“Our drivers are scared, they’re scared for their lives."

Fearing a repeats of recent acts of gang violence against them at work Detroit bus drivers are engaged in a wild cat strike over safety issues today.

Work union! Or Else!

John King of Lambertville, Michigan the largest non-unionized electrical contractor in SE Michigan & Toledo area finds car vandalized, investigates and is then shot. If the right-to-work types did shit like this you'd never hear the end of it. When union types do it nary a peep. Go figure?

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Homeless in Ann Arbor: The street view of a professional beggar
"'If you want to have any kind of spending money for tobacco, coffee, extra food, whatever, then you've got two choices,'  says Storm, who is homeless. 'You can either collect cans, which is really time consuming and doesn't pay off that well … so panhandling is kind of the way I make my money. And I don't really consider myself a panhandler. I'm a professional beggar.' "
Bomb undiscovered for weeks at Detroit federal building says union chief
The whistle-blower here is a union official for the unionized security officers employed there, so keep that in mind. Still though...

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Tom Friedman "explains it all" to the peons yet again. Upshot: No more wars & foreign aid because America is broke.

Michigan carpenters union planning to back Republican Rick Snyder in governor's race. Go figure?

Sign of the times...

88 employees top $100,000 salary mark at Ann Arbor Public Schools - AnnArbor.com

Yikes!

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Radicals and the working class in the 21st century - Radicals At Work.com

"Good radicals don’t solve other workers’ problems. They give workers the tools to solve those problems on their own: how to analyze a problem, assess their own strengths and weaknesses, make a plan, and carry it out—how to be leaders." Easy to say, hard to do. But thought provoking reading.

Michael Jackson liked to watch Nazi documentaries featuring cool uniforms and massive synchronized marching formations - NY Post

As well as Judy Garland musicals and TV specials and dramas depicting troubled boys.

Will Jihad eventually "jump the shark"? - Stewart Baker @ The Volokh Conspiracy

"But it might suggest a different approach to the problem of turning them away from terror. Some of them will just plain outgrow their infatuation. Others will turn out to be unreliable fighters, prone to abandon the cause when they get tired or frightened by the risk. And best of all, if the tight-jean mujahedin lose their power to shock, they’re likely to go the way of the mods and the rockers. So maybe we should be looking for ways to speed that process by making all these Western jihadis look, well, silly and unfashionable."

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Oakland, CA police layoff talks go down to the wire - SF Chronicle

"With the average officer's salary and benefits totaling $188,000 a year, City Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente, a union leader himself, has described the situation as 'unsustainable.'"

No kiddin'. KNBC is reporting a list of about 40 minor crimes and offenses that the cops will no longer respond to. To us people here in the midwest, where a cop might make $70-80 a year at most, that number just seems ridiculous. No wonder they have to sack 'em. Hoist on their own petard.

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Public employee unions starting to lose "public support" - SF Chronicle (Peter Scheer)
When did the gold-plated bureaucracy ever have it?
For Michigan "progressives" it's come to this: Bernero versus Dillion for governor - MLive
Sheesh. A populist rabble-rouser whose main talent is giving fiery speeches and debate performances but who has accomplished little versus a corporation friendly state capitalist who talks a good game but also has accomplished little.
Gen. Stanley McChrystal the Army's Afghanistan theatre commander disses Obama - Wired News
Italian archeologists think they have found Caravaggio's bones - Seattle Times (via American Scientist)
"The purpose of immigration is make our country better, not help the immigrants out" -iSteve blog
A straight up explanation of Canada's immigration policy. More Chinese and Indians and fewer Latinos and Caribbeans is what it amounts to.
How Bonnaroo went from Harmless Hippie Fest to Corporate Scam - Taki's Magazine
"When I saw Rage Against the Machine play at Lollapalooza back in 1996, their backdrop was an inverted American flag tagged with “666.” It was an ominous warning that a predatory hegemony loomed on the horizon. A decade later, bands played Lollapalooza on the “Bud Light Stage,” the “MySpace Stage,” and the “PlayStation Stage.” Of course, Rage Against the Machine played the “AT&T Stage” in 2008. Is that why they call it a revolutionary act?"
L.A. Medical-Marijuana Outlets Defy City - LA Weekly
Heroic resistence to L.A.'s oppressive drug laws or reluctance to give up a lucrative gig? Hmm...

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The bittersweet retirement of UAW president Ron Gettlefinger - Detroit News
One of the last private sector union giants is on the ropes. It's hard to be a militant unionist when your whole industry is going down the toilet.
SCO loses final appeal; but will they now finally go away? - Ars Technica
Probably not, but we can always hope.
An x-ray version of Picasso's Guernica on display in Rome (via BoingBoing)
Leonard Nimoy says "star trek fans can be scary" - LA Times
I'll bet.
Colton Harris-Moore shuns $50,000 bonus and offer of free legal representation to turn himself in - CBS TV