Friday, December 05, 2003
http://www.whitehouseforsale.org/
Oooh! Ooooh! This is one of the best things I have EVER come across on the web! Every fact is linked to original source, and the case against this administration is laid out with the greatest clarity and detail! Toooooooo fine.
Thursday, December 04, 2003
Do Democrats Need the South?
In the current ConsortiumNews online edition, Sam Parry makes a cogent and incisive analysis of the trends that have taken the South away from the Democrats, and how the Republicans and the fundamentalists worked together to achieve this. Great and informative reading!
By Sam Parry
December 1, 2003
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Political pundits and even some Democrats are taking the national Democratic Party to task for “losing” the South, a trend that’s viewed as a key reason why the Republicans and George W. Bush are today’s odds-on favorites to hold and expand their power in next year’s elections.
By Sam Parry
December 1, 2003
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Political pundits and even some Democrats are taking the national Democratic Party to task for “losing” the South, a trend that’s viewed as a key reason why the Republicans and George W. Bush are today’s odds-on favorites to hold and expand their power in next year’s elections.
Wednesday, December 03, 2003
Speaking Truth to Labor
Let us reason through the changes taking place in American labor. Last year, for the first time since records were kept, the median family income DECLINED. Yes, it declined. With most families consisting of two full-time workers (with often second and third jobs on the side) the median family income went from 2001's $42,581 to $40,850 in 2002. This is not only significant but horrifying.
Do the math: HALF of our families are ekeing out a living on LESS than this amount, and that half is seeing costs and taxes RISE while gross income FALLS. Are we saying - as so many do these days - that the fault lies entirely with the American worker, that his obstinacy in accepting the same wages as a peasant in Malaysia dooms him to unemployment?
Is THAT the new math for the working class? Are we saying that in a global market we must meet the lowest standards of the most benighted subsaharan African nation or watch our jobs continue to disappear? And that this is good?!?
If we do not swiftly pull back from the madness of globalization, if we do not make it more expensive for companies to leave America than it is to stay and participate in our economy, we will soon become a third-world nation. It is naiive in the extreme to assume that we can maintain a functioning economy with 50-60% unemployment.
I am not saying that workers can and should get the 50%+ wage increases year-to-year that our CEOs get (no matter how the company does). I AM saying that if we do not address this insanity today in real and credible terms, if we do not create economic incentives to REMAIN an American corporation, we are doomed as a nation. Surely we are smarter than that ........ I hope.
Let us reason through the changes taking place in American labor. Last year, for the first time since records were kept, the median family income DECLINED. Yes, it declined. With most families consisting of two full-time workers (with often second and third jobs on the side) the median family income went from 2001's $42,581 to $40,850 in 2002. This is not only significant but horrifying.
Do the math: HALF of our families are ekeing out a living on LESS than this amount, and that half is seeing costs and taxes RISE while gross income FALLS. Are we saying - as so many do these days - that the fault lies entirely with the American worker, that his obstinacy in accepting the same wages as a peasant in Malaysia dooms him to unemployment?
Is THAT the new math for the working class? Are we saying that in a global market we must meet the lowest standards of the most benighted subsaharan African nation or watch our jobs continue to disappear? And that this is good?!?
If we do not swiftly pull back from the madness of globalization, if we do not make it more expensive for companies to leave America than it is to stay and participate in our economy, we will soon become a third-world nation. It is naiive in the extreme to assume that we can maintain a functioning economy with 50-60% unemployment.
I am not saying that workers can and should get the 50%+ wage increases year-to-year that our CEOs get (no matter how the company does). I AM saying that if we do not address this insanity today in real and credible terms, if we do not create economic incentives to REMAIN an American corporation, we are doomed as a nation. Surely we are smarter than that ........ I hope.
