Americans Are Raring for a Fight Against Corporate Power

Re: "I, for one, would pay to watch a horde of red-faced, Gucci-clad, CEOs rioting..."
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"I never died," says he.

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I have often been reluctant to blame average people for the state of our society, preferring instead to lay the majority of the guilt at the feet of the powerful. In taking this stance I have been influenced by Noam Chomsky's refrain that, according to polling data, Americans are more progressive than the policies of their government suggest, which implies it is unfair to regard the behavior of our political and corporate leaders as a reflection of the American populace.

But the realization has struck me that even while Americans hold more progressive views than the draconian policies of the establishment, we do virtually nothing consequential to right the situation. Americans, as compared to Europeans whose societies better reflect the policies most of us wish to see, don't care to protest or otherwise get involved in politics.

Why is this? The answer must be that in general, even while we like to gripe, we are complacent. That is, most of us are satisfied with life the way it is, even many of those among us who are pushed around by the power structure on a regular basis, for example workers who are subject to continual reductions in pay and benefits. There is an ignorant attitude that infects the population of this country that although life is often stressful enough to produce family dysfunction and mental illness, at least we're Americans, part of the most powerful country in the world - or as some like to think, the most powerful polity in history. We're number one! We're number one!

So collectively we have made a deal with the devil. We have sacrificed a better quality of life by complacently accepting some vague idea of our own supremacy, therefore stifling the will to challenge our overbearing elites. In return we have received vain pride, a hollow pittance, pushed upon us like a drug from our gigantic media propaganda machine and consumed in ever larger doses to get our fix. Hence the hubris of the Bush years, the neoconservative agenda to make the U.S. supreme throughout the twenty-first century, and the doctrine of full-spectrum military dominance.

We are now reaping the bitter fruits of our Faustian bargain.

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From the above article:

[The corporate front organization Center for Union Facts] has placed several full-page ads in the New York Times (at $150,000 a pop) that crudely caricature union leaders as thugs.

This is a common caricature of union leaders. I can recall Michael Bloomberg, the smarmy piece of shit mayor of NYC, building this caricature to criticize leaders of the transit strike in December, 2005.

Bloomberg:

The leadership of the TWU has thuggishly turned their backs on New York City and disgraced the noble concept of public service.

This image of unions as coarse, vulgar, primitive, dirty, low brow, and backward has been used for the past few decades, especially since Reagan, to bash unions.

The reason this tactic has worked on many ordinary people is they want to believe they have entered this ethereal and amorphous thing called the American middle class, thus they are subconsciously swayed to dislike unions due to unions' lower-class associations as depicted by corporatist propaganda.

It is many people's own prejudice against the working class, and their refusal to acknowledge that in fact they are working class - a prejudice which is based on insecure, easily manipulated arrogance - that has facilitated the corporatist effort to destroy unions and along with them, workers' rights.

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...but the real meat of this Law would be Hightower's #3 -fines for intimidation or dismissal in reprisal for union agitation and organizing.

If this gets in, Corporatists would be forced to either drop their most effective union-busting tools overnight or face a storm of lawsuits which they would be hard pressed to win.

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How weird. All the worst people in the country--CEOs, gun guys, Rush Limbaugh--are scared to death the country might get better.

Forgiving the Neocons, starring me.

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Paranoid ramblings of mentally deficient inmates.

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I've never been in a union, but I have been the recipient of back wages and other compensation as a result of union lawsuits against former employers. Quite frequently the unions bring charges to the attention of the Labor Department. Once the Labor Department brings charges against an employer, the courts generally demand the employers comply with their decisions.

My respect for unions has grown through my experience. I support unions and believe they are an important balance to the power of corporate lobbies.

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buy essentials only and pls. pull the plug on all MSM, that'll get their attention - in numbers WE are very empowering.

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Keep it up Corps and Repugs (and Some Blue Dogs) you may be facing Prosecution for the Most Treasonous Act against the Unitied States.
"For the People and By the people" was not just meant for our form of Government (which they have also worked very hard to undermine), but also the FREE MARKET!!
One need only look back to the fall of all other Great Empires throughout history to KNOW that when the wealth created by the Working class is siphoned off and Hoarded by the Few, that society dies. Trickle Down was not a 'flaw' in logic, it was a high Crime. Our Founders Knew that and intentionally began the Greatest Experiment known to Humanity- allowing the masses to not only determine their destiny, but own and control the wealth they produced.
In every aspect of of communal life, lures a Corp. Far worse are those Multinationals who have no allegience to US, even though we may be the nation that gave them 'life'. Every worker around the world, should Thank a Old Union Orgnaizer. They not only set a standard for Work, but provided enough 'disposable'income to become the greatest Consumers of World products- The labor movement did not just build the Middle Class, or just this nation, they built the world economy because of the ability to consume and because it inspired others to seek better wages and working conditions. In turn Generating more wealth for those countries and others.
By only allowing only a Trickle of wealth to feed back down, the upper echeleon Dehydrated the very engine which created and maintained their life styles.
In fact limiting the scope of criminality to just Treason, is not taking into account the extent of the devastation they have caused. They have ruined Global commerce and thus depleted the funds of numerous Charities trying to provide services around the world. Our Small donations are what these organization Thrive off.So add Crimes against Humanity to the list of Atrocities committed by the Logo'ed Monarchies.
"A WORKING CLASS HERO IS SOMETHING TO BE"- J. Lennon. Heros to their families, their comunities, their states, their Country and the World!
The Corps, Repugs AND their Blue pocket puppies Logo tag line should read "Let them Eat Cake"

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But corporations - (you can substitute unions here) are not democracies. They are hierarchical, secretive autocracies, and most have never taken to the idea that working families ought to have a say in how they are treated.

Yep, That describes unions perfectly.

Union leader make deal with corporations. take pay offs in many ways and god forbid a union member question a union leader or rep. He'd be found in a back ally someplace with his head bashed in.

Unions are nothing more than a poower base for the most corrupt in our society. They "represent" workers but they really represent themselves and just use workers as a means for their end.

I've been in a union and I have family members in unions..Electrical union in NYC who is till this day suing them for back pay for a job related injury that is preventing him from working.

Want to help workers, let the government run the unions - they may not be the brightest bulbs in the pack but for the most part lower level government workers are pretty honest!

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As someone who was actually involved in thwarting a unionizing attempt I can tell you with absolute certainty that your head is buried in the sand --- or something!. If you are so naive as to think that unions are going to allow employees the right to a secret ballot if EFCA passes you are really stupid. Unions organizers are free to make promises to future members and, oh boy, they do it. On the other side the employer can make no promises. Should that happen the union will be certified no matter what! Try that position for a while and see how it really feels to have it shoved up your -----!

The fact is that the union bosses really don't give a crap about the employees. Unions are organizations with employees just like companies. And, incidently, they have their own share of labor problems.

However, why don't you take a look at the auto industry and try to convince the union members there that their leadership has saved them. Bull!

Yes, there needs to be balance, and, yes, corporate leaders should be held accountable for keeping jobs in the USA, but the very unions you speak of have done nothing to ensure either. You speak of productivity improvements. In rare cases unions have partnered with management on team systems and skill based pay, but the majority of productivity improvements in american industry have come from technology which was fought continuously by the very unions you are promoting.

Simply put, you're wrong!

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are what we need in this country... we once had them then got lazy... oh the initiation fees, the union dues, oh my!!! just take our chances that our employers will be fair to us because we do not need protection...

get the bill passed now before things get worse... this way the corporate rats will be cornered at their weakest point... they will have no choice but to unionize while they are barely operating now, this is the weak point for them... finally...

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Let's first see HR 676 and EFCA actually pass intact and no watered down crappy version either. I hate to say this but both parties have been dialing into corporate dollars for the past 30 years if not longer so good luck hoping the American people win. In fact, a great deal of the electorate is brainwashed into being so anti-union so that'll be interesting to see how it all works out.

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The illegals are one of the tools the corporate overlords use to destroy any hope of benefits or a living wage for American workers. After the guillotine takes care of the Maddofs, it'll be time for the border jumpers.

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Besides EFCA, we need to scale back corporate power to what it once was before the Civil War, before corporations were given the extraordinary rights of citizens:
1) corporate charters last 5 -10 years
2) corporations cannot own property.
3) corporation's charter can be revoked if they do not provide a community service or product.
4) corporations cannot buy another corporation.

These few rules would prevent corporations from becoming too big and powerful for their/our britches.

peace

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A few days ago I attended a party and struck up a conversation with someone who seemed to me to have fairly enlightened views. Talk turned from the economy to immigration and we were still on the same page, but then he brought up unions and how they were the root of all that is wrong with the country.

No doubt he had been influenced by a discussion of the topic on the radio or television, but he was convinced that the American auto industry was being brought down, not by poor management, but by unions that had driven wages up to $80/hour and benefits that provided 90% of that pay during a lay-off. He was absolutely convinced of these "facts" and would not consider the possibility that the hourly wage he quoted might be a bloated or loaded figure.

What I found interesting though was his response to my question of whether he would like such benefits for himself. "Sure!"

There is a peculiar element of envy that enters any discussion about unions. Somehow people don't want others to get something that they do not have for themselves. Oddly, this envy motivation seems stronger with others in fairly similar circumstances and we do not feel the envy relative to CEO's, sports figures or entertainment stars.

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This is another reason why I hate... yes hate Democrat Socialism. If you can win on the merits of the secrete baliot then why would you need "card check?" These are the same people whom have a hard time understanding the 2nd amendment (See Washington DC, Chicago or the State of New Jersey) but come on... really a open ballot so Tony Soprano can knock on your door and say "its a good idea if you vote yes, you know if you like walking w/o a limp." How in the F you think the Unions got started? This was back when America made chit. Yea the Wal-Mart and Sears of the world will suffer but many small business will have to shut it door = more misery for a Democrat to feed off

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When I was a kid in the fifties my dad was a union organizer. Most of what I remember about the union meetings in my kitchen was the drinking of a fifty-cent jug of beer. However, once when I was six years old my dad said something that I never forgot. I was always below average in verbal abilities but I was also 3 stdev’s above the mean in quantitative abilities, one day they were talking about having a strike for a nickel raise and how long the strike would last. It was not hard for me to figure out that the people setting in my kitchen would never make up the lost wages over the time. I clued them into this mathematical fact, and my dad said, “ we are not striking for us, we are striking for the people who come after us”. I guess that’s why the three people were hung in Chi striking for an eight-hour day. We have lost more than unions and getting unions back may or may not get back what we have lost. It is not about getting a bigger piece of the pie, it is about baking the pie.

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Unions should scare these A..holes at the tops of corporations, because it means that once again the worker will not have to be afraid of arbitrary dismissal or used to make a corporate point(similar to what many third world countries use against workers). Once again business will be made to actually listen to the concern of their workers, and for workers at Wall Fart they may even be able to get health care from the company rather than through public assistance. It also means necessarily that the top management will not be able to take fat payrolls and bonuses while trying to squeeze workers to perform for less. Especially important will be safer work environments and compensation for overtime. The corporations my not like it but I for one am encouraged that, we the people, may actually get back on the path to fairness in the work place instead of intimidation and extortion practices used on the part of companies.
I hope you're watching Reagan from where ever you are....remember PATCO.

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which they will dust off if they lose this fight. Look for major infiltration of union hierarchies by the MAFIA working for the FBI again.

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There are "big picture" factors influencing our experience that are not being explained, or even acknowledged by our leaders, media, or "experts."

If you want to understand what's going on with our monetary, environmental, and resource delivery systems, check out:

The Crash Course by Dr. Chris Martenson

It is worth spending a few hours going through the whole course and then sending it on to others!

It is up to us to demand change, explore options, and place well-being and quality of life over the mythical "American Dream" of money for nothing!

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Unions have always concentrated on first raising wages and improving working conditions for American workers. Meanwhile, corporations have concentrated on removing trade barriers so that they can exploit foreign workers. Unions should concentrate on organizing WORLDWIDE and on erecting trade barriers to complement foreign barriers to unionization. By concentrating on short-term gains by only American workers, they have helped to weaken American companies, send jobs overseas, and thwart their own efforts at unionization even here in the states.

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Add Corporate America ahead of lawyers on the short train ride to hell...

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Never again, until this P.O.S. apologizes will I shop at Home Depot. It's Tractor Supply, Lowes, Ace, and local hardware stores for me.

What a scum bag, Home Depot also loves to sell South American Hardwoods for fat ass Merkins to walk on yet depletes the rain forest. Who needs these kind of people?

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What a laugh! Those m/f'ers haven't the balls for that. I would love to see them in the streets where the people they have ruined could get at them. A friggin bloodbath, with the ceo's guts and privates hanging from the streetlights. They hide from the masses, all
the better to pull off their rape, and justify it by saying that their dirty dealings are "only what their shareholders want".

Evan if they were capable of crapping gold bricks they still would be worthless excuses for human beings. Death to them all.

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Though the average American bears little responsibility for the current crisis and it's 25 year build up. We do need to acknowledge that our use of our purchasing power has contributed greatly to the problem of top-tier wealth accumulation. In the long run we need to simply down-size our material drives (which, as it turns out usually improves our happiness - really!). By keeping our commerce as local as possible, pushing for efficiency technologies in energy, food production, transportation we will help to scale back these giant multinationals that have done so much damage to almost every aspect of our lives. Real progressives will understand that this will push us away from our out dated monetary system towards a whole new resource based economy.

Steve Martin was right.

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I was raised, and have always been, pro-Union, however, unions are only as good as those who run them & the strength of the individual members. Unions are supposed to represent everyone in the craft, not only those who can afford to pay union dues.

I worked as an underpaid staff employee many years ago for a FL university. My earnings were at or below the poverty level for the 6-1/2 yrs. I worked there. When my job was "politically" eliminated & my rights subsequently violated on a daily basis, the union would not lift a finger because I wasn't a dues-paying member. After blatant in-house blackballing, I was terminated for "medical reasons." (Several yrs. later I heard they changed this, but it was too late for me, & of course, simply stating that non-dues-paying members would receive representation does not make it true.) Unbeknownst to me at the time, I was subsequently blackballed from all State of Florida full-time employment, though I incurred over $100,000 in student loans to attend graduate school to prepare for a college-teaching career. In 2006, I finally caught the State of FL "red-handed," & have spent the past 3 yrs. of my life, though not in the greatest of health & living on a meager Social Security Disability benefit, representing myself pro se, doing my own legal research & document preparation & filing, because no attys would take my case because I have no money & "legal aid" societies do not take on cases of this magnitude.

Had I received proper & knowledgeable union representation, much of this could have been avoided, but such was not the case.

I fully support the Employee Free Choice Act, but unions MUST keep their collective "noses clean" & not behave in the same corrupt, "political" manner as the corporations & govt agencies against whom they fight for "their" rights.

If America as a country, including corporations, politicians, govt agencies, unions, & individuals fails to learn from the mistakes of the past, America, once the greatest country in the world, like Rome, will fall, and those who refuse to acknowledge that we are in an exponentially-increasing downward spiral, need to swallow their pride & take the blinders off before it is too late.

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the corps will just lay off all the salaried employees and hire them back as individual contractors.

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I support EFCA as an incremental improvement for the lives of workers, but have no illusions about it. The provisions of the bill allow for binding arbitration, a process spelled out in the NLRA of 1933, a law that has been ignored for at least a decade under the "globalists", many of whom are back in power (Summers, Geithner et.al.). Until workers understand that they hold the power of production in their own hands, these stop-gap measures will be the great distraction. The slogan of the Argentine workers who reoccupied their places of work after their financial collapse in 2001 is simple and eloquent: "Occupy, Resist, Produce". We don't need the Capitalists to teach us how to do anything. We need to teach ourselves that our lives are in our own hands. Americans especially are waiting for some Director to shout "action!" or for the inspirational background music to begin to swell...get to the barricades and force these greedy bastards to submit to the will of the people.
Solidarity for the One Big Union.

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if corporations are scared by the card check law, they are fools. most firms today are not manufacturing firms which are the primary place unions flourished in the private sector outside of mines and trucking. The latter two areas indeed might benefit from the reforms.

white collar workers are just too fragmented by job title and function to be unionized. computer programmers or lawyers in a big firm? accountants and consultants?

plus we are moving increasingly to a nation of independent contractors and parttime workers. I believe in card check, indeed until Taft Hartley is repealed, you'll never evenout the union/corporate disparity. Good luck to labor on this one, but it may be too late in terms of how the workplace is defined in a hightech world.

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Personally, I think most of thiese "corporate bandits" that headed these failed corporations gettting all these handouts should be in JAIL. Plain and simple! Instead, they get more money thrown at them for their immense FAILURES. Only in America!

RT
http://www.privacy.at.tc

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I laughed aloud when I heard the argument that AIG must pay its executives large bonuses (using taxpayer money) "because we have a contractual obligation". Here's my story: several years ago I signed a two-year contract with a cell-phone company specifying the terms of our agreement---price, equipment, service. Six months later I got a phone call from the company putting me on notice that they were changing the price, equipment, and service---to bigger price, different equipment, and less service. I said, "How can you do this? We have a contract." They said, "We are doing this for business reasons."

Oh.

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the EFCA is DOA unless the dems invoke the "nuclear option".. which may be too risky despite the importance of EFCA and other legislation...

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and their Repiglican allies by any means possible. Whether it's through unions, political action groups, or any other organizations, the continuing funneling of our hard earned money to this offal and their propaganda machine must be stopped. The country will die if we don't do this.

Is the mafia in bed with the CIA? You bet your ass it is. It's been that way for at least half a century, if not longer. The CIA is the most seditious organization in the country. It needs to be totally fumigated! I think most people will be amazed at the number and identity of some of the rats in the walls of that organization. (I don't think I will be...but it'll open a lot of eyes that are now closed when it happens. We need an end to shadow government run by corporate warthogs!)

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I would like to se the legislation have a bit more teeth. Maybe perhaps a review of the corp charter if they fail to negotiate a contract in THREE months.

AND automatic inclusion of foriegn workers into the union if any exsist.

A great deal of our problems exsist because corporations can use foreign labor that is basically free labor compared to the American worker while still able to sell to 1st world nations such as America. If the foreign worker is due the same wage as an American it makes the whole system MORE competetive.

Demand an equitable wage from companies AND property rights from governments before they are allowed to export to America or the EU.

Who Will Tell The People
by William Grieder

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Way back when on the Sawnee River, far, far away (apologies to Stephen Foster), the self-appointed dukes of slave labor sensed a growing dissatisfaction with their immoral and evil ways,at home, but especially in the hated North and started the Civil War at Ft. Sumpter. More than a century later, ronnie raygun began his own version of a civil war with the firing of air traffic controllers, and the disolution of their union. This civil war was renewed with a vengence by the bushies, who proceeded to ram an anti-labor, anti-enviornmental, and anti-freedom agenda down our throats. It's not enough to say that the problem is over by virtue of the election of Barack bama. Just as the North allowed Jim Crow laws to exist in the South following the first civil war, a lack of legal action against the bushies for multiple capital crimes, will almost surely pave the way for further abuses, and a slide into despotism.

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Larry Summers says that we must allow the bailed-out institutions to pay their officers and consultants because these are contractual obligations and, since we are a nation of law, we must honor these obligations.
What about the many times that companies have abrogated their obligations with regard to company pensions an health benefits of retirees with the blessings of government agencies?
Once again the system, Democratic or Republican, is stacked against the common man, in favor of the rich and powerful.

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Paying for access is undemocratic. Further, outlawing the practice would send packing an entire class of paid sophists. Perhaps they can find some real work to do.

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Simple basic logic: When will corporate interests recognize that it is healthy workers with fair wages to spend who support them by buying their products?

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IN MY OPINION THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED NOW OR LATER ANYWAY. IF IT WAS'NT FOR A FACT THAT IN MY OPINION THE SONS OF NIPPON PUSHED ON BY REVENGE FROM THEIR FATHERS OF WORLD WAR 2 HAD USED PRIVATE DATA FROM MERGERS COMING THROUGH www.yahoo.com EACH EMAIL READ AND MERGERS HELD TO BUY STOCK HEAVY AND THE EMAILS RELEASED TO DOUBLE, EVEN QUADRIPPLE EACH STOCK BOUGHT. IN MY OPINION AFTER 5 + YEARS LATER DECIDED TO SELL AMERICAN STOCK FROM VARIOUS COMPANIES TO DESTROY AMERICA'S ECONOMY AND IN MY OPINION ARE STILL DOING IT. ALSO IN MY OPINION CERTAIN JAPANESE IN AMERICA ARE SELLING THE STOCKS HERE IN AMERICA AND COLLECTING THROUGH OTHER JAPANESE HELD COMPANIES THROUGH SOME GAME SHOWS ALMOST EVERYDAY. NOW IF THE CORPORATIONS AND THE UNIONS DROPPED ALL THE WAGES TO A MAXIMUM $25.00 PER HOUR AND THOSE SAME CORPORATIONS DROPPED THEIR PRODUCT PRICES TO WHAT THEY WERE WHEN THE WAGES WERE $25.00 AN HOUR AND OUR GOVERNMENT BOUGHT BACK ALL STOCK AT $1 MILLION A DAY each week day for 6 months. then only buy back stock sold from the day before for 3 months. ALL STOCK WILL BE SOLD BACK INTO THE SYSTEM WHEN ALL STOCK LEVELS OFF AND ALL DIVIDENDS AND SALE OF STOCK PROFITS BE PUT IN FEDERAL RESERVE TAX FREE TO HELP AMERICA.THIS WOULD ALLOW OUR COUNTRY TO LIVE NORMAL AND OUR ECONOMY TO BE NORMAL AGAIN, BECAUSE ALL WOULD BE ABLE TO AFFORD ANYTHING. ALSO WITH ALL UNIONS AND CORPORATIONS AT THIS LEVEL AS IS MOST OUR RAW MATERIALS PRICES ARE NOW in the low money bracket, OTHER COUNTRIES AROUND THE WORLD WOULD BE BUYING MORE FROM EVERYONE. ALSO A FACT ALL GASES, EXHAUST SEPARATE IN THE ATMOSPHERE. ALL THIS DOES'NT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE OZONE= THOSE WERE FALSE RUMORS STARTED BY BUSH WHO REFUSED TO LISTEN TO THE 31,000 SCIENTISTS THAT TOLD HIM MAN WAS NEVER RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CAUSE OF GLOBAL WARMING. MY GLOBAL TEAMS AND I HAVE FOUND THE REAL SOURCE AND TEMPORARY STOPPED GLOBAL WARMING 28 DAYS OUT OF 60 LAST SUMMER/FALL. HAVE A NICE DAY. GLOBAL COMMAND (CIVILIAN)

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putting work, pride, and principle over money are not what the EFCA will get us to. Now, don't get me wrong. I know that the EFCA is not some welfare queenie bill for the employees. What I'm saying is that for decades, both the corporations and unions have allowed their obsession of money to ruin their otherwise beautiful intentions of helping one another and society. In most developed countries, corporations and unions are getting along just fine and the CEOs aren't quite as dirty minded as the ones here. The "greed is good" mentality is what needs to be surgically removed from the mindset or the EFCA is basically null and void.

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Fuck all you corporate suckers. Fuck all you anti union bastards. And the horses you rode on!

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Soviet Union. That wasn't communism. The party chairman-CEO. Politburo-board of directors. KGB-security, with an army, navy & air force for good measure. Everybody else-employees. The employees were (and still are) treated like shit, sort of like we are. A corporation is a thing. An unfeeling nasty thing run by sociopaths. Greedy, nasty bastards who want you as slaves devoted to them and who will do and say anything to keep it the way they want.

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Some management is good, some bad; some unions are good, some bad. Increased unionization would not necessarily be a good thing. What would be much better would be a sense of commonweal, a sense of a shared, common purpose between management and workers. The main problem is not a lack of unions, but the extreme atomization of the social and political system--each dog for himself and eating all other dogs. Had we a sense of the collective, of the common good, we wouldn't need unions.

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"After I got religion and settled down
They got me a job in the canning works
And every morning I had to fill
The tank in the yard with gasoline
That fed the blow-fire in the sheds
To heat the soldering irons,
And I mounted a rickety ladder to do it,
Carrying buckets full of the stuff.
One morning, as I stood there pouring,
The air grew still and seemed to heave
And I shot up as the tank exploded,
And down I came with both legs broken
And my eyes burned crisp as a couple of eggs
For someone left a blow-fire going
And something sucked the flame in the tank.
The Circuit Judge said whoever did it
Was a fellow-servant of mine and so
Old Man Rhodes didn't have to pay me.
And I sat on the witness stand as blind
As Jack the Fiddler, saying over and over,
"But I didn't know him at all."

E L Masters, "Spoon River Anthology"

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http://www.trilateral.org/annmtgs/programs/08washington.htm

The meeting of this Trilateral Commission defies our laws. Americans meeting behind closed doors with foreign leaders and persons violates the Logan Act.

Groups such as these decide who gets what (mostly the EU royals) from us.

Demand we not protect or support this group. Their plan for PNAC goals is theirs not ours. Demand our Justice Department deny it to meet here with any Americans. They threaten our security and future.

Meeting under our noses without press or Americans not allowed to see what is said by who, etc. is plain arrogance and treason. As a representative of the people I expect you (the President, Congress, etc.) to protest this group who thinks they represent our future goals. They are elite and not elected to represent us.

Arrest any who attend this meeting since they violate the Logan Act. Demand the police who protect them with our dollars not arrest protestors, etc.

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Somehow I get a bad feeling about alternet's motives. I just wrote a comment to the Jim Hightower article about workers' rights and clicked preview. My comment disappeared with the admonishment that I needed to do something else. Poof, gone. I forgot to copy it before clicking preview. Just want to warn folks about this as my comment was favorable to workers' rights.

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I love how bills are now given propagandised names instead of numbers. Feel good stuff, right. Perfect for the functionally illiterate majority.

Of course, no one really prevents unions from organizing workers now. there are plenty of legal protections.

Any moron can sign a card without knowing what it means. How many of the fools signed up for ARMs??

This is a power grab, pure and simple. Secret elections are the American Way.

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The author does not suggest solutions or who to contact the law makers to demonstrate our FULL SUPPORT for this bill. If anyone has ideas on how to help push this through congress, please help to make this happen unchanged and "unbastardized" by corporate America

Thank you

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First of all, this is a great first step in trying to restore some rights to labor. That having been said, however, this will only be the beginning. Corporations are like teenagers. If you tell them they can't have something, they will spend money and hours beyond your wildest imaginations to prove you wrong. This too shall be the case. Somehow, some way, they will be beat labor on this. The status quo of employer/employee relations is a culmination of more than 70 years of work and determination by corporate America. Do you actually think a small two bit piece of legislation is going to make a difference? Make no mistake ladies and gentlemen, this is only the beginning.
It's rather ironic. We hear of corp revenues/profit being down (for the most part)and the corp menace are crying big tears. Why? Token pay raises and job outsourcing. American workers simply have no money to spend anymore.

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FANNIE plans bonuses of up to $611K for 4 execs... Developing...
AIG boss asks bonus recipients to return half the cash...
*Concerned for safety of employees; doesn't want to disclose names...
Hedge Funds May Get AIG Bailout Cash...
VIDEO: Taxpayers Gather In Cities To Protest Spending, Growing Debt...

THIS IS HOW DEMS MANAGE AN ECONOMY...THE SAME DEMS THAT ALLOW FANNIE TO BE LOOTED (BY DEMS RAINES & GORELICK), THEN ALLOW FANNIE BONUSES...
THEY ARE SO INEPT BECAUSE THEY NEVER RAN A BUSINESS...THEY JUST KNOW "WHAT THE DEM KOOKS" TOLD THEM IN COLLEGE CLASSES...

DID I MENTION THE POSTAL SERVICE LOST 7 BILLION THE PAST 2 YEARS AND THEY STOLE ALL OF OUR SOCIAL SECURITY RESERVES TO BUY VOTES?

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March 18, 2009
BREAKING: I was responsible for bonus loophole, says Dodd
Posted: 05:56 PM ET

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Senate Banking committee Chairman Christopher Dodd told CNN’s Dana Bash and Wolf Blitzer Wednesday that he was responsible for adding the bonus loophole into the stimulus package that permitted AIG and other companies that received bailout funds to pay bonuses.

Watch: I'm responsible for bonus loophole, Dodd says

On Tuesday, Dodd denied to CNN that he had anything to do with the adding of that provision.

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NYT: Democrat Sen. Chris Dodd for the first time Wednesday acknowledged he was instrumental in creating legislation that cleared the way for disgraced executives at taxpayer-rescued AIG to walk away with hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses. And the Connecticut Democrat had to explain the receipt of more than $100,000 in campaign donations, including from Redding man Leonid Shekhtman, last cycle from AIG workers, vowing to return any tainted contributions from company executives.

CRAWISH NOTE: Democrat Dodd lied, CEOs fried...That last line is more like the blame-shifting dems we all know...they can't manage a hot dog stand...or the Postal Service or Social Security reserves or the border or or....but they sure can mouth off about how great secular socialism will be...after a few trillion dollars (borrowed) and a few thousand laws. NOT.
Will Obama give back his $102,000 also? NOT.

http://conservablogs.com/theconservativecrawfish

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I believe that the problem we are overlooking is the philosophy that these college trained CEO’s are receiving. They were never taught or have forgotten that a company is not just the steel and mortar brilliantly shining in the sunlight. The company is the people who work and sweat there. Without the workers the building would rot away. The motto of the so called financial wizards who run our industry should be: “ the working people come first and the company second.”

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unions are the trojan horse of the powerful to take away our american companies. we don't need unions anymore, we have a lot of laws protecting the workers...www.henrybook.com

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Agenda on track despite worsening deficits…$9.3 trillion in next 10 years…
Highest ratio to GDP since 1940s

CRAWFISH NOTE: You wanted an inexperienced smooth smiling kool radical secular socialist…ya got one.
Take another look at your 401K cause that mega-drop is gonna be your Labor Day and Thanksgiving present too…along with a huge box of baloney democrat excuses. Ya gonna pay and pay and pay for all this vote-buying spend-a-thon. We are talking taxes and inflation…and inflation hammers the “little guy” more…as usual the libs trash their own voters the most with their “good intentions equals bad results” approach socialism.

Jimmah Carter is back…suckers.

http://conservablogs.com/theconservativecrawfish

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Mar 22, 7:29 AM (ET), By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN
FAIRFIELD, Conn. (AP) - A busload of activists representing working- and middle-class families paid visits Saturday to the lavish homes of American International Group executives to protest the tens of millions of dollars in bonuses awarded by the struggling insurance company after it received a massive federal bailout.
About 40 protesters sought to urge AIG executives who received a portion of the $165 million in bonuses to do more to help families.

CRAWFISH NOTE: Will any “protesters” visit the homes of Raines, Gorelick or Johnson? They are the never-mentioned-cause-we-got-a pass democrats that looted Fannie-Freddie for over $110 million of your tax money for platinum parachute bonuses as those quasi-gov-meant institutions LOST billions. Well, when is the congress going to do that? Ohhh, never…sue-prise, sue-prize.

By the way, what any CEO makes is only the business of the shareholders. The business of theft from gov-meant should be the business of congress…but its NOT. More liberal demonizing of private industry while our bloated ever-growing gov-meant gets zero scrutiny if any democrat loots it. Same ole democrats.

Did I mention democrats wrote the CEOs’ “bonus okay” into the STIM bill then lied about that? Yep, same ole democrats.
Demonizing a CEO never created a job or helped your sick IRA…suckers.

http://conservablogs.com/theconservativecrawfish

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Fuck all you corporate lovers and anti union assholes! And take your secret ballot and shove it up where the sun don't shine!

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