Senator Franken sponsors his first piece of legislation

Children of the Recession: One in 50 - Homelessness

One in Fifty

This CBS News segment shows one family that has gone from earning six figures to homelessness. That's bad enough and certainly adding to the numbers, but the sad facts are that many of our fellow citizens have been living in motels and surviving like this over the years. They are what has come to be known as the working poor.

I am a day late and dollar short reader. By that I mean that the books I read are typically out of date, and sometimes out of print. I am not in the income bracket that enables me to spend my dollars on new books, but I've found that this is not always an entirely bad thing.

I read a book recently that perhaps you may have already read some years ago when it was first published. It is extremely relevant today. It is called 'Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America' by Barbara Ehrenreich.

Here's a little editorial blip on it in case you aren't familiar with this book.

From The New Yorker
This exposé puts human flesh on the bones of such abstractions as "living wage" and "affordable housing." Ehrenreich worked, for a month at a time, at "unskilled" jobs—as a waitress and chambermaid in Florida, a housecleaner and nursing-home aide in Maine, a Wal-Mart clerk in Minnesota—to report on how people survive on wages of six or seven dollars an hour. In an easy, conversational style, she brings us the daily life of the working poor and shows that their diligence and good nature cannot earn them a place to live—a social worker advised Ehrenreich to move to a shelter—or medical or dental care or, in some cases, enough to eat. In her last chapter, Ehrenreich suggests that the working poor are "the major philanthropists of our society," sacrificing their families, their health, their privacy, and their leisure so that the rest of us can live more cheaply and conveniently.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker

I am writing about this book (triggered by this CBS video segment) because the fact is that the challenges faced by the families in the CBS video are nothing new, and the current economic downturn (or whatever we choose to call it) is another opportunity to shine a light on this long standing problem.

It won't change overnight, but it must change, and understanding that there really are so many people around the country who are working very hard each and every day (for all of us), who are trapped in and by their own lives.

Many of us tend to blame low-wage workers for their own plight and decide that they must have not tried hard enough. As Ms. Ehrenreich discovers while writing her book, it's just not that simple.

Balance. Choice. Change.

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Video: Vice President Biden: 'Labor built this country and labor should get a share of the benefits of this country...'

State News: Some stories that caught my eye from the States in the union

• In Florida, Republican lawmakers are working to pass a law that 'intended to nullify a bill known as the Employee Free Choice Act that's been introduced but not yet passed by Congress.'

• In Arizona, Republican lawmakers are working on a proposal which they refer to as ''"revenue enhancements" sweeping hundreds of millions of dollars from school districts and municipalities into the state general fund.' Federal stimulus funds are still on the way for Arizona schools.
  

The Republican legislative leaders also called for using roughly $1 billion of federal stimulus money and a total of $1 billion from new budget cuts and raids on special-purpose funds.

[snip]

...school groups have said the money proposed to be swept from their "carryforward" accounts already is spoken for in many instances due to contracts or other commitments.

School districts are allowed to carry over into the next fiscal year up to 4 percent of the operating budget.

• In, Illinois, the Junior Senator Roland Burris, appointed by former Governor Rod Blagojevich to fill President Obama's vacant Senate seat, introduced the Senior Senator from Illinois, Dick Durbin, as "the senior citizen of the great state of Illinois."

• In Maryland, actor Kevin Spacey preps for his new role playing disgraced Washington Lobbyist met with Jack Abramoff, by meeting with Abramoff at his home in the Cumberland prison facility.

The Real News: Unions in America

Be afraid... be very afraid: Scary Movie - The Horror of the Employee Free Choice Act

SEIU: Unions stand with Secretary of Labor nominee Hilda Solis, while Conservative Republican Senators play politics

Pssst... do something. - SEIU,org/solis

From The Political Carnival

The Chronicles of GoshDarnia: Those wacky TARP recipients and their extravagent, self-rewarding ways

Rachel brings together the recent stories of the audacity of the outrageous TARP recipients, et al.

I like Claire McCaskill. Senator Claire got my attention recently as she was giving a really great speech on the Senate floor. Check it.

I think she's right. If they can't do it for themselves, given the gravity of the situation, then they need to have it legislated upon them.

I think if I had a vote, I would actually vote for Rachel's pet bunny to run our banks. That's sad isn't it? Frustration and outrage will do that. I also wonder if Rachel really has a pet bunny.

Here's some of the conversation that took place on the conference call made last fall that Rachel Maddow refers to in the above segment. The call was hosted by Bank of America, and starring a Home Depot co-founder named Bernie Marcus.

The basis for the conference was a possible President with a Liberal/Progressive slant, i.e. candidate Barack Obama, (oh yeah... and Congressional seats going Demoratic too!) and The Employee Free Choice Act, a piece of legislation which strengthens the ability of people to unionize.

From The Huffington Post

"This is the demise of a civilization," said Marcus. "This is how a civilization disappears. I am sitting here as an elder statesman and I'm watching this happen and I don't believe it."

..."If a retailer has not gotten involved in this, if he has not spent money on this election, if he has not sent money to [former Sen.] Norm Coleman and all these other guys, they should be shot. They should be thrown out their goddamn jobs," Marcus declared.

Earlier he argued: "As a shareholder, if I knew the CEO of the company wasn't doing anything on [EFCA]... I would sue the son of a bitch... I'm so angry at some of these CEOs, I can't even believe the stupidity that is involved here."

source: The Huffington Post

Some very dramatic stuff I'd say. I always though that it was the Liberals who were stereotyped as behing a bit theatrical as well as whiney. I think the tables have turned of late.

What big business doesn't want you to know about 'The Employee Free Choice Act'

Rahm Emanuel doesn't give up much at WSJ CEO Counsel Conference

Rahm Emanuel speaks in vagaries like a good Chief of Staff.

Emanuel said he sees opportunities for government and business to work more closely together to help the public sector reorganize and retool for dealing with a global economy in a way that business has been doing for the past 20 years.

He also called on business leaders to “stay with us” as the administration undertakes a massive reform of the health-care industry.

The former Clinton staffer and congressman from Illinois was determined not to make news in his appearance before the Journal’s CEO Council conference. And he was largely successful. for WSJ source - click here

Emanuel did address the up and coming hot button topic The Employee Free Choice Act.

...Emanuel responded to a question on the Employee Free Choice Act, a measure backed by organized labor but strongly opposed by business, saying, “Let me take your question and go somewhere else.” Instead, he spoke about the need to address falling income among middle class workers. for WSJ source - click here

I find it slightly amusing that the author's last sentence above starts with the word 'Instead'. Although Emanuel was intentionally vague, The Employee Free Choice Act is a matter of great importance to the middle income earners in this country --those people who in large numbers, voted to elect Barack Obama for President of the United States of America.

But then again, I guess that WSJ CEO Counsel Reporter is looking to discuss how the Act would affect business (shareholders) so I am probably just being a bit oversensitive and possibly testy.

Snark-a-doodle.

Anyway, no blunders so it was a good day for Rahm Emanuel, White House Chief of Staff to President-Elect Barack Obama.