A Union With Republicans Support

Posted by TomCat at 8:57 am Editorial, Politics

Sep 272012

Almost without exception Republican politicians are anti-union. Their unequivocal support for so-called “right to work” laws, which really give employers the right to screw workers, leave unions no real way to protect workers against SCAB labor. That’s why it is such a surprise when prominent Republicans condemn SCAB workers and support union workers as they have this week, resulting in a win for labor.

So long, replacement refs. The NFL’s regular crews will be back on the field starting Thursday night.

After two days of marathon negotiations — and mounting frustration among coaches, players and fans — the NFL and the referees’ union announced at midnight Thursday that a tentative agreement had been reached to end a lockout that began in June.

Commissioner Roger Goodell, who was at the bargaining table Tuesday and Wednesday, said the regular officials would work the Browns-Ravens game at Baltimore.

"Welcome back REFS," Buffalo Bills running back C.J. Spiller tweeted shortly after the news broke.

The replacements worked the first three weeks of games, triggering a wave of outrage that threatened to disrupt the rest of the season. After a missed call cost the Green Bay Packers a win on a chaotic final play at Seattle on Monday night, the two sides really got serious… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Chicago Tribune>

Here’s video of that call:

As a member in good standing of the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb, this what happened, for those who do not understand.

Green Bay Quarterback, Aaron Rogers threw a pass end to the end zone, and Green Bay wide receiver Greg Jennings caught the ball, coming down in the end zone with the ball in his possession. By NFL rules, the play was over at that point. That’s where this should have ended, with Green Bay scoring a touchdown and winning the game. But a Seattle defender, grabbed the ball and pulled it away from Jennings. The replacement refs decided to call the play an interception, so Seattle won the game.

Now where politics comes into this is that it is a labor issue. The NFL replacement refs are SCAB workers, completely unqualified to do the job. Some have no higher experience than grade school football. Some had no experience at all. One had actually been fired for incompetence by the Lipstick League, a league featuring teams of scantily clad women. The real officials were not there, because then NFL had locked them out over a dispute with their labor union.

SCAB workers, like the Replacement refs, are poster children for Republican union busting, so you would think that Republicans would be supporting their so-called “right to work”. Not so much. Few people are more notorious for union busting than Scott Walker, Fartfuhrer of the Totalitarian Corporate Plutocracy of Fitzwalkerstan (formerly Wisconsin).

Packers fans, Gov. Scott Walker and the president himself share your anger and anguish over Monday night’s Seahawks game.

In what many would have never thought possible, Walker and President Barack Obama are agreeing over a labor dispute. Tuesday morning, the Republican governor and Packers fan tweeted to a Twitter stream #Returntherealrefs dedicated to ending the lockout that has removed the real NFL referees from pro football games…

Inserted from <Milwaukee Journal Sentinel>

Equally notorious for union busting is Lord Willard’s boy wonder, Paul “Lyin’” Ryan.

GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan on Tuesday criticized the replacement referees who made a disputed call that caused the Green Bay Packers to lose the Monday Night Football game.

“You guys watch that Packer game last night?” Ryan said at his Cincinnati, Ohio, town-hall meeting. “I mean give me a break. It’s time to get the real refs…

Inserted from <The Hill>

What a surprise!

For me, I’m glad to see the return of the union refs, and as for the anti-union Republicans…

27Walker-Ryan

Open Thread–9/27/2012

Posted by TomCat at 8:56 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Sep 272012

I have a second article for you today, but will have no time to distribute links, before I leave for my volunteer work in prison. Today I will meet with over 100 guys for their annual essay contest. I’m current with replies. After two volunteer days this week, I expect to be useless tomorrow, but after that I have several days without an appointment.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:54 (average 4:36). To do it click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: What if 47% of Americans Made A Sign As Awesome As This One?

27sign47

Seamus must have been one of the 47% too.

From NY Times: In my next life, I want to be an undecided voter in Ohio.

Honest to gosh, can you imagine the love? If the Ohio Undecided Voter had a Twitter account, it would have 10 million followers. Each campaign would have an entire operation dedicated to watching it.

This is the best reason to support a National Popular Vote.

From The New Yorker: G.O.P. Presidential nominee Mitt Romney finally got some good news today as he found himself ahead of President Obama in a poll of N.F.L. replacement referees.

The survey, which immediately lifted the spirits of the Romney campaign, was taken among replacement refs on the field during N.F.L. games that they were supposed to be officiating last Sunday and Monday.

Another bad call!

Cartoon:

Open Thread–9/26/2012

Posted by TomCat at 9:58 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion

Sep 262012

Yesterday our prison CoDA group discussed the role of a higher power. I felt proud of how seriously my guys took the issue, how they honored each others beliefs, and how not one was over-simplistic in what some call “jailhouse faith”. If just half of America were just half as authentically introspective as my guys, it would be a far better nation . Critter said “Hi” to Critter. I’m exhausted, so this is today’s only article, but I am current with replies. Tomorrow is another prison volunteer day.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:21 (average 4:57). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: Veteran Rejects His Rank on Mitt’s ‘Laundry List’

26vets

Our troops and veterans are part of the 47% for whom Lord Willard has no use, except for when they are cannon fodder in a Republican war of conquest.

From NY Times and MSNBC: As Mr. Akin, a six-term congressman, fights for his political life after making controversial comments about rape victims, he is counting on a coalition of home-schoolers as part of a crucial support network for his struggling campaign. Mr. Akin and his wife, Lulli, home-schooled all six of their children, and it was other such families who helped in his political rise.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Frankly I think McCaskill is more right. The left is in what used to be the center, and the Republican right is so far out, that it’s off the map. Akin is just too stupid not to admit what they believe. No wonder Akin draws so much support from people who go out of their way to keep their children as ignorant as they are, and he is.

From Daily Kos: When I saw this I had to share it. It has only received around 300 views so far, and it really needs to go viral. It is a video of a CO teacher describing her experience at a round table with Mitt Romney. According to the teacher, Romney was going on about schools failing and how we need a voucher system. When she said she had an answer for that he told her "I didn’t ask you a question."

Lord Willard claims to care about education. He cares only about shifting the cost of attending private and religious schools from those parents to all of us, at the expense of the public school system.

Cartoon:

26Cartoon

JFK kicked his butt!

Open Thread–9/25/2012

Posted by TomCat at 7:08 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Sep 252012

Yesterday my COPD was severe, and I got little sleep last night. I had hoped to put up another article or two, but I need to try to sleep this morning, before I leave, so I’m not wiped out at my CoDA meeting with prisoners. I’m still not current with replies. Tomorrow I’ll probably be wiped out, but I hope I can catch up on replies then.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:56 (average 4:33). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Fantasy Football Report:

Here’s the news about our Fantasy Football League, Lefty Blog Friends.

Scores:

TomCat Teabag Trashers

hugos renegades

92.72

120.10

Playing without a helmet

MittsMagicJock

96.42

95.38

Progressive Underdogs

Texans Will Rise Again

95.62

97.60

Standings:

Rank

Team Name

W-L-T

Pct

Streak

Waiver

For

Against

1 (1)

hugos renegades

3-0-0

1.000

W3

6

330.46

275.24

2 (2)

TomCat Teabag Trashers

2-1-0

.667

L1

5

314.64

310.76

3 (3)

Playing without a helmet

2-1-0

.667

W1

4

308.80

306.76

4 (4)

MittsMagicJock

1-2-0

.333

L1

3

303.52

269.52

5 (5)

Texans Will Rise Again

1-2-0

.333

W1

2

254.58

327.66

6 (6)

Progressive Underdogs

0-3-0

.000

L3

1

280.32

302.38

What can I say? Tony Romo had 5 fantasy points. 🙁

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: How Would You Feel If This Was Your Husband And Mitt Romney Called Him A ‘Freeloader?’

Lord Willard called him a freeloader, because that is what he and most of the rest of the 1% think of all people, who are not rich.

From NY Times: Thirty years ago, when Forbes published its first Forbes 400, a net worth of $75 million would get you on the list. Today it takes $1.1 billion. In the last year alone, the cumulative net worth of the wealthiest 400 people, by Forbes’s calculation, rose by $200 billion. That compares with a 4 percent drop in median household income last year, according to the Census Bureau. One would be hard pressed to find a clearer example of how powerfully income inequality has taken root…

…The fundamental reason the Romneys pay so little in taxes is that the bulk of their income comes from investments and thus is taxed at the capital gains rate of 15 percent. Although Romney himself isn’t close to being rich enough to join the Forbes 400, his reliance on capital gains is a trait he shares with most of the ultrawealthy. It is the thread that ties together the Forbes 400.

Perhaps, if the Republican Party had not rigged the system to favor them, the super-rich might make money by creating jobs!

From Global Post: At a Beverly Hills fundraiser on Saturday, Romney commented on his wife Ann’s recent scare in the air. Her plane was forced to make an emergency landing in Colorado on Friday after the airplane’s cabin filled with smoke on its way to Los Angeles. About the in-flight mishap Romney said:

“I appreciate the fact that she is on the ground, safe and sound. And I don’t think she knows just how worried some of us were. When you have a fire in an aircraft, there’s no place to go, exactly, there’s no — and you can’t find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don’t open. I don’t know why they don’t do that. It’s a real problem. [emphasis added]

Lord Willard is rich enough to build his own jet that has windows that open. He’d find out how Seamus felt in short order. I’ve got dibs on the video!! 😉

Cartoon:

25Cartoon

Open Thread–9/24/2012

Posted by TomCat at 7:53 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Sep 242012

Yesterday I pulled myself away from meditation upon the Ellipsoid Orb to watch the President and Lord Willard on 60 Minutes. I’m sad to report that as soon as Lord Willard started droning on with his standard lies and evasions, the SOB put me right to sleep, so I missed almost all of it. I’m off shortly to an appointment. I’m not current with replies, but I’ll catch up when I can. Tomorrow is a prison volunteer day, but I may have time to do some blogging beforehand. We’ll see.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:56 (4:32 average). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Religious Agony:

0923-Broncos25-Texans31

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: A Question For Your Best Republican Friend

24aquestionforyourbest

It’s clear that Republican governance brings ignorance and poverty to all but the rich. Most exceptions are extremely over-endowed with natural resources.

From NY Times: Representative Paul D. Ryan’s selection as the Republican vice-presidential nominee is now yielding something Mitt Romney’s campaign can do without: second-guessing about how Mr. Ryan is being put to use.

Through the halls of Congress and well beyond, a whisper campaign is bursting into the open: Rather than burden him with the usual constraints on a ticket’s No. 2 not to upstage or get ahead of the presidential nominee, let Ryan be Ryan and take a detailed, policy-heavy fight to President Obama and the Democrats.

Ironically, I agree with the conservatives pushing this idea. The closer they allow Ryan to being Ryan, the closer Obama comes to keeping the Presidency.

From Daily Kos: Tennessee Majority Leader, Rep. Gerald McCormick (R) was caught stealing Frank Eaton, the Democratic candidate for TN-27th sign’s in a public right of way on Saturday. He also cursed out Frank Eaton in front of his wife, Joy. It is bad enough to steal signs, but cursing is never acceptable or becoming conduct of a public official in the South, even prisoners, parolees, gang members all have manners and conduct in front of women – not so for the Majority Leader McCormick.

Also not so for most of today’s Republican politicians. They view sign stealing the same way they view election theft, and they do not respect women, because their party is at war with women.

Cartoon:

24Cartoon

What turns him on most is knowing that he stole it from us.

Election Projection–9/23

Posted by TomCat at 12:09 pm Editorial, Politics

Sep 232012

Like the last two weeks, here is my 2012 election map with my projections. Please understand that I am working with the election system we have, although I find that system to be grossly anti-democratic. I shall cover how I would change it at end of the article.

23ElecProj

Map credit: 270 to Win

I moved Wisconsin back into the blue column, because Obama now leads by over 5%. I also moved Virginia into the blue column for the same reason. That makes the electoral vote count 260 for Obama and 191 for Romney, so Obama needs 10 more to win, barring changes, of course.

There are seven states too close to call, the two states I moves, and the latest poll averages. I did make an adjustment to my calculations. Ever since I was in opinion research I have thought that Rasmussen skews their results by using unrealistic populations. I had hoped I could avoid doing this, because calculating the averages myself is a lot more work, but Rasmussen’s results deviate so far from most other polls in many states, that I removed them. Other polls, whether liberal or conservative in their orientation, usually yielded results within a standard deviation of each other.

Swing States

State

EV

Obama

Romney

CO

9

48.5

45.7

FL

29

48

46.5

IA

6

48.5

43.5

NV

6

48.7

46

NH

4

46.5

43.5

NC

15

47

47.8

OH

18

49.2

44.4

VA

13

49.7

44.6

WI

10

51.8

43.8

Polling data credit: Real Clear Politics

The remainder of this article remains unchanged from last week.

While I still consider Obama’s reelection highly likely, that should not be cause for complacency. There is no way for this projection to account for the votes that will not be cast, because of Republican measures to deprive legitimate Democratic voters of their right to vote.

Now, if I could I would change the system in two ways. I would do away with the Electoral College and make the vote for President a national populate vote. That would eliminate all the economic benefits of the election going to a few swing states. It would also end the imbalance that makes a vote in Wyoming count over twice what a vote in California does. Second, I would place plurality rile with true majority rule with preference voting in all elections. Voters would cast ballots with their first second and third choice candidates. If counting everyone’s first choice does not produce a majority the ballots would be recounted, substituting the highest choice that made the top two for all voters whose first choice did not. In that way we get true majority rule without stigmatizing third parties.

Every Vote Matters…

Especially Yours!

I’m with Daily Kos!

Posted by TomCat at 12:09 pm Politics

Sep 232012

I trust you remember when Michele Bachmann made the ridiculous claim that the Obama Administration is infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood, specifically accusing Huma Abedin. Daily Kos is campaigning for her opponent Jim Graves. Not surprisingly, I’m with Daily Kos.

Daily Kos really wants to boot Rep. Michele Bachman out of office. That much is clear by your vote yesterday, when out of a field of five candidates, you gave her opponent Jim Graves 41 percent of the Hell to Pay vote.

What was so motivating to so many Daily Kos readers? This ad against Graves.

And what brought that ad on? Jim Graves took exception when Bachmann said that that Muslim Brotherhood had infiltrated the federal government, infiltrated the State Department through an aide to Hillary Clinton. She’s said that her colleague in her state’s delegation, Rep. Keith Ellison, has ties to the organization. Remember that these allegations sent Sen. John McCain to the Senate floor to roundly denounce Bachmann’s allegations…

Inserted from <Daily Kos>

Here’s what McCain had to say.

Now, I rarely agree with John McCain, but I have to thank him for the integrity to speak out against Bachmann’s bigotry.

Michele Bachman deserves an opportunity to join the unemployment line, more than even most Republicans.

Bill Maher – New Rules – 9/21

Posted by TomCat at 12:08 pm Politics

Sep 232012

In the midst of day-to-day political concerns that are usually quite intense, it’s nice to take a break to laugh. Bill Maher may, at times, offend, but he never ceases to entertain. This segment is no exception.

Bill Maher took a few shots at those coveted "undecided voters" that politicians are still vying for and that the media constantly puts on a pedestal, and voiced his disdain for having been subjected to one too many of these so-called "focus groups" with a bunch of “nincompoops" who have trouble focusing.

As he noted, if he wanted to watch a bunch of “ignorant jackasses bullsh*tting about the election,” he’d just turn on Fox & Friends. He also got shots in on the Octomom, Kim Kardashian and Donald Trump along the way…

Inserted from <Crooks and Liars>

Despite his hilarity, he does make some excellent points in a unique fashion.

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