Politics
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- ukit0
You're right, workers need something to work on...can't argue with that logic. Workers work. That's what they do.
- johndiggity0
i think unions were useful once upon a time, but there's so much transparency in today's world. anybody with a cell phone camera could bring down a major company, or at the very least severely tarnish it's image. unions today only subsist as a function of ensuring their own survival. they are lobbying organizations without and industry of their own anymore.
- ukit0
Unions aren't there to function mainly as whistle blowers, they are there to represent the interests of the workforce and fight for better rights, higher salary etc.
I just don't buy the idea that once you take away the rights of workers and hand it all to the management, it results in a better deal for everyone.
- ********0
REPUBLICANS ACCOMPLISHMENT IN OBAMA'S FIRST 100 DAYS
GOP Summary: First 100 Days
Mon, 04/27/2009 - 12:24pm — Kelly Thomas
Just reflecting on the first 100 days and wondering what the Republican Party accomplished...I'd say it's been a very productive time, huh? Here's what I came up with. Am I missing anything major? On a serious note, I really had hope that the GOP would try to work with the president on at least some important issues, but I have been disappointed on all levels.
- Released a budget plan with no numbers
- Criticized then immediately apologized profusely to Rush Limbaugh
- Helped states plan to secede from the union
- Attempted to refuse federal stimulus money in states with the highest unemployment
- Held teaparty protests to protest a tax cut
- Crticized the President for smiling too much, shaking hands of world leaders and working well with others
- Identified themselves as right wing extremists
- Elected first African American RNC leader, who announce plans for an "off the hook" "hip hop" outreach effort
- Criticized President for not being "bipartisan" because he would not do what they said
- Defended torture passionately
- Unleashed Dick Cheney from his undisclosed location
Added by a SH: More accomplishments:
Can we add---Gov. Perry after suggesting Seccession now wants the Feds to help him with Medical Aid for swine flu.
-Senator Collins from Maine, voted for the Stimulus Package ONLY after Stripping money for Health Care specifically under Pandemic Aid.- Here is another list you might be want to read: http://online.wsj.co…tommyo
- designbot0
ukit, with all do respect, that's a huge stretch to somehow attribute the lack of "kids working in factories for pennies a day" can somehow be partially credited to unions.
- lazerbass0
these companies are killing themselves intentionally and watching the unions and regular workers lives go to shit.
- it's the other way around really.johndiggity
- err....yeah unions control wallstreetlazerbass
- unions control the big 3, and as such, the american auto industry.johndiggity
- haha...yeah thats it all the power is in the unions handslazerbass
- ukit0
^ haha designbot, with all due respect, you are 100% wrong.
In fact, there was child labor (often working in brutal conditions) in the U.S. up to the 30s and it was the labor movement and Democrats like FDR that overturned it.
- zenmasterfoo0
Gitmo stays open.
- designbot0
I'm not arguing your point there. My comment was in the context of modern day unions though....If unions disappeared completely do you suppose there would be children today in the U.S. working in sweatshops for pennies a day? That is what I was saying was a huge stretch.
- DrBombay0
To think unions killed those companies is amazing... Lack of innovation killed those companies. Gas goes to 4 bucks and most of the vehicles get 15 miles to the gallon is more like it.
- combination of many issues, unions included. They are part of the equation, like it or not.zenmasterfoo
- So is the fact of no national health care. Like that or not.DrBombay
- ukit0
designbot, the unions act as a check against the people at the top who already have power...take away the power of collective bargaining and obviously the companies will try to maximize their profits, and in general that means reducing people's wages, benefits etc.
No you won't see child labor laws overturned tomorrow but over time they will whittle away at those rights. Why wouldn't they?
- IRNlun60
Wow, looks like it's been a good day for the politics tread.
In my opinion, saying that the UAW or management alone caused the demise of the American auto industry is really not looking at the big picture. Economic pressures aside, failure to adapt to a changing industry was a collective failure by both parties.
- PonyBoy0
dobs is right... unions didn't kill the companies...
... he's also correct on the lack of innovation - totally agree... :)
Ask yourself why Nissan and Honda (foreign of course) have been rather quiet... and even Ford seems to be holding up a little better than their domestic competitors... seems to me that it truly comes down to the product.
My only qualm w/the UAA is the fact they now run 55% of Chrysler... they're not doing Chrysler any good for it's owners or workers if you're focus is on the worker first - the focus should be on the market and if you have a product that people want and it turns you a profit... but god forbid w/talk 'profit' these days... ;)
- TheBlueOne0
An ancillary bit of linkage here; One of my favorite fantasy novelists, Steven Brust, has been rereading Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations" for the last week or so, and blogging a running commentary on his readings. Mr. Brust is a pretty sharp and astute fellow, and an actual committed Communist and Labor guy (his family has deep roots going back over close to a century in the midwest Labor movements). So it's been fascinating watch him realize what Smith picked up on and what he missed writing well over two centuries ago, at the beginnings of our modern capitalist system. I think he's actually quite surprised by how modern Smith is, and the stuff Smith tends to miss are those things which weren't around in his time. If this interests you at all - i.e. a premier fantasy commie novelist deconstructing Adam Smith, then it's a really fun read:
- ********0
Big Government unanimously kick credit-card companies, and responsible credit-card holders in their collective private parts.
FUCK ME! Well done, "Big Brother"!!!
- TheBlueOne0
Oh please. Credit card companies are fucking usuary bastards. I was carrying a balance on one for about a year now, despite having the cash to pay it off in a lump sum. So when I got my tax refund back a month ago, I paid off 90% of it. I get a letter in the mail yesterday that they're RAISING my interest rate, so I called them and said "WTF? Never had a late payment, ever, never missed a payment..and now you raise my rates to like 18%?" Friendly customer service rep says "Due to recent activity on your account we are adjusting your rates..."
"What recent activity?"
And all she could do was repeat the same phrase, so I was like "So, you mean because I'm paying down the balance, you don't like that, so you're raising the rates?"
"Sir, due to recent activity on your account we are adjusting your rates.."
I told the bitch to close the account and expect a check for full payment due by weeks end. And then she said their might additional be "fees for making an abrupt payment to close out the account."
Fucking unreal these companies. Cash only from here on out.
- funny thing is if you threaten them with cancellation, more often than not they'll adjust your rate favorably.zenmasterfoo
- i have a pile of cash and no credit. sucks. you gotta pay to play unfortunatelyversion3
- Yeah. I like my Amex though. No balance on that.TheBlueOne
- All you need credit for is a house and a car.DrBombay
- Plane tickets too...TheBlueOne
- I use my debit card.DrBombay
- you can use debit to rent cars, construction equip, everything now.DrBombay
- true thatTheBlueOne
- ********0
- No, no..Allen Keyes...so it's um...carry the one...Two.TheBlueOne
- TheBlueOne0
Well, this is interesting (choice excerpts):
"A high-powered group of senior Republicans and Democrats led two missions to China in the final months of the Bush administration for secret backchannel negotiations aimed at securing a deal on joint US-Chinese action on climate change, the Guardian has learned....
"My sense is that we are now working towards something in the fall," said Bill Chandler, director of the energy and climate programme at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the driving force behind the talks. "It will be serious. It will be substantive, and it will happen."
The dialogue also challenges the conventional wisdom that George Bush's decision to pull America out of the Kyoto climate change treaty had led to paralysis in the administration on global warming, and that China was unwilling to contemplate emissions cuts at a time of rapid economic growth."
- ukit0
HAHAHAHA...
- LOLOLOL********
- he's in the press a lot lately. but his views are backwards thinking. he doesn't offer solutions for anything.zenmasterfoo
- but he speaks the truth.********
- and if I could murder one person on the planet and get away with it.... It's Hannity,********
- He sounds a lot more sane to me than most politiciansukit
- God Hannity is such a cunt.tommyo
- LOLOLOL
- TheBlueOne0
This is the shit that steams me:
"More than one in four members of President George W. Bush's Cabinet have landed jobs with consulting or lobbying firms in which they can help clients navigate the departments they once oversaw, a USA TODAY analysis shows.
Michael Chertoff, who served as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) until January, launched a consulting business two months ago to provide "risk-management advice" to private companies and governments. His predecessor, Tom Ridge, also is a security and crisis-management consultant."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/was…
e.g. Ashcroft is working for companies that his own Dept. of Justice brought anti-trust charges against.
And while this is citing recent Bush admin people, both parties are equally guilty of this. This collusion between the private sector and insider knowledge of government is just a giant "fuck you" to us..
- and the current administrations lobbyist heavy core does as well, yes?zenmasterfoo
- *And you could hear a pin drop.********
- Did both of you not read my last paragraph?TheBlueOne
- "both parties are equally guilty of this" -TheBlueOneIRNlun6