Ever wonder why we are seeing 50-99 year leases of highways? Wonder why so many companies are scrambling to buy or lease highways? Well, if you said that obviously this has something to do with taxes, go to the head of the class. Here's how it works.

Two years ago today, Dick Cheney promised that the US was making steady progress in Iraq and could soon begin drawing down troops.

The best thing about the GAO report released yesterday on security clearances is its bibliography on pages 15-17 that lists prior GAO reports on the issue of security clearances since 2004. That's a lot of reports on this issue, some of which we have reported on here at unbossed security clearance central. Most of the reports have shown how poorly managed and executed this important process is. By the way, additional reports are discussed in the body of the report and are included in footnotes, for those who want to know more.

No doubt you know that that federal government gets involved in litigation; however, some litigation is not as visible. Yesterday GAO released a report that provides a window into litigaion in two areas - under the NO FEAR Act and the Contract Disputes Act of 1978 (CDA). The report itself examines whether agencies are reimbursing the Judgment Fund for amounts recovered or for amounts it has paid out. The report gives an idea of the volume of litigation by agency or department.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has issued an an alert on Avian Influenza. While it is directed mainly to poultry farms, there may be a few of you out there who will find it of interest to keep tabs on what NIOSH is advising and whether you think the advice is adequate or for your own safety, paranoia, or . . . prurient interests.

NIOSH Alert: Protecting Poultry Workers from Avian Influenza (Bird Flu)

Actually the Monsanto shills have never gone away. They are still busy setting up astroturf organization to promote their products - especially Posilac, the recombinant engineered hormone some farmers inject into cows in the hope of increasing their milk production and profits. Monsanto kicked the can down the road in Pennsylvania, not getting everything they wanted but getting more than they had. They have had mixed successes in Ohio and New Jersey.

And now they are busy in other states across the nation.

A new OMBWatch report reinforces the position unbossed has long taken on mine safety under the Bush Administration: It is failing due to neglect and, in our opinion, outright hostility. Here is more on the new report from OMBWatch - Coal Mine Safety Shortchanged by Years of Budget Cuts.

This week, I traveled to a hospital in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where I visited with doctors and health care experts. We discussed an urgent priority for our Nation, how we can make health care coverage more affordable and accessible for all Americans.

That was how President Bush opened his weekly radio address one year ago today, on Feb. 24, 2007. And not a moment too soon, you might have said at the time, for the tens of millions of Americans lacking medical coverage had long since become a national crisis.

How do judges decide cases? The authors of a provocative new study provide some disturbing information.

On Fridays I go looking for document dumps at the WH website. Today I found something altogether more unexpected and really rather strange. The WH News page, normally pretty crowded, has only a single item for February 22: Setting the Record Straight: President Bush Committed to Strengthening Democracy Throughout Africa It's a lengthy, detailed "rebuttal" of an article that appeared on page A17 of the WaPo: U.S. Policy in Africa Faulted on Priorities.

Wednesday, the US Supreme Court handed down an ERISA decision that has the potential to create protections for a wide range of workplace benefits where none have existed . . . and it was a unanimous decision.

John McCain fell all over himself in his Toledo press conference this morning. Just as right-wing propagandists were lining up in TV studios to denounce the NYT (though not so much the Washington Post) for running a supposedly thinly-sourced story, McCain behaves so evasively that he proves himself to be one of the best witnesses for the credibility of the allegations. From beginning to end, it was a bizarre performance.

. . .with the obligation of men and women in uniform to treat all with dignity and respect. Nonetheless, incidents of sexual harassment and assault at the service academies are not a new concern."

So begins a new GAO report released Tuesday on how the military academies are responding to problems of sexual harassment and assault.

This is not the first time unbossed has reported on problems with security clearances when work is privatized. Year after year, government work of various sorts is subcontracted to private vendors. And year after year, this means a lot of people to investigate. In short, privatization and private contractors create the conditions for serious risk and vulnerability. The more there are, the more efforts that must be made to keep with with security clearances. This is certainly the case at the Department of Defense. And yet . . .

According to a GAO report out last week, over the last three years, the number of reported incidents in which sensitive government information and information systems has been put at risk has skyrocketed. In FY2005 3,634 incidents were reported. By FY2007, that number was 13,029 incidents - about a 259 percent increase.

You'd have thought that usury would be little practiced in areas of the country where large numbers of conservative Christians go so far as to declare that the Bible is the received word of the Almighty, reflecting His will, His interests, and even His grammatical tendencies. But in fact the opposite is true. The worst and most shameless form of legalized usury, the payday lender, is most prevelant in the Bible belt and least common in the liberal Northeast. There are maps here that make the point graphically.

I've been writing for years about how the Bush administration has turned governmental web-pages, especially the White House website, into organs of propaganda. But even by the normally bizarre standards of the Bush gang, this page is quite striking. It is part of the White House's attempt to stampede Congressional Democrats into passing an updated FISA bill that gives amnesty to the telecom corporations that assisted Bush in his illegal, warrantless surveillance. Bush has gone so far recently in his campaign to overawe Congress as to threaten to veto any bill that does not contain blanket amnesty, or even to veto a further extension of the (appallingly permissive) temporary FISA bill - the ironically-named Protect America Act.

But this current installment of Bush & Co. propaganda really takes the cake in terms of sheer audacity. It lists Five Myths about the FISA reform debate, each followed by Facts (with Quotes) intended to rebut them. The problems arise chiefly from three things: (A) The Myths are actually true. (B) The Facts are false. and (C) The quoted Authorities are lying administration shills.

Like many of you, I've been paying close attention to what the candidates have been saying about their proposals to reform the food insurance industry. I've followed the presidential debates closely and compared the candidates' food insurance plans very carefully. For me, the single most important issue facing the country in this election is the need to extend food coverage to some of the 40 million Americans who have no food insurance at all.

Although neither the Clinton nor Obama plans are perfect, at least they're trying to address the problems caused by a confusing national patchwork of private food insurance that is increasingly inadequate - except for the most basic of needs - and all too often remains out of the reach of middle class Americans anyway. For decades, Republican administrations have watched idly as the food-care crisis in the country reached disastrous proportions. So at this stage any action at all is welcome and long overdue.

Brothers and sisters, let us pray.

That may seem like an unlikely opening for a political editorial but there are some fascinating ties between religious expression and pre-election campaign fervor.

Roses are red.
Violets are blue.
Fertilized eggs are not people.
So no constitutional rights for you.

This November, voters statewide may decide if human zygotes will have the same constitutional protections as living, breathing people who go to work, put off cleaning the house and futilely try to score on the weekends.

It nearly beggars belief that we have a Supreme Court justice who'd seek to justify torture, but that is exactly what Antonin Scalia did in a BBC interview aired yesterday.

"Original Intent" Scalia doesn't seem to care that George Washington took an unequivocal stance against torturing captured prisoners during the young Republic's struggle for survival, at a time when the enemy were abusing American captives right and left. No more does Scalia give a damn about the constitutional prohibition of "cruel and unusual punishments". That, he told the BBC, applies to people only once they've been convicted of a crime. According to Scalia, if you're awaiting trial (or just plain hoping to get a trial someday), then maybe anything goes.

It's hard to find anyone who is not concerned about having health care coverage and, for those who have it, the way the system is administered. A new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that the rising cost of health care is suppressing wages. So if you find your income doesn't go as far as it used to and doesn't meet rises in costs, take a look at the cost of your healthcare.

The new budget contains some zingers, including repeal of newly enacted legislation to prohibit privatization. You can access budget information here.

Henry Waxman has long been pursuing the issue of excessive executive pay. But now being in the majority, he can really take action. link Someone needs to take this issue on. It certainly won't be the CEOs. As we observed a year and a half ago: CEO pay very reasonable - says new report by CEO organization. But I digress.

Want to check out what new workplace laws the states have enacted this past year? Check out the January 2008 Monthly Labor Review. The article first provides an overview of interesting new laws by category and then provides state summaries. The states were clearly very busy in 2007.

Here's where we are in grappling with the phenomenon of privatized highways. The crisis is really one of money. Taxes are not sufficient to bring in enough revenue to meet needs. The Highway Trust Fund is based on taxes on gas and trucks. These sources are just not sufficient. For example, more fuel efficient cars will mean less gas used and thus less taxes paid. A new report out today from GAO explains the details.

These are the results of GAO's more recent analysis of iVotronic DREs, just released today.

Bill Moyers asks a provocative question:

“What’s the one book you wish the winning candidate would take to the White House?”

What book should the next President take to the White House next January? You can add your pick by posting at The Moyers Blog.

Watch Bill Moyers Journal on Friday, February 8 at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings), to see Bill review your submissions and offer his own suggestion for essential presidential reading.

David Williams from Union One reports on a program set up by Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels to use state money to train construction workers for non-union construction companies - but not for union construction companies.

Under the Bush years, the mining industry has been in the news with disaster after disaster. Many of these problems have been discussed at unbossed. Now Richard Stickler claims he has gotten to the bottom of the problem and is going to do something about it. Whose to blame? Well, start with 1995.

Posted with permission of Deep Harm - crossposted from Daily Kos.

Oh, Kafka! The irony could not be greater: Bush administration attorneys argued today that a 15 year-old child soldier it has held for years in violation of international convention can be tried as a war criminal under the 2006 Military Commission Act. And I thought the administration's "shock and awe" strategy was restricted to battlefields.

A spate of reports has been issued in recent weeks on work, retirement, benefits, and related issues. Here are just a few.

The NLRB has borne the brunt of a lot of criticism, so much so that many have lost sight of what it does do. Here are excerpts from the report of its operations from FY2007.

Got any inspiring - nonpartisan - videos to share? I mean the sort that bring us together? Here are a couple.

Well, not likely these days. A new report shows bad news.

January 25, Bush announced that he was re-nominating Robert Battista to Chair the NLRB. Battista has to be the worst NLRB chair ever - the worst member ever. Here are a few reasons why.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the most recent data on union membership. It shows a slight increase, but the BLS changed its method of analysis this year. That change is likely to have affected the outcome, but in what ways and in what direction is unknown.

Meanwhile, the data has some interesting outcomes. For example, what jobs are most likely to be unionized. Does race make a difference in unionization rates? And if so, how? You can use them to quiz your workmates and family and friends. I bet few will know the answers.

Six months ago, news of the Utah mine collapse was everywhere. Within days of the collapse, the governor of Utah had appointed a commission to study the disaster and make recommendations to ensure such a disaster not occur again. That study and its recommendations deserve serious study. The ideas and insights are not limited to mining. We should consider whether they could apply elsewhere.

While making strong recommendations, the report is a model of graciousness. I certainly have said much harder things about the abysmal failings of MSHA that contributed to a disaster that ripped the heart out of a community. And so has the MSHA Inspector General - link to the report.

Democrats in the House and Senate have introduced sweeping legislation to address a number of workplace problems - the Civil Rights Act of 2008 (H.R. 2159/S. 2554). According to the American Civil Liberties Union: "The Civil Rights Act of 2008 will restore basic civil rights protections that have been weakened over the years by the courts and offer Americans a remedy if they feel their rights have been violated."

Last April, we reported on a bi-partisan effort to restore the meaning and purpose of the Americans with Disability Act in Enabling the Americans with Disabilities Act. As with other workplace laws, judges have interpreted the ADA to undermine its effectiveness and Congress' intent - something that exceeds their proper and constitutional role. Here is an update.