About 10 days ago, the AFL-CIO called for 1000 union volunteers to go help with the Katrina clean-up. I put my name in and was told they would get back to me.

A few days later the announcement mysteriously disappeared from the AFL-CIO website and I have heard nothing further.

Camus once said we must be neither “victims nor executioners”. Good advice, but what does it mean when peoples become both victims and executioners?

What happens to them when they are unable to free themselves from that deadly trap?

"Some will rob you with a six-gun… and some with a fountain pen.” — Woody Guthrie

As the reports of the armed looters came over the Internet, I was immediately reminded of Woody Guthrie’s raspy voice and his unamplified guitar. Has anything really changed since Woody gave voice to the anger and despair of the Depression Era working class?

Lately there has been a lot of talk about “knowledge workers” and the “New Economy”. When I was at the University of Maryland, I trained to be a high school teacher. I ended up doing that along with a variety of other jobs. Now I am a knowledge worker, or more accurately, a member of the digital proletariat.

There is a movement afoot here in the USA to have a BUYCott of CITGO, which is owned by the Venezuela national oil company. Buy gas at CITGO and help finance the revolution in Venezuela.

+++++++<<<<<<<<<0>>>>>>>>>---------------