The conservatives have done the same thing with the Labor Secretary.

From the NLRB Chairman via Work in Progress:

“I am disappointed that we still do not have a fully constituted Board despite the naming of three nominees last summer. The Board has been in limbo for a long time. For more than two years, the Board has had to operate with three vacancies, leaving only myself and Member Peter Schaumber to decide the hundreds of cases that come before us. We have done our best to carry out the Board’s important work, issuing more than 500 decisions in cases involving thousands of workers across the country. But our authority to do so has been challenged and now the Supreme Court will decide whether we can continue to function. At the same time, the Board has been unable to move forward on the most significant cases before it. I look forward to a time in the near future when the Board is back at full capacity resolving issues vital to American workers and their employers.”

I agree with Ralph Nader on this point.

Roslyn and Howard Zinn left two children, Myla and Jeff, and five grandchildren. Together with his publisher, Dan Simon of 7 Stories Press, his editor, Matthew Rothschild, his interviewer, Amy Goodman, his associate, Anthony Arnove, and his innumerable writers and fighters for justice, for the principle that the truth is revolutionary, why not a well-funded and staffed Institute, organizing from the neighborhoods on up, as he urged so often, with horizons for all seasons, as befits his vision?

Nader suggests it be called the Howard Zinn Institute for Advancing Peace and Justice.

Remember those bailouts? Uh yeah..

When the financial industry tumbled, Greenwich’s fortunes fell with it. Now, as the federal bailout has helped lift investment banks to surprisingly robust profits, the news that major financial firms will dole out billions of dollars in salaries and bonuses this year came as welcome relief here, even though the rest of the country is still grappling with 10 percent unemployment.

This was one of the most saddest emails I’ve gotten from MoveOn ever.

Melanie Shouse has died.

Melanie was a small business owner from Missouri battling stage four breast cancer, who also had to fight with insurance companies who didn’t want to pay for her treatment. She didn’t take that lying down—she spoke out, she protested, she became a leader in the movement for a more just health care system. Maybe you remember the video thank-you she sent to you and other TrueMajority members last October for being part of that movement.

The cancer took Melanie’s life last week. To her family, we can only express our deepest regret and sympathy. If you’d like to send your sympathy as well, you can sign our guest book, and we’ll deliver your messages to the family this weekend.

Aetna, Cigna, Humana, GHI, UnitedHealthcare, Blue Cross and Blue Shield are all responsible.

I must say that I find this rather odd. A corporation that prides itself on their “third place” business model allowing gun-totting tea baggers in to brandish their steel openly.

Over the past few months, more and more gun owners have been gathering at restaurants and coffee shops like Starbucks with guns strapped to their hips, intimidating fellow patrons.

Businesses can legally prohibit guns from being carried in their establishments – and so far, Peet’s Coffee & Tea and California Pizza Kitchen have heeded customer concerns and barred the open carrying of guns.

But Starbucks is refusing to prohibit the open carrying of firearms in its stores, despite protests from loyal customers.

It really makes no sense.

Thanks, United States Supreme Court majority in Citizen’s United v. FEC….

Now that the Supreme Court has ruled that corporations are entitled to the same free speech and political rights as American citizens, Murray Hill, Inc., a public relations and advertising firm in Maryland has announced that it intends to run for Congress in Maryland’s 8th Congressional district. In an undated press release posted on the company’s Web site, Murray Hill says, “Until now, corporate interests had to rely on campaign contributions and influence-peddling to achieve their goals in Washington. But thanks to an enlightened Supreme Court, now we can eliminate the middle-man and run for office ourselves.” Murray Hill states that it plans on spending “top dollar” to protect its investment in government, adding, “We bought it, we paid for it, and we’re going to keep it.”

Guess what? They’re running as Republicans as well.

I tend to put the anti-vaccination crowd up there with the “birthers” and the “truthers.” Now the Lancet gives us the ammunition.

Yesterday, the medical journal the Lancet retracted a 12-year-old paper by Dr. Andrew Wakefield, which helped fan a scare about vaccines and autism.

Now discredited, the report looked at just a dozen children who developed behavioral and intestinal problems. Eight of them had been recently vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella.

I have to say that Starbucks deserves to be raked over hot coals for this incident.

Kati Moore filed a lawsuit against Starbucks in 2007 because of the company’s failure to act when she told her manager about the abuse she was going through.  She is rightfully suing for monetary damages due to Starbucks’ failure to comply with the law when her superiors in the company obtained knowledge of sexual assault between a minor and an adult, as well as a worker and a boss.

At the young age of 16, Kati was introduced to the workforce with her first job as a barista at a Starbucks in Orange County, CA.  She was quickly taken advantage of by her then-24-year-old, Shift Supervisor, Tim Horton.  Horton coerced Kati into a sexually abusive relationship.  As the situation worsened, Kati bravely sought help by disclosing the abuse to her assistant store manager.

This gets even worse.

When the company got word that Kati’s story–which has been public knowledge for years–would be aired on national television, Starbucks issued several company-wide memos that reeked of lies and deception.  The most disgusting assertion the company made was that what happened was a “consensual relationship.”  This statement is not only false in more ways than one, but de-criminalizes the actions of Tim Horton and re-victimizes the experience of Kati Moore and others that have experienced sexual abuse.

I’ve actually never stopped to think that having 200 people inside of a structure as not being productive. This blog post raises a good point.

Living with more than 10 people is unnatural unless you come from a very big family. Ideally, there would be no more than five people in a shared dwelling, to simulate normal living conditions. I’ve always said that learning to live with 50 or more people is no kind of preparation for independent living beyond homelessness. Any community that size takes a lot of work to remain healthy and can cause significant stress to its members if it isn’t. In fact, there should be some kind of guidebook for living in any of the bigger homeless shelters as the experience is overwhelming, stressful, and an unrealistic representation of life off the streets.

I’m happy that Markos of Daily Kos took the time to highlight this post.

More than a third of the streetlights in Colorado Springs will go dark Monday. The police helicopters are for sale on the Internet. The city is dumping firefighting jobs, a vice team, burglary investigators, beat cops — dozens of police and fire positions will go unfilled.

The parks department removed trash cans last week, replacing them with signs urging users to pack out their own litter.

Neighbors are encouraged to bring their own lawn mowers to local green spaces, because parks workers will mow them only once every two weeks. If that.  Water cutbacks mean most parks will be dead, brown turf by July; the flower and fertilizer budget is zero.

Drown government in the bathtub indeed.