Rob Cox: Why Shareholders are Opposing Corporate Political Spending - The Daily Beast

: mondolay1949; May 12th, 11:10

Rob Cox: Why Shareholders are Opposing Corporate Political Spending - The Daily Beast

: mondolay1949; May 7th, 7:03

Some unknown but alarming number of ultra-rich Americans are now basically totally delusional and completely divorced from reality. This is now an inescapable fact, confirmed by multiple media accounts of billionaire thought and an entire special issue of the New York Times Magazine.

Here’s a brief list of insane things that are apparently common knowledge among the billionaire class:

That President Obama and the Democratic Party have treated wealthy finance industry titans maliciously and unfairly.
That the fact that they are perversely wealthy and growing richer during a period of mass unemployment and staggering debt is a sign that the economy is functioning correctly.
That poor people, and not the finance industry, are responsible for the financial crisis and subsequent recession.
That the ultra-wealthy are wealthy because they are smarter and work harder than everybody else, and that they are resented for their success.
That the ultra-wealthy in general, and finance industry executives in particular, are the victims of widespread prejudice akin to that faced by ethnic minorities.

There can be no reasoning with people this irrational. Any attempt to do so will fail, as Barack Obama, whose main goal is to maintain, not upend, the system that made these people so disgustingly wealthy, is learning. It’s growing harder and harder to pretend that the fantastically wealthy have a sophisticated understanding of politics — or math, or economics, or cause-and-effect.The Times Magazine has the story of the Obama campaign’s difficulty in matching its record 2008 contributions from the finance sector . It contains this now surely infamous passage, a true marvel of that classic rich guy cocktail of self-pity mixed with self-regard:

One of the guests raised his hand; he knew how to solve the problem. The president had won plaudits for his speech on race during the last campaign, the guest noted. It was a soaring address that acknowledged white resentment and urged national unity. What if Obama gave a similarly healing speech about class and inequality? What if he urged an end to attacks on the rich? Around the table, some people shook their heads in disbelief.

The problem with inequality in America, you see, is apparently that it has led to rhetorical attacks on the winners of the class war. Greg Sargent wrote , in response to this story: “One wonders if there is anything Obama could say to make these people happy, short of declaring that rampant inequality is a good thing, in that it affirms the talent and industriousness of the deserving super rich.”

I’m not sure even that would help, because there is already another presidential candidate who likely believes that. In the same issue of the Times Magazine, we have the story of Edward Conrad, a retired Bain Capital executive who is about to release a book (presumably against the wishes of his friend and former colleague Mitt Romney) arguing “aggressively” that massive wealth disparity is an unalloyed Good Thing. In fact, Conrad thinks “the wealth concentrated at the top should be twice as large.” (Paul Krugman does not think much of his argument.)

Conrad also detests charitable giving and has developed a statistical method for finding a spouse, because he is a sociopath. Because he is very wealthy, he is very used to his ideas being taken seriously — even economists offer him (qualified) praise. He is utterly convinced that his book will convince every serious person that wealthy finance industry titans not only deserve their wealth, but make society a better place for all. He has basically taken what is a gut feeling among his class and turned it into a philosophy and an argument.

Perhaps the most persuasive argument — for Republicans — for nominating Mitt Romney was that he is of this class. The fact that he is more comfortable in a boardroom than a Pizza Ranch is actually a major asset, because the Democrats had, since the Clinton years, gradually won over much of Wall Street, helping them to erode the GOP’s massive Reagan-era fundraising advantages. Romney can win that money back. Our friend Ed Conrad even created a shell corporation for the sole purpose of secretly donating $1 million to Romney’s super PAC. The Sunlight Foundation shows in Figure 5 here that the share of finance money going to Democrats skyrocketed during Clinton’s first term, and rose again in 2008. Clinton rewarded his super-rich donors with extensive deregulation — and they rewarded him by shifting the majority of their donations back to the GOP. (Finance, naturally, likes to chase winners: They give more to whichever party seems to be on the upswing, as Obama learned in 2010 and will learn again this year.)

They are one of those industries that is used to getting exactly what it always wants from Washington, because they essentially own both parties. (As opposed to say, oil and gas, ally of Republicans, or the entertainment industry, ally of Democrats.) So Dodd-Frank made them very, very mad. But not just mad: Confused, hurt, betrayed. There is a psychosocial element to the response, clearly on display in the story of the rich people who wish for a speech about how they are not evil. They are essentially spoiled children who have just been lightly reprimanded for the first time that they can remember.

Tags: 1%, anti-civil rights, anti-immigrant, anti-union, bailouts, billionaites, bribery, fascism, guns, idiot rich, illegal wars, police state, politics, predatory corporations, private prison system, racism, rich, tax investments, tax shocks

In Memoriam of Those Who Died for the Right to Vote | Facebook

: mondolay1949; April 26th, 9:47

James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner were Mississippi civil rights workers who were lynched in Neshoba County, Mississippi during the Civil Rights Movement.

Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner were lynched shortly after midnight on June 21, 1964, after they had investigated the burning of a church that had agreed to support a Freedom School. Chaney was a local Freedom Movement activist in Meridian, MS; Schwerner was a CORE organizer there from New York; and Goodman, also from New York, was a Freedom Summer volunteer. The three had just finished week-long training in Oxford, Ohio, regarding strategies on how to register blacks in the South to vote. The murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner demonstrated the dangers faced by civil rights workers in the South, especially during what became known as "Freedom Summer", dedicated to voter education and registration.

In Memoriam of Those Who Died for the Right to Vote | Facebook

Tags: 1964, chaney, civil rights, goodman, june 21, lyched, murdered civil rights, neshoba county, schwerner

NYT's Preston Notes AZ Immigration Law 'Intensely Unpopular Among Latinos Nationwide,' But It's Very

: mondolay1949; April 25th, 23:14

There are politically motivated hearings every day on Capitol Hill. So why did the New York Times single out one in particular for coverage? Likely because it was led by liberal Sen. Chuck Schumer and exploting the Times' favorite cause, the defense of illegal immigrants.

Immigration-beat reporter Julia Preston, one of the paper's most reliably pro-amnesty reporters, authored Wednesday's "Fierce Debate on Arizona Immigration Law on Eve of Supreme Court Hearing."

A day before the Supreme Court was to hear arguments on an Arizona statute that expanded the immigration enforcement powers of local police, the author of the law defended it in a Senate hearing under sharp questioning from Democrats, saying it “removes the political handcuffs from state and local law enforcement.”

Russell Pearce, a Republican who is the former president of the Arizona Senate, ventured into hostile terrain in a hearing called by Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on immigration. Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona, also a Republican, turned down Mr. Schumer’s invitation to advocate for the law at the hearing.

....

As it appears increasingly possible that the court will uphold at least some of the disputed provisions, Mr. Schumer called the hearing as a showcase for the Democrats’ opposition to the law, which has been intensely unpopular among Latinos nationwide. He announced that if the Supreme Court upheld part or all of Arizona’s statute in its ruling, which is expected in June, he would introduce a bill to expressly prevent states from enacting their own immigration enforcement laws.

Senate staff members said that proposal would have little chance of passage, but it could serve as a rallying point for Democrats to appeal to Latino voters during the summer as the presidential race is fully under way.

Preston doesn't mention that the measure is broadly popular among all Americans. A new Quinnipiac poll noted: "The U.S. Supreme Court should overturn the 2010 health care law, voters say 49 -38 percent. And voters say 62-27 percent the Supreme Court should uphold Arizona's immigration law." Yet Preston continued to portray the popular bill as divisive:

Mr. Pearce, a fierce opponent of illegal immigration, wrote the statute, which passed in 2010. Caught in the uproar the law provoked among some voters, especially Latinos, he lost his Senate seat in a recall election last November.

Persistent questioning from Mr. Schumer put Mr. Pearce on the defensive at times, as the senator bore down on sections of the bill he said could lead the Arizona police to engage in racial profiling. The senator pointed to a training manual showing that the police were instructed to consider how a person was dressed and whether his vehicle was “heavily loaded” in developing a “reasonable suspicion” that he was an illegal immigrant.

The bitterness that the bill has provoked was on display. Dennis DeConcini, who was a Democratic United States senator from Arizona from 1977 to 1995, issued an apology to Latinos for the “harm” of the law. “I am embarrassed for my state,” he said.

Preston fails to label supporters of illegal immigrants as liberal organizations:

Around the country, immigrant advocate organizations were gearing up for protests and vigils. Immigrant groups in Los Angeles held a small rally on Tuesday in front of a federal court building downtown.

In a letter released Tuesday afternoon, religious leaders from a number of faiths called on President Obama to “reassert your authority” to stop states from enacting a patchwork of immigration laws, by working with Congress to pass a broad federal overhaul of the immigration system. Among those signing were Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops; Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of Evangelicals; and the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.

Comments

#1 Illegal aliens are criminals,

Submitted by LAM SON 719 on Wed, 04/25/2012 - 12:37pm.

Illegal aliens are criminals, vote out every member of congress that supports the obama amnesty scam. America should not pay for this dirtbags, I don't care how long they have been here.

Non, je ne regrette rien. Vous, légionnaires, vous êtes soldats pour mourir, et je vous envoie où l’on meurt!

#2 Arizona's plight

Submitted by deadeyedan on Wed, 04/25/2012 - 1:47pm.

Arizona, a truly wonderful state, has been forced by lax federal enforcement of their own laws to put up with crippling expenses in its legal system and health care facilities.

Arizona has every right to defend itself, even if just because of the constitutional phrase "...will not permit of delay".

LIBERALISM - government of the people by the theories and for the ideologists

#3 So States cannnot enforce federal laws?

Submitted by c5then on Wed, 04/25/2012 - 2:03pm.

No State can enforce Federal drug laws? No State can enforce Federal banking laws? No State can enforce Federal Civil Rights laws? State police cannot arrest someone for violating a federal law?

The arguments against the Arizona law are laughable, at least they would be if the situation were not so dire.

The Constitution is CLEAR that the States are soverign entities that have only delegated some of their authority to the Federal Government. An authority that is delegated is still held by the original seat of that authority. A sheriff who delegates some of his authority to a couple of deputies, still holds that authority should he choose to exercise it. No one would argue that the sheriff could not enforce any of the laws that he has delegated to the deputies. That is exactly the argument that the side opposed to the Arizona immigration law is trying to make. They are arguing that if the Federal government chooses to not enforce some of it's own laws, the State is not entitled to step in and enforce it on it's own.

Part time Congress with term limits! - No more professional politicians. Let's start rebuilding the Republic!

#4 O'bamanomics

Submitted by upcountrywater on Wed, 04/25/2012 - 2:55pm.

Unintended Consequences

My last tag line here..Video.. If I Wanted America to Fail.

NYT's Preston Notes AZ Immigration Law 'Intensely Unpopular Among Latinos Nationwide,' But It's Very Popular Overall | NewsBusters.org

Tags: arizona, blown people, illegal immigrantsjobs, immigrants, jane brewer, joe arpaio, mexicans, racism, sb1070

Department Of Justice Opens Probe In Bribery Allegations Against Walmart - Business Insider

: mondolay1949; April 25th, 10:00

Bloomberg is reporting the Department of Justice has opened a probe into bribery allegations exposed over the weekend by the New York Times.

David Welch, Thom Weidlich and Seth Stern report that federal investigators are looking into whether the retail giant violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by allegedly paying $24 million to local officials in Mexico to gain market share, citing a person familiar with the probe.

Alisa Finelli, a Justice Department spokeswoman, declined to comment, Bloomberg said. John Nester an SEC spokesman, declined to comment earlier yesterday on whether the agency plans to investigate the Wal-Mart allegations.

According to governance specialists interviewed by Bloomberg, the investigations by the government and the company may prompt executive departures and U.S. penalties if it reveals senior managers didn’t take strong enough action.

Please follow Business Insider on Twitter and Facebook.

Follow Rob Wile on Twitter.

Tags: Walmart, Mexico, Department of Justice, Bloomberg, New York Times | Get Alerts for these topics »

Against Walmart - Business Insider

Tags: mexico, new york times, scandal. justice department, wal-mart

Walmart Scandals: Bribery Allegations in Mexico and More (PHOTOS) - The Daily Beast

: mondolay1949; April 25th, 9:44

Wal-Mart's (WMT) stock is getting hammered following allegations that the company engaged in systematic bribery in Mexico for several years and then covered it up.

If true, the allegations are a huge black eye for the global retailing leader, which prides itself on its reputation for integrity and transparency.

So far, Wal-Mart hasn't denied the allegations. Rather, it says it is once again investigating them—the way it did several years ago, before it shoved them under the rug.

According to David Barstow of The New York Times, who reported the story, the bribes were directed by the man who went on to become vice-chairman and the head of Wal-Mart's U.S. division, Eduardo Castro-Wright. At the time, Castro-Wright was head of the company's Mexico unit, and he was praised and promoted for the astonishing growth he delivered there—growth that the NYT says was directly the result of the bribes.

Wal-Mart's investigation of the bribery story, meanwhile, was in part overseen by the head of Wal-Mart International at the time, Michael Duke. Duke has since been promoted to CEO of Wal-Mart.

The first reaction of many upon hearing the Mexico bribery story is "So what—it's Mexico—that's the way things are done in Mexico."

That may often be true, but as a defense of Wal-Mart's actions, it overlooks several key points.

First, Wal-Mart clearly didn't think it could defend its actions by saying "this is the way things are done in Mexico." If it had thought it could justify its actions this way, it already would have.

Second, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act makes it illegal to bribe officials in countries in which American companies do business, which is what Wal-Mart is accused of doing here.

Third, the bribes involved internal accounting fraud, which Wal-Mart couldn't condone under any circumstances.

Fourth, it's preposterous to think that a company as large and influential as Wal-Mart could take a position that it's fine to ignore local laws to meet its own growth targets.

So the allegations are a huge deal, regardless how business is generally conducted in Mexico. And, given the current positions of Eduardo Castro-Wright and Michael Duke, they extend right to the top of the company.

If the allegations are true, Wal-Mart needs to apologize, pay whatever fines are required, and then fire both men—Castro-Wright because he oversaw the bribes, and Duke because he knew about them and didn't do anything. This scandal is far too big for the company to just sweep under the rug.

Walmart Scandals: Bribery Allegations in Mexico and More (PHOTOS) - The Daily Beast

Tags: bribery, busted, ceo, criminal act, stealing, under selling, unfair competition, wal-mart

Military Cancels Ted Nugent Performance Citing Violent Rhetoric About Obama | Stop The Presses! (NEW

: mondolay1949; April 22nd, 9:19

Ted Nugent (photo: Jamie Squire/Getty Images)Getting the boot from Fort Knox is the latest wrinkle in a controversy that began last weekend at an NRA convention and led to a visit from the Secret Service.

Citing inflammatory language while expressing his displeasure with President Barack Obama, the military has uninvited rock star and conservative political activist Ted Nugent from performing at Fort Knox in Kentucky, according to the U.S. Army post's Facebook page.

"After learning of opening act Ted Nugent's recent public comments about the president of the United States, Fort Knox leadership decided to cancel his performance on the installation," it's Facebook posting says.

So far, the June 23 concert remains on the Fort Knox schedule, with REO Speedwagon and Styx listed as "co-headliners," but army personnel said they will grant requests for refunds in light of their decision to nix the opening act.

PHOTOS: 10 Entertainers Republicans and Democrats Love to Hate

The cancellation is the latest wrinkle in a controversy that has engulfed Nugent since last weekend when, speaking at an NRA convention, the rocker said that he would be "dead or in jail" if Obama is reelected in November.

Also referring to Obama and Democratic candidates in general, he told the NRA faithful: "We need to ride into that battlefield and chop their heads off in November."

Use of the violent metaphors earned Nugent a visit from Secret Service agents on Thursday. He said Friday on his website that he had with them a "good, solid professional meeting concluding that I have never made any threats of violence toward anyone."

A spokesman for Fort Knox told TheBlaze.com that having Nugent perform "would be a conflict of interest since the military has the obligation to be apolitical."

Such a claim, though, seems dubious when it comes to choosing entertainers, who oftentimes show their partisanship. At its website, for example, Fort Knox is touting an appearance this month by comedian Jay Phillips who is supportive of Obama through his Twitter activities. And Ludacris has performed at U.S. Army bases even after the 2008 release of his pro-Obama song "Politics As Usual," which calls Hillary Clinton, who was running against Obama at the time, a "bitch" who is "irrelevant." The ultra-partisan song also called President George W. Bush "mentally handicapped" and says that Sen. John McCain "don't belong in any chair unless he's paralyzed."

Fort Knox personnel did not return calls or emails requesting clarification on their "obligation to be apolitical" in their entertainment selections.

Comments at the Fort Knox Facebook page have been running about 3-1 against the decision to boot Nugent from the concert.

"He is such a supporter of the troops. Such a shame that he was canceled for expressing his freedom of speech. This is America, if you have not forgot," one commenter wrote.

"I thought that freedom of speech was one of the very same things that our military fought for. When Obama said he was going to change the military, he did. He made them cowards. Shame on you Fort Knox," said another.

And on the flip side: "Anyone who threatens a U.S. president like that should not be allowed on a military installation. No matter which party he affiliates himself with. Good decision."

Tags: anti-immigrant, fort knox, military cancelation, racism, ted nugent

Father Guns Down Mother and Daughters At An Ohio Crackel Barrel after Finding Out They Are Leaving H

: mondolay1949; April 14th, 10:27

Father Guns Down Mother and Daughters At An Ohio Crackel Barrel after Finding Out They Are Leaving Him: Is Crackel Barrel Reaping For Their Alleged Past Racism?

April 14th, 2012

AT2W Staff

This news about this father gunning down his his wife and two daughters at Crackel Barrel does not surprise us, because for so long the company has allegedly had it’s trouble facing lawsuits, regarding racial discrimination. In our opinion, it seems like this is a spiritual issue haunting Crackel Barrel, because if it true they have allegedly refused to serve African Americans in the past, then they are possibly reaping what they have sown. The history of Crackel Barrel is not a good one and for this sudden tragedy to happen only reveals fate. Although friends say Katie Allen 42, feared her husband, Kevin Allen, 51 would eventually harm her, things just do not occur by accident at certain places. Now if you recall, at the Crackel Barrel in the Atlanta area a few years ago, involving a single black mother, Tahshawnea Hill whom was beat in front of her daughter by an alleged white supremacist, the FBI investigated it as a hate crime according to CNN, but Troy Dale West, Jr. only spent 6 months in jail. If you remember, that situation happened after previous situations with African American customers complaining about racial discrimination. Although, it may not have been Crackel Barrel’s fault, we do not recall security on duty to protect this woman, just recorded surveillance or him beating her. So now, we hear of this couple…Read full article, here.

Source: Sanctified Church Revolution

Source, Video and Photo Courtesy: http://www.dailymail.co.uk

Source: http://articles.cnn.com

Video: http://www.newsnet5.com

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Tags: brack obama, corruption, crime in high places, illegal wars, misconduct, secret service

New Expose Tracks ALEC-Private Prison Industry Effort to Replace Unionized Workers with Prison Labor

: mondolay1949; April 14th, 9:25

New Exposé Tracks ALEC-Private Prison Industry Effort to Replace Unionized Workers with Prison Labor

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Many of the toughest sentencing laws responsible for the explosion of the U.S. prison population were drafted by the American Legislative Exchange Council, which helps corporations write model legislation. Now a new exposé reveals ALEC has paved the way for states and corporations to replace unionized workers with prison labor. We speak with Mike Elk, contributing labor reporter at The Nation magazine. He says ALEC and private prison companies "put a mass amount of people in jail, and then they created a situation where they could exploit that." Elk notes that in 2005 more than 14 million pounds of beef infected with rat feces processed by inmates were not recalled, in order to avoid drawing attention to how many products are made by prison labor. [includes rush transcript]

Filed under prison, civil rights, food, ALEC

Guest:

Mike Elk, contributing labor reporter at The Nation magazine.

Links

"The Hidden History of ALEC & Prison Labor.” By Mike Elk and Bob Sloan (The Nation, August 1, 2011)

Rush Transcript

This transcript is available free of charge. However, donations help us provide closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing on our TV broadcast. Thank you for your generous contribution.Donate >

Transcript

AMY GOODMAN: "The Hidden History of ALEC and Prison Labor" is our next segment. Lisa Graves, of the Center for Media and Democracy, in New Orleans. I wanted to turn now to the article I just referenced, which begins: "The breaded chicken patty your child bites into at school may have been made by a worker earning twenty cents an hour, not in a faraway country, but by a member of an invisible American workforce: prisoners."

Mike Elk is our next guest. He’s a contributing editor to The Nation magazine and has done this exposé with Bob Sloan in The Nation.

Welcome to Democracy Now! Continue on this story.

MIKE ELK: So, one of the—by far, one of the most perverse effects that ALEC has had on American society is the dramatic increase in the amount of prisoners incarcerated in this country. In 1980, there were only a half a million people incarcerated in this country. Now that number has quadrupled to nearly 2.4 million. One out of every 100 American adults is in prison, the majority of them for nonviolent drug offenses. You know, the United States has four percent of the world’s population, but yet we have 25 percent of the world’s prisoners in this country. And a big part of the reason for that is ALEC. Starting in the 1980s, ALEC, with the sponsorship of, you know, the Corrections Corporation of America—

AMY GOODMAN: And let me just remind people, ALEC is the American Legislative Exchange Council.

MIKE ELK: Yeah, ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, started passing bills in individual states to privatize prisons. So now, state—there’s prison companies that could make money by keeping people in prisons. So then ALEC—what they did after that was they got states to pass tougher drug laws, tougher laws that would put prisoners away for a long time. In fact, one of the first bills introduced in 1995, by then-Wisconsin State Representative Scott Walker, was an ALEC bill, where he cited ALEC statistics, and he was an ALEC member, where he drew his inspiration. So they put a mass amount of people in jail, and then they created a situation where they could exploit that.

And now what we’re seeing is the incredible rise of prison labor, where you have prisoners making as much as 20 cents an hour, making everything from the electronic components in guided missiles, that are being used in Libya, to breaded chicken patties that your children are eating at school, to, in fact, maybe even these office chairs we’re sitting in now. We have over 100,000 prisoners employed, working for private corporations. And before the 1990s and ALEC, this did not occur in this country.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to turn to another clip of the interview that Terry Gross of NPR did with the ALEC chair, Noble Ellington, for an example of legislation that was introduced and passed recently in state legislatures based on model legislation drafted by ALEC members. Noble Ellington mentioned legislation on prison reform.

REP. NOBLE ELLINGTON: Well, they may start out in cooperation together, the corporations and the ALEC members. They may start out together, but only—only legislative members approve model legislation, not the private sector advisory board. And yes, in—and I’ll give you Louisiana. This year, working with the Pew Foundation, we introduced some legislation working on prison reform, trying to stop recidivism and make the time that the prisoners have to serve, attempt to shorten that.

AMY GOODMAN: Noble Ellington, the chair of ALEC, on Terry Gross’s program on NPR. Mike Elk, your response?

MIKE ELK: Well, the response now is, there are so many states that are looking to get prisoners out of prison, because it’s expensive. So what happened is, ALEC found another sponsor that could make money off of getting prisoners out of prison. So what ALEC wants to do now is reform the parole system in this country, privatize it. So now prisoners have to put up bond, with private bail bond companies that are owned by big Wall Street firms, where they have to pay outrageous fees in order to get out of prison. And this is something that we haven’t seen before.

So, ALEC, no matter the issue, can find a corporate sponsor. Look, for example, at the Arizona immigration law. My colleague at In These Times, Beau Hodai, showed that ALEC arranged meetings between the Corrections Corporation of America and the Arizona state legislators sponsoring the anti-immigration bill, because having more immigrants detained means more prisons. So, on just about any issue, ALEC can find a way that there’s a corporate partner that can profit off of it.

AMY GOODMAN: If you were at the conference in New Orleans right now, what would you be asking?

MIKE ELK: I would be asking, why are so many corporations, you know, turning to prison labor, of all things? You know, it’s become incredible in this country. You know, you see so many corporations now that going to China isn’t cheap enough anymore. You know, it’s expensive to ship stuff across seas. So they’re coming to the only source of labor that isn’t more expensive than China, which is U.S. prison population. Why are they doing that? Why is ALEC keeping so many people in prison that could be doing something more productive? We spend $60 billion a year in this country keeping people in prison. And having a captive labor workforce that corporations can profit from is just going to make it tougher to have prison reform in this country.

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, the issue of prison labor versus union labor?

MIKE ELK: Well, as we saw already in Wisconsin, you see now prison labor replacing, you know, unionized public workers, where the prison labor, you know, working in road crews in Racine, Wisconsin, is not getting paid anything. So we’re seeing that come in. We’re seeing factories close down in this country that were employing unionized prison labor, and instead we’re now shifting to prison labor. For instance, in the state of Florida, the largest printing company is Prison Industries. So, now there’s not even a market anymore. So we’re seeing increasingly American workers having to not compete just against Chinese labor that’s forced and exploited, but forced and exploited labor in this own country.

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, we have to break, and then we’re going to go back to another story in New Orleans, but we’ve just been talking about the processing of meat. Talk about the story from 2005 around prisoners and meat.

MIKE ELK: My co-author, Bob Sloan, who’s an ex-offender, who actually worked in Prison Industries and has dedicated his life to unveiling, you know, the tragedy of Prison Industries, showed how ATL Industries, back in 2005, had 14 million pounds of beef that they knew was infected with rat feces. Now, many people raised the alarms, and they were even trying to pressure ATL Industries to recall the beef. However, the USDA wouldn’t let them recall the beef, even through a voluntary recall, because they didn’t want to draw attention to how much meat and how many other products in this country are being made by prison labor. So, we have an industry, prison labor, for example, in '95, the U.S. government passed a law, the federal government, that now the regulating body for Prison Industries is not the Department Justice, but the National Correctional Industries Association. This is sort of like turning over bank regulation to the American Bankers Association. So we're seeing an industry that’s basically completely unregulated and poses a great threat, not just to American workers, but to the mouths and health of, you know, American children and adults.

AMY GOODMAN: Mike Elk, I want to thank you very much for being with us, contributing editor at The Nation magazine, exposé in The Nation called "The Hidden History of ALEC and Prison Labor." We’ll link to it at democracynow.org.

New Expose Tracks ALEC-Private Prison Industry Effort to Replace Unionized Workers with Prison Labor | Digg Topnews

Tags: amy goodman, arresting the poor, bob sloan, corruption, crime for profits, justice system, law, private prisons

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