Wednesday, March 31, 2004
Via Fundrace, we learn that Marvin Lender donated $2000 to George Bush's campaign...
At today's Akh Shav B'New Haven, Lender said that he was "undecided." Unless this is a different Marvin Lender, or He's so rich that $2000- doesn't mean anything decisive, it looks like his mind is made up to me.
I was dissapointed with the event, through no fault at all of Erin Scharff, who organized and moderated the dinner. I wanted to have a serious conversation with Lender about Jewishness and social change in New Haven, and yes, i wanted to talk about Yale New Haven Hospital. When Lender refused to answer our questions about medical debt and the contract struggle and organizing drive, he did so in a way i found extremely cynical and disrespectful. My time would perhaps have been better spent working on my senior essay instead of listening to Lender self aggrandize and snarl at us, and i'm dissappointed that he was unwilling to enter into an honest, productive dialogue. Here's one of the many reasons why Mr. Lender has a responsibility to ensure that the Hospital whose board he chairs honors its commitment to the New Haven Community.
Thanks to seditious libel for the link.
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
At today's Akh Shav B'New Haven, Lender said that he was "undecided." Unless this is a different Marvin Lender, or He's so rich that $2000- doesn't mean anything decisive, it looks like his mind is made up to me.
I was dissapointed with the event, through no fault at all of Erin Scharff, who organized and moderated the dinner. I wanted to have a serious conversation with Lender about Jewishness and social change in New Haven, and yes, i wanted to talk about Yale New Haven Hospital. When Lender refused to answer our questions about medical debt and the contract struggle and organizing drive, he did so in a way i found extremely cynical and disrespectful. My time would perhaps have been better spent working on my senior essay instead of listening to Lender self aggrandize and snarl at us, and i'm dissappointed that he was unwilling to enter into an honest, productive dialogue. Here's one of the many reasons why Mr. Lender has a responsibility to ensure that the Hospital whose board he chairs honors its commitment to the New Haven Community.
Thanks to seditious libel for the link.
Tuesday, March 30, 2004
VICTORY AT THE OYSTER BAR
Congratulations to the members of HERE Local 100, who sucessfully fought off management cutbacks . Now go kick Gallagher steakhouse's ass.
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
Congratulations to the members of HERE Local 100, who sucessfully fought off management cutbacks . Now go kick Gallagher steakhouse's ass.
Oh man, it's getting light out.
Well, I'm fucked.
(1 more page to go, a few hours in which to write it. I can't think straight. I have a very strong urge to go home and blast Nashville Skyline. Or maybe Disintegration.)
Why the fuck am i still up? What's wrong with me? Why is this paper not done? Why is my senior essay not done? How can I live with no kneecaps?
at this point, schwartz-weinstein erupted in hysterics, began typing in the third person, gnawing at the wooden chair legs of the posh but inhospitable saybrook library, and throwing samuel flagg bemis's books out the window at furtive and gluttonous squirrels while shouting the lyrics to Positive K's "I got a man."
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
Well, I'm fucked.
(1 more page to go, a few hours in which to write it. I can't think straight. I have a very strong urge to go home and blast Nashville Skyline. Or maybe Disintegration.)
Why the fuck am i still up? What's wrong with me? Why is this paper not done? Why is my senior essay not done? How can I live with no kneecaps?
at this point, schwartz-weinstein erupted in hysterics, began typing in the third person, gnawing at the wooden chair legs of the posh but inhospitable saybrook library, and throwing samuel flagg bemis's books out the window at furtive and gluttonous squirrels while shouting the lyrics to Positive K's "I got a man."
Monday, March 29, 2004
almost through page 4 of the 5-7 pager done tomorrow. To celebrate my less than rapid progress, i'm posting...
LYRIC CONTEST #3 (no one got #2, which was The Coup featuring Dead Prez, from the amazing album "Party Music.") Ok, here goes.
One nation stands the tallest radiating blinding light
plastic and flourescent energy robbing us of sight
set in our way, content with our decay
we wave the flag of freedom as we conquer and invade
'd you ever ask yourself "where's my place in this hell?"
but no one's there to tell you 'cause they don't know that themselves
the well-rehearsed lines from our elated politicians
no longer offer solace we can see the self-destruction
You get this, i will buy you a meal. No googling allowed.
Why? Cause I'm lonely and bored!
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
LYRIC CONTEST #3 (no one got #2, which was The Coup featuring Dead Prez, from the amazing album "Party Music.") Ok, here goes.
One nation stands the tallest radiating blinding light
plastic and flourescent energy robbing us of sight
set in our way, content with our decay
we wave the flag of freedom as we conquer and invade
'd you ever ask yourself "where's my place in this hell?"
but no one's there to tell you 'cause they don't know that themselves
the well-rehearsed lines from our elated politicians
no longer offer solace we can see the self-destruction
You get this, i will buy you a meal. No googling allowed.
Why? Cause I'm lonely and bored!
One more quick link: Undergraduates at Penn are mobilizing to support GET-UP, and they have the student government on their side. We used to do stuff like this with the YCC, but besides being totally and utterly powerless, most YCC reps are self-important, obnoxious, and the kind of people you hated in high school. There are lots of exceptions, but after this tortuous, disgusting, festival of pompous assholes and misinformation, despite a somewhat pyhrric victory, we decided to turn towards other organizing models. I hope the folks at Penn have better luck with their "UA" on this issue than we had with our sad excuse for a representative body.
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
GSEU is turning up the heat at Columbia:
The graduate students at the meeting on Friday morning seemed determined to
form a union because they feel it is the only way they will be able to
bargain effectively with the University. "After a certain time, if the
University doesn't respond, we'll take it from there. But we will get a
union here. We are ready for a union," Ryan said.
And here's yet another YDN article on sections which - surprise - quotes no one who actually teaches sections. Whether this is the YDN's fault - or Yale's, for not allowing section teachers to speak at this event, or, most likely, of both the administration and its pet newspaper, this absence speaks more directly than anything in the article itself to Yale's anxieties about representing the casualization and corporatization of its own classrooms and this instability at which the new face of Levin's "globalization of the university" becomes visible.
That's all for now.
Oh. One more thing. Happy Birthday, Lev Schwartz-Weinstein!
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
The graduate students at the meeting on Friday morning seemed determined to
form a union because they feel it is the only way they will be able to
bargain effectively with the University. "After a certain time, if the
University doesn't respond, we'll take it from there. But we will get a
union here. We are ready for a union," Ryan said.
And here's yet another YDN article on sections which - surprise - quotes no one who actually teaches sections. Whether this is the YDN's fault - or Yale's, for not allowing section teachers to speak at this event, or, most likely, of both the administration and its pet newspaper, this absence speaks more directly than anything in the article itself to Yale's anxieties about representing the casualization and corporatization of its own classrooms and this instability at which the new face of Levin's "globalization of the university" becomes visible.
That's all for now.
Oh. One more thing. Happy Birthday, Lev Schwartz-Weinstein!
Sunday, March 28, 2004
There must be some kinda way outta here.
Keith Urbahn celebrates an attempted murder of a French muslim man by a motorist who claimed he thought his victim resembled Osama Bin Laden. I would call this a hate crime. Urbahn also debates with himself whether or not Palestinians are "animals." The YDN boasts this timely, given this week's email list misadventures, but nonetheless completely useless article about bladderball, while students in the professional schools fight for increased financial aid and local 34 mobilizes to fight John Pepper's gratuitous, manipulative, and underhanded layoffs.
I, meanwhile, ruminate on whether or not blogging is really worth it. I really hate these things. I just hate Yale more, I guess. Sparse posting for the next few weeks as i write and write and write and smash my head against lots of blunt wooden objects. Check out Yaleinsider, Little Wild Bouquet, Illimitably Fiddilistic Phantasmata (holy shit, i got it right!,) and the other fine links. And go listen to Kanye West's album, the Grey Album (if you can find a copy) and anything by charles mingus. Also check out New Plastic Music, if you haven't already. (Evan has something to say about this, but it's in the language he made up which looks like a combination of Tolkien Quenya and old norse or finnish or something. Probably something to the effect of this, though.)
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
Keith Urbahn celebrates an attempted murder of a French muslim man by a motorist who claimed he thought his victim resembled Osama Bin Laden. I would call this a hate crime. Urbahn also debates with himself whether or not Palestinians are "animals." The YDN boasts this timely, given this week's email list misadventures, but nonetheless completely useless article about bladderball, while students in the professional schools fight for increased financial aid and local 34 mobilizes to fight John Pepper's gratuitous, manipulative, and underhanded layoffs.
I, meanwhile, ruminate on whether or not blogging is really worth it. I really hate these things. I just hate Yale more, I guess. Sparse posting for the next few weeks as i write and write and write and smash my head against lots of blunt wooden objects. Check out Yaleinsider, Little Wild Bouquet, Illimitably Fiddilistic Phantasmata (holy shit, i got it right!,) and the other fine links. And go listen to Kanye West's album, the Grey Album (if you can find a copy) and anything by charles mingus. Also check out New Plastic Music, if you haven't already. (Evan has something to say about this, but it's in the language he made up which looks like a combination of Tolkien Quenya and old norse or finnish or something. Probably something to the effect of this, though.)
Jacob on Albertson's acquisition of Shaw's. something that could have huge repercussions for New Haven...
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
Thursday, March 25, 2004
SHAME ON YALE
Why do i have the feeling that they're already starting the provocations for strike #14? Maybe i'll have to get arrested at a time far sooner than i originally predicted. I wish i could say that iu can't believe that Yale is doing this, but given that they do this after every contract --and given everything else i've seen over the last four years, this is just another drop in the bucket of how this place fucks over people's lives.
In other news:Philly Lunchworkers ratify new contract
The members of the Union made the most progress in the area of health care coverage.The school district's contribution to the fund--which provides prescription drug coverage, vision, and dental care--will be increased by almost 100%. This increase will allow the Union’s Health and Welfare Fund to greatly improve the vision coverage for all workers, and improve the drug and dental coverage for the food service workers. This coverage was expand from single coverage only to include family coverage effective July 1st .
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
Why do i have the feeling that they're already starting the provocations for strike #14? Maybe i'll have to get arrested at a time far sooner than i originally predicted. I wish i could say that iu can't believe that Yale is doing this, but given that they do this after every contract --and given everything else i've seen over the last four years, this is just another drop in the bucket of how this place fucks over people's lives.
In other news:Philly Lunchworkers ratify new contract
The members of the Union made the most progress in the area of health care coverage.The school district's contribution to the fund--which provides prescription drug coverage, vision, and dental care--will be increased by almost 100%. This increase will allow the Union’s Health and Welfare Fund to greatly improve the vision coverage for all workers, and improve the drug and dental coverage for the food service workers. This coverage was expand from single coverage only to include family coverage effective July 1st .
Sunday, March 21, 2004
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
Parole: Slave Labor
Barbara Fair, a coordinator with People Against Injustice, a grassroots organization pushing for prison reform, said the "war on drugs" really is a war on people, and using prisoners and parolees as free labor is slavery.
"These people can’t be on a plantation legally anymore. We just don’t have them in chains anymore. But we’re slowly being enslaved again," she said.
Minorities constitute the majority of people incarcerated and on parole.
Fair said the program should be eliminated, so parolees can use the time now spent along the highways for mandates such as job searches and employment training.
Her son, Kyron Tucker, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, suspended after six, for a drug offense. He was paroled last December and found a telemarketing job before the date he was to begin the Parole Works program.
Tucker said a parole officer threatened to send him back to prison if he did not find work, but Everett said parolees are not reincarcerated for lack of employment.
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
Barbara Fair, a coordinator with People Against Injustice, a grassroots organization pushing for prison reform, said the "war on drugs" really is a war on people, and using prisoners and parolees as free labor is slavery.
"These people can’t be on a plantation legally anymore. We just don’t have them in chains anymore. But we’re slowly being enslaved again," she said.
Minorities constitute the majority of people incarcerated and on parole.
Fair said the program should be eliminated, so parolees can use the time now spent along the highways for mandates such as job searches and employment training.
Her son, Kyron Tucker, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, suspended after six, for a drug offense. He was paroled last December and found a telemarketing job before the date he was to begin the Parole Works program.
Tucker said a parole officer threatened to send him back to prison if he did not find work, but Everett said parolees are not reincarcerated for lack of employment.
Friday, March 19, 2004
When the headline says it all...
"Bush campaign gear made in Burma
His campaign store sells a pullover from nation whose products he has banned from being sold in the U.S."
Here's what Charlie Kernaghan says:
Human rights watcher Charles Kernaghan, director of the National Labor Committee, said the slip-up showed a lack of conviction on the administration's part. "Given the debate about outsourcing, it's amazing that the campaign would be selling stuff made in the most brutal country on earth, known for things like child labor and sexual slavery," he said. "It shows a crude indifference to this issue."
While i'm skeptical about the way the democrats are phrasing the outsourcing issue - particularly in the way that they are being protectionist instead of articulating a global understanding of capital flight and the offshoring and outsourcing of work and the need to organize a transnational and anti-imperial globalization from below, this - in a country which even the NBA is now boycotting - is just ridiculous. (And as a side note, and to his credit, Kerry's stance on outsourcing seems ten times better than Clinton's. Doesn't mean he isn't a capitalist, two faced, lying SOB, but it isn't a necessarily a bad thing either.
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
"Bush campaign gear made in Burma
His campaign store sells a pullover from nation whose products he has banned from being sold in the U.S."
Here's what Charlie Kernaghan says:
Human rights watcher Charles Kernaghan, director of the National Labor Committee, said the slip-up showed a lack of conviction on the administration's part. "Given the debate about outsourcing, it's amazing that the campaign would be selling stuff made in the most brutal country on earth, known for things like child labor and sexual slavery," he said. "It shows a crude indifference to this issue."
While i'm skeptical about the way the democrats are phrasing the outsourcing issue - particularly in the way that they are being protectionist instead of articulating a global understanding of capital flight and the offshoring and outsourcing of work and the need to organize a transnational and anti-imperial globalization from below, this - in a country which even the NBA is now boycotting - is just ridiculous. (And as a side note, and to his credit, Kerry's stance on outsourcing seems ten times better than Clinton's. Doesn't mean he isn't a capitalist, two faced, lying SOB, but it isn't a necessarily a bad thing either.
Felcitationes!
Teaching Assistants, Research Assistants, Staff Assistants, Readers, Tutors,
Graders, and other academic student employees at the University of
Washington voted to be represented by GSEAC/UAW (Graduate Student Employee
Action Coalition / United Auto Workers) in collective bargaining. The
Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC) has tallied the ballots in the
mail ballot election that began on February 25th. Out of 2370 votes cast,
1391 were in favor of representation. GSEAC/UAW will now represent over 4500
academic student employees at UW.
"This is a great day for us," said Amanda Rychel, a Teaching Assistant and
Research Assistant in the Biology department. "We have been working for this
for a long time, and are happy to have a seat at the bargaining table like
other employees on campus."
The vote marks the end of the four year campaign by GSEAC/UAW to gain
certification as the exclusive bargaining representative of academic student
employees at UW. The Union expects to start bargaining with the University
on matters of employment, such as wages, health insurance and working
conditions, at the beginning of this spring quarter.
"We are pleased that our votes have been counted and that the University is
respecting our choice to have collective bargaining," said Kay Greeson, a
Research Assistant in Pathobiology at UW. "Research Assistants provide a
crucial service in advancing the research mission of the University."
Steve Williamson, Executive Secretary of King County Labor Council, said:
"The University's decision not to appeal the PERC ruling is consistent with
what we see are very hopeful signs of improving labor relations at the
University of Washington. We're very happy with the University's decision
and we applaud their respect for worker democracy.
Now, wouldn't it be nice if we could applaud Yale for their respect for worker democracy?
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
Teaching Assistants, Research Assistants, Staff Assistants, Readers, Tutors,
Graders, and other academic student employees at the University of
Washington voted to be represented by GSEAC/UAW (Graduate Student Employee
Action Coalition / United Auto Workers) in collective bargaining. The
Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC) has tallied the ballots in the
mail ballot election that began on February 25th. Out of 2370 votes cast,
1391 were in favor of representation. GSEAC/UAW will now represent over 4500
academic student employees at UW.
"This is a great day for us," said Amanda Rychel, a Teaching Assistant and
Research Assistant in the Biology department. "We have been working for this
for a long time, and are happy to have a seat at the bargaining table like
other employees on campus."
The vote marks the end of the four year campaign by GSEAC/UAW to gain
certification as the exclusive bargaining representative of academic student
employees at UW. The Union expects to start bargaining with the University
on matters of employment, such as wages, health insurance and working
conditions, at the beginning of this spring quarter.
"We are pleased that our votes have been counted and that the University is
respecting our choice to have collective bargaining," said Kay Greeson, a
Research Assistant in Pathobiology at UW. "Research Assistants provide a
crucial service in advancing the research mission of the University."
Steve Williamson, Executive Secretary of King County Labor Council, said:
"The University's decision not to appeal the PERC ruling is consistent with
what we see are very hopeful signs of improving labor relations at the
University of Washington. We're very happy with the University's decision
and we applaud their respect for worker democracy.
Now, wouldn't it be nice if we could applaud Yale for their respect for worker democracy?
Thursday, March 18, 2004
A couple quick posts before i return to my sequestered senior-essay-writing existence.
1.Josh takes on the Philadelphia Inquirer and the production team behind MTV's The Real World, Bunim/Murray. (Bunim, sadly, died last month of breast cancer.) I like Josh's letter a lot. In particular, i find his implied image of Real World capital flight/outsourcing provocative and powerful.
2.Boycotting the Bank: Great Paul Bass article in this week's advocate. Pathetic that UI is sending spies.
3.YNHH is announcing "discounts for the poor" to try to take off the heat from the Blumenthal lawsuit. Sorry guys, not good enough. You recieve massive amounts of public funding. You are a hospital, not Wal-Mart. Hospitals do not issue people "discounts" when they can't pay their bills, they give people care and then get the money elsewhere if they have to (and god knows you guys have a lot of money in that endowment, not to mention Joe Zac's (NHSB) bank account. Hospitals should not agressively intimidate and harass your workers and ruin people's lives. You are supposed to provide care to people who need it. Your trustees are not supposed to be involved in get-rich quick bank hijackings and you are not supposed to feed your endowment by more or less stealing the massive amounts of public funding you recieve and making patients and workers foot the bill. You wanna make a great neighbor, start acting like one.
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
1.Josh takes on the Philadelphia Inquirer and the production team behind MTV's The Real World, Bunim/Murray. (Bunim, sadly, died last month of breast cancer.) I like Josh's letter a lot. In particular, i find his implied image of Real World capital flight/outsourcing provocative and powerful.
2.Boycotting the Bank: Great Paul Bass article in this week's advocate. Pathetic that UI is sending spies.
3.YNHH is announcing "discounts for the poor" to try to take off the heat from the Blumenthal lawsuit. Sorry guys, not good enough. You recieve massive amounts of public funding. You are a hospital, not Wal-Mart. Hospitals do not issue people "discounts" when they can't pay their bills, they give people care and then get the money elsewhere if they have to (and god knows you guys have a lot of money in that endowment, not to mention Joe Zac's (NHSB) bank account. Hospitals should not agressively intimidate and harass your workers and ruin people's lives. You are supposed to provide care to people who need it. Your trustees are not supposed to be involved in get-rich quick bank hijackings and you are not supposed to feed your endowment by more or less stealing the massive amounts of public funding you recieve and making patients and workers foot the bill. You wanna make a great neighbor, start acting like one.
What I'm Reading
I've been procrastinating from writing by reading Ella Shohat's great piece "Rupture and Return: Zionist Discourse and the Study of Arab Jews" from the Social Text special issue on "Palestine in a Transnational Context."
You can read it here (in HTML) or here (in PDF.)
Central to Zionist thinking was the concept of Kibbutz Galuiot—the "ingathering of the exiles." Following two millennia of homelessness and living presumably "outside of history," Jews could once again "enter history" as subjects, as "normal" actors on the world stage by returning to their ancient birth place, Eretz Israel. In this way, Jews were thought to heal a deformative rupture produced by exilic existence. This transformation of Migola le'Geula—from diaspora to redemption—offered a teleological reading of Jewish History in which Zionism formed a redemptive vehicle for the renewal of Jewish life on a demarcated terrain, no longer simply spiritual and textual but rather national and political. The idea of Jewish return (which after the establishment of Israel was translated into legal language handing every Jew immediate access to Israeli citizenship) had been intertwined with the imaging of the empty land of Palestine. Its indigenous inhabitants could be bracketed or, alternately, portrayed as intruders deemed to "return" to their Arab land of origins (a discourse that was encoded in the various transfer plans).
A corollary of the notion of Jewish "return" and continuity in Israel [End Page 49] was the idea of rupture and discontinuity with diasporic existence. In order to be transformed into "New Jews" (later Israelis), the "Diasporic Jews" had to abandon their diasporic culture, which, in the case of Arab Jews, meant abandoning Arabness and acquiescing in assimilationist modernization, for "their own good." Within this Promethean rescue narrative, concepts of "ingathering" and "modernization" naturalized and glossed over the historical, psychic, and epistemological violence generated by the Zionist vision of the New Jew. 1 This rescue narrative also elided Zionism's own role in provoking ruptures, dislocations, and fragmentation for Palestinian lives, and—in a different way—for Middle Eastern and north African Jews. These ruptures were not only physical (the movement across borders) but also cultural (a rift in relation to previous cultural affiliations) as well as conceptual (in the very ways time and space, history, and geography were conceived).
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
I've been procrastinating from writing by reading Ella Shohat's great piece "Rupture and Return: Zionist Discourse and the Study of Arab Jews" from the Social Text special issue on "Palestine in a Transnational Context."
You can read it here (in HTML) or here (in PDF.)
Central to Zionist thinking was the concept of Kibbutz Galuiot—the "ingathering of the exiles." Following two millennia of homelessness and living presumably "outside of history," Jews could once again "enter history" as subjects, as "normal" actors on the world stage by returning to their ancient birth place, Eretz Israel. In this way, Jews were thought to heal a deformative rupture produced by exilic existence. This transformation of Migola le'Geula—from diaspora to redemption—offered a teleological reading of Jewish History in which Zionism formed a redemptive vehicle for the renewal of Jewish life on a demarcated terrain, no longer simply spiritual and textual but rather national and political. The idea of Jewish return (which after the establishment of Israel was translated into legal language handing every Jew immediate access to Israeli citizenship) had been intertwined with the imaging of the empty land of Palestine. Its indigenous inhabitants could be bracketed or, alternately, portrayed as intruders deemed to "return" to their Arab land of origins (a discourse that was encoded in the various transfer plans).
A corollary of the notion of Jewish "return" and continuity in Israel [End Page 49] was the idea of rupture and discontinuity with diasporic existence. In order to be transformed into "New Jews" (later Israelis), the "Diasporic Jews" had to abandon their diasporic culture, which, in the case of Arab Jews, meant abandoning Arabness and acquiescing in assimilationist modernization, for "their own good." Within this Promethean rescue narrative, concepts of "ingathering" and "modernization" naturalized and glossed over the historical, psychic, and epistemological violence generated by the Zionist vision of the New Jew. 1 This rescue narrative also elided Zionism's own role in provoking ruptures, dislocations, and fragmentation for Palestinian lives, and—in a different way—for Middle Eastern and north African Jews. These ruptures were not only physical (the movement across borders) but also cultural (a rift in relation to previous cultural affiliations) as well as conceptual (in the very ways time and space, history, and geography were conceived).
Unsettling that my blog ads have changed from Pro-bush propaganda to HR tips on how to find and fire workers. Google hates me.
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
Drugs, Lies, and Videotape
This is disgusting, but not surprising.
TV news reports in America that showed President George Bush getting a standing ovation from potential voters have been exposed as fake, it has emerged.
The US government admitted it paid actors to pose as journalists in video news releases sent to TV stations intending to convey support for new laws about health benefits.
Investigators are examining the film segments, in which actors pretending to be journalists praise the benefits of the new law passed last year by President Bush, to see if they could be construed as propaganda.
Two of the films are signed off by "Karen Ryan", who was an actor hired to read a script prepared by the government, according to production company Home Front Communications.
Another video, intended for Hispanic viewers, shows a government official being interviewed in Spanish by a actor posing as a reporter with the name "Alberto Garcia".
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
This is disgusting, but not surprising.
TV news reports in America that showed President George Bush getting a standing ovation from potential voters have been exposed as fake, it has emerged.
The US government admitted it paid actors to pose as journalists in video news releases sent to TV stations intending to convey support for new laws about health benefits.
Investigators are examining the film segments, in which actors pretending to be journalists praise the benefits of the new law passed last year by President Bush, to see if they could be construed as propaganda.
Two of the films are signed off by "Karen Ryan", who was an actor hired to read a script prepared by the government, according to production company Home Front Communications.
Another video, intended for Hispanic viewers, shows a government official being interviewed in Spanish by a actor posing as a reporter with the name "Alberto Garcia".
Tuesday, March 16, 2004
State representative Toni Walker on taxing Yale
Yale’s tax-exempt real estate holdings in New Haven have grown by 45 percent in five years: from $715 million in 1996 to over $1 billion in 2001. It is time to examine how the university uses those tax-exempt properties.
I fully support property tax exemption for educational property. However, when a for-profit entity such as a private doctor’s office is operating out of a building that is property tax exempt, I grow concerned.
Many of the university’s buildings that are exempt from contributing property tax to the city encompass the medical and science arena. What this means is that private medical practices and corporate-sponsored biotech research falls under the tax shelter of the super exemption. Therefore, a for-profit entity that operates out of a Yale building would be property tax exempt.
When every other business and resident in New Haven is facing a third tax increase in three years, it is unfair and unrealistic to exempt these properties from taxes.
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
Yale’s tax-exempt real estate holdings in New Haven have grown by 45 percent in five years: from $715 million in 1996 to over $1 billion in 2001. It is time to examine how the university uses those tax-exempt properties.
I fully support property tax exemption for educational property. However, when a for-profit entity such as a private doctor’s office is operating out of a building that is property tax exempt, I grow concerned.
Many of the university’s buildings that are exempt from contributing property tax to the city encompass the medical and science arena. What this means is that private medical practices and corporate-sponsored biotech research falls under the tax shelter of the super exemption. Therefore, a for-profit entity that operates out of a Yale building would be property tax exempt.
When every other business and resident in New Haven is facing a third tax increase in three years, it is unfair and unrealistic to exempt these properties from taxes.
Monday, March 15, 2004
Solidarity
The clerical workers who struck University of Minnesota last fall are supporting 2,300 striking transit workers
Mary Brandl, a picket captain during the clerical workers’ strike last October, said she spoke for many clerical workers in thanking Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005 members for their help.
“You feel like family – in the very best sense of the word,” she said.
During the clerical strike, Local 1005 members honked the horns on their buses, raised money and walked the picketline with the university workers, Brandl said. “No support stands out to me as consistently as the transit drivers.”
The walkouts also share a common issue – health care, she noted. University clericals fought off high premium increases that would have eaten up workers’ paychecks – or caused them to drop health care coverage altogether. Transit workers are battling to keep down health care costs for current members and save coverage for retirees.
Walker said unions are sending a message that “slashing health care will not resolve Minnesota’s health care crisis.”
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
The clerical workers who struck University of Minnesota last fall are supporting 2,300 striking transit workers
Mary Brandl, a picket captain during the clerical workers’ strike last October, said she spoke for many clerical workers in thanking Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005 members for their help.
“You feel like family – in the very best sense of the word,” she said.
During the clerical strike, Local 1005 members honked the horns on their buses, raised money and walked the picketline with the university workers, Brandl said. “No support stands out to me as consistently as the transit drivers.”
The walkouts also share a common issue – health care, she noted. University clericals fought off high premium increases that would have eaten up workers’ paychecks – or caused them to drop health care coverage altogether. Transit workers are battling to keep down health care costs for current members and save coverage for retirees.
Walker said unions are sending a message that “slashing health care will not resolve Minnesota’s health care crisis.”
So after rereading my posts about the St. Patrick's Day Parade, i decided i needed to write a little more. The original posts, while not intended as such, play into a series of ethnicized representetions of irish people and irishness which have their roots dating back at least as far as seventeenth century English colonialism.
The parade was a lot of fun. (I am sorry i missed the wedding proposal.) It was great to be in the street with people having fun and to get out of teh apartment and away from the computer screen for a few hours. And i'm glad i got to see Julie and Lauren before they took off again. It was, no bones about it, pretty ridiculous to see cops and firefighters drinking in the middle of the street. But i do not want to represent the paprade as some sort of inebriated debauch, cause that wasn't what it was, or why people were there. And i think i need to keep working on the whole "respecting folks who drink thing.) (If you're new to this site or my life, i used to be hardcore straightedge and very obnoxious about it. I shed the attitude years ago, but then my freshman year roommate peed on my floor on the first night of school after referring to the cop who escorted him home (from where, i know not) as the "negro police," and i still get a little wierded out when i'm around folks i don't kow who are drinking.)
I think that's the first time i've ever mentioned that incident online. It should probably be the last.
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
The parade was a lot of fun. (I am sorry i missed the wedding proposal.) It was great to be in the street with people having fun and to get out of teh apartment and away from the computer screen for a few hours. And i'm glad i got to see Julie and Lauren before they took off again. It was, no bones about it, pretty ridiculous to see cops and firefighters drinking in the middle of the street. But i do not want to represent the paprade as some sort of inebriated debauch, cause that wasn't what it was, or why people were there. And i think i need to keep working on the whole "respecting folks who drink thing.) (If you're new to this site or my life, i used to be hardcore straightedge and very obnoxious about it. I shed the attitude years ago, but then my freshman year roommate peed on my floor on the first night of school after referring to the cop who escorted him home (from where, i know not) as the "negro police," and i still get a little wierded out when i'm around folks i don't kow who are drinking.)
I think that's the first time i've ever mentioned that incident online. It should probably be the last.
Sunday, March 14, 2004
The best part of the parade was when the Clear Channel humvee drove by and bunch of half-drunk Howard Stern fans standing next to us started booing very loudly.
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
Saul Landau on Gibson
Fundamentalist preachers urge their flock to see Gibson's film. They may use this piece of crude cinema rather than complex scripture to re-enforce their anti-Semitism -- while trumpeting Israel's cause. "An anti-Semite," Texas pro-Israel preacher James Roberson once remarked, "that's someone who hates Jews more than he's supposed to." Would Jesus have endorsed this line or Gibson's film for that matter?
I am not worried about Gibson "inciting anti-semitism" - particularly not in Europe or the Global South, as a number of those few jewish neocons who have been willing to put aside for a few moments their love affair with the anti-semitic christian zionist right bothered to criticize the film, have warned that its message of hate will take root. I find their arguments racist, their equation of opposition to Israel's long relationships with terrorist regimes, its racist attempts to contain palestinians and constitute a racialized Jewish state, and its stockpiling of weapons of mass destruction with the anti-jew and anti-judaism of Gibson's film empty, facile, and ultimately incorrect. (There may well be anti-semitism among some sectarian effluvia of the left. If this is true, i've nevertheless never met any left wing anti-semites, and i've met a lot of sectarian nutjobs. Regardless, criticism of israel - and even the statement that Israel as a jewish state should not exist, a statement i endorse - is not antisemitic. Joel Kovel's article in Tikkun is recommended further reading. And we as American jews need to pay attention to and engage in conversations about the problematic historical relationships between jewishness and whiteness in this country and the globe even as we condemn anti-semites like Gibson.
So I am not afraid that Gibson's movie is going to make people hate me or other jews. Perhaps this is naive of me. But i am disgusted nevertheless at the extent to which Gibson's racist pornography of the Christ is being accepted and feted by the corporate media. The movie shouldn't be condemned for the possibility that people who see it are not smart enough to make their (our) own decisions. But the whole fucking planet should be blasting this movie for its attempts to historicize essentialized categories of difference, for its bloody martyrization of the anglo-american christian right in the face of a purported semitic cultural onslaught, and because we've read the New Testament, we know Jesus Christ, and, to paraphrase Loyd Bensen, Mel Gibson is no Jesus Christ.
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
Fundamentalist preachers urge their flock to see Gibson's film. They may use this piece of crude cinema rather than complex scripture to re-enforce their anti-Semitism -- while trumpeting Israel's cause. "An anti-Semite," Texas pro-Israel preacher James Roberson once remarked, "that's someone who hates Jews more than he's supposed to." Would Jesus have endorsed this line or Gibson's film for that matter?
I am not worried about Gibson "inciting anti-semitism" - particularly not in Europe or the Global South, as a number of those few jewish neocons who have been willing to put aside for a few moments their love affair with the anti-semitic christian zionist right bothered to criticize the film, have warned that its message of hate will take root. I find their arguments racist, their equation of opposition to Israel's long relationships with terrorist regimes, its racist attempts to contain palestinians and constitute a racialized Jewish state, and its stockpiling of weapons of mass destruction with the anti-jew and anti-judaism of Gibson's film empty, facile, and ultimately incorrect. (There may well be anti-semitism among some sectarian effluvia of the left. If this is true, i've nevertheless never met any left wing anti-semites, and i've met a lot of sectarian nutjobs. Regardless, criticism of israel - and even the statement that Israel as a jewish state should not exist, a statement i endorse - is not antisemitic. Joel Kovel's article in Tikkun is recommended further reading. And we as American jews need to pay attention to and engage in conversations about the problematic historical relationships between jewishness and whiteness in this country and the globe even as we condemn anti-semites like Gibson.
So I am not afraid that Gibson's movie is going to make people hate me or other jews. Perhaps this is naive of me. But i am disgusted nevertheless at the extent to which Gibson's racist pornography of the Christ is being accepted and feted by the corporate media. The movie shouldn't be condemned for the possibility that people who see it are not smart enough to make their (our) own decisions. But the whole fucking planet should be blasting this movie for its attempts to historicize essentialized categories of difference, for its bloody martyrization of the anglo-american christian right in the face of a purported semitic cultural onslaught, and because we've read the New Testament, we know Jesus Christ, and, to paraphrase Loyd Bensen, Mel Gibson is no Jesus Christ.
Christian Parenti writes on the Nation website about persecution of Arab journalists by the U.S. military in Iraq.
Salah Hassan looks sad and very tired. The Al Jazeera cameraman, a 33-year-old father of two, is recounting his tale of incarceration in a soft and matter-of-fact tone. Sipping tea in the lobby of the hotel that serves as Al Jazeera's Baghdad bureau, he explains how on November 3 of last year he raced to the site of a roadside bomb attack on a US military convoy in Dialah, near the eastern Iraqi city of Baquba. While he was interviewing people at the scene, US troops who had previously taken photographs of Hassan at other events arrested him, took him to a police station, interrogated him and repeatedly accused the cameraman of knowing in advance about the bomb attack and of lying in wait to get footage. "I told them to review my tapes, that it was clear I had arrived thirty or forty minutes after the blast. They told me I was a liar," says Hassan.
From Baquba, Hassan says he was taken to the military base at Baghdad International Airport, held in a bathroom for two days, then flown hooded and bound to Tikrit. After two more days in another bathroom, he was loaded onto a five-truck convoy of de-tainees and shipped south to Abu Ghraib, a Saddam-built prison that now serves as the American military's main detention center and holds about 13,000 captives.
Once inside the sprawling prison, Hassan says, he was greeted by US soldiers who sang "Happy Birthday" to him through his tight plastic hood, stripped him naked and addressed him only as "Al Jazeera," "boy" or "bitch." He was forced to stand hooded, bound and naked for eleven hours in the bitter autumn night air; when he fell, soldiers kicked his legs to get him up again. In the morning, Hassan says, he was made to wear a dirty red jumpsuit that was covered with someone else's fresh vomit and interrogated by two Americans in civilian clothes. They made the usual accusations that Hassan and Al Jazeera were in cahoots with "terrorists."
I guess this is what they do to the non-embedded.
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
Salah Hassan looks sad and very tired. The Al Jazeera cameraman, a 33-year-old father of two, is recounting his tale of incarceration in a soft and matter-of-fact tone. Sipping tea in the lobby of the hotel that serves as Al Jazeera's Baghdad bureau, he explains how on November 3 of last year he raced to the site of a roadside bomb attack on a US military convoy in Dialah, near the eastern Iraqi city of Baquba. While he was interviewing people at the scene, US troops who had previously taken photographs of Hassan at other events arrested him, took him to a police station, interrogated him and repeatedly accused the cameraman of knowing in advance about the bomb attack and of lying in wait to get footage. "I told them to review my tapes, that it was clear I had arrived thirty or forty minutes after the blast. They told me I was a liar," says Hassan.
From Baquba, Hassan says he was taken to the military base at Baghdad International Airport, held in a bathroom for two days, then flown hooded and bound to Tikrit. After two more days in another bathroom, he was loaded onto a five-truck convoy of de-tainees and shipped south to Abu Ghraib, a Saddam-built prison that now serves as the American military's main detention center and holds about 13,000 captives.
Once inside the sprawling prison, Hassan says, he was greeted by US soldiers who sang "Happy Birthday" to him through his tight plastic hood, stripped him naked and addressed him only as "Al Jazeera," "boy" or "bitch." He was forced to stand hooded, bound and naked for eleven hours in the bitter autumn night air; when he fell, soldiers kicked his legs to get him up again. In the morning, Hassan says, he was made to wear a dirty red jumpsuit that was covered with someone else's fresh vomit and interrogated by two Americans in civilian clothes. They made the usual accusations that Hassan and Al Jazeera were in cahoots with "terrorists."
I guess this is what they do to the non-embedded.
St Patty's Day Parade edition
If you've never seen police officers and firefighters drinking and trading 40s with guys in hockey jerseys as they march down Chapel street to the sounds of rifles and bagpipes, clearly you've never been here for the (Sunday before) St. Patrick's day. I'm speechless and freezing.
(Happy birthday Julie Gonzales.)
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
If you've never seen police officers and firefighters drinking and trading 40s with guys in hockey jerseys as they march down Chapel street to the sounds of rifles and bagpipes, clearly you've never been here for the (Sunday before) St. Patrick's day. I'm speechless and freezing.
(Happy birthday Julie Gonzales.)
Saturday, March 13, 2004
STOP KILLER COKE
Found this link on LabourStart to the Ray Rogers-run campaign by Colombian and Estado-Unidensian labor activists, including the steelworkers and USAS. Check it out, get involved. What Coke (almost said Yale by accident, which either shows that I'm Yale-centric in my revolutionary proclivities or that I'm perturbed by the fact that Yale's money really is everywhere) is doing in Colombia is nothing new. They did the same thing in Guatemala in the mid-1980s when workers there organized and ultimately occupied their plant to try to prevent managers from closing it, demanded new management and an end to the killings.
Don't let coke get away with murder.
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
Found this link on LabourStart to the Ray Rogers-run campaign by Colombian and Estado-Unidensian labor activists, including the steelworkers and USAS. Check it out, get involved. What Coke (almost said Yale by accident, which either shows that I'm Yale-centric in my revolutionary proclivities or that I'm perturbed by the fact that Yale's money really is everywhere) is doing in Colombia is nothing new. They did the same thing in Guatemala in the mid-1980s when workers there organized and ultimately occupied their plant to try to prevent managers from closing it, demanded new management and an end to the killings.
Don't let coke get away with murder.
Just deleted a long post about Michael Berube, Academic union busting, and, as a side note, Berube's back and forth with Edward S. Herman on ZNet. In retrospect, it's probably a good thing this post was deleted.
Whatever my disagreements with both Herman and Berube, I do like Berube's blog and highly recommend the Social Text article. (Pieces by Kathy M. Newman and Corey Robin and Michelle Stephens which appeared in the same volume are also fantastic, as is Cynthia Young's 1996 minnesota review article "On Strike at Yale" and Corey Robin's "Blacklisted and Blue," in Steal This University, which i'm pretty sure i've mentioned before.
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
Whatever my disagreements with both Herman and Berube, I do like Berube's blog and highly recommend the Social Text article. (Pieces by Kathy M. Newman and Corey Robin and Michelle Stephens which appeared in the same volume are also fantastic, as is Cynthia Young's 1996 minnesota review article "On Strike at Yale" and Corey Robin's "Blacklisted and Blue," in Steal This University, which i'm pretty sure i've mentioned before.
HELLO CLEVELAND!
A state maintenance worker was suspended after he displayed a sign with the word "traitor" on a snowplow while helping provide security for President Bush's motorcade, the Ohio Department of Transportation said.
Michael Gerstenslager was asked to park a snowplow on an entrance ramp to block access to a highway that the president's motorcade used to go from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport into downtown Cleveland on Wednesday.
That the department he works for has suspended him while they contemplate the appropriate forms of discipline is strangely ironic -- it highlights why Bush's anti-union agenda means a denial of a "voice at work" for millions of people in this country (and his combination of neoliberal trade and debt imperialism and neoconservative imperial warfare deny voices to far more of us all over the globe,) and why we need to fight back.
AP: ONE MEXICAN WORKER DYING EVERY DAY
The article is sensationalist and doesn't even begin to think about issues of race - or, for that matter, power on the job, both of which are a central part of the story of why Mexican workers cross the militarized border in search of jobs which peso devaluations, NAFTA inequities, and other engines of transnational (but nevertheless imperial) capital have taken from them, and why they end up in jobs white euroamericans don't have to do anymore (the wages of whiteness and all that shit) and why they wind up paying for the privilege of making possible the vast machinery of a dozen U.S. industries with their lives. Pritchard points to Bush's McBracero proposal as a step in the right direction, but for me the second tier status of immigrant workers is as much at fault as the simple lack of documents, the "illegality" of their presence north of the Rio Bravo, and Bush's proposal cements this inequality rather than combatting it. (this is not a big surprise. Bush, after all, went to Yale, and Yale is all about exploiting casualized and unstable employees).
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
A state maintenance worker was suspended after he displayed a sign with the word "traitor" on a snowplow while helping provide security for President Bush's motorcade, the Ohio Department of Transportation said.
Michael Gerstenslager was asked to park a snowplow on an entrance ramp to block access to a highway that the president's motorcade used to go from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport into downtown Cleveland on Wednesday.
That the department he works for has suspended him while they contemplate the appropriate forms of discipline is strangely ironic -- it highlights why Bush's anti-union agenda means a denial of a "voice at work" for millions of people in this country (and his combination of neoliberal trade and debt imperialism and neoconservative imperial warfare deny voices to far more of us all over the globe,) and why we need to fight back.
AP: ONE MEXICAN WORKER DYING EVERY DAY
The article is sensationalist and doesn't even begin to think about issues of race - or, for that matter, power on the job, both of which are a central part of the story of why Mexican workers cross the militarized border in search of jobs which peso devaluations, NAFTA inequities, and other engines of transnational (but nevertheless imperial) capital have taken from them, and why they end up in jobs white euroamericans don't have to do anymore (the wages of whiteness and all that shit) and why they wind up paying for the privilege of making possible the vast machinery of a dozen U.S. industries with their lives. Pritchard points to Bush's McBracero proposal as a step in the right direction, but for me the second tier status of immigrant workers is as much at fault as the simple lack of documents, the "illegality" of their presence north of the Rio Bravo, and Bush's proposal cements this inequality rather than combatting it. (this is not a big surprise. Bush, after all, went to Yale, and Yale is all about exploiting casualized and unstable employees).
DUANE GREED
The UFCW takes on "New York's Greediest Employer"
On February 18, 2004 the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), through an Administrative Law Judge, found Duane Reade liable for unfair labor practices. The NLRB charged the drug store chain for failing to apply accrued sick leave in accord with the contract, and failing to remit the Union dues the company deducted from the employees'paychecks, unilaterally ceasing to pay benefit fund contributions from August 31, 2001 forward, failing to provide wage information to the Union, and for declaring two unlawful impasses in collective bargaining negotiations.
Duane Reade's Liability Could Exceed $25 Million
BOSTON TEACHERS GEAR UP FOR A WALKOUT
After seven months without a contract, public school teachers in Boston have voted to engage in a one day job action a week from monday.
Union members vowed to rally outside City Hall - ``with or without a permit'' - the morning of March 23, and picket outside schools if classes are held, Stutman said.
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
The UFCW takes on "New York's Greediest Employer"
On February 18, 2004 the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), through an Administrative Law Judge, found Duane Reade liable for unfair labor practices. The NLRB charged the drug store chain for failing to apply accrued sick leave in accord with the contract, and failing to remit the Union dues the company deducted from the employees'paychecks, unilaterally ceasing to pay benefit fund contributions from August 31, 2001 forward, failing to provide wage information to the Union, and for declaring two unlawful impasses in collective bargaining negotiations.
Duane Reade's Liability Could Exceed $25 Million
BOSTON TEACHERS GEAR UP FOR A WALKOUT
After seven months without a contract, public school teachers in Boston have voted to engage in a one day job action a week from monday.
Union members vowed to rally outside City Hall - ``with or without a permit'' - the morning of March 23, and picket outside schools if classes are held, Stutman said.
Friday, March 12, 2004
Thanks to Phoebe, i can do nifty things like changing fonts. I plan on having lots of fun with this in the future.
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
Thursday, March 11, 2004
Those Elected Officials Better Vote For This One:
(Currently before the state legislature)
(b) No employer or an employer's agent, representative or designee may require its employees to attend an employer-sponsored meeting or participate in any communications with the employer or its agents or representatives, the primary purpose of which is to communicate the employer's opinion about religious or political matters, except that an employer or its agent, representative or designee may communicate to employees information about religious or political matters that the employer is required by law to communicate, but only to the extent of such legal requirement.
(c) No employer or an employer's agent, representative or designee shall discharge, discipline or otherwise penalize or threaten to discharge, discipline or otherwise penalize any employee because the employee, or a person acting on behalf of the employee, makes a good faith report, verbally or in writing, of a violation or a suspected violation of this section. The provisions of this subsection shall not be applicable when the employee knows that such report is false.
(d) Any aggrieved employee may enforce the provisions of this section by means of a civil action brought within ninety days of the date of the alleged violation in the superior court for the judicial district where the violation is alleged to have occurred or where the employer has its principal office. The court may award a prevailing employee all appropriate relief, including rehiring or reinstatement of the employee to the employee's former position, back pay and reestablishment of any employee benefits to which the employee would otherwise have been eligible if such violation had not occurred. The court shall award a prevailing employee treble damages, together with reasonable attorneys' fees and costs.
(e) Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit an employee's right to bring a common law cause of action against an employer for wrongful termination or to diminish or impair the rights of a person under any collective bargaining agreement.
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
(Currently before the state legislature)
(b) No employer or an employer's agent, representative or designee may require its employees to attend an employer-sponsored meeting or participate in any communications with the employer or its agents or representatives, the primary purpose of which is to communicate the employer's opinion about religious or political matters, except that an employer or its agent, representative or designee may communicate to employees information about religious or political matters that the employer is required by law to communicate, but only to the extent of such legal requirement.
(c) No employer or an employer's agent, representative or designee shall discharge, discipline or otherwise penalize or threaten to discharge, discipline or otherwise penalize any employee because the employee, or a person acting on behalf of the employee, makes a good faith report, verbally or in writing, of a violation or a suspected violation of this section. The provisions of this subsection shall not be applicable when the employee knows that such report is false.
(d) Any aggrieved employee may enforce the provisions of this section by means of a civil action brought within ninety days of the date of the alleged violation in the superior court for the judicial district where the violation is alleged to have occurred or where the employer has its principal office. The court may award a prevailing employee all appropriate relief, including rehiring or reinstatement of the employee to the employee's former position, back pay and reestablishment of any employee benefits to which the employee would otherwise have been eligible if such violation had not occurred. The court shall award a prevailing employee treble damages, together with reasonable attorneys' fees and costs.
(e) Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit an employee's right to bring a common law cause of action against an employer for wrongful termination or to diminish or impair the rights of a person under any collective bargaining agreement.
Moot Point
"I have a problem with exploiting death for political gain," he said. "I'd have the same problem if Democrats used images of body bags coming back from Iraq in one of their ads."
Of course, they couldn't even if they wanted too, because the army is more or less prohibiting publication of such images...
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
"I have a problem with exploiting death for political gain," he said. "I'd have the same problem if Democrats used images of body bags coming back from Iraq in one of their ads."
Of course, they couldn't even if they wanted too, because the army is more or less prohibiting publication of such images...
Tuesday, March 09, 2004
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
Food service workers at Plattsburgh State now have a website to help publicize their struggle against Sodexho.
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
Jacob Remes contributes these "ADL Press Releases" to the special purim issue of Protocols
Press Releases You Didn't See
PRESS RELEASE ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE
ADL SHOCKED AT GEORGE TAYLOR'S BLATANT ANTISEMITISM
New York, March 7, 2003--Abraham H. Foxman, the world's sole arbitrator of what is and is not antisemitic, announced that his next-door neighbor, George Taylor should be ashamed of himself for his antisemitism. Acting in his role as the spokesman for all American Jews, President Foxman said he was shocked and disappointed in his neighbor's bigotry against Jews.
Taylor's shocking antisemitism came to light during a dispute with President Foxman over a shared driveway. "George's refusal to pay for half of the repaving costs is an obvious and disturbing sign of his bias," said President Foxman. "Jews all across the United States recognize that anyone with whom I disagree is an antisemite. Therefore, since George and I are having a disgreement, he must be an antisemite."
While at first glance, the dispute between Taylor and the Jewish People may seem trivial, President Foxman explained that it is important to note every act of antisemitism. "At this time of decreased endowments and smaller foundation support, it is incumbent on Jewish spokespeople like myself to highlight every act of antisemitism as if it heralded the building of new concentration camps," President Foxman said. "We must never forget what can happen as a result of turning a blind eye to bigotry. Everyone knows that the rise of Hitler came as a direct result of a dispute about a hedge he had with a Jewish neighbor."
"It is easy for George to make amends," said President Foxman. "All he has to do is announce, loudly, that he supports the Israeli government, no matter what it does. As I established with Billy Graham and Silvio Berlusconi, all that is required for an antisemite to make up with the Jewish People is for them to blindly support the Israeli government."
The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and igotry. Its president, Abraham H. Foxman is recognized by news organizations around the world as the official spokesperson for Jews.
###
PRESS RELEASE ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE
ADL AND WARNER BROTHERS SIGN FIVE-YEAR MARKETING AGREEMENT
Hollywood, March 7, 2004--ADL President Abraham H. Foxman, the self-appointed Offical Arbiter of Antisemitism, and Barry Meyer, the Chairman and CEO of Warner Brothers Entertainment, announced today the signing of a landmark marketing agreement. According to the agreement, Warner Bros. and the ADL will jointly choose one film a year to be denounced as antisemitic.
"We saw what a publicity boon Abe's hysteria was when it came to 'The Passion.' When I saw the amount of column inches of editorial content about Mel's movie, I knew I had to get into that sort of action." Meyer said. "Warner Brothers is pleased to be entering into this historic agreement with an organization recognized the world over as the only
spokesperson for the Jewish People."
Foxman heralded the agreement also, calling it good for the Jews. "Every time I decide that something is antisemitic, donations to the ADL skyrocket. Since what's good for the ADL is good for the Jews, regular hysteria about mounting antisemitism is a boon to our community."
The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry. Its president, Abraham H. Foxman is recognized by news organizations around the world as the official spokesperson for Jews.
###
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
Press Releases You Didn't See
PRESS RELEASE ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE
ADL SHOCKED AT GEORGE TAYLOR'S BLATANT ANTISEMITISM
New York, March 7, 2003--Abraham H. Foxman, the world's sole arbitrator of what is and is not antisemitic, announced that his next-door neighbor, George Taylor should be ashamed of himself for his antisemitism. Acting in his role as the spokesman for all American Jews, President Foxman said he was shocked and disappointed in his neighbor's bigotry against Jews.
Taylor's shocking antisemitism came to light during a dispute with President Foxman over a shared driveway. "George's refusal to pay for half of the repaving costs is an obvious and disturbing sign of his bias," said President Foxman. "Jews all across the United States recognize that anyone with whom I disagree is an antisemite. Therefore, since George and I are having a disgreement, he must be an antisemite."
While at first glance, the dispute between Taylor and the Jewish People may seem trivial, President Foxman explained that it is important to note every act of antisemitism. "At this time of decreased endowments and smaller foundation support, it is incumbent on Jewish spokespeople like myself to highlight every act of antisemitism as if it heralded the building of new concentration camps," President Foxman said. "We must never forget what can happen as a result of turning a blind eye to bigotry. Everyone knows that the rise of Hitler came as a direct result of a dispute about a hedge he had with a Jewish neighbor."
"It is easy for George to make amends," said President Foxman. "All he has to do is announce, loudly, that he supports the Israeli government, no matter what it does. As I established with Billy Graham and Silvio Berlusconi, all that is required for an antisemite to make up with the Jewish People is for them to blindly support the Israeli government."
The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and igotry. Its president, Abraham H. Foxman is recognized by news organizations around the world as the official spokesperson for Jews.
###
PRESS RELEASE ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE
ADL AND WARNER BROTHERS SIGN FIVE-YEAR MARKETING AGREEMENT
Hollywood, March 7, 2004--ADL President Abraham H. Foxman, the self-appointed Offical Arbiter of Antisemitism, and Barry Meyer, the Chairman and CEO of Warner Brothers Entertainment, announced today the signing of a landmark marketing agreement. According to the agreement, Warner Bros. and the ADL will jointly choose one film a year to be denounced as antisemitic.
"We saw what a publicity boon Abe's hysteria was when it came to 'The Passion.' When I saw the amount of column inches of editorial content about Mel's movie, I knew I had to get into that sort of action." Meyer said. "Warner Brothers is pleased to be entering into this historic agreement with an organization recognized the world over as the only
spokesperson for the Jewish People."
Foxman heralded the agreement also, calling it good for the Jews. "Every time I decide that something is antisemitic, donations to the ADL skyrocket. Since what's good for the ADL is good for the Jews, regular hysteria about mounting antisemitism is a boon to our community."
The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry. Its president, Abraham H. Foxman is recognized by news organizations around the world as the official spokesperson for Jews.
###
Monday, March 08, 2004
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
The LA Weekly on "The National Failure of the Grocery Workers' Union"
The three chains’ coast-to-coast presence gave them the financial power to weather hard economic times, or strikes, in one part of the country as long as shoppers were still rolling their carts through checkout lanes in other regions. UFCW, though, remained fractured, promoting local and separate control while other unions were coming to terms with the need to centralize finances, strategy and organizing. New labor vigor crystallized around the Service Employees International Union, which promoted energetic organizing, scrupulous planning and carefully targeted work actions. The SEIU culture became the new standard in the 1990s, when its leader, former janitor John Sweeney, became head of the AFL-CIO. Among Sweeney’s opponents was Doug Dority.
The drawbacks of Dority’s approach became apparent as seven Southern California leaders squabbled over strategy, failed to acknowledge the corporate willingness to forgo short-term profits, and stumbled over outreach to other unions that stood ready with resources and good will.
Among the biggest gaffes and setbacks: The union failed to present a clear message to the public, shoppers and even its own members. In the early days of the strike, picketers outside the Albertsons at the Baldwin-Crenshaw plaza urged shoppers to get their groceries at, of all places, the nearby nonunion Wal-Mart. The union misplayed strong public support of the strike by lifting pickets at all Ralphs stores, thinking the move would put pressure on Safeway, when in fact the three chains were sharing profits. Having removed the pickets, some leaders invited shoppers to return to Ralphs while others asked them to stay away. In the words of one UFCW representative, “We don’t want them to shop there, but they have to do what they have to do.”
Outreach to the crucial Teamsters union was spotty. Early pickets were sent to grocery-distribution warehouses, but the Teamsters crossed freely. Later, just before Thanksgiving, the Teamsters agreed not to cross the lines — but they returned to work a month later after the UFCW gave them the okay.
Leaders realized things were going poorly and called in the AFL-CIO in December to take over strategy, but failed to follow up. They forgot to give special consideration to their more than 800 supermarket pharmacists and may lose them to another union. They got extraordinary support from dockworkers, janitors and entertainment unions, but they failed to take full advantage of that support or of a smattering of sympathy strikes in Washington, D.C.
The day before the settlement was reached, the hotel and restaurant workers (known as HERE) and the clothing, textiles and laundry union (UNITE) announced a strategic merger that will allow them to employ some of the tactics that have made SEIU successful — like lining up contract expiration dates and presenting management with the prospect of a nationwide action. That’s something UFCW was not equipped to do this time around. But in the future it may have to go that way.
“UFCW has to critically evaluate what happened here,” said Kent Wong, director of the Center for Labor Research and Education at UCLA. “It speaks to a broader need for labor solidarity.”
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
The three chains’ coast-to-coast presence gave them the financial power to weather hard economic times, or strikes, in one part of the country as long as shoppers were still rolling their carts through checkout lanes in other regions. UFCW, though, remained fractured, promoting local and separate control while other unions were coming to terms with the need to centralize finances, strategy and organizing. New labor vigor crystallized around the Service Employees International Union, which promoted energetic organizing, scrupulous planning and carefully targeted work actions. The SEIU culture became the new standard in the 1990s, when its leader, former janitor John Sweeney, became head of the AFL-CIO. Among Sweeney’s opponents was Doug Dority.
The drawbacks of Dority’s approach became apparent as seven Southern California leaders squabbled over strategy, failed to acknowledge the corporate willingness to forgo short-term profits, and stumbled over outreach to other unions that stood ready with resources and good will.
Among the biggest gaffes and setbacks: The union failed to present a clear message to the public, shoppers and even its own members. In the early days of the strike, picketers outside the Albertsons at the Baldwin-Crenshaw plaza urged shoppers to get their groceries at, of all places, the nearby nonunion Wal-Mart. The union misplayed strong public support of the strike by lifting pickets at all Ralphs stores, thinking the move would put pressure on Safeway, when in fact the three chains were sharing profits. Having removed the pickets, some leaders invited shoppers to return to Ralphs while others asked them to stay away. In the words of one UFCW representative, “We don’t want them to shop there, but they have to do what they have to do.”
Outreach to the crucial Teamsters union was spotty. Early pickets were sent to grocery-distribution warehouses, but the Teamsters crossed freely. Later, just before Thanksgiving, the Teamsters agreed not to cross the lines — but they returned to work a month later after the UFCW gave them the okay.
Leaders realized things were going poorly and called in the AFL-CIO in December to take over strategy, but failed to follow up. They forgot to give special consideration to their more than 800 supermarket pharmacists and may lose them to another union. They got extraordinary support from dockworkers, janitors and entertainment unions, but they failed to take full advantage of that support or of a smattering of sympathy strikes in Washington, D.C.
The day before the settlement was reached, the hotel and restaurant workers (known as HERE) and the clothing, textiles and laundry union (UNITE) announced a strategic merger that will allow them to employ some of the tactics that have made SEIU successful — like lining up contract expiration dates and presenting management with the prospect of a nationwide action. That’s something UFCW was not equipped to do this time around. But in the future it may have to go that way.
“UFCW has to critically evaluate what happened here,” said Kent Wong, director of the Center for Labor Research and Education at UCLA. “It speaks to a broader need for labor solidarity.”
A New Haven Register article on the expansion of Non Profits, particularly Yale, the ultimate tax free urban neocolonialist, and the erosion of New Haven's grand list
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
Sunday, March 07, 2004
"Why are University of Arizona graduate students eating dry food?" the sign asks. "Because they can't afford canned."
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
Saturday, March 06, 2004
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
Martha Stewart was found guilty on four charges yesterday.
I don't really care.
But the fact that Kozlowski and other TYCO officials are going to face lighter charges than they should be facing, considering the scope of what they did in comaprison to what Stewart was found guilty of, is troubling indeed.
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
I don't really care.
But the fact that Kozlowski and other TYCO officials are going to face lighter charges than they should be facing, considering the scope of what they did in comaprison to what Stewart was found guilty of, is troubling indeed.
Are you fucking kidding me?
"Let he who is without sin cast the first thumbs down"
Now that doesn't sound at all fascist.
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
"Let he who is without sin cast the first thumbs down"
Now that doesn't sound at all fascist.
Jeffrey Boyd on one YaleCorp Alumni Trustee nominee:
"Given the choice between two venture capitalists and a judge actively trying to promote civil rights - it does seem like an easy choice," said Jeffrey Boyd, a graduate student from California, who is gay. "I hope the alumni of Yale will send a very clear message through this election that equality for all queer people is a value at Yale."
And Jeffrey Boyd bludgeoning Evan Cobb with a baguette from yesterday's Yale Daily News.
An interesting critique of the racialized discourse of the push for gay marriage. I'm not entirely in agreement with Farrow, and find aspects of his argument problematic, but the question of how the white leadership of the push for queer marriage is articulating a racialized discourse of white middle class queerness to justify same-sex marriage and thus erasing and marginalizing queer and transgender people of color and the struggles of people in these communities is salient and deeply troubling.
The retirees rallied on Beinecke yesterday. Yale's paternalistic discourse of "we know what is best for you" seems little diminished by the strike victory. Pepper thinks he can tell people who have worked here twenty five , thirty, forty times as long as he has what is "a good start" for them, and this is insulting and demonstrative of the university's arrogance and elitism. During the strike, Rogan, Lucille Dickess, and the other retirees told Yale in very clear terms that it was not living up to the promise of providing good jobs and supporting people who had dedicated their lives to the university by making sure they had livable pensions upon retirement. Pepper's use of layoff scare tactics with Local 34 and his failure to negotiate equitable pension adjustments with people whose toil has made possible the university's rapid expansion over the past six decades demonstrates the university's continuing efforts to crush the voices of working people on this campus and in this city.
We will not be silenced.
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
"Given the choice between two venture capitalists and a judge actively trying to promote civil rights - it does seem like an easy choice," said Jeffrey Boyd, a graduate student from California, who is gay. "I hope the alumni of Yale will send a very clear message through this election that equality for all queer people is a value at Yale."
And Jeffrey Boyd bludgeoning Evan Cobb with a baguette from yesterday's Yale Daily News.
An interesting critique of the racialized discourse of the push for gay marriage. I'm not entirely in agreement with Farrow, and find aspects of his argument problematic, but the question of how the white leadership of the push for queer marriage is articulating a racialized discourse of white middle class queerness to justify same-sex marriage and thus erasing and marginalizing queer and transgender people of color and the struggles of people in these communities is salient and deeply troubling.
The retirees rallied on Beinecke yesterday. Yale's paternalistic discourse of "we know what is best for you" seems little diminished by the strike victory. Pepper thinks he can tell people who have worked here twenty five , thirty, forty times as long as he has what is "a good start" for them, and this is insulting and demonstrative of the university's arrogance and elitism. During the strike, Rogan, Lucille Dickess, and the other retirees told Yale in very clear terms that it was not living up to the promise of providing good jobs and supporting people who had dedicated their lives to the university by making sure they had livable pensions upon retirement. Pepper's use of layoff scare tactics with Local 34 and his failure to negotiate equitable pension adjustments with people whose toil has made possible the university's rapid expansion over the past six decades demonstrates the university's continuing efforts to crush the voices of working people on this campus and in this city.
We will not be silenced.
Thursday, March 04, 2004
Some interesting searches, recently. "smash Yale zach" is, depending on who's doing the search, flattering or frightening. While you're surveiling me, check out my "Yale Sucks page" written during a period of stress and depression freshman year, and which is extremely naive and assumes a commonality of privilege which is simply not present, as well as employing problematic analytical tools towards conclusions which don't really have much meaning for me at this point in my life and the organizing I'm involved in. I do, however, wholeheartedly endorse the last two lines. To the person who searched for ""Dan Kruger" +Yale," please do not include this blog in any slanderous efforts against Ben Healey cause this madness is all mine, baby. Someone found this site by searching for "locked in a sheriffs cruiser." (my site was low on the list - a combination of the grocery worker lockout and several other old entries. The other shit that this person found was probably a lot weirder.
Thanks to mcplunk for the link, whose dramatized experience with postdoctoral fellowships at today's dissertation derby made it crystal clear why life scientists are organizing for a career services center.
Oh: good luck to the UOCistas in DS writing sadistically-assigned due-friday philosophy papers as i procrastinate from wasting my time on my "Natty Haz" problem set. (And thanks to Shikha for the term "Natty Haz.")
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
Thanks to mcplunk for the link, whose dramatized experience with postdoctoral fellowships at today's dissertation derby made it crystal clear why life scientists are organizing for a career services center.
Oh: good luck to the UOCistas in DS writing sadistically-assigned due-friday philosophy papers as i procrastinate from wasting my time on my "Natty Haz" problem set. (And thanks to Shikha for the term "Natty Haz.")
GESO's Take Back The Academy was a great, fun, but powerful action. See Evan's page for some pictures of the ingenious "Dissertation Derby."
(This is right after Qin blinded Club ABD bouncer Evan with his laser pointer. Wish there was a photo of us marching in with the "Undergrads Heart GESO banner.")
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
(This is right after Qin blinded Club ABD bouncer Evan with his laser pointer. Wish there was a photo of us marching in with the "Undergrads Heart GESO banner.")
Wednesday, March 03, 2004
READ IT, GET MAD, TAKE ACTION
The Unfa(i)rallon Website is up!
And by the way, CONGRATS TO ALYSSA AND SHANEANE.
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
The Unfa(i)rallon Website is up!
And by the way, CONGRATS TO ALYSSA AND SHANEANE.
Tuesday, March 02, 2004
Kohle's argument that DP should trump Gay marriage actions like those in San Francisco or New Paltz is deeply problematic. I don't care if it's part of the Bush 2004 strategy to make gay marriage a divisive issue or whatever other crap you wanna throw out there: this is not only a civil rights issue but a human rights issue. It's about how we define peoplehood. Kerry and Edwards both suck on this issue. In no way am i arguing against the New Haven DP fight. Indeed, i am a strong supporter of Healey's bill. But it doesn't, and shouldn't trump efforts to fight heterosexist definitions of love and familiality.
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
Teachers react to Rod Paige
The 50 teachers invited to the meeting had been selected as teachers of the year in 2003 by their state governments. About 44 took part in the meeting, officials said.
One who did not participate was Jeffrey R. Ryan, a high school history teacher in Massachusetts. Mr. Ryan sent an e-mail message to the Department of Education saying he considered the Bush administration to be "hostile to public education."
"Considering Secretary Paige's recent remarks about the N.E.A. and the teaching profession," he wrote, "I no longer feel that his invitation is sincere."
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
The 50 teachers invited to the meeting had been selected as teachers of the year in 2003 by their state governments. About 44 took part in the meeting, officials said.
One who did not participate was Jeffrey R. Ryan, a high school history teacher in Massachusetts. Mr. Ryan sent an e-mail message to the Department of Education saying he considered the Bush administration to be "hostile to public education."
"Considering Secretary Paige's recent remarks about the N.E.A. and the teaching profession," he wrote, "I no longer feel that his invitation is sincere."
Monday, March 01, 2004
Hahaha
"I thought it would be great to support global warming," a demonstrator who would give his name only as Seymour Benjamins said. "You can see how white I am, and global warming gives better tans."
Great job, billionaires
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
"I thought it would be great to support global warming," a demonstrator who would give his name only as Seymour Benjamins said. "You can see how white I am, and global warming gives better tans."
Great job, billionaires
SOME TIPS ON STREAMLINING YALE'S BUDGET
Advice for ASSET:
(Current projected layoffs - 40 C&Ts, 40 M&Ps.)
1.Cut president Levin's salary down to that of an average Clerical and Technical worker (circa $30,000 from $650,000.)
2.Ditto for Linda Lorimer (&30 thou from around $350,000)
3.And Bruce Alexander- he's doing this cause he loves yale, after all. (ditto)
4.And John Pepper
Number of C&T layoffs=0
And as for the M&Ps, maybe they just need a union.
Smash Yale-[ comments.]
Advice for ASSET:
(Current projected layoffs - 40 C&Ts, 40 M&Ps.)
1.Cut president Levin's salary down to that of an average Clerical and Technical worker (circa $30,000 from $650,000.)
2.Ditto for Linda Lorimer (&30 thou from around $350,000)
3.And Bruce Alexander- he's doing this cause he loves yale, after all. (ditto)
4.And John Pepper
Number of C&T layoffs=0
And as for the M&Ps, maybe they just need a union.
