Ah! Springtime and time for Representative Joe Wilson (R-S.C) to engage in the annual rite of introducing the Freedom From Union Violence Act, just as he introduced it in the 110th Congress and the 109th Congress and just as it has been reintroduced year after year.
"The Church at the time of Galileo kept much more closely to reason than did Galileo himself, and she took into consideration the ethical and social consequences of Galileo's teaching too. Her verdict against Galileo was rational and just, and the revision of this verdict can be justified only on the grounds of what is politically opportune."
- Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI), February 1990
You would think in today's world that people would accept that simple math isn't something you debate. You would think that people would accept that 2 + 2 = 4 and then move on.
But that's not how the world works. Galileo failed when he tried to argue physics with theologians. The problem today isn't physics - it is simple addition - and the theologians of today are political.
Let's say you were hiring an employee to do a specific and important job. What information would you take into consideration in making your decision? Education? Training? Sounds reasonable. Would you ask for references? Would you contact at least some of those references?
Now let's say that you are a federal agency under the Bush administration. Say, Homeland Security?
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) recently released a report that trashes the IRS method of handling private taxpayer information. The problem involves private contractors and trash removal. Yes, this is one report that gets down and dirty.
It's been a rough road for public employees during the Bush years, and certainly federal employees have weathered harsh treatment. Part of it comes from the general disrespect the Republicans have demonstrated toward anything related to government and governance. If it wasn't privatization, it was bad management. If it wasn't bad management, it was dishonest managers and the revolving doors between lobbyists and agency leadership positions, between regulators and the regulated.
Save a few fireworks this weekend to celebrate this week's victory for democracy.
As of 5:58 pm yesterday, the Army's order gagging testimony by whistleblower Bunnatine (Bunny) Greenhouse has been withdrawn. The withdrawal came less than 24 hours after concerned citizens were alerted to her situation by a press release and an article at unbossed.
“This in an important victory. Federal work[ers] have a right to tell Congress what’s on their mind without having to face government censorship” said Michael Kohn, President of the National Whistleblowers Center and attorney for Ms. Greenhouse. (NWC press release)
What has happened to President Obama's promise of transparency and support for whistleblower protections? Bunnatine "Bunny" Greenhouse, the Army Corps of Engineers contracting specialist who blew the whistle on contracting abuses involving Halliburton, reports that supervisors are still trying to stop her from speaking candidly to Congress about whistleblower retaliation and mismanagement in her agency.
A couple days ago, unbossed reported on the Senate's request that the Inspector General of the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC) report on misdeeds under the prior administration connected with doling out a Strategic Partnership contract to manage $2.5 billion in PBGC assets.
Today the PBGC Inspector General issued her report.
Go ahead. Do a search on "can't time the market" - and what you will find is some variation on ". . . so, therefore, you have no other option but to buy stocks and hold them for the long term, being careful not to buy and sell. Leave that to the professionals." I'll give you a few examples of this them first. Then I'll give you another way to follow up on the statement: "You can't time the market, so . . . "
WASHINGTON—The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) today announced the selection of investment firms BlackRock, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan as strategic partners to manage $2.5 billion in assets and provide support to PBGC's in-house investment staff.
"These new strategic partners will do much more than manage assets," said Director Charles E.F. Millard. "Our strategic relationships will be long-term in nature, and will add tremendous value for the PBGC going forward."
Or maybe not so long term, unless you consider that this relationship is now under investigation . . . and those consequences may well be longterm.
Yesterday Rush Limbaugh was all over Obama’s health care plan. He played a clip of Obama praising companies that have wellness plans that promote more exercise, weight loss, stopping smoking, and the like. Rush was somewhere between apoplectic and outraged that actions like these were useful and claimed that he saw a study somewhere - he couldn’t recall where - that said these programs actually do no good for health and lowering health costs.
According to Rush, Obama was spending two days on health care, so now it’s “problem solved”. Just like, Rush said, Obama spent two days with the car companies and was calling it problem solved.
In recent years we got used to news that the Bush administration had used regulations and the regulatory process to do end runs around Congress . . . well, and the American people. One of the most important players was the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) - an organization that used its oversight in what seemed to be endless nefarious ways. Here is a brief walk down OIRA memory lane, as seen by unbossed, for those who want to go there.
Today GAO released a report dated April 20, usually an indication of some "issues" with a study's content and recommendations. The report itself, a case study of the time and issues related to the promulgation of a rule, seems uncontroversial and a good idea. But, there are bodies buried in that terrain.
The last few months have revealed that in the Land of the Free, many Inspectors General are not. That is, they are not free to reveal what they have unearthed, if the Secretary of their Department decides that barring release of information is "Necessary to preserve the national security interests of the United States".
Last Friday, the GAO released testimony identifying the specific agencies that have these gag laws in place.
The Bureau of National Affairs reports that union election wins are up this past year, continuing a trend. These are wins through National Labor Relations Board elections. According to BNA, unions won 66.8% of NLRB elections in 2008, and this is "the highest win rate since BNA PLUS, BNA's research division, began analyzing NLRB data in 1984." Indeed, this percentage is "the highest win rate since 1955 when unions won 67.6 percent of the elections in which they participated. Unions have won more than half of all representation elections in each of the past 12 years." Not only are union election wins up, the number of filings is up, and unions have increased their win rates in decertification elections.
Dick Durbin has had dollars in his eyes lately, or, perhaps more accurately, in his sights. Last Friday he had an extended interview with Bill Moyers on his failed efforts to protect home owners. That failure led him to see the most important reform to be reining in the power of the financial industry. At the same time, he has been going after our gush up economy - the gushers of wealth pouring into the pockets of the richest Americans . . . wealth that brings them more power and more power to ensure that the money just keeps going in the same direction.
Did you ever wonder who were the people behind the national effort to protect votes during that election?
And if you had the chance to vote for one of the organizers of the 2004 election protection program as your state's Secretary of State - the person charged with overseeing each state's elections - wouldn't you do so?
Missing is much of the coverage of the nation's financial meltdown are the kitchen table economics, or the gender-based effects of job loss, wage and benefits disparity and stagnant credit markets that historically have disproportionally affected women.
As Zach Carter at Economy.NewsLadder.netThe Media Consortium Economic News Ladder notes that's not necessarily the case in this deepening recession.
It's easy to see the correlation between these two trends. But what do they have to do with this statement? Everything.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) has been battling the banks the last few weeks in an effort to get 60 votes lined up for bankruptcy reform. He's losing.
"And the banks -- hard to believe in a time when we're facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created -- are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place,"
Consider just how bad a deal would have to be to make you willing to pay $126 million to walk away from it. That’s what happened a week in Chicago. The consortium that had put up $126 million in earnest money - and that Mayor Daley had given a 6 month extension - decided to call it quits and leave the money on the table.
Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter has given official notice that he plans to retire. President Obama made the announcement at approximately 3 pm this afternoon.
Unbossed was founded in 1897 by poor, but honest, immigrants. It flourished during the turn of the century -- marching with the suffragists and helping organize labor unions -- only to wither during the Great Depression.
What has happened to President Obama's promise of transparency and support for whistleblower protections? Bunnatine "Bunny" Greenhouse, the Army Corps of Engineers contracting specialist who 
