Everyone paying attention knows about McCain’s pandering to Hagee, though you’d never know it from the mainstream media, which largely ignored it. However, sucking up to crazy far right wing preachers appears to be an integral part of McCain’s strategy:
Edit: Update on Hagee: He reneges his “Katrina happened because NOLA was a bunch of sinners” comment, only to say it again. What an upstanding guy he is! Has McCain rejected his endorsement yet?
Employees at Lifelinks, Inc, a Lowell and Chelmsford group that provides care to those with developmental disabilities via both day and residential programs, will go on a one-day strike on Monday. Strikers are demanding better wages and training. They cite high turnover as detrimental to the clients of Lifelinks, and the average paycheck is just around $11 an hour, which if you ask me, accounts for the turnover in employees.
From the statement of the employees, via SEIU Local 509:
We are even willing to tie our paychecks to training, but the company has rejected our proposals. Our average wage is little over $11.00 per hour. Many of us must work 2-3 jobs to support our own families. Management of the company has rejected these common sense ideas and has insisted on numerous take backs from the employees.
“We want better training, and we’re willing to tie our paychecks to better training, but the company keeps saying no,” according to Agnes Irungu, a direct care worker at LifeLinks who assists developmentally disabled people. “Our clients deserve better than they are getting and we’re willing to fight to make sure they get it.”
These are not “mere” service jobs, like cleaning houses (for which $11/hour is not a living wage either). This is human services, which requires skills, caring, and trusted employees. There is no way to argue that paying $11/hour for these jobs is helping anyone, least of all the clients.
From the statement again:
The decision to strike is not one that we take lightly; unfortunately we feel we are being forced into an unacceptable situation. All of us care deeply about the individuals we serve. We have been working hard to improve turnover and the quality of care not just at Lifelinks, Inc. but in the Human Services field in general. The company is rejecting common sense contract language that will not cost them a cent, allow the company to access new state revenue and improve training at our agency. In addition management wants to reduce leave time and reduce job security for many staff at the agency.
The 24-hour strike begins at 7:00 am on Monday, May 12, with a rally at 12 noon at 55 Middlesex Street. If anyone has any questions, they can call Cliff Cohn at 617-924-8509 x530.
All I can think of is, he’ll talk about fighting this battle again, but not the local options low meals tax battle, a far more worthier one and something most of his base supports whole heartedly?
Just, please don’t make us go through this again. I hope this quote is pulled out of proportion in this article.
(Hat tip, Political Inaction at BMG.)
I said it last night - wondering out loud whether or not enough Republicans were “voting” for Clinton in the Democratic primary in Indiana in keeping with the Rush Directive to “keep the Democrats in chaos.” I had seen some - admittedly - anecdotal evidence from voters on the ground in IN who were writing about it. But how much of a margin, really, could they affect? Seems like I wasn’t insane. Gah.
I bet those voters, if they existed in enough numbers to put Clinton over the top in IN, certainly counted. I know most other ones don’t seem to…
On another note, Clinton lost the nomination. Again. She maybe gained +one delegate in IN, but is behind around 13 in NC. Then, the math. The math. The math. With Obama pulling in ratios of between 2 to 5 superdelegates to every one for Clinton these days, it’s over. Apparently everyone but Clinton knows it. (We all knew it months ago, but the media lapped up the comeback kid storyline. But, even they have given that up.)
Now, it’s about her legacy, bowing out graciously. Will she come around and stand behind the guy who won, fair and square, and who is our best chance for winning in November? Or will she continue to torpedo him until the only conclusion you can make it that she’s trying to get him to lose in November so she can run again in 2012?
Enough. Yes, the extended primary process had some good points. But we need to turn this ship around to a new horizon, that of McCain the Bush-Kissing Flipflopper who is good with the US perpetrating torture.
Edit: You know, I really did fix the spelling error in the title, or thought I did, before posting. Gotta love the internets…
From CREDO of Working Assets:
Sign our petition for election reform in Massachusetts
Help young and lower-income citizens vote. Stand up and be counted in the petition to Senator Murray.
This year’s most progressive voting reform has almost made it through the Massachusetts legislature. Thanks in large part to pressure from Citizen Activists like you, the Election Day Registration bill may soon become law. But one more hurdle stands in its way.
Election Day Registration would allow an estimated 225,000 more people to vote in Massachusetts elections—a 5% increase. It does this by letting eligible citizens register and vote on Election Day, instead of losing their right to vote if they miss the registration cutoff. Young and lower-income citizens benefit most, since they are often new to the political process or more likely to move around and miss registration deadlines. We always talk about encouraging civic participation among these groups; this is a chance to do something positive about it!
Senator Kerry has a post on dkos today that blasts the lack of media coverage on the Pentagon propaganda NY Times article (I wrote about it here).
Not surprising the media fails to cover its own complicities in this matter. They love their “access” and don’t question the source. The precedent this sets - such large scale war propaganda on American soil - could change our democracy forever. From Kerry:
The Pentagon now says that it has suspended this program, but we still don’t know what really happened. What was the extent of the program? Did the Pentagon leverage the financial interests of the analysts? And, especially, now that the Pentagon has announced this program has been suspended, what steps are being taken to make sure it never happens again?
We know the life-or-death consequences of policy decisions in Iraq and Afghanistan — and we know that these policies should de debated and defended without secret programs designed to tailor the news for the Administration’s goals. This is too important to brush aside.
So I sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office asking for that independent office to conduct a full investigation of this program and report its findings. But what we need to do is show that the people are watching this. I sent out an email yesterday to the johnkerry.com community asking everyone who agrees with me to sign on as co-signers to the letter I sent to the GAO.
I ask all of you here to join me as well.
Somebody needs to hold the administration and the media to account. The independent GAO is known for its investigations into serious matters. I think this is a good move on the Senator’s part.