Steelworkers Form Collaboration with MONDRAGON, the World’s Largest Worker-Owned Cooperative

http://usw.org/media_center/releases_advisories?id=0234

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote."

Are you going to call Franklin a right wing extremist?

Americans are overpaid

For the global economy to rebalance, the pay gap between Americans and the rest of the world must shrink.

.............U.S. workers are overpaid, relative to equally productive foreigners doing the same work. If the global economy is ever to get back into balance, that gap needs to be closed.

..............There are so many factors working to push up productivity in poor countries. Fast development, cheap capital, and more efficient shipping all help make foreign factories more competitive. Cheap global communication through the Internet reduces all sorts of costs and makes it easy to trade many more goods and especially services.

.......... the recession has revealed many workers are paid more than they are worth.


...........The big U.S. trade deficit -- cut in half but still at alarmingly high levels -- is another sign of excessive pay for Americans. One explanation for the attractive prices of imported goods is that U.S. workers are paid too much, relative to their foreign peers.

...........Global wage convergence is great for the poor but tough on the overpaid rich. It's possible to run the numbers to show that U.S. manufacturing workers should take average real wage cuts of as much as 20% to get into global balance.



http://money.cnn.com/2009/11/11/news/international/global_american_wages.breakingviews/index.htm

Pres Obama

"We must compile every piece of information that was known about the gunman, and we must learn what was done with that information," Obama said, according to an advance text of his address. "Once we have those facts, we must act upon them. If there was a failure to take appropriate action before the shootings, there must be accountability."

Since it's inception, Christianity has been the most violence prone religion in history.

Did they feel some need to make a .22 sound somehow more exotic ?
VVVV guess i'm just not up on my modern ammo rounds and exotic weaponry, well, i'm going out and play with my trebuche

The thing about the round and gun this guy was using - a 5.7mm FN (Five-seven, probably), the round is small - 28 or 40 grains, but it's doing almost 2,000 fps. That's 330-340 foot-lbs of energy each. Compared to a standard 9mm at 12-1400 fps, 115-140 grains (310-475 foot-lbs each). What it means is that this thing can zip through you like butter and just as likely zip into or through another person near you as well, unless it hits one of your bones and continues ricocheting inside of you. Earliest commercial loads were discontinued because they were penetrating Level IIA vests in testing.

http://www.upstreamonline.com/live/article197622.ece

PTTEP kills Montara leak


By Anthea Pitt

PTTEP has successfully killed the leaking H1 well at the Montara development in the Timor Sea, extinguishing the main fire which engulfed the development's wellhead platform and jack-up rig West Atlas.

The company said some material on the West Atlas' topsides still appears to be on fire, but this should burn down as the fuel source burns out.

The fire erupted on Sunday as PTTEP battled to plug the leaking wellbore.

The company said a team of well control experts from Alert Well Control pumped about 3400 barrels of heavy mud into the relief well, capping the fire.

The operation began at 1440 CST (0510 GMT) and the main fire was reported to be out at 1548 CST (0618 GMT).

PTTEP drilling experts who are monitoring online well data in Perth said the situation was stable and well pressure was being maintained.

The company declared the well kill completed at about 1715 CST (0745 GMT) today.

The well continues to be monitored and a mixture of light mud and brine is being pumped into the relief well.

It is understood the well will be monitored closely for 24 to 48 hours.

PTTEP will now present a safety case revision to the National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority and reboard the wellhead platform to assess the damage and to plan for the next phases of the operation.

Once the platform is secure, specialists from Alert Well Control will reboard the facility as work on determining the best strategy to plug the well gets under way.

However, PTTEP said this work will be difficult as the cantilever deck of the West Atlas buckled in the fire before collapsing on to the wellhead paltform deck.

Norwegian drilling contractor Seadrill is preparing to send a team to the site to assess the damage to the jack-up.

Seadrill's Hilde Waaler said: "We do not have a specific time for when it will be possible to reboard the unit.

"However, from photos we can see the damage to the unit is severe. It may be that the rig will have to be written off."

She added that as well as the damage to the cantilever deck, it appears that the jack-up's derrick has collapsed, which effectively cripples the unit.

Waaler confirmed that the West Atlas, which was fully insured for $200 million, was contracted to PTTEP until October at a dayrate of $225,000. The jack-up had no further assignments on its books.

Meanwhile, PTTEP's chief financial officer Jose Martins said: “We are relieved and thankful that we have killed the well and stopped the main fire. We still have a lot more work to do and our priority is now to determine the best method of plugging the H1 wellbore."

He pledged that PTTEP would co-operate fully with a public inquiry into the incident foreshadowed by Energy Minister Martin Ferguson yesterday.

Ferguson has said the inquiry into the accident - the first on such a scale in 25 years - will be "full and independent". He added the incident "clearly had an impact on the standing of the oil and gas industry in Australia".

PTTEP's Martins said: “We will continue to work closely with the Australian Maritime Safety Authority to clean up the spill and the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage & the Arts as it rolls out what is likely to be the largest industry environmental monitoring programme ever seen in Australia.

“PTTEP remains committed to fully funding the spill clean up and environmental monitoring programs being undertaken by the lead federal government agencies."

Peak industry body the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association (APPEA) issued a statement voicing strong support for the upcoming inquiry and plans for a long-term environmental monitoring programme.

The H1 well blew out on 21 August.

PTTEP has estimated the leak from the damaged wellbore at between 300 to 400 barrels of oil per day, but the Department of Resources, Energy & Tourism told a Senate committee last week it believed up to 2000 bpd was leaking into the sea.

Based on the Thai operator's figures, between 21,300 and 28,400 barrels have leached into the Timor Sea since the blowout.

The area surrounding the Montara development is home to a wide variety of marine wildlife, including several species of dolphin, sea turtles, sea snakes and humpback whales, as well as migratory sea birds.

Last week, the federal government released a report saying birds and marine species were at risk from the spill.

The report said that while the total effects of the spill were yet to be determined, scientists had found dead and dying birds, as well as sea snakes in the spill zone.

Over five days of observation, 462 whales and dolphins, 2801 birds, 62 sea snakes and 25 turtles were logged in the affected area.

Montara was originally due to come on stream at the end of the year at a rate of 35,000 barrels per day, but the blowout and spill forced PTTEP to delay start-up until the second quarter of next year.

At present it is not known when the field will be brought into production.

PTTEP said its insurance will cover up to US$270 million of losses from the incident. In the third quarter of this year, it booked US$155 million in expenditures related to the leak.

Actually parinoia is something that belongs exclusivly to the left.

Neither seated Governor won, even with the President and Vice-President stumping for them. You can spin it however you want. Neither won.

NY-23 race most figured was a shoe in for the democrats. When it became so it was so close that it couldnt be called until this morning many were were shocked.

November 6, 2001,****Morris said of the "two Democratic victories" in New Jersey and Virginia: "If you have a Republican president, people are going to vote Democrat, and if you have a Democrat president, they're going to vote Republicans. That's why the Republicans got 37 governorships while Clinton was president." Morris added: "[N]ow the Democrats are picking them all off because Bush is president. People want divided government, and that's what you're seeing, and that's what you will see in '02, a Democratic trend, not because they don't like Bush" (Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, 11/6/2001; via Nexis)

One Term And Out......

Seems like media after media are calling the election as a wakeup call for Obama and the Democrats.

Most in the GOP were pleasantly surprised with how close the conservative candidate did come in NY-23 race considering all the problems that came up the last week.

And a seat that's been Republican for 100 years is now held by a Democrat.

Looks like the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate's war with Fox sure has paid off for fox in ratings and trips to the bank.

Guess the title of this thread should read "the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate's Untruths Mean $$$$$$$$ Signs to Fox

Obama Congressional sweep continues !!!!!!!!!!!

Two Seats Dem last night.... A seat held since 1870................


1870..... Thats over 50 years!!!!! ha

The media last night was full of newscasters talking about what the defeats meant to Obama and the message it was sending to Congress especially the Blue Dogs, and it was not only FOX.

Obama Election Defeat Termed 'Astonishing'

http://www.pacificprogressive.com/2009/08/this-could-be-the-next-big-issue-in-health-reform.html

If this idea was a good one, they should legislate that every car over 5 years old has to go into the crushers and that the only new cars that can be purchased have to get 40 miles to the gallon. That way we'd really get those auto plants humming, increase employment, save the planet, and move onto other things.

FOX "making sh*t up" ... fake "news"...

,,,,,,,,,the two weeks prior to the White House dispute cover the dates from September 28-October 11. The two weeks after that cover the dates from October 12-October 25.
But the tabulation used to come up with the 9 percent ratings gain (i.e. 1.2 million vs. 1.3 million) only measured Fox News' post-controversy ratings from October 12-October 23, which meant it was a 14-day comparison vs. a 12-day comparison. And which two days were left off the tabulation? Saturday, October 24 and Sunday, October 25. Traditionally, Saturday and Sunday, of course, are the two lowest-rated days of the cable news week.

What happened when you included October 24 and October 25 in the tabulation to make a true two-week-vs.-two-week comparison? Suddenly, that 9 percent gain in overall viewers evaporated into a barely-there 2 percent blip, while that 14 percent increase among viewers 25-54 shrunk to a much more modest 7 percent bump.

...........the relatively modest 7 percent gain among the more targeted 25-54 demo. Because that audience group is much smaller (roughly 330,000 viewers each day as compared to the larger pool of 1.2 million), a 7 percent increase or decrease is unexceptional. Again, between October 1 and October 2, Fox News' total day 25-54 demo decreased from 415,000 to 320,000 viewers -- a drop of almost 25 percent. The smaller 25-54 demo often fluctuates like that.

http://mediamatters.org/columns/200911030004

The only interesting race today is that NY 23rd race, where the wingnut crazies got so bad the Republican nominee Scozzafava endorsed the Democrat. But that's just an indicator of the insane people running the asylum.

Maybe someone needs to remind the Pentagon that we aren't supposed to be killing people in Pakistan!!!!

New York, right?

--what does that mean?

60 drone hits kill 14 al-Qaeda men, 687 civilians

• CIA drone operators lack the “superb intel” needed to prevent civilian casualties, but are firing their weapons anyway, causing them to kill ten times as many civilians as suspected terrorists.

Cindy McCain Bankrolled Conference That Called for Ban on Mercenaries
Posted by Jeremy Scahill, Rebel Reports at 8:30 PM on October 16, 2009.

A little-publicized U.S. Naval Academy conference named after Senator John McCain and bankrolled by his wealthy wife, Cindy, issued a call earlier this year for the U.S. government to ban the use of armed private security contractors like Blackwater in U.S. war zones, stating bluntly, "contractors should not be deployed as security guards, sentries, or even prison guards within combat areas."

"[T]he use of deadly force must be entrusted only to those whose training, character and accountability are most worthy of the nation's trust: the military," reads the executive summary of the U.S. Naval Academy’s 9th Annual McCain Conference on Ethics and Military Leadership, which was held in April at the Annapolis Naval Station. "The military profession carefully cultivates an ethic of 'selfless service,' and develops the virtues that can best withstand combat pressures and thus achieve the nation's objectives in an honorable way. By contrast, most corporate ethical standards and available regulatory schemes are ill-suited for this environment."

In 2001, Cindy McCain, who may be worth as much as $100 million, first endowed the McCain conference "in honor of her husband" with a $210,000 gift that was specifically intended to fund conferences that would "bring together key military officers and civilian academics responsible for ethics education and character developments."
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/world/143334/cindy_mccain_bankrolled_conference_that_called_for_ban_on_mercenaries/?comments=view&cID=1348071&pID=1346742

Here's another idea to fund healthcare or the uninsured. It's called Charity and it's still tax deductable. With this concept every compassionate person who feels strongly about the unfortunate could do something novel and Donate.

Why destroy those old clunkers anyways? Give them to the poor or to charity. Many poor people could use a older usable car. That older car might help that poor family get ahead in life.

As far as Steele ~ if he could be truly his on man and do what needs to be done ~ he might be effective

How is this thread 13 pages? She would never got the nod from the GOP....she would be destroyed in the primaries....look for a Mitt Romney or Bobby Jindal to run in 2012.

the vengfull republicans

Drones sure can kill a lot of people but they haven't proved a very good idea, considering the resulting Hate America passion.

Limbaugh tore into the reporters for not properly sourcing the alleged quotes and questioned their professionalism.
"And these are the people that tell us that they are the professionals, that they're the ones we should trust to weed out what's garbage and what's not garbage in the sewer they say that is the Internet? They are the sewer," he said. "They are the sewer, and they are in the midst of it. They are waste, and they are promulgating waste all over the place."
Limbaugh accused the media of repeating fabricated statements because "it fits their already prejudiced agenda."
He is demanding that each of the media outlets produce the source of the alleged quotes and explain where they got them, or produce a retraction and apology.
"They ought to be ashamed of themselves, to call themselves professionals," he said. "They're nothing but hacks. ... These people are scum. They are literally professional scum, and they're responsible in many ways for the deteriorating standards and quality of journalism."
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?pageId=112839

Limbaugh says he doesn't care if thesis quotes are fake, "I know Obama thinks it." October 23 show.......

apparently 17-out of the 18 families said no.....so he obviously didnt care about the wishes of he 17 families now did he....he got one to agree so he got his photo Op....

your hem is turned out

From the November 2 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show:

LIMBAUGH: Scozzafava has screwed every RINO in the coun -- we can say that she's guilty of widespread bestiality. She has screwed every RINO in the country. Everyone can see just see how phony and dangerous they are. You know, 2010 might be a nightmare for PETA. Two animals may become extinct; RINOs and Blue Dog Democrats. Pelosi's gonna kill off the Blue Dogs, and the conservatives are gonna finally get rid of RINOs. The American people have had enough.
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/02/limbaugh-scozzafava-guilt_n_342535.html

50% of Americans are now being sustained by the other 50%.

"So is it good that the GOP seems to be killing off their own moderates to, um, "purify" their brand? Any thoughts about this race and its significance? Thoughts about long term consequences? Predictions on Tuesday's race? "

From the November 2 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show:

LIMBAUGH: Scozzafava has screwed every RINO in the coun -- we can say that she's guilty of widespread bestiality. She has screwed every RINO in the country. Everyone can see just see how phony and dangerous they are. You know, 2010 might be a nightmare for PETA. Two animals may become extinct; RINOs and Blue Dog Democrats. Pelosi's gonna kill off the Blue Dogs, and the conservatives are gonna finally get rid of RINOs. The American people have had enough.
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/02/limbaugh-scozzafava-guilt_n_342535.html

What a horrible analysis.

The program cost was $3 billion and 690,000 vehicles were turned in. That works out to $4,347.88 per vehicle including all administration expenses.

But the guy from Edmonds claims that only 125,000 vehicles were purchased because of the program, and the rest would have been purchased without the program. With this number it would be $24,000 per vehicle.