It's said that unions are the only force capable of combating the giant corporate interests, even though unions have a fraction of the money, States are introducing anti-union bills but also please look into underhanded anti-union bills. States now have laws saying attendance can be used for public employee evaluations. So if you get sick, even for a week, especially if you cost more, you are fired because tenure is gone for teachers in many states, not just Wisconsin. Teachers with cancer who go for treatment twice a month will now be fired because their attendance will be used against them. Most do not know that districts are using this attendance law even when unions have helped negotiated sick days. If you have 100 sick days banked, you can not use any of them or you may be fired, If you take fmla leave, it does not count as days worked towards retirement or seniority. States other than Wisconsin have new evaluation laws that say if you get a poor evaluation; based often on one visit by an administrator, you are fired even if or maybe especially if you have an illness or make a decent salary. If you get an okay evaluaton, you may still be fired based on a one day visit by one person. ALEC may not have been behind these new laws, but groups like ALEC were involved In CO and other states. Taking the money out of public education, they think, will save them money. Dr. Diane Ravitch would disagree.

"Usury" is not /yoo-soo-ree/, it's /yoo-zhoo-ree/, like "usual".

Correction: 77500% return on investment means that for every dollar "invested" in a politician, the lobbyist gets 775 dollars back, not 77500 dollars.

Thom, I've pointed this out before: Article III, Section 2 is a list of types of cases, not a list of types of decisions. The appropriate type of case for nullification is one of equity to which the United States is a party, which is listed there.

The Constitution doesn't explicitly allow any types of decisions, so, by your logic, you would have to believe that the Supreme Court has no ability to judge cases in any way whatsoever.

I've found that boycotts don't work too well. For instance, I tried to boycott all businesses that donated to Scott Walker. However, I am retired (living on a fixed income) and cannot afford to buy some of my medications unless I buy them at Sam's Club (Walmart) where I've found them to be most reasonably priced. There were a few other Walker supporters' businesses whose products were better than products I could find elsewhere. I still try not to buy from Walker supporters, and will often go out of my way to avoid them, but I can't always. The list of ALEC companies is far more extensive than the list of companies supporting Walker. I would find it difficult to maintain a boycott of all of them.

Second, just who is the boycott hurting? The employees of these companies do not necessarily support ALEC. In fact, I doubt most of the low-paid employees do, and they are the ones who will be the first to be laid off if business slows down.

I have found that getting involved politically is a better way to fight ALEC!

Well, I guess I won't be shopping at Wal-mart any more.

As for the Supreme Court ruling on the Constitutionality of laws...I'd be alright with that if we elected the bloody assholes. Can we amend the Constitution nto make Supreme Court judge an elected, term-limited office?

Post your excellent interview of Great Minds today, as you introduced the subject of ALEC, my mind was racing to talk to you. In Canada we have strict gun control laws for good reason. We value them. We need them to remain firmly in place. Our gun registry program crashed, that the Government has NO right to ask us to register legal fire arms that are already legal and accounted for. They tried though. I'm sure the DEA had something to do with implementing it, as they have long been granted all rights to over-ride our own countries law enforcemnt. Somebody really dropped the ball on that one! When the Spaniards, among others came to our continent so many years ago and brought guns, disease and alcohol, all three were effective in eliminating much of the indiginous peoples they either enslaved or blatantly murdered. Back to the interview of why prejudice is so prevelant and why the "Shoot First" policy will also fail. Putting weapons in the hands of the good and righteous folk" to do your dirty work for you (themselves being govermnet) is a dastardly way of having their way. How ironic they felt it was ok to enslave the peoples they brought to the land to do their physical dirty work and still. Centuries later, the wish to eliminate them now that they don't do their dirty work for them anymore (at least not legally, as they continue to bring Mexicans and others into the country to do dirty work of all kinds, from the sex trade, human trade, drug trade, crop picking and domestic work - privately for themselves), is purely a matter of convenience. This is to prevent assimilation, which failed with the indiginous peoples and was later directed toward other minorities, so to speak. No money or help is ever to be made available from THIER coffers for such purpose, period. Martin Luther King started the ball rolling, among others. My own family hid people of the underground railroad when Slavery was in the initial stages of abolishment. French Canadians, might I add. Interesting. Now that so many of us, any race, creed or colour are subject to their "New World Order", oh my goodness... all at once, the wall comes tumbling down - round the world! Some Stephen King reading is in order. The Post Man in particular. Robert Heinlans Starship Troopers is my novel of hope for our future. I think we'll make it, just fine. Won't be easy, many continue to die, but it shall come to bare. I'm sure of it!

Regards,

Mary Anne

May I suggest "The Prophet" by Kahlil Gibran. Marvelous text to have on hand, anytime! Was gifted to me and I've gifted it to others. It's that kind of a book. Very important piece of work. A small, condensed, light and pleasant read!

My, you are well read! Appreciated!

"(From 2004 to 2008, Bush authorized 42 drone strikes, according to the New America Foundation. The number has more than quadrupled under President Obama—to 180 at last count.)" "Administration officials insist that the targeted killings rest on a solid legal foundation, but many scholars disagree. Georgetown University’s Gary Solis, the author of The Law of Armed Conflict, says people at the CIA who pilot unmanned aerial vehicles are civilians directly engaged in hostilities, an act that makes them “unlawful combatants” and possibly subject to prosecution." http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/02/13/inside-the-killing-mach...

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Shady Companies With Ties to Israel Wiretap the U.S. for the NSA..... By James Bamford

"Narus was formed in Israel in November 1997 by six Israelis with much of its money coming from Walden Israel, an Israeli venture capital company." "At AT&T, the wiretapping rooms are powered by software and hardware from Narus, now owned by Boeing, a discovery made by AT&T whistleblower Mark Klein in 2004." A few years ago, Narus boasted that it is “known for its ability to capture and collect data from the largest networks around the world.” The company says its equipment is capable of “providing unparalleled monitoring and intercept capabilities to service providers and government organizations around the world” and that “Anything that comes through [an Internet protocol network], we can record. We can reconstruct all of their e-mails, along with attachments, see what Web pages they clicked on, we can reconstruct their [Voice over Internet Protocol] calls.” "Like Narus, Verint was founded by in Israel by Israelis,...." "Among its products is STAR-GATE, which according to the company’s sales literature, lets “service providers … access communications on virtually any type of network, retain communication data for as long as required, and query and deliver content and data …” and was “[d]esigned to manage vast numbers of targets, concurrent sessions, call data records, and communications.” http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/04/shady-companies-nsa/all/1

i believe in boycott ;and writing representatives in congress spending time with democratic party for a more ppl friendly congress and Presidency like Obama wants to be especially if he sees the people behing him,he gave us health care and we gave him the tea party whats he to think ??

Freelyb, welcome from another Coloradan.

To find books on the "interplay of quantum dynamics and human thought/potential", I'll give you a hint. They won't be in the science section of the bookstore. You'll want to look for New Age in the religion section. Even though quantum mechanics obviously has something to do with the chemical reactions in the brain, that also applies to all matter, and so far nothing scientific has found an indication that human thought is special in QM terms. Sentience is so far an inexplicable emergent property.

I agree with you about unions..and what they gain helps not only union members but trickles over to all workers...

I am very sad about the attack on public education...

I do hope that we have more to our defense against the predator class than say..the Monarch Butterflies...that most predators know how badly they taste...very bitter, I'm told..that they avoid eating them. Could be that the predator class may have created something that may very well blow back on them. Violence is increasing....and no police to deal with it in many cities. Oakland had so many 911 calls in the last couple of days that they couldn't respond to many of them. The police wanted victims to just file an on-line report. I think I'll hang on to my peace of mind that speaks louder than words for a little while longer. We cannot rely on the police to protect us. And that may very well be "in bad taste" but it works for the Monarch Butterflies. Where's my hoodie!