I listened to this speech on C-SPAN, so I didn’t get to hear any extraneous commentary from the talking-headitariat. I was also watching at a watch party at a bar in Southbridge, so I am not sure I got the full impact. I thought it was a very good speech.

The Real News Network has produced the report Chicago Teachers Strike Rooted in Community Struggle.

I figure that this side of the story might not get adequate coverage in the lame stream media. Now you know what the teachers are saying the strike is all about.

I have read comments about this story to the effect that the teachers are asking for money that is just not there. From another point of view, you might say that the money is there, but the government has decided to give that money to the wealthy instead of paying adequate salaries to their employees. The private sector is driving down wages in the name of profit and the governments are doing it in the name of not taxing the “job creators”. If people don’t band together to fight for their own interests, how do you think this story ends?

I leave it up to your built in biases to decide which side to believe.

I think we are starting to see the change in tone in Elizabeth Warren’s advertising as she moves into the final phase of her campaign.

For anyone whose had to take the extra shift to make ends meet, for everyone who planned for a secure retirement but is facing a struggle, for all the people who played by the rules but find the system is rigged again them, know this: your fight is Elizabeth Warren’s fight.

The article from Network World GoDaddy comes back online after attacks explains why this blog was down for 6 or 7 hours yesterday.

GoDaddy restored some services on Monday as the company battled online attacks that severely impacted its hosting and domain-name registration operations.

GoDaddy is the service provider that I use for this blog, my web site in general, and my email.

On his blog, Sturbridge Selectman Thomas Creamer has posted, without comment, a blog post  Sharia Law Alive And Well In America – Godfather Politics that has a link to that same named article.

I am very surprised that Thomas Creamer would post such a link.  It is patently false in its assertions about the Democratic National Convention.  Furthermore, the referenced article uses stereotyping and intolerance of minorities to promote its political views.

I have always thought of Thomas Creamer as a thoughtful human being, who is willing to listen to all sides of a story and decide on a plan of action using logic as free of bias as possible.  He is one of the few Republicans politicians that I can talk to nowadays.  As a self proclaimed Lincoln Republican, he always seemed to me closer to a moderate Democrat than a radical Republican. His compassion for people seemed genuine to me.

His blog postings lately seem to be deviating from this calm approach to politics that I could vote for in a town election for selectman.  It is such a shame to see zealotry for the national party positions to rob us of a reasoned voice on the town board of selectmen and women.

C-SPAN has the video Deval Patrick at the 2012 Democratic National Convention.

Deval Patrick, governor of Massachusetts, spoke at the 2012 Democratic National Convention criticizing Mitt Romney’s record as Governor of Massachusetts. He also spoke about the successes of President Obama’s years in office, despite Republican opposition, and about the need for a President that supports public education.

Sometimes people forget how rousing and on point a speech by Deval Patrick can be.

C-SPAN has the full speech Michelle Obama: “I Have Seen the Very Best of the American Spirit”.

“I love that we can trust Barack to do what he says he’s going to do,” she told the convention hall, “even when it’s hard – especially when it’s hard. ”

Greatest speech among a slew of great speeches.

Romney accidentally hails Obama’s outstanding job creation record is from the Rachel Maddow show.

Mitt Romney said in a CNBC interview that voters should give him six months to a year to get his economic policies in place. That “six months to a year” standard applied to President Obama’s term shows him creating three to four million jobs.

Even when the other media claim to try to give the President the benefit of the doubt by showing how the Republican obstructionism led decline in public sector employment detracts from the good private sector job growth record of Obama, they don’t give the President the benefit of this suggested change of starting dates from Mitt Romney.

Here is a video clip of Elizabeth Warren’s appearance on the Today show.

She starts out well with a terrific answer about where we were 4 years ago compared to where we are today.

I think she fell down a little at the end.

I know Elizabeth can get her point across much better than this. I have heard her do it in many other videos and in person.

As for Mitt Romney’s qualifications, the interviewer practically handed the words to Elizabeth, but she missed it.

“Mitt Romney is the type of person who broke the system. He is not qualified to fix it, because he wants to do more of what broke the system in the first place.”

This kind of lapse is what has me worried about how Elizabeth will do in debates.

The central point for Obama is that he has spent the last four years trying to fix what Mitt Romney broke, and Mitt Romney’s allies have blocked the road at every turn. I know there is the old drunkard’s cure of “The hair of the dog that bit you”, but I don’t think we want to risk the country on this remedy. Romney is not the man to fix what is wrong with the economy.

Where might we be today if Obama had gotten himself on TV every day saying, “Congress could fix the economy tomorrow. Just pass my jobs bill.” This should be a meme so deeply rooted in the public’s mind that the Republicans couldn’t make it go away. Instead, few in the public even know there is a jobs bill pending before Congress and they won’t even allow a vote on it, let alone passing it.

This graphic from the Obama campaign thanks the small donors that are keeping this campaign afloat.

Besides donating money, there are more things we should be doing. See my previous blog post Help Workers Connect the Dots to This Larger System of Oppression for some ideas.