2009 a year that started with hope that wasn’t realized.

This year 2009 started out with a lot of hope with the election of our first African-American President, of who I have to say that I had my doubts I supported Hillary Clinton thinking she as well as John Edwards were more for Universal Health Care than Obama. Obama even then seem to be for too much compromise, I think the Obama took the saying “Politics is the art of compromise” too much to heart. The first issue that came up was what was called “Tarp” a 700 billion dollar bail out of the economy. So right from the start the bill had 40% Tax Cuts because the Republicans want only more tax cuts for the rich who they say will invest it in creating American Jobs, even though they same rich people spent the last decade investing the money in Chinese jobs. A lot of the rest went to Bailing out Wall Street with very little going to rebuilding the Electric grid, Transportation system, and renewable emerge which would put American to work doing jobs that needs to be done.
Then there was the Health Care Bill, Now do you think they started with Universal Health Care with a single payer system which would not only cover all Americans, but relieve businesses of having to providing health benefits to their employees there by again providing American jobs. I don’t think that Obama was ever really for Universal Health care so he and the Democrats start with a Compromised Health Care bill with a watered down “Public Option” instead. The only reason they even had that into in the bill was to play the Progressives along, they always intended to pull it out at the last moment.
The Stock Market recovered from 2008 somewhat, but had it’s up and down ending up around 10,000. What with Wall Market investors reacting to every rumor proving once again that Wall Street investors don’t know any more than anyone else. When Tiger Wood got into trouble the investors started to sell all the stocks of Companies he endorsed as if the only reason people buy their products is because Tiger Woods endorsed them.
America got more deeply drawn into Afghanistan while still occupying Iraq and eyeing Yemen and Iran there by keeping Military Complex going.
One good thing that happened in 2009 is that Yankees won the World Series

Government of the People

Whenever I comment on some issues with my mostly progressive opinions someone with a more Conservative view would give a list of “Government” failures like Social Security, Medicare, Postal Service and the latest one the Railroads usually stating that they don’t make money or are even losing money. I could and usually do answer how each is actually a success or more a corporate failure (which is the case with the Railroads). It came to me that people think of Government as some big corporate entity trying to run their lives, but just like buildings don’t make a church the People do, so it is the same with a Government, if we create a national community working together then our Government will be a success. Now of course government services needs to be within a budget that taxpayers can afford, but priorities have to be set to what serves the America people best. We should vote for Politicians who wants to serve the people and not a party or ideology, you can’t tell me that all Republicans think alike and just Democrats differ it is hard to believe there are so many narrow minded persons in Congress what are we thinking when we elect them I don’t know.
One thing I like about the history of working people is you can see how we improved generation by generation; a lot of this has to do with how we communicate with one another with the internet common people around the world can talk unfiltered. I believe we will grow into one global community with more understanding between people with different beliefs we will be more tolerant with no need for weapons.

We the Human Family

I posted a comment on the Huffington Post on Obama's speech in Oslo someone else posted a reply

Barack Obama's Oslo Speech: A Caption-Summary With Excerpts

Commented Dec 12, 2009 at 16:02:11 in World

"The Nazi's, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban were and are not from a Galaxy far, far away they are from this planet. We created them through our feeling that we are better than other people therefore justified to murder them (make a "Just war" against them) Obama made nothing, but excuses for war when there is none."

PodiumPerfected replied on Dec 12, 2009 at 17:10:55

"Who's this "we" you speak of?"

Who's this "We" may seem like a little question, "We" the Human Family have been working on the answer for thousands of years ever since we were a small group out of Africa over 40,000 years ago and have since filled Libraries trying to answer that basic question "who are we?" Now I have the idea that PodiumPerfected knows already who this we is that I am speaking about and maybe only joking, but I will try in my very small way to try and answer it. I am pretty sure that when our family was a small group fighting to stay alive there was probably some that wanted to take more risks than others, but also realized that as individuals they would perish that they need each other to survive. Since then our dysfunctional family has struggled to understand our world and our place in it. Over time our family grew very large spreading around our planet spiting into groups with different ideas.

    The Nazi's never had an original thought they used the ideas that were already there using the churches for their own purposes The Al-Qaeda and the Taliban are both using ideas grown out of Islam which grew out of Judaism and Christianity.

    When the only communication was through word of mouth the people that lived in the same area had similar ideas, but didn't get along with people in other areas. Then as communication improved so did peoples understanding of one another, writing, Telephone, Television and now the Internet. The pace maybe slow, but we will get there if our time doesn't run out first (Global warming) there will come a time when there is no longer a need for War.

Thankful for the good Time in which to live

I have to be thankful for the time period in which I spent my life, born in 1941 the Generation before me (like my parents) had to live through Great Depressions, two World Wars and the Flu academic of 1918-1920. My generation and the ones just after it lived their lives during the Golden age in west especially the United States thanks in large part to the cold war which gave birth to the Industrial Complex and Bank credit that gave birth to credit cards. Our Generations had a good time taken advantage buying big fast gas burning cars, building large tracks of suburban single home developments and eating fast foods. We certainly had a good time while we were the Global Market, but as companies themselves became Global sending jobs from the United States to slave labor nations there by lowering their cost, so unfortunately we spent for the now instead of building a nation that can compete in future generations. China is now investing in technologies for the 21^st century our congress debates about issues we should have solved 60 years ago.

The War to End All Wars

World War one ended ninety-one years ago today which as most war was completely unnecessary war between cousins, but cost the lives of millions of common working people. Generals in that war use the wrong tactics which against new technologies like the machine gun cost them so many men they had to send back first to London then later to Washington for more troops. If this sounds familiar it is for today's Generals are still asking for more troops which shows that in the view of Generals the Value of the common Soldier has not gone up in 91 years.

The Islamic Mind set

There has been a lot of talk lately about how the Muslims view those of other religions, who they seem to think it alright or even God's will for them to kill. They view the wars in the Middle East has wars between Christians/Jews and Muslims and not has most Westerners see it in non-religionist terms. The only way peace can come to the Middle East is for this mind set to change, but you can't change anybody's mind with bombs or occupying their lands. Now I am no expert on the Middle East, but it seems to me that there are more reasonable people of the Islamic faith that can live in harmony with the rest of the world community. If we help these more reasonable people have better live for themselves and their families the likes of the Taliban or Al Qaeda would fade away. It might seem a lot slower way to go than just bombing them, but it is the only way that might work while being safer for all.

Western Europeans' went through a similar phase from about the 1500's to today where a lot of people died for or because of the faith, we are now slowly evolving out of that mind set as the growing Anti-War Movement attest to throughout the Western World. The only thing we can do is to help this same respect for human life that is just now taken hold in our community will grow faster in the Islamic community.

    

Misconceptions

While I was reading today's installment of David Rohde's experiences of being Held by the Taliban he talked about his guards misconceptions of the West. David chalked their conceptions up to being uneducated that got me thinking that he was agreeing with their conceptions that coincided with his own conceptions, but disagreeing with those that don't agree with his conception. One of the misconceptions he says they have is that the Taliban guards think that all Americans are Rich. Now maybe from where they stand most Americans they see or hear about it is true. The Uneducated he is talking about have a High School or Junior High education and are not well traveled, well most Americans fit that description. What is meant by an educated conception is learning other people's conceptions and making them your own. We all have misconceptions, things we think are absolutely true that are not true. The only thing we can do is to challenge all our conceptions by hearing out other people, looking at the issue from where they stand using reason to decide between them.

Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize

My first reaction is that it is a little early there is still two major wars going on and a couple of hot trouble spots. He did make a grand speech in Cairo Egypt for international understanding. I wonder if this is more about influencing the future than about what happened in the past. What will they do if he in fact does bring peace to the Middle East give him another Nobel Peace Prize? I think they should have waited for him to bring troops home instead of sending more to war.

Medical Care for illegal-immigrants

The President was right the Health Care bill states in plain English that even Joe Wilson should be able to understand that it does NOT cover illegal-immigrants, but Hospitals can't refuse to give medical care to someone who needs it now and the taxpayer already picks up the tab, which probably won't change.
American seem willing to take illegal-immigrants labor, but unwilling to pay them a living wage or even give them medical care. If the American people didn't exploit them to get something cheap they wouldn't be here in the first place.

Health Care Choices

Many of those who complain that a Public option takes away their choices don't really have any choices now, most Health Insurance companies are in the States with the largest population density such as Florida, New York and California, many other states have just one insurer now, so a Public Option would improve their choices and their Health care.
It seems that the people that would benefit the most from Universal Health Care are the one that are against it. The Public Option as it is called does not go far enough, but it is a start in the right direction. I personally might be more hurt since I had my Health Insurance paid by Verizon until I went on Medicare and now they pick up to secondary insurer, but I am think of my children and their children, the high cost of our present health care system as and drive companies out of the USA for it is the cost of Health care not wages that cost American jobs. What we need is a Single Payer Universal Health Care System.

Paying for Social Security and Medicare

The problem with SS and Medicare is the good times our parents had in the 1940’s and 50’s making us baby boomers and we didn’t return the favor, so now there are less workers than retired baby boomers. If you raise or eliminate the cap on Social Security and Medicare Contributions until we all die off the problem should either go away if you have a lot of kids or be someone else’s problem.

Healthcare should be paid for through single payer and benefits adjusted to those funds that would take the pressure off small businesses to hire more people at good wages, so there won’t be 40 million uninsured

Malpractice insurance is killing medical costs so must be reformed to be fair to both Doctors and patients

Sonia Sotomayor

One of the criticisms thrown at Judge Sonia Sotomayor is that she feels what effect laws have on people and not just deciding cases strictly by the law. What they really mean is a Conservative view of the law. How can any person decide a case without thinking the effects of that decision unless they are robots and who wants a robot as their Judge? When Sonia was a young lawyer said that as a Puerto Rican woman she has more qualified to be a Judge than many white men and many conservatives have jumped on this to call her racist. When you first look at this statement it looks like a racist statement, but when you put it in context, I think and hope she meant that being raised poor in the Bronx, losing her Father when she was only nine, that her life experiences mean she can Identify with more people than a White men from a rich family that had everything handed to them. Everyone views what they see by their past experiences no matter how little or how much education they may have. It can only be hoped that Sonia Sotomayor has the experience to be able to put herself in another persons shoes.

 

 

 

 

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Tax and Spend

Paul Krugman column in the NY Times on Monday May 25, 2009, The State of Paralysis in California saying that the problem with the California budget dates back about 30 years when the Voters of California Passed Proposition 13 a ballot measure that placed cap on property taxes. This leaves the California budget to depend on income taxes for most of its money and in a recession that money dries up leaving California in a big hole. Paul Krugman seem to say that putting a cap on property taxes is a bad idea because seniors are paying less taxes on their homes than younger home owners. Why can't the spending part of the budget be cut as much as I hate to agree with conservatives the income tax is the fairest of all taxes because people only pay what they can afford and doesn't throw them out of their homes. State budgets are by their nature harder to cut because they have more meat and less fat, the federal budget on the other hand has a lot of fat called the military budget. The Bush administration spent most of the budget on the military and building Iraq and cut the domestic budget to the bone. Now the Obama administration is spending on the domestic budget, but is still spending almost the same amount on the military budget so the balance between money coming in and the money going out is out of balance giving us a big deficit. If we as a country finally come to realize that we cannot afford an empire and close most if not all of our bases overseas, cut military budget in half (it is now 57% of the federal budget). We must move from a war time economy to a peace time economy then we will enough money for both federal and state spending.

Star Trek

Here we go again, the same old crew, but new actors the new Star Trek Movie is very good. My Wife, Son and I went to see it on Monday (5/11/09) and enjoy it. The actors seem to be picked to look like the original actors of TV Series. You would think it would be a poor copy of the original, but they did a good job and the movie would be enjoyable to even those not interested in science fiction.

Pelosi vs. the CIA

Nancy Pelosi who has been speaking out against torture was attacked by Republicans who said she was briefed by the CIA in 2003 about their plans to torture detainees. Nancy says that the CIA never said they were going to actually going to do it, just that it was one of the things they were thinking about doing. The CIA said that the record of the meeting says they did tell her they plan to torture at the briefing. Nancy then said that the CIA was lying whereupon the Republicans attacked her again saying that the CIA never lies. Now it must be remembered that Nancy Pelosi was in the briefing by herself, not being allowed any of her aids to company her. She not allowed to make a record of the briefing or to ask any questions, the only record was made by the CIA. One CIA agent whom the CIA record said was at the meeting later admitted that he was not at the meeting which of course backs up Nancy Pelosi that the CIA lied.

    Now I may only be a common old working lad, but even I know that the CIA is in the business of lying and rarely tells the truth only what they want you to know. The CIA is worst than useless it is dangerous, their lies lead us into the Iraq War and has killed 3,000 civilians on 9/11 and almost 5,000 in the US Military. One way I would cut the budget is to do away with the CIA and sale the Headquarters at Langley to the highest bidder.

Catholic Church Abuse in Ireland

There was an article in the New York Time on May 21, 2009 about a 2600 page report on the Catholic Church's abuse in residential schools. Tens of thousands of children (mostly orphans) were Sexually, Physically and emotionally were abused by nuns, priests and other Catholic personal. The article and one letter from the Catholic league try to minimize the blame of the church. The report is only the latest documents of abuse by the church which only covered a little over 60 years because they only interviewed people that were still alive. The abuse of the Irish people by the Catholic Church actually started in the 15^th century after the Catholic king James was defeated by the Protestants and the Catholic Church was Anglicized and told the Irish it was a sin to learn to read and they suffering made them better Christians. All the books I have read, most always has at least one incident of abuse by priest, nun or teacher, it is all through Irish History and might be coming to an end only now that the church is losing its power over the Irish people.

    If Ireland can move to be a more secular then battle between Catholics and Protestants will be over with it the abuse of the Irish people by both religions. So hopefully the future will be brighter for the Irish.

American Morality a one way street

After World War Two the United States along with others made the German people go though Nazis Death Camps so they would see the horrors their government did in their name. Then at Nuremburg the American government brought to Justice all the German officials holding them responsible for their Criminal acts they could find. Yet the American were blocked from seeing the worst pictures of American massacre of Vietnamese villages during the Vietnam War and now President Obama is blocking them again from seeing the criminal acts of their government. If we thought it would help the German people to see the concentration camps, then why not the American people. Some say it will hurt the American Forces now invading Iraq and Afghanistan, well for one thing they should be there in the first place, second it is not as thro our enemies need pictures to confirm what they already know and third if you can't do the time, then don't do the crime. These pictures are just another instance of American one way morality.

Another instance is Military Tribunals that President Obama was against, but once again changed his mind and now he is for them saying because America has a long history of using Military Tribunals, but America has a long history of doing a lot of things wrong. You are suppose to learn from history by correcting what you got wrong the first time and doing the right thing. The worst type of court is a Military court which 99% of the time already have their minds made up after all it is their enemy that is on trial.

This yet another example of why we need an international court with the power to hold existing governments responsible for their actions and not having to wait for them to fall.

 

 

    

Politicians working for themselves or for their constituency

When Vice-president Joe Biden was a candidate he said that "as a Roman Catholic he was against abortion, but most of his constituencies in Delaware were Pro-choice. So as their senator he supported and voted for Pro-choice legislation" which is the way I think it should be. The right wingers use to make a big deal out of the fact the Bush didn't listen to polls and they say that President Clinton did listen to the polls. Our Government is a representative Democracy Politician are elected to represent their Constituents not themselves. We saw with President Bush not listening lead to one disaster after another not that the people are always right, but as the public becomes more educated and it is up to each person to be as knowledgeable as they can be so they are informed voters. Now the other side of that is should you vote for politicians that changes their positions of issues to please their constituents. I guess it comes down to what their voting record is in congress if you agree with the legislation that they support you vote for them, but you have to understand the issues and now they effect you.

US Stress Test for Banks

The Test results which is more of a report on the finances' of the biggest banks to see if they can stand an even worst down turn of the nation's economy and to the surprise of no one some need more money. The report says they are strong, but need about $75 Billion more dollars of taxpayers' money (most to Bank of America 34.9 Billion). Some investors say the report was too easy and some say it is too hard on the banks and just showed what the inspectors wanted to see, but I think that is true of most if not all business and government reports tend to show what we want them to show. The real question is whether the businesses such as Banks or Auto Companies should be bailed out by taxpayers or allowed to fail or nationalized. Those are the options now bailing them out maybe only a temporary solution and add to the national debt. Allowing business to fail or what is called "Free" market would result in only one company surviving in any one industry and having no comparison. Nationalization which most Americans have a fear of because they are contently being told the government would mean a big bureaucracy which is true in any case of course, but they fail to tell you that your choice is between government bureaucracy and private business bureaucracy. One working for the people and the other for profit (the bottom line) which one do you think has your best interest in mind? If we are going to put our money into banks we might as well run them and keep the credit flowing to our country's business that create jobs here.     

Who is panicking the public?

The talking heads on the TV News were all over Vice-President Biden this week for his comment about Swine Flu the on the Today Show When he said "I wouldn't go on the Subway or on an airplane" . The talking heads who are were talking on and on about how bad the Swine flu is for about week already making it out to be worst than it is as they always do were all over Joe Biden says that he is telling people to stay off Mass transit, but that is not what he said he only said that he wouldn't if he were sick. Joe Biden is the one that took the Trains to and from Delaware – Washington DC for the 30 plus years he was in Congress. I guess they have to have someone to pick on now that Bush is gone and Joe Biden has been elected.

Obama covers up Bush’s Crimes

Barrack Obama says if crimes happen in the pass we should forgive them and move on which proves what I have been saying all along that only a international court can investigate and punish any government leaders for crimes against humanity. The only time the upper class is punished for their crimes is when they lose their power. The cover up of Bush's crimes is nothing new they didn't punish Nixon for his crimes or Johnson for his crimes or for that matter any of the forty-four Presidents. This country talks big about freedom and democracy, but when it comes down to it they are all to willing to give up their freedom for a little safety or to go against all their principles for their 30 pieces of gold. The real question is will Society ever change and I think little by little it is and the mass commutations like the internet hopefully means the world can someday change for the better.

Sacrificing for Democracy

We are always unfortunately hearing about soldiers sacrificing their lives for Democracy and most people are proud of their sacrifice. Yet when it comes time for them to just change (Not Sacrifice) their lives they don't want to and even fight the change. Secretary of Defense Gates in his new budget wants to cut weapon systems designed to fight enemies that no longer exist and change to weapons for today's enemies. Now I think they should make even deeper cuts, but there are whose that want for us to continue to waste money on useless weapons because their state makes a lot of money off them which is what Eisenhower warned us about. Now they could try to change over to what they call now a Green industry, but they are against change even if it would help them and their nation. Where is their sacrifice for Democracy?

Talking about green industry there are people in the Coal and Oil industries that are trying to stop our democracy from moving on to Green energy like wind, solar and hydroelectric because their state (like West Virginia) main industry is mining and they are afraid to change over the wind farms with a little retraining they can make more money in a cleaner and safer industry, but they would have to change. Where is their sacrifice for Democracy?

The same people that want a larger than needed military budget are the same one that don't want to pay for it or even the medical care for the wounded soldiers coming home from the their war. A lot of people who complain about taxes complain most about the income tax, yet the income tax is the fairest of all the taxes people pay because it is based on your ability to pay. Yes! The rich and powerful get away with paying little or nothing at all, but that is because they write the laws and get away with paying little or nothing of any of the taxes. Where is their Sacrifice?

Brown Fat is it the Holy Grail?

We are always looking for a way to eat as much as we want and still have a healthy body. Well sciences may have found that we had it all along in our bodies in what they call Brown fat that burns calories instead of storing them. Scientists say Brown Fat is activated by cold rooms or by injecting epinephrine or adrenaline and ephedra an herbal supplement containing epinephrine can stimulate brown fat said Dr. Rubdolph Leibel, co-director of the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center. But as Dr Leibel says "It fits the fantasy – I eat what I want and burn it off however that fantasy is still far off". Just our luck born too early yet again.

Zero Tolerance makes Zero sense.

    Ben Franklin once said "whose that gives up a little liberty for a little security deserve neither". Well in a case that has reached the Supreme Court a school in Safford Ariz. Savana Redding then only 13 years old was Strip Searched by two female school employees because she was suspected of having ibuprofen on her. This would be against the School's anti-drug policies. She didn't have any on her and her mother was furious so she got a lawyer and took the school to court.

    The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco ruled the school officials had violated the Fourth Amendment's ban on unreasonable searches. Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw said "It does not require a constitutional scholar to conclude that a nude search of a 13 year old child is an invasion of constitutional rights". The argument for the school was that they had the good intensions of the health and safety of their students. They would not only not make their students safe from drugs, but they would put them in danger of authority figures going overboard..

Who Can you Trust?

Right now everyone is angry over the bonuses given out by AIG to their top Executives. AIG CEO Liddy says the bonuses were given under contacts that cannot be broken, but when it comes to contacts with workers well it is alright to brake them. They can try to save the big three auto makers by breaking the Auto Union Contact and cut the Auto workers pay to one third on what is was. Now there are people that want to break the teacher's contacts on how they get paid and fired. Merit pay may sound like the right way to go, but that would mean that teachers would have to teach only what their local school board (who are nothing, but Politicos) no mare science that goes against the bible with this country already so far behind in science merit pay for teachers will insure us falling even farther behind.

    These AIG executives are getting their bonuses for selling insurance contacts that their company had no money to back up in other words they were already taken money under false pretenses. Now I know they sole their money legally, but there should be a law against to protect the consumer. It come down to the old saying that if you have a lot of money already you can steal a lot more and if you are poor can't even keep the money you earn honestly.

Throwing money at financial institutions

The taxpayers of the United States are up in arms about the government giving their money to financial institutions like the Big Banks and investment firms on “Wall Street”. These institutions seem to the operating like the Mafia only less honest about the way they handle our money. The government tries to handle the Mafia by making them obey the rule of law, while setting up rules for financial institutions is considered to be Socialism (Which of course is one of America’s fear words).
What previous administrations went wrong with the “Free Market” is they made it too free everyone has to have rules to live by and all our freedoms are measured. We are all free to drive a car, but we also must obey to rules of the road. Socialism to me just means that Institutions that affects everyone in Society should be managed by that society for the benefit of the whole nation.
What the Obama did wrong was not to have set up rules before throwing money. Maybe they are trying to the thing too fast, but if he get half of what he is trying to do we will be a better society.

Obama weighing his options

Obama seems to be the most thinking president we have ever had, listening to both sides of an issue, and then weighting them to see what the right way to go. He tries to go with facts over Ideology, but need the votes of Congressman and Senators that do give in the Ideology, The issue of hiring and firing Teachers on the bases of merit sounds like the right thing to do and it may even work in some areas, but not in others. If you leave it up to the local School Boards then the Teacher's job becomes a political job and you will have fights over religion and Science, Obama maybe doing the best thing by trying to do everything at once for his time is limited and as we have seen in the past Presidents when we get new president it may be back to nothing getting done. I don't know how he can deal with all he has on his desk and still think things through,but he is our best chance to improve things for all the people of this world.

The International Court of Justice

The Obama administration is afraid to bring Bush and his cronies to Justice because he needs the Republican support for his programs, so we will probably get neither. The international court of Justice is the only place where both sides can be heard and judged correctly. That is the reason America will not recognize an international court too many of our actions would be judged Criminal

Meet the Press 2-1-2009

Meet the press had a round table discussion with all pro-Banking people; there was Steve Forbes, Mark Zandi, and Erin Burnett. No one representing the middle class working person or even small businesses which are generally called “Main Street”, YES Erin there is a Main Street the world does not begin and end with Wall Street. Workers are asked to cut their pay to a quarter of what it once was, but Bankers can get a hundred Million dollars for making the bank one million or in a lot of cases losing the bank money. If the workers have to cut their standard of living so should the bankers. Building low income housing for people with bad mortgages would be a good start. If the Tax payer is going the pay for the loans anyway why do we need a middle man if the Government loans the money to small businesses they will start hiring again and we can get started rebuilding America all of it not just Wall Street

Obama's Stimulus Plan

Obama wanted to be Bipartisan so he watered down his Stimulus Plan with Republican so called “Tax Cuts” that at one time had limited success, but now that we have a Global economy Corporate cut tax cuts would go to China and India or in their pockets as Bonuses. The Republicans are just interested in getting a campaign issue on the Democrats, by making sure the Stimulus Plan does not work. So why don’t the Democrats fix the Stimulus Plan by putting things in that will put people back to work and have the added bonuses of fixing things like the electrical network, roads, bridges, Mass transit and Health care with some tax breaks for small businesses that will spend the money here in the USA

Sen Gillibrand

Sen. Chuck Schurmer says that Gillibrand’s views will change as she gets out into the real world just as his did, but the fact that she thinks Gun-control has something to do with hunting means she is starting a lot further back than he was when he started.

Caroline Kennedy wanted to go into the senate because someone has to pick up the Healthcare torch from her Uncle Ted and she didn’t see anyone else really into it as her uncle is, but she is more like her mother than her father, Jackie was a good person, but not a public one.

The Labor Agenda

The Labor Agenda
Published: December 28, 2008
There is no doubt that President-elect Barack Obama has chosen a labor secretary who could be a transformative force in a long-neglected arena. The question is whether he will let her.Hilda Solis, a United States representative from Southern California, is the daughter of immigrant parents with union jobs. She has been an unfailing advocate of workers’ rights during eight years in Congress and before that, in California politics.
Ms. Solis has been a leader on traditional workplace issues, like a higher minimum wage and an enhanced right to form unions. She also has helped to expand the labor agenda by sponsoring legislation to create jobs in green technology, and in her support for community health workers and immigration reform.
Her record in Congress dovetails with the mission of the Labor Department, to protect and further the rights and opportunities of working people. It also dovetails with many of the promises Mr. Obama made during the campaign, both in its specifics and in its focus on the needs of America’s working families.
The main issue is whether the Obama administration will assert a forceful labor agenda in the face of certain protests from business that now — during a recession — is not the time to move forward.
The first and biggest test of Mr. Obama’s commitment to labor, and to Ms. Solis, will be his decision on whether or not to push the Employee Free Choice Act in 2009. Corporate America is determined to derail the bill, which would make it easier than it has been for workers to form unions by requiring that employers recognize a union if a majority of employees at a workplace sign cards indicating they wish to organize.
Ms. Solis voted for the bill when it passed the House in 2007. Senate Republicans prevented the bill from coming to a vote that same year. Mr. Obama voted in favor of bringing the bill to the Senate floor and supported it during the campaign.
The measure is vital legislation and should not be postponed. Even modest increases in the share of the unionized labor force push wages upward, because nonunion workplaces must keep up with unionized ones that collectively bargain for increases. By giving employees a bigger say in compensation issues, unions also help to establish corporate norms, the absence of which has contributed to unjustifiable disparities between executive pay and rank-and-file pay.
The argument against unions — that they unduly burden employers with unreasonable demands — is one that corporate America makes in good times and bad, so the recession by itself is not an excuse to avoid pushing the bill next year. The real issue is whether enhanced unionizing would worsen the recession, and there is no evidence that it would.
There is a strong argument that the slack labor market of a recession actually makes unions all the more important. Without a united front, workers will have even less bargaining power in the recession than they had during the growth years of this decade, when they largely failed to get raises even as productivity and profits soared. If pay continues to lag, it will only prolong the downturn by inhibiting spending.
Another question clouding the labor agenda is whether Mr. Obama will give equal weight to worker concerns — from reforming health care to raising the minimum wage — while the financial crisis is still playing out. Most members of his economic team are veterans of the Clinton administration who tilt toward Wall Street. In the Clinton era, financial issues routinely trumped labor concerns. If Mr. Obama’s campaign promises are to be kept, that mindset cannot prevail again. Mr. Obama’s creation of a task force on middle-class issues, to be led by Vice President-elect Joseph Biden and including Ms. Solis and other high-ranking officials, is an encouraging sign that labor issues will not be given short shrift.
There are many nonlegislative issues on the agenda for Ms. Solis. Safety standards must be updated: in the last eight years, the Labor Department has issued only one new safety rule of its own accord; it issued a few others only after being compelled by Congress or the courts. Overtime rules that were weakened in 2004 need to be restored. To enforce labor standards, the Labor Department will need more staff and more money, both of which have been cut deeply by President Bush.
Only the president can give the new labor secretary the clout she will need to do well at a job that has been done so badly for so long, at such great cost to the quality of