Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Cope favorites Missouri

Candidate Endorsements
Each AFL-CIO Central Labor Council has a Committee on Political Education (COPE). The COPE Committee interviews all candidates for public office within the jurisdiction of the CLC


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U.S SENATE:
Robin Carnahan (D)

STATE AUDITOR:
Susan Montee (D)*

U.S. REPRESENTATIVE:
1 Lacy Clay (D)*
2 No Endorsement
3 Russ Carnahan (D)*
4 Ike Skelton (D)*
5 Emanuel Cleaver II (D)*
6 OPEN
7 Scott Eckersley (D)
8 Jo Ann Emerson (R)*
9 No Endorsement


MISSOURI SENATE:
2 OPEN
4 Joe Keaveny (D)*
6 Mike Kehoe (R)
8 Will Kraus (R)
10 Jolie Justus (D)*
12 No Endorsement
14 Maria Chapelle-Nadal (D)
16 Frank Barnitz (D)*
18 Wes Shoemyer (D)*
20 Terry Traw (D)
22 Ryan McKenna (D)*
24 Barbara Fraser (D)
26 OPEN
28 No Endorsement
30 Michael Hoeman (D)
32 No Endorsement
34 Martin Rucker (D]
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Proposition A (Earnings Tax) - Oppose

Monday, October 25, 2010

Proposition A is a reckless deception

Proposition A is a reckless deception

click link.
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update


there was a rally opposing prop a in Tower Grove park last saturday. About 200 in attendance including mrself, Jobs for Justice and others including Jeff Rains {USW]

event was briefly on KMOV that evening.

Soar 11-3 {St. Louis retired steelworkers} has opposed Prop A for several monts

For Congress: Round up the usual suspects

For Congress: Round up the usual suspects

click link for story from St Louis post

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

some comments on the California election




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Embedded With Organized Labor:: The Poison Pill In “ObamaCare” That Helped Kill Labor Law Reform

Embedded With Organized Labor:: The Poison Pill In “ObamaCare” That Helped Kill Labor Law Reform

click link

from article

Abstract:
Embedded in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 was a poison pill for labor. It took the form of an excise tax on higher-cost, job-based medical coverage—the so-called “Cadillac health plans” negotiated by unions themselves. This deadly political booby-trap became a major organizational distraction and resource drain during a key phase of labor's health-care campaign. Instead of mounting a broad fight for expanded social insurance, unions were forced to wage a frantic defensive struggle against taxation of worker benefits. The “Cadillac tax” backed by Barack Obama was so redolent of John McCain's own stance on health care during the 2008 presidential campaign that it produced a “working class revolt” in Massachusetts. There, a Republican opposed to the excise tax defeated the Democratic Senatorial candidate running for the late Ted Kennedy's seat in January 2010. When the Democrats' lost their filibuster-proof “super-majority” in the Senate, the already controversial Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) became the first political casualty of “ObamaCare.”


In 2008, organized labor spent more than US$300 million electing Barack Obama and other Democrats in a costly bid to end eight years of Republican rule that was extremely damaging to workers.1 The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) was the largest single financial contributor to this multi-union campaign, reinforcing its claim to have “the most effective political program of any international union.”2 By election day, more than US$85 million SEIU dollars (including 20% of the national union's total budget) had been poured into electoral politics. Thousands of AFL-CIO and Change To Win union volunteers and staffers were deployed in key “battleground states” to help Obama defeat John McCain, an Arizona Republican who backed right-to-work laws and other anti-union measures. The potential gain justifying this huge investment of union resources was Obama's commitment to “taking up the two top items on labor's agenda—legislation to make it easier for unions to organize workers, known as the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) and health care reform.”3 Few knew at the time how fatally entangled these two priorities would become.

yesterday's pension protests in France

I am in support of the French unions.

Unlike some in America whom rolls over on social issues, we at Soar in St. Louis are not with that flaccid crowd. We support workers efforts to have decent living standards. Sticking it to retirees outrageous, unreasonable and a crock.

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Sunday, October 17, 2010

more french demonstrations--

big protests this tuesday planned

France--old age pensions demonstrations

not covered very well in AMERICA, but the raising of pension ages in France has folks up in arms on the continent. At issue, raising retirement from 60 to 62. Here many are crying ages be raised to 70. Viva the French

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Saturday, October 16, 2010

world is flat--economic lecture

Interesting Yale lecture on economics

YaleUniversity | April 29, 2009
Thomas L. Friedman explains how the flattening of the world happened at the dawn of the twenty-first century.

Book excerpt available here: http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/about/flat...

---note to understand current ecomics/politics, one must keep up on their facts and arguments. simular Mit lecture

http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/266




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Thursday, October 14, 2010

Alliance for American Manufacturing --Wednesday, October 27 -st. louis

discussed at breakfast today and will be topic at Farmington. Remember to Rsvp

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Want Washington to focus
on jobs? So do we.


That’s why we need you to join us on Wednesday, October 27

for an evening of conversation, fellowship, and food to celebrate American manufacturing.

Next year, economic forecasters
predict that America will lose its
#1 global ranking in manufacturing
for the first time in 110 years.
That’s right, China is projected to
pass the U.S. in manufacturing in
2011. American manufacturing
has already suffered its worst
decade on record with more than
5 million jobs lost, skyrocketing
trade deficits with China, 50,000
shuttered factories, and a drop in
output. Our leaders in Washington
need to understand that without
manufacturing, there can be no
economic recovery.

• Help us drive manufacturing
jobs to the center of the public
agenda.
• Ask your federal candidates
what they propose to do to
reduce unemployment, ensure
that local manufacturing is
competitive, and attract the
factories of tomorrow.
• Find out what business, labor,
and civic leaders have to say
about policies to create jobs
and strengthen our economy.
• Join a discussion of the
opportunities for new workers
in American manufacturing.
This town hall meeting is sponsored by
the Alliance for American Manufacturing
(AAM), a labor-business partnership
determined to make American
manufacturing and jobs the #1 priority.

This non-partisan event is free and open
to the public, but an RSVP is required.

4 WAYS TO RSVP


CALL 866-365-2203
Please specify the city of your event.
Email rsvp@aamfg.org
Website:

www.americanmanufacturing.org


Facebook: www.facebook.com/
AmericanManufacturing


October 27 | 5:00pm | Moolah Shrine Center | St. Louis, MO


What we make, makes America great.
We will be giving away a limited quantity of
American-made t-shirts and buttons, as well as
books on how we can revitalize manufacturing
For more information contact:
Jeff Rains
(618) 979-7901
jrains@aamfg.org
Moolah Shrine Center
12545 Fee Fee Road
St. Louis, Missouri 63146
314-878-6301
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Sunday, October 10, 2010

Ed Martin endorses Paul Ryan's "road map" --privatization

Ryan favors privatization of social security and medicare in case Martn does not know.

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like many a teabagger, Martin did not do homework

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

public option deal

alas, not new news to we Hr 676 folks