On Tuesday, October 7, 2008 at 5:30 pm Jonathan Hiatt, the General Council for the AFL-CIO will address a small group of labor lawyers, unionists and law students about this critical election and what comes after November 4. Mr Hiatt will discuss topics such as the Employee Free Choice Act, the election, immigration and the Wall Street credit problems.

This event is a great place to mingle with leaders in the field of law, politics and labor. The event which is hosted by Councilwoman Maria Quinones-Sanchez will be in the City Hall Caucus Room, Room #400. Snacks and refreshments will be served. Tickets are $50 but call for low-income and student tickets that as affordable as $20. Space is extremely limited so be sure to reserve your ticket today by calling Fabricio at Jobs with Justice at 215-670-5855. A portion of the proceeds from this event will go to support Jobs with Justice.

At the top of Daily Kos this evening, I was moved to see the diary of a former high school classmate rated at the top of the recommended list. Dante Zappala was an all time great cross-country team participant at Central, two years older than myself.

I'll let Dante explain himself:

I got a late afternoon call to do a segment on Hardball tonight with Chris Matthews. As the brother of a fallen soldier, I speak on behalf of Military Families Speak Out, and when the news cycles are right, when it fits the narrative, we get the make-up and the microphone--for a few fleeting moments, anyway.

The topic was Petraeus, and his admission that he doesn't know if the Iraq war has made us safer. That's not quite sincere, because we know the war has made us less safe. Still, the fact that something close to the truth was spoken on the Senate floor, to a Republican questioner, no less, is the sound bite Matthews ran with.

I wanted to talk about the humanity of this war. My brother died in Iraq. He died looking for WMD. He died because this country capitulated to fear, because the people in power were hell bent on an ideology, because the principles of reason were tossed for negligent policy.

Here is Dante on Hardball:

As I'm sure most of you know, Gen Patraeus gave his assessment of the War in Iraq to Congress today. And while the General seems to be saying that we have "turned the corner" in Iraq, most Americans want to reduce our troop levels or get out of Iraq now. With these very important debates occuring, there couldn't better time for the, Win Without War event, "Exiting Iraq: Military Experts Speak Out". The event is tonight at 7pm on Penn's campus, the full details are below the fold.