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If Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker loses the election to recall him from office Tuesday, the political press will declare the arrival of Big Labor's comeback. If Walker wins, it will be seen as yet another sign of labor's demise. The election to recall the Republican governor, sparked by Walker's successful 2011 effort to end collective bargaining for public employees, has drawn participation from many different groups, including the tea party. But unions, which have long been fighting stories of their demise, have much of what's left of their reputation as powerful political organizers riding on the race. Union membership in 2011 fell to a record low for the second straight year, according to the Department of Labor, but that's not the only avenue in which unions have been struggling. Bill Schneider, a a senior fellow and resident scholar at centrist think tank Third Way, told Yahoo News that labor has lately experienced "tougher times winning" electoral race...

What should be done about the economy? Republicans claim to have the answer: slash spending and cut taxes. What they hope voters won’t notice is that that’s precisely the policy we’ve been following the past couple of years. Never mind the Democrat in the White House; for all practical purposes, this is already the economic policy of Republican dreams. Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times Paul Krugman Go to Columnist Page » Blog: The Conscience of a Liberal Related in Opinion Paul Krugman Blog: 1937 (June 3, 2012) More on the Economy » Connect With Us on Twitter For Op-Ed, follow @nytopinion and to hear from the editorial page editor, Andrew Rosenthal, follow @andyrNYT . Readers’ Comments Readers shared their thoughts on this article. Read All Comments (925) » So the Republican electoral strategy is, in effect, a gigantic con game: it depends on convincing voters that the bad economy is the result of big-spending policies that President Obama hasn’t...

"People Earning 250 Thousand Aren't Rich But Those Earning 60 Thousand Are" As we've all realized by now, the core value of the Republican party is simple: They want cheap, disposable labor with no legal protections. Everything they do is geared toward that end. So they're especially infuriated when the Unwashed Unworthies like us actually manage to pull down a living wage. It disturbs them in a visceral way: Conservatives these days walk a tricky line when it comes to wages. On the one hand, they strive to defend the just earnings of capitalist lords of enterprise. On the other, they try hard to foster resentment of any working people who might actually enjoy living wages and decent benefits. In a nutshell: while Wall Street bankers deserve every penny they get, public school teachers—to take just one example—are overpaid mooches who are leeching off society. The latest hubbub illustrating this strange double standard came after the New York Times reporte...

Two stories once again highlight how the supposedly data-driven corporate-style education reform is actually driven by ideology, with no data too shoddy and suspect to be held up against teachers or as a victory for "reform," and no amount of questionable data enough to sink a champion of "reform" like Michelle Rhee. The New York Times' Michael Winerip asks why, with the Office of the Inspector General in the Department of Education "investigating whether Washington school officials cheated to raise test scores during Ms. Rhee’s tenure," Secretary of Education Arne Duncan would think it appropriate to join a panel also featuring Rhee to discuss, of all things, "the use of education data." Mr. Duncan doesn’t think [there's a problem], according to his spokesman, Justin Hamilton. “It’s irresponsible for a New York Times columnist to presume guilt before we have all the facts,” Mr. Hamilton wrote in an e-mail. “Our inspector general is i...

Free Trade opens up markets by eliminating all taxes and tariffs on products being imported and exported, creating one large economy in which everyone competes. Free trade is part of the neoliberal model that encourages countries to produce for export rather than for their own consumption. Under this model, poor countries like Nicaragua are supposed to use their “comparative advantage” to compete against large economies like Mexico and the United States. Nicaragua’s “comparative advantage” is a cheap, abundant labor force and cash crops. Following in the footsteps of NAFTA (North America Free Trade Agreement), CAFTA (Central America Free Trade Agreement) involves five Central American nations (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica and Nicaragua), and the Dominican Republic. Expanding NAFTA further south through the regional free trade agreement CAFTA is a strategic step towards the hemisphere-wide FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas).CAFTA BackgroundCAFTA passed in the US Cong...

Please respect FT.com's ts&cs and copyright policy which allow you to: share links; copy content for personal use; & redistribute limited extracts. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights or use this link to reference the article - http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/79ec4d9c-87d7-11e0-a6de-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz1NWMld5ft The US Hispanic population grew of 43 per cent in 10 years, which is four times faster than the total US population, according to 2010 census data released on Thursday . The Hispanic population increased by more than 15.2m people, which is more than half of the total US population increase of 27.3m. In terms of total population, people that reported being of Hispanic origin was 50.5m people, or 16.3 per cent of the total population of 308m. EDITOR’S CHOICE Supreme Court backs Arizona workers’ law - May-26 Clive Crook: America’s immigration mess - May-15 Obama in fresh push on immigration - May-10 Editorial: US immigration - May-11 Migrant work...

The Senate votes later today on whether to continue giving $2 billion in taxpayer handouts  to oil companies that do not need them. This evening's vote on whether to end some of the subsidies for the five biggest oil companies comes one week after CEOs failed to explain why the corporations raking in record profits should continue receiving $4 billion in tax breaks. The measure before the Senate would affect only half the subsidies for the big five firms. Still, this limp compromise is considered unlikely to attract enough votes to even proceed to a debate on the bill. Sen. Bernie Sanders last year called for the repeal of $35 billion in oil and gas industry tax breaks. His proposal would have devoted $25 billion and put $10 billion over 10 years into an Energy Efficiency Conservation Block Grant Program.  The vote last June 15 on Sanders' amendment was 35 to 61. At that time, 22 Democrats bucked the wishes of the White Ho...

1:59 p.m. | Updated President Obama hailed the late-night budget deal that averted a government shutdown on Friday as “good news for the American people,” but members of his own party seemed less convinced. Hours after the spending crisis was averted with a series of handshakes just before midnight, some Democrats began complaining that their legislative leaders and Mr. Obama had given away too much in the bargain. Robert Reich , the former labor secretary under President Bill Clinton, wrote on Twitter: “The right held the U.S. govt hostage, and O paid most of the ransom — inviting more hostage-taking. Next is raising debt ceiling.” David Plouffe, a senior adviser to the president, dismissed the criticism. “I would ask Robert Reich and others to actually consume the details of this,” Mr. Plouffe said in an interview on Saturday. “There are some in our country who simply believe spending cuts are not required to help the economy. The president has made it very clear that we cannot...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Thousands of California teachers rallied in cities throughout the state Friday to demonstrate against the threat of deep education cuts and to appeal to Republican lawmakers to raise tax revenue for public schools. Major demonstrations were taking place at the state Capitol, where more than two dozen teachers were arrested Thursday night, and in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego. "Education can't take these cuts anymore," said Joyce Medeiros, 48, one of at least 1,000 teachers, students and supporters who filled Civic Center Plaza in San Francisco. The sixth-grade teacher at San Juan School in San Juan Bautista, where K-3 classes now have 32 students, used to be a PE teacher before the district cut physical education, art and music programs. "We've taken our cuts. It's time to look for other solutions," she said. Friday evening's demonstrations marked an end to a weeklong series of protests organized by the California...

 The Republican Party who protect the Super Rich. The GOP 100 Days In Power What's New?

I'm speechless. This little rant by Kate O'Beirne at a Republican strategy session is so evil, so incredibly cold-hearted, and so predictably right-wing that it makes me want to shove a big bowl of cereal and a big banana right down her chicken-hearted little gullet. Ebenezer Scrooge would be proud of his progeny. O’BEIRNE: And then the title of our gathering is so crucial; “Less of Washington and More of Ourselves”. The federal school lunch program and now breakfast program and I guess in Washington DC, dinner program are pretty close to being sacred cows… broad bipartisan support. And if we’re going to ask more of ourselves, my question is what poor excuse for a parent can’t rustle up a bowl of cereal and a banana? I just don’t get why millions of school children qualify for school breakfasts unless we have a major wide spread problem with child neglect. You know, I mean if that’s how many parents are incapable of pulling together a bowl of cereal and a banana,...