"Romney apparently prefers an economy where fewer people succeed while most Americans get left behind,” Wukela says in reference to the candidate’s most recent campaign platform.
“He wants to roll back financial reform and let Wall Street writes its own rules again, and he wants to return to the same policies that caused the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and sped up a 30-year abandonment of the middle class.“The people of South Carolina can’t afford what Mitt Romney is offering.”
Social Justice: Current Affairs, Business, Politics, and all the reasons in the world to Thrive on Creative Discontent!
Friday, January 6, 2012
Former employee of Mitt Romney says, "The only thing he's ever produced is profits for the rich."
Randy Johnson has been a critic of Mitt Romney for around 18 years. He was one of hundreds of people who were laid off when Romney's company, Bain Capital, bought and closed Ampad, an office supply company in Indiana.
"Those were the hardest times, you can imagine, when you see people crying at your desk at the age I am now, all because companies were putting profits before people," said Johnson.
He says Romney is in the business of making the rich richer and doesn't care about the middle class.
"Those were the hardest times, you can imagine, when you see people crying at your desk at the age I am now, all because companies were putting profits before people," said Johnson.
He says Romney is in the business of making the rich richer and doesn't care about the middle class.
Unemployment at lowest level in 3 years!!!!
U.S. employment growth accelerated last month and the jobless rate dropped to a near three-year low of 8.5 percent, the strongest evidence yet the economic recovery is gaining steam.
Nonfarm payrolls increased 200,000 in December, the Labor Department said on Friday. It was the biggest rise in three months and beat economists' expectations for a 150,000 gain.
The unemployment rate fell from a revised 8.7 percent in November to its lowest level since February 2009, a heartening sign for President Barack Obama whose re-election hopes could hinge on the state of the labor market.
"The labor market is healing, but we still have a long way to go to recoup the losses we have endured. We may be close to a tipping point where gains can become more self-feeding," said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial in Chicago.
Nonfarm payrolls increased 200,000 in December, the Labor Department said on Friday. It was the biggest rise in three months and beat economists' expectations for a 150,000 gain.
The unemployment rate fell from a revised 8.7 percent in November to its lowest level since February 2009, a heartening sign for President Barack Obama whose re-election hopes could hinge on the state of the labor market.
"The labor market is healing, but we still have a long way to go to recoup the losses we have endured. We may be close to a tipping point where gains can become more self-feeding," said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial in Chicago.
$18 billion damage award upheld against Chevron
A court of appeals in Ecuador has upheld an $18 billion damage award issued by a lower court in February against U.S. oil giant Chevron for contamination of the Ecuadorian rainforest by its subsidiary Texaco Petroleum.
After reviewing the 220,000 page trial record for 11 months, the three-member appellate panel in the Provincial Court of Justice of Sucumbios in Lago Agrio ruled Tuesday that laboratory results confirm that pollution existed at Texaco's former well sites hundreds of times higher than permissible norms in Ecuador.
Chevron purchased Texaco in 2001, so the plaintiffs consider Chevron responsible for Texaco's liabilities incurred prior to the purchase.
"This decision confirms what we have been saying for years," said Pablo Fajardo, the lead Ecuadorian lawyer. "Chevron is guilty of extraordinary greed and criminal misconduct that has created a humanitarian crisis in Ecuador that puts thousands of people at risk."
The 30,000 plaintiffs, who are Ecuadorian indigenous people and farmers, said in a statement Tuesday, "The decision by an independent appellate court is yet further confirmation of Chevron's extraordinary greed and criminal misconduct in Ecuador. The decision is based on overwhelming scientific evidence presented at trial that proved Chevron deliberately dumped billions of gallons of toxic waste that poisoned the water supply of the Amazon rainforest, decimating indigenous groups and causing an outbreak of cancers and other diseases that continue to threaten thousands of innocent lives."
The decision is the largest environmental award in history and is the latest development in an 18-year legal battle to win cleanup of contaminated sites, clean drinking water, and health care.
Texaco is alleged to have caused hundreds of oil spills in Ecuador, many of which were "remediated" by setting them on fire and to have poured sludge from the oil waste pits along dirt roads.
"The judges found ample scientific basis to uphold the damages award, including devastating evidence provided the court by Chevron's own team of technical experts that proved levels of pollution hundreds of times higher than permitted by law," said Karen Hinton the Washington, DC-based spokesperson for the Amazon Defense Coalition, the plaintiffs' organization.
After reviewing the 220,000 page trial record for 11 months, the three-member appellate panel in the Provincial Court of Justice of Sucumbios in Lago Agrio ruled Tuesday that laboratory results confirm that pollution existed at Texaco's former well sites hundreds of times higher than permissible norms in Ecuador.
Chevron purchased Texaco in 2001, so the plaintiffs consider Chevron responsible for Texaco's liabilities incurred prior to the purchase.
"This decision confirms what we have been saying for years," said Pablo Fajardo, the lead Ecuadorian lawyer. "Chevron is guilty of extraordinary greed and criminal misconduct that has created a humanitarian crisis in Ecuador that puts thousands of people at risk."
The 30,000 plaintiffs, who are Ecuadorian indigenous people and farmers, said in a statement Tuesday, "The decision by an independent appellate court is yet further confirmation of Chevron's extraordinary greed and criminal misconduct in Ecuador. The decision is based on overwhelming scientific evidence presented at trial that proved Chevron deliberately dumped billions of gallons of toxic waste that poisoned the water supply of the Amazon rainforest, decimating indigenous groups and causing an outbreak of cancers and other diseases that continue to threaten thousands of innocent lives."
The decision is the largest environmental award in history and is the latest development in an 18-year legal battle to win cleanup of contaminated sites, clean drinking water, and health care.
Texaco is alleged to have caused hundreds of oil spills in Ecuador, many of which were "remediated" by setting them on fire and to have poured sludge from the oil waste pits along dirt roads.
"The judges found ample scientific basis to uphold the damages award, including devastating evidence provided the court by Chevron's own team of technical experts that proved levels of pollution hundreds of times higher than permitted by law," said Karen Hinton the Washington, DC-based spokesperson for the Amazon Defense Coalition, the plaintiffs' organization.
Shell spills 1.7 mln gallons of oil on Nigerian Coast
Nigerian officials have suspended fishing off the southern coast after about 40,000 barrels (1.7 million gallons) of crude oil was spilled from a Shell production platform in the Bonga oil field.
The oil leaked into the Atlantic Ocean on December 20, 2011 during what the company called a "routine operation" to transfer oil to a tanker from Shell's Bonga floating production, storage and off-take vessel.
The oily sheen covered an estimated 350-square-mile area off the oil-rich Niger Delta. Shell has shut down the entire Bonga oil field, a site 75 miles off the coast that produces 200,000 barrels of oil and gas a day.
An investigation is underway to determine how 40,000 barrels of oil spilled while being loaded onto the tanker. Shell says a break in a transfer line is to blame.
The oil leaked into the Atlantic Ocean on December 20, 2011 during what the company called a "routine operation" to transfer oil to a tanker from Shell's Bonga floating production, storage and off-take vessel.
The oily sheen covered an estimated 350-square-mile area off the oil-rich Niger Delta. Shell has shut down the entire Bonga oil field, a site 75 miles off the coast that produces 200,000 barrels of oil and gas a day.
An investigation is underway to determine how 40,000 barrels of oil spilled while being loaded onto the tanker. Shell says a break in a transfer line is to blame.
WE THE PEOPLE condemn the US Supreme Court's disastrous ruling in Citizens United v FEC
Resolutions calling for a constitutional amendment have been passed in New York City, Oakland, California and Duluth, Minnesota. The California State Legislature introduced a similar resolution that, if passed, would call for an amendment to overturn Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. And the Supreme Court of Montana issued a stinging opinion upholding a state ban on corporate contributions and criticizing the U.S. Supreme Court’s disastrous ruling.
People from coast to coast — and more than 40 national and statewide organizations including Greenpeace, 350.org, People For the American Way, Move to Amend, California Church IMPACT, and others — will take action demanding a constitutional amendment to end corporate dominance over elections and restore our democracy to We the People.
Regardless of what form your action takes, you’ll be part of a movement that has been gaining momentum at a remarkable pace, from the grassroots to Congress.
Now it’s time to step out into the national spotlight and make it clear that the American people strongly and overwhelmingly oppose the auctioning of our democracy.
People from coast to coast — and more than 40 national and statewide organizations including Greenpeace, 350.org, People For the American Way, Move to Amend, California Church IMPACT, and others — will take action demanding a constitutional amendment to end corporate dominance over elections and restore our democracy to We the People.
Regardless of what form your action takes, you’ll be part of a movement that has been gaining momentum at a remarkable pace, from the grassroots to Congress.
Now it’s time to step out into the national spotlight and make it clear that the American people strongly and overwhelmingly oppose the auctioning of our democracy.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Boeing stiffs Wichita!!!
Boeing Co.’s decision to shut down its Wichita, Kansas, plant after more than 80 years betrayed public officials who helped the planemaker win a U.S. Air Force contract for midair refueling tankers, the city’s mayor said.
Boeing didn’t consult with city officials or ask for financial incentives to stay put before announcing its decision yesterday to close the Wichita (10557MF) plant with 2,160 workers before 2014, Mayor Carl Brewer said in a telephone interview. The company had indicated that winning the Air Force tanker work last year would support 7,500 local jobs, Brewer said.
“They weren’t totally honest with us,” said Brewer of Boeing, which has benefited from about $4 billion of municipal bonds and tax relief. “We thought the relationship was a lot stronger.”
Boeing didn’t consult with city officials or ask for financial incentives to stay put before announcing its decision yesterday to close the Wichita (10557MF) plant with 2,160 workers before 2014, Mayor Carl Brewer said in a telephone interview. The company had indicated that winning the Air Force tanker work last year would support 7,500 local jobs, Brewer said.
“They weren’t totally honest with us,” said Brewer of Boeing, which has benefited from about $4 billion of municipal bonds and tax relief. “We thought the relationship was a lot stronger.”
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