A bill by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) would expand the entire trade-adjustment program to include service-sector workers whose jobs are lost to trade and would lower the age minimum for wage insurance to 40. McDermott and Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), the third-ranking Democrat in the Senate, are working to adapt a proposal by Brainard and others that would cover almost any displaced worker of any age who loses a job for almost any reason and takes a new one for lower pay. Workers who make less than $97,500 would be eligible, according to a Schumer aide, and benefits could be increased to a maximum of $20,000.…Such an expansion would cause the cost of the program to increase to roughly $3.5 billion annually from about $20 million. Brainard said the cost could be covered by adding $25 to every worker's annual unemployment tax, an idea Schumer said he is considering. - Making Up for Lower Pay/Lawmakers Seek to Expand Insurance For Wage Drop-Offs Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, March 6, 2007

As part of their campaign to soothe an anxious middle class, congressional Democrats are preparing legislation that would significantly expand federal aid to the most obvious victims of the global economy: workers whose jobs move offshore or are lost to foreign imports. Under a Senate bill to be introduced today, computer programmers, call-center staffers and other service-sector workers who make up the vast majority of the nation's workforce would for the first time be eligible for a generous package of income, health and retraining benefits currently reserved for manufacturing workers who lose their jobs to international trade. Aid May Grow for Laid-Off Workers Service Jobs Lost To Global Trade Are Focus of Bills Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, July 23, 2007

This is another example of the displaced worker paying for his/her own “benefits” instead of the CEO Classes and Wall Street bankers that benefit from their displacement. What’s even worse is that the extension of short-term “aid to displaced workers” is being considered as a trade-off to giving the President back the unconstitutional power of “fast track” trade authority.

The fact is that the US economy is not creating jobs that pay a living wage at a rate fast enough to absorb the workers that are being laid off. The “new” economy, despite the protests of the Corporate Media and the Establishment economists, is undermining America's middle class, and pushing working folks into poverty.

A solution to the problem of the displaced worker would include the following: 1) clamping down on unrestrained immigration, including H1B Visa workers;  2) removing the government subsidies toward exporting jobs via the Export-Import Bank;  3) imposing tariffs on imports from nations like China that provide state subsidies to it export industries; 4) replacing NAFTA and other so-called “free trade” agreements with “fair trade” agreements that prevent this sort of labor arbitrage that benefit multi-national corporations and Wall Street investment bankers at the expense of working folks.

 "Ironically, the proposed legislation would increase taxes on low-income taxpayers as a way to fund health coverage for low-income individuals," Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said Tuesday in a letter to Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa about the proposed .61 cent increase on a pack of cigarettes to fund the expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program....Baucus replied..."When given the choice between standing with big tobacco companies and standing with kids, I stand with America's children," said the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. Source: Administration Fights Cigarette Tax Hike - By KEVIN FREKING The Associated Press/via the Washington Post - Tuesday, July 17, 2007

It's not hard to see why the Democrat Congress is held in LOWER self esteem then President Bush when they are pulling stunts like this. The Democrats are throwing crumbs to their urban with this "sin tax" on tobacco smokers to their socially liberal constituency. Today's white (Christian) liberals are true to their Northeastern Puritan & Calvinist roots, always embarking on moral crusades against this or that "sin" that generally irritate the rest of us. 

But what's really wrong with the tobacco tax is that it's a FLAT tax, and Americans who vote Democrat are generally advocates of progressive income taxes, not "flat taxes". So it's not surprising the Republicans are exploiting another example of the divide between the Democrat base and the Democratic Party bosses. The Democrats have only themselves to blame for giving the Bush Administration a "wedge issue" to exploit.  The Democrats are always paying for programs for the underclass with taxes on the working folks instead of taxing the wealth of Wall Street Bankers and Trust Fund Babies. And Health Care "reform" should consist of socialization of dysfunctional private insurance quagmire, which is another issue where Democrats refuse to take on the special interests. 

Bottom Line: The rich should pay their fair share of aid to the underclass instead of putting the burden on working folks and our distressed middle class.

"American employees must be punctual, dress appropriately and have good personal hygiene," says Chao. "They need anger-management and conflict-resolution skills, and they have to be able to accept direction. Too many young people bristle when a supervisor asks them to do something." -Elaine Chao, Secretary of Labor Parade Magazine July 1, 2007

We all need "anger managment" training when we hear some of the arrogant and ignorant statements by the Bush Administration sock puppets like Elaine Chao.

 It's not unexpected that Bush---who wants to open our borders to cheap immigrant labor---has a Secretary of Labor who is an immigrant from China with ties to the that regime's interests. Her negative view of native born Americans of course is shared by CEO classes who unlike the American worker have been receiving massive pay raises at the expense of their "lazy workers"....

How patriotic can the CEO classes be when they are looting the economic security of Americans to give justify hugh bonuses and stock options for themselves?

 

Shtull-Trauring says Foxman, frustrated and under attack, placed his cards on the table, angrily retorting: “I don’t represent you nor the Jewish community! I represent the donors.” Foxman’s outburst was surprising not because of its content, but because of its candor. Foxman needn’t bother himself with the trifling concerns of American Jews who happen not to be multimillionaire philanthropists. If he makes the Jewish community less appealing to young Jews, if his theatrics turn us off and turn us away, that’s all beside the point. Foxman’s job is to keep the millionaire benefactors happy: the rest of us can go jump in the Kinneret.  - Fire Foxman/Denying the Armenian Genocide should be the last atrocity perpetrated by the ADL chief. by Joey Kurtzman, July 9, 2007 Jewcy.com

Interesting insight into the way the world of Washington, DC "advocacy" politics works. It's all about inciting wealthy people to donate you money, by exploiting the worst fears and passions of those who hold the purse strings. Of course, if you're Jewish but don't have money, then who cares what you think. But that's the way it works in the Imperial Capital.

It also might explain the disconnect between Jewish-Americans and the Israeli Lobby on the Iraq War. And something about where the inspiration of Bush's foreign policy comes from. You cannot differentiate between Bush's disingenuous and bellicose rhetoric about "The War on Terrorism" and the views of the wealthy Zionists who bankroll the AIPAC and the ADL.

Chickenhawks that defend wars that they are unwilling to fight in don’t deserve even common courtesy. I don’t blame the caller for losing his temper with this arrogant little twit.

It’s irritating when C-Span moderators are always protecting the guests from embarrassing questions by callers, especially when often the callers are not particularly articulate but have a good point. Often the replys being offered by the guests on C-Span are so disingenuous that the callers become angry. If this was a decent moderator, he would have intervened to remind neo-conservative Mathew Continetti (assistant editor of the Weekly Standard) that the US military is desperately in need of healthy 20-something volunteers like him.

-Right now the Army and the National Guard are behind in it’s recruiting goals.

-The other services have been forced to lower it’s age, IQ and health standards and recruit immigrants in order to meet it’s recruiting goals. -To make up for a shortage of troops, the Pentagon is forcing reservists and servicemen against their will to remain in the military when their tour of duty expires.

-The Pentagon is also forcing it’s servicemen and reservists to multiple, consecutive deployments in Iraq without sufficient rest between deployments with severe consequences for their effectiveness and health. This has been a source of stress on service families, especially children.

-From the beginning the United States is relying on the National Guard reservists instead of the mainline military for the occupation, seriously depleting this resource in the event of national emergency.

-The Pentagon opposed the war because they did not think they had enough troops to occupy Iraq.

Every time a fighting age Neo-Conservative or Republican spokesman gets on TV and defends the war, they need to be asked why he’s not fighting there.

The IPS has a good summary of the costs of the war: The Iraq Quagmire: The Mounting Costs of War and the Case for Bringing Home the Troops

"No other solution for the Iran nuclear threat other then an American military strike"....

If anyone should wonder what foreign power is inspiring US foreign policy in the mideast, it's this message from Norman Podhoretz, the editor of Commentary Magazine.  Commentary Magazine is the premier inspirational journal of the "Neo-Conservative" movement.

Note that Rudy "Benito" Guiliani has appointed Podhoretz as his "chief foreign policy" advisor.

Frankly, Cindy Sheehan always came off as a little unbalanced in my opinion. Now she goes on Fox News and removes all doubt.

Only a couple of months ago Cindy Sheehan was telling us that she was fed up with being the face of the anti-war movement. In my opinion it was the other way around. The antiwar movement has enough of a crackpot image with the Code-Pinko gals running amuck. Now Cindy says "voices" in her head have told her to run for Congress and unseat the Democrat House Leader Nancy Pelosi in the 2008 election.

On the other hand, Cindy might just give Nancy Pelosi a hard time in place as "diverse" as San Francisco. Which wouldn’t be a bad thing. So Good Luck, Nancy!

I was lucky to catch a hot Bluegrass band from Wise, Virginia at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival last Sunday, July 8th. The Midnight Ramblers.

The band was authentic to the roots of Bluegrass: Ralph Stanley, The Carter Family, Foggy Mountain Boys, the Seldom Scene, Doc Watson, Merle Travis, Vassar Clements, Alison Krauss and Union Station, Emmy Lou Harris.

The amazing thing about the Midnight Ramblers that they were so young...all under 18 years old! I can hardly believe that kids--well they ARE kids compared to me---could be that GOOD! I love to support "living" music, and I'm glad to say that this wonderful music of traditional America is still alive and thriving in the persons of these talented young musicians!

That's why I'm glad that the Midnight Ramblers are around. It means at least THAT roots music is still alive.

NOTE: My photographs of the Midnight Ramblers at the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife are located here. You might want to check them out.

 

 "This particular action (President Bush commuting the “Scooter” Libby prison sentence) by the president is one more piece of evidence in their ongoing disregard for the rule of law that they think they don't have to answer to.” -Hillary Clinton campaigning in Iowa, ABC News Online: Clinton Slams Bush Over Libby Maneuver.

The number of amazing factoids surrounding Scooter Libby's career in Washington DC give us a glimpse of the bizarre world of "insiders" who infest our Nation's Capital.

Before he became Dick Cheney's right-hand man, Scooter Libby was the lawyer for Marc Rich, the convicted tax cheat that fled the country and was pardoned by Bill Clinton in the final hours of his presidency. Libby defended Clinton’s pardon convicted tax cheat Rich by claiming “misconstrued facts” by Federal prosecutors over Rich's tax cheating. Coincidently, Marc Rich’s wife contributed a million bucks to the Democrat Party, and she gave $70,000 to Hillary Clinton's successful Senate campaign and $450,000 to the Clinton presidential library fund.  Even more of a coincidence, Marc Rich contributed $75 million dollars to the Israeli Lobby who got Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, the mayor of Jerusalem, Ehud Olmert, and former head of Israeli Intelligence, Shabtai Shavit to write letters to President Clinton begging for Marc Rich’s pardon. Something that convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard resents deeply since according to Pollard ALL Israeli spys should be given pardons. Given Marc Rich’s long history of involvement in Israeli causes is legendary, it's not surprising that Libby, the neo-con, was involved with him.

Anyone who thinks that voting for Hillary Clinton---or any Democrat for that matter--is going to “change things” in Washington, DC is sadly mistaken.

The utopian idea first put forth by President Bush's father 16 years ago. "The New World Order" means world government, not necessarily through the UN, but through the International Monetary Fund, the Export-Import Bank, the Federal Reserve, the World Bank...in other words International Finance Capitalism. The economic and social agenda of Wall Street bankers and the CEO classes.

The economic agenda is the twin issues of globalization and unrestrained immigration. The free flow of capital OUT of the United States, and the free flow of labor INTO the United States. To secure the "New World Order", there is the United States military occupation of the Mideast, in defense of the petro-dollar and Israel's security.

Of course, all this has drastic consequences for American working and middle class folks. There are a few signs of popular resistance to the onslaught. Here in the United States, we have the recent defeat of President Bush's idea of "comprehensive immigration reform", followed by a call for troop redeployments by the Republican "Old Guard", as well as the expiration of Presidential authority to negotiate trade agreements.

The problem for Americans is that the Democrat Party doesn't offer much of a choice on these issues either. In fact, both American political parties seem to hold almost identical positions on immigration and globalization, and US interventionism and internationalism. Bill Clinton's legacy was "open borders and free markets", and in 2004, the Democrat Presidential candidate John Kerry was well-known as a pimp for the Big Money Boys. Democrat front runner Hillary Clinton shows no signs of being any different then her husband, and the "Great Beige Hope", Barack Obama offers no substantive difference from Hillary or John Kerry, obscured by a lot of JFK style empty rhetoric.

Increasingly Americans are not only rejecting the Country Club crowd that dominates the Republican Party, but the cosmopolitan elitism of the Democrats to declare themselves independents. As in the case of the defeat of the Senate Immigration Reform Bill S1639, significant numbers of elected representatives of both parties are breaking with their party leadership and responding to popular sentiments demanding a return of economic sovereignty, a foreign policy of non-interventionism, and a return to traditional morality.