Targeting Unions: The Table Scraps War

Here's an excellent story that puts the villainization of public sector unions in perspective.

The Table Scraps War - Rick Horowitz

When the breeze was just right in Toilerville, they say, you could catch the scent of sizzling steaks clear across town.

Every Saturday evening, as predictable as clockwork, the folks on top of the hill would fire up the grills and throw themselves a dinner party. There were sirloins and strip steaks, hangers and rib-eyes -- and when they were feeling especially pleased about things, they'd break out the filet mignon. And the breeze in Toilerville would sweep up each and every scent from on top of the hill, and send them rolling down the other side, down to where the regular people lived.

The regular people of Toilerville didn't throw themselves dinner parties, not on Saturday nights, or any other night. The regular people of Toilerville had all they could do to put food -- any kind of food -- on the table. They worked hard, most of them, when they could find the work, but it was difficult to stay ahead even in the best of times. When the times weren't the best, it was that much tougher.

Which is why the regular people of Toilerville were so grateful for the gristle.

Every Sunday morning, long after the embers had cooled, the folks on top of the hill would wrap up the bits of leftover meat and see that they were sent down the hill to the regular people. Each package was wrapped in nice clean butcher paper and folded just so, and then tied with a bright red ribbon.

Every Sunday morning, when the packages arrived, the regular people of Toilerville would untie the ribbons and peel back the butcher paper, and they'd pick through the bits of leftover meat. They'd decide which bits could go on the plate just as they were, and which bits were too fatty, or too tough; those they'd set aside for stew. The ribbons went into a drawer, just in case.

This is how it was in Toilerville for years -- dinner parties on Saturday night, and table scraps on Sunday. And sometimes when the breeze was just right, a few of the regular people would look up toward the top of the hill and wonder why. Mostly, though, they were too busy trying to make ends meet to concern themselves with such matters.

There came a time, though, when the folks on top of the hill started throwing their dinner parties not just on Saturday evenings, but on Friday evenings, too, and sometimes even on Tuesdays and Thursdays. When the breeze was just right, the regular people of Toilerville could smell steak two or three or even four nights a week, and they began to grumble. It didn't seem fair that the folks on top of the hill could eat like princes whenever they wanted to, while the regular people were left with Sunday scraps. (There were more dinner parties, but there were no extra packages coming down the hill, wrapped in butcher paper and bright red ribbons.)

When the grumbling started, the folks on the top of the hill knew they had to do something. So they came out of their beautiful houses and pointed far down the hill, to one little corner of Toilerville. They pointed at the people who lived in that little corner of Toilerville, and they shouted as loudly as they could, "Those people have turnips!"

It was true. Some of the regular people in that particular corner of Toilerville had gotten together and built themselves a vegetable garden, and the first thing they grew in their garden was turnips.

"Those people have turnips, and you don't!" shouted the folks on top of the hill. "Why should those people have turnips when you don't? If you don't have turnips, they shouldn't have turnips!"

And the regular people of Toilerville who didn't have turnips got so angry at the regular people of Toilerville who did have turnips that they forgot all about the folks on top of the hill who had all the steaks.

Luckily, this could never happen today.

Understanding "Right to Work": Why you pay union dues even if you don't join the union.

A lot of people don't understand why you have to pay union dues even if you don't want to join the union. Here is an excerpt from an article I read today that explains it well.

Right-to-work laws prohibit contracts that require that all the workers who benefit from union representation to pay for union representation. In states without right-to-work laws, unions often sign contracts that require that all the workers in a bargaining unit pay a representation fee to the union that represents the bargaining unit. The logic is straightforward. When a union is recognized as representing a bargaining unit, it legally must represent every worker in that unit, whether or not a worker opts to join the union. This means not only that nonmembers get the same wages and benefits that the union negotiates with the employer, but the union is also obligated to represent any nonmember individually if that worker gets in a dispute with the employer over an issue covered in the contract. For example, if a nonunion member is threatened with a discipline action or firing, the union must defend this worker's rights just the same as if they were in the union. Right-to-work laws prohibit workers from being required to pay for this union representation. What right-to-work laws actually guarantee is the ability for a worker to benefit from union representation without having to pay for union representation.

Link to original article is below. It makes a great comparsion for the sake of explanation, take the time to read it.

Right to Work: Representation Without Taxation

Who is our government for? The people, the corporations, or religious groups?

There has been a steady progression in this country that has landed us in this very unfortunate spot. Originally our founding fathers created a blueprint for our country that strove to strike a balance between the types of controls that are needed to create a civil and ordered society, and the individual liberty and freedom of the common person. In those days, that quest for freedom was primarily borne from forced religious doctrine and monarchal whims & taxation.

Today we face the very evils that our original young country rebelled from, and over the last 60 years we have sown the seeds of corruption and defeat into our system, and forgotten the intention that our founding fathers had for our country.

This problem is endemic, and comes from many angles. First, our founding fathers could not have seen the rise in mega corporations, as most industry in those times were smaller private ownerships. The concept of a world wide mega corporation was something not on the radar. It would have been equally as impossible for them to make some form of constitutional framework regarding the exploration of the moon. So our founding fathers understandable lack if prescience has left a system that's been easily subverted by money.

And so it is. Our political system has very little to do with the original founders intentions of preserving freedom and liberty for individuals, and now is very much for preserving the wishes of the highest bidders, which almost every time, is a corporate interest. There are no citizens lobby giving campaign contributions, taking politicians out to lunch, and buying them vacations in order to preserve the health, welfare, and liberty of the average person. But there is a motivated daily influx of soft and hard money that slowly bends every politician to the whims of business.

Take the health care industry, as an example, since we're on the verge of introducing some sort of corporately benefiting public health care plan. (an oxymoron to be sure) For every congressman there are 4 health care lobbyists trying to persuade them to favor the industry over the individual. Last year over $24 Million was given in hard donations to politicians, that does not include the soft donations of under 100$ such as lunches and dinners. $14 million of this years total contributions to politicians has been from the health care industry alone, and we're half way through the year. This is an industry that sees a system that is NOT broken. As a system that relies on money donated in order to keep their jobs, how could ANY politician not acquiesce to the desires of those giving them the money. It's not the politicians fault really, they are just playing by the current rules. "I need to pay for my campaign to continue my job and so I appease the people that give me the most money." Unfortunately that is never someone looking out for the individual.

And so we have a country that has turned into a Corporatocracy. That is not very different from what our founding fathers sought to rebel from. Increasingly our populous is being dumbed down and taught to worship the ideals of capitalism over democracy, consuming rather than producing, and praising ignorance over intelligence. At the same time that corporations rose to stratospheric levels of power in this country, religious groups have sought to subvert their own influence and control of factions of the government and education. We have evidence of clear religious dogma being insinuated into the various political institutions happening around the 50's, and then with historical revisionism being presented as examples of how we are and always have been a christian theocracy.

Currently these factors are playing out as they have been for years. The shining examples being our upside down position on individual health care rights vs. corporate health industry profits, C-street type religious factions creating secret religious orders within our elected officials vs. the rights of the people to have representation without secret agendas, and the old yet persistent fight in this country for all people to have equal rights.

The US ranks 37th in the world for adequate health care delivery.

The US ranks 30th in life expectancy.

The US ranks 34th in infant mortality.

The US ranks 11th and 9th on Science and Math respectively.

But the US ranks 1st in "defense" spending.

We spent 623 billion dollars for our military expenditures in 2008. That ranked us #1, it was a close race though, China came in at #2 spending 65 billion.

Our Government is owned by corporate greed and the principles and intentions of the founding fathers have been murdered. With the continued dumbing of our citizenry, and the constant overt corporate control system in place we will never fully realize the promise this country once had. The kind of change that needs to happen in this country can't happen, since the people that need to benefit from the change have no real power, and there are no longer men of intelligence and virtue around to effect it.

Palin - "Need more time for hunt'n!"

So the good news is Sarah is leaving public office and going to concentrate on, well she has trouble concentrating, so she hasn't really said what she's going to do. Maybe she's going on to make some hot and heavy GOP porn. And while sex scandals are definitely thinning the GOP herd, if she sets a precedent for resignations based on stupidity, then the GOP will surely be empty soon.

With porn though, I think she'd make enough money to cover her multitude of legal and ethical charges she's facing. It seems like the republicans I know only vote for gay, sex starved, pedophiles and aren't actually those themselves, so there's probably a good market for straight sex porn involving Palin. Better sign her oldest daughter too just in case though. I've read its in excess of $500,000 worth of legal fees she's up against. But I've also read that she's managed to twist and distort some compensation rules and siphon some extra money off the top of her job. Things like claiming living expenses while staying at her own home, and claiming expenses for trips for her children.

No wonder she LOVES Alaska, and all the good people there, they've been paying her a pretty good salary with lots of benefits they are only just now finding out about. And with this abrupt resignation, no matter what story you believe about it, there is one thing for certain, its because she is running for the presidency. You can see the heavy handed mental drudgery of this attempt written all over it. Mired in a bunch of political ethical scandals, she'll bow out, hopefully allowing most of the law suits to be dropped or fizzle quietly off the public stage. She'll try to rack up some "real" grassroots experience. You know something better than a community organizer, cause those people are true idiots as any FOX watching red blooded NORMAL American knows. Then she will announce a partnership with a true American hero to be the great phoenix born GOP powerhouse for 2012.

Thank god. The Democrats never had it so easy. Well once, but shhhh.

I'm not that happy with some of the things that Obama is doing and saying lately, but I'll tell you this, his worst day is preferable to her best. Her brand of self entitled ignorance is not only destructive to us domestically but on an international level it is the epitome of disaster.

The only thing to worry about is if the GOP actually wised up, and backed someone like Ron Paul. But then they'd actually be putting their so called conservative money where their mouth is, and as we learned last time, the GOP isn't about playing it straight, its about pretending you do.

Sex, Politics, Religion, and Republican Hypocrisy

See the thing is morals are important. I think few civilized and intelligent people will try to dispute that with a straight face, but the problem lays with the people that want to preach that, or even worse, legislate it. Over the last 15-20 years we’ve seen the increasing sermonic viewpoint being shifted into our political system, and that has both dire and humorous consequences. Most importantly its brought constant media attention to the relentless hypocrisy of the vast majority of politicians that hold their religion and morals to their sleeves.

I doubt there is little arguing with the fact that the Republican party is THE “Christian party” and yet, even though they are the chosen ones representing not only their constituents but their faith, as they love to remind us in every speech they seem to make, they still fall on their morality sword time and time again.

Now I’m the first person to line up and say I don’t give a flying rats ass if anyone, let alone a politician, sleeps with anyone. Its frankly human nature, its unfortunate for the jilted partner, but most people on this planet sleep around. This is nothing new, and its not going to stop anytime soon. Where my hackles get all anti-gravity is when people in power, who publicly make a life preaching the value of their moral righteousness, then go on to try to enact policy against what their faith believes to be sin, only to commit the exact sin they rail against.

I think this is a mental disorder of the most heinous kind, and it infects the Republicans, Politicians in general, and Religious Right like a disease.

Look at some of the most recent examples of these moral crusaders:

Newt Gingrich - His outspoken moralizing over impeaching Clinton for lying about getting a blow job is somehow questionable when he was during that time, cheating on his own spouse with a 20 year younger woman, whom he later married as wife number THREE. Currently he’s touring around trying to promulgate how gays are going to ruin traditional marriage and how secularists are trying to destroy our traditional Christian society.

Somehow, I think that if Gingrich wasn’t a lying hypocrite, he would see that its his own lifestyle behavior thats ruining his country and religion. So in this case I judge his mental instability as Projection.

Mark Foley - How embarrassing is this once Republican poster boy? Yet doesn't he sum up so much of the self hating hypocrites that fill his ranks? Who is our Republican and Christian bastion for protecting our children from sexual predators? Low and behold, a same sex predatory scum bag, looking to harass underage boys.

Not surprising really.

Larry Craig - Here’s a confirmed bachelor that also publicly deplored Clinton during his impeachment saying, “Bill Clinton is probably even a nasty, bad, naughty boy.” As if that shouldn’t have put the warning lights on? His most notable bullshit hypocrisy was when he supported the Federal Marriage Amendment, which barred extension of rights to same-sex couples, only to later be caught in an airport sex sting, targeting homosexual liaisons in airport bathrooms. Really? Yeah, never saw that coming.

Eliot Spitzer - Not a repub, but definitely a hypocritical scumbag politician. His well publicized crackdowns on prostitution rings was only too perfect of a lead up for his boomerang conviction when he was found guilty of patronizing a high end brothel.

And most recently:

Mark Sanford - This God fearing and bible quoting moron voted for the Clinton impeachment following the Lewinsky scandal, declaring Clinton's behavior to be "reprehensible.” Not only does he moralize with the bible in his hand, he also uses it as a defense for his own reasons to not resign as Governor, quoting:

"Immediately after all this unfolded last week I had thought I would resign - as I believe in the military model of leadership and when trust of any form is broken one lays down the sword. A long list of close friends have suggested otherwise - that for God to really work in my life I shouldn't be getting off so lightly."

So in this case, his God thinks its OK, and hard work doing what you were doing is the best medicine for this, but just for you Mark, just for you. Any other cock-led moron committing adultery should be impeached, and or resign. OK.

So the problem here is how politicians do and say opposite things, invoking religion when it suits them, when it helps them stir up the religious fervor and support. Cause no one cries louder or more often than those that hold the religious books, and like a miracle, those religious texts can condemn and shield the very same thing. Hypocrisy.

This list could be 4 times as long for sure, but there is one more that is standing out in plain view to me and that is:

Barack Obama - Specifically the most hypocritical issue he’s facing right now is Gay Rights. For the historical impact that it is for a black man to be voted into the highest office of this country and not be a visible and vocal champion for human rights in this country is more than shameful. It tarnishes the long fight for equality that African Americans have fought for, instead of brandishing the sword of equality, it shows that freedom from marginalization comes only to those in power. For Obama, a citizen of that long repressed and marginalized community to raise to this level of power and not overturn the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, which denies federal marriage benefits to same-sex couples is reprehensible.

And so in a long line of Politicians, he too stands by “what’s good for me, is not for you.”

Welcome Sociopathic Sock!

Okay kids, now you've gone and done it! You've made me resort to outsourcing! I'd like everyone to welcome a new author who is a personal friend of mine, Sociopathic Sock, also known as Gilbecrake. I don't think I've known anyone longer than this guy (20+ years), he's a superfreak, genius, nobel nominee, vag magnet, city-dweling elitist. If you thought I was a liberal surrender-monkey, just keep your bowels in check and a rain poncho close by, because the proverbial sh*t is about to hit the fan! Well, let the games begin!

Why is the private system so great?

We've had a private insurance health care system in the US for over 40 years with cost increases of 2-3 times the rate of inflation for every one of those 40 years. We've had a public system in place for those over 65 for about 45 years, that cost has increased at about 50% of the rate of inflation over those same years. Can someone tell me why? And don't give me any of that malpractice crap, it's already been shown time and again that that is less than 1 percent of overall health costs.