Alternate Brain posted a link about organizations that lobby in favor of the War on Drugs as well as an excellent editorial cartoon regarding medical marijuana, and it prompted this remark from me:
Unfortunately, this seems to be one of the few issues that both the Democratic and Republican parties agree on. Nothing will change on the national level until enough people start voting 3rd or 4th party.
Remember, a toker voting for Obama is like a chicken voting for Col. Sanders.
Dane101 has a report about the rally yesterday, and one of the commentators in the thread said “Poor babies have to pay a small amount for your health insurance and retirement accounts. Welcome to the real world!! BOO-HOO!!!!”
I had this to say in response:
The reason I am against the ban on collective bargaining has nothing to do with insurance/retirement and everything to do with going home alive/unhurt at the end of the day.
The work my union is engaged in can be dangerous…even now-a-days people still die while doing it. OSHA doesn’t always keep up with our trade and there are very little state laws/regulations that cover our concerns about things like fatigue (working 10 hours without a lunch can be an inconvenience if you’re sitting at a desk, but can be deadly if you’re around heavy equipment/machinery all day) climbing/rigging and other issues….hence we want safety issues and conditions about our workplace in the contract.
Now that it is illegal to have any of those safety concerns addressed in a contract with the city/county/state, they will become mere suggestions…subject to the whims of the supervisors…rather than something that can be contractually enforced.
Don’t get me wrong…retirement and health insurance are something workers should be concerned about, but you were lied to when you were told that those issues are the only thing this collective bargaining ban is about. It goes waaaaay beyond this pay cut that Walker enacted…literally is a matter of life&death for many workers.
Althouse was frightened by an encounter at the rally and she has video of what took place. This is my comment in her thread:
That is rude and creepy behavior for sure.
Makes me wish I had seen ya’ll in the crowd (and yeah, I was looking!) ’cause then not all your interactions with others at the rally would’ve been negative.
I can’t help but wonder tho…was all of her encounters with other people also this scary? Were all of the other signs she saw as nasty as the ones she posted pictures of? Having been at the rally myself I saw a lot of things she seems to have missed…those thoughts (and a few others) prompted this comment from me in her latest “open thread” post:
In one post Ann says that there is nothing wrong with crossing-over in a primary in order to vote for someone you think will weaken the other party’s chance of winning the general election, but in another she suggests that the mere act of having a recall election is akin to subverting democracy.
That doesn’t make much sense to me…can someone please explain how one person can hold both of those opinions?
Also, couldn’t help but notice that the reports from Ann&Meade about yesterday’s rally focused only on the few rude signs in the crowd and one boorish encounter, but they insist that they are “neutral” in their coverage of these events. Did nothing at all “positive” really happen to them? Was every sign they saw really as nasty as the 3-4 pictures they posted?
There was a rally at the State Capitol today, and self-described ”neutral” Althouse was there to take pictures. I had this to say in the thread:
When I saw that “Dick Tater” sign today I thought to myself that it’d show up on this blog for sure.
I had an short convo with the guy holding the “Stand with Walker, not with Union Thugs” sign. I asked why he thinks we’re thugs and he said his sign didn’t say that all union members were thugs. We talked a bit more, but he seemed upset after I mentioned the legal fund our Governor has just set up so I strolled away.
Ann responds to that comment of mine and then asks me “Why don’t people who profess to believe in democracy accept the results of an election and concentrate on beating him in the next election?”…and this was my response:
You seem to be saying that regularly scheduled elections is the only proper way for a democracy to function and that having a process that allows for the citizens to call for an earlier vote subverts democracy. Would you mind clarifying that? ’cause I don’t understand how having elected leaders more accountable to the citizens means we end up with less democracy.
She seems to not have an answer nor response for that, so if anyone else wants to try and explain her line-of-thinking I’d appreciate the insight….
“Is anyone here allergic to penguins?” the captain of Delta Flight 486 from Atlanta to New York asked passengers—including this writer—on Wednesday night. “No? Alright, we have a surprise for you.”
“How would we even know if we were?” I asked the woman seated next to me in seat 33D.
“He can’t be serious,” she said, pausing briefly as she flipped through her copy of Sky Mall.
But sure enough, after the plane reached a cruising altitude of 30,000 feet and the seat-belt sign was turned off, a pair of penguins waddled down the aisle from first class.
“You can take pictures, but we ask that you don’t touch them,” the captain announced.
I’d probably have to sit on my hands in order to follow that last request…’cause if I got that close to an actual penguin I’d have to at least pet it. Rest of the story, along with a video clip, is here.
This is a short clip of the same pair on an earlier leg of the flight:
Curious critters, ain’t they? I like the way they start walking around and checking things out right away.
I should get myself a couple of those cute lil’ birds . I’m pretty sure my basement would keep cool enough all summer. Got an old cistern down there they could swim in and everything…
Hat-tip to Consumerist.
Caffeinated Politics has a post about Pat Robertson being wrong to say that marijuana should be legalized, and I had this to say in response:
Just curious…do you think we should ban booze again?
I’m also curious to know what “modifications” do you think should be enacted that would make the War on Drugs….especially the War on Tokers…..a success?
He answers one of those questions later in the thread, but doesn’t say if liquor should be also illegal or not.
Althouse made a one-word post (“So?”) in regards to a County Judge that signed a recall petition against Walker but also heard a case about the Voter ID law. I had this to say in the comments:
Is this the same judge that took thousands of $$$ in services from a law firm in Milwaukee that then also appeared before him in several different cases, or am I thinking of someone else?
In the interest of full disclourse I should say that I actually did know the answer to that question, and was just setting up a softball for someone else to take care…(which garage mahal managed to do a little later down the thread)
Althouse re-posted a video clip of the Capitol being cleaned during the protests last year, and I had this to say in the thread:
Whatever happened with the attorney for the Dept of Admin who proclaimed it was gonna cost over $7million to clean up the Capitol?
Nuttin’ personal, but should someone be allowed to keep their job when they are THAT wrong?
Troglopundit recently heard the former-Governor-and-current-candidate-for-the-Senate speak, and posted a short video clip of part of the speech. I had this to say in response:
Remember how Tommy was so polarizing and so divisive as Governor that thousands of people were constantly protesting at the Capitol?
Yeah…me neither.
What prompted me to say that is because quite a few people have claimed that Walker is being re-called simply ’cause folks “don’t like his politics”. If that is the case, then how could Thompson serve as governor for so long and never have to face a recall election? After all, many people disagreed with his policies and politics as well.
Difference is that what the WI-GOP has done in the past year goes way beyond “just politics”, and that is why many of them are having to face the voters sooner rather than later….
W-w-who are you?
Forward Lookout continues on with an earlier convo about using “real names” for commenting, and this is what I had to say: