HorsesAss.Org | Page 318 | The straight poop on WA politics & the press

According to an October, 2012 report issued by the International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF)—“Aiding and Abetting: How Unaccountable Fair Trade Certifiers Are Destroying Workers’ Rights”—as soon as Theo management learned of the organizing effort they responded with a campaign of “emotional manipulation, guilt, intimidation, fear and derogatory accusations about unions in general.” On March 3, two senior marketing managers confronted a union supporter in a break room, demeaning her organizing efforts, accusing her of “ruining the family of Theo Chocolate,” and causing her to cry. On March 7 workers met again to discuss their organizing efforts, only to have the meeting disrupted by four Theo managers.

Then Theo brought in the big guns, hiring David Acosta of American Consulting Group (ACG), a firm whose website claims it specializes in “union avoidance strategies,” and that boasts “unparalleled success in designing preventative programs that continues to keep thousands of our clients union-free.”

On March 9, the report claims, Theo CEO Joe Whinney called a mandatory staff meeting at which he attacked the organizing effort and the Teamsters. Employees were told that unions get “commissions” for organizing workers (not true), and that forming a union would damage the relationship between management and employees. Over the next few weeks management repeated these tactics—what workers referred to as “emotional blackmail”—sometimes crying in front of workers, and accusing organizers of selfishly hurting the interests of the poor farmers who supplied Theo its cocoa. “You can’t imagine how hard life is in Africa—your situation pales in comparison to theirs,” the ILRF report quotes one senior manager telling a union supporter.

I didn’t know any of this, I’m ashamed to say. But it’s several years in the past. It’s relevant again because:

And that gets to the heart of the Teamsters’ and the ILRF’s complaint: That Theo management mounted a concerted union avoidance campaign in the midst of its free trade certification process, an international standard that explicitly recognizes the right of workers to “form a trade union of their own choosing and to bargain collectively.” The same rights that the “Fair for Life” logo on its chocolate bars proclaims for its African cocoa farmers, Theo fought to deny the workers in its Seattle factory.

Poetic Justice

by Carl Ballard — Friday, 2/15/13, 10:59 am

I wish the GOP weren’t blocking Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense. It’s a bad precedent in its own right. And, oh by the way, we’re trying to wind down America’s longest war in ways that could be quite difficult. I’m not saying we’re at war should mean that anybody gets through the process. But it certainly shouldn’t mean the GOP invents new ways to dick around.

For the very first time in American history, a cabinet nominee was brought to the Senate floor, filibustered by a minority of members, and came up short of 60 votes.

Former Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, President Obama’s choice to lead the Defense Department, faced fierce opposition from members of own party, and ultimately earned the support of 59 senators, which was one shy of what he needed to advance. (The Senate Majority Leader, for procedural reasons, had to switch his vote, so Hagel technically ended up with 58 votes.)

It appeared as recently as last week to have the necessary support to be confirmed, even in the event of a filibuster, but several GOP senators who said they’d allow an up-or-down vote changed their minds in recent days.

So sure, be upset with the process. Be upset that bullshit beats out facts. Be upset for the republic. But don’t be upset for Chuck Hagel.

The same take something out of context and use it to delay and obstruct tactic that has been used on Hagel is noting new in Washington, of course. And it was nothing new when Hagel was in the Senate, but the GOP advanced the tactic quite a bit with one ambassador in particular. When James Hormel was appointed by Bill Clinton to be the ambassador in Luxembourg, even though it was almost the 21st century, some Senators opposed him simply because he was gay. But others took an out of context clip of him laughing as the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence walked by. I remember watching the clip at the time and thinking even in context it seemed fine.

Had Chuck Hagel pointed out that there was nothing wrong, maybe Hormel would have got a vote in the full Senate. Instead he pushed the bullshit line about how Catholics would be offended by laughter and/or gayness and made sure that people don’t pay a price for taking nonsense out of context. If that has come back to hurt Hagel, well that’s one of the few instances of poetic justice in real life. Too bad it had to hurt the rest of the country.

Sick and Unsafe

by Carl Ballard — Thursday, 2/14/13, 6:26 pm

Oh hey! Remember last week when I was called an elitist in the comments of a post where I said that Seattle isn’t the overspending hellhole that many in the state legislature imagine, because I turned the arguments against Seattle on one of those legislators? It turns out what elitist means now is that Seattle has a paid sick leave and safe leave law. Because that’s the I-Hate-Seattle group’s latest target in the legislature.

Senate Bill 5728 would take Seattle’s law off the books by declaring that the Legislature has the sole responsibility for sick-leave requirements. Senate Bill 5726 would scale back Seattle’s law by prohibiting cities from requiring sick leave for employers based outside the city.

Both bills were introduced Tuesday by Centralia Republican John Braun and are supported by Senate Majority [sic] Leader [sic] Rodney Tom, D [sic]-Medina.

No Seattle senators have signed on.

FYI, the Seattle law applies to people who work in Seattle. So if a Bellevue (or out of state???) company has a Seattle branch, they won’t count under the first bill. Both bills are clearly just to punish Seattle for being decent to people who work here. When this — or the parking rate hikes or the head tax or, or, or — pass, local governments in the rest of the state say how they’re going to poach jobs. Now Senators from the rest of the state are putting the lie to that.

But buried in the hatred of Seattle there is a good idea. I’m all for the state getting into the sick leave and safe leave business. If there was a companion bill to make the Seattle requirements statewide, then that would be awesome! But now they’re saying people working in Medina or Centralia who have to work sick or after an case of domestic violence won’t even be able to petition their local governments.

To be clear, while the Seattle Times piece doesn’t mention it, the bill also preempts Seattle’s paid safe leave. According to Seattle’s FAQ on the law (bold in the text):

An employee can use safe leave for the following reasons:

An employee’s place of business has been closed by order of a public official to limit exposure to an infectious agent, biological toxin or hazardous material.

An employee needs to care for a child whose school or place of care has been closed by order of a public health official to limit exposure to an infectious agent, biological toxin or hazardous material.

For reasons related to domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking that affect the employee or the employee’s family member.

Rodney Tom, John Braun, and the rest of the GOP Senate should be demanding those employee protections for the whole state. Instead they’re trying to take it away from people who have been sexual assaulted or stalked who work in Seattle. I get that they hate Seattle, but this is too far.

You can find Tom and Braun at the link (if you want to contact them, the form is kind of a hassle, and you have to make up an address if they don’t represent you so FYI, it’s firstname.lastname@leg.wa.gov). And you can find your legislator here.

Open Thread 2/14

by Carl Ballard — Thursday, 2/14/13, 8:01 am

– Happy Valentines Day. The only saint’s day where you don’t say “saint” in front of their name, I think. I blame the massacre for that.

– Can we enact mild signature gathering reforms now that there’s evidence of signature gathering fraud?

– Rubio has fallen victim to one of the classic economic blunders. It’s called Say’s Law, and it’s not, in fact, a law. It’s more like a guideline. The idea is that supply creates its own demand, which is true enough during booms, but not so during busts.

– Seattle’s failure to embrace transit-oriented development, even when bribed to do so by a corporate entity to whom they pretty much never say “no,” continues to be maddeningly counterproductive.

– Currently, Washington sends approximately $15 billion each year to out of state oil and gas companies. With a booming clean energy economy, those dollars could be invested with Washington companies to create Washington jobs. States and regions with climate policies in place have seen strong growth in their clean energy economies, including California and New England.

– Loved reading about these Negro Leagues players, especially Hilton Smith.

Wives, Mothers, & Daughters

by Carl Ballard — Wednesday, 2/13/13, 5:08 pm

I’m glad for the policies that Obama embraces when he uses the phrase Wives, Mothers, & Daughters. The Violence Against Women Act and Paycheck Fairness are crucial steps forward.

But we can’t stop there. We know our economy is stronger when our wives, our mothers, our daughters can live their lives free from discrimination in the workplace, and free from the fear of domestic violence. Today, the Senate passed the Violence Against Women Act that Joe Biden originally wrote almost 20 years ago. And I now urge the House to do the same. (Applause.) Good job, Joe. And I ask this Congress to declare that women should earn a living equal to their efforts, and finally pass the Paycheck Fairness Act this year. (Applause.)

Yay for those policies! Still, when we watched that part of the State of the Union at Drinking Liberally, I asked Darryl if Obama realized that women were watching the speech too. That phrasing makes it sounds like the women who’ll benefit from the VAWA and the Paycheck Fairness Act aren’t listening.

I’m sure it polls and focus groups well, but it’s not as inclusive as it ought to be. So I’m glad to see that Melissa McEwan has started a petition to ask the president not to use that particular phrase.

Defining women by their relationships to other people is reductive, misogynist, and alienating to women who do not define ourselves exclusively by our relationships to others. Further, by referring to “our” wives et al, the President appears to be talking to The Men of America about Their Women, rather than talking to men AND women.

Please embrace inclusive language, Mr. President.

The best of Rubio

by Darryl — Wednesday, 2/13/13, 2:40 pm

Think of this as a compilation of the highlights from Rubio’s SOTU response….

The only flaw comes at the end. Isn’t that exit-smile bizarre?

(Via slog)

SOTU open thread

by Darryl — Tuesday, 2/12/13, 5:27 pm

For once, I arrived at the Montlake Ale House with time to spare. We now have MSNBC on the tube, and are awaiting the end of the Tweety show and the start of SOTU coverage.

I am hoping some of my co-bloggers will show up and contribute to this thread (naturally, we didn’t plan anything in advance).

Have at it with all things SOTU in this comment thread.

5:59: Now that Obama is done with the final election of his life, I hope he uses this SOTU address to come clean about his BIRTH CERTIFICATE!

6:12: My prediction: At some point during the address, Justice Alito jumps up and yells, “You lie!.”

6:14: [N in Seattle]: It ought to be a good speech…today isn’t his anniversary….

6:16: “Tonight, thanks to the grit of the American people” [and no thanks whatsoever to the do-nothing House] “there has been much progress.”

6:19: There is a glistening in Boehner eyes. Obama will bring him to tears any minute now.

6:25: Biden seems to be working on his tax returns while listening to the adress.

6:27: [Carl] John Boehner and the Republicans refused to agree. Why do they hate the full faith and credit of the United States???

6:31: [Carl] The 4-freedoms speech was that greatest SOTU address ever, and it had only 3 or 4 applause breaks.

6:32: [N in Seattle] There would have been more if it had been on TeeVee.

6:38: [Darryl] Al Franken’s burden is that he cannot ever, ever smile in these types of occasions, lest people accuse him of being a comedian.

6:54: [Darryl] Did anyone notice the Boehner isn’t wearing a flag lapel pin? Why does he hate America?!?

7:13: [Darryl] Gawd…I hate the “anecdotes time” during these addresses.

7:28: Overheard at the Ale House: “When is the Republican response?” “Wait…didn’t we just hear the Republican address?”

7:30: Marco Rubio has the biggest ears I have ever seen on a human.

7:34: Somebody should clue Rubio in: When you repeat “Obama’s plan to grow the government” over and over again and throw out terms like “Obama’s obsession with raising taxes,” people recognize that you are engaging in political mud-slinging rather than presenting any serious point.

7:40: Water! I need WATER!

7:50: No luck finding the Rand Paul teabagger response on the tube. How tragic.

A special SOTU-watching Drinking Liberally tonight

by Darryl — Tuesday, 2/12/13, 4:05 pm

This evening President Obama will deliver his State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress. So please join us at the Montlake Ale House for a SOTU-watching party at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally .

For this week only, we will meet at 5:30 pm (PDT). Obama’s address is scheduled to begin at 6:00 pm. Liveblogging will ensue.

For many people, this is also an election day, so deal with your ballot first. Make sure it will be postmarked today, or else find a drop box.

We meet every Tuesday at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Our regular starting time is 8:00, but we will move that up this week for the SOTU address.

The Ale House will have TV coverage of the address, and reasonable audio levels. But bring your own radio and headphones (or ear buds) if you want to concentrate on the SOTU—there will be the normal high background noise of an active pub. Also, there is free WiFi available for streaming the audio. Ask your server for the WiFi password.

Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out one of the other DL meetings over the next week. Tonight the Tri-Cities and Vancouver, WA chapters meet. On Wednesday, the Bellingham chapter meets. On Thursday Drinking Liberally Bremerton meets. Finally, next Monday, the Aberdeen, Yakima and Olympia chapters meet.

With over 200 chapters of Living Liberally, including fourteen in Washington state, four in Oregon, and two more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter that meets near you.

Open Thread 2/12

by Carl Ballard — Tuesday, 2/12/13, 8:02 am

– Everybody with a special election ballot, get it postmarked or dropped off by today.

– Cheney is a jobless former vice president who’s been wrong about everything, and who has criticized Obama since before he became president. That he’s still hailed as a newsmaker tells us only bad things about the news industry.

– Is Tim Sheldon’s wife really upset that the Democrats aren’t going to fundraise for him anymore? I don’t know what’s awesomer that she wants to defend her being a Democrat in the same paragraph as she quotes Sarah Palin, or the obnoxious sexism.

– We have a new King County Council member.

– More Biblical families.

– I feel like it says something about our conversation at the moment that lower costs of health care aren’t in and of themselves as important a story (and headline writer in particular) as the deficit.

– Yum

Getting a Fix

by Lee — Monday, 2/11/13, 10:08 pm

Dominic Holden writes about two King County Sheriff’s Deputies going through some withdrawal:

A man is being charged with a felony for selling $5 worth of marijuana to undercover officers, King County Superior Court records show, even though he never offered to sell any pot in the first place. Only after being lured with cash did the defendant agree to sell a joint.

According to records filed in January by the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s office, the incident began when two King County Sheriff’s deputies—Officer Escobar and Officer Schwab—boarded a Metro line last July in Tukwila for “a covert bus ride.” A 51-year-old black man who will remain nameless had also boarded the bus and struck up a “casual conversation” with one of the officers. That officer spontaneously brought up the subject of pot: “Detective Schwab told [the man] he was looking for marijuana.” According the the report, the man asked how much marijuana the undercover officer wanted (it must be noted that this part of the report seems odd, because, as you will see, the man shows no interest in selling marijuana nor has marijuana packaged for sale). After Detective Schwab said he wanted to buy $20 worth of pot, the man “told Detective Schwab that he only had a joint.” But the man did not offer to sell the joint, rather, he “offered to share it with Detective Schwab at the next bus stop,” the report continues. “Detective Schwab declined to smoke with him but offered to purchase the marijuana cigarette from him to smoke later.”

Finally, the man “agreed” to sell his joint for $5, the report explains, and officers arrested him. He reportedly told them that he “does not sell drugs and was only going to use the money to get to Tacoma.”

I-502 was supposed to force police officers to go cold turkey on the war on pot, but apparently some officers still can’t kick the habit.

UPDATE: In the comments, “Moderate Man” points out that the arrest was pre-502 (last July)

Thank God for Maria Cantwell

by Carl Ballard — Monday, 2/11/13, 8:01 pm

It’s strangely sectional, but I love it when the national media notice Washington people in Congress (for good things; it’s the worst when it’s for something awful). So I’m glad to see The Raw Story notice how ably Maria Cantwell handled the stupid arguments against the tribal portions of Violence Against Women Act (h/t).

Cantwell noted that Native American women experience domestic violence and sexual assault at a rate far above the national average.

“However, less than 50 percent of the domestic violence cases in Indian country are prosecuted because of a gap in our legal system,” she explained on the Senate floor. “This isn’t about politics. This isn’t about a debate on what is a good way to win votes somewhere in America. This is about the life or death of women who need a better system to help prosecute those who are committing serious crimes against them.”

[…]

Cantwell denied the tribal provisions would violate the constitutional rights of U.S. citizens. She noted the U.S. Department of Justice would partner with tribal courts and non-tribal Americans would have the ability to appeal their case to a federal court. The legislation also specifically prohibits tribal courts from violating Americans’ rights.