About Berry Craig

Berry Craig is a professor of history at the West Kentucky Community and Technical College in Paducah and a freelance writer. He is a member of American Federation of Teachers Local 1360, the recording secretary for the Western Kentucky Area Council, AFL-CIO, and the author of True Tales of Old-Time Kentucky Politics: Bombast, Bourbon and Burgoo. He is a native of Mayfield, Ky., where he lives with his wife of 31 years and their teenage son

There You Go Again, Mr. Romney

romney foot in mouth

t least Mitt Romney is consistent about unions. He keeps on fibbing about them.Recently, the presumptive Republican president nominee promised to “stop the unfairness of requiring union workers to contribute to politicians not of their choosing.”Federal law prohibits involuntary political contributions from union members.On his official campaign website, Romney says President … [Read more...]

The “Flim Flam Man” Fibs Again

mitt and the middle cloass

itt Romney told another whopper about unions the other night.“We will stop the unfairness of requiring union workers to contribute to politicians not of their choosing,” he said.Involuntary political contributions from union members are illegal.If union officials made rank-and-filers give money to candidates they didn’t support, “they'd be thrown in jail," said Bill Londrigan, … [Read more...]

Naturally, “Motor City Madman” Ted Nugent Dodged the Draft

ted nugent

luegrass State Mineworker Joe Holland risked – and almost lost – his life for his country in Vietnam.So he wants fellow vets to send a message to Ted Nugent.“Put a lid on it,” says Holland, the Owensboro, Ky.-based AFL-CIO Southern field representative.Holland has packed a United Mine Workers of America union card for most of his 62 years. He’s voting for President Obama … [Read more...]

Spare Me the Self-Righteousness

obama enters south portico

redictably, the Republicans are in high dudgeon over President Obama’s recent musings about the Supreme Court.Nixing his health care reform law would amount to “unprecedented, extraordinary” judicial activism, Obama suggested.Right on cue, GOP grandees chorused that the president was “threatening,” “intimidating” and “bullying” the Republican-majority high court.Of … [Read more...]

It’s Still the Economy, Stupid

obama masterlock

t was the most controversial legislation the Democratic-majority Congress approved during the Democratic president’s first term.Conservative Republicans slammed it as “socialism.”They claimed the measure was a dire threat to the free market.Almost two years after it passed, the act ended up in a conservative-tilting Supreme Court.The year was 1935. The legislation facing the … [Read more...]

Trim the Fringe and There’s No GOP Left

obama's plan white slavery

ome of my fellow lefties think the Republicans have gone so crazily right wing they are bound to lose the presidential election and maybe the House to boot.These lefties predict that when the electoral train wreck happens on November 6, the Republican “establishment” will finally rise up, exile the tea party “fringe” and steer the GOP back toward the political center.This … [Read more...]

Nobody Really Cares About What You Write Except Other Nuts Like You

bad boy bully

I’ve just finished my survey of bloggers.Okay, it's unscientific. But based on my tally, lefty and middle-of-the-road bloggers seem more likely to sign what they write than righty bloggers do.Anyway, I can’t imagine anybody not signing what he or she writes. Part of it is my ego.I’m an ex-daily newspaper columnist. Even at age 62, I still get a kick out of seeing my byline and my … [Read more...]

Neo-Confederates and the Rebel Flag: ‘Sic Semper Tyrannis’

red flag truck

The guy with the skinhead haircut was wearing a biker-style blue jean vest emblazoned on the back with a big Rebel flag patch and another patch that said “Sic Semper Tyrannis,” Latin for “Thus Always to Tyrants.”“Sic Semper Tyrannis” is the motto of Virginia, where Richmond doubled as the capital of the Old Dominion and the new Confederacy during the Civil War. “Sic Semper … [Read more...]

Chris and David: Do Your Homework

david-corn

I'm a big fan of Hardball host Chris Matthews and his frequent guest, David Corn of Mother Jones magazine.But these guys need to do their homework on Rick Santorum. On a recent show, they talked like Romney’s anti-union and Santorum's not.“I don’t think he’s known as anti-labor, though, at all,” Matthews said of Santorum. “No, no, Rick Santorum is not,” Corn added.Come on … [Read more...]

Senator Santorum, You’re No Thad Stevens

thaddeus stevens

Rep. Thaddeus Stevens, the famous Radical Republican, must be spinning in his grave.He was from Pennsylvania, home state of Rick Santorum, the latest leading anti-Romney in the race for the GOP presidential nomination.Stevens asked to be interred in Shreiner-Concord Cemetery in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, because it did not bar African Americans burials.His epitaph reads: "…I have … [Read more...]

Mocking the Mockery

stephen colbert

I just did a Google search for “prima donna” halfway expecting to find “Chuck Todd” as a synonym for the term.Definition two was close: “A very temperamental person with an inflated view of their [sic] own talent or importance.”Todd is an NBC TV celebrity news hound. He is in high dudgeon over popular TV comic Stephen Colbert’s fake run for president.“He is making a … [Read more...]

‘…Thou Shalt Not Be as the Hypocrites Are’

tebowing

We'll have to wait until next year to find out if a Tim Tebow Super Bowl win will inspire some evangelical Christians to torch Muslim houses of worship and make other mischief in the name of the Prince of Peace.Tebow, a hero -- and martyr -- to a multitude of Christian conservatives, quarterbacked the Denver Broncos to a 45-10 playoff loss to the New England Patriots Saturday night.To be … [Read more...]

Santorum Loves Unions — in Iran

rick santorum

“I believe in the American worker,” says Rick Santorum, the new anti-Romney in the food fight for the GOP presidential nomination.A hero of social conservatives, Santorum claims he’s a blue collar sort of guy, too. The ex-senator and congressman from Pennsylvania promises he can make factories boom again.Santorum says he has a plan that “frees business from the constraints of … [Read more...]

“Facts Are Stupid Things”

rick perry as fdr

Liberal hearts beat with joy when one of these gaffe-a-minute Republican presidential candidates flubs up again.Rick Perry popped his cowboy boot in his mouth anew the other night.The uber-conservative Texas governor is for building (doubtless non-union as much as possible) that oil pipeline from Canada to the U.S. “Every barrel of oil that comes out of those sands in Canada is a barrel … [Read more...]

‘Right to Work Is a Cancerous Ideology’

stillwell

GOP leaders in the Republican-majority Indiana General Assembly say passing a right to work law is their top priority in the 2012 session.Unions call “right to work” the “right to work for less.”“Right to work is a cancerous ideology,” longtime Hoosier labor leader Russ Stilwell warned the recent 29th biennial convention of the Kentucky State AFL-CIO in Louisville.Stilwell, … [Read more...]