Wednesday Open Thread
- The Washington Post breaks the first official acknowledgment that the NSA program was only part of a larger, still non-public set of secret activities.
- The British army is now out of Northern Ireland after 38 years.
- Hot on the heels of Ingmar Bergman, film great Michaelangelo Antonioni passed away at age 94.
- Murdoch now owns The Wall Street Journal . God help us all.
This is your Wednesday open thread.
Submitted by pico on Wed, 2007-08-01 06:52
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I'll be out of town for the next few days -
yes, I'm braving the wilds of yearlykos. Look for me on CSPAN!
Seriously, though - I think it's a great opportunity to meet the candidates close up. We'll see if they let me ask the questions I want, or if I'll be forcibly removed. ;)
update: for the record, the conference will be attended by Clinton, Obama, Edwards, Richardson, Dodd, Gravel, Pelosi, Reid, Emanuel, Schumer, and Clark, among others
. Whee!
Saint, n. A dead sinner revised and edited. - Ambrose Bierce
Nice-- have fun! n/t
skymutt: accept no substitutes!
Who here has read about the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act?
Crooks & Liars has a thread out from yesterday about it
. L Ledbetter (not the Pearl Jam song) was the Management employee of Goodyear Tire who found out upon retirement that she'd been screwed wage wise by Goodyear for almost 20 years. ie - she wasn't paid what her male counterparts were paid. She sued, and last spring the SCOTUS ruled that an employee must sue withing 180 days of the FIRST instance of pay discrimination, whether the employee is aware of the discrimination or not, and she lost her case.
The House voted yesterday to change the law so that the employee has until 180 days from the LAST issued paycheck to sue for discrimination. Not surprisingly, President dubya has announced he'll veto the bill if it hits his desk.
Whadda ya think?
The new law
On the face of it, the new law sounds reasonable and proper. 180 days from the last paycheck is not an overly generous window, but it makes much more sense than the SCOTUS ruling. And perhaps it does put more of on ongoing obligation to the employer to ensure gender equity, but that really should not be a significant additional burden for most employers as they already should be considering racial/age/handicap parity in their evaluation processes.
Did the President give any reasoning for the threatened veto?
"The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire." --R. Heinlein
His probable reasons
Here's what I think his reasons are:
"This encourages litigation, which is bad for corporations. And corporations are my peeps."
;-)
I survived the Bush Administration
It would be reasonable,
provided pay issues were public and transparent, which they often aren't.
Saint, n. A dead sinner revised and edited. - Ambrose Bierce
Ledbetter...
You just made my day with the Pearl Jam reference. That song makes me melt.
Saint, n. A dead sinner revised and edited. - Ambrose Bierce
yea, the guitar work is so sweet on that one.
But I have to honestly say I can only decifer about half of what Eddie's singing. It's OK....I just make up my own words & sing them softly to myself so as not to embarrass myself in front of others.
Likewise, except in
karaoke, when I sing them loud and garbled!
Saint, n. A dead sinner revised and edited. - Ambrose Bierce
I just googled it.
If you want to laugh and rock out, watch this YouTube video of the song labeled
"lyrics misheard". It's funny and it gets you to hear the song all at the same time.
I nearly spit up my food
laughing so hard. Thanks! Totally desecrates one of my favorite songs ever, and I still think it's funny as hell.
Saint, n. A dead sinner revised and edited. - Ambrose Bierce
I have a copy of a show from 7/95, Soldiers Field Chicago
where they segue from Funkadelics "Maggot Brain" to Jimi's "Little Wing" into "Yellow Ledbetter".
If you want a copy I can get you one.
thank you!
Potato wave!
"The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire." --R. Heinlein
I still call this a win
I came. I saw. I posted.
Veni, Vidi, Bitchy.
It won't change the WSJ's opinion pages.
They were already very right wing. But the News Department, although conservative, was usually fair & accurate. Murdoch has yet to own a media outlet where he doesn't exert pressure to change the voice of the outlet to one expressing his views.
It's a sad day for the WSJ. Not a big one for me. I hardly ever read it. Now I'll probably read it less.
Exactly.
Their editorials were inane but bouyed up by association with a good news room. Now they will be connected to an equally inane newsroom and the whole publication can be comfortably ignored. Sure it would have been better if they'd just gotten an editorial staff with half a brain but the overall goal of marginalizing their drivel is achieved.
I came. I saw. I posted.
Veni, Vidi, Bitchy.
Some days we are all wonkette
story here
It's true, the south really is more genteel.
I came. I saw. I posted.
Veni, Vidi, Bitchy.
Why do you say they are more genteel?
Was he holding his pinkie up and out (teacup mode) while he was taking a leak in front of the kids?
I love heartwarming stories like this...
...
another defacto member of the "Moral Majority", who has been repressing his sexuality for so long... gets arrested when his repressed sexuality manifests itself in an unhealthy manner.
Stories like this tell me there's hope for mankind yet. ;-)
One by one, the "people of the cloth" are going down.
$660 million payoff by the Catholic Church in L.A..... Ted Haggard...... and the cherry on top - Jerry Falwell finding out that, not only can he not take it with him... but that there's no place to take it. Or not finding out, to be more literal.
It's a beautiful thing watching religious hypocrites implode. They always do so in such impressive blazes of glory, I'll give them that.
One more fanatic down.... billions more to go.
I survived the Bush Administration
You make me laugh
I love your dry on point sense of humor.
One more fanatic down.... billions more to go. That is heartwarming.
I'm only half stupid
Meanwhile, in North Carolina...
...a state police officer broke into a couple's house and assaulted them for hanging a flag upside down.
story here
I hate Lincoln so much some days.
I came. I saw. I posted.
Veni, Vidi, Bitchy.
Oh, right.
Bizarre crimes that happen in the north are just unrelated creeps, but bizarre crimes that happen in the south are evidence that they're all retarded. Nice work.
Tell you what: I'll trade you ministers in dresses for your Jim McVeighs, your Ted Kaczyinskys, your John Wayne Gacys, your ...
Saint, n. A dead sinner revised and edited. - Ambrose Bierce
Not *all* retards
Just a much higher proportion than anywhere else on the planet.
By the way...
McVeigh? Born in New York but lived in florida after he turned 10.
Unabomber? Not a southerner but, you know, while maladjusted also a genius.
Gacy? Well okay he's a genuine northern freak. Of course that's one instance as opposed to say the DOJ stats showing that homicide rates are highest among the East South Central, West South Central, and the South Atlantic regions (for those of you playing along at home that's the states of Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, more commonly know collectively as just "the south").
DOJ stats
is there any measure by which the south is not America's ghetto? Worst education levels, worst crime rates, worst teen pregnancy rates...
Seriously, and in all honesty, is there any area where the south is not a huge drag on the country as a whole?
I came. I saw. I posted.
Veni, Vidi, Bitchy.
At least one area
I believe the south produces a strong majority of native-born Major League Baseball players.
We are the environment. There is no distinction. What we do to the earth we do to ourselves. —David Suzuki
Thought of some...
Well.. the south gave us NASCAR.... oh, wait... that's a bad thing. Nevermind.
The south gave us Southern Baptists.... oh wait... that's a bad thing too.
Damn... This is tougher than I thought.
Um.... citrus fruit and year-round golf.
Sorry... that's all I got.
I survived the Bush Administration
Arrogant much?
This is one of the reasons Southerns end up developing such a chip on their shoulder: morons who start playing this superiority card as if you're somehow personally responsible for the better education, lighter crime rates, and more vibrant economies where you're from.
Yeah, I'd rather live in the South than next door to someone like you, personally. I find it a lot easier to deal with ignorance than arrogance.
BTW: McVeigh was living in Michigan with Michigander co-conspirators the Nichols bros. Nice try passing that one off, though.
Areas where the south is ahead of the rest of the country: literature, food, and music. Maybe you consider these things not-so-important, but they make living there more than worth it. Would I consider the South ideal? Hell no. But I'm not so arrogant as to write them off for their negative qualities.
Saint, n. A dead sinner revised and edited. - Ambrose Bierce
I am responsible...
I won't answer for him... but I am personally responsible for all those things in my community.
;-)
Anyway, pico... I was just playing around with my comments. My wife's family is from Texas... I hold no animosity toward the south... except in one area...
...every damn state down there is red.
I survived the Bush Administration
I see that bush43 has stated he'll block Rove from testifying
before Congress on Executive Priviledge claims
(via HuffingtonPost).
I can only imagine what I would have heard if President Clinton had ever tried to get ANY of his people to do this. I shake my head and hope Repubs wake up. This isn't about inter-party rivalries anymore. This is about a functioning democratic government.
I guess dubya just doesn't want a democracy. Go figure.
Sunnis out and more carnage
The Sunni bloc left the Iraqi government again, and the bloodshed continues to pour:
Well, I for one am not happy to play suicidal baby-sitter to a country that doesn't want to even try to cooperate.
We are all mediators, translators. - Derrida
http://signicide.blogspot.com/
The reporting on this has been a bit misleading
apparently the Sunni block will remain in the parliament but have withdrawn from Maliki's coalition. That's still pretty bad but not as bad as if they had left entirely.
It weakens Maliki and makes it even less likely that there will be any political movement in the forseeable future.
I came. I saw. I posted.
Veni, Vidi, Bitchy.
Where are you
seeing this (link)?
All the reports I've read says they are out altogether.
We are all mediators, translators. - Derrida
http://signicide.blogspot.com/
They werent in Maliki's coalition
These are Sunni's, and Maliki's coalition is Sunni-free to my knowledge. The story here is that the 6 cabinet ministers from the group are quitting; the 44 MPs from the group are not quitting.
skymutt: accept no substitutes!
Although I'm not of Irish descent,
I'm glad to see that Britain has pulled their Army out of Northern Ireland, Imho,
any occupation of one country or piece of land by another bodes no good, either for the the population(s) under foreign military occupation or for the occupier. Whether it be the British vs. Northern Ireland, the Israeli Army occupying the Palestinian territories of West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, or the Chinese occupying Tibet, occupation is destructive to all involved.
Most interesting part...
is that it was resolved by negotiation, not military force.
Let's emphasize that-
The UK fought the Provisional IRA for nearly four decades. Ireland is right next door to england, has a strong common (if not altogether friendly) history, a strong common language, and familiar social structures. Ireland has a population of just 4 million. The UK despite having these advantages and being a first world power of no small might was never able to conquer the PIRA. The treaty was very much a compromise on both sides, with neither side getting everything it wanted.
Now the US is supposed to outright defeat the Iraqi insurgency, which is half the world away and based in a culture that is totally foreign to us and for which we have very few interpreters much less a common language. Oh, and Iraq has a population of almost 28 million.
Yeah, that's likely.
I came. I saw. I posted.
Veni, Vidi, Bitchy.
It wouldn't be any different if California attacked & occupied
Texas. You wouldn't care how similar you might be. You'd deny the occupier and that's the role we now fill over there.
btw - have you ever heard gaelic spoken?