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On keeping labor vulnerable
Expanding H-2B visas a bad idea
In Congressional testimony, EPI Vice-President Ross Eisenbrey
urged representatives to rethink the rapid expansion of a visa program
for foreign guest workers, which has grown from 10,000 to 130,000
workers annually in just 15 years. Speaking to an immigration
subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee on April 16, Eisenbrey
noted that "the H-2B non-agricultural guest worker program has been the
fastest growing and most problematic immigration program in our recent
history.... This expansion is alarming because the H-2B program
undermines the wages and working conditions of U.S. workers; creates
dependencies among businesses for docile foreign workers with no voice,
no bargaining power, and few rights; and allows abuses that most
Americans would denounce if they were aware of them. If our nation is
to have a guest worker program for unskilled occupations--and it is far
from clear that such a program is necessary or desirable--it must be
reformed in significant ways."
Eisenbrey elaborated on his concerns in a May 2 opinion piece in the Baltimore Sun and in another piece tailored to the Hamptons in Newsday.
"Unemployment is rising, hundreds of thousands of families are facing
foreclosures on their homes, and wages are flat-lining (especially for
workers without college degrees). Yet a noisy group of Long Island
businesses claims the nation needs...more workers willing to accept low
wages and less likely to organize or otherwise assert their rights,"
Eisenbrey wrote.
A
heartbreaking example of the sort of the modern debt-peonage system
that such visas make possible can be seen today in Mississippi, where
Indian workers who paid $20,000 each for H-2B visas for Katrina cleanup
jobs are planning a hunger strike.
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By NORMA LOVE The Associated Press
CONCORD, N.H. -- Since they first walked the planet, humans have
either buried or burned their dead. Now a new option is generating
interest -- dissolving bodies in lye and flushing the brownish, syrupy
residue down the drain.
Alkaline
hydrolysis uses lye, 300-degree heat and 60 pounds of pressure per
square inch to destroy bodies in big stainless-steel cylinders that are
similar to pressure cookers. The process leaves a dry bone
residue similar in appearance and volume to cremated remains. It could
be returned to the family in an urn or buried in a cemetery. The
coffee-colored liquid has the consistency of motor oil and a strong
ammonia smell. But proponents say it is sterile and can, in most cases,
be safely poured down the drain, provided the operation has the
necessary permits. From middleageguy
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58 YEARS AGO TODAY
L. Ron Hubbard
May 9, 1950
L. Ron Hubbard publishes the first edition of Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. This follows on the heels of a feature article in the pulp sci-fi magazine Astounding Science Fiction. A book review in the The New Republic
describes the work as "a bold and immodest mixture of complete nonsense
and perfectly reasonable common sense, taken from long-acknowledged
findings and disguised and distorted by a crazy, newly invented
terminology."
LRH revealed that our spirits were actually transported to this
planet 75 million years ago -- back when its proper name was
"Teegeeack" -- by an impossibly cruel dictator known as Xenu.
Xenu was the head of the Galactic Federation, a group of
civilizations on 76 planets in our general neighborhood of the cosmos.
As a result of incredible overcrowding problems, Xenu ordered that
millions or billions of political dissidents from the various planets
be brought to Teegeeack, where they were brainwashed and their souls
implanted into the local fauna.
Many dozens of these thetans were crammed into each animal. Then the creatures were dropped into volcanoes and vaporized with
hydrogen bombs. Through Scientology, LRH provided the means by which a
person can exorcise his unwanted thetans and undo Xenu's brainwashing.
This process is extremely dangerous if done improperly. So naturally,
the Church of Scientology is very careful about who receives the full
briefing. It's the kind of thing that could permanently damage the
psyche of an unprepared mind. Which is why none of this information is
provided to Scientologists until after years of mental preparation and
training.
http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/religion/cult/l-ron-hubbard/
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Satellite images from NASA showed virtually the entire coastal plain of the country under water
By Sebastien Berger, Graham Jenkins and Stephen Adams
07/05/2008
Thirty-six prisoners were shot dead at a notorious Burmese prison after
Cyclone Nargis ripped through the country, it has been claimed.
Soldiers and riot police opened fire at Insein Prison in Rangoon, the capital
of Burma, or Myanmar, after inmates there rioted, according to reports.
The facility, which houses many political prisoners who oppose the country’s
military junta, has been described by former inmates as “the darkest
hell-hole in Burma”.
The chilling report came after the Burmese authorities raised the estimate of
the dead and missing to more than 60,000. According to state television, 22,464 had been killed and another 41,054 were
missing after cyclone Nargis barrelled into the low-lying Irrawaddy delta
with 120mph winds, bringing with it an enormous storm surge that inundated
towns and villages.
The cyclone ripped the roofs of thousands of buildings including Insein
Prison.
More than 1,500 prisoners were locked in a hall and rioted, according to the
Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).
“Even though prisoners requested prison guards to open the doors
and move them to safety, the authorities ignored their request. Some
prisoners set fire to the prison hall and a riot ensued.”
Soldiers called to the prison then opened fire and killed 36
prisoners and injured 70, AAPP said.
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True
