Sunday, July 31, 2011
Moon volcanoes and global warming
Bill Nye-the-Science-Guy explains to some dimwit wingnut on Fox News that moon volcanoes are not part of global climate change. But the priceless moment is the look and pause that Bill Nye gives this low-watt bulb right after he is asked about global warming from moon volcanoes.
New Balance struggles as last major athletic shoe brand still manufacturing in U.S.
28 July 2011
NORRIDGEWOCK, Maine — At the factory here owned by New Balance, the last major athletic shoe brand to manufacture footwear in the United States, even workers on the shop floor recognize that in purely economic terms, the operation doesn’t make sense.
The company could make far more money if, like Nike and Adidas, it shifted virtually all of these jobs to low-wage countries.
Negotiations between the United States, Vietnam and other countries for a free trade agreement, which would lower the price of imported shoes by removing the existing tariff, have workers at the New Balance factory in Maine worried for the security of their jobs.
Negotiations between the United States, Vietnam and other countries for a free trade agreement, which would lower the price of imported shoes by removing the existing tariff, have workers at the New Balance factory in Maine worried for the security of their jobs.
So employees try working each shift to make it up. Conversations on the shop floor are sparse at best, and the tasks at each work station have been stripped of waste and precisely timed. Workers cut leather for a pair of shoes in 88 seconds, handle precise stitching in 37 seconds and glue soles to uppers even faster.
“The company already could make more money by going overseas, and they know it,” said Scott Boulette, 35, a burly team leader who has his son’s name tattooed in Gothic letters down his left forearm. “So we hustle.”
Now, however, comes what may be an insurmountable challenge. The Obama administration is negotiating a free-trade agreement with Vietnam and seven other countries, and it is unclear whether the plant can stand up to a flood of shoes from that country, already one of the leading exporters of footwear to the United States.
Read it here:
Monday, July 25, 2011
Friday, July 22, 2011
How the State of Texas Betrayed Its Schools and Abandoned Its Children
The stars at night no longer look so big and bright for the former Great State of Texas
John T. Harvey | Forbes.com
20 July 2011
As promised, this is my follow-up post based on our trip to the Save Texas Schools conference in Austin this past weekend. It was a sobering experience. The long and the short of it is this: Texas has abandoned its children. The Governor and the Legislators in Austin have set the stage for a protracted crisis not only in education but in the State economy. With respect to the former, we can look forward to larger class sizes, the elimination of many important programs, and the placing of even more responsibility of the backs of overworked (and fewer) teachers. Texas already ranked an embarrassing 44th in education and these developments do not bode well for future of the Lone Star State.
As far as the economy is concerned, every public education layoff means less income not only for those individuals, but for local businesses where they would have shopped. Indeed, the Legislative Budget Board forecast that almost 45% of job losses would actually be in the private sector (Center for Public Policy Priorities: CPPP Urges Rejection of HB1). Furthermore, the lack of a decent education will greatly reduce the future earning power of Texans. The only firms willing to relocate here will be those hoping to find a source of cheap, low-skilled laborers. Texas will become the alternative to outsourcing to an impoverished, third-world country. The stars at night no longer look so big and bright.
Was this fiscal crisis the inevitable outcome of the Great Recession? The answer is absolutely, unequivocally, no. In fact, it is hard to avoid the unsettling conclusion that it was deliberate, that certain State Legislators and the Governor did this on purpose.
Read the rest:
John T. Harvey | Forbes.com
20 July 2011
As promised, this is my follow-up post based on our trip to the Save Texas Schools conference in Austin this past weekend. It was a sobering experience. The long and the short of it is this: Texas has abandoned its children. The Governor and the Legislators in Austin have set the stage for a protracted crisis not only in education but in the State economy. With respect to the former, we can look forward to larger class sizes, the elimination of many important programs, and the placing of even more responsibility of the backs of overworked (and fewer) teachers. Texas already ranked an embarrassing 44th in education and these developments do not bode well for future of the Lone Star State.
As far as the economy is concerned, every public education layoff means less income not only for those individuals, but for local businesses where they would have shopped. Indeed, the Legislative Budget Board forecast that almost 45% of job losses would actually be in the private sector (Center for Public Policy Priorities: CPPP Urges Rejection of HB1). Furthermore, the lack of a decent education will greatly reduce the future earning power of Texans. The only firms willing to relocate here will be those hoping to find a source of cheap, low-skilled laborers. Texas will become the alternative to outsourcing to an impoverished, third-world country. The stars at night no longer look so big and bright.
Was this fiscal crisis the inevitable outcome of the Great Recession? The answer is absolutely, unequivocally, no. In fact, it is hard to avoid the unsettling conclusion that it was deliberate, that certain State Legislators and the Governor did this on purpose.
Read the rest:
Grassroots group to rally for Dublin Dr Pepper
Barry Shlachter | Fort Worth Star-Telegram
21 July 2011
barry@star-telegram.com
A bunch of Dublin Dr Pepper fans have a message for Dr Pepper Snapple Group and the rest of corporate America: Don't mess with small towns and their equally small businesses.
A grassroots group led by video producer Mike Simpson is organizing a July 30 rally in support of the tiny Dr Pepper bottler, which is being sued by the brand owner, which says it violated trademarked labeling designs and sold its sugar-sweetened beverage beyond its franchise's boundaries.
Fans of the embattled bottler are asked to gather outside the brick-walled plant on Elm Street at 10 a.m. to be part of a video to be placed on YouTube. Signs are optional.
Read more:
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
In 1983, Reagan Warned Of ‘Incalculable Damage’ If Debt Ceiling Wasn’t Raised
Pat Garofalo | ThinkProgress.com
16 May 2011
Republicans poo-pooing the necessity of raising the debt ceiling might want to look to conservative icon Ronald Reagan. In 1983, Reagan warned that the consequences of failing to raise the nation’s borrowing limit “are impossible to predict and awesome to contemplate”:
The full consequences of a default — or even the serious prospect of default — by the United States are impossible to predict and awesome to contemplate. Denigration of the full faith and credit of the United States would have substantial effects on the domestic financial markets and the value of the dollar in exchange markets. The Nation can ill afford to allow such a result. The risks, the costs, the disruptions, and the incalculable damage lead me to but one conclusion: the Senate must pass this legislation before the Congress adjourns.
In a 1987 radio address, Reagan also said, “Congress consistently brings the government to the edge of default before facing its responsibility. This brinksmanship threatens the holders of government bonds and those who rely on Social Security and veterans benefits. Interest rates would skyrocket, instability would occur in financial markets, and the Federal deficit would soar.”
Read the rest:
Sex, lies & politicos: Porn king Larry Flynt book bares politicians' scandalous lives
By Howard Gensler | McClatchy-Tribune
20 July 2011
PHILADELPHIA — Weary of sex scandals that have rocked all portions of our government in recent years, there's a lot of talk on the campaign trail about getting back to the principles of our nation's Founding Fathers.
That sentiment may change if people read the new book, "One Nation Under Sex," by Larry Flynt and historian David Eisenbach, because men such as Ben Franklin, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson would make Bill Clinton, Eliot Spitzer and Arnold Schwarzenegger seem like choirboys, and the partisan press of their era would make the tabloids of today read like children's books.
...
"Americans need to adopt one simple rule," the authors write. "Don't trust anyone who dedicates his or her life to stomping out other people's consensual sexual activities — it is pretty much guaranteed that lurking behind all the antisex zealotry are deep-seated sexual issues."
That's why former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover also gets his own chapter.
Read it here:
20 July 2011
PHILADELPHIA — Weary of sex scandals that have rocked all portions of our government in recent years, there's a lot of talk on the campaign trail about getting back to the principles of our nation's Founding Fathers.
That sentiment may change if people read the new book, "One Nation Under Sex," by Larry Flynt and historian David Eisenbach, because men such as Ben Franklin, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson would make Bill Clinton, Eliot Spitzer and Arnold Schwarzenegger seem like choirboys, and the partisan press of their era would make the tabloids of today read like children's books.
...
"Americans need to adopt one simple rule," the authors write. "Don't trust anyone who dedicates his or her life to stomping out other people's consensual sexual activities — it is pretty much guaranteed that lurking behind all the antisex zealotry are deep-seated sexual issues."
That's why former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover also gets his own chapter.
Read it here:
Monday, July 18, 2011
The Minimum Wage Trap in Texas
In the New York Times' Room For Debate feature, Dave Mann, executive editor of the Texas Observer, explains the human costs of Texas' booming budget. Despite the good economy, Texas remains a state of extreme wealth and desperate poverty.
Read it here.
Read it here.
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Rick Perry began political career as a young star for Texas Democrats
Jay Root | The Texas Tribune
15 July 2011
Gov. Rick Perry, a no-apologies conservative known for slashing government spending and opposing all tax increases, is about as Republican as you can get.
But that wasn't always the case.
Perry spent his first six years in politics as a Democrat, in a somewhat forgotten history that is sure to be revived and scrutinized by Republican opponents if he decides to run for president.
A raging liberal he was not. Elected to represent a slice of rural West Texas in the state House of Representatives in 1984, Perry, a young rancher and cotton farmer, gained an early reputation as a fiscal conservative. He was one of a few freshman "pit bulls," so named because they sat in the lower pit of the House Appropriations Committee, where they fought to keep spending low.
But Perry cast some votes and took a few stands that seem to be at odds with his current conservative stances.
Read the rest:
Sunday, July 03, 2011
Teddy said...
"A political machine can only be brought to a state of high perfection in a party containing very many ignorant and uneducated voters..." Theodore Roosevelt, History of the United States, p 121.
Saturday, July 02, 2011
James Carville says Rick Perry is 'not very bright'
Longtime Democratic attack dog James Carville made a Tuesday appearance on CNN to explain why he (mockingly) supports a potential Rick Perry candidacy.
“I hope he runs because anybody that talked about secession needs to run for president,” he said. “(Perry) talks a lot and he’s not very bright,” he added. “And that’s a combination I like in Republicans.”
Read it here.
“I hope he runs because anybody that talked about secession needs to run for president,” he said. “(Perry) talks a lot and he’s not very bright,” he added. “And that’s a combination I like in Republicans.”
Read it here.
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