1 Re: What's the Best Protest Song Ever? -- Jean Carey Bond
2 Re: Corporate Coup d'Etat Coming Soon -- Marvin
3 Re: Undocumented Immigrants Pay Taxes, GE Doesn't 
  -- Steve Willett, Bobby Watts
4 Re: San Francisco General Strike -- Martin Morand
5 Forum on "The Arab Democratic Revolutions"

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11111

From: Jean Carey Bond
Re: What's the Best Protest Song Ever?

"Banks of Marble" is definitely among the five best
U.S. protest songs EVER

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22222

From: Marvin
Re: Corporate Coup d'Etat Coming Soon to a City Near
You

Michigan is even further along the road to failed state
status than I thought.

Rania Khalek seems like an up-and-comer.
http://raniakhalek.com/author/raniakhalek/

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33333

From: Steve Willett
Re: Undocumented Immigrants Paid $11.2 Billion in Taxes
Last Year, GE Paid Zero

Albor Ruiz, in this article, says:

"Obviously the old saying, "Nothing is certain but
death and taxes," is not to be believed anymore. Or
rather, only half of it can be believed.
Because death, of course, remains as dreaded and
inevitable as ever, but with taxes the story is
different."

I would just point out that, for corporations in this
country, neither death nor taxes are inevitable.

---

From: Bobby Watts
Re: Taxes paid by unauthorized immigrants

Thank you for this important piece of information. I
think it puts into a better balance those who point out
only the costs of unauthorized immigrants to taxpayers.

However, I would have preferred if this article did not
make the same mistake - only looking at one side of the
equation (cost or revenue). There was a passing
dismissal of those who, looking at costs only, refer to
unauthorized immigrants as 'leeches', but no mention of
why, or the costs to taxpayers (and therefore, the net
cost to taxpayers). So the thoughtful reader is left
unsure if the taxes paid marginally, substantially, or
more than offset the costs of public services
rightfully and humanely offered to households headed by
unauthorized immigrants. Of course there are several
other factors more important than economics that should
drive our policies and personal views on this subject -
human rights, fairness, and spiritual among them, but
since the article was limited only to tax revenue, I
would have preferred that it address both sides of that
equation. It may make for bad polemics, but better
analysis and a readership better-equipped to fight
against injustice.

Thank you,

Bobby Watts
Bronx, NY

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44444

From: Martin Morand
Re: San Francisco General Strike

They CORRECTLY viewed the workers' compensation system
as overly favorable toward employers because it was
hard to collect benefits for chemical exposure and it
insulated employers from liability. "They viewed the
workers' compensation system as overly favorable toward
employers because it was hard to collect benefits for
chemical exposure and it insulated employers from
liability."

Before we get too enamored of the Workers Compensation
system(S) we'd better pause to ask "Howcum workplace
health and safety in the U.S. is so far down the list
of "developed, democratic" nations, just as are our
overall health care and education systems?

Worker Comp was Not a union invention. Big Business
supported it when a few court cases started ruling
against employers for maintaining unsafe and ungealthy
work places. Worker Comp shields employers against
expensive law suits, they pay a relatively small
premium for this protection, for this "right" to care
less.

In the late 1990s I conducted a study of Workers Comp
in Pennsylvania and concluded that workers and
workplaces would be safer without this employer
protection law. "WORKERS" Compensation is a misnomer,
just like "Right-to-WORK".

=====
55555

From: Tracye Matthews
Subject: Forum on "The Arab Democratic Revolutions"

The Arab Democratic Revolutions 

A public lecture given by Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said
Professor of Arab Studies, History, Columbia University

Introduction by John Mearsheimer, R. Wendell Harrison
Distinguished Service Professor, Political Science,
University of Chicago. Moderated by Susan Gzesh, Senior
Lecturer in the College; Executive Director, Human
Rights Program.

University of Chicago 
Friday, April 29, 2011 at 6:30 pm
International House Assembly Hall
1414 E. 59th Street
Chicago, IL 60637 

This event is free and open to the public. 

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