Colbert Report Covers Child Labor

On The Colbert Report on November 17th, Stephen Colbert discussed a recent move by business lobbyists in the US to oppose bans on the importation of products made using forced and child labor. Check out Colbert’s comedic take on the issue here. Around 4:15 into the video.

Tax breaks for fossil fuel?

U.S. subsidizes fossil fuels 2.5 times more than renewables

Black History's Future

Grand Plans Unveiled For African American Museum on the Mall

By Jacqueline Trescott
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 28, 2009;
The future National Museum of African American History and Culture -- as envisioned by competing teams of architects -- will most likely include water features and music halls, evocations of slave ships and the African past, and vistas acknowledging its important, monumental neighbors.

Yesterday, the Smithsonian Institution unveiled conceptual designs from six prominent architecture teams for what could be the last important building on the Mall. It was the first opportunity to see what the physical structure, scheduled to open in 2015, might look like. The models are on display at the Castle Building for public comment until April 6. The teams, which include "starchitects" such as I.M. Pei and Sir Norman Foster, were not present for yesterday's briefing.

Clean Energy Corps: Jobs, Service, and Equal Opportunity in America’s Clean Energy Economy

America is suffering through an economic recession, rising energy prices and energy insecurity, job losses, and an increasing scarcity of hope and common purpose. Americans are looking for solutions on climate, energy and the economy.

To address these intersecting challenges, Green For All and its partners propose a Clean Energy Corps in a new white paper, Clean Energy Corps: Jobs, Service, and Equal Opportunity in America's Clean Energy Economy. The CEC would be a combined service, training, and job creation effort to combat global warming, grow local and regional economies and demonstrate the equity and employment promise of the clean energy economy. The CEC would:Directly engage millions of Americans in diverse service, service-learning, and volunteer work related to climate protection;

• Work with employers, unions, educators, and community organizations to put more Americans, particularly the low-income and unemployed, on green-collar career pathways — providing them the training, credentials, work experience, job placement, and other essential elements for good and secure jobs in the clean energy economy;
  
• Preserve and enlarge green public spaces, strengthen community defenses against climate disruption, and enlist America’s public lands in the fight against climate change by planting trees and restoring wetlands and rivers; and
  
• Launch a national effort to comprehensively apply cost-effective energy efficiency measures to our nation’s building stock. This effort will generate demand for hundreds of thousands of jobs, and significantly reduce our national energy costs and contribution to global warming. It will also more than pay for itself through on-bill recovery of a portion of the energy savings achieved.
  

Go to website to download report

State of the Dream 2009: The Silent Depression

As we celebrate the 80th birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we know that 2009 will be an historic year, with the inauguration of the first African American president and the deepening of what is likely to be the most serious fiscal crisis since the Great Depression.
Many American Blacks today are already experiencing a silent economic depression that, in terms of unemployment, equals or exceeds the Great Depression of 1929. Almost 12% of Blacks are unemployed; this is expected to increase to nearly 20% by 2010. Among young Black males aged 16-19, the unemployment rate is 32.8%, while their white counterparts are at 18.3%. Overall, 24% of Blacks and 21% of Latinos are in poverty, versus 8% of whites.
In the corporate world, we are seeing the highest executive pay and the biggest bailouts in history. CEO pay is 344 times that of the average worker.* The riches of the few mask the deepening recession in the working class and the depression in communities of color. Extreme economic inequality (which the U.S. experienced in the 1920s and is again experiencing now) is often a key indicator of recession and/or depression. The Black depression of today may well foreshadow the depth and length of the recession the whole country entered in December 2007.



To read the full report click here.

Aren't you angry?

Brian Dykstra performs Break The Bank for the Spoken Word Almanac Project at Nuyorican Poets Cafe in NYC. Why are we allowing our tax dollars to be squandered on the very people who raised credit card interest rates and penalty fees while the CEOs made billions of dollars, more than 700 times the pay of the average worker.


This guy seem to have a pretty good take on the situation.

Rep. Wamp: Healthcare is a "privilege," not a right.

Unbelievable! Everyday I read about a republican saying something ridiculous, like Wamp from TN, healthcare is a "privilege." When is this guy and the other political lap dogs of the drug companies going realize that the people who cant afford healthcare coverage for themselves or employees aren't spending money.