LABOR ON ITS DAY

Labor Day weekend approaches and most labor issues of the day languish on the back burner--Immigration reform festers while congressional cowards whisk it into the closet as too-incendiary an issue before the fall elections and certainly not important enough to violate the royal privilege of an August recess-- Intel palns to layoff 10 to twenty thousand workers and hardly an eyebrow is raised-- Overall job layoffs rose 76% in August-- Just one more important headline in deadly competition with sensational show biz-- The Israeli war with Lebanon took surprising precedence away from coverage of the Iraq war in the American media-- Deaths of Israeli soldiers wrought frontpage coverage while inside and beneath the fold one could find lower case reference to another American soldier riding that little black train into the dust of death permeating Iraq followed a day later by one or two more followed a day later by two or three more staying the phony course into the illusive neverend-- Field Marshall Herr Rumsfeld strides to the armored podium and acidly labels his war critics Islamofascistic Nazi symps-- What comic book from what decade of what century is he lecturing us about now??-- The Vice President blames Ned Lamont's refreshing primary victory over the nationally statured but mealy and obsequious Joe Lieberman for making Al Quaeda stronger and then scurries back toward the mahogany resplendent bunker-- Meanwhile having to endure a return visit to Katrina's crime-scene to memorialize governmental failure and wallow in the pervasive angst and self-pity of its aftermath Bush opts for more vacation time but who can critique that-- after all he's had a pretty rough year so far and beyond that knowing there awaiting his return to D.C. are calls for him to discipline client state Israel for its use of cluster bombs to wide-spread seed southern Lebanon (over 350 bombing sites) with scattered explosive bomblets mostly after the cease-fire was known by most all to be a fait accompli-- Minor tempest in a teapot as Israeli PM the desperate Ehud Olmert prepares for Big War in Iran and Syria--As for the current administration's number four titan among the deluded dead-enders Condi Rice seems to have been sidelined by poor performance art of the Israeli-Lebanon war-- Two years four months remaining and then like spoiled rich kids everywhere the haughty Bush administration can dump their hideous mess into the laptop agendas and miscued clueless Harvard/Yale paradigms of the next incoming crew--

_______ Labor big and Small organized and Dis-organized definitely has its work cut out for itself-- Lack of a will-to-fight has led the lower case 'd' democrats in their flaccid decade long pathetic response to republican scorched-earth anti-union anti-labor tactics-- How many picket-lines has senators Clinton, Schumer, Biden, Kerry, Edwards, Lieberman, Obama, or Bayh joined??-- How many have called for NAFTA's repeal??-- Since many companies employee medical benefits are now going the way of dinosaurs how many dem.'s are calling for a national health program??-- How many unions have been denied the right to strike by legislation or judicial fiat??-- How many unions opted to de-certify their charters being hoowinked by the oxymoron that the Market had suddenly morphed into God and all their needs would be met by angelic robber-barons, their little elitist mba's and those envious democratic wannabes??-- Outsourcing and down-sizing having begun under the table during the Clinton/Rodham co-presidency (perhaps as well under Bush I but that's expected of the royal family) achieved maximum effect and success under the Bush/Cheney tandem but the little d.'s emit less than a whimper-- Living wage jobs are becoming an endangered species and the collapse of the housing industry coupled with decreased home-based oil production is threatening to undermine the entire economy-- Housing Contractors have been opting for illegal immigrant help in many parts of the country and blue collar Americans are none too happy about it nor should they be-- Neither are American Farmers who cannot seem to find enough low wage pickers in those 11 million illegals-- The price of petrol tightens the noose around the shrinking middle class as many in the working class slide into abject poverty-- Where are the democrats and their once stalwart courage?????-- The Party built by labor has abandoned its roots and lost its moral fiber-- The corruption tainted do-nothing Republicans emit panic and fear of losing power and are ripe as never before in recent times for defeat come mid-term elections this fall and the little d.'s have gone AWOL-- Rank and file blue collar men and women have to watch their agenda take a back seat to gay marriage and abortion issues while democrats sound full retreat on the illegal immigration battles that are not going away anytime soon-- Lack of true leadership ignores this incendiary issue at its own peril--The inability of the little d.'s to respect the moral and faith based positions of both American-born Black and Hispanic minority groups as well as the inability to distinguish the multiple cultural distinctions between the two are costing them voting strength in higher numbers than they are willing to admit-- Conspicuous in their spineless silent support of Israel bombing hundreds of Lebanese children to death in their recent war little d.'s had the temerity to raise the issue(not an unlaudable position but given the state of affairs as they now exist one not worthy of the pole position) of gray wolves being killed from the sky by Alaskan hunters-- They mustn't upset The Lobby-- What a sense of priorities!!!!-- What a platform!!!!!---- What a stand!!!!--

_______ So what awaits Labor on its day??-- Cheap hot dogs served by those glad-handed smarmy pols too timid to challenge the opposition much less their own party leaders but still brave enough to seek re-election at traditional Labor Day picnics held round the country-- It certainly appears to this observer that in such tawdry collapse of nerve the demmies don't have the stomach or the heart to lead much less the focus of enough determined vision to redeem the American Dream-- Re-election even to minority status still offers the comfort of many benefits and perks unavailable to those on the verge of foreclosure and/or layoff or those working two and three jobs-- For all the hoopla surrounding the hot-button punditry and media coverage of the Lamont vs. Lieberman primary battle in Connecticut doesn't the superlow turnout (1/6th of registered dem.'s does not equal a mandate= Lamont then settles for little more than 1/12th as the winner while Loserman tallies almost 1/14 as the whiny loser) -- doesn't this offer harbinger of the true disgust Americans have for the current political order and its hyped and phony process??-- The coming vacuous electoral charade masks defeatism and depression oozing from the body politic-- Not oblivious to the angst and apprehension permeating Labor on its deserved day to it I raise a glass in small gesture to stiffen their courage our future will soon require--