I don't get to post often anymore. Mostly, it's the darn Master's Degree, just months away now for my fingers to grasp. Today, I can't help but take my lunch time to point out something pretty freaking disturbing. In The Hill today, there's a post up on a letter from the AFL-CIO to Congress on the possible Colombian Free Trade Agreement. The crux of the letter is this:

Included with the letter was a list of names of the 22 union leaders who have been killed in Colombia, 15 of those after the United States agreed to a labor action plan with the South American country in April to improve its labor rights record, according to the AFL-CIO. Labor has long vehemently opposed a trade deal with Colombia because of its record of violence against union activists.

Colombia kills union activists. And this, is somehow, reason to celebrate in the comments section on The Hill

Could we get them to do it here? There are more than enough union thug bosses already. BY David on 09/27/2011 at 10:52

yeah, I believe this guy is a CEO, right:

I serve as President of a major corporation in the U.S. All these people want to do is create trouble for us. I look forward to the day we have a government that is sympathetic to the job creators and allow us to handle the unions like Columbia has done.BY RG Brewer on 09/27/2011 at 11:08

I wonder if those killing the labor slugs in Colombia can outsource that work here.BY canuck on 09/26/2011 at 19:00

There are worse comments. They are mostly a jumble of thinly veiled threats against union activists from folks who use pithy comment names like: hateslibs, Holyman, imam obama, Justice For All and Tea Party Patriot and of course the thinly veiled racist comments like the one referring to the President as a "pimp" and the person who thinks "imam obama" was a pithy by line, an out right reference to Obama being Muslim. As of now, the most vile and offensive of the posts have finally been moderated by the hill, but the stench from reading the vile comments can't be removed. If you feel you need to see how horrible and violent and offensive, head over to Dave's post today. He has some of the worst, even ones I would not reprint here. In a world that is increasingly inter-connected and complex, the only salvation we really have is to see each other as human beings. When people degrade and "joke" about violence or cheer the death of others, it makes me sick and it horrifies me to think of the kind of world my daughter is going to inherit. I had really hoped we'd found a way to turn down the violent rhetoric, but apparently, I'm wrong, dead wrong.

Read More...

The things you can find on the Interwebs, like this piece, on The New England Journal of Aesthetic Research:

In collaboration with The Portland Phoenix, The New England Journal of Aesthetic Research is issuing a call for public art: Mural depicting the glorious contributions of the Maine businessperson.

Seeking designs for a 36-foot-long, 8-foot-tall mural to replace a degenerate, “one-sided” mural at the Maine Department of Labor office in Augusta. Please e-mail jpgs to jinglis@phx.com, or if you insist to us.

Submissions are encouraged to honor Maine’s grand business history, from logging to ship building, from the brave executives who put down the 1937 women’s strike to steadfast proponents of child labor, from the paper mill bosses who purified our waters with dioxins to those who intrepidly called in the National Guard to restore order in the face of wrong-thinking mobs and crybabies, and surplus and salvage company CEOs who selflessly offer damaged goods for retail sale before giving it all up for public service.

Labor history as one sided, it's a fascinating concept, since Labor history in general is about, LABOR. It's totally one-sided. But then again so is the history of slavery, so is women's history, and so is the history of mental health care in the US. History about a given topic is about that topic, as was this art work. It was about workers for a building catering to workers, not the businesses that abuse, disregard or even love the workers. It was about the workers and their struggles, not the businesses and their struggles.

Read More...

What's interesting is at 2:32, you learn that Cleo and Margarito were paid to hold signs and at 2:41 some ass starts talking about how they are out there, not getting paid to protest:

...we're not union organizers

Here's a funny thing about that, I've NEVER been paid to hold a sign at a protest. Not by a union, not by a protest group, not by anyone, ever. Hell, I've even picketed as strike support, again, without pay. I know, reality won't change his opinion. It's not like some folks haven't been paid in the past for small scale protests, they have, but when those protests happened, they weren't inspired by a Faux News Network, bent on inspiring fear, hate and Oh, No, SOCIALISM.

Good thing I have a day off today so that I can catch up on all this ridiculousness. Honestly, it does a heart good to know that crazies are really out there. And here I thought they'd figured out they lost. But then again, I doubt they were in the Silver Section for the Inaugural, the way I was. I suppose this just gives me a bit more perspective, huh?

There's a diary up on Dailykos about this event. Really good stuff in there.


And on a different note, JR Monsterfodder from The Writing at the Wal has another post up on Daiykos as well about UFCW organizing Wal-Mart. Highly recommend the read.

Read More...