Category: Politics

I was surprised when I saw that the AFL-CIO was backing SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act sponsored by the RIAA and MPAA.  I was able to find out the name of the AFL-CIO official, Paul Almeida,  testifying for the bill, and I sent him and email.  Below follows that exchange.

To: Paul Almeida
From: Michael Pellegrini
Subject: Sorry to see an AFL-CIO officer shilling for likes of the RIAA…

Sir:

I am an ILWU member. I’ve been involved in the union movement for over 30 years, working as an International Organizer, as a Business Rep, and have held elective positions.

I am appalled to find the AFL-CIO in bed with organizations like the RIAA and supporting SOPA. Continue reading “SOPA – Creating New Union Jobs? Naw…” →

There are some things you just never expect to see. Shrimp ice cream. World peace. An openly gay republican president.
Or, workers in the United States facing the loss of their collective bargaining rights.

“The right to bargain collectively is at the bottom of social justice for the worker, as well as the sensible conduct of business affairs. The denial or observance of this right means the difference between despotism and democracy.” Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in an address to the Senate, May 8, 1937.

These rights have been a mainstay of US labor law for nearly 80 years, first coming into being as part of Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation in the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 – later codified as the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).
Public employees gained bargaining rights somewhat later – in the case of Wisconsin, about 60 years ago.
Now the government didn’t just grant employees the right to organize out of benevolence; no, these rights were hard won with the blood of workers.
The 50 years leading up to Roosevelt’s New Deal were filled with costly and often exceptionally violent strikes. Many workers and not a few scabs died. Employers lost millions in productivity.

Continue reading “Union Busting In Wisconsin” →

One of the most asinine initiatives in Washington state this election has got to be 1082 – the initiative to privatize the state worker’s compensation system. The primary sponsor is the Building Industry Association of Washington – Dino Rossi’s erstwhile masters – and the large insurance companies. (Rossi is pictured at the right, with his head up his ass, as usual).

So far, the BIAW has spent a reported $500, 000 on its Yes-1082 campaign – a staggering sum of money. But it’s nothing compared to what they potentially can make if 1082 passes. Here’s a detailed look.

It’s all about offering better “case management” than Labor and Industries. Which translated, means screwing legitimate claimants – denying or delaying valid claims – just to save the insurance companies a buck.

Here’s a story about my experience with Safeco Insurances claims management practices.

But wait, there’s more: one of the main insurance companies that would take care of Worker’s Comp in Washington state if this passes is AIG.

That’s right, AIG – the company whose top notch management is so great that the US taxpayers had to come up with $85 billion to bail them out rather than have the company go bankrupt. The same AIG that, right after receiving the $85 billion bailout, sent their executives on a week-long retreat at the St Regis Resort in Monarch Beach California at the cost of $433,000 – of taxpayer money.

So let me get this straight – the BIAW wants to privatize the state Worker’s Comp system – to save us all money – and to carry out this task, they’re going to use AIG, the company that managed itself into bankruptcy, and sends its executives to $433,000 retreats at public expense?

Sure that sounds reasonable.

Spokane, WA (AP) – Perennial candidate for big business, Dino Rossi (R – Spokane), seen at right with his head up his ass, as usual, is off and running again, this time for the US Senate.

Foiled in his two recent attempts to claim the governorship of Washington state, Rossi decided to attempt to capture Patty Murray’s (D – Seattle) Senate seat this time.

“That bitch is going down!” Rossi was heard to have said last week, following a press conference. “All those homo liberals in Seattle are gonna eat their words. They stole the last governor’s election, now we’re gonna make ’em pay!”

Always popular with big business and conservative republicans, Rossi was the number one homeboy for the Building Industry Association of Washington in the last governor’s election. This time for his Senate campaign, he’s branched out and broadened his support to include right-wing religious nuts, greedy millionaires and other fringe lunatics.

Asked what his platform was going to be, if elected, Rossi said, “We’re gonna take the country back for the real Americans – the rich, white, Christian people like me. All those liberal homo assholes are gonna have to move back to California, or something. Yee-ha!”

Des Moines, IA (AP) – In a bold, audacious move, the Republican party today announced their dream ticket for the 2012 presidential elections – Sarah Palin and Christine O’Donnell.

Governor Palin, the failed vice-presidential candidate in the 2008 elections was elated. “I can see the capitol from my house,” she was heard saying.

In a joint press conference early today, Governor Palin and Ms O’Donnell announced the main points of their platform:

· Christianity will be made the state religion for the United States
· Abortion for any reason will be outlawed
· Corporate taxes will be reduced to 1% or $10, whichever is lesss
· And a whole lot of other important stuff

Continue reading “Go Sarah, GO!” →

I don’t generally read the Tacoma News Tribune. It’s a McClatchy “newspaper” – and I use that term loosely.

McClatchy rags all seem to tout the McClatchy line – they’re anti-labor, right-wing, rags with a very specific, narrow agenda. I guess you could say they’re the print equivalent of Fox News.

When McClatchy bought the TNT from the Baker family years ago, one of the first things they did was engineer the breaking of the newspaper’s union – pretty much just as they’ve done at most all the other McClatchy rags. That kinda set the tone for everything else.

I stopped reading the TNT – cancelled my subscription – when they came out with a story about longshore workers in Tacoma, about the longshore casual selection process. The story was quite biased and the editorial that followed was a sniveling, whiny piece of drivel – motivated by what was obviously the fact that the editor’s kid must not have gotten a casual card and the editor was pissed.

When you intimately know a subject – I am a longshoreman in Tacoma – then it’s easy to separate fact from fiction. The story about ILWU Local 23 was severely biased. And if the TNT promotes lies about that, then I have to figure the rest of their coverage is similarly biased.

So like I said, I quit subscribing.

I did pick up an occasional Sunday paper – mostly for the ads. And I continued to read the online version – for the local news.

Then a few months ago, the paper published yet another whiny, anti-labor editorial that was blatantly untrue and biased – and since then, I quit reading the online version.

Continue reading “Tacoma News Tribune – A Newspaper Only In Name” →

Editor’s note: We came within about an inch of this actually happening. Let’s not forget!

We’re lucky to have secured a pre-release excerpt from the new Time Magazine issue set to be on newsstands the week of December 21, 2009 – Time’s Person of the Year edition.

2009 Person of the Year

Selecting the Person of The Year is always a tough call, but given the recent political developments in the United States and the world generally, this year was somewhat easier and we were unanimous in picking George W, Bush as our 2009 Person of the Year.

It’s easily demonstratable that George W, Bush has made life much safer for God fearing Christians the world over, and on that basis alone, our choice for Person of the Year was easy.

In the turmoil following the terrorist bombing of the 2008 Democratic National Convention – which precipitated the loss of all the top Democratic Party leadership including nominee Senator Barack Obama – George W. Bush boldly took charge, suspending the presidential elections, declaring martial law.

By immediately rounding up all the godless heathen terrorists – Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, homosexuals, anarchists, liberals and the like – the United States is now finally enjoying the peace and safety we deserve.

Continue reading “Time Magazine 2009 Person of the Year – George W. Bush” →

Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, America was reborn today, when Barack Obama was sworn in as our 44th president.

After eight years of disgrace and shame, Obama’s election and inauguration rings in a new era for the United States. An era of hope, and of pride in our country.

Those qualities have been absent from our vocabularies for quite some time.
Since its inception in 1776, the ideals of America have shone forth like a beacon all across the world: freedom and equality; Liberty and justice for all; the land of the free and the home of the brave. Lofty ideals, those.

But these ideals were buried in a shameful, disgraceful, degrading time, where under George Bush, America became the world’s bully – invading a sovereign nation – Iraq – for no just reason or provocation; they were buried by George Bush manufacturing his phony “War On Terror” which was designed solely to expand and solidify his power base; they were buried when George Bush moved America closer and closer to becoming a police state, where we were tricked into giving up freedoms in the name of security; they were buried when George Bush tried and nearly succeeded in setting up an imperial presidency, where the president and his cronies were above the law of the land; they were buried when under George Bush, big business was turned loose to rape the environment and pillage the citizenry – all but destroying the US and world economies.

George Bush trashed it all.

But finally, the tide is turning.

Continue reading “America: Disgraced then Reborn” →

It really kills me how Bush has been touting his record in the last week or so, listing as one of his major accomplishments that since 9/11, there have been no further foreign terrorist attacks on US soil.

With his approval rating running at a meager 22% – the lowest rating in history for a sitting president, I guess Bush feels like he has to try and clear his name. But his arguments don’t stand up to scrutiny.

Let’s take a quick look backwards and examine the validity of Bush’s claims.
Okay, Bill Clinton served from 1993 till 2001. There was one actual foreign terrorist attack on the US during Clinton’s presidency – the February 26, 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center where six people were killed.

However, since the attack took place only a little over one month from the time Clinton took office, it’s kind of hard to lay the blame on his administration.

Okay, so who was the slacker president that let this 1993 bombing happen? Why it was daddy Bush, that’s who. George H.W. Bush served as president from 1989 to 1993.

Looking back from 1993, we find that, well – there really aren’t any other attacks by foreign terrorists on American soil.

Continue reading “George W. Bush – The Worst President Ever, Revisited” →

Well, we did it. Barack Obama got elected. Now the fun begins.

The stench of George Bush – America’s worst president ever – will linger for years and years. It’s hard to even begin to count the ways George Bush has screwed up the United States and the world.

Where do you begin? Our economy is in ruins, and the whole country is falling apart at the seams, with the world economy trailing behind us like a drunken sailor, bobbing and weaving, about to pass out. Then we’ve got wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a trillion dollar debt, the loss of many of our civil liberties in the name of freedom – and that’s just the beginning.

After eight years of a Bush republican, Neo-Con feeding frenzy – where Bush’s buddies spent day and night gorging themselves on the spoils of our labor, things are kind of rough. Bush and his buddies have raped and pillaged their way through much of our children’s inheritance. All that’s left are the smoking ruins.

I really don’t envy Obama – he’s coming into a pretty hopeless situation.

But at least I am heartened by the fact that I believe Obama is better qualified to turn the situation around than anyone else I can think of. To the extent anyone can, Obama has the best chance.

And more importantly, we’re not continuing to dig ourselves any deeper.
If John McCain had been elected, it just would have been a third term for Bush – no difference at all. That would have been a fate worse than death.

By electing Obama, we’ve prevented that – prevented further damage from being done.

Continue reading “Let The Games begin!” →