At Ryan for Kentucky, we believe that the playing field has been tilted against working families for far too long. My whole life, it seems that war has been waged on union workers and workers attempting to form new unions. I have witnessed this personally in a union fight. Although initially, 80% of the workers at our warehouse signed on to become union, the long process allowed the company to come in and "behind the scenes" peel off these votes. How? By turning worker against worker. Promising promotion of certain workers, and higher wages and more benefits if the union failed.

Dan Abrams on the Verdict goes there,

Tara Wall: If I can just ask. Real quick, General Clark, given you know...obviously respect for the fact that you are a general, but if you're saying to the Commander in Chief, ‘here is a strategy I believe that works, we need to try this, we should give it a shot, give it time, let's see if it works,' I would think that you would hope that that Commander in Chief would take that seriously into consid...not just into consideration but give it an opportunity, whether it's a surge strategy or any other strategy you might be anticipating.

Dan Abrams: That's the distinction, because Barack Obama has said he would take it into consideration and it sounds like what Tara is saying is, shouldn't he at least say ‘yes?'

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: And the answer is no – he's not obligated to say that. That's not the obligation

Dan Abrams: You say ‘give it a shot,' I mean, how long more do you have to give it a shot?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: The President of the United States does not...is not subordinate to the Commander in Chief in the theater of conflict. He just isn't.

Source: http://securingamerica.com/...

WOW.
What a bad day for the drill, drill, drill crowd.

COLLAPSE #1 FOR THE REPUBLICAN DRILL, DRILL, DRILL PLAN

The party of John McCain and Exxon released the perfect status-quo, oil-company-designed Energy Plan today.

While despoiling the steps of the Capitol Republicans revealed their laughable Big Oil Giveaway today.
AND THE REPUBLICANS WERE MET WITH A LARGE COUNTER - PROTEST.

UPDATE: NEW HEADLINES

Embarassing turnout for Republicans at House GOP drilling event

Protesters Overrun GOP Event

One thing has been driving me crazy about this drilling debate - everyone seems to assume that if we drill for oil in the US, that we will get the oil. And hence, we won't be dependent on foreign oil anymore. But we won't get anything, Exxon-Mobil will.

Boy, here in Kentucky we sure are straddled with two of the worst the national Republican Party has to offer. First we have Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader, then we have Exxon Ed Whitfield, whose election year Renaisance doesn't quite reach to the point of holding Karl Rove accountable for contempt of Congress. Read on about some goings on in the Bluegrass state.

I am a little late to the game with posting this, but I wanted to make sure everyone caught Jim Slattery's new ad that he went up with today called "Apollo."

I was lampooned by a supposedly "progressive" friend of mine for having a pronounced emotional response to Brokeback Mountain, because apparently, a straight man can't have that for a movie centered on a homosexual love affair.

I'm hoping this is just an isolated incident of ignorance, but does it speak to enduring phobia's and prejudices that still pervade our liberal political diaspora?

I'll briefly examine that question...

As the date for selecting a running mate for the presumptive nominees approaches there have been many names thrown into contention for both candidates. While there have been many qualified names offered up for the Democrats and many people have their own personal favorites, I am no exception. According to conventional political wisdom the main purpose of the vice-presidential nominee is to bring unity to the party if there has been a fractious primary, or to bring geographical strength to an area where a candidate may be weak, or for gender, generational or ideological concerns. I believe that one of the top and best choices for Senator Obama’s selection as a running mate would be Governor Kathleen Sibelius of Kansas.

  After Netroots Nation wrapped up on Sunday and all of the attendees scattered back to their homes (hope all of you had a safe trip), I stayed in Austin to visit with my old college buddy Joe. Ever since we both got out of school in the mid-eighties, our lives have taken different paths -- I came to the east coast, where I have remained ever since; he's bounced around various locations. I pursued a fairly linear, traditional career, and have done well; he's also done very well, but he's taken a much more unorthodox path to success. We've always kept in touch -- not particularly regularly, but with every occasional phone call and even more occasional visit, it always felt like we'd just spoken the day before. Joe makes me laugh, and he makes me think, and he's always a pleasure.

Exxon Ed Whitfield has been trying to clean up his voting record for this election year. He knows it is a bad year for Republicans, and that he has been a shameless enabler of every failed policy of the Bush Administration. All the election year scuffling to clean up his record cannot hide the fact that he has been a constant, bitter opponent to reform of our healthcare system, and of providing equal access to those in poverty as those with wealth to healthcare. Lets look at some of Exxon Eddie's votes to limit the access of healthcare to working Americans.

The following is an excerpt from Red State Rebels: Tales of Grassroots Resistance in the Heartland just released by AK Press edited by Jeffrey St. Clair and myself. This is one of the essays I contributed. Find out more information about the book online at www.RedStateRebels.org.

This isn't really a diary.

My son is a huge fan of Hillary Clinton and took it pretty hard when she lost to Barack Obama. He's even threatened to vote for John McCain. Well, Saturday the DNC and Howard Dean brought their cross-country "Register for Change" bus tour to Baton Rouge. So we attended.

On the way there Miss Julie had an idea.

It's sad that words like this even have to be said aloud.

From TPM:

In a sign that senior Democratic officials remain deeply concerned that post-primary bitterness could imperil Barack Obama's chances, two top Democratic officials have emailed a sharply-worded letter to major donors and other leading Dems confessing "fatigue and irritation" at those withholding full support from Obama and demanding that they get behind him "without conditions or demands."

Here's the letter:

That’s how Noam Chomsky puts it in this latest article in Khaleej Times. There can be no question (nor has there ever been) that this war was waged for nothing more than for oil.  It is obvious now that they only rational for staying in Iraq is that we want our due in black gold.  Or as Chomsky writes;

Negotiations are under way for Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP — the original partners decades ago in the Iraq Petroleum Company, now joined by Chevron and other smaller oil companies — to renew the oil concession they lost to nationalisation during the years when the oil producers took over their own resources. The no-bid contracts, apparently written by the oil corporations with the help of U.S. officials, prevailed over offers from more than 40 other companies, including companies in China, India and Russia.

And the Democrats gain 700,000:

In the 29 states (plus the District of Columbia) where voter affiliation is kept by party, the Democrats have scored perceptible gains since the presidential election of 2004 while the Republicans have suffered significant losses. To be specific, the number of registered Democrats in party registration states has grown by nearly 700,000 since President George W. Bush was reelected in November 2004, while the total of registered Republicans has declined by almost 1 million.

November is going to be kick ass...

Well, we knew it wouldn't take too long for Mitch McConnell to begin his smearing, and outright lying. Yes, fresh after charging for his time in a supposedly non-profit, Christian bookstore, Mitch McConnell is unleashing his war-chest of dirty money to try and smear the Democratic Senatate candidate in Kentucky, Bruce Lunsford.

(Proudly cross-posted at Clintonistas for Obama, The Liberal OC, & MyDD)

You know, we hear the term "change" used so often as little more than a cheap political slogan. That's why it's been so refreshing to see Barack Obama give us reason to belive change is more than just a word. That's why I'm so proud of our Democratic Party for standing up for real change that helps real people. And yes, that's why I'm excited about some great Democratic candidates who are bringing home the message of change.