I was reading some articles and tweets online about the move by Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s foundation to cut its funding to Planned Parenthood of America. One little tidbit in a Mother Jones article jumped right out at me however.

Karen Handel was named senior vice president at Komen in April 2011, and is now "leading the organization’s federal and state advocacy efforts." But before joining Komen, she was a candidate in the Republican gubernatorial primary in Georgia, and was critical of Planned Parenthood. "[S]ince I am pro-life, I do not support the mission of Planned Parenthood," she wrote in a blog post, and pledged to eliminate all state funds for breast and cervical cancer screening to the group if she were elected governor.

Well, that sure does look like a smoking gun doesn’t it? Of course Susan G. Komen for the Cure is denying that right wing pressure had anything to do with their decision. It really is a shame though. I hope Karen Handel was really worth hiring because they’re going to loose a lot of money when it’s all said and done.

Update – Looks like Planned Parenthood has been able to raise a good amount of money off of this injustice.

And Planned Parenthood has raised more than $400k in wake of Komen decision bit.ly/A0PNyr

— Kate Sheppard (@kate_sheppard) February 1, 2012

Update II – Ezra Klein points out another women that is responsible for the Komen defunding of Planned Parenthood.

Meet the woman who got Komen to defund Planned Parenthood: wapo.st/wx4tXn

— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) February 2, 2012

Update III – Top Komen official resigned over Planned Parenthood Cave-In

The FDA spied on a group of scientists and doctors for two years. Why? Well, they were sort of going to go to Congress and warn them that the agency was approving risky medical devices.

Information garnered this way eventually contributed to the harassment or dismissal of all six of the FDA employees, the suit alleges. All had worked in an office responsible for reviewing devices for cancer screening and other purposes.

The group of doctors and scientists, who are basically whistle blowers, are arguing that their constitutional rights to privacy were violated–even with the FDA posting notices that no one should have a “reasonable expectation to privacy.” I have to say that this does sort of look like a Watergate-like virtual break-in by the FDA. This just goes to show you that if you are going to be a whistle blower, you’d better cover all your bases and ensure that your communications are done securely off of the premises.

As if Chevron didn’t have its hands tied in Ecuador; we now read that they face an $11 billion lawsuit for an oil spill in Brazil.

In environmental news, the oil giant Chevron is facing a possible $11 billion lawsuit in Brazil following an offshore oil spill in November. A Brazilian prosecutor has announced plans to file criminal charges against Chevron and some of its local managers within weeks. Transocean, whose rig was used in the operation, is also expected to be charged.

This is what you get when you get when you allow a corporation to run wild with little regulation. And guess what? Transocean is involved in this disaster as well!

I’m actually surprised to hear this. Granted, this is in Europe and not the United States.

The Royal Bank of Scotland’s chief executive, Stephen Hester, will not accept a £1 million ($1.5 million) bonus that drew criticism from the British public and politicians, the bank said Sunday.

A representative for the bank, David Gaffney, said Mr. Hester would not receive the bonus of 3.6 million shares he was awarded last week by the bank’s board.

The British people still own 82 percent of the bank. They spent the U.S. equivalent of somewhere around $71 billion dollars bailing RBS out.

I find it interesting that instead of calling out the GOP presidential field, the president’s campaign has gone after the Koch brothers. Strategically this is kind of intriguing because it really doesn’t give his political opponents like Romney et al., the chance to respond directly.

If they chose to respond to the ad they would in essence be going on the record defending the Koch brothers and not talking about their candidacies.

Working retail is horrible, especially in New York; as this NY Times article shows. Actually, working in retail in the City of White Plains NY is what radicalized me to be as anti-corporate as I am today. You are not treated as a human being, but rather as an input; a commodity.

In his book The Big Squeeze, Steven Greenhouse highlighted numerous cases of workers not being paid on time. He also talked about how management would have their employees working off-the-clock. Last but not least, we should not forget that some retail stores have a scrooge-like break policy to boot.

As I continued to read this article, it doesn’t seem much has changed in the decade since I left retail:

The study, based on interviews with nonunion workers and released on Monday, largely found poverty wages and highly unstable schedules for the city’s retail employees, with less than a fifth having a set schedule each work week. The study said many workers had a hard time planning for, say, child care or classes because more than half learned their schedules a week or less before a work week would begin.

The other thing that bothered me about retail is how mindless the work can be. You are not challenged in any way; other than by how many units you can push out the door. To work in retail you have to also like sales, and I dislike both. I was always more about helping people than trying to sell them something.

The last major issue that I almost forgot to mention is wages. Most retail workers make between $8 or $9 dollars an hour. A retail job will not allow you to live on your own. Those earnings put you below the poverty line.

I did not know that Greyhound was a political firm. After reading about how some Occupy Wall Street protestors were kicked off of a bus traveling to Washington D.C. this weekend; I see now that they do have an ideology.

The driver, Donald Ainsworth, allegedly called the Occupiers “you people” and told them they were not welcome in Washington or anywhere else. It is not clear whether there had been any precipitating incident.

So is Greyhound the official Tea Party Express now?

Update – Someone has started a petition on Change.org to ask Greyhound to fire the driver who kicked the OWS people off of the bus.

Here’s something Jerry Jones probably doesn’t want people to know about.

But in the gift shops inside Cowboys Stadium and in sports apparel stores around the nation, Cowboys fans are buying fancy jackets, jerseys and other gear made by Cambodian workers earning just 29 cents an hour for 10-hour days, six days a week.

It is one of the worst thought out pieces of legislation to come down the pipeline in quite some time. The movement against this bill’s passage in Congress has gained tremendous traction. We’re at the point where politically agnostic online firms such as WordPress have been compelled to speak out.

The legislation in question is called the Stop Online Piracy Act and you need to know about it. If SOPA and it’s companion bill in the U.S. Senate are passed, the United States would mirror countries like China in their blocking of Internet websites. If both houses of the United States Congress are brazen and reckless enough to pass this law, it will be up to the President of the United States to veto the bill.

It’s not like the people who are against SOPA/PIPA are pro-piracy. The MPAA, RIAA and other firms who hold intellectual property copyrights already have venues to pursue offenders. It is time they realize that you simply cannot stop all piracy no matter how hard you try. There’s no sense in dragging the rest of us down a draconian rabbit hole in their pursuit of a magic pill.

Photo credit: Taken from Raw Story article.  Flickr user through my eyes. Right: Castle Harlan, Inc. CEO John K. Castle, courtesy CastleHarlan.com.

Sadly, this is how many in the 1 percent who have lost touch with us commoners must think of the people who “serve” them. Social Darwinists of the world unite! If you attain a certain status level in life you are allowed to break the fingers of those beneath you.

The minor misstep so enraged Castle, who heads the New York-based private equity firm Castle Harlan, Inc., that he allegedly grabbed the 54-year-old waiter’s left hand and began twisting his fingers, even as Castle’s wife sat watching.

All because the waiter dared bring him his check. Yes, he was supposed to put it on the 1 percent CEO’s tab! How dare this common manservant defy the financial caste system!