“…I know these steps won’t sit well with the special interests and lobbyists who are invested in the old way of doing business, and I know they’re gearing up for a fight as we speak.  My message to them is this:

So am I…”

“…The system we have now might work for the powerful and well-connected interests that have run Washington for far too long, but I don’t.  I work for the American people. I didn’t come here to do the same thing we’ve been doing or to take small steps forward, I came to provide the sweeping change that this country demanded when it went to the polls in November…” [emphasis added]

Did you get that Rush? Probably not. That hearing thing, you know.

The transcript of President Obama’s remarks:

Remarks of President Barack Obama

Weekly Address

Saturday, February 28th, 2009

Washington, DC

Two years ago, we set out on a journey to change the way that Washington works.  

We sought a government that served not the interests of powerful lobbyists or the wealthiest few, but the middle-class Americans I met every day in every community along the campaign trail – responsible men and women who are working harder than ever, worrying about their jobs, and struggling to raise their families.  In so many town halls and backyards, they spoke of their hopes for a government that finally confronts the challenges that their families face every day; a government that treats their tax dollars as responsibly as they treat their own hard-earned paychecks.  

That is the change I promised as a candidate for president.  It is the change the American people voted for in November.  And it is the change represented by the budget I sent to Congress this week.  

During the campaign, I promised a fair and balanced tax code that would cut taxes for 95% of working Americans, roll back the tax breaks for those making over $250,000 a year, and end the tax breaks for corporations that ship our jobs overseas.  This budget does that.

I promised an economy run on clean, renewable energy that will create new American jobs, new American industries, and free us from the dangerous grip of foreign oil.  This budget puts us on that path, through a market-based cap on carbon pollution that will make renewable energy the profitable kind of energy; through investments in wind power and solar power; advanced biofuels, clean coal, and more fuel-efficient American cars and American trucks.  

I promised to bring down the crushing cost of health care – a cost that bankrupts one American every thirty seconds, forces small businesses to close their doors, and saddles our government with more debt.  This budget keeps that promise, with a historic commitment to reform that will lead to lower costs and quality, affordable health care for every American.  

I promised an education system that will prepare every American to compete, so Americans can win in a global economy.  This budget will help us meet that goal, with new incentives for teacher performance and pathways for advancement; new tax credits that will make college more affordable for all who want to go; and new support to ensure that those who do go finish their degree.  

This budget also reflects the stark reality of what we’ve inherited – a trillion dollar deficit, a financial crisis, and a costly recession.  Given this reality, we’ll have to be more vigilant than ever in eliminating the programs we don’t need in order to make room for the investments we do need.  I promised to do this by going through the federal budget page by page, and line by line.  That is a process we have already begun, and I am pleased to say that we’ve already identified two trillion dollars worth of deficit-reductions over the next decade.  We’ve also restored a sense of honesty and transparency to our budget, which is why this one accounts for spending that was hidden or left out under the old rules.    

I realize that passing this budget won’t be easy.  Because it represents real and dramatic change, it also represents a threat to the status quo in Washington.  I know that the insurance industry won’t like the idea that they’ll have to bid competitively to continue offering Medicare coverage, but that’s how we’ll help preserve and protect Medicare and lower health care costs for American families.  I know that banks and big student lenders won’t like the idea that we’re ending their huge taxpayer subsidies, but that’s how we’ll save taxpayers nearly $50 billion and make college more affordable.  I know that oil and gas companies won’t like us ending nearly $30 billion in tax breaks, but that’s how we’ll help fund a renewable energy economy that will create new jobs and new industries.   In other words, I know these steps won’t sit well with the special interests and lobbyists who are invested in the old way of doing business, and I know they’re gearing up for a fight as we speak.  My message to them is this:

So am I.  

The system we have now might work for the powerful and well-connected interests that have run Washington for far too long, but I don’t.  I work for the American people.  I didn’t come here to do the same thing we’ve been doing or to take small steps forward, I came to provide the sweeping change that this country demanded when it went to the polls in November.  That is the change this budget starts to make, and that is the change I’ll be fighting for in the weeks ahead – change that will grow our economy, expand our middle-class, and keep the American Dream alive for all those men and women who have believed in this journey from the day it began.  

Thanks for listening.

Thanks for sayin’ it.

The bronze statue of Colonel Alexander Doniphan in front of the Ray County Courthouse in Richmond, Missouri.

Doniphan, Alexander William, 1808-87, American lawyer and soldier, b. Mason co., Ky.

Doniphan began (1830) to practice law in Lexington, Mo., and served three terms in the state legislature, becoming involved in the Mormon issue. In 1838, Doniphan, as brigadier general of the state militia, was ordered against the Mormons by the governor but flatly refused to carry out orders to execute Joseph Smith and other Mormon leaders.

At the opening of the Mexican War he organized a mounted regiment of Missouri volunteers that formed part of Stephen W. Kearny’s force in his march on Santa Fe. When Kearny continued to California, Doniphan was left in command in New Mexico, where he subdued and made peace with the Navajo.

In Dec., 1846, turning over the command at Santa Fe to Sterling Price, Doniphan, on Kearny’s orders, set out with 856 men for Chihuahua to join John Wool’s army. Not far along the way his undisciplined but capable fighting outfit routed (Dec. 25) the Mexicans in a farcical engagement at the Brazito River, near El Paso, which was easily occupied. They then pushed on to a point c. 15 mi (24 km) N of Chihuahua, where, in the battle of Sacramento (Feb. 28, 1847), they again defeated the Mexicans. Chihuahua was taken the next day. Since Wool was not there as planned, Doniphan began another long march E to Saltillo, which was reached late in May. A few days later Doniphan and his men were commended by Zachary Taylor at Monterrey; then, their terms of enlistment being completed, they went down the Rio Grande, sailed for New Orleans, and returned to Missouri. The entire march, covering some 3,600 mi (5,793 km) and conducted with small loss under adverse circumstances, is one of the famous expeditions in American history….

…To Brigadier-General Doniphan: Sir: You will take Joseph Smith and the other prisoners into the public square of Far West and shoot them at 9 o’clock tomorrow morning. Samuel D. Lucas, Major-General Commanding.”

To this, Doniphan promptly replied, “It is cold-blooded murder. I will not obey your order. My brigade shall march for Liberty tomorrow morning, at 8 o’clock; and if you execute these men, I will hold you responsible before an earthly tribunal, so help me God. A. W. Doniphan, Brigadier General.”…

Lumiere Casino in St. Louis has provided the perfect example of why we need to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. By last November 20th, almost eighty percent of the workers had signed cards saying they wanted a union. But because card check isn’t law yet, Lumiere had a solid three months to put off the election, which takes place today, the 27th.  Knowing how much a union would empower the workers, the company has used every tool at its disposal to try to make its employees forgo their right to organize.

Or to fire them if they wouldn’t.

Earlier, the union organizers had put out a bulletin–with pictures–showing thirty of the employees on the union committee. At many companies, doing this offers a modicum of protection for the committee members because the company can’t then claim when it fires someone that it didn’t even realize he was a union guy. Lumiere refused to play by these rules: so far it has fired nine of the thirty. Another has been suspended and still another has had his last warning. And Lumiere’s hardball tactics have had an effect, of course. Some people have stopped attending the union organizers’ meetings.

One of the key tactics companies use to get rid of pro-union employees is to use points against them. Points are black marks on employee records; workers can get points for being late, being absent frequently, or being written up for not doing their jobs well. (Anything over ten points at Lumiere is grounds for dismissal.)

Take Gwendolyn, for example. She worked as a porter and had never had any points–never been late, never been absent, never been written up. But then one day she accumulated about a thousand invisible, unofficial points for “mouthing off”. What she did was to tell her co-workers that Phyllis, a Lumiere director, had said things about the union, at a meeting she conducted, that were untrue.  

Not that Gwendolyn made a scene. No, she kept it quiet, just talking to people standing near her, but–get this!–she felt free to contradict what her boss had said. And Phyllis apparently “didn’t appreciate her attitude.” So Phyllis let her know that she had noticed by going up to her at the end of the meeting and asking Gwendolyn whether she, Phyllis, had said anything wrong about the unions. Gwendolyn played it cool and told her boss that she had a right to say what she wanted. But after that, Gwendolyn’s days at Lumiere were numbered, and she should have known she was in trouble when, at the next meeting, Phyllis asked for her last name.

Phyllis saw her chance when Gwendolyn was mopping a hallway at work a few days later and had to get into a closet that was maybe 3′ x 3′ to rinse out her mop. But two other porters, Kevin and Fidel, were doing something in there, and she had to wait. Phyllis picked up on the cameras that Gwendolyn was just standing around doing nothing, so she watched carefully, hoping for more of the same nothing. She got it too. All right! she thought, and headed straight for that floor. When she got there, she asked what they were doing. Kevin and Fidel started to explain, but Phyllis interrupted and told the guys that they were fine, that she wasn’t talking to them, she was talking to Gwendolyn. She told Gwendolyn that she would be reviewing what the cameras showed had been going on, and that review showed twenty minutes of Gwendolyn doing nothing.

That was all it took to get Gwendolyn canned. Gwendolyn took the issue to the Labor Board, a state agency that mediates disputes. But unfortunately, the board’s members, appointed by a Republican governor, sided with the company. But the hearing did make it obvious that Gwendolyn had been singled out, so Kevin and Fidel had to be fired as well. Lumiere had to cover its ass, right?

Lumiere Place also told workers that the union will cost them a couple thousand dollars every year.  But union dues are actually $37 a month. $37 a month comes out to almost two thousand a year, doesn’t it?  Oh wait, not really.

The union also reminded the other workers that the hiring ad Lumiere placed when it opened the casino said it would pay $11-$13 an hour, but that when people came in for the interview, it was actually offering $9.   What’s more, the company told interviewees that after ninety days, they’d get a $1.25 raise. But Lumiere wrote performance reviews that said workers were only doing well enough to get a three percent raise.

These aren’t exactly hard times for the casinos.  Statewide, they grew by two percent last year, and Lumiere made 86-million dollars in seven months. So the company had a choice to make: pay workers what they’re worth or throw some extra cash at the shareholders.  Apparently, they chose the latter.

The guys who keep the parking garage clean live with the implications of this approach.  Their office is a shack in the garage–no windows, no heat, just a couple of metal doors. And before this union discussion came up, the bosses just ignored them when they asked: Couldn’t we at least have a space heater for days when it’s 17 degrees out here?   The shack was also unsafe, given that the company stored diesel fuel, gasoline, floor stripper, and  other chemicals in there. Furthermore, the zamboni machine the workers used to clean the garage was pumping carbon monoxide into the shack.  Of course, once the union negotiations started, management decided to give those guys permission to use the inside break rooms to warm up on cold days, even though they used to write employees up for spending time in there.

When one of the employees had the nerve to stand up at a meeting and correct his boss, his boss let him speak once, but when the employee stood to make another correction, his boss then said he wasn’t taking any questions or comments from those in the audience, and an aide crossed the room, pushed the worker on the shoulder and told him not to show such disrespect.

This is just one prime example of the union-busting tactics that happen across America all the time.  We need to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.  People’s livelihoods are at stake.

UPDATE: Blunt has apparently updated the page so that it collects occupations and employers. You’re welcome!

Funny for a guy supposedly all about transparency, Roy Blunt isn’t even following federal campaign finance law. Looking at Roy Blunt’s Senate campaign website, he fails to collect the proper information for disclosure when collecting donations. Federal campaign finance law states that a candidate must disclose the names, addresses, occupations and employers of all donors who contribute $200 or more in a calendar year. Kinda hard to do that when you don’t even have a place for them on your contribution page on your website. You can click on the photo for a closer look.

I find this totally bizarre. I mean, this is the establishment Republican frontrunner for a US Senate campaign, and he can’t even put together a decent website that properly collects information that he’ll need to disclose for donations.  

The view from the second floor of the Ray County Courthouse in Richmond, Missouri.

A while back I was invited to speak about election recounts and blogging at a meeting of the Ray County Democratic Club. This evening I made the hour long drive up Highway 13 (and over the Congressman Ike Skelton Bridge across the Missouri River at Lexington) for a regular meeting of the club in the lobby of the Ray County Courthouse in Richmond.

I spoke about a number of election recounts over the past few years and provided a handout with information and URLs of our blog reporting and the Missouri Secretary of State’s web site. After I spoke the club continued with its business meeting – discussing fundraising, upcoming events, and their scholarship program.

These folks are part of the activist core of the Missouri Democratic Party. It’s four months after the 2008 general election and across the state grassroots groups like this are gearing up for the next cycle.

The work never ends.

Well, well, well…

HB 887 Designates the mastodon as the official state prehistoric mammal

Sponsor: Gatschenberger, Chuck (13) Proposed Effective Date: 08/28/2009

CoSponsor: LR Number: 2165L.01I

Last Action: 02/26/2009 – Introduced and Read First Time (H)

HB887

Next Hearing: Hearing not scheduled

Calendar: Bill currently not on a calendar

Silly, everyone knows that this singular honor is only truly deserved by the Missouri republican party.

Speaking of prehistoric habits. Let’s see, any bill with “predictable” and “tax” in the title has got to be sponsored by a republican:

HB 888 Establishes the Predictable Property Tax Act

Sponsor: Nieves, Brian D. (98) Proposed Effective Date: 08/28/2009

CoSponsor: Ruestman, Marilyn (131) ……….etal. LR Number: 1771L.01I

Last Action: 02/26/2009 – Introduced and Read First Time (H)

HB888

Next Hearing: Hearing not scheduled

Calendar: Bill currently not on a calendar

Yep.