One thing that may be getting lost in the shuffle of having a tea-party zealot running for Senate in Kentucky is the fine slate of Democratic candidates we have running for Congress this year here. Candidates that are Washington outsiders and understand the problems that face real Kentuckians and Americans because they themselves are there facing those problems with us everyday. A good example of that is Ed Marksberry in Kentucky's Second Congressional district. Far from being a Washington elitist who is out of touch with working Kentucky and America, Ed is a Carpenter who wants to bring working values back to Washington and fight for them.
Annie Lowrey at TWI has a really good piece up about how the unemployed are organizing in preparation for the midterms. Chris Hayes spoke to Lowrey on MSNBC while filling in for Rachel Maddow.
This is a Trickle Downers worst nightmare; those who have been hit hard by the econoCons destruction of the working / Middle class taking concerted, sustained action in support of "the three Gs" -- good jobs, at a good wage, with good benefits.
Be afraid, Reagan Zombies (and neoliberal acolytes). Be very afraid.
Bloomberg - 70% say jobs trump the deficit. Only 28% disagree.
CBS - On Priorities.
Country's Most Important Problem
The economy - 38% The (stupid) wars - 7%
Health care - 6%
Budget deficit - 5% Oil Spill - 5%
Most Important Economic Problem
Jobs and unemployment - 38% National debt - 10% Offshoring - 3%
Home forclosures crisis - 3%
It shouldn't take a poll to get politicians to do the right thing, but polling is all too often a major factor. If this doesn't influence the thinking of the Dem trifecta, I don't know what will.
Here's to Selective Poll - Citing Disorder not striking again.
Ah, Independence Day is upon us once again. However, for many Americans this year may not be much of one for celebrating. Millions of Americans have seen a tough couple of years and no light seems to appear at the end of the tunnel. With the current state of job losses, debt, bailouts for Wall St., and a continuing scorn for working America one begins to wonder just what in the hell we really think we are free from.
Neither the Long Depression of the 19th century nor the Great Depression of the 20th was an era of nonstop decline - on the contrary, both included periods when the economy grew. But these episodes of improvement were never enough to undo the damage from the initial slump, and were followed by relapses.
We are now, I fear, in the early stages of a third depression. It will probably look more like the Long Depression than the much more severe Great Depression. But the cost - to the world economy and, above all, to the millions of lives blighted by the absence of jobs - will nonetheless be immense.
...
[W]ho will pay the price for this triumph of orthodoxy? The answer is, tens of millions of unemployed workers, many of whom will go jobless for years, and some of whom will never work again.
UPDATE: Robert Kuttner's latest includes a glimmer of hope. Pete Peterson and Team Insane Deficit Fetish aren't nearly as persuasive as the amount of money they've poured into fueling austerity hysteria would seem to indicate. Needz Moar Millyuns, Pete.
UPDATE #2: Via Kuttner, Laura Tyson is in the running to replace Orszag at OMB. According to Bob Woodward's The Agenda, Tyson spoke out against catering too much to the bond market inside the Clinton Administration. So that's a little bit of good - ish news on a very bad morning.
Thanks to every Senate Republican, and perennial screw - up (see: Kickback, Cornhusker) Ben Nelson, the jobs bill was just blocked again.
Ben Nelson voted for Bushicare AKA Medicare Part D, the giant giveaway to PhRMA. Repeat: Ben Nelson voted for Medicare Part D. That alone should disqualify him from being taken seriously on any argument that relates to the budget.
Nelson voted for the Bush tax cuts for the most wealthy in both 2001 and 2003. He voted for the Iraq war. He watered down the recovery act, a critically important chance to get the economy moving again. And he prevented real health care reform that would have further reduced the deficit.
Ben Nelson is not "fiscally responsible." Ben Nelson is fiscally full of crap. Why pretend otherwise?
Not extending unemployment insurance, not reinforcing state budgets is the height of irresponsibility. It really is insane. It cripples recovery, which (attention Senator Nelson) makes our long - term deficit worse.
Ben Nelson is either clueless or craven. One of the two. GFY Ben.
Friday's job numbers should be setting of alarms. Without the census hiring, the official unemployment rate would be 10%. The BLS has the real unemployment rate at 16.6%.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities' Chad Smith:
Under these circumstances, policymakers should have no qualms about passing a robust jobs bill - indeed, they would be derelict not to.
On Thursday afternoon the AFL-CIO held a rally to protest the banking bailout and demand a peoples' bailout. There was a call for not just regulating the banks that almost took this nation down but also doing an about face and forcing the bankers to bailout the people.
Do you think Wall Street should pay for the jobs they destroyed?
"People in New York and across the country who did nothing wrong and want to work have paid for the misdeeds of the big banks with their jobs, homes and retirement savings," said Richard Trumka, the A.F.L.-C.I.O. president.
Do the elected officials of this nation think Wall Street should pay for the jobs they destroyed?
See a few photos and read some people's stories below.
Since few media outlets have a reporter assigned to the labor beat anymore, we've heard little this year about one of President Obama's best cabinet appointments: Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis.
Tracy Kurowski wrote a good post at Blog for Iowa about the Department of Labor's annual Statement of Regulatory and Deregulatory Priorities, released three weeks ago (full report here). The gist is that Solis is getting her department "back to the business of looking out for labor rather than commerce."
Today President Obama came up with a proposal to create jobs and deal with his Achilles heel among Republicans, unemployment. Of course these same hypocritical Republicans seem to forget it was their policies and President that caused the hemmoraging of jobs in the first place, and America has a short memory.
Populist Caucus Chairman Bruce Braley (IA-01) and House Trade Working Group Chairman Mike Michaud (ME-02) wrote to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer today, urging them to make sure the upcoming jobs bill contains a strong "Buy American" provision.
From a press release Braley's office issued:
"Recently, as America has suffered the worst economic recession since the Great Depression, unemployment has risen and is now around 10 percent," the letter reads. "We believe that the shipment of American jobs overseas is a factor in this rising unemployment. If we are going to pass a strong job creation bill then it only makes sense to include strong Buy American provisions, to further ensure that the jobs created as a result of this legislation are created within the United States.
"We have an obligation to create jobs in America. While some would argue that Buy American is nothing more than a trade protectionist label, it is clear that these provisions would equate to greater investment, and greater job-creation, within the U.S. In addition, Buy American provisions are perfectly legal under current trade agreements and many other nations use similar mechanisms to protect their domestic manufacturers. Therefore, we feel that it is entirely appropriate that this language be included in any upcoming job-creation measure, and we believe that this provision is essential to creating and retaining American jobs.
