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The bad news is that the Employee Free Choice Act, which Tula has been writing about in her labor column so effectively, failed to achieve cloture and get a floor vote in the Senate today. The Republicans (every mother-lovin’ one of ‘em, save Arlen Specter) voted against it.
The good news: The Democrats held together on an issue very important not only to labor, but to the party’s identity as supporters of American workers.
Kos:
How often do you see Landrieu and the Nelsons voting with their party on something like this? It’s quite a beautiful sight, actually.
As for Republican “moderates”, once again we see that Oregon’s Smith, Minnesota’s Coleman, New Hampshire’s Sununu, and Maine’s Collins all sided against the rights of workers to organize.
This should be something that bears repeating over and over again as elections roll around. When push comes to shove, the Republicans are a bunch of crooks and pedophiles who really don’t give a happy hootie about workers. The Democrats do. It really is as simple as that.
And remember to work those dialing fingers for habeas, ladies and germs:
1 (800) 828 – 0498
1 (800) 459 – 1887
1 (800) 614 – 2803
1 (866) 340 – 9281
1 (866) 338 – 1015
1 (877) 851 – 6437
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bada bing
Not good for workers.
We deserve better.
Predictably, red state Republican Senators backed by an alliance of business groups led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce prevented the measure from coming to a vote. Which is too bad. After all, from wages and benefits to job opportunities and collective bargaining rights, it is red state workers who need EFCA most.
For the details, see:
“Red States Opposing Employee Free Choice Act Need It Most.”
Well said Jane!!
Nice post Jane. It seems that the repubs only respect the right to vote (purple fingers) or work (Saddam bad) abroad.
shorter gbear: Coleman sucks.
Wonderful to see the dems sticking together! This is an issue that will ring-a-ling with voters and help improve our majority.
Actually, I would expect votes like this from folks like Collins, Sununu, and other so-called “moderates” on a worker’s rights topic.
Votes like this are consistent with the old line Republicans that these folks use as their role models. Republicans have rarely been on the side of the worker, no matter how “moderate” they may be on other topics. Screw the worker has been a driving force for them as long as I can remember.
haha. EPU’d and still on topic:
TiredFed @ 136
LS, classy ZED you got there! Has anyone seen lolo on the threads lately?
Wow. I’ve call Sen. Kohl’s office before, but never have I felt the urgency on the other end to get me off the line ASAP because they are being swamped with calls. I’ve never, ever, been placed on hold. If you call, please mention that both Senators from MI and IL have cosponsored, as well as Feingold. Ask them to take your name and address if you’re from WI and ask for a letter in response.
After all that, no commitment to cosponsor, however just a thank you for the call. Typical response, or non-response, from Kohl’s office. I’ll be seeing him at the state convention this weekend.
O/T
Elizabeth Edwards just berated Ann Coulter by phone for her hateful speech and personal attacks. Some applause from the audience. Ann says she wants her to just stop writing and talking altogether and Matthews pointed out she was only asking her to stop the hate speech. Re: ask me about my dead son bumper sticker, Ann asks why John didn’t come out to defend himself and Elizabeth says I’m the mother of that dead son you made fun of.
Caller question: anything you ever regret writing or saying? None, except for praising GWB on the amnesty bill.
AZ Matt @ 121
This links to pressesc.com which has the following:
Except for the “unexplained affluence”, my Firedog Colleagues seem to exhibit all the “indicators”.
che @ 11
Yeah, my post about Kohl took forever to type because I couldn’t get over the Edwards/Sheman parlay. I keep wanting to say Anne was on the defensive for that segment, but with no remorse, no feeling of guilt and no sense of shame, there is nothing to be defensive about.
After commercial break, it seems they shifted the woman in the white top from behind Anne.
OT – but whoever T.A. Frank is, he/she is trying to stir the pot with a fishy little piece called “Journalists are still missing the DOJ Story.” I.e., maybe Fitz brought an indictment (of Antoin Rezko) too close to last November’s election, in order to (like Steven Biskupic) get taken off the purge list.
In this case, there are two reasons why journalists have dropped the ball. The first is that Fitzgerald enjoys a reputation for fairness and incorruptibility. But part of what the attorney scandal has shown is that even decent attorneys can be pressured into pursuing the wrong cases.
[Really? Has it shown that?]
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories…..8897.shtml
OT sort of.. Addington is rebuking Kerry about Cheney and secret documents.. Now Addington will have trouble traveling abroad without being tried in the world courts is rebuking Kerry who can travel freely. Sometimes I feel like a bat living in an upside down world.
re: Bustedknuckles @ 2
We are better than this….
re: che @ 12
Word to Ann Coulter. We are better than this….
you go, Elizabeth Edwards!
Wow, go Elizabeth Edwards. Here in Atlanta we don’t get MSNBC unless we pay extra.. So I appreciate the comments.
alas, after 35 years a union person, this has always been so. and this is the one thing that has always made me wonder about. How could the voters that are members of a union vote for anyone other than their candidate? Is it just the ignorance on the issues with this average union voter?
Because there has never been anyone more thankful than the GOP when Bobby Kennedy stepped in and put the government’s foot on the crime being perpetrated by corrupt unions. If they had been able to take credit for that, it would have been legendary. They have always done everything possible to destroy union rights, and as a sequel, any human rights.
is it ignorance or is it stupidity? It is hard now to try to draw a conclusion when this level of ignorance seems to be more like the people of Germany declared for all the world to hear after they found out about the ovens used to kill the unwanted millions of people. They didn’t know this was going on?
too many americans know about the killing and the dead. not enough seem to care yet. We are just coming close to the million dead mark, so it is such a small crime by comparison
Workers: You have the power to bring the Republican party to it’s knees. Imagine. Workers, women, progressives, people of color, retirees, the poor, the middle class, the disabled, the young and others all working together.
Loo Hoo. @ 10
Not for a while..???
Workers of America. Unite. Strike just one Sunday a month.
Atrios has Libby news:
“Saw a quick flash on the teevee at the gym that Scooter may get his answer from the appeals court soon about whether he gets to stay out of jail pending appeal. Guess the conservative protection racket in that court decided to look at the case quickly.”
OT-
Coulter on Hardball: “Social Security needs to be destroyed root and branch.”
JPL @ 5
And give H1-A visas (i think this is the one) to corporations so they don’t have to hire Americans. Have you been following the reports of phony newspaper classified ads for tech workers, and the law firm that advises employers how to avoid hiring US workers.
More Sheman-
On Reupblican candidates- doesn’t seem to have a clear favorite, but likes Duncan Hunter. Evasive on Guiliani and Fred Thompson. IMO she’s just covering herself in case they do become president (haha) and she has to kiss up and defend them agains the evil liberals.
Caller question: why don’t you go join the Army.
Ann: I don’t think giving me a little gun will help win the war, besides Democrats don’t want to use that argument with me. They won’t win. (ya right)
What a piece of work she is.
We are going to break the back of the GOP.
AP – Sen. George Voinovich said Tuesday the U.S. should begin pulling troops out of Iraq, joining Richard Lugar as the second Republican lawmaker in as many days to suggest President Bush’s war strategy is failing.
Forgot to add-
Matthews asks if she thinks Romney is sincere on his pro-life position
Ann says I’d rather have a candidate who isn’t sincere about pro-life than on who isn’t pro-life.
Sparkles the Iguana @ 15
Oh, there most definitely were cases where prosecutors were pressured — Biskupic’s prosecution of Georgia Thompson in WI, and the Siegelman case in AL, for two examples.
The story is a bright shiny object, though, aimed solely at Fitzgerald as part of the continuing pressure to “free Libby”. Why didn’t Frank cite other cases? Why so much material on one prosecutor alone? Why didn’t Frank ask whether the Rezko prosecution was a trade-off that permitted Fitzgerald to continue his work on the Plame case without additional pressure?
che @ 12
O/T
Elizabeth Edwards just berated Ann Coulter by phone for her hateful speech and personal attacks. Some applause from the audience. Ann says she wants her to just stop writing and talking altogether and Matthews pointed out she was only asking her to stop the hate speech. Re: ask me about my dead son bumper sticker, Ann asks why John didn’t come out to defend himself and Elizabeth says I’m the mother of that dead son you made fun of.
Caller question: anything you ever regret writing or saying? None, except for praising GWB on the amnesty bill.
I’m just imagining T-Rex gleefully watching Coultergeist, trying to narrow down the atrocity on which he’ll write tonight.
Oh, there most definitely were cases where prosecutors were pressured — Biskupic’s prosecution of Georgia Thompson in WI, and the Siegelman case in AL, for two examples.
But my point was that a decent attorney (which I take to mean an ethical one) wouldn’t allow him/herself to be pressured into pursuing bad cases.
Coulter vs. Edwards?
Oh my!
I love Edwards retort to C’s (that’s just an initial for her last name, not using a letter for a swear word, you understand) question re: John defending himself.
Just love it!
The first video question to Adolph Coltler was by Dr. Ben Marble.
We know him from his rather straightforward statement to Deadeye Dick Cheney in the Katrina aftermath.
“Go fuck yourself Mr. Cheney”.
-GSD
Sparkles the Iguana @ 31
I’d think this is a case that the Rethugs would WANT Fitz pursuing as Rezko is supposed to be close to Obama. And I think that if they’d actually tried to fire Fitz, it would have made the house of cards fall even earlier than it did…
And the Democratic front-runners remain silent. Sickening.
If workers voted in their own self interest, no Republics would be elected. However, workers don’t vote that way. Too often they are swayed by nonsense issues like gay marriage and flag burning.
The title says it all Jane, fantastic choice!
I cannot understand the average white republican voter. We know that he is less educated, earns less and more likely to be a blue collar worker than the average Democratic voter. So one would think that they would be sympathetic towards the plight of the working class.
I have a few ideas as to what makes the goopers so self-destructive. The first one is easy, a significant percentage of them believe that the messiah is within a year of his next visit.
jayt @ 30
I’m just imagining T-Rex gleefully watching Coultergeist, trying to narrow down the atrocity on which he’ll write tonight.
How can they give that fucking skank and hour and then have YAF punks ask her questions at the end?
I don’t deal with Matthews or Coulter. Among others. I’m not about to let “Hardball” count me in their ratings.
Raven,
You just called Ann a name. And I couldn’t have described her better…
I sure hope TRex Does bring that woman up tonight. It’ll be a slam-fest.
And, as much as I try to be a Pollyanna, I think it might be a faboulous cathartic brouhaha.
I’ll tell what the front runners are doing. They’re letting us do the lifting.
Ann Coulter is a parody act and not to be taken seriously. If everyone took that position, she would quickly fade from public consciousness.
So far, I’m straight, lived over fifty, have a gorgeous son from a beloved husband, don’t give a sh*t about your peeps though I’ve worn them well, and love you.
Fight for the restoration of habeas corpus, please. It’s a stylish Tea Party.
You only add to their ratings if you are in the specific group of people they count…do you know if you are? I mean are you a Nielsen entity?
David Horsey’s cartoon take on the Fourth Branch of Government
I give the Democrats very little credit for todays vote.. Cards are pure corporate overlord control mechanisms and should never have remained in this bill..
OKK
I wasn’t trying to be flip. When I worked at Warner Bros. TV Development and Current Programming, we got what they call Overnights…the Nielsen ratings and it was my understanding that there were chosen households whose tv watching contributed to the Numbers. Maybe it’s changed.
Jane, with your industry connections, do you know?
But, still OKK, you don’t have to watch. It’s OK! :)
Think Progress has the Edwards/Coulter knockdown for those of us that Comcast has decided that MSNBC is not worthy unless you pay more..
Badwater @ 35
Up above there was a comment about union members voting for Republicans. The kids needed me, and I forgot to reply to that one, so I’m glad you brought it up again. Worse than union members voting R, to me at least, is union teachers voting R.
It almost always comes down to NRA or “Right To Life” propaganda swaying them. After all that the Right have done to undermine public education and professional educators… it boggles the mind.
Score one for the good guys;
http://thinkprogress.org/
demi – I think the ratings game expanded quite a bit with placement of boxes and tivos on top of so many sets… they know more about what we watch than we do. (If you are like me and forget the darn thing is on half the time)
You can bet your bottom dollar its not on MSNBC today, until Olbertime..)
Bustednuckles @ 50
Ah, I bet Wordsmith was disappointed. I could tell this morning that she was so looking forward to the spectacle…
OfT – but jeez:
MIAMI (Reuters) – Osama bin Laden’s face and words loomed over the U.S. terrorism trial of former “dirty bomber” suspect Jose Padilla on Tuesday as jurors were shown a 10-year-old videotaped interview of the al Qaeda leader.
The three defendants are not accused of having any direct connection to bin Laden, and defense lawyers objected vigorously…
U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke told jurors to ignore it when deciding Padilla’s fate since there was no evidence he saw or discussed the interview.
Can you say “mistrial”? How about “reversed on appeal”?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/200…..padilla_dc
demi @ 47
You are correct, unless you were chosen by Nielson your viewing habits don’t make the ratings. Nobody is collecting data on what you are watching with the exception of Dick Chaney.
O/T and maybe covered on previous threads, but Meteor Blades over on DailyKos paid a nice tribure to Marcy Wheeler when he wrote,
Meteor Blades links to only one of Marcy’s essays, but Marcy’s been on fire over at TNH, so if you haven’t been there for a while, you’ve got a feast waiting there! Marcy’s been in the weeds again, looking under rocks and finding all manner of smarmy goins-on.
Bob in HI
OT – Ok, I’m really doing some sort of penance today, Tucker is on and I still haven’t changed the channel. The dichotomy of “Conservatives” detesting government control of health care while promoting government IDs really is something else. Watching Chertoff say that there is nothing wrong with National ID if it stops another 9/11. Even Tucker seemed to say that people have a right not to identify themselves but Chert (he’s a chip off the old block!) brought up those scary terrorists again.
jayt @ 53
How sick, what have we become..
These people are never going to vote for unions. The Republicans and all their class buddies in the Democratic party, albeit they voted correctly today, learned a very valuable lesson in Petersburg, 1917. You let the workers get together and pretty soon they’re talking to the soldiers, then they’re talking to the peasants and the small business owners and before you know it the nice posh life of a secure capitalist is gone because the corrupt system is shattered.
This assault picked up steam in the 70s when i was a Teamster and they never once stopped until they had decimated the union movement either by moving to right-to-work states or by moving the jobs themselves overseas until all we’re left with here are service jobs that are hard to organize because of frequent turnover in the work force.
I know I must sound like a broken record constantly going back to the Russian Revolution and I’m sorry, but just as Trotsky gets irritating comparing Russia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to fin de siecle France, everything that the Republicans and their business friends have done since the beginning of the 20th century can be traced back to lessons they learned from the Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917.
And, unfortunately, too many times, the Democrats resemble too closely the Kadet party, the Constitutional Democrats, who, every time the Social Democrats (later Bolsheviks) gained too much ground and actually threatened the establishment, turned right and became instruments of the reaction.
Look at Henry Jackson and the Southern Democrats during the 70s. They encouraged defense spending and feeding the military industrial complex beast, an entity Ike had warned us about, I actually think Ike had the Bush family and their friends in mind when he gave that speech.
As a group, we have to educate not only ourselves but our friends and our families in the importance of recognizing class in this country and how important it is to stop reaching for that Horatio Alger golden apple. It ain’t gonna happen for most but it’s as sure a way as using religion to keep people in line and stopping them from demanding changes that benefit all Americans not just the top 1/10%.
Even the things Cheney is doing with his secrecy hark back to Russia shortly after Stalin began his purge of the Bolshevik party and Trotsky was already in exile, back in 1924-5. Secrecy, terror attacks by supporters of the regime, laws that applied to everyone but the Dear Leader. These thugs running our government are well-versed in every principle of repression and I guarantee you, they’ve read Trotsky, Stalin, Lenin, Mao, Hitler, and every other person who has ever written about revolution.
Read Ed Luttwak’s book “Coup d’etat” and you’ll realize they have studied very thoroughly the ways of usurping a government surreptitiously. Then read “Report from Iron Mountain” and tell me it was a piece of fiction instead of an early warning on what was coming.
Sorry, I had to say it.
Screwing workers is job #1 for the Republicans..that is the main reason why Bush”s support for the immegraton bill is so fishy. Recently I read that the “guest worker” program has no provision for “comparable pay” for the 400-600 thousand “guest workers”. Sounds like legal sweat shops.
LS @ 21
I think I remember seeing lolo on the digby thread a few days ago iirc
demi @ 47
I understand. ;0)
on Lugar PBS Newshour now
Elliott @ 62
Sorry this is the time of night the important shows are on…the Simpsons.
james @ 63
Actually even though I don’t get MSNBC I do get BBC at 6:30 and they are talking about Bush and BAE. I also get a repeat of Newshour at 7:00.
james @ 63
what channel? ;)
Elliott @ 65
5 in New York…the only good thing on Fox
Mod note: Edited by request.
JPL @ 64
don’t miss the sickening story of cotton farmers in India, suicidal despair, not that Big Ag has anything to do with it.
Mods…please delete everything in my 66 above except the response to eliot @65
Thanks
Oklahoma kiddo @ 27
This is the beginning of major Republican CYA. While I am glad to see them starting to speak out, I question why it has taken them more than 4 years to do so. Biden today was saying that Lugar had been telling him for a long time that Bush’s policy in Iraq wasn’t working. Yet Lugar is being portrayed as some kind of a statesman in all this. But I ask you, is it statesman like of Lugar to place party over country and support a failed war and a failed President long after he knows they have failed, at the cost of who knows how many lives?
Steve @ 59
Worse than sweat shops. Guest workers are totally dependent on their employers, who retain their passports, put them in squalid barracks, often in guarded compounds. They are virtually prisoners, they have zero civil rights, can be sent home at anytime. Slavery is more like it.
Does anyone know if the time is coming when cable providers, or as in my case HDTV over the telephone line, will be able to discern what channel we are viewing at any given moment?
Ahhhh, Mosanto and the GM crops, and refusing to allow farmers to cull the seeds from the previous year’s crop for further planting. Nice bit of genetic engineering that. Another reason to fear who gets ownership of the information in the Human Genome Project.
OT:
Glenn Greenwald’s “Tragic Legacy” is at No. 12 on Amazon’s Bestseller list. ORDER NOW AND WE CAN CRACK THE TOP TEN!!
Oklahoma kiddo @ 71
I think John Poindexter is working on that along with installing little fiber optic cameras into the lines so they can see into your house without a warrant. Kind of moots the FISA court requirements that way.
demi @ 40
well, I never try to be a Pollyanna. In fact I rather enjoy being a crass name calling old fishwife.
However, I can say this politely: coulter is an abomination unto womankind.
Can someone tell me what the Edwards thing was about? I didn’t see it.
Elliot @ 67 Sometimes shame doesn’t cover what we have done…
Other Oddmommy
O/T
Elizabeth Edwards just berated Ann Coulter by phone for her hateful speech and personal attacks. Some applause from the audience. Ann says she wants her to just stop writing and talking altogether and Matthews pointed out she was only asking her to stop the hate speech. Re: ask me about my dead son bumper sticker, Ann asks why John didn’t come out to defend himself and Elizabeth says I’m the mother of that dead son you made fun of.
Caller question: anything you ever regret writing or saying? None, except for praising GWB on the amnesty bill.
Here ya go!
Hugh @ 69
Lugar and Voinovich can go and explain to the families of over 3,000 dead American soldiers killed in the occupation what ’statesmen’ they are. I’m bitter. Very bitter about Iraq.
oddmommy @ 75
Think Proress has the video..
Thanks, mods. Bolshoi spasibo.
james @ 72
There should be no ownership of the Human Genome Project. That’s obscene. There should be some kind of Creative Commons way to govern it.
and our courts turn darker every day
And…Oddmommy…
Ann Coulter is NOT Part of Womankind…she falls into a different subsomething.
(so much for the Pollyanna thing.)
Oklahoma kiddo @ 71
that time is now
Steve @ 59
There is a possibility they may be attempting to emulate the guest worker program in the United Arab Emirates. Human Rights Watch issued
a scathing report on the treatment of guest workers. I have been following this story for over a year and it is very distressing.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/Di…..rch791.xml
well hello Jane and Firedogs,
still no connection at home – miss this place so very much
would appreciate it if anyone here finds themselves on the morning threads with Christy and Scarecrow to give them all a big sloppy smooch for me -
via TPM -
Edwards/Coltergeist link
Elliot,
Are you saying Big Brother?
Y’uh Huh!…but, all in all. We are still here together at the lake.
There are bigger fish to f**K.
cbl!!!!
Whereya been??
–egr
Hugh says
June 26th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
This is the beginning of major Republican CYA. While I am glad to see them starting to speak out, I question why it has taken them more than 4 years to do so. Biden today was saying that Lugar had been telling him for a long time that Bush’s policy in Iraq wasn’t working. Yet Lugar is being portrayed as some kind of a statesman in all this. But I ask you, is it statesman like of Lugar to place party over country and support a failed war and a failed President long after he knows they have failed, at the cost of who knows how many lives?
Lugar is a has-been/never-was. In return for the R’s touting him, or paying lip service, to Lugar as being the Senate R’s best Foreign Policy Guy, he has simply mailed in his vote on every single despicable thing this admin has brought forth.
All he ever wanted was to be Secretary of State. *Now*, finally, it has occurred to him that it’s never going to happen. Thus his relatively timid, and long overdue, criticism of the policies of GWB.
From this Hoosier – it’s time to retire (pause) Dick.
I haven’t commented in a long time, I guess I haven’t had much to say -but this issue is a good example of something that bugs me no end. And that is why the Democrats cannot be more aggressive in attacking pre-emptively the nonsense the the GOP churns out to cover their their true agenda. From talking with average people who follow this stuff, and from blog comments about this issue, the GOP line of ‘elections are the American way’ had a big impact on people’s thinking. The card option suddenly seemed kind of shady, not on the basis of any real argument, but rather a slogan. And a slogan that was aggressively pushed as the first thing to say in order to avoid discussion of what the typical union election has become.
But, the GOP line is very inconsistent here, since only elections that produce outcomes that they like are the American way for them. And whenever it is useful to them, the horror of unfair or corrupt elections is the thing to be most feared, and this horror takes priority over everything else -including getting the beast measure of a group’s preference. Look at the public rationale they produce for their plot to politicize the Justice Department
The next time this comes around, or when this vote comes up in the next election, I hope Democrats are more aggressive in showing how union elections have become very unfair and very fixed, who is responsible for that and how it came about, and how inconsistent the GOP positions are on elections.
Or why not just howl about how GOP policies and appointees have fixed the rules so that almost every union election is unfair, corrupt, and often fixed, and charge them with keeping a corrupt election system in place?
The next time this comes up or as soon as we know it will come up, we should all think “What would Elizabeth Edwards do?” Or, maybe we should change TRex’s slogan of ‘attack’ to ‘attack first’.
JPL @ 76
I think there was core group of people who really believed in the ideals of the Green Revolution, believed modern technology could lift all mankind but they were overtaken by Monsanto & ConAgra, and etcetera.
And I just can’t help it, those people are pure evil.
cbl @ 85
Hi cbl
i’m very glad to see the dems unified on this pro-union vote…. but, in some ways i feel about (some of) them the same way i feel about lugar – WHERE THE FUCK WERE YOU WHEN IT MATTERED?
so many dems have supported trade policies that destroyed our most unionized industries and harmed unionization efforts (and didn’t do anything for union workers in other countries either).
i wish i could say that the dems in congress were learning, and that times have changed….. but, after speaker pelosi’s secret trade deal with the bush administration earlier this year – it doesn’t look like change to me.
so, while i’m glad for this vote… i’m not fooled.
Good gawd. All these smarty pants politicians who voted for and continued to support the Iraq occupation are now jumping ship. Many of us little people knew darn well before the attack started, that we we’re being led down the garden path. It’s disturbing.
Noonan @ 56
I slept part of last night on the sidewalk in front of the dental clinic. They only take the first 6 or 7 people on Walk-In Tuesdays. I was joined at about 5 a.m. by a girl I’ve known since she was a teen.
She’s an anomaly in her family: stopped going to the Assmbly of God church, voted for Kerry. But she’s worried about abortion (she just had a little girl and is struggling to support them both).
I said, “Who’s had control of this government for 2 presidential terms in office?” She saw my point.
She said, “We should not have to be out on the sidewalk in America, hoping we’ll be one of the lucky ones to get seen by the dentist.”
She said she could get 4 people to register to vote. It’s a start.
cbl @ 84
will do!!
And I’m not going to mention Hillary’s stubborn refusal to say she made a mistake in voting with Bush on invading Iraq.
wesgpc @ 89
Union elections unfair???
Here??
I remember when I was running for shop steward at a UPS local in Manhattan, the secretary=treasurer of Local 804 (who later went to jail for RICO violations) came onto the floor before the election and kind of hinted that if i was elected the bosses would retaliate against everyone by dragging them all into the office on little stuff, just to get me to make some kind of deal over other things.
That scared everyone so much that they voted for my opponent who, three years later, went into management and, as his baptism for the job, had to screw over his best friend to prove where his loyalties lay.
Somethings never change.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 93
They are all…this!
Good to see you, wesgpc!
My goodness. Even Short Ride Joe crossed party lines and voted with the Dems.
wesgpc—
Good to hear from you.
Miss you.
Peterr @ 100
Yes, Rock,
And even Judas showed up for Passover Dinner.
demi @ 82
Re: different subsomething: if you look back in the FDL archives, you can find the artful photoshopping of Coulter with the bloodsucker mouth of a sea lamprey. Unforgettably freakish, and so well done it looks real. But don’t look at it right before going to bed, or you’ll have nightmares.
Bob in HI
Margot, Be glad you have a clinic to wait in front of and nice gotv action.
Bob Schacht @ 103
I so wish you hadn’t resurrected that image in my mind, thank you very much!
Bob Schacht @ 103
the lamprey sued for character defamation and won.
howdy egregious, Elliot -
simply a case of moving to new home with serious connection i$$ues – difficult to explain to folks how it is I’m pining away for some people I’ve never met – so very bizarre to live among the non bloggers – I don’t recommend it –
wesgpc – fabulous to see you here again – often think of you and wish to hear your .02 when the subject is polls, numbers, and stats :)
Bob Schacht @ 103
Oh, thanks for that. *G*
Even the unshopped photos of her give me the…shivas.
punaise @ 106
‘eely?
Well, Bob…a threefer.
You DO know how to push buttons, doncha?
For people angry at those in Congress who are now coming over to the Light:
Let’s welcome them with open arms. Others are watching to see what happens. Certainly they will be vilified by their own side.
These are people who are crossing the battle line and surrendering. Will you shoot them? Please, accept their new positions with gratitude.
Yes of course it’s “too late” but we have them now and must work with the resources and people available to us now, not in some If Only world.
Eureka Springs,
I am grateful for that clinic. Don’t know what all the people would do otherwise.
cbl—
Miss ya and think about ya often. Hope you and yours are well.
egregious @ 111
Right you are! It’s summertime and the livin’ is hot stuff. And, so many people are pi**ed off.
Thanks for your reminder.
Tweety has Coulter on now. Double gag. He actually asked her how we should be fighting this war on terrorism, as if she has a clue.
OffT:
Add to the headline…And Republicans Hate Fighting Wars for Their Country.
See this at Huffington Post:
As the Vietnam War raged in the 1960s, Mitt Romney received a deferment from the draft as a Mormon “minister of religion” for the duration of his missionary work in France, which lasted two and a half years.
Before and after his missionary deferment, Romney also received nearly three years of deferments for his academic studies. When his deferments ended and he became eligible for military service in 1970, he drew a high number in the annual lottery that determined which young men were drafted. His high number ensured he was not drafted into the military.
demi @ 110
We aim to please! :-)
Bob in HI
demi @ 102
Careful, Judas has been rehabiltated lately. I don’t think history will rehabilitate Joe.
Elliott @ 109
that’s outside the realm of acceptable social morays.
Bob in Hawaii.
You do Good… and wouldgha smell a plumeria for me this afternoon. It’s been, like, forever since I was in da islands.
(smelling in my mind).
Margot @ 112
We do nothing but whither on the vine ’til the pain subsides or it kills us.
punaise @ 119
that sucks
yellowdogD @ 115
Simple answer for her?
Grab as many working class kids as possible, give them guns and little else, and send them off to die.
Kills two birds with one stone for the Republican right: sends troops to the war and keeps the kids from getting jobs here and joining unions.
egregious @ 110
completely agree – but only if followed by actions that help end the occupation.
if it is MCA-like kabuki, then no way.
I’m so excited about Glen at #12, I’m going to buy it on Amazon just to check the number!!
james @ 118
Really! Not even in 2,000 years!
james @ 116
Not OT for me, thanks!
OT Giuliani made a speech today at Regents University and blames Bill Clinton for terrorism.
The former New York mayor criticized Democrats, accusing them of weakness and naivety in dealing with terrorism. Giuliani made the comments to about 650 business, corporate and political leaders at Regent University, the conservative Christian college founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200…..ll_clinton
james @ 116
At the same time that the WaPo0 is doing a four parter on Cheney, the Boston globe is doing a seven parter on Romney and his life and times. That was from yesterday’s articles. Today they covered his Bain Corp activities.
Elliott @ 91
thanks for the link, Elliot. Just watched it.
Does Psychoulter always toss her hair and cross her legs that much? (I never look at her if I can help it). If not I’d say it’s pretty obvious Elizabeth made her reeeaaallly nervous.
Again, an abomination.
Or to put it in more fish wifely terms (sorry mods!), a bottle-blonde stick-shrew with some serious sexuality issues. No doubt men find her “intimidating.” [snort]
Saddam was working with al qeada’s top agents? News to me, but Coulter said so, so it must be true. What a tool.
raven@127:
Semper Fi!!
Elliott @ 105
yes……I love ya TRex, but that was sooooo gross.
From the “this is not good” department:
Without warning, Iran begins petrol rationing, possibly to build up stocks for the military in case of US air strikes against refineries and pipelines.
For those of you watching my blog, I will post my analysis of WHY the cheney hit piece is running in Wapoo. Hint: It’s Tin Foil Hat time in the city (i’m getting WiMax for mine…)
demi @ 120
Aloha!
It’s Lychee season here now. I have a bagful of the fruits. No fruits like that where I grew up!
Bob in HI
Alfred Kelgarries @ 134
As far as my ex-wife is concerned, it’s always tin foil hat time at my house.
Hey TRex or Jane or Somebody,
Where’s the link to Amazon that benefits FDL? I know we’re going to put Glen in the top ten.
oddmommy @ 130
oddmommy, that link was from cbl!
cbl @ 85
The Republicans who are jumping ship? That’s good. Why? Because it might save lives. Keep in mind they are jumping ship purly out of self interest. And I give them no quarter. And that’s all I have to say on the matter.
Elliott @ 138
thank you cbl!!
those boxes confuse me sometimes.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 138
I will use a hammer with a loose handle because it is still a tool.
Alfred Kelgarries @ 133
holy cow! thank you for the link… very, very serious development.
the timing of the house vote on h.con.r.21 does not reassure (background here, here, and here.
gbear @ 6
Coleman isn’t a moderate; unless you consider moderately inclined to brown nose whomever seems to be farting out the new changing winds. George Galloway has made the ultimate measure of little Normy Coleman. It sounds better with a brogue, I am sure, to be called a lying haggis!
oddmommy @ 140
“little boxes on the blog site
little boxes made by techie techie”
okay, I am not a professional, but here’s the link to Glen’s book at Amazon:buy the book because we’re better than this.
new jane upstairs
punaise @ 144
Only firepups of a certain age will “get” this one! (Hint: Houses made of ticky-tacky, an ‘anthem’ to suburbia.)
Bob in HI
Bob Schacht @ 147
My wife LOVED that song. Used to go around hummimg and subvocalizing it while she did chores at home…lovely.
punaise in the weeds again…)
Eureka Springs @ 149
break out the Malvina Reynolds Wrap hats…
re: iran
AK – i’m also watching this bill in the senate (already has 53 co-sponsors).
Bustednuckles @ 141
And a rounded box-end wrench. Good way to bust a knuckle. Might want to wear a helmut with that loose hammer handle. ;0)
james @ 132
Although the Church is opposed to war and recognizes that going to war is a very poor alternative in resolving conflicts, tens of thousands of Latter-day Saints have served their countries’ armed forces, sometimes even fighting in opposing forces, especially in World War II. The Church considers being loyal citizens to be a duty of its members, irrespective of nationality. Responding to a call for military service is one appropriate manner of fulfilling this duty of citizenship. Latter-day Saints who choose military careers have no restrictions on either their fellowship or their callings in the Church. While any member is free to object to military service because of conscience, Church membership in and of itself is not a justification, and Church leaders have discouraged conscientious objection in every conflict of the twentieth century.
Makes him even more of a punk.
selise @ 151
This can be good or it can be bad, depending on how it’s worded and how it’s used. If it is soley economic and as toothless as the other embargo legislation, then it is same old same old and pretty much meaningless. OTOH, if it either includes economic sanctions with theeth (like say, impounding bank accounts) and/or language to allow air and sea blockade, then it’s “Houston, we have a persian!” Very very not good. Is there any hint in the text of the bill as to which was it leans. (I don’t try to read legislation raw, it tends to make me break out in purple and mauve spots, and I’m not handsome to begin with…)
Alfred Kelgarries @ 148
DALY CITY, CA!
(where the pretty colored little boxes were actually located, and still are)
Malvina AND Pete S. . . . . *G*
Alfred Kelgarries @ 154
from wampum: “S.970 will end nuclear cooperation with the successor-in-fissiles to the Soviet Union.”
that would not be good.
haven’t read the bill yet myself. your bbc link makes me think maybe i should. there is a section on freezing assets, but nothing i see on blockade.
Boston1775 @ 137
Linky
p.s. AK – last weeks vote in the house (h.con.r.21 – see above) is the bill that’s got me really freaked out (you’ve probably seem me ranting about it during the last few days.)… don’t know why this isn’t causing more concern, but was very glad to see juan cole address it this morning.
selise @ 158
Please post linkys. my tiny brain is currently running on one missing cylinder…and there’s black smoke coming out the tailpipe…
Alfred Kelgarries @ 134
When, the question is WHEN AK, when will you post this . . . for Bhudda’s sake man, have you no decency, we sit with twisted bladders WAITING for it!!!
WHEN!?!?!?!?!?! *G*
(no, I don’t get paid to hype AK’s blog)
larue @ 160
Larue, I say this will the deepest and most profound respect….
…that I LOVE IT! EGOBOO! YES! YES! MORE! MORE!…whoops had an honest attack there!
What I MEANT to say is “I’m not worthy of such respect and interest.” But the other way was more fun.
I finally got the Dadster back from the clutches of the medical establishment with the good news that he only has a tiny greenstick break on his middle left toe. We’re doing antibiotics and pain killers and he is again happy as a clam. (I want to see the survey that was used to determing that, in fact, clams are happy. If I had to spend all my life on the bottom of the ocean sucking in water and excreting sand just to live, I would not be happy…)
Shorter Spook: Later tonight when I can finally get the phase injectors on line. I’ll post to Late or Late Late Night when it’s ready.
h.con.r.21 background here, here, and here.
lots of good stuff in the links.
bottom line – virtually the entire house of representatives (only 2 “no” votes – kucinich and paul) voted to ask the UN security council to charge ahmadinejad with “violating the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and United Nations Charter” based on basically his calling for the genocide of israelis and because “Iran has aggressively pursued a clandestine effort to arm itself with nuclear weapons”.
only problem is that the first is a lie (mistranslations) and there is not evidence for the second (see IAEA).
when kucinich tried to enter into the congressional record the correct translation, he was prevented from doing so.
so, now we have a document that bush can point to (after bombing iran) and say – “see, even the dems know that the iranian leader is a genocidal maniac pursuing nuclear weapons.”
how could my D congress critters be so dumb?
Alfred Kelgarries @ 159
the above comment was for you, AK.
selise @ 163
Got it. As soon as I go back into compile mode (after doing bug fixes) I’ll read and comment.
BTW I’m seriously considering a seoond blog, linked to the first, called Persistence Of Vision. It will be identical to my short posts here, with links and two or four paragraph explanations. The goal is to highlight the important stuff that gets lost because the MSM shines brighter light into our faces and erases the short term images, (thus POV). I’ll see.
ok, catch you later, AK.
i am worried about iran… the rhetoric seems to be ramping up again.