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Author, The Political Mind, Moral Politics, Don’t Think of an Elephant!
Sat, 07/17/2010 - 14:00By George Lakoff Author, “The Political Mind,” “Moral Politics,” “Don’t Think of an Elephant!” The issue is death — death gushing for months at ten thousand pounds per square inch from a mile below the sea, tens of thousands of barrels of death a day. Not just death to eleven human beings. Death to sea birds, sea [...]
N.Y. Coalition Tells Big Banks Do More to Stop Foreclosures
Sat, 07/17/2010 - 11:00By Mike Hall AFL-CIO Senior Writer A coalition of New York City unions and community groups, joined by city Comptroller John Liu, told some of the biggest banks that received hundreds of billions in taxpayer bailouts that it’s time to help out New York homeowners facing foreclosure. In letters to JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, PNC, [...]
Make Them Work – Citizens As “The Help”
Sat, 07/17/2010 - 07:00By Dave Johnson Fellow with Campaign for America’s Future Conservatives seem to think of America’s citizens as “the help.”“Everyone knows Americans are lazy, shiftless, always looking for a way to shirk their responsibilities. People don’t want to work so we have to make them work. And good dose of humiliation is good for the soul. If you [...]
Chamber Poll Makes Case for Stimulus Over Deficit Reduction
Fri, 07/16/2010 - 11:00By James Parks AFL-CIO Senior Writer The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s so-called Jobs Summit Wednesday in Washington, D.C., produced little in the way of real solutions to our economic crisis. Instead, there were the usual complaints about regulation and taxes—it opposes both. But the real news came from outside the summit, where a new poll commissioned by the Chamber [...]
“Something Needs to Be Done” Massey Mine Survivor Testifies Before Congress
Fri, 07/16/2010 - 09:23By Lindsay Beyerstein Freelance investigative journalist On July 13, the House Committee on Education and Labor held a hearing on proposed legislation to toughen mine safety. The major impetus for this legislation was the April 5 explosion at the Upper Big Branch (UBB) coal mine that killed 29 miners, the worst U.S. mining accident in the past [...]
Social Security Cuts Eyed by Deficit Commission “Especially Painful,” Report Finds
Fri, 07/16/2010 - 07:00By Mike Hall AFL-CIO Senior Writer Next month, Social Security, one of the nation’s most successful and important government programs, turns 75. It is the cornerstone of retirement security for tens of millions of Americans. Next November, when the federal budget deficit commission makes its report, large chunks of that cornerstone may be chipped away if the panel [...]
STOP Program Not Sufficient Solution for Safety
Thu, 07/15/2010 - 14:11Editor’s Note: A writer claiming to be a safety official sent the USW Blog a message this week complaining about the USW’s position on Behavior Based Safety (BBS) programs. Michael J. Wright, director of the USW Health, Safety and Environment Department sent him the response below. It was written on the day Mr. Wright’s department began investigating [...]
Who Gets US Out of the Hole We Are In?
Thu, 07/15/2010 - 11:00By Robert L. Borosage Co-Director Campaign for America’s Future Voters are in a surly temper. The economy stinks. Jobs are scarce. Wages are under pressure. One in 4 homes with mortgages is underwater. Retirement savings have been butchered; pensions are at risk. Bailed out bankers are paying themselves record bonuses; the oil keeps fouling the Gulf; the [...]
Why We Can’t Rely on Foreign Consumers to Rescue American Jobs, and Why Wednesday’s “Jobs for America Summit” Was a Bad Joke
Thu, 07/15/2010 - 07:00By Robert Reich Former U.S. Secretary of Labor, Professor at Berkeley Fred Hochberg, president of the Export-Import Bank of the U.S., thinks I’m wrong to worry about a trade war, and that the president’s goal for doubling U.S. exports over the next five years is on track. Writing here on HuffPost, Hochberg says: Reich’s argument contradicts the message [...]
The Root of Economic Fragility and Political Anger – Part 3
Wed, 07/14/2010 - 14:00By Robert Reich Former U.S. Secretary of Labor, Professor at Berkeley The Great Recession could have spawned another era of fundamental reform, just as the Great Depression did. But the financial rescue reduced immediate demands for broader reform. Obama might still have succeeded had he framed the challenge accurately. Yet in reassuring the public that the economy will [...]
The Root of Economic Fragility and Political Anger – Part 2
Wed, 07/14/2010 - 11:00By Robert Reich Former U.S. Secretary of Labor, Professor at Berkeley The structural problem began in the late 1970s when a wave of new technologies (air cargo, container ships and terminals, satellite communications and, later, the Internet) radically reduced the costs of outsourcing jobs abroad. Other new technologies (automated machinery, computers and ever more sophisticated software applications) [...]
The Root of Economic Fragility and Political Anger – Part 1
Wed, 07/14/2010 - 07:00By Robert Reich Former U.S. Secretary of Labor, Professor at Berkeley Missing from almost all discussion of America’s dizzying rate of unemployment is the brute fact that hourly wages of people with jobs have been dropping, adjusted for inflation. Average weekly earnings rose a bit this spring only because the typical worker put in more hours, but [...]
The Attack of the Real Black Helicopter Gang: The IMF is Coming for Your Social Security
Tue, 07/13/2010 - 14:00By Dean Baker Co-Director, Center for Economic and Policy Research A few years back, there was a fear in some parts about black UN helicopters that were supposedly taking part in the planning of an invasion of the United States. While there was no foundation for this fear, there is basis for concern about the attack of [...]
Trade Deficit Threatens Double Dip and Depression
Tue, 07/13/2010 - 11:00Peter Morici Professor, Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland Analysts expect the Commerce Department to report today that the deficit on international trade in goods and services was $39 billion in May, down slightly from the $40.3 billion in April because of lower oil prices. Non-oil and petroleum imports are rising faster than exports, and [...]
We are No. 2; We are No. 2!
Tue, 07/13/2010 - 05:00Leo W. Gerard By Leo W. Gerard USW International President For 110 years America has reigned as the world’s number one manufacturing nation. Next year, China is expected to wrest that title from the United States. Last year, the U.S. manufactured $1.7 trillion worth of goods; China fell second at $1.6 trillion. Next year, China is expected to edge [...]
Evangelicals and Working-Class Politics
Mon, 07/12/2010 - 19:08By Mike Boyle Ph.D. student in Cultural Anthropology at the City University of New York According to the popular stereotype, evangelical Christians want little to do with working-class politics. Instead, we tend to imagine evangelicals as people who are either uninterested in politics or focused entirely on fighting the culture wars, rather than as people who care [...]
Call-In Day, July 13: Tell Congress to Pass Currency Legislation
Mon, 07/12/2010 - 14:00By James Parks AFL-CIO Senior Writer Now that the Treasury Department once again has refused to label China as a currency manipulator, it is more important than ever for Congress to pass strong legislation quickly to stop the unfair and illegal advantage against U.S. producers that China and other nations gain by undervaluing their currency. On July 13, [...]
The Tea Party Will Remain as Long as We Keep Discussing It
Mon, 07/12/2010 - 11:00By Bill Scher Executive editor of LiberalOasis.com Was GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham correct when he told the New York Times Magazine that the Tea Party would “die out” because “they can never come up with a coherent vision for governing the country”? It would be nice if that were the basis on which political parties and movements survived [...]
Question for the Tea Party: Why the Free Ride for Republicans Protecting Bankers?
Mon, 07/12/2010 - 08:04Robert Kuttner Co-Founder and Co-Editor of The American Prospect The financial reform bill that passed both houses of Congress was far less than we needed. But it was a start — enough of a start that the bankers have spent tens of millions trying to kill it. And now, with the House-Senate conference version of the bill [...]
Rand Paul: Opposes All Workers’ Rights
Sun, 07/11/2010 - 11:00By Berry Craig Professor of history, West Kentucky Community and Technical College Kentucky State AFL-CIO President Bill Londrigan says Ron Paul, the state’s Republican Senate candidate, is so vehement in his opposition to the right to the freedom to form unions and bargain contracts that when an anti-union Republican front group sent out a candidate questionnaire, Paul indicated his opposition [...]