Worker's rights, Native rights, sovereignty, Indian Gaming, Labor Unions, Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party, MIGA, racism & political corruption

Today I would like to talk about the interconnection of:

Worker's rights, Native rights, sovereignty, Indian Gaming, Labor Unions, Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party, MIGA, racism & political corruption.

This sounds like a lot to talk about at one time but it really isn't.

We need to look at how all of these are inter-related to understand what is really going on in the State of Minnesota if we are going to be successful in our struggles for peace and social & economic justice.

As if these topics might be too much, I would like to include:

The Minnesota Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and its so-called Racial Justice Task Force which has been operating in Northern Minnesota.

On a number of occasions I have requested to see the funding for the Minnesota Civil Liberties Racial Justice Task Force and have received no reply.

Usually one can follow the "money trail" to kind of figure out how all the pieces of the complex puzzle of this ugly two-headed monster comprising joined twins of political corruption and racism created by those who profit through the injustice of the rape of Mother Nature through utilizing labor; thus profiting from labor's exploitation.

As has been pointed out by all credible economists, wealth has a mother and father:

The Mother: Mother Nature.

The Father: Labor.

It is only when human labor is applied extracting natural resources and then going through the process of turning those natural resources into products of use that wealth is created. Therefore, most of the ongoing struggles taking place center around who owns and controls the mines, mills and factories because those who own and control the mines, mills and factories end up with all the wealth. It is not hard to see that in our society only a very few own and control the mines, mills and factories while the majority work creating the wealth yet have no say over how this wealth is used.

We could literally work "miracles" in solving most of our problems from health care to poverty if this wealth created by the many was not being hogged and hoarded by the few.

Those in power and in control over politics in our country have become very adept at raping Mother Nature utilizing labor to make their profits and they have to do their dirty work behind closed doors so as the majority of the people can't see what is going on.

They have also become very adept in creating new ways to gouge the people and exploit workers; the creation of the Indian Gaming Industry is a case in point.

Elmer Benson, Minnesota's most popular ever governor, always pointed out to me that if you want to find corruption look for racism; and, if you want to find out who the purveyors of racism are, look for the corruption and the corrupt.

It was this kind of thinking and ability to analyze what was taking place in society that made Elmer Benson a very astute politician and a politician of the kind that the mining, forestry, banking and power industries decided needed to be driven from office lest the real Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party become a symbol to American labor and the racially and nationally oppressed people in this country that we needed an alternative to what Elmer Benson called:

"This rotten, racist and corrupt system of capitalism."

All of this racism and corruption recently began to come together in semi-public view on a list serve called:

The Bemidji Forum.

The Bemidji Forum is part of the "E-Democracy" list serve which is manipulated and controlled largely by the Blandin Foundation... the Blandin Paper company has been raping our northwoods for many years... in the process, setting the standards for racial discrimination against Native labor--- if not setting the racist "standards" for barriers to employment of Native Americans, then at least maintaining a system of racism upon which the State of Minnesota was founded on.

It seems some participants wanted to talk about "alternative energy in northern Minnesota" but then they didn't want to hear how "alternative energy projects" had spun a racist back-room deal trading the peat bog for consideration of a casino so a peat mining operation could begin.

As for this peat mining venture, all the racist and corrupt shenanigans can be read on my other blogs:

http://pineislandstateforest.blogspot.com/

What I want to focus on here is how racism and employment come together in the casino industry spinning a web of racist corruption which we are finding difficult to break free from--- as workers, and as a society.

First of all, let me state the facts as I know them to be with the only refutation having come from John McCarthy who is the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association even though he is a white man who has become tremendously wealthy doing the lobbying and knowingly and maliciously spreading lies surrounding what is involved when it comes to racism in the Indian Gaming Industry here in Minnesota and the United States:

* Casino workers are forced to work in loud noisy, smoke-filled casinos;

* Casino workers receive poverty wages;

* Casino workers have no rights under state, federal or tribal labor laws;

* Not one single Indian or tribe owns one single slot machine in Minnesota;

* Native American tribes are fronts for organized crime in this gaming industry;

* Profits from Indian Gaming in Minnesota run into the tens of billions of dollars yearly;

* Gross revenues are in excess of a trillion dollars a year.

* There has never been any accounting by anyone of what happens to the entire gross revenues from the India Gaming Industry in Minnesota on the part of any tribal government for their gaming enterprises.

Steve Hunter of the Minnesota AFL-CIO and John McCarthy are at the center of covering up what is taking place in Minnesota Indian Gaming Industry.

According to his own biography which can be found on the internet at the website of the Board of Regents of the University of Minnesota:

http://www1.umn.edu/regents/r_hunter.html

Steven Hunter is the secretary/treasurer of the Minnesota AFL-CIO. Previously, he served as the political action director in Minnesota for the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees. Hunter graduated from the University of Minnesota and has served on numerous governing boards, including the Resource Center for the Americas, Transit for Livable Communities, Twin City Area Labor Management Council, American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota, and the Community Solutions Fund.

At-Large Representative

Elected: 2005
Term expires: 2011
Spouse: Gail Antonson
Residence: Woodbury

What do we know about John McCarthy other than that he has enriched himself off the poverty of the Indian people by spreading every conceivable lie and falsehood about the Indian Gaming Industry.

The only thing we know about John McCarthy is that he is the Executive Director of the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association who lives, very unlike most Native American people, in a two-million dollar mansion in a very exclusive and hidden neighborhood at 8925 Cove Drive N.E. just outside of Bemidji, Minnesota and has his food flown in. We know that Mr. McCarthy's telephone number is 218-751-0560... and we also know that Mr. McCarthy distributes oddles upon oodles of money to Minnesota politicians at every level of government from tribal to local to county to state and federal. Who is this "candy man" to politicians? It is widely rumored that Mr. McCarthy's is well connected to what once was known as the Meyer Lansky Crime Family and the famed Kansas City Mob. To what extent these rumors are true or not we don't really know because the Minnesota Commissioner of Public Safety has not been as eager to investigate Mr. John McCarthy as it has me.

We do know what both John McCarthy of the Indian Gaming Association and what Steve Hunter of the AFL-CIO/ACLU knows about Indian Gaming in Minnesota. They both know the facts I have cited above are true and we know they have both intentionally and with great malice aforethought, sought to lie and cover up these facts.

Mr. Hunter even conceived of the idea of a "Racial Justice Task Force" as an affiliate of the ACLU with Audrey Thayer being in charge... the alleged mandate of this Task Force was to ferret out racist discrimination so something could be done about putting an end to it.

But, the primary area of racist discrimination against Native Americans--- the largest group of people experiencing racial discrimination in northern Minnesota is in the area of casino employment and this area of racist discrimination has been intentionally completely ignored by Audrey Thayer and the ACLU's Racial Justice Task Force.

John McCarthy of the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association peddles lies--- with great forethought--- about this racist discrimination against Native Americans in the Indian Gaming Industry. Native Americans form the core of the employees in the Indian Gaming Industry.

Now, Steve Hunter obviously is fully aware that workers without any rights under state, federal or tribal labor laws are workers who have no rights in the communities where they reside and are robbed of their rights to fully participate in the political process. Mr. Hunter supports the Employee Free Choice Act for ALL workers EXCEPT workers employed in smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages working without any rights in the Indian Gaming Industry.

Mr. Steve Hunter, AFL-CIO officer and member of the board of Directors of the ACLU-Minnesota Chapter which initiated the Racial Justice Task Force making Audrey Thayer the head, also is fully aware that unions in Minnesota belonging to his Federation and the Building Trades unions with past memberships in his federation but now affiliated with the Change To Win labor federation are taking union dues from all workers on casino construction projects but these workers are not protected by a signed union contract, and their is no intent on the part of these unions for whom dues are being pay-roll deducted to try to secure a signed union contract with the Tribes, their Gaming Enterprises or the contractors they hire to build and maintain these casinos. The new Red Lake casino now under construction is a case in point.

One might ask, "Where does the racism come in?"

Well, about half the workers employed on the Red Lake construction site have been sent there to work by one Pete Nadeau, the TERRO Officer in Red Lake. Mr. Nadeau acknowledges that most of the workers he sends out to be employed constructing this new Red Lake Casino pay union dues which are deducted from their pay checks; but, Pete Nadeau is not concerned that these workers have never seen the union contracts they are paying to be protected by.

The problem is this: Without working under a union contract but paying union dues, not only do these workers have no rights of a union contract which they are paying for, for their protection; but, these Native American workers are excluded from the various apprenticeship programs that a union contract would entitle them to participate in so they could maintain jobs in the building trades if they so choose beyond their employment on one casino project. The building Trades Unions have been notorious for their racism and racist practices over the years in the United States--- excluding people of color, especially Native Americans until they are pressured to do otherwise; these casino construction projects are just one more example of this disgraceful and despicable acts of racism perpetrated against Native American workers.

Here we have John McCarthy and his Minnesota Indian Gaming Association creating lies to praise the Indian Gaming Industry knowing full well the racist corruption which accompanies Indian Gaming.

And then we have this Racial Justice Task Force claiming to be so concerned about Native Rights but refusing to address the most pressing, most widespread racism of all, the employment factor in the Indian Gaming Industry as the politicians rake in the dough handed out like candy to children at Halloween by the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association.

Close scrutiny of the Racial Justice Task Force's funding would no doubt turn up involvement from Bemidji State University, the Blandin and Northwest foundations, as well as the tribal governments fronting for the mobsters who really own, control AND PROFIT from the Indian Gaming Industry.

There isn't one single tribal, state or federal public official who doesn't know what is going on... after all, they take the money handed out by John McCarthy as a payoff for maintaining their silence.

Check it out, these are the lies John McCarthy and his Minnesota Indian Gaming Association has told the public and public officials:

Mr. McCarthy denies that it is unjust that casino workers are employed in smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages without any rights under state or federal labor laws.

Let us be very clear about this:

Sovereignty has nothing at all to do with the injustices referred to in the statement above because there isn't any government in the world which has the right to subject working people to a smoke-filled working environment and then forcing the workers into an employment situation where the workers have no rights.

And through it all, John McCarthy sits in his two-million dollar home atop the hill in a hidden exclusive neighborhood having his food flown in as he keeps his bank account a secret because he doesn't want Indian people to know how wealthy he has become as a direct result of their having to live in poverty while billions and trillions of dollars makes its way into the hands of a bunch of mobsters and crooks quite lierally living off the "fruits" of racism... one might say, the rotten, corrupt fruits of racism which has spun a crooked and corrupt political system sucking in not only politicians but labor leaders like Steve Hunter and Ray Waldron.

One is tempted to as Ray Waldron and Steve Hunter: What has happened to the founding principle of the labor movement:

"An injury to one, is an an jury to all."

It seems that there are those like Steve Hunter and Ray Waldron who are more than willing to look the other way when the injustices being suffered are those of casino workers, and when the injustices are even worse were Native American workers are involved.

Of course, the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party which developed the concept of these racist, anti-labor "Compacts" creating the Indian Gaming Industry going back to 1988 have done pretty well when John McCarthy comes a calling with his brown paper shopping bags filled with money instead of Halloween candy.

There you have it:

Worker's rights, Native rights, sovereignty, Indian Gaming, Labor Unions, Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party, MIGA, racism & political corruption.

Perhaps DFL State Representative Tom Anzelc would like to respond since he used his position in the Minnesota Building and Construction Trades Council and his tenure in Rudy Perpich's Administration to get elected to his state house seat from the Iron Range north.

Roger Jourdain, the former Chair of the Red Lake Nation pretty well summed what casino gaming would offer Indian people in declaring:

"The only thing we will get from casinos is debt; racist, crooked and corrupt, rich white people will walk away with the profits leaving us the poverty to contend with."

And how insightful this very simple observation of Roger Jourdain's was.

Red Lake Nation Chairman Roger Jourdain demonstrated a keen awareness in observing:

"Debt equals poverty. The debt we incur from the casino industry will rob us of our land, our livelihoods and our sovereignty."

Roger Jourdain also observed:

"The only thing Indian people will get out of the casino industry is good wages if our people organize."

Today, the Red Lake Nation is dying in poverty and despair as dope dealers operate inside the casinos under the protection of the Red Lake Tribal Council and its highest officials distributing drugs to its youth.

Not exactly the healthy changes those like "Buck" and Darrel Sekki maintain come from casino gaming.

As for those who patronize these casinos and don't care about the plight of casino workers as they nervously puff on their cigarettes wondering why the one-armed bandit isn't paying out; they can take comfort knowing that state and federal building inspectors are not permitted on these job sites... that the contractors inspect their own work performed by workers not protected by the union contract they are paying dues for.

Something to think about as you return to your "luxurious" casino hotel room lying in bed smoking, trying to figure out how you will pay the monthly mortgage bill now that you have lost your money thinking you only came to win enough to pay the heating bill. Not to worry,though, Red Lake's fire department won't be far away should your cigarette slip from your lips as you cry yourself asleep... the basement brigade should arrive on time... maybe "Buck" will give the Red Lake Public Safety Department's Director's job to his son... the poor innocent kid who everyone is picking on who didn't tell his dad his classmates were about to be murdered.

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

Toronto Peace Conference

For Unity in Action of the Peoples of Mexico, Canada and the USA, for Peace, Sovereignty, Anti-Imperialist Solidarity and the Rights of the Working People.


Invitation to Participants from Mexico, Canada and the USA to Attend the Second Tri-Lateral Conference of the World Peace Council, October 2-4, 2009 Toronto Ontario, Canada




In 2004, the Peace Movements of Mexico, Canada and the United States met in Puebla-Mexico, for the first Trilateral North American regional meeting. It was agreed then to invite to a peace promoting meeting all interested parties, every four years. This agreement was ratified last April during the World Peace Assembly called by the World Peace Council in Caracas, Venezuela.

Acting without the approval of the people, big business governments in Mexico, Canada and the USA promote the interests of a small group of transnational corporate and banking monopolies. Driven solely by profiteering these interests trample the sovereignty of the peoples, exploit their labour, besmirch their achievements in culture, language and art and ignore and violate the rights of indigenous people.

Driven by greed, corporate monopolies appropriate and wantonly exploit the energy, water and other natural resources of the continent with devastating affects on the environment. These interests treat the territory of North America from the far Arctic to the Yucatan Peninsula, from the Pacific to the Atlantic as a private domain of imperial power to subjugate the peoples of North America, the Caribbean, Central and South America to project their interests globally.

Committed to the global ambitions of US imperialism and without regard for the consequences of the peoples affected, these corporate interests and the governments they control, collaborate to militarize and fully integrate the economies of the USA, Mexico and Canada, destroy the home markets and subvert and exclude the democratic oversight of the people.

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Security and Prosperity Partnership, (SPP) are continental and integrationist agreements foisted on the people by big business proclaiming their right to develop the economies of Mexico, Canada and the USA exclusively in the interests of wealthy investor elites.

The peace, labour and democratic movements resist and challenge corporate edicts over their lives and condemn governments that fail to uphold their vital economic and social interests. In Mexico, Canada and the USA workers and farmers oppose free trade pacts that destroy domestic industries and agriculture, weaken standards of protection for workers and farmers, promote discriminatory immigration laws, adopt labour mobility agreements, de-regulate food, safety and inspection standards, divert public funding from health, education and pension funds to private hands, and divest state
property at fire sale prices to private investors.

The struggle of the Mexican people to defend the gas industry, to modify the free trade agreement and to safeguard the country’s integrity are clear examples of the corporatist threats facing people.

Of particular danger to the peace and security of the people of Canada, Mexico and the USA are over arching military and security pacts ostensibly protecting the continent that in fact harbor aggressive first strike weapons systems and rapid deployment forces incorporating operational use of nuclear weapons that in the era of Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) includes their deployment to space.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), the US Northern Command (NORTHCOM), the US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), the activation of the US 4th Fleet and extra-territorial attempts of US imperialism to impose Homeland Security doctrines on the people of Mexico and Canada, are flagrant violations of sovereignty that threaten peace and security and promote a new international arms race.

The Tri-Lateral Conference in Toronto Ontario Canada, October 2-4, 2009 will address these problems, analyze the threats posed to peace, sovereignty, democratic and economic rights and present alternative solutions and programs to strengthen the anti-imperialist movements of the people.

We invite your participation. An agenda will be forthcoming. The Canadian Peace Congress website, www.canadianpeacecongress.ca will publish information and documents of the Tri-Lateral Conference and exchange information, inviting contributions to the pre-Conference discussion and where registrations, travel and accommodation information can be accessed.

Let Us Meet in Toronto Canada, October 2-4, 2009.


In Peace and Solidarity,


Canadian Peace Congress, MOMPADE, US Peace Council



Distributed compliments:

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



58891 County Road 13

Warroad, Minnesota 56763

Phone: 218-386-2432

Cell phone: 651-587-5541

E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net



Check out my blog:


Thoughts From Podunk


http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/

Temp work helps mask joblessness among Americans

This Associated Press article, Temp work helps mask joblessness among Americans, about the real unemployment rate states:

"The official rate also doesn't include "marginally attached workers," or people who have looked for work in the past year but stopped searching in the past month because of barriers to employment such as child care, poor health or lack of transportation."

Note the:

"...barriers to employment such as child care, poor health or lack of transportation."

This should give progressives a clue to what universal public programs we should be launching struggles for--- public child care, public health care and expanded public transportation.

What we need to fight for is public systems of child care, health care and transportation because the "free market" has failed just as miserably in these areas as the capitalist system itself has failed.

We must not allow Obama and the Democrats to pull us down the road which insinuates that the "free market" can solve these problems because capitalism can't solve these problems... only expanded public systems can.

We must insist that financing for these public programs comes from slashing the war and military budget and creating huge new taxes on corporations and all stock and bond transactions.

The battle for public child care, health care and transportation programs is part of the struggle for socialism and we shouldn't be shy about advocating programs the Democrats and Republicans will attack as being "socialist;" let Shawn Hannity and Rush Limbaugh cry... the louder they cry the better.

Unemployment is driving down our standard of living and killing working people.

To suggest as this article does that there might be a "silver lining" with hundreds of thousands of workers now becoming part-time workers is ridiculous because all that this means is that working people will have more jobs not providing living incomes.

The real "silver lining" is to be found in creating public child care, public health care and greatly expanding public transportation... finding solutions to these problems will create a full-employment economy--- good jobs at real living wages.

I just got through traveling through Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan.

Ladysmith, Wisconsin boasts the highest unemployment rate in the state and unemployment is tearing this community apart just as Michigan is being torn asunder by unemployment which has led to massive home foreclosures and families being evicted. Ironically, Michigan boasts the highest gas prices of the three states, too.

I found people in all three states to be thoroughly fed up with the entire situation while there is an almost complete lack of any attempts in building movements of the type of the 1930's which won the New Deal reforms taking place to confront these problems.

I also found people becoming thoroughly disillusioned with Barack Obama and the Democrats.

The left is going to have to take the initiative to bring forward a real progressive agenda for people to unite around and the core of this agenda should include the demands for public health care, public child care and vastly expanding the system of public transportation.

In all areas--- health care, child care and public transportation--- we need to be thinking in terms of universal programs--- everyone in, no one--- except the profiteers--- out.

Creating a full employment economy will solve all problems related to Social Security.

Something to think about and discuss around the dinner table.

Check out the article below... a rare honesty in presenting the facts we seldom get from the mainstream media.

Alan L. Maki


Temp work helps mask joblessness among Americans

Link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_becoming_a_statistic


By FRANK BASS, Associated Press Writer Frank Bass, Associated Press Writer

TOWNSHEND, Vt. – For weeks, Greg Noel roamed the spine of the Green Mountains with a handheld GPS unit, walking dirt roads and chatting with people as he helped create a map of every housing unit in the United States.

Work was good: The sun was out, the snow was gone and the blackflies hadn't begun to hatch. But now that work is over and Noel, 60, and more than 60,000 other Americans hired in April to help with the 2010 census are out of work once more.

It's a familiar predicament in today's economy, in which some 2 million people searching for full-time work have had to settle for less, and unemployment is much higher than the official rate when all the Americans who gave up looking for jobs are counted, too.

Because of the surge of hiring for the census, April unemployment only rose to 8.9 percent — a much slower increase than had been feared. Figures out today show unemployment now stands at 9.4 percent.

But consider these numbers:

_The 9.4 percent May unemployment rate is based on 14.5 million Americans out of work. But that number doesn't include discouraged workers, people who gave up looking for work after four weeks. Add those 792,000 people, and the unemployment rate is 9.8 percent.

_The official rate also doesn't include "marginally attached workers," or people who have looked for work in the past year but stopped searching in the past month because of barriers to employment such as child care, poor health or lack of transportation. Add those 1.4 million people, and the unemployment rate would be 10.6 percent.

_The official rate also doesn't include "involuntary part-time workers," or the 2.2 million people like Noel who took a part-time job because that's all they could get, plus those whose work hours dropped below the full-time level. Once those 9.1 million workers are added to the unemployment mix, the rate would be 16.4 percent.

All told, nearly 25 million Americans were either unemployed, underemployed or had given up looking for a job in May.

The ranks of involuntary part-timers has increased by 4.9 million in the past year, according to a May study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. Many economists now predict unemployment won't peak until 2010. And since employers generally increase the hours of existing workers before hiring new ones, workers could be looking for full-time jobs for some time.

Even so, one economist said the increase in involuntary part-timers might have a silver lining. Gary Burtless, a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institute, said employers are likely cutting back everyone's hours instead of laying off people.

"In many countries, it's regarded as a good thing," he said.

For tens of thousands of people like Noel, a part-time job isn't their dream, but it beats the alternative. A Pennsylvania native and veteran of the Silicon Valley boom-and-bust cycle, Noel settled in southern Vermont in 2003. He'd worked a series of jobs, commuting to his latest position as an auditor for a family owned food and beverage distributor in Brattleboro before being laid off in early spring.

Vermont is in better shape than most states — but not by much. Real estate and tourism, pillars of the state's economy over the past decade, are staggering.

Many parents who were frantic last year about sons and daughters serving in Iraq and Afghanistan — the state has sent a disproportionate share of its young people overseas — now are relieved their children have a steady job with benefits. Financial jobs are few. "The economy?" Noel asks between bites of a bison burger in a tiny diner. "You just don't know if it's ever going to come back. We may never have it so good again."

When the Census Bureau offered him a part-time job mapping houses nearly an hour from his Windham home, Noel jumped at it. The money, $10 to $25 an hour plus 55 cents per mile, was a big factor. But Noel said he also wanted to be part of a larger community effort, and the 2010 census is nothing if not a large community effort.

When the first numbers are released in December 2010, the Census Bureau will have spent more than $11 billion and hired about 1.2 million temporary employees. The government conducts its census every decade to determine the number of congressional seats assigned to each state, but the figures collected also help the government decide where to spend billions of dollars for the poor and disabled, where to build new schools and prisons and how state legislative boundaries should be designed.

It hasn't been the perfect job — that would be a full-time position with benefits — but Noel says the census job worked out well. It eased the pain of being unemployed, giving him something to do and made him realize his entire life doesn't have to be about financial management.

"It's just statistics," said Noel, "but it's important."

But last week, he was unemployed again, a victim of the Census Bureau's efficiency. Since the government was able to draw from a well-qualified but mostly out-of-work pool of applicants, the work done by more than 140,000 field employees went far more quickly than expected.

"We've always done well, but this time around was amazing," said Stephen L. Buckner, a Census Bureau spokesman. "It's a tough economic time."

For some temporary workers, the outlook is brighter. Ian Gunn spent five weeks "being paid to hike. It was great." Gunn, an 18-year-old high school senior heading to Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute next year to study computer science, hopes for a better economy when he graduates, one that offers more security than a series of part-time jobs.

"It's going to take time," he said, "but I've got four more years."

Noel, though, is uncertain about the future. It's possible he'll be called back to work later in the fall for the final push. The Census Bureau expects to send roughly 1.2 million workers out to count people who don't return their questionnaires; the hiring will push down unemployment numbers for several months during that period.

For now, Noel says, he and his wife are living without frills. He looks for another job and she runs Green Mountain Chef, a catering business near Stratton Mountain. Demand has slowed dramatically since the economic meltdown began, as it has for most tourism-dependent businesses in Vermont.

Noel hopes to avoid being a statistic for too long. Unemployment insurance will give him about $425 a week — enough to pay the mortgage and maybe the health insurance bill. Right now, the couple pays about $280 a month, but that will climb to $850 in September, when his government-subsidized COBRA policy expires.

"I hope something comes up," he says. "But there's not an awful lot out there."

Cyclone Aila Continues To Impact The Lives Of Thousands In Bangladesh

Guest Blog Post

Brian McAfee
2838 Mason Blvd.
Muskegon Heights, MI
49444 USA
(231) 737-8726
brimac6@hotmail.com



Cyclone Aila Continues To Impact The Lives Of Thousands In Bangladesh.

By Brian McAfee



Reports Continue to come out of Bangladesh more then a week after cyclone Aisla struck concerning the ongoing humanitarian

crisis there. The cyclone which struck on May 25 has killed at least 237 people and left tens of thousands of others homeless.

According to Heather Blackwell, Oxfam's Bangladesh representative, "It's an emerging humanitarian crisis. And its getting worse every day." Bangladesh, a nation of just under 154 million people, is in a precarious position as most of its geographic area is at, or just above, sea level and with the all too frequent cyclones and the perennial monsoons the people of Bangladesh are in a precarious position.

Some reports indicate that thousands of people still do not have access to food or water.

Farmers and fishermen will face difficulties for some time to come as the coastal regions ere heavily damaged and salt water seeped into coastal area farmland.

Another area of concern is disease and water born illnesses, already there have been several deaths due to diarrhea.

As Bangladesh is one of the poorest countries in the World it is the moral responsibility of the rich countries to help in these situations, many are, including the U.S., but it does appear to be of an insufficient amount.

brimac6@hotmail.com

On the road for public health care...

I'm in Rhinelander, Wisconsin doing this blog posting from the Public Library.

People in Minnesota and Wisconsin have eagerly signed the statement we are circulating calling for a no-fee public health care system that would be financed by cutting the military budget.

Eight out of every ten people have been signing with many making contributions and offering to help spread the word.

Below is the statement people are being asked to sign:

Health care has two purposes:

1. Keep people healthy
2. Get people well when sick

Join our campaign for real Health Care Reform now!

What we want:

No-fees/No premiums
Comprehensive (cradle to grave)
All-inclusive (general, dental, eyes, physical therapy)
Universal (everybody in; nobody out)
Publicly funded
Publicly administered
Publicly delivered

The United States is the wealthiest country in the world.

Any country that can afford to finance three wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan at the same time; subsidize the Israeli killing machine to the tune of tens of billions of dollars a year; and maintain a vast global network trying to dominate the world with over 800 U.S. military bases on foreign soil dotting the globe... Can afford to provide a first-rate, world-class, free public health care system for its own people. Let’s get our priorities straight and build 800 public health care centers across the United States..

Count me in.

I agree and will only vote for, and support, candidates for public office who will pledge, in writing, to support a public health care system as described above. I will talk to my family, friends, neighbors and fellow workers. No public health care; no vote--- simple as that:

Name: _______________________________________________________ / / contact me to help

Address: ___________________________________________________________

City: _____________________________________________________________

State:_____________

Phone: _________ _________ __________________

E-mail: _____________________________________________________


Congressperson/Congressional District:

_________________________________________________________

Health care reform now! Everybody in. All the profiteers out.

Initiated by:

Minnesotans for Peace & Social Justice

Health Care for People Not For Profits (Wisconsin)

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (Kent County, Michigan Chapter)

Mark Twain Readers Circle (Missouri)

Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council

Funded in part by the:

Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council & your generous contributions.

Contact and make checks payable to:

Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council
58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell: 651-587-554
E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net


I would encourage people to use this as the basis for their own Letters to the Editors of local newspapers and to create their own leaflets, petitions, etc... let's get a good public discussion going.


Below is the Letter to the Editor I have been submitting... so far the Grand Rapids Herald in Grand Rapids, Minnesota has agreed to publish the letter. They called me on my cell phone to thank me for dropping the letter off assuring me it will be published:

Letter to the Editor; submitted for publication.

Our country is embroiled in controversy and debate over health care reform. Focus on the purpose of health care has been lost. Health care has two purposes:

1. Keep people healthy.
2. Get people well when sick.

Our public officials squander our limited and scarce resources--- during a period of a crumbling economy--- financing wars in three countries; subsidizing the Israeli military machine; and spending trillions of dollars financing 800 U.S. military bases on foreign soil dotting the globe; and then they tell us there is no money for health care. Instead, we should be building 800 public health care centers stretching out across the United States providing a public health care system which includes:

• No-fees/No premiums
• Comprehensive (cradle to grave)
• All-inclusive (general, dental, eyes, physical therapy)
• Universal (everybody in; nobody out)
• Publicly funded
• Publicly administered
• Publicly delivered

The United States is the wealthiest country in the world.

We can afford to provide a first-rate, world-class, free public health care system for our own people--- if we get our priorities straight.

We need health care reform based upon: Everybody in; all the profiteers out.

Health care is supposed to be about people, a human right; not about profits.

Representing workers employed in smoke-filled casinos suffering from cancers and heart & lung problems, I know a little something about why we need health care reform now.


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

58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell: 651-587-5541
E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net

Call 800-517-5696 today to protest more war funding!

This important vote could come up this week; possibly next week… Act today.



Insist on a response in writing.



Call 800-517-5696 today to protest more war funding!



Do you want the United States government to spend tens of billions of dollars more to fund the war in Iraq and expand the war in Afghanistan?



Next week, your representative will be asked to vote on a war supplemental bill that would do just that.

Call toll-free on May 12
800-517-5696

Say no to more spending on two wars. Urge your representative to use our tax dollars to:

bring the troops home
take care of them upon their return
rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan
take care of health, education, and energy here at home
Oppose more war funding.



The U.S. government already spends $1.9 million every minute on the military — and that doesn't include funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.



This is the position of our Organizing Council:



All of this money could be going towards the creation of a public health care system. Any country that can spend this kind of money on wars and militarism that includes funding over 800 U.S. foreign military bases dotting the globe; subsidizing the Israeli killing machine; and fighting wars in three countries at the same time certainly can afford to provide its own people a first-rate, world-class public health care system that is comprehensive, all-inclusive and universal which is publicly funded, publicly administered and publicly delivered. Everyone in. All the profiteers out. Health care for people not for profit.



As a working class mother I did not raise my children to go fight wars and kill other people so oil companies can profit.



I voted for Barack Obama very reluctantly and this war funding is not the change I voted for.



Please call today.



Call 800-517-5696 today to protest more war funding!



Maggie Bird

President,

Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council



Two-million casino workers employed in the Indian Gaming Industry go to jobs in smoke-filled casinos getting poverty wages without any rights under state, federal or tribal labor laws.



The same government funding these wars created this injustice in the Indian Gaming Industry and refuses to right this wrong.








Distributed by:

Alan L. Maki

Director of Organizing,

Midwest Casino Organizing Council



58891 County Road 13

Warroad, Minnesota 56763

Phone: 218-386-2432

Cell phone: 651-587-5541

E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net



Check out my blog:



Thoughts From Podunk



http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/

US House speaker Pelosi in Iraq discusses economy

The most interesting part of this story is this part at the very end because it tells what is happening with our tax-dollars going to Iraq:

Also Sunday, Iraqi police announced the arrest of trade minister's brother, who was wanted along with several other officials for allegedly embezzling some $7 million from the country's ration program.

Sabah al-Sudani was caught by police Wednesday in southern Iraq carrying large amounts of cash and two passports, in what the government is describing as an attempt to flee the country.

When the security forces first tried to arrest him and other suspects on April 29 in Baghdad, guards at the Trade Ministry opened fire, allowing them to escape.

The incident was embarrassing for the government, which has been begun responding to the rising public outcry against corruption. Al-Maliki called Saturday for a new campaign against corruption.

Corruption watchdog Transparency International rated Iraq in 2008 as the third most corrupt country in the world after Somalia and Myanmar.

But the Iraqi government has long downplayed the corruption riddling the country's ministries and hamstringing its reconstruction efforts after years of war.

I wonder where the United States stands on the list of corruption riddled nations?

If one were to follow Obama's "stimulus spending" I am sure the United States would move right to the top of the list.

If we really knew the truth about how our tax-dollars are being stolen through corruption we would likely find it would be enough money to finance a pretty darn good health care system.

It's like Minnesota's former socialist Farmer-Labor Party governor Elmer Benson always used to tell me:

"If you ended corruption in this country the entire goddamn capitalist system would collapse overnight and we wouldn't need a revolution."

Then there is this statement in the article below from Associated Press:

"A fierce critic of the U.S.-led Iraq war, Pelosi originally opposed the 2007 increase in U.S. troops credited with contributing to a substantial reduction of violence in much of country in the past two years."

Nancy Pelosi, a "fierce critic" of this war? Come on; get real. Pelosi and the Democrats haven't done a darn thing to end this dirty imperialist war for oil and regional domination in Iraq. As far as corruption. Corruption is part and parcel of imperialist wars because the wars are a corrupt business venture from the beginning... there isn't anything too honest about stealing another country's oil. And Nancy Pelosi is as corrupt as politicians get; one only has to look at the corporations she gets her bribes (campaign contributions) from.

Notice, the article doesn't mention if Pelosi discussed corruption with the U.S. installed puppet Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

And if Iraq is "riddled with corruption," just imagine what kind government it must be in Afghanistan among the poppy growers; or, what about corruption in Pakistan?

And it's all your tax-dollars!

And this country can't afford socialized health care?

Come to think of it this health care system we have in this country must have its share of corruption, too--- don't ya think? How else could it be that only the insurance companies get a seat at Obama's table when it comes to health care reform?

Where's the change?

Here in Minnesota we don't have to look far for corruption... A Roseau County Commissioner who is spending our tax-dollars pleads guilty to tax-evasion and the Tea Party people don't even demand his resignation; every single state legislator is on the "to bribe list" of the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association; and the Ford Motor Company has been bribing Minnesota politicians for over 80 years while the St. Paul City Council appoints an heir to the most crooked and corrupt real estate family in Minnesota history to make plans for the real estate speculators to make a killing from killing off two-thousand jobs when Ford closes the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant and the corruption riddled Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party spends twenty-million dollars--- tax-payer dollars--- building a road out into the Big Bog for a Berger, Ltd., a Canadian multi-national corporation, to truck away the profits as our primary freshwater aquifer is destroyed after the Berger family of Quebec holds a party in Mike Hatch's Attorney General Office for all those they have bribed with Lori Swanson serving the h'orderves. And in the center of it all is good old honest Democrat James Oberstar who stands in front of two-hundred people at the Freeman Forum on "Water, Water everywhere" and calls me a liar for stating that he is involved in the peat mining boondoggle in the Big Bog as the Blandin Foundation tells public radio station KAXE they will lose their funding if they mention this corrupt peat mining fiasco.

With a government imposed by the United States on the people of Iraq, how can that government be anything but corrupt... after all, the whole idea was to export our system of government to Iraq... a thoroughly corrupt form of government... only a complete fool would think that there would be any chance of anything other than a corrupt government in Iraq considering who is teaching these Iraqi politicians--- the most well bribed politicians in the world... politicians like Nancy Pelosi. They should send Jim Oberstar over to Iraq to teach them how to take bids for roads and bridges:










Give the Democrats a few bucks to spend on a bridge or a war and it will turn in to a corruption riddled fiasco and disaster with the bodies piled high or laying in the bottom of a river.

Something to think about around the dinner table.

Alan L. Maki




US House speaker Pelosi in Iraq discusses economy

http://apnews.myway.com//article/20090510/D983ASC80.html

May 10, 6:36 AM (ET)

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA

BAGHDAD (AP) - U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a surprise one-day visit to Baghdad Sunday and discussed U.S.-Iraqi economic relations with the prime minister, the government spokesman said.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki asked Pelosi, a California Democrat, to shield Iraq from the demands for reparations from neighboring countries dating back to the actions by the previous ruler Saddam Hussein, spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said.

"Al-Maliki requested the United States protect Iraqi funds and put an end to the demands of other countries which feel they were harmed during the two Gulf wars of the former regime," he added.

Kuwait still claims billions of dollars in war reparations from Iraq dating from the 1990 invasion and has refused appeals by Baghdad to reduce their demands and forgive about $15 billion in Iraqi debt.

A fierce critic of the U.S.-led Iraq war, Pelosi originally opposed the 2007 increase in U.S. troops credited with contributing to a substantial reduction of violence in much of country in the past two years.

She has praised President Barack Obama's plans to bring home two-thirds of the 130,000 U.S. troops in Iraq by August 2010.

In the past, Pelosi has pushed the Iraqi government to make greater efforts at political reconciliation.

Pelosi last visited Iraqi in May 2008, when she also met with al-Maliki, and came in January 2007, shortly after Democrats took control of Congress.

Also Sunday, Iraqi police announced the arrest of trade minister's brother, who was wanted along with several other officials for allegedly embezzling some $7 million from the country's ration program.

Sabah al-Sudani was caught by police Wednesday in southern Iraq carrying large amounts of cash and two passports, in what the government is describing as an attempt to flee the country.

When the security forces first tried to arrest him and other suspects on April 29 in Baghdad, guards at the Trade Ministry opened fire, allowing them to escape.

The incident was embarrassing for the government, which has been begun responding to the rising public outcry against corruption. Al-Maliki called Saturday for a new campaign against corruption.

Corruption watchdog Transparency International rated Iraq in 2008 as the third most corrupt country in the world after Somalia and Myanmar.

But the Iraqi government has long downplayed the corruption riddling the country's ministries and hamstringing its reconstruction efforts after years of war.

__

Associated Press Writer Sinan Salaheddin contributed to this report.

Health care reform: The Public Health Care Option--- Everyone in... All the profiteers out

This is a good editorial/newscast to get our discussion going: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/30629823#30629823 because it shows what we are up against. I would encourage everyone to watch and listen closely to this several times.

I would note that not only single-payer universal health care has been excluded from any discussions by Obama and the United States Senate; but, public health care has also been excluded.

As many of you know, I pushed hard for single-payer and led the fight to get it to the floor of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party (MNDFL) State Conventions where it finally passed and became part of the MNDFL Action Agenda.

The Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council has always viewed single-payer universal health care the same way Canada’s Tommy Douglas viewed single-payer--- as a step towards real public health care; or, as Tommy Douglas put it: socialized health care.

We should not play around here.

There will be no serious consideration of single-payer by Democrats; certainly not by Republicans.

Politically, single-payer is dead. Obama and the Democrats have killed single-payer. It was a nice thought; but, political reality is something much different. It is one thing to have polls showing overwhelming support for single-payer--- but, just like polls don’t die in wars; polls don’t mount successful campaigns for reforms--- people do. People are not going to be brought out in support of a concept that is “good” when they know something else is better and the real McCoy… public health care is better than single-payer and this is what will drive a movement capable of winning real health care reform.

Everyone knows that any country that can fight trillion dollar wars simultaneously in three countries; support, to the tune of tens-of-billions of dollars annually, the Israeli killing machine; and finance over 800 U.S. military bases on foreign soil dotting the globe--- this is a country that can afford to finance 800 public health care centers spread out across the United States providing its own citizens with free world-class health care second to none.

It is time to stop fooling ourselves; we need to bring the issue of public health care forward at this time.

Canada is a relatively poor country compared to the United States. The Canadians needed to start with single-payer; we don’t because the United States is the wealthiest country in the world. We need to go all out to fight for a public health care system.

Here in Roseau County, Minnesota; when we brought forward ALL options for health care reform… this is what passed unanimously at the Roseau County DFL Convention:

no-fee/no-premium, comprehensive, all-inclusive universal public health care from cradle-to-grave; publicly administered, publicly financed and publicly delivered

The first time single-payer universal health care passed unanimously; but, as the Party hacks dug in, in opposition to single-payer, then the people decided they had nothing to lose so they supported what they really wanted all along--- public health care; and in doing so, got a compromise: support for single-payer.

This is an important lesson and teaches us something about how to struggle for reforms. Don’t begin asking for a compromise because you will get nothing from those whose only goal is maximizing profits--- and campaign contributions.

There is nothing at all vague about what people really want when given every opportunity. Single-payer was always the begrudging second choice when public health care was included. This is supposed to be a democracy. The American people are entitled to the kind of health care system they really want.

There is a political lesson here.

Here in Minnesota, the DFL Party hacks only gave up their opposition to single-payer using all kinds of manipulations and control to allowing single-payer to be considered by state convention delegates after they became aware the popular movement was growing for public health care. The Party hacks hoped to derail the movement for public health care by allowing a vote on single-payer knowing that single-payer would meet its demise in the halls of Congress. In fact, most of Minnesota’s elected DFL politicians have refused to support single-payer mandate from the grassroots.

Now is the time to begin a discussion with the potential to drive a movement for what is really needed: a public health care system--- Everybody in… ALL profiteers out.

It will be the struggle for: no-fee/no-premium, comprehensive, all-inclusive universal public health care from cradle-to-grave; publicly administered, publicly financed and publicly delivered that drives the movement for successful health care reform in this country. Until public health care is placed on the table we will get nothing from Obama and the Democrats. Now is the time to move beyond single-payer universal health care in saying: Everyone in… all the profiteers out; public health care is the real solution.

A movement simply can’t be built fighting for part of the pie when people want, and are entitled to, the entire pie. With single-payer universal health care we only get a small slice of the population in action; not enough involvement for a winning movement.

There is a reason why doctors have come to the forefront in leading the single-payer movement… they want to protect their high incomes.

On the other hand, working people are defending their standard of living, as well as their health, by advocating public health care with: Everybody in… All profiteers--- including doctors with high incomes--- out.

Place the doctors on the public pay-roll just like teachers, professors, postal workers, municipal employees and librarians. Doctors employed by the Indian Health Service are perfectly happy being on the public pay-roll. Plus, we already have a very large Public Health Service employing many doctors… so, doctors on the public pay-roll is nothing new, not even in the United States… the great bastion of free enterprise.

There are no obstacles to public health care that can not be easily overcome--- once we exert the pressure required on the House and Senate; if they can’t be convinced to do what is right according to what the American people want, then the time has come to sweep the entire bunch right out of office with a new broom and a clean sweep.

What we need to win public health care is 800 citizen committees all over the United States clamoring for: Everybody in... profiteers out---

No-fee/no-premium, comprehensive, all-inclusive universal public health care from cradle-to-grave; publicly administered, publicly financed and publicly delivered.

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

58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell phone: 651-587-5541
E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net

Language petition sign and pass on

We urge you to take the time to add your support to this important petition.

Please distribute and forward this e-mail widely.

We were #176 to sign

The Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council supports this petition and we are in full support of removing any and all barriers to revitalizing the Dakota and Ojibwe language in Minnesota. We represent forty-thousand casino workers employed in smoke-filled casinos paid poverty wages who are without any rights in the Indian Gaming Industry. When we win union recognition our contracts will be multi-lingual including in the Dakota and Ojibwe languages.

In solidarity and struggle,

Maggie Bird
President,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council

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


Alan L. Maki
58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell phone: 651-587-5541
E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net

Check out my blog:

Thoughts From Podunk

http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/




Subject: Language petition sign and pass on

Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 14:14:30 -0500
From: Henry Flocken

To: Adrian Liberty , Anton Treuer
, Ben Burgess ,
Binesiidagoshin , Bob Jourdain
, , Candi Aubid
, Christine Gale , Dale
Greene Sr. , Dana Trickey
,
, David Aubid , David
Treuer , Dennis Jones , Diane
Kingbird , Diane Manuel ,
Don Day , Ed Flocken ,
, Henrietta , James Vukelich
, John Morrin , John
Red Horse , , judy
Fairbanks , Kim Anderson ,
Lee Staples , Lisa Jackson
, Melissa Azhawakibekwe ,
Mike Myers , Mike Swan ,
, ,
Niigaanaanakwad , Niigaanikwe
, Pam Aspinwall ,
, Tabahta Boyd , Theresa
Wilson , Todd Dahlberg
, Val Tanner , Wazhashk
Wiish






Hello Friends & Family

Please take a moment to help support some of the work that I have been
involved in for the past few years. The following is a link to an
online petition that we are trying to get passed around to support
language in the state of Minnesota. A lot of people have worked very
hard to be heard at the state level. Please help us have a strong voice
and take a moment to sign this petition and please feel free to share
with your family and friends that feel would like to support this
effort. Do not delay this legislative session is coming to an end and
we do not have much time to get the word out.



Here is the link for the petition: http://petitionspot.com/petitions/DOLRA



*Please note our new address we have moved*

*Stop by and see our new space*



Miigwech,

Pidamayaye,



Betty Jane Schaaf

*Wicoie Nandagikendan *

*Early Childhood Language *

*Immersion Project*

/Curriculum Specialist/

1433 Franklin Avenue E. Suite 6

Minneapolis Minnesota 55404

Phone (612)721-4246

Fax (612)721-2426

Email Bettyjaneschaaf@yahoo.com

Banned by Obama

I was banned from making the following post on my Blog on the Organize for America website maintained by Barack Obama for the stated purpose of allowing people to share their views and opinions about what needs to be done to set things right in this country.

So much for "change."

Alan L. Maki



Obstreperous citizens' movement demanding fundamental reform

obstreperous


Main Entry: ob·strep·er·ous

Pronunciation: \əb-ˈstre-p(ə-)rəs, äb-\

Function: adjective

Etymology: Latin obstreperus, from obstrepere to clamor against, from ob- against + strepere to make a noise

Date: circa 1600

1 : marked by unruly or aggressive noisiness : clamorous

2 : stubbornly resistant to control : unruly

synonyms see vociferous

— ob·strep·er·ous·ly adverb

— ob·strep·er·ous·ness noun



From a passage in:

Obama's Grade at 100? What About Our Grade?

By: Robert Borosage

http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2009041829/obamas-grade-100-what-about-our-grade



But what Obama has been missing has been an independent, obstreperous citizens' movement demanding fundamental reform. Roosevelt had the labor movement... socialists and communists challenging him from the left. Johnson had the civil rights movement forcing his hand.

This kind of opposition isn't easy. No president likes to face disruption, particularly from what he would consider his base. There are similar stories told about both Roosevelt and Johnson meeting with leaders of the movements and saying something to the effect of, "I agree with you, now go out there and make me do it." But in reality, Roosevelt wanted to squelch and tame labor. And Johnson repeatedly ordered Hubert Humphrey to bring the civil rights demonstrations to an end, saying that they weren't helping the cause. King got a lot of pressure —to say nothing of wiretaps and FBI investigations—to get back in step.

Yet it is precisely these movements—independent, disruptive, passionate, demanding bolder reform, taking on entrenched powerful interests—that enabled Roosevelt and Johnson to achieve far more than they ever thought possible. The New Deal we remember—Social Security, the Wagner Act, Fair Labor Standards, the SEC and Glass Stegall, progressive taxation—came not in the first 100 days, but as Roosevelt, under pressure from his left, geared up for re-election. The Voting Rights Act surely would not have been passed without Selma and many other sacrifices transforming public opinion to enable Johnson to act.

The absence of these movements on the left opens dangerous space for ersatz populist movements on the right. We saw that with the tea-bag parties that the Fox News Channel huckstered. We've seen conservatives conflate the trillions going to bolster the banks with vital spending in the recovery plan to get the economy going. They are weaving a corrosive message that ties big spending in Washington with Wall Street wastrels. The country would be far better served with an angry populist movement that indicts Wall Street but demands greater support for working families and Main Street. But anyone building that movement will have to understand that they might earn respect, but they won't be loved in the White House.

Robert Borosage



Suggestion: Start a Frank Marshall Davis Roundtable for Change in your neighborhood, workplace or school.

Let's talk about the politics and economics of livelihood.

Two great books by Frank Marshall Davis to get discussion going:

"Singin' the Blues, Memoir of a Black Journalist and Poet"

"Writings of Frank Marshall Davis: A Voice of the Black Press" ed. by John Edgar Tidwell; University Press of Mississippi, 2007. ISBN-10: 1578069211




Obstreperous citizens' movement demanding fundamental reform

Tell Barack Obama to close down the 800 U.S. military bases on foreign soil dotting the globe, stop wasting our precious resources on wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan and stop subsidizing the Israeli killing machine; and, instead, open up 800 public health care centers spread out across the United States providing free health care for everyone.

Alan L. Maki

Founder,

Frank Marshall Davis Roundtable for Change

Obstreperous citizens' movement demanding fundamental reform

obstreperous


Main Entry: ob·strep·er·ous

Pronunciation: \əb-ˈstre-p(ə-)rəs, äb-\

Function: adjective

Etymology: Latin obstreperus, from obstrepere to clamor against, from ob- against + strepere to make a noise

Date: circa 1600

1 : marked by unruly or aggressive noisiness : clamorous

2 : stubbornly resistant to control : unruly

synonyms see vociferous

— ob·strep·er·ous·ly adverb

— ob·strep·er·ous·ness noun

Obama's Grade at 100? What About Our Grade?

By: Robert Borosage

http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2009041829/obamas-grade-100-what-about-our-grade



But what Obama has been missing has been an independent, obstreperous citizens' movement demanding fundamental reform. Roosevelt had the labor movement... socialists and communists challenging him from the left. Johnson had the civil rights movement forcing his hand.

This kind of opposition isn't easy. No president likes to face disruption, particularly from what he would consider his base. There are similar stories told about both Roosevelt and Johnson meeting with leaders of the movements and saying something to the effect of, "I agree with you, now go out there and make me do it." But in reality, Roosevelt wanted to squelch Long and tame labor. And Johnson repeatedly ordered Hubert Humphrey to bring the civil rights demonstrations to an end, saying that they weren't helping the cause. King got a lot of pressure —to say nothing of wiretaps and FBI investigations—to get back in step.

Yet it is precisely these movements—independent, disruptive, passionate, demanding bolder reform, taking on entrenched powerful interests—that enabled Roosevelt and Johnson to achieve far more than they ever thought possible. The New Deal we remember—Social Security, the Wagner Act, Fair Labor Standards, the SEC and Glass Stegall, progressive taxation—came not in the first 100 days, but as Roosevelt, under pressure from his left, geared up for re-election. The Voting Rights Act surely would not have been passed without Selma and many other sacrifices transforming public opinion to enable Johnson to act.

The absence of these movements on the left opens dangerous space for ersatz populist movements on the right. We saw that with the tea-bag parties that the Fox News Channel huckstered. We've seen conservatives conflate the trillions going to bolster the banks with vital spending in the recovery plan to get the economy going. They are weaving a corrosive message that ties big spending in Washington with Wall Street wastrels. The country would be far better served with an angry populist movement that indicts Wall Street but demands greater support for working families and Main Street. But anyone building that movement will have to understand that they might earn respect, but they won't be loved in the White House.

Robert Borosage

At what point do human priorities take precedence over popularity polls?

In my previous post I concluded by asking this question:

At what point do human priorities take precedence over popularity polls?

Yesterday I received an e-mail from Becky Spilde in Madison, Wisconsin asking me why I didn't answer my own question.

I was thinking about this all morning and then I got a call from a peace activist friend who lives near Hancock, Michigan--- Mike Salmi. He asked me the same thing.

Here in the United States human priorities will never take precedence over popularity polls until people are fighting for the things they require to live and make life better and these battles become so overbearing, no one, including the politicians and the media, can ignore the issues and the problems.

Its that old saying: The wheel squeaking the loudest gets the grease.

This is very sad, especially given the fact Barack Obama has taken people suffering and hurting the worst for granted and played people for fools and suckers with all of his talk about "hope" and "change" knowing full well what people hurting and suffering would take those words to mean.

Obama is not just a flim-flam man and opportunist; he is worse. Obama is just plain mean and rotten.

I had a lot of e-mail yesterday after being on Mitch Berg's radio program. Democrats got really riled up because I told Mitch Berg that I couldn't care less if conservatives forced Obama from office or limited him to one term... my statement was something like, "I hope you get Obama out; he is no darn good."

I meant just what I said. Let Obama and the Democrats and Republicans fight among themselves; what do I care, none of them are any darn good. All of them read the popularity polls... as long as the numbers in these polls favor them they couldn't care less if people die in wars or go to school hungry or go without access to health care.

A kid going to school hungry means absolutely nothing to any Democrats or Republicans--- unless people start getting fed up and start becoming very vocal in insisting kids receive a good breakfast and lunch in school for free. When politicians don't respond, their numbers in popularity polls begin to drop, and then they are forced to act if they want to remain in office.

Most of the problems people are experiencing could be solved relatively easily if these politicians really cared.

As I have repeatedly pointed out: Polls don't die in wars; people do.

Caring politicians would say the heck with polls, stop the wars.

To the corrupt politicians in the Democratic and Republican parties they don't care about people dying in their dirty imperialist wars as long as their numbers are high in the popularity polls. The only time they will care about people dying in wars is when their numbers start to drop in the popularity polls... this is the kind of sick capitalist society we are living in.

After voicing my views on Mitch Berg's conservative radio program, a DFL state representative called me all irate and fuming... she said, "How dare you lump us together with the Republicans and tell this right-wing talk show host you hope he and his friends drive Barack Obama from office after everything we do for people."

I asked her, "What exactly have you done for people? What have you done for Minnesota's 40,000 casino workers you are forcing to work in smoke-filled casinos at poverty..." And before I could continue with saying "wages," she slammed down the phone and hung up.

This state representative was angered because I asked her to state what the MNDFL was doing for people. She knew the answer was "nothing."

When I see people making statements like this:

"Labor and its allies now have a friend, a people's advocate" in the White House. ... it is obvious that the Obama administration represents a qualitative break with rightwing extremism and free-market fundamentalism. Not to see this, not to acknowledge this, not to welcome this, no matter whether you live in or outside U.S. borders, is to act like the ostrich that sticks its head in the sand and misses what is happening on the ground. "

It makes me sick.

The jerk who said this has his head up some dumb donkey's ass.

Ask a parent who is forced to send their kid to school hungry what kind of "friend" they have in Barack Obama.

Ask someone losing their home to foreclosure how good a "friend" they have in Barack Obama.

Ask the family of some GI returning "home" stuffed in a body-bag before being placed in a flag-draped coffin to be buried what kind of "friend" they have in Barack Obama.

Ask the thousands of autoworkers losing their jobs and being forced to have their contracts shredded what kind of "friend" they have in Barack Obama.

Ask people in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan whose loved ones are being killed everyday what kind of "friend" they have in Barack Obama.

I wonder why none of the pollsters ever take a poll of just the people hurt and suffering to find out how popular politicians are with them?

As long as Barack Obama is popular in the polls he isn't going to lift a finger to help working people. Why should he? He is Wall Street's friend... working people have never had any friends on Wall Street.

Like I told Mitch Berg... Barack Obama is no better than George Bush.

Something to think about.

Alan L. Maki

AP Poll: Americans high on Obama, direction of US

Based on conversations with people I talk to I would say this poll is very accurate.

However, one important thing has to be noted: President Barack Obama has yet to receive organized criticism from the left--- those who are being hurt by his policies.

All organized criticism of Obama has come from the right; and make no mistake, Obama is a very conservative and right-wing President--- there is nothing in the least liberal, progressive or left about him no matter how many times Rush Limbaugh or Shawn Hannity call him a "socialist." Obama is clearly Wall Street's man brought in to do a very dirty job which will most likely lead to him being a one-term (or less) President.

Once the people who are having the problems, as cited below, begin to organize Obama will take severe criticism from the left; and the resulting mass movements of the people are likely to have the effect of a new broom sweeping Obama from public office and exposing the Democrats for what they really are: part of the way big-business dominates, manipulates and controls the American people in order to keep Wall Streets profits flowing into the coffers of parasitic vultures who have the high-sounding names of banker, investor and industrialist; what they do in life is live off of the labor of the working class because it is labor, with no small amount of help from Mother Nature, that creates all wealth. We work; they profit. Working people die in their wars; they profit.

There are certain things that no poll can ever consider and this one has not:

- The pain and anguish of those experiencing the death of loved ones dying in wars.

- The pain associated with being unemployed.

- The pain of being foreclosed and evicted from one's home.

- The pain of being homeless.

- The pain of hunger.

- The suffering from not having access to health care.

- The feeling which comes from being illiterate.

- Living in communities where the air, water and land is constantly being contaminated and polluted.

- The deep despair which sets in when looking about one's own community and seeing all of this.


What this poll does not tell us is how many people are living like this--- and that number is in the tens of millions... billions world-wide.

For these people to have any improvement in their lives they will, out of necessity, have to turn left for solutions to their problems.

If these people decide to throw in their lot with the teabaggers there problems will only intensify and worsen--- for some, perhaps many--- without any direction from the left--- it will probably be: live and learn.

It is to Obama's advantage to buy off as much of the middle class liberals, progressives and the left as he can in order to thwart grassroots and rank-and-file initiatives while keeping people confused by calling for hope based upon creating false illusions that the "bottom is in sight."

More and more people are beginning to understand that capitalism is on the skids to oblivion and we are all being dragged in the dark down the rough, bumpy and treacherous road to perdition and there are few exits except those to the left.

Working people need to consider--- than bring forward--- a serious progressive left-wing alternative which includes the socialist solution.

We are not talking about Barack Obama's political future and his survival; we are talking about working people and their families surviving--- something Barack Obama is not concerned with.

We need a people's agenda pushed by a people's lobby that is the voice and expression of a massive, united and militant all-people's front for real change.

No poll has ever felt the pains of hunger or the pains of war; nor has any poll ever put food on the family table, stopped unjust imperialist wars or put people back to work--- working class movements based upon unity and militant, united struggle have.

Any nation that can finance and fund more than 800 foreign military bases dotting the globe as the United States does, certainly has the wealth to do much better than it is by its own people.

What we need instead of 800 U.S. military bases on foreign soil is 800 public health care centers scattered across the United States strategically placed to bring free health care to everyone.

You know, just to show how really screwed up Barack Obama's priorities really are (as if fighting three imperialist wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan isn't enough to demonstrate his criminal uncaring incompetence); Barack Obama wants to bring broadband communications into every home instead of making sure every family has access to health care first. If this doesn't reflect Obama's screwed up priorities I don't know what does.

Something to think about around the dinner table while discussing this poll...

At what point do human priorities take precedence over popularity polls?

Alan L. Maki




http://apnews.myway.com//article/20090423/D97O490O0.html

Apr 23, 6:35 AM (ET)

By RON FOURNIER and TREVOR TOMPSON

WASHINGTON (AP) - For the first time in years, more Americans than not say the country is headed in the right direction, a sign that Barack Obama has used the first 100 days of his presidency to lift the public's mood and inspire hopes for a brighter future.

Intensely worried about their personal finances and medical expenses, Americans nonetheless appear realistic about the time Obama might need to turn things around, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll. It shows most Americans consider their new president to be a strong, ethical and empathetic leader who is working to change Washington.

Nobody knows how long the honeymoon will last, but Obama has clearly transformed the yes-we-can spirit of his candidacy into a tool of governance. His ability to inspire confidence - Obama's second book is titled "The Audacity of Hope" - has thus far buffered the president against the harsh political realities of two wars, a global economic meltdown and countless domestic challenges.

"He presents a very positive outlook," said Cheryl Wetherington, 35, an independent voter who runs a chocolate shop in Gardner, Kan. "He's very well-spoken and very vocal about what direction should be taken."

Other AP-GfK findings could signal trouble for Obama:

_While there is evidence that people feel more optimistic about the economy, 65 percent said it's difficult for them and their families to get ahead. More than one-third know of a family member who recently lost a job.

_More than 90 percent of Americans consider the economy an important issue, the highest ever in AP polling.

_Nearly 80 percent believe that the rising federal debt will hurt future generations, and Obama is getting mixed reviews at best for his handling of the issue.

And yet, the percentage of Americans saying the country is headed in the right direction rose to 48 percent, up from 40 percent in February. Forty-four percent say the nation is on the wrong track.

Not since January 2004, shortly after the capture of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, has an AP survey found more "right direction" than "wrong direction" respondents. The burst of optimism didn't last long in 2004.

And it doesn't happen much.

Other than that blip five years ago, pessimism has trumped optimism in media polls since shortly after the invasion of Iraq in the spring of 2003.

The "right track" number topped "wrong direction" for a few months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to non-AP media polls, and for several months late in the Clinton administration.

So far, Obama has defied the odds by producing a sustained trend toward optimism. It began with his election.

In October 2008, just 17 percent said the country was headed in the right direction. After his victory, that jumped to 36 percent. It dipped a bit in December but returned to 35 percent around the time of his inauguration and has headed upward since.

Obama is keenly aware that his political prospects are directly linked to such numbers. If at the end of his term the public is no more assured that Washington is competent and accountable and that the nation is at least on the right track, his re-election prospects will be doubtful.

Obama himself has conceded as much.

"I will be held accountable," he said a few weeks into his presidency. "You know, I've got four years. ... If I don't have this done in three years, then there's going to be a one-term proposition."

The AP-GfK poll suggests that 64 percent of the public approves of Obama's job performance, down just slightly from 67 percent in February. President George W. Bush's approval ratings hovered in the high 50s after his first 100 days in office.

But Obama has become a polarizing figure, with just 24 percent of Republicans approving of his performance - down from 33 percent in February. Obama campaigned on a promise to end the party-first mind-set that breeds gridlock in Washington.

Most Americans say it's too soon to tell whether he's delivered on his promise to change Washington. But twice as many say Obama is living up to his promises as those who say he's not (30 percent to 15 percent).

Worries about losing their jobs, facing major medical expenses, seeing investments dive and paying their bills remain high among Americans, the poll shows, just slightly lower than two months ago.

Still, seven in 10 Americans say it is reasonable to expect it to take longer than a year to see the results of Obama's economic policies.

Just as many people say Obama understands the concerns of ordinary Americans and cares about "people like you."

That's a sharp contrast to Bush, who won re-election in 2004 despite the fact that 54 percent of voters on that Election Day said he cared more about large corporations than ordinary Americans.

A majority of Americans believe the Obama administration is following higher ethical standards than the Bush administration.

Most also say he's changing things about the right amount and at the right speed. But nearly a third say he's trying to change too many things too quickly.

Obama is not the first president who sought to tap the deep well of American optimism - the never-say-die spirit that Americans like to see in themselves.

Even as he briefly closed the nation's banks, Franklin Delano Roosevelt spoke in the first days of his presidency of the "confidence and courage" needed to fix the U.S. economy. "Together we cannot fail," he declared.

In the malaise following Jimmy Carter's presidency, Ronald Reagan reminded people that America has always seen itself as a "shining city upon a hill," as one of its earliest leaders, John Winthrop, put it.

Obama started his presidency on a dour note, describing the U.S. economy in nearly apocalyptic terms for weeks as he pushed his $787 billion stimulus plan through Congress.

He turned the page in late February, telling a joint session of Congress and a television audience of millions: "We will rebuild. We will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before."

Of those who say the country is on the right track in the AP-GfK poll, 73 percent are Democrats, 17 percent are independents and 10 percent are Republicans.

"When Obama came in," said D.T. Brown, 39, a Mount Vernon, Ill., radio show host who voted against Obama, "it was just a breath of fresh air."

Others said their newfound optimism had nothing to do with Obama, but rather with an era of personal responsibility they believe has come with the economic meltdown.

"I think people are beginning to turn in that direction and realize that there's not always going to be somebody to catch them when things fall down," said Dwight Hageman, 66, a retired welder from Newberg, Ore., who voted against Obama.

The AP-GfK Poll was conducted April 16-20 by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Media. It involved telephone interviews on landline and cell phones with 1,000 adults nationwide. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

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Associated Press News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius and AP writer Christine Simmons contributed to this report.

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On the Net:

Poll site: http://www.ap-gfkpoll.com