Where is our humanity?

Three More lost to the Mine

Having spent 25 years in the Risk Management business, I am not surprised by the disaster unfolding in Utah. The FIRST line item rarely to survive the pursuit of profits is safety.

The smart companies do not have to be talked into basic safety management. I listened in horror as the Ariana Huffington said in her interview on Countdown that there was not return on a companies investment for safety. She in no way was justifying this typical corporate behavior. However, she was wrong.

When an catastrophic claim occurs resulting in death or worse when the survive, companies will spend far more on these claims and increased premiums, state assessments, than the cost of implementing a basic safety program.

Our year began with a seasoned lineman who did not perform "lockout, tag out" procedure. This procedure is named after the policy and procedure. The worker is to shut off the electricity and "lock and tag" the source.

His chose not to perform this task which would have slowed him down by oh ten minutes. He is burned over sixty percent of his body.

To date we have burned through two million dollars. Unlike some employers, this client takes safety seriously.

"Safety first and last" is their mantra. Two years ago, they implemented a zero tolerance for failure to where the personal protection equipment and follow procedures. Furthermore, they empowered the safety directors to enforce the procedures.

In two years, they have seen a 25% reduction in claims. Even with the occasional catastrophic claim, 25% reduction has had an impact on their bottom line.

I have another client who had such a unsafe work environment, they could not afford purchase workers compensation insurance or satisfy the financial and SAFETY standard of self funding. The business had to close that plant putting 300 people out of work.

The data supports the fact Robert Murrary mine owner ignored the rules. He took advantage of this White House's failure to fund inspecting agencies. Or give them the authority to put this guy out of business. Murry has failed miserably to self regulate his business.

The money he used to donate to the Republican party could have been used to make a work environment, risky by its nature, safer for the people who have made him very wealthy.

The families will receive some form of indemnity benefits. Will it be enough to replace the person lost in the mine? I will leave that answer to the families.

Robert Murray should land in jail because of his REFUSAL to the best he could for his employees and community.

Too Many

We are losing a war at home that far too many are aware that we are waging. The media needs to spend less time on the blonde Hollywood brats and more time on these societal ills.

But that is not as sexy.

Justice for Janitors, Justice for US

All too often these service providers go unnoticed until their work in inadequate or not there. If you work late you encounter them. Rarely is English their first language. Why? Because they do the jobs blacks refuse to do.

What is not discussed is the labor intensive work provides low pay, no health benefits, sick or vacation time.

The CLASS of people these folks clean up after have the bank of time to take a day off to take their sick child to the doctor. This CLASS of people have a bank of PTO because they are pressured whether real or imagined not to take time away from making money for the shareholders. When they actually take time off, they are still connected with the electronic monitoring devices called blackberries, cell phones and laptops.

The janitors are more prone to sustain occupational injuries. Even though it is ILLEGAL for employers not to provide workers compensation coverage, employers rarely SPEND the money on this insurance. Furthermore, these claims go unreported for FEAR of losing their job.

The common link between these CLASSES of employees is both are afraid to take time off from their jobs. Like it or not those remaining in the middle tier have more in common with the janitorial staff than they do with the shareholders. The owners of both types of companies make money off of our/their labor.

So the next time you are wrapping up your twelve hour day, look up from your computer screen and say hello to your fellow
janitor.

THEY at least know their role.

B*NDS

*756*

props to SI

Mortgage Predators, Nightmare Continues

"It's a problem because so many hands touch a mortgage during the process," said Steven L. Antonakes, Massachusetts' commissioner of banks. "The level of responsibility and the ability to effect positive change can vary from relationship to relationship" among the different players.

Fpr example, more than 20 percent of foreclosure actions in Massachusetts in the last year have been initiated on behalf of a unit of Deutsche Bank Group, the German financial services giant, according to ForeclosuresMass.com, which tracks cases. Deutsche, while listed on the deed as the mortgage holder and technically the legal owner, is a trustee for investors such as hedge funds and other financial firms that hold the securities that are backed by these mortgages.
A spokesman said Deutsche Bank has no economic interest in the mortgages and is not responsible for foreclosures or for selling foreclosed property. Such decisions are made by servicing companies, according to contracts with different investor trusts, the spokesman said.

Moreover, mortgage-backed bonds are usually sold with legally binding commitments that create more obstacles for delinquent borrowers. For example, reductions in loan amounts are often needed to keep people from losing homes, but mortgage-backed bonds are usually sold with prohibitions against forgiving loan principal, except in rare cases, said McCoy, the UConn professor.
"Anyone seeking a loan workout is going to have to face these impediments," McCoy said."

These are not subprime mortgages. Now people will finally pay attention. In the subprime world these financial institutions took advantage of "inexperienced poor people," who probably should not have received a mortgage in the first place.

Now you have middle class folks finding themselves in the same situation. These financial institutions have turned brokered mortgages into junk bonds.

Last week the "market" dropped. What wasn't reported is the "market" is the market is still over 13,000. The respectable financial institutions will survive in some incarnation. The bankrupt homeowners may not get that same opportunity.

Obama v Edwards Policies for the Poor

"If I had to choose between the two, I guess I’d go with the Obama plan. I’d lean that way because Obama seems to have a more developed view of social capital. Edwards offers vouchers, job training and vows to create a million temporary public-sector jobs. Obama agrees, but takes fuller advantage of home visits, parental counseling, mentoring programs and other relationship-building efforts.

The Obama policy provides more face-to-face contact with people who can offer praise or disapproval. Rising out of poverty is difficult — even when there are jobs and good schools. It’s hard to focus on a distant degree or home purchase. But human beings have a strong desire for approval and can accomplish a lot with daily doses of praise and censure. Standards of behavior are contagious that way.

A neighborhood is a moral ecosystem, and Obama, the former community organizer, seems to have a better feel for that. It’s not only policies we’re looking for in selecting a leader, it’s a sense of how the world works. Obama’s plan isn’t a sure-fire cure for poverty, but it does reveal an awareness of the supple forces that can’t be measured and seen."


Someone from the mainstream media is focusing on a REAL issue. It's about time.

What?

I'll assume Mr. Goldberg has been living in a cave for the past six agonizing years........

Market Expansion for the Working Folks?

""Anyway, now reality is settling in. And there’s one more thing worth mentioning: the economic expansion that began in 2001, while it has been great for corporate profits, has yet to produce any significant gains for ordinary working Americans. And now it looks as if it never will."

If found guilty he should go to jail

First of all, I view Michael Vick as a underachieving quarterback with an attitude. Not a good combination. This is no longer important.

If he is found guilty for doing unspeakable things to animals, he should go face the music. Getting kicked out of the NFL should be the least of his problems.

The "why" is no longer relevant. Maybe he is just a bad person. Vick was given a gift. He has an opportunity to play a sport that he loves AND get paid for it. Who wouldn't like to get paid a livable wage to do something they love?

Sigh.

Economic Reality According to Brooks

"If you’ve paid attention to the presidential campaign, you’ve heard the neopopulist story line. C.E.O.’s are seeing their incomes skyrocket while the middle class gets squeezed. The tides of globalization work against average Americans while most of the benefits go to the top 1 percent.


This story is not entirely wrong, but it is incredibly simple-minded."

I believe Brooks' interpretation of the facts is a tad simple-minded. Ask the person with a college degree and the accompanying debt their his or her version of the global economy.

Americans can rent or buy anything

"As Liza Mundy notes in her fascinating new book, “Everything Conceivable: How Assisted Reproduction is Changing Men, Women and the World,” the main driving force in the new technologies is simply the profit motive.

“What is at work in assisted reproduction,” she writes, “is often not science but business.”

Gas production: Profits first, Safety last

"It's a marvel we can continue to run refineries the way we do these days given the many requirements and specification changes we have," said Charles Drevna, executive vice president of the refining industry's main trade group, the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association. "There comes a time when the piper has got to be paid."

This year's problems have raised alarms about the safety of refining operations, especially after a deadly accident at a BP refinery in Texas two years ago that killed 15 workers. The U.S. Chemical Safety Board issued a highly critical report blaming a broken safety culture at BP. But the board's chairwoman, Carolyn Merritt, who has spoken out about safety problems at refineries, said there was a pattern in many other refinery incidents that the board had investigated.

"There is a lack of investments in modern equipment," Merritt said. "The overwhelming preponderance is that if you have inadequate engineering and equipment, poor process safety management, and poor staffing, you're set up for a catastrophe."

The OSHA laws and staff have been gutted by this wonderful administration.

Casinos; The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

I guess this is what the folks in Chester, Poconos & Philadelphia have to look forward to.........

War on Sex

Bush & the neocons campaigned on bringing "dignity" back to the White House. I guess we have to agree on the definition of "dignity."

I really couldn't give a crap about Clinton & Moncia or Vitter's need to purchase sex. The sex scandals become worse when it involves a cover up or a sanctimonious hypocrite.

This mindless war on sex takes time away from the real issues: our whacked relationship with China, Iraq, Iran, affordable education, available health care, and living wage employment.

I must wonder when these women will stop the press conferences for their straying husbands?

As I posted on Suburban Guerilla's site earlier this week, my prayer is that Joe Lieberman is caught up in this mess. I get warm all over just thinking about it.

The Math doesn't add up

I guess Bush skipped math to attend cheerleading practice............

Kudos to Booman.

Punishment fit the crime?

The corporate leaders who knowingly put Oxycontin on the street are worse than the drug dealers our society is so quick to put behind bars. For a profit, Pharma put this highly addictive drug in the hands of physicians and pharmacists for them to peddle to unsuspecting patients.

It's original purpose was for cancer patient. Next thing you know it was being prescribed for chronic back pain. Why? Not happy with the small number of cancer patients, Pharma has to reach out to other chronic injuries.

What makes President Michael Friedman and the good Dr. Paul Gaudenheim better than the dealers pushing crack or cocaine?

Actually they are worse. They have the means to do the research to determine the perils of what they are dealing.

I've seen far too many injured workers start out with back injuries only to become drug addicts.

How many lives have they ruined by having physicians prescribe this highly addictive drug?

No jail time for these dealers?

Outrageous.

Toxic Relief?

"On the eve of yesterday's hearing by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, FEMA reversed course on the issue and said it has asked federal health officials to help conduct a new assessment of conditions in trailers under prolonged use. But revelation of the agency's earlier posture -- in documents withheld by FEMA until they were subpoenaed by Congress -- attracted harsh bipartisan criticism.

Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) decried what he called FEMA's indifference to storm victims and said the situation was "sickening." He said the documents "expose an official policy of premeditated ignorance" and added that "senior officials in Washington didn't want to know what they already knew, because they didn't want the legal and moral responsibility to do what they knew had to be done."

It's bad enough these folks were ignored during the Katrina fiasco, then FEMA put them in toxic trailers. Those who knew what happened and failed to act should be sentenced to life in the still unrebuilt 9th ward. The only shelter is those lovely trailers

Why Travolta?

I find it hard to believe, Hollywood couldn't find a talented large woman to play Travolta's role in Hairspray.

Too poor to stay, too poor to move

“I was born poor; I’m probably going to die poor; and before the storm came through I was doing pretty good,” Ms. Anderson said. She and Mr. Evans paid $325 a month for half a duplex in the Uptown section of New Orleans, with “a little porch watching the laundrymat,” she said, “and a backyard.” The streetcar took her right to her job at the Columns, an elegant 1883 hotel in the Garden District. Mr. Evans built cabinets and countertops.

Now they live in a monochrome apartment complex. An empty swimming pool bakes in the Memphis heat, and frayed ropes dangle where the swings should be. FEMA pays the rent. Their social life consists of church on Sundays. For the first time in their lives, they are on food stamps, and to make them stretch, Ms. Anderson shuns the nearby Kroger in favor of a distant Save-a-Lot. Without a car, she trudges home from the bus stop with frozen turkey legs in a canvas bag over one shoulder."

All this couple wants to do is work for a living wage. How dare they?

This is the America we dare not face or talk about. These people were poor in a community that poor educationally and economically. For years they managed to make a life for themselves. Onethat many of us can't even begin to wrap our brain around.

But instead employers will import/exploit immigrant labor. Is this the cornerstone of our repbublic?

Alexander H. Stephens one opined "the democracy's worst defect, demagogues rousing the poor against the rich, never occurred where the poor were nonvoting slaves"

Furthermore, black serviles SPARED WHITE CITIZENS FROM DEGRADED MENIAL WORK.

Sound familiar?


Who was Alexander H. Stephens? The Confederacy's Vice President.