AFL-CIO Still Vigorously Opposes Colombia Trade Deal | AFL-CIO NOW BLOG

AFL-CIO Still Vigorously Opposes Colombia Trade Deal | AFL-CIO NOW BLOG

Anti-union violence still remains at alarming levels, he said. In 2010, 52 trade unionists were murdered and 21 were the objects of unsuccessful attempts on their lives. In 2011, another seven trade unionists have been killed.

Watch Out, Chasepack. Newt Approacheth.

Newt in His Own Words: 33 Years of Bomb-Throwing | Mother Jones

1994 A South Carolina woman, Susan Smith, murders her two sons. Gingrich draws the only logical conclusion: "I think that the mother killing the two children in South Carolina vividly reminds every American how sick the society is getting and how much we need to change things. The only way you get change is to vote Republican."

After ACORN, SEIU

New labor plan: Nationwide protests - Ben Smith - POLITICO.com

The plan comes at a moment of organizational weakness for the grass-roots left, after the community organizing group ACORN filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection last year under intense conservative pressure. SEIU says they don’t plan to build a new organization on the ACORN model, but they are likely to attempt to mobilize some of the urban poor toward national politics as ACORN did, while the local remnants of ACORN continue to focus largely on local political issues.

The year “2010 came and the Democrats had no ground game! Who was registering folks to vote last year?” asked former ACORN President Bertha Lewis. “Anything that unions do that goes outside of the workplace, that’s excellent.”

The SEIU plan makes no mention of voter registration, which ACORN had conducted on a large (and — critics on both sides said, sloppy) scale for the Democratic Party.

Henry said the effort would also aim, by 2013, to focus on more traditional union organizing for SEIU, and to win rule changes that would allow for quicker union elections.

Finally, Someone Stands Up for the White Guys

More mailbag from the R-G:

Councilor Ralston stands tall

I don’t know about the rest of the folks around the Eugene-Springfield area, but I find it very refreshing that a city councilor can speak his mind and stand by his words even as criticism comes from all sides. Generally, when a story of this nature is reported (Register-Guard, April 23), the first thing a public official will do is to grovel and go on a apology tour.

I support David Ralston, and my respect for him and his position grows the more I see the attacks coming from those who disagree with his stand on illegal aliens. It is nice to see a man willing to stand tall for his principles even as the opposition grows. I will stand proudly with Dave Ralston.

D.W. Northey

Walton

Those of you not blessed to live in the 541 any longer might be wondering what brave stand [Springfield City] Councilor Ralston took that engenders such admiration and man-love from recent Oregon immigrant D.W. Northey. Well, Ralston came out against government funding for Centro Latino Americano, an organization that helps people who speak primarily Spanish access services, because they only cater to "100% illegal immigrants."

You can probably imagine the rest of Ralston's arguments about "invasion," "assimilation," and "dumping their kids in our schools." You can watch here if you'd like, because this asshole is proud enough of himself that he's perfectly happy to be filmed saying stupid shit.

My favorite bit - hell, everybody's favorite bit - is the part where he asserts that he knows that anyone who speaks Spanish is an illegal immigrant because the government would never let someone legally immigrate to the US unless they spoke English.

But D.W. Northey is right. It is surely brave of a white government official to justify voting to cut services to poor brown people on racist grounds. You just don't see it much any more.

Now, if only someone would stand up to the fucking Californians who move here without understanding our culture or values, drive up our housing costs, dump their kids in our schools, and clog up our prisons, that would be truly brave.

We Got 'Em, Too

From the R-G letters:

Ultimate liberal would vote no

In the movie “Batman Begins” (2005), Batman fights against a shadowy group bent on destroying the entire Gotham City. This movie was hugely popular across the American demographic landscape. Why?

In my opinion Batman is a long-time icon of goodness, strength and overcoming adversity in many forms, and there are probably more reasons that you may have for liking Batman for all these years.

Let me give you a look at what “Batman Begins” does for me. He is the ultimate liberal! As soon as he realizes that the shadowy group is going to destroy Gotham City and all its residents, he fights against the group that saved him.

I read this as a parable of the Vietnam era policy of destroying the village to save it. We know where re-igniting this policy has gotten us (into not one but two more land wars in Asia).

I want to revisit this film’s themes because it’s 2011 now and the right wants to cut services to the neediest at a terrible time of uncertainty.

The right acts like the neediest of us need to be destroyed to save the village. The budget that Rep. Paul Ryan and his cronies propose will push us toward a society not unlike Gotham City. Is this where they want the United States to go? Conspiracy theorists may well say yes.

I know it’s a movie. And yet everyone knows that art (movies, books, TV, etc.) reflects culture and society. So, people, would Batman support this budget?

No.

Arthur Hering

Eugene

Sweden, You're Fucked

Rick Santorum is running for president of these United States and, by all accounts, he, like Judge Roy Moore, is in it to win it.

A strong candidate needs a strong foreign policy stand and if taking on the godless hordes of the frozen north is what he has to do to win the ultimate prize, then that's just what he's going to do.

Santorum says the United States has a moral authority to fight "godless socialism."

He nattered on about China and Venezuela, but as China is communist and Venezuela is pretty fucking Catholic, we know who he was really aiming his remarks at and why.

Look out Norsemen, Rick has you in his sights.

Haley, We Hardly Knew Ya

A plain blog about politics: Winnowing

I can only repeat what I've been saying: it's not that the field is small; it's that the winnowing has begun early.

....

But, look, we call this period the "invisible primary" for a reason: just like in the state-by-state primaries to come next year, the current contest has winners and losers, and the losers tend to drop out. Now, some potential candidates really haven't contested the invisible primary...I haven't read anything, for example, about Jeb Bush. So I'll chalk him up as a "did not run." But those who hired staff, sought endorsements, traveled to Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina -- they contested the invisible primary. They were candidates for 2012. Even if they didn't quite make it all the way to 2012.

NLRB plans to sue two states in attack on secret ballot | Philip Klein | Beltway Confidential | Washington Examiner

NLRB plans to sue two states in attack on secret ballot | Philip Klein | Beltway Confidential | Washington Examiner

Majority signup lives!

The National Labor Relations Board, which under Obama has launched an assualt on workers and businesses at the behest of unions, is planning to sue two states that have constitutional amendments protecting workers' rights to a secret ballot in union elections, the New York Times reports.

According to the Times, the NLRB put Arizona and South Dakota on notice in a letter sent Friday, warning that it planned to sue the states because they passed amendments prohibiting unionization through "card check." The "card check" procedure allows a site to become unionized if labor leaders can collect signed cards from 50 percent of the employees, plus one. It denies workers access to a secret ballot, enabling for rapid unionization at the federal level.

With the Obama administration unable to enact a federal law on card check, it's seeking to undermine secret ballot elections through the regulatory route.

Prabhat Patnaik, "Lenin and Keynes"

Prabhat Patnaik, "Lenin and Keynes"

But, again by an irony that unites both these thinkers, the historical experiments unleashed by them, despite remarkable early promise, could not reach successful fruition. The process of globalization of finance made the nation state that was supposed to override the whims and caprices of finance, subservient precisely to these very whims and caprices for fear of capital flight; as a result we have the current bizarre spectacle of capitalist countries enacting one after another 'austerity measures' in the midst of a recession, which will only accentuate the recession. Keynes would be turning in his grave at this absurd course of events. Likewise, the Soviet Union founded under Lenin's leadership no longer exists; communist parties, barring a few, have dwindled into insignificance; the socialist credentials of China and Vietnam are barely visible and have to be established by the committed few through elaborate theoretical and statistical exercises; and a question mark hovers over the fate of Cuba, buffeted by imperialism. Those who invoke either Keynes or Lenin today are few and far between.

So it is, so it is. This article is the unknowing prequel to my forthcoming ballade, "Trotsky and (George) Romney."

We Work Hard, but Who’s Complaining? - NYTimes.com

We Work Hard, but Who’s Complaining? - NYTimes.com

So, when those firemen took the steps of the Madison Capitol a few weeks ago, I was among those heartened and stirred. I could not resist, though, feeling more than a twinge of disappointment. I fear if it had been just some state home care workers or public school kindergarten teachers up there on the steps, it would not have ignited the same public sympathy and this fight would not be taken as seriously as it is.

Another Late-Night Attack on State Workers

Another Late-Night Attack on State Workers

Late last night, long after normal business hours, the New Hampshire House became the latest state government to pass legislation balancing the budget on the backs of the poor and vulnerable. The most contentious part of the legislation gets rid of negotiation rights for the state’s 70,000 public employees if their contracts expire before a new agreement has been reached.

Unreal. It just keeps going.

Chasepack Screed of the Moment is by Joe Klein

American Embarrassment - Swampland - TIME.com

This is my 10th presidential campaign, Lord help me. I have never before seen such a bunch of vile, desperate-to-please, shameless, embarrassing losers coagulated under a single party's banner. They are the most compelling argument I've seen against American exceptionalism. Even Tim Pawlenty, a decent governor, can't let a day go by without some bilious nonsense escaping his lizard brain. And, as Greg Sargent makes clear, Mitt Romney has wandered a long way from courage. There are those who say, cynically, if this is the dim-witted freak show the Republicans want to present in 2012, so be it. I disagree. One of them could get elected. You never know. Mick Huckabee, the front-runner if you can believe it, might have to negotiate a trade agreement, or a defense treaty, with the Indonesian President some day. Newt might have to discuss very delicate matters of national security with the President of Pakistan. And so I plead, as an unflinching American patriot--please Mitch Daniels, please Jeb Bush, please run. I may not agree with you on most things, but I respect you. And you seem to respect yourselves enough not to behave like public clowns.

Saturday

Don't Call Me Pale Ale
6# LME
.75# Crystal 40L
.25# Honey Malt 25L
2 oz Goldings
Wyeast London Ale

Standard boil on the grains and extract, added 1 oz of the hops at 60 mins, .5 oz at 22 minutes, and .5 oz while the wort chilled.

I also made this:



















The candle holder, not the table or everything else. Now, if it would quit raining, I could make more candle holders and use them!

Weigel : Creeping FOIAzation in Michigan, and Defunding the Left

Weigel : Creeping FOIAzation in Michigan, and Defunding the Left

This is the next stage, really, in the evolution of the conservative and libertarian think tanks that were created to combat the influence of state-funded public universities -- making it tougher for the public universities to host political operations.

The union mentality: We can do well without it - AnnArbor.com

The union mentality: We can do well without it - AnnArbor.com

But are we witnessing the spirit of Joe Hill on Capitol Hill? I doubt it. If his ghost walks the earth, it is in the third-world where it might still find seriously unsafe and unhealthy working conditions, 12-hour work days, six-day work weeks, child labor, and company stores keeping workers trapped in debt -- that is, actually exploited workers
...In a word, the union mentality is unbecoming. Why not face the world as an individual? Offer your knowledge and skills in trade with others. Rise or fall on your own merits. Find job security in being valuable to your employers. Make your employer’s goals and objectives your own. Make your bosses worry that they might lose you. Or start your own business. At least have enough self-respect to realize that if you need asinine work rules to keep your job, you don’t deserve your job.

Really, read the whole thing. We do "anti-union nutjob fuck" in MI just as well as they do in OR. Mebbe even better.

A plain blog about politics: Palin and Playing By the Rules

A plain blog about politics: Palin and Playing By the Rules

Again, this is how nomination politics works. For all one hears about efforts to market candidates to mass electorates (that's what things like the "authenticity" debate are all about), the bulk of nomination politics is retail, not wholesale -- and the customers candidates are trying to reach are a relatively small group of party elites. It is not, to be sure, only party officials...it's a fairly large and usually evolving group; it includes not just formal party officials, but also leaders of party-affiliated groups, campaigning and governing professionals, activists, and politicians. That's more like thousands, not hundreds, of people; it's only the dreaded "establishment" if the term is used very loosely to mean anyone with a long-term commitment to party politics, and even then both parties are at least somewhat permeable to new people and groups.

Trots for Romney everywhere semi-agree that these same realities, when brought to bear on Governor Tim Pawlenty, will cause his ultimate defeat. Religious folk shall march with Huckabee, and party chairs will cluck for Mittens. TPAW must pass between the Scylla of Jesus maniacs and the Charibdis of organized banking in order to clear a path, and to build a tent, pour le victoire. The odds, one must admit, are long.

The Minnesota Boy Knows His Southern Strategy

TPAW is in. First, last, always - TPAW.

Pawlenty comes out strong.

Did Tim Pawlenty come from humble beginning he had to struggle to overcome, a stuggle that has infused him with a value of hard work and an unsullied optimism?

At a young age, I saw up close the face of challenge, the face of hardship and the face of job loss. Over the last year I've traveled to nearly every state in the country and I know many Americans are feeling that way today. I know that feeling. I lived it.

But there is a brighter future for America.

YES HE DID!

Does Tim Pawlenty have political heroes we can all admire?

Ronald Reagan personified [America]. And Lincoln stood courageously to protect it. That's why today, I'm announcing the formation of an exploratory committee to run for president of the United States. Join the team and together we'll restore America.

YES HE DOES!

Most importantly, can he talk about the truly important issues without sounding too, you know, racist?

We, the people of the United States, will take back our government. This is our country. Our founding fathers created it.

YES HE CAN!

Who's founding fathers? Our founding fathers!
Who's country? Our country!
Who's government? Our government!

Finally, a candidate who is willing to plainly say what we are all thinking. The "government" is currently controlled by people who are not "We, the people of the United States."

We the People, forming a more perfect union:

Men and women of good faith know what I mean.

America, prepare to be TPWND!

Nerds of the World, Unite!

I thought this post about the time we spent in the basement was nice.

A Koan

If everybody in the running for GOP nomination in 2012 is in the chase pack, couldn't we say that no one is the chase pack? Or if there is, even, a chase pack?

Giving Glenn Beck Talking Points Since 2003

A CALL TO ESCALATE THE MOVEMENT

AGAINST CORPORATE GREED

JOIN FRANCES FOX PIVEN

AND CORNEL WEST

FOR A

NATIONAL TEACH-IN

ON DEBT, AUSTERITY

AND

HOW PEOPLE ARE FIGHTING BACK

TUESDAY, APRIL 5TH, 2011

2:00 – 3:30 PM (EST), National Teach-in Live Streamed from New York City

3:30 – 5:00 PM (EST), Local Teach-in and Strategy Discussions on Your Campus

Participate in the National Teach-in by organizing a teach-in on your local campus (see the next page for an organizing guide).