On March 25th 1911 (sorry, should have posted this yesterday!), 146 people died in the very building I work in. The result of their deaths was the rapid growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union and the real beginning of the fight against sweatshops. It also was the beginning of fire regulations in American cities.

The story of the fire and the missed opportunities to prevent it are chilling. But what is more chilling is the fact that America has forgotten why we need unions. Even some unions have forgotten what unions are all about, but I want everyone who doubts the need for unions to remember the events of March 25, 1911.

I work in what is now known as the Brown Building at NYU near Washington Square. But in 1911 it was the Asch building. The top three floors of the Asch building comprised the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. For the record, a shirtwaist is essentially a woman's blouse. I work a couple of floors below where the factory was. Today I look out my lab's window and I see the annual commemoration of those who died in 1911.

At the Albany Project, NYBri reports on how Gov. Spitzer had a particularly steamrollin' day yesterday, taking on SEIU 1199 and the Greater New York Hospital Association over Medicaid, and Mayor Bloomberg over education.

We've seen Spitzer's "crybabies" ad, directed at those who are opposing him on Medicaid. Yesterday, the steamroller kept the pressure on with a PowerPoint presentation to civic and business leaders in the city:

Suddenly a new slide popped up on the giant screen behind Mr. Spitzer on the stage of the Hilton New York ballroom. It said, in huge letters, “Guardians of the Status Quo,” and it bore the logos of the two groups, the Greater New York Hospital Association and the union, 1199 S.E.I.U. United Healthcare Workers East, which have joined forces to become one of the most powerful lobbies in Albany.

“Now, my good friends at 1199 and Greater New York, I want to put your logos up here just so everybody will know who you are,” Mr. Spitzer began, before launching into a point-by-point rebuttal, with 16 more slides, of their claims about his proposed cuts.

The health care officials seemed stunned afterward. Kenneth E. Raske, the president of the hospital association, said, “I have never in my professional life seen anything like that.”

Meanwhile, 1199 and Greater New York have fired back with an ad of their own - featuring nurses who ask why the governor is "attacking" them (h/t Capitol Confidential):

Setting aside the merits of the debate, the governor may be getting into dangerous territory here.

(More after the flip...)

In 2006 Americans gave a clear message: stop the war in Iraq and focus on America's security and economy.

The Democrats heard the message as within the first 100 hours of the new Congress, House Democrats passed a minimum wage increase, the first raise the poorest working Americans have gotten in nearly 10 years. Republicans have maximized CEO profits, now Democrats give working Americans a boost. Eighty House Republicans also heard America's message and joined Democrats, indicating that bipartisanship can work. I want to point out that this the minimum wage has not even kept up with inflation, meaning America's poorest have lost ground in the last 10 years. This change is long overdue.

Also within the frist 100 hours, House Democrats voted to implement the bipartisan recommendations of the 9/11 committee, something Bush and the previous Republican dominated Congress failed to do. This is also long overdue.

If Senate follows suit, we will already have gotten our money's worth from the Democratic Congress.

Meanwhile, Bush seems to have completely missed the message sent by voters. His big idea is to immerse us further in the Iraq quagmire he created by sending 21,500 more troops of our already over-extended military to Iraq. So Bush failed to implement the bipartisan 9/11 commission's recommendations to make America more secure, but he wants to continue to fight a war against people who had nothing to do with attacks on America on 9/11.

It's STILL the Economy, Stupid!

That was the T-shirt I wore last night to a meeting of my local Democratic club, the Independent Neighborhood Democrats (IND). It proved to be a very appropriate shirt.

Last night, IND had a guest speaker, Hank Sheinkopf, political consultant, formerly a member of President Clinton’s re-election media team, and panelist on a NY-1 roundtable discussion. Sheinkopf is the ultimate Democratic insider and he came to discuss the 2006 election victory with us.

But first the warmup acts. There were two stand up routines and a farcical play. Well, not really. There were two good speechs by unexpected guests, Steve Harrison and David Yassky, and some club business.

Steve Harrison, whose followers were present last night in impressive numbers, showing that if he wants to run again, he may have an organization in place ready to go, spoke about finally winning NY-13. He pointed out that the district, contrary to popular "wisdom," is majority Democratic and that the fact that he did better with only $100,000 than Barbaro did two years ago with $300,000 shows that we are making progress. He did not say whether he would run in 2 years, but it sure seemed like he was trying to plant that seed. Good for him. Let's start now and I bet 2 years from now will be the year for us in NY-13.

Recently I wrote about an organization called Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) which has rated Republicans markedly lower than Democrats on issues of concern to soldiers and veterans. IAVA was founded in June 2004 and claims to be the nation's first and largest group dedicated to the Troops and Veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the civilian supporters of those Troops and Veterans. The gist is that Republicans pretty much suck on defense while Democrats are mostly rated well by IAVA. Many of us have known this ever since Republicans in Congress criticized Clinton for going after bin Laden and since Republicans called Clinton "obsessed with al-Qaeda." That alone was enough for me to see that Republicans could not deal with threats to America while Clinton actually prevented the Millenium Attacks. Republicans claim that was pure luck (yeah...right), but it still is markedly better than anything Bush has been able to muster. Even some top ranking Generals, previously life-long Republicans, agree that Republicans are failing on Defense, not to mention the 21 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who are so pissed they are running for Congress as Democrats and are vocally opposed to Bush's policies.

This weekend we went to the Atlantic Antic Street Fair, which to me is one of the better street fairs. Listend to some great drumming and ate some Caribbean food that was spicy even to me. Great stuff.

I was also able to spend some time with the folks from Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods (CBN), which grew out of a series of discussions Brooklyn Boro President Marty Markowitz held in the Spring of 2004 with members of a number of community groups to better understand their concerns regarding the proposed development of the Brooklyn Atlantic/Vanderbilt Yards. CBN is composed of community groups, business groups and churches in Community Board Districts 2, 3, 6, and 8. You can see a list of the component organizations here.

What CBN is doing now is analyzing the DEIS report from the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) and providing this analysis for people to look at and use. They are also urging everyone to send comments in to the ESDC and to local polticians before the Sept. 29th deadline.

CBN is providing a series of bullitins on the DEIS report, which can be found here. The fifth bullitin contains a summay of their findings. Here is a summary of the summary:

In 2005, after the primary, I wrote something of a scathing article criticizing the NYC grassroots for failing to put up a good fight and suggested that if we don't work harder, the only candidates who will ever get anywhere are the big money candidates like Hillary Clinton, Betsy Gotbaum (whose that?) and the like. Michael Bouldin's tirade about progressives this year has similarities with my 2005 rant. In many ways I agree with Michael.

But, 2006 is different. Unlike 2005, the grassroots worked extremely hard this year. We have matured since 2005, I think, and we did far more than we did in 2005 to win. We fought for a better mix of candidates, from the very progressive Bill Batson to the more mainstream but still kick ass Velmanette Montgomery and Eric Adams. We also, to a small degree, helped in the reform victory for civil court judge, helping Dena Douglas and Jackie Williams win. But I don't think I can say we won in 2006. We grew, but it wasn't enough.

I think Michael's article failed to recognize that we have come a few steps further since 2005. And I will note that some of the factors that helped us do so include the personalities of our best candidates, particularly Chris Owens, as well as the horror at the mess Ratner, Pataki and Bloomberg are shoving down the throat of Brooklyn. But Michael is right that those few steps are far from enough.

The Empire State Development Corporation (close allies of Ratner, if you remember, who wanted to allow Ratner to hire his own lawyer at his own expense to help them judge his own development project...and then came out with a glowing recommendation of his project) is having two more forums for people to comment about Ratner's proposal:

Tuesday, Sept. 12 (4 - 8 p.m.) (this is primary election day...take the day off, work for your favorite candidate in the morning, then go to the hearings in the afternoon/evening)

and

Monday, Sept. 18 (4:30 - 8 p.m.)

Both are at

NYC College of Technology
Klitgord Auditorium
285 Jay Street, Brooklyn
(between Johnson and Tillary, near the A/C Jay/Street/Borough Hall stop or the R train Lawrence Street Stop)

I am sure the union thugs will be out in force again. Never thought I would start distrusting unions, but their hostile behavior towards those who oppose Ratner (a wealthy developer, NOT, I should add, a union leader) is kind of pissing me off. I don't mind if they take Ratner's side, but don't be assholes about it. You are only alienating your support within the community.

[via wcbstv.com - City Employee Residency Requirement Nixed]:

(CBS) NEW YORK The city's largest employees union confirmed Thursday afternoon that it had reached a historic agreement with Mayor Michael Bloomberg that, among other things, eliminates the requirement that city employees live in one of the five burroughs.

District Council 37 announced the agreement to terminate the residency requirement on its Web site, and a union official confirmed the information to CBS2. D.C. 37 endorsed Bloomberg early on in his most recent re-election campaign. The mayor's office has not yet commented.

The residency requirement has been in place for decades.

Other city employees unions are still working to reach agreements with the city.

Manhattanites are screwed. This is going to hit us worse than any of the other boroughs. From now on, only rich people will be allowed to live in NYC, especially Manhattan.

I take this as a stab in the back to the non-unionized working class in the city. Instead of fighting for affordable housing, they take the exurban way out; taking with them millions of dollars in taxes as well.

Since I have been glued to Univision and it's cable counterpart, Galavision (thanks to the World Cup) I've been catching my fair share of international news reporting. Let me correct that : I've been catching my fair share of excellent international news reporting.

Whenever I watch the news on Univision and Galavision it reminds me of how, even with their biased reporting, it still is far and above better than most TV news hours in the United States. Lord, CNN and FoxNews just suck in comparison.

The most talked about piece of news? The teacher's insurgency in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Yes, you read it right. It's not just a strike. It's an insurgency.

[via BBC NEWS | Americas | Mexico teachers clash with police]

Mexican police have fought running battles to dislodge thousands of striking teachers from the main square in the southern city of Oaxaca.

Officers fired tear gas as they evicted the teachers, who have been protesting over pay for the past three weeks.

Several people were hurt but officials denied claims that people had died.

The government says the teachers have agreed to attend talks on Thursday to try to end the strike, which has left a million pupils without classes.

Reports of the police sweep and alleged deaths prompted a CUNY protest in front of the Mexican embassy:

[via blog.myspace.com/mamute]

More than 50 people came out today to the second protest at the Mexican Consulate in New York, against the massacre of striking teachers in Oaxaca, Mexico. Initiated by the Internationalist Group, the picket drew many members of the CUNY teaching staff union (the Professional Staff Congress), as well as students from several CUNY campuses, members of AELLA (Latin American Students Association at the Grad Center), representatives of left and community groups and others. Demonstrators chanted "Protest the Massacre of Mexican Teachers,""Atenco, Oaxaca, massacres in Mexico," "¡Viva la huelga de los maestros mexicanos!" and other slogans. Union speakers stressed international solidarity with our Mexican compañeros and compañeras.

Isn't it amazing that I have to get this piece of news from a MySpace blog because no NYC newspaper is reporting on this?

Lest I am accused of spreading misinformation, a representative of the the Mexican Red Cross* was interviewed yesterday by Univision and she had claimed that even though they had treated hundreds for injuries, they had gotten no reports or attended anybody who died. Sources all across the internet claim 3 to 14 people have been killed but no evidence has been provided.

Oaxaca is burning because 40,000 teachers have taken over the city during their general strike. They've set up a tent city right smack in the middle of the city. They've been at it since May 25th. With their strike, more than a million kids have been out of school and the whole city has been basically shut down.

Last night a riot broke out as the Oaxacan police tried to disperse and destroy the tent city. They shot tear gas and unleashed attack dogs. It was pretty horrible what they presented on Galavision --and, by the way, this a TV station affiliated with Televisa, which is kind of like the Fox News of Mexico. So it must have been really bad out there if Televisa was willing to show the violence and devastation they just broadcasted.

Check out :
Democracy Now!

Edwize.org

Noticias de Oaxaca

(*Sorry, I don't have her name because was actually watching TV not working to report on it).