John McCain's Missed Vote

He's trying to be the president. He wants us to believe he's decisive, a straight-talker, and a "maverick."

Well, he's not. Despite being in Washington, D.C. on the night of a crucial vote to expand economic aid to working families, seniors, unemployed workers, and veterans, McCain took a pass.

Additionally, the economic stimulus package would have injected large investments into clean energy projects, creating jobs and new possibilities for alternative energy.

McCain stayed home.

In fact he was the only one who stayed home. And like his demand for a 100-year long occupation of Iraq, his failure to vote on this last night shows where he really is in terms of what working families need and want.

According to media accounts, the Senate needed a single vote to stop a Republican filibuster and force an up-or-down vote on passage of an economic stimulus package that included investments for alternative energy.

How many times have we heard McCain use the phrase, "let's have an up-or-down vote."

According to the Sierra Club, the missed vote McCain short-changed working families with included a $5.7 billion investment in the following:

1-year extension of the Production Tax Credit--$3 billion

Solar, fuel cell, and micro turbine investment credits--$130 million

Clean Renewable Energy Bonds--$400 million

High-efficiency appliance credits--$323 million

Energy efficiency credits for new homes--$61 million

Energy efficiency credits for home retrofits--$1.5 billion

Energy efficiency credits for commercial buildings--$153 million

When 99 other Senators showed up to vote, John McCain was hiding. Is that what a straight-talker does? A "maverick"?

Good Jobs, Green Jobs, and the Emerging Labor-Green Alliance

We can promote economic growth and job creation even when we call for environmental sustainability. There is a growing alliance between labor and the environmental movement that is popularizing this idea.

One important development in this regard was the Blue-Green Alliance formed last year by the United Steelworkers and the Sierra Club.

According to an AFL-CIO Now post on this alliance, the goals of the coalition are to promote clean, alternative energy to help turn the tide against global warming, to promote fair trade policies that also include environmental protections, and to educate, expose, and reduce the use of toxins in our workplaces, consumer products, and homes.

This type of alliance between labor and the environmental movement is so important. It draws a lot of key issues together: creation of jobs and addressing issues of economic justice, globalization, corporate dominance of political processes, while educating on and advancing policies that promote sustainability.

Another such coalition is the Apollo Alliance, which is leading important efforts to transform our economy into a clean energy one, while creating new jobs and breaking the addiction to oil.

Apollo argues that a new clean economy itself will require the development of whole new industries and new job creation in manufacturing and other basic, union dense industries, or what it calls "green collar jobs." Check it out.

I love it.

--Joel Wendland