Yesterday I fell behind. Because I won’t have my usual ride to Salem for my volunteer work in the prison, I’m taking the bus today, spending the night in a motel, and taking the train home tomorrow morning. When I emailed the staff advisor to remind him to include my O² tank, he replied that I was not on the attendees list, and it was too late to put me on it. Now, I had advanced purchased my tickets and motel room to get a discount, so those are non-refundable. Making this trip is a big sacrifice for me. It took the rest of the day to get them to correct the mistake and put me back on the list. So I did not reply to comments or return visits yesterday. I will not today, for obvious reasons. I may not tomorrow, because I’ll be tired out when I return home. I will catch up this weekend. I may not post tomorrow morning, and if I do, it will be later than usual.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today it took me 3:55. To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Washington Post: Ken Mehlman, former chairman of the Republican National Committee and the former campaign manager for George W. Bush’s 2004 re-election bid, has told his family and colleagues that he is gay.
This is the same guy that courted the rabid religious right for Potomac Pinocchio with hateful homophobia in the Republican platform. While I applaud his present honesty, he owes the LBGT community a major apology.
From USA Today: Wal-Mart (WMT) asked the Supreme Court Wednesday to throw out a class-action lawsuit against it that the retailer says is the largest employment suit ever.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in April that Wal-Mart should face charges in court that it pays women less than men for the same jobs. The lawsuit, which covers all female workers at Wal-Mart since 1998, could cost the company billions if it loses.
Given the current makeup of SCOTUS, I’m not holding my breath, but few things could be sweeter than a $multi-billion judgment against Wal-Fart.
From Public Policy Polling: There continues to be very little change in the state of the Louisiana Senate race. PPP finds David Vitter leading Charlie Melancon by a 51-41 margin, similar to the 9 and 12 point spreads he showed in our previous two polls.
I wonder if Diaper Dave would be doing as well if Neocon Nero had not fiddled in Crawford while New Orleans drowned and whitened the city by leaving the minority areas derelict.
Cartoon: from Cagle.com
FYI, I’m not ignoring the story of the GOP inspired hate crime against a Muslim taxi driver. I’m holding off until I have enough background to do quality analysis.
4 Responses to “Open Thread – 8/26/2010”
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I applaud his honesty, but he does owe the LGBT community a BIG fat apology.
Nothing like a class action to wake up Walmart. Go women and get your money!
The fact that David Vitter is even on the fucking ticket is a crying shame. Get this diaper wearing mofo outta there!
As usual, great cartoon.
Thanks, Lisa, and Amen.
Just a point of clarification WRT WalMart: They’re petitioning of SCOTUS is solely on the structuring of the complaint as a class-action lawsuit – not on the merits – so even if SCOTUS agreed w/ them it’d only be limited to how the case could proceed.
It should be noted that the District Court originally ruled in favor of the class-action lawsuit, saying “It would be better to handle some parts of this case as a class action instead of clogging the federal courts with innumerable individual suits litigating the same issues repeatedly.” And that Ruling was affirmed by the Ninth Circuit.
So no matter how SCOTUS rules on this petition, the women will still have their day in court … one way or another.
Source:
http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202471070193&WalMart_appeals_sex_discrimination_classaction_to_high_court&slreturn=1&hbxlogin=1
Thanks Nameless. Great clarification indeed.