Jane Russell Dead at 89

Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell (June 21, 1921 – February 28, 2011) was an American film actress and was one of Hollywood‘s leading sex symbols in the 1940s and 1950s. She became a star with the 1943 release of “The Outlaw,” Howard Hughes’ challenge to the Hollywood production code. At age 89, she has died.

Russell played Calamity Jane opposite Bob Hope in “The Paleface” (1948), and she starred with Marilyn Monroe in the 1953 musical “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.” She appeared in two movies opposite Robert Mitchum, His Kind of Woman (1951) and Macao (1952). Other co-stars include Frank Sinatra and Groucho Marx in the comedy Double Dynamite (1951); Victor Mature, Vincent Price and Hoagy Carmichael in The Las Vegas Story (1952); Jeff Chandler in Foxfire (1955); and Clark Gable and Robert Ryan in The Tall Men (1955).

Daughter-in-law Etta Waterfield said that Russell was a “pillar of health” but caught a bad cold and died of respiratory difficulties.

While we are thinking about Unions…Look at all we’ve forgotten (I don’t think Scott Walker ever knew)…

PBS is running a new American Experience documentary this evening on the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in New York City in 1911. It is an interesting and historically powerful story of the beginnings of the American Union movement… the conflict between the rich and the poor… and the use of strikes to get Union-only shops in the garment industry.

The fact that Triangle workers got some concessions in 1909 and 1910 in terms of wages and shift times, there was no change in working conditions and no collective bargaining. When the Triangle fire occurred in 1911, the ladies who worked there were inside locked doors (to keep workers from sneaking out with product when managers weren’t looking.) The 200 sewing machine workers were not alerted to the fire which began on the floor below… they were trapped. Some died in the fire… some jumped from windows, very few made it to a back alley fire escape. Many were trapped on an elevator that jammed after the first trip.

Labor was not considered the equal to management… but without that labor, the garment manufacturers would not have become wealthy. Isn’t it similar to how the citizens of Wisconsin benefit from Public Employees… teachers, firefighters, police, EMTs? While we don’t have the devastating tragedy of the Shirtwaist Fire in Wisconsin, we have people who are accused of being at fault due to their pension fund contributions…their own money…for the dismal economy. Not the bankers who overmortgaged and blew out the economy. Not the politicians who made sure the rich were not taxed on their incomes so that they could invest in those banks and stock brokerages that literally stole money from the pension funds of laborers.

In the 100 years since the Shirtwaist Fire and the major changes in Union organization and management/labor relationships it brought, we have forgotten the importance of workers and, as has been a conventional attitude of politicians from the right wing who oppose Unionism and negotiations, we are further away from the management changes that occurred over the next 4 decades.

We are back where we started from.

Just by insisting that he will not negotiate with the Public Employee unions, Governor Walker might as well be saying “your lives are meaningless.” Even when the employees WANT to take pay reductions and are willing to cooperate… but want collective bargaining, the thing that has made America from FDR to the present the symbol of the middle class glory, to remain a union option.

So now, on the Centennial of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, let us not tolerate the destruction of unions by overwhelming management policy.

Just watching all this tonight has gotten my hackles up… I hope it has gotten to you, too.

Related Articles

• “Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire: Some basic information” and related posts (theboweryboys.blogspot.com)
• Television Review: Two Remembrances of One Deadly Day in 1911 (tv.nytimes.com)
• Identifying the victims of a 100-year-old tragedy (boingboing.net)
• You: 100 Years Later, the Roll of the Dead in a Factory Fire Is Complete (nytimes.com)
• ‘American Experience’ looks at the 1911 Triangle fire (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• 100 Years Later, the Last Victims are Identified (neatorama.com)
• People@Work: Wisconsin Picks the Wrong Scapegoat for Its Budget Woes (dailyfinance.com)
• The Week Ahead: Feb. 27 – Mar. 5 (nytimes.com)

Dr. Oz helps a woman confront her Phobia

Wow… can you believe it?!

Oh, Wait… it’s a doctored video… the original is at Dr. Oz’s site (http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/overcome-your-phobias-pt-4) …she’s really afraid of spiders.

Related Articles

• The Fundamentals of Phobias (everydayhealth.com)
• Phobias – A Self-Help Guide (therapyworksheets.blogspot.com)
• Dentophobia (bbc.co.uk)
• Overcoming Fear of Snakes (brighthub.com)
• Weird Phobias (socyberty.com)

Digging his own Grave…

clipped from tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com   Poll: Wisconsin Voters Wouldn’t Elect Gov. Walker In Do-Over Wisconsin voters already have buyers remorse about electing Gov. Scott Walker (R).  In a PPP poll released Monday, a majority of registered Wisconsin voters say that in a hypothetical re-do of last year’s gubernatorial election, they would vote for Democrat Tom Barrett, whom Walker defeated in November. That finding comes as Walker continues to stand firm on his budget proposals that would strip most state public employees of long-held collective bargaining rights. Fifty-two percent of respondents said they would vote for Barrett if the election were held today, while 45% said they would vote for Walker. That’s almost exactly the opposite of what happened in the election, when Walker won the governorship with 52% of the vote to Barrett’s 47%. The huge shift comes, not surprisingly, from union members. The results are the latest findings to show Walker losing support as the stalemate wears on.

Perhaps this is happening everywhere that Republicans got in last November as they ignore the people and go for firming up the rich…

Related Articles

• WI-Gov: Buyer’s remorse for Scott Walker (dailykos.com)
• New Poll Shows Wisconsin Voters With Buyers’ Remorse (slog.thestranger.com)
• Wisconsin Do Over? (politicalwire.com)
• 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (usnews.com)
• The heroes in the Wisconsin Story (iflizwerequeen.com)
• Wisconsin union files unfair labor practices charge against Walker (+ link to full complaint) (wilderside.wordpress.com)

Frank Buckles, America’s Last WWI Veteran Dies

He was 110 years old and lived here in Jefferson County, WV (Charles Town, actually). Frank Buckles was the last surviving WWI Vet in the USA.

Buckles said he had lied about his age in 1917 when he was 16 so he could enlist. The Army sent him to France, where he drove ambulances and motorcycles. After the armistice, he helped return German prisoners of war to their country.
In 1941, he was working in Manila for the American President Line, a shipping company. When the Japanese invaded the Philippines during World War II, Buckles was captured and spent 3 1/2 years in a prisoner-of-war camp before he was rescued by American forces when they retook the Island nation.
David DeJonge, a Michigan filmmaker, is producing a documentary on Buckles’ life titled “Pershing’s Last Patriot: The Story of Frank Woodruff Buckles, America’s Last Veteran of World War I.” It will be narrated by actor Richard Thomas.

Related Articles

• Frank Buckles, Last American WWI Vet, Dies at 110 (outsidethebeltway.com)
• RIP CPL Frank Buckles – Pershing’s Last Patriot (waronterrornews.typepad.com)
• RIP Frank Buckles (neatorama.com)
• Last Living US WWI Vet Dies at Age 110 (abcnews.go.com)
• America’s last surviving WW1 veteran Frank Buckles dies aged 110 years old (dailymail.co.uk)

Blogosphere News: Andrew Sullivan is Moving!

Wow! I wonder what the financial gain was for this event. Do Tina Brown and her buddies know about Andrew’s vacation habits?

clipped from www.huffingtonpost.com Andrew Sullivan is leaving The Atlantic and taking his blog, The Daily Dish, with him. The blog will find a new home on The Daily Beast in April, and Sullivan will also become a contributor to Newsweek. His two destinations are really one — the media outlets are merging together under editor in chief Tina Brown. In a post on his (soon-to-be) old site, Sullivan has a lot of nice things to say about his bosses — both old and new — and assures his readers not to expect changes in content: I also want to assure you that, as for the past ten years, through andrewsullivan.com, Time and the Atlantic, I will retain total editorial responsibility for what appears in this column... You don’t even have to change your bookmark, since you’ll be automatically redirected, once April arrives. If you want to make sure you don’t lose track, bookmark us now and you will be automatically redirected when April 4 comes around.

Related Articles

• Andrew Sullivan Moving To ‘Newsweek’ And ‘Daily Beast’: ‘Daily Dish’ Leaves ‘The Atlantic’ (alternet.org)
• Andrew Sullivan Leaving Atlantic (themoderatevoice.com)
• Andrew Sullivan Joins Tina Brown’s Team at ‘The Daily Beast’ and ‘Newsweek’ (mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com)
• Home News (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com)