According to an Equal employment Opportunity Commission charges, Motherhood Maternity, a Philadelphia-based maternity clothes retailer, refused to hire pregnant applicants and fired an assistant manager for complaining.  See, http://www.eeoc.gov/press/1-8-07.html , 1/8/07.  According to the EEOC, the company employs over 5,000 people and is a leading designer, manufacturer and retailer of maternity fashion in the United States.  Id.  In the lawsuit, the EEOC alleged that a former assistant manager who complained about the company’s policy and practice of discrimination against pregnant applicants was fired.  Id.  The EEOC is responsible for the enforcement of the nation’s laws prohibiting discrimination.

The United States Department of Labor website section dealing with the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) reports that the FMLA provides that eligible employees of covered employers have a right to take up to 12 weeks of job protected leave in any 12 month period for qualifying events without interference or restraint from their employers.  See, http://www.dol.gov/compliance/guide/fmla.htm#EmplRights .  The same website section says that the FMLA also gives employees the right to file a complaint with the Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor’s Employment Standards Administration, file a private lawsuit under the Act (or cause a complaint or lawsuit to be filed), and testify or cooperate in other ways with an investigation or lawsuit without being fired or discriminated against in any other manner.  Id.  Where a lawsuit is filed in the courts to resolve the alleged violation of the Act, there is no requirement that the Secretary of Labor be notified before the filing of such a lawsuit, according to the U.S. Labor Department.  See, http://www.dol.gov/elaws/esa/fmla/fc4.asp .  In addition to a damages judgment an employee may recover from the employer, the prevailing employee may recover reasonable attorney fees, reasonable expert witness fees and other costs of the action.  Id.  It is illegal for an employer to, for example, sanction a woman in any way when she becomes pregnant if she is a covered employee under the Act.  In this regard, demotions, adverse work assignments, termination and harassment are potential illegal activities.  In some situations, covered employers try to get around the protections of the FMLA by firing or sanctioning the employee for reasons that are made up and simply untrue.  As such, victims of employer retaliation can file medical leave and pregnancy discrimination lawsuits, so workers who feel they have been subjected to medical leave retaliation or discrimination can contact a discrimination attorney to explore their options and whether they wish to file a lawsuit for discrimination or retaliation.

Signed into law on February 5, 1993, the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) allows elegible employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for a serious illness, to care for a seriously ill family member or to care for a new child, but the law covers employers with 50 or more workers and does not cover domestic partners, so a lot of working families are left without FMLA protection.  See, http://www.southcoasttoday.com , 1/31/08.  According to an article posted by SouthCoastToday.com, the Family Medical Leave Act has helped more than 50 million workers.  Id.  Citing statistics from the Labor Department, the article also states that half the workers who took leave for reasons of illness missed only 10 days of work or less.  Id.  However, “lobbyists for the business sector have been looking to weaken the law,” and “[t]he U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other trade associations are urging the Bush administration to chip away at the law before the president leaves office.”  Id.  While some employers allege widespread abuse of the act, the accusations are, according to the article, unfounded.  Id.  In this regard, if companies were actually serious about preventing or stopping alleged fraud, “they could simply require workers to submit a physician’s signature, as many businesses already do.”  Id.  The article concludes by calling on the next president to strengthen rather than cripple the FMLA since, after 15 years, “it has proven to be a lifeline to American workers and their families.”  Id.  Workers who believe they have been retaliated against for making use of the FMLA and workers who believe they have suffered dscrimination can contact attorneys to discuss their rights and whether an FMLA lawsuit or administrative complaint should be pursued.

According to CNN, in December 2006, most Americans, white and black, saw racism as a lingering problem in the United States, and many say they know people who are racist, according to a new poll. But few Americans of either race — about one out of eight — consider themselves racist. And experts say racism has evolved from the days of Jim Crow to the point that people may not even recognize it in themselves. (Watch how many blacks are still afraid to stop in a Texas town )  Id.A poll conducted last week by Opinion Research Corp. for CNN indicates that whites and blacks disagree on how serious a problem racial bias is in the United States. Id.  Almost half of black respondents — 49 percent — said racism is a “very serious” problem, while 18 percent of whites shared that view. Forty-eight percent of whites and 35 percent of blacks chose the description “somewhat serious.” (See the poll results)

Asked if they know someone they consider racist, 43 percent of whites and 48 percent of blacks said yes. But just 13 percent of whites and 12 percent of blacks consider themselves racially biased. The poll was based on phone interviews conducted December 5 through Thursday with 1,207 Americans, including 328 blacks and 703 non-Hispanic whites.

Racism also can be a factor in getting a job. (Watch how poll respondents feel about race and the top job in the U.S. )

Candidates named Emily O’Brien or Neil McCarthy were much more likely to get calls back from potential employers than applicants named Tamika Williams and Jamal Jackson, even though they had the same credentials, according to a study by the University of Chicago.  Racial bias may even determine whether you can flag a cab. New York Times writer Calvin Sims recently wrote about his experiences in the city.  “If a cab passes you by, obviously it is frustrating, it’s degrading and it’s just really confusing, because this is akin to being in the South and being refused service at a lunch counter, which is what happened in the ’60s and ’70s,” he said.

CNN December 12, 2006;(http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/12/12/racism.poll/index.html)

Some suggest Impeach Bush, and while you’re at it Dick Cheney too.  We went to war in Iraq because George Bush and Dick Cheney wanted to. There were no weapons of mass destruction, there was no immediate threat of terrorism, and there was no real reason other than a bad feeling George Bush had about Saddam Hussein. The latest, and what should be the final, salvo in this war of words came from the bush administrations own spinmeister, Scott McClellan in his book, “What Happened.” What happened? We have been asking that for the last seven years. The George W. Bush  Impeachment Dossier; a catalog of the many failings of the current administration.  Politics and Perspectives by Del Walters 
   
       Here’s what happened in one sentence:  The President of the United States lied about the nation needing to go to war, and he told the lie long enough that there are those who now believe him. Id.
      
        I realize there are purists who argue there isn’t enough time left to impeach Bush, but isn’t this one of those occasions where we, as a nation, have to make time?  Let’s face it, the last time Congress sought to impeach a president was over sex in the oval office.  Sex vs. War! Is not the death of 4000 plus U.S. troops, for no reason at all, more important than that?  Id.
    
        We now spend more money on this war than we spend on fixing the nation’s roads, bridges, schools, federal buildings, airport security and everything else combined.  Id. Our children’s future, their children, and their children’s children’s futures have all been mortgaged. Id.  The question is, if not now, when?  If not this president, will there ever be a better reason to impeach someone so sinister that it is impossible to examine his administration and find something that went right!  Id. If we don’t even try to impeach George Bush and Dick Cheney, what does that say about us?  Shouldn’t we at least go through the motions?
 
        Here are my top ten reasons for beginning impeachment proceedings against George Bush and Dick Cheney. Immediately:

1.) Bush broke the law, by acting as if he is above the law. Bush took the nation to war against a sovereign nation based on manufactured evidence and lies.  Id. The administration was so successful in its campaign of lies and deception few remember why we went to war.  Id. We went to war because Bush couldn’t wait to pull the trigger.  Id. UN Weapons Inspectors wanted until September.  Id. Bush launched ‘Shock and Awe’ in March. Id. Had we waited we would have known that there weren’t any WMD’s but then again, the administration already knew that. Id.  It took months and tens of millions of dollars to clean up from the DC and New York anthrax attacks, the result of a few mailed envelops.  Id. No trace of anthrax or any other weapons were found in Iraq, and few made the connection. Id.2.)  When faced with overwhelming evidence that the foundation for the war was crumbling around them, the Bush White House covered up the lie and engaged in a vicious campaign to undermine anyone who questioned their authority.  (Remember the Dixie Chicks?) To sell the war the administration manufactured heroes and destroyed real ones.  Remember Jessica Lynch the little girl form West Virginia that kept shooting as the enemy kept advancing. The biggest problem with her story was that the heroic actions attributed to her never happened.

3.)  Pat Tillman, the NFL star who marched off to war to defend the country against terrorism only to be shot by friendly fire.  Accidents happen in the fog of war, but remember which administration it was that covered up the incident and used it to the advantage of ‘the permanent campaign,’ as Scott McClellan wrote about.

4.) The orchestrated and sinister campaign to out Valeria Plame, a CIA Operative, even though the administration publicly said the penalty for such outings was firing. The bottom line is the administration lied again. This time it ruined a persons career, jeopardized her life, and then pardoned the man who did the deed.  Remember Scooter Libby? Crime pays in the Bush administration.  He did the crime and served no time.

5.) Mission accomplished.  Five years later, four thousand U.S. troops are dead and no one can explain why American blood was spilled in Iraq. Those GI’s returned home to shoddy medical care and military hospitals with falling ceilings and leaking pipes.
6.) No child left behind.  Under this administration, every child has been left behind.  Any parent who spends hours with their children on homework assignments that don’t make sense knows the Bush education policy failed.
7.) Abu Gharib.  We stooped to torture and unlike the TV version we weren’t even smart enough to hire Jack Bower. No, we did it in plain sight, with digital cameras snapping away.

8.) Divide and conquer.  No administration in recent history has spent more time dividing the country than the Bush administration. They have pitted blacks against whites, rich against poor, and religion against religion.

9.) Katrina, Katrina, Katrina.  Facing tens of thousands of deaths…Bush went biking.  To answer critics he performed a flyover in Air Force One, as if he could suddenly land the plane and lend assistance to the people starving in the New Orleans Superdome. Bush then sent an unqualified lackey and blamed him for emails where he asked which shirt to wear.    Blacks and whites perished as the world watched and no one has been held accountable.  It is perhaps the greatest crime of the 21st century (hard to compete with Iraq though) and no one has been held accountable.  To compound matters, the homeless were bussed from city to city and housed in formaldehyde laced trailers where they continue to suffer today.

10.) Condoleezza Rice! Donald Rumsfeld!  Dick Cheney! Scooter Libby! Could a single administration produce so many people so polarizing at a time when the world, and indeed this country needed the U.S. to act as if it deserved the title, the only ‘Superpower?’ Cheney shot his best friend for God’s sake!
11.)  Only an oilman could produce the rape of a country by the oil industry.  It would be different if George Bush came into office as a wheat farmer.  Can you imagine paying $10 dollars for a loaf of bread?  That is how bad things would have to be to compare to the constant pillaging of American pocketbooks by the oil industry.
12.) Hanging chads. He stole the election and with it, the most precious of America’s freedoms — democracy.  The fix was in and the world watched it all unfold.  Al Gore may have won the Nobel Prize, but the Bush administration pulled off the great train robbery.  When George Bush took the oath of office gas was just over a dollar a gallon, oil sold for ten dollars a barrel and the economy was roaring along.  People actually had jobs, houses, cars and happiness.  Seven years later we are losing our houses, can’t put gas in the cars we brought, shipping jobs overseas, an embarrassment to the world. The George W. Bush Impeachment Dossier; Politics and Perspective by Del Walters (June 16, 2008).

Okay, that’s twelve but who can stop when it’s so much fun?

As reported by the Senior News, the Safety of Seniors Act (S. 845) was introduced by Senators Mike Enzi (R-WY) and Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), as well as Representatives Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Ralph Hall (R-TX) to “develop effective public and professional education strategies to raise awareness about elder falls, encourage research to identify at-risk populations, evaluate falls intervention and support demonstration projects aimed at prventing falls among older Americans.”  See, Senior News, Vol. 20, Issue 6, June 2008, p. 18.  Signed into law by President Bush, the Act “comes at a critical time when each year, one in three Americans age 65 and older falls.”  Id.  As reported in the article, “about 30% of those who fall require medical attention,” costing more than $19 billion annually to treat the effects of falls.”  Id.  That $19 billion number is projected to increase to $43.8 billion by 2020, according to the article.  Id.  The law is supposed to help keep millions of older Americans safe from falls-related injuries.  Id. 

The Houston Chronicle reported recently that a Houston businessman who structured multimillion-dollar deals with a member of the United Arab Emirates (”UAE”) royal family alleges he was tortured by overseas jailers at the behest of that business partner.  See, George, Cindy. “Houston Man Says He Was Tortured For Videos,” Houston Chronicle, 6/17/08, p. B4.  According to the article, the alleged abuse is detailed in a federal lawsuit filed in Houston against Sheikh Issa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a son of the late UAE president.  Id.  In the lawsuit, the plaintiff alleges that “he was abused and threatened with harm to his family if he didn’t turn over videos showing [Sheikh] Issa torturing others.”  Id.  The lawsuit names five members of the royal family, including the crown prince,” and, as reported in the article, the lawsuit claims that “Sheikh Issa came to enjoy torturing people who he perceived had slighted him” and he videotaped the torturings “so he could watch the sessions at a later date.”  Id.  According to the Associated Press, 11 still frames from one of the videos “showed a man appearing to be Sheikh Issa beating another man with lumber, firing an automatic weapon into the sand around the man and forcing what appeared to be a cattle prod into his anus.”  Id.  The news service also reported that the “victim also appeared to have been partly run over by an SUV.”  Id.   

As reported by the Houston Chronicle, the City of Houston is close to settling the last two lawsuits “stemming from the botched police raid and mass arrests in a Kmart parking lot in 2002.”  See, Feibel, Carolyn. “Kmart-Raid Lawsuit Settlements Near,” Houston Chronicle, 6/17/08, p. B1.  According to the article, Houston police arrested 273 people during an August 17, 2002 sweep though a Kmart parking lot on Westheimer in Houston.  Id.  Many of the people arrested claimed that they were passers-by or store customers.  Id.  The article states that “[t]he action was roundly condemned and led to the indictment” of a police captain “on five misdemeanor charges of official oppression.”  Id.  The captain was later acquitted, but, according to the article, he was fired and was unsuccessful in appealing his termination.  Id.  The legal fall-out from the raid became a scandal for the police department.  Id.  In addition, the article reported that the total cost to the City of Houston “is $840,117.”  Id. 

According to WFTV.com, a Florida television station, an employee of Northrup Grumman filed a lawsuit after making a complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission about a co-worker the employee alleges called him the N-word “and asked him if he attended Black Panther meetings.”  See, http://www.wftv.com/news , 6/19/08.  As reported in the posting, “[t]he company admitted the incident happened but the commission sided with Northrup Grumman and said using the N-word did not create a racially hostile work environment.”  Id.

According to a posting with ThinkProgress.org, a “deceptively-titled Civil Rights Initiative (CRI), which would ban affirmative action programs” did not make the 2008 ballot in Missouri because it failed to submit the signatures necessary for qualification for the 2008 general election ballot.  See, http://www.thinkprogress.org/2008/05/10 , 5/10/08.  As reported in the posting, the initiative was to be a wedge issue on the 2008 ballot.  Id.