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2012 Year In Review: Major Worker Strikes - Looming US Port Strike, Violent South African Mine Strike And More
Work stoppages, once a mainstay of the labor arsenal, have fallen off precipitously since the early 1980s. Over the same period, perhaps not by coincidence, corporate profits have mostly risen even as inflation-adjusted wages have remained stagnant.
Hence, a recent spate of high-profile strikes, including by Chicago teachers, non-unionized Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) workers and New York City fast-food employees, has some experts wondering if we're seeing a resurgence of the tactic.
A look at some of the major worker walkouts in 2012:
1. "Container cliff": East Coast faces "devastating" port strike:
A potential strike by thousands of dock workers from Boston to Houston threatens to cripple U.S. commerce as early as this weekend.
At issue is a labor dispute between the International Longshoremen's Association, which represents dock workers, and the U.S. Maritime Alliance, which represents port operators and shipping companies.
In a last-ditch effort to avert a strike, both sides agreed to meet one more time before the expiration of their contract extension at midnight Saturday. No date or place for the meeting was announced. If the sides fail to extend the negotiations or reach an agreement, 14,500 workers at the 15 ports -- including the 4,000 dockworkers in New York and New Jersey -- could walk off the job on Dec. 30. The last time there was an East Coast longshoremen's strike was back in 1977.
The New York-New Jersey port, which handled cargo valued at $208 billion last year, is the largest port on the East Coast and is the second-largest to handle manufactured goods from China.
The other ports that would be affected by a strike are Boston; Delaware River; Baltimore; Hampton Roads, Va.; Wilmington, N.C.; Charleston, S.C.; Savannah, Ga.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Port Everglades, Fla.; Miami; Tampa, Fla.; Mobile, Ala.; New Orleans and Houston.
Any supply chain disruption at the ports would immediately affect every importer and exporter – potentially disrupting or delaying spring and summer retail merchandise – that uses the facilities.
Business groups and state officials warn it could cost billions, citing estimates that a 10-day port lockout in 2002 cost $1 billion a day -- and caused a major backlog in shipments.
The key sticking point is container royalties, which are payments to union workers based on cargo weight. Port operators and shipping companies want to cap the royalties at last year's levels to stay competitive. They believe the royalties have become a huge expense unrelated to their original purpose and amount to a bonus averaging $15,500 a year for East Coast workers already earning more than $50 an hour. The longshoremen's union says the payments are an important supplemental wage, not a bonus.
The strike would come on the heels of a separate labor action that temporarily shut down ports on the West Coast. Earlier this month, striking harbor clerks reached a tentative deal with management at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach after an eight-day labor clash.
The strike cost Southern California an estimated $8 billion, including lost wages and the value of cargo rerouted to other ports.
2. Union strike leads to shutdown of Twinkies maker Hostess:
Hostess Brands Inc. filed for its second Chapter 11 bankruptcy in less than a decade this January, citing steep costs associated with its unionized workforce.
The company was able to reach a new contract agreement that would slash workers' pay benefits with its largest union, the Teamsters. But the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union, whose members constitute about one-third of Hostess' nearly 18,000 employees, rejected the terms and went on strike on Nov. 9.
A week later, the Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Ho Hos maker declared that it had to liquidate, saying the strike crippled its ability to maintain normal production.
The 82-year-old company received approval from a federal bankruptcy judge to give its top executives bonuses up to $1.8 million as part of its wind-down plans. Hostess said the incentive pay is needed to retain the 19 corporate officers and "high-level managers" during the liquidation process, which could take about a year.
On Dec. 21, the Irving, Texas-based Hostess said in bankruptcy court that it's narrowing down the bids it received for its brands and expects to sell off its snack cakes and bread to separate buyers.
The liquidation of Hostess ultimately means the loss of about 18,000 jobs, not including those shed in the years leading to the company's failure.
2. Chicago teachers' strike, first of many challenges ahead for Mayor Rahm Emanuel:
Chicago's nearly 30,000 teachers walked out on Sept. 10, when negotiations broke down after months of talks. Among the major issues, the teachers are negotiating over the length of the school day, objecting to their evaluations being tied to performance and fretting about potential job losses.
The Chicago Teachers Union agreed on Sept. 18 to end its seven-day walkout in the nation's third-largest school system, allowing some 350,000 public school students to head back to class.
The first Chicago teachers' strike in 25 years turned a spotlight on rising tensions nationally over teachers' circumstances.
Although the grueling teachers strike is over, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel still faces many daunting tasks as he pushes ahead on his promise to reform the city's underperforming classrooms.
4. Wal-Mart workers push back on Black Friday:
Hundreds of protesters, including some Wal-Mart workers who skipped their shifts on Black Friday, protested for the right to speak up to managers about wages, hours and benefits.
OUR Walmart, an organization backed by the United Food & Commercial Workers union, said it counted 1,000 protests in 46 U.S. states, including strikes in 100 cities -- figures that Wal-Mart said were "grossly exaggerated."
Wal-Mart countered that it had its best Black Friday ever and that the majority of protesters were not its employees.
5. Fast-food workers in New York demand better pay:
In late November, hundreds of workers from fast-food outlets across New York City went on strike, demanding higher wages and recognition for a new union called the Fast Food Workers Committee.
Workers from McDonald's Corporation (NYSE: MCD), Wendy's, Taco Bell, KFC, Domino's Pizza, Inc. (NYSE: DPZ), and Burger King demanded $15 an hour in pay -- a step up from the minimum wage many employees currently earn.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, fast-food work is the lowest-paying occupation in the U.S., and the median salary for a fast-food worker in 2010 was $18,130 a year -- meaning that the average fast food worker in 2010 was at exactly the federal poverty line for a family of three.
6. AT&T workers strike over health care, job protection
About 20,000 AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) workers in California, Nevada and Connecticut went on strike in August, accusing the company of unfair labor practices.
At issue in the negotiations are job protection clauses and health care premiums and co-payments. AT&T says it wants employees to shoulder more of their growing health care costs and wants more leeway to downsize its shrinking landline operations. Some of its workers have contracts that guarantee them job offers at different parts of the company if they're laid off.
AT&T said in a statement that its workers have "high-quality middle-class careers with wages and health care benefits that are among the best in the country."
7. Mine protests turn deadly in South Africa:
A wave of strikes swept South Africa's gold and platinum mining industries this year. The labor unrest has rattled investors in the continent's largest economy and has claimed the lives of more than 50 people, including 34 shot dead by police in one incident in mid-August near a mine operated by platinum producer Lonmin Plc (LON: LMI).
Around 80,000 South African miners or 15 percent of the workforce had been off the job at one point. Even though the majority of strikes have ended, the deals made between workers and the companies are on shaky ground, meaning South Africa's crucial mining industry may face more strikes.
The International Monetary Fund forecasts South African gross domestic product growth of 2.6 percent this year and in October cut its 2013 growth forecast to 3 percent from a July projection of 3.3 percent. The uncertainty risks further damage to Africa's largest economy and could lead to more job losses in a country where unemployment already sits at 25 percent.
© Copyright IBTimes 2023. All rights reserved.


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Frannywanny turns TWO!!!
I can't believe it has been exactly a year ago when I blew out my first candle! I celebrated it simply by presenting to you my very own domain. It was like acquiring my very own home here in cyberspace. I felt the big leap towards independence. Later on, I gave this home a new look thanks to Paperbank Designs.
Since then, my life as a blogger continues to soar higher and higher... I met new friends, became a Nuffnang featured blogger for the month of August, participated and won in a couple of online contests and discovered a lot of interesting finds both here and abroad. Best of all, I felt all the love that you, my readers, have been sending my way.
In line with my 2nd anniversary, I wish to improve even further. I would like to hear your thoughts on the things that you would like to see and read here in my blog. I would like to know you better and hopefully, 2010 will even be a more exciting year for frannywanny.com.
As an anniversary treat, I will be raffling off this limited edition bag specially created by my talented friends over at Baubles, Bangles 'n Beads to all those who have successfully completed the survey.
In addition to the lovely bag, I will also be throwing in a P500 gift certificate from Figaro Coffee!
This raffle contest will run from September 9 up until September 19, 11:59PM.
Note that all information gathered from the survey will strictly be kept confidential.
Looking forward to hearing from all of ya! :)

subset: commoncrawl


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[INDOSUB] IZONE FANTASTIC IZ HIDDEN SCHOOL EP.02 1080P.mp4
The file can be open with MPC - Home Cinema, MX Player for Android.
File Download:
Sebelum Click here to Download (Login) alangkah baiknya kamu membaca keterangan disini.
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EDMONTON – Mary Molloy is this year's recipient of the 2013 Kevin Carr Christian Leadership Award.
Molloy's contributions have been many – including those in her own parish, Catholic Women's League, and in the community in general.
A member of St. Joseph's Basilica Parish, she served on the Liturgy Committee helping organize liturgical events, including the annual Chrism Mass, 75th Anniversary Masses for both the province and archdiocese, Pope John Paul II's visit in 1984, and the basilica's 100th anniversary committee.
She also chaired the Sign of Hope Committee in 2001, co-chaired the Cornerstone of Faith Campaign in 2008-09 and served on the Board of Governors for St. Joseph's College at the University of Alberta.
The Catholic Women's League is a great part of Molloy's life. She recently served as president of the St. Joseph's Basilica CWL, resolutions chair for the Alberta Mackenzie Provincial CWL, and on the organizing committees for the Alberta Mackenzie Centennial Gala and the CWL National Convention.
Molloy says she was surprised to be given the award.
"I thought things that I have done were just part of everyday life. We were raised that way, given the example of our parents. It (the award) has been affirming, given me a sense of pride and purpose, made me more confident to continue pursuing what I do."
Molloy will receive her award at the 10th annual Kevin Carr Leadership Award Luncheon Oct.15 at the Edmonton Petroleum Club.
For ticket information, contact Lorraine Kasha at 780-392-2450 or order online at www.newman.edu.


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The New York Mets, a baseball team that does not possess a cartoonish mascot named Chief Wahoo or a fanbase that likes to do the Tomahawk Chop during games, has somehow managed to piss off an American Indian nonprofit organization. And it all went down in the Metsiest way possible.
According to The New York Times, the Mets had reached out to the New York-based American Indian Community House to ask for help staging a Native American Heritage Day at Citi Field. The nonprofit agreed to participate, and July 25 was set as the date of the event, which would include a variety of pregame activities and some traditional American Indian singing and dancing outside the stadium. A great time would be had by all!
But then, of course, the Mets went and fucked everything up. You see, they are set to play the Atlanta Braves on July 25, and the Mets suddenly became worried that the visiting team might see the planned festivities as an anti-Braves protest and get offended. So what did the Mets do? They went full chickenshit, cancelling the singing and dancing portions of the event out of deference to the Braves. And then, the team drove the final nail into the coffin of stupidity:
Last Wednesday, a member of the Mets' group sales department e-mailed the A.I.C.H. in response to a series of questions from the group, which sought an explanation.
"It was brought to my attention that we need to be sensitive to the Braves being a partner MLB team and can't put them in a situation for a potentially negative environment to be brought upon them," the Mets official wrote. "I know this is not the plan, but sometimes people come to events under different agendas than expected. I'm not referring to [A.I.C.H.] or any of the organizations involved, but more about unknown groups that may want to change the perception of the event."
Foldable Camping Cot
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Set the backrest to any position to fit your needs so you can relax out under the sun this summer.
And here we may have the lowlight of the Mets' season: Citing sensitivity when choosing to spurn a group of American Indians in favor of a baseball team that routinely offends American Indians. The A.I.C.H. has wisely pulled out of the event.


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Shabunga Youth Short Sleeve T-Shirt
Regular price $24.00
Style: Shabunga• 100% ring-spun cotton (heather colors have polyester)
• 30 singles
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Each item is made to order and will ship within 4-6 business days. TwelveForever.com ships from multiple fulfillment centers. You may receive multiple shipments for a single placed order.


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Children with neurologic disorders such as cerebral palsy, intellectual disability or epilepsy are at increased risk of dying from flu, a new study says.
The findings highlight the importance of influenza vaccination to protect these children, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Researchers analyzed data on influenza-related deaths among children younger than 18 during the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic. The number of flu-related deaths during the pandemic was more than five times the median number of children's deaths reported in the previous five flu seasons.
Sixty-eight percent of those deaths occurred in children who had underlying medical conditions that elevate the risk of serious flu complications.
Information was available for 336 of the children with underlying medical conditions who died from 2009 H1N1 flu-associated causes. Of those, 227 had one or more underlying health conditions. One hundred forty-six (64 percent) had a neurologic disorder.
Of the children with neurologic disorders for whom vaccination information was available, only 23 percent had received the seasonal flu vaccine and only 3 percent were fully vaccinated for the 2009 H1N1 flu.
The most commonly reported complications for children with neurologic disorders were flu-associated pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome. The researchers also found that 75 percent of children with a neurologic condition who died from 2009 H1N1 flu-related infection had an additional high-risk condition for flu complications, such as a lung disorder, metabolic disorder, heart disease or chromosomal abnormality.
The study appeared online Aug. 29 in the journal Pediatrics.
"We've known for some time that certain neurologic conditions can put children at high risk for serious complications from influenza," Dr. Lyn Finelli, chief of the surveillance and outbreak response team in CDC's Influenza Division, said in an agency news release. "However, the high percentage of pediatric deaths associated with neurologic disorders that occurred during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic was a somber reminder of the harm that flu can cause to children with neurologic and neurodevelopmental disorders."
Flu is particularly dangerous for people who have trouble with muscle function, lung function or difficulty coughing, swallowing or clearing fluids from their airways, study co-author Dr. Georgina Peacock, of CDC's National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, said in the news release. "These problems are sometimes experienced by children with neurologic disorders," she said.
CDC is partnering with the American Academy of Pediatrics and influenza advocacy groups to promote awareness about the importance of flu prevention and treatment in children with neurologic disorders.
Source: HealthDay News


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Yes, I got gang probed this morning just like you did. Worse, I'm betting.
First, I overslept for an inning and a half. My bad. But when I finally did wake up, DirecTV was giving me the now infamous bouncing logo rather than the game I expected. Some of you would probably just revert to the internet at that point, but you obviously aren't occupying room 463 at the Palace where the wifi is non-existent and the HSDPA is crappy and inconsistent. I might as well be on the frigging moon here.
Which left my iPhone and good old wap.mlb.com. Seriously.
But you know what? I don't care. Like Hutch, I'll take anything. Anything with a W, that is.
The Sox played a real game for the first time since October, and won that game. Won ugly, maybe, but won. Meaning that they officially lead their division in games that matter. My personal misfortunes are nothing compared to that single, beautiful fact.
For all the good people out there that got up early with me and feel like telling DirecTV what they can do with their apology, I'm with you. I really am.
Yet I'm headed to bed now, because my team needs me – needs us – tomorrow morning earliest. So I'll be there, and hope you will too.


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Indio (Spanish for "Indian") is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, in the Coachella Valley of Southern California's Colorado Desert region. It lies 23 miles (37 km) east of Palm Springs, 75 miles (121 km) east of Riverside, 127 miles (204 km) east of Los Angeles, 148 miles (238 km) northeast of San Diego, and 250 miles (402 km) west of Phoenix. The population was 89,137 in the 2020 United States Census, up from 76,036 at the 2010 census, an increase of 17%. Indio is the most populous city in the Coachella Valley, and was formerly referred to as the Hub of the Valley after a Chamber of Commerce slogan used in the 1970s. It was later nicknamed the City of Festivals, a reference to the numerous cultural events held in the city, most notably the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
Neighborhoods in Indio, California
Araby Cove, Baristo, Bel Cielo, Chino Canyon, Colony Park, Coronado Gardens Homeowners, Deepwell Estates, Desert Gardens, Desert Highland Gateway Estates, Desert Park Estates, Desert Trace, Dos Palmas Corners, Foxstone, Historic Tennis Club, Indian Palms Country Club & Resort
Things to do in Indio, California
Our Newest Profiles


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There are movie franchises that I care a great deal about, like Alien and Star Trek, and others that I really don't that are still enormously popular, like the Fast and Furious and Friday the 13th. There are venerable film series that have been trundling along for decades with various degrees of success like James Bond. And then there's Marvel's Cinematic Universe, an ongoing series of films that have not failed to be excellent in nearly every way — even when I didn't think they possibly could be.
The latest entry in the MCU, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, adds yet another achievement to this series of films that already includes Iron Man, the Mighty Thor, Captain America, Doctor Strange, and a host of supporting heroes — and villains — in it's ever expanding roster. A film critic once described The Lord of the Rings as having more characters than the Bible. The MCU embodies this sentiment like no other film franchise since.


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• Prize-winner at the XIII International Ballet Dancers and Choreographers' Competition in Moscow (3rd prize, 2017)• Prize-winner at the International Competition Tanzolymp (Berlin, 2017, 1st prize in the Classical Dance nomination)• Prize-winner European Ballet Grand Prix (Vienna, 2017, 1st prize and jury award) • Finalist of The Youth America Grand Prix (New York, 2015, 2014)
Born in Uberlândia (Brazil).Graduated from the Staatliche Ballettschule Berlin in 2017.Joined the Mariinsky Ballet as a trainee the same year.
Repertoire includes:La Sylphide (Youths); choreography by August Bournonville, revised version by Elsa-Marianne von Rosen, Swan Lake (Neapolitan Dance); choreography by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, revised version by Konstantin Sergeyev, Raymonda (Béranger); choreography by Marius Petipa, revised version by Konstantin Sergeyev, Le Corsaire (Ali, Lankedem); production by Pyotr Gusev after the composition and choreography of Marius Petipa, George Balanchine's ballet Prodigal Son (Friends of the Prodigal), The Fountain of Bakhchisarai (Youths); choreography by Rostislav Zakharov, The Nutcracker (The Nutcracker Prince); choreography by Vasily Vainonen, Romeo and Juliet (Troubadour); choreography by Leonid Lavrovsky, Spartacus (Satyr); choreography by Leonid Yakobson, The Legend of Love (Friends of Ferkhad); choreography by Yuri Grigorovich, Cinderella (Summer), Concerto DSCH; choreography by Alexei Ratmansky, The Nutcracker (The Nutcracker Prince, Recruit); production by Mihail Chemiakin, choreography by Kirill Simonov, Infra; choreography by Wayne McGregor, Push Comes to Shove; choreography by Twyla Tharp, Violin Concerto No 2; choreography by Anton Pimonov, The Four Seasons; choreography by Ilya Zhivoi.
Repertoire also includes Concertino bianco; choreography by Dmitry Pimonov.


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Cloud infrastructure and hosted IT services provider Savvis has been able to automate out complexity and add deep efficiency to its operations using a range of performance, operations orchestration and Business Service Automation (BSA) solutions from HP. Savvis has improved its incident resolution and sped the delivery of new cloud services to its enterprise clients.
To learn more about how they did it, listen to today's podcast featuring Art Sanderson, senior manager of enterprise management tools at Savvis. The discussion is moderated by Dana Gardner, principal analyst at Interarbor Solutions.
Download the podcast (11:32 minutes) or use the player:
Here are some excerpts:
Dana Gardner: What are the main drivers in your infrastructure as a service (IaaS) market?
Art Sanderson: Savvis is recognized as a global IT leader in providing IT as a service (ITaaS) to many of today's most recognizable enterprise customers around the world. We offer cloud services and hosting infrastructure services to those customers.
Being an IT department of IT departments, or a dynamic service provider, has a lot of unique challenges that you don't face in every IT shop that you run into. In fact, we have thousands of customers that we have to support with their own IT departments. So our solutions have to be able to scale beyond what you would find in a typical IT organization.
Gardner: And I should think that efficiency is super-important. It's all margin to you, when you can save and do things efficiently?
Better SLAs
Sanderson: Absolutely. There are just the efficiencies alone for operational cost, as well as the value that we provide to our customers, being able to provide better service-level agreements (SLAs), so their businesses are up and running and available to them to service their own customers. There are definitely some economies of scale there.
Our premier services are our Symphony cloud offerings, our Symphony VPDC, Symphony Open and Dedicated cloud, as well as Symphony Database. All, in some form or fashion in various degrees, use the BSA tools on the back end to do their own offerings, and their own automations that we offer our customers.
Gardner: Tell me what you've done in terms of management for better automation, orchestration, and then, how those benefits get passed on.
Sanderson: Sure. We've adopted the HP BSA set of tools as our automation platform and we've used that in a number of different ways and areas within Savvis. It's been quite a journey. We've been using the tools for approximately three to four years now.
We started out with some of our operational uses, and they've matured to the point now where a lot of our automation-type monitoring is solved by automation rather than by our operational staff.
There is definitely labor saving there, as well as time savings in mean time to resolution values that we're adding to our customers. That's just one of the benefits that we're seeing from the automation tools, not to mention the fact that we build a lot of our own key product offerings for the marketplace that we service, using the BSA offerings on the back end as well.
Gardner: How do you measure performance benefits? Is there a set of key performance indicators (KPIs) or some benchmarks?
Sanderson: From an operational perspective, we do monitor the number of automations that we run that we can capture from the operational side of the house. For example, on a typical day we run anywhere from 10,000-20,000 types of automations through our systems, and that would actually add value back to the business from a labor-savings perspective.
In just this first quarter of 2012 alone, we recognized somewhere in the neighborhood of US$250,000 in labor savings just from the automations from an operational perspective. Again, it's hard to quantify the value of adding to the business side, because those are solutions that we're offering to the market space that are generating new value back to the organization as a whole.
Mature Process
From the people and process side, we didn't start out necessarily doing it the right way from the operations side of the house. But we have matured the process to where we're now delivering solutions in a much more rapid fashion. The business is driving the priorities from an operational perspective as far as what we're spending our time on.
Then, we can typically turn around automations in a very short time. In some cases, we've built frameworks using these tools where we can turn around an automation that used to take two to three weeks. Now, it can take less than an hour to turn around that same automation.
So we've gotten really smart at what we're doing with the tools, not just building something net new every time, but also making the tools more reusable themselves.
From the value to the organization, we've also had many groups within the product engineering side of the house take on and learn tools like HP Operations Orchestration (HPOO) and HP Service Activator (HPSA), and leverage their own domain knowledge as network engineers or storage engineers to build net new solutions that we then turn around and offer to our customers.
That eliminates a lot of the business analyst type of work and things like that would typically go into the normal systems development lifecycle (SDLC)-type process that you would see. We're able to cut the time to market for the offerings that we're producing for our customers.


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Given all the reactionary prattle we have seen in the New York Times lead op-ed slot of late, it was quite a breath of fresh air to read something downright progressive and courageously iconoclastic: "Whose Oil is It, Anyway?" by Antonia Juhasz, an analyst with Oil Change International and author of The Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time. We have felt like we're spitting in the wind when we have attacked the bogus arguments of those who claim the Iraq adventure is not about oil, or that oil privatization is good for Iraq. It is vindicating to see someone with a much bigger soapbox and mainstream creds leading the charge against these rascals—for a change. From the New York Times, March 13:
Today more than three-quarters of the world's oil is owned and controlled by governments. It wasn't always this way.
Until about 35 years ago, the world's oil was largely in the hands of seven corporations based in the United States and Europe. Those seven have since merged into four: ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell and BP. They are among the world's largest and most powerful financial empires. But ever since they lost their exclusive control of the oil to the governments, the companies have been trying to get it back.
Iraq's oil reserves — thought to be the second largest in the world — have always been high on the corporate wish list. In 1998, Kenneth Derr, then chief executive of Chevron, told a San Francisco audience, "Iraq possesses huge reserves of oil and gas — reserves I'd love Chevron to have access to."
A new oil law set to go before the Iraqi Parliament this month would, if passed, go a long way toward helping the oil companies achieve their goal. The Iraq hydrocarbon law would take the majority of Iraq's oil out of the exclusive hands of the Iraqi government and open it to international oil companies for a generation or more.
In March 2001, the National Energy Policy Development Group (better known as Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force), which included executives of America's largest energy companies, recommended that the United States government support initiatives by Middle Eastern countries "to open up areas of their energy sectors to foreign investment." One invasion and a great deal of political engineering by the Bush administration later, this is exactly what the proposed Iraq oil law would achieve. It does so to the benefit of the companies, but to the great detriment of Iraq's economy, democracy and sovereignty.
Since the invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration has been aggressive in shepherding the oil law toward passage. It is one of the president's benchmarks for the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, a fact that Mr. Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Gen. William Casey, Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and other administration officials are publicly emphasizing with increasing urgency.
The administration has highlighted the law's revenue sharing plan, under which the central government would distribute oil revenues throughout the nation on a per capita basis. But the benefits of this excellent proposal are radically undercut by the law's many other provisions — these allow much (if not most) of Iraq's oil revenues to flow out of the country and into the pockets of international oil companies.
The law would transform Iraq's oil industry from a nationalized model closed to American oil companies except for limited (although highly lucrative) marketing contracts, into a commercial industry, all-but-privatized, that is fully open to all international oil companies.
The Iraq National Oil Company would have exclusive control of just 17 of Iraq's 80 known oil fields, leaving two-thirds of known — and all of its as yet undiscovered — fields open to foreign control.
The foreign companies would not have to invest their earnings in the Iraqi economy, partner with Iraqi companies, hire Iraqi workers or share new technologies. They could even ride out Iraq's current "instability" by signing contracts now, while the Iraqi government is at its weakest, and then wait at least two years before even setting foot in the country. The vast majority of Iraq's oil would then be left underground for at least two years rather than being used for the country's economic development.
The international oil companies could also be offered some of the most corporate-friendly contracts in the world, including what are called production sharing agreements. These agreements are the oil industry's preferred model, but are roundly rejected by all the top oil producing countries in the Middle East because they grant long-term contracts (20 to 35 years in the case of Iraq's draft law) and greater control, ownership and profits to the companies than other models. In fact, they are used for only approximately 12 percent of the world's oil.
Iraq's neighbors Iran, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia maintain nationalized oil systems and have outlawed foreign control over oil development. They all hire international oil companies as contractors to provide specific services as needed, for a limited duration, and without giving the foreign company any direct interest in the oil produced.
Iraqis may very well choose to use the expertise and experience of international oil companies. They are most likely to do so in a manner that best serves their own needs if they are freed from the tremendous external pressure being exercised by the Bush administration, the oil corporations — and the presence of 140,000 members of the American military.
Iraq's five trade union federations, representing hundreds of thousands of workers, released a statement opposing the law and rejecting "the handing of control over oil to foreign companies, which would undermine the sovereignty of the state and the dignity of the Iraqi people." They ask for more time, less pressure and a chance at the democracy they have been promised.
See our last posts on the struggle for Iraq's oil, the struggle for global oil, and petro-oligarchical rule.


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March 20th, 2013
Why our noses are different shapes
There are pouches on each side of the human nose below the eyes that are called maxillary sinuses. They're involved in sinus infections, so you may already have a bias against them.
But Nathan Holton, a postdoctoral research fellow in the department of orthodontics at the University of Iowa, wanted to find out why there's such variation in these structures, and how they are affected by variation in the nasal cavity. A study on the subject is published in the journal The Anatomical Record.
Holton and colleagues took computed tomography scans of 40 people. About half of them were European-Americans, and the other half were African-Americans or native South Africans.
They found that the bigger the volume of the nasal cavity, the bigger the maxillary sinuses, in both populations. This is also associated with the overall face size, the researchers said, and suggests that the maxillary sinuses play a role in allowing the nose shape to vary. It appears that the sinuses make room for the nose.
But when the face size is about the same, maxillary sinuses tended to be 36% larger in people of European ancestry than of African ancestry because Europeans tend to have narrower nose shapes.
The various shapes of noses appear to be tied to adaptations to climate, Holton said. The nose must properly heat and humidify the air that you breathe. In a cold climate, it's advantageous to have a narrower nose. That's so that when a person inhales, more air comes into contact with the mucosal surface of nose, which provides moisture. The narrow nose maximizes the surface area.
"The fact that we have sinuses seems to allow for this accommodation of variation in nasal shape, which seems to be important, in evolutionary terms, with regard to climatic adaptation," Holton said.
The maxillary sinuses probably do not serve an important purpose in terms of nasal respiratory function, he said.
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Where does the flow go?
Susie replies:What happens to natural female lubricant (or any other moistness) after intercourse? I have asked many of my friends (both male and female) this question and no one can provide a sufficient answer. All the information I have so far been able to glean on the subject is that the vagina is a "self-cleaning organ." I'm not stupid. I can imagine what this means, but I would just like it explained a little bit more in depth than that. Any information you could supply on this subject would be deeply appreciated.
Anything that is in the vaginal canal after sex either dribbles out, gets expelled or gets reabsorbed by the body.
Semen clots and becomes sticky within minutes of being ejaculated. But if you wait half an hour or so, the semen liquefies again. Then it is free to dribble out the vagina (whatever hasn't made it's way up the cervix already, anyway). Whatever is left over breaks down. The sperm die, and the body digests and absorbs the remainder.
Vaginal lubrication can also simply dribble out if it is in excess. But it can just as easily be reabsorbed. Vaginal lubrication is actually made from blood plasma filtered through many layers of vaginal tissue. It is mostly water, some salts, small proteins and viral particles that are small enough to make it past the filtration (like HIV).
While gravity helps remove the fluids, gentle muscle contractions during orgasm as well as general movements (like sitting up, shifting positions, walking, etc.) can push the fluids out the vagina.


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Ashland, KY 41102
New 2023 Grand Design Solitude 310GK R
Grand Design Solitude fifth wheel 310GK-R highlights:
- Tri-Fold Sofa
- Kitchen Island
- Residential Refrigerator
- Oversized Pantry
- Flip-Top Dresser
- Bedroom Pull-Out Ottoman
Traveling for long periods at a time is made easy with this kitchen that can feed a group a holiday meal! The professional-grade stainless steel cooktop with built-in oven, the microwave, the stainless steel residential refrigerator and the kitchen island offer everything you will need to enjoy cooking. You will find storage throughout including in the hutch, under the interior steps, and in the front master bedroom. There is a queen bed or choose a king, a pull-out ottoman, a closet prepped for a washer/dryer option, a larger wardrobe, plus a flip-top dresser with LED TV above. And the bathroom includes a shower with a seat and skylight. Plus you can add the exterior pull-out kitchen option to enjoy while relaxing under one of the two power awnings.
With any Solitude fifth wheel by Grand Design, you will get maximum insulation from the thermal roof design, the exclusive fully laminated walls, the triple insulated main floor, the Rail-Tite underbelly seal, the insulated gooseneck and the insulated baggage doors. The MORryde rubber pin box system utilizes a unique rubber shear spring to positively deal with rough towing and road shock, the Tire Linc TPMS system monitors pressure and temperature, and the 6-point hydraulic system allows you to setup easily. And the upgraded shower system, the hardwood window valances, the oversized kitchen pantry, the window above the master bed headboard, and the Rockford Fosgate stereo entertainment system with HDMI and App controls are a few more reasons you will love these extended-stay fifth wheels!
- Residential Living Package
- 'Peace Of Mind' Package
- "Weather-Tek" Package
- "Max-Built" Construction Package
Additional Included Options:
- Central Vacuum System
- Roller Shades
- Solid Step Quad Entry Steps
- Keyed-A-Like
- 30,000 BTU Stealth A/C System (2x 15K A/C's)
- Solar Prep
- Upgraded Cooper H-Rated Tires with 17.5" Wheels
- 18 Cubic Foot Residential Fridge
- TV in Bedroom
- Electric Fireplace
- 12V Tank Heaters
- 6-Point Hydraulic Leveling System
- 2nd Patio Awning
- 3rd A/C 15K BTU
- King Bed Upgrade
- 7K Axle with ABS brakes
Stock# 9954
Interior Color: STONE
|34 ft 11 in
|Ext Width
|8 ft 5 in
|Ext Height
|13 ft 5 in
|Interior Color
|Hitch Weight
|2350 lbs
|15000 lbs
|Dry Weight
|12100 lbs
|Fresh Water Capacity
|93 gals
|Grey Water Capacity
|100 gals
|Black Water Capacity
|50 gals
|Tire Size
|Furnace BTU
|40000 btu
|Available Beds
|Refrigerator Type
|Stainless Steel Residential French Door
|Cooktop Burners
|Number of Awnings
|Axle Weight
|7000 lbs
|LP Tank Capacity
|60 lbs
|Water Heater Capacity
|12 gal
|Water Heater Type
|30000 btu
|TV Info
|LR LED Smart TV, BR LED TV
|Awning Info
|10' 4" and 16' Power w/Integrated LED Lighting
|Axle Count
|Washer/Dryer Available
|Shower Type
|Shower w/Seat
|Electrical Service
|50 amp