As you know, I think a lot about language and the meaning of word. Every word has a connotation, and some have a few. The same word might not mean the same thing in one ear as it does in another.

Slurs like n----r, or f----t and others are unspeakable in almost every social setting. But I've discovered there is one slur that you can say almost everywhere -- even among the most liberal crowd of people you could ever hope to meet.

Jared Bernstein and Heidi Shierholz at the Economic Policy Institute write:

^{Job market recession persists}

On average this year, payrolls have contracted by 66,000 per month. Job loss in the private sector has occurred more quickly, however, dropping an average of 83,000 jobs a month since it peaked in November 2007. Private sector payrolls are down 665,000 since then, including the loss of 76,000 last month. Since government employment is less sensitive to the business cycle, the private sector losses are more indicative of the full extent of labor market weakness.

This persistent and deepening slack in the job market, in tandem with accelerated inflation, is leading to significant real wage and benefit losses for most workers. Average weekly hours slipped slightly last month to 33.6 hours per week, the lowest level since November 2004. This put downward pressure on weekly earnings, which rose 2.8%, before inflation in July, the same rate as the previous month and the slowest pace of weekly earnings since September 2005. With inflation running between 4-5%, the buying power of weekly paychecks is dropping sharply.

In a related release yesterday, the BLS reported that the Employer Cost Index—a comprehensive measure of average wages and benefits—fell 1.8% in real terms in June 2008 compared to June 2007. That is the largest real decline in this data series’ history (dating back to the early 1980s).

Along with the decline in weekly hours worked, another important sign of the extent to which our current workforce is underutilized is the increase in part-time workers who would prefer full-time jobs. In July, there were 5.7 million part-timers in this category, 1.4 million above last year’s level and the highest level since the BLS settled on a way of measuring this condition in 1994. Since these involuntary part-timers are included in the underemployment rate noted above, they are partly responsible for its spike last month.

Meanwhile, as Chye-Ching Huang and Chad Stone at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities noted in a new analysis on Wednesday:

Average pre-tax incomes in 2006 jumped by about $60,000 (5.8 percent) for the top 1 percent of households, but just $430 (1.4 percent) for the bottom 90 percent, after adjusting for inflation, according to a new update in the groundbreaking series on income inequality by economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez. Their analysis of newly released IRS data shows that in 2006, the shares of the nation’s income flowing to the top 1 percent and top 0.1 percent of households were higher than in any year since 1928. ...

Some 42 percent of total income gains since 2002 have accrued to the top 1 percent of households, and 66 percent have gone to the top 10 percent of households.  As a result, by 2006, the share of income flowing to the top 1 percent of households had surpassed the level it reached in 2000, at the peak of the 1990s expansion.

+ + +

^{The Overnight News Digest is posted, including the story, Ivory Poaching At Critical Levels: Elephants On Path To Extinction By 2020?}

You know I have been dropping poetry from my book BEING BLACK: being human over the past few days because I felt my poems addressed some of the crap I see coming out of the woodwork since Obama has been nominated.

I was going to take a break today but now I have to drop this one because those guys with the flag in Obama's face really pissed me off!

Jump below for my poem of the day...

So what if I told you that the powers of financial capitalism (bankers etc.), had a far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands, able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole.

This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent private meetings and conferences. The apex of the system was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basle, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the world's central banks which were themselves private corporations?

[Cross-posted at The Left Coaster.]

Via Suburban Guerrilla, the great political writer Matt Taibbi wrote on July 19th for Rolling Stone that our America era of "fantasy elections" is soon to inevitably end, for the howling pain from the abuse of our people just cannot be ignored forever.  One might be justifiably surprised that the will of the American people is being ignored after endless elections in the 2008 political season, but the American process almost earns the title of fantasy, and there is disturbing historical precedence that, in fact, it could go on for a very long time.

Why is Bush in office instead of a prison cell? We have only our culture to blame.

On the Fourth, Steven R wrote a diary about John McCain's essay on patriotism which appears in PARADE magazine today.

In the diary, Steven R pointed out McCain's subtle digs against his opponent in the presidential election, most egregious of which was the quote:

This somewhat dated article from the Boston Globe notes that Obama's electoral success among white voters is re-energizing conservative opponents of affirmative action:

WASHINGTON - Leading opponents of affirmative action are increasingly seizing on Illinois Senator Barack Obama's historic run for the presidency as proof that race-based remedies for past discrimination are no longer necessary.

Influential Republicans and a growing number of policy specialists at conservative organizations, including the Goldwater Institute, Project 21, and the Manhattan Institute, are citing the fact that large numbers of white voters are supporting Obama, who leads in the race for Democratic delegates, as evidence that affirmative action has run its course.

Ward Connerly, a black conservative who is leading a national effort to ban racial preferences, vowed to use Obama's success as evidence for anti-affirmative action ballot initiatives his organization is promoting in five states. Connerly, who helped dismantle affirmative action policies in California universities and public hiring in the 1990s, said he has donated $500 to Obama's campaign.

I think there is a reason that Michelle has a higher ratings than Cindy McCain.  Where Michelle shows class and beauty and grace, Cindy has none.  The latest is Cindy's Personal Attack on Michelle during Good Morning America.

Per ABC:

"I don't know why she said what she said.  Everyone has their own experience. I don't know why she said what she said, all I know is that I have always been proud of my country."

More scary PR from the Union Busting industry below on labor reform coming from Dems.  Although the PR doesn't say it, most Small Businesses are exempt from Federal Labor law, and ALL Small Businesses would be exempt if Congress adjusted the NLRB's 1959 interstate trade threshold of $500,000 to an inflation adjusted $3.1 Million.  

Mom and pop shops can't afford anti-union lawyers, and tend to play by the rules.  The union busters, chambers of commerce, and the GOP aren't trying to protect "small business."  Their neglect to adjust the $500K exemption proves it.  Big Business are the ones who want to keep $0 penalties for labor law violations, but they also want the support of small business owners by putting more of them under Federal jurisdiction.

The Employee Free Choice Act adds penalties for firing union supporters.  It also levels the playing field for small business as well as law-abiding big businesses against scofflaw corporations.

The unionbusters PR over the fold...

Even before news broke that Hillary Clinton would concede, most of her supporters on dKos and MyDD came out with class and dignity expressing sadness at their candidate's loss and support for the new Democratic nominee. Yesterday we learned her top advisers organized a meeting of party leaders to talk her down from the ledge, and I have no doubt that the Hillary I expected and hoped to see on Tuesday night will show up Saturday and make us proud.  

I like to play with iMovie to mash up political videos with music and in the spirit of unity, here is my latest. I borrow freely from the Brave New Films videos to remind us why we must unite now. It's rough. I'm no pro, but it's from the heart. Enjoy.

Somewhere in the swirling whirlpool of pundit fantasy land, Obama walks into an Applebees, stairs dumbfounded at the salad bar with only romaine and iceberg lettuce and shouts

"Hey M@ther F-Fer Bring Me Some Arugula"

David Brooks and Bill O'Reilly need to get on the same page. Because on the one hand, Brooks says that Obama strikes him as the sort of guy who would be mystified by Applebees salad bar, apparently because he is hand fed by Nubian slaves and can't assemble his own appetizer. So Brooks is going with the "elitist" tag, pegging Obama as The Brother From Another Planet

Meanwhile O'Reilly sees all blacks as too savage to dine in public.

I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it’s run by blacks, primarily black patronship." O’Reilly added: "There wasn’t one person in Sylvia’s who was screaming, ‘M-Fer, I want more iced tea.’"

Indeed O'Reilly would probably expect Obama to try pulling weeds if he saw a salad bar.

And Glenn Beck also tackles the touchy race-class-and-arugula question....

Now there's a loaded question is it not?  How do you answer if you have not been in the military?  How do you answer if you have been in the military, but not in combat?  How do you answer if you are a combat veteren but not decorated?  How do you answer if you are a decorated combat veteren but also a democrat running for public office?  How do we get to a point like this?  There are three military academies and at least that many ROTC and other programs in our schools.  Where is the Peace Academy?  What decorations are there for someone who has helped us avoid a war?  We are preparing to observe Memorial Day.

Memorial Day is a United States Federal Holiday that is observed on the last Monday of May (observed in 2008 on May 26). It was formerly known as Decoration Day. This holiday commemorates U.S. men and women who have died in military service to their country. It began first to honor Union soldiers who died during the American Civil War. After World War I, it was expanded to include those who died in any war or military action.

Come with me below the fold and lets us prepare ourselves together.

A few thoughts about all the diaries about feminism and Obama.  First they are wonderful.  It is inspiring to see such at outpouring from women of all different ages supporting Obama.  One was recommended and elicited 900 comments!!!  I strongly agree with every feminist who rejects being put in a box by women who feel one has to vote for Hillary Clinton because she is a woman and not because of her politics.!

But I have a few questions as well.  To begin with, I think the attempt to separate Hillary and Obama supporters by age is problematic.  Older women are a much more diverse group which I outlined in another diary on Saturday .Women Still Face Challenges: But It is Obama Not Hillary Who Will Have The Answers in 2009.

Second, the fight is not over

Behind all political struggles is the issue of status.

At In These Times, David Moberg writes from Fort Wayne, Indiana:

^{Winning the White Working Class}

Tom Lewandowski, a former General Electric factory worker, heads the central labor union council in this northeastern Indiana city of a quarter million people. Once an industrial powerhouse, Fort Wayne is still a manufacturing center despite decades of plant closings that have often been due to jobs being moved overseas.

Although socialists were powerful in local politics here before World War I, the town is now a Republican stronghold — even among many blue-collar workers — in a state that hasn’t voted for a Democratic president since 1964. Fort Wayne, says Lewandowski, his wide grin flashing, is "a red stain on the red state."

As a labor leader, Lewandowski remained neutral in the Indiana primary, which Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) narrowly won, but he personally supported Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) (after his first choice, John Edwards, dropped out of the race). Obama’s "organizer mindset" appealed to Lewandowski, who has been building a working-class community affiliate of the labor movement. Obama’s March 18 Philadelphia speech on race in America further impressed him.

Now Lewandowski wants Obama to take another big step, one that could strengthen Obama’s appeal among white working-class voters who have gravitated more toward Clinton, as they did again in Indiana and North Carolina.

"Like what he did with his Philadelphia speech on race, he needs a speech on class," Lewandowski says. "But, of course, we don’t have class in America."

Obama would do well to take Lewandowski’s advice.

Estimated number of Iraqis still in exile outside their country, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees: 2.5 million.

Number of Iraqi refugees admitted into the United States since March 2003: 5675

Number of Iraqi refugees admitted into Sweden in the same period: 90,000.

The Overnight News Digest is posted.

I apologize in advance for the length of the diary.  The appalling statement that I've used for the title is a-ways down.  It's taken me nearly six years to write about the incident in which I heard it, and I suppose even after putting it in the title it took me awhile to get around to describing it now.

I would also like to note that I originally posted this two nights ago, but re-posted today after several commenters suggested they would like to see it posted at a time of day when more people might be likely to read it.  I have added one paragraph and changed the n-word to its uncensored form when it is quoted in the story, as was suggested by another comment.  I left it censored in the title, however, as I didn't want it to seem to sensationalizing.

I fell in love with West Virginia when I was six years old.  It happened on the first family vacation I have any memory of, a trip with my mother and father to Blackwater Falls State Park.  Staring down into a four-hundred foot deep canyon I felt a sense of awe and wonder I'd never felt before.  And I was filled with a sense of pride that this natural beauty was a part of West Virginia--a part of my home.

I apologize in advance for the length of the diary.  The appalling statement that I've used for the title is a-ways down.  It's taken me nearly six years to write about the incident in which I heard it, and I suppose even after putting it in the title it took me awhile to get around to describing it now.

I fell in love with West Virginia when I was six years old.  It happened on the first family vacation I have any memory of, a trip with my mother and father to Blackwater Falls State Park.  Staring down into a four-hundred foot deep canyon I felt a sense of awe and wonder I'd never felt before.  And I was filled with a sense of pride that this natural beauty was a part of West Virginia--a part of my home.

I love the people, too.  I can't point to a specific moment when that love affair started, perhaps because I was surrounded by the love of so many West Virginians before I even had any memories to speak of.  No place I've ever been has ever made me personally feel more welcome, more cared for, more appreciated or more at home.