Will Becker Appointment Motivate Labor?
The labor movement got a boost last week with a couple of pro-union presidential appointments to the National Labor Relations Board.Senate republicans had been blocking Obama’s picks to fill the seats,...
View ArticleThe Democrats Biggest Mistake
As the economy begins to "recover," there is one great casualty of the first phase of the Obama era: the American wage-earner.Even if the current unemployment rate drops several points, people entering...
View ArticleAmerican Workers and Liberal Failure
I recently heard a conservative characterize the difference between the parties this way:Democrats, he said, believe in and fight for "justice," republicans believe in and fight for "opportunity."This...
View ArticleBlanche Must Go!
Arkansas Senator Blanche Lincoln has turned me into a "single issue" voter.I’m usually the last guy to support primary challenges to incumbent democrats. And that includes some of the most...
View ArticleOn the Take...
The deadly accident at the Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia and the catastrophic Gulf of Mexico oil spill expose pervasive federal government corruption:Government regulators on the take or on...
View ArticleHillary?
On the day of that awful rampage last November when Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Hasan gunned down 13 soldiers at Fort Hood in Texas, President Obama came out to the Rose Garden.It was the president’s...
View ArticleThe Realignment That Isn't
Politics is as much about action and reaction as ideas.Obama has ideas. But on the big stage, I’m afraid, he just doesn’t know how to act.So what we thought was transformational may only be...
View ArticleSupreme Game Changers
The republican campaign against Elena Kagan’s Supreme Court appointment was not intended to block her confirmation but to set the stage for future nomination battles, particularly those which could be...
View ArticlePension Cuts Deep
I’m not sure we can call government worker pensions a "hot button" issue. It lacks the immediacy, clarity and simple polarity of, say, abortion or gay marriage.But I guarantee that the controversy...
View ArticleContradictions and Disappointments
I heard that new housing starts are down.That’s supposed to be bad news.But then I think of those crappy tract homes next to the freeways east of Pomona which put working-class families "underwater" in...
View ArticleLabor Day Small Talk
I’m in no mood to analyze the Labor Movement’s predicament or point out that Labor Day is the unofficial start of election season. They’ll be enough of that in the papers, on tv and online and I...
View ArticleThe President's Self-Respect
The number one talking point for republicans since they took the house is to repeal "Obamacare."They use that term to deliberately mock the president.They proudly and openly proclaim their mission to...
View Articlethe Anti-EFCA
Who is John Kline and what is The Secret Ballot Protection Act [SBPA]?I’m afraid we’re about to find out.Representing Minnesota’s 2nd District, Kline will probably chair the House Education and Labor...
View Article"Reading Obama"
As horrified democrats stepped up their criticism of Obama, an alternative voice entered the conversation:Arguing that this president’s inclination to hear, respect and accommodate all sides of an...
View ArticleSupreme Bios and Future Judges
Recent biographies of two of the most important supreme court justices of the 20th century - Louis Brandeis and Earl Warren - underscore the current critical battle over President Obama’s judicial...
View ArticleThe Old Equalizers
The wealth, income and wage gap in America will continue to widen under President Obama.In 2008, union activists were fantasizing about an Obama administration committed to a remix of the American...
View ArticleThe Mandate
What if congressional democrats and the administration used the republican initiative to repeal health reform by discarding the individual mandate?Forcing Americans to buy health insurance from...
View ArticleWhy I Can't Support Gun Control
Call me a political coward, but I don’t want to get within ten feet of gun control.The Tucson shootings have, for good reason, revived talk of handgun restrictions. But most democrats don’t want to...
View ArticlePrison Labor
California prison guards have one of the best career-jobs in the state: decent pay, steady work and medical benefits.A lot of correctional centers are located in remote regions like the central valley...
View ArticleWisconsin
The dramatic, fast-changing and unpredictable events in Madison, Wisconsin have inspired and encouraged union advocates across the country.Sparked by a brazen move by republicans to weaken state...
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