Quote Of The Day

Nov 13th, 2011

"Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, his upper rooms by injustice, making his countrymen work for nothing, not paying them for their labor."
-- Jeremiah 22:13

Worth 1,000 Words

Oct 3rd, 2011

Quote Of The Day 4- Labor Day Edition

Sept. 5th, 2011

"When money is controlled by a few it gives that few an undue power and control over labor and the resources of the country. Labor will have its best return when the laborer can control its disposal."

-- Leland Stanford

Working Class Hero - Wisconsin Version

Sept. 5th, 2011

What are you doing for the rights and dignity of America's workers? This Labor Day, take a few minutes to do more than fire up the grill.

Quote Of The Day 3 - Labor Day Edition

Sept. 5th, 2011

"Capital is dead labor, which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks."
-- Karl Marx

Quote Of The Day 2 - Labor Day Edition

Sept. 5th, 2011

"It is essential that there should be organization of labor. This is an era of organization. Capital organizes and therefore labor must organize."
-- Theodore Roosevelt

Quote Of The Day - Labor Day Edition

Sept. 5th, 2011

"All wealth is the product of labor." 
-- John Locke

Quote Of The Day

Sept 2nd, 2011

"I am glad to know that there is a system of labor where the laborer can strike if he wants to! I would like to God that such a system prevailed all over the world"
-- Abraham Lincoln

Quote Of The Day

May 16th, 2011

"A man willing to work, and unable to find work, is perhaps the saddest sight that fortune's inequality exhibits under this sun." -- Thomas Carlyle

Quote Of The Day - May Day Edition

May 1st, 2011

"With all their faults, trade-unions have done more for humanity than any other organization of men that ever existed. They have done more for decency, for honesty, for education, for the betterment of the race, for the developing of character in man, than any other association of men." -- Clarence Darrow

Genuine Liberation Theology

April 27th, 2011

Meet Reverend Cletus Kiley. God Bless him. Major hat tip to The Book Of Cletis.

On Political Machines

April 5th, 2011

The Boss

We received some amazing feedback from a former Chicagoan regarding our missive which compared Gov. Scott Walker's corruption to some of the old time Chicago political hooligans.

This reader shared a perspective on the late 1960's Richard J. Daley Machine you don't hear too often these days. Heads up, life within it sounds pretty damn good.

"Ah good old Chicago. I remember when my husband and I moved into our first apartment in the city, and the local ward heeler turned up -- a dear little man named Harry Jacobsen as I recall -- just to let us know that if we needed a job or any help with city services or anything at all, he was there for us.

There was no bribery -- no quid pro quo -- no overt or implicit corruption: just the kind of "constituent service" designed to keep the voters loyal. What Walker and the Kochs are doing is shamelessly, openly corrupt, and their habit of deflecting it with their usual "we didn't do it, what about those wicked liberals" crap doesn't change the facts.

It's a simple little illustration of the Chicago of the late 1960s. All that's gone, now, of course, but for a few generations it's how most of our cities thrived. The book and movie The Last Hurrah touch on this a little bit, the Boston version -- Boss Curley ran the same kind of operation as Mayor Daley.

The corruption was never in the neighborhoods (though the same cannot be said for things like bank deals and construction projects) -- instead, the GOTV model was to make sure nobody went hungry or jobless, that streets were clean and safe, and that widows and orphans were tended to." EMPHASES OURS

Jon Stewart Takes On The Zero Taxed Corporations

March 29th, 2011

Jon Stewart: "I know the Supreme Court has ruled that corporations are people. But I didn't realize those people were assholes."

The Daily Show - I Give Up - Pay Anything...
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Quote Of The Day 2 - Solidarity Edition

Feb 19th, 2011

"Our labor unions are not narrow, self-seeking groups. They have raised wages, shortened hours and provided supplemental benefits. Through collective bargaining and grievance procedures, they have brought justice and democracy to the shop floor." -- JOHN F. KENNEDY

The Wisconsin Plot Thickens

Feb 18th, 2011

Raw video of Wisconsin firefighter's (who are exempted from Gov. Walker's union busting proposals) marching into the capital to show solidarity with those under attack.

Quote Of The Day -- Labor Edition

Jan 5th, 2011

"Now everyone knows that the labor movement did not diminish the strength of the nation but enlarged it. By raising the living standards of millions, labor miraculously created a market for industry and lifted the whole nation to undreamed of levels of production. Those who attack labor forget these simple truths, but history remembers them." -- Martin Luther King Jr.

Why Extending The "W Tax Cuts" Was Nonsense

Dec 20th 2010

A MAJOR HAT TIP TO GEORGE STOCKER FOR GRAPHIC ASSISTANCE WITH THIS

I have said for several years that the "W Tax Cuts" were a bona fide disaster. There is no legitimate argument to the contrary. We now live in a state of permawar on 2 fronts, we have radically expanded corporate welfare in as many other ways as possible and our infrastructure is collapsing. We need to invest in America on a level not seen since... well, frankly, on a level not seen.

The chart and figures posted below are from The Wall Street Journal

The single argument for extending this failed policy has been that it will create JOBS.

The Heritage Foundation:

"Pro growth tax cuts... always create jobs."

Except they didn't. Under George W. Bush, we added 7.5 million fewer jobs to the economy than we did under 4 years of Jimmy Carter. It's worth noting that the American population was roughly 80 million fewer people in the Carter Era. When viewed per capita, this is beyond poor; It represents the fundamental collapse of job creation as we used to know it. There is much to learn from these numbers and others we will be publishing using them as context.

When? For the love of God, are these tax policies going to start "stimulating?"

President	Jobs created	Jobs at end of term	Jobs at start of term	Payroll expansion	Jobs created per year in office	Population growth	Percent change in population
George W. Bush	3.0 million	135.5 million	132.5 million	2.3%	375,000	22.0 million	7.7%
Bill Clinton	23.1 million	132.5 million	109.4 million	21.1%	2,900,000	25.2 million	8.9%
George H.W. Bush	2.5 million	109.4 million	106.9 million	2.3%	625,000	12.5 million	4.8%
Ronald Reagan	16.0 million	106.9 million	90.9 million	17.6%	2,000,000	17.3 million	7%
Jimmy Carter	10.5 million	90.9 million	80.4 million	13.1%	2,600,000	9.8 million	4.3%
Gerald Ford	1.8 million	80.4 million	78.6 million	2.3%	745,000	5.1 million	2.3%
Richard Nixon	9.4 million	78.6 million	69.2 million	13.6%	1,700,000	12.3 million	5.7%
Lyndon Johnson	11.9 million	69.2 million	57.3 million	20.8%	2,300,000	11.3 million	5.6%
John F. Kennedy	3.6 million	57.3 million	53.7 million	6.7%	1,200,000	8.2 million	4.3%
Dwight Eisenhower	3.5 million	53.7 million	50.2 million	7%	438,000	23.3 million	12.8%
Harry Truman	8.4 million	50.2 million	41.8 million	20.1%	1,100,000	N/A	N/A

Quote Of The Day

Dec 3rd, 2010

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration." -- Abraham Lincolm

Martin Luther King Jr's Social Justice

Sept. 4th, 2010

Glenn Beck should really shut up.

"At the turn of the century women earned approximately ten cents an hour, and men were fortunate to receive twenty cents an hour. The average work week was sixty to seventy hours. During the thirties, wages were a secondary issue; to have a job at all was the difference between the agony of starvation and a flicker of life. The nation, now so vigorous, reeled and tottered almost to total collapse. The labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress. Out of its bold struggles, economic and social reform gave birth to unemployment insurance, old age pensions, government relief for the destitute, and above all new wage levels that meant not mere survival, but a tolerable life. The captains of industry did not lead this transformation; they resisted it until they were overcome. When in the thirties the wave of union organization crested over our nation, it carried to secure shores not only itself but the whole society." -- Martin Luther King Jr. speaking at the AFL-CIO convention of 1965