Bush finally states real intent in Iraq...

All the domestic and foreign news services carried this story in some form, did no one on the MN DFL State Central Committee see, hear, or read this:

WASHINGTON — Disbelief greeted the White House admission that President George W. Bush envisions U.S. occupation of Iraq for 50 years, modeled on the more than half-century U.S. occupation of South Korea.

Bush’s press secretary, Tony Snow, said of a prolonged U.S. stay in Iraq: “The Korean model is one in which the United States provides a security presence … over a period of years, and therefore the U.S. is a force of stability.”

This begs the question: What is the purpose of the United States being in Iraq?

Answer: One can only conclude the purpose of the United States going to war in Iraq was two fold:1.) To occupy the country; 2.) To steal the oil resources.

A comment: The reasons given for this war by Bush and both Democratic and Republican supporters of this war continue to change along with the growing opposition on the part of Iraqis, the American people, and the international community.

This war was not worth one death or one dollar being wasted from the beginning… it has been lie after lie after lie. The argument being used to continue the funding for this war is, “We need to support our troops;” this rings very hollow as the death toll mounts and suicides among U.S. troops stationed in Iraq rises and alcoholism and drug addictions plague those troops returning home’ many as paraplegics.

Not only should we not be supporting these troops in any other way than to get them out of Iraq, but not one more penny should be squandered on this dirty war for oil and regional domination.

The huge U.S. “presence” in South Korea has not assured stability in that region of the world. In fact, the South Koreans want the U.S. out; and, the U.S. presence in South Korea has created massive internal political instability which has often turned very violent and led to extreme repression of democracy--- including widespread violent suppression of the Korean labor movement and students insisting on their democratic rights to collective bargaining, freedom of expression, and the right to participate in the affairs of their own country rather than being dictated to by the United States government and American big-business interests who have used the repression imposed by the United States to build everything from automobiles and computers using cheap labor as American workers are loosing their jobs.

The U.S. presence in South Korea has cost American taxpayers trillions of dollars over the last fifty years; are we prepared to pay an even higher price along with all the consequences for a more than fifty year occupation of Iraq. To gain this presence it cost tens of thousands of American lives… just as this dirty war in Iraq will result in.

One could easily say that the oil industry should just be left on its own to pay for its own occupation of Iraq; however, this would not be right either. Capitalist corporations should not be allowed to run roughshod over any nation and its peoples, this just is not right.

Look at how people in northern Minnesota are so upset with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, the Governor, the Minnesota Legislature, and Congressman Oberstar providing a Canadian multi-national corporation with a permit to mine peat in the Big Bog in the Pine Island State Forest near Red Lake for the next fifty years with the local, state, and federal tax-payers picking up the tab for infra-structure and roads so this foreign corporation can truck away the profits while destroying our primary freshwater aquifer in the process… does anyone really believe that the Iraqi people are any more content and satisfied hearing that George Bush now intends to occupy their country on the same terms as South Korea has been occupied for over fifty years?

When one looks at all these fiascos carried out with profits in mind without any regard for people and their rights or their living environments we begin to see a very clear pattern that has developed… it doesn’t make any difference if it is the First Nations here in the United States, South Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, or the Big Bog in northern Minnesota… the pattern is as clear as the patterned peat lands of Minnesota when viewed from the air… first comes the war to occupy, then come the puppet governments to control as the resources are stolen using cheap exploited labor.

I would not have supported General George Armstrong Custer’s genocidal campaign against the First Nations’ peoples anymore than I support this dirty war for oil in Iraq. The barbarity and savagery of the nature of imperialism has not changed in the intervening years… there was the mass hanging of Native Americans in Mankato that had the same intent as the hangings taking place in Iraq… to frighten and intimidate people into silence and acquiescence. It has been much easier for Bush to get the Democrats to acquiesce to all of this than it is the people who are the victims. This was as true in the mass hangings at Mankato as it is today in Iraq. And look at what is taking place in Iraq now; the oil workers are being arrested because they are opposed to the new Iraq “oil law” which will give the oil companies the right to exploit the workers in the oil fields as American oil companies profit. Where is there any letter of protest coming from this “support our troops” bunch over the warrants that have been issued for the leaders of Iraqi oil workers struggling for their rights and to defend Iraq’s oil fields? Not a peep of protest.

When will the American people wake up to the true nature of imperialism being the final stage of a rotten, decadent capitalist system? It all began with the occupation of the First Nations in order to steal their resources; then it was slavery, then the attack on industrial workers, then war after war after war. If we cave to the “support our troops” without questioning what these troops are doing we allow our Nation to continue down this same shameful road of theft, pillage, and exploitation as this breeds greater injustice, poverty and despair.

The attempt to silence my views within the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party on the part of the hierarchy of the Minnesota DFL and the supporters of this dirty, disgusting, illegal, unjust, immoral war of aggression for the occupation of Iraq that is squandering our tax dollars to help the oil companies steal the oil and enable U.S. imperialism to use Iraq soil to establish regional domination in the Middle East, as has been done in South Korea, is just the way the old corrupt Democratic Party operated in trying to coerce silence as Native Americans were led to the gallows in Mankato… if you don’t believe me check out the history… and, by the way… it was the same Summit Hill Club and business interests calling the shots… pun intended.

To even suggest, as a few on the MN DFL State Central Committee have done, that we should “support our troops” by continuing to fund what these troops are doing in Iraq is to support continued carnage and mayhem. For anyone to suggest that because they have a loved one in Iraq is justification for the Democratic Party to continue supporting this war in Iraq through continued funding--- or in any other way--- is morally wrong and without any justification.

There is only one way to “support the troops” and that is to bring them home. Some may be bullied into silence by those like Katherine Speers, Susan Rego, Brian Melendez, and Walter Mondale… I will not be intimidated… my mandate based upon the resolutions from the Roseau County Convention is to do and say whatever it is I can to stop this war in Iraq... there is no mandate from either our county convention or our state convention for me to “support the troops” in what they are doing in Iraq.

I will use the dirty way in which I have been deprived of the right to participate on the MN DFL State Central Committees list serve as an example for all Minnesotans to see how those who support this dirty war in Iraq are using “support our troops” to destroy democracy here at home.

It is a sad day when the leadership of the Minnesota DFL will actively try to silence a member of the State Central Committee for advocating the will of the majority of state convention delegates as they sit in silence as Walter Mondale calls for renewed violence in the form of a “pre-emptive” first strike against North Korea after one bloody war in that region; and, if that is not bad enough, Mondale then takes to the airwaves on his daughter’s radio program to support the war in Iraq as other DFL elected officials vote to fund this dirty war and undermine the movement for single-payer, universal health care which could easily be financed with the funds being squandered on the war in Iraq as Minnesota politicians pretend to wring their hands in saying they can’t find the funds for creating a single-payer, universal health care system.

I have found it very interesting how the leadership of the Minnesota DFL has tried to use their disagreements with me in order to evade open dialogue and debate on this most important issue of the war in Iraq; just as they have evaded debate about sending 20,000 Minnesotans to work in smoke-filled casinos without any health care at poverty wages without any rights under state or federal labor laws.

It seems to me there is a frightening scenario that has developed: Bush intends to force Iraqi oil workers into the same relationship with the multi-national oil companies that casino workers have with their managements here in Minnesota.

I will never forget the night the campaign of carnage and destruction in Iraq began… I was sitting in the break-room of the Seven Clans Casino Warroad and the assistant manager of the casino and the head of security had their eyes glued to the huge television screen that was barely perceptible through the cloud of second hand smoke as management had sealed off the ventilation system to save on the heating bill… and these two were shouting with joy as every bomb was dropped as buildings were being destroyed and the country was being blown to kingdom come… I waited for the break room to fill to capacity and as these two shouted with glee as the bombs were bursting, not only in air, but destroying a country and killing its people… I said, “I wonder what our country would be like today if General George Armstrong Custer would have had access to such weapons… all of a sudden there was complete silence… a little while later a woman came over to me and said, “I guess we won’t be hearing from these two the rest of the night… I was so glad when you spoke up; I couldn’t bear watching that any longer while Juno and Rodney cheered on that kind of bone-chilling and moronic killing and destruction.” I think this young woman, whose brother was in Iraq for 18 months and when called up to go again decided to go to Canada, instead, pretty much speaks for all Minnesotans… since the day this war began this young working mother has been actively working with a peace organization and been involved trying to organize casino workers. She understands full well that the way to “support the troops” is to bring them home; to help those like her brother to not take part in this war; and to work towards peace and social justice… here in Minnesota and around the world. The other day she told me, “The night manager is calling me a Communist.”

It seems the leadership of the Minnesota DFL and casino managements have a great deal in common… they support the war, they want casino workers to continue being employed without any rights and without health care; and they want the same thing for the workers in Iraq.

Something, amid all of this death and destruction and exploitation of working people, is severely out of kilter.

Alan L. Maki
Member, Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party State Central Committee

And

Director of Organizing,
Red Lake Casino, Hotel, and Restaurant Employees’ Union Organizing Committee

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/

Universal Health Care... what is it?

There continues to be a great deal of confusion about what "universal health care" is; or, rather, I should say, the Democratic Party leadership--- including Obama, Clinton, and Edwards, the insurance industry, the HMO's, and the American Medical Association are trying to create a great deal of confusion as to what is meant by the term "Universal Health Care."

Some are making the claim that "Universal Health Care" is "affordable health care;" not true... "affordable" and "universal" are two different things. What is "affordable" to multi-millionaires like Barrak Obama and United Health's former CEO Mike McGuire are very different from what most working people would consider "affordable."

Others are suggesting that the reactionary "Massachusetts Plan" is "universal health care." Again, nothing of the kind is true.

Those right-wing media pundits like President Ronald Reagan's eldest son--- Michael, and Rush Limbaugh have launched into a vicious red-baiting campaign against "single-payer, universal health care;" the likes of such a vile and vitriolic campaign haven't been seen since the days of Harold Stassen, Joe McCarthy and his House Un-American Committees, and Hubert Humphrey's shameful "Communist Control Act."

Why sow the confusion around single-payer, universal health care? Why have complex schemes been devised by everyone from former Minnesota State Senator and Gubernatorial candidate Becky Lourey to Hillary Clinton to Barrak Obama and the health insurance industry under the guise of being "progressive health care reforms" when in fact all of their proposals are the epitome of being "reactionary" and "regressive" with nothing in common in what is articulated in the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Let us be clear what most people mean when they talk about "universal health care." If you ask most people what they mean they will say, "Health care like the Canadians have."

The Canadians have a "single-payer, universal health care system" created under the "Canada Health Act."

If creating legislation for single-payer, universal health care is too great of a task for some of the legislators who are apparently educationally challenged... all they have to do is copy the Canada Health Act; delete the word "Canada" whenever it appears, and substitute the word "Minnesota;" ditto for national legislation.

"Single-payer, universal health care" means that the government pays all health care related bills. The United States government, or the State of Minnesota, would pay all health care related expenses.

A "single-payer, universal health care system" is a no-fee, comprehensive, all-inclusive system that covers every human being from birth control and abortion to prenatal care and birth to death without any exceptions for everything from eye-glasses to dental, pharmaceutical to mental, from immunizations to the most complex operations, from home care to long-term care and nursing home care and hospice care; "single-payer, universal health care would not only be paid for by the federal or state government (depending on which level of government is first to enact it), but, it would also be publicly administered... in other words, there will be no role for private health insurance companies like United Health Care and the greedy, selfish CEO's like Mr. McGuire to profit from; and no need for employer or union health care funds; thus ending the health care juggernaut and fiasco in labor/management contract negotiations... everyone would get the same access to high quality health care... regardless of employment status or income.

In the following video (just click on the link) the president of the Connecticut AFL-CIO makes it very clear that when most people speak of "universal health care" they are referring to "single-payer, universal health care."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DiYlnSLgMw&NR=1

In fact, the Canadian health care system is based upon a system first advocated by a Canadian Doctor, Dr. Norman Bethune, a member of the Communist Party of Canada who practiced in both Canada and the United States; Dr. Bethune found that the for-profit health care system created more misery for people than many of the ailments and illnesses he was treating and he became the foremost advocate for "socialized health care" in North America. Dr. Bethune's call for socialized health care was picked up on by the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party and articulated by Minnesota's most popular governors, socialists Floyd B. Olson and Elmer Benson together with the communist United States Congressman from the Mesaba Iron Range, John Bernard, who advocated a single-payer approach as the first step towards "socialized health care;" this approach was picked up by Olson's good friend Frances Perkins who was President Franklin Roosevelt's Secretary of Labor. From her position as Secretary of Labor Perkins became the primary advocate of what is referred to as the "New Deal Reforms" of which she advocated on behalf of the "New Deal" coalition for universal health care, social security, unemployment compensation and welfare, and the right of workers to organize unions.

As Roosevelt was forced to drop universal health care from the New Deal as a bargaining chip with Southern reactionaries in his own Democratic Party and the Republicans and a number of Democrats who were backed by the American Medical Association, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the Chamber of Commerce in return for many of them supporting the rest of the New Deal package of reforms.

Perkins and Olson, together with a very powerful and united left and labor movement tried, to no avail, to continue to insist that "universal health care" be included in the New Deal... this is an important little historical tid-bit that is left out of our history books as is the fact that a Saskatchewan preacher by the name of Tommy Douglas who was being introduced to politics at about this same time by workers and farmers in his congregation who were Communist Party members trying to emulate the success of the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party.

Tommy Douglas was convinced to run for public office and he made "socialized health care" one of the primary planks in his socialist campaign which successfully ousted a long-serving, corrupt, drunkard and anti-communist who was a servant of big-business and big agri-business from the Saskatchewan legislature.

As Tommy Douglas' socialist movement rapidly gained influence and expanded he was elected to the position of Premier of Saskatchewan and his socialist party formed a majority government... about the same time that the mine owners, the forestry and power generating industries, the bankers and big agri-businesses, the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce decided they had had had enough of cooperatives and socialism in Minnesota and they retained the most corrupt, most vile, most disgusting, most racist and anti-Semitic, most anti-labor, most anti-communist and anti-socialist lying son-of-a-bitch they could find--- Republican Harold Stassen--- to run against Minnesota's most decent, most respected, most honest and most open governor--- Elmer Benson--- who was overwhelmingly elected as Minnesota's governor... in fact, Harold Stassen and his campaign of lies and hate were on par with Hitler's... who knows, Hitler might have learned a few things from Stassen

Douglas' socialist majority held on to power for years in Saskatchewan, as it does today; and, was able to create a single-payer, universal health care system that became so popular even his big-business adversaries at the national level were forced by the Canadian people to create the Canada Health Act which brought about single-payer, universal health care for all Canadians... Tommy Douglas always insisted this was only the first step towards creating a fully socialized health care system and one step towards eradicating the scourge of capitalism... something Canadians today are having to grapple with as private, for-profit schemers are trying to get their hands further into health care as U.S. pharmaceutical companies are trying to bankrupt the Canadian health care system, just as they squeeze the life from the elderly here in this country in quest of ever larger profit margins.

Check out the Canada Health Act: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hcs-sss/medi-assur/index_e.html

Manitobans have elected a socialist New Democratic Party government for the third consecutive time just as they have done throughout most recent history largely on the basis of the excellent health care system that has been maintained by the New Democratic Party.

Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale sabotaged the best efforts of progressive Minnesotans over many years to attain single-payer, universal health care.

Roger Jourdain, Rudy Perpich, and Paul Wellstone placed single-payer, universal health care back on the political agenda here in Minnesota and the Jourdain-Perpich Health Care Center on the Red Lake Indian Reservation stands as a monument to these efforts, just as Mesaba Cooperative Park stands as a living example to the movement that it took to bring the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party of Olson, Benson, and Bernard to power... and these "monuments" along with the Wellstone Memorial in Eveleth stand as examples of what is possible if Minnesotans fully unite and insist that we will tolerate nothing less than true "single-payer, universal health care" for every Minnesotan.

Minnesota can be the Saskatchewan of the United States in creating the model for health care for the rest of the country to follow... as long as we don't allow the detractors of "universal health care" to confuse this debate... we need to stand firm; "universal health care" is "single-payer, universal health care" and we take this compromising step on the way to "socialized health care" because we need this band-aid to get us out of the present mess.

Let us be very clear: we have this health care mess because it has been created by an unhealthy social and economic system that places corporate profits before human needs... more specifically, the greed of corporations is being placed before the needs of working people.

The capitalist system is a rotten system; it is no wonder the capitalist system has spun a rotten health care system. The capitalist system is based upon a serious, incurable malady to begin with--- the exploitation of working people by the owners of capital and everything else, like health care, is turned into a racket.

One blogger, Doctor Rosenthal, a staunch supporter of single-payer, universal health care recently stated the problem very succinctly: Capitalism can solve only one problem — how to accumulate profit. Every other problem is waiting for a worker-run society that will put human needs first, including the need for a healthy environment. See Dr. Susan Rosenthal's excellent blog: http://powerandpowerlessness.typepad.com/

If Karl Marx couldn't get his message across here in the United States, Abraham Lincoln did it for him in his "Message to Congress" in 1861, in which he stated in no uncertain terms: "Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much higher consideration."

To this day, our history books ignore Lincoln's statement because no professor or think tank adjunct can refute it; and big-business fears any discussion of anything that suggests "Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much higher consideration." This formulation of Lincoln's should become the center of debate surrounding the health care issue... obviously the health care needs of working people are superior to the "needs" of the insurance and pharmaceutical companies and HMO's "need" to profit.

Make no mistake, in this health care debate we are speaking about the needs of working people to have access to health care; the wealthy and their political puppets can "afford" to pay for their own health care... but notice, members of congress, state legislators, the governor, can all "afford" health care... but we end up paying for their health care while we don't have the same access to health care. Just as Michael McGuire got health care as a corporate "perk;" at whose expense? All those paying big insurance premiums.

I think we are being very generous in suggesting that health care, like Social Security, be "universal." Ever notice who is first in line applying for their Social Security check? You got it... as much as they complain about "free lunches" these corporate CEO's are first in line to apply for Social Security, and they don't even need it. In the same way they will be first in line for no-fee health care. But in its generosity, as the working class struggled for some kind of old age pensions there was no complaint from working people that the undeserving parasitic capitalist class should be deprived of these benefits.

Working people understand full well there is no such thing as a "free lunch" because we have been paying for the gourmet meals of corporate executives for years while we feed our families on hamburger helper. We fully understand the difference between "no-fee" and "free." We are seeking "no-fee" single-payer, universal health care. We know that our labor creates all wealth. We also know that it is better to use this wealth that we have created to finance health care rather than squandering this wealth in a senseless, illegal, and immoral imperialist war for oil and regional domination in Iraq.

It is no coincidence that the very same politicians who have just recently voted to to continue the funding of this dirty war in Iraq are the very same politicians who make the claim that "single-payer, universal health care" is not affordable even though it would only cost a fraction of what is being spent to reign death and destruction in Iraq.

The time is long over-due to implement the final installment of the "New Deal" reforms... single-payer, universal health care... pay for it the exact same way Social Security is paid for.

The time is long overdue for forging the progressive coalition needed for winning "health care, not warfare."

Health care... the struggle for single-payer, universal health care intensifies

Note: This is a letter I sent to Minnesota State Representative Dave Olin (Democratic Farmer-Labor Party) and all members of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party State Central Committee. I would encourage you to circulate this letter widely.

Below is a link to short must see and distribute video for all who support single-payer, universal health care; this is the video that is being talked about all over the United States which the leadership of the Democratic Party and Minnesota DFL does not want anyone to see... this video should be shown at every union hall, every political gathering, and in every church and community center in Minnesota; just click on the link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5G8Re49EOw


72% of the delegates to the state convention of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party voted for single-payer, universal health care... since the grassroots spoke, DFL legislators and the DFL leadership have been scheming and scurrying to try to confuse the issue and derail the single-payer, universal health care movement.

The DFL legislative caucus used its spam filter to try to pretend they weren't hearing from their constituents on this issue; with legislators like Linda Berglin, Bernie Lieder, Thomas Huntley, and Dave Olin their allegiances are with the HMO's and the insurance industry, and they refuse to listen to the grassroots… they need to listen to their constituents or they need to go.

In my opinion, what Minnesotans now need to do is run candidates committed to single-payer, universal health care in every state house and senate district; first at DFL nominating conventions, and then if necessary, in the primary election; as a back-up candidates should be found to run as independents or on another party ticket where these candidates fail in primary elections to unseat DFL incumbents who continue to oppose the will of grassroots DFL’ers who voted overwhelmingly for single-payer, universal health care. Minnesotans have the right to have the opportunity to vote for candidates who reflect their support for single-payer, universal health care in the general election.

I am leaning towards supporting Mike Cavlan, the Green Party candidate for United States Senate after seeing the way Ford Bell was shut out of the process in the last election with the stage is being set for a replay in 2008 as the DFL leadership has allowed candidates to betray the trust of state convention delegates which very clearly represents the support the majority of Minnesotans have demonstrated for single-payer, universal health care and socialized health care for many years now.

No sitting DFL incumbent should be immune to such a challenge. It is unfortunate that so many working class Minnesotans no longer consider the Minnesota DFL a party which empowers and enfranchises them to the point where they no longer vote, or seek out alternative candidates and parties; however, this is the consequence when voters are not given the opportunity to vote for candidates offering real solutions to the very real problems they are experiencing. People are not stupid; no matter how well “progressive sounding policy directions” are “framed,” this is no substitute to offering real solutions to real problems like the health care mess that has been created by a rotten social and economic system that places the corporate bottom line of profits above the health care needs of people.

Those elected officials like Representative Dave Olin (1-A)who continue to evade addressing the single-payer, universal health care solution should do so at their own peril and without receiving support from DFL voters and the DFL Party… Olin will not receive my support unless he changes his position to one of support for single-payer, universal health care and he has until Labor Day 2007 to think about this.

The well-heeled leadership of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party can no longer expect members of the DFL State Central Committee and local Party organizations to on the one hand continue to support DFL nominated candidates; while on the other hand refusing to hold these candidates accountable to supporting the democratic will of the grassroots convention delegates when support for an issue is as overwhelming as that which single-payer, universal health care received from delegates to the DFL State Convention, and so popular among Minnesotans.

I take this opportunity to serve notice on Representative Dave Olin that I will not lift a finger to support his future political endeavors unless he supports single-payer, universal health care. So far he does not even have the common courtesy of answering his own constituents’ personal queries, phone calls, or e-mails when he is asked his position on single-payer, universal health care; instead, he chooses to respond--- when he responds at all only to the most persistent--- “I don’t know enough about health care to have a position on single-payer, universal health care; I will vote the way the majority of my caucus votes on health care issues.” How convenient for Representative Olin; how unfortunate for the majority of his constituents who have no, or little, access to any kind of health care up here in northern Minnesota. It is time for Representative Olin and his colleagues who are so flippant concerning the health care needs of their constituents to be told in no uncertain terms: support single-payer, universal health care or defend your conservative and reactionary policies at the polls on Election Day 2008.

If the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party can not deliver on single-payer, universal health care, what can it deliver on? Recent legislative sessions provide the answer: absolutely nothing. This must change because working people now have a very long list of other problems that need to be addressed, including, but not limited to:

Ending the war in Iraq;

Rescinding at will hiring, at will firing;

Extending all rights, human rights and labor rights, other workers have to over 20,000 casino workers;

Rescinding the right of employers to challenge unemployment claims without reason;

Ending predatory lending in home mortgages;

Ending auto insurance companies using credit ratings in establishing rates for car insurance;

Making higher education free to all;

Real property tax relief for home-owners;

Tax the hell out of big-business;

Substantially increase the taconite tax and stumpage fees;

Extend full and complete protection to the Big Bog to protect Minnesota’s largest freshwater aquifer one of our most valuable resources;

Prohibit MinnTac and the mining industry from continuing to contaminate the communities where working people live;

Save the Ford Plant through public ownership;

The robbery at the gas pumps must end.

The time has come for state legislators to establish a state bank to finance public ownership of industries so we can protect, save, and create jobs and home ownership; union pension funds should be used for this purpose.

We need to consider establishing state-owned oil refineries as a solution to the robbery at the pumps. Like the health care industry that has been ripping people off for so long, the energy industry has lost all right to continue with unchallenged corporate ownership. We can probably work out deals with the Canadians and Venezuelans to take care of all the energy needs of our state without these corporate profiteers robbing us at the pumps.

Between the banks, insurance companies and the mining, forestry, power generating and health care industries Minnesotans are being taken for a ride; we need elected officials who will come up with real solutions to these problems through an open and frank dialogue with their constituents. This dialogue can not take place as long as the well-heeled leadership of the Minnesota DFL continues to maneuver and control the direction of political debate… it is not enough that working people and brain-dead union leaders are used as cheerleaders to parade around convention centers waving placards like high school cheerleaders at a football game to support the bankrupt policies of these uncaring and insensitive politicians chosen by well-heeled lawyers, the “Summit Hill Club,” the DFL Business Caucus, and the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce members of the Minnesota DFL who seek the votes of working people, but do nothing to solve the problems of living, breathing, human beings who are suffering under the thumb of corporate control.

This circus in the Cities has gone on long enough. It is on the issue of single-payer, universal health care that working people must seize the initiative to begin re-ordering priorities in our state and in our country. Minnesotans, Americans, and people all over the world expect much better from the most progressive state in the Nation known for “red” Finns, the real Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party of Floyd B. Olson, Elmer Benson, Roger Jourdain, John Bernard, Rudy Perpich, and Paul Wellstone… a progressive tradition kept alive by writers and poets like Meridel LeSueur.

As working people, we can no longer tolerate, or afford, a Party that expertly “frames” progressive sounding policy directives without offering a single solution to our problems… Minnesotans, like Americans everywhere want single-payer, universal health care as a first step towards socialized health care.

We need open dialogue and debate on these issues, not censorship by those who exercise a one-way control over what we think and who we support; more importantly, who we have the right to elect.

Alan L. Maki

Member Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party State Central Committee, Roseau County

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/



If you would like to communicate with members of the Minnesota DFL State Central Committee here are their names and e-mail addresses; they appreciate hearing from you:

Note: Request a copy of the 2007-2008 Legislative Manual from your State Representative or State Senator for names and contact info of your elected officials... these manuals are free for the asking

Note: If you are fed up with inaction on single-payer, universal health care from your representative on the MN DFL State Central Committee, you might consider running against them.

Contact members of the MN DFL SCC here:

http://mndflscc.blogsome.com/

or here:

http://theminnesotaproblem.blogspot.com/

Memorial Day

On this Memorial Day I think it is now very obvious that the Democrats are in full complicity with Bush and the Republicans in supporting this dirty war in Iraq for oil and regional domination.

The Democrats are only against Bush and want to have a Democratic President along with House and Senate majorities for the purpose of continuing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; and, maybe even get us into wars with Iran and North Korea.

Had Democrats really wanted this war to end it would have ended the first day that the United States Congress reconvened after the November Election.

Here in Minnesota the leadership of the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party, along with the majority of DFL State Central Committee, and the majority of DFL elected officials support the war... they hide their support for the war by stating:

1. We can't end funding because we need to support the troops;

2. Calamity and chaos will result in Iraq if U.S. troops are withdrawn.

The leadership of the Minnesota DFL continues down the road of supporting imperialist aggression in keeping with the policies of Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale.

As a result, by next Memorial Day we will be seeing many more filled body bags and flag draped coffins.

We had better decide that we will look for a real political alternative if we are serious about peace.

To continue to vote for Democrats and Republicans is like a dog chasing its tail... more bloodshed, carnage, mayhem, and chaos is the result of continuing to participate in the present political process rigged against the people and for more war.

Freedom to Breathe Act: Two Views of the Minnesota Smoking Ban

Timber Jay Newspaper

Saturday, May 26, 2001907 Volume 18, Issue 20

Mixed views on the impact of smoking ban
By Tom Klein

Bob Howe estimates that 95 percent of his customers at Orr’s municipal liquor store smoke.

That will change Oct. 1 when a statewide smoking ban, approved over the weekend by the state Legislature, takes effect. The ban prohibits smoking in nearly every public place — including bars, restaurants, VFW and American Legion clubs — with a few minor exceptions. Gov. Tim Pawlenty signed the bill on Wednesday.

Howe expects to see a drop in business, at least initially when the ban begins, and so do others.

“Absolutely it will hurt business,” said Tracy Luecken, owner of the Old Muni in Cook. “Over 75 percent of our clientele smoke. Business will go down once the ban goes into effect and it will take awhile to get the business back.”

Randy Semo, who owns The Good Ol’ Days bar and grill in Tower, said he conducted a survey of his customers. Of the 280 who participated, about 40 percent said they would still visit the bar as much as they currently do, but 22-25 percent said they would come in less often if smoking is banned. Semo said he hopes to offset potential losses by attracting more non-smokers but is uncertain how much additional trade he can expect.

Under the Freedom to Breathe Act, customers violating the ban would face misdemeanor charges. Proprietors will be expected to enforce the ban by asking customers who light up to stop. If they refuse, the proprietor will be required to ask them to leave and, if necessary, “handle the situation consistent with lawful methods for handling other persons acting in a disorderly manner or as a trespasser.”

The ban also applies to public transportation including buses, trains, taxis, limousines and transit stops and terminals.

Smoking still would be allowed in:

‰Private homes and vehicles.

‰Private rooms in hotels, motels, nursing homes and other residential facilities.

‰Scientific studies, Indian ceremonies, tobacco shops, truck cabs, farm vehicles, buildings on family farms and on stage for actors performing in plays.

Range opposition

State Rep. David Dill, DFL-Crane Lake, said he and other Range lawmakers voted against the ban. Dill thought there should be an exemption for bars and fears that it could drive some smaller taverns out of business.

He’s especially worried about the impact on those businesses on the east end of Vermilion and close to the Fortune Bay Casino. Casinos located on Indian reservations are not affected by the ban. “It creates an uneven playing field,” said Dill, who predicted that smokers may gravitate at the casino.

Rep. Tom Rukavina, DFL-Virginia,was one of the most vehement opponents of the total ban. He had offered an alternative measure which would have allowed smoking rooms in bars. Rukavina said polls showed Minnesotans were less concerned about smoking in bars than they were in restaurants. “This is going to hurt many bars,” he said. “They’ve already been hit hard with all the new DWI laws, now they’re going to have to shoulder this burden.”

Supporters promoted the ban as protection for employees exposed to secondhand smoke. Main sponsor Rep. Tom Huntley, DFL-Duluth, said it should help reduce the 580 yearly deaths from secondhand smoke.

But non-smoker Ron Setter, who tends bar at the Log Cabin Tavern & Cafe in Angora, sees the ban as an interference from a metro crowd that doesn’t even patronize the bar where he works. “Pretty soon they’ll tell you you can’t smoke in your own house,” said Setter.

Others say the ban was inevitable. St. Louis County has been considering a smoking ban modeled after Duluth’s city ordinance, but contemplating the possibility of a more comprehensive ban. The county is expected to withdraw its proposed ordinance as a result of the statewide ban.

Soudan resident Zoe Planton, who testified at public hearings in support of a countywide smoking ban, said she loved to go dancing, but her asthma kept her home from bars and clubs where smoking was permitted. She said others with respiratory problems would be more apt to go out once the ban takes effect.

“This is a plus for all of us who have been excluded due to the smoke,” she said, adding that she was also happy for the workers who would be protected from secondhand smoke.

Veteran Dewey Katzenberger said he thinks the ban may draw more people to the Cook VFW for bingo nights and Norm Cote, a former smoker and past commander, said he doesn’t anticipate any change in business at the American Legion in Orr.

The bill does include provisions for alleviating any economic fallout from the ban. Bar, restaurant and charitable gambling workers driven out of their jobs by the smoking ban in the first two years could get job training and other dislocated worker aid.

In addition, lawmakers asked for a study of the impact on pull-tabs, bingo and other forms of charitable gambling.

###


My Response:


-----Original Message-----
From: Alan Maki [mailto:amaki000@centurytel.net]
Sent: Friday, May 26, 2007 3:55 PM
To: editor@timberjay.com
Cc: 'Alan Maki'; mnaflcio@qwest.net
Subject: Letter to the editor; smoking ban, submitted for publication.

Over twenty thousand Minnesotans go to work in smoke-filled casinos everyday. State legislators don’t care about casino workers; or, casino patrons who are the same people they say they are protecting from second-hand smoke everyplace else with the new “Freedom to Breath” legislation.

If state legislators would show some concern for these 20,000 casino workers employed in an industry making money hand over fist which subjects casino workers not only to the health hazards of second-hand smoke, but leaves them completely at the mercy of managements that have no respect for working people and their right to be employed in a healthy and safe workplace to begin with, Representatives Dill and Rukavina would not have to be complaining of an “uneven playing field.”

People sit in bars by choice; people work in these casinos because they need a job. There is a big difference; both Dill and Rukavina should be able to understand this.

Workers have a right to expect that state legislators will not throw them into situations where they have no rights under state or federal labor laws and now without the protection of “Freedom To Breathe” legislation, something state legislators have done with casino workers.

Who has allowed such an “uneven playing field” to develop in the first place? These legislators should look in the mirror.

It is up to Dill and Rukavina to stop crying about this smoking ban and the “uneven playing field” they created in the first place and continue to tolerate… their concern should be for the health of all workers, including casino workers, and Dill and Rukavina should take the appropriate measures to “level the playing field” by making sure all workers, including casino workers, have the right to be employed in safe and healthy work environments protected by the same state and federal labor laws that protect all other workers.

I have a great deal of respect for Representative Tom Rukavina and support just about everything he does as a State Legislator--- Rukavina is the best state legislator in Minnesota when it comes to being an advocate for the rights of working people; but, on this issue, he is wrong. Representative Rukavina is concerned about a few bar owners when he should be concerned about the people working in these bars for eight, ten, and twelve hours who breathe in this second-hand smoke.

I am quite sure I speak for all of organized labor in what I have stated; I know I speak for most working people who want to be employed in a healthy and safe working environment; this includes a smoke-free work environment.

Alan L. Maki

Director of Organizing
Red Lake Casino, Hotel, and Restaurant Employees’ Union Organizing Committee

and

Member, MN DFL State Central Committee, Roseau County



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/
###

A Note on my previous blog:

United States Senator Amy "Republican Lite" Klobuchar and United States Congressman Walz both voted to give Bush the money to continue this dirty war in Iraq... even former DFL'er turned Republican Norm Coleman had the common sense to go into hiding for this vote knowing a "yes" vote would have been political suicide. I am waiting to hear the "spin" the officers of the Minnesota DFL put on this. My position is that Klobuchar and Walz should go fight the war they have funded along with Bush and the rest of this pack of rats that voted "yes."

Here is the Senate and House roll call:



Senate Roll Call on Iraq Spending
The Associated Press

Thursday 24 May 2007

The 80-14 roll call Thursday by which the Senate passed an Iraq war spending bill.

A "yes" vote is a vote to pass the bill.

Voting "yes" were 37 Democrats, 42 Republicans and 1 independent.

Voting "no" were 10 Democrats, 3 Republicans and 1 independent.

Alabama Sessions (R) Yes; Shelby (R) Yes.

Alaska Murkowski (R) Yes; Stevens (R) Yes.

Arizona Kyl (R) Yes; McCain (R) Yes.

Arkansas Lincoln (D) Yes; Pryor (D) Yes.

California Boxer (D) No; Feinstein (D) Yes.

Colorado Allard (R) Yes; Salazar (D) Yes.

Connecticut Dodd (D) No; Lieberman (I) Yes.

Delaware Biden (D) Yes; Carper (D) Yes.

Florida Martinez (R) Yes; Nelson (D) Yes.

Georgia Chambliss (R) Yes; Isakson (R) Yes.

Hawaii Akaka (D) Yes; Inouye (D) Yes.

Idaho Craig (R) Yes; Crapo (R) Yes.

Illinois Durbin (D) Yes; Obama (D) No.

Indiana Bayh (D) Yes; Lugar (R) Yes.

Iowa Grassley (R) Yes; Harkin (D) Yes.

Kansas Brownback (R) Not Voting; Roberts (R) Yes.

Kentucky Bunning (R) Yes; McConnell (R) Yes.

Louisiana Landrieu (D) Yes; Vitter (R) Yes.

Maine Collins (R) Yes; Snowe (R) Yes.

Maryland Cardin (D) Yes; Mikulski (D) Yes.

Massachusetts Kennedy (D) No; Kerry (D) No.

Michigan Levin (D) Yes; Stabenow (D) Yes.

Minnesota Coleman (R) Not Voting; Klobuchar (D) Yes.

Mississippi Cochran (R) Yes; Lott (R) Yes.

Missouri Bond (R) Yes; McCaskill (D) Yes.

Montana Baucus (D) Yes; Tester (D) Yes.

Nebraska Hagel (R) Yes; Nelson (D) Yes.

Nevada Ensign (R) Yes; Reid (D) Yes.

New Hampshire Gregg (R) Yes; Sununu (R) Yes.

New Jersey Lautenberg (D) Yes; Menendez (D) Yes.

New Mexico Bingaman (D) Yes; Domenici (R) Yes.

New York Clinton (D) No; Schumer (D) Not Voting.

North Carolina Burr (R) No; Dole (R) Yes.

North Dakota Conrad (D) Yes; Dorgan (D) Yes.

Ohio Brown (D) Yes; Voinovich (R) Yes.

Oklahoma Coburn (R) No; Inhofe (R) Yes.

Oregon Smith (R) Yes; Wyden (D) No.

Pennsylvania Casey (D) Yes; Specter (R) Yes.

Rhode Island Reed (D) Yes; Whitehouse (D) No.

South Carolina DeMint (R) Yes; Graham (R) Yes.

South Dakota Johnson (D) Not Voting; Thune (R) Yes.

Tennessee Alexander (R) Yes; Corker (R) Yes.

Texas Cornyn (R) Yes; Hutchison (R) Yes.

Utah Bennett (R) Yes; Hatch (R) Not Voting.

Vermont Leahy (D) No; Sanders (I) No.

VirginiaWarner (R) Yes; Webb (D) Yes.

WashingtonCantwell (D) Yes; Murray (D) Yes.

West VirginiaByrd (D) Yes; Rockefeller (D) Yes.

Wisconsin Feingold (D) No; Kohl (D) Yes.

Wyoming Enzi (R) No; Thomas (R) Not Voting.




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



House Roll Call on War Spending Bill
The Associated Press

Thursday 24 May 2007

The 280-142 roll call Thursday by which the House passed an Iraq war spending bill.

A yes vote is a vote to pass the bill.

Voting yes were 86 Democrats and 194 Republicans.

Voting no were 140 Democrats and two Republicans.

X denotes those not voting.

There are two vacancies in the 435-member House.

ALABAMA

Democrats - Cramer, Y; Davis, N.

Republicans - Aderholt, Y; Bachus, Y; Bonner, Y; Everett, Y; Rogers, Y.

ALASKA

Republicans - Young, Y.

ARIZONA

Democrats - Giffords, Y; Grijalva, N; Mitchell, Y; Pastor, N.

Republicans - Flake, Y; Franks, Y; Renzi, Y; Shadegg, Y.

ARKANSAS

Democrats - Berry, Y; Ross, Y; Snyder, Y.

Republicans - Boozman, Y.

CALIFORNIA

Democrats - Baca, Y; Becerra, N; Berman, X; Capps, N; Cardoza, Y; Costa, Y; Davis, Y; Eshoo, N; Farr, N; Filner, N; Harman, N; Honda, N; Lantos, N; Lee, N; Lofgren, Zoe, N; Matsui, N; McNerney, N; Miller, George, N; Napolitano, N; Pelosi, N; Roybal-Allard, N; Sanchez, Linda T., N; Sanchez, Loretta, N; Schiff, N; Sherman, N; Solis, N; Stark, N; Tauscher, N; Thompson, N; Waters, N; Watson, N; Waxman, N; Woolsey, N.

Republicans - Bilbray, Y; Bono, Y; Calvert, Y; Campbell, X; Doolittle, Y; Dreier, Y; Gallegly, Y; Herger, Y; Hunter, Y; Issa, Y; Lewis, Y; Lungren, Daniel E., Y; McCarthy, Y; McKeon, Y; Miller, Gary, Y; Nunes, Y; Radanovich, Y; Rohrabacher, Y; Royce, Y.

COLORADO

Democrats - DeGette, X; Perlmutter, N; Salazar, Y; Udall, Y.

Republicans - Lamborn, Y; Musgrave, Y; Tancredo, Y.

CONNECTICUT

Democrats - Courtney, N; DeLauro, N; Larson, N; Murphy, N.

Republicans - Shays, Y.

DELAWARE

Republicans - Castle, Y.

FLORIDA

Democrats - Boyd, Y; Brown, Corrine, N; Castor, N; Hastings, N; Klein, N; Mahoney, Y; Meek, Y; Wasserman Schultz, Y; Wexler, N.

Republicans - Bilirakis, Y; Brown-Waite, Ginny, Y; Buchanan, Y; Crenshaw, Y; Diaz-Balart, L., Y; Diaz-Balart, M., Y; Feeney, Y; Keller, Y; Mack, Y; Mica, Y; Miller, Y; Putnam, Y; Ros-Lehtinen, Y; Stearns, Y; Weldon, Y; Young, Y.

GEORGIA

Democrats - Barrow, Y; Bishop, Y; Johnson, N; Lewis, X; Marshall, Y; Scott, Y.

Republicans - Deal, Y; Gingrey, Y; Kingston, Y; Linder, Y; Price, Y; Westmoreland, Y.

HAWAII

Democrats - Abercrombie, N; Hirono, N.

IDAHO

Republicans - Sali, Y; Simpson, Y.

ILLINOIS

Democrats - Bean, Y; Costello, N; Davis, N; Emanuel, Y; Gutierrez, N; Hare, N; Jackson, N; Lipinski, Y; Rush, N; Schakowsky, N.

Republicans - Biggert, Y; Hastert, Y; Johnson, Y; Kirk, Y; LaHood, Y; Manzullo, Y; Roskam, Y; Shimkus, Y; Weller, X.

INDIANA

Democrats - Carson, N; Donnelly, Y; Ellsworth, Y; Hill, Y; Visclosky, Y.

Republicans - Burton, Y; Buyer, Y; Pence, Y; Souder, Y.

IOWA

Democrats - Boswell, Y; Braley, N; Loebsack, N.

Republicans - King, Y; Latham, Y.

KANSAS

Democrats - Boyda, Y; Moore, Y.

Republicans - Moran, Y; Tiahrt, Y.

KENTUCKY

Democrats - Chandler, Y; Yarmuth, N.

Republicans - Davis, Y; Lewis, Y; Rogers, Y; Whitfield, Y.

LOUISIANA

Democrats - Jefferson, N; Melancon, Y.

Republicans - Alexander, Y; Baker, Y; Boustany, Y; Jindal, Y; McCrery, Y.

MAINE

Democrats - Allen, N; Michaud, N.

MARYLAND

Democrats - Cummings, N; Hoyer, Y; Ruppersberger, Y; Sarbanes, N; Van Hollen, N; Wynn, N.

Republicans - Bartlett, Y; Gilchrest, Y.

MASSACHUSETTS

Democrats - Capuano, N; Delahunt, N; Frank, N; Lynch, N; Markey, N; McGovern, N; Meehan, N; Neal, N; Olver, N; Tierney, N.

MICHIGAN

Democrats - Conyers, N; Dingell, Y; Kildee, Y; Kilpatrick, N; Levin, Y; Stupak, Y.

Republicans - Camp, Y; Ehlers, Y; Hoekstra, Y; Knollenberg, Y; McCotter, Y; Miller, Y; Rogers, Y; Upton, Y; Walberg, Y.

MINNESOTA

Democrats - Ellison, N; McCollum, N; Oberstar, X; Peterson, Y; Walz, Y.

Republicans - Bachmann, Y; Kline, Y; Ramstad, Y.

MISSISSIPPI

Democrats - Taylor, Y; Thompson, Y.

Republicans - Pickering, Y; Wicker, Y.

MISSOURI

Democrats - Carnahan, N; Clay, N; Cleaver, N; Skelton, Y.

Republicans - Akin, Y; Blunt, Y; Emerson, X; Graves, Y; Hulshof, Y.

MONTANA

Republicans - Rehberg, Y.

NEBRASKA

Republicans - Fortenberry, Y; Smith, Y; Terry, Y.

NEVADA

Democrats - Berkley, Y.

Republicans - Heller, Y; Porter, Y.

NEW HAMPSHIRE

Democrats - Hodes, N; Shea-Porter, N.

NEW JERSEY

Democrats - Andrews, Y; Holt, N; Pallone, N; Pascrell, N; Payne, N; Rothman, N; Sires, N.

Republicans - Ferguson, Y; Frelinghuysen, Y; Garrett, Y; LoBiondo, Y; Saxton, Y; Smith, Y.

NEW MEXICO

Democrats - Udall, N.

Republicans - Pearce, Y; Wilson, Y.

NEW YORK

Democrats - Ackerman, N; Arcuri, N; Bishop, N; Clarke, N; Crowley, N; Engel, X; Gillibrand, Y; Hall, N; Higgins, N; Hinchey, N; Israel, N; Lowey, N; Maloney, N; McCarthy, N; McNulty, N; Meeks, N; Nadler, N; Rangel, N; Serrano, N; Slaughter, N; Towns, N; Velazquez, N; Weiner, N.

Republicans - Fossella, Y; King, Y; Kuhl, Y; McHugh, Y; Reynolds, Y; Walsh, Y.

NORTH CAROLINA

Democrats - Butterfield, Y; Etheridge, Y; McIntyre, Y; Miller, N; Price, N; Shuler, Y; Watt, N.

Republicans - Coble, Y; Foxx, Y; Hayes, Y; Jones, Y; McHenry, Y; Myrick, Y.

NORTH DAKOTA

Democrats - Pomeroy, Y.

OHIO

Democrats - Jones, X; Kaptur, N; Kucinich, N; Ryan, N; Space, Y; Sutton, N; Wilson, Y.

Republicans - Boehner, Y; Chabot, Y; Gillmor, Y; Hobson, Y; Jordan, Y; LaTourette, Y; Pryce, Y; Regula, Y; Schmidt, Y; Tiberi, Y; Turner, Y.

OKLAHOMA

Democrats - Boren, Y.

Republicans - Cole, Y; Fallin, Y; Lucas, Y; Sullivan, Y.

OREGON

Democrats - Blumenauer, N; DeFazio, N; Hooley, N; Wu, N.

Republicans - Walden, Y.

PENNSYLVANIA

Democrats - Altmire, Y; Brady, N; Carney, Y; Doyle, N; Fattah, N; Holden, Y; Kanjorski, Y; Murphy, Patrick, N; Murtha, Y; Schwartz, Y; Sestak, Y.

Republicans - Dent, Y; English, Y; Gerlach, Y; Murphy, Tim, Y; Peterson, Y; Pitts, Y; Platts, Y; Shuster, Y.

RHODE ISLAND

Democrats - Kennedy, N; Langevin, N.

SOUTH CAROLINA

Democrats - Clyburn, Y; Spratt, Y.

Republicans - Barrett, Y; Brown, Y; Inglis, Y; Wilson, Y.

SOUTH DAKOTA

Democrats - Herseth Sandlin, Y.

TENNESSEE

Democrats - Cohen, N; Cooper, Y; Davis, Lincoln, Y; Gordon, Y; Tanner, Y.

Republicans - Blackburn, Y; Davis, David, Y; Duncan, N; Wamp, Y.

TEXAS

Democrats - Cuellar, Y; Doggett, N; Edwards, Y; Gonzalez, Y; Green, Al, N; Green, Gene, Y; Hinojosa, Y; Jackson-Lee, N; Johnson, E. B., N; Lampson, Y; Ortiz, Y; Reyes, Y; Rodriguez, Y.

Republicans - Barton, Y; Brady, Y; Burgess, Y; Carter, Y; Conaway, Y; Culberson, Y; Gohmert, Y; Granger, Y; Hall, Y; Hensarling, Y; Johnson, Sam, Y; Marchant, Y; McCaul, Y; Neugebauer, Y; Paul, N; Poe, Y; Sessions, Y; Smith, Y; Thornberry, Y.

UTAH

Democrats - Matheson, Y.

Republicans - Bishop, Y; Cannon, Y.

VERMONT

Democrats - Welch, N.

VIRGINIA

Democrats - Boucher, Y; Moran, N; Scott, N.

Republicans - Cantor, Y; Davis, Jo Ann, X; Davis, Tom, Y; Drake, Y; Forbes, Y; Goode, Y; Goodlatte, Y; Wolf, Y.

WASHINGTON

Democrats - Baird, Y; Dicks, Y; Inslee, N; Larsen, Y; McDermott, N; Smith, N.

Republicans - Hastings, Y; McMorris Rodgers, X; Reichert, Y.

WEST VIRGINIA

Democrats - Mollohan, Y; Rahall, Y.

Republicans - Capito, Y.

WISCONSIN

Democrats - Baldwin, N; Kagen, Y; Kind, Y; Moore, N; Obey, N.

Republicans - Petri, Y; Ryan, Y; Sensenbrenner, Y.

WYOMING

Republicans - Cubin, Y.

Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party Challenges REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES TO TAKE A STAND ON IRAQ

The leadership of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party (DFL)sent out this self-serving hypocritical letter. The time has come for the Minnesota DFL leadership to take its own advice and take a stand for how to end this dirty war in Iraq. My response follows this letter... both printed in their entirety below:

MINNESOTA DFL PARTY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Friday, May 23, 2007

Contact: Andrew O’Leary

(651) 251-6312

aoleary@dfl.org

DFL CHALLENGES REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES TO TAKE A STAND ON IRAQ

(ST. PAUL) 5/23/07 –On Wednesday, Minnesota DFL Chair Brian Melendez called on the Republican candidates for Minnesota's first congressional district, represented by Tim Walz, to take a stand on the Iraq War. From the moment that Representative Walz began campaigning for Congress in 2005, he took a clear and consistent stand against the Bush administration' s Iraq policy. In contrast, Representative Walz's four Republican challengers have yet to take a public stand on Iraq , ducking questions on the most important issue of the day.

"From the moment that he began his campaign, Representative Tim Walz offered thoughtful answers to questions from voters and from the media on a range of issues facing our community, our state, and our nation -- especially on the war in Iraq ."

"Candidates for Congress owe it to our troops, to their families, and to all Americans to make their positions on Iraq known. None of the Republican candidates running against Representative Walz have made their views known on the war in Iraq . They owe Minnesotans answers on what their stand is on the Iraq war -- especially whether they support President Bush's open-ended commitment in Iraq or whether they support benchmarks for troop withdrawal." ###


My response to this letter:


From: Alan Maki

To: Andrew O'Leary

;

dfl-state-central

Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2007 12:38:59 PM

Subject: Re: [dfl-state-central] DFL CHALLENGES REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES TO TAKE A STAND ON IRAQ

To members of the DFL State Central Committee and Minnesotans;

I hope this e-mail will be forwarded widely in order to encourage vigorous dialogue and debate as the Minnesota DFL refuses to post my thoughts on these matters.

To me, on its face, this letter seems quite hypocritical... Actually, this letter from the DFL Chair Brian Melendez which has been circulated by Andrew O'Leary is not only hypocritical but very offensive to those who have loved ones being sent off to fight and die in this dirty war as the Chair has refused to tolerate any discussion concerning what steps need to be taken to end this war in Iraq. Obviously, both Melendez and O'Leary would be happy to see this war continue indefinitely in order to use it as fodder against their political opponents... and this is shameful as this same leadership manipulated and maneuvered against my motions at the last two state conventions to prevent discussion on what should be the position of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party in ending this war.

As a member of the MN DFL State Central Committee I challenge the MN DFL to take a stand articulating what will be required to end this dirty war for oil and regional domination.

The MN DFL has yet to take a clear stand on ending this dirty war in Iraq while many DFL legislators and Party leaders are urging new wars be started... notably in Iran and North Korea with an expansion of the war in Iraq. This is hardly a peaceful progressive policy directive let alone a solution to international problems. Other Democrats have called for a huge expansion of the war in Afghanistan at a time when Canadians are wisely telling their government to get their troops out of the country.

Furthermore, the MN DFL has refused to tolerate any discussion on the role of Israel in the Middle East. Israel's imperialist, aggressive, expansionist, warmongering, murderous, and genocidal policy towards the Palestinian people is a major factor in the war in Iraq. Israel's murderous campaign of carnage and destruction in Lebanon has contributed to increasing animosities in the Middle East. Both U.S. and Israeli foreign policy includes using exacerbating ethnic tensions and animosities as integral functions of foreign policy; this is behavior that is completely unacceptable to the civilized world... yet, the MN DFL remains fearful of discussing any of this.

In fact, the DFL has not even tolerated a full scale debate on this issue at the state conventions.

George McGovern has made a very significant proposal... the only proposal to date as far as I am aware... to end the war in Iraq. The MN DFL State Central Committee has yet to discuss McGovern's proposal: A Blueprint to End the War in Iraq. McGovern's proposal can be read via my blog: http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/

Rumor, from military sources reported in the media, has it that Bush intends to double the number of U.S. troops in Iraq by Christmas 2007. Obviously Bush could not do this without support from the Democrats, just as Democrats allowed Bush to start this war that has turned into a no-end-in-sight nightmare that could go on for over ten years unless the American people find a creative way to bring this government under control or the Iraqis kick the United States out of their country... and with each troop expansion this could end up being one hell of a bloody mess.

I think it is good that a letter critical of Republicans on the war has been disseminated... however, why the fear of addressing the issue of how to end the war in Iraq? After all... if one is only critical of those who support the war without putting forward any idea of how to end the war, this really is no contribution at all.

As a member of the MN DFL State Central Committee I feel very strongly that the MN DFL owes it to Minnesotans to clearly articulate a position on what it will take to end this war and not simply play political games critical of Republicans in order to try to score brownie points with voters.

So far, Congressman Waltz has not matched the anti-war Iraq rhetoric which got him elected with any concrete deeds in the United States Congress... as such, he leaves himself very vulnerable to questions from Republicans asking: What is your solution to ending the war in Iraq?

This letter is one more example of a dangerous game the MN DFL is playing using the war in Iraq... dangerous from the perspective that the killing of Iraqis and U.S. soldiers and the destruction of Iraq which accompanies the killing... and dangerous from the perspective that Minnesota voters will just stay home on Election Day; disgusted that as human beings are dying, politicians and political hacks turn the war into a game.

At a time when voters all over the world and here in Minnesota are looking for, and searching out, politicians and political parties that offer real solutions to real problems the only thing the Minnesota DFL--- its leaders and elected state and federal legislators--- continue to offer Minnesotans is progressive sounding rhetoric carefully framed like this letter has been in order to avoid offering any real solutions to anything... from ending the war in Iraq to the health care mess to financing public education to the pot-holes in our roads we get the same framed progressive sounding rhetoric not backed by any concrete actions that provide real solutions to these very real problems.

A state-wide smoking ban is the only thing thing that the MN DFL has to tout from the last legislative session; and, even this ban leaves millions of casino patrons and over twenty thousand casino workers vulnerable to illnesses and diseases which we know are conclusively linked by scientists and medical researchers to the hazards of second-hand smoke. To suggest that these people will be protected in other areas of our state from second-hand smoke and then shove these same people into smoke-filled casinos makes little sense to anyone. Again, a political gimmick has been employed that plays Minnesotans for fools... just like this meaningless letter concerning Republicans and the war in Iraq... and the Minnesota DFL has yet to even acknowledge that this war is a war for oil and regional domination... a sheer imperialist, parasitic, and barbaric throw-back to the days of colonialism and plunder.

In this letter, there is no indication of what "clear and consistent stand" Congressman Walz has taken on the war in Iraq; no mention of what it will take to end the war in Iraq.

Since this is a public letter that has been posted on the MN DFL State Central Committee list serve, I am forwarding this e-mail widely without permission from anyone.

Make the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights a living reality for all people: End the war in Iraq; Single-payer Universal Health care; increase the minimum wage to a real living wage; defend and expand Social Security; end At will hiring, At will firing; save the Big Bog from capitalist globalization.

Yours in the struggle,

Alan L. Maki
[Roseau County member of the State Central Committee, MN DFL]

58891 County Road 13
Warroad, MN 56763
Phone: 218-386-2432
amaki000@centurytel.net

Twenty-thousand Minnesotans go to work in smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages without any rights under Minnesota or Federal labor laws.



Please note: with the present casino expansions presently underway in Minnesota this figure of workers employed in the casino industry will rise to over 50,000 in the next four years. These are your fellow Minnesotans employed without any rights under the most atrocious working conditions.

Please check out my daily blog:
http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/

###

NDP wins majority

Our great "free media" here in the United States has refused to cover the Manitoba Election.

Today, for a third consecutive time, Gary Doer--- a worker, a socialist, a peace advocate, a human rights activist, and a trade unionist--- was re-elected as Premier of Manitoba Canada.

Over the years Manitobans have consistently elected, and re-elected, socialists and communists to public office.

American big-business and banking conducted an expensive campaign trying to defeat Doer and the NDP, but to no avail... workers know a good government when they experience steady improvements in their lives.

Progressives here in the United States could learn a great deal from Gary Doer and the socialist New Democratic Party of Manitoba.

This is the way the Winnipeg Free Press covered the NDP victory.

NDP wins majority

Winnipeg Free Press
Tue May 22 2007
By Bartley Kives, Mary Agnes Welch, Mia Rabson and David Kuxhaus

It’s a threepeat for Gary Doer and the New Democratic Party, who’ve become the first government to win three straight majorities since the Duff Roblin-led Progressive Conservatives in the 1960s.

Less than an hour after the polls closed, the NDP are leading or elected in 35 seats, with the Tories and Liberals trailing behind with 16 and two, respectively.

NDP headquarters just went crazy as the party's two biggest hopes for election -- Sharon Blady in Kirkfield Park and Erin Selby in Southdale -- were both declared elected.

The NDP have never won in either riding. Kirkfield Park has been held by prominent Tories, including most recently former Tory leader Stuart Murray.

Jack Reimer, defeated in Southdale, has been the MLA for that riding since 1990.
Cheers also went up from the NDP crowd when six cabinet ministers were declared re-elected, including five in potential swing ridings such as Seine River and Gimli.

Campaign advisor Donne Flanagan said there was guarded optimism about both ridings.
“We're really happy,” he said.

Premier Gary Doer was handily re-elected in Concordia and the NDP are even leading in the west Winnipeg riding of Kirkfield Park, a former Tory stronghold.

Flanagan said while some pundits had heavyweghts such as Health Minister Theresa Oswald in Seine River and Peter Bjornson on the list of ridings to watch, the party always felt they would be fine.


He said the strength of those campaigns and those candidates allowed the party to focus its energies elsewhere.

“It gave us the ability to focus on ridings we could pick up like Kirkfield Park and Southdale,” said Flanagan.

At PC headquarters, the mood was subdued as it became clear that the Tories had failed to break through the NDP's grip on the province.

All eyeballs were jumping between two network newscasts blown up on big screens.
But surprise is greeting the horse race in Interlake, where Tory Garry Wasylowski is nipping at the NDP incumbent’s heels.

Wellington incumbent Conrad Santos — an independent candidate — is currently in fifth and final place in a field of five.

He and Joe Chan, another independent, were disallowed from running for the NDP, paving the way for Flor Marcellino to hold on to the seat for the NDP.

Two Viewpoints: This isn't what the voters asked for in November

Two Viewpoints: This isn't what the voters asked for in November

View One:

By State Rep. Bernie Lieder, DFL-Crookston
Published: Thursday, May 17, 2007 1:19 PM CDT
Crookston Times; Crookston Minnesota

When session started back in January, the focus was on the three issues that dominated last fall's campaign - education, health care and rising property taxes. As the 2007 session grinds into its final week, the focus remains on those three issues.

Everyone involved in the budget debate in St. Paul agrees providing great schools for our kids and affordable health care for working families should be a priority of the state. There's also widespread agreement that something needs to be done about rising property taxes across the state.

What's left to decide, however, is how we pay for these things. Since the February forecast, the Governor and members of his party have been saying we need to live within our means and pass a budget using existing revenues.

This is essentially the same argument we've been hearing for the past five years. We've been making due with the revenue available since the Governor took over and look where it's gotten us - our kids' schools have struggled financially, thousands of Minnesotans have lost their health care coverage and college tuition soared. We also neglected important investments in things like our roads and bridges.

On top of that, property taxes have risen by close to $2 billion as the more and more of the responsibility for paying things like good schools, affordable health care and adequate roads and bridges has been shifted onto local property taxes.

Unless a different approach to the budget is taken this year, we can all expect more the same. Earlier this year, non-partisan House Research issued a report that said that if the Governor's budget proposal would pass, property taxes would increase by approximately $500 million across the state.

The majorities in the House and Senate have change course by passing a bill that addresses rising property taxes across the state and restores some fairness in our tax system. The bill creates a new Homestead Credit State Refund that provides over $223 million in direct property relief to Minnesotans. It pays for it by creating a new fourth tier in state income tax on income over $400,000 (after deductions.) Every dollar of the new income tax will go to property tax relief.

The Governor has vowed to veto the bill because it raises taxes, but he still hasn't offered an alternative to the rise in property taxes if his budget becomes law.

Hopefully, a compromise can be worked out over the next few days that doesn't sacrifice the priorities we all share. However, that's going to mean that the Governor has to be willing to compromise, something he hasn't done yet.

I've said this frequently over the past few years that when it comes to state government, we get what we pay for. If we want things like great schools, a health system that works or adequate roads and bridges, we need to pay for them. The lesson of the past five years is that if we don't make the investment at the state level - where I would argue the investment should made - we end up either paying for them with our property taxes.

Voters asked for a different approach this year. Let's hope the Governor listened.

Note:
The Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party has refused to allow a discussion on these issues--- in fact, my views have been censored with-in the MN DFL; choosing instead to allow the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party “Business Caucus” and the wealthy elites of the “Summit Hill Club” to “frame” issues around “progressive sounding policy directives” which excludes any discussion of specific solutions aimed at resolving specific problems confronting working people as “bi-partisan unity” is sought with Republicans to give working people the shaft.
The corrupt leadership of the Minnesota AFL-CIO continues to “go along to get along” with the leadership of the Minnesota DFL which has defined its reactionary international, national, and state policies as “progressive” when in fact the policies are very reactionary.


View Two:

My response to Representative Lieder:

Representative Lieder rightly states that voters have not received what they voted for. However, as one of the Democrats that boasts of his own conservative convictions that rival the reactionary views of even the most die-hard, right-wing Republicans, Lieder is part of the problem in St. Paul and the nation.

Representative Lieder is right: the Republican Governor has not listened to voters; but, neither have Representative Bernie Lieder nor his conservative colleagues who comprise the majority of the Democratic Farmer-Labor Party Caucus of the State Legislature listened to voters.

In fact, Representative Lieder has pushed for a gas tax increase rather than take action to stop the robbery taking place at the pumps.

Voters were very clear last November: they want a change in priorities. Minnesotans support a progressive alternative to the conservative agenda being advanced by both conservative DFL’ers and Republicans.

While most Minnesotans are clearly articulating support for a comprehensive, no-fee, single-payer, universal health care system, Representative Lieder continues to mouth the falsehoods and slanders of the American Medical Association, the Hospitals and HMO CEO's, and insurance industry profiteers who choose to speak in ambiguities about some kind of “affordable” health care when in fact health care will never be “affordable” as long as the profiteers have their fingers in the till and a penchant for feeding at the public trough by taking advantage of the sick and the elderly.

Not once has Representative Lieder broached the subject that every bomb that drops in Iraq and every bullet fired--- murdering and maiming innocent Iraqi civilians including many small children and pregnant women, the billions being squandered in this imperialist boon-doggle for control of the Middle East oil fields and regional domination would be better spent financing our own public schools; creating a world-class single-payer, universal health care system; and maintaining our roads and infrastructure rather than leaving Iraq riddled with craters resulting from bombing raids.

The time has come to begin framing issues based upon reality. That reality is one of misery, pain, and suffering for the majority of Minnesotans and the victims of U.S. imperialism around the world. Representative Lieder has attempted to frame these issues in a very demagogic manner completely ignoring his own role in creating the problems he pretends to be concerned about.

It is interesting that Representative Lieder is among the Democrats who rushed to scuttle all talk of single-payer, universal health care while refusing to articulate what he means by “affordable” health care; and then rushed to voice his support for the war in Iraq. What is “affordable” for Representative Lieder probably is not “affordable” to most Minnesotans; and this is where the real problem begins because it is this kind of thinking that muddies all honest dialogue and debate on the many issues and problems people are experiencing whether it is health care, property taxes, infrastructure and roads, or the war in Iraq which Representative Lieder has not had the moral or political courage to oppose, let alone put forward real solutions.

Representative Lieder and his conservative and reactionary DFL colleagues continue to ignore the plight of more than 20,000 Minnesotans who go to work in smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages without any rights under state, federal, or tribal labor laws as they hypocritically enact a “state-wide” ban on smoking that leaves not only casino workers, but, casino patrons vulnerable to the ill affects of second-hand smoke.

Representative Lieder and his conservative and reactionary colleagues have refused any assistance in trying to save the St. Paul Ford Assembly Plant while pushing increases in the gas tax aimed at maintaining the status quo instead of creating a cheap mass transit system comparable to what they have in Toronto, Ontario, but on a larger state-wide basis that connects all communities in our entire state… this would create thousands of jobs; and if the work is done through a public works project can be done fairly inexpensively utilizing the Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant.

Representative Lieder and his conservative counterparts take the side of the bankers, the casino managements, the insurance companies, the mining and forestry industry, the HMO’s, and the contractors profiting off road construction at each and every opportunity.

Representative Lieder and his conservative DFL colleagues in the legislature have spent millions of dollars building an elaborate roadway into the Pine Island State Forest’s Big Bog so that a Canadian multi-national corporation can come in and truck off the profits as it mines peat in the Big Bog for horticultural and bio-mass electric generation while destroying our primary freshwater aquifer in the process.

This same bunch, again with Representative Lieder in the lead, shoved ethanol production down the throats of Minnesotans with huge subsidies to this most wasteful industry that grows corn to fuel gas guzzling vehicles instead of feeding hungry people while evading the need for clean, green, mass transit.

I will be looking to support candidates inside, and outside, of the Democratic Party who have the conviction and the courage to stand up for working people and their needs. The time has come to establish a real progressive alternative to the likes of Bernie Lieder and those who front for big-business while pretending to be progressive.

It is interesting to note that Representative Lieder refuses to focus on reordering the priorities in our state and the nation. Representative Lieder has refused to craft real tax relief for working people; in fact, the proposed tax package that Representative Lieder supports will plunge our economy towards recession. Real progressive tax reform needs to be coupled with establishing a state bank to fund higher education and low and moderate income home owners.

Representative Lieder has refused to consider legislation that would criminalize predatory lending just as he refuses to consider legislation that would criminalize the profit gouging orgy taking place at the gas pumps.

Tax the hell out of the bankers. Substantially increase the taconite tax as suggested by Rudy Perpich, and increase stumpage fees on the forestry industry.

As for our roads... end profiteering by construction firms and contractors who are getting a free lunch courtesy of Minnesota tax-payers... why should the gas tax be increased just so these money grubbing parasites can be in league with the health insurance, mining, casino, and banking industries by raising their fees.

Because so many Minnesotans can no longer distinguish any differences between Democrats and Republicans lots of people no longer even show up at the polls on Election Day.

Alan L. Maki
Member State Central Committee, Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party

Iraq: Why No "Exit Strategy"?

Democrats have demagogically used the lame excuse of "No Exit Strategy" to criticize Bush's handling of the war in Iraq.

The fact is, both Democrats and Republicans have always been aware that there would never be any "exit" from Iraq as long as there is oil in the Middle East; to access that oil requires domination of the region.

Much of the peace movement would rather not talk about the term "exit strategy" because to explain why there is no "exit strategy" means having to learn about, and then explain to the American people, what imperialism is all about... imperialism is the final and most advanced stage of capitalism... as we can see from what is taking place in Iraq, imperialism is very barbaric, parasitic, and cannibalistic; it is a completely inhumane system in which wars for plunder and profit are the rule, rather than, the exception.

If we are going to end this war in Iraq from within our own country as is our responsibility to the people of Iraq and the rest of the world, this will require that the American people be educated to the fact that what is taking place in Iraq is an imperialist adventure to dominate and control Iraq for oil and regional domination.

The Rockefeller's outlined this strategy of U.S. imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism, long, long ago in stating: "Own nothing and control everything."

This has been the guiding world outlook of the American capitalist class for well over a century with working people and the rest of society along with the peoples' of the world, and the general well being of our planet and its ecosystems paying a terrible price for tolerating this line of thinking as it has been extended to permeate every area of life and subverting and warping the politics of our country.

Whether stealing the land from the First Peoples, to pits of the Iron Range in Minnesota, or the coal fields of West Virginia, or the oil fields of the Middle East, the objectives of the capitalists have been to rape Mother Nature in the process of exploiting human labor in order to rake in the profits for this small group of people.

Why would anyone even think in terms of an "exit strategy" with the intent being to control the oil fields of the Middle East through regional domination?

Who is naive enough to believe all of the lies and deceit Bush and the military-financial-industrial complex concocted in order to justify the war in Iraq?

The first lie: retaliation for the World Trade Center. No one in their right mind plunges a nation into war with another nation for the actions of a few individuals. What kind of perverted logic and demented mind would send more people to their deaths to avenge the deaths of those killed? This is the height of insanity. Well over 3,000 Americans have returned in body bags from Iraq. As we know, the lives of Iraqis do not matter; no one has bothered to count.

The second lie: Weapons of Mass Destruction. There never were any such weapons.

The third lie: To get rid of Saddam Hussein. He has been hung.

The fourth lie: the "exit strategy." There is none because you don't plan to exit when your intent is to stay to steal the oil.

The fifth lie: This is not an imperialist adventure for oil and regional domination. If not, then what is it?

The sixth lie: We can "win" this war in Iraq. If the war is not about oil and regional domination, what is there to win? John McCain intends to base his Presidential aspirations shamefully and pathetically claiming he has the leadership ability to win this war. Hitler told the German people the same thing until he got to Stalingrad.

Why would there now be an "exit strategy" when the goal from day one has been to secure the oil; with the overall objective being dominating the politics and economics of the Middle East?

If the American people do not put an end to this war in Iraq they will pay a terrible price for allowing this carnage to continue.

So far, the only plan to get the U.S. troops out of Iraq is the "Blueprint to end the War in Iraq" put forward by former United States Senator George McGovern and the man who should have been president instead of that creepy, crooked, warmonger Richard Nixon.

I think it is unconscionable that anyone claiming to be for peace and for an end to this dirty war in Iraq would even consider anything less than what George McGovern has put forward because to make a compromise with Bush is just allowing the military-financial-industrial complex room to maneuver and manipulate as they try to "secure the population" of Iraq in quest of oil profits and regional domination of the Middle East.

Anyone proposing any kind of "compromise" with these merchants of death and destruction should at least be the first ones to step forward to replace those young people over there right now who do not want to be in Iraq. And I don't see anyone stepping forward to do this.

This is the very first time that I have ever seen segments of a "peace movement" urge a "compromise" involving the continuation of a war. Again, unless people like Robert Borosage and Keith Ellison along with his last remaining supporter from the peace movement--- a frail, gaunt, sickly old professor who has spent his entire life hiding in the ivory towers of academia are willing to step forward and volunteer to replace Minnesotans who only joined National Guard in order to get a little fresh air on weekends and make a few extra bucks because they couldn't feed their families on the poverty wages paid by casino operators and Holiday Gas Stations; or to get a college education.

There isn't a single member of the Minnesota Legislature, the United States House of Representatives or the United States Senate that could not be replacing any member of the Minnesota Army Reserves or the National Guard over in Iraq... and they could have as many tours of "duty" as they want over there as Bush has planned for a permanent American occupation.

Anyways, there is no "exit strategy" from Iraq because Bush never intended to leave. And, he still doesn't; because this idiot sitting in the White House and strutting around the globe is a mere puppet on a string; the strings are being pulled, however clumsily, by the merchants of death and destruction who make up the military-financial-industrial complex. Hitler had such a powerful complex, too; once his generals reached Stalingrad there was quite a surprise for this imperialist butcher of Lidice; and Nixon had the same kind of awakening in Vietnam.

In both the Soviet Union and Vietnam the invading armies met their match but a terrible price was paid by humanity in each case.

Does it really take having 55,000 body bags returning from Iraq with the American military on the verge of being defeated by the popular resistance of the Iraqi people for this imperialist war and its carnage and destruction to come to an end?

The only alternative is for the American people to step forward and take the appropriate collective action to end it... if this means impeachment of Bush and Cheney and their war crimes trial... so be it; or massive numbers of the American people taking to the streets and raising so much hell the government can no longer function; or work stoppages... or a combination of these actions and other methods of resistance to this dirty, illegal, immoral, and unjust war, so be it... but let's stop this war right now because the present politicians will never develop an "exit strategy" because they have known that the strategy, from day one, has been to occupy the oil fields of the Middle East... this is their goal and primary objective.

Had the Democrats thought an "exit strategy" appropriate why didn't they ask the details before they voted for this dirty war; after all... the majority of the United States Congress in both the House and the Senate who voted to give Bush the right to go to war are still in the United States House and Senate... and many of them have sat in their seats through other wars... it is not like they are so stupid that they did not think of asking Bush for his "exit strategy;" or are they so stupid? Christopher Dodd, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden... how pathetic. And this opportunist Barack Obama. None of them have the courage to say that the United States went to Iraq to stay, therefore, neither they nor Bush had the need to consider an "exit strategy."

In my opinion all peace activity should be tied to supporting George McGovern's very humanistic, anti-imperialist, liberal and progressive "Blueprint for ending the war in Iraq."

The Roseau County, Minnesota DFL Convention passed a resolution calling for "setting a date to end the war in Iraq that was based upon lies and deceit." It is my belief, as the elected member of the State Central Committee elected by the Roseau County Convention to bring forward the resolutions that we passed, including this one, that McGovern's "Blueprint for ending the war in Iraq" is the only proposal in keeping with our resolution; there were no resolutions supporting keeping the war going of continuing to fund this war in any way, shape, or form. As such, I am encouraging the State Central Committee to convene a special session for the purpose of discussing McGovern's proposal and I encourage all of those for peace including Charley Underwood and Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer and the DFL Progressive Caucus, Peace First, and Peace in the Precincts to join me in supporting such an initiative. More than 130 delegates to the last state convention who are members of Minnesotans for Peace and Social Justice have asked me to suggest to Co-Chairs Brian Melendez, Donna Cassutt, and Executive Director Andrew O'Leary that a special meeting of the MN DFL State Central Committee be convened for the sole purpose of discussing, and debating George McGovern's "Blueprint for ending the war in Iraq" with the intent of endorsing it as the position we expect our elected officials to pursue. After such a meeting Minnesotans will then have a clear idea where the Minnesota DFL stands in relation to ending the war in Iraq.

Class Consciousness & Politics

Former Attorney General and the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party candidate for governor Mike Hatch is now gone from his $100,000.00 a year job to which he was appointed by his cloned successor Lori Swanson. Mike Hatch is gone from state government; good riddance. But the politics he represented remain

The real question that now needs to be asked, and answered, is, "How did such a self-centered, self-serving, opportunist politician who has stood for absolutely nothing ever get nominated, then elected in the first place?"

Mike Hatch used issues of importance to working people to grand-stand; rather than getting problems solved. On the national political scene John McCain is a master of this tactic; as were fascists Hitler, Franco and Mussolini.

Mike Hatch was well trained by those who put forth the idea that what is needed to win in elections was "progressive sounding policy directions" without providing progressive solutions.

Two issues that readily come to mind where Hatch did this are predatory lending and health care. Both issues of enormous importance and consequences to working-class families.

The real solution to predatory lending is the establishment of a state bank to loan money to anyone who wants a home with payments in line with income. There is no reason why a working class family shouldn't have a modest home to live in just because some banker says "no" to a loan.

Hatch used the old, "Help me win and I will take care of you after the election" technique. He used this one real well with the United Automobile Workers leadership regarding the closing of the Ford Plant; Gettelfinger and Williams just sucked this right up and told local UAW leaders, "Get Hatch elected and your problems are good as solved." Now that the going is getting rough, Gettelfinger and Williams are no place to be seen; they don't want to hear about the closing of the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant; nor do they want to participate in a discussion of the only way to save the Ford Plant: Public Ownership.

This says a great deal about the role of money, corruption, manipulation, and
control in Minnesota politics generally, and in the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party specifically.

Too many workers have bought into all the bullshit from Gettelfinger, Williams and Ray Waldron about workers being "middle-class."

Workers are working-class.

The well-heeled of the "Summit Hill Club," the DFL Business Caucus, the CEO's of Ford Motor Company, the casino managements, the CEO's of the insurance, HMO's, pharmaceutical, mining, forestry, power generating, and banking industries... these are the capitalist class. The spokespersons for this capitalist class include the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce and the American Medical Association among other lobbying groups who are employed by this capitalist class which lives off the labor of the working class.

The lack of class consciousness in politics is what allows opportunist politicians like Mike Hatch, Amy Klobuchar, and Keith Ellison, together with the majority of the State DFL legislative caucus to continue to get away with offering up nice sounding progressive policy directions at election time without offering forth a single solution once elected because they are fully aware that those who are funding their campaigns would have to pay for real solutions to the problems working people are experiencing; this is what class struggle is all about... if workers were to be paid real living wages this would come out of the corporate bottom line... profits would suffer; wouldn't that be the pits?

The United States is not immune from the class struggle as apologists for the capitalist system turned political science instructors turned politicians like State Senator Leroy Stumpf tells his students; but the again, Leroy Stumpf is the only DFL'er ever to get campaign contributions from the Marvin family, owners of Marvin Windows and Doors where the family got rich paying poverty wages and beating up union organizers... and laughing and boasting about the beatings to boot.

In fact, there isn't a single problem where the class struggle is not apparent... from the Ford Plant closing issue to single-payer, universal health care. Working people want to keep the Ford Plant open; the business community wants this plant demolished and out of site, out of mind as quickly as possible because this plant represents this class struggle; a struggle between the bosses and the workers; the workers have struggled for almost a century to get wages up and to make working conditions better... we can't have this example of the determined struggle of working people for a better life serving as an example to all those other workers employed in the area getting poverty wages, can we? We all know the issue: The higher the wages paid, the less profits for business. This is the capitalist system when everything else is stripped aside.

Seventy-two percent of the DFL convention delegates voted for single-payer,
universal health care as a result of a very prolonged grass-roots organizing
effort; in fact, this struggle for single-payer, universal health care has been going on as long as the Ford Plant has been around. Legislation supporting single-payer has not been forthcoming from the DFL caucus in the Senate or the House. We need to know why because this gets us down to the nitty-gritty: the DFL Business Caucus and the well-heeled are firmly in control of the Minnesota DFL and they have blocked any attempt by working-class Minnesotans to have their health care problems resolved through legislation. This is a battle between working people and the HMO's and the insurance industry; again, what is good for working people is seen as bad for the capitalists. Again, class struggle... which makes it imperative that working people develop a class conscious outlook towards problems; otherwise, these problems in health care will never be solved.

Not only in the areas of health care and the Ford Plant closing is this lack of class consciousness on the part of working people an obstacle to solving problems; but also on a number of other issues of importance to working people: the lack of rights for over 20,000 casino workers employed in this state at poverty wages who go to work in smoke-filled casinos as workers wearing union jackets and buttons plunk their hard earned money into slot machines without any consideration for their fellow workers who don't even have the basic package of rights all other workers enjoy; Minnesota's "At-will hiring, At-will firing" legislation, the major impediment to union organizing that not even "card check" will solve has yet to be repealed to reflect real human rights in our modern world; Minnesota's unemployment Compensation laws are among the most backwards in the United States--- giving employers the right to appeal decisions without providing any reason... talk about a class issue! Enabling, through legislation, the right of the employers, without reason, to challenge the claim of a worker to the miserly little bit provided by unemployment compensation... this is the very clear example of just how class based politics really is.

The real irony in all of this is that the leadership of the Minnesota AFL-CIO
and other unions dumped so much money from members' dues along with other union
resources into supporting both Hatch and his clone, Lori Swanson... and what do
they get in return? A kick in the butt; because the trade union movement, for the most part, lacks class consciousness; and, the rank-and-file members have not established any kind of rank-and-file organizations in order to keep the leadership accountable for fostering a progressive working class agenda as an alternative to the capitalist agenda put forward by the big-business community.

This should send a message to rank-and-file union members to get involved in
their unions and do some house cleaning, too.

Had the rank-and-file members of the UAW Ford Local 879 been organized independently of the administrative caucus of Gettelfinger and Williams, they would be in a much better position today to fight to save the plant and their jobs. Here again, you have this union leadership of Gettelfinger that pursues the same line of thinking as the leadership of the Minnesota DFL... posture for the membership and their local elected leaders with nice sounding progressive policy statements... and once the wrecking ball hits come out fighting mad... but by then it is too late.

It takes class consciousness to figure this all out.

No wonder Humphrey and Mondale threw Elmer Benson and the Red Finns out of the Minnesota DFL; and Reuther threw the Reds out of the UAW... its all about class consciousness.

The sooner working people start thinking about life and their problems as being part of the working class, rather than the middle class, the quicker we can get on with establishing a political agenda that sets for itself the task of solving real problems with real solutions. Until then, I'm afraid we can kiss the Ford Plant good-bye, and forget about single-payer, universal health care.

Alan L. Maki

Director of Organizing,
Red Lake, Casino, Hotel, and Restaurant Employees' Union Organizing Committee

and

Member of the MN DFL State Central Committee, Roseau County