Day One

A new day and miles to go before I sleep

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Excerpt, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost

To make the world a better place, this is my promise

It was a hard fought battle, and never in my life would I feel a deep sense of hope as I, along with my beautiful girl and the kids, heard the words on ABC that the United States of America has a new president elect. One who has run a campaign of hope.

We did it! This is just the beginning. We have miles to go before we sleep, but for today I will rest and plan along with my fellow unionist and working people, plan how we will further take back our country for our class, the middle class.

Now is the first day of the rest of our lives, keep reading and contributing on the net. The majority of our work is ahead of us, but I will not fade away, my constituents will not either.

As my dear friend Richie Negri explained what he read from Jimmy Hoffa’s e-mail he received last night after the winner was declared:

“This is a great day — a historic day, now let’s get this country unified and working for regular, middle-class Americans again. We elected a great man, but we can’t stop here because our real work starts now.”

The NYC Central Labor Council adds:

There is much work to do with all of our nation’s current challenges, but now we have the tools and renewed optimism to get it done.

My buddy Kirsten mentions that the “Right To Work” ballot initiative, which would have destroyed the labor movement in Colorado was defeated yesterday.

Steve from Omaha has sent a job application to President Elect Obama, for the soon to be vacated Secretary of Labor position, which is currently held by Elaine Chao, I certainly endorse Steve, talk about a polar opposite to the Bush labor ideals, here’s what Steve has to say to our next President:

Dear Senator Obama,

For the last several years American workers have suffered under the current administrations polices and appointees. I would like to apply for a job that is first and foremost for fairness of the American worker. I am asking to be your Secretary of Labor. I am much more qualified than Elaine Chao ever could be.

Twice in my life I have been fired illegally. Twice a union has won my rights through legal action. I know what it means to be the head of a family without a job during bad times. I know bankruptcy as a result of these actions too. I have also had two on the job accidents that resulted in two different partial impairments.

I have some unique qualifications that will provide for fairness to workers and employers on a case by case basis. Since you don’t know much about me, just ask my 100,000 plus friends at the Democratic Underground for their opinion. They have been reading my labor opinions for over four years.

Regards,

Steven L Dawes
Shop Steward AFSCME Local 251.

This has been a great day, but this is just the beginning.

I leave you with a quick excerpt of a comment back to someone who attacked my ideals over at NewsVine:

…You tell me, why is it happening? Why does every so-called first world country in the entire globe being invaded by illegal workers? Is it the Democrats? Is it the Republicans? Could it be unfair Free Trade agreements? Is it the people who refuse to hold their leaders accountable and believe the lies that “there is nothing we can do about it?”

Ending the corporate love affair with the slave class is tops on my agenda.

No child in my country 13 years old should work on a kill floor. No 13 year old should wind up in critical condition and see his father die while they worked on a construction site in my America. The profiteers of human misery should be held accountable, their enablers should be held accountable.

We cannot allow anyone in our America to work without rights, a citizen cannot compete. A citizen should not have to foot the bill because employers choose to fail in their legal responsibilities.

We must stop the influx and we must find a humane way to deal with those who are already here. No one benefits from the misery that has been created except the unscrupulous employers. This must end. The slavery and labor abuse that many of our ancestors fought and died fighting against must stop again.

They know that united we stand so they decided to bring us more division, they encourage us to fight worker against worker, they have had a sweet deal in the last 15 or so years, all workers here in our United States are suffering because of this. The powers that be do not want us to pull those under us up to our level, they want us to slip down to theirs. Big business would be perfectly happy if we all bargained our way to the bottom, while the few at the top generate all the wealth and the majority of us get less and less for our labor.

I blame Free Trade for the influx, more on that in another story…need some sleep, just for tonight, maybe a few days off the web would do me justice. I’m sure my girl would agree.

I just want to thank all the great labor writers, communicators, organizers and activists, who believe that we can change the world. Those who believe that all that is good will only happen if we have a strong and vibrant worker movement. Their dedication, their core belief that if we are strong, we can fight for a better world and we can do it together, but mostly above all else, I would like to thank my fellow workers, who come and read our sites and choose to be informed of whats going on. Those of you who know that that “there’s nothing we can do about it,” is a lie which is repeated by those who would chose to keep us living poor, spending more and working till we die.

We must step it up in ‘09.

We have miles to go before we sleep.

UMWA responds to Obama coal bankruptcy statement

The United Mine Workers Association has responded and their website is down due to overload of bandwidth, with a little help of Google cache here’s the text:

McCain campaign’s last minute distortion of Obama’s coal record an act of desperation

date:

November 3, 2008

For immediate release?:

United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) International President Cecil E. Roberts issued the following statement today:

“Sen. John McCain and his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, have once again demonstrated that they are willing to say anything and do anything to win this election. Their latest twisting of the truth is about coal and some comments Sen. Obama made last January about the future use of coal in America.

“Here is what the McCain campaign left out of Sen. Obama’s actual words: ‘But this notion of no coal, I think, is an illusion. Because the fact of the matter is, is that right now we are getting a lot of our energy from coal. And China is building a coal-powered plant once a week. So what we have to do then is figure out how can we use coal without emitting greenhouse gases and carbon. And how can we sequester that carbon and capture it.’

“Sen. Obama has been consistent with that message not just in the coalfields, but everywhere else he goes as well. Despite what the McCain campaign and some far right-wing blogs would have Americans believe, Sen. Obama has been and remains a tremendous supporter of coal and the future of coal.

“I noted that Sen. McCain even went so far yesterday as to say he has always been a supporter of coal. I wonder, then, how he can justify his statement at a Senate hearing in 2000 that, ‘In a perfect world we would like to transition away from coal entirely,’ and his leading role in sponsoring legislation in 2003 that would have wiped out 78 percent of all coal production in America?

“Fortunately, UMWA members, their families and their friends and neighbors in the coalfields know all too well what is going on here. They’re not going to fall for it, and we urge others throughout America who care about coal to review what the candidates’ records on coal actually are. We are confident that once they do, and once they see the many other benefits to working families of voting for Sen. Obama, they will make the right choice for themselves and their families

Barack Obama’s Grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, loses battle with cancer

A very sad day for the Obama Campaign, yesterday, Terence Tolbert, Barack Obama’s Nevada state director died of a sudden heart attack, today we have learned that Barack Obama’s 86 year old grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, has lost her bout with cancer.

With sadness I bring the following news from 13 News in Baltimore:

Barack Obama’s Grandmother Dies
WASHINGTON (CBS)

A day before the presidential election, Barack Obama announced the death Monday of his grandmother, who helped raise him and who he praised as the cornerstone of his family.

The Democratic presidential candidate announced the news in a joint statement with his sister Maya Soetoro-Ng. He said his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, had died peacefully after a battle with cancer.

He said: “She was the cornerstone of our family, and a woman of extraordinary accomplishment, strength, and humility. She was the person who encouraged and allowed us to take chances.”

The candidate learned of her death Monday morning while he was campaigning in Jacksonville, Fla. He planned to go ahead with campaign appearances.

Late last month, Obama took a break from campaigning and flew to Hawaii to be with the 86-year-old Dunham.

Obama said the decision to go to Hawaii was easy to make, telling CBS that he “got there too late” when his mother died of ovarian cancer in 1995 at 53, and wanted to make sure “that I don’t make the same mistake twice.”

The Barack Obama infomercial

It’s called “American Stories, American Solutions” and I haven’t watched it yet, need more time

Any questions, please read why I am voting for Mr. Obama and why I urge all working people to do the same, Joe endorses Barack Obama under the Working Families Party line

Edit: 6 minutes in and it’s all about working people…gotta sleep, goodnight.

Staten Island and Brooklyn need Mike McMahon in Congress

“Not until we return dignity and respect to our workplace will our nation ever live up to the great ideals upon which it was founded.” - Mike McMahon

->Click the image to the right for large printable card you can take with you when you vote

What can I say, we had many years of Republican Vito Fosella as our Congressman, and while there were a few items I agreed upon with him, for the most part he didn’t see the same picture as me. He ignored my stance on media consolidation, stating in a mass generated e-mail that if corporations owned more TV, radio and newspapers, it would be better for all of us. He also did not respond to my offer to do anything in my power to help keep my local hospital, Victory Memorial, open. So I was a bit discouraged, but that was then, this is a new day.

First let me explain a bit about my Congressional district

My district, the 13th. Congressional district of New York, which encompasses all of Staten Island and the southern part of Brooklyn, has the highest density of any Congressional district in the entire United States, with over 92,000 union households. For too long we had a person in office at the Congressional level that didn’t quite understand what difficulties workers face on a daily basis. Now we have a chance to elect someone who knows who his neighbors are, so here’s what Mr. McMahon has to say about labor, in excerpt:

My neighbors and friends in both Staten Island and Brooklyn leave their homes and families early each morning to put in a hard day’s work, helping our City function and supporting their families. As a child I learned from them the values that continue to guide me today – the honor of hard work, the importance of family, and the power that we have when we stand together.

The great American ideals of justice and fairness demand that we treat each and every hard working man and woman – from fire fighters to teachers, from police office officers to sanitation workers, from construction workers to nurses, and so many other important but often overlooked jobs -, with dignity and respect. First and foremost this means a fair wage for a fair days work, appropriate benefits so that they and their family have health care access, financial security, and time off to spend as a family.

Employee Free Choice Act:

Sadly the fight for dignity and respect on the job has never been more difficult then today. Far too often, when workers courageously stand up and demand union representation , unscrupulous employers respond with illegal threats and intimidation. Firing workers, changing shift times, and even threatening to close places of work are becoming all the more common in union organizing campaigns. The nation’s foremost enforcer of labor law, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), is simply ill-equipped and unable to decide these cases in a timely fashion. This means that even when illegal acts are found, the ruling often comes years after workers have been intimidated from voting for union representation, and the atmosphere for union organizing has been poisoned beyond the point when a free and fair election is possible. This, clearly, is not what was envisioned by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt when he and Congress enacted the National Labor Relations Act over 70 years ago. As Americans, we must stand together to say that this type of harassment is unacceptable anywhere in the world, let alone in our nation’s own work places.

It is for these reasons that I strongly and proudly support the Employee Free Choice Act. This vital legislation will return the decision about union representation to the rightful decision makers – the workers. Once this most important piece of legislation is enacted into law, workers will be able to declare their desire for union representation through the signing of union authorization cards. The union will be able to hold those cards until a majority have been signed, at which time they will be submitted to the NLRB. No longer will employers be able to hire union busting law firms that employ vicious campaigns of threat and intimidation in preparation for a union election date. No longer will workers’ votes be cast under the watchful eye of their employer. The Employee Free Choice Act will finally begin to return democracy and fairness to our nation’s workplaces.

I am proud to have stood with the hardworking men and women of my City to protect their jobs and living conditions. When the sons and daughters of our City were called up to active military duty and temporarily forced to leave their families and municipal jobs to proudly serve our country in the War on Terror, I fought to make sure that the housing and food compensation that they received with their deployment was not subtracted from their City pay checks. Before I and my colleagues on the City Council demanded this change in City policy, City employees that were called up to active duty were required to return to the City the lesser of their City salary or their military compensation, including the cost of housing and food.

Just as I successfully fought in 2003 to save nearly two hundred good paying Teamster jobs at the City’s Department of Sanitation, I will fight with equal vigor for:

• Labor and Environmental Standards in all International Trade Agreements. Our country needs fair trade that raises the wages and standards of all workers, not trade that makes it free for employers to export jobs and exploit workers.
• Increased funding for the Occupational Safety & Health Administration and other Similar Federal Agencies. Federal agencies charged with enforcement of our nation’s labor laws need to be sufficiently resourced and empowered to do their jobs. Needless and senseless workplace accidents must be stopped before they happen, and when they do, employers that are at fault must be held accountable for their actions. In this day and age workers should not be dying on our construction sites -as has tragically been the recent case in New York City – or in our nation’s mines. We have the technology and ability to do this work safely and we owe it to the hard working men and women of our nation and their families to ensure their safety.
• Increasing the National Minimum Wage. The legal minimum wage needs to be raised further and we must ensure that all levels of government are vigorously enforcing the law and prosecuting those who violate it. Men and woman should be paid equal and fair wages for a fair days work, and in order to support their families these wages must keep pace with inflation and the rising cost of living.
• Ensuring that all Government Funded Projects Pay a Prevailing Wage for All Construction Work. If there is a single dollar of federal funding in a development project, all construction should be done at the prevailing wage rate. The practice of segregating Federal and local government funding and structuring the project to minimize the work done at a prevailing rate, as is far too often the case in New York City, simply must come to an end. As a member of the New York City Council I fought to end this practice by introducing legislation, Introduction 733, requiring that all City subsidized projects, whether directly or indirectly funded, pay a prevailing wage rate. I will continue this fight once elected to the United States Congress.

Not until we return dignity and respect to our workplace will our nation ever live up to the great ideals upon which it was founded. I will work hand and hand with my partners in organized labor in the fight for economic justice both here at home and abroad.

Every single labor union in the New York City area is endorsing Mike McMahon, his stance on our returning veterans and infrastructure are also top notch, and from some friends and colleagues of mine, he is the real deal. Mike McMahon can also be voted under the Working Families Party, Line E.

More info on Mike McMahon can be found on Mike McMahon For Congress
More info on who Working Families supports and their issues can be found at WFP.org

Longest-serving Republican in the US Senate found guilty

Directly from the “They’re all scumbags” catagory

From Times Online (excerpt):

The longest-serving Republican in the US Senate has been found guilty of lying about free gifts he received from a wealthy oil contractor.

Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, had been hoping to win re-election next week, but last night he faced the end of his 40-year political career, after being convicted on seven corruption charges.

The guilty verdict will make a difficult race almost impossible for the 84-year-old senator, and brings the Democrats one crucial seat closer to realising their bid for a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.

Stevens’s downfall will provide another unwelcome distraction for John McCain, whose efforts to run an anti-sleaze ticket have already been compromised by the Troopergate inquiry, which found that his running mate, Sarah Palin, had used her position as Governor of Alaska to settle a personal score

More at Politico: Messy trial ends with a decisive verdict

The video McCain wouldn’t like you to see: paid volunteers

After a legnthy interview with a the Orlando campaign for John McCain, where the person interviewed stated that they have tons of volunteers in the race, after interviewing a few of em, we find that most are paid

Q at the end of video: Why do they sign confidentiality agreements?

Johnathan from the GOP: Because they are employees

Joe endorses Barack Obama under the Working Families Party line

If you’re like me, when you get to the voting booth, you immediately get sick of having to choose the lesser of 2 evils at the voting booth. The nicer of 2 huge criminal organizations.

While Independents are a hard runner, even such people that I respect that could have really made some changes, such as Dr. Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich, chose to be a candidate in one of the major parties, knowing fully well that you need their “membership” in today’s world to even have a chance of getting elected at that high stage of the game. I mean look at Congress, only one Independent, its a scary situation, not much choice.

Good cop, bad cop. The Republican’s and Democrat’s know where their bread and butter are, the war chests of the big 2, but just like the “big 3″, it seems they sit on changes until after the fact, and while the Democrats are the good cop in the public’s eye, they still sign bad laws and raises for themselves, hurt working people, they are a rouge “good cop” and viewed as our only choice, and unfortunately for President I would have to agree, McCain’s voting record against the working man and our returning veteran’s is atrocious, at least it’s easy to see which side he’s on, a champion for huge corporations and the arch-enemy to the American worker.

On McCain’s stance on my two biggest issues, the American worker and how we treat returning veterans I would have to vote for Barack Obama by default. I remember voting for Ross Perot just on his stance against NAFTA, the Bush Sr. written policy which Bill Clinton pushed against Congressional wishes into law. Look where we are now!

I watched all the good industrial American union jobs on the Queens, New York shoreline vanish, just like Ross predicted. Eight years of Bush Jr. has us embedded in a forgotten war, as long as the profiteers are in the black, nothings mentioned. Bush has waged a war on the American worker since his first unconstitutional Executive Order, which made any project that recieved Federal funding, our tax money if you are counting, inellegible to receive a “Project Labor Agreement”, his latest unconstitutional Executive Order was to make any PRIVATE business that is deemed a subcontractor of a Federal contract ineligible to recognize it’s memberships wishes to be in a union via a card check agreement. Explained simply that even if the company/corporation agrees ahead of time to allow it’s workers to decide that they want to be in a union by just having the majority of workers sign cards, it will not be legal.

Please also note that the first business association to endorse John McCain in this years Presidential bid was none other than, The Associated Building Contractors, the staunchly anti-union group of construction corporations that want to eliminate unions altogether, they have fought against prevailing wage, fought against project labor agreements and are the benefactor of workers without rights across our nation, they are the enemy of the American construction worker and they have blindingly aligned themselves with the Republican party, the ABC would be happy if they could import foreign workers to do their projects with sovereignty of retaliation by any American who chose to protest their actions, it has been in the works for years. They want to disqualify American workers and use a slave class, that is their agenda. That is not true Republican value, that is not true Conservative value, that just makes me sick.

Now how did the self-proclaimed Maverick fare with our veterans? Think about this, the young men and women who are actively fighting in this war have donated 6 times as much to Barack Obama, why you may ask? Because John McCain’s record of voting for their interests has been horrible, he was against an updated version of the GI Bill, and was absent from the voting, as a matter of fact the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America issued a report card on the candidates and John McCain has scored a D on legislation that would help our returning vets, a D, Barack Obama who has also been campaigning and missed a few votes scored a B.

Even Ron Paul has received 4 and a half more contributions from our active military than John McCain.

As a labor activist and independent writer, I feel that I must tell you how I’m voting, and I must tell you why? If Barack Obama hold onto one of his promises, even if he isn’t able to accomplish any of his tasks, the worker movement in this country will be way ahead of the game as opposed to any of the John McCain measures . Barack Obama is a somewhat unknown in the circles of main stream politics, but he is not a Bush or a Clinton, he may actually have an agenda that isn’t just give the corporations everything they want on a silver platter, and possibly make life better for the people in these United States. One thing is for sure, that if he gets elected he will owe it to labor to make sure that our issues are heard.

I will hold accountability to labor to make sure that we are heard, or will call for new leadership, we can never allow another NAFTA fucking in my lifetime, we can never allow a wholesale sell off of the industries we have left and we must encourage businesses that sell stuff here, to make it here, with good paying American jobs. Barack Obama has already taken stands against contractors in Chicago when they misclassified workers to avoid American workers and pay them below wage, I am hoping that he will continue in his stance against illegal activities like that.

One of the most scary ideas on John McCain, is his amnesty plan, which didn’t have wording to stop the influx…to which I scream, what part of making those that are already here citizens makes you think that the next one that enters will not undermine him? A really failed policy which he has abandoned.

Not to mention the fact that McCain want’s me to pay the tax burden of my employers health insurance plan as my own taxable income, are you fucking kidding me an man who claims “why should anyone’s tax get raised in this economy?” is going to make me pay tax on something that is exempt now? and I wouldn’t even be able to get the $2,500/$5,000 tax credit if my employer supplies the policy!

Does Barack Obama scare me, sure he does, I didn’t like him voting for the FISA and Bailout bill, does John McCain scare me, oh yeah, along with those measures he has voted against the interests of the American worker 100% of the time, so I would say he is a lot scarier. Hell if I were one of the spin doctoring idiots on the campaign, I would have to say that John McCain is an economic terrorist, his policies and the wishes of those who have invested interests in him this election will cause much fear and panic for the American working family.

I am voting for Barack Obama and how I’m gonna do it

So what can I do, here’s what, I’m going to vote for Barack Obama, here in New York I get to have that independent feeling, and maybe tell him exactly why.

Well this election, in New York you can send a clear message to the Big 2, a message that say’s that the only reason that you are voting for this candidate is his stance on labor, on our bread and butter. On Nov.4th. in New York, you can vote for Barack Obama under the Working Families party, and it will count as a vote for him, but at the end of the day, when the ballots are tallied, and if indeed Mr.Obama does win the Presidency, he can see that you and I voted for him only on his stance for the working man.

While there are a few, not many, hiccups in some of the issues that Working Families Party are fighting for, I feel that there is a distinct agenda that is in our best interest.

Hell, we can always join the local meetings and get our voice heard. It’s a new party, it’s grassroots and netroots, it’s not the Big 2 and it can be better if we get involved in it..

Here’s where WFP stands on the issues:

The Working Families Party is fighting for a more just world.

One where the economy works for everyone. One where politicians are held accountable to working people, instead of big-money backers. One where all of us, no matter where we come from, can find a good job, get healthcare when we need it, afford a home, send our kids to good schools, and have a secure retirement.
Green Jobs, Green Homes, Real Tax Solutions, Clean Elections, Affordable Housing, Education, Equal Rights, Good Jobs, Living Wages, Healthcare for All, Paid Family Leave, Public Transportation, Veterans and Military Families

On November 4th. send a clear and distinct message to the Big 2, I am voting only for real values, the values of the working people, and even if I do not agree 100% with WFP, it’s a lot more than I agree with the Big 2.

From The WFP site on Presidential election 2008:

Vote Change Like You Mean it

After 8 long years of disastrous, far-right government, Working Families need a champion in the White House like never before. Barack Obama’s campaign has inspired millions of Americans to fight for the issues the WFP has long championed, whether it’s an economy that works for everyone, healthcare for all, protecting social security, or the right to join a union.

This November, Obama will appear on the Working Families Party ballot line – “Row E” – across New York. Votes for Obama on the WFP line count just the same, but they also let you vote your values and send a powerful message: New Yorkers demand real progressive change.

Remember, if and when Barack Obama get’s elected, it’s up to us to hold him accountable, renegotiate Free Trade agreements, reinvest in infrastructure, create green jobs, it will all be on the table and I’m ready. Keeping American’s working is this site top priority, would I reregister as a WFP member, that would take me learning just how grassroots they are and possibly honing in on their motives, letting Barack Obama know that I am voting for him for issues that matter to me, “One where politicians are held accountable to working people, instead of big-money backers.”, is a good start.

Video: IBEW Local 665 President talks about the Employee Free Choice Act in Michigan 7-24-08