Credit Card Firms: Spawn Of Satan? Betcha!

Was I kidding last time I posted a story like this one....?

Darn That MSM!!!

Larisa of Raw Story has a complaint: The Associated Press ripped off Raw Story...

Outsourcing & privatizing our way to the bottom

Readers of WTW know that while members of this community are not fans of outsourcing and privatizing, our current federal government and its business community supporters just love it, whether the subject be tax collection, research & development, veterans' health care, or other essential services.  And the effects have been devastating.

George Bush: Close, but not quite

George Bush, speaking today in Indianapolis:
"I know it's troubled times," [President Bush] said. But, he added, "The only way we can lose is to lose our will."

U.S. Port Authorities oppose ban on foreign port operators

The competing interests involved in producing "homeland security" are on full display these days.  Not only do many business entities resist efforts to tighten border security, and the chemical industry resists efforts to tighten security of chemical plants, but the American Association of Port Authorities just voted to oppose the "National Defense and Critical Infrastructure Protection Act," introduced earlier this month in the House, which would require all U.S. port terminal operations to be managed by a U.S. entity, while mandating inspection of all cargo coming into the United States.

The personification of wingnut

I know you don't have to look too hard on the web to find some wingnut who sees the world as though he'd just had his cranium dented by a 2,000 pound ball of propaganda.  But how's this for a reason to oppose NSA's warrantless surveillance:  

FYI: French Labor Laws on Terminating Employees

A  summary of the French labor laws is available online.  I believe this is a site run by the French government, but I'm not positive.

I quickly read over the description of the law on terminating employees and I've got to tell you, it doesn't sound that "rigid," "strict," or "stultifying"--all adjectives that I've seen used repeatedly in American press stories about the French protests of the proposed new law for young workers.  Read the summary below and ask yourself, whether this is obstructionist or a reasonable way to balance the interests of the employer and employees.

Chertoff, keeping us just as safe as private industry will allow

When does a proposal to make you safer have serious potential to make you less safe?  When it's a plan offered by a Republican official and geared as much to protecting the industry from regulatory burdens as much as it is to protecting the public from the dangers of terrorism.

Robertson & Falwell: fear your professors...and, by the way, "we're number one"

The lunacy of the leading religious right demagogues is almost beyond belief.  Take the latest from Frothing Pat Robertson and Foaming Jerry Falwell...

Repub gov't: ideological extremism, catastrophic fiscal irresponsibility, rampant greed...

Finally, a conservative who can see what's right in front of him.  Way back in 1969, Kevin Phillips was helping the Republicans strategize how to use the changing demographics of America to perform a political takeover.  Today, according to a NY Times review of his latest book, Phillips:

No longer does he see Republican government as a source of stability and order. Instead, he presents a nightmarish vision of ideological extremism, catastrophic fiscal irresponsibility, rampant greed and dangerous shortsightedness.