Does John McCain really think he's the outsider?? He's been in the administration and with the ruling party for eight years!!! He's going to "get the job done?" He's been in Washington for 26 years and the Republicans have ruled most of them!!! Does he think the American people are crazy?
He's going to go after corruption??? He was one of the Keating 5 -- caught in corruption with the savings and loan industry.
Plus he is the biggest supporter of the illegal, immoral Iraq war.
I know this convention is about mobilizing the Republicans' base but come on. This is the ruling party and they are acting like they had nothing to do with the last eight years!
Now they are trying to go after families who have kids with special needs. He has not supported any increase in federal funding for the Individuals with Disability and Education Act. This kind of hypocrisy makes me sick.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Shake up Washington???
Where the word 'Maverick' comes from
Just so the far-right doesn't claim the word "maverick" for themselves...the root of it comes from a Texas politician from the 1800s: Samuel Maverick who refused to brand his cattle.
Interestingly enough...his great grandson, Maury Maverick took on the 1950s redbaiting/McCarthyism.
Read Roberto Botello's remembrance of this real "Maverick."
http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/2959/
What about those 18 million cracks?
Sarah Palin's speech was just what Republicans like in a woman. It was mean-spirited, all form and no substance. Absolutely nothing about furthering those 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling. Actually her speech was more about covering up those cracks.
Who is Palin?
She is associated with the far-right/white supremecist Alaskan Independence Party. See Tim Wheeler's story. http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/13641/
It's an insult to ordinary working class people, moms, and small town folks to be compared to her and her reactionary ideology.
Absolutely nothing of substance in her speech. No policy information. And she couldn't because she is so far-right and the country is tired of these policies. So instead she launched a typical Rovian mean-spirited attack on the Democrats and Obama. Like Giuliani and those before her. It was like watching those "super-Orcs" from Middle Earth crawl out of the fires of Saurmon.
They are desperate.
Are they really for “democracy at the workplace?”
Right now workers who try to form a union are up against employers who coerce, harass, intimidate and fire them. “Elections,” in which workers vote “yes” or “no” for union representation are held on company property after a long period during which workers have been forced to attend anti-union propaganda sessions. The union is not allowed in and has to reach workers outside the workplace.
Heavily funded right-wing outfits are rearing their ugly heads now all over the country, trying to turn back the growing support for the EFCA and they are attacking congressional and Senatorial candidates who support the bill.
One TV ad shows a union leader who looks like the stereotypical gangster barging into a voting booth and telling a worker who is in there that he can’t vote in secret. The gangster-type “union leader” hands him a card and tells him to make his choice while a bunch of people standing nearby look on.
The ad is co-sponsored by the so called “Coalition for a Democratic Workplace.”
This attack on the EFCA is as absurd as it is hypocritical.
To begin with, in any democracy, when people join an organization they usually do so by filling out a form, a card or an application printed by the group they want to join. When the company you work for joined the Chamber of Commerce in your town there was no election. You did not have the right to force the boss to attend a meeting at which workers had a chance to propagandize with him about how bad the Chamber of Commerce is. Democracy means that when you want to join an organization you should be able to sign up and join. No one has the right to force you to wait months or more so they can have a chance to talk or scare you out of doing it.
If the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace was really interested in pursuing the noble goal of democracy on the job there are numerous ways they could do it.
They could insist, for example, that before your company decides to move to
The companies, of course, are not interested in workplace democracy. Those decisions, they tell us, are company decisions and are none of our business.
Workers know that most workplaces are dictatorships where democracy stops as you enter the door. Any country in the world run like most companies in the
They believe the bosses have the right to threaten that they will close down if the workers unionize.
They believe bosses have the right to corner workers individually or to herd them into a room where they scare them into voting against a union.
They believe bosses have the right to fire people who want a union.
The reasons we must back the EFCA, however, go beyond even these issues of our human, civil and democratic rights.
The economy grows and profits grow but wages stagnate or even go down.
This is the direct result of the attacks on the labor movement and the fact that smaller percentages of the workforce are now unionized than 30 years ago.
The EFCA is the first step in reversing this trend. If the trend is not reversed we could well see an
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Not your ordinary shotgun wedding
Nope, not when you have the GOP candidate for the United States. These kids are facing an assault weapon wedding. Wow. Lot of pressure for teenagers.
Now the GOP is accusing everyone of sexism. This has got Karl Rove's fingerprints all over it. They want to talk about anything but public policy and issues.
Cuba faces Gustav
The Hurricane
By Fidel Castro
When hurricane Gustav started to threaten our country on the same day when our Olympic delegation returned, I wrote: “We are lucky to have a Revolution! It is a fact that nobody will be neglected. Our strong, forceful and farsighted Civil Defense protects our people.
“The growing frequency and intensity of these natural phenomena show that the climate is changing due to the action of man. The current times demand ever increasing dedication, steadiness and conscience.”
I know of the colossal efforts that the Revolution has to make after the national territory is hit by a hurricane. I could add that Cuba counts on keen and persevering scientists such as José Rubiera.
Hundreds of millions of working hours are lost in a brief period of time when the wind gusts beat directly against economic and social centers. Endless rains accompany these natural phenomena. Rivers overflow and sweep away anything they find in their path and flood extensive areas. Thousands of farms that produce vegetables, milk, eggs, poultry meat and pork, as well as sophisticated irrigation systems, are seriously damaged; tens of thousands of hectares of sugar cane, food grains, cereals and fruit trees ready for harvest are lost. Schools, polyclinics, entertainment and cultural centers, private housing, roofs, factories, warehouses, highways and bridges are all damaged by wind and rain.
This time those winds and rains affected all provinces in a greater or lesser degree, since the hurricane made its way through the seas nearby the southern part of the country and moved across the westernmost province. Its eye’s radius was 30 kilometers in length, and strong winds blew over a diameter of more than 450 kilometers.
Nothing is as devastating as the damage and destruction left behind by a hurricane. Hundreds of thousands of compatriots mobilize and work very hard during the passing of the hurricane and afterwards during the recovery stage. Reserves are reduced or depleted. Today, more than ever, the damages caused on food supplies are costly and significant. But this is our country; this is our rightful place in this planet, and we have to develop and defend it.
The task we have ahead requires time and expertise. The true Cuba and its noble people, which have been ready to share with others its knowledge and even part of its resources including its own blood, were not built overnight. That is why it has been an invincible adversary in confronting the powerful empire that has tried all of its weapons against our country.
But there is hardly any information to the world about Cuba’s merits and its extraordinary struggle.
Two days ago, none of the international press reporting on Cuba referred to the hurricane that was approaching our island or the intensive efforts made by our Civil Defense, with the generous support of millions of Cuban families led by a courageous political vanguard.
One of the cables published by the German news agency DPA read:
“Popular Cuban Actor Arrives in Miami: ‘I left because I grew tired.’”
We, Cubans, could add: What patriot! What democrat! What brilliant example is this prototype that they presenting to us! This is the way in which they disseminate throughout the world information about a guy far less known and important than hurricane Gustav.
I do not hate other human beings, but I hate vanity, egocentricity, selfishness, arrogance, smugness the absence of ethics and other tendencies human beings are born with. Only education and the example set by those who excel in their battle to be better will succeed and influence all of us.
Confront racism, leader tells union
This just in from Gary Hicks in Boston...Right on! Labor is really taking this head on and getting a good response to it.
Confront racism, leader tells union
Issue shadows campaign for Obama, Haynes contends
By Maria Sacchetti, Globe Staff September 2, 2008
The state's top union leader, concerned that some white voters will not vote for Barack Obama because he is black, issued an impassioned plea to union members yesterday to confront racism on the campaign trail.
Speaking to politicians and pipefitters alike, Massachusetts AFL-CIO president Robert Haynes brought the audience to its feet at the Greater Boston Central Labor Council's annual Labor Day breakfast. He surprised many union members by delivering an unusually direct speech on the sensitive issue of racism, echoing concerns from other union leaders nationwide.
"Barack Obama's skin color isn't what matters in this election," Haynes told more than 350 people who gathered for bacon and eggs at the Park Plaza Hotel in Boston. "I'll be damned, and I know you'll be damned, if I let racism . . . scare this country into voting for John McCain." Haynes followed US Senator John Kerry, Mayor Thomas M. Menino, and union leaders who also urged workers to vote and campaign for Obama, citing the urgency of the election and the fact that Democrats have lost the last two presidential contests.
Only Haynes raised the issue of racism directly.
Haynes said he decided to confront racism head-on because he had been hearing racist comments about Obama - some subtle, some overt - in restaurants and mechanics' garages across Massachusetts. Recently on the Cape, for instance, an elderly man busing tables suggested that he would not vote for Obama and referred to black colleagues as "those people." In another case, he said, car mechanics who normally voted Democrat said they would not support Obama because he is black.
Haynes said he gave his speech because he wanted to give union members something to say in response to racism on the campaign trail. Yesterday, he told union members they could emphasize the economy and workers' rights. They could point out that black union members have been voting for white Democrats for president all their lives.
When all else fails, he said, make voters see the shame in racism.
"You've got to look them dead in the eye," he said. "Can you imagine telling your kid in this day and age that you're not going to vote for someone because of the color of their skin?"
Nationally, other union leaders have raised concerns about racism hurting Obama among working-class white people. The national AFL-CIO endorsed Obama in June and launched a multimillion-dollar campaign to urge people to vote for him.
Making the point is crucial now, Haynes said, as dozens of union members flock to New Hampshire and other swing states to campaign for Obama. Massachusetts unions could have a key influence on New Hampshire voters, he said; about 10,000 of New Hampshire's 40,000 union members work in Massachusetts.
Haynes said he had never given such a speech before - even when Deval Patrick, Massachusetts' first black governor, was running for the seat.
Haynes's speech inspired many in the crowd.
"I don't think racism should be the point of the election," said Arthur Johnson, a 52-year-old security guard from Revere who is white.
Lauren Jacobs, organizing director of the Local SEIU 615, said union members who are campaigning in New Hampshire are emphasizing the issues that Obama shares with all voters. Obama is the son of a single mother, she said, and he struggled to put himself through college, something that resonates with voters.
"People really connect with this guy," she said.
Haynes said racism was prevalent everywhere, not just in the unions, although he did not think that most voters were racist. Still, he said he decided to make it a major issue because even a small number rejecting Obama because of his race could hurt his chances.
"We can't afford to have this guy lose the presidency because of unspoken truths," he said afterward. Haynes represents 400,000 union members in Massachusetts.
After the speech, union members, white and black, approached Haynes to shake his hand, slap him on the shoulder, and thank him for his speech.
David Eastmond of Boston, an iron worker for more than 30 years, said he hoped union leaders would share the speech across the United States.
"As an African American, I've been voting . . . for white presidents all my life," he said. "When the tables are turned, we've got a good candidate. Why can't we vote for him?"