Open Thread: Show 19
Listen here. Comment below. No lawsuits this time.

Dear Everybody
The following letter was sent by me to hundreds of newspapers and TV stations across the country. It's in response to what went on at the Radio and Television Correspondents' dinner on Wednesday

To The Editors:

On Wednesday, March 25th, George W. Bush attended the annual Radio and Television Correspondents' dinner, where the well-paid, out-of-touch members of Washington society get together to tell themsleves how wonderful they are. Mr. Bush used the occasion to joke about not finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq with a slide show showing pictures of him searching the Oval Office.

It's bad enough that the event itself showcases how incestuous Washington DC has become; the cozy relationship between the media, the politicians, the lobbyists and the corporations they represent. But when a sitting President uses American soldiers as a photo-op and a shield against accountability, and almost in the same breath mocks the very reason they are risking their lives to begin with, is disgraceful. And to have the press, the people who are supposed to keep us informed about what our government and business leaders are doing, laugh along with the joke while those soldiers are still in danger, well, there are no words to express the outrage.

I am not a particularly religious man. I do not believe in supernatural retribution for sins on such a massive scale. But what is happening in Washington simply cannot be allowed to continue. There is a seething anger in this country, an anger almost no one in the Washington establishment is aware of or even cares about, being filled with their own ambitions and unconcerned as they are with the lot of the unwashed masses. It's an anger that's greater than the phony outrages generated by radio talk-show hosts. It's the kind of anger that, once unleashed, cannot be controlled, an anger that makes the kind of history that people will remember for thousands of years.

There is still a chance to prevent this. The American people are a forgiving people, and would be willing to overlook the temporary insanity that has taken control of our political, corporate and media establishments. A good start would be putting an end to these dinners once and for all. But, being caught up as they are in their insulated little world, I doubt they will hear anything we have to say until it's too late.

-Joseph Vecchio

Open Thread: Show 18
Listen here. Comment below. Boo-Yah!

Open Thread: Show 17
Click here to listen. Vent below. Do it, or you'll get rabies.

Radio Show Info
Until yesterday I had no idea of how many people were actually listening to the show. I have a counter on the show's main website (which in truth I use more for storage), but I only average 7 hits a day there. Ben Burch from the White Rose Society, however, provided me with statistics of how many downloads each show was getting, and the results were surprising: Show 15 got 192 downloads, and show 15 got 354 downloads as of March 19. That's a LOT more than I expected! My thanks once again to Ben Burch for keeping my archives! Show 16 has been up for a couple of days, a new show will be out this weekend!

More News On Layoffs
As I mentioned in a recent radio show, my company announced that about 120 people would be laid off by mid-July. At the time of this writing I don't know if I will be one of those laid off, but having had and lost so many jobs before, it simply doesn't bother me any more. I plan on starting a job search immediately so that I can hopefully transition from one job to another without spending any time out of work. If possible, I may even transfer to another city and continue to work at Siemens in a different capacity. If anyone out there knows anyone who has some work for me, e-mail me and we'll talk.

I do want to commend Siemens for their straightforwardness on this issue: they could just have easily have said nothing, but they are taking pains to make sure that people have times to make other plans and are not trying to sugar-coat anything. I think this is partly possible because it's a union shop (even though this, being a "right-to-work" state, makes union support weaker than in other places), and there is a greater sense of unity among workers here than I have seen at other places. We had a very cordial and, I thought, fairly productive meeting with the plant manager dealing with this issue on Friday. Killed about an hour and a half, too :).

Anyway, after the meeting, all of us on the paint line took a break because it was about our break time anyway. Now, while our jobs aren't specifically scheduled to get cut, they are designated as "bumpable" jobs: that is, if someone with more seniority whose job is going away decides that they would rather work on the paint line rather than lose their jobs, they can go work on the paint line and we will be let go. So for us the question is whether or not people want to work on the paint line, it being the most physical job in the entire plant. If you want an idea of how they feel about what my job is, the only other "bumpable" job is the janitor's position.

Now knowing this, and understanding that seniority is the only real measure of whether or not we keep our jobs, my co-worker Dave and I (who pull stuff off of the line) tried to explain to the two guys who hang the parts that it really doesn't matter how hard they work. They can hang ten thousand parts a night or four thousand, when it comes time to determine who stays and who goes, that won't even be taken into consideration. We tell them this because they feel that if they do more work they will be more likely to keep their jobs, and the supervisor uses that to his advantage. We don't want them to be lazy, you understand, we just don't want them getting hurt trying to do too much. According to Dave, that's happened in the past, someone trying to impress the boss hurt his back. Unfortunately, they don't listen to us, and will probably work far harder than they need to. Well, at least we tried.

Open Thread: Show 16
Writer's block is an awful thing, bt at least I can still do the show! Here's your chance to comment!

Hey, It's Sunday
And I'm taking it a little easy today. I was planning on having at least two new posts this weekend but other things intervened. Last weekend I got all of our stuff out of storage, yesterday I began the process of organizing it, plus I had to go out to get my wife's medicine. So once more I apologize for the lack of posts, but it's been such a beautiful weekend here I was glad to get out for a bit.

We got the official notice about layoffs where I work. Anyone who's worked there more than a few days knew the plant was preparing to gear down, move some lines to Mexico and let go about 100 people. My feeling is that they've already decided to close the plant down, however a long-term employee said that this sort of thing has happened before: in tough times the plant specializes, when things pick up they hire more people and expand again. Frankly I've lost so many jobs that I don't even worry any more: if I do get laid off (and it's possible I may not), I'll just head right back to the unemployment office and start over again. If anything, I'll have some more time for the blog and the show.

When they announced the layoffs, some people at the plant got pissed off and left for the day, I don't know why they were so surprised: like I said, we all knew this was coming, and the layoffs don't even begin until the middle of May, so even if they get let go there's still time to find something else. I filled out the application to join the union (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, an AFL-CIO affilliate), and I hope to be a union rep, which means a little more money. They're apparently looking for people with leadership skills, maybe I can even find work within the union itself, time will tell.

In the meantime I hope to have two new shows up next week. I sent an email to the new left-wing radio network plugging the show, maybe they can find a slot for me. Until then I will post when I can.

Open Thread: Show 15
I happen to think it's pretty sad that I'm doing more shows and less posts (at least this week) but that's just me. Please say something this time or I'll feel all bad...

Open Thread: Show 14
After three months, there's finally a new show on the air! Talk about it here, or your eyes'll fall out!