Even in a year when American unions started to stand up and fight back against conservative political attacks for the first time in many years, a slim majority of Americans, 52 percent, say they approve of labor unions. The number remains unchanged from last year and is on the lower end of what Gallup has measured historically, which proves that labor unions have a lot more work to do to make up ground with the American public.
Gallup has asked Americans whether they approve or disapprove of labor unions periodically since 1936, annually since 2001. Americans have always approved more than disapproved of organized labor in general, with the lowest approval rating of 48 percent measured in 2009, not surprisingly after eight years of union bashing by the Bush administration and other Republican candidates for governor, Congress and state legislatures.
In fact, labor has been on the butt end of Republican criticism since Ronald Reagan ran for president in 1980, and neither collectively or individually have they figured out a way to counter the anti-union message.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney is lying in his new book and in media appearances promoting it. Watch this video for a fact check on Cheney’s public statements.
Minnesota Tea Party Republican Michele Bachmann has taken over from Sarah Palin as the biggest dingbat in the presidential race, but I’m afraid a lot of conservative folks who are sympathetic to supporting the environment are not getting the message. Maybe that’s because the main stream media muddles the message on a daily basis.
So let’s be explicit and clear in case all those little old ladies in the Audubon Society over in Mountain Brook and other wealthy suburbs don’t get the message.
On Sunday, Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann actually came out and made another in a long line of ignorant statements. She said if she were elected president, she would consider drilling for oil and natural gas in the Everglades. The AP story reporting this included in the lead sentence this phrase: “if it can be done without harming the environment.”
But it is an absurd notion that you could drill for oil in a massive natural area of wetlands and not harm the environment. Ask the people of Louisiana, who have lost tens of thousands of acres of land because of oil and gas drilling.
It is way too pretty on the porch this morning to be mad at anything or anyone. No matter who happens to occupy the White House or the governor’s mansion, or what morons serve in Congress or the state legislature, I have a roof over my head and food to eat, a little gas in the van, and I’m not in the path of Hurricane Irene making a fool out of myself on TeeVee.
On the other hand, I refuse to allow a few moments of quiet solitude to distract me from the mission at hand. The county I live in is in big financial trouble, and the state is not much better off. This country is reeling from one human catastrophe to another. And even though the U.S. is no longer rated triple A, the world still depends upon leadership from us.
But like a lot of commentators, I wonder if we are any longer up to the task. We seem to be a mixed up people now, so oblivious to the cause and effect of our problems as to defy our ability to craft solutions.
A couple of nights ago, I got a friend request on Facebook from someone in Brazil, who sent me a nice note and asked how things were going in the U.S. I jokingly told him all my friends were searching the world over on the Internet for somewhere to move when the shit goes down.
Firefighters battled a blaze at the bird sanctuary on Dauphin Island Saturday.
After fighting the blaze for several hours and calling in for re-enforcements, Dauphin Island Volunteer firefighters said they were able to get the blaze is under control before it became a threat to homes.
“We showed up it was spreading so fast. We couldn’t keep up with it,” said Richard Pinegar with the Dauphin Island Volunteer Fire Department.
The Alabama Democratic Party is calling on state House Majority Leader Rep. Mickey Hammon, a Republican from Decatur, and Republican Governor Robert Bentley, to apologize for Hammon’s suggestion that license commissioners attempting to be realisitic about his irresponsible immigration bill are “lazy.”
“This is yet another example of Republicans refusing to take responsibility for their reckless legislation,” Judge Mark Kennedy, Chairman of the Alabama Democrats, said in response to comments Hammon made to the Florence Times-Daily. “Representative Hammon doesn’t seem to understand that when he says jump, county governments have more important things to say than how high.”
Just two weeks ago, county licensing officials learned the immigration legislation passed by Hammon and Scott Beason of Gardendale would require them to demand proof of citizenship to issue updated vehicle tags and licenses. The law as passed would make it impossible for Alabamians to renew their tags by mail, creating longer lines for county residents, putting a bigger burden on elderly and rural Alabamians, and creating tens of thousands of pages of new paperwork for already cash-strapped counties.
On Aug. 26, the AFL-CIO and the King Center are hosting a national symposium on jobs, justice and the American Dream — two days before the official dedication of the historic Martin Luther King Jr. memorial in Washington, D.C.
Join Martin Luther King III, Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), Dr. Mary Frances Berry, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and other civil rights activists, worker advocates, young people and more in a live webcast of the day’s events.
The first panel, Jobs and the American Dream, begins at 9 a.m., Eastern, and will be moderated by former New York Times columnist Bob Herbert. The second panel, Justice and the American Dream, moderated by Maria Elena Salinas, Co-Anchor, Noticiero Univision and Aqui y Ahora, begins at 11 a.m. Eastern.
Just in case anybody wondered if Republican governors Rick Perry of Texas and John Kasich of Ohio really care at all about unemployed workers in their states, this just in.
Both governors let a Monday deadline pass to apply for hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds for unemployment insurance benefits. The money — $555 million in Texas and $176 million in Ohio — was part of the 2009 economic stimulus package to help get the American economy moving again.
To receive the money, both states would have had to slightly expand eligibility requirements for receiving it. But both Perry and Kasich turned their backs on the money and the jobless workers, according to the AFL-CIO.
Each state had four options in providing more help for their unemployed residents and only had to pick two of the ways. The states could have made workers in job training programs or those seeking part-time employment eligible. They could have provided larger benefits for unemployed workers with children or to people who have to leave their jobs because of domestic violence, a spouse’s job transfer or illness of an immediate relative.
During the Bush years, we specialized in covering the politicization of the U.S. justice system as much as any news organization. Our archives are about the most comprehensive for anyone researching the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, and the original case against Richard Scrushy, which Glynn Wilson covered for The New York Times.
