The latest stories from the front lines of the labor fight across the country ...

Foxconn pledges to reform the plants in China where Apple products are made

Clear Channel is laying people off in markets around the country

The New York Times has offered some movement in the right direction, but there is still a big gap between them and their workers

German legal scholars and politicians call on German companies with U.S. subsidiaries to abandon anti-union tactics

The Newspaper Guild of New York is outsourcing jobs at McGraw-Hill

Florida workers were fired for wearing orange shirts

Apparently, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's aides used a secret router to conduct allegedly illegal conversations on government time

A Miami judge rules a local anti-wage theft ordinance is legal

Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum argue over who hates unions more

CEO pay continued to rise in 2011

Pennsylvania Republicans go after the state's prevailing wage laws

Societal basics are out of reach for minimum wage workers

A guide to union-made Easter candy

MSNBC's Ed Schultz took Fox's Bill O'Reilly to task for his claims that the media is somehow inciting racial violence with their coverage of the Trayvon Martin shooting during his interview with the lawyer for the Martin family, Benjamin Crump, and for O'Reilly's claim during that interview, that the media would not just let this story die a slow death were it not for the national outrage and attention it has garnered.

As Schultz rightfully pointed out, O'Reilly is already on record trying to dismiss the racial problems we have in the United States, so his claim that he can be trusted to keep a story like this in the national spotlight without other pressures are dubious at best.

O'Reilly unwittingly pointed out during that interview with Martin's lawyer, exactly why the media should not stop covering the case:

CRUMP: What we hope we have is is dialog saying, how can this investigation have happened like this where you get to say an unarmed kid is killed and he's allowed to go home that same night.

O'REILLY: Because of that law in Florida. That law in Florida changes everything.

O'Reilly seemed to be oblivious to the fact that Florida is not the only state where these sorts of laws have been enacted and "changed eveything." O'Reilly told Crump immediately following the quote above that "In another state, that never would have happened."

Schultz responded by noting that's far from the truth, since we now have a ton of other states in America with similar laws on the books. Schultz played a recording that I first saw on Chris Hayes' show last Saturday, and was just horrified by, of a man in Texas who called in to a 911 operator and told that operator he was going to kill two men who were robbing his neighbor's property. We then hear the audio of the man shooting and killing those two men dead after being told repeatedly by the person on the phone not to go out there and not to take matters into his own hands.

What Hayes' show did not air was the footage from Fox News where the above mentioned man from Texas, Joe Horn, was being propped up by the right as some kind of hero for shooting those two men and pretending that his life was in danger, before ignoring the warnings not to get involved in the burglary or take the law into his own hands.

I agree completely with Schultz when he said this in response:

SCHULTZ: Bill O'Reilly can say there's no reason to cover the Trayvon Martin case, but Joe Horn proves him wrong. As long as these "stand your ground" laws are on the books, Americans have the right to kill other Americans without being physically threatened. We've seen it.

Schultz also asked why O'Reilly wasn't bringing on Republicans from Florida like Jeb Bush who signed that awful "stand your ground" law, or Marco Rubio, the Senator from that state to defend it.

Ed Schultz followed up with an interview with the lawyer for Martin's family, Natalie Jackson and MSNBC regular Jonathan Capehart and got their opinion on the "stand your ground" laws and some of the news that's been slowly leaking out on Zimmerman and his temperament.

Continue reading »

I don't know how many regular MSNBC viewers we have here at C&L, but this ad by Andrea Mitchell has been sticking in my craw since I first saw it air not long ago. As part of their "lean forward" series of ads featuring their various hosts, Andrea Mitchell decided to weigh in on the issue of voter disenfranchisement. The trouble here is she refuses to identify just who is doing the disenfranchising.

Somehow the word Republican never manages to leave her lips. Sorry Mrs. Greenspan, but there is one party out there doing their best to make sure people can't vote at unprecedented levels because they know it's bad for them if too many people vote.

Here's more from AlterNet on the topic -- The Cancer of Voter Suppression: The GOP's Silent Coup.

Their article pointed to a new report issued by the Brennan Center for Justice, entitled, Voting Law Changes in 2012.

Here is their executive summary of the report:

Continue reading »

Wow. A Republican Attorney General, talking common sense? I may faint from the shock. I mean, I thought some of the politicians opposing the Affordable Care Act might have legitimate concerns and not just a political agenda, but I certainly didn't think any of them would say it out loud:

ThinkProgress spoke with Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell outside the Supreme Court on Wednesday. Caldwell opposes Obamacare and the individual mandate, but for a different reason than most of his fellow litigants: it props up the private health insurance industry.

“Insurance companies are the absolute worst people to handle this kind of business,” he declared. “I trust the government more than insurance companies.” Caldwell went on to endorse the idea of a single-payer health care system, saying it’d “be a whole lot better” than Obamacare:

KEYES: You don’t think the subsidies for low-income people are going to be helpful?

CALDWELL: No, no. The worst thing you can do is give it to an insurance company. I want to make my point. All insurance companies are controlled in their particular state. If you have a hurricane come up the east coast, the first one that’s going to leave you when they gotta pay too many claims is an insurance company. Insurance companies are the absolute worst people to handle this kind of business. I trust the government more than insurance companies. If the government wants to put forth a policy where they will pay for everything and you won’t have to go through an insurance policy, that’d be a whole lot better.

I guess someone from Louisiana would know. There were numerous cases of insurance companies stiffing customers after Hurricane Katrina.

Olbermann out at Current TV. Now what? (How is it that Dear Leader Rush and his ilk get to spew hatred and bigotry and stay on the air, while someone generally decent and thoughtful, if admittedly also a tad egomaniacal, like Keith can't find a media home?)

Mario Piperni: Racism (on the right) is alive and well in America.

Echidne of the Snakes: Arizona plans draconian abortion restrictions.

And so do Kansas and New Hampshire. Women, the war on you is in full swing. Let's all fight back with everything we've got.

And some international content:

The Duck of Minerva: How China may respond to containment.

Fruits and Votes: Trouble for democracy in Mali and Senegal.

Round-up by Michael J.W. Stickings of The Reaction (@mjwstickings).

Send tips to mbru@crooksandliars.com.

Ending up the week of 30's and 40's Broadcast Music with another blast of Ol' Blue Eyes. This time from Your Lucky Strike Hit Parade, which he was a regular participant in the 1940's. Much of this material has been released and reissued. I'm not sure if this track has. It's off a Glass-base acetate so it's a bit fragile.

Here is I'll Walk Alone from the broadcast of October 21, 1944.

Ending up the week on a dreamy Teen Idol note. If you listen closely, you'll hear some excited screams from the audience.

Even back then.

After a round of jokes on everything from James Cameron's deep sea exploration, to the new Dallas series, to the New Black Panther Party, Ted Turner's mustache and the Pope's visit to Mexico, Bill Maher again went after these "stand your ground" gun laws which encourage the type of vigilantism we saw from George Zimmerman in the murder of Trayvon Martin during his New Rules segment on Real Time this Friday evening.

Maher also repeated his criticism of the Democrats for ceding the fight on gun control as he did during his interview on CNN's HLN earlier this week.

Warning, the language is definitely not safe for work.

First Ski Jump. h/t DailyViral.

Open thread below....

I could listen to this one all night. Have a good Friday.

Here I thought the police brutality in New York was reserved for just Occupy Wall Street activists. But here a group of New York City police officers were so busy kicking and beating a man with their batons that it took them a little while to realize they were being recorded.

They had the man on his back, ordering him to put his hands behind his back while continually beating him with their batons, and stomping him with their feet making it impossible to actually comply with their orders as he was trying to dodge the blows.

Once they finally noticed the videographer, one of them pulls out a pepper spray canister, shakes it and walks toward the videographer with the canister pointing towards him.

“Move back, Move Back! Move Back!"

This took place in the Bronx and the video was uploaded on January 30, 2012.

[Via Tim Pool @Timcast]