Absolutely, those who want to work can always find it. I guess it depends on the desperation as the unemployment rates continue to climb even with the current methodology
of deciding who is and who is not unemployed.  Maybe the Wal-Mart executives will succeed and the attempt to manipulate the vote, not for a union, but for who will occupy the Oval Office will succeed. Who can tell if you're desperate enough for employment if you'll be willing to mark a ballot at your employer's direction to keep your job. Or better still as unemployment continues to rise the recruiters will be so successful McCain will no long feel there is a need for a draft.

And Santa Claus will arrive on time, no one will get lumps of coal in their stockings and the Easter Bunny will lay huge chocolate eggs for all. The dual deficit will disappear,
China will quit supplying Wal-Mart with cheap goods, actually with the shut downs of traffic and manufacturing in China to clean up the air for the Olympics there is that possibility, but I have no doubt the Iraqi government is going to take all that oil surplus and pay for their own reconstruction, we'll all have two chickens in the pot and all
will be peaceful around the planet as we live happily ever after.

Ever worked part-time  for minimum wage Gojira to try to feed a family? Let me know when you've had that experience. 

Anyone can join a union if they wish, so I don't quite understand your "a few union members get to benefit" comment. Every worker benefits from union activities, and the proposals mentioned are designed to protect workers, regardless of what Wal-Mart says to scare its employees.

When Matthiessen took his Himalaya trek, recreated in The Snow Leopard, he secretly hoped that a "great clarity" would emerge from his ordeal in the snowy mountains. A disciple of Zen Buddhism since 1970 when his wife introduced him to meditation, he plunged more deeply into Zen after her death. This moving, highly personal story attempts to convey the essence of the Zen experience as the journal shuttles between an account of modern Zen masters in America, details of the Buddha's life, lyrical introspection and poetic recollections of Nepal, Tibet, India and Japan. Matthiessen excells at detailed descriptions of inner mental states ("In zazen, one is one's present self, what one was, and what one will be, all at once"). Zen helps him to live in the present, unencumbered by regret of the past or daydreams of the future, and this intensely felt journal communicates his faith. The log concludes with Matthiessen's 1982 pilgrimage to Japan to visit his 75-year-old former teacher.

http://www.amazon.com/Nine-Headed-Dragon-River-1969-1982-Shambhala/dp/1570623678/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1219185367&sr=1-1

Nor me. It has been the more than standard excuse of the corporate state for as long as I can remember. Gojira, recommend some U.S. History to go along with the economics courses. One based on the many improvements that all U.S. workers enjoy today based on the ability to organize. 

I'm not going to suggest that some of the huge U.S. unions do not have corrupt leadership.
They do. But one of the best IMHO who look after workers such as Wal-Mart employees is
United Food and Commercial Workers.  I'm not enthralled with flying on non-union airlines, but
today with the whole lot of majors with the exception of non-union Southwest are outsourcing
their maintenance to locations in S. America and China, in that case it makes little difference.     

I'd stretch it to "anyone interested in social justice", but that's just me.

Anyone, unless you are on the board of directors of some big company.

Finished up this book about a month or so ago. It's about a young man who drops out of the Berklee college of music to go study Buddhism in Tibet. I don't want to give away what he discovers, as that's what gives the book a bit of its humor, but it was definitely a good read. I myself cannot get away from reading non-fiction books about experiences in Buddhist temples. Good stuff.

Indeed. Does that excuse US aggression?

This is one of the best reasons for voting Obama that I have heard (that is not sarcasm BTW).

What does George Bush's & Al Gore's SAT scores (particularly when Gore's exceed Bush's per your own source) have to do with John McCain and George Bush? Talk about reaching. 



Nobody's "calling" Bush stupid. Bush is stupid. That is a plain indisputable fact. Just like the fact that Bush was a failure as a student, a failure as a businessman, and a failure as president. Those aren't "opinions". Those are facts supported by plenty of evidence. And I know he's "fine" with that, which is possibly the most disturbing fact of all.

1. Last year, the Naval Academy had 12,003 applicants for the freshman class that just entered. Of those, only 1,202 were admitted. Of those, better than 84% scored greater than 600 in Math and more than 70% score better than 600 in English on the SAT. After making that cut, they were evaluated by committees from their respective Congressmen and Senator's offices before they were offered appointments to Annapolis.

2. And the really cool part of the information above is that the process has been the same for over a hundred years. The place only takes the best of the best students in the country to begin with.

And while it doesn't hurt that McCain's father and grandfather were also grads, he still had to meet the same minimums for admissions.

2. A typical semester at the Naval Academy consists of no less than 22 Hours. My freshman year consisted of 25 and 24 hours for the first and second semesters. And at the end of the class day, all students, every last one of them, is required to participate in an intramural or intercollegiate sport. On top of that, there are the military duties such as standing uniform inspections, standing watch at all night to ensure no fires breakout or no terrorists attack the dorm, and marching in parades for tourists who visit the school. That's a busy day, even before the military stuff is included.

During the summers, Midshipmen go to sea with the Navy and the Marine Corps, not home on vacation.

3. Bill Gates, creator of Microsoft, never finished college. Albert Einstein failed high school math. Booker T. Washington was self-taught as was Benjamin Banneker. I finished 901st out of 1150 in my Class at the Naval Academy but first in my graduate school class at the University of Texas.

http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/BDEDE2FD-B26C-4161-9232-8B80274B433E/

But morality is morality.