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.)

Friday Funday: Thanks To Those Who Really Built It

While there is some desire to talk about the poor choice of Clint Eastwood, or Mitt Romney's policy-free acceptance speech, we're going to stick to our Friday tradition today, of stepping a bit away from direct political discussion to concentrate on something positive.

Frankly, that's easy to do today. There are a huge number of things we're thankful for, as our staff begins a three day weekend.

To start with, we're thankful for a well-funded and well prepared Federal Emergency Management Agency. We know a few people in Louisiana and Mississippi, and while many there are living through scenes reminiscent of the floods in Nebraska and Iowa in 2011, there have been no mass fatalities, and very few problems, relatively speaking.

We're also thankful that the Republican National Convention is over, though we're certain the event center and service industry workers in Tampa will be cleaning up for a few more days.

This is also the first weekend of college football, specifically Husker Football. The NFL is also gearing up for its regular season, as evidenced by star players finally coming off the bench and getting into the pre-season games. From fan pages and blogs, to Facebook and Twitter, it's obvious that millions of football fans are thankful the semi-official start of Fall is here.

We're also thankful for all those who are still working this weekend, while we enjoy three days off to rest and recharge.

What we're most thankful for, however, are those individuals who came together to build the system of workers rights in America. The very concept of having "time off" is one that was fought for - that some even died for - by Americans who joined together with workers in unions for the better good.

If your pay, or your work schedule is based (even loosely) on the idea of a 40 hour work week, big business bosses didn't do that for you - and you certainly didn't do that yourself. Organized labor and collective bargaining did that. Corporations have fought the 40-hour work week for generations, and they have a long history of trying to get around that rule whenever they can.

Unions also gave us all the eight hour day, and the 40 hour work week with corresponding weekend. Labor unions helped all Americans to get the minimum wage too.

No matter what slogan or out-of-context quote some political hack gins up, the fact remains that there are very few things in America that individuals built completely one-hundred percent on their own, without help from others.

That convention center in Tampa where the GOP faithful gathered? That was built largely with the help of public funds. The one in South Carolina where the Democrats will meet to re-nominate President Obama is no different in that respect. The electricity and communications that flow to both of those buildings wasn't built by a single individual either.

No matter what your current economic status is, or what you think of labor unions and the American working class, without private businesses working together with state, local, and federal government, your life and the lives of millions of people would be drastically different - and likely MUCH worse.

Like it or not, we're all in this together.

Thankfully, there were those who came before us who were willing to work together, who labored to give Americans the kind of modern nation where we can all watch the game together this weekend, even when our staff is scattered around the country.

To those who truly understand none of this is possible by oneself - thank you, and happy Labor Day.