Obama delivers ‘closing argument’
Story here.
Tuesday 28 October 2008
Dozens Of Call Center Workers Walk Off Job In Protest Rather Than Read McCain Script Attacking Obama
Greg Sargent- October 27, 2008, TPM
Some three dozen workers at a telemarketing call center in Indiana walked off the job rather than read an incendiary McCain campaign script attacking Barack Obama, according to two workers at the center and one of their parents.
Nina Williams, a stay-at-home mom in Lake County, Indiana, tells us that her daughter recently called her from her job at the center, upset that she had been asked to read a script attacking Obama for being "dangerously weak on crime," "coddling criminals," and for voting against "protecting children from danger."
Williams' daughter told her that up to 40 of her co-workers had refused to read the script, and had left the call center after supervisors told them that they would have to either read the call or leave, Williams says. The call center is called Americall, and it's located in Hobart, IN.
"They walked out," Williams says of her daughter and her co-workers, adding that they weren't fired but willingly sacrificed pay rather than read the lines. "They were told [by supervisors], `If you all leave, you're not gonna get paid for the rest of the day."
The daughter, who wanted her name withheld fearing retribution from her employer, confirmed the story to us. "It was like at least 40 people," the daughter said. "People thought the script was nasty and they didn't wanna read it."
A second worker at the call center confirmed the episode, saying that "at least 30" workers had walked out after refusing to read the script.
"We were asked to read something saying [Obama and Democrats] were against protecting children from danger," this worker said. "I wouldn't do it. A lot of people left. They thought it was disgusting."
This worker, too, confirmed sacrificing pay to walk out, saying her supervisor told her: "If you don't wanna phone it you can just go home for the day."
The script coincided with this robo-slime call running in other states, but because robocalling is illegal in Indiana it was being read by call center workers.
Representatives at Americall in Indiana, and at the company's corporate headquarters in Naperville, Illinois, didn't return calls for comment.
(Burning Cane)
Greg Sargent- October 27, 2008, TPM
Some three dozen workers at a telemarketing call center in Indiana walked off the job rather than read an incendiary McCain campaign script attacking Barack Obama, according to two workers at the center and one of their parents.
Nina Williams, a stay-at-home mom in Lake County, Indiana, tells us that her daughter recently called her from her job at the center, upset that she had been asked to read a script attacking Obama for being "dangerously weak on crime," "coddling criminals," and for voting against "protecting children from danger."
Williams' daughter told her that up to 40 of her co-workers had refused to read the script, and had left the call center after supervisors told them that they would have to either read the call or leave, Williams says. The call center is called Americall, and it's located in Hobart, IN.
"They walked out," Williams says of her daughter and her co-workers, adding that they weren't fired but willingly sacrificed pay rather than read the lines. "They were told [by supervisors], `If you all leave, you're not gonna get paid for the rest of the day."
The daughter, who wanted her name withheld fearing retribution from her employer, confirmed the story to us. "It was like at least 40 people," the daughter said. "People thought the script was nasty and they didn't wanna read it."
A second worker at the call center confirmed the episode, saying that "at least 30" workers had walked out after refusing to read the script.
"We were asked to read something saying [Obama and Democrats] were against protecting children from danger," this worker said. "I wouldn't do it. A lot of people left. They thought it was disgusting."
This worker, too, confirmed sacrificing pay to walk out, saying her supervisor told her: "If you don't wanna phone it you can just go home for the day."
The script coincided with this robo-slime call running in other states, but because robocalling is illegal in Indiana it was being read by call center workers.
Representatives at Americall in Indiana, and at the company's corporate headquarters in Naperville, Illinois, didn't return calls for comment.
(Burning Cane)
The Mighty Tack>>Head In The Area
You can get these Tackhead 12" singles here.
(Image and link thanx to 'Sickness Abounds'.)
More to follow including Tackhead - live At The Old Greek Theatre, Melbourne 1989.
(Image and link thanx to 'Sickness Abounds'.)
More to follow including Tackhead - live At The Old Greek Theatre, Melbourne 1989.
Monday 27 October 2008
Grateful Dead - Cornell University - May 8th 1977
Icepetal (AKA Noah Weiner) over at the 'Grateful Dead Listening Guide' has an eloquent post on this famous Grateful Dead gig.
You can read it here.
The Palace of Love
A lost classic from 1979.Jackie Leven's 'Doll By Doll'
'The Palace of Love'.
This was their first single.
Posted here is the full length version from the album 'Remember' not the edited single version.
Good article by Kris Needs about Doll By Doll from TrakMARX here.
Palin: Obama's Tax Plans Could Mean Nightmarish Communist State (!)
Sarah Palin had a few memorable moments during her campaign stop in Des Moines, Iowa, on Saturday. But the most eye-opening of them all came, it would appear, when the Alaska Governor somehow drew a connection between Barack Obama's tax policy and an encroaching, nightmarish, communist government. The Illinois Democrat, she hysterically suggested, would, through his proposals, create a country "where the people are not free."
"See, under a big government, more tax agenda, what you thought was yours would really start belonging to somebody else, to everybody else. If you thought your income, your property, your inventory, your investments were, were yours, they would really collectively belong to everybody. Obama, Barack Obama has an ideological commitment to higher taxes, and I say this based on his record... Higher taxes, more government, misusing the power to tax leads to government moving into the role of some believing that government then has to take care of us. And government kind of moving into the role as the other half of our family, making decisions for us. Now, they do this in other countries where the people are not free. Let us fight for what is right. John McCain and I, we will put our trust in you."
That yarn goes well beyond what Palin and McCain have, to this point, been comfortable asserting: mainly that Obama is proposing economic socialism. But there are a few things to keep in mind here: the McCain-Palin ticket does not oppose a progressive tax system. In fact, back in 2000, the Arizona Republican said rich people paid more in taxes because they could afford to do so.
"I think the first people who deserve a tax cut are working Americans with children that need to educate their children," he said, "and they're the ones that I would support tax cuts for first."
More importantly, Obama's tax plans are less progressive than those in place during the Clinton years. In fact, the rates that people making over $250,000 would have to pay would be the same as during the 1990s -- a time definitely not marked by the absence of freedoms.
(Burning Cane)
Sunday 26 October 2008
Holly Woodlawn
Born October 26 1946.“Holly came from Miami FLA, / hitch-hiked her way across the USA, / plucked her eyebrows on the way, / shaved her legs, and then he was a she...”
LOU REED - MARK RIBOT - JOHN ZORN (Live in Milan 23rd September 2008)
(Imagine being in an old battered pick-up with an old dog beside you at night.
Hurtling downhill fast, with no headlights working.
Tom Waits fading in and out on the AM station.
With Sam Shepard driving.
That is the sound of Mark Ribot's guitar.)
Hurtling downhill fast, with no headlights working.
Tom Waits fading in and out on the AM station.
With Sam Shepard driving.
That is the sound of Mark Ribot's guitar.)
('The Old Knit') @ Town Hall New York - March 1st 2007
Saturday 25 October 2008
Love Story
You can watch the documentary 'Love Story' for the next week over at Pitchfork here and as a bonus you can get their version of William DeVaughn's 'Be Thankful For What You've Got' here.
'Grutzi Elvis'
Another early 'ZE' release for you.
James Chance & The Pill Factory with 'That's When Your Heartaches Begin' (EP)
You can get it here.
Friday 24 October 2008
The Kid With The Replaceable Head
Photograph by David Shankbone
Here are 'The Kid With The Replaceable Head' and 'I'm your Man' by Richard Hell & the Voidoids as produced by Nick Lowe and released on Radar Records in 1979.
If anyone has a copy of the piece Richard Hell wrote on David Johansen for Lisa Robinson's 'Hit Parader' back in 1975/6 could they please get in touch with me.
It is almost Hell's manifesto about giving not 100 or 200% to rock'n'roll but 400%!
It was not reprinted in 'Hot & Cold'.
Thursday 23 October 2008
Marise Maas
'Hold One's Horses'
'Cheap Fizz'
'Untitled (Boots)'When I was out today I saw a couple of etchings by Marise Maas for sale.
I knew Marise many years ago when she worked in a pub in Fitzroy.
When she went back to The Netherlands for a while I promised that I would write to her and I was happy subsequently to receive a postcard with her address in Haarlem on it.
So happy that I put it up on my window and the sun promptly faded all of the writing (including the address).
Marise had used a felt tip pen and there wasn't even an indentation that I could decipher.
She probably thinks that I was so rude for not keeping in touch after I promised that I would.
Culture'n'croissants
The Spacebubs and I set off fairly early today.
Being only one (and a bit) he was very excited that we were going on a tram.
He was also fascinated by my 'T' shirt.(NB: Image below is bad fake/copy of Rowan's original design.)
Spent the entire journey trying to get him to say "Keef".Went and bought a ticket for Spiritualized.
That made me happy.We were both happy.
That made me even happier.
Now for the 'kulchur'.
We should have seen these.
Unfortunately all the paintings had been packed away to go to Sydney for an exhibition opening tonight.We were sad.
We went for croissants.
We were happy again.
Simone Maynard has an exhibition opening tomorrow in Brooklyn NY.
Details here.
Spiritualized live at The Prince of Wales, Melbourne 16th March 2004.
(6 song 3JJJ broadcast) here.
Audience recording of full gig here.
More gratuitous nudity
Once again the Australian artist Hazel Dooney is offering a download of artwork which you can print out and then send to her to sign and inscribe for you.
Details here.
Details here.
Avert your eyes jonger
Posting will be later today as Jay Spacebubs and I will be amongst other things checking
Simone Maynard's exhibition out.
This painting makes me laugh.
Wednesday 22 October 2008
"Ve haff ways of making you laff."
Stewie, the obnoxious baby character at the center of the series, and Brian, a talking dog, travelled back in time to Poland during the 1939 German invasion. The characters ambush Nazi soldiers in an alley and steal their uniforms so they can travel without drawing attention. Putting on an overcoat, Stewie notices a McCain-Palin campaign button affixed to the lapel. "Huh, that's weird," Stewie remarks.Rest of world prefers Obama over McCain for US president: poll
If the rest of the world could take part in the US presidential election, Democratic Party candidate Barack Obama would win four times more votes than his Republican rival John McCain, a poll showed Tuesday.
In surveys conducted by the Gallup Organization in 70 countries representing nearly half the world's population, 30 percent of people said they would choose Obama as president of the United States against eight percent who said they preferred McCain.
In four close US partners in Asia -- Australia, Japan, Singapore and South Korea -- residents came out clearly in favor of Obama.
Two-thirds of Japanese and Australian respondents said they preferred Obama to McCain, who only scored about 15 percent in the two countries.
In Singapore and South Korea, meanwhile, the pro-Obama vote outpaced the pro-McCain vote by around two to one.
"McCain and Obama have each pledged to reinvigorate and strengthen partnerships with the four developed Asian countries and take a more active role in Asian regional organisations," Gallup wrote.
Nine out of 10 people polled in India and Pakistan and seven in 10 in Bangladesh said they had no opinion about whom they would prefer to see in the White House in Washington come next January.
Gallup said the disinterest among South Asians revealed "a great disconnect between many of the world's poorest inhabitants and the politics of the United States."
Latin Americans showed a similar disconnect, with 68 percent of those polled in central America and Mexico and 58 percent in South America voicing no opinion about the US election.
Middle Easterners in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon and the Palestinian Territories chose Obama over McCain by a margin of at least two to one, although three-quarters of Palestinians said they didn't think the result of the US election would change much in their country.
A majority of Europeans in 14 countries said they wanted an Obama victory, with the Dutch and Norwegians the strongest Obama supporters in Europe: nearly three-quarters in both countries said they preferred him to McCain.
In France, 64 percent chose Obama against four percent for McCain, and in Germany, where an Obama rally in Berlin gathered some 200,000 people in July, the Democratic presidential contender was supported by 62 percent of those polled compared with 10 percent for McCain.
In Africa, a median of 56 percent of poll respondents chose Obama -- meaning the percentage who chose the African American presidential contender was higher than 56 percent in half the 22 countries polled and lower than 56 percent in the other half.
A median of nine percent chose McCain, who did not beat Obama anywhere in Africa, even though the current US administration of Republican President George W. Bush has a high approval rating on the continent.
Bush in July signed legislation tripling funds to fight the killer diseases of AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in Africa under an initiative launched under his administration in 2003.
In Kenya, where Obama's father hailed from, the Democrat was supported by nearly nine in 10 poll respondents; McCain had the support of three percent of Kenyans.
Around 1,000 people were interviewed face-to-face earlier this year in most of the countries that took part in the surveys.
Survey sizes in Kuwait, Japan, Pakistan, Mexico and India were 484, 750, 804, 873 and 2,000 people respectively.
Man Smart, Woman Smarter* (Buffalo 1989)
Belated Birthday wishes to Brent Mydland too!
1952 - 1990
* (Sarah Palin excepted.)
"Uh - Oh"
McCain cites nuclear threat in warning against Obama
John McCain told voters Tuesday his White House rival Barack Obama was unprepared to handle a national security crisis, citing the US-Russia standoff in 1962 that put the world on the brink of nuclear war.
Struggling to overcome rival Barack Obama's strong lead in the polls with just 14 days left in the epic presidential race, former fighter pilot McCain emphasized that the next president "won't have time to get used to the office."
"I sat in the cockpit on the flight deck of the USS Enterprise off of Cuba. I had a target," McCain said, referring to the 1962 Cuban Missile crisis.
"I know how close we came to a nuclear war and I will not be a president that needs to be tested. I have been tested. Senator Obama has not."
The Republican senator warned voters at a rally in Moon Township, Pennsylvania that the United States faces "many challenges here at home, and many enemies abroad in this dangerous world."
"We know Senator Obama would not have the right response," he said.
McCain, trailing Obama by seven percent in national voter surveys, according to an average by independent RealClearPolitics.com, acknowledged that he was "a few points down" in the polls and castigated the national media for writing him off.
He told supporters "nothing is inevitable" and vowed to continue to fight for hard-working Americans.
He kept up his attack on Obama's economic policies, casting the Illinois senator as a shifty, job-killing socialist bent on "redistributing wealth."
"Senator Obama's more interested in controlling who gets your piece of the pie than growing the pie," McCain said.
In Florida Obama shot back, accusing McCain of turning a blind eye to the financial crisis and offering up out-dated ideas for fixing the country's troubled economy.
"The financial crisis that states, businesses and families are facing didn't just spring up full-blown overnight," the Democratic candidate said.
"This has been a long time coming, and the warning signs have been very clear, but while President Bush and Senator McCain were ready to move heaven and earth to address the crisis on Wall Street, President Bush has failed to address the crisis on Main Street," Obama said.
McCain "has failed to fully acknowledge it. Instead of common sense solutions, month after month, they've offered little more than willful ignorance, wishful thinking, and outdated ideology."
He also accused McCain of just making "stuff" up as time runs out before election day.
He hammered McCain over the Republican's claims that he attacked "Joe the plumber," an Ohio voter who has become an emblem of the middle class tax debate.
"It was really amazing, he's decided to fabricate this notion that I've been attacking Joe the plumber," Obama said, after noting he had watched a speech by McCain earlier in the day on television.
"John McCain is still out there, just saying this stuff, just making it up."
Accompanied by Internet giant Google's chief executive Eric Schmidt and former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, Obama led a round-table talk on economic policy at a community center near Palm Beach, using the venue to push his jobs and economic recovery plans.
The talk aimed at wooing voters in a region particularly hard-hit by the US real estate and banking crash, with hopes that Obama might be able to win Florida in the November 4 election, a state earlier thought solidly in Republican hands.
As Florida voters flocked to early voting sites for a second day Tuesday, polls suggested Obama now has a slight lead over McCain in the state, which was crucial in President George W. Bush's win over Al Gore in the 2000 election.
Nationally, the latest daily tracking poll of registered voters by Gallup showed Obama expanding his lead to 11 points. The daily Rasmussen survey, however, had McCain narrowing the race to four points, trailing Obama by 46 to 50 percent of voters nationwide.
With Obama stepping out of the race on Thursday and Friday to be with his ailing grandmother in Hawaii, McCain will be able to dominate media coverage as he campaigns aggressively in battleground states.
He and will meet up with running mate Sarah Palin, who has been instrumental in rallying the Republican party's conservative base, in Ohio Wednesday following a that afternoon before flying to Florida for a Thursday rally.
(Sydney Morning Herald)
With your propensity for crashing American planes John, thank God you only sat in the cockpit!
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