New Orleans Reading an surprisingly good article in the New York Times about the union fight in Indonesia against the great mega-retailer Carrefour to win rights for contract workers that they thought they had gained in a strike earlier this year, I was struck by how blind we all are to similar worker exploitation right …
Tag: NYT
Predatory Student Loan Travesty
New Orleans Ok, one hand is clapping. There was some progress on student loans under the Obama Administration. The huge billion dollar scam that was subsidizing banks was kyboshed and federal loans were taken away from the private sector. Furthermore, President Obama won some limits on payments and implemented some forgiveness programs, especially for public …
Whistleblowers and Wiki-leaks: Hater Talk, Half-Step Walk
New Orleans Reading the long story in The New Yorker recently, it was clear that Thomas A. Drake was no dream employee at National Security Agency (NSA), but it was even more obvious that trying to convict him of the Espionage Act was ridiculous, so seeing him plead out on a misdemeanor deal is probably …
Bullseye on Public Sector Workers and Unions
New Orleans For all the talk about the U.S. Congress and what it might do at the hands of the new majority, there’s still a couple of circuit breakers handling too much power surge when business has to go to the Senate or even face a Presidential veto. In the states rouge legislators could be …
Qualifying Parties via Internet
New Orleans In a piece about the feinting being done by billionaire NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Matt Bai in the New York Times correctly pointed out that not only money but “ballot access” was a huge impediment to alternative political parties and candidacies. A throwaway comment though got me thinking when he mentioned that qualifying …