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[Graphic: Labor Day Parade, Union Square, New York, 1882 (source: Wikipedia)]

We are celebrating [sic] this weekend an especially poignant Labor Day, given the many attacks from the Tea Party, the GOP, and our own Democratic administration on the rights of American workers. The most egregious insults to American workers in the past few weeks have come from Alan K. Simpson, an aging, former Republican senator from Wyoming, who cannot keep either of his silver feet (to paraphrase the late Ann Richards) out of either side of his mouth.

Simpson is quite horrified that more older women and vets have not died sooner rather than later, but are still alive — and as he says — adding to the deficit. Of course, Simpson lied about Social Security recipients having any impact on the deficit, since Social Security does not add to the deficit, but is self-funded, except for those portions of much higher income that are exempt for people like Simpson, who will never need the very bare-bones minimum that our present Social Security benefits provide.

Earlier on, we had Robert Gibbs castigating what he calls the “professional left"— most of whom are truly volunteers— for their extreme positions, merely because we/they object to seeing the entire social contract and set of safety nets being demolished by a Democratic president who campaigned for a very long time against bad faith of that sort, but is now unwilling to lift a finger to keep any of those important campaign promises.

And we learned this week, that Rahm Emanuel said “F**k the UAW,” and now our own emptywheel is calling the Cadillac tax on premium health care policies, that were most often won in lieu of increased wages, the “F**k the UAW” Tax, a fitting epithet by any reasonable standards.

We shall all be interested to see how VoteVets.org decides to proceed further against Simpson, who, apparently, like many of his fellow Republicans, pays mere lip service to the armed forces. But, when push comes to shove — meaning that money is involved — Simpson, among others, would prefer that our veterans, as well as older women, all of whom live far too long, simply die or take a more manly way out, in order not to add anything to the deficit, despite the fact that Social Security does not add to the deficit. Rather, Social Security funds are far more likely to be used as a slush fund for other expenses, when it suits the congress or whatever administration is currently occupying the oval office. Bail-outs with retirement funds should be an impossibility, but they are not, apparently, in these unsettling times.

We have an administration that appears to be following along in the footsteps of the two previous administrations, preferring to balance the budget on the backs of those in need, despite their own complicity in backroom deals with corporate entities who have no over-arching sense of the greater good, and certainly no notion of what it means to be a good citizen.

The White House has already raised a ruckus in FDL’s pages by accepting an apology from Alan Simpson for his remarks about “310 million tits.” However, the person to whom the apology was actually directed had decided not to accept Simpson’s inadequate apology. Whatever happened to protocol and etiquette in the White House? Did George W. Bush really create a new “normal” that the present administration feels obliged to follow? President Obama’s verbal syntax may be better than George Bush’s was, but his White House’s syntax regarding etiquette needs quite a lot of work.

A poignant Labor Day, indeed! The floor is yours…