The Next Seattle-style Protest - Mark your calendars for Nov. 21-22. That's when it looks like the global justice protests will revive and converge on...
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August 30, 2003
Why California is Just Fine - A couple of conservative bloggers (here and here) are citing my article from last year, California: Where Democrats Can Be...
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Will Arnie Disown U.S. English? - (Thanks to Atrios for getting me going on this research). Want to know why the rightwing Wurlitzer is going after...
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More on Lies by Fox - In the original Fox News story smearing Bustamante, the article stated: "At a July 4 celebration in 1996, members of...
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GOP: Repudiate YAF - Where are the calls for Gubernatorial candidate Tom McClintock to repudiate his connections to the racist California Young Americans for...
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Dean Walks the Line - Dean is courting labor in the smartest way possible-- joining the picket line of Yale University strikers. Labor increasingly doesn't...
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Politics of the Minimum Wage - So here you have the minimum wage-- supported by 80% of the population and able to put tens of billions...
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El Plan de Philadelphia - Apparently there is another racist group that harks back to a founding document that "excluded Indians" from its body and...
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August 28, 2003
Why Job Losses from Min Wage Don't Matter - When the minimum wage is discussed, conservatives suddenly discover an overwhelming compassion for the poorest Americans who they see victimized...
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Faux News Smears Bustamante - FOXNews has jumped on the anti-MEChA bandwagon to smear Bustamante. Here you have conservatives saying that folks like Strom Thurmond...
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August 27, 2003
Yale on Strike - The staff at Yale University are on strike starting today. Go here for news on the strike and here for...
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More Pro-Worker Ill. Laws - Governor Blagojevich of Illinois just signed into law another series of pro-worker legislation, such as whisteblower protection, paid leave for...
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Who Pays for the Minimum Wage? - Whether the increased costs of the minimum wage are passed onto consumers or decrease business profits is as much disputed...
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Right Hypes Minor Labor Scandals - Nothing highlights conservative propaganda more than their continual efforts to hype minor isolated union scandals in order to draw attention...
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August 26, 2003
How Minimum Wage Increases Employment - Here's the problem with the simplistic argument that minimum wage laws automatically cut jobs. It's based on Economics 101 for...
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Perot Voters Ride Again - As manufacturing plants shut down in the face of global low-wage competition, a lot of former Bush voters are turning...
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Christianity: Religion of Peace? - It's always bizarre to hear commentators discussing "Islam" as a distinctly brutal religion compared to "Christianity" as if both had...
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Why Drug Corps Hate Drug Benefit - With the Feds talking about pumping hundreds of billions into drugs for the elderly, you'd think the drug companies would...
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Why Minimum Wage Beats EITC - Matthew Yglesias thinks the minimum wage is only the second best alternative to the Earned Income Tax Credit and other...
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August 22, 2003
Illinois Raises Minimum Wage - IL Governor Blagojevich signed a bill raising the state's minimum wage to $6.50 per hour over the next sixteen months....
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Flood the Zone Friday - Courtesy of Ezra Klein, here are instructions on how to Flood the Zone with letters to the media using Bush's...
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New Feature: Quick Hits - The new left column of my blog is a way for me to link to interesting blog posts or news...
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Numbers Up, Real Economy Down - The Index of Leading Indicators seems to be pointing to a modest recovery, growing 0.4% in July for the fourth...
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Dean's Pro-Labor Promises - I finally watched Dean's performance at the AFL-CIO Exec Council and I was duly impressed. His proposals for labor law...
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Trademark Amok - After the silliness of the Fox "Fair and Balanced" fight with Al Franken, you see an even more dangerous attack...
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August 18, 2003
Anti-Labor Utility Cause of Blackout? - Hardly surprising that anti-labor criminals also violate other laws protecting the public. Look at MCI. Look at Enron. And now...
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Why This "Recovery" is So Unstable - The Wall Street Journal writes that the real dangerous thing about this "recovery" is that the mortgage bubble and Federal...
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August 16, 2003
Blackouts: I Told You So - As my power was finally restored late last night, I could take small spiteful comfort in feeling like a prophet...
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Brilliant Non-strike by Verizon Union - This Village Voice article outlines how Verizon is being outmaneuvered in its goals of undermining labor standards for its workers....
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Racism and Liberals - Barry Freed in comments captures a bit of why I am suspicious about folks reactions to my "whiff of racism"...
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Why I Hate Zoning - Here is why zoning should be banned: Great Haven for Families, but Don't Bring Children-- although the economics driving this...
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Left Radio Spreads - 115 radio stations nationwide are directly broadcasting radio shows produced by the United Auto Workers. For all the worry about...
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Bringing California to New York - Mayor Bloomberg wants to change the ballot system in New York City to look like the upcoming California recall ballot--...
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August 11, 2003
Hit Pieces on Bustamante Start - For those that jumped on my rather gentle analysis of the problems with Arianna running, how about taking on this...
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Why Recall Will Improve California - Okay, this is like improvement in the form of cocaine, given the short-term framework, but the high could be long-lasting...
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Good That Bustamante is In - Bustamante is in the race, and other Democrats should stay out. He was elected to replace Davis in case of...
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Gentrification and Density - Larry Kastenbaum, as usual, has interesting comments on the housing thread of discussion, arguing: I'm in favor of legalizing higher...
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More on Red "Welfare States" - AngryBear had crunched some numbers on previous Tax Foundation reports on this issue, and came up with this graph. The...
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More on Housing in NYC - More Than 100,000 Families Live In Illegal Housing in New York City-- new study shows that the lack of new...
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Why Housing is So Expensive in NYC - When people complain about housing prices in New York City, many conservatives try to blame rent control, an odd villain...
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IL Governor Signs Pro-Labor Laws - Governor Blagojevich signed 4 pro-labor bills yesterday, mostly aimed at easing organizing among public employees by eliminating delays in recognition...
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Firebombing, Not Napalming Iraqis - More lies from the Bush administration. Back during the war, allegations were made that the US was using banned napalm...
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Why This "Recovery" is Different - This article from thestreet.com points out why the economic optimists' "jobs are a lagging indicator" mantra is missing the boat....
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Jobs Lost During Bush "Jobs Tour" - A fun blog called JobForJohn.com about an unemployed guy who decided to shadow the Bush "jobs tour" last week while...
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Wolfowitz v. Turkish Democracy - Since a military coup in the early 1980s (and repeatedly before that), the military in Turkey has exercised an antidemocratic...
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August 04, 2003
Bush States Are Spending Hogs - Here's a basic issue on taxation and spending. The politics is not about how much to spend-- since conservatives love...
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Unions Vie to Organize Hospitals - This is a good article about a bruising battle between two unions, SEIU and the California Nurses Association, to organize...
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Wal-Mart Doing Good for Environment - Seriously. This initiative by Wal-Mart to promote energy-saving light bulbs is a major environmental initiative. "Compact fluorescent" bulbs fit in...
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The Collapse of Tax Cut Politics - You can check out Progressive States rundown of progressive successes in the states on Tuesday, but I want to focus...
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November 08, 2006
A Good Night for Progressives - Let's be clear-- this wasn't just a good night for Democrats. It was a good night for progressives, and no...
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November 01, 2006
Labor Cold War Ends - New International Labor Federation - At the dawn of the Cold War, the international union movement divided up between the ICFTU, dominated by US and Western European unions, and the World Confederation of Labor, largely allied with the Soviet Union. It's taken a decade and a half, but the irrelevancy of that division will end today as the two federations merge-- bringing together 241 labor organizations from 156 countries representing 190 million workers. The new International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) is a good step for a labor movement looking to globalize itself in the taking on global capital power....
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- Valuing Families: State Legislative Models Brought to you by Progressive States and MomsRising What would a policy that really values families look...
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October 09, 2006
Emaciated Models, Labor Regulation - There's a bit of debate in the blogosphere around Spain's new law banning underweight models from the runways in that country. See Jordan, Amanda at Pandagon and Lindsay Beyerstein at Majikthise on whether this is an intrusive regulating violating free expression or something like that and whether OSHA safety regulations are appropriate. Just to throw my two cents in-- any broader OSHA approach would seem cumbersome and bureaucratically intrusive in a deep way. But the original Spanish proposal is brilliant in its high-impact, low-intrusion approach. Regulate only the fashion week type runways, where in a single spotcheck, models can be...
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October 03, 2006
Big loss for Labor-- - The National Labor Relations Board ruled today that a range of professionals are now deemed "supervisors" and thus lose all protections under labor law. That means if they say a positive thing about unions, their bosses are free to fire them at will. The AFL-CIO has more here. To put this denial of labor rights in perspective, 32 million workers or 25% of the workforce already have no right to form a union under federal, state or local law (see this GAO report and this ARAW summary). This includes: Supervisors 16.6 million workers, 8 million new supervisors plus traditional 8.6...
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