Union busting

In domestic dispute, she puts
ex-boyfriend’s clothes in storage
locker, sets off $100,000 fire.

It’s hard to beat Idaho Republicans for dumb. Republican Canyon County Commissioner, Steve Rule, compared Michelle Obama (in her red and black dress) to a frightful black widow spider and added that she was going to be in (infest?) the White House. When criticized for this he said, “Apparently some people were offended…” Apparently? I am offended by pig pucky, Mr. Rule, you should try to squirm your way out of it.

It’s no secret, the Republicans are out to break the unions, specifically the UAW. They see the current crisis as their opportunity to further the Reagan revolution and do away with unions for all time. They are demanding, among other impossible demands, that the UAW bring their wages and benefits in line with those of Toyota, Nissan, and the other Japanese manufacturers that have set up non-union shops in Southern states (with the benefit of generous tax breaks and such). So let me ask a naïve question. Why should American auto workers be told they have to lower their standards to match those of their Japanese competitors? Why should the Japanese car makers not have had to establish their standards to match those of Detroit in the first place? Why were these foreign companies allowed to come in and benefit from lower wages and benefits? Better yet, why are Republicans so against American workers having decent wages and benefits? They are, and have been ever since FDR. Do they not remember how it is that unions won their rights through rioting and battles with strikebreakers over a long period of violent and bloody battles. The UAW and other unions do not enjoy a 40 hour workweek, retirement and health benefits through the generosity of management. The strikes around the turn of the century and into the 1930’s were terrible things, but the conditions that workers had to endure were worse. Are we to begrudge them decent wages and benefits? Should we just return to the days of the robber barons and the sweatshops? Is this really what the Republican party wants? Obviously it is. How else can one explain that wages for workers in the U.S. have actually declined over the past few years. How do you explain the obscene disparity between the pay of CEO’s and the hourly wages of those who actually work to produce things. The inherent self-destructiveness of free market capitalism has finally come home to roost. This is precisely why we are now in this terrible situation we find ourselves in. Republicans not only want to keep it this way, they apparently want to make it even worse. By their actions the other night to kill the bailout of the big 3 automakers, and thus put some 3 million people out of work, they have now signed their own death warrant. Just as it took decades for them to recover from the Hoover disaster, so it will take them probably the same amount of time to recover from the Reagan/Bush/Clinton/Bush fiascos. I believe this will happen unless the famous short-term memory of the electorate somehow comes once again into play. I don’t believe this will happen this time. People are too poor at the moment to worry about gay marriage and gun rights and abortion and the “war on Christmas.” The war on their Christmas pleasures has become all too real. Even their own Dick the Slimy warned the Republicans against voting against Detroit. And Bush will now have to temporarily bail them out and pass the problem on to Obama. The past few years of Republican rule have been an absolute disaster in ways we might not have thought even possible a few years ago. This is not to say they haven’t been aided by Democrats, whose behavior hasn’t been much better. It remains to be seen if Obama can really change things, or if we are now doomed through our own stupidity and greed to continue on our current path to third world membership.

Now we are being told by those in authority what we already knew. The torture at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere was not merely the work of “a few bad apples,” but was orchestrated from on high. Rumsfeld is being labeled as the one chiefly responsible for this horrendous and disgraceful chapter of our history, but there can be little doubt who also approved this policy. Hire some lawyers to change the definitions to match what you would like to do, then do it and claim that it was legal, because your lawyers told you it was. Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Rice and a few others apparently believe we are all stupid enough to fall for this. Perhaps we are. No one has yet been found accountable, and there is some doubt that anyone ever will be. Under Bush/Cheney we have apparently ceased to be a nation of laws. What are we supposed to do now, just shrug and say, “stuff happens.”


Truly I love you
above all else that exists,
laughing, smiling son.

Morialekafa

TILT:
This morning the ground was bare. Currently this evening we have 8” of snow.