Iron Range loses 590 jobs at Minntac

The headlines aren't getting any better... unemployment and poverty continue to grow as the depression sets in.

There is no end in sight.

Capitalism is rotten to the core and on the skids to oblivion; we are headed down the road to perdition... straight to hell with no stops in purgatory.

All the while politicians twiddle their thumbs.

Minnesota State Senator David Tomassoni has brought forward "The People's Bailout." So far he has gotten about as far with his colleagues as he did with legislation to save the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant and two-thousand jobs.

Senator Tomassoni is going to need some help getting "The People's Bailout" passed.

Maybe we should consider organizing some kind of "People's Lobby" based upon the tactics used in building the "People's Front" during the 1930's Depression.

The "People's Lobby" was part of the broad based campaign which won the New Deal reforms.

Any thoughts?

Alan L. Maki



Iron Range loses 590 jobs at Minntac

by Jessica Mador, Minnesota Public Radio

February 19, 2009

U.S. Steel is laying off almost 600 workers at a plant in Mountain Iron on Minnesota's Iron Range. Despite record sales and profits last year, company officials say the economic downturn has hit the company hard, leaving them no choice but to cut jobs at the Minntac Mine.

Mountain Iron, Minn. — The layoffs at Minntac amount to almost half the workforce. 500 union and 90 management workers are being idled as US Steel shuts down two production lines at the mine.

A spokeswoman for U.S. Steel declined to speak on tape, but she said the layoffs are temporary. Workers will be brought back if the market improves, but orders for steel are down and she says it's impossible to know when that could happen.

The mayor of nearby Mountain Iron says it won't be soon enough. Gary Skalko said news of the layoffs have hit the town hard.

"We are a tough breed up here. The people will survive but it is devastating and we will stick together," Skalko said. "The biggest concern that I have is that the economy can or will turn around to get these people back to work for a long term basis."

Skalko said the layoffs will have a massive ripple effect because most of the other industry in the area is mining related.

In the final three months of last year, when the financial crisis hit, U.S. Steel's profit fell by two-thirds compared to the previous three months.

As the economy continued to weaken, U.S. Steel idled several plants and reduced operations at others around the country. The company laid off 3,500 workers late last year after idling production at plants in Michigan, Illinois and Keewatin Minnesota.

Officials with the United Steelworkers couldn't be reached for comment, but one told the Associated Press that this round of layoffs blindsided the union.

Skalko worries the laid off workers won't be able to find other jobs because the entire economy is suffering.

"We have got to get them back to work in a relatively short period of time," he said. "I don't even want to think of the alternative. I don't even want to think about that right now. It would be totally devastating."

The layoffs at Minntac are expected to take effect over the next couple of weeks.

Muddle-headed, middle class, capitalist sooth-Sayers & Barack Obama

Barack Obama was the chosen presidential candidate by Wall Street bankers, financiers & industrialists; they even chose a ringer in John McCain to parade as Obama's "opposition" in order to make their circus act complete.

The Wall Street coupon clippers figured they got away with their scam in getting Obama elected; now the capitalist sooth-Sayers are hard at work doing the same thing with Obama's legislation--- from the bailout of the banksters to the "economic stimulus" package to Obama's "solution" to the mortgage crisis to his feigned and fake environmental concerns which will see Canadians expanding their nuclear power industry at a dangerously fast pace so the United States can reap the cheap power with all the problems and possible catastrophes absorbed by Canadians. And, of course, we really need to discuss Obama's three wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan along with Obama's continued support and subsidization of the Israeli killing machine.

Obama and the Wall Street crowd are banking on an American economic recovery fueled by cheap energy from Canada.

To be kind, one can only describe those who find anything liberal, progressive or left in Obama's schemes; we need to refer to them as muddle-headed.

I am sure, these muddle-headed middle class intellectuals would find me rude if I were to describe their support--- under the guise of progressivism--- for Obama and his programs and policies bordering on being crazy.

These muddle-headed middle class intellectuals, content that they helped elect Obama and now have his ear would do well to think about the fact that Obama and the Canadian ruling class pushed the socialist oriented New Democratic Party right out of the picture during Obama's visit to Canada where he met with Stephen Harper before meeting with Michael Ignatieff the head of Canada's Liberal Party--- the preferred party of Canadian and American big business.

That CBC, in service to their capitalist masters, failed even a mention of the New Democratic Party--- the Party of Canada's working class and real opposition to both capitalist parties, will be to their everlasting shame as Canadian discuss how pathetically skewed the coverage of Obama was as if it was the job of the media to hoodwink the public.

Obama left Canada to adoring crowds and great applause; with the adoring throngs thrilled to get a wave from the "great one." The shaft is on the way and the smiles of Canadians will no doubt turn to frowns as people realize their Canada has finally been sold out completely to the U.S.A.

The real threat today, comes not from right-wing ideologues since Wall Street only keeps these clowns around for distraction between the acts; the real threat now comes from muddle-headed, middle class intellectuals who bend and bow and clap and hoot and holler and fawn over Obama's every word no matter how much they have to twist Obama's words to conform to what is in their minds; middle class intellectuals who refuse to acknowledge the urgency of solving the myriad of problems millions of working people now find themselves suffering from in now in the most dire circumstances in need of a "People's Bailout."

These middle class intellectuals have always been arrogant beyond belief in thinking they have been ordained to do thinking for the working class. The assigned role of these muddle-headed middle class intellectuals is to confuse and disorient working people into thinking they need not bother looking for socialist solutions to their problems.

These muddle-headed middle class intellectuals have been assigned the task of making us think there will be an end to this economic mess even though the real economists are saying that if there is going to be a recovery, it will be of very short duration and most people are unlikely to even be aware the "recovery" has taken place... their words: the recovery is likely to be very mild and subdued.

We need emergency measures that will protect working people from the time of loss of employment and severely reduced incomes until their lives are restored to normal.

What is the problem here?

If anyone really believes there is ever going to be a "recovery" from this economic mess with capitalism being on the skids to oblivion, there should be no problem in passing emergency measures consisting of a "People's Bailout."

Obama is pushing these "stimulus packages" and now his "mortgage package" through Congress so fast people have not had the opportunity to even grasp what is taking place.

We completely defeat the right-wing by bringing forward legislation aimed at solving the problems of the working class, not the middle class, and the two are not one and the same by any stretch of one's imagination.

A requirement of saving one's home from foreclosure, and one's family from eviction, under the Obama proposal is that a job with real living wage or salary is required to begin to even be considered for a "bailout"... what about the millions of unemployed? Where is their bailout?

We have been told what unemployed working people are getting from Obama in his "stimulus package:"

"The stimulus plan will mean thousands of dollars in tax breaks for first-time home buyers and people buying new cars. Lower- and middle-income taxpayers will get an extra $13 a week in their paychecks this year, and about $8 a week next year. Unemployment checks will go up $25 a week, and keep coming longer. Food stamp benefits for 30 million Americans will rise. Short-term health insurance will become more affordable for many losing their jobs."

We have also been told how we will be able to monitor the effectiveness of Obama's "stimulus package:"

"The success of the stimulus package may be measured less by visible achievements than by what does not happen — the home that is not foreclosed, the family that doesn't slip into poverty, the disease that does not go undiagnosed."

This is no substitute for a "People's Bailout" by any stretch of one's imagination; Obama and the Democrats should hang their heads in shame for having the audacity to try to pass this off on us and expect us to be thankful to boot; but, they don't even know the meaning of the word "shame" because they have been so subservient to the Wall Street coupon clippers and merchants of death and destruction for so long.

It would be nice if the muddle-headed middle class intellectuals would try thinking about the real circumstances of those less well off than themselves before they begin giving their support to Obama's schemes.

Working people would do well to scrutinize any and all words by those who fawn over Barack Obama like these muddle-headed middle class intellectuals who are nothing but well-paid capitalist sooth-Sayers--- who if they told the truth about capitalism being on the skids to oblivion and warned us that we are on the road to perdition--- would find themselves out of jobs.

I received this from someone in Muskegon, Michigan who has decided it was time to take a good hard look at "Capital" by Karl Marx---

Hi Alan,

This comes from the 1886 preface to the English edition, the 1st English one, to Capital...

"While the productive power increases in a geometric, the extension of markets proceeds at best in an arithmetic ratio. The decennial cycle of stagnation, prosperity, over-production and crisis, ever recurrent from 1825 to 1867, seems indeed to have run its course; but only to land us in the slough of despond of a permanent and chronic depression. The sighed for period of prosperity will not come; as often as we seem to perceive its heralding symptoms, so often do they again vanish into air. Meanwhile, each succeeding winter brings up afresh the great question, “what to do with the unemployed"; but while the number of the unemployed keeps swelling from year to year, there is nobody to answer that question; and we can almost calculate the moment when the unemployed losing patience will take their own fate into their own hands."

It's this Chronic depression that's the bottom of the huge contraction of productive capacity now taking place. Some capitalist economists think that it'll stop after about a year at a loss of 10%. That's huge! China has already lost 20 million jobs that had gone to make stuff for the world's Wal-marts, etc.

Hope you can use this.

You can watch and listen to Professor David Harvey reading and discussing "Capital" here:

http://davidharvey.org/2008/06/getting-started/


From another friend who decided to start reading and studying the Marxist classics (after all, even Newsweek magazine says, "We are all socialists now") I received this:

From: Frederick Engels's--- Socialism: Utopian and Scientific/ (part of his /Anti-Dühring/), is a description of the crisis of capitalism that seems uncannily appropriate to today.


* * *

Commerce is at a standstill, the markets are glutted, products accumulate, as multitudinous as they are unsaleable, hard cash disappears, credit vanishes, factories are closed, the mass of the workers are in want of the means of subsistence, because they have produced too much of the means of subsistence; bankruptcy follows upon bankruptcy, execution upon execution. The stagnation lasts for years; productive forces and products are wasted and destroyed wholesale, until the accumulated mass of commodities finally filter off, more or less depreciated in value, until production and exchange gradually begin to move again. Little by little the pace quickens. It becomes a trot. The industrial trot breaks into a canter, the canter in turn grows into the headlong gallop of a perfect steeplechase of industry, commercial credit and speculation, which finally, after breakneck leaps, ends where it began--in the ditch of a crisis. And so over and over again. We have now, since the year 1825, gone through this five times, and at the present moment (1877) we are going through it for the sixth time.... The fact that the socialised organisation of production within the factory has developed so far that it has become incompatible with the anarchy of production in society, which exists side by side with and dominates it, is brought home to the capitalists themselves by the violent concentration of capital that occurs during crises, through the ruin of many large, and a still greater number of small, capitalists. The whole mechanism of the capitalist mode of production breaks down under the pressure of the productive forces, its own creations. It is no longer able to turn all this mass of means of production into capital. They lie fallow, and for that very reason the industrial reserve army must also lie fallow. Means of production, means of subsistence, available labourers, all the elements of production and of general wealth, are present in abundance. But "abundance becomes the source of distress and want" (Fourier), because it is the very thing that prevents the transformation of the means of production and subsistence into capital. For in capitalistic society the means of production can only function when they have undergone a preliminary transformation into capital, into the means of exploiting human labour power.

Frederick Engels's---
Socialism: Utopian and Scientific/
part of his...
Anti Dühring/
New York: International Publishers, 1935, pages 64-65

You can read Socialism: Utopian and Scientific here:

http://socialismutopianandscientific.blogspot.com/

Many people have written me suggesting reading Naomi Klein's "Shock Doctrine;" it is a fantastic book.

We need to consider that as working people we need to get up to speed quickly on what is going on because the greedy, money grubbing Wall Street coupon clippers are wasting no time.

We also need to understand that capitalism really is on the skids to oblivion, we are in the midst of a very, very serious economic depression, and we really are on the road to perdition... as such, working people are going to have to develop a means to fight for the kind of social programs where our current problems get resolved as we take the appropriate action to get rid of this rotten system... the capitalist system which is thoroughly rotten to its very core... its time to chuck the system as we protect our families... just as we would chuck an apple rotten to the core... one bite from a rotten apple is enough to know not to take another bite from the same rotten apple.

We need a "People's Bailout" now.

No one, least of all the muddle-headed middle class intellectuals are going to fight for us... we need to develop the kind of organizations which bring us together to fight for ourselves--- for the interests of the working class.

Here in Minnesota a few forward thinking progressive state legislators have come up with "The People's Bailout;" their Democratic colleagues are hard at work trying to figure out how they will wriggle and worm their way out of this in evading our issues.

Here is "The Minnesota People's Bailout" along with the letter I sent to State Senator David Tomassoni supporting this important piece of legislation he has courageously brought forward knowing that many of his own Democratic colleagues will heap scorn on him as they try to derail "The People's Bailout-Senate File 542:"

http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/original-message-from-alan-maki.html

We also need a solution to this health care mess--- the open window of opportunity for reform is closing as quickly as Obama is moving forward with his "stimulus packages" loaded with "pork" for Wall Street; the "pork" of corporate profits no one wants to talk about but so many of these muddle-headed middle class intellectuals expect us--- our children, grand children and great grand children--- to pay for.

Tell Barack Obama and Stephen Harper and Michael Ignatieff to takes their dirty imperialist wars and shove them where the sun don't shine--- let them know working people insist on financing "The People's Bailout" instead.

Fund health care not the monstrous Israeli killing machine.

Canadian and U.S. workers might want to think about whether there is a cure for "Obama fever."

Obama-mania might have been in full force in Canada today... we will see how many Canadian auto workers will lose their jobs in Canada tomorrow.

Something to think about while sitting around the dinner table this evening as you are watching the throngs of adoring Obama loving Canadians on television.

Alan L. Maki

I sure would like to go on a shopping spree with Barack Obama at the Mall of America

In nine minutes Barack Obama decided to increase his mortgage bailout by $25 Billion Dollars--- from $50 Billion dollars to $75 Billion dollars destined to the money-grubbing, crooked and corrupt mortgage lenders.

Crime really does pay... and it seems to pay pretty good. Only in America!

I guess Obama figured he needed to help out those 20,000 middle class auto workers who befriended him now headed for the streets who will find it difficult making payments on their homes... although as good as Obama's deal is... refinancing under Obama's plan while unemployed might present quite a little difficulty.

In fact, Obama's plan is going to be pretty darn good... damn good, in fact, for people making over $125,000.00 a year with $400,000.00 homes. Ed McMahon, Johnny Carson's old sidekick, should come out of this in good shape and be able to avoid homelessness.

Here is the heart of Obama's mortgage relief for his middle class base of supporters:

Headlining Obama's plan was a $75 billion Homeowner Stability Initiative, which would provide a set of incentives to lenders to cut monthly mortgage payments to sustainable levels. It defines this at no more than 31 percent of a homeowners income. Funding would come from the $700 billion financial industry bailout passed by Congress last fall.

Another key component: a new program aimed at helping homeowners said to be "under water" — with dwellings whose value have sunk below the principal still owing on their mortgages. Such mortgages have traditionally been almost impossible to refinance. But the White House said its program will help 4 to 5 million families do just that.

I wonder how this will affect a family living in their car?

No doubt Obama will be addressing the problems of those living under bridges and in cardboard boxes during his second term.

If Obama can do for world peace what he has done for Wall Street bankers, the auto industry and now homeowners we should be in for one heck of a war.


Obama unveils $75 billion mortgage relief plan



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090218/ap_on_go_pr_wh/obama_home_foreclosures
AP – President Barack Obama speaks at the Museum of Nature and Science in central Denver on Tuesday, Feb. … MESA, Ariz. – President Barack Obama says his $75 billion plan to tackle "a crisis unlike any we've ever known" in home foreclosures is necessary to help save the economy.

Obama unveiled the plan in Arizona, hard-hit by the housing crunch. More expensive than expected, it aims to keep 9 million people from losing their homes.

One part will ease refinancing for people who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are currently worth. Another provides incentives for mortgage lenders to help those on the verge of foreclosure.

Speaking at a high school outside Phoenix, Obama said the plan won't save every home but it will prevent "the worst consequences of this crisis from wreaking even greater havoc on the economy."

PHOENIX (AP) — President Barack Obama marshaled $75 billion on Wednesday to tackle the foreclosure crisis in an effort to prevent up to 9 million Americans from losing their homes.

In tandem, the Treasury Department said it would double the size of its lifeline to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The government, which seized the mortgage finance companies last fall, said it would absorb up to $200 billion in losses at each company.

The plan is more ambitious than initially expected — and more expensive. It aims to aid borrowers who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are currently worth, and borrowers who are on the verge of foreclosure.

The initiative is designed to help up to 5 million borrowers refinance — if their mortgages are owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. It also provides incentive payments to mortgage lenders in an effort to convince them to help up to 4 million borrowers on the verge of foreclosure.

"All of us are paying a price for this home mortgage crisis," Obama said in remarks prepared for delivery at a ceremony announcing the program at a Phoenix area high school.

The housing industry has been devastated by the nation's recession. Construction of new homes and applications for future projects both plunged to record lows in January as all parts of the country showed big declines in building activity. Analysts hope that a boost from government programs, including the efforts to stem foreclosures, will help stop the slide.

Headlining Obama's plan was a $75 billion Homeowner Stability Initiative, which would provide a set of incentives to lenders to cut monthly mortgage payments to sustainable levels. It defines this at no more than 31 percent of a homeowners income. Funding would come from the $700 billion financial industry bailout passed by Congress last fall.

Another key component: a new program aimed at helping homeowners said to be "under water" — with dwellings whose value have sunk below the principal still owing on their mortgages. Such mortgages have traditionally been almost impossible to refinance. But the White House said its program will help 4 to 5 million families do just that.

Obama said this change would come at "roughly zero" cost to taxpayers.

Of the nearly 52 million U.S. homeowners with a mortgage, about 13.8 million, or nearly 27 percent, owe more on their mortgage than their house is now worth, according to Moody's Economy.com

Announcing his plan in a state hard hit by the housing crunch, Obama said that stemming the tide of foreclosures is key to turning around the recession-bound economy.

"In the end, all of us are paying a price for this home mortgage crisis. And all of us will pay an even steeper price if we allow this crisis to deepen," he said, according to the advance text.

The plan also seeks to bolster confidence in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage giants effectively taken over by the government last year. The White House said the Treasury will be able to increase its funding commitment to the two by using money Congress set aside last year, and will continue purchasing mortgage-backed securities from them.

The Treasury said the increased support for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac didn't reflect projected losses at the two companies, which were seized by government regulators last September. The two companies are currently projected to need a combined government subsidy of about $66 billion, well short of the new promise of up to $400 billion.

But Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a statement that the support "will provide forward-looking confidence in the mortgage market and enable Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to carry out ambitious efforts to ensure mortgage affordability for responsible homeowners."

The biggest players in the mortgage industry already had halted foreclosures pending Obama's announcement.

The president's announcement was coming a day after he signed into law a $787 billion economic stimulus plan he hopes will spark an economic turnaround and create or save 3.5 million jobs.

At the same time, the administration was grappling with the darkening prospects for the U.S. auto industry.

Even as Detroit carmakers submitted restructuring plans to qualify for continued government loans, General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC asked for another $14 billion in bailout cash.

Explaining the plan, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told reporters, ""This is necessary policy. It's smart economics. And it's just and fair."

Asked why the cost had jumped to $75 billion, Geithner said, "We think that's necessary to make a program like this work."

Asked about the doubling of the guarantees for Fannie and Freddie, he said: "This is not a judgment about the expected losses ahead. It underscores commitment, and that is very important to help keep mortgage rates low."

Geithner said most not all of the money would come the financial bailout fund.

And he said relief would be almost instantaneous, basically as soon as rules are published March 4. "You'll start to see the effects quite quickly", Geithner said.

FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said that previous efforts had largely flopped. "We've not attacked the problem at the core," she told reporters. "We are woefully behind the curve."

Added Geithner: "The cost of inaction has been very severe."

Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan stressed that homeowners don't need to be delinquent in order to get help.

___

Alan Zibel reported from Washington; Associated Press Writers Liz Sidoti and Martin Crutsinger also contributed to this report.

Obama to give away another $50 Billion to greedy, crooked and corrupt mortgage bankers

Obama is going to help out his creepy, selfish, middle class base of supporters by subsidizing their mortgages by giving away fifty-billion dollars in tax-payer funds to greedy, crooked and corrupt mortgage bankers instead of sending these mortgage bankers to jail where they belong.

Obama has the audacity to talk about "responsible" homeowners as if all working people aren't entitled to a home.

Typical of Obama's boondoggles and giveaways to the rich, this is one more example of how this flim-flam man and con-artist works for the Wall Street crowd.

Support S.F. 542 "The People's Bailout" by Minnesota DFL State Senator David Tomassoni

Support and follow this legislation:

https://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/revisor/pages/search_status/status_detail.php?b=Senate&f=SF0542&ssn=0&y=2009

-----Original Message-----

From: Alan Maki [mailto:amaki000@centurytel.net]

Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2009 8:53 PM

To: sen.david.tomassoni@senate.mn; rep.al.juhnke@house.mn; rep.bill.hilty@house.mn; rep.dave.olin@house.mn; rep.tom.anzelc@house.mn; rep.tom.Rukavina@house.mn; rep.tony.sertich@house.mn; peter.makowski@mail.house.gov; teresa_detrempe@klobuchar.senate.gov; amy_berglund@levin.senate.gov; elizabeth_reed@levin.senate.gov; 'Peter Rachleff'; mzweig@notes.cc.sunysb.edu; info@jamesmayer.org; rgettel@uaw.net; DLONG@uaw.net; debssoc@sbcglobal.net; 'Ley and Lea Soltis'; 'Joshua Frank'; carl.pope@sierraclub.org; carld717@aol.com

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Subject: Re: People's Bailout (SF 542)

Re: SF 542; The People’s Bailout

Senator David Tomassoni;

First, let me commend you for having the courage to bring this legislation forward; I am sure the opposition will be enormous even from your DFL colleagues, not to mention from Republicans and Governor Pawlenty.

I hope you intend to call for roll call votes at each step of the process on (SF 542) The People’s Bailout so there is more accountability than we had on S.F. 607 to save the Ford Plant; legislation you so courageously brought forward in the Senate Committee on Business, Industry and Labor where your fellow DFL'ers so shamefully let you, and more importantly, Ford Workers and Minnesotans, down. We need to keep in mind in the struggle ahead over The People's Bailout--- S.F. 542, that it was in this same Senate Committee where you failed to get help from your DFL colleagues in moving S.F. 607 forward--- out of Committee and through the Minnesota State Legislature and onto the Governor's desk.

We need to keep in mind that Senator Jim Metzen, while being a DFL'er, is also a banker--- an officer with Key Community Bank known for its very dirty deeds against working people. It is up to you and the rest of us to push Senator Metzen to do his job as Chair of the all-important, heavily DFL dominated Committee on Business, Industry and Labor and twist the arms needing twisting to get The People's Bailout through the Committee... again, I stress the need for a roll call vote to assure Minnesotans have complete accountability--- unlike with S.F. 607 where you received no support from your DFL colleagues yet none of the other Democrats or Republicans would acknowledge their very dirty and shameful role in sending S.F. 607 down to defeat.

Why haven’t you included something along the lines of SF 607 to automatically apply to any business closing which has received any kind of local, state or federal subsidies, tax abatement or public assistance of any kind in your People’s Bailout? This would be particularly important in trying, again, to save the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant.

I am very leery that this is one more gimmick the DFL is using to make it appear the DFL is trying to do something when the intent is all show since the DFL did nothing to push SF 607 through the legislature; hopefully I am wrong about this since many, many Minnesotans will need such assistance.

Might I also suggest that you include rescinding “at-will hiring, at-will firing” legislation as part of The People’s Bailout since this would place Minnesota workers in line to benefit from the Employee Free Choice Act.

Also, might I suggest that you include a provision in this legislation that would establish the minimum wage in Minnesota to be in accordance with the calculations of the United States Department of Labor and its Bureau of Labor Statistics based upon the scientific facts pertaining to real cost of living factors and the minimum wage should be recalculated every time these cost of living factors are recalculated.

I agree with you that we can not spend our way out of this economic crisis and instead we need to work our way out of this mess which obviously requires all working people to be paid real living wages as a way to completely and thoroughly redistribute wealth in this country.

At the heart of this economic mess is the fact that wealth created by the working class has in fact been stolen in the form of huge profits by corporations not paying workers real living wages in accordance with cost of living factors; common sense tells us that depressions occur when working people cannot purchase back the goods they have produced which are required for human survival.

Common sense also dictates that we cannot allow the Ford Motor Company to start bringing Ford Rangers produced in Thailand into the United States instead of continuing production at the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant.

Hopefully you will include something in this legislation protecting the rights of Minnesota’s 30,000 workers employed in the Indian Gaming Industry who are forced and compelled to work in smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages without any rights under state or federal labor laws… I am sure you understand with so many workers employed under these deplorable conditions these workers serve to drive down the standard of living of all workers in Minnesota. I am sure you are aware that casino workers, such as the thousands of workers employed at casinos like Mystic Lake Casino are forced to sign their names to statements that they know they will be terminated should they engage in union organizing. I think you should include something in this People’s Bailout directing the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development that casino workers fired for union organizing cannot be denied unemployment benefits as they presently are.

In order to protect the rights of all workers in Minnesota to unemployment compensation which you want to extend (and your proposal for such extension is not long enough in my opinion given the fact that this economic mess is going to be with us for many years--- perhaps you should include unemployment coverage from time of layoff/firing to time of re-employment); but, getting back to the rights of workers to receive unemployment benefits in the first place, you need to eliminate the right of employers to challenge a worker’s right to unemployment benefits without having to provide a reason for the challenge.

Combined with “at-will hiring, at-will firing” this places workers in a real bind… fired without reason and then subjecting workers to the further injustice of being denied unemployment compensation due to an employer’s challenge without that employer having to provide a reason… this process can drag on for many months leaving workers without any income or public assistance--- meager as public assistance is in Minnesota… not to mention leaving workers and their families without health care. But, it does little good to extend unemployment compensation if employers are allowed to challenge a worker’s right to compensation without reason or just cause.

Without massive mobilization of members from the unions affiliated with the AFL-CIO and Change To Win this legislation has no chance of passing as you fully know and understand.

Have you heard from labor’s registered lobbyists concerning this legislation?

What have you heard from the Chamber of Commerce and other organizations representing employers and the business community regarding this legislation?

When will the first reading of this People’s Bailout take place? I can’t find anything on the legislature’s on-line calendar.

Please keep me informed of any hearings on this legislation as I would like to testify in support of this legislation.

Don’t forget; request there be recorded roll call vote at each step in the process so Minnesotans have full accountability; this not only assures accountability, but will cause those business oriented DFL’ers in the Summit Hill Club to think twice should they decide they want to join with their Republican colleagues in opposing this legislation.

Might I suggest you develop a newsletter--- printed in hard copy and e-mail format--- pertaining solely to SF 542 (The People’s Bailout) to keep its supporters in and out of the legislature fully and completely informed; a newsletter which requests supporters to do specific tasks in bringing the full weight of Minnesota’s working class--- organized and unorganized--- into support for this important piece of legislation… we certainly don’t want a repeat of only a handful of proponents showing up like what happened with SF 607. We should do everything possible to make sure that Minnesota’s working class “owns” this legislation and that we work together to mobilizes huge turn outs of working people supporting this legislation at each and every stage in the legislative process.

In my opinion, we should be looking at organizing Minnesota’s workers to mobilize fully in support of this important piece of legislation, S.F. 542 The People's Bailout, you are bringing forward.

You are most certainly aware that your legislation can serve as a model in winning new needed reforms comprising an extension of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal; just as the struggles for Roosevelt’s New Deal received powerful, decisive support from Minnesota’s socialist Governors Floyd Olson, Elmer Benson and John Bernard and other Farmer-Labor Party elected officials along with Minnesota’s working class--- especially the “red” Finns of the Iron Range. Let “The People’s Bailout” become a rallying point for the working class movement, and become a model for Barack Obama and the United States Congress along with other states to emulate and follow through on.

I assume you have spoken with Congressman Jim Oberstar and U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar about developing similar legislation in Congress.

Might I suggest you request an appearance on Amy Goodman’s television program--- “Democracy Now!” to promote national working class unity in support of The People's Bailout.

I hope you will suggest to the Minnesota AFL-CIO and Change To Win they bring all their affiliated unions into support for this legislation and these unions in turn fully mobilize their memberships to every extent possible.

Your final item regarding state employees is very weak given the intent of leading Republicans to push for things like using the powers of state government to abrogate union contracts. As you know, Barack Obama and Congress are already doing the same thing with autoworkers; whereas, in France the government is prohibiting the abrogation of union contracts and requiring those businesses receiving government bailouts not to cut employment. You might want to take a look at what the French government is doing to protect the rights and jobs of working people.

I would encourage you to look at what action can be taken to make the Minnesota government the employer of choice for road building, bridge repair and maintenance so more jobs are created rather than contractors and engineering firms reaping huge profits, keeping in mind the reason for New Deal make work projects being so successful was that the government was the employer--- not private industry and corporations… again, common sense dictates that when you cut out profits more can be paid out in wages for more workers thus, as you say, and I agree, we work our way out of this mess rather than trying to spend our way out of this most severe crisis.

In conclusion, I would encourage you to consider some type of resolution calling on President Obama to discontinue his wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as cutting all funding for Israel since it makes little sense to pump three-quarters of a trillion dollars into economic “stimulus” while continuing to squander the exact same amount on wars and militarization, which is like taking our human and natural resources and tossing them into one of those polluted, water-filled, abandoned mining pits on the Iron Range or into U.S. Steel’s “Clear Water Reservoir” in Mountain Iron.

Also, as much as I am for road-building and repair to create jobs… I can’t see spending millions of dollars building a road from Minnesota Highway 71 out into the Big Bog for a Canadian peat mining operation to truck away the profits… you might want to mention to Congressman Oberstar that Franklin Roosevelt spent hundreds of thousands of dollars putting the Civilian Conservation Corps to work trying to protect this very sensitive ecosystem; it just destroys our credibility advocating for public works programs when Oberstar has spent millions destroying the good work the CCC did in trying to protect and save the Big Bog. I find it rather ironic this peat mining boon-doggle is taking place right at the site of the Civilian Conservation Corps camp site in the Pine Island State Forest in the Big Bog.

S.F. No. 542, as introduced - 86th Legislative Session (2009-2010) Posted on Feb 06, 2009

1.1A bill for an act
1.2relating to economic development; extending MFIP assistance; modifying
1.3unemployment compensation; augmenting foreclosure provisions; establishing a
1.4jobs creation program; limiting certain layoffs; appropriating money;amending
1.5Minnesota Statutes 2008, sections 256J.42, by adding a subdivision; 268.035,
1.6subdivisions 4, 21a; 268.07, subdivision 1; 268.085, subdivision 15; 504B.151;
1.7proposing coding for new law in Minnesota Statutes, chapter 582.
1.8BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA:

1.9 Section 1. Minnesota Statutes 2008, section 256J.42, is amended by adding a
1.10subdivision to read:
1.11 Subd. 1a. Temporary 60-month time limit extension. For assistance units that
1.12have reached the 60-month time limit under subdivision 1 or assistance units that will
1.13reach the 60-month time limit under subdivision 1 before the sunset of this subdivision,
1.14MFIP benefits are extended to eligible assistance units until the sunset of this subdivision.
1.15This subdivision sunsets July 1, 2011.

1.16 Sec. 2. Minnesota Statutes 2008, section 268.035, subdivision 4, is amended to read:
1.17 Subd. 4. Base period. (a) "Base period," unless otherwise provided in this
1.18subdivision, means the last four completed calendar quarters before the effective date of
1.19an applicant's application for unemployment benefits if the application has an effective
1.20date occurring after the month following the last completed calendar quarter. The base
1.21period under this paragraph is as follows:
1.22
1.23
1.24 If the application for unemployment
benefits is effective on or between these
dates: The base period is the prior:
1.25 February 1 - March 31 January 1 - December 31
2.1 May 1 - June 30 April 1 - March 31
2.2 August 1 - September 30 July 1 - June 30
2.3 November 1 - December 31 October 1 - September 30
2.4 (1) (b) If an application for unemployment benefits has an effective date that is
2.5during the month following the last completed calendar quarter, then the base period is
2.6the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters before the effective date of an
2.7applicant's application for unemployment benefits. The base period under this paragraph
2.8is as set forth below follows:
2.9
2.10
2.11 If the application for unemployment
benefits is effective on or between these
dates: The base period is the prior:
2.12 January 1 - March January 31 October 1 - September 30
2.13 April 1 - June April 30 January 1 - December 31
2.14 July 1 - September 30 July 31 April 1 - March 31
2.15 October 1 - December October 31 July 1 - June 30
2.16 (2) (c) If the applicant has insufficient wage credits to establish a benefit account
2.17under clauses (1) and (3), and paragraph (a) or (b), but during the base period under
2.18clause (1) paragraph (a) or (b) an applicant received workers' compensation for temporary
2.19disability under chapter 176 or a similar federal law or similar law of another state, or
2.20if an applicant whose own serious illness caused a loss of work for which the applicant
2.21received compensation for loss of wages from some other source, the applicant may
2.22request an extended base period as follows:
2.23 (i) (1) if an applicant was compensated for a loss of work of seven to 13 weeks, the
2.24base period is the first four of the last six completed calendar quarters before the effective
2.25date of the application for unemployment benefits;
2.26 (ii) (2) if an applicant was compensated for a loss of work of 14 to 26 weeks, the
2.27base period is the first four of the last seven completed calendar quarters before the
2.28effective date of the application for unemployment benefits;
2.29 (iii) (3) if an applicant was compensated for a loss of work of 27 to 39 weeks,
2.30the base period is the first four of the last eight completed calendar quarters before the
2.31effective date of the application for unemployment benefits; and
2.32 (iv) (4) if an applicant was compensated for a loss of work of 40 to 52 weeks, the
2.33base period is the first four of the last nine completed calendar quarters before the effective
2.34date of the application for unemployment benefits;.
2.35 (3) if the applicant has insufficient wage credits to establish a benefit account under
2.36clause (1), an alternate base period of the last four completed calendar quarters before the
2.37date the applicant's application for unemployment benefits is effective will be used. This
3.1base period can be used only 30 calendar days or more after the end of the last completed
3.2quarter, when a wage detail report has been, or should have been, filed for that quarter
3.3under section 268.044; and
3.4 (4) (d) No base period under clause (1), (2), or (3) paragraph (a), (b), or (c) may
3.5include wage credits upon which a prior benefit account was established.
3.6(e) Notwithstanding paragraph (a), the base period calculated under paragraph (b)
3.7using the first four of the last five complete calendar quarters before the effective date of
3.8the applicant's application for unemployment benefits must be used for an applicant if the
3.9applicant has more wage credits under that base period than under the base period in
3.10paragraph (a).
3.11EFFECTIVE DATE.This section is effective for applications for unemployment
3.12benefits filed effective on or after July 1, 2009.

3.13 Sec. 3. Minnesota Statutes 2008, section 268.035, subdivision 21a, is amended to read:
3.14 Subd. 21a. Reemployment assistance training. (a) An applicant is in
3.15"reemployment assistance training" when:
3.16 (1) a reasonable and opportunity for suitable employment for the applicant does not
3.17exist in the labor market area and it is necessary that the applicant receive additional
3.18training in order to obtain will assist the applicant in obtaining suitable employment;
3.19 (2) the curriculum, facilities, staff, and other essentials are adequate to achieve the
3.20training objective;
3.21 (3) the training is vocational in nature or short term academic training vocationally
3.22directed to an occupation or skill for which there are reasonable that will substantially
3.23enhance the employment opportunities available to the applicant in the applicant's labor
3.24market area;
3.25 (4) the training course is considered full time by the training provider; and
3.26 (5) the applicant is making satisfactory progress in the training.
3.27 (b) Full-time training provided through the dislocated worker program, the Trade
3.28Act of 1974, as amended, or the North American Free Trade Agreement is considered
3.29"reemployment assistance training," if that training course is in accordance with the
3.30requirements of that program.
3.31 (c) Apprenticeship training provided in order to meet the requirements of an
3.32apprenticeship program under chapter 178 is considered "reemployment assistance
3.33training."
3.34(d) An applicant is considered in reemployment assistance training only if the
3.35training course has actually started or is scheduled to start within 30 calendar days.
4.1EFFECTIVE DATE.This section is effective for determinations and appeal
4.2decisions issued on or after the day following final enactment.

4.3 Sec. 4. Minnesota Statutes 2008, section 268.07, subdivision 1, is amended to read:
4.4 Subdivision 1. Application for unemployment benefits; determination of benefit
4.5account. (a) An application for unemployment benefits may be filed in person, by mail,
4.6or by electronic transmission as the commissioner may require. The applicant must be
4.7unemployed at the time the application is filed and must provide all requested information
4.8in the manner required. The commissioner shall accept a valid individual taxpayer
4.9identification number from an applicant who is applying for benefits. If the applicant is
4.10not unemployed at the time of the application or fails to provide all requested information,
4.11the communication is not considered an application for unemployment benefits.
4.12 (b) The commissioner shall examine each application for unemployment benefits to
4.13determine the base period and the benefit year, and based upon all the covered employment
4.14in the base period the commissioner shall determine the weekly unemployment benefit
4.15amount available, if any, and the maximum amount of unemployment benefits available, if
4.16any. The determination is known as the determination of benefit account. A determination
4.17of benefit account must be sent to the applicant and all base period employers, by mail or
4.18electronic transmission.
4.19 (c) If a base period employer did not provide wage information for the applicant as
4.20provided for in section 268.044, or provided erroneous information, the commissioner
4.21may accept an applicant certification as to wage credits, based upon the applicant's records,
4.22and issue a determination of benefit account.
4.23 (d) The commissioner may, at any time within 24 months from the establishment of
4.24a benefit account, reconsider any determination of benefit account and make an amended
4.25determination if the commissioner finds that the determination was incorrect for any
4.26reason. An amended determination must be promptly sent to the applicant and all base
4.27period employers, by mail or electronic transmission.
4.28 (e) If an amended determination of benefit account reduces the weekly
4.29unemployment benefit amount or maximum amount of unemployment benefits available,
4.30any unemployment benefits that have been paid greater than the applicant was entitled
4.31is considered an overpayment of unemployment benefits. A determination or amended
4.32determination issued under this section that results in an overpayment of unemployment
4.33benefits must set out the amount of the overpayment and the requirement under section
4.34268.18, subdivision 1 , that the overpaid unemployment benefits must be repaid.

5.1 Sec. 5. Minnesota Statutes 2008, section 268.085, subdivision 15, is amended to read:
5.2 Subd. 15. Available for suitable employment defined. (a) "Available for suitable
5.3employment" means an applicant is ready and willing to accept suitable employment in
5.4the labor market area. The attachment to the work force must be genuine. An applicant
5.5may restrict availability to suitable employment, but there must be no other restrictions,
5.6either self-imposed or created by circumstances, temporary or permanent, that prevent
5.7accepting suitable employment.
5.8(b) Unless the applicant is in reemployment assistance training, to be considered
5.9"available for suitable employment," a student who has regularly scheduled classes must
5.10be willing to quit school discontinue classes to accept suitable employment when:
5.11(1) class attendance restricts the applicant from accepting suitable employment; and
5.12(2) the applicant is unable to change the scheduled class or make other arrangements
5.13that excuse the applicant from attending class.
5.14(c) An applicant who is absent from the labor market area for personal reasons, other
5.15than to search for work, is not "available for suitable employment."
5.16(d) An applicant who has restrictions on the hours of the day or days of the week
5.17that the applicant can or will work, that are not normal for the applicant's usual occupation
5.18or other suitable employment, is not "available for suitable employment." An applicant
5.19must be available for daytime employment, if suitable employment is performed during
5.20the daytime, even though the applicant previously worked the night shift.
5.21(e) An applicant must have transportation throughout the labor market area to be
5.22considered "available for suitable employment."
5.23EFFECTIVE DATE.This section is effective for determinations and appeal
5.24decisions issued on or after the day following final enactment.

5.25 Sec. 6. Minnesota Statutes 2008, section 504B.151, is amended to read:
5.26504B.151 RESTRICTION ON RESIDENTIAL LEASE TERMS FOR
5.27BUILDINGS IN FINANCIAL DISTRESS; REQUIRED NOTICE OF PENDING
5.28FORECLOSURE; RIGHTS OF TENANTS OF FORECLOSED PROPERTY.
5.29 Subdivision 1. Limitation on lease and notice to tenant. (a) Once a landlord
5.30has received notice of a contract for deed cancellation under section 559.21 or notice of
5.31a mortgage foreclosure sale under chapter 580 or 582, the landlord may only enter into
5.32(i) a periodic residential lease agreement with a term of not more than two months or
5.33the time remaining in the contract cancellation period or the mortgagor's redemption
6.1period, whichever is less or (ii) a fixed term residential tenancy not extending beyond the
6.2cancellation period or the landlord's period of redemption until:
6.3(1) the contract for deed has been reinstated or paid in full;
6.4(2) the mortgage default has been cured and the mortgage reinstated;
6.5(3) the mortgage has been satisfied;
6.6(4) the property has been redeemed from a foreclosure sale; or
6.7(5) a receiver has been appointed.
6.8(b) Before entering into a lease under this section and accepting any rent or security
6.9deposit from a tenant, the landlord must notify the prospective tenant in writing that the
6.10landlord has received notice of a contract for deed cancellation or notice of a mortgage
6.11foreclosure sale as appropriate, and the date on which the contract cancellation period or
6.12the mortgagor's redemption period ends. The landlord must also inform the prospective
6.13tenant of the tenant's right to continued utility services if the landlord defaults on utility
6.14payments during the foreclosure process.
6.15(c) This section does not apply to a manufactured home park as defined in section
6.16327C.01, subdivision 5 .
6.17 Subd. 2. Exception allowing a longer term lease. This section Subdivision 1
6.18does not apply if:
6.19(1) the holder or the mortgagee agrees not to terminate the tenant's lease other than
6.20for lease violations for at least one year from the commencement of the tenancy; and
6.21(2) the lease does not require the tenant to prepay rent for any month commencing
6.22after the end of the cancellation or redemption period, so that the rent payment would be
6.23due prior to the end of the cancellation or redemption period.
6.24For the purposes of this section, a holder means a contract for deed vendor or a
6.25holder of the sheriff's certificate of sale or any assignee of the contract for deed vendor or
6.26of the holder of the sheriff's certificate of sale.
6.27 Subd. 3. Transfer of tenancy by operation of law. (a) A tenant who enters into a
6.28lease under subdivision 2 is:
6.29(1) deemed by operation of law to become the tenant of the holder immediately upon
6.30the holder succeeding to the interest of the landlord under the lease; and
6.31(2) bound to the holder under all the provisions of the lease for either the balance of
6.32the lease term or for one year after the start of the tenancy, whichever occurs first.
6.33(b) A tenant who becomes the tenant of the holder under this subdivision is not
6.34obligated to pay rent to the holder until the holder mails, by first class mail to the tenant at
6.35the property address, written notice that the holder has succeeded to the interest of the
7.1landlord. A letter from the holder to the tenant to that effect is prima facie evidence that
7.2the holder has succeeded to the interest of the landlord.
7.3 Subd. 4. Holder not bound by certain acts. A holder succeeding to an interest in
7.4a lease lawfully entered into under subdivision 2 is not:
7.5(1) liable for any act or omission of any prior landlord;
7.6(2) subject to any offset or defense which the tenant had against any prior landlord; or
7.7(3) bound by any modification of the lease entered into under subdivision 2, unless
7.8the modification is made with the holder's consent.
7.9 Subd. 5. Rights of tenant of foreclosed property. (a) When a holder takes over a
7.10rental property as the result of a foreclosure:
7.11(1) a tenant is deemed by operation of law to become the tenant of the holder; and
7.12(2) all leases, verbal or written, and all terms and conditions of those agreements
7.13shall be transferred to the holder.
7.14(b) A holder shall:
7.15(1) maintain as rental property, property that was used as rental property by the
7.16landlord;
7.17(2) offer renewal leases to tenants of the foreclosed property; and
7.18(3) keep affordable rent levels in place.
7.19 Subd. 6. Eviction. Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, a holder must not
7.20begin an eviction action against a tenant without cause.
7.21 Subd. 7. Termination of tenancy. Except for lease violations, a holder must not
7.22terminate the tenancy of a tenant of foreclosed property without cause.
7.23 Subd. 8. Periodic leases. A holder must offer a fixed-term lease option to a tenant
7.24with a periodic lease in place at the time the tenant becomes a tenant of the holder.
7.25 Subd. 9. Applicability. The provisions of subdivisions 5 to 8 apply to all tenants
7.26regardless of when a tenant entered into a rental agreement with the property owner or at
7.27what stage the foreclosure process was in when the rental agreement was entered.

7.28 Sec. 7. [582.33] FORECLOSURE MORATORIUM.
7.29 Subdivision 1. Emergency declared to exist. The legislature of the state of
7.30Minnesota declares that a public economic emergency exists in the state of Minnesota
7.31due to the increase in foreclosure rates. The legislature declares that these conditions
7.32have created a housing emergency that justifies legislation creating a moratorium on
7.33mortgage foreclosures.
7.34 Subd. 2. Court stay. In an action to foreclose a mortgage upon residential property
7.35under chapter 580 or 581, in which a judgment of foreclosure has not been entered by the
8.1effective date of this section, the district court having jurisdiction over the matter, upon
8.2motion of a defendant, shall order the action stayed for two years after the entry of the
8.3stay. The court may order that certain conditions relating to the property are met during
8.4the stay, including, but not limited to, possession of the property, payments by the person
8.5in possession, and preservation of the property.
8.6 Subd. 3. Application. This section applies only to mortgages executed before
8.7the effective date of this section.
8.8EFFECTIVE DATE.This section is effective the day following final enactment.

8.9 Sec. 8. SPECIAL STATE EMERGENCY UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION
8.10PROGRAM.
8.11 Subdivision 1. Purpose. Federal law currently provides for a federally funded
8.12extension of unemployment insurance benefits for applicants who have exhausted
8.13entitlement to regular Minnesota unemployment insurance benefits. But, because federal
8.14law contains a special requirement that an applicant has earned a certain amount of base
8.15period insured wages, a significant group of applicants who exhausted their regular
8.16Minnesota unemployment insurance benefits do not qualify for the federally funded
8.17extension. The purpose of this section is to provide a state-funded extension to that group.
8.18 Subd. 2. Eligibility. (a) Special state emergency unemployment insurance benefits
8.19are payable to an applicant who does not qualify for a federally funded extension
8.20of unemployment insurance benefits solely because the applicant does not meet the
8.21requirement under section 4001(d)(2)(a) of the federal Supplemental Appropriations
8.22Act of 2008 that an applicant have wage credits of not less than 40 times the applicant's
8.23weekly benefit amount.
8.24(b) Except as provided in paragraph (a), all requirements for federally funded
8.25extended unemployment benefits and all requirements of Minnesota Statutes, chapter
8.26268, must be met in order for the applicant to be eligible for special state emergency
8.27unemployment insurance benefits.
8.28(c) Special state emergency unemployment insurance benefits are payable in the
8.29same amounts, the same duration, and for the same time period as provided for under the
8.30federal Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2008, and any later amendments, but shall
8.31be no less than 13 times the applicant's weekly special state emergency unemployment
8.32insurance benefit amount.
8.33 Subd. 3. Payment from trust fund. Special state emergency unemployment
8.34insurance benefits are payable from the Minnesota unemployment insurance trust fund.
8.35Special state emergency unemployment insurance benefits will not be used in computing
9.1the future unemployment insurance tax rate of a taxpaying employer nor will they be
9.2charged to the reimbursing account of government or nonprofit employers.
9.3 Subd. 4. Expiration. This section expires on June 30, 2010, and no benefits shall be
9.4paid under this section for a week beginning after that date.
9.5EFFECTIVE DATE.This section is effective the Sunday following final enactment
9.6and applies only to weeks of unemployment after that date.

9.7 Sec. 9. JOBS CREATION GRANT PROGRAM.
9.8 Subdivision 1. Establishment. The commissioner of employment and economic
9.9development shall develop and implement a jobs creation grant program to make grants
9.10available to cities and towns for public and private projects that will generate new jobs
9.11and produce a stronger state economy.
9.12 Subd. 2. Fund distribution. In distributing funds, the commissioner shall give
9.13priority consideration to projects that are available to begin immediately and to projects
9.14that promote environmental sustainability and a green economy.
9.15 Subd. 3. Funding. To the extent that the commissioner receives funds for this
9.16purpose in fiscal year 2009, funding for the jobs creation grant program shall be done
9.17through federal stimulus dollars. If federal stimulus dollars are not available, funds shall
9.18come from state sources.
9.19 Subd. 4. Appropriation. $....... is appropriated from the general fund to the
9.20commissioner of employment and economic development to develop and implement
9.21a jobs creation grant program. This appropriation is only available if federal stimulus
9.22dollars are not available. This appropriation is available until expended.
9.23EFFECTIVE DATE.This section is effective the day following final enactment.

9.24 Sec. 10. STATE EMPLOYEE LAYOFFS.
9.25For the 2010 and 2011 biennium, in order to prevent increased unemployment and to
9.26protect jobs, the legislature shall not mandate layoffs of state employees, including, but
9.27not limited to, employees of the University of Minnesota.
9.28EFFECTIVE DATE.This section is effective the day following final enactment.

Please direct all comments concerning issues or legislation
to your House Member or State Senator.
For Legislative Staff or for directions to the Capitol, visit the Contact Us page.
General questions or comments.
last updated: 01/30/2009

Again, thanking you for having the moral and political courage in standing up and fighting for the rights and livelihoods of Minnesota's working class, and for having the common sense and intelligence to know that we cannot spend our way out of this economic crisis; rather, understanding and explaining that for working people and the working class the way out of this crisis, and the way to a better future, will be found in working our way out of this crisis.

In full support of your leadership in bringing forward The People's Bailout--- Senate File 542...

For a living wage job, justice and equality along with a voice at work for each and every worker in Minnesota...

On behalf of Minnesota's 30,000 workers in the Indian Gaming Industry organizing and struggling to survive while employed in smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages, without any rights under state or federal labor laws...

Sincerely,

Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council

The only question Barack Obama refused to answer and the other important statement he refused to fully articulate

Barack Obama, at his first Press Conference on Monday evening, February 9 refused to answer the most important question put to him; he obscured the truth in "answering" other questions.

It was all too obvious, throughout the press conference, Obama was groping for the right words to fit in with his con-artist act.

The most important question was asked by avowed liberal and long-time journalist, Helen Thomas, who is known for her forthright questions to presidents and her persistence in getting honest answers.

Helen Thomas asked Barack Obama to name all the nations in the Middle East known to posses nuclear weapons.

A simple enough question for Barack Obama to have answered; but, the only question he chose not to answer.

Every reporter in the room should have insisted that Barack Obama answer this question before Obama moved on.

Barack Obama's failure to answer such a simple and basic question immediately calls into question his moral and political integrity.

We all know Barack Obama refused to answer this question in order to protect Israel.

On the domestic front, Barack Obama is just as devious when it comes to the economy.

Barack Obama continues to mouth the line of the capitalist sooth-Sayers in insisting that the present economic crisis is "reversible" when nothing can be further from the truth.

If Barack Obama really believed what he and the Wall Street coupon clippers and their sooth-sayer apologists are saying that quick action is needed in order to make sure the economic problems don't become irreversible he would be taking drastic steps to make sure working people are protected by the government from being further hurt by bankers, industrialists and governments (local, state and federal).

Obama spoke of helping people once things are turned around.

Well, in all likelihood there will never be a "turn-around" for the capitalist economy which is on the skids to oblivion; placing all of us working people well down the road to perdition.

Obama talks about a new kind of "trickle down" theory that has nothing to do with progressivism. Obama tells us he is looking out for the "middle class" and in doing so things will get better for the poor.

There is simply no sound economic basis for making such pronouncements.

The federal government could very easily legislate a moratorium on all home foreclosures and evictions. After all, it would only make sense to tell working class homeowners and middle class homeowners to stay put, don't move; IF, Obama and members of Congress really believed we are going to be pulling out of this mess.

The best, most sensible approach to priming the economic pump and stimulating the economy would be for Obama to call on Congress to legislate a real living minimum wage. Failure to implement a real living wage which would stimulate the economy many times more than these boondoggles they call "stimulus packages" is further proof that Obama and the politicians have accepted the fact that capitalism is shot and on the skids to oblivion... something Obama and the Wall Street coupon clippers pulling his strings will never admit or acknowledge because they want to continue to profit of the mass suffering and misery we are in store for.

Just as Obama refused to answer the question put to him by Helen Thomas to name those countries in the Middle East possessing nuclear weapons; Obama, in spite of claims by some that he has "progressive roots," Obama is nothing more then a charlatan and a fraud--- an Elmer Gantry in every sense of the word because just as he knows Israel has nuclear weapons but he doesn't want to acknowledge this, Obama also knows full well that capitalism is on the skids to oblivion and should he come forward with this truth, he would stop fiddling as poverty and misery grows and he would begin investing in programs designed to help working people survive this capitalist economic depression as we negotiate our way to a planned socialist economy... the only known alternative to capitalism.

This is not about supporting Barck Obama as some confused and muddle-headed liberals and progressives would have us believe.

The issues working people are confronting are what measures will be needed to get us through this mess with as little pain and suffering as possible.

To suggest we have some kind of allegiance to Barack Obama rather than pointing out that it is Barack Obama that has a duty to join with his base of support which is overwhelmingly liberal/progressive/left and working class forces us to continue down the road to perdition when there is a better road we need to be on... the road to socialism.

Just as working people in Chicago stayed put in the factory they were employed in until their problems were resolved, people being foreclosed on and evicted from their homes should stay put until solutions to their problems are found by the government. The solutions are very easy... renegotiate the mortgages and place most of what has been paid in interest on the principal as the cost of these mortgages are brought in line with the real value of the homes.

Obama did not support the workers in Chicago because he was for them or their action... he "supported" them because to do otherwise would have been political suicide.

The solutions to our problems will not be found in having faith in Barack Obama to do the right thing by working people; the solutions to our problems will be found in grassroots/rank-and-file organizing and mobilizations which Obama and the politicians will not be able to ignore without doing the right thing.

Barack Obama and every politician in this country were fully aware of the plight of the workers at the window factory in Chicago--- these politicians remained silent just as Obama did when queried by Helen Thomas about which countries in the Middle East possess nuclear weapons.

That liberals/progressives and the left think they can play this kind of game by supporting capitalist and imperialist gimmicks with Barack Obama and Wall Street and actually win is the epitome of naivete... only class struggle initiatives and activity aimed and winning concessions from the politicians and their Wall Street puppeteers is going to win us anything and get us off this capitalist road to perdition.

One can only hope that Barack Obama will be asked some real meaningful questions about Israel and the economy by other reporters and journalists in the future so Americans can have the opportunity to actually participate in the decision-making process rather than allowing Barack Obama and the capitalist sooth-Sayers to dominate the political and economic life of our country.

There is no time to be playing around with a "honeymoon" between Barack Obama and the press if there are such dire consequences before us today.

Obama should be pressed, and pressed hard, to answer questions.

And the American people should be initiating and organizing so they have a seat at the table where decisions are really made... just like the workers at the window manufacturing plant in Chicago did.

All over the country the economy is going-to-hell-in-a-hand basket and the situation worsens day by day... we simply cannot afford squandering billions of dollars propping up the nuclear-armed Israeli killing machine and fighting wars in three countries.

Peace and eradicating poverty through reordering priorities requiring the redistribution of wealth is the change most people sought as they went to the polls in overwhelming numbers rejecting the Republicans more than voting for Obama and the Democrats... let us make sure Obama and the Democrats don't obscure this very important distinction.

We have a narrow window of opportunity opened up before us by the overwhelming rejection of the Republicans and we need to strike while the iron is hot by letting the Obama and the Democrats know that we will not accept anything less than our problems--- from health care to real living wages--- being resolved.

The "real" Lee Carlson and the Israeli killing machine

Yesterday some people got upset because I posted the wrong picture of the Lee Carlson who was being paid to teach children with our tax-dollars but instead was using his time to malign me in e-mail after e-mail simply because he--- or maybe she--- was upset that I was pushing the idea that Minnesotans had a right to know where the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party stands in relation to its position concerning cutting of all aid to the Israeli killing machine after the pogrom of the Palestinian people the entire world witnessed in horror (I won't say disbelief because many of us have known for a very long time what this Israeli killing machine was capable of doing)--- expecting that if they protested loud enough and long enough the mass killing of human beings by the Israeli butchers being funded with our tax-dollars would stop.

Not only did the Israeli killing machine not stop; but, the atrocities grew by leaps and bounds with every passing day and night... there was no crime against humanity that the Israeli killing machine did not undertake... and when this Israeli killing machine had completed every known dirty crime against humanity; this monstrous beast created by the United States government and U.S. corporations invented crimes against humanity--- crimes which were perpetrated upon the Palestinian, crimes against humanity not seen, or heard of, before.

I blame Lee Carlson for these crimes against humanity as much as I blame George Bush and the "President-elect," Barack Obama, who decided on this one and only issue he would remain silent--- disgustingly and shamefully silent.

Do we have to see the picture of Lee Carlson to know who was hurling insult upon insult upon me while being paid to teach children?

Not really.

Actually, we can take our choice of any picture of Lee Carlson who refuses to disclose his or her identity.

Here is Lee Carlson:



Here is Lee Carlson:



Here is Lee Carlson:



But, the only real Lee Carlson is this Lee Carlson:



Yes, this is the face of every uncaring and insensitive Lee Carlson in the Democratic Party... I actually found that there are at least 38 Lee Carlson's in the Democratic Party, at least four here in Minnesota... there is no evidence that any of these Lee Carlson's are anything other than this Lee Carlson:



While there may be a difference in the way each and every Lee Carlson in the Democratic Party looks... what I found is their thinking is relatively similar to that of Brian Melendez--- who is the face of each of these Lee Carlson's--- when it comes to issues concerning the way people live... and in the case of Gaza, the way Palestinian people die and suffer.

Tomorrow the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party State Central Committee will meet... absent from the agenda will be the question:

Should the United States continue funding and providing aid to Israel?

Why will this question be absent from the agenda? Because there are one too many Lee Carlson's in the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party?

The answer to this question is obviously, "no."

The problem arises because the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party is part of the two-headed monster (Democrat and Republican)which gave birth to the Israeli killing machine; and Brian Melendez--- a corporate attorney who is part of the Summit Hill crowd--- is the choice of the big-business community and St. Paul Chamber of Commerce and the Summit Hill Club here in Minnesota; a corporate community--- a killing machine in its own right--- which derives huge profits from this Israeli killing machine. A corporate community which will not tolerate any discussion on the question:

Should the United States continue funding and providing aid to Israel?

Brian Melendez is Lee Carlson.

Lee Carlson is Brian Melendez.

Brian Melendez says that I "hurt my cause."

Lee Carlson says that I "hurt my cause."

Both malign me; both are using their attacks on me to evade discussing the question:

Should the United States continue funding and providing aid to Israel?

In fact, I could drop dead today and join the more than 1,300 Palestinians murdered by the Israeli killing machine... in attacking me in the same breath as claiming this is "my cause" the Brian Melendez' and Lee Carlson's of the world who engage in such dirty campaigns of hate are in fact defending the gross atrocities of Israel perpetrated against the Palestinian people... because Brian Melendez and the corporate crowd in control of the Minnesota DFL are so pathetic, so despicable, that they will single out one person to attack instead of addressing the real concerns of most of the world's peoples.

I just might be the most rotten S.O.B. to ever walk the face of this earth as the slanderous, vicious and malicious websites set up by the hacks of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party all over the Internet--- under the guise of anonymity--- portray me to be... but, there is no place for Brian Melendez and his bunch of worthless political hacks to hide and run to evade the fact that they, by their outward silence and silent complicity worked out in detail behind closed doors in corporate boardrooms, can evade their part in these crimes against humanity carried out by the Israeli killing machine which the entire world has witnessed in Gaza.

So, Lee Carlson, you won't provide your picture for me to post along with your pathetic, hateful e-mails attacking me personally in the most mean-spirited way thinking that your pathetic, gutless and cowardly attacks will bully me into silence as our tax-dollars are squandered financing pogroms carried out by the Israeli killing machine... let me assure you that you and Brian Melendez and the DFL candidate from 32-B still have to explain to the world why the MNDFL State Central Committee will assemble tomorrow, Saturday, February 7, 2009... and while the entire world looks in horror at the suffering and ruins of Gaza... you are afraid to have a discussion, knowing what has been done in our names, with our tax-dollars, and after demonstrating that you have the ability to make yourself heard, you do not have the moral decency to state where you stand on this question:

Should the United States continue funding and providing aid to Israel?

In my opinion, this is very, very sad... Lee Carlson, I am sure you think you have done a great service to the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party for your heroics in joining with Brian Melendez in maligning me... but, I am willing to let the people of the world judge if my mistake in posting the wrong picture of you takes precedence over you intentionally engaging in a campaign of hate in order for the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party to evade this question:

Should the United States continue funding and providing aid to Israel?

Once again, I apologize to you and all the Lee Carlsons who feel slighted by me posting their photograph thinking I was posting yours...

Now, will you apologize to the Palestinian people for the death, suffering and destruction done in your name because these crimes against humanity have not been done in my name... as you are fully aware of that.

Now, will you, Lee Carlson, have the moral, ethical and political courage to join me in calling for a full discussion and debate on this question:

Should the United States continue funding and providing aid to Israel?

Alan L. Maki

A letter to the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party and a former Party official responds; the other remains silent

I want to apologize for picking on just one Mr. Lee Carlson here in the post I had here; I should have picked on both of them for not having the moral or political courage to take a stand on the Israeli killing spree in Gaza.

One Mr. Carlson is a past DFL County Chair; the other Mr. Carlson is a current Chair.

My sincere apologies for not giving both Mr. Lee Carlson's their due.

Alan L. Maki

U.S. unions, the Democratic Party and Barack Obama, the Employee Free Choice Act, the class struggle and U.S. imperialism

The Employee Free Choice Act will be completely useless for workers in twenty-eight states having “at-will hiring, at-will firing” legislation on their books.

“At-will hiring, at-will firing” is the main and primary impediment to union organizing in this country and we don’t hear one peep from the union leaderships on this problem.

What will the AFL-CIO and Change To Win propose Democrats do to rescind “at-will hiring, at-will firing” legislation in these twenty-eight states which include Minnesota and Michigan?

I have posed this question time, and time again, to state and federal legislators, Mr. Sweeney and Mr. Stern--- and the “progressive media,” including In These Times through comments and e-mails to the editors to no avail, which makes me wonder if there are many people who see politics as more of a game than a struggle to create a better life for working people.

Furthermore, given the nearly unanimous silence on the part of U.S. unions--- including the AFL-CIO and CTW--- while labor all over the world condemned Israel’s destructive pogrom and killing spree against the Palestinians in Gaza, one has to wonder if the Democratic Party is not playing working people for suckers and fools in using the Employee Free Choice Act as a club over the heads of organized labor: keep your mouths shut about everything else and “be good little boys and girls” and we might consider giving you a bone: EFCA.

That unions in this country have bought into imperialism in this way is contemptible and despicable and most likely has more to do with the failure of AFL-CIO & CTW unions being unable to organize beyond their present 11% of the workers in this country than any anti-labor legislation or lack there of. Although, the failure to protect the jobs of the workers they already collect dues from probably has a great deal to do with the disgraceful state of organized labor in this country, too.

“Getting ready to rumble?” More like running away from the class struggle with Barack Obama and the Democrats.

We need the Employee Free Choice Act; but, is the cost too high?

Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council

http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/

Obama’s Economic Recovery Plan Is Almost As Pure As Ivory Soap

"The bottom line: This is the biggest and boldest progressive legislation in 40 years."

Oh, really? There are a few important things Bernie Horn has failed to address... read my response to Horn's essay following.

Alan L. Maki



By Bernie Horn of the Campaign for America’s Future

January 27th, 2009 - 9:00pm ET

There’s been a lot of bitching and moaning in the progressive blogosphere about the huge business tax cuts that are supposed to be contained in President Obama’s economic recovery plan.

In fairness to all, the negotiations took place behind closed doors, leaving us little solid information on which to base opinions. And over the years, we’ve had good reason to be wary of backroom deals in Congress.

But there's good news. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is a remarkably “clean” bill. Only between 1½ and 3 percent is being wasted on tax cuts for business. Put another way, the bill is about 98 percent pure—money dedicated to good, progressive causes.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis, released Monday, says the business tax cuts will cause “a net revenue loss of $13 billion over the 2009-2019 period.” See the discussion on pages 11-12 of this document.

The figure of $13 billion is confirmed and explained by the House Ways and Means Committee on pages 2-3 in this document. There are only three business tax provisions that have a significant price tag. First, the extension of bonus depreciation enacted last year, allowing businesses to depreciate capital costs faster than the ordinary schedule, will cost $5 billion. Second, the 5-year carryback provision, allowing businesses to deduct net losses from the last five years instead of the last two, will cost $15 billion. Third, the repeal of a Bush Treasury Department ruling that unjustly benefits the purchasers of certain companies will increase revenues by $7 billion. So $20 billion in business tax cuts are offset by a $7 billion tax increase, leaving a total of $13 billion in benefits.

As you probably know, the Senate Finance Committee intends to make larger business tax cuts than the House bill has. The analysis of the Finance Committee’s markup, evaluated by the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, is on page 3 of this document. The Senate version includes both the bonus depreciation and 5-year carryback provisions, but the Joint Committee estimates these will cost a total of $22.5 billion instead of the House’s $20 billion. The Senate does not include the $7 billion tax increase and adds a bit more than $2 billion more in tax breaks for a total of $24.9 billion in business tax benefits.

The CBO tells us that the whole bill costs $816 billion. So if the Senate version is adopted, only 3 percent of the spending is for business tax breaks. (That percentage is about the same with or without the recent Alternative Minimum Tax provision.) If the House version is adopted, it’s only 1½ percent. Either way, this is a bill that is between 97 and 98.5 percent targeted toward good causes.

In our nation’s capital, no major bill ever passes without a “sweetener” for the special interests you may oppose. By Capitol Hill standards, this is an exceptionally modest sweetener. And don’t think it’s necessarily being done to gain Republican votes—key Democrats want these too.

The bottom line: This is the biggest and boldest progressive legislation in 40 years. By all means, register your complaints against the business tax cuts. But don’t let that dampen your enthusiasm for the overall measure. If you live in a state with a Republican or less-than-liberal Democratic Senator, call them today and urge them to support this bill. You'll be sorry if you don't help out, because this is history in the making.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


The writer is a Senior Fellow at Campaign for America’s Future and author of the recent book, Framing the Future: How Progressive Values Can Win Elections and Influence People.






My response:

Never mentioned by you and the “pundits of the left” (is that at least 30% of this "stimulus" will be sucked away in corporate profits--- more than likely well over 45% once this money passes through all the hands… untold billions sucked off by the banks in interest (at least double before its all paid back because these are loans paying for all of this); and what you refuse to acknowledge is the American tax-payer first subsidized these loans to the banks AND now those loans (remember, this money was never loaned out because no companies wanted to borrow due to a crumbling economy )… so, surprise, surprise--- Obama just borrowed this money (OUR tax money) back from the bankers!!



Rather than stimulating anything other than a capitalist feeding frenzy at an expanded public trough… these “stimulus” packages are going to further depress the economy for the simple reason that these capitalist pigs will be lapping up the cream before this money can circulate and get into the pockets of working people.

Even Paul Krugman says it will take at least triple and it was relatively easy for anyone who has been following what has been going on with the economy to see that with such “stimulus packages” it would take five to six trillion dollars before working people would gain any relief at all as the economy goes to hell.

Plus, we shouldn’t even be worried about stimulating the capitalist economy other than to expose the futileness of such schemes and their primary intent: to provide a way for capitalists to get richer at our expense by stealing the wealth they could not initially attain through exploitation of labor.

We need to be supporting “public programs” giving relief to workers to help them through this as we move people into struggle against capitalism… we have no interest in propping up and saving this rotten system.

And who knows how much of this “stimulus” money will be siphoned off as sheer graft and corruption? We have seen what has been going on with the "bailouts" to date.

Capitalism is in crisis.

You might want to consider this from Frederick Engels writing in Socialism: Utopian and Scientific:

* * *

Commerce is at a standstill, the markets are glutted, products accumulate, as multitudinous as they are unsaleable, hard cash disappears, credit vanishes, factories are closed, the mass of the workers are in want of the means of subsistence, because they have produced too much of the means of subsistence; bankruptcy follows upon bankruptcy, execution upon execution. The stagnation lasts for years; productive forces and products are wasted and destroyed wholesale, until the accumulated mass of commodities finally filter off, more or less depreciated in value, until production and exchange gradually begin to move again. Little by little the pace quickens. It becomes a trot. The industrial trot breaks into a canter, the canter in turn grows into the headlong gallop of a perfect steeplechase of industry, commercial credit and speculation, which finally, after breakneck leaps, ends where it began--in the ditch of a crisis. And so over and over again. We have now, since the year 1825, gone through this five times, and at the present moment (1877) we are going through it for the sixth time.... The fact that the socialised organisation of production within the factory has developed so far that it has become incompatible with the anarchy of production in society, which exists side by side with and dominates it, is brought home to the capitalists themselves by the violent concentration of capital that occurs during crises, through the ruin of many large, and a still greater number of small, capitalists. The whole mechanism of the capitalist mode of production breaks down under the pressure of the productive forces, its own creations. It is no longer able to turn all this mass of means of production into capital. They lie fallow, and for that very reason the industrial reserve army must also lie fallow. Means of production, means of subsistence, available labourers, all the elements of production and of general wealth, are present in abundance. But "abundance becomes the source of distress and want" (Fourier), because it is the very thing that prevents the transformation of the means of production and subsistence into capital. For in capitalistic society the means of production can only function when they have undergone a preliminary transformation into capital, into the means of exploiting human labour power.

Frederick Engels's---
Socialism: Utopian and Scientific/
New York: International Publishers, 1935, pages 64-65

Add to this the fact the complete waste from wars and militarism including billions of dollars we are pumping into the Israeli killing machine and the only thing Obama is doing is setting up the working class for massive poverty and all the misery associated with poverty.

Bernie horn stated:

"...the bill is about 98 percent pure—money dedicated to good, progressive causes..."

Since when do progressives consider tax-money dedicated to corporate profits, corruption and graft, "good, progressive causes."

Print this blog posting off and stick a few copies in your lunch pail to discuss with fellow workers during lunch break.

Alan L. Maki