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Gawker obtained a training video that Target uses to warn its employees about the danger of joining a union.

The 13-milute video titled "Think Hard Before You Sign" is hosted by Doug and Maria, two actors posing as Target employees.

"We're a target because we're a threat to unions," Doug claims. "The unions that represent grocery store workers."

"When we take business away from unionized grocery stores that means they need fewer employees," Maria continues.

"And fewer grocery store employees means fewer union members. And fewer members? Well that's a problem for the union business. That's right, I said business. Union business," Doug adds.

"With a union you no longer have your own voice. Have a great suggestion? You can't take it directly to your manager. You have to go through the union layers. Need help with a problem? Same thing. Someone else will do the talking for you. And there's no guarantee you'll like what they have to say. Guarantees. Guarantees and promises. That's something else you might hear from a union. Unions often make big promises about wages and benefit increases if the team member will only sign their card. Those are promises they can't keep," Maria insists.

"The risk of getting a union with out a vote, big promises that can't be kept, pressure on guests not to shop at our stores, for all those reasons and a whole lot more please think hard before you sign any card or petition," Maria concludes.

A complete transcript of the video is available here.

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CNN's Howard Kurtz and the San Francisco Chronicle's Debra Saunders did their best to give cover to Sarah Palin for her crosshairs map targeting Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. It's pretty bad when even Politico hack Roger Simon has had enough of your nonsense. As he rightfully pointed out, Palin doesn't have to be directly responsible for what happened with this shooting to have a conversation about the violent political rhetoric coming from her and the rest of the right wing noise machine in America and the fact that it needs to stop.

Edit: A tweet by Howard Kurtz on Saturday.

KURTZ: You just saw that montage, Roger Simon, and you can't make a worse mistake than that, to declare a member of Congress dead. And I find it disappointing, because we've been through so many stores like that, where fragmentary information turns out to be wrong.

SIMON: Well, you're always going to get certain things wrong on these stories. The number of dead always climbs and shrinks, and climbs again.

I remember as a young school kid hearing that Vice President Johnson had been shot and President Kennedy had been wounded. That got flipped around. The fact is, we go with what we hear. That's often wrong.

KURTZ: But why not wait? Look, we understand it's happening, you're seeing sort of news gathering in its roughest and rawest form. Why not wait until it's confirmed. If she was dead, we would have found out 20 minutes later. [...]

KURTZ: And on that point, Debra Saunders, a couple of hours after this tragic shooting, even as we weren't sure who was alive and who was dead, I Googled "Gabrielle Giffords" and "Sarah Palin." And lots of stories and blog posts came up talking about Sarah Palin, 10 months ago, putting up a map of the Democrats she wanted defeated, and using crosshairs, gun sites, to represent those targets, and, of course, she used the rhetoric about "Don't retreat, reload."

And in a way that I found to be -- you know, first of all, I guess how about a decent interval? The victims were still being rushed to surgery. But I also felt like, was it fair to bring her into something that she had nothing to do with?

SAUNDERS: Well, it was ideological opportunism. I mean, it's very human, when something like this happens, you want the villain to be the person you hate. And so a lot of people rushed to do that.

You know, I've got to tell you, I'm a conservative. When I heard this story, my first thought was, oh, no, it's a right-wing nut with a gun. And I think that these stories about the Tea Party being a ticking time bomb are crap. I find them offensive, but we know that there are extremists.

KURTZ: But you said, oh, no, it's a right-wing nut with a gun, because you feared that then anybody on the right would, by implication, be blamed for this shooting?

SAUNDERS: No. Because I feared it was true. I mean, that was my first thought.

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I could not agree more with Glenn Greenwald on this one. What the hell is wrong with Howard Dean and any of the other Democrats who have lost their spine on this issue? If we don't have the Democratic Party standing up for the First Amendment, who the hell is going to? We sure as hell can't count on the Republicans to do it. This just disgusts me to no end as it did Glenn.

Howard Dean: "Mosque" should move:

Certain things are disappointing and surprising even for the most hardened cynics. Hearing Howard Dean -- the former liberal standard-bearer -- join Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin by saying the following is definitely one of them. [...]

Making this more repellent is that he doesn't even have the "I-want-to-get-re-elected" excuse. Today, former Reagan Solicitor General Ted Olson -- whose wife, Barbara Olson, was killed on 9/11 -- said he saw no reason for Park51 to move. And Peter Beinart, expediting his ongoing transformation from TNR Seriousness Guardian into shrill liberal blogger, today called on Democrats to -- as he put it -- "Grow a Pair" by standing up to this increasingly toxic campaign. Yet here comes Howard "I'm-from-the-Democratic-wing-of-the-Democratic Party" Dean, advocating that the vicinity of Ground Zero be turned into a Muslim-free zone because some people don't want Muslims near it. It's episodes like this which breed increasing levels of pervasive disgust and even indifference about electoral outcomes.

Read on...

UPDATE: As aggravated as I was with Howard when I wrote this post before it went up for promotion to the front page and before he went on Countdown to explain himself, I respect that fact that he was willing to defend his stance and try to clarify it, but I agree with Keith, he's not doing the Democrats any favors by giving weight to the extremists in the right wing. He may not have meant to, but he did.

The victims of 9-11 are not the ones driving this or that need to be talked to. They already had a chance to have their positions heard when they had the local meetings in New York. The extremists he says should be left out of the debate are the ones pushing this.

I would not be as aggravated at Howard Dean as I am if I didn't think he was one of the good guys who's just dead wrong this time around and if I didn't think his comments were fueling those who want to spread hatred instead of tolerance. I'm sick to death of them using any Democrat to justify their bigotry.

You can watch the Countdown interview here.

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Here's our own Nicole Belle and this week's Fools on the Hill segment with Nicole Sandler. It’s Not a Mosque, and it’s Not at Ground Zero!:

Of course, the “Ground Zero Mosque” came up on the Sunday talking head shows, so we’ll revisit it with Nicole Belle of Crooks & Liars when she joins in for our regular Fools on the Hill segment. (** We didn’t have time to get into this story, but you should definitely check out who the top Right Wing bloggers consider the 25 worst figures in America. Wow.

You can listen to the entire show at Nicole's site here. You can also visit there and show Nicole some love if you'd like help her keep these wonderful podcasts going. We don't get any of that George Soros money around here and neither does she.

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On This Week, Christiane Amanpour reported on the devastating floods which are ravaging that country and the trouble they're having with getting supplies in to help out. No shocker here, the people there are actually welcoming the site of American helicopters now that they're helping with much needed aid instead of dropping bombs on civilians' houses. That said sadly they're not having an easy time with putting a dent in the amount of help that's needed.

Relief Supplies Not Getting to Pakistani Flood Victims:

The floodwaters in Pakistan are showing few signs of letting up, paralyzing relief efforts and leaving the 14 million people affected by the floods desperately waiting for help.

The U.S. military has sent 19 helicopters to the hard-hit northwest to help distribute aid supplies, but the monsoon rains have kept them grounded. The helicopters have only been able to fly relief missions three days out of the last nine. There are more than 400 tons of flour, rice and baby formula waiting to get to the affected areas, but as long as the helicopters are not flying, the aid is not getting to those who need it.

Army pilot Maj. Dan Rice was rushed to Pakistan from Afghanistan to help. His squadron, loaded with supplies, is going nowhere.

"It's extremely frustrating." he told ABC News. "We know there's people up there who need to get to safety."

All Maj. Rice can do now is wait for the rain to relent.

"Each of the helicopters is already loaded and ready to go. So the moment we have a chance to go, we are prepared, we're briefed and we'll be in the helicopters moving," he said.

The scope of the devastation is staggering. Six million people survived the floods, but now are in dire need of aid. Two million people are homeless and a fifth of the country remains underwater. Infrastructure has been wiped out, two years of crops washed away. The river Indus, in the south of the country, has swelled to 25 times its normal width for this time of year.

And from McClatchy, what could possibly go wrong when a country that actually has nukes suffers this kind of devastation? Pakistan flood disaster may destabilize nation:

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The House came back into emergency session and passed the state aid bill, but not without a ton of carping by Republicans about how this is just another "bailout" for the states, all the while still demanding that the Bush tax cuts for the rich stay in place, which are not paid for and will add to that deficit they keep wailing about.

House Passes State Aid Bill, Saving An Estimated 300,000 Jobs:

This afternoon, the House, reconvened for a special emergency vote, passed a $26.1 billion bill providing aid to cash-strapped state governments. The bill provides $16.1 billion in Medicaid funding and $10 billion to help states keep teachers on the payroll.

The Senate passed the deficit-neutral bill last week, 61 to 39. The vote came down on party lines, save for Maine Republicans Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins. After the Senate passed the package, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the Speaker of the House, called members back from their home districts for a special vote on the bill. More than 400 House members returned, and Democrats passed a rule on the measure, 229 to 173. The bill passed 247 to 161, mostly on party lines. Republican Reps. Anh “Joseph” Cao (La.) and Mike Castle (Del.) voted for the bill; Democratic Reps. Gene Taylor (Miss.), Bobby Bright (Ala.) and Jim Cooper (Tenn.) voted no. Read on...

Rachel did a really great segment yesterday on why this money is so badly needed.

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It's really terrible that this disaster hasn't drawn more attention from our media here in America. I've seen some slim coverage of the disaster on CNN, but not nearly enough given the magnitude of just how many lives are being devastated from this flooding and how little is being done about it. From the article in Foreign Policy from Amy Goodman's guest Fatima Bhutto:

More than 3 million people in the northwestern region of Pakistan have now been affected by the floods. Parts of the north are facing terminal food shortages even as they are inaccessible to relief workers. The U.N. World Food Program says that 1.8 million will urgently need something to eat in coming weeks. The death toll has risen steadily in recent days to more than 1,400 people. About another million have lost their homes.

The news is also unlikely to get any better: Officials now say that the waters are expected to hit Punjab and Sindh provinces, Pakistan's food-producing regions. New flood warnings are still being issued, and the country is bracing for further monsoon downpours.

Here's more from Democracy Now.

Fatima Bhutto: Pakistan’s Devastating Floods Are President Zardari’s Katrina:

AMY GOODMAN: Pakistan’s government is facing rising national anger as the devastating floods along the Indus River show little sign of abating. Some 1,600 people have died, upwards of six million people directly affected, according to the latest estimates from the United Nations, which has compared the scale of the crisis to the 2005 earthquake. As landslides and continuing rain complicated relief efforts, entire villages have been washed away and many towns submerged. Several areas of the country have been cut off, including the Swat Valley in the northwest and parts of Pakistan’s breadbasket of Punjab and Sindh some 600 miles downstream the Indus River. With one-and-a-half million acres of croplands ravaged, the prices of basic foods have skyrocketed.

This is Mohamad Amin, a resident of Mingora in the Swat Valley.

MOHAMAD AMIN: [translated] The people of Swat have been the worst-affected by the floods. Hundreds of people have been swept away by the floods. Thousands of houses have collapsed, and hundreds of thousands have been affected. The inaction of the government in this crisis is regrettable.

AMY GOODMAN: Meanwhile, the Pakistani president, Asif Ali Zardari, returned home today after a prolonged European tour that sparked fury at home over his absence at a time of national disaster. The government insists his overseas trip was crucial, but images of the president at his chateau in France while his country is battling the worst floods in nearly a century have deepened his unpopularity and strengthened the role of the army. Zardari even faced protests in Britain, with a Pakistani demonstrator in Birmingham hurling a shoe towards him Saturday.

Meanwhile in London, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the twenty-one-year-old son of Asif Ali Zardari and the assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, launched an appeal for Pakistan’s floods and defended his father’s absence.

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Nice work here from Laffy at The Political Carnival for their BLUNT series. Here's more from her on this latest edition:

Producing this particular Blunt was an honor, because I was invited to team up with the Center for American Progress.

They produced a “Not In My America” video of their own on which this one was based, and which was sponsored by CAP Action and SEIU. Please take a look at their website here, because it is just that important.

Poor Sarah. Apparently she can't even record her new reality show without some of those darned liberal activists in Alaska mucking up the works for her.

Palin's Homer Moment: Celebrity Sarah Confronted by Citizen:

Sarah Palin & company spent several days in Homer filming her "Sarah Palin's Uh-laska" show. (Eyes rolled).

On the public dock, private security patted down private citizens. The Fourth Amendment protects citizens from unreasonable search and seizure from their government. Private security searching private citizens in a public place, doesn't fall under that category. It's a bit more hinky.

Whether it was TLC or the Palins who contracted security, under what authority did they operate in a public location? Were they looking for weapons? Well, now there's a Second Amendment issue.

[...]

Risking accusations of being all "Wee-Wee'd Up", one Homer woman made a sign in her shed. She then took the 30-foot-by-3-foot banner out to the boat harbor. It said "WORST GOVERNOR EVER". Kathleen Gustafson is a teacher married to a local commercial fisherman. She felt like Sarah Palin had let the state down by becoming a dollar-chasing celebrity and ignoring the oath of office she'd sworn on a Bible.

Kathleen was motivated by the fact Palin was using the very place where her family makes a living to fortify the Palin personality cult -- pretending to do the very thing they worked so hard to sustain. Initially, Kathleen just wanted to waste a little of the camera crew's time, since Palin wasted so much of her time purporting to represent Alaska's interests.

She didn't imagine Palin would be so easy to draw out.

Go read the rest for more details about the encounter.

You can read the transcript of the above video over at Shannyn's blog.

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Site contributors Bluegal and Driftglass are not the only ones out there doing some really great podcasts every week. Our own Nicole Belle has been a regular guest on the Nicole Sandler show on Mondays for a little while now and I wanted to share the latest edition of the Nicole and Nicole show with our readers who I'm sure have been following her writing here for years. She may not have gotten that CNN gig yet, but she did a fine job recapping the Sunday bobble head shows with Nicole Sandler this week instead.

Nicole Sandler lost her gig at Air America when they went under. Hopefully she manages to get back on the air with some wider syndication than she has now in the near future. You can occasionally catch her filling in for Randi Rhodes.

You can listen to the entire show from this Monday at Nicole Sandler's blog:

And we wrapped up the show with Nicole Belle of Crooks & Liars, who visits almost every Monday with a look back at the Sunday talking head shows in a segment we may call “Fools on the Hill”…

In addition to our regular talking smack session about who was on and what they said, we took a couple of minutes at the end of the show to talk about what’s really being proposed, but described as a “Mosque at Ground Zero” (it really isn’t). Nicole wrote a great piece about it that you can read at Crooks & Liars, “On Tolerance and Healing.“

You can listen to our own Nicole's segment if you don't want to wade through the entire podcast to find it in the audio link above. Hopefully we'll have some more of Nicole's show to share with everyone not just on Mondays with Nicole Belle's Sunday show wrap ups but with our own John Amato and Dave Neiwert as well talking about their new book Over the Cliff: How Obama's Election Drove the American Right Insane.