Finding Others Of Like Mind

During my web surfing this morning I ended up at Slate and read an article written by Adam L. Penenberg concerning Google and the Department of Justice. I was moved enough by the conclusion to his article that I decided to post a reply. I made a copy of what I wrote to share with my readers.

"In the end, it's up to you to protect yourself. If you signed up for Gmail, you had to provide personal information, meaning your searches could theoretically be tracked back to you by cross-referencing them with Google's cookie and your IP address. If you're paranoid, stop using Gmail and regularly delete your cookies. Even if Google promises not to do anything evil with the data it collects, it can't guarantee that the government—which has been handing out subpoenas like they're Pez candy lately—won't be tempted to do evil deeds with it 10, 20, or 50 years down the line. Yahoo! recently turned in a Chinese journalist. Someday, Google might be forced to turn you in."

I agree, it is so important to look at the BIG picture. We do not live in a vacuum in our own little world anymore. Big money operates in countries that have no concern for human rights. Then they try to bring those ideas back to America and force them down the common working folks throats. Wake up America and see how our own human rights are being eroded on many fronts. If we do not find the courage to stand up to those who talk the language of freedom while acting like dictators we will lose all of our rights. This does not mean that I do not love my country. I say this because I do love my country and agree with every principle that our founding fathers fought to give us. I do not want some morally corrupt bigot who has his soul eaten away with the DISEASE OF GREED to rob me of the things that my forefathers gave their lives to give me. FREEDOM should belong to ALL the people not just the folks who have money. Our silence will not protect us. If we do not speak up, actually practice our right to FREEDOM OF SPEECH we will loose it. WE MUST PROTECT OUR RIGHT TO PRIVACY. Every oppressive dictator or bully in the world can come up with JUSTIFICATIONS for their bad behavior. JUSTIFICATIONS for breaking the law, JUSTIFICATIONS for oppressing someone, some class, some race, JUSTIFICATIONS FOR IGNORING OUR CONSTITUTION. It is up to us to stop ENABLING this kind of bad behavior. JUST SAY NO, you can not break the law in my name. Find the courage to be an ARMY OF ONE. It is the only thing that will change the erosion of our FREEDOM in America. If you believe it you can do it.

Sound Bites

written by Emma Beverage 1/23/06

The Average CEO makes 431 times
more money, than
their laborers make.

Fifty-two laws were passed last year
across the United States that limited
abortion in some manner.

Medicaid is now being "privatized."
Hundreds of private companies
are taking over the program,

and you cannot change your provider
once you have chosen one.
Privatizing our jails too!

What is Freedom?
Where is Our Freedom?

Privatizing will improve things for
the common people.
Like it improved things

For the common people when
They broke Ma Bell up?
For the common good?

Phones and phone services
Skyrocketed
for the common good!

Mercenaries are fighting
in Iraq for four-hundred
dollars a day.

Hillary Clinton said that
"President Bush is
running this country, like a
plantation; you know what I mean.
I think she is right.

The kitchen slave
thinks that they are better
than the field slave.

The light colored slaves
think they are better
than the darker slaves.

The personal servant slaves
think they are better than
everybody… better than e-v-e-r-y-o-n-e!

They be rubbing elbows with
the master. And in the eyes
of the master, we are all slaves.

A laborer gets his five minutes of fame
on TV. He says, "that they have
been doing this since the Roman times.

The king, the king he always gets everything."
Our President breaks the law
as if there were no constitution.

The CEO makes hundreds
more than the common laborer who
does his grunt work.

How much money would it take
for you to sell your soul?
Make it okay to exploit

your brothers and sisters
for the master. Steal the land
for the common good, after a disaster.

It is all for the common good all right!
It be right commonly good,
for the Big Corporations and their CEO's.

Maggie's Law

Insurance Journal
Subscriber Services
Current Issue
Free Newsletters

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2003/08/12/31404.htm

I was searching the web and found this Insurance site that had this information on it:

“Maggie's Law, the recently signed New Jersey statute which turns drowsy driving into a criminal offense, could reportedly significantly increase the legal risks employers face from extended hours operations. …

Maggie's Law is intended to address the dangers of drowsy driving. Several scientific studies have reportedly demonstrated that people who have been awake for 24 hours are impaired to the same level as someone with a blood-alcohol level of .10 percent, which is recognized as legally drunk in all states.

The 24 million Americans who work in extended hours jobs outside the hours of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. will reportedly be particularly affected by Maggie's Law.
Many extended hours employees routinely stay awake for 24 hours on their first nightshift of the work week. Similarly, medical professionals and other emergency services personnel are often required to remain on-duty for 24-hour shifts. In emergency situations, utility linemen and technical support personnel work up to 48 hours without rest. These employees are confronted daily with the challenge of drowsy driving.”

Visit the links I copied to read the entire article.

Emma's comments on this article:
This just proves that trucking is not the only industry that is abusing their workers.

However, they are the only ones pushing their employees to the point that they can’t bathe, that I know of.

Instead of getting mad at me for pointing out how inhumane this is, why aren’t we all standing together and saying enough is enough!

I can’t tell you how many people have tried to tell me, to my face that their job was just as bad as mine. They believe that since they suck up; keep their mouths shut and do as they are told that I should keep my mouth shut too. This, in my opinion, is a cowardly position to take.

Why in the world would you accept someone else stealing your life? Don’t you believe that you are “worthy” of being treated with respect. Do you really believe that life is supposed to be about you making someone else rich? Were you born just so someone else can use you to create their profit?

If someone else can tell you what you must do with your time more than you, yourself are able to decide what to do with your time, how can you think that you are free?

If the workers of a country are not free how can that country tell the world that their country is free?

Sometimes I just want to shake people and scream wake up! WAKE UP! WAKE UP!
---

Network to STOP Corporate GREED

That did not work! So I shall continue. I’m sure it will strip the formatting out of this text too so I won’t bother to change it. I’m trying to figure out how to change the appearance on my blog so that it is more attractive. Therefore if my blog does not strip the formatting from this text that is okay also. (It stripped it)

Public Citizen sent me an article titled:
Fair Trade Activist Spotlight: Pat Carleton

I don’t want to be prosecuted for plagiarism so I will try to paraphrase their article.

Pat Carleton grew up in a working class town in Western Maine. He saw how corporate trade agreements affected his community as companies left town moving overseas. This contributed to Pat becoming an active union leader and a fair trade activist.

Pat is Executive Vice President of the United Steelworkers Local 4-9 at the SAPPI paper mill in Skowhegan, Maine. He is the coordinator of his union’s rapid response team and the contract action team. The article goes on to detail other organizations that he is involved in that work for fair trade policies.

My readers would be well served to subscribe to this magazine as this organization is working to keep us better informed.

Go to Public Citizen and read all about Pat Carleton.

Public Citizen gave their readers a place to express their appreciation to Pat. I did take advantage of that and thought that I would share what I wrote to him. I am hoping to inspire everyone to start networking and get the facts. Why do you think corporations are so powerful? Networking is the KEY!

January 19, 2006

Dear Pat Carleton,

Thank you for fighting for good jobs and fair trade!

I’m interested in trying to get my Governor to demand protection for our state from the GATS and I’d love tips on getting started.

I believe that all the abuses by the big “money-ed” interests in this world are interconnected. These corporations do not act in a vacuum. When one big company comes up with an idea that increases their profit margin the other big boys fall in line and follow suit. They seem to be doing this all over this planet without a thought as to how it abuses and exploits you and me.

Fifteen years ago they passed some kind of laws that allowed the trucking industry to go from forcing drivers to work eighteen hours a day to expecting drivers to never stop and never take the time to shower. I'm not sure what the laws were but I think it had something to do with deregulation. I'm sure it also had some connection to the fact that Wal-Mart and other big companies like Wal-Mart started demanding "Just-in-time" delivery. I always felt that it was wrong to push the drivers the way they did but when they took away our right to “own enough of our own lives” to be able to stop and take a shower, I started fighting back. I refused to cooperate every time I thought that I could get by with it. It took them fifteen years and Mother Nature had to help them by slowing my reaction time, dimming my eyes, dulling my sense of direction and causing my short term memory to occasionally short out in order for them to get me backed into a corner where they could blackball me. They did eventually take my 35 year career in trucking away from me. My sin was that as I got older and slower I also became braver until I eventually just refused to break the law for the trucking industry. I am working on a book to expose how they force drivers to break the law in order to keep their jobs. I have started a blogspot where I can share some of my thoughts about all of this. I am keeping the best stories for my book but you might want to help me get the word out by directing people to read my blog at www.emmabeverage.blogspot.com. I can say thank you for your bravery because I know, first hand, just how brave you must be to stand up to the status quo. I believe that this country can continue being a free country only as long as individuals can find the courage to stand up for their constitutional rights.

Keep up the good fight,
Emma Beverage

Experimenting with Frames for My Blog

Public Citizen an internet magazine Protecting Health, Safety & Democracry. They are a National Non-Profit Public Interest Organization. They can be reached at http://www.citizen.org
Global Trade Watch (GTW) promotes democracy by challenging corporate globalization, arguing that the current globalization model is neither a random inevitability nor “free trade.”


I am experimenting with pasting frames into my blog. I want to learn how to break up the text and make it more attractive. I am taking some classes that should help but I thought I would experiment with this today. It looks like it is going to strip the formating out of this posting but I'm going to post it anyway and see what happens.