In honor of today’s horrible job news, and especially for all the politicians out there, here is a dose of economic truth-telling.
Why Anthony Weiner should not resign
U.S. Senator David Vitter
No comment needed
Where I’ve been lately…
Not writing about politics much, as you can see. I’ve been back into writing fiction again, after being away from it for several years (mostly). It’s the good effect of trying out NaNoWriMo, even if I didn’t get the full 50,000 words written that month.
I’m posting at my writing blog, Clary Books, so do stop by and say hello sometime.
Tax the Rich
This is the best thing I’ve seen in ages. Beautiful composition, I keep watching it over and over. A time lapse compilation of the ongoing protests in Madison, Wisconsin.
Edit to add: Over at Balloon Juice, garage mahal from Wisconsin gave me a link to this set of panoramic 360-degree pictures from inside the Capitol building and from the rallies. View them in high-def and full screen if you can. They are extraordinary.
Union solidarity rally
Last Saturday, all over the country, people gathered in solidarity with the union protesters in Wisconsin. Denver had a nice turnout, 2-3,000 people came together at the capitol building. It was a gorgeous, sunny day, and the crowd was raucous and high-spirited. We had a great time, and hope the folks in Madison know that we stand behind them, completely.
The top picture is from MoveOn’s flickr page, which has many pictures from rallies all over the country. The bottom picture is mine.
Not quite a joke
I hear this is making the rounds.
“A public union employee, a tea party activist, and a CEO are sitting at a table with a plate of a dozen cookies in the middle of it.
The CEO takes 11 cookies, turns to the tea partier and says, ‘Watch out for that union guy. He wants a piece of your cookie.’ “
Rallies Saturday in support of Wisconsin Unions
MoveOn is organizing rallies in all 50 states tomorrow (Saturday) at noon. We’ll be going to the rally in Denver (west side steps of the Capitol building). Find your nearest rally at the link.
I’m sure you’ve seen this shocking footage of last night’s very late and extremely rushed vote in the Wisconsin Assembly. Republicans got their majority vote and then shut down voting before the Democrats even had a chance to finish voting themselves. The Dems say they will follow up to see whether this action was even legal. I hope they do pursue it, because this incredible action seems very anti-American to me.
This bit of film is also good to watch. It shows 10776 messages to Governor Walker taped to the walls outside his office. The people of Wisconsin are very serious in their fight for their rights. Stand with them.
Shared sacrifice
A massive failure of the private sector
Over at Salon, Andrew Leonard interviews Joseph McCartin, a Georgetown University professor who writes on the history of the labor movement. The whole interview is worth reading, but this portion really struck me for its clarity on the economic situation we find ourselves in these days.
…an even more important factor is basically a 20- or 30-year period of failure in the private sector. What we are really looking at here is a private sector that for quite a long time now has not generated a lot of rising income for the great majority. It has not generated stable benefits for its workers, it has not generated increasing retirement security — in fact we’ve had income stagnation or decline, we’ve had rising indebtedness, we’ve had growing insecurity for retirement. The private sector has failed on a massive level. And the tenuous position that so many American workers find themselves in as a result of that now makes it suddenly appear that public sector workers are just living off the fatted calf. I think some of it has to do quite simply with the way in which so many nongovernment workers have been suffering, and legitimately so. You can go to those folks and say: Why are you paying for the pension of the guy down the street? You don’t have one!
I am consistently astonished that the workers in this country are so willing to turn on each other, and so unwilling to look at how we have all been screwed by the very wealthy ownership class in this country. And, I might add, by their well-to-do cronies in politics and the media. Instead of fighting for their own fair share of this country’s wealth, it seems that many of us would rather claw at those who have in fact fought for their rights, and who therefore still maintain a bit more of the substance of a middle-class lifestyle. Not much more, and not as much as they deserve, but still more than many have now.
Is it cowardice that keeps us from banding together against those who are actually raking in such vast amounts of money from our work? Are we really this spiteful and jealous of each other? I hate to think it, but it surely looks that way.
Hat tip to Southern Beale for the article pointer. Useful and thoughtful commentary at that link as well.