"John McCain and Hilllary Clinton voted YES to George's war. You wouldn't want someone in the White House who would make a collosal mistake like that!" - Michael Moore
5.31.2008
JUST SAY NO...TO WAR
"John McCain and Hilllary Clinton voted YES to George's war. You wouldn't want someone in the White House who would make a collosal mistake like that!" - Michael Moore
5.22.2008
NEW CRUMBDROPPER
My mommas have a new grandson, Adam. He was born yesterday, and is a big guy at 9 pounds, 9 ounces, and 22.5 inches long. Can you imagine the amount of food he's going to need? He's going to be a major crumbdropper. I am going to totally score treats whenever he comes to visit! That will nearly make up for all the noise and nasty smells!
5.17.2008
THE WOLF INSIDE US
This post is from the blog Serenity's Journal:
Native Americans have a story of a grandfather walking with his grandson.
The boy asks why there is hatred, evil, violence, and broken promises in the world. The grandfather replies, "The answer lies within. Deep inside each of us is a fight between two wolves. One is evil: He is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt. The other wolf is good: He is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. This fight between the two wolves is going on inside of you and inside everybody."
The grandson thinks for a moment and then asks his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"
The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one that you feed."
Native Americans have a story of a grandfather walking with his grandson.
The boy asks why there is hatred, evil, violence, and broken promises in the world. The grandfather replies, "The answer lies within. Deep inside each of us is a fight between two wolves. One is evil: He is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt. The other wolf is good: He is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. This fight between the two wolves is going on inside of you and inside everybody."
The grandson thinks for a moment and then asks his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"
The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one that you feed."
5.16.2008
CRUNCH!
My momma's two-month old Prius got rear-ended yesterday afternoon. Grrrrrrr! She was on her way home, to pick up my brother Morry for a vet appointment. She was stopped at a traffic light, in a long line of cars. When the light turned green, the front cars started to move, but the ones by her hadn't started to move yet - except for the stupid guy behind her! Grrrrrrr! She had to wait nearly 45 minutes for the police to arrive, but at least the cop was very nice.
Now, my momma has to hassle with the insurance and rental car while her car is getting fixed. Grrrrrr!
If I'd been with her when it happened, I would have bitten that stupid guy in his fat ankles! Grrrrrrr!
Now, my momma has to hassle with the insurance and rental car while her car is getting fixed. Grrrrrr!
If I'd been with her when it happened, I would have bitten that stupid guy in his fat ankles! Grrrrrrr!
5.14.2008
EDWARDS ENDORSES OBAMA
From the Associated Press:"Democrat John Edwards endorsed former rival Barack Obama on Wednesday, a move designed to help solidify support for the party's likely presidential nominee even as Hillary Rodham Clinton refuses to give up her long-shot candidacy.
"The endorsement came a day after Clinton defeated Obama by more than 2-to-1 in the West Virginia primary. The loss highlighted Obama's challenge in winning over the "Hillary Democrats" _ white, working-class voters who also supported Edwards in significant numbers before he exited the race in late January.
"Edwards, who received a thunderous ovation when Obama introduced him to a crowd of several thousand, said, "brothers and sisters, we must come together as Democrats" to defeat McCain. "We are here tonight because the Democratic voters have made their choice, and so have I."
5.12.2008
PANIC ATTACK: GOP'S NEW SLOGAN
From Jason Linkins, The Huffington Post:
"Leave it to the tone deaf GOP to find a way of attaching themselves to this election cycle's 'change' mandate that simultaneously reinforces the fact that their failed policies have messed up the world to such an inhuman extent that many Americans now live their daily lives in a state of free-floating panic and paralyzing anxiety.
"In today's New York Times' Caucus blog, Carl Hulse reports that House Republicans have got themselves a brand-new slogan: 'It looks like Republicans will counter the Democratic push for change from the years of the Bush administration with their own pledge to deliver, drum roll please, 'the change you deserve.' The first element of the party agenda developed over the past few months by the leadership and select party members will focus on family issues.
'Through our 'Change You Deserve' message and through our 'American Families Agenda,' House Republicans will continue our efforts to speak directly to an American public looking for leaders who will offer real solutions for the challenges they confront every day,' said the memo prepared for lawmakers.'
"What the GOP doesn't seem to realize, because they are idiots, is that 'the change you deserve' is the registered advertising slogan of Effexor XR, a drug that many of you might have started taking as a result of all the...you know -- terrorism. Effexor, also known as Venlafaxine, is approved for the treatment 'of depression, generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, and panic disorder in adults.' Its common side effects are very much in keeping with the world the House Republicans have striven to build: nausea, apathy, constipation, fatigue, vertigo, sexual dysfunction, sweating, memory loss, and - and I swear I am not making this up - 'electric shock-like sensations also called 'brain zaps.'
"Its less common side effects are equally awesome in their appropriateness.
"And when the Food And Drug Administration reviewed the ad copy that included the tagline, 'The change you deserve,' it took issue with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, which manufactures Effexor, saying that the company made 'unsubstantiated superiority claims.' Sounds like the GOP have picked an ironically accurate tagline for their efforts!"
"Leave it to the tone deaf GOP to find a way of attaching themselves to this election cycle's 'change' mandate that simultaneously reinforces the fact that their failed policies have messed up the world to such an inhuman extent that many Americans now live their daily lives in a state of free-floating panic and paralyzing anxiety.
"In today's New York Times' Caucus blog, Carl Hulse reports that House Republicans have got themselves a brand-new slogan: 'It looks like Republicans will counter the Democratic push for change from the years of the Bush administration with their own pledge to deliver, drum roll please, 'the change you deserve.' The first element of the party agenda developed over the past few months by the leadership and select party members will focus on family issues.
'Through our 'Change You Deserve' message and through our 'American Families Agenda,' House Republicans will continue our efforts to speak directly to an American public looking for leaders who will offer real solutions for the challenges they confront every day,' said the memo prepared for lawmakers.'
"What the GOP doesn't seem to realize, because they are idiots, is that 'the change you deserve' is the registered advertising slogan of Effexor XR, a drug that many of you might have started taking as a result of all the...you know -- terrorism. Effexor, also known as Venlafaxine, is approved for the treatment 'of depression, generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, and panic disorder in adults.' Its common side effects are very much in keeping with the world the House Republicans have striven to build: nausea, apathy, constipation, fatigue, vertigo, sexual dysfunction, sweating, memory loss, and - and I swear I am not making this up - 'electric shock-like sensations also called 'brain zaps.'
"Its less common side effects are equally awesome in their appropriateness.
"And when the Food And Drug Administration reviewed the ad copy that included the tagline, 'The change you deserve,' it took issue with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, which manufactures Effexor, saying that the company made 'unsubstantiated superiority claims.' Sounds like the GOP have picked an ironically accurate tagline for their efforts!"
5.11.2008
5.01.2008
LILLY'S DILEMMA
From Susan Estrich of Creators.com:
Lilly Ledbetter was nearing 60 and on the verge of retirement when someone sent her an anonymous letter telling her that for the preceding 19 years, she'd been earning less than her male counterparts at Goodyear Tire and Rubber. On the day she started work as a supervisor in 1979, she was paid the same as men in the same job. But by 1998, when that letter arrived and Lilly consulted a lawyer, she was making $15,000 a year less than a man with the same experience doing the same job.
So she sued.
A federal jury found that over the course of her career, she lost out on upward of a quarter of a million dollars in pay because of discrimination, and the jury awarded her interest and penalties that brought the award to almost $4 million. The judge reduced the award to $360,000. The Supreme Court, by a 5-4 vote, got rid of it entirely.
Lilly's failing, in their mind, was that she should have sued back in 1980, when her pay started falling behind that of her male counterpart. According to the law as read by the Court, she had only 180 days to complain about discriminatory pay or she was stuck with it. By the time she filed suit in 1998, the first 18 years of being shafted didn't count anymore, and the last 180 days — the only time period the five men on the Court who voted against her thought could be counted — was just the residue of the way things had been done all those years, not some new and intentional effort to pay her less. Business as usual. No recovery.
This week, the Senate failed in its effort to overrule that particular decision of the Supreme Court.
At a time when women, no matter what their education, job classification, experience or ability, still earn on average 77 cents for every dollar men earn, Republican presidential candidate John McCain skipped the vote. But he took time to make clear that he opposes the bill because he thinks government has no business telling employers they will be held responsible for underpaying women unless those women complain about it in the first 180 days. By a 56-42 vote (60 votes are required by Senate rules to cut off debate), the Republican minority voted to protect business at the expense of working women.
Too many lawsuits, McCain said.
Too much discrimination, I would say.
There are some who believe Democrats are doing everything they can to hand this election over to the Republican in what should be a Democratic year. But Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both took time from their campaigns to go back to Washington to vote for Lilly Ledbetter and the millions of women who know they are being shafted at work, but don't have the evidence — at least not within 180 days of the shafting — to prove it. McCain only took the time to say he would have voted against her.
It's the sort of vote women may remember, or be reminded of, when November comes around. Equal pay for equal work doesn't mean a whole lot if you don't have the ability to enforce it. Ultimately, politics and elections often come down to whose side you're on. John McCain made that clear this week. It may yet come back to haunt him. Some of those women he forgot about when he skipped the vote on Lilly Ledbetter may remember that, and not skip their turn to vote in November.
Lilly Ledbetter was nearing 60 and on the verge of retirement when someone sent her an anonymous letter telling her that for the preceding 19 years, she'd been earning less than her male counterparts at Goodyear Tire and Rubber. On the day she started work as a supervisor in 1979, she was paid the same as men in the same job. But by 1998, when that letter arrived and Lilly consulted a lawyer, she was making $15,000 a year less than a man with the same experience doing the same job.
So she sued.
A federal jury found that over the course of her career, she lost out on upward of a quarter of a million dollars in pay because of discrimination, and the jury awarded her interest and penalties that brought the award to almost $4 million. The judge reduced the award to $360,000. The Supreme Court, by a 5-4 vote, got rid of it entirely.
Lilly's failing, in their mind, was that she should have sued back in 1980, when her pay started falling behind that of her male counterpart. According to the law as read by the Court, she had only 180 days to complain about discriminatory pay or she was stuck with it. By the time she filed suit in 1998, the first 18 years of being shafted didn't count anymore, and the last 180 days — the only time period the five men on the Court who voted against her thought could be counted — was just the residue of the way things had been done all those years, not some new and intentional effort to pay her less. Business as usual. No recovery.
This week, the Senate failed in its effort to overrule that particular decision of the Supreme Court.
At a time when women, no matter what their education, job classification, experience or ability, still earn on average 77 cents for every dollar men earn, Republican presidential candidate John McCain skipped the vote. But he took time to make clear that he opposes the bill because he thinks government has no business telling employers they will be held responsible for underpaying women unless those women complain about it in the first 180 days. By a 56-42 vote (60 votes are required by Senate rules to cut off debate), the Republican minority voted to protect business at the expense of working women.
Too many lawsuits, McCain said.
Too much discrimination, I would say.
There are some who believe Democrats are doing everything they can to hand this election over to the Republican in what should be a Democratic year. But Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both took time from their campaigns to go back to Washington to vote for Lilly Ledbetter and the millions of women who know they are being shafted at work, but don't have the evidence — at least not within 180 days of the shafting — to prove it. McCain only took the time to say he would have voted against her.
It's the sort of vote women may remember, or be reminded of, when November comes around. Equal pay for equal work doesn't mean a whole lot if you don't have the ability to enforce it. Ultimately, politics and elections often come down to whose side you're on. John McCain made that clear this week. It may yet come back to haunt him. Some of those women he forgot about when he skipped the vote on Lilly Ledbetter may remember that, and not skip their turn to vote in November.
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