Harkin, AFL-CIO, and Workers to Rally at DOL for Bush Admin to Repeal Overtime Pay Cut
Overtime Pay Regulations Take Effect on August 23rd
Senator
Tom Harkin (D-IA), along with AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney and
workers who will lose overtime protection under George W. Bush’s new
regulations, will hold a press conference outside of the U.S.
Department of Labor on August 23 at 12:00 p.m. calling on the Bush
Administration to repeal the recent overtime regulation that is
anything but worker and family friendly.
According
to independent analyses of the revisions to wage and hour regulations,
up to 6 million workers - registered nurses, law enforcement personnel,
team leaders, assistant managers at retail stores and fast food
restaurants, chefs, and others - could lose their overtime pay
protection. America’s workers are already struggling with job loss,
unaffordable health care, and disappearing retirement benefits. Now,
the Bush Administration will institute regulations that will immensely
weaken workers’ overtime pay protections. Harkin successfully passed an
amendment to the JOBS Act to block those portions of the new regulation
which take away overtime pay protections from those workers who
currently have them as a result of the job duties they perform. This
amendment now heads to a House-Senate conference.
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Friday, August 20
Harkin, AFL-CIO, and Workers to Rally at DOL for Bush Admin to Repeal Overtime Pay Cut
by
Linda Thieman
on Fri 20 Aug 2004 04:56 PM CDT
Emergency Measures to Protect the 2004 Vote Count
by
Linda Thieman
on Fri 20 Aug 2004 12:13 PM CDT
Emergency Measures to Protect the 2004 Vote Count
A Message from VotersUnite! in partnership with the National Ballot Integrity Project Protect the 2004 Vote Count! Transparency means that ALL election processes can be observed by ordinary people - that people can observe the process of counting votes, not just observe computers processing votes. Transparent procedures will: - Increase the likelihood of an accurate vote count. - Avert a questionable federal election and national crisis. - Reduce the potential for legal challenges to the elections in November. Meet with your county leaders and propose that votes for federal offices be manually counted as an emergency measure to protect the accuracy of the vote count and protect the county from legal challenges. Emergency Measures To Protect The 2004 Vote Count These measures will help assure voters that votes were counted correctly and will help protect counties from potential legal challenges to their elections. Please work to implement them in your county. a. All votes for federal offices will be counted by hand, in public view, at the polling place before they are transmitted or transported to a central facility. b. Precinct totals will be prominently posted at the polling place before the ballots are transmitted or transported to a central facility. c. Ballots may be counted and aggregated electronically, in addition to the hand-count. However, in any case where a discrepancy exists, the hand-count will be considered the official result. Talking Points *Both major parties are forming networks of lawyers ready to challenge questionable results. By conducting a manual count of votes for federal office, counties can protect themselves from potential legal action. *Voter-confidence is at an all-time low. By doing this manual count, they can assure their constituents that the votes have been counted correctly. *It would take less than an hour in each precinct and could potentially save the county hundreds of hours defending themselves in court or confirming results by doing full recounts. *In paperless precincts, it would require nothing more than the addition of simple, inexpensive ballots able to handle a maximum of four federal offices. The cost might be as low as 5 cents a ballot, if they were printed at a local printer on cheap paper. For additional procedures for optical scan voting machines, click here. Tomorrow, Blog for Iowa will go into detail about how you can contact your Senators and your Congressman about this issue.
The Counterpoint: We're Just Wondering . . .
by
Linda Thieman
on Fri 20 Aug 2004 08:29 AM CDT
 The Counterpoint: We're Just Wondering . . . The rational counter to "The Point," "The Counterpoint" critiques and corrects the daily editorial by Sinclair Broadcasting's corporate vice president, Mark Hyman, that is broadcast on all Sinclair-owned television stations across the country. by Iowa's Ted Remington On the surface, Mark Hyman’s latest collection of "short takes" appears typically banal and free of anything of consequence (the latest Kerry “scandal”: a press pass issued for a Detroit event featured an image of a prototype automobile manufactured by Rolls Royce). But then there’s this little gem: "Did you know there will no longer be a majority religious denomination in America? According to the National Opinion Research Center, Protestants will fall below 50% as early as this year for the first time since the colonial era. The decline is attributed to the rise in people claiming no religious practice and an increase in Islam, Buddhism and other Eastern faiths." At first blush, this is simply a statement of a marginally interesting fact. But facts are rarely what they seem in the world of “The Point,” and there’s an underlying ugliness lurking here. Imagine a neighbor approaching you and saying, “Hey, there’s a new family moving into the old Richardson place on the corner. Just saw the U-Haul pull in this morning. Did you know they were a black family?” Again, if you parse this sentence word by word, this seems innocent enough: simply the sharing of information. The choice to insert an otherwise irrelevant fact into the conversation, however, carries a clear message. Translated, it would be something like: “Listen: I didn’t pay through the nose for my house to live next to people like that. Things are changing, and not for the better. No sir, I’m not happy about this - not one little bit!“ Or, “Hey, friend: I don’t know for sure how you feel about this, so I’m trying to be as delicate as I can, but if you don’t like the idea of living next to a bunch of ... well ... those people, you can talk freely to me about it. I’m on your side. I won’t turn you in to the P.C. police.” Both Hyman and the hypothetical bigoted neighbor cover themselves with plausible deniability. Challenge them to explain the meaning behind what they said, and they’ll respond, “Whoa! Hang on there - you’ve got me all wrong! I was just pointing out a fact, nothing more. Heck, some of my best friends are (black, Hindi, Catholic, etc.)” But their message and intentions are clear enough. They’re speaking in a code, feeling us out to see if we feel the same way they do and, if so, to commiserate with us on this clear sign of our collective slide toward Gomorrah. The NORC is in the business of gathering information such as this, and there' s no reason to see their reporting of this fact as having an underlying message anymore than there is to see unspoken racism in a Census Bureau chart that documented more African Americans moving to the suburbs. In both cases, it's the speaker and the context (or lack thereof) that's crucial: "Say, did you happen to notice . . . ." And if there’s any doubt about the “us/them” aspect of Hyman’s comment, note the telling bit of historical ignorance: Hyman claims that Protestants have been in the majority since “colonial times.” . . . Did the issue of [the existence of] Native Americans [and their own systems of spirituality] not occur to Hyman, or did he consciously decide to ignore it? Perhaps, in Hyman’s world, this is a distinction without a difference. We’re just wondering. And that’s "The Counterpoint." You can read "The Counterpoint" daily here.
Rialto Theatre in Pocahontas Opens "Fahrenheit 9/11" Tonight
by
Linda Thieman
on Fri 20 Aug 2004 04:33 AM CDT
Rialto Theatre in Pocahontas Opens "Fahrenheit 9/11" Tonight
"Fahrenheit 9/11" will run at the Rialto Theatre in Pocahontas from August 20 through August 26. It will play the same times as all other movies, 7:30 every evening with a 2pm Sunday matinee. The admission prices are $4 for adults and $2 for 12 and under. Of course, F 9/11 is rated R, so the young'uns need to be accompanied by an adult. Sunday matinees are $2 for everyone. Thursday night is FREE popcorn with every paid admission. The Rialto Theatre holds 286 people. They are willing to hold special private showings, too, this week if any group is interested, with a flat rate of $200. If you are interested in doing something like that, feel free to give the manager a call. Her name is Tonya Speer, and you can reach her at 712-335-3434 or 712-335-5742. 324 N. Main. |
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The Counterpoint
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