If you were to believe the commercials in television these days, corporations care about working people and want to ensure that they have the right to vote. This is a relatively sophisticated approach crafted by the pretty boys and girls in the corporate PR departments who discovered that they could graduate from college with a communications degree by packaging their bullshit for pay.

While American jobs vaporize by the hundreds of thousands each week, Americans are bombarded with the message that if the Employee Free Choice Act were to be passed by Congress and enacted into law by the President, workers would be denied the right to choose unionization.

Here is a different perspective on this question put out by American Rights at Work:

The daily update of human rights events around the world.

Blackwater Banned From Iraq

Blackwater, a US private security firm, has been barred from providing security for US diplomats in Iraq for its alleged involvement in the deaths of at least 17 civilians in 2007. Al Jazeera

Guantanamo judge rejects delay plea

A military judge at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp has rejected a request by Barack Obama, the US president, to suspend the trial of a Saudi man accused of planning a 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen. Al Jazeera

Families Demand Justice for Abuse and Deaths of Wrongfully Detained Sons at Guantanamo

The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the International Human Rights Law Clinic at the Washington College of Law filed the final brief in a civil action naming Donald Rumsfeld and 23 other military and medical officials for their role in the illegal detention, torture, inhumane conditions, and ultimate deaths of Yasser Al-Zahrani and Salah Ali Abdullah Ahmed Al-Salami while in the custody of the United States at Guantánamo Bay. The case was filed by the families of the two men, who also seek to hold U.S. officials responsible for the government’s callous response following the deaths. Common Dreams

Will the FDA Finally Get Out of Bed With Big Pharma?

A test case for the new government will be how it deals with the pharmaceutical industry, which rivals the gun manufacturers and tobacco companies for the position of most amoral industry in America. Mother Jones

Women Are Not “Pork”

Responding to President Obama’s request, House Democrats cut a provision from the stimulus package that would expand contraceptive family planning for Medicaid patients-usually poor women and girls. Religion Dispatches

Zimbabwe Abandons its Currency

Zimbabweans will be allowed to conduct business in other currencies, alongside the Zimbabwe dollar, in an effort to stem the country’s runaway inflation. BBC

A noontime roundup of business and politics.

Lincoln of Arkansas Supports Hometown Boys

Sen. Blanche Lincoln has indeed been a direct beneficiary of Wal-Mart’s political largess, with donors associated with the company giving Lincoln over $35,800 in her career.OpenSecrets.org In addition, she has received $44,000 from Tyson Foods, the poultry giant with its own checkered record of worker abuses and hostility to union. OpenSecrets.org

Pentagon Nominee May Make $500,000 on Raytheon Stock

The man nominated to be the Pentagon’s second-in-command could make at least a half-million dollars next month with vested stock he earned as a lobbyist for military contractor Raytheon. Common Dreams

Big Pharma Has a Prescription for Congress

Big Pharma continues to give heavily to Congress with Pfizer leading with contributions of $$1,601,425 in 2008. Wyeth, its soon-to-be-swallowed competitor, gave an impressive $583,371 during that same period. OpenSecrets.org

BofA Cashes Out Working People

Three days after receiving $25 billion in federal bailout funds, Bank of America Corp. hosted a conference call with conservative activists and business officials to organize opposition to the U.S. labor community’s top legislative priority. Huffington Post

The daily update of human rights events around the world.

MYANMAR: Six Million Burmese Need Food

The United Nations has warned of acute food shortages in parts of Burma, despite a better than expected rice harvest over the past year. BBC

CHAD: Press Senegal on Habré Trial

More than 30 months after it asked Senegal to prosecute the former dictator of Chad, Hissène Habré, the African Union should ensure that the trial moves forward, five African and international human rights groups said today. FIDH

IRAQ: KBR Must Be Accountable for Iraq Deaths

U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday raised concerns about the U.S. military’s increased use of private contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, and said KBR and other companies should be held accountable for the electrocution deaths of U.S. soldiers and other mistakes. Common Dreams

GAZA: Israeli raid injures Gaza children

At least eight people, six of them children, have been injured by an Israeli air attack in the southern Gaza Strip, sources tell Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera

COLOMBIA: Colonel and Soldiers Called to Trial for Peace Community Massacre

Colombia’s Prosecutor General’s Office Wednesday ordered one army colonel and nine soldiers to appear before court for their alleged responsibility in a 2005 massacre. Colombia Reports