Has the Democratic Party now thrown Labor under the Bus?

Do we really have a two part system?

Who represents the rest of 99%?

Ot full footage of Iara Lee who was on the humanitarian flotilla where 9 activist were executed by Israeli soldiers. Amy goodman interviewed her today
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/6/10/exclusive_journalist_smuggles_out_video_of

Released at the UN today
http://mondoweiss.net/

We have the so called national D leadership calling the base “retards” and insulting labor unions as “special Dee Cee interests”. This is the language that is used for political opponents. But the actual Special Interests, Oil company terrorists such as BP and Exxon, financial arsonists, such as Goldman Sachs and AIG, and the War Profiteers, they are considered winners. Note the “Shill”, a dee cee institutution that feels it too should also join Pete Peterson, and stop working people from having power. So why does Stoddard hate the “left”, netroots and labor unions? My guess is she is paid by corporations for the anti-labor propaganda.

After spending years agreeing with Republicans and taking heat for it from national Democrats — as well as some back home — Lincoln scored an unexpected victory for the middle this week, fending off Lt. Gov. Bill Halter and the unions and the netroots and the punishment the left promised to exact for her opposition to a public option in healthcare reform and to legislation, favored by unions, known as “card-check.”

And we have a delusional Stoddard saying that Blanche Lincoln is not a corporate puppet, but the girl next door! And she has the hope that this attack against labor unions will weaken their power?

But there is more in store from the endearing Girl Next Door than just an upset win in a primary election.

The failed union campaign against her will have long-term ramifications not only for the union agenda — card-check is dead — but for labor’s political viability in the next two crucial elections for Democrats.

But the good news is the $10 million spent by unions was hardly wasted. It has caused the White House to reveal their contempt and hatred of Labor Unions. They also hate the left and the netroots, and women and peaceniks. Who are the allies of the White House? Neo-cons.

Thanks to the “Senior White House Shill”, the netroots, left, labor and the rest of the real Democrats realize we were victims of an R pretending to be a D.

Hiya Jane!

Bob Menendez, shill extraordinaire. My bet? Within 48 hours his PR-flack-in-chief will pen an article on DKos trying to walk this back. What a fuckstick.

But the good news is the $10 million spent by unions was hardly wasted. It has caused the White House to reveal their contempt and hatred of Labor Unions. They also hate the left and the netroots, and women and peaceniks. Who are the allies of the White House? Neo-cons.

We voted “D” in 2008 and got R-lite, less substance, less fulfilling. No doubt in my mind any more that Obama is everything I knew him not to be: not a leader, visionary or engaged in getting a progressive agenda enacted… he still gives a great speech though, too bad it’s all bullshit.

He will feel the pinch when his checks from the Unions stop coming in.

more at Juan Cole’s
http://www.juancole.com/2010/06/video-shows-israeli-commando-executing-american.html#comment-5781

omg. omg. omg.

Hang on to your seats, folks. The ground is shifting. The WH and the DSCC are *hopping* mad. We done got under their skin. And now they’re gonna take away our shiny card check.

wow. wow. wow.

The unions may be the ones forming a 3rd party after this … lololololz.

Fantastic return volley Jane ~ amazing, amazing list.

Yes, return those dirty union $ to sender. Now, please. Fuckers.

Yes, do SAVE WASHINGTON from US!

Execution

http://warincontext.org/2010/06/10/an-execution-style-shooting-on-the-mavi-marmara/

Start cutting those checks.

Where is our refund you As#H#le!! You have betrayed all Labor!! Corporate Whore Bob!!

I think I’ve reached the point where the only two modes of political being for me are:
“I’m not going to actively oppose you” and

“I’m going to do everything in my power to make you go down”

New battle lines are drawn. The gates of the veal pen are flung open! The fences are trampled!

This is an important point.

They are political opponents.

And Schumer:

Sectors, 2009-2010 :: Labor
Building Trade Unions $37,500
Industrial Unions $29,500
Transportation Unions $75,500
Public Sector Unions $70,500
Misc Unions $42,000

I’m reasonably sure this happened in the 90′s. Labor then proceeded to throw the rest of us under the bus as it spent the last two decades paying to carve out deals for itself at our expense.

But the good news is the $10 million spent by unions was hardly wasted. It has caused the White House to reveal their contempt and hatred of Labor Unions. They also hate the left and the netroots, and women and peaceniks. Who are the allies of the White House? Neo-cons.

I agree that it was well spent because they have shown the contempt for unions and the “left”. I don’t want to hear a union member make excuses for the President or the Democratic party any longer.

Bill Clinton, “Anonymous Senior White House Aide,” Chuck Schumer and now Menendez

So Bill, Chuck and Bob all have more guts than Anonymous Senior White House Aide Rahm.

So true. Washington DC must be saved from the people, so the oligarchs don’t feel cramped by the great unwashed.

I”m going through Menendez’ own campaign contributions now. That guy shook down every labor union in the country for his last election.

Crooks.

Try and be less obvious when trying to be coy Rahm.

Every Democratic Senator should be flooded with calls asking them if they are going to publicly disagree with Menendez, Schumer, and Gibbs or if they will be returning the money they have taken from unions. Other Dems should feel the heat for this fecklessness.

The rest of us are under the taxation without representation party.

The question is, will this finally show them or will they continue to be “shaken down”?

Yuppers.

At the very least the Unions should stop giving any cash to any Blue Dog at least until

Bill Clinton, “Anonymous Senior White House Aide,” Chuck Schumer and now Menendez

all apologize.

If somebody would have told me in November 2008 how far the masks would slip from these people, I would have said “Naw, they have better dance moves than that.”

I didn’t really realize how much “Village People” they knew – they’re dancing the
S-T-F-U really hard!

Ouch, Jane. That knee to the groin is going to leave swollen testacles.

:o)

I’m happy for unions to get whatever they can. They do the work so I don’t have to and I appreciate it.

he a crook, they’re all that, but the unions leaders are suckers.

Still, could you invite some of these suckers to visit with us here, because they still aren’t getting that Obama is not a hapless bystander in all of this as they are fond of believing otherwise.

they were quite deep into selling out the public to get their own on health care, though.

But the good news is the $10 million spent by unions was hardly wasted. It has caused the White House to reveal their contempt and hatred of Labor Unions. They also hate the left and the netroots, and women and peaceniks. Who are the allies of the White House? Neo-cons.

No kidding! If only Democratic Party leadership had done something sooner that was so obviously hostile toward labor unions, women’s rights, anti-war folks, and the netroots it wouldn’t have had to come to this!

Oh, wait. It is 2010 right? I haven’t travelled back to 1970 by accident again; back when the Democrats hadn’t thoroughly shit on literally every single corner of their purported constituency for going on 20-years?

That said, the Unions did buy themselves a few things for their trouble. They get some fancy exemptions from “the greatest achievement in 50-years” that I’m sure a lot of other folks would like to enjoy as well. So it wasn’t a total waste of money.

Bob’s team called me today to ask me to contribute to DSCC. The nice woman who dutifully read the DSCC script before and after each of my responses was not quite ready for my eventual reply, especially when I mentioned Mendendez and Schumer piling on with the WH coward.

Wonder how many times they heard that today — or maybe that’s what they were testing for.

Yes! Now that they *realize* this is *tainted* “special interest” money, let’s have it ALL BACK!

Oh, yes, Schumer’s little cache too!

I’m thinking we give contracts instead of contributions. If so and So votes our way and the bill passes the way we want then senator so and so gets our cash.

That said, the Unions did buy themselves a few things for their trouble. They get some fancy exemptions from “the greatest achievement in 50-years” that I’m sure a lot of folks would like to enjoy as well. So it wasn’t a total waste of money.

There’s a clearly different organizing principle between Unions and Politicians. Politicians don’t stay bought but when you join a union and pay dues, they actually represent you.

If you were a dues paying union member, would you have expected your union not to represent you? I don’t think so.

Though not to be left out of the frackas… Hey! Screw you Bob Menendez! I literally cannot believe you’d opportunistically exploit the financial support of the people you’ve made a career out of supporting openly hostile policies toward!

The unions are reaping what they’ve sown. Progressives would be wise to consider that unions have had their own Transform-The-Democratic-Party-From-The-Inside-Out scheme going a hell of a lot longer than the Netroots. Look what it’s done for the unions . . . a whole lot of nothing.

No, not at all. Though that doesn’t fit at all with the narrative here, that somehow the Democratic party abused that money, and should pay it back. It was used for the HCR carve out.

Looks like if you take it on the chin enough, and let them kick you while you’re down, and still throw gobs of money at them… eventually they’ll stop holding their hands over your mouth and nose too. That’s an important lesson.

You have to remember that the oligarcy has been working against the unions for some time now.

When will the unions emerge from the veal pen?

All of a sudden I am on the DSCC e-mail list and apparently this means I get a missive each and every day … like a daily sutra?

Ahem. Well, today’s missive talked about how they are all doing the good work of creating jobs and reforming Wall Street. WTF? Say what?

Just 2 days of this nonsense and I don’t think I can take any more of it ~ but it’s fascinating in a really creepy way. I haven’t heard this many lies since … well, never mind.

Yeah. And Ralph Nader stabbed us in the back.

Barack Obama: You have crossed the line which determines whether I will vote for you again. You are an acute disappointment, and I will NOT vote for you again, unless you do something to make me think you are concerned about my interests. You are a corporate whore, and I will not tolerate you unless you start actually doing the right thing.

*G*

Thanks, Jane.

No. It’s time for political hard ball. Let’s see the vote AND then you get the money. Easy peasy. No paperwork necessary.

I have to believe that this is no slip of the tongue now and no off the top comment made without thinking it through. The Democrats are going to go after labor but they still expect that labor will give them money. It’s hard for me to believe that even professional politicians are that stupid. If they are, they have no business being in office.

No, no, no…

I’m sure Senator Menendez didn’t mean that.

His own union contributions can in no way be considered “special interest” money.

He was talking about Bill Halter’s union money contributions.

A subtle…but important distinction.

Right, Bob…?

unless

You hold out some hope? Tsk tsk.

Scarecrow is upstairs!
Pigs Fly! Republican Leader Boehner Joins UK Conservatives Urging Govt Bail Out BP

Maybe they think of the money as protection money now. Give us some money and we won’t hurt you. We won’t do anything for you … but we won’t hurt you either.

Yeah, that’s it.

I figure they realize that it’s all about the money (because the activist groups largely refuse to make it about anything else), and the labor unions can’t outspend the Big Corps., and they’ve had their standing in society diminished by 30 years of Reaganism, such that in many ways they’re viewed as a pariah even in moderate circles. Without any union jobs there aren’t any union dues, and in the construction sector that I’m acquainted with the government contracts are increasingly anti-union.

As VMT very astutely noted, the Unions have been playing the inside-the-beltway game way longer than us, and with way more resources at their disposal, and they’re still way down. But I’m sure it was all tactical failures, as trying to reform the Democratic Party from within is a fundamentally sound strategy that doesn’t setup a situation where they just take advantage of you for their own gain.

Oh, wait. Damnit. It is 2010 right?

Unions are the most important calf in the veal pen, so I’m not fully understanding this pissing match between beltway pols and union leaders… With that said are they trying to alienate unions in order to get more, unlimited, cash from corporations? They’ve tried this before and it doesn’t work with Democrats, tv ads work for the republicans to get marching orders, but feet on the ground has shown by far to be more successful for Dems. Fundamentally the DNC et. al does not understand its constituent parts nor its purpose.

They are telling ALL of us we don’t count. Simply really.

I have to laugh at the “10 million bucks down the toilet” line.

Unions gave Obomba way more than 10 million bucks, and that money obviously went down the toilet, too!

The unions should send over some muscle to persuade the little pr@#k to return the money.

I smell Rahm Emanuel and his blue dogs in this. Consider: They have long advocated a policy of competing for Republican votes by running candidates who dissed Progressives and embraced Republican policies in spite of overwhelming evidence that it doesn’t work. This looks like it could be a broader policy of competing for corporate dollars by dissing Labor. I think it’s a reasonable assumption especially in light of the recent SCOTUS rulings. And if they can keep Labor giving to Democrats like a bunch of patsies while they are being slapped around, so much the better. This is the same philosophy that has convinced Lincoln that the corporations that supported her over Halter will now support her in the general. Mindless idiocy.

Excellent point. Would love to hear a labor leader or rank and file phrase it just that way. Obama has to go. Primary 2012!

http://www.squidoo.com/progressivesagainstobama

Paraphrasing the old Southern Governor:
“If we can’t drink their whiskey, screw their women, take their money, and vote against them, what good are they?”

In the thousands of words spilled about this there’s been scarcely any discussion of the real, substantive reasons Labor is disillusioned — you know, the lack of a real jobs programs, Summers-Geithner, Obama’s pushing free trade agreements and reneging on his promise to redo NAFTA, the failure to fight for EFCA…it’s as if Dem leaders are daring labor leaders to bring these things up.

Of all these disgusting comments, this one was the most pitiful:

Asked to explain why the White House would so quickly disparage the labor unions (namely the SEIU and AFL-CIO) after an embarrassing primary outcome, another White House aide said that “folks are just tired,” noting that the administration has also taken a heaping of criticism from speakers at the progressive Campaign for America’s Future conference taking place this week in Washington D.C.

They’re blasting labor because they were criticized?

The Democratic Party of Obama and Rahm has to be destroyed and then rebuilt. Power mad narcissists need not apply.

While that might be true in their short-run calculus how does one get those lobbying jobs or serve on corporate boards without achieving political office? So it helps the current party heads at the expense of any future at all, there are also some, that while being totally useless to Democrats and the American people, just like to be in power, this fucks with them too.

Unions need to do two things 1) support the green candidate in Arkansas now and 2) try to elect progressives in traditionally blue dog areas, essentially show that this blue dog strategy is not the one we have to go with to build a coalition. Barring that I would just say start a new party in areas with relatively good union strength.

With the citizens united case, there is no need for the Democrats to pander to the unions any longer. The unions had a chance to make a difference since Obama took office but they blew it. All those progressives that decried FDL for being too strident can now look in the mirror and see who the real effing retards are. Had they stood with FDL during the health care debate, we could have been powerful. Now … not so much.

We have very limited ability now to create any change in our government and that opportunity grows smaller by the day. We are no longer needed for the Democrats to keep power. All they have to do is prevent progressive challengers with all of their corporate money and Democrats will continue to have two choices; vote for a corporate Democrat or vote for a socially conservative Republican.

Rahm knows full well that he doesn’t have to be nice to unions or progressives. They don’t have any power so why bother. Clinton, Schumer Obama and the rest have also reached this same conclusion. The open hostility they are showing us should be a wake-up call to the unions but their self-serving interests will prevent them from ever being the strong progressive gate-keeper that they imagine themselves to be.

United we stand, divided we fall. Thanks DailyKos and the rest of the veal pen. You have sealed our fate.

Shorter Menendez: Keep your stinking 490 grand, you freaks.

Thing is I know money is important, but buying tv ads, which is what most of this money will go to, will diminish in effectiveness. How many people have a DVR machine in their house? Hell how many people watch programming most likely to contain political spots (outside the nation presidential ads).

Went to the Senator’s web site and gave him a piece of my mind. Labor should stop ALL work and donations for Dems, except for a very few. All that $ should go into ORGANIZING. Is it time for a Progressive Labor Party yet? The corporations have 2 parties, shouldn’t the working people have at least one?

Keep in mind that unions only represent 12% of the employed. Unions have been trashed even at the level of Presidents (Ronald Reagan and now the Obama administration) for decades. So, thanks to corporate control of the “message”, there is a lot of false information regarding unions and what they represent. It would appear that the White House and Democratic party feel the 12% of union members are no longer significant.

The unions have been their own oligarchy for decades now.

That they just found out they can’t get into the political club is irony at it’s best.

That aside, it’s more fodder for the progressives as the unions look for SOMEthing to hold onto besides its members dues. Perhaps we can retrain them to be the unions of the 30′s. When they REALLY served the workers interests.

The unions are an independent power group and so, much like Obama destroyed the grass roots movement built up by Howard Dean as the DNC chair, they will now go after the unions.

Should the grass roots re-capture the DNC they need to reform its rules so that the President is not the head of the party, is not in control of the DNC. That control of the DNC is retained by the local organizations.

Additionally, the Democratic party fund-raising organizations need to be co-opted. The message needs to be advertised from all grass roots web sites, in every grass roots e-mail, to send donations to organizations outside the control of the Democratic party hierarchy. Actblue/MoveOn for instance. Deny the DNC, DSCC, DCCC and candidates themselves direct funding.

After the 2010 elections the grass roots needs to start collecting a war chest for the 2012 elections and recruiting candidates. Especially candidates to primary Obama. If possible, the money should be spent directly with providers of services to the campaigns and not given to the campaigns directly.

Teddy Partridge is upstairs!
End the Ban on Gay Blood Donors

The Unions just found out they ain’t in the club.

They never got INTO the Veal Pen.

Now’s when we progs can leverage them to serve in the better interest of the masses, ya know, like they say they do.

Perhaps we can retrain them to be the unions of the 30’s. When they REALLY served the workers interests.

They’d probably have more success if they took all their political campaign money and channelled it into their strike fund.

Runs deep the snark within you yes . . . .

This was posted below on the previous Menendez blog, I think it is wise:

As a gentleman with the handle TonyC said over on Greenwald’s blog: To get what you want, you have to be willing to walk away if you don’t get it.

Frankly, there is so little difference between the repuglicans and the democravens that labor should save its money and sit this one out.

I completely agree.

Unions are not the calf in the veal pen, they are the feed.

And as unions are breaking, being broken, this is the last gasp and stand for them.

The corporations and the government have declared open war on what little remains.

I’m trusting from Mz. Hamsher’s post above, the recent anti union rhetoric from WH, and decades of evidence that any sane person can see what’s unfolding.

The MOTU are breaking the unions, and what’s left of them, as much as they are breaking the middle class which in of itself is QUICKLY fading. It’s happening fast, too.

We don’t have the unemployment we have due to hard times . . . it’s planned, and fully executed to break any resistance and loot it all in the proccess . . . if one studied the history of Europe and it’s wealthy elite from say, 1850 to WW1 and then WW2 . . . and see how they broke the back of labor and absconded with the wealth (to America) one might look at the past 30 years here and come to similar conclusions.

Question is, where’s all that stolen wealth being moved to . . . . which countries, what banks, and why of course.

Thanks Jane!

The inconceivable seems to be an everyday occurance lately.

It’s so fuckin brazen I can’t hardly believe it Senator.

In my life here in USA, I’ve never seen such a thing.

No jobs, and our electeds are pounding the shit outta us without going GALT WPA style.

No, our electeds are trying to ELIMINATE more jobs, and the unions, too.

Brazen shit. Blowback is gonna get ugly methinks . . . . they continue to overplay their hands.

Heh. *thumbsup*

I just wrote the DSCC telling them that until they stopped bashing labor unions I would no longer support their efforts. I hope others can do so as well.

Yeah where is Guido when ya need him??

Ma’am, I think it’s clear as day who, what and why is going on, and it’s BEEN clear as day since Ronnie.

I WILL concur the neocon’s recruited the perfect foil in Rahmie, and he created the perfect shill in Obama.

All in all, it’s a class war, always has been, always will be.

That’s not news, ma’am. However, with labor being screwed, that changes things a bit.

I don’t know whether to hope we can USE labor to rebound prog wise, or to fear this is the end of it all and we’re genuinely all screwed by the corporate fascist machine.

I’ll give ya nickel if ya guess which way I lean . . . . . ;-)

*G*

SO forgot that one . . . .

*standsonchairclapping*

David, the plan is to break the middle class, fully, and that includes breaking the unions.

All the while looting pensions, savings, entitlements and our silverware and jewelry and panties and undies.

Class war, hoss. Been obvious, for 3 decades or more, doncha think?

Class war, hoss. Been obvious, for 3 decades or more, doncha think?

since forever I think forever!!!

The Democratic Party of Obama and Rahm has to be destroyed and then rebuilt. Power mad narcissists need not apply.

I don’t often do this as a snarky, but there it was.

Hope you don’t mind, as I believe we’re in the same foxholes in this class war.

If labor were to cooperate in the founding of a new party (a Labor Party, imagine that) I doubt the naysayers here could poo-poo the idea of a third party, and frankly Rahm and his mouthpiece Obama would poo-poo their pants.

Yeah, well, there IS that, isn’t there my clicky pal . . . . so true.

History shows it.

Hope all is well in the RC Hood . . . *G*

I agree, but you overlook one thing.

This drives the unions and progs closer together, and swells our ranks with the mid west and working class a thousand fold as THEY all get it, it’s a class war.

Gonna phreak out all them USA! USA! folks to find out their dreams are being crushed by a fascist sitch and the DFH’s were right. But we are now all bro’s and sis’ in arms. Finally. Again.

There’s lemonade to be had here, for the taking. Who will drink?

So with Schumer’s pronouncement today, I have lived to see an ostensibly liberal Democratic Senator from New York (a Jew, to boot!) pick up the rhetorical banner of the fallen George Wallace, to defend the honor of this Flower of Southern Conservative Virtue (a Blanche, to boot!) from infiltrative violations by outside agitators.

Moments like these compel me to inquire, “How’s cryogenic technology coming along?”

Agreed. I believe it’s coming. A fusion of disparate sources.

Mz. Hamsher has been fusing this behind the scenes for a while now.

She’s doin good, I think . . . . ;-)

Doing well my friend and you and the Misses?
Yeah if you have read any history it has always about class all about it and nothing.. nothing has changed. We had won a skirmish with the new deal but it has chipped away at by the rich ever since. Sure is sad to watch this unfold… Some how we must keep the fight up… make them pay attention!! Jane/Firedoglake is doing a great job of keeping us informed!!

Agreed in full other than I don’t trust Act Blue and MoveOn any more than any other veal pen groups sucked into the DC establishment. Sucked into the fascist DC environment.

But I’m with ya on the rest. Nicely spoken.

I’ve no problem with that, I have advocated mass civil disobedience and strikes and boycotts for decades.

I’ve had it. I’ve simply had it. I don’t want a third party. I want a LABOR party to oppose the Rep/Dem Corporatist Party. Washington has definitively thrown working Americans under the bus.

A third party would be a great idea if there were progressive candidates out there willing to lead politically, but the sorry reality for progressives is that they don’t have candidates. If a Congress member quit today, the Republicans and Democrats would easily have a candidate (blue dog and wingnut) in play within 30 days. The corporate parties rule us because the corporatists can run candidates. Progressives write blog posts because very few of us are willing to face up to the media shitstorm/character assassination that running for office would unleash as well as the capital requirements political office demands.

bmaz is upstairs!
Oil Flow Rate More Than Double What BP and Government Have Said

Me n mine are lucky to be sharing the last kewl day of the year till November or so. *G*

After today, it’s all over I fear. 100F looms nigh, after one of the KEWLEST springs and early summer ever.

And your last sentence is for the ages . . . she’s done it all for us . . . proud to be a fan. ;-)

Yeah. I call it Snogic.

Yeah Bro yeah!!
Sure glad we are in RWC love that 92 gap AC!!

Not the DINOcrats that’s for sure!! Time to tell these bastards to go fuck off already. they’ve made it pretty clear that all their interested in is Corp. cash.

Good pt. Your right. The class of pols that rule us now don’t care about how they’re viewed. They are men and women of low character for the most part but huge egos. This is exactly the kind of people Corps. look for and hire. The rest of us refuse to subject ourselves and our families to the shit storm for good reason. But that’s the price to play the game isn’t it?

*G*

Correct. Clinton abandoned organized labor. Maybe the unions (whats left of them) will finally abandon the Democrats. They won’t be missed. The DLC hates them and a lot of progressives hate them also. Labor, unlike progressives, is at least organized. The Unions could start a Labor Party and invite the entire working class to vote with them. What the heck. I can dream.

Character has NOTHING to do with class war. It’s a non factor.

They BELIEVE they are entitled to the profits of our labor.

Character has NOTHING to do with it, it’s only a distraction.

Don’t sugar coat it or mislabel it.

They think they are ENTITLED to own you, your labor, and any profits you might generate.

They don’t HAVE character, they don’t NEED character, and they’d laugh in your face if you told them that was one of your saving graces.

All they care about is having theirs, and making sure you don’t get yours.

It’s universal, it’s beyond time as history is recorded.

There’s 1% that owns the multi-nationals, and all the wealth of the planet.

They don’t care about you, or us, or our character.

It’s a class WAR, SG, it’s war. They want to kill you, your dreams, your income, your aspirations for a future.

I hope you get it.

Your right of course. But there are folks who think unions exist to serve the public.

Excellent point.

Wow, a year and a half and you guys are seriously bitching?

If Hillary Clinton was President, you guys would seriously be bitching about the same things too.

Go and throw away your votes for the Green Party, when the Republicans take over Congress and the White House, don’t cry to the rest of us.

Um, you came in here.
We did not show up at your door, so you are free to, you know, not listen.

Agreed. 100%

Unions = Middle Class, without Unions the USA middle class would not have deveioped.

Obama and his Hoover economic team, can’t fixed the economy. (this is calling the Ne0-Liberals big problems, you can’t control the USA without a good job market)

The 4th arm of politics the MSM can’t protect OBAMA from his Hoover economic policies.

The Democrats and Republican both benefit from the MSM big time.

The MSM keeps the base of Democratic party and the Republican party stupid.

Obama and the dems could not govern like they are without a lot of Help from the Media. (The New York Times, MSNBC, Fox, CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, etc. all protect the elite from the masses) the NY Times attacked Halter on election day in Arkansas, this was not a mistake.

Third Parties are a nice idea, but if you can’t control the 4th arm of politics the MSM, you will fail.

Obama and Clinton would have both been eaten a live, by the Media of Walter Kronkite, today we have the MEDIA of TMZ.

Progressives and Labor are getting more than their 10 million dollars worth, they are learning who their enemies are.

Perhaps we can retrain them to be the unions of the 30’s. When they REALLY served the workers interests.

Now your talkin. If progressives (educated middle class Democrats) actually took an interest in organizing and mobilizing the working class there is no end to what we could achieve together.

All warfare is base on deception, when able to attack we must seem unable, when using our forces, we must seem inactive, etc. Says Sun TZu

For example, when attacking Blanche Lincoln the attack should have been done in a way, that Blanche would never have known what hit her.

The elites will try to attack the progressive movement by dividing it, the last thing they want Obama to do is unite the progressive base.

The elites do not like the idea of the progressive base uniting again, especially when Obama and Rahm are suppose to destroy it.

12,000 nurses on strike in St.Paul. Likely to spread to other cities. Can we throw active support to them, after all, no one leaving the Hospital ever raves about how nice the administrator was, but nurses – can anyone really be against nurses?

Actually, Larue, they hate our fucking guts. It gives them joy to steal the food from our table. For a long time I thought they were indifferent. But that does not explain the extraordinary effort they are willing to expend to steal our very last dime.

People in the South don’t really even understand what unions do.
If you have lived in a right-to-work state all of your life, the idea that you would be forced to join a union just to get a job somewhere is beyond comprehension. There are no collective bargaining fees for non-union members to pay in Right-to-work states. If they are in the very rare position to join a union, they see more of their paycheck gone with very little in return. Non-union workers see things like holiday pay bargained away but they don’t even know why or what was gotten in return because they aren’t union members so they just start to resent the union.

In simple terms, the south sees unions as carpetbaggers who, having destroyed Detroit and Pittsburgh, are looking for new territory to ravage. It certainly is not fair or true, but that is the common belief among both democrats and republicans in south.

The dislike and distrust of unions is bipartisan all throughout the south.

I am writing this so people in union states can understand the mindset of anti-union southern democrats.
I am not defending these beliefs, but it important to know how ubiquitous they are in any right-to-work state. The south doesn’t understand, like, or trust the unions.

That is the challenge.

I’d like to see the next 10 million the Unions spend in the South go towards their own image. I’d like labor to go one state at a time on an offensive to teach the people of the south what unions are for, why they are good, why they are desirable.

Living in Florida but an Illinois native from a union family I’m not sure that people here get unions any less than non-union people in the North. They too would be interested in organizing if convinced it would work, but are so demoralized that they just put their heads down and try to survive from day to day.

Thank you for providing an illuminating perspective.

That is a very astute analysis of the situation, but this is particularly good:

Progressives and Labor are getting more than their 10 million dollars worth, they are learning who their enemies are.

Fuck Menendez, that Pep-Smalley fucker!!! And Fuck Chuck too!!!!

Go and throw away your votes for the Green Party, when the Republicans take over Congress and the White House, don’t cry to the rest of us.

Obviously you are not following the discussion on these boards from last year.

If public option was present in HCR bill these boards would have lighted up with joy right now.
If Glass-steagall Act re-instated with paradoxically GOP proposed Annual Audit of FED by Sen. Vitter was present right now these boards would have lighted up with joy right now.
If Social Security Panel was correctly composed representing the population of the country so that a logical decision of no cap limits with corresponding intake percentage drop to compensate increased revenue intakes due to no cap limit these boards would have lighted up with joy right now.

These boards did light up with joy only once in last one and half years when the student loans processing had the middle men removed.

Note that all of the above actions are for long term welfare of all Americans not just progressives.

Mr. Halter did a commendable action providing good resistance which brought out a little bit of good from Sen. Lincoln forcing her on the derivatives legislation. Is this not what Democracy is all about. If more people like him provided more resistance in the primaries we would have had senators scrambling to get the Glass Steagall Act re-instated, talk of public option being added as an addendum to some bill etc.

Anyway Sen. Mendendez if he was interested in real fair elections he should asked both Sen. Lincoln and Mr. Halter to go for public funds and not criticize just because we are seeing democracy in action.

We just need one senator from a third party say Green Party which does not take corporate funds and does not care for MSM opinions which will obviously be not glowing. When that senator starts blocking the bills till they become fair for 100% of the population not just 1% we will then see Republicans being republicans in the mold of Pres. Theodore Roosevelt and Democrats will become Democrats in the mold of FDR and LBJ or else that third party will become the major party in the next elections.

Only $10 Million to learn that the Democratic Party doesn’t care about the Labor Unions?

What next? $20 Million to find out that the Democratic Party favors endless foreign wars and a massive surveillance-state? That’d be a real revelation.

We are all familiar with NAFTA and the complete lack of movement on the EFCA, yeah?

Jane this clown was one of the prime movers behind the defeat of Sen Brian Dorgan’s drug re-importation bill. I bet he’s got a ton of Big Pharma money in his bank accts.

Actually, it’s not quite that simple. I know some of these top 1%ers and to be honest they don’t really even bother thinking about all of us antz all that much , they have other antz that do that for them. They’re actually more worried about much more mundane things like their own health or the temp. of the pool etc. They don’t need to spend much time hating us because you see we don’t count. Think of it this way friend. How much time do you or I spend thinking about the ants you probably step on daily?

Not my fault you guys are really loud. I’m just calling them like I see them.

Battered Spouse Syndrome

Thanks for adding so much to the discussion. I’m not sure what’s worse “I’m just calling them like I see them.” OR The previous post.

I’ll feed the troll here real quick…

1) Hillary didn’t win.

2) It’s pointless to speculate about a Hillary or a McCain presidency.

3) The fact that they, theoretically, would have done the same or even a worse job does not absolve this president of doing better.

4)I would agree that some posts are bitching, but what is the alternative? Not saying anything at all? Not having an outlet for one’s frustration, to me bitching is healthy to some extent. Though there are plenty of constructive posts to balance the grumpiness.

5)How is it throwing one’s vote away when you have only two choices: the republicans who are, at this point, a reactionary party cow-towing to a base that can hardly string a sentence together without sounding crazy or Democrats who promise one thing, roll over to Republican wishes (which make no sense), and all without a single fight, not to mention that they seem to have a healthy disregard for their own base.

6) It would seem that it is more throwing one’s vote away to vote for the same one party and expect a different result. Besides I for one am done with the politics of fear, the “oh Republicans will win and then you will be in trouble…” It’s too late, we are already deep in the shit and this president and this congress are either too blind or too corrupt to take notice.

Actually, the core reason why unions are hated is the core reason why social spending is hated: White fears that black people might benefit. Because anything that helps black people — even if it helps white people too — must be rejected.

See also – Southern Strategy:

Listen to the late Lee Atwater in a 1981 interview explaining the evolution of the G.O.P.’s Southern strategy:

”You start out in 1954 by saying, ‘Ni–er, ni–er, ni–er.’ By 1968 you can’t say ‘ni–er’ — that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights and all that stuff. You’re getting so abstract now [that] you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites.

”And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I’m not saying that. But I’m saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me — because obviously sitting around saying, ‘We want to cut this,’ is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than ‘Ni–er, ni–er.”’

What seems obvious is that we need a ‘small’ revolution. Small business, family farmers, co-operatives, consumer groups, libertarians, real conservatives , progressives, classical liberals, homeschoolers, deschoolers, democratic free schoolers, integrative and natural medicine practitioners, organic food consumers, non coercive business collectives and other’s coming together to take on the ‘big’ institutions such as government, labor, transnational corporations, Military Industrial complex, medical industrial complex, the psychiatric industrial complex, the education industrial complex, corporate agriculture. I dont think the single issue or single system fights are the way anymore. We need transpartisan collective action across industries and realms of human activity. The natural medicine folks are fighting the same fight as the unschoolers who are fighting the same fight as the organic farmers who are fighting the same fight as small business who….. same fight, same set of principles… Time to come together and work with each other across the boundaries of our personal issues…..

Who put on the broken record?

Seriously-YOU don’t come crying to me when YOUR party loses control of the government (not that the party really cares). Since I won’t really give a damn since I’m not a member of YOUR party and YOUR party has shown it can’t be an ally in good faith to actual progressives and leftists.

Jane Hamsher,

Why do you and others keep up a sympathy act for a nation that is itself, morally and intellectually bankrupt? Labor, and the American people by extension, are getting exactly what they deserve. Americans deserve high unemployment (I can’t wait till it tops 30 percent or higher), a high body count from wars of complete idiocy, based on lies and fraud, and they deserve to have their rights taken away to the maximum extent possible. Why? because until the mere mortal masses get it through their thick skulls that the Democrats and Republicans are merely two heads on the same beastly body, they will continue to get shafted and screwed at every turn. And since they continue to vote for both rotten heads, they deserve exactly what they are getting. The Republicrats believe in gov’t of the wealthy, by the wealthy, and for the wealthy, period…………

Nathan,

I could not agree with you more. I say that all people who hate both wings of the warmongering elitist war party pick a state, kick all the D’s adn R’s out, and settle there ourselves. Let the others battle it out with their idiotic “lesser of two evilism”………..

ooh, ooh, ooh, Jane commands, the world listens

If this is truly what the Democratic establishment truly thinks about the Democratic base; the progressive majority….then they deserve to lose in November!! I am so fed up with them….my tongue is so swollen from having to bite it so much where they are concerned!!!! First it was not fighting strong or hard enough for what they believed in….like ending the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and bringing our troops home, or allowing the heath care reform to morph into such a weakened state it had to be called insurance reform…and even that is pushing it. They need to grow a spine…which I don;t think they have yet! And now this anointing the Conservatives within the Party as the end-all, be-all of the Democratic establishment…I just can’t stomach it anymore!!!!

So has all the money been returned yet? The check is in the mail. That’s great! Good work Jane. That was very clever to appeal to their higher moral instinct. I would not have thought that would work in a million years but there you go. Excellent!