GOPers Remove 'Labor' From House Committee Name

[RandySF]

Personal commentary: This is what happens when Democrats stay home because they didn't get everything they wanted in two years.

Republicans have decided to excise the word "labor" from the name of the House committee handling education and, yes, labor issues.

It's time to say so long to the Education and Labor Committee and hello to the Education and the Workforce Committee, the Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire reports.

This isn't the first time the name has changed, but the Labor Committee has been named that since Democrats took over the House in 2006. Reports the WSJ:

Republicans are planning the name change, and it isn't the first. For years, the committee was called Education and Labor. But when Newt Gingrich and the Republicans took over the House in 1994, they wanted to show that there was a new sheriff in town--and he was not a pro-labor sheriff.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/12/gopers-remove-labor-from-committee-name.php?ref=fpi

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Repukes HATE labor. They would make unions illegal if they could.

Part of their "education" agenda is to destroy teachers' unions.

[msongs]

2. arne duncan is a republican? Race to the top is a republican initiative. I didnt know that nt

[Liberal Left]

5. Duncan is a crook

He was involved in a property scheme involving votes for profit with Issa and a couple of other members of Congress. Nobody goes after these guys.

[BrklynLiberal]

7. Appearances can be deceiving.

[earthside]

11. Yes it is.

'Race to the Top' is just an extension of No Child Left Behind ... it is a very Republican program. It makes states compete against on another in spite of real educational funding needs; it favors corporatization of public schools (ie., 'charters'); it puts its emphasis on 'data' collection, that is high stakes testing instead of student learning; and it is very anti-union.

Whether Arne Duncan is a Republican or not ... someone can check his voter registration, but sadly the Obama education policy truly is the Bush-Spellings program on steroids.

[WinkyDink]

15. Walks like a duck,.....

[w4rma]

20. I bet Duncan voted Republican in every election he's voted in. (nt)

[Imajika]

3. Actually, they can...

..not the GOP House of Representatives, but many of these states that have swung entirely to the right can de-certify the collective bargaining rights of public sector unions - starting with Teachers Unions. In many states the Republicans now dominate so strongly (Governor and overwhelming majorities in the Statehouses) that de-certification of public sector union bargaining is already on the agenda and moving forward.

People have not yet realized the utter disaster November ushered in. Losing 63 House and 6 Senate seats was bad enough, but on a local level we lost 680 legislative seats and since November at least 20 more Democrats have defected to the Republican Party. This means we are down some 700+ seats at the statehouse level.

[BrklynLiberal]

6. Itis the unnoticed local losses that will be the most damaging....

[Mojorabbit]

12. Exactly.

I am in florida and waiting for the misery this state is getting ready to go through

[defendandprotect]

4. What's important is that we all realize we are labor and organize -- unite -- unionize ....

[Imajika]

9. Labor needs a new dynamic, a new angle, a new way to reach people...

I am not sure of quite how yet, but unions need to market themselves in a whole different way - modernize, excite, capture the imagination of workers, etc.

Organized labor needs a new approach. Right now they are just bleeding members and public sector unions are about to be massacred on a local and state level. Attacks on collective bargaining and an end to state aid and stimulus funding will results in thousands upon thousands of union jobs being terminated.

[defendandprotect]

22. Agree .. and my question which I'm asking more frequently is this ....

Primary question ...

Why are we organizing LABOR thru company connections?

We are the labor pool -- unite it outside of corporations --

make them come to us for labor --

Why not?


Otoh, we have to recognize that unions have themselves been co-opted by infiltrators

and even by Mafia used to corrupt and destroy them.

Right now we have an Obama/Duncan attack on teachers and their union!

The attacks have moved on from being secret and unknown --

to now coming from inside the Democratic Party!!


Can we create incorruptable organizations of any kind? Doubt it ... so we are left with

Founders' warnings -- "price of liberty is constant vigilence" --

But most of all everyone needs their BS-meters turned waaaay up.

Unfortunately, yes, there are dishonest men among us -- and, yes, they

will try to find a "Judas" -- they will try to use every vile and dishonest means --

including violence and assassination -- to get their way.

And, no -- this is not "Conspiracy-free America" ... nor has it ever been!!

[DBoon]

8. are they going to replace the word "labor" with somthing that fits them better?

Like "serfs" or "slaves"?

A "Department of Low Paid Subservient Minions"?

[freshwest]

19. You got it.

[applegrove]

10. So be warned there is a war on the word "Labour". Just like there was a war

on the word "Liberal" for the last two decades.

[Gman]

13. There was too much wah! wah! wah! He's a corporatist president

and other assorted bullshit. The stupidity knows no bounds on the left as well as on the right.

[Selatius]

14. Attacking voters who were too disgusted with the options isn't going to convince them to vote more.

You are better off trying to win them back by offering them something besides a lecture.

[area51]

17. +1 n/t

[GSLevel9]

16. well...

losing elections mean something.

They can name it the "Turnip Committee" if they so choose.

[krispos42]

18. Democrats turned out. Independents didn't, at least, not for us.

So I've been told, at least. Which means that the spinelessness of the Leadership failed to accomplish many goals and capitalize on achievements while being bullied by a stubborn and recently-repuked superminority.

[BrklynLiberal]

21. and Progressives, who had the most reason to be really pissed, turned out.

The Progressive Caucus increased in size. It was only the Blue Dog Dems who were left at a net loss.
In effect, Congress became more polarized. The "extremes" in both parties....if one really wants to call Progressives "extreme"...
were the ones who came out ahead in the last elections. So it would seem playing to the middle...is a losing proposition in both parties...but the Dems have not learned that yet.