...without Unions what you get is corporate feudalism. And that ain't good for anyone, but a handful of CEO's.

Valdron, that's right. The unions - warts and all - were the only counterforce against unrestrained corporate power, which is pretty much what we have now. Most of the politicians, as well as the advisors and strategists in both parties, are virtually owned by business interests.

Posted at September 4, 2006 2:46 PM in response to The Brilliance of Labor

Howard, after you've read enough of Ellen's comments you tend to come to the conclusion that she doesn't always make a whole hell of a lot of sense, and that she is, in her own opinion, an expert on absolutely everything. I have taken the vow: I never respond to her comments. Your comments? Well, that's another thing entirely. THIS DOES NOT COUNT AS A REPLY TO ELLEN. ;o)

Posted at August 31, 2006 2:54 PM in response to Katrina and the American “Model”

Here's how the Bushies do it. They defund federal agencies; then they appoint incompetent cronies to run them. When the agencies fail, they say, "You see; government doesn't work. We have to turn this over to the private sector; they can do it better." Then they give the contracts to their cronies - those who fund their election campaigns. The crony companies are incompetent too; funds disappear, never to be seen again; the job doesn't get done, but, strangely, no one is called to account.

That, my friends, is the capsule account of the Bush "conservative idealogy" of today.

Posted at August 31, 2006 1:38 PM in response to Katrina and the American “Model”

Boyd, great post. I, too, am thrilled if "man-made disaster" is becoming a talking point, because it's the truth. If New Orleans is so dangerous, how did it manage to survive for 288 years?

America, New Orleans could be your place if you live where hurricanes can strike, if you live in a fault zone for earthquakes, if you live in tornado alley, if you live where a river could flood you out, if you live near a dam. It could be you. As the New Orleans blogger G Bitch says:

Posted at August 29, 2006 1:03 PM in response to Unmitigated Crap?

The storm killed Mississippians, the faulty levees killed New Orleanians.

Mark, that is exactly right. It is the last in a long list of abuses perpetrated on New Orleans by the US Corps of Engineers. And, yes, the media mostly ignore that. And, yes, some folks will never accept that as the truth.

Moving on. I attended the Rising Tide Bloggers Conference and thought it was excellent. Congratulations to all of you who put it together.

Posted at August 29, 2006 12:20 PM in response to How much will you hear about the Levees?

Hi CVill Dem, I got tired of certain annoying commenters and stayed away for a while. Hey, sometimes I even agreed with them, but they were just know-it-alls and had an amswer for everything and knew better than everyone. Thanks for the answer.

It's beyond me how anyone can think that taking away baby food and baby formula and old ladies' shampoo and toothpaste is going to make us safer.

Posted at August 11, 2006 6:32 AM in response to How Much Bush Stupidity Can We Take?

Does anyone know if the cargo on passenger planes screened at all - any kind of screening?

Posted at August 10, 2006 6:12 PM in response to How Much Bush Stupidity Can We Take?

So when I fly, (I am an old lady of 72) I can't carry my toothpaste or my shampoo on the plane, but nobody knows what dangerous liquids might be in the cargo on my plane. Is that how it works?

Posted at August 10, 2006 3:39 PM in response to How Much Bush Stupidity Can We Take?

I think it’s fair to call Vietnam a "tragic misstep" within a larger Cold War

Not fair at all. It was as misbegotten an undertaking, from the beginning, as the Iraq War. 58,000 US troops dead and untold numbers of Vietnamese dead for what?

Read the history of Vietnam, and it’s hard not to be somewhat sympathetic -- within the limits of what men like McNamara knew and assumed,

Sorry, I've read about it, and I lived through it, and the folks who got us into that war were every bit as misguided as the crew who got us into Iraq. Vietman was a tragic, stupid war, just as Iraq is a tragic, stupid debacle. The two wars were not parallels in every way, but they were both enormously misguided enterprises.

As for the Replicans and their attempts to spin every failure into gold, they may be losing their magic touch.

Posted at August 10, 2006 12:44 PM in response to Vietnam Analogies Everywhere!

Despite What Josh Marshall put up on the front page, at least one of those arrested in Miami, Narseal Batiste, appears to be a Muslim, according to his father. Here's the text of an email which I sent to Josh earlier today:

Apparently the leader of the group, Narseal Batiste, had become a Muslim,
according to his father, who lives in Marksville, Louisiana. However, the
religion that the group practiced sounds like a very mixed bag.

What about the administrations statements that "we're fighting them over there, so we don't have to fight them over here"? Why is no one talking about that?

Here's a link to the article in the Baton Rouge "Morning Advocate",in which the
reporter interviews the Rev. Narcisse Batiste, the father of Narseal Batiste.

Here's what Narcisse Batiste says of his son:

But several years ago, Narseal Batiste decided to convert to the Muslim faith. His father wasn’t happy.

“I counseled him. I asked him questions,” Narcisse Batiste said. “He said they were very active and teaching him the Holy Quran. He said, ‘Daddy, it’s strictly about God,’ so I backed off about that. I didn’t like it, but he wasn’t in my house. He was of age; he was married already. I didn’t have control no more. I didn’t fight with him about it. But I did tell him he shouldn’t change.”

Posted at June 24, 2006 1:37 PM in response to News of the Day