What Labor Day Means: Has It Been Forgotten? Sadly, Yes! :(
Today is Labor Day, a holiday first developed in the 1880s to honor the contributions of American workers to the development of our economy!
Workers then were in the process, a long struggle, to develop labor union organizations to represent the interest of workers, something bitterly fought by corporations and government, as a "conspiracy in restraint of trade!"
Only slowly, starting with the administration of Theodore Roosevelt at the beginning of the 20th century, did labor begin to be treated with dignity and respect, but still with many setbacks during the conservative 1920s!
During the Great Depression and Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, labor union organizations finally gained acceptance as partners in collective bargaining, but remained the "enemy" in the South and in many interior states across the nation!
Labor unions at one point had one third of all workers, and their influence led to state and federal legislation that made life better for union workers, as well as non union workers! Their peak could be said to be in the 1960s and early 1970s, followed by a long period of rapid decline in influence, particularly due to the administration of Ronald Reagan, ironically a labor leader himself (the Screen Actors Guild)!
Today, organized labor has only about 12 percent of the labor force as members, and workers in general have seen backwards steps in relations with their employers, particularly in these difficult economic times of the Great Recession! 
Labor is now struggling to be more significant, and to help promote the agenda of the Obama Administration and the Democratic Party, but ironically, many workers continue to avoid voting, or find the emotional appeal of the Republican party on issues such as gay rights, abortion, illegal immigration, and Islamophobia as their major motivation, a sad development!
So the work of the labor movement, which is always bad mouthed by conservatives and Republicans, remains a challenge for the future!
The Word “Radical” And American Presidents: An Abused Term!
President Barack Obama has been called "radical" by many opponents because he had the "gall" to tackle tough issues, including Health Care Reform and Financial Reform, and to take bold stands on many other issues in his first 19 months in office!
Somehow, if a President takes leadership and tries to make life better for the citizens of this nation, he is labeled by those who want no change, and to keep an elite wealthy group in control of government, as being extreme--and the words "Socialist", "Communist", "Fascist", "Nazi", "Liberal", "Progressive", and any other term that can be thrown at him that is derogatory in nature is utilized!
So therefore, Abraham Lincoln was "radical" because he dared to challenge the South's secession from the Union, and moved to abolish slavery!
So Theodore Roosevelt was "radical" because he dared to engage the government in regulation of big business; proceeded to promote regulation of food and drugs; promoted conservation and the environment; and became the first President to see labor and working people as a group that should be considered as having basic rights!
Woodrow Wilson was "radical" because he moved to regulate corporations by anti trust legislation and the creation of the Federal Trade Commission; created a national banking system through the Federal Reserve Act; and promoted the first national labor laws!
Franklin D. Roosevelt was "radical" because he promoted government intervention and action to deal with the Great Depression through his New Deal; dared to challenge the power of big business; and promoted the first "safety net" for the poor and the middle classes!
Harry Truman was "radical" because he dared to promote civil rights in the military and in the nation's capital, and suggested the importance of health care and education on a national level!
Dwight D. Eisenhower was "radical" because he dared to intervene with federal troops at Little Rock to enforce federal court orders on school integration, and promoted federal intervention in setting education standards nationwide!
John F. Kennedy was "radical" because he promoted civil rights, federal expansion of education initiatives, and suggested a Medicare system for the elderly of our nation!
Lyndon B. Johnson was "radical" for promoting the Great Society programs in civil rights, health care, education, the environment, consumer protection, and the War on Poverty!
Richard Nixon was "radical" for promoting advancements on the environment, consumer protection, labor protections, and other domestic reforms!
If these actions are "radical", we need more of them, and more Presidents having the guts that these men and President Obama has had!
Understand, this is NOT saying that all of these Presidents did not have faults and shortcomings, and that they cannot be criticized for these areas of failure!
Lincoln violated civil liberties during the Civil War; Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson were white supremacists; FDR tried to "pack" the Supreme Court, and interned Japanese Americans during World War II; Truman is blamed by many for starting the Red Scare to protect his administration; Eisenhower is judged as slow to react in the area of civil rights, before sensing a need to intervene at Little Rock to back federal court orders; Kennedy is perceived as ineffective in accomplishing much of his domestic programs; Johnson is interpreted as promoting too many reforms without careful consideration as to their long range effect; and Nixon is seen as violating civil liberties, and as crooked in using power, leading up to Watergate!
Obama has been criticized as being too moderate by many progressives and liberals, and as too slow to react against conservative attacks!
But all of these Presidents made a long range impact on America, and should be acknowledged for such "radical" change!
The Ultimate Outrage: House Republicans Vote Against Health Care For September 11 First Responders! :(
One of the most outstanding examples of anger on the House floor within memory occurred last week when NY Congressman Anthony Weiner erupted after House Republicans, with the exception of a few, refused to support a bill to provide health care to first responders on September 11, 2001, who have had numerous health issues as a result of exposure to the horrific environmental conditions created by that terrorist created nightmare!
There has not been any issue that the GOP has responded to that shows any decency, any humanity, any compassion--and yet supposedly this party is favored to win seats in the midterm election!
This is also the party whose members still include people who believe the "birther" myth, that Barack Obama is not a citizen and was born in Kenya!
It is sadly clear that this party would reject Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Dwight D. Eisenhower as RINOS (Republicans In Name Only), were they to be alive today!
The Upcoming Oval Office Meeting Of BP Executive Tony Hayward And President Obama
Next Wednesday, British Petroleum CEO Tony Hayward will meet with President Obama in the Oval Office!
Such a meeting should have been held earlier than 58 days after the Oil Spill Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico!
BP has lied and deceived on the amount of oil leakage, and has been unwilling to allow free access by the news media to report the disaster! This is totally unacceptable behavior by any corporation, when what has occurred is a tremendous economic and environmental disaster for the nation!
President Obama must be tough and demanding at this meeting, and must make it clear that if BP does not follow through on total responsibility, both legally and financially, short term and long term, then the long arm of the national government will come down on them with a sense of total wrath!
For too long, we have allowed powerful international corporations to manipulate our government at all levels, and to do great harm to the average American! This must NOT be allowed to continue, and we know that the Republican Party will not do anything to harm their close association with these corporations, so it is essential that the Democratic Party and President Obama take a stand for the American people, and make the disciplining and tight regulation of BP and other corporations a priority!
Otherwise, the future of American democracy is at stake! We need our President to act like Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and John F. Kennedy conducted themselves in confrontations with big business, making it clear that they were not going to tolerate abuses by corporations against the American people!
The Republican Party Has Lost Its Roots! How It Has Changed For The Worst!
The Republican Party has lost its roots in recent years, and when one looks at the principles of its leaders over the past 156 years, it has very little similarity to the viewpoints of its most famous political figures!
It is no longer the party of Abraham Lincoln and other Republicans who founded the party in 1854, fought against the Confederacy in the Civil War, and promoted the end of slavery and advocated racial equality! Now the Republican party sounds more like the Confederate mentality, and has very little appeal among African Americans! The South is the strongest section of Republican support, when in the past, to be a Republican was anathema in the Old Confederacy!
It is no longer the party of Theodore Roosevelt, George Norris, Robert LaFollette, Sr., and other Progressive Republicans who wanted social and economic justice and regulation of big business in the early 20th century! Now, the word "progressive" is trashed, not only by Republican leaders, but by conservative talk radio and Fox News Channel hosts who make being a "progressive" a great evil! And certainly, the Republican party does NOT care for social and economic justice or regulation of corporations, as evidenced by the disastrous policies that have led to the Great Recession!
It is not the party of Dwight D. Eisenhower, a moderate Republican, who warned against the "Military-Industrial Complex", which was influencing our foreign policy, and committing America to a constant overseas presence in foreign conflicts!
It is not even the party of Senator Barry Goldwater, the Republican Presidential nominee in 1964, who in later years warned against the growing influence in the party of the Religious Right with its insistence on promoting moral issues in politics, such as abortion and gay rights and school prayer, issues that Goldwater believed should not be part of American politics. For this, years after his losing campaign for President, he was vilified by the Christian conservatives!
The Republican party is no longer the party of Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Eisenhower, or Goldwater! For those reasons, the party has lost its moorings, and many worry it is rapidly becoming marginalized, as it alienates the growing Hispanic and Latino population by its support of the Arizona illegal immigration law; as it campaigns to repeal health care; as it continues its battle against financial reform on Wall Street; and as it wages its refusal to support environmental legislation and energy alternatives--all issues that sum up the agenda of the future!
The Senate Finance Committee Vote And Senator Olympia Snowe
Today's 14-9 vote by the Senate Finance Committee on the so called Baucus bill on health care reform, with every Democrat and Republican Olympia Snowe voting yes, is a welcome moment, but it is not enough.
The lack of a public option in the bill means that the Baucus bill cannot be accepted as it is. Since Olympia Snowe does not promise that she will support the ultimate health care bill that is reconciled between the House and the Senate, we can thank her for her support, making the proposal slightly bipartisan, but not allow her to dictate the final version of the bill, as the price for her vote.
Optimism is arising that the health care bill will pass by Thanksgiving, and if it does, it will be the ultimate triumph of a vision first enunciated by former President Theodore Roosevelt in the 1912 presidential election when he was the candidate of the Progressive Party for President.
Glenn Beck, John McCain, And Theodore Roosevelt
Glenn Beck is truly nutty, and it was proved further in his web interview with Katie Couric of CBS News today.
After calling President Obama every nasty name under the sun in the past eight months, Beck expressed the view that John McCain, Obama's opponent in 2008, would have been worse as President than Obama.
He also said that he would probably have voted for Hillary Clinton over John McCain had she been the Democratic nominee. Is that something Hillary Clinton should be happy about? 
LOL
But then he also attacked every Democrat's second most favored Republican, Teddy Roosevelt (of course, Abraham Lincoln is Number One ). He said TR was a "progressive" and that McCain is also a "weird progressive like Theodore Roosevelt".
So Beck is now attacking TR, regarded as the fourth best President in our history in almost any poll, because he actually promoted some basic reforms and believed in "progressivism".
Need I say that this is just further proof of how crazy and loony Glenn Beck is?
Oh, and by the way, McCain DOES like to compare himself to TR, but McCain does not get it that TR was really a "progressive", and while McCain is less conservative than most of his Senate colleagues, he truly does not understand TR's motivations and is NOT a "progressive" himself, despite his constant statements of admiration for the second greatest Republican President!