Monthly Archives: April 2011

Buzzflash: Jesus Was a Working Man, a Carpenter, Who Advocated for the Underclass, the Powerless, and Those Country Clubs Would

Originally posted on Buzzflash, April 24, 2011-

Jesus of Nazareth, or Jesus Christ, continues to intrigue all sectors of society, all peoples, all races, both rich, not so rich and, most particularly, the underclass and poor. In an age that has come to emphasize money, materialism, outright greed, and admiration for the rich and powerful, he offers an alternative.

Yet Jesus is in an enigmatic and troubling figure. For many people in the world, he is seen as a kind of general love figure, the ultimate nice guy. After all, that is what the world wants to see in other people - niceness, tolerance, humanity, and kindness in others. Far from being solely concerned with being loving and nice to people, however, he is the ultimate litigator. One might see Jesus as an advocate of the underclass. Perhaps one could see Jesus as a socialist or communist, since in the Gospels, he seems to make a point of associating with and advocating for, the poor and working class.

WTMJ: Capitol Chaos: Darling Recall Signatures To Be Submitted

April 21, 2011- One high profile effort to recall a Wisconsin legislator involves that of River Hills Republican State Senator Alberta Darling, and she will be the 5th Republican lawmaker in the state to have recall petition signatures sent to the State Capitol

People trying to recall her will be driving petitions to Madison to turn in those signatures to try to get the recall process started.

They needed about 21,000 signatures in order for any recall election to happen.

Organizer Christopher Rowe said that they had close to 30,000 signatures.

Rowe said that the five Republican recall petition signatures submitted shows how the lack of popularity of Governor Scott Walker.

"It says a lot. It says Governor Walker's policies are not popular. There's a lot of people who are not going to stand for it."

Representative Sandy Pasch and former representative Sheldon Wasserman have expressed interest in running against Darling.

Neither have formally filed to do so.

The recall elections are slated for mid-June.

Buzzflash: Will the Unemployed and Homeless End up In Prison in the New Order?

It's a place where black is white, and up is down, and one man can make enough money in a year to pay the salaries of 100,000 new teachers.

Where 1% of the population has accumulated more wealth than the bottom90%. Where this tiny group took a big slice of the pie, and then over 30 years took another slice, and then another, while everyone else had less to eat.

The Bizarro leaders, seeing the backward movement of the masses, decreed:"Give more to the 1%, and ease their tax burden! For only by increasing inequality will we make things more equal!"

The leaders further decreed that any funding for children or the elderly or the unemployed should be stopped immediately, because, as they exclaimed: "Only by pulling yourselves up by your bootstraps will you prosper!"

After all, the great merchants of Bizarro had succeeded. For years they had utilized the research and infrastructure and technology of their forebears to design mighty business structures, but now, as in became out, they announced that they would only exist on small islands far out to sea,where the flow of wealth would be unimpeded.

Truthout: Seventy Years After General Strike, Bay Area Workers Still Fighting for Justice

April 21, 2011- In the 150-year history of workers in the San Francisco Bay Area, the watershed event was one that happened 70 years ago - the San Francisco general strike. That year, sailors, longshoremen, and other maritime workers shut down all the ports on the West Coast, trying to form a union and end favoritism, low wages and grueling 10- and 12-hour days. Ship owners deployed tanks and guns on the waterfront andtried to break the strike.

At the peak of this bitter labor war, police fired into crowds of strikers, killing two union activists. Then workers shut down the entire city in a general strike, and for four days, nothing moved inSan Francisco. The strike gave workers a sense of power described in a verse in the union song "Solidarity Forever": "Without our brain and muscle, not a single wheel can turn."

Alternet: Wisc: Republican Judge Hires Koch-Allied Attorney For Recount; Tea Party Express Recruits Recount Volunteers

April 28, 2011- Last week, incumbent Justice David Prosser hired James Troupis, the same attorney retained by the Koch-funded Wisconsin Prosperity Network in a case challenging restrictions on political advertising that is currently before the court, to look out for his interests in the recount now underway in Wisconsin that will determine the final outcome of the April 4 race for a seat on the state Supreme Court. Today, Tea Party Express, the group and PAC created and run by GOP operative Sal Russo, sent out a breathlessly-worded e-mail calling for volunteers, especially attorneys.

The stakes in the recount are especially high since the passage of draconian anti-labor and anti-safety net laws passed by the state legislature in March — laws that are being appealed by opponents. Although the current court will likely hear those cases before the new justice is seated, the state is so politically polarized that the state's high court could be instrumental in determining the outcome of not just future legislation, but cases concerning election law.

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