First the Good News

[davidswanson]

I know yall want the good news first. Here it is.

Labor Reborn: A Department of Labor Worthy of the Name

According to news reports, president elect Obama is considering for Labor Secretary three people who actually know something about labor and actually support the intended mission of the labor department, which is protecting the rights of laborers. And by laborers, I mean you. If you have not recently received a government bailout, you're one of us. Here's the short list:

•Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., chairman of House Education and Labor Committee
•Former Rep. David Bonior, member of Obama's Transition Economic Advisory Board
•Andy Stern, president of Service Employees International Union

Any of these men as Secretary of Labor would be a 180 degree reversal from the past eight years, during which the so-called labor department has done everything it could to damage the labor movement and the rights of working people.

The National Labor Relations Board has a majority of its seats vacant and waiting for appointments. If similar care is taken in making those appointments, we will be in for a whole new nation, and therefore world, assuming we can all survive long enough to reap the benefits of a reborn labor movement.

Congress is prepared to send to President Obama the Employee Free Choice Act, putting teeth into the legalization of the right to organize in your workplace.

While many of Obama's proposed appointments strike me as hugely misguided, the approach he is taking on labor appears ideal. Maybe that should tell us something. If the peace movement worked as well as the labor movement, or if the labor movement worked for peace, would Obama be considering people like Emanuel, Gates, and Powell for positions in his administration?

Solidarity.

Forever.

*****

Now the bad news...

Lying 101: Obama Considering Colin Powell for Secretary of Education

According to news reports, one of the names president elect Obama is considering for running our national education system is Colin Powell.

This is not from The Onion, but the Houston Chronicle. But there's hardly a non-humorous way to envision it. Presumably schools will be required to institute new policies in favor of cheating on tests if they want to keep their federal funding. Lying will be developed as an academic field fully integrated in the curriculum from preschool on.

And if you thought military recruiters had too much access to kids, just wait. If you thought history books were already flawed by leaving out everything that happens between wars, get ready.

Are we supposed to laugh or cry? Is this what anyone voted for? War criminals running domestic departments? This would be like putting Jane Harman in charge of our "homeland"'s security. Oh. Wait.

The good news is that Obama is considering people who actually know and care about labor to run the department of labor. And there are other good names on his list in consideration for other departments. But it's hard to read them, what with the nausea.

[underpants]

1. With RFK Jr. at EPA this is looking more and more like a new Progressive era

We'll see. I didn't think he would go that route at first but I hope he does.

[davidswanson]

2. he's off the list

to believe the Houston Chronicle

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

3. Not Bad News At All. Colin Powell Is A Highly Intelligent And Capable Man. I'm Sure He'd Do Fine.

All you have there is knee jerk assumption and melodramatic nonsense. You are engaging in the politics of fear and your assessment of a Powell appointment is downright absurd and irrational.

Try and find a grip sometime.

[BeFree]

7. Colin Powell

...should be kicked to the curb. He is a failed military man who was fooled and/or lied to us. He can not be trusted. What we need is a teacher in the DoE. Fresh blood.

Obama probably just put Powell's name out there to appease him. Gawd, I hope that's all he did that for.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

18. A Little History Lesson - Colin Powell, Secretary of PR, and His Halabja Hypocrisy

http://www.prwatch.org/node/2208/print


US Secretary of State Colin Powell was a military PR man in Vietnam. One of his assignments was to help manage the image crisis created by the massacre of civilians by US troops at My Lai. Now, as the Bush government increasingly uses Saddam Hussein's brutality as its primary rationalization for the war, Powell is revising and spinning history by traveling to Halabja, the site of Saddam's gassing of Iraqi Kurds. Powell dedicated a memorial and declared that the world should have acted sooner against Saddam after the 1988 massacre. However, as we point out in our book Weapons of Mass Deception <1>, when the 1988 gassings took place at Halabja Colin Powell was the National Security Advisor for the Reagan/Bush administration and Saddam was the Reagan and then Bush administration's strategic ally. Saddam's chemicals, now called WMDs, came from the US and other western countries. When the US Congress attempted to act against Saddam, Colin Powell and the rest of the Reagan/Bush administration made sure that the Prevention of Genocide Act died in Congress.

(and don't forget that little PR stunt in front of the UN)

[Mari333]

4. please not powell

he is a war criminal, and no amount of justification will change that.
sigh. i hope this doesnt happen.

[NHDEMFORLIFE]

5. When Freepers react like this, we laugh and call them lunatics

But when we do it, it's OK?
Sorry, I don't buy it. If anyone thinks the Obama Administration is going to accomplish anything at all without being as inclusive and bipartisan as the president-elect pledged he'd be during the campaign, they are delusional.
If we keep demonizing everyone on the other side, every chance we get, we will accomplish nothing. And we are no better or brighter than those who demonize us for everything and anything we say and stand for.
Powell was wrong, wrong, wrong on Iraq. Agreed. But to dismiss him as a man unworthy of any respect is foolish and self-defeating.

[davidswanson]

6. what's a million lives?

we need to be serious and deal with bigger issues

[NHDEMFORLIFE]

8. That's right, now I'm a war criminal

Anyone with the temerity to suggest we need to look ahead and not back is a war criminal, right? The fact that I canvassed in 1972 for George McGovern and in the 2008 NH Primary for Obama doesn't count.

You want this adminstration to fail, than keep the rhetorical burner on high.
You want to accomplish anything, dial it back.

[Mari333]

10. yeah, i dont easily forget the images of the war dead

the children, the soldiers, the shock and awe...i am amazed that people do forget and also forget powell standing there promoting the lies in front of the UN/
his hands are as bloody as anyone else in the Bush admin.

[arcadian]

11. But... but... but... he said nice things about Obama.

Certainly he would never lie again. :eyes:

[NHDEMFORLIFE]

12. Yes, clearly you are morally superior to me

I want the new administration to succeed in changing the way we conduct our politics and preventing another mindless war of arrogance from ever happening again.
But let's do it your way.
See you in four years when we win two states and DC.

[arcadian]

9. Maybe he could teach our children to be good little imperialists.

That's the only thing he's got on his record thus far, that and being a lying, war criminal. Expect streamed lined military recruitment tactics in elementary schools with Powell at the helm.

[TBF]

19. Please look up the MyLai Massacre. Once is understandable, twice is a pattern. n/t

[xxqqqzme]

13. I heard on M$NBC yesterday

Powell has turned down any cabinet position.

[Joanne98]

14. I like David Bonior. But I still want Elaine Chao prosecuted.

For accounting fraud!

[blm]

16. Bonior would be my top choice, too. And Chao belongs in a dungeon with the rest of BushInc.

.

[Snotcicles]

23. David Bonior would be an excellent choice. nt

[clear eye]

15. You think Andy Stern is good news?!

He is the most corrupt game-playing leader of a large union today. As head of a department, any department or organization, we could expect polarizing disunity among its members, corruption scandals, and an erratic policy depending more on who he felt sucked up to him sufficiently rather than what would work. We desperately need the creation of new jobs. He wouldn't know how to get a good economic revitalization program going if it were handed to him on a silver platter, because he would be too busy demanding tribute from the person carrying the platter.

[cali]

17. wow.. a positive remark from you- not completely mind you, but hey.

In any case, I know we can depend on you for egregious bashing of Obama.

[TBF]

21. I was look for Swanson's posts to inject some much needed sanity into the mix,

amidst all the rah rah. Of course we all voted for Obama, we didn't have a choice. At least not in Texas. Now we move him left, if there is to be any hope for the most needy in our society (a category that is growing as fast as that gap between rich & poor).

[TBF]

20. As a houstonian I can tell you the Chron reads more like the Onion than not,

especially with the daily energy news. At any rate, you're right on this. Powell needs to stay retired and far away from our youth.

[waiting for hope]

25. As a parent with a child in second grade -

we need someone with education experience, NCLB needs to be scrapped.

[TheWraith]

22. For fuck's sake, if we take every rumor seriously we'll go nuts.

The Powell for DOE rumor makes about as much sense as the one placing Hillary as Secretary of Defense.

[crispini]

24. WORD. Thank you. I will now stop reading rumored cabinet threads.

Sometimes, DU is only tolerable if you figure out what's annoying and skip the entire topic.