(CNN) – A major firefighters union will throw its support behind Barack Obama during its annual convention in Las Vegas on Thursday.
Obama, who is on vacation with his family in Hawaii, taped a message that will be played in front of the 3,500 members of the International Association of Fire Fighters at around 2pm E.T.
The union chose to back Obama over John McCain because of the presumptive Democratic nominee’s support of collective bargaining, which gives workers the right to jointly work with their employers to negotiate hours, salaries, benefits and overall working conditions, IAFF spokesman Scott Treibitz said.
I am a lurker for the last several years here. I have written a half dozen diaries or so, some bad, some ok. I made the rec list once. I have given once to Obama.
Now I just signed up to give monthly to Obama. Probably a little more than I should. I just finally had to.
Providence Mayor David Cicilline recently became a superdelegate after he took over for Mayor Shirley Franklin of Atlanta as head of the National Conference on Democratic Mayors.
Wow talk about infrastructure break down. This is not a national story but it is still so tragic.
At a fatal fire in Gloucester earlier this month, a single ladder operator drove to the blaze alone - a situation that officials there say is common. In the financially troubled town of Randolph, firefighters have been forced to ride alone as well, said Captain Jim Hurley.
And firefighters in other communities say they routinely roll to fires with as few as two people onboard ladder trucks or fire engines, leaving one to go into the burning home alone while the other mans the water pumps outside.
Of course it could be a national story because if ever there was a place for a federal bailout, it would have to be a cash infusion to prevent people from dying in their own homes and protect first responders who already place their life on the line.
"It's dangerous - and not just for my men and women, but for the citizens of the community," said Jack Parow, the fire chief in Chelmsford, where as few as two firefighters regularly report to scenes and where layoffs are looming. "We're going to come to a point where there's literally going to be emergency calls that we can't respond to."
By Tom Leonard in New York
Last Updated: 2:54am GMT 27/11/2007
A scheme to train firefighters in major cities to look out for terrorists has raised fears that their iconic standing in American society could be damaged.
US firefighters being trained to spot terrorists
New York firefighters are being trained to identify suspicious material or behaviour
Unlike police, firemen and paramedics do not need warrants to get into homes and other buildings during technical inspections of emergency facilities, making them particularly useful for spotting signs of terrorist planning.
The Homeland Security Department has been secretly testing a pilot scheme in New York in which firefighters are trained to identify suspicious material or behaviour. If successful, the programme will be extended to other large cities.
Some more border insanity. This time we have to make the border safe from people coming to help in an emergency. From this morning's Globe we have ...U.S. border delay kept fire crew from blaze
The Quebec firefighters were trying to help put out a blaze at a restaurant in the United States. Their nerve-racking delay at the border ignited a furor instead.
Six volunteer firefighters rushing to assist a small-town fire department in upper New York State, part of a long-standing mutual-aid agreement, were held up while being grilled about their identification by a U.S. Customs official this week.
Yeah I know, you're the President and that's what they do in disasters. But you've lost your credibility with us; we're tired of your lies and deceit. We don't need you and the trail of destruction that follows you around. We have enough of our own to worry about.
This is a good day to check in on the lay of the land regarding where unions are going in the Democratic presidential primaries. Today, two important unions are hearing from the Democratic presidential candidates: The Service Employees International Union and the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA).
I want to re-tell a story of someone (related to me) who accomplished not just one, but two heroic acts in life. I hadn't been that comfortable discussing him (other than with close friends) until last year because:
(a) Historically, I've been shy about tooting-the-horn of people in my family, and
(b) As a cousin-once-removed, he is not strongly related to me, plus
(c) I rarely met him (although his policeman brother Dennis I have met from-time-to-time and consider myself closer to) and so he's not that familiar to me, and finally
(d) I suppose, like many of us, I felt awkward about stepping forward in such a politicized atmosphere surrounding 9/11 (plus, I have no idea of this individual's politics).
But in the end, I realize that it was stupid of me to feel that way because - on this day five years later - it's important not to let our opponents claim ownership of 9/11.
The electability of Rudy Giuliani in a general election rests solely on his pimping of 9/11 myth. Anything we can do to pop that bubble, we need to do.
I will promote this film on my show and my blog, and I'll email it around.
Here's a link to my own attempt, albeit juvenile, to puncture the Rudy mystique. It's also available at Brave New Films.
The Dancing Giulianis
Senator Chris Dodd of CT is a serious man who deserves to have Democrats take a serious look at him as their nominee for president. He's been a dedicated progressive for a long time - back when Hillary was a Republican and Edwards was busy making a fortune. And there is momentum building.
The CIA last week released a hitherto classified report about the Agency’s pre-9/11 failures. They fessed up to all their missed opportunities—how they had hundreds of reports that they did not share with the FBI about al Qaeda activities prior to the attack. We can only hope that our various security agencies are working together by now and that if and when there is similar intelligence they will function in a coordinated and effective way.
The East Zone Fire Complex, Cascade Fire Complex, and other large wildfires in Idaho continue to grow unabated despite the efforts of thousands of wildland firefighters and millions of dollars in attempted suppression. These fires are burning in Idaho’s Fire Country: steep, rugged mountainous terrain thick with fire-dependent vegetation where wildland fire rightfully plays its natural role as the "keystone" ecosystem process. In an implicit statement of humility in the face of an awesome display of Nature’s power, fire managers have created a new strategy that essentially ends the long siege in the forests, and wisely implements protective actions at selective sites where human structures and infrastructure are threatened.
This example of Agriculture Dept. incompetency just in from Scott Maben at Huckleberries Online. It's certainly worth watching the video's entire three minutes:
The two lost firefighters were Robert Beddia (left) 53, of Staten Island, a 23 year veteran of the NYFD and Joseph Graffagnino (right) 33, of Brooklyn, who had been with the department for eight years.
It is just so agonizing to think about but these painful 9-11 memories are nothing compared with the torment every member of the NYFD must have gone through yesterday. The SoHo Firehouse they were stationed at, Ladder 5 Engine 24 lost 11 heros on 9-11 and now they have lost two more.
At this time it is unclear how many family members are grieving or where to send direct donations but this webpage with further details will probably update soon.
Or you can call Sheila Pettit at (212) 545-6962 during business hours.
In what can only be described as a case of governmental idiocy at work, and complete lack of common decency, the city officials in Palo Alto, CA denied city firefighters the opportunity to send a fire truck to the funeral of two Contra Costa firefighters who were killed last week while trying to rescue an elderly couple from their burning house.
City Attorney Gary Baum said the union's request was rejected due to liability and safety concerns.
Yet such "concerns" did not prevent nearby cities, and even Los Angeles, from sending units to the funeral.
Thomas over at Blue Indiana has the scoop on underreported story. Last night, the House passed a bill by a 314-97 vote granting public saftey workers the right to unionize.
Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Mich., the bill's author, said firefighters, police officers, corrections officers and emergency medical services workers should be allowed to negotiate for wages, hours and safe conditions.
The bill, which passed 314-97, was backed by every Hoosier House member except Rep. Mike Pence, R-Columbus, who voted against it, and Rep. Julia Carson, D-Indianapolis, who didn't vote.
I don't actually read the New York Times, but my local paper, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune today carried an article by New York Times reporter Marc Santora about the anti-Giuliani video put out by the International Association of Fire Fighters this week entitled: "Rudy Giuliani: Urban Legend". The video was highly critical of Giuliani's failing to properly equip firefighters prior to 9/11 and to shift focus away from recovering remains to cleaning up the site in 9/11's aftermath.
