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Thousands of dockworkers from Seattle to San Diego didn’t show up at work today, forcing the closure of all 29 ports in the Western United States — including the busiest American ports at Los Angeles and Long Beach. What the hell? MORE »
International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers president Tom Buffenbarger, one of Hillary Clinton’s most vocal backers in Ohio, is sharply attacking liberal nemesis Barack Obama again. You may recall last week when Buffenbarger compared Obama to “Janus, the two-faced Roman god of ancient times,” and then urged everyone to boo the god’s labor record. In a memo addressed “To: POLITICAL EDITORS” today, Buffenbarger hits Obama on his NAFTA plan, which is to do the exact opposite of his proposed NAFTA plan. MORE »
Barack “two-faced Roman god Janus” Obama, fresh off the heels of that Teamsters endorsement, has now picked up a union endorsement that actually matters: “The International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers and Helpers.” We await word on whether the International Pirates, Haberdashers, Flaneurs, Printer’s Devils, Farriers, Alchemists, Coopers, Canal Puddlers, Fishmongers, Cellarmen, Wicket Goblins and Part-time Popinjays Union will follow in suit. [Marc Ambinder]
*CORRUPT JANUS UNION TO ENDORSE OBAMA:* Take that, Buffenbarger! Your two-faced Roman god Janus, Barack Obama, has earned the Teamsters union endorsement. The Teamsters represent 1.4 million Americans, and they also control the Democratic political machine, but that was actually like 60 years ago. Meanwhile, all that remains of Hillary Clinton’s base is a ladies’ bridge club in Westchester county, but they might be tilting towards McCain. [AP/Breitbart]
Hillary Clinton and her demonic velociraptor “surrogates” have linked Barack Obama to all sorts of unsavory figures: Jesse Jackson, Deval Patrick, Tony Rezko, and Martin Luther King Jr. But a new surrogate, Tom Buffenbarger — president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which represents space rocket makers and such — has upped the negative ante: Barack Obama is the Roman god Janus, the most dangerous terrorist since Rosa Parks. MORE »
Ok, see, Barry, this is how this thing is supposed to work. You’ve very craftily built your political appeal by not appearing to be a politician despite being a politician, and that’s not an easy thing. You talk about Hope(TM) and Change(TM) and you play the nice guy, the argument-soothing middle child, and then you win stuff and, you know, good for you for playing the game well. Your staff, though, as I’ve mentioned before, needs to get on board your “nice” train or stop talking to the press. A case in point is your spokesman Bill Burton.
The Nevada’s Culinary Workers Union announced today that it was endorsing Barack Obama in the January 19th primary. He was endorsed last night by the SEIU in the state as well. The CWU is the state’s largest union, with 60,000 members — including what I assume are many hot and/or kindly bartenders — but no one knows if it will be enough to erase Hillary’s lead in the polls there. On the other hand, bartenders get people liquored up for a living (which is why I love them so) so they might have more-than-average sway in the state. [The Hill]
John Edwards is a plaintiff’s lawyer and a politician and so, frankly, we distrust much of what comes out of his pretty, pretty mouth because, hello, politicians tell you what you want to hear. But, Johnny’s been saying how much he abhors those 527 groups created by the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform because they can just spend money willy-nilly and run ads against candidates. Of course, like the Alliance for a New America, (run by a local SEIU chapter) they could also run ads for a candidate, like they are for Edwards who would totally like for them to stop, he swears. Of course, the union leaders mighta sorta discussed the 527 when they were discussing what kinds of support they could offer with Edwards’ staff, but everyone swears that they totally wouldn’t've mentioned the 527 they were starting in order to advertise in support of him when talking about how to support him. Luckily, the laws that define impermissible coordination are so lenient that, according to D.C. lawyer Ken Gross “I don’t know if my wife and I met the standard for coordination before we decided to have a child.” Lawyers are funny. [NY Times]
Having a crappy day? It’s about to get worse. There’s another GOP debate this afternoon, at the absurd hour of 4 p.m. Washington time, and 3 p.m. Detroit time — the debate is happening in Dearborn, tragic graveyard of the American Dream. So, at least all the unemployed people in Michigan are free to watch it. But they won’t because they’re all Democrat/labor union people, or maybe they’re “Reagan Democrats” or “Ted Nugent” or whatever. Anyway, we will live-blog it, dutifully and angrily, starting right here at 4 p.m. Eastern.
Supposedly this sixth GOP debate is an MSNBC/CNBC co-production starring “Mrs. Money Honey” and “Chris Matthews,” but the respective websites for those teevee channels have no mention of the debate. This is how ashamed they are, about everything. Oh, and this is Mumbly Joe Thompson’s first debate, so expect him to say a lot of dull bullshit in a folksy grumble, about how he will save us from the Soviets and the Japs and the Krauts and Sputnik, probably. How will “Fredneck” perform? Find out soon!
GOP debate is today (nice headline, guys) [Detroit Free Press]
So the SEIU has this thing where they ask all the candidates to “walk a mile in my shoes,” where the “my” is your typical SEIU member, i.e. not a rich person. Chris Dodd did it and the pictures are hilarious. Tomorrow, Barack Obama will pretend to a healthcare worker for a day. Because playing dress-up and entering the land of make-believe is the surest way of proving that you care about and understand the problems of the American working class. But hell, why limit it to the working class? Why can’t other groups get in on this action? Why can’t the candidates walk this mile in more comfortable shoes, belonging to people with more exciting jobs? We think it might go, a little something, like this… MORE »
