Future co-worker Lindy West and I sat next to each other at the judges table at last night’s Chocolate for Choice, and I couldn’t help but notice a disparity in our name tags. Lindy, by virtue of her tenure at The Stranger, is identified as a “journalist,” whereas me… well… they weren’t sure how to describe what I do (Blogger…? Writer…? Crackpot…?), so they just left it blank.
But soon, thanks to the magical, instant credibility of a newspaper masthead, I can only assume that I will be a real journalist too!
My mother will be so proud (though not as proud as if I were a real lawyer, but at her age, you learn to take what little joy from life that you can get.)
Be careful what you wish for. Right now you’re whatever people imagine you to be, including a visiting celebrity. Labels put you in a box. Jopurnalists are going down with the ship right now. Be the next thing.
Daddy Love @1,
Or, I can help redefine what it is to be a “journalist.”
I think the Stranger has already redefined what a journalist is: someone who can put up with weapon of mouth destruction Dan Savage.
Isn’t it weird that out of five judges four of them work or worked for the Stranger?
Tell your mother it can be done. I was a journalist, then descended to become a lawyer.
Lately, I’ve descended even farther — now I’m a capitalist. I just got out of bed at 10:30 AM and discovered I made $800 in the stock market this morning while I was still asleep and the worker drones were fighting commuter traffic to their — ugh — jobs.
The only thing lower than a capitalist is a banker.
Debunking the Myth of ‘Overpaid’ Public Workers
A Rutgers University study offers “overwhelming evidence” that public sector workers earn less than private sector workers, after adjusting for such factors as education levels, pensions, and health insurance.
Not only that, the more education the job requires the larger the pay gap is, with college graduates working in the public sector earning overwhelmingly less than their private sector counterparts. For those with degrees, the gap in “total compensation” is almost $23,000 a year.
Whatever the cause of state and local government budget shortfalls, it’s not excessively generous pay to public workers. Of course, we all know what the cause is: Revenue shortfalls brought about by the depression triggered by 30 years of failed Wingnut Wack-O-Nomics.
http://www.epi.org/analysis_an.....earn_less/
‘Business Friendly’ South Carolina: Dead Last In Everything
Wingnut governor Nikki Haley loves bragging about her state’s “business-friendly” climate and it’s right-to-work, anti-union policies. Yet, South Carolina ranks nearly dead-last in nearly everything, including unemployment rates and job losses.
1. South Carolina’s unemployment insurance fund went bankrupt, requiring a federal bailoout (oops, there you go again, asking for handouts from blue states);
2. Between 2001 and 2008, South Carolina lost 4.3% of its manufacturing jobs; in the same period, Washington lost 2.6%.
3. South Carolina’s unemployment rate is 10.6% (a year ago it was 12.3%) compared to 9.2% in Washington.
4. South Carolinians earn much less: That state’s median household income is $42,945 compared to $58,964 in Washington.
5. South Carolina’s poverty rate is 24% compared to 20% nationally and 16% in Washington.
6. South Carolina ranks 45th on a scale that measures child well-being; Washington is 11th.
7. Suffolk University ranks South Carolina 42nd and Washington 14th in competitiveness.
In Nikki Haley’s state, “right to work” means right to be unemployed, right to be poor, and … a lousy business climate. So lousy that, despite lavish incentives, South Carolina routinely loses bids for new plants to other states.
In short, “right to work” is bullshit, and Haley is bullshitting when she says her state has a great business climate.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....nt_in.html
Personally, I wouldn’t live in South Carolina. Regardless of whether I was a business owner or a worker, I would leave that state. The incentives for workers to emigrate are obvious. But why would businesses leave (or not go there)? Because they can’t hire workers, that’s why. How do you conduct business in a state with no workers, because the climate there is so hostile to workers that no workers will stay there?
# 8: The only reason Charleston got the second 787 assembly line was (a) it promised to keep unions out, and (b) it pretty much gave away the farm to Boeing, to the point that it will take decades for S. Carolina to recoup it’s investment in the plant, if ever.
And Haley Barbor and her new Secty of Labor were so dumb that they bragged about how they were going to do anything necessary to keep unions out. This might get them some applause in wingnut circles, but it’s incredibly stupid when it comes to dealing with employee’s rights to organize under federal labor law. Their comments were so outragious, the Machinist’s Union didn’t even have to wait for some overt act, they gave them grounds for seeking injunctive relief in court on the grounds of a consipiracy to violate federal law.
I hope the court takes them to the woodshed and gives them a good paddling, the kind we used to get when I was a kid. S. Carolina can add the legal bills to the cost they put into the plant, if they wish.
By the way, the workers at the former Vought facilities in Charleston, which were purchased by Boeing, probably meant well, but they simply were not sufficiently trained, and did not have the years of experience necessary to do aerospace manufacturing. A lot of the 787 delays over the past three years can be traced back to quality problems arising from that facility. QC inspectors at the Boeing Everett factory were simply shaking their heads in disbelief at the problems they encountered, they couldn’t understand how anyone would have let those assemblies leave the factory in that condition. Most of that work had to be re-done in the factory, known as “re-work” or “out-of-sequence work”, causing much of the delays.
By the way, one of the advantages of Union labor is that anyone on the production line can refuse a manager’s orders if it violates FAA or Boeing production or safety rules. This means that if a manager gets pressure from his bosses to get something completed “today, or else”, the workers can refuse to do shortcuts which would violate the rules. If a manager tries to fire or discipline an employee for not taking such shortcuts, the union employee is protected by the Union contract against such action.
I’m sure all of us feel more confident flying, knowing that the airplane was built without the safety rules being bypassed.
I’m sure all of us feel more confident flying, knowing that the airplane was built without the rules being bypassed.
Coulda been worse, Goldy. They could have stained you with “Pundit”.
Goldy, there are far too many Journalist and not nearly enough Reporters.
Write things I can’t see for myself on government access television, please.
Regurgitating what somebody says on SeattleChannel, or KingCounty tv is beyond pointless, and just writing random thoughts that come into your mind and calling that journalism is already covered by bloggers and Nicole Brodeur and Ron Judd.
@11, Still worse, “gadfly”
how come you guys didnt name the event “Deserts for Dead Babies”?
Goldy, you take it too personally. Pioneers of new or alternative media always get dissed by the establishment types. We’ve ALL been there.
When you seek a service from a professional do you expect him or her to complain about having been dissed by the previous customer?
If you’d like to elevate your stature how about putting a lid on the public whining? You have great talent but can be a wee bit self indulgent with the way you use the power of the pen.
Of course, there’s no need to change your behavior if you’d rather be a celebrity than a journalist.
Run, Michelle, run!
Yeah baby, bring on the CrAzY!
@14 How come you don’t know how to spell “Desserts”? Did you attend a charter school?
@16 In this country, any ass over the age of 35 is allowed to be president.
Me thinks Bachmann is only running to make Palin look more palatable.
What’s the “.org” for?
The States will soon get the right to file bankruptcy, and then the existing State Pensions and benefits can be cut.
bankruptcy. I assume you mean the federal bankruptcy courts? Putting federal judges in charge of states? Making decisions to approve or reject their plan of reorganization that is letting federal judges evaluate their levels of taxation, expenditures, what contract to obey and what ones to cancel and what terms the reduced pension plans should have?
Wow, if the conservatives go for that they are essentially saying the states are not independent governmennts at all. They would be letting federal unelected officers run the states.
I thought conservatives were against a bigger federal government.
You know what else happens in bankruptcy? the federal judge can appoint a receiver. Wow, that would mean we could have a receiver for a state! Hmmmm, any constitutional issues there? A nonelected judge appointing a nonelected receiver.
Hint: there are clauses in the constitution preserving independnce of states and immunity in federal court; there are clauses saying feds have banktruptcy power and any lawyer will tell you it didn’t mean over states, therefore you need a constitutional amendment; there are clauses saying states have to have a republican form of government and ahem, a bankruptcy judge reshaping a state’s taxes and spending and contracts isn’t.
So this movement by the conservatives exposes them for not having any principles at all — they simply want to enrich the rich and bach the working class.
TARP for wall street when they need money, banktruptcy for states when they need money as this is a way to break union contracts and fuck the workers.
THAT’s what the right winger’s only consistency is. For the rich, against the workers. They use the goverment like a ponzie scheme: a set of lies designed to extract your money and hand it over to them and their cronies. What a load of cynical greedy crap.
@15
“Of course, there’s no need to change your behavior if you’d rather be a celebrity than a journalist.”
BINGO!
@3
It just shows the insidious influence of the Stranger media empire.
Not only is Goldy indefinable and indescribable – like nearly equally unappetizing grade-school cafeteria meat – but he’s also unknown and unimportant given how the ignorant gals at NARAL screwed up the name of his site. He’s supposed to be a judge, yet they can’t spell it correctly?
Another example of left-wing illiteracy.
The Piper
laughing my fucking ass off….
YOU MADE TEH BIGG TYMEZ GOLDEE!