Back in New Haven for the year, and ready to bring some light and some truth to the Yale Corporation. Two and a half days until the strike deadline, and there's little in the way of signs of movement on Yale's end. Tomorrow morning at 10:30 will be a press conference calling on Yale to settle or submit to binding arbitration to avert a strike; it'll be headlined by Connecticut's own Joe Lieberman. I've never wasted many kind words on Joe Lieberman - I think his political record overall demonstrates a lack of courage masked in the rhetoric of bipartisanship and a disturbing conservatism masquerading as "moral clarity." One of my first posts on this site was a somewhat rambling but earnest criticism of Joe as he prepared to announce his candidacy for President of the United States. One of hte few virtues of a (happily, quite unlikely) Lieberman primary win would be a tremendous organizing spike for the Green party; it would, however, represent the final kiss and death for the Democratic party's organizing among its base (read: everyone to the left of the DLC), which - as much as some posts here might suggest otherwise - is not something I want to see. All of that said, it should be noted to Lieberman's credit that while he pursues an agenda in Congress generally deaf to the interests of the American people - including those of us in the Connecticut - he's frequently lended his symbolic support to much more progressive initiatives here on the local level. Damning by faint praise? Yes (also damning by harsh but deserved criticism). But Lieberman's support for David Lee's Yale Corporation candidacy, ECCO's sustainable housing work, and organized labor in New Haven - while deeply inadequate on the scale of the damage done by his work on the national level - should be noted among the few progessive moves for which he can be credited. Not coincidentally, these symbolic moves at home cost him very little with his neoconservative/ neoliberal sponsors and supporters on the national level.