This store is about a quarter mile from my house - I won’t be shopping at Lowe’s again. - Editor

Rep. Chris Murphy (D-CT) Calls Out Lowe’s Bigotry

Murphy doesn't mince words here. He'll be a welcome addition to the U.S. Senate next year when he replaces the awful Joe Lieberman.

via The Hill:

"This is a major American company rubber-stamping basic foundational bigotry against a major American religious group," Murphy said. "Lowe's pulled these ads because one right-wing anti-Muslim group in Florida said that the show hides the 'true agenda of Islam,' which according to this group is to destroy America," he added. "It's one thing when a fringe group or a radical, unhinged pastor is doing it. It's quite another when a fortune 100 company is endorsing this nonsense."

Murphy, who is running for the Senate, rejected Lowe's statement that said some of its customers have "strong political and social views."

"Congratulations to Lowe's for acknowledging that there are some really bigoted people in the world," Murphy said. "That doesn't mean that Lowe's or any other company should acquiesce to this kind of behavior. For instance, there are, unfortunately, a lot of people out there who still hold racist views about African-Americans, but I don't think that means Lowe's is going to be pulling its ads from television shows featuring African-Americans."

UPDATE: John Amato:

After Scarce posted this yesterday on Video Cafe, it's taken off in the main stream media. Greg Sargent writes: Turning up the heat on Lowe’s and anti-Muslim bigotry

By now you may have heard that retail behemoth Lowe’s Home Improvement yanked ads from TLC’s “All-American Muslim” reality show after a single conservative Christian group complained that the show is “propaganda” that endangers “American liberties and Christian values.”

That one of the “American liberties” we hold to be important is freedom of religion was an irony lost on the group — and on Lowe’s — and the decision has been widely pilloried. Lowe’s subsequently offered a strikingly weak justification for the move, arguing that the program had triggered “strong political and societal views” and insisting that it is “best to respectfully defer to communities, individuals and groups to discuss and consider such issues of importance.” Lowe’s, of course, is only “deferring” to the bigoted views that one conservative group holds about millions and millions of Americans.

Now Dem Rep. Chris Murphy — who’s running for Senate in Connecticut — has given a wonderful speech on the House floor lambasting Lowe’s over the decision, mocking the company’s justification for it, and vowing that Congress will turn up the heat on Lowe’s to reverse course. Murphy says to Lowe’s: “You’re better than this”

For decades, Florida's farm workers have faced terrible abuses and brutal exploitation. Workers frequently earned sub-poverty wages for toiling 60 to 70 hours per week in season; some have even been chained to poles, locked inside trucks, beaten, and robbed of their pay. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) was founded in 1993 to take on these abuses.

The Nation has written about the CIW many times before. A community-based worker organization which helped expose a half-dozen slavery cases that helped trigger the freeing of more than 1,000 workers, the CIW advocates on behalf of seasonal workers in Florida for higher wages, better living conditions, respect from the industry, and an end to indentured servitude.

The CIW has been remarkably successful in convincing the country's four largest fast-food companies (McDonald's, Yum Brands, Burger King, and Subway) and three of the largest foodservice providers (Compass Group, Aramark, and Sodexo) to sign Fair Food agreements with the CIW, securing higher wages and numerous workplace rights for Florida's tomato pickers. These agreements have made a real difference in people's lives.

My colleague Greg Kaufmann recently detailed the CIW's latest victory -- a hard-fought agreement with Pacific Tomato Growers, one of the five largest growers in the nation with more than 14,000 acres in the US and Mexico, which stands to increase workers’ annual earnings from about $10,000 to approximately $17,000.

Now, the coalition's focus falls squarely on the $550 billion supermarket industry. With the exception of Whole Foods, which signed an agreement with the CIW nearly two years ago, the US supermarket industry plays an active role in farmworker exploitation. Publix, Ahold, Kroger and Trader Joe's all pack a particularly heavy punch given their market power in the produce industry and all of them are refusing to address the same workplace exploitation issues which its corporate brethren have made peace with.

This new video demonstrates the brutal conditions these supermarket chains are being asked to redress.

Send an email today to the CEO's of Publix, Ahold, Kroger, and Trader Joe's to demand they start working with the CIW to protect human rights in their Florida tomato supply chain.

Then, take out your calendar and save two dates: This coming spring, farmworkers from Immokalee and allies from across the country will be gathering not once, but twice, calling for farmworker justice!

• On Sunday, February 27th, they'll be in Quincy, Massachusetts, for a protest at Ahold's US headquarters.
• Then, on Saturday, March 5th, following a week-long tour back down the east coast, activists will assemble in Tampa, Florida, for a second major protest, this time in Publix's backyard.

Help spread the word about this campaign and send the message that it's high time for the supermarket industry to join the growing movement for Fair Food.

There are many reasons why I so strongly support Dan Gelber for Attorney General - including his integrity, experience and leadership. 
But if you want to know why I so passionately believe in him, please take a look at this video:

It's time we elect strong leaders like Dan Gelber who are ready to tackle Florida's challenges with real solutions. But we need you to come out and vote. 
We only have 23 days left until Election Day and Early Voting begins in one week.

We can chart a new course for our great state, but it starts with you voting.

--State Senator Arthenia Joyner

From Raw Story – Sahil Kapur

A longtime advocate of doctors on behalf of patients in chronic pain has become the target of an ugly grand jury investigation after she spoke out to defend a physician charged with over-medicating patients to their deaths.

Siobhan Reynolds, president of Pain Relief Network, came in the crosshairs of the Justice Department when she stood up for a Kansas doctor convicted of money laundering, health care fraud, and prescribing medication to 68 chronically ill patients who died of overdose.

The Associated Press last week reported on a "secret federal investigation" against Reynolds for ostensibly obstructing justice after she refused to turn over private e-mails with Dr. Stephen Schneider and his wife Linda, who could face life in prison. Held in contempt for refusing, and threatened with large fines and possible jail time, Reynolds eventually complied and handed over the subpoenaed documents. More...

After a year of use, red light cameras have failed to deliver the promised safety benefits in Baytown, Texas. The Houston suburb activated the majority of its cameras on July 13, 2008. Since then, the number of accidents at eight camera locations has increased 40 percent, contrary to predictions from city officials. The increase in accidents has not been in minor "fender benders," as is frequently claimed by photo ticketing advocates. Rather, the number of collisions resulting in an injury jumped 75 percent. Rear end collisions increased 39 percent. Results from comprehensive, independent studies elsewhere in the country have yielded similar results.
"Clearly this shows no remedial effect on driving habits over time," Byron Schirmbeck, the leader of a grassroots effort to ban the cameras in Baytown, told TheNewspaper.
The accident figures are based on the annual reports city officials by law must provide to the Texas Department of Transportation. Schirmbeck insists that the accident jump is evidence that automated ticketing has failed and that the automated ticketing machines should come down. Last week, the city clerk certified that a sufficient number of Baytown residents agreed, forcing the city council next Tuesday to vote either to adopt a ban on red light cameras or place Schirmbeck's ban on the ballot for voters to decide. City leaders so far have been reluctant to back away from the lucrative program.
"Despite widespread evidence that red light cameras actually increase accidents many cities like Baytown and Houston continue to cling to the revenue generating red light camera program," In light of this new information that demonstrates no safety improvement and increased accidents at camera monitored intersections we urge the council to immediately adopt our resolution and break their contract with the red light camera company that has engaged in numerous examples of voter intimidation and spent over $230,000 to fight the citizens of Baytown and Houston to keep the issue off the ballot."
Schirmbeck believes that the harder camera vendor American Traffic Solutions (ATS) battles the public vote, the less residents are inclined to support the company's red light cameras. ATS is especially anxious to keep the measure off the ballot because no photo enforcement program has ever survived a public vote.