Bishop William Murphy addressed these issues in the 2010 Labor Day Statement of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, saying, “New jobs with just wages and benefits must be created so that all workers can express their dignity through the dignity of work and are able to fulfill God’s call to us all to be co-creators.”

via Keeping Faith In Labor.

I’ve always been moved by the Church’s insistance on economic justice for workers all over the world. Though I do not follow any organized religion, but do beleive that there is “something.” I am happy to see this.

During the worldwide financial crisis, Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, who also carries the title of co-prince of Andorra, placed himself at the helm of an international crusade to clamp down on tax evasion. Mr. Sarkozy told Andorra to fall in line if it did not want to be ostracized, even threatening in early 2009 to drop his princely title. Spain, desperate to plug its ballooning budget deficit, also became more determined to recoup money hidden in offshore accounts.

Andorra complied, signing agreements with its two neighbors as well as with several other countries to collaborate on cross-border fraud investigations. As a result, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development removed Andorra last year from its list of “uncooperative tax havens.”

via Andorra, a Tiny Tax Haven, Tries Openness – NYTimes.com.

I was one of the most thrilled when the IRS went after UBS for its list of names of Americans with tax heavens. In the end governments need the tax revenue from not only the commoners buf from the elite as well.

If you live or work in the district I think this is worth listening to. I liked what he was saying about splitting up a deputy mayor position so that it focuses not only on real estate development but business development as well. When it comes to local elections it basically comes down to economic conditions, education and crime. DC has had issues in all three of these areas. There has been some good economic development in the NW quadrant but it has not been smart growth.

I’m reminded of books like Big Box Swindle who highlight what the reliance on chain stores and big boxes does to an area. I’m also reminded of the Great American Jobs Scam by Greg LeRoy. Where he talked about how corporations and developers were getting a Free Lunch and not paying their fair share in taxes. If the Gray administration does anything to address these sorts of problems then it will be a major improvement.

Sure there has been some efforts at development in Wards 7 and 8 like the Navy Yard, but you can’t tell me that that is all the current administration has to show for development. As far as eduction goes Michelle Rhee may be Fenty’s best move, but we won’t know that for a few years. All of the painful layoffs she has made do not make her look good. For her sake and for Fenty’s her decisions better pan out.

I also liked that Gray mentioned public transportation in one his website videos on urbanism. I’d love to hear what he would do about WMATA! Chairman Gray you have got to realize we’re suffering in this regard! On a closing note isn’t it great that DC has some politics to pay attention to! There’s a tight race and all eyes are on Washington. In the past DCers probably would travel into Maryland and Virginia to get involved in campaigns. I think it is great that they have a chance to do something right where they are.

All three tycoons are the latest incarnation of what the historian Kim Phillips-Fein labeled “Invisible Hands” in her prescient 2009 book of that title: those corporate players who have financed the far right ever since the du Pont brothers spawned the American Liberty League in 1934 to bring down F.D.R. You can draw a straight line from the Liberty League’s crusade against the New Deal “socialism” of Social Security, the Securities and Exchange Commission and child labor laws to the John Birch Society-Barry Goldwater assault on J.F.K. and Medicare to the Koch-Murdoch-backed juggernaut against our “socialist” president.

via Op-Ed Columnist – The Billionaires Bankrolling the Tea Party – NYTimes.com.

As they say follow the money. It’s amazing how tied they are to the John Birch Society.

So I got this email from the Spiegel Group about DC Douglas’ latest video making fun of Freedom Works and I thought why not spread the word!

Of course the first video he did was even funnier.

Plus he’s also a DCite and I got to support us DC metro area people

“Anybody that builds a building in New York City changes its skyline – we dont have to run around to every other owner and apologize,” he said. “One guy owns a building, hed like to have it be the only tall building – Im sorry, thats not the real world.”

via NYC allows new neighbor for Empire State Building.

Real estate developers and owners often get to walk all over municipal governments. They dictate almost everything and usually NYC and the Bloomberg administration is beholden to those developers and &c. This time however it seems one owner will not get his way.

Ms Ariyawathie, a mother of three, travelled to Saudi Arabia in March to become a housemaid.

Doctors say this X-ray shows nails embedded in the housemaids hand Last week, she flew back to Sri Lanka and was admitted to hospital in the south of the island, where she told doctors she had undergone abuse for more than a month.

“When we checked her, we found 24 metal pieces in her legs and hands. She still cant properly sit down and walk,” Dr Kamal Weerathunga told BBC Sandeshaya.Doctors said Ms Ariyawathie was deeply traumatised and unable to give full details of her experience.

via BBC News – Maid tortured with nails to have surgery.

Some news about our friends in the “Kingdom.”

Xerox recently told 19 workers they must transfer departments or leave the company.What do these workers have in common? Theyre all fighting for a fair union contract.While Xerox tramples on its workers rights at home, Xeroxs outsourcing division is trying to ship those jobs – and thousands of jobs like them – overseas.Tell Xerox CEO Ursula Burns: Our economy needs good jobs, not unionbusting and outsourcing.

via Tell Xerox to Stop Unionbusting and Shipping Jobs Overseas.

I’d think twice before getting any machinery from Xerox.

Why light bulbs and windows? “Because these are things the Han had; we lived in primitive dwellings,” he recalled. “I think that’s when many Uighurs opened their eyes and saw what was happening around them.”

via The Saturday Profile – A Uighur Intellectual Who Won’t Back Down in China – Biography – NYTimes.com.

Ultimatley this is what happens. Whether it is national or global those without will start to foster animosity for those who have and those taking wealth from those without. Look at what happens in Africa and Latin America we take their resources but do we give enough back?

The latest action — the third recall announcement in two weeks for eggs — is bound to shake the confidence of consumers rattled by a succession of food safety scares in recent years, most prominently for foods like beef and lettuce.

The idea that half a billion suspect eggs have been circulating in the food supply comes as an embarrassment for the egg industry and federal regulators. New egg safety rules went into effect in July that the Food and Drug Administration had said would prevent tens of thousands of salmonella illnesses a year.

via Second Iowa Producer Recalls 170 Million Eggs – NYTimes.com.

First watch Food Inc if you have not already.

Now I’ve never been one to curse but I am starting to see the tactical purpose of well placed F words when referrng to corporate America. With that said what is wrong with your food industry? Eggs with salmonella, beeef and lettuce with E. coli? I mean what the hell man?!

Do the American people even care about what is going into their bodies anymore? Granted, we can’t control everything but this is blatant. The hatred in this country by the poweful towards government regulation is klling people. For years we have had a feckless Food and Drug Administration we could have tea parties about this for years!