Monday March 16, 2009, 9:07 pm
Yep, he's a gooberhead. It amazes me how many people are so easily influenced by the propaganda spewed about unions. "The cause of all the problems in Detroit are the workers" not really, but many believe that because they hear it so often. Most people don't think beyond the garbage being spewed on the TV. Of course if we really want to assign blame then it's easy to do, the fingers point at the lobbies and Congress for sucking up to them.

Tuesday March 17, 2009, 7:53 am
You can fight back again$t every crook and liar on Wall $treet and every crooked RepubliCON politican in government:

EFCA NOW !
Support this bill and add your name to our list of over one million signatures!

Tuesday March 17, 2009, 7:53 am
Kit ... they're now trying to dismember the Teachers Unions ....

Thursday March 19, 2009, 12:23 am
Hi, Tom. Thanks for this illuminating post; and thanks to Blue for the petition link.

Sorry if my comment is about just one of the greedy corporations, AIG, and the bonus scandal, but I'm trying to spread the following info.

Let me say that there is no real pleasure in saying 'I told you so,' but I floated a petition way back when to say we didn't want Larry Summers in the Obama administration and he is now the special economic advisor to Obama who is protesting against getting the bonuses back, saying that the govt cannot interfere with contractual agreements between companies and their employees.

That tidbit is from a petition with today as the deadline: FireDogLake- No More Dough Till We Know Where It Goes, where you can read:

Talking points:
--Yesterday AIG paid $165 million of the $450 million it will pay this year in "retention bonuses" to executives in its Financial Services Group, the out-of-control derivatives trading arm that looted the company, destroyed its stock and contracted for huge bonuses even after they saw the risk of collapse.

--The $450 million was just a portion of the $1.2 billion AIG will pay out in bonuses across the board within a company that lost $100 billion last year.

--Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, wants to try and recover these bonuses.

--American taxpayers now own $80% of AIG after paying $173 billion to keep it afloat.

--Larry Summers says the government simply can't break the contracts that AIG had with executives, even as the Treasury is forcing auto companies to break their labor contracts as a condition of receiving TARP funds.

--Meanwhile, 21% of Americans are struggling to pay for the health care, and going without treatments they need.


Also, very important to hear, watch, read (your choice!):
Public Outcry Forces Lawmakers to Say They’ll Recoup Millions in AIG Bonuses, But Why Not the Billions in Taxpayer Bailout Funds?

The above and following from Democracy Now!: Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have responded to growing public outrage with a pledge to recoup million-dollar bonuses paid out by the bailed-out insurance giant AIG. But the hundreds of millions of dollars in bonus money pales to the billions used to bail out AIG a second time. We speak to consumer advocate Ralph Nader and economist Robert Kuttner, co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect. Kuttner says, “I think [Treasury Secretary Timothy] Geithner is probably gone within sixty days, because he has become a liability to the administration.” [includes rush transcript]