Leonid meteor shower? Not much here . . .

November 18, 2011

I haven’t seen anything this year (but I’ve not left the city,either).

1833 Leonid shower, from 7th Day Adventist book- Wikimedia

Wikipedia describes this old woodcut: "The most famous depiction of the 1833 actually produced in 1889 for the Adventist book Bible Readings for the Home Circle - the engraving is by Adolf Vollmy based upon an original painting by the Swiss artist Karl Jauslin, that is in turn based on a first-person account of the 1833 storm by a minister, Joseph Harvey Waggoner on his way from Florida to New Orleans."

There are a few spectacular shots of the Leonid meteors this year — got one you want to share?

Peak night was supposed to be November 17.  Astronomy Magazine’s website holds out some hope that you might catch a few shooting stars on November 18.  It’s worth a look, if you’ve got skies.

Next up:  Geminids, with a peak night of December 13, 2011.

Leave a Comment » | Astronomy, Science | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

“Fear the Boom and Bust,” Hayek vs. Keynes, a rap-off

November 18, 2011

NPR’s Morning Edition featured profiles of three figures in American economics this week, Ayn Rand, Friedrich von Hayek, and John Maynard Keynes.

The Keynes piece featured excerpts of the YouTube video below — so I’m reposting my original post of the rap from a year and a half ago.  It’s salient now, more than it was then.  However, a post at the blog of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) suggests Keynes’s legacy is much greater than this series lets on.  What do you think, Dear Reader?

This is really good.

It’s a pretty good rundown of the fight between Keynes and Hayek, conducted mostly after Keynes’ death in economics classrooms and central banks world wide.

Watch it, and hope for more soon, at Econstories, the blog of the guys who created the thing, John Papola and Russ Roberts.

Resources:

10 Comments | Economics, Politics | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Scalia and Thomas: Neither is Caesar’s wife

November 18, 2011

It sure looks like a breach of ethics, but James Oliphant writes in the Los Angeles Times that there is no formal rule prohibiting a sitting Supreme Court justice from hobnobbing with a law firm set to argue a gargantuan case in a few months.

The day the Supreme Court gathered behind closed doors to consider the politically divisive question of whether it would hear a challenge to President Obama’s healthcare law, two of its justices, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, were feted at a dinner sponsored by the law firm that will argue the case before the high court.

The occasion was last Thursday, when all nine justices met for a conference to pore over the petitions for review. One of the cases at issue was a suit brought by 26 states challenging the sweeping healthcare overhaul passed by Congress last year, a law that has been a rallying cry for conservative activists nationwide.

The justices agreed to hear the suit; indeed, a landmark 5 1/2-hour argument is expected in March, and the outcome is likely to further roil the 2012 presidential race, which will be in full swing by the time the court’s decision is released.

The lawyer who will stand before the court and argue that the law should be thrown out is likely to be Paul Clement, who served as U.S. solicitor general during the George W. Bush administration.

Clement’s law firm, Bancroft PLLC, was one of almost two dozen firms that helped sponsor the annual dinner of the Federalist Society, a longstanding group dedicated to advocating conservative legal principles. Another firm that sponsored the dinner, Jones Day, represents one of the trade associations that challenged the law, the National Federation of Independent Business.

Another sponsor was pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc, which has an enormous financial stake in the outcome of the litigation. The dinner was held at a Washington hotel hours after the court’s conference over the case. In attendance was, among others, Mitch McConnell, the Senate’s top Republican and an avowed opponent of the healthcare law.

The featured guests at the dinner? Scalia and Thomas.

One wishes for some of the usual journalistic “balancing,” with someone to note who among the crowd represents the opposite side in the case, and someone else to note that the dinner had a lot of other sponsors.  But one might get uneasy thinking that the usual journalistic balancing can’t be mustered here, and that Scalia and Thomas just don’t care about appearances of ethical violations, if they can get away with it.

Lower court judges have clear ethical guidance on the issue, counseling against such appearances:

It’s nothing new: The two justices have been attending Federalist Society events for years. And it’s nothing that runs afoul of ethics rules. In fact, justices are exempt from the Code of Conduct that governs the actions of lower federal judges.

If they were, they arguably fell under code’s Canon 4C, which states, “A judge may attend fund-raising events of law-related and other organizations although the judge may not be a speaker, a guest of honor, or featured on the program of such an event.“

Those rules do not apply to the nine people who sit on the nation’s highest court.

In those few times I lunched with Thomas and worked with him, when he staffed environmental issues for Indiana’s Missouri’s Sen. John Danforth, I found him an agreeable lunch companion and smart, but a great idealogue.  Had I known then what we all know now, I would have paid closer attention, asked different and sharper  questions, and kept notes.  And I might have dropped a few hints about history, and Caesar’s wife.  Supreme Court justices should consider themselves wedded to the American republic, and act accordingly.

What do you think, Dear Reader?  Was this a violation of ethics, even if not required by the rules that apply to Supreme Court justices?

6 Comments | Ethics, Health care, Law, Politics, U.S. Supreme Court | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

The library of non-pornography spam

November 18, 2011

Spam evolves.

Recent crackdowns on the mega-scale spammers cut spam intercepted by filters at a site like this one from several thousand per day to a few hundred, or even less.  Until recently, most of that spam came from pornography sites.  That meant that, with a few keyword searches of the mountains of spam, a weblog owner could separate out most of the bad stuff, and rescue the few legitimate messages that somehow ran afoul of the filters.

But, spam evolves.  In the past month Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub fell victim to one or several bot programs that insert non-pornographic comments into messages from hijacked or legitimate, but commercial, e-mail messages.  Our spam totals have crept upwards once again.  We get a thousand spam messages one more than one day a week now.  Because I hate to lose any legitimate comments, I try to sift through that stuff to find errors.  It’s frustrating.

No Spam sign from stock.xchng

Please, no spam comments here!

Today some poor bastard spammer’s machine broke down, and I got a comment in the spam filters that features many of the lines used by the bots — and you can see why spam filters might have difficulty with them.  Below is the bulk of that comment, featuring dozens of spam lines.  Instead of just one line that my spam filter would probably catch, I got — how many? — more than I bothered to count.  It all came in one comment.

One might be struck by the inanity of the work displayed here.  Some person, a thinking, breathing human being who probably hopes his or her children won’t hate him or her, bothered to write up all these bland, colorless lines, in hopes they would evade spam filters.  What a waste of human effort.  Oh, the humanity — or lack of it!

Can someone automate the process of purging these things from comments altogether?  I can only hope.  Here are the lines, for the record, more than 4,000 words intended solely to clog up the tubes of the internet and frustrate blog owners and blog readers.

The library of non-pornography spam

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–

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–

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If any one wants to be a successful blogger, then he/she must read this article, because it contains al} strategies related to that.

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—

It�s an awesome article for all the internet users; they will take benefit from it I am sure.

I always used to read article in news papers but now as I am a user of internet so from now I am using net for articles, thanks to web.

Hi friends, is there any other nice blog related to JavaScript articles, while this one is nice for PHP programming.

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|When I want to place gallery or LightBox or even a slider on my website I always try to use jQuery script for that.

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Hi every buddy, it�s a great fun at here watching these funny YouTube videos at here, nice stuff, thanks to admin

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Why users still use to read news papers when in this technological world everything is available on net?

This article is nice and fruitful for all new PHP related web programmers; they must read it and do the practice.

Hi friends, how is everything, and what you want to say regarding this article, in my view its really awesome for me.

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Yes, and further more if you want update alerts from this site then you must subscribe for it, it will be a better for you Jackson. Have a good day!

Friends, Romans, and Jackson whoever you may be, please quit sending me all of those messages.  Quit sending them to anyone.  Stop abusing this device we call the internet, eh?

Leave a Comment » | Ethics, Internet, Weblogs | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Daily Floggings of Teachers Dept.: Utah

November 17, 2011

Sign on the door of the mishipmen’s mess:  “The daily floggings will continue until morale improves.”

In an effort to raise teacher morale to a level at least as high as that of the British Navy back in the day when everyday brought “flog and grog” — though, admittedly, we work in education today without the grog — policy makers continue in their efforts to blame teachers for every problem of education, and they pledge to “hold teachers accountable” regardless the issue.

In November 16th’s Deseret News from Salt Lake City:

Utah senator says teacher morale is low and lawmakers need to address teacher perceptions

SALT LAKE CITY — A freshman state senator, who held a series of tell-all meetings with Utah school teachers, relayed to his colleagues Wednesday a common theme among public educators: Teacher morale is low.

“They are discouraging new teachers from entering the profession. … They feel classroom size is an issue. … They feel that they don’t have the professional development support they need,” said Sen. Aaron Osmond, R-South Jordan, at an Education Interim Committee meeting. “That’s what they feel. I’m not validating it or invalidating it. I’m communicating it to this group.

Osmond went to teachers to get feedback on his controversial proposal that would make it easier to fire teachers. His legislation would dismantle current state orderly termination laws that require districts to have a specific, documented cause when firing teachers and allow teachers a chance for recourse. The proposal would also give more control to local districts so they can develop termination policies based on what works for them and institute one- to five-year contracts at the end of which schools could let teachers go without cause.

Osmond held four meetings where public school educators could give him a piece of their mind. Hundreds of teachers attended.

“Our public employees feel that there is a major morale problem in education,” he said.

No kidding?

4 Comments | Education, Education reform, Teachers, Teaching | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Teach for America: Savior of Dallas schools?

November 15, 2011

Lead editorial in today’s Dallas Morning News (page 14A):

Retaining Teachers

DISD should redouble efforts to support Teach for America recruits

In 2009, the Dallas Independent School District welcomed 80 Teach for America teachers to its campuses. These newly minted teachers were part of a competitive program that sends top college graduates to work in urban and rural public schools.

Two years later, only 45 teachers from that inaugural class remain in the district.

Where did the others go? DISD can’t say for sure.

Teach for America teachers make a two-year commitment. So, after fulfilling that obligation, they’re free to pursue other teaching opportunities, graduate school or entirely different careers.

Losing 43 percent of the first TFA class is somewhat troubling — particularly because that’s higher than the program’s national attrition rate in high-poverty schools. But that fact alone doesn’t mean that DISD and Teach for America aren’t a good fit.

One number doesn’t tell the whole story, and DISD would benefit from additional data as subsequent TFA classes complete their two-year stints. It would be useful for the district and Teach for America to know more about why these teachers are leaving and whether they are seeking out teaching jobs in other districts.

Still, the attrition rate raises important questions about what more DISD can do to support these young teachers — and encourage them to stay.

TFA is supplying the Dallas school district with teachers who were high achievers and leaders on their college campuses. And while they’re new to teaching, many are distinguishing themselves quickly. In 2010, DISD reported that the district’s TFA teachers were outperforming their peers in educating students in reading and math.

Even Teach for America’s critics, who often complain that TFA corps members don’t stay long enough to make a difference, would agree that these teachers will become even more effective with additional years of experience.

With all this in mind, DISD should refocus its efforts to ensure that TFA teachers who spend two years at a Dallas public school consider extending their stay. While this is still a relatively new program in DISD, the early numbers suggest that the district has not been a particularly welcoming place.

DISD should bolster its mentoring efforts and consider what other strategies could be employed to help TFA teachers succeed — and feel motivated to continue teaching.

There’s no doubt that some TFA corps members enter the program planning to teach only two years before embarking on another career. But Teach for America’s hope is that some will be inspired to continue in education.

Other districts with similar challenges have had more success retaining TFA corps members.

DISD should seize this opportunity to mentor and develop a unique group of teachers — instead of simply watching them walk out the door.

I work alongside several Teach for America people — to a person, great colleagues.  Some of them faced the same barriers to entry I did — Dallas was unhappy with my recommendations, for example, and held out my hiring for a few weeks because they didn’t want to take the recommendation of the chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee which deals with education policy, for whom I worked for a decade, but instead insisted I get a teacher  or someone from a local education establishment to write the letter (I got a person who assigned substitutes in a local district to comment — we knew each other on the phone).  Why they wouldn’t take the word of someone who knows me over someone in education, I don’t know — but there is a moral in that morass, somewhere.

Dallas ISD is generally not a teacher-friendly place these days.  After two rounds of layoffs, we have all been informed clearly that we are all on the maybe-needs-firing line.  TFA teachers can stay above that only partly — the poisonous atmosphere infects all faculty meetings and department tete-a-tetes.

There is a big difference between TFA teachers and others:  TFA is tough (sometimes stupidly too tough), but they let every one of their people know that each one is valuable, and expected to do great things.

Dallas ISD tried to do that once.  We had a kid give a great motivational speech at the fall welcome-back-teachers ball.

Then the district announced it had goofed, and a few hundred teachers would have to go.  Then word got out that the mother of the kid who gave the speech — a teacher — was on the chopping block.  Then word got out that the whole program the kid was in, was on the chopping block. Yeah, we believe in you, kid — we just don’t believe in education any more.

Is TFA the answer to Dallas’s woes?  What’s your view?  I’m still thinking about an appropriate, and informative response.

Also see this at the Dallas Morning News site:

Sidebar:

What is Teach for America?

Teach for America is an organization that works to recruit high-achieving college graduates for two-year teaching stints in urban and rural public schools. The hope is that many will continue to work in the field of education or an area that impacts student achievement.

The selection process is competitive — only 11 percent of this year’s 48,000 applicants were accepted.

The chart shows the number of Teach for America teachers in DISD, broken down by the school year they arrived. Many of those who started in 2009-10, the inaugural year in DISD, left after serving their two-year commitment.

School year TFA members received In DISD as of Sept. 26
2009-10 80 45
2010-11 107 102
2011-12 45 45
Total 232 192

SOURCES: Dallas ISD; Dallas Morning News research

6 Comments | Dallas, Education, Teachers, Teaching | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Elizabeth Warren: Grace under pressure (we need this woman in the Senate)

November 14, 2011

Here’s a woman who keeps her wits about her; no wonder Scott Brown is scared by Elizabeth Warren’s campaign:

Vodpod videos no longer available.

According to the story at Huffington Post:

BROCKTON, Mass. — Moments into a speech before volunteers here Wednesday evening, Elizabeth Warren was interrupted by a Tea Party supporter who hurled a gender-based epithet at the Senate candidate. The man, who said he’d been unemployed since February 2010, objected to Warren’s expressed affiliation with the frustrations of Occupy Wall Street, and argued that the Tea Party has been protesting Wall Street excess for longer than the nascent global movement.

The crowd tried to shout the man down, but Warren told her supporters to let him speak. “No, no, it’s alright. Let me say two things,” she said. “I’m very sorry that you’ve been out of work. I’m also very sorry that the recent jobs bill that would’ve brought 22,000 jobs to Massachusetts did not pass in the Senate.”

There’s more.  The man called her “a socialist whore;” just to irritate the Tea Party and Republicans, probably, Warren’s organization let the guy wander away, no Tazer, no fight, no handcuffs.  Warren addressed his issues and the issues that his presence highlighted.  Civil discussion of serious matters.

This is a case of Elizabeth Warren modeling the way on bringing civility to political discussion.

Other candidates, are you paying attention?  Voters?

We need this woman in the Senate, even if you’re not from Massachusetts.

More:

6 Comments | 2012 Campaigns, 2012 Elections, Dissent, Politics | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Poet Devona Wyant, “On the difference between 1 and 99”

November 14, 2011

On the difference between 1 and 99

 

1% is when you spend the winters at your house on Fiji.

99% is when you heat your living quarters

with a single space heater.

1% is when your prescription is automatically

in your medicine cabinet and you don’t have to think about it.

99% is when you count the remaining pills of your

prescription and know you’ll run out before your SS check comes.

1% is when you tell your driver which car to drive today.

99% is when you walk everywhere you go

if your town doesn’t have buses.

1% is when you walk into the trendiest restaurant in town

and you don’t even need a reservation.

99% is when you buy outdated meat and produce

or stand in line at a soup kitchen.

1% is when you turn on the news and nod at the politician

who says if you can’t work, you shouldn’t eat.

99% is when you don’t know what the politician said

because you couldn’t pay the electric bill.

1% doesn’t have to go to work.

99% can’t even apply for a job because you’re unemployed

and they aren’t accepting applications from the unemployed.

1% turns away from the bottom 99% because if they don’t work

or pay taxes, they have no value.

99% may be buried in a Potter’s Field before the expected life span

because

. .you were malnourished, sick, numb from cold and depression,

. .and told you have to get off the sidewalk.

One will die acclaimed.

One will die unclaimed

. .because America can’t have street beggars.

But it does have an invisible army of the poor…unarmed,

under-housed, under-fed, under-educated, out of hope, out of time,

and out of social uniform.

Just so much cannon fodder for our Class Warfare.

Devona Wyant

I subscribe to Poem-a-Day and a couple of other services that deliver poetry to my mailbox.  I subscribe to a couple of list-servs that feature poets.  A precious few favor me with e-mails, somehow listing me among their friends.

I got this one today, probably unpublished elsewhere.  Watch for it.

[This poem above is not quoted, though it is the work of Ms. Wyant, because the quote formatting changed the formatting of the poem itself.  Please be sure to attribute the poem correctly to Ms. Wyant, who holds the copyright.]

Poet Devona Wyant, center. Caption from Lincolnton, North Carolina, Times-News: Poets Morgan DiStefano, Shane Manier and Devona Wyant and their group, Poetry Lincolnton, released their first anthology in June [2013].

Poet Devona Wyant, center. Caption from Lincolnton, North Carolina, Times-News: Poets Morgan DiStefano, Shane Manier and Devona Wyant and their group, Poetry Lincolnton, released their first anthology in June [2013].

Save

98 Comments | History, Literature, Poetry | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Art historians do better than conservatives on the history of DDT

November 11, 2011

The art historians at least get the facts right — why can’t conservatives and erstwhile scientists like Steven Milloy get it right?  This is from “The War Against Bugs,” by Steven Heller at imprint:

The War Against Bugs, by Print Magazine -- a Neocide ad from European media.

The War Against Bugs, by Print Magazine — a Neocide ad from European media.

With all due respect to entomologists, there is nothing aesthetically pleasing about bugs (insects by any other name). These little monsters certainly have ecological significance, but don’t tell me they are fun to have crawling around. Hence, chemical manufacturers have made it their business to find he most efficient means of ridding the pests while retaining the fine upstanding species. Too bad that anything designed to kill will doubtless have ill effects on he eco-system. In he 50s DDT was the magic bullet against such varieties as various potato beetles, coddling moth, corn earworm, cotton bollworm  and tobacco budworms (eeeecccchhhh!). Then in 1972, the US Environmental Protection Agency curtailed all use of DDT on crops. The ban did not take hold in other countries until much later, and DDT was vociferously promoted through eerie calls to arms like this poster by Savignac.

Read more: The War Against Bugs — Imprint-The Online Community for Graphic Designers
For great design products, visit our online store: MyDesignShop.com

Nota bene Mr. Heller does not claim DDT use against malaria-causing mosquitoes was ever banned.  He focuses instead on the promotion of DDT.

Truth in art.

Leave a Comment » | Art, DDT, History, History and art, Science | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Naomi Oreskes on the political need for truth-telling in climate change

November 11, 2011

The too-often odious Huffington Post features an interview with Naomi Oreskes, one of the authors of Merchants of Doubt.

You should read the interview (and the book, if you haven’t yet):

[Kerry Trueman]:The real mystery, then, is how to persuade American skeptics that we face profound disruptions in our own lifetime and that of our children. Can you describe, in a lay-person friendly way, some of the scenarios we might anticipate?

[Naomi Oreskes]: Well, the best example is the “monster storm” that just hit Alaska, described by one media outlet as a storm of “epic proportions.” Climate change is underway, it is affecting American citizens, and it is going to become increasingly costly and disruptive.

We are no longer talking about the future, about people far away in time and space. We are talking about us, now. I think this is what Americans do not yet understand. But if current trends continue, they will soon. Climate change is all around us, and most of it is not good.

More, there.

More at the Bathtub:

40 Comments | Accuracy, Clean Air Act, Climate change, climate_change, DDT, Ethics | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Veterans Day afternoon message from Michelle Obama

November 11, 2011

I get e mail from the president’s wife:

The White House, Washington
Good afternoon,

For 92 years, our nation has set aside November 11th as a day to honor those who have served in our armed forces. Originally, the day was set aside to celebrate the veterans of the First World War. Later, it was broadened to include every man and woman who has worn the uniform of the United States. And today, we continue that tradition by honoring the service and sacrifice of our troops and veterans.

But I believe that this commemoration should last much longer than just 24 hours, once a year. That’s why Jill Biden and I launched the Joining Forces initiative to honor, recognize, and support the veterans and military families who have given our nation so much.  We’re issuing a call to all Americans, so that everyone asks themselves one simple question: How can I give back?

We’ve been overwhelmed by responses from across the country. Businesses are hiring more veterans. Nonprofit organizations are working with military children. And individuals all across the country have stepped up to help out in their community. How will you give back?

Sign up for an opportunity to volunteer in your community, pledge service hours in honor of military families, or send a message of thanks to America’s heroes.

Find service opportunities, pledge hours of service, send your message of thanks, get involved

Our efforts with Joining Forces come on top of the many actions my husband has made on behalf of our veterans and military families.

He’s worked to send 600,000 veterans back to school on the Post-9/11 GI Bill and taken steps to help veterans translate military experience to the private sector job market. He repealed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” — so that our troops don’t have to live a lie in order to serve the country they love. He ended the war in Iraq — our service men and women there will be home for the holidays. And just yesterday, the Senate passed two tax credits that he proposed to encourage businesses to hire America’s veterans and wounded warriors.

So inside and outside of government, we’re building a wave of support to honor and recognize our veterans and their families. We can use your help. Today, let’s all find a new way that we can get involved in our communities, not just for Veterans Day, but every day.

Visit JoiningForces.gov and sign up today.

Thank you,

Michelle Obama

A noble endeavor.

2 Comments | History | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Fly your flag today, Veterans Day, November 11, 2011

November 11, 2011

Iwo Jima Memorial, near Washington, D.C.

Iwo Jima Memorial, near Washington, D.C.

Fly your flag today.

We honor all veterans on November 11 of each year. The Flag Code designates Veterans Day for flag flying, to honor veterans. (See more on the Flag Code, here.)

More, and other resources

3 Comments | History, veterans, veterans day | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Veterans Day coming November 11 — remember to fly your flag

November 8, 2011

Friday is Veterans Day, one of the score of “fly your flag” dates recommended in law.

Are you ready?  Here’s this year’s poster, from the Veterans Administration (click to get a link for a high resolution version):

Veterans Day poster for 2011 - Veterans Administration

Veterans Day poster for 2011 - Veterans Administration; click image to go to VA site for high resolution version to print

Get your flag out, ready to fly.  Check your local newspaper for times of your local Veterans Day Parades.  Take a look at the VA’s video on the day, below, and make plans to help a vet throughout the year.

35 Comments | Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, History, veterans, veterans day | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Ohio voters strike down ban on unions

November 8, 2011

Oh, I get all sorts of e-mail.  This one made me smile — I remember when Rich Trumka was a young coal miner calling us at the Senate Labor Committee, agitating for mine safety and better working conditions and railing against mine union officials who didn’t agree with him.

So he ran for president of the union.  Today, Trumka is president of the AFL-CIO.  But he’s still campaigning for better working conditions.

Trumka sends news from Ohio.

Dear Ed,I’m in Ohio right now, where working families just won an incredible victory.Ohioans overwhelmingly voted to repeal Senate Bill 5—Gov. John Kasich’s attack on middle-class jobs that was designed to destroy collective bargaining rights in Ohio.

We pieced together a short, powerful video summing up the amazing energy that went into this. I hope you’ll take a moment to watch:


Watch now.
Tonight’s victory represents a turning point in our collective work to protect good jobs, working families and workplace rights. But it’s more than that. It’s a long-overdue return to common sense.

From the very beginning of our jobs crisis, anti-worker politicians like Ohio’s Gov. Kasich have used our poor economy to push a cynical political agenda that favors the richest 1 percent at the expense of the 99 percent. Today, Ohio voters rejected that agenda.

During this campaign, firefighters, nurses, teachers and other public employees were joined by construction workers, bakery workers and all kinds of private-sector workers. They came together to ensure the survival of the middle class. And together, we’ll keep doing it. Politicians who side with the richest 1 percent will find their radical efforts stopped by working people who want America to work for everyone.

Watch the energy and dedication that went into this huge victory—and join us.

This is our moment, and we won with solidarity. We won because the working people of Ohio—public and private sector, union and nonunion—stood together.

But the solidarity went even further than that: Volunteers traveled not just from neighboring Wisconsin—but from states as far away as California and New York—to help get out the vote. And activists from dozens of states as far away as Alaska gave up their nights and weekends to call Ohio voters from home.

Solidarity means that when workers anywhere are under attack, we will all do whatever we can to help. It means we’re in it together.

Watch our video. See what solidarity looks like.

I hope you’ll celebrate this moment in your own way. But the most important thing is to find a way to keep your own energy going and growing—so you can be a part of sustaining and growing our movement for all working people—the 99 percent.

This fight we’ve taken on and won—and the threats we face going forward—are about more than Democrats or Republicans, or 2012 battleground states. They are about good jobs and our right to a voice on the job.

Together, we’re building a new kind of politics. A politics that works for the 99 percent, not just the 1 percent.

We’ve got to start getting ready now to win tomorrow’s victories. Over time—together—we’ll build a future that works for working America.

Thank you for being a part of this movement, and for all you do for America’s workers.

In Solidarity,

Richard L. Trumka
President, AFL-CIO

P.S. America is waking up. Here’s one big reason we won in Ohio—people can see that the firefighters, teachers, nurses and snowplow drivers hurt by SB 5 didn’t cause our economic problems. Wall Street did. Ohio voters saw through Senate Bill 5—they understood it was a plan to make the 99 percent bear the burden of Wall Street’s recklessness—and that it would do nothing to create jobs.

Take a moment to watch the incredible energy that went into this win.

To find out more about the AFL-CIO, please visit our website at www.aflcio.org.

More:

Here’s the video direct from YouTube (above, the link goes to the AFL-CIO site) — note it features more than a few teachers who worked to repeal Ohio’s SB5:

2 Comments | Collective Bargaining, Elections, Labor and unions, Politics | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Occupy Your Local Library

November 8, 2011

Rob Rogers at the Pittsburgh Post Gazette firms up the reasons he should get a Pulitzer for cartooning; want books, computers, and the ability to travel through time and space?  Santa has a deal for you:

Rob Rogers cartoon, Library Card - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Rob Rogers cartoon, Library Card - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Big tip of the old scrub brush to Jean Detjen in Appleton, Wisconsin.

 

1 Comment | Cartoons, Libraries | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

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