NightBlogger

The New York Times reports that the current unemployment rate is 6.1 percent. The government stats are a boldface LIE. I guesstimate unemployment to be at more like 12-15 percent.

New York Times
As the financial crisis crimps demand for American goods and services, the workers who produce them are losing their jobs by the tens of thousands. In just the last two weeks, the list of companies announcing their intention to cut workers has read like a Who’s Who of corporate America: Merck, Yahoo, General Electric, Xerox, Pratt & Whitney, Goldman Sachs, Whirlpool, Bank of America, Alcoa, Coca-Cola, the Detroit automakers and nearly all the airlines. When October’s job losses are announced on Nov. 7, three days after the presidential election, many economists expect the number to exceed 200,000. More

TENS of thousands of French workers demonstrated against government plans to reform pensions and the 35-hour work week today, but the biggest labour union conceded turnout was lower than it had hoped. The relatively low participation, by French standards, could encourage President Nicolas Sarkozy to press on with his reforms despite several months of protests over a range of issues. “I’m here to make Sarkozy cave in,” said Alex Boulet, a railway worker waving a union flag in Paris, where police said 18,000 people marched.

Union figures were not yet available. The CGT and CFDT unions had called for protests in more than 120 towns and cities against plans to extend the number of years employees must work to get a full pension to 41 from 40, and to give companies more scope to bypass the 35-hour week. CGT, which had set a target of over a million demonstrators nationwide, said it estimated turnout was 500,000. Bernard Thibault, the head of CGT, vowed to resume the fight when workers returned refreshed from their summer breaks. More

WSWS
TENS of thousands of Iraqis protested in a number of cities Friday against the proposed agreement between the puppet regime of Nouri al-Maliki and the Bush administration that would codify a long-term US military occupation.

In a secret videoconference last November, Maliki and Bush signed an agreement, a cynically titled “Declaration of Principles for a Long-Term Relationship of Cooperation and Friendship,” which outlined plans for the establishment of permanent American military bases and preferential treatment for US energy conglomerates and investors to exploit Iraqi oil reserves. The full details of the pact, including the general dimensions of the American occupation force, were to be worked out by July 31, 2008. More

John Moreno Gonzales
Doctors cannot conclusively link her asthma to the trailer. But they fear she is among tens of thousands of youngsters who may face lifelong health problems because the temporary housing supplied by the Federal Emergency Management Agency contained formaldehyde fumes up to five times the safe level. The chemical, used in interior glue, was detected in many of the 143,000 trailers sent to the Gulf Coast in 2006. But a push to get residents out of them, spearheaded by FEMA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, did not begin until this past February. “It’s tragic that when people most need the protection, they are actually going from one disaster to a health disaster that might be considered worse,” said Christopher De Rosa, assistant director for toxicology and risk assessment at the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, an arm of the CDC. “Given the longer-term implications of exposure that went on for a significant period of time, people should be followed through time for possible effects.” More

Thousands of angry Somalis rioted Monday over rising food prices and the collapse of the nation’s currency, culminating in clashes with government troops and armed shopkeepers that killed at least five protesters, witnesses and officials said.

Shops and markets throughout Mogadishu quickly shut their doors as protesters, including many women and children, stoned storefronts and chanted slogans accusing traders of cheating them. “I’ve never demonstrated before, but I’m not ashamed because if you can’t eat, you will do whatever you can,” said Abdullahi Mohammed, 57, of Mogadishu. “Before I was eating three times a day, but now sometimes it’s not even once.”
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