Tue - April 15, 2008
Pennsylvania Primary
a discussion of the upcoming primary
Who would have thought that the Pa. primary would
have mattered. Back in November all those pundits thought that the Democratic
nominee would have been decide by Feb. 5th. Of course we now know that didn't
happen. So now we're in play.
The good
that has come out of this is that there has been the beginning of a real
discussion of the issues that the labor movement has been fighting over for
years: pensions, jobs and health care. Both candidates spoke at the Pa. AFL-CIO
state convention and focused on those issues and how they effect Pa. And
recently there is a discussion about the anger people feel about the way the new
economy has left people behind and how many of the Bush policies only benefit
corporations and the rich. As I've said in many speeches we are the only
industrialized country that puts corporations first and citizens second. We have
had a President and his pre-2006 lap dog congress that failed to recognize
problems facing the economy. They were asleep at the
wheel.
But I digress. We have a great
opportunity to keep the discussion going on jobs and the economy. We need to
keep talking about our issues. When we ask the questions those running for
office respond. And what we have seen so far is two strong democrats and a
Republican, McCain, who seems so out of touch that he makes Herbert Hoover seem
engaged.
So make sure you vote next
week and then let's not let the fat cats win by telling us there is nothing
politicians can do about the economy. They can if they try and we must elect
politicians who want to try not those who become puppets of the
lobbyists.
Posted at 01:22 AM
Sat
- January 6, 2007
Our new Senator and Congressman
A report on the swearing in ceremonies in
Washington D.C.
I got the opportunity Thursday to go down to
Washington to observe the swearing in of our new Senator, Bob Casey and our 4
new congressmen. It was exciting. The whole atmosphere was electrifying. There
was a real feel in the air of hope for a new day for workers and the middle
class.
It was really gratifying to see
Bob Casey take the oath. After 12 years of Rick Santorum's anti-union,
anti-worker attacks we helped elect a person who cares about average
Pennsylvanians. After Senator Casey (I love that: Senator Casey) hosted a party
that had to be the biggest in the Capitol that day. There must have been 2500
Pennsyvanians and other well wishers who came to offer Bob their
congratulations. And as he always does he stayed until he talked to
everyone.
On the House side I ran into
labor activists at every party for our new congressmen. At Joe Sestak's party I
talked briefly with Joe and he was excited about the new challenges that the
Congress was going to take on.
At Jason
Altmire's gathering there was a large group of labor activist who had helped
make this tough race possible and Jason graciously and profusely acknowledged
the role labor played in his
election.
Pat Murphy's party was a
terrific time. While waiting for Patrick's return from his historic vote for the
first woman speaker, Nancy Pelosi, there was excitement and enthusiasm still
overflowing from his come from behind victory in this swing district.
Finally I stopped by Chris Carney's
celebration. Chris was there and he was very thankful for the role labor played
in his election in this very tough district. As I was talking to him about
working with Congressman Holden, whose district is similar in registration, Tim
walked in joined the conversation. Apparently both these Congressman were
already working together. They then left to vote on the new rules of the House
that agressively takes on corruption by limiting lobbyists roles in the writing
of legislation.
Finally me and a couple
of labor friends headed over to that famous D.C. establishment, the Dubliner,
where we ran into other Pa. folks and union leaders. We finished with a
discussion of our hopes for the new congress and the feeling that better days
were ahead for the workers in Pa.
Posted at 08:01 AM
Wed - October 6, 2004
Comments on the Presidential Election
This is a short discourse on the direction of the
Presidential election. It is being written after the Vice-Presidential
debate.
Before I talk about the debates, I would just
like to point out one thing I don't believe anyone is talking about. It's being
hinted at but sometimes we need to state the obvious. All the President and
Cheney do is attack John Kerry. And every once in a while they mention that they
might take on the economy, jobs and health care in the second term. In fact the
President has the congress the senate and the supreme court and in 4 years they
have done nothing to deal with rising health care costs, they have done nothing
to create high wage jobs and they continue to insist that outsourcing is good
for the economy. From their commercials you would think they are the challengers
always attacking because they had record. In fact as an incumbent he has to
attack because his record is so bad there is nothing to
defend.
Now a word about the debate
tonight. I was struck by the fact that every time the moderator tried to talk
about jobs and the economy the Veep tried to get to Iraq or would talk about the
No Child Left Behind Act. He must have dodged that question at lest three times.
Also when Sen. Edwards accused the Administration of believing outsourcing was
good for the country, Cheney never denied it. Congratulations to John Edwards
for an outstanding performance.
If
there are some lessons for Sen. Kerry as he prepares for the next debate, I
think he needs to keep the focus on the economy. Don't let the President turn
this into another foreign policy debate and keep challenging them on job
creation and outsourcing. Cheney was unable to answer those with any clarity
except tired old campaign slogans. He was also pretty weak on health care. All
in all he was least comfortable on the domestic issues and I think Pres. Bush
will be the same.
Good Luck to Sen.
Kerry on Friday.
Posted at 12:32 AM
Sun - June 20, 2004
The battle begins
An occasional update on the labor movements
political operations.
Well beginning with last week we began to talk to
our members at their homes. We have found that while a vast majority of union
members are dissatisfied with the Bush presidency many of them don't know enough
yet about Sen. Kerry. So we started our walks, many unions mailed their members
in May as well.
Our purpose is to let
union members know where Sen. Kerry stands on issues that effect them as
workers. Basically those issues that lead to the quality of life that we had
taken for granted but are in danger of losing. For the first time in American
history our children may start life after school with fewer prospects than their
parents. With many of good jobs moving oversees, the jobs that will be left are
the lower paying service jobs.
Sen.
Kerry wants to change that. He wants to end the Bush rewards to corporations for
moving their operations out of America. Instead he wants to reward companies for
creating good paying jobs here in America. He would do this with a common sense
carrot and stick approach. Basically punish those who move and provide tax
incentives to those who stay and create jobs.
Posted at 06:46 AM
Fri - May 21, 2004
The truth about Politics
As the Presidential campaign gets underway there
will be constant attacks on John Kerry. Since George Bush has no record to run
on after 4 years he will try trash Sen. Kerry. We have already seen some of
these attacks. The lie about the gas tax, the attempt to discredit Sen. Kerry's
record in Vietnam. As some one said " at least he has a record.
Posted at 10:28 PM