Just turned on the TV and noticed this on ESPN:

Red Sox vote not to play final spring game or board plane for Japan

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- The Boston Red Sox refused to take the field for their final spring training game in Florida on Wednesday and threatened to boycott their flight to Japan for their season openers unless their coaches and other staff are paid for the trip.
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Manager Terry Francona and his players were upset after learning staff members are not going to get a $40,000 stipend. The Boston Herald reported players insisted part of their agreement to make the trip included the fee -- for them and the coaches.

While compensation in a major sport is usually miles beyond what most folks can hope to make, I suppose it's good when the guys on the top of that list stand up for their support staff, coaches and trainers.

[Promoted from the Diaries by Meteor Blades because plenty of such stories don't have such comparatively "happy endings."]

On Thursday, after spending 27 years in prison for a crime that he did not commit, Charles Chatman walked free.  The world -- or the world outside of jail, that is -- was a different place than that he had left nearly three decades ago.  After only using spoons in prison, he had to relearn how to use a knife to cut his steak.  The judge for his case even had to teach him how to use a cell phone -- a newfangled technology, for 47-year-old Chatman -- so he could call his family.  Chatman is the 15th wrongfully convicted prisoner in Dallas County who has been exonerated by DNA evidence since 2001.  

For me, health insurance is The Issue.  It is to me in my forties what abortion was in my twenties.  Luckily enough, I've been pretty much continuously insured my entire adult life.  Right now, months from the big 5-0, I am facing up to whether I can afford to keep it, or if it is time to drop it.  

Stick with me here...

Cross-posted from the Accountable Strategies Blog

Why are the executives of American companies paid so much, and why is nothing seemingly ever done about it?

At least one researcher is shedding some light on this phenomenon, and his findings have to do with the often misunderstood dynamics of the relationships among corporate executives, boards of directors, and shareholders.

The work of Lucian Bebchuk at Harvard is proving to be groundbreaking in that it is challenging some long-held assumptions–in particular about the power of a company’s investors, the true owners of its wealth.  Bebchuk’s seemingly counter-intuitive but well-researched findings point to the conclusion that the corporate deck is stacked in favor of the company’s executives and the board of directors, and that the shareholders are relatively powerless outsiders.

Just reported in The New York Times:

President Bush took aim Wednesday at lavish salaries and bonuses for corporate executives, standing on Wall Street to issue a sharp warning for corporate boards to ''step up to their responsibilities'' and tie compensation packages to performance.

Market Place
Goldman Finds Investing for Itself Rewarding
By LANDON THOMAS Jr. Published: July 26, 2006

Private equity has paid off handsomely for Henry M. Paulson Jr., the former chief executive of Goldman Sachs.

For the last two years, Mr. Paulson, now the Treasury secretary, has banked $24 million in investment returns from lucrative partnerships made available to top Goldman executives. The sudden flowering of these investments -- last year, Mr. Paulson's return was $12.7 million, according to the firm's 2006 proxy -- signals vividly how Goldman's growing private-equity business has been gushing profits not only for the firm's executives, but also for the investment bank as a whole. [snip]

(An edited version was published in North Bay Bohemian, June 26, 2006, but this is worth reading if you didn't see it.  This is support for labor rights from the small business perspective.  Apologies for plugging our cookies, but there is surprisingly little dough in bakeries.)

Please support the bipartisan Employee Free Choice Act!

I just got the following note from one of her staffers (I'm on her email list) and they're looking for citizen co-sponsors for her bill linking a hike in the minimum wage to pay increases for our congresscritters.

Check it out - follow the link - and sign on.  Then tell all your friends & family about this effort.

Make the jump.

The plan includes:

• US troop withdrawal "under conditions that take into account the formation of Iraqi armed forces so as to guarantee Iraq's security"
  
• Amnesty for all insurgents who attacked U.S. and Iraqi military targets
  
• Release of all security detainees from U.S. and Iraqi prisons
  
• Compensation for victims of coalition military operations.

This was recently discussed on the front page.

Is an American inherently valued more than people of other nations?  Is such a comparison valid?  Is it even moral?  Why is a teacher writing about this?

I am going to urge everyone who reads this to read today's column by the incomparable Derrick Jackson of the Boston Globe (and when oh when will he finally win a long overdue Pulitzer for commentary.  It is entitled Making Enemies in Pakistan and in part addressed the question I raise.    Here are the figures Jackson offers us

an Iraqi killed by the US Military   $393

an American killed on 9/11   $1.2 million

an American injured on 9-11  $400,000

I could use some hep Kossaks, mainly advice and knowledge, perhaps a touch of sympathy.

Background; I started working when I was 15, having left home, I am now 47.  When I was in my twenties I became a constuction laborer and worked my way up to carpenter. 23 years later I am/was a master carpenter, servicing the ultra wealthy in the San Francisco area. Along the way I have been able to help many young men, many troubled as I was, find an honorable path in life. The best part was being able to occasionally Create Beauty.

Fuck You Arnie, below the fold.