Color me somewhat skeptical, but color me glad to finally see 'someone,' from the White House rallying the Unions today.
I just keep wondering when the going got tough, in Wisconsin, where was VP Joe Biden then, and more importantly where were our other National Democrats, such as Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi during this crisis, that is spreading like wildfire to destroy the unions.
VP Biden assured the Unions that the White House and our party is committed, but why does this feel like he and our party have arrived at the Senior Prom, at 2 am in the morning, when there's nothing around but dead balloons, and confetti on the floor while the Janitor yells: 'Sorry Mr. Biden, you're gonna have to leave: lights out.'
"Now look, I'm sure a lot of you out there saying, 'Gosh, why hasn't the President, why hasn't the Vice President -- why haven't they stopped these guys in the states? Why haven't we been able to do this?' Look folks. We are flat committed."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
You bet your ass that what 'some people,' were saying Biden: Where the fuck is our party, and where are our national leaders?
Flat out committed, means suiting up and showing up, and most certainly not after the fact, and not after the good people of Wisconsin stood out in the freezing cold for weeks and weeks on in, and were finally stripped of their rights. That doesn't cut it for me.
I realize that President Obama and VP Biden, are very very busy guys, but that doesn't let the rest of our National Leaders off the hook. Committed means that our president and vice president could have and should have given a speech from any 'virtual' camera in the world, to stand up during the battle, not after the carnage has been complete, giving the other GOP asshole governors, the big shot in the arm, the big major mojo to move forward with their plans to destroy the Unions.
Committed does not mean a damn, when President Obama applauds the insane mass firing of an entire school of teachers and employees, in Providence, RI during the same time Wisconsin was on fire:
President Obama voiced support Monday for the mass firings of educators at a failing Rhode Island school, drawing an immediate rebuke from teachers union officials whose members have chafed at some of his education policies.
Speaking at an event intended to highlight his strategy for turning around struggling schools by offering an increase in federal funding for local districts that shake up their lowest-achieving campuses, Obama called the controversial firings justified.
So yeah, the position of Barack Obama’s administration is that when schools aren’t doing well, it’s totally cool to clean house and fire everyone but the food service workers, no questions asked.
And the position of Barack Obama’s administration with failing banks and financial institutions? Keep every single one (except the guy forced out by shareholders), and hell, keep their ludicrous pay – cause it’s in their contracts. At least he’s consistent.
http://workinprogress.firedoglake.com/...
Don't pee on my shoes and tell me it's raining for gawdsake.
God forbid, somebody should point out the obvious. That our party is apparently 'committed,' except when they're not. Except after the fact, except when it comes to when it's convenient, or when the next election cycle is beginning.
WASHINGTON -- Vice President Biden gave the Obama administration's most forceful statement of solidarity with organized labor in its current battles around the nation on Thursday, encouraging thousands of activists to continue fighting for workers' rights.
"You guys built the middle class," said Biden in a virtual town hall conversation hosted by the AFL-CIO. "I would just emphasize what Hilda [Solis] said and say it slightly different: We don't see the value of collective bargaining, we see the absolute positive necessity of collective bargaining. Let's get something straight: The only people who have the capacity -- organizational capacity and muscle -- to keep, as they say, the barbarians from the gate, is organized labor. And make no mistake about it, the guys on the other team get it. They know if they cripple labor, the gate is open, man. The gate is wide open. And we know that too."
"I've got to state the obvious," he said. "There's an old expression: 'You go home with them that brung you to the dance.' You guys all brought me to the dance 36 years ago in Delaware as a United States senator. You've been with me, and I've stayed with you."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Well, Joe, let me state the obvious, 'you don't show up to the dance, after everyone has left the party, expecting a handout, when you our own party, would not even give us a hand up, and were AWOL.
At least Michael Moore had the audacity to speak power to the truth:
Contrary to what those in power would like you to believe so that you'll give up your pension, cut your wages, and settle for the life your great-grandparents had, America is not broke. Not by a long shot. The country is awash in wealth and cash. It's just that it's not in your hands. It has been transferred, in the greatest heist in history, from the workers and consumers to the banks and the portfolios of the uber-rich. Today just 400 Americans have more wealth than half of all Americans combined.
Let me say that again. 400 obscenely rich people, most of whom benefited in some way from the multi-trillion dollar taxpayer "bailout" of 2008, now have more loot, stock and property than the assets of 155 million Americans combined. If you can't bring yourself to call that a financial coup d'état, then you are simply not being honest about what you know in your heart to be true.
And I can see why. For us to admit that we have let a small group of men abscond with and hoard the bulk of the wealth that runs our economy, would mean that we'd have to accept the humiliating acknowledgment that we have indeed surrendered our precious Democracy to the moneyed elite. Wall Street, the banks and the Fortune 500 now run this Republic -- and, until this past month, the rest of us have felt completely helpless, unable to find a way to do anything about it.
Thank you, Wisconsin. You have made people realize this was our last best chance to grab the final thread of what was left of who we are as Americans. For three weeks you have stood in the cold, slept on the floor, skipped out of town to Illinois -- whatever it took, you have done it, and one thing is for certain: Madison is only the beginning. The smug rich have overplayed their hand. They couldn't have just been content with the money they raided from the treasury. They couldn't be satiated by simply removing millions of jobs and shipping them overseas to exploit the poor elsewhere. No, they had to have more – something more than all the riches in the world. They had to have our soul. They had to strip us of our dignity.
That is what a real leader sounds like, in case you forgot. Oh, BTW, VP Biden, thanks for showing up, the check is (not) in the mail.
Ms. B.