The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued its much anticipated “Kentucky River Decision” today, and it pretty much went exactly as expected. Voting along party lines, the Republican dominated NLRB gutted long-time federal labor laws by allowing employers to reclassify up to 8 million workers as “supervisors,” thus prohibiting them from forming unions.
That’s right, millions of American workers have just lost their fundamental right to organize. Lost it. Completely. It will now be illegal for them to join unions.
I could spend pages wonkishly boring you with the legal details, but why bother reinventing the wheel when Stephen Colbert has already done such a fine job of summarizing the larger issue?
The labor movement is directly responsible for winning American workers the rights and standards we all enjoy today… you know, little things like a living wage (well, some of us,) workplace safety, the 40-hour work week, um… the weekend. In fact, many historians would argue that the labor movement played a pivotal role in saving our nation from the threat of Communism during the 1930’s — certainly, many Communist historians might argue this, seeing as one of the first thing totalitarian regimes do is ban independent labor unions. (Remember how Solidarity helped bring down the Polish government, and led the way for the rest of the Eastern Block? That’s what they’re afraid of.)
No wonder then that Human Rights Watch lists the US alongside many Third World nations as a violator of basic human rights, due to the degree to which we restrict the freedom of association and the freedom to form unions.
Each year thousands of workers in the United States are spied on, harassed, pressured, threatened, suspended, fired, deported or otherwise victimized by employers in reprisal for their exercise of the right to freedom of association. In the 1950’s, victims numbered in the hundreds each year. In 1969, the number was more than 6,000. By the 1990’s, more than 20,000 workers each year were dismissed or otherwise victims of discrimination serious enough for the government-appointed National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to issue a reinstatement and “back-pay” or other remedial order…
Loophole-ridden laws, paralyzing delays, and feeble enforcement have created a culture of impunity in many areas of U.S. labor law and practice. Employers intent on resisting workers’ self-organization can drag out legal proceedings for years, fearing little more than an order to post a written notice in the workplace promising not to repeat unlawful conduct.
Human Rights Watch found that millions of workers, including farm workers, household domestic workers, and low-level supervisors, were expressly excluded from protection under the law guaranteeing the right of workers to organize. In Washington and North Carolina, Human Rights Watch found evidence of campaigns of intimidation against migrant workers.
Other findings included: one-sided rules for union organizing that unfairly favor employers over workers, allowing such tactics as “captive-audience meetings” where managers predict workplace closures if workers vote for union representation; workers being caught up in a web of labor contracting and subcontracting that effectively denied them the right to organize and bargain with the employers holding the real power over their jobs and working conditions; employers having the legal power to permanently replace workers who exercise the right to strike; and harsh rules against “secondary boycotts” that frustrate worker solidarity efforts.
The Kentucky River Decision is a direct assault on the right to organize that will have an immediate impact on workers nationwide, and will likely lead to disruptive, wildcat strikes. Locally, Virginia Mason has already announced plans to reclassify its 600 registered nurses as “supervisors,” effectively busting the state nurses union. Nationally, as many as 300,000 nurses face a similar fate.
While this is what surely comes from the Republicans’ relentless efforts to permanently tilt the playing field to the advantage of their corporatist sponsors, their primary motivation is actually much simpler.
Democrats, already at a distinct fundraising disadvantage, heavily rely on Labor money to support their issues and candidates. Destroy labor and you defund the Democratic Party. Defund the Democratic Party and you effectively buy yourself a one-party state. To the Republicans on the NLRB, Kentucky River isn’t about workers’ rights, it’s about political domination.
Majorities matter.
Like I said JCH, you would’ve had to servce to know the naval jargon;
Like an “A triple F” nozzle is a called a Donkey Dick by sailors,
a nuclear missle is called a BT or Big Time.
Leaving the rail means the weapon launched successfully.
Bonus question for you: What’s the term used if the missle doesn’t leave the rail successfully and what is the next immediate procedure for a “hot” weapon stuck on the rail.
C’mon, JCH, this is basic “Surface Warfare Officer” stuff. Anyone who stood OOD Officer Of the Deck watch MUST know this information to be qualified to stand OOD watch.
Tick, Tock Pedophile. How long will it take you to surf the web for this answer, since you don’t know from your own military experience.
GO! Times a wastin’!!
I suspect JCH will cut-n-run from this question, since he doesn’t fucking know what to do with a hot weapon on the rail.
Go on Chimp, what is the next immediate action for a hot weapon stuck on the rail?!?!?!?
Truth trap #2 set: will JCH spring it or avoid it with knowledge?
If you haven’t realized it by now, the Repubilcans have waged war on middle class, working American starting with Ronald Reagan.
The Grand Old Pedophiles would like nothing more than to return to yesteryear and the era of Robber Barrons.
In the battle for control of the U.S. Senate, it’s all tied with 49 seats rated as Republican or Leans Republican and 49 seats are rated as Democrat or Leans Democrat (see State-by-State Summary). Only two states remain in the Toss-Up category–New Jersey, and Missouri.
The latest change has come from Tennessee, where Harold Ford’s (D) progress has caused us to change our rating of the contest from “Toss-Up” to “Leans Democrat.” In mid-summer, Ford trailed Republican Bob Corker by a dozen points. Tennessee began the year in the “Leans Republican” column and was just moved to “Toss-Up” status a month ago.
http://www.rasmussenreports.co.....fPower.htm
Forty percent (40%) of Americans approve of the way that George W. Bush is performing his job as President. Fifty-seven (57%) disapprove. These figures include 21% who Strongly Approve of the President’s performance and 43% who Strongly Disapprove.
http://www.rasmussenreports.co.....proval.htm
Just wait until Thursday or Friday, which is the first day that Rasmussen will have post Foley numbers up.
What are you implying, JDB??
That the Republican’s will suffer in the polling!
Yeah, that’ll be great news!
Baaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa
Oh, man, I love watching the wheels come off the Republican NAMBLA bus!!
If anything, the episode reveals the Democrats’ hypocrisy about their own behavior. The fact that Foley resigned virtually within minutes of being told that ABC News had copies of his salacious e-mails and text messages indicates he at least felt shame for his actions. Can the same be said for Democrats?
Sadly, it doesn’t seem so. How else can you explain the following?
• In 1983, then-Democratic Rep. Gerry Studds of Massachusetts was caught in a similar situation. In his case, Studds had sex with a male teenage page — something Foley hasn’t been charged with.
Did Studds express contrition? Resign? Quite the contrary. He rejected Congress’ censure of him and continued to represent his district until his retirement in 1996.
• In 1989, Rep. Barney Frank, also of Massachusetts, admitted he’d lived with Steve Gobie, a male prostitute who ran a gay sex-for-hire ring out of Frank’s apartment. Frank, it was later discovered, used his position to fix 33 parking tickets for Gobie.
What happened to Frank? The House voted 408-18 to reprimand him — a slap on the wrist. Today he’s an honored Democratic member of Congress, much in demand as a speaker and “conscience of the party.”
• In 2001, President Clinton, who had his own intern problem, commuted the prison sentence of Illinois Rep. Mel Reynolds, who had sex with a 16-year-old campaign volunteer and pressured her to lie about it. (Reynolds also was convicted of campaign spending violations.)
You get the idea. Democrats not only seem OK with the kind of behavior for which Foley is charged, but also they protect and excuse it. Only when it’s a Republican do they proclaim themselves shocked — shocked! — when it comes to light.
We have a lot more questions about this whole affair. The timing of the revelations, as we noted, couldn’t be more propitious for the Democrats. Turns out both the Democrats and several newspapers seem to have known about Foley’s problem as far back as November, according to research by several enterprising blogs.
We’re at GOP playbook page 1 boys and girls – blame Dems for the fact that Foley is a hypocrite, pedophile. Won’t work. Polls say it isn’t working. How about just admitting that the GOP new about this, covered it up for political reasons, left the teenage boys in the Page service unprotected, and now got caught. Take your medicine you cunts. You’re gonna loooooose either way.
Hopefully the boys he was chasing were the sons of republicans. Serves em right!
Smoke and fog, smoke and fog.
It’s not about what Foley did.
It’s that the chariman of the House Page Board NEVER EVEN TOLD THE BOARD’S OTHER MEMBERS that he had reports about Foley’s actions. It’s about the House leadership being told about Foley and them NOT INVESTIGATING at all, which would have uncovered his porn IMs, his habit of driving teenage pages around town and out to dinner in his BMW convertible (you know, ALL 52-year-old men do that), the “open secret” of his behavior toward pages that the pages ALL knew, because new ones were told by older ones as they arrived. Should they have talked to a page? Do ya think? Maybe ONE?
It’s about how teh Republicans treat EVERY issue as just somethign to cvampaign on or to suppress for political reasons. No reponsibility to the public who pays their salaries, no concerns about rights, no effort to protect minor pages just beause they deserve protection. Any solution to any problem is one of political spin, not doing a good job.
Throw the bastards out.
7 Leftwing
“Turns out both the Democrats and several newspapers seem to have known about Foley’s problem as far back as November”
Funy,m that’s when the Republican leadership (you know, the guys who RUN the House) found out too. What did they do?
And of course you don’t give us any factual basis for your assertions. You wouldn’t. I’ll tell you ONE Democrat who didn’t know: the Democrat ON THE HOUSE PAGE BOARD. Because Shimkus (only the Board chairman), Haster, Reynolds, et. al. never saw fit to inform the Board that is charged with protecting pages about it.
“according to research by several enterprising blogs”
You mean the comments section at Little Green Footballs, or Free Republic? Maybe you’l like this one from World Net Daily:
“Following the revelations about Florida Rep. Mark Foley’s sexually suggestive e-mails to a 16-year-old congressional page, I have concluded Republicans are unworthy of retaining control of the federal government.“
They did know about it. They just believed that nobody else would find out. If you’ve bothered to even watch the Faux News coverage, you must know that.
That makes you both a liar and a coward, or perhaps just a moron and a coward.
Where will you go when the decent Republicans retake control of their party? I really do believe that there are more decent folks in that party than people like you. It’s a shame that it took something like this to wake them up, but we’re starting to hear more and more voices from within the Republicans that everyone that knew of this should resign. Folks like you have shamed them and they want no more part of you.
But don’t worry, the Phalange will still let you stay. They have no shame, and what’s one more child molester among that bunch, anyway? Keep working on that goose-step, PhalangeFirst. You’ll get it right eventually.
Commentby John Barelli— 10/2/06@ 11:33 pm
==============================================
The article you link quotes the e-mails, not the explicit IM’s. Learn to read, dumbshit.
Nothing makes it ILLEGAL for supervisory employees to join a labor organization. They simply don’t have the protections that are afforded under the National Labor Relations Act.
Leftwing:
Strange how you don’t mention Newt Gingrinch dumping his wife on her hosptial bed as she got treatment for cancer.
Or Henry Hyde’s youthful indiscretion while married when he wsa in his 50s.
And you really should read this:
But the question that will haunt Republicans now is, if the evidence was compelling enough to confront Mr. Foley, why wasn’t it also compelling enough to dig deeper?
. . .
The problem isn’t just that there are a few rotten apples in the Republican Party–every bushel has its share. It’s that Republicans seem comfortable with leaving the bad apples in place, even at the risk of tainting all the others. That Mr. Foley is a Republican isn’t itself the issue. It’s that Republicans were unwilling to take a closer look at something that long ago demanded a much more detailed inspection. If the GOP had uncovered Mr. Foley last year or even this past spring, the party wouldn’t now be facing a full blown sex scandal in October. Heading into this election year, Democrats knew they had a chance to retake the House, if everything broke their way. What no one predicted is that they’d be handed so many breaks by Republicans.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/.....=110009031
And we know that the Republicans did not inform the Democrat on the page board of what Foley did.
What did Hassert and Boehner do when they found out about Foley?
They covered it up because they could not afford to lose an election.
What did a liberal watchdog group do when it found out about Foley?
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a liberal watchdog group, said it asked the FBI to investigate nonexplicit e-mails between Foley and a former page back in July, after a ‘’third party’’ made the e-mails available to the group. CREW asked Monday for the Justice Department’s inspector general to investigate why the FBI didn’t act.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15664713.htm
Yep, so it must be the Democrats’ fault.
Heck, I’m sure the Iraq war is the Democrats fault too.
How the Democrats protect House pages.
When Democrats controled the House what did they do to child molesters? Almost nothing, just a slap on the wrist. Gerry Studds (D-Child Molester)refused to resign, and the Dems refused to kick him out:
========================
The Congressional Page sex scandal was a political scandal in the United States involving members of the United States House of Representatives.
On July 14, 1983, the House Ethics Committee concluded that U.S. Rep. Dan Crane (R-Ill.) and U.S. Rep. Gerry Studds (D-Mass.) had engaged in sexual relationships with minors. The minors in question were 17-year-old congressional pages. In Crane’s case, it was a 1980 relationship with a female page and in Studds’ case, it was a 1973 relationship with a male page. Both representatives immediately pleaded guilty to the charges and the committee decided to simply reprimand the two.
However, U.S. Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) demanded their expulsion. On July 20, the House voted for censure, the first time that censure had been imposed for sexual misconduct. Crane, who tearfully apologized for his transgression, lost his bid for reelection in 1984. Studds, however, refused to apologize (even calling a press conference with the former page, in which both stated that they were consenting adults at the time of the relationship and that it was therefore not the business of others to censure them for their private relationship), and he continued to be reelected until his retirement in 1996. Source:
http://www.answers.com/topic/c.....ex-scandal
amerikkkafirst:
Wow, a 33 old sex scandal is the best you can do?
And did Newt Gingrich demand his own expulsion for dumping his wife while she was on her hospital bed for a young intern?
The Republican Party’s assault on the American working class is shameless in its transparency. Nonetheless, ignoring their own economic interests, working class voters over the last generation have trended more and more Republican. Perhaps as the Republican agenda becomes even more brazen in screwing the working class, such as making organizing unions impossible, we’ll see this trend reverse. At a time when the gap between the income levels of management and labor has become obscene, you’d think we’d get some backlash from the working class. By fucking nurses, an educated group able to push its own interests, the NLRB may have inadvertently done the labor movement a favor.
When Democrats screw pages they brag about it, and Dem leadership backs them up:
========================
Page Program Has Seen Scandal Before
ABC News
Sex scandals on Capitol Hill are nothing new. And if the allegations against Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) prove true, he would not even be the first member of Congress to pursue an inappropriate relationship with a page. In 1983, two lawmakers were censured by the House of Representatives for having sexual relationships with teenage pages. Rep. Dan Crane (R-IL) admitted to sexual relations with a 17-year-old female page, while Rep. Gerry Studds (D-MA) admitted to sexual relations with a 17-year-old male page. The ways each lawmaker handled the scandal — and the consequences they faced afterward — were very different. Crane apologized for his actions, saying, “I’m human” and “I only hope my wife and children will forgive me.” He was subsequently voted out of office in 1984. Studds, who was openly gay, said the relationship was consensual and charged that the investigation by the House Ethics Committee raised fundamental questions of privacy. He won re-election the following year — in a more liberal district than Crane’s — and served in Congress until his retirement in 1996. The scandals had repercussions for congressional pages as well. The Congressional Page Program — which has been around for more than 150 years — was overhauled and a board was created to monitor it. A dormitory for pages was created near the Capitol.
Editor’s Note: And all this proves is that if you are a Republican and honest about your faults you get booted. If you are a defiant liberal Democrat you get to be a victim while staying in office. Too bad Studds wasn’t a KKK member, too. He could have been Speaker of the House!
Source:
http://www.therant.us/current_events.htm
11 americafirst
“The article you link quotes the e-mails, not the explicit IM’s.”
You pasted that from anothre thread, it seems, but I think I know where you’re going. You’re parroting the talking pints about how the leadership saw only those merely “overfriendly” e-mails and not the IMs back in November. Houw could they possibly know that anything else existed?
ABC got the e-mails and within 24 hours had the IMs. They’ve got more today. That’s what happens when someone INVESTIGATES. The House did not. They took the perp’s word on it. Would you?
Good plan, boys. Surely they weren’t thinking that bringing it to one of the official House organs such as the Page Board would expose them to political embarrassment. Heavens, no.
The problem Republicans have is that there is no way to Spin
(lie about) this that makes them look good or at least no worse than Democrats. It has every negative element we’ve been accusing the Republicans of for decades: Hubris, sanctimony, dishonesty, crookedness, and cynicism.
And all wrapped up in a neat package of stupidity and incompetence.
17 AF
Studds is not a good example. You guys hate him, I am sure, because he was gay. But what he did was have sex with a young man who was 17, IOW over the age of consent. It was totally legal, and only morally reprehensible because of the power ibmalance between them , which I would agree makes it very inappropriate. Whether his constituents punish him is their choice and none of your business.
What Foley did is contact MANY 16-year olds and youths of other ages over the Internet to solicit sexual conversation and/or more, a federal crime due to a law he passed to protect minors.
What the House leadership did (this time in a complete turnaround fom your favite Studds case) is cover up, cover up, cover up and lie, lie, lie once it got uncovered.
They’ve failed us, and screwed themselves. Good riddance.
This is the kind of party you end up with when your two main clients are the ultra-rich and White Southern Racists (the religious right).
Looks like Foley really blew it for the Republicans. (hehe)
Maf54: we will be adjourned ny then
Teen: oh good
Maf54: by
Maf54: then we can have a few drinks
Maf54: lol
Teen: yes yes ;-)
Maf54: your not old enough to drink
Teen: shhh…
Maf54: ok
Teen: that’s not what my ID says
Teen: lol
Maf54: ok
Teen: I probably shouldn’t be telling you that huh
Maf54: we may need to drink at my house so we don’t get busted
Vote Republican in 2006: a neat package of stupidity and incompetence.
re 17: You poor little Republican abusing victim (izers).Will you sulk now or lash out in sanctimonious anger?
Who cares? You’re all a sideshow now.
17 AF
Due to the Studds and Crane scandals (funny I don’t hear you voice your disapproval of Crane): “The Congressional Page Program — which has been around for more than 150 years — was overhauled and a board was created to monitor it. ”
That’s the board whose Republican chairman found out about Foley and he didn’t tell the other board members. Yeah, you Republicans take your responsibilities SOOO seriously.
Apologies for shameless stealing (and editing) to headless lucy:
Vote Republican in 2006: Hubris, sanctimony, dishonesty, and cynicism.
Another reason that “they only saw the e-mails” excuse won’t fly: The chief-of-staff for HRCC chair Rep. Tom Reynolds tried to talk ABC News out of reporting on Foley once they had the goods. Cover up? Of course!!!
The Kentucky River decision is another reason we have to take back our government. Supporting the rights of workers to organize results in a higher paid workforce that can afford to purchase more goods. In an economy that is primarily dependent on consumer spending, you’d think more people would see the sense of it.
“Nothing makes it ILLEGAL for supervisory employees to join a labor organization. They simply don’t have the protections that are afforded under the National Labor Relations Act.”
–Richard Pope above
And you want to be a fucking judge? Read the Wagner Act. Just what is it about the right to organize and bargain collectively being NATIONAL POLICY that you do not understand?
Whadda’ dip.
Yes Pope wants to suck on the government tit and have us taxpayers support him even though as a conservative, he’s against taxes.
JHC:
It’s been 2 1/2 hours and youi still haven’t found out what to do with a “hot” missle stuck on the rails yet?!?!
What’s up, “LT”?
*snicker*
**SNICKER**
BAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA
Why doncha call your “XO” buddy?
Maybe your imaginery “XO” friend can help you!
C’mon JCH, what’s it called when a missle won’t launch and what is the immediate procedure that every Officer Of the Deck MUST know to be OOD qualified?
What if you were standing watch and a missle failed to launch, what would you do to save your crew and ship?!?!?
Besides wetting your pants, that is.
29 Joe
Thanks, Joe. You don’t look good. Kinda dead on your feet.
Pope: “They simply don’t have the protections that are afforded under the National Labor Relations Act.”
So it’s not that they can’t organize, it’s just that it’s legal fro employers to “interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees” to KEEP them from organizing once they are “supervisors.” It’s teh same thing as being able to without retraint, except for the restraint.
ANd, of course, in this case the Bush=packed, anti-labor NLRB is refusing to hear oral arguments, despite requests by unions to hear arguments. In fact, the Board has not heard a single oral argument since the Bush administration took office. Not only are they readying to deny the protections necessary to enable union membership to, potentially, millions of Americans – they are doing so without allowing the oral arguments that are a fundamental part of any due process.
Amerikkkafirst:
You are right, it is a Democratic scandal:
An October 2 Associated Press article reported that Fox News was among several news organizations that were leaked copies of email messages allegedly sent by former Rep. Mark Foley to a 16-year-old male former congressional page. But a Media Matters for America search on the Nexis database of Fox News in prime time turned up no references to the channel having previously received these emails nor any reference to reports that it had.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200610030007
Richard is correct–there’s nothing to protect supervisors from organizing, but also nothing to protect them from being fired or subject to other reprisals from their employers.
The “reclassification” tactic is nothing new. The first time there was a nurses strike against Seattle hospitals (about staffing levels and mandatory double-shifting more than pay, contrary to what was reported by the local media), the hospitals’ management attempted to reclassify all head nurses as “unit supervisors” and force them to come to work. In some of the hospitals, enough refused to do so that instead they agreed to staff essential functions (emergency rooms, critical care, maternity) and postpone scheduling of elective procedures until the strike was settled.
amerikkkafirst:
More of those commie liberals attack our dear leaders:
This column is going to make me very unpopular with Republicans.
I don’t care. It must be said.
Following the revelations about Florida Rep. Mark Foley’s sexually suggestive e-mails to a 16-year-old congressional page, I have concluded Republicans are unworthy of retaining control of the federal government.
–Joseph Farah, founder, World Net Daily
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/n.....E_ID=52235
More from Mr. Farah:
Over the weekend we learned that Rep. Thomas Reynolds, head of the House Republican election effort, went to House Speaker Dennis Hastert months ago about concerns a fellow GOP lawmaker had sent inappropriate, sexually suggestive messages to the teenage boy.
Hastert’s office said aides referred the matter to the proper authorities last fall but they were only told the messages were “over-friendly.” In other words, they did no investigating because they didn’t want to know the truth. An election was coming, and Republicans were hoping to hold their slim majority in a tough contest this year.
Reynolds, R-N.Y., is now defending himself from Democratic accusations that he did too little. He ought to be defending himself against Republican accusations. Republican incumbents and challengers are the ones who will be hurt by this devastating blow.
Reynolds never bothered to ask to see the messages. Hastert never bothered to ask for them. They turned a blind eye to the news.
Think about this. In 2005, there was still time for the Republicans to clean their own dirty laundry and find a suitable replacement for an unsuitable incumbent. They did not.
Wow, sucks to be Republican, both literally and figuratively, these days.
Republican world:
Clinton’s average annual real GDP growth equal to 3.7% is awful, whereas the 2.6% average annual real GDP growth since Bush took office is great! Employment (payroll survey) during Clinton’s eight years in office grew by a measly, underachieving (net) 23 million. Since George W. Bush took office, employment has grown by an amazing (net) 3 million!
Art, and Daddy L.,
You are correct. I have not been feeling too well since the doctor’s plot, but that’s life. Richard is only technically correct insofar as if you arbitrarily classify folks as “supervisors” they are no longer subject to the protections of the NLRA. This means the bosses do not have to recognize them as a bargaining entity, which is, like, you know, the whole point. This is in direct contravention of the intent of the NLRA which proscribes NATIONAL POLICY. A policy is still, I believe, a statement of intent, the sanctioning of certain social outcomes that are deemed desirable, and setting forth rules or behaviors to achieve the stated goal. Therefore, undermining the clearly stated goal of the legislation in this manner is not only “just wrong”, but manifestly illegal.
This latest outrage is similar to calling all your employees “independent contractors” which is also kinda’ illegal (unless you’re in Amway).
But since you guys are still alive, can you tell me why all the Trotskyites are now rabid right wing neocon loons? I always had a problem with that guy.
“Bonus question for you: What’s the term used if the missle doesn’t leave the rail successfully….”
It is called collateral factoring of knowns and known unknowns, and immediately galvanizes your Congressman to request more defense appropriations if the mfr. is in his\her home district.
….what is the next immediate procedure for a “hot” weapon stuck on the rail?
Simple: Hold the course.
38 Joe
So Trotsky gave you problems? Well, you kinda had the last laugh there.
Maybe Denny Hastert will take a nice Mexican vacation too?
The [Republicans] inevitable explanation for everything? The Democrats and their supporters must be the real villains here. “What we know so far is that several principals, such as CREW, and ABC knowingly withheld information about Rep. Foley and had done so for many months, if not years before this story came to light,” says Macranger at Macsmind.
Just one small problem here: In a statement released today, CREW says it alerted the FBI to the Foley e-mails on the same day it got them in July 2006. If members of the House leadership can claim to have done the same, we haven’t heard them do so yet. After making a brief statement at his press conference this afternoon, Hastert walked away without taking any questions.
http://www.salon.com/politics/.....index.html
Daddy L.,
“So Trotsky gave you problems? Well, you kinda had the last laugh there.”
It was mostly those ridiculous spectacles he affected.
“Maybe Denny Hastert will take a nice Mexican vacation too?”
You might want to take that up with Karl Rove. I’m dead, remember?
38 “This latest outrage is similar to calling all your employees “independent contractors” which is also kinda’ illegal (unless you’re in Amway).”
Well, sorta. Since “at-will employment” became the rule in the private sector, we’re all in theory not much different from contractors.
The prospect of organization (or in good times, the prospect of your employees’ giving you the middle finger and going to work for your competitors) in under our new system of “business ethics” the only reason employers in general are constrained from treating most of their work force like pond scum.
“But since you guys are still alive, can you tell me why all the Trotskyites are now rabid right wing neocon loons?”
Ain’t that a helluva good question?
42 Joe
You’re so dead, and right when we need you the most!
41 JDB
Not only that, CREW didn’t publicly post the e-mails they possessed until after ABC broke the story. They were waiting for an FBI investigation that never took place…
Re: That first Seattle nurses’ strike…the hospitals I referred to that semi-shut down didn’t include VM or Swedes–they bullied their new “unit supervisors” into crossing the picket lines, brought in help from out of town and kept their operating rooms humming with nice lucrative elective procedures.
Daddy Love:
Yep. You would think that these wingnuts who are worried that some democrat might have held onto this information for political reasons would be more worried about the fact that the Bush Justice Department did not investigate for poltical reasons. Strangely enough, Sean Hannity isn’t talking about that, so they have nothing to parrot.
Anyone who can’t hire and fire is not a supervisor. That’s the law. I know that from personal experience.
@49;
Yes, that is part of the definition but I’m betting that the definition will get a little “upgrade” soon. Similar to when they tried to say that restaurant workers were in the “Manufacturing” category to try and up those figures.
E-3 GBS, Been many years and I had little to do with missiles. My experience was Newport Class LSTs in the Western Pacific [home based in San Diego, Ca] In Gunnery (something that an old-timer like me would know more about) you have terminology like “Hangfire” and “Misfire”. I would assume that in missiles it would be the same – but would not swear to it. If you have a “hangfire”, you wait a length of time (5 mins unless you have a HOT GUN) to see if it will be a delayed fire. If after 5 mins, the projectile does not leave the barrel on its own, you classify it as a misfire and take other steps to remove the round (open breech and remove). However, if you have a hangfire in a hot gun (determined by the number of rounds fired in a specific length of time), you would take other steps because of the concern for a “cook-off” due to the projectile/powder case sitting in a hot barrel. The steps include external and internal cooling of the barrel. We trained by cooling the barrel with fresh and salt water. Again, 3 inch/50s have little to do with today’s weapons. That was your last question, E-3 GBS. Report to your LPO ASAP!!!
People should REALLY keep in mind that downaward pressure on wages affects everyone.
As upward pressure would, if there were any.
I don’t care what my employer does or says, I’m sticking with my union. Labor unions are many things to many people, and one thing they are is a social reaction to abuse by employers.
Lots of people blithely assure us that outright abusive working conditions are in the past, and up until now they have been, the reason is because of hard won legal barriers that protect the rights of workers. Now, under the Bush regime those barriers are being dismantled.
The Bush administration is actively restricting, and eliminating the rights of Americans, and destroying the Constitution.
Republicans in congress are calling anybody who doesn’t vote Bush’s way “terrorist enablers”, Bush’s former Secretary of Education called labor unions “terrorist organizations” that is their thinking. Under the Military Commissions Act passed last week Bush can label any person, citizen or non-citizen an “unlawful enemy combatant”, and throw them in prison for the rest of their lives without charges, trials, verdicts, or due process of law. How far is it from “terrorist enabler”, and being a member of “terrorist organization”, (labor union), to being declared an “unlawful enemy combatant”?
Its time to give serious thought to just how nasty the neo-cons really are. You can’t just mind your own business and hope to get by. They don’t intend to let you do that. They are going to seek us all out, they are not going to leave us alone.