Dude. Check your drama at the door.

citizensick @ 2006-11-05T14:43:00

2006-11-05T21:43:07Z

Michael Franti. He is a good man. Amazing. This is a video of him singing his song Hello Bonjour at the Power To The Peaceful concert in San Francisco that he hosts every year. Check out some of his other music...he has also recently made a film called I know I'm not alone where he traveled to the war zones of Iraq, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. This wasn’t a USO green zone sponsored visit – Franti and his team organized a trip that would take him to the core of the red-zoned, war torn neighborhoods of Baghdad, the West Bank and Gaza Strip armed with only a guitar, video cameras and the intent to experience first hand the human cost of war. Throughout his journey he shares his music with families, doctors, musicians, soldiers and everyday people who in turn reveal to him the often overlooked human cost of war. Out of this expedition, Franti has produced and directed a compelling documentary film titled I Know I’m Not Alone. With its guerrilla style footage captured in active war zones, the documentary is unlike the many academic and politically driven pieces in the marketplace, instead offering the audience a sense of intimate travel and the opportunity to hear the voices of everyday people living, creating and surviving under the harsh conditions of war and occupation. Check it out.

citizensick @ 2006-08-21T22:57:00

2006-08-22T06:02:59Z

WAL-MART: UNION FREE FOREVER!

Wal-Mart is bad (but we already knew that). This post is about how Wal-Mart is, and goes about being, 100% anti-union. Unions represent the people. Keep your right to have a say in your working conditions, hours and wages; keep your right to obtain decent benefits; keep your right to strike without losing your job; be a union!

Wal-Mart Anti-Union Policy

Wal-Mart closes down stores and departments that unionize

Wal-Mart closed its store in Jonquierre, Quebec in April 2005 after its employees received union certification. The store became the first unionized Wal-Mart in North America when 51 percent of the employees at the store signed union cards. [Washington Post, 4/14/05]

In December 2005, the Quebec Labour Board ordered Wal-Mart to compensate former employees of its store in Jonquiere Quebec. The Board ruled that Wal-Mart had improperly closed the store in April 2005 in reprisal against unionized workers. [Personnel Today, 12/19/05]

In 2000, when a small meatcutting department successfully organized a union at a Wal-Mart store in Texas, Wal-Mart responded a week later by announcing the phase-out of its in-store meatcutting company-wide. [Pan Demetrakakes, "Is Wal-Mart Wrapped in Union Phobia?" Food & Packaging 76 (August 1, 2003).]

Wal-Mart has issued "A Manager's Toolbox to Remaining Union Free,"

This toolbox provides managers with lists of warning signs that workers might be organizing, including "frequent meetings at associates' homes" and "associates who are never seen together start talking or associating with each other." The "Toolbox" gives managers a hotline to call so that company specialists can respond rapidly and head off any attempt by employees to organize. [Wal-Mart, A Managers Toolbox to Remaining Union Free at 20-21]

Wal-Mart is committed to an anti-union policy

In the last few years, well over 100 unfair labor practice charges have been filed against Wal-Mart throughout the country, with 43 charges filed in 2002 alone.

Since 1995, the U.S. government has been forced to issue at least 60 complaints against Wal-Mart at the National Labor Relations Board. [International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), Internationally Recognised Core Labour Standards in the United States: Report for the WTO General Council Review of the Trade Policies of the United States (Geneva, January 14-16, 2004)]

Wal-Marts labor law violations range from illegally firing workers who attempt to organize a union to unlawful surveillance, threats, and intimidation of employees who dare to speak out. [Everyday Low Wages: The Hidden Price We All Pay for Wal-Mart," A Report by the Democratic Staff of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, 2/16/04]

citizensick @ 2006-08-13T16:27:00

2006-08-13T23:43:34Z

Half-assed Movie Review of the Month!

Waking Ned Devine is a great Irish comedy. The plot line is simple: Man dies of shock. Man had just won the lottery. Fellow townsfolk find man...and his lottery ticket. Fellow townsfolk try to claim the lottery money. Mind you, my synopsis does NOT do this movie justice. I just suck at writing movie reviews (unless I hate the movie, then, of course, I can just about always convey my feelings of resentment in a cheerfully eloquent way). I digress...Anyway, this movie doesn't have anyone you're likely to know, unless you are familiar with Irish actors. You could call this dark humour, I suppose...very upbeat dark humour...Of course, Irish humour can be synonymous with dark humour a lot of the time. So really, it all depends if you're Irish or not. So, I recommend this movie...to everyone.

Yep

2006-07-25T01:05:51Z

I live on a boat. Someone outed me once...as a boater. Hah. kills me every time I think about it. My dad is considered "homeless" by the state because he lives on a boat. That always kills Peter to hear that. I wonder if it was a houseboat, would it still be considered homeless? Because it's a sailboat. 37 feet (or around there). It was crafted in Japan. It's really pretty neat. It's small, so don't ask to stay over if you need a lot of space.

Tick, tick...

2006-07-23T07:48:42Z

Today it was 111 degrees here in good old Antioch. 111! It was a low of 105 at 8pm. Absolutely amazing and at the same time (sadly) not very surprising. In England it was 100 degrees for the second time in their history! The first time being August of 2003 when it soared to a record 101. Can you believe it? 100 degrees...in England! The average temperature for England in July is a nice 70 degrees. Oh, and lest I forget the bit about Southern England which is now experiancing the worst drought in over 100 years. Of course, Britian has the longest running set of temperature records in the world, dating back to 1659; which is how we know these things. What are people thinking is the culprit in this? What is to blame? What could be a very likely possibility? That's right. You guessed it. (And if you didn't, shame) Global Warming! Oh, but keep that hush hush. Just between you and me. Because we all know, global warming does not exist!