from the auto industry’s recession playbook with its program to offer free drugs to the unemployed. http://tiny.cc/jobless-free-drugs
TAGS
jobless
free-drugs
Marion County bus drivers question the accuracy of GPS devices used to track their speed, routes and every move they make.
Two dozen bus drivers jammed the Marion County School Board meeting room on Tuesday to voice concerns about the accuracy of global positioning satellite devices being used to track their speed, routes and every other move they make on the highway. http://tiny.cc/Marion-Bus
TAGS
Marion-Bus
Drivers
Questions for school board chairman
How could Brevard Public Schools raise taxes in a recession?
http://tiny.cc/Brevard-school-board
TAGS
Brevard
school-board
Take Action Stop Starbucks
1. Sign the Memo to Howard Schultz Schultz has said if workers "had faith in me and my motives, they wouldn’t need a union." Help us reach 50,000 signatures, and let's send a clear message to Schultz that corporations should support unionization and the Employee Free Choice Act. http://tiny.cc/stop-stabucks
TAGS
stabucks
ECFA
Cap-and-Trade Cost Inflation
Republicans puff up the impact of a cap-and-trade program on the average family's energy costs. http://tiny.cc/Cap-and-Trade
TAGS
Cap-and-Trade
China Is Said to Plan Strict Gas Mileage Rules
HONG KONG — Worried about heavy reliance on imported oil, Chinese officials have drafted automotive fuel economy standards that are even more stringent than those outlined by President Obama last week, Chinese experts with a detailed knowledge of the plans said on Wednesday. http://tiny.cc/China-gas-mileage
TAGS
China
gas-mileage
After many past missions, ship taking on reef duty - Florida Keys
KEY WEST -- Long before a Key West dive boat captain embarked on a quest to turn the mothballed USS Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg into an artificial reef, a typhoon that ravaged Guam in the mid-1970s almost did the job. http://tiny.cc/Port-Canaveral-Vandenberg
TAGS
Port-Canaveral
Vandenberg
U.S. Expected to Own 70% of a Revamped G.M
The latest plan for the troubled automaker, which is expected to file for bankruptcy by Monday, calls for the Treasury Department to receive about 70 percent of a restructured G.M. http://tiny.cc/GM-US
TAGS
GM
US

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Take Action: Tell Bailed-Out Bank to Save Jobs at Hartmarx
Workers at Hart Shaffner Marx (Hartmarx) have made high quality suits for over 100 years, boasting loyal customers like Barack Obama
.A new era for investigating industrial accidents?
You probably have never heard of the Chemical Safety Board (unless you are a specialist in that area — or you read The Pump Handle!). The CSB is an independent government agency that has a pretty low profile. Its mission, as its name implies, is to investigate industrial chemical accidents.
The Health Care Cave-In
Don't make the perfect the enemy of the better" is a favorite slogan in Washington because compromise is necessary to get anything done. But the way things are going with health care, a better admonition would be: "Don't give away the store."
North Carolina's Blue Cross Blue Shield Trying to Kill Key Plank of Obama Plan - Health-Care Reform 2009 -
One week after the nation's health insurance lobby pledged to President Obama to do what it can to constrain rising health costs, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina is putting the finishing touches on a public message campaign aimed at killing a key plank in Obama's reform platform
Steele decides against District 31 run; Local GOP slams Crist endorsement
A good circus is underway in the tent that is the Brevard County Republican Party.
Local (Bentonville ARK, Heart of Wally World) democrats examine card-check law
BENTONVILLE - Amy Niehouse, a member of the AFLCIO's Organizing Institute and an organizer trainer, discussed a proposed federal law, the Employee Free Choice Act, which would allow workers to gain union representation if more than half of a group of employees sign union cards.
Credit card backlash bill comes due in Senate
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bill to curb sharp practices in the credit card business was on track for approval by the U.S. Senate as early as Tuesday, with President Barack Obama expected to sign it into law before the end of the month.
Painters’ Corporate-Style Annual Reports Keep Union Growing
Over the past four years, Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) President James Williams has taken a page from the playbook of employers and the way they do business. Each year, his staff produces an annual report for the international union and for each of the 34 IUPAT district councils in the United States and Canada that looks like a corporate balance sheet.
Northeast trails Calif., Midwest in race for federal rail funds
WASHINGTON - As the Obama administration prepares to hand out $8 billion in seed money for a national network of fast trains, New England finds itself competing against states and regions that have put far more time and money into planning

Take Action: Tell Bailed-Out Bank to Save Jobs at Hartmarx
Workers at Hart Shaffner Marx (Hartmarx) have made high quality suits for over 100 years, boasting loyal customers like Barack Obama
.A new era for investigating industrial accidents?
You probably have never heard of the Chemical Safety Board (unless you are a specialist in that area — or you read The Pump Handle!). The CSB is an independent government agency that has a pretty low profile. Its mission, as its name implies, is to investigate industrial chemical accidents.
The Health Care Cave-In
Don't make the perfect the enemy of the better" is a favorite slogan in Washington because compromise is necessary to get anything done. But the way things are going with health care, a better admonition would be: "Don't give away the store."
North Carolina's Blue Cross Blue Shield Trying to Kill Key Plank of Obama Plan - Health-Care Reform 2009 -
One week after the nation's health insurance lobby pledged to President Obama to do what it can to constrain rising health costs, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina is putting the finishing touches on a public message campaign aimed at killing a key plank in Obama's reform platform
Steele decides against District 31 run; Local GOP slams Crist endorsement
A good circus is underway in the tent that is the Brevard County Republican Party.
Local (Bentonville ARK, Heart of Wally World) democrats examine card-check law
BENTONVILLE - Amy Niehouse, a member of the AFLCIO's Organizing Institute and an organizer trainer, discussed a proposed federal law, the Employee Free Choice Act, which would allow workers to gain union representation if more than half of a group of employees sign union cards.
Credit card backlash bill comes due in Senate
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bill to curb sharp practices in the credit card business was on track for approval by the U.S. Senate as early as Tuesday, with President Barack Obama expected to sign it into law before the end of the month.
Painters’ Corporate-Style Annual Reports Keep Union Growing
Over the past four years, Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) President James Williams has taken a page from the playbook of employers and the way they do business. Each year, his staff produces an annual report for the international union and for each of the 34 IUPAT district councils in the United States and Canada that looks like a corporate balance sheet.
Northeast trails Calif., Midwest in race for federal rail funds
WASHINGTON - As the Obama administration prepares to hand out $8 billion in seed money for a national network of fast trains, New England finds itself competing against states and regions that have put far more time and money into planning

Bankers Bounce Back
There are probably good reasons to give Richard Fuld a job at the hedge fund Matrix Advisors. He is familiar with byzantine financial products: Lehman Brothers, the bank he used to run, gorged on them until it collapsed. He might know them enough to be more careful around them the next time.
Prototype - Coming Soon to Your Language - More of the Web
A Web That Speaks Your Language
Even to Save Cash, Don’t Try This Stuff at Home
CHICAGO — Saving money never cost quite so much.
Why States Need to be a Focus for Any Economic Recovery Plan
We are in what the Center for American Progress has called a "labor market free-fall." The economy shed 524,000 jobs in December, the 12th month in a row of job losses
Restoring Trust in Antitrust Enforcement
Antitrust enforcement is the cornerstone of a competitive marketplace. When that enforcement is docile or misdirected—as it was for much of the Bush administration—consumers suffer. During that administration the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice embraced a minimalist course; it acted largely to reduce the scope of enforcement and the use of antitrust statutes in private litigation.
'A Failure of Capitalism - The Crisis of ’08 and the Descent Into Depression,' by Richard A. Posner
This recession," President Obama said recently, "was not caused by a normal downturn in the business cycle. It was caused by a perfect storm of irresponsibility and poor decision-making that stretched from Wall Street to Washington to Main Street." Richard A. Posner is having none of it.
Dems red-faced over veteran imposter
Democrats are incensed over how a man duped the party and veterans during the '08 campaign.
Some Thoughts on the Lost Art of Reading Aloud
Farms and Immigrants
The immigration system, broken in a thousand places, needs a multitude of fixes, from the borders to the workplace to the status of would-be Americans waiting in limbo overseas and toiling in shadows here. A new bill called AgJobs, introduced in the House and Senate, addresses some of those problems. It seeks to relieve chronic farm labor shortages while protecting rights and opportunities for immigrant workers.
Sunday Funny Papers
How America Lost its Freedom
It’s now clear to most Americans that their country is not only headed in the wrong direction, but on the brink of complete extinction. In just the last six months, every major economic sector is speeding towards bankruptcy and the Fed has spent trillions in printed funny money, in an unbridled and ill-fated effort to buy up (not bail out) America’s free-market economic system, leaving the nation, its currency, its people - and yes - FREEDOM, headed towards imminent total collapse.

Bankers Bounce Back
There are probably good reasons to give Richard Fuld a job at the hedge fund Matrix Advisors. He is familiar with byzantine financial products: Lehman Brothers, the bank he used to run, gorged on them until it collapsed. He might know them enough to be more careful around them the next time.
Prototype - Coming Soon to Your Language - More of the Web
A Web That Speaks Your Language
Even to Save Cash, Don’t Try This Stuff at Home
CHICAGO — Saving money never cost quite so much.
Why States Need to be a Focus for Any Economic Recovery Plan
We are in what the Center for American Progress has called a "labor market free-fall." The economy shed 524,000 jobs in December, the 12th month in a row of job losses
Restoring Trust in Antitrust Enforcement
Antitrust enforcement is the cornerstone of a competitive marketplace. When that enforcement is docile or misdirected—as it was for much of the Bush administration—consumers suffer. During that administration the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice embraced a minimalist course; it acted largely to reduce the scope of enforcement and the use of antitrust statutes in private litigation.
'A Failure of Capitalism - The Crisis of ’08 and the Descent Into Depression,' by Richard A. Posner
This recession," President Obama said recently, "was not caused by a normal downturn in the business cycle. It was caused by a perfect storm of irresponsibility and poor decision-making that stretched from Wall Street to Washington to Main Street." Richard A. Posner is having none of it.
Dems red-faced over veteran imposter
Democrats are incensed over how a man duped the party and veterans during the '08 campaign.
Some Thoughts on the Lost Art of Reading Aloud
Farms and Immigrants
The immigration system, broken in a thousand places, needs a multitude of fixes, from the borders to the workplace to the status of would-be Americans waiting in limbo overseas and toiling in shadows here. A new bill called AgJobs, introduced in the House and Senate, addresses some of those problems. It seeks to relieve chronic farm labor shortages while protecting rights and opportunities for immigrant workers.
Sunday Funny Papers
How America Lost its Freedom
It’s now clear to most Americans that their country is not only headed in the wrong direction, but on the brink of complete extinction. In just the last six months, every major economic sector is speeding towards bankruptcy and the Fed has spent trillions in printed funny money, in an unbridled and ill-fated effort to buy up (not bail out) America’s free-market economic system, leaving the nation, its currency, its people - and yes - FREEDOM, headed towards imminent total collapse.

Take Action: Join the virtual vigil for heat victim Eladio Hernandez
Fifteen farm workers have died of heat-related complications since July 2004. We will be conducting vigils on the anniversary of each of their deaths--where we will share the worker's story--and invite you to join in virtually by telling legislators and Gov. Schwarzenegger that enough is enough, farm workers need a tool where they can protect themselves.
Memo to Media: Populism Is a Rebellion Against Corporate Power -- It's Not Just Stupid, Raw Anger
When I lived in Washington, DC, in the 1970'S, I got a call from a friend of mine who worked for the Congressional Research Service--a legislative agency that digs up facts, prepares briefing papers, and otherwise does research on any topic requested by members of Congress. Comment Good history piece, they don't teach stories like this in high school.
Something smells at Whole Foods
WHOLE FOODS Market is a highly profitable corporation that far outperforms its competitors, while maintaining an aura of commitment to social justice and environmental responsibility. Its clientele is attracted not only to its brightly lit array of pristine fruits and vegetables, organically farmed meats and delectable (yet healthy) recipes, but also to the notion that the mere act of shopping at Whole Foods is helping to change the world.
Animation: How Not to Form a Union
Hands Off Big Labor
The Obama administration has delivered a strong message to crooked union bosses everywhere: happy days are here again. Comment Nobody read this anyway so I might as well. Author is fear mongering.Florida 2008 property crime rate is 4.029.5 per 100,000. Projecting out Big Labor property crime rate 515 per 100,000 More likely to have a citizen of Florida break into your house than getting mugged by a" Big Labor Union Boss"
Lifestyles of the formerly rich and not that famous
In the genre of sad tales of the formerly rich, Mark Clothier and John Helyar's "Rattled in Ridgewood" story about the tough times faced by laid-off Wall Street workers is a nice piece of work -- empathetic and detailed. And I'm sure Time's Justin Fox is right to observe that "it isn't at all easy to suddenly downshift from [making several hundred thousand dollars a year] to actual middle class America, where the jobs pay $50,000-$100,000 a year (or less)."
State workers could feel new wallop from wage freezes, cuts
For almost three years now, James Okoh has watched his food and utility bills and the price of his work commute all go up — even as his state paycheck stayed flat.
The single-payer challenge
Eight activists stood up in a May 5 Senate hearing chaired by Democratic Sen. Max Baucus to demand to know why Congress won't consider proposals for a single-payer health care system that eliminates the role of private insurance companies and covers everyone under a government program similar to Medicare. Comment Space Coast CLC passed a resolution favoring single payer health care. Does that mean we should be arested?
Sen. Jeff Merkley: Words Designed to Kill Health Care Reform
Over and over again, I hear from Oregonians that we need real health care reform that provides every American with access to quality, affordable care. That is why Congress and President Obama are so focused on this issue.
Under fire, Space Florida chief Kohler resigns
The embattled head of Space Florida announced his resignation Thursday after recent skirmishes with unhappy legislators and complaints from officials in private industry.

Take Action: Join the virtual vigil for heat victim Eladio Hernandez
Fifteen farm workers have died of heat-related complications since July 2004. We will be conducting vigils on the anniversary of each of their deaths--where we will share the worker's story--and invite you to join in virtually by telling legislators and Gov. Schwarzenegger that enough is enough, farm workers need a tool where they can protect themselves.
Memo to Media: Populism Is a Rebellion Against Corporate Power -- It's Not Just Stupid, Raw Anger
When I lived in Washington, DC, in the 1970'S, I got a call from a friend of mine who worked for the Congressional Research Service--a legislative agency that digs up facts, prepares briefing papers, and otherwise does research on any topic requested by members of Congress. Comment Good history piece, they don't teach stories like this in high school.
Something smells at Whole Foods
WHOLE FOODS Market is a highly profitable corporation that far outperforms its competitors, while maintaining an aura of commitment to social justice and environmental responsibility. Its clientele is attracted not only to its brightly lit array of pristine fruits and vegetables, organically farmed meats and delectable (yet healthy) recipes, but also to the notion that the mere act of shopping at Whole Foods is helping to change the world.
Animation: How Not to Form a Union
Hands Off Big Labor
The Obama administration has delivered a strong message to crooked union bosses everywhere: happy days are here again. Comment Nobody read this anyway so I might as well. Author is fear mongering.Florida 2008 property crime rate is 4.029.5 per 100,000. Projecting out Big Labor property crime rate 515 per 100,000 More likely to have a citizen of Florida break into your house than getting mugged by a" Big Labor Union Boss"
Lifestyles of the formerly rich and not that famous
In the genre of sad tales of the formerly rich, Mark Clothier and John Helyar's "Rattled in Ridgewood" story about the tough times faced by laid-off Wall Street workers is a nice piece of work -- empathetic and detailed. And I'm sure Time's Justin Fox is right to observe that "it isn't at all easy to suddenly downshift from [making several hundred thousand dollars a year] to actual middle class America, where the jobs pay $50,000-$100,000 a year (or less)."
State workers could feel new wallop from wage freezes, cuts
For almost three years now, James Okoh has watched his food and utility bills and the price of his work commute all go up — even as his state paycheck stayed flat.
The single-payer challenge
Eight activists stood up in a May 5 Senate hearing chaired by Democratic Sen. Max Baucus to demand to know why Congress won't consider proposals for a single-payer health care system that eliminates the role of private insurance companies and covers everyone under a government program similar to Medicare. Comment Space Coast CLC passed a resolution favoring single payer health care. Does that mean we should be arested?
Sen. Jeff Merkley: Words Designed to Kill Health Care Reform
Over and over again, I hear from Oregonians that we need real health care reform that provides every American with access to quality, affordable care. That is why Congress and President Obama are so focused on this issue.
Under fire, Space Florida chief Kohler resigns
The embattled head of Space Florida announced his resignation Thursday after recent skirmishes with unhappy legislators and complaints from officials in private industry.