EEOC v. Honda: Nothing seems right in cars

Honda claims to support diversity. Why, there are even three Black women in the front row of the photo on this page:

Honda is committed to maintaining a diverse workforce. We strive to attract, employ and retain a talented, diverse pool of associates from communities throughout the United States. Honda recognizes the value of outreach activities to ensure that we can accomplish our goal of developing a workforce that represents today's multicultural society.

Nice. Now if were only true.

According to the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch:

A former Honda manager in charge of diversity and ethics says the company violated her civil rights when she was fired nearly two years ago, according to a lawsuit.

. . .

Ways, who is black, was the senior manager responsible for diversity and ethics at Honda corporate offices in Marysville until April 2004. That’s when Honda fired Ways "after she protested racial discrimination in employment," according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Courty by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Ways’ behalf.

. . .

Ways was responsible for "auditing personnel actions and processes; and increasing diversity and integrity in reporting of diversity matters to federal agencies," according to the commission. While at Honda, she opposed conduct she deemed discriminatory on "numerous" occasions, the commission said.

In one example cited by the commission, Ways intervened on behalf of a qualified black engineering applicant who was not hired. Ways also alleged that Honda management showed a pattern of denying her workforce data and information that she needed to do her job.

. . .

Honda and other Japanese automakers have faced more allegations of racism in hiring practices than domestic companies, said James Rubenstein, a Miami University professor who has written books on the industry.

"The Big Three (are) associated with Detroit, which is a heavy African-American city," he said. "The Japanese carmakers, when they first came to America, they didn’t locate in Detroit. They didn’t locate in big cities. They located in rural communities that are predominantly white."

Rubenstein comes with some serious cred. From his U of Miami page, we see he teaches:

• Global Forces, Local Diversity
• Geography of the Auto Industry
• Geography of Urban Diversity

and his bio states:

I am an auto industry analyst. I study current trends and issues in the auto industry. As a geographer, I am especially interested in where factories open and close - and why. I am author of two books on the auto industry Making and Selling Cars: Innovation and Change in the U.S. Automotive Industry and The Changing U.S. Auto Industry: A Geographical Analysis. I am currently working on a book with Thomas Klier Who Really Made Your Car? which looks at the growing importance of parts suppliers. I am a consultant at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, working with the Regional Analysis Group in the Research Department.

So what does this all mean? Did Honda screw up? The EEOC doesn't file suits, especially under the Bush administration, unless they think something is really going on. The last time I wrote about the EEOC it was in re: Tyson Foods in Arkansas and Whites Only bathrooms. (Note: It is doubtful that Tyson corporate knew about this, yet local management didn't stop it.)

And that was just plain ol' American racism. Honda's situation seems different, as it is a Japanese owned corporation, with different ethnic issues likely unclear to westerners. Yet it still seems troubling. Especially since the person fired was the Manager of Diversity. Maybe she did her job too well. I don't know.

DeLay: With God on our side.

A bemused Andrew Sullivan wonders:

I have no idea where people could get the idea that the Republican party has been turned into a religious sect, do you?

Actually, Andrew knows the answer, since he's responding to Tom DeLay's statement:

But this was not the time for a DeLay confessional. Instead, he gave his view on the War on Christians. "Sides are being chosen, and the future of man hangs in the balance!" he warned. "The enemies of virtue may be on the march, but they have not won, and if we put our trust in Christ, they never will. . . . It is for us then to do as our heroes have always done and put our faith in the perfect redeeming love of Jesus Christ."

Because Jesus was so supporting of lobbyist's contributions, and golf trips, and gambling casinos, and ...

Dana Milbank's piece is really quite good in describing the religious fervor that grips the far right:

"I believe the most damaging thing that Tom DeLay has done in his life is take his faith seriously into public office, which made him a target for all those who despise the cause of Christ," Scarborough said, introducing DeLay yesterday. When DeLay finished, the host reminded the politician: "God always does his best work right after a crucifixion."

I mean, DeLay was actually crucified, with nails and everything? I'm guessing the object of their affection might have another thought or two:

21Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

22At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.

23Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!"

24The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, "Children, how hard it is[e] to enter the kingdom of God!

25It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

I'm just saying...

On a side note, with all the immigrant bashing going on these days (Sensenbrenner, I'm talking about you), the Christianists might want to remember this:

35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,

36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?

38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?

39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

There's a devil in the bottle

My friend Wintermute emailed this to me, in which we see Hank Williams, Jr. hasn't quite given up his "whiskey bent and hell bound" ways:

A 19-year-old waitress at The Peabody told Memphis police that country singer Hank Williams Jr. choked her after trying to kiss her and cussing her out.
The attack happened just after midnight Saturday and was witnessed by at least one other hotel employee, Holly Hornbeak told police.

. . .

Brown denied hotel managers tried to discourage Hornbeak from contacting police, as she told police.

Hornbeak told police she was waiting tables when Williams started asking her questions. She said he called her a "dumb bitch," then asked to kiss her, a police report said.

After more name-calling, Williams put her in a choke hold and lifted her off the ground, she said.

Nice. There's some Red State country music traditional values for you.

I worked it out wrong

Frances Fukuyama, one of the smartest Neo-Cons, once said this:

"What we may be witnessing is not just the end of the Cold War, or the passing of a particular period of post-war history, but the end of history as such: that is, the end point of mankind's ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government." (quoted from "The End of History?", 1989)

All I want to know is, how's that working out for you now?

Fukuyama has changed his mind. He self consciously picks the scabs on his conscience during an interview in Der Spiegel:

A lot of the neo-conservatives drew the wrong lessons from the end of the Cold War and the collapse of communism. They generalized from that event that all totalitarian regimes are basically hollow at the core and if you give them a little push from the outside, they're going to collapse. Prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall, most people thought that communism would be around for a long time. In fact, it disappeared within seven or eight months in 1989. That skewed the thinking about the nature of dictatorships and neo-conservatives made a wrong analogy between Eastern Europe and what would happen in the Middle East.

. . .

Iraq has become a breeding ground for terror. The upside to the war is not very high. We could get a government in Iraq, but it will be relatively weak. There will be a continuing level of violence and continued instability in that area. A model democracy is not going to emerge and set off a further wave of democratization.

This from a guy who, while active in the Project for the New American Century signed the now infamous letters to Clinton and later, GWBush. In these letters, the PNACers stamped their feet and demanded that we invade Iraq now, "even if evidence does not link Iraq directly to the attack."

In all fairness, Fukuyama called for Rumsfeld's resignation:

In addition to distancing himself from the current administration, Fukuyama told TIME magazine that his old friend, US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, should resign.

And in an essay that I'm sure got him dis-invited from the Kool Kidz club, he wrote in the NYTimes that:

Leninism was a tragedy in its Bolshevik version, and it has returned as farce when practiced by the United States. Neoconservatism, as both a political symbol and a body of thought, has evolved into something I can no longer support.

Still, we can't get too excited by Fukuyama's new-found reasoning. After, he is on the steering committee of the Scooter Libby Legal Defense Trust.


Also, just so we never forget, the other authors of the GWBush letter included these fine folks:

Richard V. Allen
Gary Bauer
William Bennett
Elliot Cohen
Charles Krauthammer
Richard Perle
Norman Podhoretz
Jeane Kirkpatric
Clifford May

and many other thoughtful Neo-Cons. Thanks, kids.

I want to be in a band, when I get to heaven

When I was a young guitar player, in bands, I used to mourn when someone I knew went straight. You know, got a real job and joined the working class. Talented musicians who never got or made a break for themselves sell insurance, deliver the mail, teach your children everyday, and no one ever know about the musical beauty in their souls.

I'm less sanguine about it now, as I realize that not everyone will get that break. Artistic success is less about democracy and more about a combination of talent, luck, and hard work.

Having said that, I understand this kid. I was him once, staying awake into the wee hours developing chops and skills, trying to further my understanding of my beloved instrument. He may go on to be a welder, pediatrician, telemarketer, or maybe even a professional guitarist. Regardless, he clearly loves playing his guitar. I'd identify him, but Google Videos has no other information.

Watch this kid have fun with one of the loveliest (and over-played) Baroque pieces, Pachelbel's Canon in D:

Kid does Canon on Guitar

By the way, shred playing may be "over", but there is still no substitute for skills. Absent some level of skill, your musical ideas will never be expressed with the completeness they might deserve. And don't confuse simple with unskilled.

And as I have said here before, you don't need to play all the notes. You just need to know where they are and when to play them to be a master of your instrument.


Update: From a commentor at HuffPo we learn that the kid is Jerry C., from Taiwan.

2nd Update: It appears from (ahem) further research that the video I posted is a kid named "funtwo" who used the backing track available at Jerry C's site and recorded his own version of the Canon. Here's the actual link to Jerry C's original performance of the piece.

Props to both, but Jerry got there first, so best to him.

Blame Canada! We need to form a full assault...

Our favorite Canadian (well, other than Neil Young) David 'Axis of Weasel' Frum is back, and, like, kinda wonders if we missed him:

One question I was asked a lot in my sabbatical from the blog: Did I still think President Bush "the right man"? Often the question was asked with heavy sarcasm, followed immediately by a grim roll call: Iraq, Katrina, prescription drugs, Dubai, immigration, etc.

There's a loaded rhetorical question.

There are many things to say about George W. Bush, positive and negative. But with his numbers dropping into the mid-30s, and even many of his friends having to acknowledge doubts and disappointments in his performance, here is one verdict that remains true, the same that Lincoln delivered on General Grant. "He fights."

And farts and burps too. Sadly, Frum continues:

When I wrote The Right Man in 2002, I tried to do justice to the president's personality, both virtues and vices. I carefully reread that book as part of my preparation for writing this next one. It itemized so many of the faults that have had their cost over the past year: the president's sometimes over-hasty decision-making, his disinclination to ask sufficiently probing questions, his aversion to detail, the overcentralization of decision-making, his often surprisingly poor personnel decisions, his unwillingness or inability to explain himself as fully and convincingly as a president ought.

Still delusional. No, David, we really didn't miss you.

In another part of the piece I can't bring myself to cut-and-paste, Frum digs into Spain after the 3.11.2004 train bombing, and conflates the Spanish response with Bush's single minded fervor for Iraqi war.

For starters, Dave, the subsequent election results had exactly nothing to do with not being "legendarily brave people" and everything to do with the Aznar government trying to sell the idea for its own political gain that ETA, the Basque separatist movement, was responsible for the bombings. The Spanish people's rage about the attacks, fueled by their disgust for Aznar's actions led to the election of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero of the Socialist Worker's Party.

Well, we know anything uses the words Socialist and Worker's in a positive way is likely to annoy Frum. But in what is clearly the punch line of the piece, he derides Zapatero for, you know, following the clear will of the Spanish people by removing Spanish troops from Iraq.

David, you were wrong about Iraq, you were wrong about GWBush, you are wrong about Zapatero.

Three strikes. As Rex Hudler says, "You got to go."

Note: I just had to add these lyrics:

Blame Canada
Shame on Canada
For...
The smut we must stop
The trash we must bash
The Laughter and fun
Must all be undone
Before someone thinks of blaming uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuus!!!!

I'd hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters

Fron the Department of Unintended Irony, we have Mickey Kaus in Slate:

A Springsteen/Seeger album seems entirely pitched to a subset of the already-converted--no red-state audience there. And Seeger's a bit of a self-righteous twit, no?

Ahem. You see, Bruce has announced an album and tour featuring long-time political activist Pete Seeger's music. You know, Pete Seeger, the guy who

• wrote "If I Had A Hammer"
• wrote "Where Have All The Flowers Gone"
• wrote "Turn, Turn, Turn"
• along with his group The Weavers was blacklisted during McCarthy's HUAC
• founded The Clearwater Group, which cleaned up pollution in the Hudson River
• served in the Pacific in WW II
• left the Communist Party long before other socialists did, when they found out about Stalin's crimes
• said "I like to say I'm more conservative than Goldwater. He just wanted to turn the clock back to when there was no income tax. I want to turn the clock back to when people lived in small villages and took care of each other."

So Seeger, who is and was a genuine folk hero and political warrior, who actually made a difference in the world during his life, is a self-righteous twit?

Jeezus, Mickey, look in a mirror.

They're livin' it up at the Hotel California

Do we need any more evidence that California screwed up really badly when electing Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor? Just in case anyone out there still thinks he's:

1. Competent
2. Compassionate
3. Honest: "As you know, I don't need to take any money from anybody. I have plenty of money myself. I will make the decisions for the people."
4. Altruistic: "My relationship to power and authority is that I'm all for it. People need somebody to watch over them. Ninety-five percent of the people in the world need to be told what to do and how to behave." –in a 1990 interview with U.S. News

Well, you might want to look at this SF Chronicle article:

Voters will not consider any part of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's landmark public works spending program on the June ballot after legislators failed Wednesday to agree on the size and shape of the proposal.

. . .

Republicans, for instance, wanted the bond deal to include new rules that would relax environmental regulations on levee repair, and new rules to allow more contracting out for school and highway building.

Many Democrats wanted money for environmental programs such as habitat protection and clean-fuel projects. Affordable housing was also on the table.

. . .

Republicans rejected the plan, saying it spent too much on such things as land preservation and clean-fuel systems for buses -- programs that were not considered part of the state's infrastructure.

More from the CSEA (California School Employee's Association, a union my mom belonged to for many years as an elementary school librarian):

Negotiations fell apart, partly due to the fact that the Governor and members of his own party have hinged their support for the bond package on the elimination of protections for working families, contracting out of school employees’ jobs and exemptions to the state’s basic environmental protection law. The conditions of the Republican’s support have been reported by Tom Chorneau of the San Francisco Chronicle.

. . .

Despite stating that the bond package was his highest priority, Governor Schwarzenegger spent the weeks before the deadline flying out of state attending various fundraisers as well as a bodybuilding conference in Ohio.

More quotes from the Austrian idiot, because, well, it just fun:

• "If they don't have the guts to come up here in front of you and say, 'I don't want to represent you, I want to represent those special interests, the unions, the trial lawyers ... if they don't have the guts, I call them girlie men." –describing Democratic lawmakers in California
• "All of a sudden, we see riots, we see protests, we see people clashing. The next thing we know, there is injured or there is dead people. We don't want to get to that extent." –on the dangers posed by gay marriage
• "That was another thing I will never forgive the Republican Party for. I was ashamed to call myself a Republican during that period." -on the Clinton impeachment
• "My friends don't want me to mention Kurt's name, because of all the recent Nazi stuff and the U.N. controversy, but I love him and Maria does too, and so thank you, Kurt." –on his friend and fellow Austrian Kurt Waldheim, a Nazi war criminal

Jeebus, what a tool. He manages to make that other action star Steven Seagal (originally pronounced like Seigel, back when we were in 2 bands together, just sayin'...) seem actually intelligent.

Nah.

Note: all Schwarzenfartzen quotes from http://politicalhumor.about.com/cs/schwarzenegger/a/aa080703.htm

Big ol’ jet airliner, don’t carry me too far away

More evidence, from the AFL-CIO, that the War On Terra©™ is complete fiction:

Yesterday, the same day a House committee recommended the Dubai port deal be scrapped, the House Appropriations Committee directed the Bush administration to freeze for 120 days its plan for foreign control of the nation’s airlines.

The Bush administration has long sought to allow foreign companies to control U.S. airlines. The Bush administration tried to do this in 2003, but Congress quickly said ‘No.’ But now they are trying again, having promised the European Union they would give it another shot.

Edward Wytkind, president of the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department says the move by the House committee “is the latest indication of the growing bipartisan opposition to foreign control of U.S. airlines.”

Both Republicans and Democrats understand the severe implications of allowing foreign interests to decide whether or not a U.S. airline helps transport U.S. troops and equipment…in time of war, what country our airlines purchase their aircraft from, and whether aircraft flown by Americans are maintained here or overseas where safety and security standards may be lax.

As with the debate over a United Arab Emirates company running major U.S. ports, the Bush administration has shown a careless disregard toward protecting our homeland security and our nation’s vital assets. This is yet another example of globalization run amok.

Outsource jobs.

Outsource port management.

Outsource airline management.

Outsource American debt.

Outsourcing security forces (Custer Battles).

Outsource corporate tax breaks.

Time to outsource the country:

Top Ten Signs The Government Is Running Out Of Money

9. Country renamed United States of Ditech.com

Gotta laugh at something.

Thanks, Mom (a life-long union supporter, bless her heart).

Good Golly Miss Molly

Molly Ivins, as usual, says it best:

Mah fellow progressives, now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of the party. I don’t know about you, but I have had it with the D.C. Democrats, had it with the DLC Democrats, had it with every calculating, equivocating, triangulating, straddling, hair-splitting son of a bitch up there, and that includes Hillary Rodham Clinton.

I will not be supporting Senator Clinton because: a) she has no clear stand on the war and b) Terri Schiavo and flag-burning are not issues where you reach out to the other side and try to split the difference. You want to talk about lowering abortion rates through cooperation on sex education and contraception, fine, but don’t jack with stuff that is pure rightwing firewater.

I can’t see a damn soul in D.C. except Russ Feingold who is even worth considering for President. The rest of them seem to me so poisonously in hock to this system of legalized bribery they can’t even see straight.

Look at their reaction to this Abramoff scandal. They’re talking about “a lobby reform package.” We don’t need a lobby reform package, you dimwits, we need full public financing of campaigns, and every single one of you who spends half your time whoring after special interest contributions knows it. The Abramoff scandal is a once in a lifetime gift—a perfect lesson on what’s wrong with the system being laid out for people to see. Run with it, don’t mess around with little patches, and fix the system.

Read the whole thing. And then act. Nothing more need be said. This is gospel.