Your Abbreviated Pundit Round-up
Daily Kos — Wednesday is a good day to abbreviate. Thomas Frank: It is possible, I suppose, that the pundits are right and the public didn't really mean it when it elected a liberal Democrat president and gave Democrats even larger majorities in both houses of Congress. Maybe America really wants the same nice, reassuring, centrist thing as always. But it is also possible that, for once, the public weighed the big issues and gave a clear verdict on the great economic questions of the last few decades. It is likely that we really do want ...

A Worldwide Contraction Featuring Concerts In Romania And A Republican Drive To Sell GM To China
DownWithTyranny! — ... This morning Thomas Frank writes in the Wall Street Journal that ex-Home Depot CEO Bernie Marcus, another Romney type cancer on society, was moaning that "This is the demise of civilization," this being working men and women wanting to get a fair share of the benefits of their labor. And Bernie knows just what the elite must do about it. ...

Proper News
N/A — ... State of the Union? “Near the top of labor’s agenda is the Employee Free Choice Act, a.k.a. “card check,” the legislation that will make it easier for workers to form a union by signing cards instead of by secret ballot in the workplace.” You know things are bad for unions when “card check” is the rallying point of owners and capital. Employers are so very concerned  that employees will no longer have the freedom to be intimidated in the workplace as they were when they voted by secret ballot in that neutral ...

Home Depot Founder: Non-GOP Donors 'Should Be Shot'
Politics Daily — ... Bernie Marcus, one of the founders of Home Depot, has the blogosphere all atwitter over remarks he made on a conference call Monday. From Tom Frank of The Wall Street Journal: ...

Home Depot Founder: Retailers Supporting The Free Choice Act ‘Should Be Shot’
Wonk Room — ... — “it is likely that we really do want universal health care and some measure of wealth-spreading, and even would like to see it become easier to organize a union in the workplace.” ...

When Conservatives are down, all they have to say is "Card Check"
Crooks and Liars — ... new meme being passed around. But it's a serious one that we should not dismiss out of hand. They are laying the groundwork for average Americans who don't understand what the unions are doing, and will be offended by the "card check" plan for no reason at all other than what they've heard repeatedly on wingnut radio. Digby calls it "Pavlovian talk radio conditioning." Ted Stevens loses his seat in Alaska? No problem, just yell "Card Check!" Thomas Frank spells it out for us: It's Time to Give Voters the Liberalism ...

Card Check. What’s it all about, Alfie?
The Moderate Voice — ... is not sarcasm. I come from a union family and was, for a time, a member of the I.B.E.W. after leaving the military. I’m also well versed in the early history of unions and the important role they played in America.) But the Card Check argument simply didn’t make sense to me, so I decided to look around for some explanation as to why it was a good idea. Today, it seems I found one, though the “good” part may be held in reserve. In response to a recent piece in the Wall Street Journal, Digby attempts to offer some analysis in “ ...

Candy Everybody Wants
Fraters Libertas — Thomas Franks (the Nick Coleman of the Wall Street Journal) thinks it's time to give voters the big government liberalism they want : But it is also possible that, for once, the public weighed the big issues and gave a clear verdict on the great economic questions of the last few decades. It is likely that we really do want universal health care and some measure of wealth-spreading, and even would like to see it become easier to organize a union in the workplace, however misguided such ideas may seem to the nation's institutions of higher carping. How did he arrive at this ...

Voters Want Liberalism
Suburban Guerrilla — Thomas Frank: It is possible, I suppose, that the pundits are right and the public didn’t really mean it when it elected a liberal Democrat president and gave Democrats even larger majorities in both houses of Congress. Maybe America really wants the same nice, reassuring, centrist thing as always. But it is also possible that, for once, the public weighed the big issues and gave a clear verdict on the great economic questions of the last few decades. It is likely that we really do want universal health care and some measure of ...

Now we get liberalism "until it comes out of our nostrils"
RedState: Conservative News and Community — ... Based upon the results of the 2008 election, it appears that a (somewhat thin) majority of the Israelites American people have forgotten that much of the last eight years (at least until the past six months) has been fairly positive, but they are now clamoring for meat liberalism. I was struck with this parallel when I read an article by Thomas Frank titled "It's Time to Give Voters the Liberalism They Want". Really? I think perhaps that was pretty much what God thought about the Israelites. ...

It's only words
Newshoggers.com — ... the elite media has been pushing the "America is a center-right country" meme relatively unfettered by reality. The only notable exception I've seen is article in the WSJ of all places, admitting that the election did carry a mandate for liberalism. ...

ZP Heller: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About EFCA (But Were Afraid To Ask)
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com — ... about Employee Free Choice, Home Depot's founder and former CEO Bernie Marcus is saying that CEOs who don't contribute to Republicans opposed to Employee Free Choice "should be shot."  And let's not forget the always loathsome Lee Scott, Wal-Mart's outgoing CEO who will still make $1.1 million a year as a " ...

Wal-Mart Gets a Makeover So It Can Fight Economic Recovery
Firedoglake — ... alleging that Wal-Mart told its employees to vote against Democrats such as now President-elect Barack Obama because of their support of the Employee Free Choice Act.  And current Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott told reporters this fall why he's against the Employee Free Choice Act.  From the WSJ: ...

Seventy-Eight Percent of Public Support Employee Free Choice Act
Firedoglake — ... As opponents see their cash spiraling down the drain, the desperation of their rhetoric ratchets up. Former Home Depot CEO Bernie Marcus described the Employee Free Choice Act as follows: ...

Gerald McEntee: The Big Lie about the Employee Free Choice Act
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com — ... in 2007 - is one of the few CEOs to tell the truth about his motives. He admits that the secret ballot canard isn't the real reason he's fighting to kill the bill. "We like driving the car," he said, "and we're not going to give the steering wheel to anybody but us." ...

Robert S. Eshelman: The Secret War Against American Workers
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com — ... (EFCA), whose passage in Congress is a central demand of organized labor, offers a glimpse of how persistently companies seek to disadvantage their workers. EFCA would allow workers to form a union when a majority of them sign union cards in a given workplace. "Card check," as it is frequently called, enables them to organize unions without the need for an election. In a November column surveying the business elite's response to the Act, Wall Street Journal op-ed columnist Thomas Frank wrote: "Card check is about power. Management has it, workers ...

This Is Why We Need the Employee Free Choice Act
Comments from Left Field — ... (EFCA), whose passage in Congress is a central demand of organized labor, offers a glimpse of how persistently companies seek to disadvantage their workers. EFCA would allow workers to form a union when a majority of them sign union cards in a given workplace. “Card check,” as it is frequently called, enables them to organize unions without the need for an election. In a November column surveying the business elite’s response to the Act, Wall Street Journal op-ed columnist Thomas Frank wrote: “Card check is about power. ...