This is the Way the Cookies Crumble @ Stella D’Oro

Videography images by John Gerber of Stella D’Oro workers:
Juan Torres, Sarah Rodriguez, Alex (Flag Hat), Jose Hernandez & Michael Fillipo
Montage design by Annabelle Echo
This is the Way the Cookies Crumble @ Stella D’Oro
Stella D’Oro Workers End 11-Month Strike After NLRB Victory, but Owner Threatens to Close Factory: Originally Posted on July 14, 2009
For almost a year now I’ve been having a lot of trouble finding my favorite Stella D’Oro cookies every time I go grocery shopping. The Grocers keep moving the Stella D’Oro display or they are simply out of stock altogether. I even called the sale rep for the Chicago area. He never returned my call.
For years I’ve been enjoying these treats. While they aren’t exactly health food, they make a fine dessert because they taste good, are satisfying yet are low in fat. The best thing about them is that they hold up when dunked in coffee or tea.
I was shocked yesterday when I learned from a report on Democracy Now! that the workers at Stella D’Oro had been on strike for nearly a year! Several workers were interviewed. I want to thank them for making such a superior product and I want to condemn the hedge fund investors who have no conscience to destroy the livelihoods of good hard working people who make still make something of value in the U.S.A.!
As reported by Democracy Now! : More than 130 workers of the Stella D’Oro biscuit company in Bronx have ended an 11-month strike. The workers returned to their jobs on Wednesday, a week after the National Labor Relations Board ordered the company to reinstate and pay back wages to the striking workers. The employees at Stella D’Oro walked off the job last August after company officials tried to force them to accept a 20% pay cut, elimination of sick days and overtime, reductions in vacations and holidays and an increase in employee health care contributions. While the Stella D’Oro workers have returned to their jobs, their fight is not over. The company’s owner, the Connecticut-based private equity fund, Brenwood Partners, is now threatening to close the factory within 90 days.
Update:
Bittersweet win By MARK DeCAMBRE
Last Updated: 4:35 AM, September 10, 2010

It Ain't My Fault by Mos Def & Lenny Kravitz | stupidDOPE.com

Thunderbirds 02x01 Atlantic Inferno part 5

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An MIT Pentagon Paper:

An MIT Pentagon Paper:
Looks Like Blood or
Why the Pentagon
doesn’t care what you do?
Ask Noam Chomsky!

More Jumbo Aspirin, Mothballs & Other Punishment Haikus !

Richard Heene Pscyience Detective

Richard Heene may not be Father & or Husband of the Year but he is an Artist.
Annabelle Echo presents this Salute to Richard Heene...
Richard Heene Pscyience Detective

Dear Mr. President... Re: Van Jones

Green Hero, Van Jones

Dear Mr. President,
I implore you not to accept the resignation of Van Jones, the head of our national environmental policies. I feel this act will set a dangerous precedent. If Van Jones, who is well established as good, highly qualified, talented and innovative can be sidelined by a witch hunt stirred up by the corporate media, we are all endangered by the same mob mentality that silenced and broke many innocent people during the McCarthy era. If someone like Van Jones, who only has the best intentions for our country cannot speak and think freely it will jeopardize these freedoms for us all.

Annabelle Echo

Democracy Now!
White House Environmental Adviser Van Jones Resigns Citing,
“Vicious Smear Campaign against Me”

Introducing the 2009 New World Order Contestants!

Introducing the 2009 New World Order Contestants!

Introducing the Annabelle Echo 2009 LOGO

Introducing the Annabelle Echo 2009 LOGO

Grandpa Elliot is now the Richest Man in New Orleans

Grandpa Elliot is now the Richest Man in New Orleans
In this video below Grandpa Elliot Sings If I were a Rich Man in New Orleans. Although he may not technically be the Richest Man in Town he ought to be. He has the most sense!

From YouTube channeler wluquet (Wade): Grandpa Elliot is a familiar street performer in New Orleans. He is an expert Harmonica player and has a beautiful voice, as you will hear. He can often be found outside the gift shop at Royal and Toulouse Street, but will also play outside of Cafe Du Monde and other places throughout the quarter. He is now legally blind, but is well loved, so he finds help to get around the quarter. Make sure to see him when you go to New Orleans and tip him well. He deserves it.

Cuban 5 Appeal to Supreme Court for New Trial

Democracy Now!
Friday, February 06, 2009: Cuban 5 Appeal to Supreme Court for New Trial


Attorneys for the Cuban Five have filed an appeal with the Supreme Court asking for a new trial. The five men were convicted in 2001 for spying on the US military and Cuban exiles in southern Florida. They they weren’t spying on the US, but trying to monitor right-wing Cuban groups that have organized violent attacks on Cuba. Amy Goodman speaks to their attorney, Thomas Goldstein.

Free the Cuban Five March Slideshow
Alto al Fuego sung by Santiago Feliú


From the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five:
A historic march took place in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 23, 2006, preceded by a press conference on Sept. 21. More than 600 people marched through the streets of Washington, starting at the Justice Department and stopping at the gates of the White House, demanding that George Bush free the Cuban Five and extradite the terrorist Luis Posada Carriles.

Music Video Alto al Fuego by Santiago Feliú


Una canción del trovador cubano Santiago Feliú. De su obra discográfica "Sin Julieta". Feliú forma parte de la Novísima y de la Nueva Trova.
Para más información de este magnífico músico:
Enfermizamente Zurdo: a blog about Santiago Feliú

Alto al fuego
(Santiago Feliú)

Voy pateando la basura de vivir
intentando hacer la ruta más feliz.
El cansancio de las cosas que aprendí
vuelve a ponerme en el deseo de seguir.

Gracias a la vida que tanto me dio,
no obstante necesito el dinero:
el oxigeno de la tranquilidad
cuesta carísimo y sigue injusta la igualdad.

Revolucionadamente yo diría,
sexualísimas verdades te daría,
descartando la solícita mentira,
adivinándose precioso todavía.

Pero... alto al fuego,
déjenme salir.
Fuego de odio, fuego de puta maldad,
fuego prendiéndole fuego a la verdad.
Tanta lágrima de la gente,
no sólo de los que no tienen nada;
miseria y destrucción,
impositivamente muerte, muerte, muerte sin razón.

Alto al fuego.
Alto al fuego.
Una eternidad viviendo de morir.
Un espejo de cadáveres sin fin.

Bienaventurados todos
aquellos que aprendieron a llorar,
porque así de ellos será el reino de la fe,
de la esperanza, el reino de la caridad.

Alto al fuego,
dejen sonreír.
Fuego de odio, fuego de puta maldad,
fuego prendiéndole fuego a la verdad.
Alto al fuego.

Talk Show Host Leo Lyons Trapped in Bank!

Dear Emmett & Carter,

It seems that our feline friend and host of the "Leo Lyons Show" got locked in and was trapped in yet another failing bank when it closed unexpectedly and suddenly in Chicago last night...
Signed with LOVE, your Tia…

Recording Recorders...

This is going on You know What, Buddy!

Happy 5th Birthday to Carter!

...this is a TOP SECRET transmission

...from the Oort Cloud Galaxy...

Happy Birthday Earthling!

You Have Orbited the Oort Cloud 5 Times!

We of Globular Cluster #5 Salute You!

Signed,

Your Friends at the Oort Cloud Galaxy

...End Transmission Sequence...

Click on Image for more info...

The Bulls Matador: Kevin Blanchard

Like many women; not all of course, I don’t pay much attention to sports. I spend much of my free time studying politics and government instead. Recently though I read that sports as a national pastime is greatly influenced by politics and government. Professional sports team owners get tax breaks and subsidies in order to stay financially solvent and profitable. David Cay Johnston writes about these financial shenanigans in his new book, Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense and Stick You With the Bill.

Since I’m so oblivious to what’s going on in the world of sports I have to rely on some of the men in my life: one being none other than Kevin Blanchard, a member of the Bull’s Matadors Dance Team. Kevin is an absolute encyclopedia when it comes to sports and by-the-way, a lot of pop culture. He puts a vital and important spin upon what news junkies like me consider trivial:

Wednesday, March 12, 2008
There’s a Line between Decency and Filth
By Kevin Blanchard
Current mood: Angry
Category: Sports

“F#*k you Gordon!... F#*k you Gordon… F#*k you Gordon… ”

You would think we were at a Bulls game and Ben Gordon got traded, no, that was directed at Indiana phenom Eric Gordon and it came courtesy of almost 19,000 angry Illini fans whom have not forgotten that Gordon did an about face on his verbal commitment and chose to sign instead with Indiana. But he was not the last.
Kevin Love, the 6' 10" power forward/center from Oregon had signed a national letter of intent with UCLA, let’s just say the Oregon faithful were not happy with that call. Within days and weeks, Kevin Love received threatening phone calls from hecklers who threatened to blow his head off and blow up the hotel he stayed in when the very college team he plays for, UCLA’s Bruins, would be playing the Oregon Ducks.

But it got worse: A lot worse: Read the rest of Kevin Blanchard’s post.

Kevin Blanchard’s Page

Chicago Bulls Matadors

Friday June 27, 2008
Mercury Cafe, 1505 W. Chicago Ave Poetry Open Mic & Showcase,
featuring Rachel Javellana, Bob Rashkow, and Kevin Blanchard
7 to 9 PM sharp
Admission is FREE!

Baby Carter Presents: My Big Brother’s Movie Debut!

Hello. My name is Baby Carter.

I’d like to introduce my big brother Emmett who is celebrating his movie debut pretending to be a nihilist named Dieter from Sprockets.

Below my gorgeous picture you will find some sprockets of his brilliant and truly disturbing performance. Auf Wiedersehen!

Erika Poethig is an Obama Volunteer...

My friend Erika Poethig braved the bitter cold in Iowa to volunteer for the Barack Obama campaign this past week. I hope that she will allow me to include in this post some of her emails that describe her experience. Stay tuned people and thank you to Erika and all the other selfless campaign volunteers.
The Last Leg Of Iowa Caucus Begins by Mike Flannery

Baby Carter Presents: The Future is Here!

Baby Carter Presents: The Future is Here!

Baby Carter Presents the Future: Compressed Air Powered Cars...

Hello, I’m Baby Carter. As many of you fans of the Echo Report know, I am a frequent contributor to this blog. For many years now, I’ve been hosting and producing this “reality show” segment for the Echo Report. What you may not know, however is that I am avid fan and collector of cars and other motorize vehicles.
This week I read about some jazzy new cars that will satisfy my need for speed and my Tia, Annabelle Echo’s desire to protect the environment. Not only that but these cars look totally cool, exciting and space age!
On the Web:
Yahoo!® GREEN: Air-Car Ready for Mass Production
By Bob Ewing
Moteur Developpment International
CNN.com: Pneumatic-hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV)

Old News: Boris Yeltsin Blackmailed Clinton to IMF?

Old News: Boris Yeltsin Blackmailed Clinton?
I picked up Tom Fenton’s tome, Bad News (2005) at the library last week. I thought it would provide insights into what wasn’t and hadn’t been reported in the mainstream media. On page 30 I discovered and found this sentence intriguing:
“Democracy itself almost crumbled in Russia under the drunken incompetence of Presicent Boris Yeltsin, whose reelection the Clinton White House virtually planned and funded.”
Wow! Who Knew? The rest of the paragraph was ambiguous at best. I quickly googled the words Yeltsin, Clinton & IMF to find this shocker of a post that explains how this could have happened.
On the Web:
Boris, Bill and Monica: trouble ahead for Hillary?
By Dr. Jack Wheeler, BrookesNews.Com, Monday 13 November 2006
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin February 1, 1931 – April 23, 2007
Russians pay respects to Yeltsin
POSTED: 1743 GMT (0143 HKT), April 25, 2007
Midnight Diaries
By Boris Yeltsin & Valentin Yumashev
Bad News: The Decline of Reporting, the Business of News, and the Danger to Us All
By Tom Fenton

Superstar Poet Nikki Giovanni Sounds an Alarm...

I KNEW GOD IS A WOMAN BUT I DIDN’T KNOW SHE IS BLACK
Superstar Poet Nikki Giovanni sounds an alarm that is almost completely ignored.
Superstars can have self doubt even those with an abundance of fame talent and common sense. Until a couple of days ago I knew very little about poet Nikki Giovanni except that she is a highly revered African American poet. She’s part of the curriculum around these parts. I work in a college English department in Chicago, IL
I occasionally encounter crazy students and crazy people posing as students. The dean of Student Services, also an African American told me to deal with each instance with common sense. He told me that I wasn’t paid enough to deal with certain situations. Once I put up with crazy guy for at least 8 weeks until things got so bad it took 3 burly security guards to drag him out of the building. The dean told me that my department had waited much too long to deal with the problem student. Besides acting crazy, the student smelled crazy. Yes he smelled bad. It was worse than Jerry Seinfeld’s funkafied car. I do not exaggerate when I estimate that he could be smelled a block away.
The problem at Virginia Tech didn’t develop overnight. Teachers are not paid enough and students pay too much to put up with mentally ill students. Common sense and gut instinct should have won out over political correctness. Nikki Giovanni is the only one who showed at least some discernment when she insisted that Virginia Tech killer, Cho Seung-Hui be removed from her class.

From: CNN LARRY KING LIVE
Aired April 18, 2007 - 21:00 ET
KING: Now to Nikki Giovanni, who's back in Peoria, Illinois, the distinguished professor of poetry, who taught Cho (Virginia Tech killer, Cho Seung-Hui) in poetry class. What do you make when you see these things?
NIKKI GIOVANNI, POET, VIRGINIA TECH PROFESSOR: I think that the main thing that I think Larry said it was not obvious. This is all hindsight. And I think that Virginia Tech has taken a hit that we don't deserve right now because if we -- if we could have known that -- that this -- to me he was a mean boy, but I'm not a psychiatrist.
But if we -- if we could have known that he could have -- that he could or would have done this, don't you know we would have gotten rid of him?
I have four colleagues who are dead trying to stop him. One of my favorite students, Matt Laporte -- and I know that Matty died a hero because he was a great kid.
I've lost people that I care about.
Don't you think we would have stopped it if we had known it?
KING: Yes. In...
GIOVANNI: It wasn't obvious. And people are saying obvious. It wasn't obvious. It was a boy who -- who tried to intimidate people. He did ugly things. And I did, I thought he was a mean kid and I didn't want to be around him. And I did what I should do, which was tell my supervisor he's got to go or I'm going to resign.
KING: All right...
GIOVANNI: And I did that because I wanted people to know it was serious. I wanted Tech to know that it was serious.
KING: And the...
GIOVANNI: But it still wasn't obvious.
KING: In the package he sent to NBC, he put the name Ax Ishmael in the return address area.
Does that mean anything to you?
GIOVANNI: No, it does not.
KING: He never used that name...
GIOVANNI: No.
KING: ... in class or anything?
GIOVANNI: No, you know, he was monosyllabic. It was a constant battle. The reason that I decided I couldn't deal with him any longer and that I was not going to be of help to this boy is that every -- every class -- I teach the Tuesday/Thursday. He would come in with his sunglasses, come in with a cap, come in with the thing. And, you know, Einstein said that, that doing the same thing all over again and expecting different results is a sign of insanity.
And I found myself every Tuesday and Thursday doing the same thing over again...
KING: Did you...
GIOVANNI: ... and expecting a different result. So I figured one of us is nuts and it wasn't going to be me, you know?
KING: Did you fail him?
GIOVANNI: No, I did not. Actually, he -- I asked that he be taken out of my class. And I wrote a letter to my supervisor, to my department head, Lucinda Roy. And you've spoken to Lucinda. I think you spoke to him last night.
KING: Yes.
GIOVANNI: And I sent his -- his letters. I sent what he was writing, the -- what he called poetry, which was not. It was -- it was nowhere near it. It was a diatribe. And I sent all of that to Lucinda. And I said he's got to get out of my class or I've got to resign, because I cannot ask students to come into a classroom that clearly I'm not controlling.
And if I had left Seung in my class, he would have been controlling it.
KING: How, Nikki, did he get to be a senior?
GIOVANNI: I don't know, because, again, it's not obvious. We -- we are 26,000 students. There are students who commit suicide. There are students who have other problems. You can't just go plucking them out because they may do something. Some people get all right. And he obviously got under some radar -- we are learning. I am learning things now. I am a poet and so I just went on my instinct.
I don't want to be around him. I don't want...
KING: Yes.
GIOVANNI: I don't want him near me. And...
KING: You made a smart move.
GIOVANNI: And I'm not saying that I was right.
What if he had graduated and become something really wonderful and all of a sudden he's got a Nobel Prize and it's like yes, and Dr. Giovanni kicked me out of class?
Boom. Then I've got egg on my face. I'm willing to have egg on my face.
KING: Yes.
GIOVANNI: I am. Because all I know is that something -- to me, the term would be evil, Larry. Something evil came in.
KING: Obviously.
Thank you, dear. Nikki Giovanni.

There are those who have no doubts about what happened at Virginia Tech. Someone close to me is certain that there is a stigma about admitting Mental illness within the Asian community. Others respond by asking, “How many did Timothy McVeigh kill? What about the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski? They’re not Asian. No one in their community thought there was a problem until it was too late.”
I know that writing about this and introducing an instance I experienced is anecdotal and may be considered politically incorrect and possibly offensive to some. Yet I hope that by starting this discussion, all communities will be able to accept or at least acknowledge that when a family member has a mental illness and seek help before another tragedy occurs.
Part of my job is to monitor what students print. If I didn’t the majority of the paper would be used to print celebrity images, bank statements, phone bills, plane tickets etc. In addition, some enterprising students don’t think twice about using up the college’s paper running a business or to help a religious affiliation.
One day, I noticed a lovely young Asian women printing out what appeared to be personal business letters. I told her that she needed to pay for a print card to print personal items. I knew from the print queue that she was printing out copies of the same exact letter several times. I let her have one copy of each distinct letter but and I know this is snooping—I kept copies of each that remained on the queue. I was very suspicious and I wanted to know what she was up to.
The letters were quite bizarre and paranoid. I determined from the letters that the women had registered a website that was also full of bizarre paranoid delusions. A few minutes research on the web led me to the conclusion that this was no ordinary crazy lady. She had been a highly gifted child and had won prestigious scholarly awards and had earned advanced degrees from the most prominent universities in the United States. Some of her close acquaintances and former classmates were now eminent scientific and medical professionals. Some of her bizarre ravings were directed at these people. Yet no one seemed to notice or care that she was wandering around from city to city lost, crazy and far from home.