Bernie Sanders has a plan!

With health care reform and the Employee Free Choice Act hanging in the balance, Bernie Sanders has plan!

Bernie Sanders Demands Democrats Commit to Stopping Health Care Filibuster

One of the Senate's most vocal progressives is demanding that the Democratic Party commit to voting against filibustering health care legislation now that, with the impending arrival of Al Franken, the party has 60 caucusing members.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), called on the White House and Democratic leadership in Congress to ensure that party members agree unanimously to support cloture on legislation that would revamp the nation's health care system. Democratic senators on the fence, he added, could still oppose the bill. But at the very least they should be required to let the legislation come to an up-or-down vote.

"I think that with Al Franken coming on board, you have effectively 60 Democrats in the caucus, 58 and two Independents," Sanders said in an interview with the Huffington Post. "I think the strategy should be to say, it doesn't take 60 votes to pass a piece of legislation. It takes 60 votes to stop a filibuster. I think the strategy should be that every Democrat, no matter whether or not they ultimately end up voting for the final bill, is to say we are going to vote together to stop a Republican filibuster. And if somebody who votes for that ends up saying, 'I'm not gonna vote for this bill, it's too radical, blah, blah, blah, that's fine.'" Read entire article here.

Organizing and Mobilizing with Flair

For four days next week, the campus of the National Labor College (NLC) in Silver Spring, Md., will reverberate with the sounds of music, poetry and creative chants and art.

From June 20-23, some 100 union and social justice activists will participate in the annual Great Labor Arts Exchange and Conference on Creative Organizing, programs that combine union mobilization and outreach with songs, skits, art, poetry, theater, posters, cartoons and film.

For 31 years, the Great Labor Arts Exchange has celebrated the rich cultural heritage of working people and served as a forum that brings together talented labor artists, activists, cultural workers, educators and students. Read entire article here.

Don't buy Starbucks' Coffee

Spilling the Beans About Starbucks' Union-Busting Tactics
by: ZP Heller

Put down that grande non-fat caramel macchiato or whatever Starbucks concoction you're drinking. Turns out the coffee giant has a nasty history of being anti-barista, anti-union, and thus anti-Employee Free Choice Act as well.

The National Labor Relations Board has repeatedly found Starbucks guilty of illegally terminating, harassing, intimidating, and discriminating against employees attempting to unionize. Late last year, a judge ruled Starbucks had committed over a dozen violations of the National Labor Relations Act at a few New York stores. Starbucks has settled five such labor disputes in the last few years in New York, Minnesota, and Michigan, spending millions on legal fees to avoid exposing their anti-worker ways. Read entire article here!

Republicans: The Indulgent Parents

by Dana Houle

You've seen them. Maybe it's a friend or a sibling. Someone you see out in public. Maybe, even, you've pondered the past and recognize it might have been your parents, or maybe even you: indulgent parents. Parents who never set limits, never enforce boundaries. Parents who never tell their children no. And you know what happens. Their kids usually grow up to be monsters, or face a tough transition to adulthood, because they think everything should be handed to them on a silver platter. They can't understand why the world doesn't roll over for them the way their parents did. They often become embittered and disillusioned, and sometimes even nihilistic. And their parents often experience shame and regret, and feel like they've become hostage to the monsters they helped create.

In American politics, the spoiled children struggling to deal with a reality they don't like and didn't expect are those voters who make up the rightwing of the Republican base. The indulgent parents of American politics are the leaders, elected officials and apparatchiks of the Republican party. Read entire article here.

iPhone

I have been immersed in my new device, the iphone. It represents a revolution in communication. I am still in awe of this device. Nothing on the market even comes close to doing what the iphone can do. I have also been playing with Twitter - another revolution in communication and social networking. More on this later.

Glenn Beck and the Definition of Sedition

Click on the following link of Glenn Beck and think about whether the following definition applies?

Sedition is a term of law which refers to covert conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority as tending toward insurrection against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent (or resistance) to lawful authority. Sedition may include any commotion, though not aimed at direct and open violence against the laws. Seditious words in writing are seditious libel. A seditionist is one who engages in or promotes the interests of sedition.

Because sedition is typically considered a subversive act, the overt acts that may be prosecutable under sedition laws vary from one legal code to another. Where those legal codes have a traceable history, there is also a record of the change of definition for what constituted sedition at certain points in history. This overview has served to develop a sociological definition of sedition as well, within study of persecution.

The difference between sedition and treason consists primarily in the subjective ultimate object of the violation to the public peace. Sedition does not consist of levying war against a government nor of adhering to its enemies, giving enemies aid, and giving enemies comfort. Nor does it consist, in most representative democracies, of peaceful protest against a government, nor of attempting to change the government by democratic means (such as direct democracy or constitutional convention).

Put simply, sedition is the stirring up of rebellion against the government in power. Treason is the violation of allegiance to one's sovereign or state and has to do with giving aid to enemies or levying war. Sedition is more about encouraging the people to rebel, where treason is actually betraying the country. Sedition laws somewhat equate to Terrorism and Public Order laws.

Maybe we could tax Hell?

There is one source of wealth in America that has too long been a sacred cow. You know those thousands of funny looking buildings that seem to occupy every other corner in many communities. They are commonly known as churches. What if we require churches to pay taxes on their income? I know I have just touched the 3rd rail of the American psyche. How dare I suggest that an organization involved in the institutionalized belief in fairy tales should have to pay taxes. What was I thinking? I hope I don’t go to Hell now? I wonder if we could tax Hell?

The Realities of Climate Change

A Self-filling Prophecy
If you think preventing climate change is politically difficult, look at the political problems of adapting to it.

By George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian, 16th March 2009.

Quietly in public, loudly in private, climate scientists everywhere are saying the same thing: it’s over. The years in which more than two degrees of global warming could have been prevented have passed, the opportunities squandered by denial and delay. On current trajectories we’ll be lucky to get away with four degrees. Mitigation (limiting greenhouse gas pollution) has failed; now we must adapt to what nature sends our way. If we can.

This, at any rate, was the repeated whisper at the climate change conference in Copenhagen last week(1). It’s more or less what Bob Watson, the environment department’s chief scientific adviser, has been telling the British government(2). It is the obvious if unspoken conclusion of scores of scientific papers. Recent work by scientists at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, for example, suggests that even global cuts of 3% a year, starting in 2020, could leave us with four degrees of warming by the end of the century(3,4). At the moment emissions are heading in the opposite direction at roughly the same rate. If this continues, what does it mean? Six? Eight? Ten degrees? Who knows? Read entire article here.

Rove and Cheney: War Criminals Among US

As Rachel Maddow is fond of saying during her news hour, “I need someone to talk me down” as to why there are so many criminals from the last administration still able to walk among us? Not only are they allowed to walk among us, but they are allowed to give interviews and pretend to be journalists! When will people like Rove and Cheney be held accountable for the great crimes they have committed? There are certainly many others from the Bush administration who also need to serve time behind bars. But can someone tell me if any of these people will ever pay for the damage they have caused? Each time the corporate media gives the Bush administration criminals another chance to repeat their lies, spin, and propaganda; I am almost driven into convulsions. Please someone, convince me that someday these bastards will have to pay for their crimes. For gods sake is there no real justice in America? Someone please tell me that one day, I will never have to again endure the media sanctioned pronouncements of war criminals!

Ethix Merch leading the way in marketing Union made Products!

Secretary of State Clinton explained to the Chinese media during her recent visit, "We have to incur more debt … the US needs the investment in Treasury bonds to shore up its economy to continue to buy Chinese products."

Joshua Holland in his most recent article, The Spectacular, Sudden Crash of the Global Economy very nicely sums up the rise and fall of the global economy. He writes: In a short period of months, the entire system of global capitalism has screeched to a halt. No one knows what happens next. Read entire article here.

In my mind what happens next is a return to the past. I have memories of touring a shoe factory near a city where I grew up. Yes, we used to make shoes in the United States. My father owned shoes that were made less than 20 miles away from where he lived! And these shoes were made by union workers who took pride in what they did earned a decent wage for doing it.

We need to return to the local and regional production of goods that we now buy from production facilities located thousands of miles away. The days of exploitation are over. It is time to build new local/regional economies that are environmentally friendly and provide dignity and rights to workers.

Companies like Ethix Merch are leading the way in marketing high quality union made products at affordable prices. I encourage you to check out their web site. We can change things for the better. Companies like Ethix Merch and you will make it happen!

Forcing Burger King to Backtrack on Employee Free Choice

Reposted from Open Left
by ZP Heller

All week long, Brave New Films, SEIU and many progressive bloggers have been holding Burger King's feet to the deep fryer. Together we exposed Burger King's horrendous working conditions; launched a contest asking people to Have It Their Way with Goldman Sachs (Burger King's top shareholder) for squandering $6.5 billion of the bailout on bonuses while average BK workers earn less than the federal poverty line; and staged peaceful demonstrations at Burger Kings across the country protesting the fast-food chain's low wages, lack of healthcare, and lobbying against unionization legislation. So what was Burger King's response? They served up this flamebroiled pile of garbage yesterday: "Burger King Corp. (BKC) believes unions serve a purpose in some workplaces and a number of its guests, vendors and franchisees have positive union membership experiences. BKC is not anti-union. BKC and its franchisees serve a diverse consumer base and, therefore, aim to remain neutral on political issues."
Read entire article here

Republican Obstruction of the Stimulus Marks the Beginning of the End of the Party

The final chapter of the Republican Party began this week. Their very public obstruction and then overwhelming vote against President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has forever seared a negative image of them into the minds of millions of Americans. The Daily Kos Weekly State of the Nation Poll for the week Feb 09, 2009 - Feb 12, 2009, shows the current level of dislike for the current crop of Republican robots in Congress. The Democratic Party is only five points down in net favorability in the South, the GOP's "stronghold", while it blows them away in every other region. (kos, The obstructionist's dilemma)

Once the effect of the stimulus starts to make a difference in our economy, (as surely it will) the Republicans will be left with a voting record on the stimulus, that will haunt them for a generation or more. No amount of media propaganda or corporate spin will be able to resurrect their image. With their no votes in the House of Representative and Senate this week, they clearly said no to America and yes to their corporate masters. This week is the beginning of the end of the Republican Party. Their days as a viable political party are over!

Only in America Could Misery Be Turned Into a Commodity

By Joe Bageant, JoeBageant.com. Posted February 11, 2009.

Stress, depression and loneliness permeate daily life in America. Yet psychiatrists try to sell us on the idea that the pain is ours alone.

HOPKINS VILLAGE, Belize -- Sitting down here in Central America, happily abusing my health, occasionally, between the hangovers and the bouts with sand fleas and mosquitoes comes an insight or two, or at least what passes for insight in my lowbrow take on life.

One of these is just how damned lucky the Third World is that it cannot afford a sophisticated mental health system. By that I mean the kind like in the "developed countries," where murder and suicide rates are quintuple what they are here in this village. Not that we are without own village resources. Read entire article here.

Congress should visit an Unemployment Office

Is our system broken beyond repair? Do we need to start again with a new form of government? Watching our national legislatures deal with the most significant crisis in our nation’s history makes me ill! What are these people thinking? Have any of them ever been in an unemployment line? Do they know what it feels like to come home to their husband or wife with the news of a job loss? Have any of them had to apply for food stamps? Do they know what it is like to swallow life long pride in a line at the public aid office? Have any of them lost their homes? Do they know what it is like to not know where they will sleep next? I think not!

Perhaps during one of their next junkets to their local districts or states, our representatives should spend some time at an unemployment office, a public aid office or watch a local sheriff evict a homeowner. Perhaps these experiences would jolt them into the reality that all too many Americans are already familiar with.

Like many progressives in this country, I am impatient and increasingly pessimistic about the chances for real change in this country. Before the election, I explained to a less than knowledgeable but very enthusiastic Obama supporter, that no matter what happens in the election, the people who truly run our country are not likely to go quietly into the night. It will take more than one election to return power to its rightful place. There are many battles ahead and I wonder if Americans are up to the challenge? Only time will tell!

21st Century Economic Recovery Hings on Education and Retraining

The economy that we left behind in 2008 is a gone forever. It was an economy that was driven in a direction that ultimately warped the social, political and cultural landscape of our entire country. Instead of investing in our human resources, our domestic companies and corporations used and abused their workforces. The results of this throw away worker mentality are all around us. Our education system has become as flawed as our banking systems. We now deliver graduates of a quality that fit the exploitive companies that they will ultimately work for. Our culture is fostering ignorance over education and gratification over work. Many of the dysfunctions of our culture are direct byproducts of an aberrant economic system.

The economy that will ultimately replace the last will be vastly different and constantly changing. There will be less and less need in this new economy for undereducated or untrained workers. My point here is that not all American workers will be able to function in the next economy. A lack of investment in America’s human resources over the last 30 years has brought us to the point where there will be millions of workers who will need years of education to become productive members of the new economy. Years of education! Some may never be able to make the transitions. Some may ultimately just become wards of the State.

There can never be an economic recovery back to the economy of 2008. The most important component to the structural changes necessary to move our country into a 21st Century economy lies with education and job retraining. There must be a massive commitment to the reeducation of our population. Without it, millions will be doomed to a life of poverty and degradation. Without it, our country will never again regain its status as a true economic superpower!

Does America Deserve Barack Obama?

Power in America has shifted back to the Democratic Party. There is much that needs to be done. We the people allowed terrible things to happen in the last 8 years with little or no opposition. This new Democratic leadership does not automatically guarantee that the interests of the people will be served.

We must be vigilant, knowledgeable, active and engaged in the Democratic process. We can’t expect the Democrats to always do the right thing. We must demand that they act in our best interests. Americans in many ways deserved George W. Bush. It remains to be seen if they now deserve Barack Obama. Only time will tell, I guess!