What are the Republicans choosing?

All the hoo and hah over just who the Republican nominee will be clouds one main point about their anointed one: whomsoever the choice, that person is merely head puppet for the ruling 1%. I have no doubt that truth be told, Mitt Romney is their choice. He was born one of them and has always been one of them. One only need witness his career, especially with Bain Capital.  However, no matter which person is the nominee they will not be in charge.

Republicans conduct war of attrition on Labor

Most people that know me have heard me say over and over that democracy’s continuing existence depends on citizens and groups playing by the rules. Without a doubt among the most egregious examples of defying rules has been the Republicans in congress for the past ten years. By simply refusing to follow rules or twisting rules to make them do what they were never intended, Republicans have been able to essentially break government.

Now we have yet another fine example. The fact the Republicans are openly hostile and condescending to labor is a given. But in this article in the Long Island Press we see that Republicans are working to make the NLRB totally unworkable. And of course Republicans in congress will do all they can to make that happen also.

“Republicans are maneuvering to short-circuit an effort by Democrats on the National Labor Relations Board to approve rules that would quicken the pace of union elections.

The GOP member of the labor board is threatening to resign his post, which would deny the board a quorum and quash the entire process. At the same time, the House is poised Wednesday to approve a GOP bill aimed at short-circuiting moves they consider anti-business. That measure is unlikely to go anywhere in the Senate.

The developments are the latest sign of how intensely business groups are opposing any moves that could help organized labor make new inroads at companies that have long opposed unions.

At the labor board, the Democratic majority was set to take up a proposal Wednesday that would simplify procedures and shorten deadlines for holding union elections after employees at a work site gather enough signatures.

But the board’s lone GOP member, Brian Hayes, has threatened to quit the agency over his objection to the planned rules, an unprecedented move that would render the board powerless to approve any new measures at all. The board needs at least three members to make any decisions.”

OWS has no focus?

From democraticunderground:

“The following Objective was adopted by the General Assembly of Occupy Los Angeles on Saturday, November 27, 2011:

“A major Objective of Occupy LA is to END CORPORATISM on the National, State and Local levels. We define CORPORATISM as the merger between Corporate and State Power. Some examples of this nexus are:

· the pervasive influence of lobbyists throughout government
· the revolving door between the private and public sectors as corporate executives and lobbyists become governmental regulators and legislators and then move back into the private sector again.
· the awarding of public contracts to private politically and economically connected interests
· the dependency and predominance of the public Electoral process on private and Corporate funding
· commonplace legislative action blatantly prejudicial to the public interest and grossly beneficial to favored Corporate interests
· the elevation of Corporations to the legal status of persons
· wars waged in the interest of Corporate profits.

As long as the above described condition is allowed to persist, the interests of the People will be prejudiced in favor of the Corporate interests of the 1%. We will seek out all peaceful means, including citizen legislative, legal and protest action to END CORPORATISM.”

Sounds like a focus to me.

Britain on Strike

As I write this on Wednesday, Britain is in general strike over austerity measures imposed by the Conservatives. Austerity is what Republicans want to see imposed on the working class and poor so the rich can keep their tax cuts.

Who needs comedy writers when you have GOP candidates?

@JamieNBCNews  James Novogrod – Bachmann tells Waverly IA crowd that were she president, “we wouldn’t have an American embassy in Iran.” The US broke ties w Iran in 1980.

ALEC meets in secret in Scotsdale, Arizona.

ALEC had another behind-closed-doors meeting last week in Scotsdale. More on this next week. No doubt  the rich and powerful have a list of demand and strategies to make America over to their liking, democracy be damned.