The following are a few snippets of news spanning about three days around March 1, 2011. And April Fool's isn't even here yet!
Let's Bring Back Child Labor
"Enter State Senator Jane Cunningham, who may or may not be some sort of teahadist right wing muppet, from St. Louis County, Missouri. This insane person sponsored a bill in the Missouri State Senate, referred to as SB 222:
"SB 222 – This act modifies the child labor laws. It eliminates the prohibition on employment of children under age fourteen. Restrictions on the number of hours and restrictions on when a child may work during the day are also removed. It also repeals the requirement that a child ages fourteen or fifteen obtain a work certificate or work permit in order to be employed. Children under sixteen will also be allowed to work in any capacity in a motel, resort or hotel where sleeping accommodations are furnished. It also removes the authority of the director of the Division of Labor Standards to inspect employers who employ children and to require them to keep certain records for children they employ.
"Well gosharoonies, it kinda sounds like State Senator Muppet is proposing that Missouri eliminate all child labor laws! But that couldn't possibly be - WAIT! HOLY SHIT!
"SHE IS PROPOSING TO ELIMINATE ALL CHILD LABOR LAWS!!
"Good news, Timmy! You don't have to go to school today, because today you'll be making dresses at Uncle Billy's Garment Factory!!"
**********
Newly minted teabagger Hard Right GOP Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) recently opined that federal child labor laws are unconstitutional:
ThinkProgress:
". . . . In that case, the Supreme Court acknowledged something very interesting — that, as reprehensible as child labor is, and as much as it ought to be abandoned — that’s something that has to be done by state legislators, not by Members of Congress. [...]
"This may sound harsh, but it was designed to be that way. It was designed to be a little bit harsh."
**********
And Abolish The Minimum Wage
"ABC News' Jonathan Karl reports: He relentlessly hammers Joe Manchin's ties to President Obama, but the Republican candidate for Senate in West Virginia is also taking aim at the policies of another Democratic President: Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
"John Raese's beef with FDR? The minimum wage, first signed into law by FDR as part of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.
"'The minimum wage is something that FDR put in place a long time ago during the Great Depression,' Raese told ABC News Top Line. 'I don't think it worked then. It didn't solve any problems then and it hasn't solved any problems in 50 years.'"
"More Raese: 'The minimum wage is not something that you want to stay on as a permanent basis. For example, if you have a minimum wage job, you don't stay there 20 or 30 years. You don't put your children through college working on minimum wage. One of the best things I can say, when you get the government out of micromanaging the economy -- you don't want government to set price controls, you don't want government to set wage controls. It's an archaic system that frankly has not worked.'"
"Asked if the federally mandated minimum wage should be abolished, Raese answered, 'Absolutely.'"
**********
Only Property Owners Should Have The Vote -- As The Founders Intended!
"Meet Maniac Judson Philips. This maniac is the President of the Tea Party Nation, one of the largest organizations in the disparate web of crazy known as the Tea Party. It was the Tea Party Nation that recently organized the National Tea Party Convention and paid Sarah Palin $100,000.00 to speak. I ain't shitting you, this Maniac, Judson Phillips, recently came out in favor of returning to the days when only landowners could vote:
"'The Founding Fathers originally said, they put certain restrictions on who got the right to vote. It wasn’t you were just a citizen and you automatically got to vote. Some of their restrictions, you know, you obviously would not think about today. But one of them was you had to be a property owner. And that makes a lot of sense, because if you’re a property owner you actually have a vested stake in the community.'"
**********
Bill Gates: These Guys Would Make Enron Blush
LONG BEACH, Calif. -- During a second appearance onstage at the annual TED conference, Bill Gates spoke out against worsening state budget deficits caused by accounting "tricks" he said would make Enron's former executives blush.
The Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist said state budgets have received a puzzling lack of scrutiny and have been "riddled with gimmicks" aimed at deferring or disguising the true costs of public employees' health care and pension obligations, citing California's ongoing budget crisis as an example of creative deficit spending and the subsequent cuts to education spending as an unacceptable cost.
"Really, when you get down to it, the guys at Enron never would have done this. This is so blatant, so extreme," Gates said of state governments' accounting practices generally. "Is anyone paying attention to some of the things these guys do? They borrow money -- they're not supposed to, but they figure out a way -- they make you pay more in withholding to help their cash flow, they sell off the assets, they defer the payments, they sell off the revenues from tobacco."
**********
First, Let's Kill All the Abortion Doctors
A law under consideration in South Dakota would expand the definition of "justifiable homicide" to include killings that are intended to prevent harm to a fetus--a move that could make it legal to kill doctors who perform abortions. The Republican-backed legislation, House Bill 1171, has passed out of committee on a nine-to-three party-line vote, and is expected to face a floor vote in the state's GOP-dominated House of Representatives soon.
**********
Then Let's Kill All The Miscarriage Murderers
"A Georgia state representative known for his fringe politics has introduced a radical pro-life bill that not only calls for the nullification of Roe v. Wade, but also makes having a miscarriage a capital offense unless the mother can irrefutably prove that there was no human involvement whatsoever in the causation of such an event. Laced with misogyny, insensitivity, and pseudo-science, Representative Bobby Franklins House Bill 1 (HB1) could be considered ridiculous, if it was not just the latest episode in a frightening turn of right-wing pro-life extremism that targets pregnant women." [This the bozo who a few weeks ago proposed a bill that would end drivers' licenses -- a government infringement on a citizen's God-given right to use the highways.]
"HB1 rationalizes that, because Georgia has the duty to protect all innocent life from the moment of conception until natural death, the failure of an inseminated egg to come to term should fall under suspicion as an act of prenatal murder. So, if Franklin has his way, hospitals would be mandated to report every miscarriage (which, he points out, is known medically as spontaneous abortion) to the local police, who would then somehow ascertain the cause of the miscarriage. The burden of proof, in other words, would be placed on the woman who might be mourning the loss of her pregnancy."
**********
Then Let's Kill The Unions
"While much of the nation’s attention remains focused on a stalled proposal in Wisconsin to restrict collective bargaining rights for public workers, an Ohio measure that in some ways is tougher and broader is speeding toward reality.
"A Senate panel and then the full chamber approved the Ohio measure Wednesday amid jeers from onlookers. The bill would restrict the collective bargaining rights of roughly 350,000 teachers, firefighters, police officers and other public employees, while Wisconsin’s would affect about 175,000 workers and exempt police and firefighters.
"Republicans hold a 59-40 majority in the House, where the measure is likely to receive strong support.
"The Ohio bill would ban strikes by public workers and establish penalties for those who do participate in walkouts. State workers in Wisconsin are already prohibited from striking.
"Unionized workers in Ohio could negotiate wages, hours and certain work conditions — but not health care, sick time or pension benefits. The measure would do away with automatic pay raises, and would base future wage increases on merit.
"Wisconsin’s measure would forbid most government workers from collectively bargaining except over wage increases that aren’t beyond the rate of inflation. Police and firefighters would be exempt.
"Ohio’s legislation would also set up a new process to settle worker disputes, giving elected officials the final say in contract disagreements. Binding arbitration, which police officers and firefighters use to resolve contract disputes as an alternative to strikes, would be eliminated.
"The bill would allow public workers except police and firefighters to bargain only for wages. It would require them to pay 5.8 percent of their pension costs -- they pay nothing now -- and 12 percent of health-care premiums, up from 6 percent, Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald said in a telephone interview. [The unions have agreed to take these cuts; all they want is to be allowed to keep their bargaining rights.]
"Walker, a Republican elected last year, proposed the measure in response to a projected deficit of $137 million in the current fiscal year ... [this is March 1. The Republicans took office in January. Walker immediately enacted into law $117 million of tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy.] ... and $3.6 billion in the next biennium. The bill would allow the state to save $30 million in the current fiscal year and $300 million in the next biennium."
**********
Don't Show Up To Vote? Okay, I Guess That's a "No".
"The bill greatly narrows the focus of contract negotiations to cost-of-living pay increases. But some of the sleeper provisions include stopping unions from collecting dues with payroll deductions and from requiring members to pay dues.
"The bill also would force unions to ask members to vote every year on their certification and win the support of 51 percent of all members - not just a simple majority of those voting - to keep going. Other measures take aim at arbitration and contract lengths.
If the vote is 100% to recertify, but only 49% of total membership voted -- goodbye union.
**********
And On The Federal Level ...
"Union-busting isn't just for states:
"While labor activists continue to stage a high-stakes campaign against the budget bill from Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) that would strip collective bargaining rights from that state's public employees, union backers are feverishly working to derail what they describe as an equally troubling federal proposal with a clear route to passage.
"In recent days, union officials have ramped up lobbying efforts to block or remove language in the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill that would make it drastically harder for rail or aviation workers to unionize.
"Sponsored by House Transportation Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) -- a major recipient of campaign contributions from the airline industry, totaling more than $620,000 in his career -- the controversial provision states if an eligible voter fails to vote for union representation, he or she will be tallied as an active vote against representation.
**********
Where Was That Muslim Socialist Born?
"A new bill would require Barack Obama to provide proof of birth to get on Georgia ballot.
"State Rep. Mark Hatfield, R-Waycross, just handed me a copy of his new bill, HB 401, which would require President Barack Obama to provide certified proof of his birth to the Georgia secretary of state in order to appear on next year’s presidential primary and general election ballots.
"The bill has the signatures of 94 members of the 180-member House, including that of one Democrat, Glenn Baker of Jonesboro. The measure will get its first hearing on Wednesday.
0 comments:
Post a Comment