Scott Brown Votes Against Workers

In due time, the people of Massachusetts will see just how full of shit Scott Brown was on the campaign trail.

Yesterday, new Senator Scott Brown voted in lockstep with his Republican colleagues and two Democrats to block President Obama’s pick for the National Labor Relations Board. The nomination of Craig Becker—a lawyer for the AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union—was effectively killed when the Senate failed to muster the sixty votes necessary to end debate on the nomination in order to take an up-and-down vote. Becker is viewed as a threat by the GOP because, among other reasons, he favors card check. Card check is considered “controversial” because it allows a majority of members in a bargaining unit to sign cards authorizing the formation of a union. And because Republicans love big business and hate unions—i.e., American workers—to them, Becker is bad news. They are also claiming that Becker would bring a “personal agenda” to the NLRB, which is another way of saying he’d stick to his convictions about looking out for the welfare of working class Americans.

So thank you, Scott Brown, for bravely casting a vote against the working people of America.

The minority has spoken.

- Max Canning

Curt Schilling Is A Giant Blowhard

Quick! Somebody sew that glove to his mouth!

As a Red Sox fan I have immense respect for Curt Schilling as a pitcher and what he did for the team between 2004 and 2007. His performance in Game 6 of the 2004 ALCS was legendary, whether that was real blood on his sock or not.

But Curt Schilling is also the biggest blowhard ever to come out of the sports world, which is saying a lot. Now retired, Schilling has a blog (which I won’t bother linking) where he pops off about everything from baseball to climate change to health care reform. He is unabashedly conservative. In 2004 Schilling campaigned for fellow born-again Christian George W. Bush. I think no further comment on that is necessary.

Schilling has written posts opposing the Democrats’ proposed health care reform legislation (as have I, but for completely different reasons). Something about costs. I’m not sure. The man isn’t worth quoting, but perhaps we should take a moment to ask, Where does Curt Schilling get off pontificating about health care reform? Excuse me, but this guy has lived most of his life in a fucking fantasyland where over the course of his career he’s been paid a grand total of at least $114 million to play baseball, which to remind you, is a game. This figure includes the $8 million he collected while he sat on his ass for the entire 2008 season and didn’t throw a single pitch. Eight million dollars for not working. Kind of like a welfare check subsidized by the Fenway fans. You’re welcome, Curt, you great conservative you.

In all seriousness, do you think Curt Schilling ever had to worry about whether his insurance company/team would shell out the money necessary for any surgeries he needed? Of course not. I doubt he even had a co-pay. Schilling, like every other ballplayer, was an investment that needed to be protected. His employers took care of him using money from the working stiff fans who kept showing up at the ballpark forking over their hard earned dollars to watch men play a kid’s game. But in the real, non-fantasy world, people are viewed as expendable by employers and health insurers, and so they have to worry about things—very important things—like whether their bloodsucking HMOs are going to cover the cost of the treatments they need, whether they’re going to get modest raises at work this year, or whether they’ll still even have a job in a month. In the real world, “free agents” don’t have millions of dollars in accumulated salary to fall back on until they sign with another organization.

This is serious stuff. Over 30 million Americans don’t have health insurance. Tens of millions more are getting crushed by annual premium hikes in excess of 10%. In 2009 one in eight Americans used food stamps. People are still getting their homes foreclosed on, and too many people are still out of work.

But it’s all right because millionaire Curt Schilling is posting away on his blog telling us how we can get things back on track. And even though he supported George W. Bush who turned a surplus into a $5 trillion dollar deficit through corporate welfare and military wet dreams with the help of a Republican-controlled Congress, Schilling assures us that what we need is more Republicans. That’s why he endorsed Scott Brown for Senate, a man who said he’ll be “an independent voice” for Massachusetts. Color me skeptical, but I’ve seen this routine before.

The sad thing is that it didn’t have to be this way. Schilling had Major League stints in Baltimore, Houston, Philadelphia, and Arizona before ending up in Boston. He could’ve chosen to live in any one of those places after retirement, but he decided to stay here and grace the region with his pompous presence. Lucky us.


- Max

If It's Brown, Flush It Down

Vote for Martha Coakley. Seriously. This is important.

Tomorrow, my fellow Massachusetts denizens and I will head to the polls to elect a new senator in the special election to fill the late Ted Kennedy’s seat. The race is essentially between Attorney General Martha Coakley (Democrat) and State Senator Scott Brown (Republican). Let me be crystal clear about this: it is absolutely imperative that Scott Brown be denied this seat in the United States Senate.

If Brown is elected the 41^st Republican senator, this is what will happen: the Republicans will use their 41 seats to kill every major piece of even moderately progressive legislation that the Democrats will want to pass, including efforts aimed at reforming Wall Street. Nothing will get accomplished, save for a few bipartisan machinations that result in a general detriment to the American public. Democrats, who just like their Republican counterparts are too frequently in league with big business, will use this as an excuse to ignore the pleas of their progressive constituencies. “Well, we only have 59 seats, so we can’t break a filibuster. I guess we’ll just put our thumbs up our asses until the Republicans unseat us again.”

The GOP’s plan has been clear since last January: sabotage this administration and the efforts of the Democratic Congress. Stall all attempts at improving the standard of living of Americans. Take advantage of the discontent they helped cause and retake the Congress either in 2010 or 2012, and the White House too. Then, once back in power they can go back to warmongering, fearmongering, giving tax cuts to the richest 1% that already own 25% of the wealth in the U.S., and continue deregulating the American economy so that unaccountable private tyrannies known as corporations can go on plundering what’s left of the American middle class.

Do I really need to recount any of this? This is what happened for several years under Bush and the Republican Congress. In 2009, after eight long, long, long, long goddamn years one of the worst presidents in American history, Barack Obama rode in to town, inherited two wars, and an economy in shambles. One year has passed, and surprise, surprise, the country isn’t all better. No one serious expected the economy to improve by January 2010. No one. But that hasn’t stopped the Republicans from seizing upon the lack of magic wand waving from Obama to improve everything. And what’s their answer? Return them to power. That’s right. Who cares that the Democrats have had both the Congress and White House for only a year? Who cares that the Republicans controlled Congress and the White House from 2003-2007 and messed up everything they got their hands on? Why should that prevent from pickup up right where they left off?

Martha Coakley is an infinitely better choice than Scott Brown, who I envision voting in lockstep with the Senate’s GOP leadership. I don’t believe for a second that he’s going to be an “independent voice” as he claims. If he wins, I picture Mitch McConnell putting his arm around Brown upon his arrival in DC and saying, “Now Scott, this is how we do things around here…” as McConnell explains to him that part of the initiation will be to give the Senate minority leader a sensuous backrub.

If you live in Massachusetts like me, make sure you get to the polls tomorrow and vote for Martha Coakley. This election isn’t just about losing a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. If Brown wins tomorrow, the Republicans will be able to thwart any legislation they want and grind Congress to halt until it is so ineffective that people will look to the Republican Party for a “solution” in this year’s midterm elections. That is the GOP’s plan. As Rush Limbaugh said, “I hope [Obama] fails.” As much as some Republicans appear to distance themselves from him, this is their hope. Looking at the Republican Party of today—a party that is bereft of constructive ideas—one gets the distinct impression that they would rather America suffer than succeed while they are out of power so they can swoop in and “save” the country. The problem is, the Republican Party has nothing left to offer. Scott Brown included.

Vote for Martha Coakley. A vote for Martha now is a vote against disaster down the road.

- Max