The Labor Movement is full of incidents like the Virden Massacre. Haymarket, Paine Lumber (Oshkosh), the Pullman Strike, Cripple Creek, Ludlow and Columbine (CO), are only a few.

I strongly encourage you to lay your hands on a copy of "Clarence Darrow for the Defense" by Irving Stone (if you can find a copy). It's a great biography, and it takes you through so much of the history of the Labor Movement at the turn of the century. A really compelling read, and yet embarrassing to those of us who grow fat and lazy - too fat and too lazy to stand up to the owners and say "enough is enough" in these days when everything the workers fought for is being torn apart.

Keep the faith, oleeb. And please stay in touch! It would be especially sad to lose contact with you.

Anyway, thanks for the nice comments, amike. You spark a few good memories. I have previously worked contracts that took me into the Mpls and St. Paul Post Offices. The Mpls downtown facility is an adventure with a 53 foot trailer, especially the old docks with the pillars and the outside wall. Beautiful setting, though, with the Hennepin Avenue Bridge (Beautiful piece of architecture!) and the old Grain Belt sign and the river and all the rest.

One of my first jobs driving - when I was @19 years old - involved loading newspapers every Saturday night at the Mpls Star-Tribune. I would then travel north and cross at St. Croix Falls to deliver the Sunday paper to every town along Rte. 8 in northern WI as far as Ladysmith. Desolate highway. Nothing but drunks and deer - both of which could mess you up pretty quickly. But I've never seen stars like I saw on those clear nights when I'd pull over for a break, turn out the lights and just let my eyes adjust to take it all in.

I love The Cities. Lots of good memories.

What is needed are leaders who care a slight bit more about economic justice than they do about that next campaign bribe. The DLC of the Clintons (NAFTA, etc.) and Obama/Rahm don't quite get it - yet! They will - soon! - or forever be banished to the palookaville filled with those who pulled their punches when the other guys were landing roundhouse blows.

Want Peace? Work for Justice.

And the workers know this, deep down in their core. But the Dems continually pull their punches rather than do anything that might truly upset the monied owners.

The Dems are the hired professional gardeners who allow the weeds to overrun the place because they simply can't stand getting their fingers dirty digging at the roots. And we keep hiring them, only because the Republican alternative nurtures and supports weeds on purpose.

Either way, it doesn't offer a very pleasant result.

Actually, I am intrigued by what I see on your post. I may have to try it, but gotta' go to work soon. I'll be thinking about it as I drive down the road.

Mulligan? Me? Nah, I'm probably a whole lot more closely related to Kowalczyk. ;O)

Thanks for the kind words. I leave for work soon, and had to work last night, as well. It truly IS Labor Day, after all.

I put it to you that these workers, in general, will align with principles over pragmatism anytime. (See opening paragraphs)

Just once, let a principled liberal (or dare I say socialist?) leader rise up and catch fire with an offer to help these workers actually stick-it-in-the-neck of the Wall Street Bankers, and the Insurance Industry parasites, and the globalist corporations, and the crazed, anti-Constitutional, wholly discredited Republicans, and see just how quickly this whole Tea Party thing would turn, unleashed, and devour the hand that now holds them so closely.

But for so long as the Dems keep playing them for suckers, promising relief while acquiring only so much relief as their monied owners will allow, it is understandable that the workers treat them with contempt. Republicans insist there is no role for government in our lives. Dems legitimize the point by selling out "We the People" as their chosen DLC-Style election strategy.

Happy Labor Day.

Nah! Us "marines" have pretty good aim, after all.

Simper Pi, bro! (Not sure what that means, but I think it refers, somehow, to the radius of a circle jerk for the emotionally wretched. With pitchforks, prolly.)

In the 2010 reissue of "The Grapes of Wrath," the owners have somehow convinced the Okies that picking oranges in California is not only God's will for them, but that "Liberty" comes from surrendering everything to the owners - your house, your government, your wealth, and - perhaps most cruelly of all - even your pride.

Never have I seen the masses so hell-bent on working against their own self-interest.

Accidentally caught Gibbs a couple times beforehand, muttering almost verbatim the same talking point about a campaign promise kept. I guess he is really on to something there, given the standard this Administration has set for what it means to "keep their promise." After all, we got HCR, right? And we got financial reform, right? And we got economic stimulus, right? Never mind that it all amounts to all the "reforms" and pay-outs that the owners will allow, and nothing more. It's still "promises kept," according to these hucksters.

No, I didn't need to watch it. I can probably find out in the newspapers if he pretend-flew into the Oval Office at the controls of a jet fighter, or if he wore a flight suit, or if he unfurled a "Promises Kept" banner big enough to hide 50,000 "strategic janitors." (Love your wordplay, by the way!)

My mind reels at the opportunity cost we have experienced in all these "Promises Kept." No need to even look at legitimate HCR, Financial reform, economic recovery, or ending the wars. We've already done it all, right? Mission Accomplished!

And incredibly, they wonder why they have trouble stirring any excitement in their base. They play us for suckers, not knowing that the GOP has already cornered that market.

Armey sells the noose...

Title: "Tea for Tools"