CALL TO ACTION!!

Money for jobs; not for war... unemployed workers shouldn't have to pay any taxes.

Make the minimum wage a real living wage based upon all the cost-of-living factors as scientifically calculated by the United States Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics and then legislatively tie the minimum wage to cost-of-living increases.

Tell Barack Obama to use stimulus funds to create jobs in the U.S.A. not in China.


A National Conference to Create Living-Wage Jobs,
Meet Human Needs and Sustain the Environment

November 13-14, 2009

New York, NY

The Problem: Even before the onset of our current, deep recession, we faced chronic unemployment, low and stagnant wages, myriad unmet needs and unprecedented environmental degradation.

Today’s rapidly escalating unemployment has put job creation back on the public agenda for the first time in recent history. Nearly 15 million workers were officially unemployed in June 2009, and hidden unemployment brings total joblessness up to almost 30 million with nearly 12 seekers for every available job. If it is possible to ignore the chronic unemployment that besets millions of people in normal times, it is much harder to ignore this current, mass unemployment and its staggering social and economic costs.

 What should progressive activists concerned about economic justice, labor, the religious community and other concerned people do about mass unemployment?
 What long-term goals should we have for the economy?
 How can we build a strong, effective unified movement to achieve full employment and living wage jobs for all?

A strong economic stimulus is imperative to meet the current emergency. Yet, even if the current stimulus package that achieves its intended goal of creating 4 million jobs, it would only reduce official unemployment by a third!

Nor is it good enough to return to official unemployment of 5 million women and men and millions more working poor even in the “best” of recent times, or to be satisfied with the host of unmet needs with which this recession began. In the words of FDR, “We cannot be content, no matter how high the general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people … is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure.”

The Challenge: Crises present opportunities for progressive change. This is the time for Progressives people of good will to mobilize and to develop goals and strategies for an economy that provides living wage jobs for all, sustains the environment, and repairs our social and physical infrastructure and begins the transition to a more stable, productive economy that provides for shared prosperity.

Conference Goals and Intended Outcomes:

1. Expand public debate and action on the future of the U.S. economy
2. Increase public awareness of chronic unemployment and underemployment and its human and economic toll, even in better times
3. Build on Increase public awareness of current mass unemployment, its dire consequences for human beings and its waste of potential economic output;
4. Raise public awareness of our current economic dead-end—high personal and foreign debt, inequality, wage lag, environmental degradation, military overreach….
5. Steer public debate and action toward:
• Government promotion and creation of living-wage jobs, strengthening of the safety net and supportive fiscal, monetary and trade policies;
• Government promotion and creation of jobs that improve the physical and social infrastructure (repair of bridges, upgrading public transportation, building affordable housing, improving and expanding public education and child, health and elder care).
• Government promotion and creation of jobs that further the goal of a sustainable economy and begin to restructure it.
6. Develop plans to pay for this program of reconstruction through more progressive taxes and confinement of military spending to genuine defense needs

7. Initiate a movement for living-wage jobs for all and develop strategies for achieving this permanent economic reform-- including similar conferences in cities across the country and a mass mobilization in Washington on behalf of economic reconstruction.

You Are Invited to Be a Conference Convenor/Co-Sponsor: We seek broad participation and sponsorship for this National Conference, especially organizations with a primary focus on the quality and quantity of jobs, economic justice, social security, the safety net and poverty prevention. Other critical participants will be organizations not primarily concerned with employment, but whose goals for union rights, health care, education, child care, elder care, disability rights, housing, economic restructuring, public transportation, environmental sustainability, and the arts would be furthered by job creation in their areas of interest. The hope is to gain their ongoing commitment to conquering unemployment and low wages-- even after the crisis subsides. This would build on a plans of the National Jobs for All Coalition and the Chicago Political Economy Group to simultaneously create living wage jobs for all and, through a renewed public sector, to repair our deeply deficient social and physical infrastructure.

Democratic leader basks in victory... workers stuck with the bills, again

Pelosi's "triumph...






A defeat for workers.

And, now, as Paul Harvey used to say... "the rest of the story..."

Tom Robertson has conveniently left out of this story (below) a few "minor details."

For instance; both Enbridge--- putting in this pipeline no one really wants, and Kraus-Anderson Construction Company, the contractor building the Bemidji Regional Event Center (BREC), are both being accused of racist hiring practices by Native Americans who are suffering the worst brunt of unemployment and the resulting horrific poverty in and around Bemidji.

Perhaps the Native American Indian Labor Union #12 making these allegations of racist hiring practices does not make big enough financial contributions to Minnesota Public Radio for this aspect of the story to merit Mr. Tom Robertson's attention... I would note that both Enbridge and Kraus-Anderson make huge contributions to Minnesota Public Radio.

Anyone interested in the rest of the story Tom Robertson conveniently hasn't told would be advised to check out the Bemidji Pioneer Press dated November 2, 2009 on the front page.

I find it very interesting how Tom Robertson has used the issue of sky-rocketing unemployment to cover up the issue of the racist hiring practices of MPR's largest contributors.

No doubt the outside management firm hired by public officials knowing the poverty created by unemployment locally will be bringing along employees from outside of the area and this company will also be making very substantial "contributions" to Minnesota Public Radio.

With all this talk about education in this story by Tom Robertson, one does have to wonder why the Bemidji City planners find it necessary to hire from outside the region the Bemidji Regional Event Center will be serving. Is this some kind of commentary on the quality of education being provided by Bemidji State University and Northwest Technical College that local management can not be found?

Perhaps Rita Albrecht the Bemidji community planner who told Kraus-Anderson they could forget about affirmative action in doing their hiring could explain all of this.

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

http://www.lacrossetribune.com/news/local/state-and-regional/bba7de80-cbbe-11de-af87-001cc4c002e0.html

This was featured on the Yahoo News Service:

Bemidji, Minn.:

A tale of 2 economies

By TOM ROBERTSON / Minnesota Public Radio | Posted: Saturday, November 7, 2009 10:55 am | No Comments Posted

BEMIDJI, Minn. - Bemidji is the Minnesota city with the third-highest peak in unemployment, at more than 17 percent.

Getting a read on Bemidji's economy depends on where you look these days. You can find both ongoing struggle and, believe it or not, boom times. It's a tale of two economies.

There have been a few large, high-profile factory layoffs in the Bemidji area. But the city's jobless rate soared because of smaller layoffs as well, where businesses cut jobs just one or two at a time.

It wasn't news when Mike Mohler lost his job as a radio advertising salesman back in May 2008. Since then, Mohler has filled out applications at close to 100 businesses. Sitting at his home computer, Mohler reads from his latest rejection letter.
``'You were not selected. Good luck in future endeavors.' And then the publisher signed off on it,'' he said. ``I've got a stack of those kinds of responses.''
Mohler is 56 years old. He and his wife have lost their health insurance. His unemployment benefits come to an end in December, unless there's an extension. Mohler says despite a degree from Bemidji State University and years of sales experience, no one will hire him.

``I grew up here. I have so many business contacts and personal contacts. And I just can't crack the ice, I just can't get through to anybody. It's frustrating,'' said Mohler.

Many of the area's small-scale layoffs have been in the construction industry, one of the state's hardest hit sectors. New home construction in the Bemidji area has withered to less than half of what it was in 2006.

Howie Zetah owns a mid-size construction company that a few years ago employed close to 25 people. Now, it's about half that.

``We're tightening our belt,'' said Zetah. ``I've had to lay some people off. I've got very good people, and it hurts to lay someone off, because you're dealing with families here.''

In good times, Zetah's company would build half a dozen custom homes a year. Now, Zetah and other contractors are taking smaller jobs like remodeling and even minor carpentry repair jobs, just to keep busy. Zetah says people are scared to spend money.

``I think people have the ability to spend money, and to build and to do things that they wanted to do. They're just unsure, and their confidence in our economy and where we're going to be a year from now isn't there,'' said Zetah.

But there may be signs that's changing. Zetah just found out a homebuilding project that had been cancelled is back on again.

While Zetah wonders if that's the start of a turnaround, other businesses are booming.

At a neighborhood bar and grill on Bemidji's south side, waitress Laurie Thomas is making a lot more money in tips these days. Thomas says business has nearly doubled since oil pipeline workers started showing up.

``It has been a tremendous change. Once they came to town, it's just been packed here every night,'' said Thomas. ``They'll buy rounds for everyone and not really worry about the money at all.''

Late this summer, Enbridge Energy began building a crude oil pipeline from Canada, across northern Minnesota to Superior, Wis. The Bemidji area alone saw an influx of close to 800 well-paid pipeline workers. Some were hired locally, and some come from other parts of the country.

The pipeliners have gobbled up rental housing and motel rooms. John Billingsley is a welder who came all the way from Texarkana, Ark. He says pipeline workers are buying everything from big screen TVs to cookware.

Pipeline workers will spend millions of dollars in the Bemidji area over the next eight to 10 months.

And there's another project stimulating the local economy. The city is building a $33 million facility that includes a hockey arena for Bemidji State University. By winter, the project will put 250 people to work. Some of those workers say without it, they'd probably be unemployed.

Bemidji's jobless rate has fallen dramatically since it peaked in February. It's now around 11 percent, but that's still way above normal.

The problem is, Bemidji's boom in commercial construction hasn't spread to other parts of the area's economy.

Northern Minnesota's important timber industry is still on its knees because of the bust in new home construction. Late last year, Ainsworth Lumber Co. permanently shut down its plant in Bemidji and laid off 140 workers. That, in turn, put some loggers and haulers in the region out of business.

Economists say the shutdown took $90 million out of the region's economy.
But it doesn't end there. Factories producing machine parts, electrical wiring and drapery fabrics have cut hundreds of jobs, too.

Even as the recession appears to be over, first-time claims for jobless benefits in September jumped 18 percent over the same period last year.

The jobless rate in the overall Bemidji region is lower than in the city itself, but for both areas, unemployment remains well above average for this time of year.

``I don't think the pain is done yet,'' said Dave Hengel, who heads economic development at the Headwaters Regional Development Commission in Bemidji.

``Is there light at the end of the tunnel? I sure hope so, and I think so. But at this point, it's the most difficult economy I've been in in the 22 years I've been here.''

Some economic experts say this recession is likely to reshape the area's economy. The timber industry, for example, has been devastated, but some lumber mills survived by reducing costs and finding new niches for wood products. That includes a growing interest in tapping timber for green energy biofuels.

Another sign of that transformation is that unemployed workers are heading back to school. Post-secondary schools in Bemidji saw some of the highest enrollment increases in the state. At Northwest Technical College, for example, enrollment has jumped by nearly 17 percent.

One of those new students is Chris Kuzel, 51. She was part of the 100 layoffs earlier this year at a wiring manufacturer in Bemidji, where she had worked for 15 years.

``When I got laid off, I had no education or anything to fall back on,'' said Kuzel. ``Here I am, going back to school to get that education that I should have gotten years ago.''

Kuzel qualifies for the state's dislocated worker program, which pays for up to two years of school. She's hoping to get into health care, one of the state's most stable industries. Kuzel is studying to be a pharmaceutical technician.

``School is hard after being out for 30 years. It's been tough. I'm doing it because I have to. But it's not the easy way out,'' said Kuzel. ``It would be a lot easier going after and taking a lesser-paying job. But I decided after 15 years I was going to come out of this with something to fall back on next time.''

Right now, the question is whether there will be enough of a recovery to create jobs for Kuzel and others getting retrained when they graduate. So far, the signs are mixed at best.

Posted in State-and-regional, Mn on Saturday, November 7, 2009 10:55 am

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

Check out my blog:

Thoughts From Podunk

http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/

Read this bullshit and weep....

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Munk [mailto:lastmarx@comcast.net]
Sent: Friday, November 06, 2009 10:49 PM
To: amaki000@centurytel.net
Subject: [national] Weiner caves to Obama, Pelosi, Waxman!

Read this bullshit and weep....

Representative Anthony Weiner

November 6, 2009

Press Release

Rep. Weiner Withdraws Single Payer Amendment from Current Health Care Debate



Today, Representative Anthony Weiner (D - Brooklyn and Queens), a member of the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee, released the following statement on his decision to withdraw his single payer amendment to H.R. 3962, the House health care reform bill:



“I have decided not to offer a single payer alternative to the health reform bill at this time. Given how fluid the negotiations are on the final push to get comprehensive health care reform that covers millions of Americans and contains costs through a public option, I became concerned that my amendment might undermine that important goal.”



“I am going to continue to press the case for health care reform in every venue I can. And I also will continue to press for a smarter, less-expensive, more-comprehensive alternative to the employer-based health insurance system we have today.”



"I've discussed the issue with Speaker Pelosi, Chairman Waxman, and agree with them that the health reform bill is so close it deserves every chance to gain a majority."



http://weiner.house.gov/news_display.aspx?id=1368



And...



Speaker Nancy Pelosi

November 6, 2009

Press Release

Pelosi Statement on Congressman Anthony Weiner’s Single Payer Alternative



Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement today on Congressman Anthony Weiner’s single payer alternative:



“Within the next few days, the House will vote on the most comprehensive health care legislation in our history. Our bill will provide affordability to the middle class, security to our seniors, and responsibility to our children by not adding a dime to the deficit. While our bill contains unprecedented reforms, including an end to discrimination for pre-existing conditions and a prohibition on raising rates or dropping coverage if you become ill, our bill cannot include provisions some strongly advocated. The single payer alternative is one of those provisions that could not be included in H.R. 3962, but which has generated support within the Congress and throughout the country.



“Congressman Anthony Weiner has been a forceful and articulate advocate for the single payer approach and our legislation. His decision not to offer a single payer amendment during consideration of H.R. 3962 is a correct one, and helps advance the passage of important health reforms by this Congress. While single payer, like other popular proposals, is not included in the consensus bill we will vote on this week, Congressman Weiner has been a tireless and effective advocate for progress on health care, and his work has been a vital part of achieving health care reform.”



http://speaker.house.gov/newsroom/pressreleases?id=1438



And...



Committee on Energy and Commerce

Chairman Henry A. Waxman

November 6, 2009

Chairman Waxman's Statement on Rep. Weiner's Single-Payer Amendment



Today Chairman Henry A. Waxman released a statement in response to Rep. Anthony Weiner's decision not to offer a single-payer amendment to the House Democratic health care legislation.



"Rep. Anthony Weiner has been one of the most tireless and effective advocates for health care reform. His decision not to offer his amendment on the floor was a difficult one for him, and for supporters of the measure. I believe Rep. Weiner's choice will be enormously helpful in passing the health care reform package. His step is a correct and courageous one. I thank Rep. Weiner for it, and look forward to working with him closely. Rep. Weiner deserves a great deal of credit for helping to make quality, affordable health care more available to millions of Americans."



http://energycommerce.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1808:-chairman-waxmans-statement-on-rep-weiners-single-payer-amendment&catid=155:statements&Itemid=55





Comment by Ida Hellander, M.D., Executive Director, Physicians for a National Health Program:



Next steps and interpretation -



1) The fact that single payer got so far along in the House is a testament to the strength of our single payer movement. The huge number of calls by single payer advocates in support of single payer and the Weiner amendment in recent days have been noted by several members of Congress.



2) It appears that nobody, particularly the President, expected our single payer option to be alive in the Congress for so long. As you know, they attempted to keep it "off the table" from the very beginning.



3) The President was directly involved in the decision to not hold a vote on the Weiner single payer amendment, and Weiner will be meeting with him later today. Stay tuned.



4) We need to increase pressure on the Congress and the White House for Medicare for All through lobbying, civil disobedience, media outreach, and grassroots organizing. Sen. Sanders will call for a vote on single payer in the Senate - this could come up anytime in the next month. Encourage your Senator to support the Sanders bill and also an amendment he will offer for a state single payer option. The California Nurses Association/NNOC has already started lobbying visits in the Senate in D.C.



5) We have been asked how to tell members to vote on the House bill. Our response is that the bill is "like aspirin for breast cancer."

visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Healthcare reform

The struggle being waged by concerned Americans at the grassroots level for real healthcare reform is based upon the fact that the overwhelming majority of the people in Minnesota and across this country want a Canadian style health care system coupled with a vastly expanded public health care system along the lines of VA, the Indian Health Service and the National Public Health Service; not to mention all of the local, city and county health care services some people have access to free of charge or at fees so low it is as good as free on a very limited basis, but better-than-nothing.

Politicians and the insurance companies who have bribed these politicians to oppose a Canadian style health care system and no-fee for service or low fee for service health care provided through the existing networks of socialized health care we already have in this country like VA, the Indian Health Service and National Health Service are now considering what I find to be the most reactionary, most regressive, pro-profit, pro-corporate piece of legislation--- and most draconian with its mandatory enforcement powers to coerce people to purchase health insurance policies at premiums most working people can not afford--- piece of legislation ever to come before the United States Congress with the only exception being the continued expenditures to wage these savage, immoral, unjust, illegal and unconstitutional imperialist wars for oil and Wall Street's regional domination in the Middle East for control of the oil fields, refineries and gas wells and pipelines and the shameful support the United States Congress has given to Israel to carry out its savage and barbaric attacks against the Palestinian people--- especially the children whose bodies are piled like cord-wood.

I just got off the telephone with Representative Collin Peterson's Staff Assistant, Tom Meium; asking, again--- since my calls and letters over the past six years have never once been returned concerning single-payer universal health care--- the Canadian style health care reform endorsed and voted for by an overwhelming 72% majority at the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party's State Convention in 2006 which, a result, is now part of the MN DFL "Action Agenda"... at which time I was an elected member of the MN DFL State Central Committee and the author of the resolution that was voted on.

Now, when I asked Mr. Tom Meium about single-payer universal health care he tells me he has never heard of it and is not aware that it is part of the Minnesota DFL "Action Agenda." Just another dumb donkey or a two-faced, lying hypocrite?

How can this be since previously Collin Peterson's staff insisted the supporters of single-payer stop "bothering" him and his staff.

Here is what the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party's "Action Agenda" states as what it supports in no uncertain terms:

"•Enact a Universal Single Payer Health Care Plan"

There is nothing unclear or ambiguous about this.

The MN DFL "Action Agenda" web site:

Action Agenda

The DFL Action Agenda contains the specific positions adopted by each State Convention on important state and national public policy issues that the party supports in order to enact the principles in the ongoing platform. The DFL Action Agenda is effective until the next State Convention convenes, subject to any modifications or additions adopted by the State Central Committee between state conventions pursuant to the party's bylaws.

What right does Collin Peterson or any other public official elected on the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor ticket have to actively oppose what is in the "Action Agenda."

If Collin Peterson thinks the Republican Party agenda is so great he should join the Republican Party.

Collin Peterson lacked the moral or political courage to stand before the Minnesota DFL delegates to the State Convention to state his opposition to "single-payer universal health care" and he now undermines the very solution to this health care mess which he fully understands the majority of the farmers and workers from his constituency are for.

Collin Peterson began his climb to power in the same very dishonest manner.

It was Mark Froemke a member of the National Committee of the Communist Party U.S.A. and a big-shot in the AFL-CIO who nominated Collin Peterson at the Seventh Congressional District Nominating Convention... even though Mark Froemke was a registered voter in Grand Forks, North Dakota at the time of his participation in the nominating convention.

At every opportunity since his election, Collin Peterson has boasted that he is more conservative than any Republican... strange bed-fellows indeed; a leading member of the Communist Party USA and a Democrat who boasts that he is more conservative that any Republican... neither of which support Canadian style single-payer universal health care and both of whom are supporting the continued profiteering by the health care insurance industry and of doctors to reap extreme and huge profits for performing services that should be free.

Collin Peterson and his Communist friend, Mark Froemke--- a self-serving, conniving, pork-chopper extraordinaire--- both support Barack Obama's dirty wars. Neither one of them have so much as publicly questioned the "cost" of funding these wars or the Israeli killing machine. Not a single public statement from either of these strange bed-fellows; shameful and disgusting.

Tom Meium, Collin Peterson's Staff Assistant told me that Collin Peterson "opposed single-payer universal health care because of its cost."

When I asked why Collin Peterson doesn't apply the same concern for "costs" to funding these dirty wars, Mr. Meium hung up on me.

Even more sickening is what the Democrats are now doing with single-payer universal health care. To evade the issue of the need for a Canadian style health care system to get us out of this health care mess by providing the American people access to health care; instead of seriously considering single-payer legislation, Nancy Pelosi has "allowed" a phony "debate" to take place in which it has been agreed in advance that single-payer will be voted down so the insurance industry's legislation HR 3962 can be considered in its place; a most atrocious, anti-worker piece of legislation being pushed by a slick talking insurance company salesman--- Barack Obama.

Why does anyone continue giving these dumb donkeys their votes?

No peace; no votes.

No Canadian style health care; no votes.

It is all about the very fabric of which democracy is woven: accountability.

Working people are entitled to get something of substance that will improve their lives in return for their votes... if a government that wastes trillions upon trillions of dollars on immoral wars can't even provide its citizens with adequate access to health care, what good is the government?

Make no mistake: Barack Obama's H.R. 3962 should be defeated and real health care reform based upon the example of Canadian style health care is what needs to be considered by the United States Congress... obviously it is going to take massive grassroots pressure to force these Wall Street bribed politicians to do anything that will benefit the American people--- the only thing they want to fund is wars and more wars... the problem is, they are funding these wars with your and my tax-dollars when it is health care we really need.

H.R.3962 is called the Affordable Health Care for America Act... for most working people it is anything but affordable.

For insurance companies, H.R.3962 - Affordable Health Care for America Act, will be a profit bonanza... once again, YOU pay, THEY profit.

Something to think about around the dinner table this evening and the nights get colder and heating costs soar,

Alan L. Maki

Remember Medicare for All in the healthcare reform debate

From my blog on Organizing for America...

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/alanmaki/gGMmn7

"End these dirty wars. Use the money to finance real health care reforms along the lines people have been demanding and anticipated they would be getting in return for their votes... instead of maintaining 800 U.S. military bases on foreign soil dotting the globe, create 800 public health care centers across the United States serving as the bases of support for the required 30,000 local community health care centers. This would create millions of jobs at good pay with good benefits with the health care workers employed in these centers becoming government employees."

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

Speaking in Escanaba, Michigan





From the Boston Globe...

“It’s beyond belief to me,’’ said Robert Haynes, president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO. While Obama and Congress inherited “a big mess’’ from Bush, Haynes said, “there aren’t any excuses anymore. If you can’t deliver health care, and you can’t deliver jobs, and if you can’t deliver [card check legislation] , and you can’t figure out how to take care of the working people of this great city and country, you don’t deserve to stay in office.’’




"It's time to tell Barack Obama and the Democrats to beware... No peace; no votes. No real progressive health care reform; no votes. This is all about what the American people want and need. This is about democracy. This is about defending democracy by insisting on accountability. Working people need to use their precious votes in order to gain something in return for their votes. If we don't use our votes to win real progressive health care reform along the lines of the Canadian health care system with a vastly expanded public health care system like VA and the Indian Health Service we will never get anything from this government."

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

Speaking in Barron, Wisconsin





http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/healthcare/66053-remember-medicare-for-all-in-the-healthcare-reform-debate


Remember Medicare for All in the healthcare reform debate

By Kay Tillow,
Coordinator,
All Unions Committee For Single Payer Health Care--HR 676, Nurses Professional Organization - 11/03/09 10:06 AM ET

We are in danger of losing the opportunity to bring Improved Medicare for All, a single payer plan, before the Congress. Last July Congressman Anthony Weiner and six of his colleagues on the Energy and Commerce Committee attempted to substitute the real public option—HR 676, a single payer plan—for the healthcare reform in the House. Speaker Nancy Pelosi assured them that if they withdrew the amendment in committee they would have an opportunity to bring it to the House floor for a debate and vote. Now Pelosi is threatening to keep the Weiner Single Payer Amendment from seeing the light of day.

If we were able to get this plan really on the table and before the nation in a meaningful way, we could win this hands down. Even Blue Dog Mike Ross, in an unguarded moment, asked why not just have Medicare for All. HR 676, the national single payer legislation introduced by Congressman John Conyers, would cover everyone for all medically necessary care through an Expanded and Improved Medicare for All. The bill and its advocates have been blocked, excluded, and beaten back in the current national healthcare reform debate.

Yet Medicare for All continues to raise its head. When single payer advocates were excluded from the White House kick off meeting for health care reform, doctors’ opened the door to two single payer advocates with a plan to protest at the White House gate. When Senate Finance Chair Baucus ruled single payer off the table, thirteen doctors, nurses, and others rose to protest. Baucus had them arrested. Those gutsy advocates pried open another door and won a round of publicity for single payer. But still not a place at the table.

Yet support for single payer continues to grow. Its simplicity, humanity, and economic efficiency win more supporters each day. The Kentucky House of Representatives, four other state legislative bodies, scores of cities and counties, a half dozen giant religious denominations, NOW, the NAACP, and the National Conference of Mayors have called for passage of HR 676. For unions, it’s the plan of choice. At each contract deadline the double digit rise in health care costs gobbles up the lion’s share of bargaining power. For that reason, 578 unions including 39 state AFL-CIO’s and 134 central labor councils have endorsed HR 676. In September the national AFL-CIO Convention declared unanimous support for single payer as the social insurance plan necessary to achieve social justice.

When Physicians for a National Health Program founder Quentin Young, testified before a House committee last June, Representative Weiner listened and was impressed. Weiner turned HR 676 into an amendment that would transform the House bill into a single payer plan. He popularized it as Medicare for All and catapulted the discussion into the national media with his feisty good humor and popular style.

Now Pelosi wants to renege on her promise to Weiner. We have sent an action alert to over 19,000 unionists asking them to contact Pelosi, and Waxman (who relayed Pelosi’s commitment publicly) and Slaughter (who heads the rules committee) to assure that they allow the Weiner amendment to come to the floor.

The “public option” that remains in both the Senate and the House bills is pitiful and powerless--totally incapable of providing cost control. Those bills, with their forced mandates and fines, their massive transfer of public funds to the insurance industry, and their ban on bulk buying power to rein in the pharmaceutical companies, will fail woefully to cover our people and to make that care affordable.

Pelosi should stick to her promise. We’ll keep up the effort to make her do so. Either now or later Medicare for All will have to come to the table. We’ll keep building the movement to make that happen.

Source:
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/healthcare/66053-remember-medicare-for-all-in-the-healthcare-reform-debate

The contents of this site are © 2009 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsisiary of News Communications, Inc.

Lawsuit alleges racism in BREC hiring

Press Release



For Immediate Release



Date: October 30, 2009



From: Native American Indian Labor Union #12





Issue: Lawsuit filed concerning failure of enforcement of affirmative action in hiring Native Americans for the construction of the Bemidji Regional Events Center (B.R.E.C.)





Docket Number: 04-CV-09-4736 [Beltrami County Ninth District Court]



Backgrounder available upon request.



Updates and additional information: http://nativeamericanindianlaborunion12.blogspot.com/



Contact: Gregory W. Paquin; Business Manager, Native American Indian Labor Union #12 (info at bottom)







Gregory W. Paquin, the Business Manager for the Native American Labor Union #12 has filed a law suit in the Beltrami County Ninth District Court seeking recovery of damages (compensation and punitive as yet unspecified to be determined by the Court, including, but not limited to, wages and benefits) regarding the racist hiring practices and failure to implement affirmative action in hiring for construction of the Bemidji Regional Events Center.



This Claim for Damages is against Defendants: the City of Bemidji, Minnesota, Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), Krause Anderson Construction Company (general contractor) and the Bemidji Regional Events Center.



The Defendants acted with intent and forethought to engage in racist hiring practices as part of a clear pattern intending to maintain the well established institutionalized racism to deny and deprive Native Americans employment in the construction of the Bemidji Regional Events Center, a public works project funded with tax-payer dollars and publicly backed bonds, in complete and total disregard for affirmative action rules, guidelines and legislation each of the Defendants were individually and collectively aware of but chose to ignore.



Paquin, also a candidate for Minnesota Senate District 4, notes that Beltrami and surrounding counties have a long history of institutionalized racism

( http://nativeamericanindianlaborunion12.blogspot.com/2009/10/finally-pioneer-published-this-letter.html ) at the center of which is the blatant racist hiring practices of private employers and county, state and federal governmental units and agencies who often, as in the case of the Beltrami Regional Events Center, work together in collusion to maintain this pattern of institutionalized racism which is responsible for the high unemployment rate among Native Americans on and off the Indian Reservations which breeds extreme poverty with its associated deplorable living conditions of poor, substandard and inadequate housing; inadequate and underfunded public schools; drug, alcohol and sexual abuse; poor health and lack of adequate health care; child malnutrition and improper diets; inadequate transportation services.



Affirmative action guidelines are clearly articulated by state and federal guidelines, rules and statutes which local governments and private contractor/s are aware they are mandated to follow and enforce but in the case of the construction of the Bemidji Regional Events Center, this Claim for Damages will demonstrate there has been the conscious and malicious intent by the Defendants to knowingly engage in racially discriminatory hiring practices intended to deny employment to Native Americans.



Paquin has noted Rita Albrecht, Bemidji Community Development Coordinator, and the City of Bemidji and the management firm, VenuWorks

( http://www.venuworks.com/ ), hired to manage the B.R.E.C. --- at this late date--- have failed to produce affirmative action hiring guidelines that will be used to staff and maintain the completed B.R.E.C.



Paquin is insisting that all jobs involving staffing and maintaining the B.R.E.C. must be real living wage jobs based on the areas’ real cost of living index and that at least one-half of the jobs from management levels on down be designated for Native Americans whose main source of employment has been in the hospitality related industries of the Indian Gaming Industry where workers are forced to work in unhealthy smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages without any rights under state or federal labor laws.



Paquin notes that it is the responsibility of DEED to provide materials to public governmental agencies and private businesses conducting their business in Minnesota about how to implement affirmative action in hiring; and, it is DEED’s responsibility to monitor and enforce affirmative action in hiring on projects like B.R.E.C.



All Defendants have been served with notice of this action.



For interviews and further information contact:



Gregory W. Paquin (photos for media use available on blog)

Business Manager,

Native American Indian Labor Union #12



Candidate for Minnesota Senate District 4



1511 Roosevelt Road S.E.

Bemidji, Minnesota 56601



Home phone: 218-209-3157

Cell Phone: 651-503-9493



E-mail: hotpasstheketchup@yahoo.com



Blog: http://nativeamericanindianlaborunion12.blogspot.com/



Contact information for Defendants and their attorneys of record will be provided upon request.



Gregory W. Paquin



Candidate for Minnesota Senate

District: 4



1511 Roosevelt Road SE.

Bemidji, Minnesota , 56601

218-209-3157 h

651-503-9493 c

check out my blog: http://nativeamericanindianlaborunion12.blogspot.com/



**************************



http://www.bemidjipioneer.com/event/article/id/100012947/



Published November 01 2009



Lawsuit alleges racism in BREC hiring



The city didn’t follow affirmative action laws in hiring workers for the Bemidji Regional Event Center, alleges a civil lawsuit filed a week ago in Beltrami County District Court.



By: Brad Swenson, Bemidji Pioneer



The city didn’t follow affirmative action laws in hiring workers for the Bemidji Regional Event Center, alleges a civil lawsuit filed a week ago in Beltrami County District Court.



Also named in the lawsuit are the state Department of Employment and Economic Development, which administers the state bonding grant for BREC construction, and Kraus-Anderson Construction Co., BREC construction manager.



Filing the lawsuit is Greg Paquin of Bemidji, business manager for the Native American Labor Union No. 12, and a declared Democratic candidate for Minnesota Senate 4.



The suit alleges that the defendants “acted with intent and forethought to engage in racist hiring practices as part of a clear pattern intending to maintain the well established institutionalized racism to deny and deprive native Americans construction employment in the construction of the Bemidji Regional Event Center,” Paquin said Saturday in a statement.



BREC “is a public works program funded with taxpayer dollars and publicly backed bonds,” he said, adding that the defendants were “in complete and total disregard for affirmative action guidelines and legislation (that each) were individually and collectively aware of but chose to ignore.”



“We feel it’s a frivolous lawsuit,” Bemidji City Manager John Chattin said Saturday. “We’ve just got a copy of the filing … which has been turned over to the League of Minnesota Cities. The League will be handling it.”



In the court complaint, Paquin said he requested from the city and construction manager copies of affirmative action guidelines but received none. He said Kraus Anderson requested that six American Indian names be submitted informally and that the company representative “would see what he could do.”



Seven names were submitted to BREC contractors and “to this date I have not heard from one contractor or entity involved in this BREC project,” the complaint states. “We have been denied participation, denying our civil rights to be employed on this state-funded project.”



City Attorney Al Felix confirmed that the lawsuit has been turned over to the League of Minnesota Cities, which assigned the Twin Cities law firm of Kennedy & Graven to defend the city.



Felix, in a telephone interview Saturday evening, said the lawsuit is vague “but seems to be aiming at affirmative action, saying that there’s somehow affirmative action quotas … or guidelines that somehow the city’s not following.”



He agrees with Chattin the lawsuit is frivolous “because we can’t obviously make out what he’s (Paquin) getting at or what he’s pointing to.”



While Paquin cites several state statutes, Felix said there is no affirmation action requirements for BREC construction, only that there not be discriminatory hiring practices. Only projects with federal monies usually have minority hiring written into the contract, he added.



“He throws the kitchen sink in at it in terms of citings,” said Felix. “But in terms of specifics, there aren’t any specifics. And there are not specific guidelines, if you will, or particular hiring quotas or percentages or anything like that as you might see … with a federal contract.”



Federal contracts may specify a certain percentage of minority businesses or women-owned businesses, “but we don’t have that requirement here,” Felix said. “We don’t have any federal money involved in the BREC project.”



As part of a larger issue, Paquin said that “at the center … is the blatant racist hiring practices of private employers and county, state and federal governmental units and agencies who often, as in the case of the Bemidji Regional Event Center, work together in collusion to maintain the pattern of institutionalized racism which is responsible for the high unemployment rate among native Americans on and off the Indian reservations which breeds extreme poverty with its associated deplorable living conditions of poor, substandard and inadequate housing; inadequate and underfunded public schools; drug, alcohol and sexual abuse; poor health and lack of adequate health care; child malnutrition and improper diets; inadequate transportation services.”



Paquin notes that “affirmative action guidelines are clearly articulated by state and federal guidelines, rules and statutes which local governments and private contractors are aware and mandated to follow and enforce …”



The city in constructing the BREC need only follow state law on discriminatory hiring practices, Felix maintains.



“We obviously have requirements not to discriminate and we have all that in our agreements,” Felix said. “We have complied with all the laws we have to comply with. … I don’t think there’s any merit to his claims, but I’m not defending the lawsuit.”



Attorneys representing the city and the state have been appointed, he added. “This will just have to play out.”



In his statement, Paquin said he is asking that half the jobs on the BREC, from management on down, be designated for American Indians.



The court complaint cites “the discovery of damages to the Native American Indian Labor Union No. 12 and those denied opportunity on this project in punitive and compensatory damages regarding the manner represented in DEED-funded projects that fail to meet the affirmative action guidelines, goals and objectives.”



The Native American Indian Labor Union No. 12, founded by Paquin, is not recognized by the AFL-CIO.



bswenson@bemidjipioneer.com



Tags: news, local





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http://www.bemidjipioneer.com/event/article/id/100012935/







Published October 31 2009



Cass Lake mayor brings race issues to Park Rapids council



Alleged racial discrimination issues were raised at the Park Rapids council table this week. Cass Lake Mayor Wayne LaDuke addressed the council Tuesday about two incidents that allegedly happened in town.



By: Riham Feshir, Park Rapids Enterprise, Bemidji Pioneer





Alleged racial discrimination issues were raised at the Park Rapids council table this week.



Cass Lake Mayor Wayne LaDuke addressed the council Tuesday about two incidents that allegedly happened in town.



The first involved a business that reportedly told tribal students it was out of a product they requested.



A few minutes later, the students saw other customers outside of the business with the same product that they wanted to order.



LaDuke said the second incident happened this year at a school sporting event. A concession stand employee refused to serve a group of Cass Lake students.



“We do not serve Indians,” the employee allegedly told the students.



LaDuke said he wasn’t looking for action from the council, but needed to bring it up since it was repeated.



“I’m not going to sit here and judge the community of Park Rapids,” he said. “I appreciate whatever the council can do to resolve this issue.”



Councilman Pat Mikesh suggested contacting the Park Rapids Lakes Area Chamber for more training opportunities to educate local business employees.



It’s good to highlight the issue even though it’s unfortunate that it happened, councilman Dave W. Konshok agreed.



***************************************

Disorganized... What happened to Obama's massive network of grassroots activists?

This is an interesting “spin” to things we are seeing more and more of; placing the blame on organizing tactics when in fact there are reasons other than what is described here why Obama and the Democrats can’t move Obama’s activist and voter base.

1.People no longer trust Obama--- for the most part their “hope for change” has not materialized.

2.It is pretty darn hard to mobilize people against their own interests.

3.More and more people are beginning to realize they have been “had” by Obama and Obama is more con-artist and con-man just like an insurance salesman.

What this article in the New Republic doesn’t say is that all those people who now feel betrayed are looking for something of substance to turn their activities towards.

And this is where liberals, progressives and the left can really do a knock out organizing job if we can come together and agree on a progressive agenda to build real grassroots and rank-and-file movements around.

This means using the Internet and the Web as tools; but, more than this is required--- person-to-person contact.

It means putting leaflets into people’s hands and talking to people.

It means tabling and petitioning and writing letters to politicians and newspapers.

It means organizing vigils, pickets and demonstrations aimed at creating awareness of the problems working people are experiencing as they try to make ends meet in their day-to-day lives; which means advocating solutions to these very real problems people are having while explaining how everything is interconnected.

It means working people taking the initiative to run for public office in the Democratic Party nominating conventions, primaries and in the general election as independents if need be.

This "lesser evil" crap is for the birds... in no other country in the world are working people so afraid of the ruling class that they think they have to turn to their bosses' political parties when it comes to politics.

Let’s talk honestly about the issues… we aren’t going to get real health care reform without stopping these dirty wars and using the funds. instead, for health care. And we are going to have to talk about redistributing the wealth in this country through various measures involving taxation and public ownership of industries to pay for a quality health care system where people come before insurance company profits.

We now have--- spread out across our country--- over 3,600 industrial sites from mines to mills to factories that have shut down their operations and moved off-shore leaving millions of workers without jobs, communities devastated and working class families trying to figure out how to make ends meet as everything from groceries to gasoline to home heating prices shoot up, families lose their homes and workers die in wars; and we are told this is all “the new normal” for the next 20 years.

The only industries growing in America are Goodwill Industries. Good-luck paying the bills working as a volunteer.

None of this is even considered as the New Republic writer “analyzes” why Barack Obama and the Democrats can’t mobilize their base and no doubt this is causing many a sleepless nights for those expected to deliver the votes in 2010 and 2012.

This is the time for liberals, progressives and the left to come together, hash out a comprehensive progressive agenda aimed at solving the most pressing problems working people are experiencing which will begin to turn this country around in the way people were expecting Obama and the Democrats to do… if we can’t get them to work with us we need to work to build massive unity capable of creating the kind of movements that deliver real change.

Incremental reforms and “baby steps” just won’t cut it when people need access to health care when they are sick or when they are losing their homes.

A big part of the reason Obama’s “base” can’t be coaxed into being mobilized is that much, if not most, of those e-mail addresses Organizing for America has are from middle class intellectuals who had fun playing their little mind games with us trying to convince us that Barack Obama was liberal, progressive or in some cases actually “left.”

These middle class intellectuals may have had our best interests at heart in shoving Barack Obama down our throats in the arrogant, manipulative and controlling manner they did… but, surprise, surprise, the BMW driving crowd doesn’t have any sense of urgency when it comes to halting foreclosures and evictions, having access to health care or when it comes to ending wars.

Living on $100,000.00 to $300,000.00 a year they can make their house payments, don’t have to give a second thought to picking up a nice steak at $12.00 a pound, don’t have to worry about having the money to pay heating and electric bills or worry about paying for child-care or university educations.

The majority of these 13 million e-mail addresses Barack Obama’s Organizing for America organization has are from these middle class intellectuals who can very literally afford to play political games. To these people the enforcement of affirmative action in hiring programs is not an urgent issue… not making in excess of $100,000.00 a year.

Let these middle class intellectuals try living on welfare, unemployment compensation, SSI or Social Security and life becomes a little different.

Look at this one example referred to in this article: Health Care For America Now which bills itself as a “coalition” when all that it represents is a bunch of high-paid labor leaders, foundation flowers and poverty pimps all making their livings off of people’s problems… 800 such organizations. This outfit was created for the very purpose of killing single-payer universal health care even though the memberships of most of these organizations continues to be overwhelmingly in support of single-payer and more often than not they support much more advanced forms of public health care along the lines of the socialized systems of VA and the Indian Health Service. This outfit is talking of premiums in excess of $700.00 a month for Obama’s mandatory health insurance and even at $700.00 you won’t be able to purchase much of a policy without huge deductibles and co-pays.

And how stupid do these dumb donkeys think we are? Obama and the Democrats haven't even made good on their mandates to fully fund VA and the Indian Health Service… any government that won’t provide the funds to provide for the proper health care needs of its veterans sure as heck isn’t going to provide assistance to the poor and impoverished.

The New Republic caters to middle class intellectuals… this publication isn’t going to insult the majority of its readers by telling them they are a bunch of uncaring and insensitive people without any empathy for the problems of the working class.

No, so they make up this crap that Obama’s base couldn’t be mobilized because someone didn’t know when to send out thirteen-million e-mails rather than talk about the real reasons: Obama takes the wrong stands on all the issues.

Notice who has been so quick to send this article to your e-mails; the “Progressives for Obama” and the Campaign for America’s Future… two middle class outfits and it was the Campaign for America’s Future at the behest of its “organizers,” the AFL-CIO leadership that broke ranks with the single-payer movement and actually initiated Health Care For America Now.

We need working class organizations initiated by working people right down at the grassroots and rank-and-file levels.

If you don’t see a leader you can work with in your community or where you work willing to take on this task; you better think about becoming that leader and helping to build fighting, militant organizations not afraid to speak up and be heard because in this day-and-age of media being used to manipulate and control people, out-of-sight, out-of-mind takes on a whole new meaning.

What we are talking about doing here is building a mighty and powerful “people’s front” capable of standing up to Wall Street and its bought-and-paid-for politicians kept in line by the corporate funded lobbyists whose stock-in-trade is nothing other than bribery.

Now is the very time to tell Barack Obama and the Democrats:

No peace; no votes.

No real progressive health care reform; no votes.

This is called defending democracy by defeating the right-wing reactionaries through enforcing accountability. Without accountability democracy is meaningless.

I get a kick out of these big-shots in the Democratic Party complaining about how I bombard people's e-mail boxes with my thoughts. Here they are with 13,000,000 e-mail addresses using this e-mail list to beg for money over and over again but they can't use this e-mail list to mobilize 13,000,000 people to lead the efforts for change that was promised--- or at least the change they led people to believe they were going to bring about.

Alan L. Maki



http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/disorganized?page=0,0

From: The New Republic

Disorganized
What happened to Obama's massive network of grassroots activists?

Lydia DePillis
Reporter-Researcher

October 29, 2009

Tea partiers, townhall protesters, Texas secessionists--for the past few months, grassroots organizing has seemed to be mostly the domain of the right. And for a period this summer, they (okay, not the Texas secessionists, but the others) appeared to be successfully tugging the national debate in their direction. As conservative activists, organized by groups such as FreedomWorks and encouraged by the likes of Glenn Beck, poured into the streets, moderate senators began to waver on health care, President Obama's approval ratings dipped, and momentum for reform seemed to stall.

It wasn't supposed to be this way. The reason was Organizing for America. Last year, after winning the presidency, Obama decided to keep intact the backbone of his stunningly efficient, innovative campaign. Previous presidents had outsourced their activism to interest groups; Obama was going to create his own. OFA was supposed to be a new kind of permanent campaign: a grassroots network wielding some 13 million email addresses to mobilize former volunteers on behalf of the administration's agenda (and keep them engaged for 2012). "We've never had a political leader who has continued their organizing while in office like this at this scale," Tom Matzzie, former Washington director of MoveOn, told NPR in January.

As right-wing protesters dominated the news this summer, it would have seemed the perfect opportunity for Obama's much-touted organizers to drown out the conservatives with some coordinated agitation of their own. But they barely made a ripple. Where were they? And how could such a formidable grassroots operation--having just put Obama in office--fall quiet so quickly?

The morning after the election, some 10,000 organizers dialed into a conference call with President-elect Obama, who told them that they would be needed for fights to come. But within the Obama camp, there was disagreement about how, exactly, their services ought to be used. OFA could become a freestanding organization that would advocate independently for the president's agenda. Or it could be folded--along with its formidable fundraising potential--into the Democratic National Committee. Steve Hildebrand, Obama's deputy campaign manager, favored the independent option: It would allow the group to "pressure anybody who we would need to build a coalition of votes in the House and Senate," he told the Los Angeles Times in mid-November. David Plouffe, the campaign's mastermind, disagreed. He had won the election through a precisely directed field operation combined with iron message discipline, and wasn't about to give it up.

A few days before the inauguration, Obama announced, in effect, that Plouffe's view had prevailed: Organizing for America would be securely housed within the DNC. (Hildebrand returned to his consulting firm in Sioux Falls, and would later become vocally critical of the administration's incremental approach to issues such as gay rights. Plouffe stayed on as an adviser, and his firm raked in $376,000 this year from the DNC.) The bulk of the DNC's new hires have gone to support OFA, which takes up about half the square footage at party headquarters inside a putty brown stucco building south of the Capitol.

It got off to a sluggish start. "Just at the moment when the base would have been most interested in rolling up its sleeves and doing something, they were basically asked to wait, that someone else was going to decide what was going to happen, and, in the meantime, please buy this mug," says Micah Sifry, editor of techPresident.com, which has closely tracked the progress of Obama's online organizing since the 2008 primaries. "They built this very muscular organization and, for three to six months, let it lie relatively fallow."

The group largely sat out the stimulus fight, holding house parties and continuing to fundraise, while gearing up for Obama's signature policy initiative. "I think we all knew that health care would be the big one," Jeremy Bird, the organization's 31-year-old deputy director, told me. But when the health care debate arrived with a fury this summer, OFA ran into problems.

The first was timing: Staff were still filtering into the states in July--and, because the Senate Finance Committee hadn't produced a bill yet, OFA had little concrete to advocate for, even as conservatives found plenty to argue against. The second was tactical: Obama's campaign had never used the kind of in-your-face antics the tea-partiers embraced, focusing instead on story-telling and canvassing. "What you see on the right is an organizing model that's based on grandstanding in front of cameras, in August for example," Bird says. "That's not what we ever did on the campaign. Our organizing was the nitty gritty. I mean it really was the real, hard-core organizing work that we think moves folks and wins elections and changes peoples' lives and is based on person-to-person conversations."

But the biggest problem was built into OFA's very structure--the structure that Plouffe had wanted and Hildebrand had warned against. Obama's people had created something both entirely new and entirely old: an Internet version of the top-down political machines built by Richard Daley in Chicago or Boss Tweed in New York. The difference (other than technology) was that this new machine would rely on ideological loyalty, not patronage. And that was a big difference. The old machines survived as top-down organizations because they gave people on the bottom something tangible in return for their participation. By contrast, successful organizations built mainly on shared philosophy tend to be driven by their memberships. Marshall Ganz, the legendary United Farm Workers organizer-turned-Harvard-professor and godfather of the Obama field strategy--he helped orchestrate Camp Obama, a grassroots training program for staff and volunteers--sees the command-and-control nature of OFA as a crucial flaw. "It's much more an instrument of mobilizing the bottom to serve the top than organizing the bottom to participate in shaping the direction of the top," he told me.

It isn't a coincidence that, historically, effective grassroots movements have usually come out of losing campaigns, not winning ones--circumstances that better lend themselves to a bottom-up approach. Supporters of Adlai Stevenson's failed presidential bids in the 1950s went on to run democratic reform efforts in New York and California. Barry Goldwater's followers went on to reshape conservatism after 1964. During the 2004 primaries, the Howard Dean campaign trained a generation of online organizers, and spawned Democracy for America--now a 1.1 million-strong organization that spends money on campaigns its members choose. "With OFA, that's not the direction of that relationship," says Arshad Hasan, DFA's executive director. "They also have to be responsible to the White House. They can't take quite as many risks. … It's the ability to take risks and be ambitious that's allowed us to grow."

The difference between the two approaches has been on display during the health care debate. Dean's group has been using the public option as a clear rallying cry. OFA--aware that Obama might have to bargain away a strong public option in order to get a health care deal at all--has not pushed the issue nearly as fervently.

Furthermore, being part of the DNC has neutered Organizing for America when it comes to pressuring moderate Democrats. Over objections from the White House, outside groups like the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, MoveOn, and the Health Care for America Now coalition--which is spending $35 million this year--have been running hard-hitting ads that target foot-dragging congressmen. When OFA itself ran ads aimed at key Democratic senators, they were gauzy and positive, mentioning no one by name.OFA didn't have a choice: The White House couldn't deal with Max Baucus in good faith if its ground operation was hammering him in Montana.

Recently, OFA has sharpened its pitch--behind-the-scenes movement building wasn't much use in the here and now. In January, Plouffe had told The New York Times that OFA was "not a ‘call or e-mail your member of Congress' organization." But on October 20, OFA sponsored a massive day of calls to Congress on health care, creating the kind of media buzz the group had failed to generate over the summer.

Still, strategic tinkering aside, the group faces a serious dilemma over the long run: Can a grassroots organization run in the top-down style of a political machine really accomplish much--let alone change the terms of political debate on any given issue? On OFA's website, BarackObama.com, I found Brenda King, a travel agent in Cincinnati who's been running a one-woman p.r. shop for health-care reform. She sends people placards to put on their cars and is publicizing a nationwide "honk-and-wave" on October 31. "I'm saying, well, somebody's got to do something on our side," she told me. "And nobody was doing anything." Looking for help, she talked to her state OFA chapter, which voiced support but couldn't provide material assistance without clearance from higher up. "The problem with OFA," she says, "is they have a strict thing that they have to follow."

Lydia DePillis is a reporter-researcher at The New Republic.

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

Check out my blog:

Thoughts From Podunk

http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/

Blocking Escalation Not Good Enough

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

Sent: Thursday, October 22, 2009 10:27 PM

To: 'David Swanson'

Cc: 'David Shove'; 'teresa_detrempe@klobuchar.senate.gov'; 'elizabeth_reed@levin.senate.gov'; 'keith@keithellison.org'

Subject: Re: Blocking Escalation Not Good Enough

David,

I am glad--- and appreciate--- you have spoken your mind very forcefully and taken this initiative encouraging this action (see below).

I am sending this around for others to mull over and hopefully act on.

I do think you are missing one important point that needs to be addressed because it is so basic and fundamental to any kind of democracy and we never seem to get around to discussing this:

“Accountability”

In addition to what you are proposing; I hope you will consider the issue of “accountability.”

In my opinion, there are two ways progressives can enforce “accountability” from these politicians:

1. Tell them in no uncertain terms---

A. No peace; no votes.

B. No real health care reform; no votes.

2. We need to get progressive peace and health care candidates to challenge all of the pro-war candidates in the caucuses, conventions and the primaries; and, if need be, run as independents on a platform of peace and health care in the general election.

There is no way in hell that in any country where the vast majority of the people want two things so badly--- peace and health care--- that these dirty wars should continue while the American people are denied health care.

For those who don’t want to criticize Obama and the Democrats, they still have a responsibility to move these issues forward without compromise coming from their lips before the battle even begins--- as you point out, this is an invitation--- a situation, if you will--- where you give into these warmongers and insurance companies by giving them one little inch and they take the proverbial country mile.

It is interesting that it is those politicians who keep voting to continue these wars while denying the American people health care who advise the anti-war and health care advocates that they need to compromise in order to maintain respectability.

And then, even on the “left,” we have these muddle-headed middle class intellectuals who are going around yelling “ultra-leftists” at anyone who dares to advocate the “radical” idea that democracy is based upon “accountability” and all the while they talk about how we need to fend off the danger from the “right” when nothing can be more reactionary than waging unconstitutional, illegal and unjust wars by squandering tax-payers’ dollars on death and destruction rather than providing health care to people for free.

Our union Organizing Council and our associated Organizing Committees were among the first to take a stand against the war in Iraq and then against the war in Afghanistan and the senseless carnage now taking place in Pakistan… this region of the world is just waiting to explode in massive violence and destruction as a result of the animosities, injustices and the human indignities spread and fostered by the United States government which might just as well be taking the resources of our country--- the wealth created by workers--- and dumping this wealth into the ocean… at least if this were to be done people would not be dying.

However, I think it has become obvious to the overwhelming majority of the American people that they have come to recognize that if their government has these kinds of resources to waste on such unjust wars, that this government can provide the best health care in the world for its own people without further enabling insurance companies to dig their greedy Wall Street fingers further into the public till as the merchants of death and destruction do.

If we can join together the people’s struggles for peace and health care a very powerful coalition could be forged that neither Barack Obama nor any member of congress would dare to oppose.

Again, the demand for “accountability” is primary, in my opinion, to forging such a massive coalition.

“Warriors for peace and justice” demanding “accountability” is what we need.

Our votes are too precious to continue throwing away on candidates who imply they are for peace and real health care reform to get elected; then turn around and wage wars with our tax-dollars which we thought would be ear-marked for health care reform, not health insurance reform.

Obama is a darn good health insurance salesman; Wall Street coupon clippers are smiling as the children die.

Thanks for your efforts;

Yours in solidarity in the struggle,

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



Blocking Escalation Not Good Enough

http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/47250

By David Swanson

Why is it that every time we elect "peace" candidates we defund the peace movement, stop calling for an end to wars, and limit our demands exclusively to opposing war escalations?

In 2006 we voted into Congress the candidates who looked most likely to end the war in Iraq. We congratulated ourselves on a job well done. Then we mildly urged them not to escalate the war they'd been elected to end, and they escalated it anyway.

In 2008 we voted into Congress and the White House the candidates who looked most likely to end the war in Iraq. Candidate Obama promised to pull out two brigades per month for sixteen months. Here we are in month 10 and that withdrawal has yet to begin. And what in the name of all that is true, good, and free-of-hope are we doing about it? Not a god damned thing.

Meanwhile Obama promised, much less noisily, to escalate a war in Afghanistan and has done so with no resistance, even as the American people have (at least in polls) turned against it. Now party leaders in Congress have given Obama the go-ahead for a larger escalation, and what have we done?

To begin with we've accepted the terms of the debate that our government officials always impose on us following an election: Are you for an escalation or do you think the current troop/mercenary levels are adequate? There is no room in that debate for arguing that the entire enterprise is illegal, barbaric, self-destructive, and must be immediately replaced with civilized acts of aid and diplomacy.

Of course we should oppose an escalation, just as we should prefer a "public option" to no healthcare reform at all. But self-censoring our demand for single-payer shifts the debate so far right that we can't even pass a public option. And self-censoring our demand for an end to wars shifts the debate to a point where the middle ground becomes an escalation of half the largest size anyone proposes -- and the war in Iraq is not even mentioned.

Well-meaning peace groups are pointlessly urging us to lobby the president, and are publicly whipping congress members on the following items: sponsorship of a bill that would require some sort of non-binding exit plan for Afghanistan if actually passed by the House and Senate and signed by the president, and sponsorship of a bill that would deny funding for an escalation in Afghanistan if actually passed by the House and Senate and signed by the president. But getting either of those bills through the Senate is going to be significantly more difficult than getting the House to stop funding the wars, and thus far no organizations have begun building a public list of House members committed to voting No on war money.

In June, because all the Republicans were voting No on the war money for their own crazy reasons, we only needed 39 Democrats to vote No to block it, and we managed to get 32. We could easily line up 39 right now if we worked at it. Then we could begin building from there in the direction of 218. Even if all you wanted to oppose was escalation, the way to actually do so would be to build a whip list of House members committed to voting No on war funding bills that did not limit troop levels in Afghanistan to the desired level. Nobody is doing that. The next supplemental spending bill will probably come by spring, and it'll come sooner the greater the escalation, but peace coalitions tell me they think it's smarter not to prepare for such fights ahead of time.

FireDogLake, which hosted our whip list in June, is fully immersed in healthcare struggles. United for Peace and Justice and a new anti-escalation coalition have both refused to host a list of congress members committed to voting No on war funding or even escalation funding. So, I'm going to provide, not a replacement for the anti-escalation campaigns, but a necessary addition to them. I'm going to post a list at the top of http://afterdowningstreet.org and encourage you to ask these 32 heroes from back in June (plus a very short list of Republicans) whether they are committed to voting against further funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Please phone them at (202) 224-3121 and post your responses on the website.

Tammy Baldwin
Michael Capuano
John Conyers
Lloyd Doggett
Donna Edwards
Keith Ellison
Sam Farr
Bob Filner
Alan Grayson
Raul Grijalva
Michael Honda
Marcy Kaptur
Dennis Kucinich
Barbara Lee
Zoe Lofgren
Eric Massa
Jim McGovern
Michael Michaud
Donald Payne
Chellie Pingree
Jared Polis
Jose Serrano
Carol Shea-Porter
Brad Sherman
Jackie Speier
Pete Stark
John Tierney
Nikki Tsongas
Maxine Waters
Diane Watson
Peter Welch
Lynn Woolsey

Ron Paul
Walter Jones



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

Check out my blog:

Thoughts From Podunk

http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/

The new normal

Following this essay appearing in the new on-line "People's World" are my comment and a comment from Rosalio Munoz, Betty Smith and others.


The new normal

http://www.peoplesworld.org/the-new-normal#PageComment_988

by: Sam Webb



October 21 2009


Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan Chase are back to the "old normal." Profits are soaring - $3.2 billion and $3.6 billion respectively in the third quarter. Bonuses of $23 billion (yes, I got it right - 23,000,000,000 bucks) are in the pipeline for their managers and traders. Their field of competitors has thinned. And these leeches have morphed from "too big to fail" to "much too big" to fail.

In the meantime, the rest of us are fast-forwarding to the "new normal." Let me explain.

A year ago the old model of capitalist accumulation (profit making) and right-wing political governance, resting on the rise of finance, mountains of debt, record levels of inequality, unsustainable global economic imbalances, and successive bubbles in real and fictitious assets came crashing down - not with a whimper, but with a bang that triggered an economic tsunami.

The U.S economy imploded, throwing people out of their jobs and homes, closing family farms, evaporating pension funds and savings, shuttering more plants and factories, and devastating cities and towns. Much the same occurred elsewhere in the world.

A complete collapse of the economy was dodged, but the crisis was the worst since the Great Depression and isn't yet over. Unemployment levels, for example, are still rising. Reliable forecasts have joblessness climbing to nearly 11 percent officially in the United States.

Moreover, the prospects for a quick and robust recovery seem dim. Some economists, including mainstream thinkers, argue that economic stagnation is just as likely as a vigorous recovery.

In their view, the economy could operate at sub-normal levels in terms of growth, capacity utilization, employment, and income for an extended period of time. Or to put it differently, the tendencies toward stagnation are stronger than the tendencies toward full recovery.

Interestingly, this insight isn't new:

"It is an outstanding characteristic of the economic system in which we live that ... it seems capable of remaining in a chronic condition of sub-normal activity for a considerable period without any marked tendency either towards recovery or towards complete collapse."

The author is British economist John Maynard Keynes, the quote is from his masterpiece, "The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money", and the year is 1936. Keynes' insight, however, fell out of favor among traditional economists with the resumption of vigorous growth in the core capitalist countries following WW II.

Ironically, it was Marxist economists, and especially Paul Sweezy and Harry Magdoff, who further theorized this dynamic of U.S. capitalism during this period.

But in the wake of the present economic crisis, Keynes' notion of long-term sub-par economic performance is reentering the mainstream dialogue, but clothed with a new name - "the new normal."

In the "new normal" universe, conditions for a fresh round of capital accumulation and economic growth exist on the supply side of the equation. Because of the depth and scale of the current downturn, inefficient plant, equipment, and businesses have been destroyed, a plentiful pool of unemployed wage labor is now available, the price of labor power (wages/salaries) is cheaper, interest rates are low, and economic power is further concentrated and centralized in the hands of fewer industrial, service and financial corporations.

But on the demand side of the equation, conditions for accumulation (profit making) are far less favorable. Demand (consumption and investment, domestic and global), and again because of the economic crisis (evaporation of wealth, layoffs, foreclosures, wage implosion, mountains of debt to be paid off, etc.) is insufficient relative to the productive capacity of the global economy. And there are many reasons to think that this will not change in the near or medium term.

Indeed, it is hard to see where the new dynamism to power economic growth, employment, research, and broadly shared income gains will come from other than a government financed and directed economic development project. Such a project should be sustainable, green, maximize worker and community input and decision making, and dynamic enough to give a growth impulse to the whole economy.

An obvious objection that will arise among friends, as well as foes, is that the federal deficit is out of control now and a project of this size goes way beyond the scope of government and would represent a massive intrusion into people's lives.

The federal deficit is at record levels and there are dangers to be sure, but nothing as big as the danger (and costs) of long-term stagnation to the American people. Moreover, some of the financing could come from a reduction in the military budget and a shift of taxes to Wall Street and corporations.

As for government intrusion, federally directed development could encourage municipal and regional authorities to plan and organize major projects as well as channel investment dollars to small and medium sized businesses and worker/community cooperatives.

Whether a developmental project like this sees the light of day depends only in a small way on its feasibility and necessity. In a larger sense it rests on which of the competing sides (there are more than two on the political landscape) are able to frame the national conversation and win active popular majorities to its vision.

At this moment, political strength, moral authority, and public opinion tilts in the direction of the new administration and the broader movement that elected him, but not to the extent that it is able to win such radical economic reforms, assuming for the moment that everyone sees their necessity.

That task lies ahead.



Comments

By:

Alan L. Maki
Co-Chair
Lake-of-the-Woods Communist Club



While the next lesson or step as suggested is very important and should figure prominently in what we do, even more important is that Barack Obama and the Democrats be told in no uncertain terms that they will not be receiving our votes unless they come through with what people expected from them when they went to the polls in the last election.

These people have to be held accountable right here and now.

It is nothing short of criminal that Barack Obama and the Democrats have refused to legislate a moratorium on home foreclosures and evictions. There is precedent for this action. It is a moral imperative and a political responsibility to the American people who are being victimized by Wall Street coupon clippers, parasites and all kinds of rapacious vultures, not least of which are the mortgage bankers and the health insurance industry.

The majority of the people who went to the polls did so looking to end these dirty wars--- not ten or fifty or one-hundred years from now; but now.

This sentiment can be summed up and is reflected in: Not another death; not another dime.

The majority of the people in this country went to the polls in anticipation of peace and real progressive health care reform of people before profits; not Obama's bogus health insurance reform or any kind of a scam called "the public option." People have spoken very clearly, they want single-payer universal health care and a vastly expanded public health care sector that is publicly financed, publicly administered with delivery of health care services along the lines of VA or the Indian Health Service... neither of which Obama and the Democrats have fully funded as required by their constitutional mandate.

Let's get specific here.

People have real problems requiring real solutions.

Most Americans are feeling just the way this labor leader feels as quoted in the Boston Globe:

“It’s beyond belief to me,’’ said Robert Haynes, president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO. While Obama and Congress inherited “a big mess’’ from Bush, Haynes said, “there aren’t any excuses anymore. If you can’t deliver health care, and you can’t deliver jobs, and if you can’t deliver [card check legislation] , and you can’t figure out how to take care of the working people of this great city and country, you don’t deserve to stay in office.’’

The time has come to stop talking in vague terms about "developing programs" for the "next election" and this so-called "coalition" without leaders and a "coalition" without a name.

The time has come to organize a "people's lobby" along the lines of "the people's front" with real people as its leaders and real people and organizations among the members and to go to Barack Obama and the Democrats and tell them:

End these dirty wars. Use the money to finance real health care reforms along the lines people have been demanding and anticipated they would be getting in return for their votes... instead of maintaining 800 U.S. military bases on foreign soil dotting the globe, create 800 public health care centers across the United States serving as the bases of support for the required 30,000 local community health care centers. This would create millions of jobs at good pay with good benefits with the health care workers employed in these centers becoming government employees.

We are talking about something so fundamental and basic to anything passing itself off as democracy--- accountability--- that a broad mobilization of the American people, especially the working class, in support of these demands will be a tremendous rebuff to reaction and the ultra-right posing threats to our now fragile democracy... such as it is; not at all cracked up to what it is claimed to be in the first place.

Working people who produce every bit of the tremendous wealth in this country have never had a seat at the table when it comes to the real decision-making and this needs to change; and change quickly if we are going to save ourselves from this road to ruin as capitalism is on the skids to oblivion taking us all along down the short bumpy, dangerous ride on the way to perdition.

Peace really is the key to health care reform... our call should be for public policies and programs--- including health care--- that put people before profits.

What is required is not coming up with issues and devising programs... the issues and the solutions are already part of the national dialog taking place in "the public square."

What needs to be done is bring together everyone and anyone and the organizations they belong to in a very broad people's front... or people's lobby... coalition... call it what you will.

Wall Street is our enemy.

No peace; no votes.
No health care; no votes.

Democracy is all about accountability.

Not only about accountability from Obama and the Democrats; but, there is the matter of accountability from those who claim to be the leaders of organizations from the labor unions to the Communist Party when it comes to understanding and articulating "What Needs To Be Done."

Alan L. Maki
Co-Chair;
Lake-of-the-Woods Communist Club
Minnesota

Posted by Alan L. Maki, 21/10/2009




By:

Rosalio Munoz
Board Member
Los Angeles Workers' Center






One of the next steps following up on the thrust of the article is developing a legislative agenda pointing in this direction for the 2010 elections. Such a program should appropriately identify and project itself as solidly with the union movement. It should aim to build the biggest, broadest participation in the ongoing legislative struggles and all aspects of the election. Perhaps a certain focus on young workers.

Posted by Rosalio Munoz, 21/10/2009



By:

Jim Lane
Writer for People's World


•This commentary comes just as we Texas communists finished, for the time being, posting our programmed lessons on basic economics. If our assumptions are correct, then it seems that even a massive government intervention on the side of jobs and workers' rights would only be a stopgap in capitalism's staggering downturn.

A demand that really seems worth re-inventing is "30 for 40 with no cut in pay" to get the workweek lowered to 30 hours while maintaining present pay scales. Is there any other serious idea that would address long-term unemployment? Most of the missing jobs either went overseas or were eaten by automation. At any rate, they aren't coming back.

Productivity hit 6.4% last quarter, and has generally risen every quarter since it's been recorded. Albert Einstein is supposed to have said in 1934, "Only a fraction of the abvailable human labor in the world is now needed for the production of the total amount of consumption goods necessary to life. Under a completely laissez-faire economic system, this fact is bound to lead to unemployment."

Let's cut the workweek!
Posted by Jim Lane, 21/10/2009



By:

Betty Smith
CPUSA and International Publishers
http://www.intpubnyc.com/

•Generally good, but it should say "some" Marxist
economists....Lumer, Perlo et al didn't do this...and they
get little notice or credit for writings that still stand up
well. We've even had requests to reprint Lumer's
"Poverty, Its Roots and Future" as one of the best
explanations ever, even though his dollar-and-cents
figures are of course out of date.

Also, when do we develop a program to meet this
crisis? General descriptions don't put anyone to work.

Posted by Betty Smith, 22/10/2009

And this is from the Associated Press...


By:

Alan L. Maki

•I find this particular comment to be very interesting and note that it has apparently stymied further discussion on Sam Webb's most important article concerning "the new normal" which is Wall Street speak for its current campaign to use this capitalist economic crisis as an excuse to drive down the wages and over-all standard of living of the working class with Barack Obama's and the Democrat's help.

I know a lot of Terrie's; I don't know if I know this particular Terrie who posted this comment, or not:


"•For the record, I know communists. I work with communists and Alan Maki is no communist.

Posted by Terrie, 21/10/2009 11:01pm (11 hours ago) "

What I find interesting is that Terrie would post something like this without taking issue with the ideas and point-of-view being expressed.

I have circulated this article by Sam Webb quite widely as the Editor of PW requests be done with articles from the new People's World because I think this article merits a great deal of discussion.

In "Terrie's" eyes I may not be a "Communist" like the communists she knows.

But, perhaps "Terrie" would like to explain just what me being a communist--- or not, in her view--- has to do with saving the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant and two-thousand to 2,500 jobs in the process?

After all, whether or not I am a communist ---in "Terrie's" opinion; I am not the one implementing economic policies in this country with the intent of establishing "the new normal" as a way of life for working people for many years to come. Nor, do I make any of the decisions involved in closing mines, mills and plants and tossing workers by the millions out into the streets. Nor do I make any of the decisions to reduce the work week of employees from 40 hours to 30 hours with an even more drastic cut in pay and loss of all benefits including health care which many public employees at township, county, city and state governments are being subjected to.

I have sent "Terrie's" comment and this essay by Sam Webb and all the comments along to a number of Minnesota state legislators and to a number of people in the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party and the casino managements we are fighting in our efforts to win living wages and a smoke-free working environment with the full protections other workers enjoy under state and federal labor laws ... I am sure that "Terrie's" comments will enable them to sleep tonight.

And, hopefully, whether or not I am a Communist--- in "Terrie's opinion"--- will not deter her from becoming a "warrior for justice" fighting for peace, real health care reform and the rights and improved livelihoods and standard of living for all working people...

And for socialism as an alternative to this rotten capitalist system now on the road to oblivion--- which has Wall Street dragging us down the very short, bumpy, winding and dangerous road to perdition where we will rest in a "new normal" state.

At first I didn't think that "Terrie's" comment had anything to do with Sam Webb's essay on "the new normal;" on second thought, perhaps "Terrie's" comment has a great deal to do with this essay on "the new normal."

And, speaking of the "profits in the pipeline" which Sam Webb brings forward in his commentary and analysis of "the new normal;" I have a suggestion for another article for the People's World.

It would be nice to see an article about the Enbridge Pipeline... the huge pipeline that will carry the oil in the tar-sands of Alberta to the Great Lakes region of the United States for processing... because, in addition to the environmental concerns raised in the PWW, there is the matter of lack of enforcement of affirmative action for Native American workers in hiring for this pipeline construction... might this "new normal" include not enforcing affirmative action guidelines for hiring, too?

"Terrie;" for the record--- I will let the views I express speak for me as to what kind of "communist" I am... did you ever consider I just might not want to be the kind of "communist" like the "communists" you know and work with?

Posted by Alan L. Maki, 22/10/2009




Higher jobless rates could be new normal

By TOM RAUM (AP) – 2 days ago

WASHINGTON — Even with an economic revival, many U.S. jobs lost during the recession may be gone forever and a weak employment market could linger for years.

That could add up to a "new normal" of higher joblessness and lower standards of living for many Americans, some economists are suggesting.

The words "it's different this time" are always suspect. But economists and policy makers say the job-creating dynamics of previous recoveries can't be counted on now.

Here's why:

_ The auto and construction industries helped lead the nation out of past recessions. But the carnage among Detroit's automakers and the surplus of new and foreclosed homes and empty commercial properties make it unlikely these two industries will be engines of growth anytime soon.

_ The job market is caught in a vicious circle: Without more jobs, U.S. consumers will have a hard time increasing their spending; but without that spending, businesses might see little reason to start hiring.

_ Many small and midsize businesses are still struggling to obtain bank loans, impeding their expansion plans and constraining overall economic growth.

_ Higher-income households are spending less because of big losses on their homes, retirement plans and other investments. Lower-income households are cutting back because they can't borrow like they once did.

That the recovery in jobs will be long and drawn out is something on which economists and policy makers can basically agree, even as their proposals for remedies vary widely.

Retrenching businesses will be slow in hiring back or replacing workers they laid off. Many of the 7.2 million jobs the economy has shed since the recession began in December 2007 may never come back.

"This Great Recession is an inflection point for the economy in many respects. I think the unemployment rate will be permanently higher, or at least higher for the foreseeable future," said Mark Zandi, chief economist and co-founder of Moody's Economy.com.

"The collective psyche has changed as a result of what we've been through. And we're going to be different as a result," said Zandi, who formerly advised Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and now is consulted by Democrats in the administration and in Congress,

Even before the recession, many jobs had vanished or been shipped overseas amid a general decline of U.S. manufacturing. The severest downturn since the Great Depression has accelerated the process.

Many economists believe the recession reversed course in the recently ended third quarter and they predict modest growth in the nation's gross domestic product over the next few years. Yet the unemployment rate is currently at a 26-year high of 9.8 percent — and likely to top 10 percent soon and stay there a while.

"Many factors are pushing against a quick recovery," said Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the labor-oriented Economic Policy Institute. "Things will come back. But it's going to take a long time. I think we will likely see elevated unemployment at least until 2014."

At best, many economists see an economic recovery without a return to moderate unemployment. At worst, they suggest the fragile recovery could lose steam and drag the economy back under for a double-dip recession.

"We will need to grind out this recovery step by step," President Barack Obama said earlier this month.

Obama and congressional Democrats are having a hard time agreeing on how to keep the recovery going and help millions of unemployed workers — short of another round of stimulus spending amid rising voter alarm over soaring federal deficits.

So far, they've been unable to win even a simple three-month extension of unemployment insurance for people in states with jobless rates above 8.5 percent.

The extension easily passed the House earlier this month but is bogged down in the Senate over disputes over which states would get the funds. Hundreds of thousands of people have already lost their benefits or are about to lose them.

The White House credits the president's $787 billion stimulus plan passed in February for keeping job losses from becoming even worse. Since Obama took office in January, the economy has lost 3.4 million jobs.

Republicans argue that the stimulus program has not worked as a job producer and is a waste of tax money. And last week, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce launched a multimillion advertising campaign to celebrate small business entrepreneurs — and to argue that further government intervention will not spur permanent job growth.

Chamber leaders called for creation of more than 20 million new private-sector jobs over the next decade, saying it's needed to replace jobs lost in the recession and to keep pace with population growth.

"The government can support a few jobs in the short-run" while free enterprise is the only system that can create 20 million of them, said Thomas Donohue, the chamber president.

To many economists, such a goal seems unreachable given today's altered economic landscape.

"It's a new normal that U.S. growth is going to be anemic on average for years. Right now, the prospect is bleak for anything other than a particularly high unemployment rate and a weak jobs-creating machine," said Allen Sinai, president of Decision Economics Inc. He says he doubts that unemployment will dip below 7 percent anytime soon.

Many economists consider a jobless rate of 4 to 5 percent as reflecting a "full employment" economy, one in which nearly everyone who wants a job has one. After the 2001 recession the rate climbed to 5.8 percent in 2002 and peaked at 6.3 percent in 2003 before easing back to 4.6 percent for 2006 and 2007.

Will unemployment ever get back to such levels?

"I wouldn't say never. But I do think it's going to be a long time," said Bruce Bartlett, a former Treasury Department economist and the author of the book "The New American Economy: The Failure of Reaganomics and a New Way Forward."

"The linkage between growth in the economy and growth in jobs is not what it was. I don't know if it's permanently broken or temporarily broken. But clearly we are not seeing the sort of increase in employment that one would normally expect," said Bartlett.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.