Thanks! My mother-in-law subscribes to the New Yorker, so I’ll call her and see if she still has that number…

As far as the stretch run to November goes, I’m resigned to the re-election of Steve Pearce (R — Fossil Fuels) to represent my district (NM-2) again.

I still have hopes for Patsy Madrid ekeing out a win over Heather Wilson(R — Torture and Constitution disemboweling) in Albuquerque. Heather’s back-pedalling big time now. Yesterday she suggested that Bill Richardson be part of a bipartisan delegation to Pyongyang. My fervent hope is that Bush, Rove & Co don’t understand why she’s slapping at Dubya and cut support… but folks in hell are more likely to get ice water first.

Thanks again,

BC

My experience as a former airline employee was, once you give in, management comes back for more (I note they’re running that play at Goodyear, too), until their request becomes unsustainable. Then, citing market conditions, management takes the company into a very corporate-friendly BK, and takes what they want by abrogating contracts.

Better to take them on NOW, while a BK claim is hard to prove.You stand a chance to win, and even if you lose, you were going to in BK anyhow.

Stand NOW, fight NOW. There is no tomorrow.

I mean, how many fridges are millionaries gonna buy per capita to make up for it? Who will be buying cars if no one makes enough to buy a new one other than every 8-10 years? Who will buy homes if folks are ruining credit ratings over medical bills?

I understand how businesses save money in labor and manufacturing sending jobs overseas. I do not see how that means more sales when their main market demographic is finacially gutted in that process. I do not see how Indonesian Nike workers are gonna buy a new Pathfinder and Whirlpool.

My grandfather was a union member; my father was a union member; I was proud to be a union member for 16 years. All of us went on strike at one time or another, trying to keep our employers from snatching food from our children’s plate. Read your history — unions are what created the middle class in this country, and if unions go, then so go all of us. It infuriates the hell out of me when politicians court the unions, then sell them out the first chance they get. We can save this country this next election, and when we do, let’s don’t forget what makes our country strong — men and women who take pride in what they do, and deserve every dime they are paid.

Amen, Amen, Amen

I want to thank Jordan for another important and informative piece, excellent as usual.

Jordan — do you think eventually that labor movements will become in some as yet undetermined way INTERNATIONAL, so as to fight the multinational corporate shell game of moving manufacturing all around the world to exploit the poor?

Lately I’ve been dealing with lots more pain than usual. I’m struggling to keep the exercise level going in spite of that.

The physical therapist has started “lymphedema massage” even though the swelling is minimal, ’cause the lymphedema swelling seems to correlate directly with the increased pain. (Heaven knows if the link is causative, however — the body is so “mysterious” which is another way of saying nobody REALLY knows how to alleviate my problem.)

The pain doc wants to give me a shot of depomedrol in the sacroiliac joint — in part to try to relieve the worst of the pain, but also for diagnostic purposes. If it helped it would indicate *something.*

I’m thinking I might agree to it (although I won’t have any more shots of that stuff in the epidural lumbar area, ’cause I’ve been hearing of patients developing horrible arachnoiditis (which cannot then be cured, and is so unremittingly painful people have committed suicide because of it) as a side effect of such shots to the cerebrospinal fluid area. However, I’ll probably give it another month to see if the physical therapist’s massage approach gives any relief first.

I’d hate to do both at the same time, get relief, but then not know WHICH was the beneficial agent.

The pupster’s doing well, and is very happy that we bought me a “hands-free” leash which wraps around my hips and enables me to feel more stable with my cane, so we’ve started doing daily walks to go along with the daily swim (water is currently 82 degrees with a pool blanket). I’ll probably quit the swimming when the water temp drops to 70 or 72.

Now — how are YOU, dear lady? Still as nefarious as ever? Hugs and good wishes to you and yours.