"Outside the Trains Don't Run on Time" - Gang of Four
[oddjob reminded me of this one in the previous comment thread.]
- Every time I have watched Bob Woodward on television over the last twenty or so years, my usual reaction has been "this idiot brought down a president?" I then think either that Bernstein was grossly underrated or that this is the luckiest sonuvabtich in the history of journalism. Because he seems exceedingly dense, credulous, slightly slow on the uptake, a guy whose ignorance is only exceeded by his undeserved sense of self-regard. Woodward's claim that he was threatened by the White House for his ridiculous reporting on the sequester has been quite the amusing story. But what really cracked me up was the right wingers who seem to think that Woodward is some sort of liberal hero and that only our blind loyalty for Obama is behind the denunciation of his epic dishonesty. The man who wrote Maestro for fuck's sake. And boy, that Gene Sperling knows how to deliver a blood-chilling threat:
But I do truly believe you should rethink your comment about saying saying that Potus asking for revenues is moving the goal post. I know you may not believe this, but as a friend, I think you will regret staking out that claim.
Really, how can anyone take seriously a man who claims that this is a threat?
- Erik Loomis is frustrated that the AFL-CIO and building trades unions are supporting the Keystone Pipeline.
I understand the tough situation that Keystone creates for organized labor. A union’s job is to protect the interests of its members, including keeping them employed, all too rare today. But in the early 21st century, with organized labor in deep decline, does it make sense to promote short-term job growth at the cost of telling the thousands of people who care deeply about a variety of progressive causes, including climate change, that organized labor is not an ally?
Does he really not understand who elects the local and international (all of these unions have Canadian members) officers of these unions? Hint -- the guys who are looking to work on the pipeline and thinking about their next job. Local union officers by law must stand for election every three years, international officers every five years. Can you imagine being the head of a building trades union and telling the members that the union is passing up on the opportunity for lucrative work in order to forge greater bonds with other progressives? -- all of whom no doubt show the same reciprocal respect for the concerns of union members by buying only union-made domestic cars (no Priuses kids), shopping at union grocery stores (stay out of Whole Foods), and hiring only union contractors in their homes. [I keep thinking of one of my clients bringing one of our meetings to a quick close because he and his fellow union members wanted to get to a public hearing about a nuke plant "before the Sahara Club got there."] If the AFL-CIO deserted the building trades unions in this cause, they would be risking further disaffiliations at a time of grave weakness. This is a case of institutions being accountable to their memberships. If other progressives can't understand that then there really isn't much hope of alliances.
What's going on with you?
