Category Archives: Labor

The Fraud Of Voter Fraud.

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Following the 2008 presidential election, Republicans were convinced that President Obama could only have been elected as the result of massive voter fraud. They blamed ACORN (which they have since destroyed as the result of a fraudulent video scam) and labor unions (which are under attack by Teapublican-controlled legislatures throughout the country).

Now they have turned their attention to minority voters who overwhelmingly voted for Obama in 2008.

Despite the fact that there have been no proven instances of widespread voter fraud (a US Justice Department investigation in 2007 found only 86 instances of voter fraud nationally), Republican legislatures are pushing bills to require photo IDs.

Republican legislatures in Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia have all considered photo ID legislation. Conveniently, these states all happen to be key battlegrounds for the upcoming 2012 presidential election. If the bills are successful, the new laws could have a profound effect on the outcome of the election.

Looking at just one of the key states, North Carolina, as many as 1 million registered voters currently lack a photo ID. African-Americans make up 22 percent of active voters, but are 32 percent of those without a photo ID.  And seniors over age 65 are 20 percent of active voters, but are 32 percent of those without a photo ID.

At least three scholarly studies have concluded that Voter ID laws lower voter turnout by throwing up an extra barrier to casting a ballot, particularly among less educated and lower income populations.

As Rev. Al Sharpton recently stated, “The current push for photo IDs is not intended to fix a problem, but to fix an election.”

The Planned Destruction Of Our Two-Party System.

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If you wanted to destroy the opposing political party – not just defeat it – what would you do?

You’d probably look to take away its source of funding while finding ways to dramatically increase yours, such as destroying labor unions while legalizing unlimited corporate contributions as “free speech.” You’d try to marginalize and delegitimize its leader by claiming he was not born in the US. You’d try to destroy its local organizers (ACORN). And knowing that most disputes will end up in court, you’d try to stack the courts with your own appointees while blocking the other party’s.

When the other party is in power, you’d try to block any attempts to improve the economy through filibusters. You’d try to destroy confidence in any media outlets that don’t support your point of view by eliminating the Fairness Doctrine and defunding public broadcasting. You’d try to eliminate as many regulations as possible, so when you regained power you could do whatever you want. And you’d try to destroy public confidence in a government run by the other party.

When your party is in power, you’d try to change the rules to favor your candidates. You’d try to redraw the congressional and legislative districts so you could get more candidates elected. And you’d try to suppress voting blocs that tend to vote for the other party’s candidates through voter suppression efforts such as those being pushed through Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Wisconsin.

Finally, to ensure your party’s future dominance, you’d try to control our schools so you could teach your own version of history and pseudoscience by rewriting textbooks such as those published in Texas.

If you think that I’m being paranoid, that these events are coincidental, or that both parties do the same things, you simply haven’t been paying attention.

Teapublicans Are A Disgrace To The Term “Redneck.”

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Many Teapublicans, especially those in the South, are fond of referring to themselves as Rednecks. They interpret that to mean that they are common sense, down-to-earth people. They take pride in the fact that they’re relatively uneducated in contrast to the “pointy-headed liberals.”

Not surprisingly, it’s a false pride.

In fact, most of these people are diametricly opposed to the priniciples of the original Rednecks. You see, the term Redneck actually stems from the organized labor movement. In the early 1900s, West Virginia coal miners were fighting for better pay and better working conditions. The mine owners convinced the local law enforcement authorities to fight their battle for them. In late August and early September 1921, 10,000-15,000 coal miners confronted an army of police and strikebreakers. They met on Blair Mountain where they battled for days. More than a million rounds of ammunition were fired. The fighting only stopped when the US Army intervened following a presidential order.

What does that have to do with Rednecks?

Since those fighting did not have uniforms to identify friend from foe, the miners wrapped red kerchiefs around their necks. The term, Redneck, stuck.

Today, not only are the rights to collective bargaining once again under attack by corporate interests. The battlefield on top of Blair Mountain is also under assault by big coal. A coal company wants to remove the entire mountaintop to get at the coal below. To add insult to injury, the coal company owners are supported by modern day “Rednecks.”

Teapublican Lie #20.

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“Teabaggers are patriots. Occupy Wall Street demonstrators are misguided thugs and revolutionaries.”

The Tea Party claimed to be a grassroots movement, but in reality, it was created by Republican strategists, financed by Republican think tanks and billionaires, and promoted and publicized by Fox News Channel, Rush-To-Judgement Limbaugh and the rest of the Republican megaphones.

The Occupy Wall Street movement, on the other hand, receives no money from millionaires and billionaires. It has no think tanks to fund it. And it has no media organizations under its control. The movement was created by a diverse group of young people fed up with the wealthy who control Congress and dictate public policy. And it’s growing.

So why are the Teapublicans now dismissing them as out-of-control rabble? Why are Teapublicans portraying them as dangerous and disrespectful? And why are Teapublicans saying “they ought to get a job?” Actually, that’s the question at the very heart of the movement. The Occupy Wall Streeters want to get a job, but feel that Teapublican policies dictated by the wealthy prevent them from any chance of success.

Instead of trying to initiate legislation that might create jobs to make the Occupy Wall Streeters go home, Teapublicans would rather spend their time denying tax hikes for millionaires and billionaires. And they are using their media megaphones to portray the movement as dangerous. On his daily radio diatribe, Glenn Beck even said, “They’re coming to kill you!”

Hmmm…think about it for a moment. Which group brought guns to their rallies and carried signs with overt threats against Congress and the President? Here’s a hint: It wasn’t the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators.

The Least Generation.

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If the heroes of WWII were the Greatest Generation, how would you describe those who have followed in their footsteps? I’d have to say the reviews are mixed.

Take my generation of so-called Baby Boomers.  We started out by fighting for Civil Rights. When confronted with a lame and unjustified war in Vietnam, many of our generation fought despite reservations while the rest of us fought to end wars against those who never attacked our shores. A few years later, we fought to win equal rights for women. And many of us took up other noble causes such as fighting for a cleaner, safer environment.

All of that was admirable. But what have we done lately? Moreover, what has the post-boomer generation (those who are now in their 40s and 50s) done? Let’s just say they may be remembered as the Least Generation.

While the Greatest Generation believed in shared sacrifice in order to obtain lofty goals, such as overcoming the Great Depression and overthrowing despotic dictators such as Adolph Hitler, the Least Generation voted to give themselves tax cuts. While the Greatest Generation built our nation’s infrastructure with hard work and tax dollars, the Least Generation has stood idly by and watched that infrastructure crumble.

While the Greatest Generation toiled and sweat to earn a better future for their children, the Least Generation has mostly reserved its sweat for the athletic club. While the Greatest Generation fought for labor unions and workers’ rights, the Least Generation has fought to destroy them.

While the Greatest Generation scrimped and sacrificed to maintain the war effort, the Least Generation has mostly patted soldiers on the back with a very public “thank you for your service” and privately told themselves “thank God that’s not my son or daughter.”

In recent years, politicians from the Least Generation such as Michelle Bachmann and Eric Cantor have shown they’d rather play partisan politics than do what’s best for our country. They have voted to end welfare. They have cut Medicaid, public education, Early Family Childhood Education and social services while cutting taxes for millionaires and billionaires. They have fought to maintain subsidies and tax loopholes for the world’s largest and most profitable corporations while refusing to extend benefits for the unemployed.

They have voted to cut Social Security rather than raise the cap on FICA contributions for those making more than $106,800. They’ve voted to end Medicare rather than root out the causes of inflated medical costs or negotiate the cost of pharmaceuticals with manufacturers. And they were willing to risk government default rather than risk alienating their wealthy contributors by raising taxes.

Let’s hope the next generation does better. But I’m not optimistic.

Teapublican Lie #14.

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“Immigrants steal our jobs.”

That’s been a common accusation since the very beginnings of our nation. Previous generations despised the Irish, Italians, Germans, Scandinavians, Eastern Europeans, etc. for simply trying to eke out a living. Nothing has changed in the present day, except that now the charge is leveled against Latinos.

In discussing her book, They Take Our Jobs! and 20 other myths about immigrants, Avi Chomsky, historian, teacher, and coordinator of Latin American studies at Salem State College says, “When people claim that immigrants take our jobs, underlying the statement are some flawed ideas of how our economy works. They don’t understand that the world economy is extremely integrated.”

“In the US, there is a dual labor market,” she says. “One category consists of good jobs that offer security, benefits, decent pay and safe working conditions. The second category consists of jobs that are dangerous and unpleasant with no security and low wages. The jobs in the second category have always been done by those who are politically excluded, such as undocumented workers. By politically excluding workers, employers are able to exploit them. And others in our society rely on people doing these jobs.”

In reality, the number of jobs taken by immigrants is a very small percentage of the jobs shipped overseas by our corporations. Moreover, immigrants actually create jobs because they purchase food and automobiles, and they rent or buy homes. They also pay sales taxes, property taxes, income taxes, even Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes. (In 2010, it’s estimated that illegals paid $12 billion into Social Security. Yet they are not eligible for any of the government services provided by those taxes.)

As Chomsky states, “The debate on immigration is a way of creating a scapegoat for very real problems, like the economy, even the environment.”

Teapublican Lie #12.

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“The US government is going broke.”

In May 25, 2001, Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform told National Public Radio’s Mara Liasson, “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.”

Teapublicans have been trying to bankrupt the government ever since.

Yet, despite their efforts, the United States still has the world’s largest economy with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) estimated at nearly $14.7 trillion in 2010. That represents approximately one quarter of the global GDP.

Our current problem, as economist Paul Krugman has stated, is “insufficent aggregate demand.” As a result, we do not have enough revenue to cover our spending.  Moreover, much of the money spent is misallocated. To fix our economy, we need to increase tax revenue from those who can most afford it. And we need to create jobs by spending on necessary projects while interest rates are at all-time lows.

But, instead of dealing with the real issues, Teapublicans are using the debt crisis they created to destroy labor unions, to eliminate employee benefits, to depress salaries and eliminate our safety nets (the so-called entitlements).

Contrary to Teapublican accusations, these programs are not responsible for our growing national debt. Social Security and Medicare are funded by payroll taxes while our defense spending is not. 

According to estimates, our annual military/security budget is $1.1-$1.2 trillion, or 70-75 percent of the federal budget deficit. It has doubled since 9/11. And much of the defense budget is squandered through poor oversight, lack of planning and corruption. In fact, the Commission on Wartime Contracting stated that as much as $60 billion was lost to waste and fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade!

The US is not broke.  But if we keep electing Teapublicans, we soon may be.

Teapublican Lie #6.

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“President Obama’s economic stimulus failed.”

You’ve heard this over and over again from the mouths of virtually every Teapublican. They all loudly proclaim President Obama’s stimulus plan “a complete and utter failure.” They make it sound as if Democrats wasted $787 billion of taxpayer money. But as you’ll see, it’s just another Teapublican lie. To learn the truth, I turned to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

In the second quarter of 2010 (one year after it’s passage), CBO estimated that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) had:

– Raised the level of real (inflation-adjusted) gross domestic product (GDP) by between 1.7 percent and 4.5 percent
– Lowered the unemployment rate by between 0.7 percentage points and 1.8 percentage points
– Increased the number of people employed by between 1.4 million and 3.3 million
– Increased the number of full-time-equivalent (FTE) jobs by 2.0 million to 4.8 million

Similarly, in the second quarter of 2011, the CBO estimated that ARRA’s policies had the following effects compared with what would have occurred otherwise:

– Raised real (inflation-adjusted) gross domestic product by between 0.8 percent and 2.5 percent
– Lowered the unemployment rate by between 0.5 percentage points and 1.6 percentage points
– Increased the number of people employed by between 1.0 million and 2.9 million
– Increased the number of full-time-equivalent (FTE) jobs by 1.4 million to 4.0 million

And even though CBO has said that the employment effects will wane in 2012, it estimates “ARRA will raise real GDP in 2012 by between 0.3 percent and 0.8 percent and will increase the number of people employed in 2012 by between 0.4 million and 1.1 million.”

Some failure!

The real question about the economic stimulus is, “Where would we now be without it?”

Teapublican Lie #3.

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“Cutting deficits and the national debt will create jobs.”

This is the most fashionable load of bull excrement being sold by Teapublicans. But nothing could be further from the truth.

Certainly, the debt has a chilling effect on the long-term prospects of our economy. But the debt does not constitute a crisis. In fact, the total debt equals roughly one year of the US GDP. To relate that to a family’s finances (as Teapublicans are so fond of doing), it’s akin to a family earning $100,000 per year holding a $100,000 mortgage.

Now let’s look at what severe cuts to our deficit and debt will do to our economy in the short term.

When the government cuts spending it cuts the budgets of government agencies. That forces those agencies to lay off many of their employees. So, inevitably, there’s a net loss of jobs. Further, the decrease in employees results in less oversight of banks, food and drugs, Medicare payments, etc. – all of which make our economy and taxpayers less safe. 

Moreover, government cuts can have a negative effect on private companies that act as vendors to those agencies. For example, large cuts to the Department of Defense will cause the DOD to suspend weapons acquisition and development. That means defense contractors will have to make dramatic cuts to their payroll.

Part of the reason for our jobless recovery from Bush’s Great Recession is that state and local governments are experiencing a loss of revenue from taxpayers. As a result, those governments have been laying off workers even faster than private companies can hire them.

So, in the short term, what do you expect a $1 trillion cut to our deficit will do to our economy? Obviously, it will cost tens of thousands of people their jobs. Maybe yours!

World’s Greatest Nation? Really?

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Although many Americans are fond of calling the US the greatest nation on Earth, that hasn’t been true for many years. Certainly we have the world’s most powerful military, but that’s no criteria for greatness. Neither is the fact that we are still the world’s richest nation, despite the downgrade in our credit rating by Standard & Poors.

But greatest?

Does a great nation tolerate an ever-widening gap between billionaires and the working poor? Does a great nation leave tens of millions of its citizens without access to health care? Does a great nation allow millions of its children to be homeless? Does a great nation allow its education system to become third-rate? Does a great nation allow its infrastructure to decay and collapse merely to give another tax cut to large corporations and the wealthy?

Does a great nation use its financial and military power to prop up brutal dictatorships around the world? Does a great nation bankrupt the small farmers of neighboring countries by subsidizing corporate farms then demonize those farmers when they cross the border looking for jobs? Does a great nation demean those who labor to build things with their hands, to put out fires, or to teach its youth? Does a great nation begrudge a comfortable retirement to its elderly? Does a great nation allow large corporations and the wealthy to elect its politicians?

How can a nation be called great when it rewards greed and corruption? When its judicial system rules that corporations have rights superior to those of its citizens? When its financial institutions are allowed to grow so large they are immune to failure from their own mistakes? When its corporate lawyers are tasked with seeking out financial and legal loopholes that allow their clients to game the system? When its politicians are more concerned with scoring political points than the welfare of its voters? When its citizens are more interested in the antics of its celebrities than those of its government? When it allows its previous leader to run up a huge debt, and then blames the leader who inherited it?

We didn’t need Standard & Poors to tell us that our nation is on the verge of bankruptcy. When it comes to fairness, ideas and ethics, the US has been on the verge of bankruptcy for many years.