Well this year's hearings on Maryland's medical marijuana bills HB 291 and SB 308 have concluded. To say these bills are on life support is optimistic. But hey, a little optimism goes a long way. There is still activity outside the hearing process to try to work out something. I will of course keep readers up to date on anything that comes out of those discussions.

I want to thank Del. Morhaim and Sen. Brinkley for championing this issue in our state. I also want to tell everyone, that despite my opposition to their approach on cultivation and distribution these two gentlemen have treated me and all proponents of personal cultivation with the utmost respect. I thank them and their staffs for the kindness they have personally shown me.

The big news coming out of these hearings has been the change in position by Governor O'Malley and the Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH). The governor sent the Secretarty of DHMH Joshua Sharfstein to convey this to the committees. This spurred the following response from yours truly in the Baltimore Sun:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-medical-marijuana-20110302,0,3781625.story   Read More »

I am returning to Party Builder for a number of reasons. First because it is an election year and we need to fire up the base. Second I am tired of trying to debate poitics on Facebook because too many of my classmates think that someone has taken their country away. A few examples of this I will provide partly for the laugh - some are really out there and partly so we all understand what we are up against.

One classmate posted that the amendment that allowed income taxes was the evil doing of the Democrats and in fact unconstitutional. When I tried to point out if not for consitutional amendments blacks would still be slaves and women would still not be able to vote I was called uneducated because I said "you're fucking kidding me." The argument slipped into whether the modern day Republican Party would have supported Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt. To wit I got the usual it is Democrats who are racists even though I pointed out that the racist Dems of the South are now the Christian Right of the Republican Party. Of Teddy Roosevelt they wrote that he violated the constitution when he created the Federal Parks. Furthermore they think the states are going to rise up and take those lands back.   Read More »

The catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico is just the latest prophecy fulfilled. Environmentalist warned before the first oil well was drilled offshore that this would happen. Every senator and congressman since owns this disaster. You were warned but instead you made excuses. Now we are all reaping what you have sown.

I remember that first Earth Day forty years ago. Every president since then President Nixon has recognized the need for a new energy strategy. And every Congress since has sloughed off their responsibility to make it happen. Worse some of those congresses have seen fit to weaken our effort rather than passing legislation to insure America isn’t held hostage by our desire for cheap oil.   Read More »

Hi all,

I envision this Federation comprised of any global citizen including government representatives who will ascribe to and promote integrity. Anyone, regardless of race, creed, religion, political affiliation, and nation-state status can organize to eliminate their corporate dominated governments and injustice in whatever form it presents itself.

Essentially, many global citizens in our movement can communicate on their own websites, personally with friends & associates, and via any medium to enlist recruits to our cause - it will morph into our supra governmental entity that will eventually have followers from across all walks of life.

But in order for this to work we need to get the word out to have people join our federation. That's why we all need to organize everyone who is fed up with the greed, corruption, lobbyist directed governments, and labor slavery that the corporate dominated world is perpetuating.

Please help me make this federation a reality by organizing small groups of "II" members in meetings and having them spread the movement to their own small group of members so that this federation can expand exponentially across the globe.

Why is the word Integrity before International? This is because Integrity is our central reason for existing organizationally.

When we get enough folks involved in various areas of the country, or your own nation-state we should all resolve to take collective action to bring about meaningful change. This is change that will allow all global citizens to once again be connected to their (lobbyist infested) governments and corporate controlled media.

Action may take several forms depending upon your location and the specific injustice that you're attempting to correct but if we use our organizational structure to convey (the means is completely up to the members) our dissatisfaction in a collective fashion our impact will be substantial.

Thanks again for joining! This is just the beginning.

Our globally based citizen’s federation will sweep aside injustice, inequity, and corruption from our societies if we just take that first positive step and become involved.

Thank you for caring enough about the future to become engaged in this federation for positive change!

Please join the Facebook group below which is our nexus for international change.

The Facebook group for the Integrity International Federation can be found at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=272955573766

Thank you,
Ray Pairan Jr.
563-506-4943
rpairan@runbox.com

Integrity International Federation site:
http://structuraleconissues.blogspot.com/

Democratic Talk Radio is now in our 9th year. We are facing unique challenges and opportunities in 2010.

We have added 3 co-hosts- Dana Garrett (Delaware), John Morgan (Pennsylvania) and Walt Garvin (Pennsylvania) to our WGPA SUNNY 1100AM Thursday morning show. We expect to soon offer a college radio version of the show and are actively exploring new commercial stations.

We are moving from just a show to a "brand" concept that will hopefully have many new Democratic Talk Radio shows each unique to their market/station. All will work together with various DTR hosts being frequent guests on other DTR shows. We have been doing something similar with other progressive and labor radio shows for years.

Our goal is to either get a version of our show in every community or get another progressive, pro-labor, pro-middle class, pro-democratic show on the air in each community. In our opinion, our kind of shows are allies of similar shows instead of competitors. We are really mission driven instead of profit driven. Breaking even while not taking a paycheck sounds fine to us provided we impact policy discussions and actual policy in a positive way.

We badly need funding to move forward or even stay on the air in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania. We need your help in raising these funds.

We welcome and need your ideas as well as new allies in these new markets. Our top fundraisers will be invited to join the new Democratic Talk Radio Advisory Board. This group will steer our expansion efforts, help raise funds, plan activities and play a role in our future programming.

If interested, please contact me at demlabor@aol.com. Our phone number is 443-907-2367. Our mailing address is: Democratic Talk Radio, 698 Old Baltimore Pike, Newark, Delaware 19702.

Even if you are not interested in joining our Advisory Board, we could still use any donations in any amount.

We can run ads or you can sponsor a whole show for just $250. Sponsors can sometimes be guests or play a role in guest selection provided the desired show fits with our larger mission.

In solidarity,

Stephen Crockett

Host, Democratic Talk Radio
Editor, Mid-Atlantic Labor.com

Her just announced deal with Fox News says it all!

Talk about losing ALL claim to "Fair and Balanced."

I certainly do do see them offering Al Gore or Howard Dean the same kind of deal. FOX NEWS looks like a way to finance Republican hacks to spew Republican talking points 24/7 and call that BS news.

Everyone should publicly denounce the deal unless Fox News gets either Howard Dean, Al Gore or someone of their status from the Democratic side a show on the network.

The cast of characters in American politics who could have received our Hero and Villain Awards for 2009 was huge. It was a very busy year in American politics. We have multiple winners in both categories but still were unable to recognize everyone who deserved to win.

One of the villains was an easy and obvious choice. Fox News commentator and author Glenn Beck wins a Democratic Talk Radio Villain of 2009 Award for unashamedly spreading lies, myths and innuendos with no conscience.

The Editor of Buzzflash.com Mark Karlin wins a Democratic Talk Radio Hero of 2009 Award for unselfishly devoting all his time and energies to debunking them. The role the Internet played in counteracting the corporate dominance and bias in the realm of political news in 2009 cannot be overstated.

Paul Krugman wins a Hero Award for his role of speaking truth to power in his multiple roles as economist, New York Times columnist and Book author. Congress and the Obama Administration should be listening to him in dealing with the current economic crisis. Every American citizen should read his recent book The Conscience of a Liberal. It will help you understand the current economic crisis, healthcare reform and much more.

Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) wins a Villain Award for politicizing national security and putting every American flying on a commercial airline at risk by placing a hold on the confirmation of the head of the TSA. His rationale for this action is nearly as outrageous as the action. He does not want TSA employees to have the right to unionize and bargain collectively for better pay, benefits and working conditions. DeMint claims that TSA would not be as effective with a unionized workforce. Exactly why having demoralized, underpaid workers doing security screening at airports will make us safer escapes all of us here at Democratic Talk Radio. Union haters abound in Republican Right circles but DeMint has taken his bias to dangerous extremes.

The entire Republican Party power structure and the few corporate Democrats undermining healthcare insurance reform in America collectively win a Democratic Talk Radio Villain of 2009 award for their outrageous public behavior, serving corporate interests instead of the public good and lying to the American public. Single-payer, government provided healthcare should have been seriously considered as a policy option but was not because of these villains. The final bills passed by both houses of Congress are much weaker than they should have been (although the House version does have a better funding mechanism and a weak public option provision). Americans will suffer and die as a result of the actions of these villains by the millions in coming decades! Jobs will be lost because American businesses will still be paying for health insurance while foreign competitors will not.

Former Vermont Governor and DNC Chair Howard Dean wins a Hero Award for publicly speaking the truth during the healthcare insurance debate. Unlike the Republican medical doctors serving in Congress, Dr. Dean understands and lives by the medical ethical slogan “do not harm.” This ethical standard should be applied in both the medical and political fields.

For more information, please contact Democratic Talk Radio at demlabor@aol.com or by phone at 443-907-2367.Our website is http://www.DemocraticTalkRadio.com .

In these terrible economic times, it is hard to keep the bills paid for most working families. We all are struggling to stay in our homes, keep our old cars on the road and food on the table. Americans are certainly worried with good reason about keeping their jobs and affording healthcare. All of these problems can be traced more or less directly to excessive corporate power in America both economically and politically.

The current healthcare insurance reform debate has highlighted for everyone how much the balance of power has shifted in terms of public debate against the interests of American workers and towards the interests of giant corporations. Corporate media has not given a real voice to labor leaders who represent the millions of American workers most heavily impacted by this issue. Right Wing talk radio has distorted elements of the issue, the process and relevant facts beyond all recognition. Most of the opposition to real change from the American public comes from not hearing the truth. Lack of balance in this debate reveals the one-sided nature of corporate media.

Why was single-payer, universal healthcare deemed “off the table” when it is the norm in nearly every other industrialized nation in the world? It was corporate power! The corporate media deemed it “radical” and working Americans had no effective voice in framing the debate. We will all suffer as a result.

Corporate power killed the Fairness Doctrine in broadcasting. This means that the public airwaves are solely being used even in political terms for private profit. Since corporations have huge spending advantages over their workers’ organizations (labor unions), workers have been effectively shut out of the public debate. It has impacted politics, government policy and American working family living standards for decades.

The relative lack of effective working families-oriented media has resulted in awful government policies that have ruined American manufacturing, killed Americans in unjustified wars and by denying healthcare, gutted pensions, legalized predatory lending, polluted our environment, weakened civil liberties, curtailed voting rights and given the wealthiest of the wealthy near veto rights over government policy. Instead of government acting as a check and balance to international corporations it far too often has become a tool of them. The ruination of the American economy has assisted the excessive concentration of wealth in our nation and weakened American democracy.

We cannot reverse this anti-working family, anti-American democracy course without getting our message to the American people. We must create a media network to help offset one-sided corporate media. Labor radio certainly will play a key role if it survives!

Progressive organizations and individuals inside and outside organized labor must find a way to help struggling labor radio programs survive the current economic crisis. Will they? I do not know the answer.   Read More »

Fundamentalists regardless of the scripture that they cling to are simply incapable of deviating from their well worn paths; they passionately adhere to a dogma driven philosophy regardless of outcome.

What is true? What is false? Politicians wedded to a political ideology are exclusively focused upon instilling a uniform public mindset. Any individual viewpoints that are inconsistent with those espoused by the political, business, and intelligentsia elite are targeted for ‘vaporization’.

Regardless of which media inspired label you’ve chosen to proudly wear – disavow it, tear it off now! There’s a whole plethora of them: conservative, liberal, moderate, Libertarian, Socialist, Democrat, Republican, the list is endless. Why proudly proclaim a faith in something that repeatedly fails to deliver and forces you to adhere to an ideology that denigrates you’re other divergent viewpoints? Why proudly belong to political parties that consistently disregard the demands of the people in order to faithfully execute the edicts of their business masters?

The fact of the matter is the majority of people are apolitical, love their country, expect results over excuses, unflinchingly adhere to realism, don’t believe you can get something for nothing, and understand the importance of strong communities. We don’t get out of bed every morning with a burning desire to distort the truth, spin lies, spend money we don’t have keeping a rich neighbor’s bank flush with an unlimited supply of cash, or asking the well-off in our communities to support our extravagant wants in return for favors that ultimately would destroy or impoverish the lesser off in our communities.

That’s right we’re all generally decent people. So why do we constantly align ourselves with malignant organizations that destroy all that is decent in the pursuit of squeezing more from those with the least to give? These organizations have their tentacles lunged deep into our democracies; they will not release them until they have turned blue and have exhaled their last breath.

Over 250 people participated in an informational picket a Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce luncheon "roundtable discussion" against the Employee Free Choice Act on Thursday, February 19, 2009. Labor union representatives asked to be included in the program to present the other side. They were refused. The event was held in the Ole Bethlehem Hotel on Main Street in Betlehem, Pennsylvania. The crowd on the sidewalk was around ten times larger than the Chamber group inside.

The Congressman slipped into the event by a side door. At several points, protestors chanted, "outsource Dent!."

Protesters included 43 union organizations, The Controller of Northampton County Stephen Barron, Pennsylvania State Representative Joe Brennan, Allentown City Democratic Chair and former Congressional candidate "Sam" Bennett, Lehigh County Democratic Chair Rick Daugherty, Northampton County Democratic Chair Joe Long, Moravian College Democrats, Moravian Students for A Democratic Society, Bethlehem City Democratic Committee, Lehigh Valley Democratic Coalition and many other groups. The protest lasted nearly 3 hours. Hundreds of flyers giving details about the real truth concerning the Employee Free Choice Act were distributed.

Gregg Potter, President of the Lehigh Valley Labor Council was a key organizer. The Lehigh Valley Building Trades turned out in force.

Richard Bloomingdale, Pennsylvania AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer, joined Stephen Barron on Democratic Talk Radio earlier that morning during a program about the Employee Free Choice Act and the demonstration planned later that day. Democratic Talk Radio is a pro-labor radio show that broadcasts on Thursday mornings from WGPA SUNNY 1100AM in Bethlehem. Democratic Talk Radio endorsed the protest and participated in the picketing.

The Morning Call newspaper ran front page stories on the protest the morning of the event and the day after. Local television (Channel 69) covered the event. The picketing generated many other favorable news stories and helped educate voters in Pennsylvania concerning the details and importance of the Employee Free Choice Act.

-----------------------------------
EDITOR'S NOTE: Below is a note from Gregg Potter, President of the Lehigh Valley Labor Council on the event.

Good afternoon,

Attached is a piece from the Allentown Morning Call that appeared on today's front page. There is also an accompanying video that gives perspectives from Congressman Dent and Labor. I want to personally thank the 43 locals and over 250 members who came out to protest the actions of Congressman Dent.

I am listing the locals who attended, and if I omit you, I apologize. It was a rather hectic day.

I want to publicly thank Bill Newhard and the Lehigh, Northampton, Pike & Monroe County Building Trades Council for their incredible participation. You all made this happen! Keep up the great work!!

AFSCME 1435, Northeast Pa. Area Labor Federation, UAW 677 Retired, Catholic School Teachers Union, CWA 13500, 13000, District 13, PSEA, UFCW 1776, USW 2599, 547, SOAR, 10-86, 807, Roofers 30, SEIU 32BJ, 1199, SEIU/PSSU 668, Airline Pilots Assoc.

Road Sprinklers 669, Insulators 23, IBEW 1600, 375, 607, 143, 1319, 229

Carpenters 600, Bricklayers 5, 30, Sheetmetal Workers 19, UNITE HERE, OPIU 277, National Writers Union, Plumbers 690, IUPAT 703 and 1269, IUPAT District Council 21

Glaziers 252, Bethlehem Firefighters, APWU National and 268, Lehigh Valley Labor Council, also, special thanks go to Rep. Joseph Brennan, Northampton County Controller, Stephen Barron, the Moravian College Democrats, Lehigh County Democratic Chair, Rick Daugherty, Northampton County Democratic Chair, Joe Long, Nancy Tate, of the LEPOCO Peace Center, LVDC and also Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan for stopping by during the Chamber event.

Labor was fortunate enough to gain front page space two days in a row in the Morning Call, and there is a follow up article scheduled for this Sunday.

Thanks again for all those who participated!! You all made me very proud to be union!!

In unity & solidarity,

Gregg Potter

President, Lehigh Valley Labor Council

610 360-9491

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-a1_5chamber-q.6790432feb20,0,7960884.story

The Jindal Lesson: Keeping Those Republicans Out of Power

After listening today to the Louisiana Governor respond to Obama's speech to Congress and the American nation on the economic crisis and healthcare, I suddenly realized that the Jindal-type of Republican should never, ever be placed in a position of governmental responsibility. Unfortunately, the Jindal-type dominates the national Republican power structure.

Governor Jindal simply does not believe in government. His references to the awful Bush Republican response to Katrina show that he just does not get it. Jindal seems to think that since Bush blew the federal government response to that disaster, therefore, government is inherently incompetent.

It is true that under Bush the personnel responsible for disaster relief were incompetent. Those individuals were selected for entirely political and ideological reasons. They did not believe in government. Essentially, they were Jindal-type Republicans! They were Bush Republicans!

If you believe government will always fail, you are very likely going to fail in the management of government. If politics, ideology and achieving power take precedence over implementing sound policy in your value system, you are a poor candidate for being good at managing government agencies or programs.

Jindal is certainly not alone in his contempt for using government to better the condition of our economically suffering citizens. Along with Jindal, the Republican Governors of Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Alaska have indicated that they would not accept federal money to extend and expand unemployment benefits for the citizens of their states. The reasons they gave are illogical and seem to be motivated by politics instead of real policy concerns.

The citizens of these states losing their jobs are going to suffer simply because these Governors do not really believe in helping citizens facing economic adversity not of their own making. Texas Governor Perry has never been concerned with helping the unemployed, in my opinion; because they do not write big campaign checks and Perry does not really believe in government. Governor Palin of Alaska along with Governor Jindal of Louisiana both seem to be more concerned with running for the 2012 Republican Presidential nomination than in serving the citizens of their states.   Read More »

Pro-union talk radio nearly blankets the state of Pennsylvania 01.29.09

I want to make friends of Democratic Talk Radio aware of a great addition to non-Republican Right talk radio in Pennsylvania.

Charles Showalter is hosting a great new show Monday-Friday on KFB 770AM from noon to 1pm. The show is called The Union Edge Talk Radio. The studio line is 412-829-7100.

Here are a couple of Podcast links:

Our good friend Michael Morrill of Keystone Progress http://theunionedge.com/january-21%2C-2009-show

AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka http://theunionedge.com/january-23%2C-2009-show

There is much more information at his website at http://www.theunionedge.com and we encourage DTR fans to explore that site.

We will be having Charles Showalter are a future guest on our Lehigh Valley WGPA SUNNY 1100AM Democratic Talk Radio program which broadcasts on Thursday mornings from 8:05am until 9am.. Our call-in line is 610-866-8074.

Charles Showalter is a member of the AFTRA union.
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As we expand our Democratic Talk Radio show into the Philadelphia market in coming months, we are intentionally not broadcasting during the time slots of The Union Edge , The Labor to Neighbor Show or The Rick Smith Show. We applaud the great work of all the great hosts.

They are all union brothers and sisters. All are friends of Democratic Talk Radio.

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On weekends, you can hear pro-union, progressive talk radio in Pennsylvania by tuning into The Rick Smith Show with host Rick Smith. His website is http://ricksmithshow.com/.

His show broadcasts on WHYL 960AM on Saturday and Sunday from noon to 2pm. The call-in line is 1-877-960-0960.

You can hear Podcasts of past Rick Smith shows at this link http://ricksmithshow.com/past_shows and we advise spending the time to do so. Explore his web site while there.

Rick Smith is a good friend and frequent guest on Democratic Talk Radio. We highly recommend his show! It gets huge ratings in the Carlisle-Harrisburg, PA market and reaches most of central Pennsylvania plus surrounding areas.

Rick Smith is an active member of the Teamsters

â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"

In the Philadelphia market, we have another great pro-labor talk radio show on WURD 900AM.

http://900amwurd.com/2008/?p=51

“The Labor to Neighbor Radio Show is heard Tuesdays at noon. The hosts, Patrick J. Eiding and Janet H. Ryder invite guests to address contemporary issues facing working families in our region. Topics include but are not limited to; union and worker issues, employment and job training, human and social services referral information and sharing pertinent current events that help shape our daily lives.

Patrick J. Eiding is the president of the Philadelphia Council AFL-CIO which is a federation of more than 100 local unions with more than 150,000 members and families in this city. This former business manager for the Insulators Union Local 14 serves on many boards and commissions and was recognized as one of the 75 most important Philadelphians.

Janet Hammond Ryder is the vice president of labor participation for both the Philadelphia Council AFL-CIO and the United Way of Southeastern PA. In that capacity, she links community organizations and local unions together to make sure they are actively engaged and involved in making a real difference in their communities. She is a former Philadelphia Public School educator and political director for American Federation of Teachers, PA.�

The call-in lines are 866-361-0900 or 215-634-8065.
â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"-

Democratic Talk Radio is hosted by Stephen Crockett who is Editor of Mid-Atlantic Labor.com. Crockett is a member of the National Writers Union (UAW Local 1981) and OPEIU Local 277. He is an associate member of the United Steelworkers (USW). Crockett has been involved in an organizing drive by the Machinists (IAM). He is from Maryland and Tennessee.

Democratic Talk Radio co-host Dana Garrett has been very active with UFCW Local 27 and the Laborers (LIUNA). Dana is from Delaware. Dana Garrett hosts another talk show in Delaware called Progressive Voices which broadcasts on the University of Delaware FM station WVUD.

The Democratic Talk Radio office is located at the UAW Local 1183 union complex in Newark, Delaware next door to the Delaware AFL-CIO. The main Democratic Talk Radio website is http://www.DemocraticTalkRadio.com. The DTR Blog is found at http://www.DemocraticTalkRadio.com/wordpress/.

Democratic Talk Radio currently broadcasts from Bethlehem, PA on WGPA SUNNY 1100AM. Anyone can listen in live to Democratic Talk Radio on Thursday mornings from 8:05am-9am Eastern via this link:

http://wgpasunny1100.com/

Labor and the media
On air with labor radio host Steve Crockett

Interview by Ron Ennis, Lehigh Valley Postal Workers
Editor, Lehigh Valley Labor Council

Steve Crockett is a busy guy. The radio talk show host had just traveled through a January storm the night before his Thursday morning program when he sat down with the News & Views. His weekly show, Democratic Talk Radio, is a Steve Crockett magnet for labor activists, progressives and Democrats.

The success of Crockett’s show is largely attributable to his friendly manner and his passionate interest in labor issues and civil liberties. He is a member of the National Writers Union (United Autoworkers, Local #1981) and the Office and Professional Employees International Union, Local #277.

The News & Views caught up with Crockett in his hotel lobby to talk to him about labor and the media.

News & Views: What makes your program different than the other talk radio shows?

Primarily, it’s the message and who we represent. Right wing talk radio represents corporate forces. Their message is that labor unions are bad, workers should not be able to act collectively and there should be neither consumer nor environmental protection laws. Everything I don’t believe in, they believe in.

How did you get into the business as a radio talk show host?

I started Democratic Talk Radio because of the role right-wing radio played in stopping the recount vote in Florida during the 2000 presidential campaign between Al Gore and George Bush. As you know, it was a judicial coup d’ etat orchestrated by the U.S. Supreme Court that stopped the recount.

I asked myself after the ruling was handed down, what’s it worth to me as a working class guy to live in a free country? And the answer was everything.

So, I started out in Fayetteville, Tenn., Al Gore’s old House district, and over the next five years spent $30,000 of my own money to get the message out about the corporate forces taking over America.

Eventually, I had a show that was nationally syndicated on i.e. America Network, which was backed by the United Autoworkers. It folded at about the same time as Air America went into production.

My current show, Democratic Talk Radio, started on April 3, 2008. It’s broadcast from Bethlehem every Thursday morning at 8:05 am on WGPA-1100AM.   Read More »

Democratic Talk Radio has given our Ist Annual Labor Hero of the Year Award to Fran Friel, President of the Pennsylvania Postal Workers for moving his union convention from the hotel in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania to honor a picket line by the Laborers (LIUNA) Local 135 and the Painters (IUPAT) this past summer.

They encountered significant legal costs and maybe other even larger financial costs by their actions in support of the union brothers and sisters in the building trades. We at Democratic Talk Radio love this example of real labor union solidarity and want to honor it.

Fran Friel and his fellow union leaders from the American Postal Workers Union truly believe that an injury to one is an injury to all. For Fran and the rest of members of the Pennsylvania Postal Workers Union, these are not just words. Their actions show their conviction and sincere devotion to labor solidarity.

When asked to comment on their actions, the President of the Painters (IUPAT) District Council 21 Ken Kraft stated, “THEY not only supported our union I feel they supported the entire building trades movement by not having the convention at a place that uses non-union workers from out of state and then EXPECTS Unions to just book there anyway... It was a great example of how we get it together once in a while between the building trades and the other Labor Council type Unions... But it is also a shame, in Europe NO-ONE would find this unusual, they still get it over there...�

Millions of labor heroes exist in the work force of America. They all deserve recognition and our sincere admiration. Democratic Talk Radio honors them every day for their contribution to economic opportunity and justice.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For more information, please contact Democratic Talk Radio host Stephen Crockett. Crockett can be reached by phone at 443-907-2367 or email at demlabor@aol.com. The Democratic Talk Radio website is http://www.DemocraticTalkRadio.com.

If you are a member of Crafting Our Message you need to go and take yourself off of the listserv. I am currently donwloading over 700 e-mails from this server. Do Not Check Your E-Mail!

Hi all - Haven't forgotten PB just busy with life. Also still working for change we can believe in.

Political villains were rampant in 2008. It was impossible to give a single award for the injustices committed for solely political reasons this past year. For the first time ever, Democratic Talk Radio was unable to even narrow the infamous winners to just two. We have selected three “Villains of 2008� to share the award.

Our first choice is obvious. Fox News wins the first 2008 villain slot for their disinformation campaign against ACORN. The efforts of Fox News to provide political cover for Republican efforts at voter suppression during the 2008 elections were, in the opinion of Democratic Talk Radio, the lowest thing ever done by Fox News.

The second winner for 2008 political villain is George McGovern. Fans of Democratic Talk Radio may be surprised by this choice. Frankly, we never expected to be giving a former Democratic Presidential candidate a villain of the year award. However, McGovern has lent his name to the Right-Wing, corporate effort to undermine workers’ right to unionize. George McGovern has allied himself with the anti-worker efforts to defeat the Employee Free Choice Act. His TV commercials are frankly an open act on working Americans. McGovern has disgraced himself by joining with the most anti-working class political forces in America and misleading the American public on the nature of the Employee Free Choice Act.

The Senate Republicans out to destroy the American auto industry and the United Auto Workers union are our third villainous winners. Senator Corker of Tennessee, Senator Shelby of Alabama, Senator McConnell of Kentucky, Senator Vitter of Louisiana and their fellow Senate Republicans put the interests of foreign corporations over the interests of the American economy. Since all were opposed by the United Auto Workers in previous elections because of their militantly anti-worker voting records, their efforts are obviously motivated by personal political considerations that directly undermine the national interest. These Senate Republicans have sided with foreign companies to drive down the wages and healthcare benefits of American workers.

The hero of the year selected by Democratic Talk Radio is Al Franken. The American nation should be delighted at his political courage and determination. By insisting that all the votes be counted in the 2008 Minnesota Senate race, Franken has set a good example for all candidates running for office and for American voters. American Democracy has been strengthened by his resolve.

Al Franken will be a great asset should he eventually prevail when all the votes are finally counted. Norm Coleman has been very aggressive in his attempts to undermine a free and fair counting of the ballots.



For more information, contact Stephen Crockett at 443-907-2367.

Senator Shelby (Republican-Alabama) has a very negative record when it comes to protecting the economic health of the American nation. He has routinely endorsed every major, so-called “free trade� deal that has been proposed for decades. Shelby has routinely stood in the way of government provided, universal healthcare proposal for decades. Now, Shelby (like most other Republican Senators with similar voting records) is blocking the federal bridge loans to the American auto companies designed to save the American auto industry.

The stakes are huge. A million auto worker retirees have their healthcare and pensions put at risk by Shelby’s unpatriotic and reckless actions. The ripple effect of not approving the loans could destroy one out of ten jobs in the American economy.

Political and economic pundits along with most officeholders have refused to link the economic crisis facing the auto industry to government policy. The situation facing the auto industry is more a result of bad government policy than bad management decisions. The attempt by politicians like Shelby to blame labor unions is factually wrong and, in my opinion, intentionally dishonest. Shelby and his Senate allies created this auto industry crisis by adopting economic policies that have crippled the American economy.

All industrialized nations except the United States has government provided, universal healthcare. Only in America, do we place the costs of workers’ healthcare and their families’ healthcare on the backs of employers. This puts our employers at a huge competitive disadvantage with foreign corporations.   Read More »

With each cycle of the income crisis negative feedback loop an accelerating economic decline moves the global economy spiraling downwards into an abyss that will eventually end in total economic collapse. Systemic declining real wages starting over 40 years ago has laid the fragile foundation that fed a continuing drop in consumption when credit could no longer be a sustainable proxy for income among low to middle wage earners. Even if credit was suddenly available - average Americans are already highly over leveraged. These factors triggered a negative feedback loop of declining real income available to 95% of the citizenry, falling consumption directly proportional to falling incomes, and declining business revenue accompanied by job lay-offs & retail price declines (deflation) all completing each successive feedback loop cycle. All along the course of the feedback loop cycle theses effects oscillate across the general economy in a continual downward slope of economic decline that translates into falling GDP and national capital stock destruction that occurs at an ever increasing exponential rate.

Reversing an income crisis 'drain spiral' becomes more difficult with the passage of time since unemployment and capital stock destruction exponentially increases across a number of income crisis negative feedback loop cycles. The longer a government waits to enact substantial fiscal stimulus targeted at low to middle income citizens the more and more 'income emaciated' these citizens become thus making it much more difficult to push the entire economy up out of the income crisis spiral.

Eventually, the nation's capital stock becomes so inconsequential from an economic perspective and the number of citizens who are unemployed so numerous that the government becomes the sole income generating agent (presumes the government has infused the economy with insufficient fiscal stimulus and/or is still making government expenditures into the private sector) in an extinct standalone private economy that has reached the terminus in an income crisis deflationary economic spiral.

Reaching the terminus point is a foregone conclusion without substantial (10% of GDP) government fiscal stimulation of the 'real' economy. At this terminus point economic activity in the country has been completely extinguished from successive negative feedback cycles down economic gradients with ever accelerating declines in GDP and national capital stock destruction.

Infusing the supply side (financial sector - or top of the pyramid) with government bailout capital will do absolutely nothing (covered in many of my previous essays) to get the 'consumption engine' of an 'income starved' economy running again. Effectively, there is no substitute for bold decisive action on the part of government policy makers in implementing a substantial fiscal stimulus program that immediately creates sufficient stable employment (not a token number of jobs) at a sustainable higher tier private sector wage rate. This must be immediately followed up with rebuilding the nation's capital stock to pre-income crisis levels through infrastructure investment in an industrial base that lends itself towards taking advantage of a nation's competitive advantage in multiple areas. In the case of the United States it has been determined that long term stimulus investments (substantial) that target the creation of a 'Green Industry' sector would have the potential of employing millions of Americans across all professions within two main program branches comprised of manufacturing and delivery. Subsidiary industries would also be created either directly through government and/or private sector capital infusions that would ultimately employ a cross section of every professional occupation group that has been placed on the unemployment rolls during this income crisis.

The global community has so little time left in which to act decisively. We are racing ever faster with each passing day down a cold dark abyss towards the terminus of economic collapse. We must act now, not later.

Posted on my blog 11/5/2008 at:
http://structuraleconissues.blogspot.com/

It's impossible to conclude that our economic environment is not subject to the same diversity that comprises our natural environment. Given that an economy is a subset of the society that wrests itself from an unforgiving natural world riddled with chaos, why do some branches of economic thought continue to rationalize humankinds pecuniary endeavors down to neat tightly, clean, predictable outcomes. The structure of an economic system must reflect the multifaceted and diverse characteristics of the world in which it operates - a world of varying personalities all interacting in incoherent ways.

Our universe is not clean and orderly it-s very, very messy - nothing ever seems to work out according to the best conceived plans. It is therefore imperative that we not endeavor to extend our subconscious world view of tidy, neatly trimmed 'lawns' to any natural substrate in the living breathing messy struggle for life. There are no 'lawns' of perfectly crafted conception in nature so why extend the improbable to a natural world substrate? A prairie ecosystem is full of tall grass of varying varieties, riddled with ground squirrel holes, snakes in some regions, muck, and a variety of wildlife not allowed to intrude into our comfortable neat complacent checkerboard communities. But the interaction between the two does result in changes that affect both.

Similarly, our economic system must reflect the realities or 'ground truth' inherent in the natural environment, societal structure, and impractical, irrational interspersed behavior of the human substrate. So why continue to refine any economic model based upon illusion by further perturbing an already tumultuous society by injecting policies that don't align with any existing observable dynamic?

Over the past few years we've been led to believe that the Laissez-faire neoclassical economic realm of illusory conceptualization would translate into this wonderful world guided by some 'invisible hand'. Ours would be a service sector oriented economy never again requiring the utilization of dirty hands, and strong muscles. Every citizen would magically be endowed with all the necessary intellect, desire, and personality to expand the service sector into the preeminent sector of employment. There was just one problem with the distorted nation state competitive advantage simplistic view of our globe - it still left a substantial segment of our population underemployed, and unemployed because they just didn't fit into the special mold of a service sector laborer.

Expanding the concept of competitive advantage outside of its original boundaries centered in a particular industry was just another attempt to mold reality (only perceptually achievable by propaganda) to fit illusion. Over the past few decades we've been deluding ourselves into thinking that a viable economy can function stripped of its manufacturing sector. It has become abundantly evident that an economic system crafted for the benefit of the larger community cannot operate solely as a service sector economy devoid of a sustainable manufacturing base.

Competitive advantage must mold both the service sector and manufacturing components across industry segments that are jealousy defended by national policies within a completely economically integrated world. No economy can be sustained under just one of these core economic components they both must be merged together in order to achieve some semblance of economic and societal sustainability & stability.

We have witnessed the effective subversion of an already inherently unsustainable service sector nation-state competitive advantage model into something contrived and contorted beyond its illusory construct. Perpetuated by the 'information age' propagandists we were led to believe that an economy could be solely built upon a technologically oriented service sector. Factories were no longer needed within an economy based solely upon intellectual labor. The problems with this early nation-state competitive advantage centered model were three fold. First, it was myopically constrained to a nation-state centric advantage that never expanded across borders. Secondly, it failed to account for the unpredictable effects of human behavior within a tumultuous greed enhanced global society. Thirdly, as already conveyed, the competitive advantage of a technologically oriented service sector was too broad in scope to be maintained at the nation-state level.

But what mutated from this touted elegant distortion of reality was driven by the second factor, the uncontrollable greed educed by Laissez-faire religious tenants that encouraged human behavior contrary to the maintenance of sustainable and stable communities. Any behavior was permissible in the corruptly focused short-term greed addicted behavioral state. What evolved was a belief system built around the individual to the exclusion of the community a credo that any means was justified even the 'slash and burn' pillage of entire nation-states to fulfill the unquenchable desires of the few wealthy elite. Labor arbitrage became the 'club' of choice wielded by the 'strong arms' of an army of mercenary lobbyists fielded to sustain the wealthy fiefdom's ability to exploit workers by any means imaginable.

With so many interconnected messy threads weaving throughout our society, class consciousness, across unique behavioral responses to stimuli, and the turbulent at times dangerous physical world we inhabit it is abundantly clear that any economic theories must be conceived in the forge of reality. It is a reality that recognizes a simple requirement of all human beings - fairness. Without fairness or some form of equity, infused with equality the best conceived seemingly realistic policies will be nothing more than distorted illusion cloaked in a thin veil of reality. Human beings are very adept at perceiving whether certain aspects of their societal framework is fair, or slanted towards the interests of those ultimately in control. No amount of 'packaging' will deceive a community of citizens over the 'long haul' - this is aptly reflected in the current rejection by the general populous of the trickle down supply-side greed based economics benefiting the few practiced over the last few years.

Quakers believe that we are all our brothers keeper, that when we act in the best interests of our fellow human beings we serve the better interests of our communities. Thus, realizing that in order for a sustainable, stable economy to transpire we need to include everyone; those who desire or are suited to work in a vibrant manufacturing component, others who excel in a service sector intellectual or assistance driven component, and those who must be cared for by a compassionate community (government) because their unable to survive in either component of a competitively oriented sector of our economy. It is also important to integrate our nation-state economies into an 'International Economic Congress' whereby the interests of Capital (businesses) and Labor can be democratically resolved, and a coordinated oversight of all economically related endeavors can be achieved for the betterment of the entire global community. We are on the cusp of an appreciation that transcends any past global paradigm shift - our movement towards a sustainable, stable world community is very achievable. Let's make it happen.

Originally posted on my blog at:
http://structuraleconissues.blogspot.com/