from the StarPhoenix
from the Chief Theresa Spence Hunger Strike Letters Of Support
When NASA was preparing for the Apollo project, they did some training on a Navajo Indian reservation.
One day, a Navajo elder and his son were herding sheep and came across the space crew. The old man, who spoke only Navajo, asked a question which his son translated. "What are these guys in the big suits doing?"
The current protests – not just Idle No More but also Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence’s hunger strike — seem to speak to what you write in your book: “The primary way that Ottawa and Washington deal with native people is to ignore us.”
I get asked as I go around, “What is Theresa Spence doing?” I don’t answer that because she can speak for herself. What I do say is, “Do you really think that she wants to sit in a tepee on an island on a hunger strike?” She is doing this because everything else has been taken away. There aren’t any other alternatives. The Conservatives have completely stonewalled native people, and with the recent omnibus bill it’s very clear they’re going back to a 1950s mentality – when the idea was to abrogate treaties, divide up native land and make it vulnerable for private enterprise. It’s easy enough to do. What you do is, you starve reserves, you ignore them; it’s not by chance that water services on reserves, for example, are as bad as they are, or health care and education. It’s not the fault of native people….
by the Mnozil Brass
from the Washington Post
The review by the nonprofit National Academy of Public Administration will analyze the benefits of restoring the agency’s financial health by using a “hybrid” model, which would farm out to the private sector postal operations other than the last delivery mile. A letter carrier would still drive or walk that last part, dropping letters and packages in mailboxes.
“Just as private companies innovate and share supply chains in high-tech, automobile, and other industries today, the market will drive efficiencies in the postal network,” a group of privatization advocates wrote in a short paper previewing the deeper review.
The study is likely to bring more attention to a public-private model as a viable — and controversial — substitute for the Postal Service’s existing structure, which relies on a unionized workforce of more than 650,000 employees to sort, package, transport and deliver the mail. With first-class mail volume plummeting as Americans conduct more business and communications through the Internet, the Postal Service lost $16 billion in fiscal 2012.
The idea of taking postal operations private is popular in conservative circles but will be a non-starter in others. It is staunchly opposed by congressional Democrats and postal unions, which stand to lose tens of thousands of members.
The Postal Service declined to comment on the study.
The House and Senate debated reforms over much of the last Congress, and a bill passed in the Senate in the spring. But lawmakers could not reach consensus on ending Saturday delivery and other service cuts, how much taxpayers should contribute to retirement benefits for postal employees and whether to tinker with their labor contracts, among other issues.
“Although the 112th Congress did not come to a consensus around a package of reforms that can update the Postal Service’s network and business model to reflect the reality that it faces today, we remain committed to working with our colleagues in both the House and the Senate to reform [the agency] so it can survive and thrive in the 21st century,” Sen Thomas R Carper (D-Del.) and Rep Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said in a statement Thursday.
The lawmakers, respective chairmen of the Senate and House committees that oversee the agency, acknowledges that legislation in the Senate and House was far apart. But they described “significant progress in narrowing our differences in recent months.”
But advocates of the hybrid model say Congress would only be propping up a failing system.
“the trusted letter carrier would remain the public face of the US Postal Service,”
The study is being underwritten by Pitney Bowes, a Connecticut company that makes postage meters, shipping software and other equipment for business mailers.
from the Watershed Sentinel
Investment banker Goldman Sachs has famously been described by the Rolling Stone's business writer Matt Taibbi (July 2009) as "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money."
by Bob Hudson
The deal that made Circle the first private company to take over an NHS hospital has created a stir and given opponents of the NHS bill a focus for their discontent.
What is less well known is that the Hinchingbrooke takeover deal began under the watch of the last Labour government, and the health secretary, Andrew Lansley, has merely (doubtless with relish) signed it off. The fact that Labour initiated significant parts of the privatization agenda — most notably setting up a commercial directorate within the Department of Health and rolling out the disastrous independent sector treatment centres — has undoubtedly muted their own response to the NHS bill.
from Florida Today
There’s a constant drumbeat from Republicans at all levels of government: Let’s save money by privatizing. Privatize our trash pickup, our welfare systems, our schools and prisons, because private firms can run them more efficiently.
from This Hour Has 22 Minutes
Shaun Majunder explains new cup size names to Mark Crich.
by Russell Diabo
On September 4th the Harper government clearly signaled its intention to:
