Buzzflash: Outsourcing jobs to China means using labor under conditions which people in a developed nation would never tolerate.

The Game Is Rigged: Austerity policies lay the burden on those least to blame for the crisis.

Brad Blog: Wisconsin's voter ID law begins to bite as legal voters -- including a veteran -- are turned away from the primary election.

Pharyngula: School authorities' efforts to censor a student backfire.

Blog round-up by Infidel753. Tips to mbru [at] crooksandliars [dot] com.

I wonder what Bluto would say if he heard Rick Santorum tell Glenn Beck that colleges are indoctrination mills for secularism. Something like, "You two are zits... get it?" Feel free to share your ideas for Rick Santorum's Delta Tau Chi name in comments, and please, something more creative than "Frothy."

Open thread below....

Let's do songs about the city. Here's one.

The Definitive Collection
	Artist: Joe Walsh Price: $6.86 (As of 02/25/12 05:18 am details)

This is why we need same-sex marriage rights on the federal level. This is just disgraceful. You'd think with all those dangerous medical marijuana dealers Homeland Security is hunting down, they'd be too busy to deport lawfully married spouses:

A lesbian couple in Vermont has been thrust into the national spotlight. They are legally married here, but not at the federal level. Now one of them is considered an illegal immigrant and is facing deportation.

Frances Herbert and Takako Ueda met in college and have known each other for 30 years. They have shared countless dinners, laughs and tears. "I knew that she was the one," Ueda said.

After college Ueda returned to Japan and started a life with a husband and new home. But after a visit from Herbert in 1999, her life changed again.

"When I die, when I put my one leg into a coffin, I don't want to regret," she said.

Ueda divorced and moved to the United States. The couple have been living together ever since and married last year. But in December -- another change.

They received a letter from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which denied Ueda's request to stay in the county, a right granted to heterosexual spouses of different nationalities. Sadness quickly turned to anger.

The letter states that because the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) defines a marriage as one man and one woman, Ueda had to go. "How can our country, with a President who knows discrimination in his core, how can they continue to uphold DOMA?" Herbert questioned.

Vermont's congressional delegation, including Congressman Peter Welch, who recently gave a speech on the house floor highlighting the issue, is urging Homeland Security to reconsider. "The United States has always recognized the law of a state when it comes to marriage. So why shouldn't Washington recognize what Vermont has done, what Massachusetts has done," he said.

If there's one way to unite the 99 percent, it’s direct actions aimed at the big banks. People are angry, and it's not hard to see why: Massive bailouts; exorbitant executive salaries; huge bonuses; dishonest and illegal lending practices; fee and rate hikes; all adding to American outrage. "Too Big to Fail" is a moniker that should be applied to the American people, not a financial institution whose collapse threatens the global economy.

One of the keys to the early momentum of the Occupy Movement was the outright anger people have for big banks. For example, the statistics surrounding November 5th Move Your Money Day are amazing. Credit Unions added over 650,000 new members with over $4.5 billion in deposits. There were hundreds of actions across the nation bringing people together to close accounts, and in many cases, close banks for the day. Individuals, small businesses, nonprofits, and more, all came together to fight back against the big banks, and their bottom line.

Direct action against the big banks is not new to the Occupy Movement. In the Bay Area, Occupy Oakland has shut down banks with massive marches roaming around the city shutting down every bank in sight. Occupy SF has marched on, and even occupied a Bank of America, tents and all! Marching on, and closing banks, happens all over the country. Occupy Wall Street has marched on Goldman Sachs on more than one occasion.

One action aimed at big banks happens weekly in San Jose, California. They call it Financial Friday. Members of Occupy San Jose, and the surrounding communities (recently, members of Occupy Oakland have joined in), rally together to shut down banks in downtown. Sometimes all it takes is one person to shut down a bank. The surrounding community “shows mad love," as one local protester shared on twitter, and why wouldn’t they? There's no love lost between the 99 percent, and massive financial institutions seemingly bent on the destruction of anyone in the path of their quarterly bottom line. People want to take action, and given the opportunity, they will.

Why not use Financial Fridays to unite this effort around the country? Sporadic actions held all over the country make much bigger waves when united together. A weekly national action can be used as outreach to educate people on the benefits of moving their money, and the terrible practices of their specific bank. But that’s not all, Financial Fridays can be organized around specific foreclosure defense actions. Occupy Oakland is currently helping homeowners in foreclosure with groups like ACCE, and Causa Justa (Just Cause). Just this week, Occupy Oakland shut down a local Union Bank in a community wide effort to save the home of 77 year old great grandmother Katie Mitchell. Mrs Katie, as she is known, has been trying to refinance for years while getting the financial runaround from JP Morgan Chase and Union Bank. The direct action forced the branch manager to meet with Mrs Katie and review her case. Helping families like Mrs Katie’s is one of the surest ways to unite communities and recapture momentum.

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Members of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America who work at a Chicago factory are occupying their workplace after the company that runs the factory, Serious Energy, informed them that the factory would be closed and all workers would be laid off. The Goose Island plant is notable as the same location where a previous occupation took place when the former owners, Republic Windows & Doors, was the target of a successful and highly publicized labor action in 2008.

"Ongoing economic challenges in construction and building products, collapse in demand for window products, difficulty in obtaining favorable lease terms, high leasing and utility costs and taxes, and a
range of other factors unrelated to labor costs, have compelled Serious to cease production at the Chicago facility," the company said in a statement.

The displaced workers are asking that they be given time to try to raise the money to buy the factory or help find another buyer. UE representatives said that Serious Energy never followed through on promises when it bought the plant to hire back the workers that were previously fired by Republic Windows. Now the California-based company is taking away all of the remaining jobs at Goose Island and limiting its production to factories in Pennsylvania and Colorado.

Update: Looks like the workers have won this battle:

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After the recent apology by the Mormon Church for performing the "baptism for the dead" ritual on dead Jews where they promised to stop the practice, followed by the news that a Mormon temple in the Dominican Republic baptized Holocaust victim Anne Frank -- again -- Stephen Colbert had the obvious solution to resolve the problem -- converting all dead Mormons to Judaism.

Mimi Kennedy (actress, Midnight In Paris) makes a point about how Hollywood exports violence abroad, and Jordan Zakarin (writer/editor, The Huffington Post) shares his thoughts on the cozy relationship between the film industry and the Pentagon. The final point is on what may be the most controversial moment in Oscars history involving Marlon Brando and Native Americans. Cenk Uygur (host, The Young Turks) leads the discussion with Mike Farrell (actor/activist/writer - president, Death Penalty Focus), Tina Dupuy (managing editor, CrooksandLiars.com), and Ed Rampell (film critic and author, 'Progressive Hollywood').

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Jeb! is very concerned that the four stooges' "Who Can Be The Craziest?" contest is turning off non-wingnut America.

"I used to be a conservative and I watch these debates and I'm wondering, I don't think I've changed, but it's a little troubling sometimes when people are appealing to people's fears and emotion rather than trying to get them to look over the horizon for a broader perspective and that's kind of where we are," said the former Florida Governor. "I think it changes when we get to the general election. I hope."

This from a guy whose brother yelled "terra terra terra" for eight years and whose father gave us the Willie Horton ad.

Hilarious.

Pro-business conservatives are pursuing an unprecedented assault on the rights of working families at both the national and state levels. Congress and no fewer than 37 state legislatures are pushing through right-to-work or related bills. Some of them are passing. Everywhere, though, the arguments supporting the laws are based on outright falsehoods, some of them, including phrases like 'forced unionism', are embedded in the names of the legislation. Organizations like the National Right to Work Committee use scary language, including threats of union violence and allusions to corrupt union bosses, and misleading or false propaganda to pursue their anti-worker agenda:

What's next is up to Right to Work supporters like you.

If you haven't done so already, please send your senators an e-mail expressing your support for freedom and the National Right To Work Act. Then, please forward this message to friends, family, and other like-minded citizens and ask them to sign the petition as well.

It's absolutely vital we turn up the heat on every member of Congress.

As you know, this legislation would enshrine the common-sense principle – already enforced in 22 states – that no worker should be compelled to join or pay dues to a union just to get or keep a job.

In an age of legislative overreach, this is one of the shortest bills ever introduced.

A National Right to Work Act does not add a single word to federal law. It simply removes language in the National Labor Relations Act that gives union bosses the power to extract dues and fees from nonunion workers.

And as we've seen in Wisconsin, Indiana, and elsewhere so far this year, the union bosses will do anything to protect their government-granted forced-dues powers.

That's why your actions are vital. Please Act Today!

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