Working Life

Each year, I pause on this day to remember Paul Wellstone, one of the truly great Senators in my lifetime. Eight years ago, Paul died in a plane crash. I will always remember where I was when I heard the news, in the way we all remember momentous events. And his absence seems even more […]

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   With all the media attention to the money pouring into elections from business and right-wingers, here is an interesting tidbit from today’s Wall Street Journal: The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees is now the biggest outside spender of the 2010 elections, thanks to an 11th-hour effort to boost Democrats that has […]

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   Maybe a trend: The Jimmy John’s restaurants here are known for serving attitude with their sandwiches. Many of their young workers wear nose rings, beards and dreadlocks, and the shops sport mottoes like “The Customer Is Usually Right” and “Subs So Fast You’ll Freak.” But recently, the employees at the 10 shops here have […]

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   I’ve written extensively about greed and CEO pay, particularly in "The Audacity of Greed". So, I like to see the non-traditional press pick it up and stick with it. Here’s a piece by Michael Hiltzik in The Los Angeles Times, which is a follow up piece by him on Ray Irani of Occidental Petroleum: […]

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The raid on our country’s treasury has been underway for 30 years (and more). The corporate leaders have successfully drained our common wealth, shifting money away from the community and, instead, diverting it into the hands of a few. And now the din is growing for another robbery of the people to the tune of […]

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   The AFL-CIO says it will make the difference in many races in two weeks. In my opinion, I think the tide is too strong. We’ll see after the election. Here’s the memo: To: Political Directors From: Karen Ackerman, AFL-CIO Political Director Re: ‘State of the Field’ – Two Weeks Out Date: Monday, October 18, […]

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   So, it’s probably a bad sign about my own priorities that I flip on C-SPAN at night and, having stumbled on the debate in the Senate Nevada race, I stuck with it–without running for a large glass of wine. Or maybe something stronger.    Oh my god.    It was a muddle. I can’t […]

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The secret money flowing into organizations trying to buy the November election for the Republican Party is motivated by a simple idea: greed. Sure, there is some rhetoric about "smaller government" and ranting about the evils of national health care. But, at the end of the day, it’s about extremely rich people never having enough. […]

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   There are so many things wrong about the story in today’s New York Times on New York state’s retiree health care costs that I don’t know where to begin. Here are the first three paragraphs: The cities, counties and authorities of New York have promised more than $200 billion worth of health benefits to […]

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I get why people are angry. Not the anger espoused by the racists, birthers and anti-government people. Across the political spectrum, wherever people place themselves, there is a unifying point that keeps coming up: we’ve been robbed by corporate powers. And the foolish, failed so-called "free trade" policies–pursued by Republicans and Democrats alike–is a place […]

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