Why America hates Unions

Here is the union's response to a group of white officers beating on an old man who was immobilized with his head against a wall:

The head of the New Orleans police union said the officers told him they
had acted appropriately.

"They feel they were justified in their actions and they were using the amount of force necessary to overcome the situation," Lt. David Benelli told WDSU in New Orleans.

Now, I have a Master's Degree in Labor Relations and I once thought Unions were a noble cause. that was until I worked part time at the Post Office. Unions basically seem to exist today to give multi-millionaires bigger salaries and defend racist and incompetent cops. They also defend incompetent employees. I saw it at the Post Office, the only people to need the union were the ones who did the least work and the most bitching.

Unions had their day, but when the Union defends beating an old man without question it proves how truly irrelevant they are to defending the rights of the DECENT working man and woman who don't act inappropriately.

In Other FOotball news

Just got home from Sun Devil stadium where I watched my Ducks defeat the ASU Sun Devils. First game I've seen this year, since I moved from OR to AZ and had to sell all of my tickets.

Terrence Whitehead ends up with the Double Triple (100 yds rushing and 100 yd recieving)...a beautiful night for football in Tempe, even better for those of us in green.

Defense wins football games

My son's flag football team (2-0) was playing another undefeated team today. Most of the game his team was a mess, but with 44 seconds left the game was tied 12-12. My son lines up in linebacker spot and their QB drops back. He throws. Ball goes up, into a group of 4 boys. My son jumps a little bit higher and at full stride he intercepts the ball. He never breaks stride as he alludes the entire team to run 3/4 the length of the field for what turns out to be the game winning touchdown.

Sweet

Al Hamilton...spinning in his grave

I guess Alexander Hamilton never presumed we'd have an utterly shameless president

Alexander Hamilton, Federalist Papers,

"The Appointing Power of the President," No. 76 To what purpose
then require the co-operation of the Senate? I answer, that the necessity of
their concurrence would have a powerful, though, in general, a silent operation.
It would be an excellent check upon a spirit of favoritism in the President, and
would tend greatly to prevent the appointment of unfit characters from State
prejudice, from family connection, from personal attachment, or from a view to
popularity. . . . He would be both ashamed and afraid to bring forward, for the
most distinguished or lucrative stations, candidates who had no other merit than
that of coming from the same State to which he particularly belonged, or of
being in some way or other personally allied to him, or of possessing the
necessary insignificance and pliancy to render them the obsequious instruments
of his pleasure.

Let’s not forget that the Imperial Presidency we see today is not what the framers envisioned. So, Al and his pals would likely be quite shocked at today’s goings on.

This is not so much what we’ve seen in our lifetimes, but remember Congress is designed to be the superior body.
The Senate’s consent is required on major appointments
Congress can remove a President or a Supreme Court Justice, not vice versa
Congress controls the purse
Congress declares war

Congress over the years has allowed the Executive to act in ways not envisioned by the framers and Bush is just the best example of why that’s bad for America.

Those pesky states

I'm making the assumption that the Bushies (who still claim some Conservative street cred despite the fact that they have less Conservativism in them than Barry Goldwater had in his pinkie) , support the Federal Government's dramatic usurpation of state powers to dictate to the people of Oregon on an issue they have TWICE voted for directly. If my assumption is correct, please tell me how that opinion squares with your rantings of about the State's democratic rights about banning gay marriage.

I suppose they are hoping for a little judicial activism here, right. Dictatorship of the judiciary and all that...

Right to Die

"The John Roberts Court will hear its first high-profile
arguments today, when the justices take up a case involving doctor-assisted
suicide. Oregon law allows terminally ill people to take lethal drugs to end
their lives. But the Bush administration has tried to override this law by
threatening to prosecute doctors involved in such cases. The Supreme Court
should make it clear that Oregon can allow doctor-assisted suicide," The New
York Times reports. In Cato's friend of the court brief http://www.cato.org/pubs/legalbriefs/gonzales-oregon.pdf
,
co-author Mark Moller, a Cato senior fellow in constitutional studies, argues
that the federal government must respect the special role of states as
laboratories of experiment in our constitutional framework.

George Will calls out the President on Conservativism

This would appear to be the nail in the coffin that was the Bush Presidency. Will has called out Bush on Conservativism, something I've said for years. Will joins the chorus of other real Conservatives, who still believe in smaller government and state's rights. But will is more mainstream than Pat Buchanan and I think this represents the true end of the President's effectiveness within his own party.

More Proof of the President's Lame Duckness

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9601116/

As I said earlier today after reading George Will call out the President is NOT a Conservative, that this presidency is over.

Connecticut: democracy inaction

Democracy in action. As such those Bushies who keep complaining that the courts should stay out of this and let the legislatures decide will wholly support this:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/?feed=TopNews&article=UPI-1-20051002-11084100-bc-us-gayunions.xml

In today's "GOP without ethics" feature

In today's GOP Lack of Ethics news:

Frist admits his lack of ethics.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/09/26/frist.stocksale.ap/index.html

"I had no information about HCA or its performance that was not publicly
available when I directed the trustees to sell the stock," Frist said, referring
to the sale by administrators of his blind trusts.

For those of you playing at home, if you have a blind trust, you wouldn't even know what was in it, let alone be able to direct the trustees to do anything with it's contents.

And when your brother is the director of the company in question and you sell the stock a couple of weeks before it tanks, along with all of the other insiders (who should probably be investigated to for insider trading), it seems pretty clear that you're a criminal.

But for now, I'll just call him unethical. The criminal charge will come in time, well it would if the Bushies don't make the Feds stop investigating him.

This should make every American sick

How many times do we have to hear this before some people accept that this is systemic and that Rumsfeld should have been fired 2 years ago?

How many times does the Bushies have to hear this before they accept this isn’t just 4 or 5 sick individuals?

How many times does the hypocrisy that we are fighting to save these people from Taliban’s/Saddam’s torture rooms while we have our own torture rooms have to be proven before America wakes the hell up? The Arab world sure as hell sees it.

This should make everyone who loves America and what we used to stand for before Bush came to power sick. Anyone who defends it is no better the Saddam apologists. Torture is torture and it IS worse when America engages in it, especially when we are supposed to be protecting the world from the tortures.

We have met the torturer, and he is us.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1108972,00.html?cnn=yes

Tip of the immoral crooked iceberg

Watergate unfolded slowly too.

Let's hope, for America's sake, this be the removal of the first thread that shows how utterly corrupt this administration and the top of the GOP leadership is? Bush has NO political capital left and just like with Watergate, it could be the Republicans that do the unraveling (Chuck Hagel on line 1).

One hopes that those members of the GOP with Integrity (or at least a will for political survival) will step up and finally admit to what they've seen all along.

The Rovian/Delay model of patronage, bribery, character assignation and incompetence is crumbling, for the sake of America...Cue patriotic theme music (preferably Ray Charles doing America the Beautiful).

Former White House Official Arrested
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed
at 7:24 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A former Bush administration official was arrested
Monday on charges he made false statements and obstructed a federal
investigation into his dealings with lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to court
documents and government officials.

David Safavian, then-chief of staff of the General Services
Administration and a former Abramoff lobbying associate, concealed from federal
investigators that Abramoff was seeking to do business with GSA when Safavian
joined him on a golf trip to Scotland in 2002, according to an FBI affidavit and
the officials.

Old thoughts

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/13/katrina.impact/index.html

I might as well say "I take responsibility". In the real world, if you're responsible for something you suffer the consequences of your failures. Unless Bush resigns or takes a pay cut, his "responsibility" is meaningless.

He expects to get a pass because he SAYS he's responsible, but nothing more.
Accountability, something this WH was going to restore and it's done nothing but hand out medals and contracts to cronies that fail in their duty to America.

If he's responsible...Impeach him. That's RESPONSIBILITY.

Oops...again...again

For a family that keeps telling me how to best live my life and raise my kids, you’d think the progeny of George H.W. Bush would get their own damn house in order before they preach to me about it.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/09/16/jeb.bush.son.arrest.ap/index.html

Are there any of Jeb or George’s kids that HAVEN'T been arrested?

More suffering caused by Bush

So much for helping the poor.

The president’s friends get No bid NO LIMIT contracts for the death and destruction that his incompetence caused and he has the sickening nerve to screw the very people that will do the rebuilding, those that need it most. It’s shameful, especially when you understand that the contracts awarded in this disaster are valued at WHATEVER the contractor bills to the Feds…NO LIMITS. Every dollar saved by under paying workers go right into Dick Cheney’s pocket.

Sickening, but typical for this incompetent lame excuse for a President

09/12/2005Bush Suspends Prevailing-Wage Law in Katrina Zone

The Davis-Bacon Act, which requires federal contractors to pay the prevailing or
average pay in the region, has been suspended in the Hurricane Katrina-damaged
areas of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi by President Bush.
In a
letter to Congress, Bush said he has the power to suspend the law because of the
national emergency caused by the hurricane. "I have found that the conditions
caused by Hurricane Katrina constitute a 'national emergency,' " he wrote.
He went on to justify the decision by claiming that Davis-Bacon--enacted in
1931, amid the Great Depression--increases construction costs. Suspending it, he
said, "will result in greater assistance to these devastated communities and
will permit the employment of thousands of additional individuals."
The
Washington Post reports that Bush's action "infuriated labor leaders and their
Democratic supporters in Congress, who said it will lower wages and make it
harder for union contractors to win bids."
AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney
denounced the Bush announcement as "outrageous."
"Employers are all too
eager to exploit workers," he said. "This is no time to make that easier. What a
double tragedy it would be to allow the destruction of Hurricane Katrina to
depress living standards even further."
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi
noted that the Davis-Bacon Act was signed into law at "a time when scurrilous
employers were taking advantage of the desperation of American workers to care
for their families. At that time, and for more than 70 years since then, the
federal government has demanded that when taxpayer money is spent, workers
should be paid a livable wage.
"But today," she continued, " the Bush
Administration demonstrated the latest example of its anti-worker agenda, with
an executive order rescinding the requirements of the Davis-Bacon Act for areas
hit by Hurricane Katrina. That means that as workers return to their lives and
livelihoods on the Gulf Coast, the Bush Administration wants to use federal
money to exploit them by paying less than the prevailing
wage."

Arizona violating anti-immigrant law by helping Katrina victims...oops

A lesson in why representative democracy may be better than every Tom, Dick and Harry with a bankroll and an agenda writing laws.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/columns/articles/0912ruelas12.html

Last week, the state of Arizona started giving out welfare money to people who
can't prove their citizenship. It was a show of goodwill to victims of Hurricane
Katrina. It's also a clear violation of a recently passed state
law.

...

Unfortunately, under the new state law, that is not good
enough. Meaning a portion of the aid being distributed is technically illegal.
The state employees could be found guilty of misdemeanors. Someone could halt
the state's "Operation Good Neighbor" by filing a civil court case.

...

The law is clear. Each state agency or local government must verify the identity and immigration status of everyone who applies for benefits. The law also states it "shall be enforced without regard to race, religion, gender, ethnicity or national origin."There is no provision for emergencies. There is no provision for compassion.

Disgusting

Bush cuts money to prevent the tragedy, more people die because of his inaction, yet his friends still get rich. He’s like Richard Daly, without the competence, but with dictatorial powers.

Makes me sick.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9282533/

Entourage

In case you still didn't know. Entourage is the best show on TV, hopefully you caught it before the season finale, but I'm sure HBO will be bringing out the DVDs soon.

Ari Gold is the best character in years.

So, "Let's hug it out, bitch"

COWARD

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9247775/

He can’t even keep his promises or stand up for what he believes in. Typical unprincipled GOP pantywaist.

With regard to "God's Wrath" or the hypocrisy and blashamy of the "Christian Right"

I know everyone has read about last week that the anti-abortion group Columbia Christians for Life claimed that Katrina is God's punishment for America's tolerance of abortion rights as well as the general sinful nature of the people of New Orleans. So, a question for the religious folks.

If Christ died for our sins, why did these people die for other people's sins? Did Christ die for the sins of a select few? Or are the dead in NO, who died for the sins of others, martyrs or messiahs?




And I’ll pose another question.

If you say that God is killing people for their sins, or in an entirely different scenario, the sins of others…and God being omnipotent would know that innocent people would die if he sent a hurricane, doesn’t that pretty much show a complete disavowal of Christianity in general.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t pretty much the main part of the New Testament (which makes Christians Christians) that a)God gave his only begotten son and b)that son died for our sins. To say that God is killing people for their sins pretty much denies that Christ died for them, no?

A friend of mine recently made the point earlier that the god who destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, was replaced in the NT, by the aforementioned (John 3:16). Couldn’t it be said that the people who made these statements don’t believe in the NT and therefore, can’t be called “Christians”?

New Orleans

Haven't blogged on this, but I've sent a bunch of emails to friends. Don't really have much to add that hasn't been said. Bush failures, complete disconnect from reality (especially the reality of poverty in America...see his mother comments on how the people in the Astrodome are really better off now anyway), the Far Right's wrath of God crap. (if Jesus died for our sins why would God kill innocent people for the sins of others? Would that not make them like Jesus?).

On and on it goes.

But the Daily Show nailed it tonight when Ed Helms "reported" that Bush planed to build a dam in Arkansas so that "we could fight the flood waters over there, rather than over here". Summing up brilliantly the disaster that is the Bush administration and it's unexperienced political cronies that get rewarded with FEMA jobs for being a good fundraiser.

despicable.