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18601 [lbo-talk] Rudy rakes in the cash despite frequent pee breaks -- rank: 1000

<http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8669397/> Rudy rakes in the cash Rudy Giuliani has tarnished his shining armor in certain circles by charging huge speaking fees for addressing terror-stricken areas on dealing with attacks. Some are grumbling that the former mayor of New York City is rumored to have received what has been called a "staggering sum" of "something in the region of" more than $85,000 for speaking to the British Local Government Association's annual conference. &quo ...

Document Size:	6017
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Jul 26 13:54:43 PDT 2005

18602 [lbo-talk] Shot dead in London -- rank: 1000

Carl Remick wrote: >However, if you insist on being persnickety about terminology -- why >don't we call this an "execution-*style* slaying"? That's the term >the NYC press uses whenever local Mafia affiliates stick a gun >against somebody's head and blow it off. Or, utter brain destruction. <http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=12283> > The "shoot to kill" policy appears to have been discreetly >introduced into anti-terrorist procedures in ...

Document Size:	5899
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Jul 26 13:41:31 PDT 2005

18603 [lbo-talk] Gallup on immigration -- rank: 1000

American Public Opinion About Immigration Tuesday, July 26, 2005 by Joseph Carroll U.S. Immigration Levels Gallup's annual update on immigration from June polling finds that 46% of Americans say they want the level of immigration into the country decreased. About a third (34%) say they want immigration kept at its present level, and 16% want it increased. These views are little changed from last year. The Sept. 11 terror attacks affected Americans' views on immigration. Prior to the attacks, in ...

Document Size:	7153
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Jul 26 13:38:56 PDT 2005

18604 [lbo-talk] Pew: fewer Americans say Islam encourages violence than in 2003 -- rank: 1000

[this is a pleasant surprise, but of course people might be lying] PEW RESERACH CENTER FOR PEOPLE AND THE PRESS Views of Muslim-Americans Hold Steady After London Bombings Fewer Say Islam Encourages Violence The July 7 terrorist bombings in London drew considerable public attention and raised fears of another attack in the United States, but these concerns do not translate into less favorable opinions of either Muslim-Americans or Islam. And compared with 2003, fewer now say that Islam is more l ...

Document Size:	6255
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Jul 26 13:33:54 PDT 2005

18605 [lbo-talk] Teamsters quit AFL-CIO -- rank: 1000

Carrol Cox wrote: >The original article in Radical America was absurd, and the >classification remains absurd now. _Real_ managers (CEOs, CFOs, etc., >perhaps a bit lower on the corporate ladder, are simply members of the >capitalist class. Their salaries are merely are a share in surplus >value, and much of their income is fairly overtly capitalist income. As >to the statistics you quote, there is no way to determine from them >where the division between managers as capita ...

Document Size:	5888
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Jul 26 13:29:57 PDT 2005

18606 [lbo-talk] unions & voting -- rank: 1000

Wojtek Sokolowski wrote: >If I read it correctly, this means that union membership is an intervening >(if not spurious) variable i.e. political preferences make people more >likely to be union members, and that also affects their voting behavior That's not what Freeman says (and for most workers, their preferences about unions are pretty irrelevant, given how few workplaces are organized). Here's his summary of his findings: >There are five substantive findings: > >1. Exit poll ...

Document Size:	8636
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Jul 26 13:25:04 PDT 2005

18607 [lbo-talk] more on The Split -- rank: 1000

Chuck0 wrote: >Yes, incredibly obscene. The AFL-CIO headquarters sits on 16th >street just two blocks from the White House. The damn building looks >like it belongs on the Mall. It's really fucked up that workers are >falling further and further behind while AFL-CIO fat cats sit on >their asses in their palatial digs. I just spoke with a friend who was at a labor media conference last week. Media people from some big unions were there. Not a one of them had ever heard of RSS. As m ...

Document Size:	5168
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Jul 26 12:59:07 PDT 2005

18608 [lbo-talk] Re:flop'n shop -- rank: 1000

frank scott wrote: >>For computers, speed is ... measured in "flops" - >>floating point operations per second, or the number of calculations a >>machine can complete in a second. Back in the 1970s... machines >>could achieve speeds of >>several million flops.Since then, computers, even home PCs, have >>raised their speeds at an astonishing rate. Most home computers now >>achieve speeds of several >>billion flops.(guardian 7/26) >> & ...

Document Size:	5478
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Jul 26 12:56:35 PDT 2005

18609 [lbo-talk] Teamsters quit AFL-CIO -- rank: 1000

Wojtek Sokolowski wrote: >Carrol: >> It is nearly impossible to organize workers who don't themselves fully >> acknowledge that they are workers but rather cling to the illusion that >> they are members of an illusory middle class. And of course the strength >> of this illusion, far from being challenged by the left or by >> working-class militants is in fact constantly reinforced. For instance, >> all the rantings on this list about the middle class. ...

Document Size:	5800
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Jul 26 12:19:37 PDT 2005

18610 [lbo-talk] Teamsters quit AFL-CIO -- rank: 1000

Carrol Cox wrote: >That >expectation has been wholly realized in the U.S. at least, where there >remains no demographically significant 'middle class' (petty producers, >independent professionals, 'family' farmers). The professional-managerial class is not small - a bit over a third of the workforce, and probably half the current electorate. Here's the breakdown from the June employment report, table A-7 (apologies for the graceless Excel-induced truncations). There are probably some ...

Document Size:	6473
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Jul 26 12:16:06 PDT 2005

18611 [lbo-talk] more on The Split -- rank: 1000

Chuck0 wrote: >The unions don't need to get "smarter" in their organizing, they >just need to do *more* organizing. And spend less money on million >dollar headquarters buildings in Washington, DC. When I interviewed her last week, Barbara Ehrenreich cited Jonathan Tasini's estimate that the AFL-CIO and Teamster HQ in Washington are collectively worth a billion dollars. Doug

Document Size:	4867
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Jul 26 12:06:57 PDT 2005

18612 [lbo-talk] unions & voting -- rank: 1000

Nathan's already offered evidence on the union influence on voting, and Ruy Teixeira confirmed my sense that union membership - even after controlling for all other variables - made people more likely to vote Dem. Ruy sent an NBER paper by Richard Freeman on the topic. Here's the abstract: >What Do Unions Do ... to Voting? >Richard B. Freeman >NBER Working Paper No. 9992 >September 2003 >JEL No. J0, J5 >ABSTRACT >This paper uses data from four different data sets to examine ...

Document Size:	6329
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Jul 26 12:05:27 PDT 2005

18613 [lbo-talk] Teamsters quit AFL-CIO -- rank: 1000

Wojtek Sokolowski wrote: >I am not sure if this is true - blue collar rank and file tends to be >socially conservative and patriotic and thus vote Republican. In other >words, unions membership does not necessarily mean votes for Democrats - >identity politics is IMHO a much bigger factor. I think you're wrong about this. Union members are more likely to vote Dem than non-union people. I've never seen a formal study, but I bet if you did a statistical analysis controlling for all ot ...

Document Size:	5222
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Jul 26 08:50:19 PDT 2005

18614 [lbo-talk] more on The Split -- rank: 1000

Nathan Newman wrote: >It's a funny thing. No one mentions the NEA, which is a powerhouse in >politics, works closely with other unions and the Democrats in politics, yet >isn't a member of the AFL-CIO. Nathan, sometimes I read your stuff and think, oh, wow, the Dems and labor are really in much better shape than I thought. Then I look around and see both of them flat on their backs. It's a funny old world, isn't it? Doug

Document Size:	4906
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Jul 26 08:47:14 PDT 2005

18615 [lbo-talk] ObL threatened national coke supply! -- rank: 1000

New York Post - July 26, 2005 COKE FIEND BIN LADEN By DAN MANGAN Osama bin Laden tried to buy a massive amount of cocaine, spike it with poison and sell it in the United States, hoping to kill thousands of Americans one year after the 9/11 attacks, The Post has learned. The evil plot failed when the Colombian drug lords bin Laden approached decided it would be bad for their business - and, possibly, for their own health, according to law-enforcement sources familiar with the Drug Enforcement Adm ...

Document Size:	7386
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Jul 26 07:43:08 PDT 2005