World's Evil Enema

The world seems to be ridding itself of all sorts of right-wing pollution in recent days. One can only think the level of evil has reached such a high level that the world needs to shed some of it or die.

Most famously, we have the death of Osama bin Laden, a person for whom categories like "right-wing" don't really fit, but nonetheless.

But he's hardly all.

René Emilio Ponce, leading right-wing general in El Salvador's murderous and Reagan-supported government in the 1980s has passed. Ponce personally ordered the massacre of priests who worked with the poor.

The utterly loathsome Orlando Bosch is gone. Bosch was a right-wing Cuban exile terrorist who blew up a Cuban airliner, killing 73 people, in 1976. This is never a good reason to support a government, but I'm really glad Castro outlived Bosch, so that the latter could never see his beloved homeland again.

And now the incendiary Northern Ireland Protestant leader William Craig has died. Craig banned a 1968 civil rights march by Catholics that played no small role in leading to the violence of the 1970s and 80s. He later led a right-wing paramilitary organization umbrella organization.

Chamber of Commerce

I'm presently in a Washington state House district targeted by the Chamber of Commerce for anti-health care bill ads.

First, these ads are absurd. They are all about how terrible the economy is and now Congress is trying to push through health care.

But if the economy is in the gutter, don't I want the government to give me a health care assist? I know the bill isn't great at this point, but it's still a heck of a lot better than what we have now. I have trouble seeing how these ads are effective, but then I don't understand why poor and middle-class people don't overwhelmingly vote Democratic anyway.

Moreover, wouldn't the Chamber of Commerce have to be in the top 5 of most reprehensible organizations in the country. What would that top 5 look like?

1. Republican Party
2. New York Yankees
3. Coal Industry
4. U.S. Chamber of Commerce
5. Everything to do with the country music industry in Nashville.

That's a workable beginning to a top 5 for me.

Bob Novak Dead

Burn in hell motherfucker. Or "Douchebag of Liberty" as Jon Stewart once referred to him.

Lyrad notes in private conservation that Novak must have went outside in daylight.

Historical Image of the Day

Phyllis Schlafly protesting against the Equal Rights Amendment. Late 1970s.

Jesse Helms Is Dead

Burn in hell motherfucker.

And on the 4th of July too. The nation's present to its citizens.

Fantastic

I feel so good about my government today, knowing that they based the Guatanamo interrogations on a discredited 1950s Chinese commnunist torture manual used to gain false confessions from US prisoners during and after the Korean War. I'm not sure what is more disgusting, that they used a manual that they knew created false confessions or that the government so blatantly supports torture that they would use such methods to begin with. Really, did they think their interrogations would provide true confessions? Did they think because they were Americans and righteous or something that they could tell true from false? They probably did.

Torture and the Bush Administration

Yep.

Historical Image of the Day

Meeting between Henry Kissinger and Augusto Pinochet, 1974. I believe they are also talking about bunnies and flowers.

Henry is telling Pinochet about how much Nixon loves to send poisoned chocolate to America's kids around Easter. Pinochet looks on with interest, thinking how he can place time bombs inside of stuffed rabbits as a way to eliminate the children of lefties.

A Last Word on the Yankee Defeat

Alex Massie at The New Republic is overthinking the effects George W. Bush had on the New York Yankees defeat. He compares the Yankees ways to those of the Republicans, showing all kinds of useful parallels between their respective evils. The direct link between Steinbrenner and Bush is particularly interesting.

But in reality, the reasons the Yankees have not won a World Series during the Bush Administration is that God has simply decided that a Bush Administration and a Yankees World Series champion would be too much evil in the world. The apocalypse is not ready to happen, not for another 12 months anyway.

An Inside Look at Union-Busting Seminars

Art Levine got inside a union-busting seminar. He produces a fascinating must-read out of it. If you haven't been exposed to evil lately, I highly recommend it.

Union busting has a long history in this nation and it has only become more intense in the last thirty years as American companies decided to break the long-term compact between themselves and workers in the name of higher profits.

Perhaps the most telling thing about Levine's story is the Jackson Lewis law firm, which specialize in union busting, telling companies they can lie about anything concerning unions:

"The labor board doesn’t really care if people are lying."

At this point, the National Labor Relations Board is a joke. Even under in Clinton is was unfriendly to workers. Now it is an active tool of industry and only forces to follow the law in a very open-ended and broad way. Lying? Not a problem in the least! I guess so long as you don't actually murder a union organizer, it's all good.

Could Al Haig Be Next?

I don't know what to do. All of my favorite icons from the 80s are dying. Not long ago, we lost Tammy Faye. Then, Michael Deaver passes away. No one did more to shape the Reagan image, not that ol' Ron probably remembered who the man was by 1985. Then today I hear about the passage of Leona Helmsley. The grand dame of evil was one of the true legends of the worst decade in the history of humanity. I'm sure there are some celebratory parties going on right now hosted by the many people who worked for her.

It's a good thing we have such an evil administration right now. If a Democrat was in the White House, we would be entering a dangerous and perhaps unprecedented period of unevilness. What would we do?

Also, the answer to the question in the post title is that I hope so.

Republicans Again Show That They Don´t Care About American Workers

Republicans block key labor legislation in the Senate.

This legislation would have given workers at least some chance to form labor unions. It would create a union when workers collected signatures from at least 50% of workers in a given place. Of course, Republicans are going to oppose this. What makes me really sick is that they place their opposition under the guise of democracy. They claim that such a process would undermine a secret ballot. They would have a point if corporations didn´t undermine the secret ballot at every opportunity, looking to allow supervisors to vote, limiting access to workers´voting, using propaganda at every turn to scare workers, intimidating workers on the job so that they are afraid to be part of a union. This is really just disgusting.

I suppose we should´t be surprised to hear such rhetoric from the same people who undermined American democracy to throw the presidency to George W. Bush in 2000. But it´s sad that working-class Americans must again suffer at the hands of corporations and their political lapdogs.