Obama's Great Pick for Labor Secretary -- Hilda Solis

I applaud Solis' appointment. But was it too much to ask to appoint an environmentalist as Interior Secretary?

Instead, we get 'Slash and Burn Salazar'. Feh.

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Don't count your chickens before they hatch. I'll grant the Obama egg hatched despite my dire predictions, but that doesn't mean this one will. Republicans may block her nomination, they are evil enough to assassinate her or given the way Obama has been behaving lately, a true progressive, liberal may not be in his plans and he may rescind this nomination. I wouldn't even put it beyond one of his regressive nominations to flip out and assassinate Solis. Or we may see another progressive, very liberal politician completely muzzled and put in a cage, only allowed out for show and tell every six months or so.

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...let's hope that Obama doesn't marginalize her the way the Clinton did to Robert Reich.

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Leiberman, Ray Lahood, Rich Warren, FISA, keeping Bush's tax cuts for the rich, prop. 8, and Solis.

right wing 6
left wing 1

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I hope Sec Solis moves quickly on OSHA revitalization. Since it's birth about 38 years ago the agency has struggled. In recent years it has become an international embarassment.

Not only do we need a new OSHA head asap we need revisions to the law and funding that allows us to protect the health and safety of American workers- the so called "forgotten environment"

See Jordan Barab's blog called Confined Spaces and the paper by Dr.Mike Silverstein entitled Getting Home Safe and Sound: Occupational Safety
Health Administration at 38

Dr. Rick Lippin
Southampton,Pa

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I just the eager cheerfulness of this Huffington Post pom-pom article about Barack Obama. How difficult it must be for the Gotta Vote Democrat crowd. Let's see now? The Democratic Party has just worked with the Republicans to give the super rich and their corporate world all sorts of public monies and we're supposed to buy this stuff about 'Green jobs' supposedly on the way to creation? The Democratic Party is doing almost the exact same things as the Republican Party has been doing for 8 years working together with their friends in the Democratic Party, and the great majority of the liberals have silenced their voices. Sick!

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Rep. Solis will be coming to the cabinet at a difficult time for American workers.

As an energetic progressive from Los Angelos, of course she has been supported by La Raza and other groups who really favor increased immigration or even open borders. Just a year ago, one could argue that there were jobs Americans wouldn't do, but our labor landscape is changing radically.

Rep. Solis voted with the majority of House Democrats to put undocumented workers on a path to citizenship, which would subsequently enable them to bring in parents, minor children, including teens about to hit the labor market, and the worker's brothers and sisters. (There was a motion to limit the relatives to parents and minor children, but Rep. Solis and Sen. Clinton are in favor of reunification- the right to bring in all relatives.)

I hope that politicians soberly think about the consequences of these bills, rather than just feeling progressive.

Older Americans, who may have invested in green start-ups, or stem cell companies, have seen their investments not just down, but gone.
Good little green start-ups have already gone out of business with the credit crunch.
Broke elder hippies and activists, some of whom workded at non-profits,are now joining the throng of layed off, downsized, and de-pensioned retirees looking for work.

Our soldiers and guardsmen will be returning from Iraq, trying to get back to normal life, and hoping to work despite PTSD for some.

In a just world, seeing the sociopathic Madoff who stole 50 billion could cause some states to reconsider jailing two bit petty non- violent prisoners, partially to redirect the grotesque expense of incarceration to social services. So more ex cons will desparately need work, even as they do now.

Obama has voiced his concern to put rural Americans to work, and is not just seeking to favor regions that voted for him.

A just Labor Dept. under Solis may need to disappoint some progressives in order to ensure that American workers, even those who have been unemployed for various reasons, can find the jobs they need. I think that she can rise to the occasion, sort of like Earl Warren, in fact.

The Secretary needs to support E verify, which would have companies check for documentation or be fired if they hire the undocumented.

She also has to get back to the Open Borders supporters to explain why this is a poor time to increase our workforce.

Hopefully, her cabinet position will give her the opportunity of brainstorming about better ways to support the welfare of residents of developing nations.

She will be a good voice on how trade pacts such as NAFTA and CAFTA affect workers. Perhaps universal school luch could be factored in to future trade pacts.

A international school lunch program is just one way to ensure that children eat, that is easier for the US to afford than housing, educational, and healthcare at US prices for arriving immigrants.

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There's the
light of
a delicate child
in the country,
near a grand
piano; I wait for
the side of
a weeping, and
I love you,
my care, while
the plain disappears...

Francesco Sinibaldi

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