NBA Lockout – Racial Dimension

Not a big NBA fan. College Basketball was, at least until it got screwed by the destruction of the good college basketball leagues by schools pursuing that college football money, my favorite spectator sport.  What I would like to see is separate Football and Basketball leagues in College. One of the major reasons college bound potential basketball stars wanted to play in the Big East or the ACC (before they sold out to football) quite frankly was the level of competition.

In any event, as the NBA strike/lockout staggers on, becoming more acrimonious by the day, there is the increasing chance of issues, which shouldn’t even be issues – becoming key impediments. Bryant Gumbel was waaaaaay out of bounds – it’s hard to have sympathy for a bunch of guys, almost all of whose annual income puts them in the top 1%, and sometimes in the top .05%.

NBA lockout: Negotiations could be hijacked by racial perceptions

The owners “lied to you,” Derek Fisher said, moments after the players’ union president walked out of fruitless labor talks in Manhattan on Thursday night. And with that the mutual distrust and name-calling began anew.

Now the NBA is again facing the prospect of a bye year. Soon, it won’t be about money. Soon, the Rev. Jesse Jackson worries, it will be personal and irreconcilable and no longer about the color green.

“I hope it doesn’t degenerate into names and language that’s hard to take back once it’s started,” Jackson said from his Chicago office late Thursday afternoon. “If it goes down this road, that could amount to irreparable damage. If it goes away from labor negotiations, things could become irretrievable.”

I called Jackson to see what he thought of Bryant Gumbel’s portrayal of NBA Commissioner David Stern as a smug and pedantic bully in his dealings with the players during his closing remarks this week on HBO’s “Real Sports.” Gumbel’s commentary included the misguided characterization of Stern, widely known as the most forward-thinking, ethnically inclusive commissioner in modern pro sports, as a “modern plantation overseer.”

Verizon – The Straw That Broke the Camel’s Back?

Can You Hear Me Now?

Been wondering for years when exactly the isht was going to hit the proverbial fan in this country. Workers have been disenfranchised in the millions, their jobs outsourced in an economy where even doing all the right things and punching all the right educational and academic tickets is no assurance of a basic wage…

Well… The strike at Verizon may have finally lit the fuse.

Verizon Strike Update: Company Calls in Hundreds of Non-Union Replacements

Verizon called in hundreds of non-union employees and additional management to fill in for striking workers as the work stoppage by unions enters its tenth day.

The company said the replacements are handling customer service and network operational duties.

“We’ve called up hundreds of additional employees in the last few days,” said Verizon spokesman Rich Young.

“Our plan is to do what we have to do to keep our networks running. By and large, 10 days into the strike, our networks are performing solidly.”

Meanwhile, the Communication Workers of America union said that more than 100,000 people have signed a petition asking the company’s chief executive to start serious negotiations with strikers.

The union claims that Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam is “trying to push Verizon workers out of the middle class.”

Much of the impasse between Verizon and unions, including the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, centers on $1 billion in concessions that the strikers claim the company is demanding from them.

Union officials, who say they don’t want to lose their members’ free health care benefits, assert that since Verizon is a very profitable company (and has paid in excess of $258 million over the past four years to five top executives); the workers shouldn’t be forced to make such sacrifices.

“We will never have an economic recovery if profitable companies like Verizon can demand huge concessions from workers,” said CWA Communications Director Candice Johnson.

“You don’t build a middle class by cutting workers’ wages, benefits and standard of living,” she added. “That’s just one reason why Verizon is becoming synonymous with VeryGreedy.”

No Road? No Noo….Ahem – Colombian Women “Crossed Legs” Strike Forces Government to Concede

I believe it was Stokley Carmichael wh proposed this strategy to shut down racism in the United States in the late 60′s or early 70′s.

This one is definitely ”hitting below the belt”, a strike by Colombia women which has brought the local government, literally to their knees.

Authorities bow to southwest Colombia sex strike

Authorities in the southwest of Colombia have agreed to honor the demands of a sex strike last week organized by 300 women in a small town in southern Colombia.

For 38 days, 300 women in the town of Barbacoas have participated in a “strike of crossed legs” denying their husbands sexual favors until a road that connects their town to the rest of Colombia is paved. The men of Barbacoa also joined the women in protest by launching a hunger strike.

The road is in such bad condition that it currently takes 12 to 14 hours for residents to reach the nearest hospital, which has resulted in many unnecessary deaths.

Now it appears that Colombian authorities have yielded to the women’s effort. In a meeting that included the director of major projects of the National Roads Institute, the acting governor of Nariño and a representative from the Army, it was decided that paving would start on the road on October 11.

According to Diego Fernando Enriquez, a family judge and promoter of the protest, the army would begin working immediately to set up depots for equipment and supplies.

“Something very important for us is that the project was reported in the national budget and that the project includes construction of the whole way,” said Enriquez.

At first, $22.5 million will be made available to pave the section between the towns of Junin and Buenavista. The stretch from there to Barbacoas is in the most critical need of repair.

Despite the promises of the government, the women announced that the sex strike would continue until October 11 when construction actually begins. “The Barbacoan community is aware that there have always been many promises made here that have never been kept,” said the group in a message.

“Give it up…Or Turn it Loose”…

Indeed.

Israel Lining Up Hit on Iran

Looks like things are getting ready to get very serious with Iran. Iran has missiles capable of reaching Israel, albeit with conventional warheads (at least that’s what most military analysts think). Not sure Iran wants to take on the Saudi Air Force, which is a pretty good one, by flying over Saudi territory though – much less having to tangle with Israel’s.

Saudi Eurofighter Typhoons

This whole nuclear deal is probably is a just nothing more than a play by the Iranian President to stay in power by starting a shooting war against the “great evil” – Israel. If the other countries in the region believe Iran is developing nuclear weapons, then Iran is actually developing them. Their intelligence probably is a lot better than ours. Talk about a country that needs a “regime change”!

Saudis Open Skies for Israeli Hit on Iran

Saudi Arabia is giving Israel a free pass through its airspace for a bombing run on Iranian nuclear sites, reports the Times of London, citing defense sources in the Gulf. The move puts four key sites within range of Israeli bombers, and the Saudis have tested lowering their air defenses to allow the Israelis through. While there’s no love lost between the two, “I know that Saudi Arabia is even more afraid than Israel of an Iranian nuclear capacity,” says one official.

“The Saudis have given their permission for the Israelis to pass over and they will look the other way,” a US defense source tells the Times. “They have already done tests to make sure their own jets aren’t scrambled and no one gets shot down. This has all been done with the agreement of the State Department.”