- AZ: State Legislator Forwards Racist Email, Calls for Reinstating "Operation Wetback"
The racism keeps coming from the far right. Arizona Representative Russell Pearce (R-Mesa) forwarded an email recently from the National Alliance (a racist neo-Nazi organization) attacking the news media for supporting "the equality of the races" and for failing to deny the Holocaust. Rep. Pearce last month called for reviving "Operation Wetback" - a 1950s effort to deport undocumented immigrants. Pearce has now apologized both for using the term "wetback" and for sending the racist email, but the apology thankfully hasn't been enough. Pearce remains under fire both inside and outside the party. [Associated Press, 09/29/2006]
- TX: Contractor Improperly Drops Children from State Health Insurance
Filling out paperwork properly is apparently not enough. In Texas, thousands of children were dropped from the rolls of the Children's Health Insurance Program. In a survey, half of those dropped for submitting incomplete paperwork remained left off even once they submitted the necessary information. The problems emerged after giving the contract for management to Accenture -- a company with a nice track record of screwing up in Texas. [Progressive States, 08/14/2006; Houston Chronicle, 10/06/2006]
- GA: One Way or Another -- Supressing the Vote
When a Georgia judge struck down the state's onerous ID law, progressives rejoiced -- another barrier to voting had been removed. But even though the barrier is gone, the problem may still be there. Even after the decision came down, a letter went out to 200,000 voters telling them without ID they will not be allowed to vote -- in a move that one member of the State Election Board is calling "taxpayer-funded voter suppression." The official who ordered the mailing of the letters says he did nothing wrong, but was simply compling with another court order to educate voters about new election laws -- apparently he saw fit to even include ones that cannot be enforced. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 10/12/2006]
- AK: Big Oil Uses Youth for Front Group
A founder of Alaska's Future, a non-profit organization started nominally to represent "pro-business young Alaskans," was actually simply a front group for three big oil companies, according to a founder. George Culpepper, Jr., the former president of Alaska's Future, told the Juneau Empire, "There is no membership list. It was a front to hide the support of the Big Three [Exxon Mobil, BP, and ConocoPhillips]." [Juneau Empire, 10/11/2006]
- American Corporations Fight Workers' Rights in China
For the first time in China's history, the government is planning on adopting a new law to promote real unions and crack down on sweatshops. American corporations are trying to block the new law, suggesting they will build fewer factories if it passes. If anything could be more demonstrative of the race to the bottom mentality at the multi-nationals, I'd be amazed. [New York Times, 10/12/2006]
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