HorsesAss.Org

Open Thread 5/6

by — ,

– I’m hardly ever in Tacoma anymore, but when I go there, I always picked up a copy of the Weekly Volcano. Sadly, no more (h/t).

– It’s always a choice to be a bigot.

– There’s a rally opposed to Don Benton’s appointment to Director of Environmental Services: Tuesday May 07 at 6:00 PM at the Public Service Building, 1300 Franklin St. (I couldn’t find a permanent link, but right now it’s the post at the top).

– But the one about how Obama doesn’t have a mandate because he’s too good at politics is something special; it’s so self-refuting it’s almost a Zen riddle.

– Washington is number 1 for biking (h/t).

–Argument from Sociopathic Cost-Benefit Analysis is sociopathic

– Welcome home USS John C. Stennis

Comments

  1. 1

    By every measure not related to advertising sales, the Weekly Volcano has been a success.
    >> Alas, people need to get paid for their services. It doesn’t matter how great you are, if not enough people are willing to pay for it. Or they needed to find a rich patron to support it.

  2. 2

    That was a nice piece about Vince Lombardi. That was a classy thing he did when he didn’t have to.

    Multiple players who played for Vince Lombardi, the legendary former Packers and Redskins coach, say that he knew some of his players were gay, and that not only did he not have a problem with it, but he went out of his way to make sure no one else on his team would make it a problem.

    But the fact is that there were always whites from every walk of life and every region of the country who were vocally anti-racist and there were always men and women who defended gays. It’s not as if being tolerant wasn’t possible, even then. It’s always possible.

    Which makes it so damn sad when conservatives choose to be intolerant bigots.

  3. 3

    More Obama Derangement Syndrome. On the drive in, on one of the 128 conservative talk radio stations in the Puget Sound area, the host was lying that Obama believes that government is the only answer to everything, taking a speech out of context even as the clip he played, didn’t say that.
    (How come conservative talk radio always has rich patrons willing to support their lies? Liberals have the wrong priorities I guess. )

  5. 5

    If women enjoy street harassment so much, lets do “turn about as fair play” and see how much straight men enjoy it from Gay men? Every obnoxious straight man should be hit on, in equal measure, by obnoxious gay men, so they know what it feels like.
    (I know, forced empathy. Conservatives only get it, when it happens to them.)

  6. 6

    I’ve seen Weekly Volcano around, but it appears to be targeted for persons younger than me. Still, it’s too bad to see it fold.

  7. 7

    True to form, the GOP is seeking to limit overtime pay, this time by forcing workers to accept comp time in lieu of overtime payments.

    GOP moves to limit overtime payments

    Sure, comp time has been around for a long time, and it’s allowed in union-represented goverment worker’s jobs, where presumably the union would be protecting against employer abuses. But in private industry, it sometimes is abused by the employer – forcing employees to take comp time instead of overtime payments, requiring them to do the same work within a week if they use comp time, giving in effect a non-interest loan to the employers, requiring comp time to be used by a specific deadline but not approving comp time use before it expires, etc.

  8. 8

    @7
    Just one more form of wage theft.

  9. 9

    From 7 and 8,

    A lot of times I’ve taken comp time for a little extra time at work. Some people prefer that over the overtime pay. Is it wrong to allow people to have the choice as to whether they prefer the overtime pay or the comp time? As long as no one is forced into one decision or the other, what difference does it make?

  10. 10

    The GOP plan is an effort to change the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which requires covered employees to receive time-and-a-half pay for every hour over 40 within a work week. The proposal would allow workers to bank up to 160 hours, or four weeks, of comp time per year that could be used to take time off for any reason.

    The bill would let an employee decide to cash out comp time at any time, and forbids employers from coercing workers to take comp time instead of cash.

    What, don’t you trust that this will be enforced?

  11. 11

    7) Why doesn’t the GOP move to cut Congressional pay to a level fitting the amount of days they are actually in session. Even if it will not take effect until after the election, per the 27th amendment? Even with the special session coming up, our legislature will be meeting almost as many days as the US House will for the entire year!

  12. 12

    10) If the NLRB is doing the enforcing, no, I don’t trust it to be enforced. The party of the President gets three seats, the opposing party gets two, so the President will be appointing Republicans. Still, they are blocking all appointments, because they oppose the agency.

  13. 13

    @9. “As long as no one is forced into one decision or the other, what difference does it make?”
    That’s the problem. It would be very easy for companies to force their employees to do that.

    Here is an anecdotal story. I had a co worker who temped at a large software company. He had just started and it was Friday afternoon and he was about to leave. The boss walked by and dropped a huge assignment. He had plans to do something with his wife and kids that evening. a school play or something. He was informed that, since he was new, that was his one pass, and if he wanted to be renewed, he was expected to work whatever schedule was dropped on him. The manager had not seen his children awake in month, coming in early and leaving late.
    I totally see that kind of abuse being applied, if this passes.

  14. 14

    I can see why the right is so upset. If the fact that Benghazi was a terrorist attack, which we knew prior to a Tuesday in November, turns out to be a terrorist attack only one thing is certain.

    Barack Obama will be president until January 2017.

    Why the truth must come out so we can, uh, er, well, be angry about President Obama.

  15. 15

    So, Obama beat Romney by only 5 million votes. This makes Romney, what, popular?

  16. 16

    @2 Queers play football. They even play on college teams! And in the NFL! Who wudda thunk??!!

  18. 18

    # 9: I don’t think there’s anything wrong with an employer taking comp time if it’s there decision, and the employer is okay with that.

    My wife works for a small non-profit at 20 hours a week, and regularly has demands in excess of her work week. There were two big events a year where she offered to take comp time to do the work that used to be done by two full-time employees. She would use those up at the end of the year.

    But once her boss figured out that overtime wasn’t costing her any money, she quickly starting adding work which required her to work an extra day a week, answer the phone on evenings and her days off, and work making changes to the web site almost daily.

    Last year she informed her boss that she was taking comp time starting with Thansgiving and going through New Years, and showed her how she had that much time accumulated. You should have heard the howls of protest! “But you can’t possibly be gone that long! We have to put out a newsletter! And what about end-of-year contributions!” My wife stuck to her guns and took the time off, but when she got back her boss told her that they couldn’t possibly afford to pay her comp time AND holidays or vacation time (such as it was), so those were eliminated.

    I told her just to tell them she was quiting – after 20 years, they couldn’t do without her, so they would reconsider. But she didn’t want to do that.

  19. 19

    @7 “requiring comp time to be used by a specific deadline but not approving comp time use before it expires, etc.”

    So that’s how they plan to get free overtime. I wonder about that. In my gut I felt sure the GOPers had some dirty trick up their sleeve, because anything they’re pushing can’t possibly be as straightforward as swapping comp time for overtime.

    Here’s how it works: Overtime is mandatory, you have to work it when the employer demands it, on the employer’s schedule, never mind your kid’s graduation that’s not important. But comp time is discretionary; you get it only when the employer says you can take it, which means you’ll never get it except on paper. Neat. They go from time-and-a-half to working-off-the-clock-without-pay in one fell swoop. These assholes are clever by one and a half.

  20. 20

    Not sure if this has been mentioned yet. Over the weekend a potential domestic terrorist was arrested in Western Minnesota. Not many details yet, but I wonder if it will make the national news.

    http://www.grandforksherald.co.....roup/News/

    MINNEAPOLIS — A Minnesota man was arrested on a firearms charge Friday after federal authorities found Molotov cocktails, suspected pipe bombs and guns during a search of his Montevideo home, according to a criminal complaint and affidavit.

    Buford Rogers, 24, was charged with one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

  21. 21

    @9 “Is it wrong to allow people to have the choice as to whether they prefer the overtime pay or the comp time?”

    Depends on whose choice it is.

  22. 22

    @20 He probably was plotting to overthrow the Romney administration and install a Kenyan socialist as dictator of the
    United States.

  24. 24

    Amazing the difference between the reaction to Jason Collins’ announcement (basically a big fat “so what?”) and the uproar over former Husky Dave Kopay a few decades back. Maybe despite the hysterical efforts of the bigots and haters, a few things actually are getting better.

  25. 25

    @23. Yes but….
    Ten Years After, do you imagine that unpaid comp time could be, and will likely be abused, in some job sets if it’s an option?

  29. 29

    Looks like both parties are having recruiting problems candidates for Senate. The presumed Republican nominee for Senate from Iowa, Rep Steve King, is not running. In Louisiana, the Lt.Governor has declined, saying that the US Senate, saying that it is too dysfunctional.

    http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_n.....nator?lite

  32. 32

    #31. That is great. The tragedy is that, due the NRA blocking sensible regulations though the years, they had to be honored for their sacrifice.

  33. 33

    One infamous case of good guys with guns, was the shootout in Tacoma’s Hilltop neighborhood, in 1989. The gang members were sparring with the people watching them, and were not even intimidated by the off-duty soldiers living in the area. Only the problem was, he was a Ranger, and they hit back. The difference between them and the NRA of today, is these guys were trained and expert marksmen, they knew what they were doing, and the only people hurt were the bad guys. The fallout was more of embarrassment for the Tacoma Police and the commanders at Fort Lewis. Today, more Special Forces are based at Fort Lewis.

    http://www.thenewstribune.com/.....night.html

  34. 34

    32) Good point.I just cited an example of where LaPierre’s comment about good guys with guns worked, but it was a controlled ambush by experts, they could have killed, or even seriously injured the gang members that night.The impression I get from the NRA on stand your ground, is that some are for using Shoot to kill as a first, and not last, resort.

  35. 35

    @23 What if it’s not? Would you still support replacing time-and-a-half pay for overtime with comp time, if the employer could dictate when the employee can use the comp time?

  36. 36

    @33 “The fallout was more of embarrassment for … the commanders at Fort Lewis.”

    Yeah, their Rangers didn’t hit anything. Not a single drug dealer lying in the street! What message does that send to North Korea? I would’ve kept them on the range until they learned to shoot straight.

  37. 37

    @35
    That’s the crux. You KNOW, if this is being pushed by Republicans, it’s a new and better form of wage theft.

    Overtime is overtime…it’s clocked and it’s paid at regulated rates. This ‘comp time’, while in a benign workplace and used appropriately might be OK, as a replacement for regular overtime is an enormous boondoggle. It is much more vulnerable to abuse, both in the way its demanded, and how it’s paid back.

    As someone above said, it’s a great big zero-interest loan to employers, one they’re going to do their damnedest never to pay back.

    The owed ‘comp time’, no accruing interest, is going to be in the possession of the side with more power, and it’s going to go *poof* – there will be all sorts of byzantine rules as to what the employee has to go through to get his/her recompense.

  38. 38

    36) One of the responding TPD officers said as much on that one. My guess, if one of the Rangers had been hit, they would have gone lethal. Later in 1989, Rangers from Fort Lewis were involved in combat in Panama.

  40. 40

    In British Columbia, Liberal Premier Christy Clark, her center-right party is gaining in the polls(but still behind), but if they survive, it could be without her. She’s in a tough fight for her own seat in the legislature. The NDP is still holding their own, in the lead. The districts that count, besides the swing ones in the Vancouver area, are 2 seats in Kamloops that have picked the winners for a hundred years. Vancouver-Point Grey was supposed to be a safe one for the BC Liberals, but Clark barely won it in a special election after assuming her party’s leadership.

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/.....-grey.html

  41. 41

    @37 And, of course, Republicans want to replace time-and-a-half pay with straight-time comp time. Saves the employer 50% on his overtime wage costs. What a deal!

    The whole point of the 150% overtime pay law is to discourage employers from requiring overtime. It also compensates employees for time robbed from their families. That time is extra-valuable to the employee, so it should be compensated with extra pay. Four hours of comp time in exchange for four hours of overtime is not a fair trade.

    In fact, the law should discourage substituting comp time for overtime pay, so any change to the law should include a requirement of two hours of mandatory comp time for every hour of mandatory overtime.

  42. 42

    The lieutenant colonel in charge of the Air Force’s sexual assault prevention program has been arrested for sexual assault.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....25155.html

    Roger Rabbit Commentary: Why wasn’t this job given to a general? And why was it given to a guy?

  43. 43

    I suspect he won’t keep that job after this.

  44. 44

    It also compensates employees for time robbed from their families.
    I though conservatives were Pro Family?

  45. 45

    @29:

    Looks like both parties are having recruiting problems candidates for Senate. The presumed Republican nominee for Senate from Iowa, Rep Steve King, is not running. In Louisiana, the Lt.Governor has declined, saying that the US Senate, saying that it is too dysfunctional.

    How is this “both parties”? The Lt. Governor of Louisiana is a Republican. They’re looking (without a lot of success) for someone to run against Mary Landrieu. I think the LtGov would prefer to replace the deeply unpopular Bobby Jindal in Baton Rouge.

    As for Iowa, Bruce Braley has cleared the field for the Democratic nomination to follow (but not replace) the great Tom Harkin. If King doesn’t want to run against Braley, then he’s the second House member to say no. As has the Governor. As has every other halfway-recognizible Republican.

  46. 46

    45) In Wet Virginia, the open Senate Seat is held by Democrat Jay Rockefeller. The article I posted said few rakers so far among a supposed deap bench for Democrats there.

  49. 49

    Republican Scores Big Against Obama

    Saxby Chambliss, a Republican senator from Georgia, shot a hole in one while playing against President Obama on the Andrews Air Force Base golf course today.

  51. 51

    The man who packed the parachutes for skyjacker D. B. Cooper was murdered two weeks ago.

    http://www.komonews.com/news/l.....56191.html

    Roger Rabbit Commentary: Only two people knew whether that chute opened, and they’re both dead now, so I guess we’ll never know.

  53. 53

    51) You got that right. Even if Cooper survived(which the parachute packer said most likely did not happen), he would be dead by now. Whether it was the Copy Cat theory, or the Inside Job theory.

  54. 54

    @52 What are you, a fucking commie?

  55. 55

    @52 What are you, a fucking commie?

    No DUMB Wabbit, you are. Your commie friends on HA decried Romney’s wealth last year. Wanna see the replay?

    Would you like a Google comment search or an HA headline replay?

    Please say yes DUMB Wabbit. Now we see how Al Goreasm got wealthy! Very interesting.

  56. 56

    A little more on the Limbaugh vs. Cumulus CEO fued. Of course he is blaming Cumulus Media for CUmulus’s problems. Although if he carries through on his threat to walk if the CEO keeps up the rhetoric, it would only lose him 40 stations, and his contract with Cumulus is up at the end of the year. Clear Channel will just pick him up, and just automate a few more stations to cut staff, and costs.

    http://mediamatters.org/blog/2.....dia/193930

  57. 57

    @55 Back in the day, whenever I met commies I tried to kill them, so I’ve tended not to have commie friends. Btw, asswipe, what was your military service?

  58. 58

    Puddy wonders which of the slobbering Obummer loving media will attack the Benghazi whistle blowers first for their credibility?

    CNN
    ABC
    CBS
    NBC
    PBS

    Puddy suggests NBC and their hardly ever watched dumb sister PMSNBC!

  59. 59

    @55 “decried Romney’s wealth”

    No, they decried how he got it. For someone who parses verbiage like you do, I’m surprised you missed that nuance.

  60. 60

    Piddles, I’ve got some TV news clips just for you!

    CNN – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oogFbM8avLg
    ABC – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlgamJDgEgA
    CBS – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PypDMuGTzUA
    NBC – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47v09lkJtUc
    PBS – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5e8THBN9WU

    Do you see anything wrong with the accuracy of their reporting? Looks to me like they got this story right.

  62. 62

    This yahoo predicted 40% unemployment if Obama was re-elected.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypDjtNOeDZw

    Roger Rabbit Commentary: Unemployment went down and my stock portfolio went up; what can I say? So I’ll say the only thing I can …

    HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR

  63. 63

    I love watching these clips! I can’t get enough of them! Thank you CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS!!!

  64. 64

    It is never too late for justice. There are still a few War Criminals from Germany during WWII that have not been brought to justice. Well, that is one fewer tonight, German police have taken into custody a former guard at Auschwitz, and will be using the Demanjuk precedent, charging with Accessory to Murder, many counts of that. There still could be more arrests.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22427976

    Hans Lipschis was taken into custody in Aalen after prosecutors concluded there was “compelling evidence” that he had been complicit in murder.

    Mr Lipschis acknowledges he served with the Waffen SS at the camp in occupied Poland, but claims he was only a cook.

    Last month, the Simon Wiesenthal Center named him as number four on its list of most-wanted Nazis.

    The organisation accused him of participating in the mass murder and persecution of innocent civilians, primarily Jews, at Auschwitz between October 1941 and 1945.

    “This is a very positive step, we welcome the arrest, I hope this will only be the first of many arrests, trials and convictions of death camp guards,” the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Efraim Zuroff told AFP news agency.

    Mr Lipschis is the first person arrested as a result of a series of new investigations launched by the German authorities into some 50 former Auschwitz guards who are still alive.

    While this is going on, in Munich, a German Court will be starting the trial of a Neo-Nazi extremist who was involved in a 10 year murder spree,which killed 10, including 8 Turkish Immigrants, a German of Greek Descent, and 1 German Police Officer.

  65. 65

    A little more background on the second trial I mentioned.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22423785

    It is also German Police services, both the local and state polizei, and the Bundeskriminalamt(equivalent of the FBI), and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution(the German Domestic Intelligence Agency), that could be on trial. In Berlin, questions are being asked, how did these agencies fail to recognize this threat, this particular group, called the NSU, for so long? Don’t know if this will still be an issue in September, when the election happens, but both the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats were in charge when this group was on the rampage.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22165242

  66. 66

    Updating the story of a dramatic rescue of three kidnapped women held captive for more than 10 years, police arrested three Hispanic brothers, all in their early 50s, and will hold a press conference tomorrow morning.

    The women, who apparently were tied up, were discovered in a house when neighbors heard one screaming for help and freed her by kicking a door in. She then called police, who surrounded the house and freed the other two women and a child.

    Two of these women were kidnapped as children and were the subjects of massive searches, but authorities had no clue of their fates until this afternoon’s rescue.

    Without question, this will be the big news story dominating tomorrow’s headlines.

  67. 67

    Sound Transit Bus Involved In Fatal Crash

    A Sound Transit bus on the Route 535 run between Bellevue and Lynwood with 36 passengers aboard ran a red light and slammed into an SUV in Kirkland tonight, killing one person and seriously injuring two others in the SUV. One bus passenger also was hospitalized. The driver told police the bus’s brakes failed. The bus finally came to a stop 1/2 mile beyond the accident scene.

  68. 68

    66)Route 535, I believe that is contracted out to Community Transit, who subcontracts to First Transit.

  69. 69

    65) It almost reminded me of an episode of Cold Case, where they are alerted to the note left in the mail by a missing child. Since 20-30 years had passed, they assumed the worse. It turned out the abductor in that story(I know it was fictional)had driven the girl across state lines, and left her for dead. Turned out, the police had found her just in time. The problem was, the episode took place in the days before the internet, or before Adam Walsh, so the police had no idea. Turned out the mother had never given up hope. The way the show would end, was seeing an apparition of the victim, but that episode ended with a tearful, but happy reunion.

    With the news out of Cleveland, it’s sad that one of the mother’s passed away, without closure, but the family’s never gave up.

    Also reminds me of the Elizabeth Smart case, and John Walsh said that the FBI had given up finding her alive when a suspect died. He ran the story on Larry King, and later that week on his own show, and soon a viewer called in a tip, and set in motion the events that led to the reunion with her parents. I can’t believe that the networks have to only see the value of a show in ratings and money. What America’s Most Wanted lacked in the latter, it made up in other ways.

  70. 70

    New from Heritage Foundation….BE AFRAID OF THE BROWN PEOPLE!!! (part 763)…

    Pathway to Citizenship will cost $6TRILLION

    Uh-huh. Did Heritage come out with a cost estimate for the Iraq War before it was fought?

    -$3Trillion to pour down the toilet (or into greedy contractor hands) while killing and maiming hundresd of thousands or even millions of people.

    -$6Trillion (taken at face value – never safe to do with Republicans) to bring 10’s of millions of people out of the shadow economy and the threat of their families torn asunder, to full participation in the American Dream.

    Seems an easy choice, to me.

  71. 71

    @58
    I just looked on the front pages, as well as the ‘politics’ front pages, of ABC, NBC, CNN, Fox and Current, and only Fox has any mention of…

    …BENGHAAAZZZZZZZIIIIII!!!!!!

    …and it was underneath a picture of Ann Coulter.

    Despite puddybigot’s best efforts, and those of slimeballs like Daryl Issa, people don’t seem to be buying this particular brand of bullshit.

    Do you suppose it was an Obama conspiracy to find those kidnapped young women?

  72. 72

    Go read Margaret and Helen. RIGHT NOW. (h/t)

    And speaking of idiots, it seems like every time there is an explosion in the world, Ann Coulter and a bunch of other old white Republican men crawl out of their caves long enough to thump their chests for the cameras. Funny how a bunch of yahoos clinging to the 2nd Amendment after kindergarteners are murdered, suddenly want to throw the rest of the constitution to the curb because this time the culprit was a Muslim using a pressure cooker. That monkey of an author, Ann, summed it up best when she said that the bomber’s wife “ought to be in prison for wearing a hijab.”

    Sounds just like spuddles, er, puddybigot.

    More bombs, check.
    MOOOSLUM hate, check.
    Ann Coulter, check.

    puddybigot has changes his screeching the last few days – to BENGHAAAAAZZZZZZZIIIIIIII!!!!!!!, but it’s just the same…the right’s whole issue there is that Obama and the Admin didn’t screech “MOOOOOSLUM TERRAH!!!!” loudly enough or fast enough for the American Christianist Taliban.

    Pathetic.

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