Sunday Funnies (final edition)

Sunday Funnies (city edition)

Sunday Funnies (first edition)

A hangman's noose in the boss' office *UPDATED*

(Update, 9:15 a.m. 10/15: Welcome to the many CPS Energy visitors to this blog! Please leave a comment regarding this photograph. Be careful NOT to do so from your workstation, however).


Click for a larger view.

This is a photograph from the cubicle of a supervisor at CPS Energy of San Antonio, "the nation's largest municipally-owned energy company providing both natural gas and electric service", according to their website.

The photo was provided to me by a representative of IBEW, which recently organized eleven employees there in the map support services department. I'll let him tell you the rest:

We set up a meeting with management to discuss the 11 employees that joined the IBEW. I received an e-mail from management telling me that I could not come into their building and represent these employees that exercised their rights to join a labor organization. In the past they had been told by management that salaried employees could not join the union. I sent a letter out to non-members working at CPS Energy and explained to them they had the right to join a union. In the past several months since, a number of salaried employees joined the union. In this department they had a black supervisor that was demoted. He took this picture after his demotion and told another CPS supervisor who was also demoted and showed him the photo (above) of the twelve noose, the old testament and the new version and the split between the bibles so they don’t touch, which is a symbol of white supremacy.

I was showed the picture by several other black employees who were also demoted and asked to find other jobs. We started looking into this and found out that people of color, older employees, Hispanics and white female employees were constructively being moved out of the company. A number of them were forced to take a sum of money to retire and leave the company.

Here is a link to KSAT's video of the story.

Hangman's nooses have been in the news far too frequently of late, as anyone who is familiar with the case of the Jena 6 knows. Another supervisor for a public utility company in Nassau County, New York, was apparently making a similar display at his office about a year ago. Jack and Jill document several noose appearances in just the past two weeks across the country. And it was just last year as well that former Sen. George Allen of Virginia gained infamy for his "macaca" remark and was later revealed to have a ficus tree with a hangman's noose in his law office.

Most interesting to me is that while my source indicates management at CPS was notified about this matter more than once and failed to respond, the CEO of CPS Energy, Milton Lee, is African-American, as is the company's vice president and chief administrative officer, Paula Gold-Williams.

Hangman's nooses shouldn't be on display in the offices of a publicly-owned utility company, or any business, in America in 2007. They shouldn't be displayed anywhere, publicly or privately, but obviously racial tolerance still has a long journey ahead.

Let's take a small step forward by contacting CPS Energy and asking them to instruct this supervisor to remove the noose display from his cubicle. Their e-address is feedback@cpsenergy.com .

Update (10/15): A press conference is scheduled this morning:

An International Union Representative of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), representing employees of CPS Energy, will make a public statement and take questions from the press concerning the recent discovery that a manager at CPS Energy keeps a hangman’s noose with Ku Klux Klan symbolism in his office. The press conference will take place on Monday, October 15, 2007, at 10:00 a.m. in front of the CPS Energy office at 145 Navarro Street (San Antonio).

An employee discovered the hangman’s noose, photographed it, and informed representatives of the IBEW. A number of minority employees at CPS Energy have suffered adverse personnel actions in recent months and have complained of discrimination. In addition, Union members throughout the CPS Energy workforce have been complaining for months about management’s disregard of established working conditions and acts of retaliation against employees who assert their rights. On October 10, the IBEW’s International Representative was refused entry to CPS Energy offices to meet with management to discuss the deteriorating working conditions at CPS Energy on behalf of employees.

Ralph Merriweather, IBEW International Representative, stated, “The hangman’s noose is the tip of the iceberg. There is a management culture of repression and vindictiveness toward employees throughout CPS Energy. No community can tolerate this kind of hatefulness in a public agency.” Merriweather will address the issue more fully in the Monday morning press conference.

Update (2:15 p.m.) : KSAT.com has a video link to this morning's press conference and reports that the noose has been removed.

An inconvenient Nobel

Inconvenient particularly for the Climate Deniers but also for those who still have a candle lit for a Gore presidency. Two pieces of advice for both parties:

1. Yes, the polar ice is all melted, the polar bears are drowning, we're never going to drill in the ANWR, and you need to re-think that fourth SUV for your kid and those CFLs.

2. It ain't happenin', dreamer. Free your mind and pick one of the candidates who's running (and be happy with your choice).

Congratulations, Mr. Gore.

Sharon Killer's Justice

"Judge Keller's actions denied Michael Richard two constitutional rights, access to the courts and due process, which led to his execution," the complaint states. "Her actions also brought the integrity of the Texas judiciary and of her court into disrepute ... "

Judge Sharon Killer's interpretation of 'justice for all' closes at 5 p.m.

"Justice should be both fair and competent. Here it was not. The result is a man was killed on a day he should have lived," said Chuck Herring, an Austin lawyer who joined in the complaint and who has written on professional ethics and responsibility.

Judge Sharon Killer, who was narrowly re-elected in 2006 over an opponent who barely fielded a challenge, has a longstanding reputation for sending Texans to their death under questionable circumstances.

Judge Sharon Keller, landlord to a Dallas titty bar which has had more than its share of police calls and neighborhood complaints, disagreed with most of her colleagues that a woman whose children burned to death in a accidental fire wasn't criminally responsible.

Keller's killing has failed to draw any response from Texas attorney general Greg Abbott, and two previous attorneys general -- Mark White and Jim Mattox -- have criticized him for his silence.

Sharon "Killer" Keller is way beyond the cartoon conceptions of hanging-tree, Judge Roy Bean, cinematic Texas justice. She is an abomination and a disgrace to the bench, and should resign or be removed from it.

Potential third party candidates Paul and Tancredo

Yesterday's GOP debate (a good wrap-up is here) produced only one surprise: the emergence of a couple of possible challengers to the eventual Republican nominee. Via MyDD, First Read observes that Ron Paul and Tom Tancredo said they might not go along:

Paul and Tancredo said they would not necessarily support the GOP nominee. That is interesting. Does this feeling persist within the Republican Party? Is that bad news for Giuliani? Maybe. Maybe not. Brownback, the "values candidate" said no matter what he would support the nominee -- however grudgingly.

I heard Ron Paul specifically dismiss the possibility of running as a Libertarian in 2008, just last week on the Ed Schultz Show. My own speculation regarding third party challenges is here. Continuing:

... there was the waffling by Ron Paul and Tom Tancredo at the GOP debate about whether they'd support the eventual GOP nominee. Remember, it wouldn't take more than a percentage or two in some states for a third party candidate like Paul or Tancredo to cost the GOP a whole bunch of Bush '04 states out West.

There's also potential for the Christian conservatives to peel off and find a candidate, possibly *choking back maniacal laughter* Rick Santorum.

It appears that the GOP nationally is in the early stages of a major meltdown. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch.