The Haymarket massacre or why we don't work like slaves

You ever wonder why we work a 40 hour week and get weekends off? Well you can thank your local laborers union for that one. Back in 1886 the workers in Chicago were trying to get the work day shortened from 12 hours to 8. Imagine your work day being 13 or 14 hours long. They had a commute back then either on foot or street car as best as I can figure. The average wage back then was between $1 and $2.25 per day. In Chicago companies hired their own armed guards to intimidate and harass workers. A strike at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Co. now called International Harvester had a force of 400 police (hired Pinkerton men by some accounts) to protect strike breakers. The workers had gone on strike because McCormick lowered wages to $9 a week. The strike had started in Feb 1886 and gained momentum with a nation wide union push for an 8 hour work day. Strikers outside the plant had gathered to hear speeches by August Spies who encouraged the strikers to remain united but be nonviolent. When the whistle blew at the end of the work day the strikers stormed the gates. Police shot and killed six people some strikers and a few innocent bystanders. The labor organizers called for a rally on May 4 in Haymarket square. The gathering took place with a large gathering of police. All was so peaceful that the mayor had stopped by to listen and walked home as the last speaker was speaking. As the crowd was starting to break up a group of police started to disperse the crowd. Someone threw a bomb into the police line and mayhem insued. In the end six policemen were killed and it's witnesses stated later that many of the police were killed by friendly fire. Eight of the strikers and leaders were brought to trial. Seven were sentenced to death one was given a 15year sentence. After extensive appeals two had their sentences commuted one comitted suicide in prison by setting off a dynamite cap in his mouth that had been smuggled in. Four were hanged but they did not die immidiately. After all was said and done the governor of the state in 1893 found all the men innocent. The greatest travesty of justice in American history that has been long forgotten and never taught in schools. Ask your kids even your grown kids if they know anything about this.

The decider will tell you when your meat is safe

Herr Bush has decided to tell you when your beef is safe to eat. This should just make the pig and chicken farmers happy. Seems a certain beef producer is not permitted to test all of their beef for mad cow disease because that would give them an unfair advantage in the market place. Pay close attention to government logic when you read the article.

http://tinyurl.com/5ds4ln

Isn't this why we have regulations in the first place to encourage companies to do the right thing? Most companies are so focused on the bottom line that they'll do anything to avoid doing an expensive test in the first place. I can only hope that some day somehow all of this stupidity will catch up to the Shrub and kill him. Like the expression goes "hoisted on his own petard." Hope he gets one of those untested steaks from a downer cow. It's a slow and painful death you know.

Z friday beaver

Ever wonder why I post pictures of beavers on friday? A trick I learned from fellow blogger Pyalgia who posts boobies. It increases your traffic. And you never know somebody from a far off land might post a comment here. Remember this is part of the back roads of the internet. So watch out there's wild life out here.

Sarah Palin

After reasearching this woman I don't think I'd hire her to be dog catcher. Where to begin? A degree in journalism from Idaho with a minor in politics. A city counsil member of a town of around 5000. A few failed moments as governor. And the only real thing she has going for her is gender. And that is not the main issue here. As McCain has been blasting away at Obama's lack of experience who does McCain pick? Someone with less experience. All I can say is the debates should be interesting.
On the face value I'd say Ms. Palin is the type of politician you'd just love to vote out of office. You know the type. The ones at council meetings who waste a massive amount of time on trivial issues and get nothing done. I could be wrong about her I usually give people some benefit of the doubt. But this is definitely not someone I'd want to step in as president. Just wondering if Ambien Johnny had a brain fart in the middle of the night when he picked her. Also wondering if John has given up on the campaign. Realizing a loss he picks somebody he owes a favor. Or has this been the strategy of the republican party for a while now?

Here's the wiki background on her go there and decide for yourself. If you find something there or anywhere that makes her qualified please let me know.

Palin

Interesting speech

Obama covered just about all of the points I've covered in this blog at one time or another. I don't expect him to wave some magic wand and magically transform the nation but he has the right ideas. It's all a matter of balance. You can't take massive amounts of money from the middle class, give it to the rich and expect that to some how trickle down to the rest of the nation. As he pointed out real income has dropped by $2000 since Bush took office. More people are loosing their jobs with more to come even after Bush leaves. Gas prices are up. Health care costs are up. Forclosures are at an all time high. Bankruptcys are at an all time high. Companies that are closing and laying off people give their CEOs big bonuses as their parting gift. The workers are faced with unemployment and no health care.
The most important part of his speech was a reminder. A reminder of who this country belongs to and that would be the people of this nation and not an elitest group of haves and have mores. We have seen what the last 8 years have brought so how can anyone vote for McCain when McCain voted for Bush 90% of the time last year and 100% the year before? I wouldn't put my faith in a 10% chance of change. So it's time for us to take back this country and get busy rebuilding the infrastructure, increasing educational, changing energy policy, providing health care and getting the money back into the hands of those who actually spend it, the middle class.

Top two primary

The state of Washington after many years of 'vote for your favorite candidate' primaries went to a strict party line primary. The voters didn't like this and changed it by a petition vote last year. After a supreme court decision the state now has a top two primary. Simply put the top two vote getters in a primary go to the general election whether they be both democrat or republican. This has had a very interesting effect on the electoral process. In at least six races the choice will be a democrat against a democrat and in one race an independent made it to the final round.
Needless to say the republicans are furious about all this and are threatening to sue the state to change this. The last time I checked the government is supposed to be run by and for the people of the state. It should be interesting to see what grounds they will use for this suit. The people of the state came up with the system. They voted and passed the system and it passed the judgment of the supreme court. So the republicans are against the will of the people and that is why they have been locked out of the process. I believe they can thank Mr. Bush for poisoning their party.
I am hopeful that in this political shift that more independents can get a voice in the process. I have not seen many independents on the general election ballots and have never seen one actually win office. Now if we can just do something about the lobbying and PACs this country just might get back on track.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008126012_elexlegislature20m.html

Just when you thought you'd seen it all

Watching one of those futuristic programs on the science channel came across "Claytronics". It's hard to really discribe this research for a new technology. It is defined as programable matter. The best example I can think of would be the movie Terminator where solid robots can morph into any size or shaped object one could imagine. Well folks the whiz kids at Carnegie Mellon University are working on just that 'cantoms' nono material with computer built in that can take and change shape to any desired form.
I can only imagine what this new technology will do for the psyche of future generations. On the positive side are benefits in medicine, housing, energy, and a host of dangerous jobs that need non human replacments. On the negative side are the new weapons that could be created in a moments notice and like the Terminator would be unstoppable.
Claytronics


If you want to see some other interesting bits of the future:

Future tech