In Leaked Docs, Honeywell Cites Obama Ties As Key to Anti-Union Strategy

This article is cross-posted from In These Times

In These Times has exclusively obtained a leaked internal Honeywell document outlining an anti-union strategy that includes leveraging Obama administration connections.?The documents suggest that the megacorporation is deeply concerned about recent union activity at its factories and the bad press that has resulted (one example cited is a Working?In These Times?op-ed).

The PowerPoint presentation, downloadable?here, was leaked to?In These Times by unionized Honeywell workers who downloaded them from company?s internal database.?Titled ?DRAFT Honeywell Readiness Plan for Corporate Union Campaigns? and marked ?Honeywell ? Confidential,? the slideshow was authored by four Honeywell interns (see correction at bottom). Though the document is undated, it appears to be relatively recent, relying on 2011 data. Its stated objective is ?to develop a framework that can be used by Honeywell with the resources required to prevent or react to a nationwide corporate union campaign and dissipate any problems as quickly as possible.?

?Honeywell is at significant risk of becoming the target of a national union corporate campaign and has no readiness plan in place to deal with this possibility,? warns the document. A graphic identifies a number of unions and workers? organizations as potential sources of such a campaign, including SEIU, Warehouse Workers United, the AFL-CIO?s Change to Win, UNITE HERE! and the United Steelworkers. Honeywell notes in particular the dangers of negative publicity, citing as one example?an?August 4, 2011 Working In These Times op-ed by Metropolis Honeywell employee and?USW Local 7-699 leader?John Paul Smith titled??What the Honeywell Lockout Taught Me About International Labor Solidarity.?

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Tip: Hit pause to read individual slides?

The PowerPoint then presents a five-part prevention plan broken down into ?1.) Labor Employee Relations 2.) Communications 3.) Government Relations 4.) Legal and 5.) Global Security.?

The third section, on Government Relations (GR), reveals Honeywell?s hopes that its influence with the Obama administration can be leveraged to help combat union activity. Slide 18 of the confidential document states that Honeywell (HON) should ?continue to grow positive relationships with elected officials, with federal agencies, focusing on local branches.? These relationships, the document explains, ?can be directed at union activity, if needed.? The plan suggests that Honeywell?s Government Relations division can be used to ?break up union cohesion across the country.? A picture of President Obama speaking at a Honeywell plant is included (see above), with a caption reading ?HON has great relationships with Federal officials, focus is needed at the State and local levels.?

Indeed, President Obama and Honeywell CEO Dave E. Cote have a?very close relationship. Cote visited with Obama at the White House this past Wednesday to push him to cut budget spending. Cote is considered one of Obama?s closest allies in the business community. In January of 2009, Cote introduced Obama?s stimulus package in a White House speech. Cote was subsequently appointed by Obama to serve on the Deficit Commission. President Obama?even flew with Cote to India while a lockout at Honeywell?s Metropolis, Ill. uranium plant was ongoing. Cote returned the favor by giving heavily to the Democratic Party. In the 2010 election cycle when the Met, Honeywell was?the top corporate PAC contributor to the Democratic Party.

Union activists believe that Honeywell?s federal ties have already enabled the company to call in government help when suppressing unions. In 2009,?Honeywell threatened to use Marines to replace 500 United Steelworkers members in Blount Island, Fla. if the military contractors?went out on strike. Honeywell had the military security clearances pulled on several of the union leaders, leading them to lose their jobs. In 2010, I exposed evidence that Honeywell cheated on qualification tests for scab replacement workers during the lockout at its Metropolis uranium facility; during the lag between my report and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission taking action, the scab replacement workers caused a number of accidents. In 2011, International Association of Machinists Lodge 778, employed as nuclear weapons workers at Honeywell?s Kansas City,?accused the Department of Energy of abandoning its legal mandate by not stepping into to stop a concessionary contract Honeywell was pushing on the union.?(Note: I have written over two dozen articles on this issue since 2009; for more details on the federal government enabling Honeywell anti-union strategy, see my November 2011 piece, ?Is the Federal Government Helping to Bust Unions??)

The recent leaked documents raises serious questions about whether Honeywell benefited from its relationships with the Obama administration as part of its anti-union maneuvers. The White House did not respond to request for comment.

It?s not uncommon for corporations to invest this level of planning into combating organized labor.?As I?reported for?Working?In These Times, corporate executives?from a number of companies?attended a conference in Arizona in May on how to lock out workers and bust unions?headlined, oddly, by Henry Winkler, a.k.a. the Fonz.

Another section of the confidential documents lays out a comprehensive plan to bust union organizing.?First, the document suggests a company-wide ?Corporate Campaign Risk Assessment System? that ?would be a tool used to identify those sites that are at a greater risk of becoming involved in a corporate campaign and to then prioritize the sites for preventive and counter measuring planning. ? The Corporate Campaign Risk Assessment Survey would give the LER (Labor Relations) team scores on the high risk areas to determine whether or not these sites could be the local campaigns that acts as a ?toe hold? for unions to launch a corporate campaign against Honeywell.?

Then, as soon as there are union rumblings at a non-union Honeywell plant, managers are instructed to inform Honeywell?s HR Department, which then informs Honeywell?s Labor Relations Department (LER), which ?puts plan in place on the ground and immediately visits the site.??The LER is told to dispatch one or two representatives from the Burke Group, a notorious anti-union firm that?was used by Honeywell during the 14-month long Metropolis lockout.?Next, an official boardroom is ?set up on site to implement daily operations,? including ?employees paid to sit and listen to anti-union campaigns.??Honeywell supervisors are advised to obtain the proper legal assistance in struggle with unions, to secure Honeywell property and to train local security personnel in ?warning signs of union activity.?

?These documents reinforce what we have believed all along that this is a company that isn?t interested in getting along with their labor groups. This also proves that they see us as a threat,? says USW Local 7-669 President Stephen Lech, whose photo is included in the document?s description of the Metropolis lockout. ?As far as us being mentioned so much in these documents, I am kind of honored that our union had that kind of impact. I am flattered that the company is going to fashion a whole plan based on the labor struggle at Metropolis. They learned a lot during that process and we learned a lot to, but we can change our labor strategy a whole lot quicker than theirs.?

UPDATE: In an statement emailed to In These Times after a mutually agreed deadline, Honeywell spokesperson Victoria Ann Streitfeld wrote:

This document was prepared by summer interns, not full-time Honeywell employees, and as such should not be considered to reflect Honeywell?s positions or policies.

Honeywell?s preference is to work directly with its global work force, but also respects the rights that employees have to form unions or acquire union representation when they choose to do so.

Honeywell works closely with a wide range of constituents that are important to making our businesses successful, including employees, and where appropriate the unions that represent them, our communities, and their elected officials.

It?s unclear from the document (which In These Times?has made available for download?here),?whether the interns were proposing new policy or summarizing existing policy. What?s clear is that they had access to an enormous amount of internal information. The 61-page PowerPoint presentation, marked ?Honeywell ? Confidential,? contains indications that Honeywell had been tracking union activity at a dozen plants across the United States, complex metrics for analyzing the threat posed by unions, and a note about Honeywell?s deployment of the Burke Group, an anti-union consulting organization.

In response to the Honeywell statement, USW 7-669 President Stephen Lech said:

It surprises me that they are denying that this is their company policy, because this is exactly what we saw in Metropolis. [The authors] are mentioning things in this PowerPoint that show they know exactly what Honeywell is doing. They knew about Metropolis, the Burke Group, they had pictures of our pickets lines, detailed information about company structure and union activity. This doesn?t sound like the kind of information mere interns would have. And what they say about working with government officials is exactly what they did during the Honeywell lockout.

This article is cross-posted from In These Times

Source: http://exiledonline.com/in-leaked-docs-honeywell-cites-obama-ties-as-key-to-anti-union-strategy/

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Great Advice For Anyone Seeking Auto Insurance Coverage | Voooz ...

TIP! Trade in your flashy sports car for a cheaper, less noticeable vehicle. People who purchase sports cars end up paying higher premiums.

Buying the right insurance for your car is essential to prevent financial difficulties when an accident occurs. The article below will describe how to ask the right questions from your broker or agent, what coverage to buy and how to avoid duplicate coverage. Read the article and ask the right questions from your insurance professional.

Don?t sign a car over to other family members frequently. To get a better insurance quote, only have one name on each car.

Seek out rates from a variety of insurance companies before picking out your car?s insurance. Chances are you?ll need to look around to find the best deal.

TIP! Don?t sign up without doing your research if your insurer offers you used parts to fulfill your warranty. Repair shops are generally required to have a guarantee period on any labor they do, and product makers also usually have these types of warranties in place as well.

The best thing to do if you want to decrease your car insurance is to install an alarm, immobilizer or tracker in your car. The possibility of your car being stolen is a considerable factor in determining your policy cost and coverage. Your insurance will be lower if you have a safer vehicle.

TIP! Make sure to stay informed about basic insurance terms prior to searching for a company to get a policy from. While each state varies in requirements, the basic concepts of insurance are the same.

If you are a member of certain professional organizations you are eligible for some discounts on your insurance premiums. The senior organization AARP and the American Automobile Association (AAA) are a couple of the more well-known groups that enjoy this benefit.

Insurance Rates

TIP! Drivers over 55 with a refresher course under their belt can receive great discounts on auto insurance. Getting discounts on your insurance is a nice bonus.

You will be able to obtain lower car insurance rates by improving your credit rating. You may not have been aware of this, but insurance companies do check your credit. Insurance companies often make rate decisions based in part on an individual?s credit score. This is due to the fact that studies show individuals with low credit scores are often prone to automobile accidents. Keep your credit in good shape and your insurance rates will stay lower.

TIP! You must call the police immediately if you are in a car accident. Police departments have the means of gathering the most relevant facts and information; an officer will guide the involved parties through the process.

You may not want to buy after-market add-ons if you don?t need them. Though they may be a nice luxury, fancy stereo systems and heated seats are unnecessary. Add-ons will not be replaced or reimbursed if your vehicle is in an accident or stolen, unless you have purchased supplemental insurance for these extra parts which is usually quite costly.

TIP! When the time comes to purchase an automobile, find out what the insurance rates are on the models that you are considering. Insurance agents will be able to advise you on what type of car has low insurance rates.

Find out who the top insurance companies are from asking your local body shop. Body shop employees deal with insurance adjusters often. They will be able to give you information on which companies pay out quickly and which are a constant problem for customers.

TIP! If you do find a lower rate than what you are paying, inform your insurance agent of the quote before you change companies. Your current carrier will often be willing to make your rate competitive in order to keep your business.

Make sure you check into getting coverage for ?uninsured? drivers as a lot of people overlook this part. An uninsured motors policy will increase the cost of your insurance premium. This way, you are protected in the event that an uninsured driver damages your car.

Proper Insurance

TIP! Speak to your insurance company to ascertain whether they will offer any type of loyal customer or multi-policy discount to reduce your premium. Sometimes breaks are given to drivers who travel under 7,500 miles a year.

If you get into an accident, automobile insurance can save you from a very costly mistake. Choosing the right insurance and coverage options will help make sure you get the assistance you need. Use the tips you just read to obtain proper insurance

Source: http://voooz.com/2012/11/15/great-advice-for-anyone-seeking-auto-insurance-coverage/

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Election Aftermath Is A Critical Period For 2016 Race

It may not feel like it days after President Obama's re-election, but the 2016 Republican primaries are already well under way. Not only that, these first few weeks may be among the most critical moments in the race.

Nothing shakes up a party like a presidential defeat. After months, even years, of striving to project a unified front behind their nominee, Republican leaders are suddenly free to test out new messages and positions that previously would have been heretical. These early forays into uncharted territory could bolster their standing within the GOP, but could just as easily backfire if the party base rebels.

Take Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), who has quickly become the face of a new push by Republican elites to repair their standing with Latino voters. Rubio has called in the past for a revised DREAM Act and issued a statement after Obama's victory calling on the GOP to appeal to minority communities. But he's yet to go out on a limb yet with a full policy proposal.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) -- again without naming specific proposals -- is experimenting with more populist GOP rhetoric. He knows better than anybody that sending the wrong message early in an election cycle can have serious consequences for a presidential hopeful. Would he be willing to put his name to some fiscal cliff suggestions that require genuine sacrifices from the rich?

"We've got to make sure that we are not the party of big business, big banks, big Wall Street bailouts, big corporate loopholes, big anything," Jindal told Politico. "We cannot be, we must not be, the party that simply protects the rich so they get to keep their toys."

Paul Ryan has the most to gain -- or lose -- in sensitive negotiations with Democrats to avert an austerity crisis. An unpopular deal, especially one that raises taxes, could threaten his current role as champion of the conservative wing. He's also tied himself closely to Romney's unsuccessful campaign, another move that could be perilous if the former nominee falls out of favor for failing to unseat Obama.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) has boosted his national profile by working closely with President Obama to respond to Hurricane Sandy, but generated grumbling from Republicans who accused him of undermining Romney days before the election.

And Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is looking to carry on his father's legacy with a pro-immigration, anti-drug law platform aimed at winning over young voters and minorities.

If it seems early to take this kind of positioning seriously, consider the moves made by the 2008 field in the immediate aftermath of Obama's first election.

It's hard to believe now, but the popular punditry then -- as now -- was that Republicans needed to moderate their policies and tone to compete with Obama. Several Republicans considered likely presidential candidates made big bets on this new era of bipartisanship and went bust. Florida Gov. Charlie Crist embraced Obama to help promote the stimulus. Now he's not even a Republican anymore. Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, another popular executive, decided to take a post with the Obama administration as ambassador to China. He returned to America to find his improved centrist credentials were useless as a presidential candidate in the new GOP.

On the flipside, other would-be candidates pushed their chips in the other direction. Texas Gov. Rick Perry became one of the first major politicians to embrace the burgeoning tea party movement and even suggested in April 2009 that the state might secede "if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people." That decision helped get him past a tough primary challenge from the left in Texas and propelled him into the GOP presidential campaign as a brief frontrunner.

In perhaps the most important decision of all, Mitt Romney sided with conservatives by opposing emergency loans to auto companies in a New York Times op-ed entitled "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt." It was published at the identical point in the election cycle we're in now: November 18, 2008. Romney guessed correctly that the party was more likely to move right before it swung to the center, but also kept some caveats in his op-ed in case things went the other direction. The result: a confusing please-no-one stance that hounded him throughout the election.

By the time the actual Republican primaries were in sight, the candidates' policy platforms were so similar as to often be barely distinguishable. Many of the candidates quietly phased out proposals to address issues like climate change that had fallen out of favor with the base since the last cycle. But that initial period of 2008-2009, before there was a clear consensus for them to grab hold of, offered real insight into their instincts: Romney as cautious follower, Perry as activist rabble rouser, Huntsman as feelgood centrist. Their successors deserve close attention as they walk the same perilous path themselves.

This post has been updated.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/election-aftermath-critical-period-2016-race-172746900--politics.html

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The Travel and Expense News Source ? CWT launches hotel ...

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Source: http://www.berteloot.com/2012/11/15/cwt-launches-hotel-reviews-website-2/

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Man put to death for Texas woman's 2001 slaying

HUNTSVILLE, Texas A registered sex offender was put to death Wednesday for the rape, robbery and slaying of a woman abducted from a San Antonio bus stop 11 years ago.

Ramon Torres Hernandez was one of three people convicted in the killing of Rosa Maria Rosado, 37, who was pulled into a car Hernandez was driving after she refused to let go of her purse during a drive-by robbery.

Hernandez, 41, told a family member he was "sorry for putting you through all this" after a warden asked if he wanted to make a final statement.

"Tell everybody I love them," the condemned inmate said, directing his words at his brother who was standing nearby in the death chamber and watching through a window that separated him from Hernandez.

Glancing briefly at relatives of his victim, Hernandez said: "I'm very sorry for all the pain." Then he urged other prisoners on death row to "keep fighting; don't give up."

He took several breaths as the lethal dose of pentobarbital took effect, then began snoring quietly. Within a minute, all movement stopped.

His time of death was announced as 6:38 p.m. CST, 26 minutes after the drug began flowing into his arms.

Hernandez became the 14th inmate executed this year in Texas. Another inmate, Preston Hughes III, is scheduled for lethal injection Thursday for a 1988 double slaying in Houston.

The U.S. Supreme Court refused last month to review Hernandez's death sentence and a late appeal filed earlier Wednesday was rejected by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Hernandez, who was on parole at the time of his arrest in Rosado's death, also was a suspect in the slayings of three teenagers and a 12-year-old girl.

According to court records, Hernandez told police that he was driving around San Antonio with his pregnant girlfriend and a friend from prison looking for someone to rob when they saw Rosado at a bus stop on March 31, 2001.

Hernandez said his friend, Santos Minjares, grabbed Rosado's purse. When she wouldn't let go, he pulled her into the car. They taped Rosado's mouth shut, covered her head with a towel and rented a motel room, where they raped and eventually killed her.

Five days later, Hernandez's girlfriend, Asel Abdygapparova, contacted police and led them to the body. Police tied Hernandez to the crime in part with a shovel that he sent Abdygapparova to buy to bury Rosado. Her body was found in a shallow grave.

Hernandez and Minjares ended up on death row, where Minjares died in January of septic shock and multiple organ failure. Abdygapparova, a University of Texas at San Antonio graduate student from Kazakhstan, received a life sentence. She gave birth in jail following her arrest.

At the time of Hernandez's arrest, he was a registered sex offender on parole from an 18-year sentence after admitting in court to a burglary where a woman was raped.

Jurors at his 2002 capital murder trial learned Hernandez also was linked by DNA to the 1994 sexual assaults and slayings of Sarah Gonzales, 13, and her cousin, Priscilla Almares, 12, in the same San Antonio area where Rosado was abducted.

"We're not cruel people, we don't want to have to watch somebody die," Brenda Ayala, Almares' sister, said after witnessing Hernandez's execution. "It doesn't give us happiness at all. If anything, I feel sorry for his family and they're going to have to feel what we felt when we lost our loved ones."

He was a suspect in the killings of two 15-year-old girls west of San Antonio as well. They disappeared within days of the Gonzales and Almares slayings.

Hughes, set to follow Hernandez to the death chamber, was convicted of the 1988 stabbing deaths of Shandra Charles, 15, and her 3-year-old cousin Marcell Taylor. They were attacked in a field behind an apartment complex where Hughes lived.

Hughes, 46, claims police planted evidence and coerced his confession. He and his appeals attorney, who Hughes has sought to fire, have multiple appeals pending in state and federal courts to put off Thursday's planned execution.

Police responding to a passer-by's call found Charles still alive in the field. The teen told an officer that "Preston" had tried to rape her. Authorities went to the nearby apartments and determined that Hughes was the only resident with that first name.

Hughes, who knew Charles through a friend, denied any involvement in her death. However, he made statements while in police custody that implicated him, one of his trial attorneys recalled this week.

"We did what we could with what we had. ... I could say he convicted himself," defense attorney Ellis McCullough said.

But Hughes has insisted he is innocent. "The fact is I didn't kill anyone," he told The Associated Press last month from death row.

Source: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/11/14/3665891/man-put-to-death-for-texas-womans.html

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Buck Rogers and the atomic education of America | Bulletin of the ...

By John Mecklin | 13 November 2012

Article Highlights

Atomic Comics tells the story of the nuclear age through the comic books that made it comprehensible to the masses, raising a provocative question: Could pop culture be the most effective method of warning the public about existential dangers?

Atomic Comics: Cartoonists Confront the Nuclear World
By Ferenc Morton Szasz
University of Nevada Press
$34.95

After being discharged from the Air Service at the end of the Great War, Buck Rogers was hired by the American Radioactive Gas Corporation as an inspector; while investigating a mine, he was overcome by (what else?) radioactive gas, and it preserved him for some 500 years. When he woke in the year 2430, Rogers discovered a world filled with villains whom he regularly bested in a syndicated comic strip, "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century A.D." That strip, which began in 1929, led to nearly four decades of Buck Rogers pop culture prominence, not just in the comics, but on radio, in books, and at the movies. The Buck Rogers franchise was so popular it spawned imitations, contemporary and far in the future, from Flash Gordon to Star Wars.

As the late historian Ferenc Morton Szasz argues in his charming and sophisticated book Atomic Comics: Cartoonists Confront the Nuclear World, the Buck Rogers stories also constituted the classroom in which many Americans of the 1930s and early '40s learned about the amazing new world of atomic energy. For instance, the Daisy manufacturing company (best known for its BB guns) produced a Buck Rogers Atomic Disintegrator Pistol, which capitalized on the comic saga's many Depression-era atomic references, including an adventure during which Buck commands: "Drop Atomic bombs. Then we'll land and mop up." Of course, whatever Buck Rogers did, Flash Gordon copied, adding flair. "In a 1940 daily strip," Szasz writes, "(Flash's girlfriend) Dale Arden is grabbed by a man-eating Octoclaw. To save her, Flash rips the sole power source from the land/sea rocket car and ?blasts the monster with atomic power.'"

Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon were certainly not the only means by which ordinary Americans learned their nuclear lessons in the years before Trinity; there were science fiction books and magazines and, on the science-fact side, a significant contingent of journalists who dealt seriously with subatomic matters. But before Hiroshima, Szasz argues, Rogers and Gordon were by far the most popular portrayers of this new world, which included not only the danger of then-still-imaginary atomic bombs, but also a vague, immense potential for a glorious, leisure-filled future: "[O]verall, the weapons could be controlled, and the promised energy seemed potentially limitless. In other words, the 'atomic future' would surely, somehow, work out for the best."

One might view Atomic Comics through many lenses. To some degree, the book fits in the "researcher studies pop culture" category, but it is much too entertainingly -- even, at times, wryly -- written to consign to the academic corner of the library. It is not per se a book for comics enthusiasts, either, although I suspect many a fan will be fascinated with its range. Even dedicated obscurantists will likely find something new in a book that includes both the wide-eyed Science Comics: Wonders of Science in Pictures ("The Exciting Story of the Atomic Bomb," January 1946) and Leonard Rifas's razor-edged All-Atomic Comics, which enlivened the 1970s by asking this question on the cover -- "Is Nuclear Power the Answer?" -- and then immediately answering it: "Kid I'd Bet Your Life on It!"

CAPTION 1: The main story in the January 1946 issue of Science Comics looked at atomic history and the future of atomic energy.

Atomic Comics is, however, primarily a double-barreled book of history, written by a professional historian -- before his death in 2010 of leukemia, Szasz taught for 43 years at the University of New Mexico, where he focused on the history of American religion, World War II and the Atomic Age -- who grew up on Batman, Green Arrow, Sub-Mariner, and Mad magazine. And Atomic Comics is indeed a serious book, just not a dull one. It tells the story of the Atomic Age through the comic books that made its arcane science and looming dangers comprehensible to the masses, along the way raising a provocative question: Could pop culture be the most effective method of informing the public about complex threats to human existence?

An illustrated history. As secretive fission research continued and the United States entered World War II, Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon were joined in their sometimes-atomic adventures by a phalanx of heroes who inhabited a new medium, the comic book: Superman, Batman, the Flash, Captain Marvel and host of less-famous super-powered protagonists. These and a regiment of more specifically patriotic heroes (the Flag, the Shield, Minuteman, Captain Freedom, and so on) were quickly drafted into the illustrated fight against Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. They brought their atomic themes with them.

Between 1939 and the Hiroshima bombing, Szasz writes, some 40 comic books contained atomic stories, many of them doozies. In 1940, Spacehawk could already fly a million miles an hour "because he had tapped the secret of 'applying atomic power.'" In 1941, "the Human Torch destroyed an 'atom gun,' but not before it demolished an island, a building, and the Statue of Liberty with a single burst of power."

In the early years of World War II, the US Office of Censorship, fearful that Nazi Germany would learn of the US research efforts that culminated in the Manhattan Project, enforced a virtual blackout on press coverage of atomic matters, Szasz writes: "Among the forbidden subjects were the terms 'atomic power,' 'cyclotrons,' 'betatrons,' 'atomic fission,' 'atom smashing,' and any reference to basic atomic research. Overnight, the science writers who had been covering U-235 and U-238 switched to other topics."

Eventually, the security apparatus even turned its gimlet eye to Superman. The censors were troubled by a 1944 story about Lex Luthor's atomic bomb, which apparently was too close in size to the actual plutonium core of the Fat Man bomb for governmental comfort. Then, in the spring of 1945, a cyclotron set to bombard Superman with three million electron volts of particles going a billion miles an hour was seen as a potential security risk. The syndicate that distributed Superman agreed to keep atomic-related comics out of newspapers for the duration.

Still, the comics had been dealing with atomic beams, weapons, and propulsion through most of the war, and if these comic strips and books were wrong about the details, Szasz notes, "the fact that the American public instantly grasped the basic outlines of the atomic age almost surely has its roots in the larger-than-life adventures of Superman, Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, and Mickey Mouse, and well as other long-forgotten characters from that 'loose and baggy creature' of American popular culture."

Atomic comics turn political. America's relationship with things atomic changed after World War II, and so did the comics' treatment of nuclear storylines. Atomic Comics is perhaps at its best when it addresses the interaction between the real and fantasy nuclear worlds during the Cold War. In the wake of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, scientists and journalists made heartfelt attempts to explain the nuclear paradox: Nuclear weapons could destroy the Earth, but nuclear power could potentially power it at extremely low cost.

Between 1945 and the early 1960s, Szasz argues, the comic book industry dealt with the atomic realm in three general stages: First, nonfiction illustrated publications like Science Comics and True Comics instructed the youth of America in the proper use of the power of the atom (leading, among many stories, to the 1949 classic, "Dagwood Splits the Atom," in which Dagwood and his wife Blondie shrink to quantum size to explain fission to, among other interested observers, Popeye).

CAPTION 2: In March 1946, True Comics featured a story on the use of atomic energy to fight cancer. But the comics quickly moved away from factual education, first creating a series of unmistakably atomic heroes -- including Atomic Man, Atomic Thunderbolt, and Atoman -- that didn't capture the public's imagination, and then returning to what the comics do best.

CAPTION 3: In 1952, Captain Marvel tried to get atomic-weapons-wielding bugs to make peace through the UN-like organization United Insects.

CAPTION 4: Atoman lasted only two issues before folding in 1946.

Eventually, of course, the 1960s came into flower, and the era -- with all its anti-war, anti-authority, and pro-expanded consciousness themes -- was reflected none too subtly in comics like Hydrogen Bomb and Biochemical Warfare funnies and Howard the Duck, the latter of which borrowed a Robert Crumb character, Greedy Killerwatt, and had him parody a song by Reddy Kilowatt, the longtime cartoon spokesman for the electric power industry, in this fashion:

I am Greedy Killerwatt
If you want Nukes I got a lot
The Stuff I push is really hot,
The Power of Tomorrow

CAPTION 5: ?Hydrogen Bomb and Biochemical Warfare Funnies satirized the three most "popular" men of 1970 -- then-Vice President Spiro Agnew, then-President Richard Nixon, and evangelist Billy Graham.

Beyond its thorough dissection of American underground comics, Atomic Comics deals comprehensively with Japanese anti-war comics, particularly Keiji Nakazawa's Barefoot Gen, a manga version of Hiroshima from a victim's point of view. (A 6-year-old Nakazawa survived the bombing with minor injuries but lost his father, sister, and brother). For those not intimately familiar with Japanese pop-culture responses to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Barefoot Gen section of Atomic Comics offers revelation upon revelation, and an interesting conclusion: "The European and American cartoonists meant well, but their Japanese counterparts spoke from the heart when they constructed manga tales of nuclear power or crafted stories of the atomic bomb; they knew exactly what they were doing. And, unlike their US or European colleagues, they succeeded in placing the complex story of nuclear energy at the very heart of their culture."

CAPTION 6: Yes, there was even an Atomic Rabbit.

As Szasz notes, it is difficult to prove precisely what impact popular culture has had on a societal pursuit as ambiguous, complex, and frightening as the use of nuclear power. Arms control negotiators probably haven't looked to Spider-Man, Atomic Rabbit (yes, there was one), or even Buck Rogers for guidance. Yet, as Szasz also concludes, comic artists and writers have produced billions of images and stories related to nuclear matters. They must have been some effect on society, and for all their variety over seven decades, the atomic comics have all essentially agreed on one thing: the need to prevent post-Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear warfare. Atomic-themed comic books may not have been the primary reason the Cold War did not turn hot, but they certainly helped push the culture of existentially threatened times toward peace, and, for that reason, they are worthy of continued study by historians, national security experts, advocates for world peace, climate change scientists and activists, and children of all ages.

Source: http://www.thebulletin.org/web-edition/features/buck-rogers-and-the-atomic-education-of-america

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Ford C-MAX Energi plug-in hybrid test drive (video)

Yesterday, we had a chance to take a spin in the brand-new Ford C-MAX Energi at an event in San Francisco. We had generally good impressions of the Focus Electric we tested back in April, so we were looking forward to seeing what the company's first-ever plug-in hybrid had to offer. We'll say up front it uses the same Sync with MyFord Touch dash we've seen in other Ford vehicles and the MyFord Mobile app is mostly unchanged from the one we saw when we tested the Focus Electric, so there's nothing new there. For everything else, however, take a peek after the break.

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Ford C-MAX Energi plug-in hybrid test drive (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Nov 2012 16:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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