News for March 28 2009

Economic Blackmail
Corporate opponents of workers’ freedom to form unions repeatedly have shown they are not interested in the welfare of their employees or any of the pseudo-lofty ideals they cite while fighting the Employee Free Choice Act http://blog.aflcio.org/2009/03/27/economic-terrorism/

Bank CEOs voice support for Obama's economic plans
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama won support from top bankers on Friday for his efforts to rid financial institutions of bad debts, but differences remained over broader U.S. plans for the financial industry. http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN2651410320090327?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews

Pun for the Ages
THE inglorious pun! Dryden called it the "lowest and most groveling kind of wit." To Ambrose Bierce it was a "form of wit to which wise men stoop and fools aspire." Universal experience confirms the adage that puns don’t make us laugh, but groan. It is said that Caligula ordered an actor to be roasted alive for a bad pun. (Some believe he was inclined to extremes.)http://http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/28/opinion/28Tartakovsky.html?th&emc=th

U.S. Expected to Give More Money to Automakers
DETROIT — The Obama administration will probably extend more short-term aid to General Motors and Chrysler on Monday, but will impose a strict deadline for bondholders and union workers to make concessions that would help the ailing automakers become viable businesses and avert bankruptcy http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/28/business/economy/28auto.html?th&emc=th

High-Minded Budget Goals Yield to Reality
WASHINGTON — When President Obama unveiled his spending plan last month, he loudly proclaimed a return to honest budgeting and called for elimination of the cute fiscal acrobatics that the government had used for years to avoid facing up to cold truths. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/28/us/politics/28memo.html?th&emc=th

Higher Education Gone Wrong: Universities Are Turning into Corporate Drone Factories
Unless we take hold of the reigns we will be cursed with a more ruthless form of corporate power wielded through naked repression. http://www.alternet.org/workplace/133446/higher_education_gone_wrong%3A_universities_are_turning_into_corporate_drone_factories/

100 Historians Sign On to Support Employee Free Choice Act
Some of the nation’s top historians have signed a petition asking Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act and protect the freedom to form unions and bargain. http://blog.aflcio.org/2009/03/24/100-historians-sign-on-to-support-employee-free-choice-act/

Taxing Health Care Benefits: An All-Around Bad Idea
There’s noise now in Washington that policy makers are considering paying for health care reform, in part, by taxing health care benefits workers receive through employer-provided health coverage. Such an ill-conceived plan not only represents a big a tax hike for workers and their employers, but carries serious and hidden costs, according to a new study by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). http://blog.aflcio.org/2009/03/24/taxing-health-care-benefits-an-all-around-bad-idea/

Obama's Prime Time Pitch
Some exaggerations and misstatements from his evening news conference. Summary President Obama sometimes strayed from the facts or made dubious claims during his hour-long evening news conference March 24
http://www.factcheck.org/politics/obamas_prime_time_pitch.html