Wondering Where Your Job Went? Check the Local Prison
Why hire someone for minimum wage when you can get prison labor for half the cost? While work can be an important part of rehabilitation, we have to look at how it impacts the job market when we are turning over millions of jobs to prisoners. From Salon.com: 21st century chain gangs.
S. Korea curbs U.S. beef sales after confirmation of mad cow disease – CNN.com
Maybe it’s a sign from above that we should all just stop eating beef. For what it’s worth, eating beef is also associated with higher rates of several cancers including pancreatic and breast cancer, and many other of the reproductive cancers. Eating hamburger also may involve eating pink slime. So all in all, I’d say it’s been a bad year for beef, and perhaps it will go on to be a bad decade for beef. Those of us hoping to take steps to improve our health can only hope. From CNN.com: S. Korea curbs U.S. beef sales after confirmation of mad cow disease.
Why the Rich Are, and Aren’t, The Enemy
Michael Moore made a bundle from his first documentary, “Roger and Me”, putting him firmly in “The 1%”.
Automatically evil, right? Not at all. He tells about talking with some factory workers who asked him how much he made on the film. He told them three million, and they burst into applause, and were especially impressed by how he spent the money to help his family and people who were important to him.
United States of low wages
from David Ruccio
Who Won the Republican Primary in RI?
TPM has a nifty interactive map here.
And all the official returns for all parties are here.
Glowing Green Smoothie
Do you want a great smoothie recipe that even the pickiest eaters in your family will enjoy? Well, I am so excited to share with you all my Glowing Green Smoothie recipe. It's shockingly delicious! This smoothie is dairy free, full of nutrients, satiating and a great way to start (or end) your day. Everyone who I've made this smoothie for have been…
VOTE
Because we can. Polls open at 7am tomorrow, state website has a guide to which are open.
I’m voting for Tom Coderre, because he was the only Presidential Primary delegate who bothered to robocall me. Also Herb Weiss, who is a friend and who reminds all his Facebook friends that 4/24 is election day. Julie Meyers is a strong advocate for marriage equality, and goes to my church. We get to pick 11 out of a list of 16, so do vote for your friends. It’s okay this time.
Not all polling places are open, go here to find yours.
8 Gorgeous Nature Blogs for Earth Day
This Sunday, April 22nd will mark the 42nd observance of Earth Day. According to Earth Day Network, "More than 1 billion people now participate in Earth Day activities each year, making it the largest civic observance in the world."
To inspire you to get in on this year's celebration, here are eight amazing nature-related blogs on WordPress.com:
Birdlightwind.com…
Question for Mitt Romney
Ed Kilgore at the Washington Monthly reports that the Romney campaign has a new slogan, “Obama Isn’t Working”.
Job loss and a weak economy are affecting almost all of us. We who feel fairly secure in our jobs have children, friends, relatives who are out of work.
I am one of those who wanted President Obama to start a new WPA, to make the banks accountable, to break up monopolies so that in future we will not be held hostage by private corporations that have grown ‘too big to fail’.
NYT columnist Gail Collins said that Barack Obama promised to bring us together, but he didn’t promise to bring us together in left field. Clearly we elected a moderate.
Given that, I have never in my lifetime seen such hostility to a president. That includes Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush. Barack Obama had to show his birth certificate. He is constantly accused of being socialist and faces a divided Congress. The economic recession is worldwide– as you will notice if you watch the stock market freak every time something happens in Greece or China. Even if Barack Obama had inherited a surplus and a peace dividend, we would be facing some rocky times.
Of course, that was not the case.
President Obama inherited an economic crisis, two foreign wars, and a Congress with a slim Democratic majority formed by coalitions of widely differing constituencies.
We do not have the job growth we need, but the graph shows what we were up against after 8 years of President Bush.
My question for Mitt Romney– ‘Republicans held the White House for 8 years. Clearly their economic policies weren’t working. What would a President Romney do differently from President George W. Bush?’
That is the question to ask.
Occupy Sexism
Most likely there is not a Personal Goddess who favors Her worshippers with good weather. April 22 was one of those ‘cruelest month’ days.
The rally sponsored by the ‘Rhode Island Anti-Sexism League’ had been planned for City Hall Park, with a march through downtown, but rain changed the meeting place to the shelter of the tunnel under the skating rink. There, about 30 people assembled for a speak-out on economic injustice, inequality and violence against women, and men too, who get on the wrong side of gender roles.
The miracle, perhaps, is that a diverse group braved the chill and the damp to hear two hours of speeches. The miracle that this group comprised young and old, men and women, queer and straight, couples pushing strollers, students, teachers, workers and activists. This is the miracle I see at Occupy Providence– the reaching across lines.
The sad and frustrating thing is that we have to come to this place again. More than one speaker reminded us that equality for women will not be won in one generation.
The General Assembly of Occupy Providence has been meeting twice a week since leaving Burnside Park. I expect that in May the press will be reporting on the return of Occupy Providence. The truth is we never left.
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