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Friday, November 13, 2009

Big Dan's Big News Nov 13, 2009

We didn't stop slavery and child labor, we exported it. What are we becoming?



These same people are 'worried' about how stopping the wars will effect the economy...

Slavery Defenders: Business Groups ‘Worried’ About The Effects Of Banning The Importation Of Goods Made With Child Labor

From the I Shit You Not File: Business Aims to Relax Bans on Products Made with Child & Slave Labor

Check out this report from Inside U.S. Trade:

Business groups are worried by the potential effects of provisions banning the import of all goods made with convict labor, forced labor, or forced or indentured child labor that were included in a customs bill sponsored by Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) and Ranking Member Charles Grassley (R-IA)...

These groups are examining the ramifications of the bill's provisions, especially in light of the bill's requirements that a newly created office in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) annually report to Congress on the volume and value of goods made with child labor, forced labor or convict labor that have been stopped at the border.

Business sources say this reporting requirement could cause DHS to more actively seek out imported products made with child labor, forced labor or convict labor...

One source did expect a push from lobbyists closer to the Finance Committee markup of the bill, and speculated that U.S. industry groups and foreign governments could form ad hoc coalitions to help send a united message.




I’m typing these words on a computer containing many parts made in countries where laborers are held with less freedom and in conditions worse than those of Jefferson’s slaves. My rationalization is that no companies in America or any other developed nation make many of those parts any longer, and without parts from China and Malaysia I would have no computer. But it’s just a rationalization, and no less hypocritical than Jefferson’s.

Sitting here at my keyboard, I notice that the shirt I'm wearing was made by modern-day slaves, and that the lamp that is lighting my room (the sun is just beginning to rise) was manufactured in China, where workers who try to organize are imprisoned. Since Levi Strauss just closed their last American jeans factory this year, odds are the pants I'm wearing were made in a slaveholding nation as well.

I can rationalize all the products of distant slaves that I use – after all, I don’t have to look into their faces as Jefferson did (which may account for why biographer Fawn Brodie notes that whenever Jefferson returned to Monticello from any trip he brought gifts for his slaves, and his household ledgers show evidence that he smuggled significant sums to Sally Hemmings over the years) – but it's still just a rationalization.

The stark reality is that we didn’t "end" slavery. We simply exported it.

And it’s so much more comfortable for us to criticize Jefferson for agonizing over – but still using – slave labor two hundred years ago when we don’t have to look into the faces of today's slaves who are toiling and dying at this very moment to sustain our lifestyles."

- Thom Hartmann, "What Would Jefferson do?".

I would say we OUTSOURCED it! - Big Dan


If Peter Galbraith doesn't make "hundreds of millions" off the Iraq War, the terrorists win!!!


A former US ambassador who played an instrumental role in the drafting of Iraq's constitution stands to make "hundreds of millions" of dollars from an oil deal he struck that was only possible because of a constitutional provision he helped push through, news reports say. He corruptly concealed vast financial stakes in the very policies and positions he has spent years advocating while pretending to be an independent expert.

Former US diplomat could make ‘hundreds of millions’ off Iraqi oil fields

What Galbraith kept completely concealed all these years was that a company he formed in 2004 came to acquire a large stake in a Kurdish oil field whereby, as the NYT put it, he "stands to earn perhaps a hundred million or more dollars." In other words, he had a direct -- and vast -- financial stake in the very policies which he was publicly advocating in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and countless other American media outlets, where he was presented as an independent expert on the region.

Peter Galbraith's vast, undisclosed financial interests in the policies he spent years advocating as an "expert."

Interviews by The New York Times with more than a dozen current and former government and business officials in Norway, France, Iraq, the United States and elsewhere, along with legal records and other documents, reveal in considerable detail that he received rights to an enormous stake in at least one of Kurdistan’s oil fields in the spring of 2004.

NYTimes: U.S. Adviser to Kurds Stands to Reap Oil Profits






Special commentary by Big Dan: "I just got a fine from Bank of America. I put some money in, cash right with a teller, then that night I bought some gas with my BOA debit card. The cash I put in registered the next day and I didn't know it. I asked them why this happened: I put in cash at a teller and then LATER bought gas, and received a fine, and they said it when you put CASH in with a teller AFTER 2:00, it registers the next day. Let me repeat that: walking in with CASH to the actual teller 2 HOURS past lunchtime registers the NEXT DAY at Bank of America...but if you get gas 4 HOURS past lunchtime with your BOA debit card, THAT is immediate! So they DELAY putting money IN your account, and SPEED UP taking money OUT of your account so you get more fines! Funny, the gas purchase registered the SAME DAY, even though it was DONE LATER than putting in the cash!!! Sweet $39 fine for that!!! Now you know how they made BILLIONS ON LATE FEES! Here's another thing they do: if you have multiple transactions causing overdraft, they'll sort them so the MOST bounce, so they get more fines. Example: You have $100 in your account and you have a $101 transaction and five $1 transactions. That's ONE fine, right? The five $1 were well below your $100 balance and only the $101 transaction bounced, right? WRONG!!! They put the $101 transaction FIRST, giving you a negative -$1 balance...THEN bounce the five $1 transactions so they get SIX $39 fines!!! Do politicians care about this? NO! Because their accounts are never near zero so it never happens to them! I asked them why they do this, they said: 'We pay the biggest one first'. Yeah, I know why: BECAUSE YOU GET THE MOST FINES!!! Then, as your account keeps going more and more negative because of their snowballing fines, more and more of your transactions keep coming in and getting more and more fines!!!"



Fed Slaps Curbs on Overdraft Fees

BDBB Flalshback December 12, 2007 - Getting Ripped Off With An Unjust Overlimit Fee: PRICELESS!

U.S. Foreclosure Filings Surpass 300,000 for 8th Straight Month



Did FOX "news"/Tea Party/Limbaugh/Beck favorite Doug Hoffman-R win, but concede too quickly?



NY-23's Democratic congressman has already been sworn in, but absentee votes and errors have caused Hoffman-R to have a longshot at actually having more votes. Republicans should remember the precedent they set in the 2006 Bilbray-Busby election, but the Republicans, FOX "news", Rush Limbaugh, and Glenn Beck won't mention it, where the exact opposite happened and the Republicans rushed Bilray-R to be sworn in quickly before all the votes were counted and certified and fought any challenge attempts. Don't expect the corporate-owned media to mention the Republicans' Bilbray-Busby precendent should this go any further.

Did Doug Hoffman Actually Win the NY-23 Special Election? If So, Does It Actually Matter?

Jon Stewart: What was that message, Doug Hoffman? The winners were winners...and the losers were winners - polish that turd!







The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
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Indecision 2009 - Local Election Results
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The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Moment of Zen - Glenn Beck Tests Doug Hoffman
www.thedailyshow.com



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