First Door on the Left

At a Labor Day extravaganza on St. Paul’s Harriet Island today, a group of Minnesota union activists will celebrate this old-fashioned holiday with music, food and a cast of populist stem-winders including Texas barnstormer Jim Hightower and the political reformer known as Granny D.

But for many Americans, this will be a subdued holiday, a time for staying close to home and counting modest blessings. War and terrorism in far-off places explain much of this somber mood. But for an explanation that lies closer to home, one need look no further than the latest employment data. For today is a Labor Day without labor, celebrated in an economy that cannot seem to create jobs.

During the last two economic rebounds, in 1983 and 1993, Americans became acquainted with the phrase “jobless recovery.” This describes the sensible tendency of employers, in the early months of an expansion, to book new orders and ramp up production before actually putting new employees on the payroll.

But the current expansion defies all precedents. Since the economic recovery started in November 2001, the economy has actually lost 1 million jobs, a development that appears unprecedented. The nation’s unemployment rate, though low by historical measures, is still rising after 20 months of economic growth, another economic anomaly. The average spell of unemployment has reached a 21-year high, and some 2 million Americans have exhausted their government unemployment benefits. The government reported Friday that the economy grew a solid 3.1 percent in the spring quarter, but economists say it must grow much faster to draw down the pool of jobless workers.

Experts say there is some good news buried in these numbers. Steven Cochrane of Economy.com says that employers who invested billions of dollars in computer technology during the 1990s have finally harnessed it in ways that allow them to produce more goods without hiring more workers, a fact that explains the nation’s strong productivity performance in the last three years. Over the long haul, that should bode well for the competitiveness of the American economy.

But another explanation has to do with simple caution: Americans who have endured the terrorist attacks of September 2001, a wave of corporate scandals in 2002 and now a grueling conflict in Iraq are simply not feeling especially bullish. “What you expect in the early stages of an expansion is a growth spurt, where the economy makes up its lost ground,” says University of Minnesota economist Tim Kehoe. “This time we have not had that.”

This has been a good summer for those in a position to take money out of the stock market and for families with children, who got hefty federal tax refunds in recent weeks. But with millions of workers sitting on the economy’s sidelines, this is a Labor Day to be observed rather than celebrated.

Well, anyway, happy Labor Day all! We’ll have to make the best of it for another year or so until we can get the Republicans out of office. And to those of us seeking employment… Good Luck!

Rob Humenik (Get Donkey!) wrote the following in his blog:

The other night at the house party someone (okay this someone) was asking me what it was I liked about Dean. I wanted to deliver a reasoned account of how Dean’s proposals will function for the betterment of the nation, but when it came right down to it, I had to admit the truth — that a lot of my reasons are emotional. Sure, I agree with a majority of Dean’s positions on the issues, but when you boil it down, I just like the guy.

It got me to thinking. You know, a lot of the reasons I like Governor Dean are emotional also. He’s smart and he seems to enjoy what he’s doing. He enjoys people and likes being around them. He listens and he reacts. If you haven’t had the chance to see Howard Dean in action yet, get on over to c-span.org and watch some of the videos, or click on “Howard Dean TV” under Dean Links in the left column (takes a while to load the first time). He just makes me feel good! (Not like I want to throw a shoe through the television screen, which is how I feel every time George W. Bush appears there.)

It’s not all emotion, though. Like Rob, I agree with his positions and I like his ideas. Well, all except one — he thinks the implementation of civil unions should be left up to the individual states; I think it should be federal law. But it’s like he always says, “You may not like where I stand on some of the issues, but you will always know exactly where I stand.”

I believe in Governor Dean, and I believe he is going to be an outstanding President of the United States. He has earned my trust and I plan on backing him all the way.

From “Schwarzenegger Gave Racy Interview in ’77” published by the Washington Post on August 29th:

Today, the campaign director for conservative state Sen. Tom McClintock (R), who is also running in the recall election, declined to comment about Schwarzenegger’s remarks in the adult magazine. “We’re not interested in his secret sex life,” John Feliz said. “What we’re interested in is his secret political views.” Asked if he thought the interview is relevant to the current race, Feliz replied, “I don’t think so.”

Republicans not interested in somebody’s secret sex life? Will somebody please notify Bill Clinton? I think he’d find that most interesting.

Governor Dean writes a letter to Time magazine:

I deeply appreciated your article “The Cool Passion of Dr. Dean,” but I must correct one thing. You said I seem to regard the use of U.S. military power with “a mixture of contempt and suspicion.” I supported American military intervention in the first Gulf War and in Afghanistan, which I considered to be a matter of U.S. national security. I did not back President Bush’s attack on Iraq because I thought that the American people were not being told the truth about the reasons for invading. I do not believe any President should be given blanket authority to invade another nation unless the President sets forth clear and truthful reasons. That does not make me contemptuous of using military power; it makes me a candidate who is more judicious in the use of U.S. military power than President Bush and many of my Democratic competitors.

HOWARD DEAN
South Burlington, Vt.

This cartoon, by Ward Sutton, appears in today’s Village Voice.

If anybody in the cartoon reminds you of yourself, you need to pull yourself together. Now! Please, I’m begging you. We will not survive another four years of George Bush.