Friday Funday: Big Shoes And Big Thanks

As we're fairly sure you heard earlier this week, Tom Osborne, the University of Nebraska's Athletic Director - and legendary former head football coach -  announced his official retirement date as January 1, 2013. Not unexpectedly, sports media writers and broadcasters from all over the country heaped praise on Dr. Osborne, most of it well deserved.

Many of those praising the College Football Hall of Fame coach and talented athletic director expressed sentiments we've also shared for years: That when AD Osborne chose to move on, the proverbial shoes in his position were going to be incredibly difficult to fill. That time has apparently come, though we hope not without one more set of thank yous, and one last story about the legacy of Tom Osborne at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Our entire staff has - collectively, as well as individually - had differing relationships with Mr. Osborne over the years. Paul has been drawing a prediction cartoon of the Husker football team since not too many years after Coach Osborne took the reins of the team. In fact, without Tom Osborne, it's doubtful that Husker fans would have shown the level of devotion that has warranted many, many years of Paul's HuskerNutz cartoons and books.

Our editor, Amy's family has also had multiple levels of business relationships with the Huskers over the years, thanks in part to Tom Osborne. Countless numbers of Nebraskans have been fed very well thanks to those relationships.

Our webmaster Shawn has had his own relationship with Mr. Osborne over the years, including his time as the Executive Producer of the Husker Sports Radio Network. Shawn has produced and worked with countless hours of Husker sports media programs, including more than a few with Coach Osborne himself.

It's with these relationships firmly in mind that we hope you understand what the real legacy of Tom Osborne is.

Tom Osborne has always been far more than someone just focused on college athletics. For all the years we've known him, Tom Osborne has been a teacher, someone concerned with teaching people to become better than they are. Even when he was in Congress, Rep. Osborne would surprise the occasional staffer by taking time to listen, and talk with them when most other Congresspersons would walk on by.

The most important legacy Tom Osborne will leave at the University of Nebraska is what he's done for - as sports media people often call it - "the academic side of the house." The move to the Big 10 was always less about the athletic money and opportunities for students, and more about the academic grants and educational opportunities in the Big 10, something Osborne knew when he made his decsion.

Having the most academic All Americans - college athletic superstars who also achieved top performance in the classroom - in college sports? That's Osborne's legacy too.

What has always kept Nebraska athletics a step above virtually every other college in the nation has been the understanding that's at the core of Dr. Tom Osborne - that the "student" part of "student athlete" is equal, and many times more important, than the "athlete" part of "student athlete".

We hope whoever tries to fill his shoes always keeps that idea in mind.

Thanks, Tom, for all you've done for Nebraska. Enjoy the fishing next spring. You've more than earned an extended vacation.

Real Monsters At The Voting Booth

Over the last day or two, increasingly positive and legitimately confirmed poll numbers have been rolling in from virtually every legitimate pollster and poll aggregator about all kinds of political contests across America. We even noted it yesterday. While we emotionally embrace this numerical reflection of what we're seeing in our various locations around the country, the fact is, our staff has been feeling a bit like actors in a horror movie - waiting for the other shoe to drop, as the ugly monster rears its head again.

That monster, in case you've forgotten, was the disastrous election of 2000, in the very county where we now have our South Florida location. After the Supreme Court stopped the ballot counting in Florida, and declared George W. Bush the winner, ballots were still recounted. As the Federal Election Commission's final tally has proven for years now, Al Gore actually won the most votes of most Americans in the 2000 election.

That miscarriage of justice lead to some of the worst economic, military, and social disasters in our nation's history. It also gave those on the right, from the Karl Rove school of politics, a warped kind of encouragement. Because they got away with it in 2000, the right-wing extremists now seem to believe that anything is acceptable, in the service of winning - up to and including gaming the spirit of American elections, if not election laws.

Sadly, a similar kind of Rovian monster is exactly the one right wing extremists are attempting to revive in the voting booth again this year, through tactics like voter suppression and voter intimidation.

Even though multiple studies have proven voter impersonation and associated fraud is virtually non-existent, forces from the extreme political right have continued to desperately push voter ID laws to prevent voter impersonation. While many voter ID laws have already been struck down this year, a major battle in Pennsylvania - a very important battleground state - is continuing today. The fact is, voter ID laws only really serve to suppress the votes of minority, urban, and young voters, along with a specific subset of older voters. From college students to snowbirds, thanks to the efforts of heavily biased right-wing partisans, millions of legitimately registered and legal American citizens may not be able to vote this fall - which election law experts say may put any final election tally in jeopardy this year.

It gets worse.

Some governors, like Florida's Republican Governor Rick Scott, have attempted mass voter purges, trying to push thousands of legitimate voters off the voter rolls. Like the voter ID laws, these voter purges have fallen significantly more on groups like minorities, college students, and snowbirds - all groups that tend to vote heavily Democratic. Even today, Gov. Scott is once again attempting to pursue yet another voter purge, 40 days away from the election, while he and the state of Florida are being investigated for fraudulent actions on this matter by the Justice Department.

Finally, there is the ugliest anti-voting tactic, voter intimidation. An extremist right-wing group called 'True The Vote' has been training millions of Americans in the tactics of voter intimidation and voter challenges, for use on voting day. Once again, these same monsters are targeting areas that are occupied primarily by minorities and college kids.

The goal for all these tactics is simple. If the Republican Party can't win the election with better candidates, they will try to steal it - just as they did in 2000.

Until the votes have all been counted, the voting results are in - and the counting machines have been proven not to be rigged - we simply do not trust that those on the extreme political right will not attempt to do everything they can, up to and including stealing the election from the American people.

This monster ain't over by a long shot, folks.

Epistemic Closure And The Big Hunt

We'd be willing to bet all the money in our wallets right right now, against all the money in your wallet right now, that there isn't a single one of our readers in the United States that's avoided all political advertising so far this campaign season.

The effects of almost totally unregulated campaign funds, as well as multiple media bubbles that have become more closed around themselves than ever before, have created a political environment where discovering a truly undecided voter is about as likely as hunting for a dodo bird, or a successful snipe hunt.

For all the talk of convincing voters, the fact of the matter is, we're less than six weeks from election day - and every reliable poll, including those with "House leans" to the right or the left - has Mitt Romney trailing President Obama. In a growing number of Senate and House races, the tale of the polls reads the same to everyone - the decisions of most people have already been made, and they're generally not in favor of the Republican in the race. Even white working class voters in the Midwest and NASCAR fans now prefer Obama over Romney by still growing measurements.

With all these signs pointing in the same direction, the latest campaign target of Mitt Romney and the Republicans hasn't become a specific voting block, or a policy of President Obama's. It's become the polls themselves.

Many on the right, including a growing chorus of voices from within the Romney campaign, are simply in denial. They claim the polls have been horribly skewed to the left, and that the samples pollsters are recording aren't an accurate reflection of those who will vote in just over 40 days.

The problem with the denials from the right is that unlike legitimate poll aggregators - such as Nate Silver and FiveThirtyEight.com or Real Clear Politics - and virtually every legitimate pollster, the whiners on the right have no scientific data to back up their claims. That distain for science is not uncommon these days on the political right - but it doesn't change the facts that all the polls are reporting.

As Nate pointed out this week, even in heavily "red" states - states where it's almost mathematically impossible for President Obama to win - the polls are marking a noticeable shift to the left. Further, as Steve Benen notes, pollsters and poll aggregators have no reason to put out flawed results. In fact, they'd hurt their own business if they did so.

Those facts haven't changed the level of denial from those on the right.

Their wild goose chase for some vague substance to support their paranoid theory has actually led to a new website, run by conservative partisans. The site is taking the polling data from other pollsters and "reweighting" that data, until - surprise, surprise - Mitt Romney wins most of the polls he was losing in before this creative math kicked in.

When you hear political pundits use the phrase "Epistemic Closure", this kind of insane denial is what they're talking about. The right wing has not only created their own media on cable TV, radio, and the internet, but they've closed their collective minds to any facts that don't agree with what they want to hear.

The facts do say there are an incredibly small number of undecided voters out there. The chances of certain very biased political groups being able to accurately target just those people though, are slim to none.

The undecided voters could be right behind the campaign wonks, clear as day - but we doubt those partisans with closed minds will find them before Election Day.

Dropping The Ball

There are seemingly few things that political partisans in the U.S. can agree on in America right now, especially when it comes to making or applying rules and regulations. The NFL referee lockout, however, is a possible exception.

Whether you're Democratic or Republican - or even if you don't even like pro football - the NFL referee lockout seems to be getting a unanimous thumbs down from fans, teams, coaches and businesses alike - especially after last night's horrible game, decided not by the actions of players but by the officials on the field. Virtually everyone connected with NFL football has said this lockout is hurting people on all sides.

We understand both the labor issues with the referee lockout and the problems from the fan perspective. We've even come up with some less-than-orthodox solutions to the problem - though we highly doubt NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will be listening to us.

The primary cause of the dispute is - no surprise - the greed of the NFL owners and their desire to offload their pension responsibilities to the referees. As bad as the calls are, the worst effects of this dispute aren't the horrible calls or the angry fans. The biggest problem this labor dispute is causing is a tendency by every player and coach on both sides of the ball to get used to manipulating the very rules of the game.

It's the kind of warped interaction that Mitt Romney and the I.R.S. not only recognize - they may have even perfected it.

In case you missed it, Mr. Romney and his campaign finally released his complete 2011 tax returns last Friday, after being hounded by voters, the media, and even other politicians.

If you just take a quick glance at the summary of what's in Mitt's 2011 tax returns, you likely won't find anything unusual for someone as rich as Mr. Romney. His effective tax rate - the amount he paid after all his deductions were taken into account - was 14.1 percent. The Romney's donated over four million dollars to charity in 2011 - nearly thirty percent of their income - for which they claimed a deduction of $2.25 million.

The problem with Mitt's taxes comes in when you add to those multi-million dollar numbers two statements he made in the last three months.

The first statement came in July, in an interview with journalist David Muir, when Romney stated, "I don’t pay more [taxes] than are legally due, and frankly if I had paid more than are legally due, I don’t think I’d be qualified to become president." The second statement came in August, due to prodding from Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, when Mitt Romney claimed that he'd paid at least 13% income taxes in each of the last ten years.

Now, these two statements normally wouldn't add up to a problem - except, of course, when you follow the unbending laws of mathematics and add those statements to Romney's 2011 tax return. Because unlike the substitute refs in the NFL, we can see Mr. Romney's infraction clearly from hundreds of miles away.

In order for Mitt Romney to have paid a tax rate of 14.1% in 2011, and for his statement in August to be true that he'd never paid less than 13% income taxes in each of the last ten years, Mr. Romney has to have paid more taxes than were legally due in 2011.

Which means, by his own standards, Mitt isn't qualified to be president.

If this were an NFL game, even the replacement refs would likely call a penalty on Mr. Romney for a foul that flagrant. We hope voters do the same thing this fall at the polls.

Excuses, Lies, And Responsibilities

Excuse us if we're a bit slow today. Over the weekend our staff members took a break to recharge their physical, mental, and emotional batteries. We slept in, spent time with family, got out and exercised - even built a bookcase. We did a little work too, as we began to look over Mitt Romney's taxes, which we'll likely tackle tomorrow.

We also ran into a few friends over the weekend, including a veteran of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. He's what's jokingly called a "short-termer" by at least a few of our more recent veterans, having only spent two tours of duty "over there," one in each foreign nation. Having been deployed overseas more than once, our friend is back home now, but still a part of the Army Reserves.

What amazed us is that he's also thinking about re-enlisting as a full-time soldier and going back for yet another tour of duty. His current employer, fed up with all the time off he's had to give our friend, is making the vet's life a living hell. At least his employer has followed the letter of the law (so far) by holding our friend's job open for him when he returns from his tours of duty, something many employers have not done for other returning members of the military.

How America has treated our veterans over the last decade - especially over the last few years - is more shameful than most Americans know or should accept. We're more than willing to admit, though, that conditions for our returning vets are not nearly as shameful as they were for those who returned after serving during the Vietnam war.

That said, too many Americans - especially those putting party over country like Nebraska Sen. Mike Johanns - still aren't willing to work as hard for our service members when they return as our military volunteers have worked for us when we send them "over there."

Last week was a perfect example of this kind of cowardice currently on display in the U.S. Senate.

After helping to craft a bill that would have assisted returning members of the U.S. military to get jobs, rejoin the regular workforce, and help cut the unemployment rate, four Republicans in the U.S. Senate - including Nebraska's own Senator Mike Johanns - decided to block the vote against the same bill they helped create. Each Senator seemed to give different excuses for their changes of heart.

The biggest excuse given was the false claim that the bill wasn't paid for. The bill was indeed paid for, in the same way virtually every bill in Congress is; over time, not all at once. Just as almost no individual pays for a house completely, up-front these days, multi-year government programs are also not paid for up-front, out of the current year's budget. That's not how either business or government is run in America today - and has been the case for longer than the life of anyone reading this commentary.

Both current Sen. Ben Nelson and U.S. Senate candidate Bob Kerrey - a veteran himself - were livid at the Republican voting blockade. They each noted that any procedural excuse that was made was something that could have been worked out, had the Congressmen been willing to put the needs of our service members above their slavish devotion to the Republican party.

To us, this sorry episode reminded us that some politicians are willing to act like our service members, fulfilling their responsibilities even when it's hardest - like in an election year, with an economy still struggling upwards.

Others, like Senator Johanns and his chickenhawk Republican cohorts, are still ducking their responsibilities to our military, and their own constituents, because of their fear of the extremists who currently control the Republican Party.

With an atmosphere like this, how any responsible American could vote for a Republican for Congress this year is beyond our understanding.

Friday Funday: Autumn, Again!

As the weekend approaches, and we look forward to time away from the keyboards and the drawing board, we noticed a small note on our calendars that gave us some extra reasons to smile today.

Saturday is the official start to the fall season, one of our favorite times of the year.

Our staff generally enjoys autumn, and the many changes that come with it. The weather finally welcomes football season, even as it begins to say goodbye to baseball. A chill has already begun slipping into the air - especially in the evenings - which means we finally can dig out some of our favorite clothes.

The colors change in the trees too - at least outside our Nebraska and Washington, DC offices. There often seem to be autumn surprises too, like the great news late last night that all 33,000 U.S. troops originally sent to Afghanistan for the surge strategy have now left that nation. Hopefully, some of those service members will be welcomed home with a fall harvest feast.

Unfortunately, thanks to one of the most worthless sessions of Congress in history, millions of Americans won't be celebrating with them. They'll be going hungry instead.

The reason they'll still be hungry boils down to Senate Republicans abandoning their duty to the American people by putting off until after the November election the passage of the Farm Bill. As today is Friday, and we traditionally try to keep things positive, we won't delve too deeply into the reasons House Republicans have held up a bill that not only helps farmers but controls the food stamp program, and other food assistance measures for millions of poor and working poor Americans.

Suffice it to say, those members of Congress are headed home to campaign - and we hope some of them get what's coming to them from their constituents.

All things considered, we're glad that it's fall. Political debates have begun in earnest, like the one in Massachusetts last night, where Democratic candidate Elizabeth Warren wiped the floor with Republican incumbent Scott Brown. More debates in Nebraska, Virginia, Maryland and Florida between other candidates are coming up too.

For many of the candidates we support, the most recent polling has been looking positive too, headed into fall.

Summer isn't quite done yet though, with Major League Baseball still going strong. There's a distinct chance this year for the Washington Nationals to go to the World Series - the Nats did clinch a plyoff spot last night -  so we may be paying attention to baseball well into the heart of the fall season.

In short, it's autumn again - a great reason for us to look forward, and smile.

Marching Off The Cliff

There are times in life when - no matter how much you'd rather be focusing on something else - you have to push ahead. That may even require holding your hand up to your face and looking between your fingers, as you cringe and look forward.

It's especially hard when the view you're seeing includes people you care about marching right off the cliff of political extremism.

We're not just talking about the Romney campaign, though.

Republicans in Congress - many of whom are headed home this Friday for a week of campaigning - will have few successes and many failures to answer for these past two years. You can include in that list the GOP Senate filibuster Wednesday that killed a jobs bill for veterans.

Worse than that, Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell - the same man who said the Republican Party's top priority was to make Barack Obama a one term President -  admitted Wednesday that he wished Congressional Republicans could have obstructed the President and Democrats more these past four years.

No one can say we haven't been ringing the bell and banging the drum about the fractures in the GOP. We've been talking with each other about an  internal Republican Party "civil war" for much of the last ten years, even before we began this publication. Mitt Romney, with his pompous fundraising speech about the 47%, may have done what all our warnings never could - namely force the Republican Party to deal with its incompatible divisions.

As usual, Mitt's methods have created more destruction in their wake than he'll ever take responsibility for. According to Gallup, voter reactions to Mr. Romney's "47%" comments have been overwhelmingly negative.

In newspapers across the country, in stereotypical "red" regions, as well as "blue", Mitt Romney writing off half the nation has been devastating to Republicans. Romney's hubris this election season has forced many so-called "down ballot" candidates to run not just against their opponent, but also away from Mr. Romney, and even the Republican brand. Even Fox News is desperately trying to bail Mr. Romney out of his mess.

Voters and candidates aren't the only ones running away from the effects of Mitt Romney's extreme arrogance. On Wednesday, Senate Republicans delivered their prepared remarks, and then bolted for the doors, like they were jumping off their own cliff. It was obvious the Republican Senators were trying to avoid questions about Romney's 47% comments, as well as their own vote against jobs for veterans.

The scattering of Congressional Republicans at their own press conference doesn't surprise us, either. According to a slew of polls, at both the state and national levels, things are not looking good for the GOP.

Even Republican Senator Tom Coburn - a longtime veteran of political battles on Capitol Hill - admitted he's so tired of the gridlock and short-term focus on elections, he can't stand the lack of progress in any direction by Congress.

Meanwhile, the extremists in the Republican Party keep banging their drums, forcing Mitt Romney and many Congressional Republicans to march right off the edge of the political cliff.

You can't say we didn't warn you.

It's time to face the music, Republicans.

Forty-seven days and counting...

Blowout

To say the last 72 hours has been bad for Mitt Romney's presidential campaign would be an understatement of monumental proportions. Mitt Romney's comments at a private fundraiser, captured on secret video, prove that the Republican candidate for President has effectively written off nearly half of all Americans - many of whom might vote for him under other circumstances.

Pundits and politicians alike from Bill Kristol to David Brooks, from Ramesh Ponnuru to Sen. Scott Brown to David Frum have all distanced themselves from Romney, like townspeople in an Old West movie, fleeing Main Street right before the big shootout scene. And those are just the conservatives and Republicans.

This massive mistake was far more than just Mitt Romney shooting himself in the foot. This was Mitt Romney taking a pair of big guns and completely blowing his political feet off.

There are plenty of dissections in the media of all the massive issues exposed by this 49 minute video, including the previously released five minutes of lowlights. From writing off all Palestinians, to characterizing anyone who benefits from the U.S. government as a freeloader, the list of pandering, gaffes, and arrogance is enough by itself to cause Mr. Romney scattered issues for the rest of his campaign, and possibly the rest of his life.

What almost everyone seems to have missed about the video that exposed to the world the person that Mitt Romney is behind closed doors, is one of the most basic features of being an American politician - or really any American who serves others.

If you've ever worked in a restaurant, you'll know exactly what we mean.

When a waiter or waitress works in a restaurant for a while, they get to recognize the type of customers that come in; the regular customers, the visiting high rollers, the parents escaping for a night without kids - and of course, the bad tippers.

Some servers will try and avoid the bad tippers, or treat them poorly, hoping to get them to leave right away - which is exactly the wrong thing to do.

The best wait staff knows that you treat each customer with respect, with courtesy, and with top-quality service, even those you are most certain will tip you poorly. Why? Because sometimes, you are pleasantly surprised. Sometimes, you win them over, even the ones you were most certain would never like you. Because, as we've said here for years, anything worth doing is worth doing well.

For example, being the President of the United States.

Americans are rapidly heading towards the day they choose who they want to be in the White House. To us, the choice is simple.

Should it be this man, who said to half of America, "To those Americans whose support I have yet to earn - I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your President too."

Or this man, who said about half of America, "I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."

Who do you want leading your nation for the next four years?

Makers And Takers

There are two different stories today, about two different political bullies, who both really showed us their true selves this week - Mitt Romney and Rahm Immanuel. While you might think these two men have nothing in common, other than their overpriced suits and their overinflated egos, you'd be wrong.

In the case of Immanuel, the Chicago teachers' strike has been a brutal rebuttal to the Mayor's constant attacks on Chicago educators. In Immanuel's latest bullying attempt on Monday, he went to court to try and force teachers back to work before their union members had a chance to review the new contract details. The court rebuffed the Mayor soundly, though the Court does expect the Teachers Union to vote today.

As we touched on last week, the teacher strike wasn't about money. It was about professional concerns, like class size and effective evaluation. Simply pinning teacher evaluation to standardized test results, as Immanuel wanted, helps neither the kids nor the educators.

Rahm Immanuel's biggest failure was in underestimating the bond between Chicago's parents and those people who educate their kids. It's obvious that Immanuel and the Chicago School board thought they knew better than the professionals in the classroom and the parents of those students how they should be educated. When polled, more than 55% of voters in Chicago backed the teachers - including two-thirds of parents with kids in public school. Meanwhile, two-thirds of Chicago voters blamed either the school board or the Mayor - but not the teachers - for the failures that have led to the strike.

In the case of Mitt Romney, he has no one to blame but himself for the speech he gave which may have put the final nail in the coffin of his political career.

That speech, leaked to journalist David Corn, contains video of Mr. Romney speaking at a private Republican fundraiser earlier this year. In his address, Romney contemputously identifies 47% of Americans, saying "[they] believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it." Romney finishes his screed by saying, "[M]y job is is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."

In saying this, Romney displays his complete adoption of the 'makers & takers' theory from the extremist libertarian right. Romney's comments also completely blow away any strain of more compassionate conservatism. Those that believe if they could just reach that 47% of Americans with the message conservatives believe in, they might be able to change the minds of the non-conservatives have no place in Mr. Romney's vision, as his attitude is obvious: "I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives" - so why even try?

For the record, Jim Messina, the Obama for America campaign manager gave a pitch-perfect reply to Romney's heartless video, simply saying "It’s hard to serve as president for all Americans when you’ve disdainfully written off half the nation.”

What both Mitt Romney and Rahm Immanuel have in common should be clear by now. Both appear to think they know better then those they serve, and neither man seems to feel humbled about his position. Rather, both men seem to display a 'divine right' kind of arrogance, as though they deserve the opportunities that have come their way, and if others didn't catch the same luck? Well, screw them.

If there truly are 'makers and takers" in America, it's clear exactly which category both Mitt Romney and Rahm Immanuel fall into: that of failed takers.

Screaming At Giants Doesn't Work

While there may be a thread that ties together all of today's different major events, there isn't necessarily some kind of worldwide conspiracy. There is a pattern though, one of working together - or refusing to.

To start with, today marks the one year anniversary of the Occupy Movement. They began by shutting down parts of Wall Street, and in the process yanked the national discussion away from the unserious discussion of debt and towards the serious and significant awareness of income inequality.

Today, while income inequality is still on the increase, the Occupy movement has effectively faded as a political force, as journalist Joe Nocera noted this weekend. Unlike the Tea Party, Nocera comments, the Occupiers refused to "engage with the larger world" on its terms. The Tea Party may have sold out to wealthy corporatists like the Koch Brothers, but "Two years ago, 87 new Tea Party-elected candidates showed up in Washington. Much as you or I may not like it, they have largely succeeded throwing sand in the wheels of government. That was their goal."

While there are more Occupy protests scheduled in various U.S. cities today, including New York - where the NYPD already appears to have begun using questionable methods to target protest leaders - Nocera's point is still valid. As a political force, Occupy has moved a message, but not the policies behind the message.

In another major event today, while overseas protests galvanized by an offensive anti-Islamic movie made in America appeared to be dying down over the weekend, it now appears Islamic extremists are attempting to fan the flames once again. While the protests were made to appear much bigger than they really were by multiple media outlets desperate for ratings, the fact is there are some extremist elements in places like Libya that insist democratic ideals like free speech are incompatible with their particular faction of religion. For all the bluster and pictures on television, the fact remains that the extremist Christian who created the film, and the extremist Muslims who are protesting in the streets, won't likely have any more significant effect on the policies of major nations than the Occupy movement has had in implementing it's policies in the U.S.

The third major event today is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. It seems somewhat odd that the holiday most Jews associate with forgiveness is happening just as the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, is attempting to push the United States and other Western powers into attacking Iran - a nation Mr. Netanyahu can't seem to forgive, on any level. While we hope that Mr. Netanyahu is wise enough not to start World War III, we think it's likely that his bluster is much like that of the other groups we've mentioned today: anger and invective without any thoughtful, serious, long-term effort to make things better.

In all three cases, the groups raising the alarms are not getting what they want, when they want it. The chances for them to make things better only get smaller over time because the antagonists aren't actually working within the systems. From the Occupiers, to the angry religious extremists, to the Prime Minister of Israel, they've all simply yelling at a giant who refuses to hear them.

The solution to each issue isn't an extremist refusal to negotiate. The solution is to work within the system, accept a just and fair compromise, and enforce it firmly. Speaking softly and carrying a big stick really can wake up those who might otherwise ignore you.

Friday Funday: Mickey Mousing Around

This has not exactly been a quiet week in the newsmedia. It began with the first teacher's strike in 25 years in Chicago. Then Mitt Romney decided to pour gas on the political fires flaring up in the Middle East. Finally, after far too long on the sidelines, the Fed got off its collective backside and began to help kick the economy back into gear. With all the drama, we're incredibly glad to be getting out of town for the weekend - and we hope you have a chance to join us.

For more years than we can easily remember, when mid-September hits, as many of our staff members as possible pack up our gear and head to The Middle of Nowhere, Missouri - better known to many cartoonists as Marceline, Missouri, the site of the annual Disney Hometown Toonfest.

For those Daily Felltoon readers who may be unaware, the real source of Disney magic is not in Southern California or Central Florida, no matter how many millions the House of Mouse has spent to convince you otherwise.

The real-life place where Walt Disney got so much of his inspiration for the many worlds he drew, wrote about, and created is in the Midwest, in the small town of Marceline, Missouri - the town where Walt Disney grew up.

As some of the Disney Hometown Toonfest's oldest sponsors, we're proud that once again Paul Fell Cartoons and the North Central Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society (NCS) can help promote this great event. If you're anywhere in the Midwest this weekend, we highly recommend you take the scenic drive, and join us.

This year's crop of professional cartoonists and presenters includes a rogue's gallery of some of our closest friends and chapter members.

Paul Coker Jr., one of the original "Mad" magazine staffers and an illustrator for Rankin-Bass for many years, will be giving an amazing presentation. So will legendary animator, cartoonist - and North Central Chapter member - Kelly McNutt, just off a recent trip to the beach.

Freelance illustrator and cartoonist Buck Jones, who's worked for everyone from Allied Insurance to Team Red Bull will also be giving a symposium on his more than twenty years of great work. Finally, Chris Payne, better known to many as C.F. Payne, legendary illustrator for Time, Readers Digest, The Atlantic Monthly and many more publications, will round out the headlining artists.

For us, Toonfest is more than just a great time to get together with other professionals in the cartooning and illustrations part of the media business.

Sure - there will be parades, contests and events for both adults and kids, and a cartooning gallery with work from some of the nation's best cartoonists. But that's just the stuff on the schedule.

It's also a way to celebrate the coming of autumn, a chance to catch up with old friends, meet some new ones, and see the work of great cartoonists we're proud to share our broader media field with.

We know things in world news haven't exactly been slow lately, and chances are good that things in your corner of the known universe haven't exactly been slow either. Still, if you have a chance this weekend, get away somewhere like Marceline, where you can push away your worries and hang out with some cartoonists - even for just a day.

We can guarantee; it'll help you draw a whole new perspective on life.

Cleanup Job For A Statesman

To say that there has been a tsunami of information this week about the attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and the American embassy in Cairo, Egypt would be the understatement of the year.

In an area of the world that's already volatile, these two events would have been bad enough on their own.

What made the situation worse was a series of events, including a crude anti-Muslim video, the rantings of insane right-wing Florida preacher Terry Jones, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu engaging in some saber-rattling towards Iran - and the opportunistic, incoherent, and desperate attempt by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his allies to turn this horrific event into a political opportunity.

In other words, a tsunami of diplomatic disaster.

At other times in the past - for example, four years ago this week when the economy began its massive self-immolation under the Bush Administration - wise presidential candidates have attempted a two-part strategy when faced with similar disasters.

At first, in front of the media, they release simple statements and may make some small comments of support, while attempting to leave politics mostly out of their public actions. Behind the scenes, those candidates work feverishly towards a solution to the crisis with those currently in power, even if they are from the opposing party.

Mitt Romney, however, decided to use a very different strategy. He decided he was going to attack President Obama as incompetent on foreign policy - even though Romney and his campaign didn't have all the facts on the situation in either Libya or Egypt.

The consensus opinion on the actions of Mr. Romney and his campaign by experienced politicians, political journalists, and foreign policy experts is that Mitt Romney and his advisors made a complete and total disaster out of what might have been a positive opportunity for them.

As journalist Ben Smith noted, comments like “bungle," "utter disaster," "not ready for prime time," "not presidential," and "Lehman moment” flowed freely from some of the most well-known foreign policy experts. And those were just the comments coming from Republicans.

Even Mark Salter, a longtime aide to Arizona Sen. John McCain, said that Romney's "rush to condemn Obama" was "as tortured in its reasoning as it is unseemly in its timing." In effect, the only high-profile Republicans standing with Mr. Romney at the end of the day were Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, Reince Priebus, and Rush Limbaugh - not exactly the best the GOP has to offer.

The entire time Mitt Romney was washing out, President Obama, Secretary of State Clinton, the State Department, the U.S. military, and many others under the President's direction were calmly handling the situation.

The deaths of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three other Americans seem to have been handled with great respect, along with the deaths of Libyans who attempted to help U.S. Foreign Service Staff in Benghazi. Apologies were taken from both the President of Egypt and the Deputy Prime Minister of Libya. Military resources were shifted into place, to remove and protect the remaining Americans in both Libya and Egypt.

In short, the Obama administration began cleaning up the situation like statesmen and stateswomen, while Mitt Romney and his team failed a critical leadership test.

Fifty-four days until the 2012 election...

Facts, Truth, And Other Things Not On Fox

In the face of the Middle East meltdown, and the diplomatic mess between Israel and the U.S., and more than a few conspiracy nuts on 9/11, one of the key elements we console ourselves daily with is our consistent effort to always work from a factual basis. Like many political wonks, we tend to love facts and statistics, especially in the form of charts and graphs.

They're often like cartoons, but less funny.

There are moments though, when paranoid conspiracy nuts and crazy commenters get us to wonder: How badly can Fox "News", talk radio, and the rest of the right-wing propaganda machine really brainwash their devoted followers?

According to the latest chart from the Pew Research Center, enough to affect the economy we all live in together.

The Pew study was done to find out what kind of economic news most Americans were hearing, and to see if it matched the factual data, that is, that our economy continues to slowly improve. Looking at the general public, nearly 60% of Americans said they're hearing a mix of good and bad news about the economy. That statistic didn't surprise us, since most Americans, regardless of political affiliation, tend to take in news and information from multiple media sources, with different biases.

What was surprising was that 60% of Republicans said the news they hear about the economy is mostly bad.

We know from multiple different media studies that a majority of Republicans watch  Fox "News" almost exclusively for what they consider as information these days - though calling Fox anything but a propaganda network is intellectually dishonest. Fox's most recent massive visual lie came on Tuesday when they attempted to equate the U-3 measure of employment with the U-6 measure of employment, on a poorly made chart.

As Steve Benen, Zachary Pleat, and others pointed out, the factually honest statics weren't hard to find.

That wasn't the only place Fox failed on Tuesday.

When talking about the teachers strike in Chicago, multiple Fox commentators made claims to the effect that most Chicagoans support the city, instead of the teachers. In a news article published midday Tuesday by the Chicago Sun-Times, the newspaper cites a legitimate poll taken Monday that confirms 47% of Chicagoans support the teachers, while only 39% oppose them.

Should part of the goal of a society that has multiple 24/7 media outlets be to have the most well-educated and well-informed populace in history? If so, considering Fox a legitimate media outlet for news is completely at odds with that goal.

If we're lucky, maybe right-wing talkers like Limbaugh and Ingraham will be right for once, as they claimed on their shows this week that if Mitt Romney loses in November, the Republican party and the right wing will have to shut down.

They could be right.

After all, as President Clinton said recently, the right wingers can't always be wrong. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

Lessons To be Learned

There are times when there are just too many important topics, happening all at once, for the massive media machine of this country to focus its efforts on just a small few.

Today is one of those days, in case you couldn't tell.

To start with, in Chicago, the teachers union is striking for the first time in twenty-five years. Contrary to the tired anti-union propaganda, the Chicago teachers aren't primarily looking for more money. Both sides have already agreed to a raise. What the Chicago teachers want is simple.

They want to limit class size - a proven technique for improved learning, air conditioning, and a pay structure that isn't chained almost exclusively to standardized testing. In other words, Chicago's teachers want a new contract that will allow them to do their job of educating kids.

Meanwhile, the members of Congress have flooded back into Washington, DC like a pack of wild monkeys. No one is really expecting much, as lawmakers simply want to get in, handle the minimum of business, and get back home to keep campaigning for their jobs. Long and short, they'll grab their crayons, scribble out some short-term "solutions" - like an overdue Farm Bill and and a resolution to pay for the government's bills for the next six months - and they'll high-tail it out of town by next Thursday afternoon.

The fact that eleven years ago today, the entire world changed in a span of minutes, will likely only stop most of those legislators for a single moment of silence.

Today is 9/11/2012, eleven years after the attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, on the Pentagon in DC, and on a plane that crashed in rural Pennsylvania. It's also officially designated as National Day of Service and Remembrance, an action taken just a few years ago on a bipartisan vote in Congress. Remember when we had bipartisan votes of Congress...?

We're not sure if you remember where you were that day, what you were doing, or what you had planned on doing. We know that at least some of our current staff did what many members of the media, from all ideological corners, did on September 11, 2001.

When the planes hit, we rushed to our media jobs, to help calm and inform the people. We worked together with those who normally were our competition. The name of the company on our paychecks didn't matter nearly as much as making sure we were all publishing and broadcasting accurate news and information instantly. We called each other, sent e-mails, and helped communications between the public and the first responders in cities across America, as air travel was immediately grounded and parts of the nation effectively went into lockdown status.

It didn't matter what political party someone favored. It didn't matter what their religion was or who they loved. We were ALL Americans that day, before we were anything else. Like Americans in many industries, in the media, we ALL held each other to a higher standard that day - and virtually every media outlet stepped up.

As we all know, the first responders in New York and DC stepped forward more than any of us.

Now, it's eleven years later. Osama Bin Laden is dead, Al Qaeda is nearly wiped out, and there's a new World Trade Center building nearly completed in the heart of New York City. Our media hasn't improved, though. Neither have our politics. We're still electing some of the worst idiots - and you're still paying attention to them in the media too.

There were a lot of lessons to come out of that day eleven years ago. It's too bad Americans don't yet seem to care enough as a nation to learn them.

Things Are Better - But For Whom?

As the ninth week before the election gets rolling, it's important to note the Presidential campaigns on both sides were already getting out to the public over the weekend, trying to sell their plans - with noticeably different responses.

Not too far from our South Florida offices, a Sunshine State business owner was so excited to see President Obama over the weekend, he picked up the "Leader of the Free World" in a giant bear hug. Thankfully, the Secret Service knew the man was no danger to the President. While the President was exciting voters in South Florida, Vice President Joe Biden convinced some bikers in Ohio to sit down with him - including one who sat on his lap.

At the other end of the emotional spectrum, Republican candidate Mitt Romney sat down for two quiet private interviews with NBC's David Gregory, one a dual interview with Mitt and his wife Ann. It was not the best move for the Romney campaign, in our opinion.

Mitt and Ann came off as arrogant and disconnected in their dual appearance. In his solo interview, Mr. Romney said there were things about Obamacare he liked - even though last week he'd told the audience at the Republican National Convention he would kill Obamacare. Mitt also threw his running mate under the bus, calling Paul Ryan's vote for Congress' defense cuts "A big mistake."

Republican Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan didn't fare much better, as he kept attempting to peddle the empty Romney/Ryan plans on other Sunday shows. His worst moment came when Paul Ryan told CBS' Norah O'Donnell that he didn't vote for the defense cuts - which can be factually proven that he did vote in favor of, thus proving him a liar once again.

None of this surprised us one bit.

If you remember, during the start of the two conventions, we said that we'd begin ignoring most of the polling for each candidate and their party until after their conventions were finished. Both conventions are now blessedly over, with final poll numbers in for the RNC, and nearly final numbers available for the DNC.

In short, the Romney/Ryan ticket is in trouble, possibly major trouble.

After the Republican National Convention, and after the hoopla died down, Romney, Ryan and the Republicans got at best a 2 point bounce in the polls. Some polls had them at a net zero bounce - or worse.

As the final polling from the Democratic National Committee rolls in, the bounce for Obama, Biden, and the Democrats ranges from a four point bump to as much as a ten point bump from Gallup, a poll that has tended to lean Republican this cycle.

What's more, President Obama's approval rating on Friday, just after the convention, was at 52%, the highest it has been since the killing of Osama Bin Laden.

In short, Democrats planned and executed a better convention than Republicans did. Further, Americans appear to like not just the Obama and Biden plans, but the men themselves. That's easy to understand, considering the empty promises and draconian cuts proposed by the Romney/ Ryan team.

Now that the top of the ticket is sorting itself out, maybe everyone in the media can start focusing on the down ballot races for House, Senate, and local contests, too.

We know that's something we're planning on tackling ourselves.

Friday Funday: Cheap Shots & Kudos

After two weeks, too much travel, too little sleep, and more politicians in two places than fifty U.N. world summits, the quadrennial political party conventions for the Democratic and Republican parties are done.

If you're one of the approximately 15,000 members of the media who have invaded both Tampa and Charlotte over the last two weeks, we'll be raising our glasses to you this evening, in a collegial salute. Whether you support the conventions or not, most of you in the media were simply trying to produce and publish top-notch work in incredibly trying conditions over the last two weeks.

For those of you who chose the high road and didn't just take the cheap shot, write the trash story, grab the easy footage, or slap together some clickbait for the web, thanks. For those of you who actually tipped your waitstaff - in both cities - twenty percent or more, our thanks go out to you as well.

Not everyone in the media chose the same path these last two weeks.

Some of our colleagues reached for the easy shots these last two weeks. They didn't bust their behinds for the good interviews, didn't push their deadlines to the wall. They reached for the cheap shots of racism, fear, and lies - or they swallowed whole the poison fed to them by the worst members of the political establishment.

Frankly, covering the Republican convention was much harder to do this year than the Democratic convention. The sheer amount of lies pouring from the GOP candidates and pundits this year was not only astounding, but sickening. Contrast that with multiple fact checks from the Democratic convention that effectively said, 'Nothing really to check here.'

In Tampa, the mood was dark, filled with anger and racism, and both attendees and members of the media felt like they were in some kind of demilitarized zone.

In Charlotte, the atmosphere was positive, even jovial. We even know of one particular hole in the wall which hosted both left and right leaning journalists, having a few drinks and talking with one another - though for the safety of their jobs, we won't reveal who those folks were.

No matter whether you're tipping Macallan 18, a Miller or Bud, or a cool iced tea this weekend, if you're a member of the media - or you're someone who enjoys high quality news coverage - we hope you enjoy every last moment of this weekend, preferably away from most media sources.

This is the last chance you'll get to breathe for another ten weeks.

The real campaign begins now.

Burying The Hatchet

No matter how much times change and people change, some things remain the same. On Wednesday, in the midst of a surprisingly positive Democratic National Convention, we were reminded of that old Will Rogers quote, "I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat."

A small scuffle over some changes to the official Democratic Party Platform happened on the convention floor on Wednesday. Any member of the media, politician, or political pundit who refused to lie to themselves or their audience wasn't truly surprised by this kerfuffle. That said, more than a few media whores - especially those on the highly biased and barely professional right - attempted to make the molehill of a scuffle into a mountain of discontent.

We can assure you, from multiple contacts on the floor of the convention, Wednesday's platform tussle was not a big deal. The fact is, from time to time, we all fight with those we care about, over the topics we care about most. For example, our staff doesn't always agree about who's more to blame for the death of bipartisanship in American government - though the historical and statistical data gives significantly more blame to one side.

Those of us who care deeply about the truth even disagree about facts sometimes, on important topics like jobs, debt and deficits. That doesn't mean we want each other dead.

It was not so long ago that President Clinton himself held a grudge against Barack Obama. We can't say we blame him. Mr. Obama defeated Mr. Clinton's spouse, Hillary Clinton, in one of the most contested presidential primary elections over the last century, just four years ago.

Last night, however, it was clear that President Bill Clinton had chosen to take a different path than those who continue to drag out long-held grudges in the media, or frankly, many of those in the differing factions of each major political party.

President Clinton's primary address at the Democratic National Convention lauded and listed the many achievements of President Obama, and made it clear - there is no question as to where Clinton's support is in this election. Mr. Clinton's spirited and forceful defense of Mr. Obama's policies was not only brilliant, but a brutal smackdown to a Republican Party that has effectively made cooperation a political crime.

"What works in the real world is cooperation," said Clinton, as he praised Obama's history of bipartisan outreach, even while denouncing the scorched earth policies of the right. "Democracy does not have to be a bloodsport."

The barnburner of a speech - the second in two nights at the DNC - was less of a partisan beat down than one might think, though. At his best, President Bill Clinton is still a progressive moderate, the kind of folksy but honest politician who can act more as a referee than as a player.

In short, someone who can confirm the truth that Obama has been a bipartisan President, in an era of extremist Republicans.

There are still those who say the idea of bipartisanship is dying or is dead - that America itself has become so divided along party lines, economic lines, color lines, and any number of other divisions, that we should simply shovel the dirt into the metaphorical coffin, and bury the idea.

As was evident last night at the DNC, if we choose to follow our better angels, as President Clinton did, we may be able to bury something else instead - the hatchet of division.

Take A Flying Leap

While we're trying to stay away from much of the over-saturated coverage of the Democratic National Convention, it was somewhat difficult on Tuesday - and not just because of some of the personal political leanings of our staff.

Unlike the angry and aggressive tone we heard so much last week in Tampa from the Republicans, the atmosphere of the DNC this week has so far been positive. Much of the day's remarks focused on the topics and the details of the many positive changes that have occurred during President Obama's first term. Speakers tended to energize as they talked about policy details they'd like to see happen in a second Obama term, possibly with a Democratic-led Congress.

So far, the DNC is showing and telling in an optimistic way, what they've done to help Americans over the last four years - and the Democratic approach appears to have been a huge hit. Democrats are asking - not demanding - that Americans give them more time to fix the disaster they were handed in 2008. In short, they're asking Americans to trust them - and providing facts to support their claims.

Last week, much of what we heard was Republicans angrily demanding their fellow Americans - especially Middle Class Americans - jump off a cliff, as they presented parts of vague plans with no significant details. What facts Republicans did provide last week were mostly misstatements of fact - lies, in other words - that kept many members of the media busy fact checking all day, every day. Unlike the Republicans, Democrats seem to have no problem mentioning either the name of their chosen presidential candidate, or previous Democratic presidential office holders at this year's convention.

In fact, the real comparison between the two parties' positions already has become clear.

This isn't the comparison based on the false question of "Are you better off" - a question that we and others dispatched swiftly and firmly with facts on Tuesday. This isn't the false comparison to President Carter, either - one that has also been soundly dispatched with facts.

The Democratic Party is obviously taking an optimistic course at their convention this year. They are saying "This is what we need to do!" Then they are telling their crowd, and those watching at home, what steps must be taken to achieve those goals - and what's at stake if they fail to achieve those goals. Much of what we saw and heard from Republicans last week could be most charitably categorized as emotionally driven, anger-laced, ineffective bashing.

It's true that the Democrats have also been comparatively bringing up what their opposition has or hasn't done, or what their opposition has been proposing. Some of those critiques have even been sharp. That hasn't been the main focus of their convention though.

Democrats so far have been focusing on Democrats; what they should do, what they need to do, what they haven't done - what America can do as a nation. There's been no one asking Americans to take a leap of faith into the wild unknown of ideas, without past proof of concept. There hasn't been attack after attack, and lie after lie, either.

So far, those leading the Democratic convention don't seem to have been asking Americans to do much of anything they haven't been willing to first do themselves.

If this positive atmosphere carries through the rest of the week, and the rest of the campaign? To us, the choice will be obvious, on tone alone.

Americans don't want to take a flying leap into the unknown, demanded by someone they don't trust. They want to soar into a real future, led by those they can trust.

Break's Over. What's Next?

After a much-needed Labor Day break, just about everyone in America is getting back to work today. The media is also back at it, with the beginning of the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. So far, many of our colleagues still appear to be suffering a hangover from the liefest of the RNC. Instead of getting back to real reporting, they're still trotting out sloppy leftover work -  especially when it comes to one particular question: Is America better off now than it was four years ago?

Since our fellow journalists don't seem to be able to get back to work yet, let's see what we can do to pick up the slack.

To start with, in September of 2008, America was deeply entrenched in two wars, with no serious end in sight. Possible scenarios to leave Iraq had been tentatively drawn, but those plans were not set in stone. It was still a crime to serve your nation in the military, and be honest about your sexual orientation. And there was virtually no chance for you to keep your health care coverage if you lost your job.

Speaking of jobs, the U.S. economy had taken a massive dive as well. The American job market was losing between 400,000 and 500,000 jobs a month in September 2008. America would lose more than 800,000 jobs a month before President Obama took office in late January 2009.

Four years ago this month - specifically, September 14, 2008 - one of the biggest banks in the world, Lehman Brothers, effectively blew up and  filed for bankruptcy protection. On the same day, Merrill Lynch, another massive financial organization, committed Wall Street suicide, gutting itself and selling to Bank of America to avoid a complete destruction of the financial foundations of America.

That was four years ago.

Four years later, America is out of Iraq, and while there have been snags, the U.S. timetable to leave Afghanistan by 2014 is still on schedule. DADT - Don't Ask Don't Tell - is D-E-A-D. So is Osama bin Laden, the real mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks. The Affordable Care Act - the ACA, also known as ObamaCare - is on its way to full implementation, with millions of Americans added to the insurance rolls of privately owned insurance companies, not under government controlled insurance.

The jobs situation continues to improve, and has for most of the last three years. America is now averaging about 150,000 jobs gained monthly- most in the private sector - versus the 450,000 jobs we lost in September 2008. The economy isn't on the brink either, with GDP growth of 1.7%. Much to the chagrin of the pathological liar, GOP VP candidate Paul Ryan, U.S. business bankruptcies are down by 22 percent from 2011, and personal bankruptcies are down by 11 percent.

In short, no - things are not perfect. They're not where most Americans want them to be, let alone President Obama and Democratic leaders. But in answer to the incredibly stupid question, "Is America better off now than it was four years ago at this time?"

Yes. America is in a FAR better place, no thanks to Republicans in Congress, or the austerity economics schemes they support, like that of the Romney/Ryan plan.

If you want to know what the story is that the Democrats need to tell this week? This is it.

Guest Commentary: Labor - What Side Are You On?

With great thankfulness, most of our staff has most of today - Labor Day - off from their primary responsibilities to this publication. That said, the world doesn't stop just because a few people get the day off today. So there is a new Daily Felltoon cartoon, especially for those who might otherwise be out protesting today as "Anti-Union Day," and a new abbreviated complete edition which will be delivered via e-mail Monday morning as well.

For all those Americans still working in retail establishments, working at hospitals, those working in the military, fire, or police protection fields - and anyone else still slaving away today - thank you. We hope if you have the day off, you'll treat those still working with a bit more respect - and maybe a larger-than-normal tip - on this holiday.

For our part, we're giving great thanks today to Shannyn Moore, a friend and professional contact of one of our staff members. Shannyn is kindly allowing us to re-run part of her fantastic Labor Day commentary - one we think you should definitely read in it's entirety.

Enjoy. And Happy Labor Day.

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Labor: What Side Are You On? - By Shannyn Moore

“You might be a redneck…” is the now-classic opening joke line for rural America. The true historic meaning of “redneck” was lost long ago to jokes about trailers and family reunion dating games.

Exactly 91 years ago this week, an estimated 15,000 coal miners in Logan County, West Virginia formed an armed militia to fight back against an army of police and strikebreakers backed by abusive coal operators. They wore red bandanas around their necks to identify themselves-thus the term, “redneck”. Habeas corpus was suspended. Over 100 people were killed, hundreds more wounded and 985 were arrested. Today, people still find old, abandoned weapons in the woods — a stark reminder of the Battle of Blair Mountain.

The year before, in 1920, detectives from Baldwin-Felts (think Blackwater) arrived via the morning train in Matewan, West Virginia to evict families living at the Stone Mountain Coal Camp. After forcing several families from their homes, the detectives ate dinner and then walked back to the train station. Matewan Police Chief Sid Hatfield, an ardent supporter of the miners’ struggle to organize, intervened on their behalf. Chief Hatfield attempted to arrest the evictors from Baldwin-Felts. Detective Albert Felts countered with an arrest warrant for Hatfield. Matewan Mayor Cabell Testerman cried foul. All the while, struggling armed miners quietly surrounded the detectives. The ensuing clash, which killed ten, including the Felts brothers and Mayor Testerman, became known as the Matewan Massacre and was a turning point for miners’ rights. Unfortunately today, the Matewan Massacre is but a footnote in history.

Six years earlier, on April 20, 1914, the Colorado National Guard attacked a tent city of 1,200 striking mine workers, riddling their canvas tents with machine guns. Dozens were killed including two women and 11 children who suffocated and burned to death in Colorado’s Ludlow Incident. Nearly 200 more would die in the strike. They rest in anonymity. The mining company evicted workers and their families and they were forced to live in tents that winter. Historian Howard Zinn described the Ludlow Massacre as “the culminating act of perhaps the most violent struggle between corporate power and laboring men in American history.”

All across the country, unions have been under a coordinated and unprecedented assault. People have forgotten US labor history along with the significance of the red bandanas as they have forgotten why unions are so important and necessary. Unions have pushed for safer working standards and living wages. Anti-union folks want to race to the bottom — as a Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann campaigned on lowering the minimum wage.  State legislatures across the country introduced legislation to lower the minimum wage.

You needn’t look any further than the 2010 West Virginia mining disaster to understand why unions are needed more than ever...  (To read the rest of this commentary, CLICK HERE.)