Although little noticed by the traditional media, John McCain has a problem with his day job: He's not doing it.

That's the theme of a long overdue campaign to reclaim the dignity of public service.

Reading the latest Office of Management and Budget (OMB) memo on how do do federal privatization is more than wading through and obfuscatory sea of acronyms. The language reminds me of nothing so much as a slave auction. Take, for example, the wording used to mean federal employees who will lose their jobs to private contractors - Federal Activities Inventory Reform (FAIR) Act workforce inventory.

Workers as inventory. Things. Who can care about the fate of mere inventory? Especially when it is all done in a FAIR way.

The People's Republic of Colorado may not be a pipe dream after all for right-wing states' rights zealots and left-wing peaceniks.

A new national Zobgy/Middlebury Institute poll reports that 22 percent of respondents believe that states have the right to peaceably secede from the United States. The figures go up considerably among liberals, Latinos, blacks, young people and Southern residents.

I am including Bingaman's full opening statement at the Senate Subcommittee on Energy, Natural Resources, and Infrastructure July 24 hearing on the role of tax subsidies in creating the boom in states leasing their highways. First, his speech is not linked at the hearing website as of yet, and it is difficult to find. Second, it does a nice job of laying out the concerns that led to the hearing. In the post just below this one, you will find a summary and explanation of witness statementson this important issue.

The Senate Subcommittee on Energy, Natural Resources, and Infrastructure finally, finally held a hearing this past week, on July 24 on the role of tax subsidies in creating the boom in states leasing their highways. Tax and Financing Aspects of Highway Public-Private Partnerships. The hearing was before the Subcommittee on Energy, Natural Resources, and Infrastructure.

Here is what the witnesses had to say.

In its latest report on highway privatization, the GAO is mostly upbeat about the benefits of public-private partnerships in building and managing highways - but it also issues some strong warnings of serious problems that states are mostly ignoring.

By the way, the Senate Subcommittee on Energy, Natural Resources, and Infrastructure held a hearing July 24 on related issues - Tax and Financing Aspects of Highway Public-Private Partnerships. More on that soon.

Trouble in paradise for tax evaders? The GAO reported yesterday:

The sole occupant of Ugland House is Maples and Calder, a law firm and company-services provider that serves as registered office for the 18,857 entities it created as of March 2008, on behalf of a largely international clientele. According to Maples partners, about 5 percent of these entities were wholly U.S.-owned and 40 to 50 percent had a U.S. billing address. Ugland House registered entities are often participants in investment and structured-finance activities, including those related to hedge funds and securitization.

There is a widely-peddled myth in the United States that Europeans hate us. They don’t. They hate George W. Bush, and those are two very different things. Having lived in Germany, and having spent considerable time in Spain, Italy and Eastern Europe, I am comfortable saying that those Americans who most disparage Europe have never actually been there.

Trumpeting the sexual liberation of libidinous 20-something men everywhere, this Details magazine puff piece on penis snipping is long on pregnancy paranoia and short on personal responsibility.

According to her report to Congress, National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson reports that the IRS has gone back on its promises and is using private debt collectors on complex cases.

The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) website is an interesting one to check in on to see what is going on in government. NTEU represents about 150,000 federal employees working in 31 federal agencies and departments. The NTEU has also been an aggressive opponent of privatization.

Here is a the NTEU take on the battle over privatizing Homeland Security's Human Resource work. The lucky Privateer is Lockheed-Martin.

For years, U.S. government officials responsible for ensuring the safety of our food supply have assured Americans that U.S. food is the “safest” in the world and, for years, the news media dutifully reported the claims that were never accompanied by documentation to support them. Last Monday, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released the results of an audit requested by Senator Dick Durban (D-Ill) and Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn). The audit, wrote the Chicago Tribune, suggested that “at least six other countries and the European Union have better food safety systems than the United States.” The six countries mentioned are Canada, Germany, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

Finally, assurances by officials at food safety agencies like the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have been exposed as probable lies. But, are the officials who made those assurances being held accountable?

I like to trawl for new reports and studies up on various sites. There are several that caught my interest over at Open CRS. Two deal with current issues in the economy, and one is a report on Public-Private Partnerships to build roads and other transportation infrastructure.

Ever have an epiphany about the meaning of everything and how it all fits together? Well, I can't say I have quite achieved that, but at least part way along. It all happened as I was washing my hands in a very up-to-date restroom.

OK, so let's suppose you're working in a lab, and let's suppose the lab is the NIST Boulder lab, and you're showing folks around the facility, and, well, just how many of us have ever seen a vial of real Plutonium, and you were just trying to impress the guests, when gosh, darn, the glass vial broke and then . . .

Yawn! So what else is new? Another Bush agency transformed from one that fulfilled its mission to protect the powerless and to crack down on law-breaking employers into one that completely refuses to do its job. Just another example of our unitary executive - make that uni-tarry executive - at work. Talk about your energy in the executive the ultra conservatives tout! I guess the WHD folks have found a burning bush to tell them what their life's mission is about.

This is about privatization. About five years ago, IT privatization was all the rage in the federal government. For reasons that have always escaped me, pro-privatization groups argued - successfully (and this is the part I find unbelievable) - that contracting out an agency's IT work is a no-brainer and would lead only to good.

What more patriotic way to celebrate the Fourth of July than for unions to join together to protect workers across the globe? In case, you missed the news coverage, here are the details.

But does it have to be?

For years, I have warned that pensions are at high risk A few months ago, unbossed noted that the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC) was engaged in a dangerous strategy for financing pension shutdowns. Now it is ready to take additional actions you need to be aware of. They will affect defined benefit pensions and most likely have an impact on other retirement benefits.

Longtime unbossed readers will know that I have, well, this thing for the radio show, On the Media. This week you may get that OTM feeling too. The show this week is dedicated to discussing privacy through the lens of FISA and Google. And there are some other goodies - or baddies - thrown in for good measure.

Lest you think that NIOSH is not on board with faith-based initiatives and the role faith can play in health, O! Ye of Little Faith!, think again.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has many studies on work as a risk factor, including work organization, stress, psychological impacts, and prevention. Back on January 23, 2004, the CDC announced a NIOSH study that would focus on the impact of work on depression in women. This being the Bush administration, as you would expect from the concern it shows about workers and women - except as vessels for the unborn - that study went nowhere.

But now it is being re-announced and is open for comments. The study looks interesting and important.

Discrimination against people who suffer from Gender Identity Disorder (GID), that is, transgendered people, is a hot legal topic these days. Title VII does not expressly protect them and expressly prohibits protecting homosexuals. As a result, the courts and the legal theories are all over the place when it comes to dealing with transgender discrimination. The basic legal conflict comes down to a question whether discrimination based on transgender status is discrimination "on the basis of sex" - something that is illegal under Title VII - or whether, since Congress has not spoken by adding protections based on gender identity while amending Title VII to make other changes, means it does not intend to protect GID.

A June 26 congressional hearing covered many of these issues.

A new case from the 4th Circuit is full of surprises for unions. Good ones! Believe it or not! Here's the scoop and more on why this is so unexpected and what it can mean for union and worker rights.

It's an uneven battle for the truth, given Monsanto's money and its stable of people like who will promote Monsanto's profits over our health. Link. One thing working in Monsanto's favor is that, when things seem complicated, most people will tune out or take the position that the truth likes somewhere between. Another is that Monsanto is well funded, while those who work to publicize the truth are not.

But you can help by being informed and telling others about these shenanigans. And there are other things you can do to support the truth tellers.

David Biello's July 2, 2008 Scientific American on-line article takes on Monsanto's claim, er the claim of some totally unbiased scientists - who just happen to be directly on Monsanto's payroll and indirectly on Monsanto's payroll through its funding - that rBST / rBGH / Posilac will save the planet from global warming. The article is pasted below and may be found, complete with cow pictures, here.

It's been a tough - but exciting - year for workers at the Bay Area News Group-East Bay (BANG-EB) papers. Last August, the company began its anti-union campaign, withdrawing recognition of the union at some locations and using a consolidation to withdraw recognition from all unions.

That was August 2007, but after an NLRB election victory, the workers are gearing up to fight for their rights under a new collective bargaining agreement. It won't be easy. When an employer wants to be anti-union, they can be ruthless, defying the law and even destroying their own companies in the process.

Let me see. How many ways has Monsanto used front groups, fake "astroturf" groups, and fake science to get people to (a) stop worrying about the effects of using rBST / rBGH / Posilac / recombinant bovine growth hormone to produce milk and (b) buy more milk produced? And now there's a new one that is a real hoot!

Did you know that injecting dairy cows with Monsanto's recombinant hormones will save the planet for global warming?

Well, if Monsanto says so and uses one of its bought and paid for "scientists" and a Monsanto chemist to do the "study", well, it must be true!

In today's Washington Post, two stories highlight problems in the U.S. justice system that deserve the attention of every American. On the frontpage, we read about a black man, arrested for allegedly killing a white police officer, who died of strangulation at a Prince Georges County (Maryland) correction facility, and while isolated from other inmates. According to an anonymous jail employee, "any officer can enter the unit where White was held," reported the Post.

[Prince Georges County Executive Jack B. Johnson] expressed anger not only at the "horrid" death of a police officer but also at the apparent killing of the suspect in the case. "If we have vigilante justice, our society will fall apart," he said. "If we tolerate these kinds of acts, the courts are superfluous." (Washington Post)