Apr 25, 2013
Congress is still mad about airline delays, which are clearly the fault of this annoying "government," whoever that might be. Greg Dworkin called in and let us know that House Republican Leader Eric Cantor, in an effort to put a softer face on the Gop, failed at bringing a not-quite-repeal of Obamacare to the floor yesterday, and ended up having to pull it in the face of Tea Party-type opposition. Repeal or nothing! We discuss the minor media firestorm over the empty dais at the Joint Economic Committee's hearing on long term unemployment. Essentially, that's the way most hearings look. Which doesn't make it a good thing. It just... is. Then, a look at the latest on Hostess. The Wall Street Journal says the new owners (of which they speak to just one of two partners) plan to reopen the bakeries, but without unions. Surprise! And wow, have they got awesome plans to save the brand. You know the plans are awesome because the people who drew them up are rich! In the second hour, we talked to David Wehde, Organizing Director of Working America, about the launch of FixMyJob.com, a sort of WebMD for workplace organizing. Finally, we read a Concord Monitor editorial on the failure of the gun bill, and the case it makes for filibuster reform. Don't think we've made any progress in that fight? Consider that newspaper editorial boards no longer laugh out loud at the idea that Senate rules can be changed by majority vote. Now they call on the Senate to do exactly that. A key step forward in a relative short time, during what has historically always been a long, long fight.