March 31, 2013

Such a simple plan. Has the "Bain Model" moniker been made official yet, or are we still waiting

on a proper, commonly understood descriptor for this theft?

The "necessary" bankruptcy was set up in 2007 when Peabody established Patriot in order to load it up with debt and relieve the employees of their pension money...

It's all the more vile when you consider the nature and danger of the jobs these employees do. The industry holds whole regions captive because there's so little work available other than mining, then these vultures connive to deprive them of the possibility of retiring before they die.

No. There's got to be a better name for it. "Vulture Capitalism" isn't graphic enough.

March 31, 2013

TN State Legislators propose US Senate Primaries to be conducted by State Legislature, not voters

NASHVILLE — "During the last eight U.S. Senate primaries in Tennessee, an average of about 686,000 people have voted in each contest. Under a Republican proposal advancing in the state Legislature, the number picking nominees would drop to 132.

The bill, set for a state Senate vote on Monday, would shift that nominating power from primary voters to state lawmakers of either party.

“This is a way we can actually choose the candidate and make them more responsible,” said Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey, R-Blountville, who supports the plan. “The federal government is completely broken, and there’s got to be something to get their attention. And this could be it.”

Ramsey said the bill’s prospects for passage are about 50-50.

Republican state Sen. Frank Niceley of Strawberry Plains, the measure’s main sponsor, says it is aimed at returning Tennessee closer to the system used before 1913, when state lawmakers directly appointed U.S. senators. That corruption-marred system was replaced with direct election by the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Niceley’s bill, which would only apply to primaries and not to general elections, would go into effect after next year’s election, meaning it wouldn’t affect Republican U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander’s efforts to be re-nominated for another term." http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2013/mar/29/tenn-legislators-may-get-to-make-senate-choices/#comments


Republicans are by far the majority in both houses (R 70, D28, I1/R26, D7) and we have a Republican governor, so this crap really could pass. This is the same bunch of yahoos who made national news last week when they freaked out over a new Muslim footwashing vessel they discovered in a newly renovated Capitol bathroom. It turned out it was a mop sink. It was so good Colbert reported on it and then MSNBC repeated it from Colbert.
A little local disdain here: http://www.memphisflyer.com/memphis/letter-from-the-editor/Content?oid=3375095


Every time I think they can't get stupider, they get stupider.

I think we should be prepared to see all sorts of squirrely stuff coming from the Republican state houses across the country as they gloat over their newfound power. Tennessee is sure ready for the competition - stupid on steroids here!

March 11, 2013

Do you call this micro-chirping?

March 10, 2013

See comments #3,4,5 & 6

As of now there are 10 comments posted to the Consortium link. Some readers have drawn lines from the Nixon tapes to JFK's assassination. (As usual, one comment leads to another. Start with comment #3 for the others to have context.)

We've recycled far too many of our evil-doers.

March 8, 2013

Congress to Postal Service

http://livingnewdeal.berkeley.edu/congress-to-postal-service-drop-dead/

Congress to Postal Service: “Drop Dead!”
America’s historic post offices are unique in their variety and quality as well as in the public art that make them the People’s Art Gallery. Without the magnificent post offices built during the New Deal and before, Voorhees said, “there would be a distinct loss to the spiritual and patriotic relationship between the citizen and the government if its activities were carried on in bare warehouses without architectural significance or dignity and constructed as cheaply and as shoddily as the average speculative structure.”

The sell off and relocation of the post offices is the nightmare that Voorhees foresaw. Perhaps it is precisely to break that relationship between the citizen and government that our post offices are now regarded not as our shared legacy, but simply as surplus real estate to be liquidated.

March 8, 2013

Privatizers, profits, and plums

The Postal Service owns a veritable treasure in real estate, both historically significant buildings as well as suburban sites built for large processing centers. Most of the old inner city offices are on prime real estate; the large plants generally have valuable access to transportation routes (contrary to FarCenter's perception of postal activities, the "shipping company" aspects emanate from those rather than innercity facilities.) I would guess every large city has one or more significant buildings such as this article features.

Our city's beautiful old “Main Post Office”, was built on land donated to the city and forbidden for any use except by the citizens of Memphis. I haven't been in the offices featured in this article, but here, our most historic office went through numerous iterations over the past 25 years - from full scale PO to a customer box operation and carrier station. Then, we used it many years as a Postal training facility, then turned it over to the University of Memphis Law School, which uses it now.

Postal Service real estate is just another “plum” being picked by those who will profit from the Congressional quest to privatize the Postal Service. I had been wondering which "crony" would get this plum pudding. I finally found out who was connected to CBRE, the corporation contracted to sell off Postal holdings. I'm sure other cronies will get bargains after CBRE takes their cut. In fact, since CBRE also tells USPS what to sell, that group of profiteers are probably busy now placing their orders with CBRE:

http://livingnewdeal.berkeley.edu/congress-to-postal-service-drop-dead/

The fire sale of our post offices is accelerating while the media remain largely asleep at the wheel.
In July 2011, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) gave an exclusive contract to liquidate the public’s property to the giant commercial real estate firm C.B. Richard Ellis (CBRE), which also advises the Postal Service on which properties to sell.

It’s no surprise, then, that so many of the post offices listed for sale or already sold happen to be in expensive real estate markets like Santa Monica, Venice, Palo Alto and Berkeley in California; Greenwich, Connecticut; Towson and Bethesda in Maryland; Northfield, Minnesota; and New York City.

CBRE is effectively owned and chaired by Senator Dianne Feinstein’s husband, billionaire private equity financier Richard Blum. If you visit the CBRE website devoted to marketing postal properties you will find no distinction between superb, historic post offices and blandly utilitarian processing facilities or vacant lots. For CBRE, it’s all simply real estate thrown into the same lucrative bin. A listing on the National Register of Historic Places and the presence of art works created during the New Deal only serve as impediments to moving those properties quickly.

The USPS seems only too happy to help with removing those obstacles. To get around historic preservation rules, for example, the USPS claims that it is not actually closing and selling the historic buildings that it is, in fact, closing and selling, but is simply “relocating services.”
(Skip)
America’s historic post offices are unique in their variety and quality as well as in the public art that make them the People’s Art Gallery. Without the magnificent post offices built during the New Deal and before, Voorhees said, “there would be a distinct loss to the spiritual and patriotic relationship between the citizen and the government if its activities were carried on in bare warehouses without architectural significance or dignity and constructed as cheaply and as shoddily as the average speculative structure.”

The sell off and relocation of the post offices is the nightmare that Voorhees foresaw. Perhaps it is precisely to break that relationship between the citizen and government that our post offices are now regarded not as our shared legacy, but simply as surplus real estate to be liquidated.

For more on the loss of America’s post offices, why it is happening, and what you can do, visit http://www.savethepostoffice.com/

March 7, 2013

Great link!

I learn so much on DU!

What a small world we live in. It's not surprising that BP and Exxon were ticked at Chavez, but I had no idea of the association of the Heinz family with Chavez (maybe I should say "dis-association.)

And after the kidnapping coup in 2002, our very irreverent Reverend Pat Robertson said:

"Hugo Chavez thinks we're trying to assassinate him. I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it."

...But why the Bush regime's hate, hate, HATE of the President of Venezuela?

...Reverend Pat wasn't coy about the answer: It's the oil.

"This is a dangerous enemy to our South controlling a huge pool of oil."
If we didn't kill Chavez, we'd have to do an "Iraq" on his nation. So the Reverend suggests:
"We don't need another $200 billion war….It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with."

The reader comments (there were only 9 when I read them-only 1 negative 1percenter) on the article are also very good.

Chavez had every reason to distrust Bush and the U.S.

March 6, 2013

I don't believe the US had anything to do with his fatal illness, but

I can understand his distrust of Bush and the US, I'm afraid.

I haven't had time to fully research this work by John Pilger, but the first 40 minutes of this 1-1/2 hr documentary is about Venezuela and Chavez. It is quite riveting. I have an appointment now but later want to do some research on the National Endowment for Democracy, which is named in the film as providing some support for the 2002 coup against Chavez. It is a nonprofit funded through our government.

Pilger's interviews with some members of the "elite" class who hated Chavez (around 18:00) sure does sound like some of our annointed ones.

THE WAR ON DEMOCRACY