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On to tomorrow

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

As expected, it looks like Clinton will win Pennsylvania. For six weeks we’ve been hearing that this is a critical primary. Tomorrow we’ll be hearing that it settled nothing. From here on, it’s all down hill for Clinton. The only question is whether she’ll take the Democratic party (and the nation and the world) down with her.

A friend of mine called me to rant today. He mentioned that he was reading Doris Kearn Goodwins No Ordinary Time. The title is derived from Franklin Roosevelt’s statement explaining his reasons for running for a third term. My friend said that these too, are no ordinary times, and he was distressed that our politicians, not to mention the press, seem to be unaware of this fact. We are faced with the threat of economic ruin and global environmental disaster, to mention only the top two. Oh, I forgot to mention the gravest threat to our own system of government since the Republic was founded. Lot’s of people recognize the fact that these are, indeed, extraordinary times. I hope, somewhere in her ambitious little soul, that Clinton does too. We do need an end to this.

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Talking about earmarks

Monday, April 21, 2008

A few observations on a recent article in the Norwich Bulletin, in which Sean Sullivan’s campaign suggests that Joe Courtney should reveal all his earmark requests, not only those that were successful, as current rules require.

First, as a practical matter, this issue is a non-starter at the Congressional level. Earmarks are only bad when the other guy gets them, not when you do. Sean’s campaign is not going to score points demanding disclosure of the earmarks Joe didn’t get, and every time he raises the issue Joe will remind the voters of the earmark that won him an award:

The watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste cited Courtney in its 2008 Congressional Pig Book Summary, noting, among other items, $588 million in advance funding to increase production of Virginia-class submarines at Electric Boat, calling it pork.

It may be pork, but to the people of the 2nd that’s mighty good eating. In fact, only a few days ago Sullivan’s campaign was attacking Joe for not getting a submarine earmark before he was even elected.

This is one of those issues that just doesn’t work.

A few other things about this article deserve comment. First, there’s this:

Cynthia Maynard of Norwich said she appreciates Courtney’s view on holding himself accountable, though she would prefer full disclosure.

“I just think the process should be more open,” she said.

There are lots of people in the 2nd District. Why was Cynthia Maynard, whoever she is, singled out to give a comment on this issue? Unfortunately, Google does not help on this. Is Ms. Maynard an expert? Why is her opinion important? We are not told. One might suspect, after the Nash McCabe episode on ABC, that this woman was sought out by (or provided to) the reporter to voice a Republican friendly opinion. (In this context of course, Republicans are rarely truly in favor of disclosure of anything.)

Finally, there’s this:

U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is a strident critic of the earmark process and does not request them.

This is a case in which the literal truth leaves much unsaid. McCain does criticize earmarks (which by the way have a negligible impact on the budget) and he does not request them. He often criticizes earmarks obtained by others in Congress. Unless, that is, those members of Congress are from his own state of Arizona, in which case he falls silent. That, my friends, if having your cake and eating it too. Finally, of course, there are earmarks and there are earmark equivalents. Who’s the biggest friend to lobbyists of all the presidential candidates? Look at their staffs. It’s McCain hands down. What do lobbyists do? They get earmarks, often for far more unsavory projects than the pork sought be members of Congress. If you think that lobbyists are uncomfortable with the prospect of a McCain presidency, ask yourself why they are managing his campaign, and even running their lobbyist operations from the front seat of the straight talk express. What’s worse, funneling money to your home district, or slipping a provision into legislation that benefits a favored lobbyist?

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Outrage, outrage everywhere

Sunday, April 20, 2008

The New York Times broke a major story today, even if it does fit into the “what else is new” category into which so much news can be placed. Is anyone remotely surprised that the military experts on television are spewing administration talking points in the service of their current employers, arms dealers and the like? Is anyone surprised that the networks were cavalier about checking into these people, and that the networks never bothered to reveal their connections to the arms merchants? We all know we should be outraged, but it’s so hard these days.

I personally got more outraged about this story in the business section, simply because nothing about Iraq can get me truly outraged anymore, but other stories can still push my buttons. The story contrasts two employers, FedEx and Patagonia. It tells the story of one FedEx employee who worked for the company for 10 years, only to be fired when she asked for a leave so she could battle cancer. Patagonia by contrast, pampers the workers at its corporate headquarters (it’s not clear how the folks who actually make the clothing are treated).

FedEx would say the comparisons are unfair, because the sick lady, Jean Capobianco, was not an employee, she was an independent contractor. You see, one of FedEx’s ways of holding down costs is to call the folks who wear its uniform and drive its trucks “independent contractors”. Now this definition of independent contractor is pretty much black letter law:

A person or business who performs services for another person under an express or implied agreement and who is not subject to the other’s control, or right to control, the manner and means of performing the services; not as an employee. One who engages an independent contractor is not liable to others for the acts or omissions of the independent contractor.

Does FexEx qualify?

In Jean’s view, it was ludicrous for Roadway and FedEx to call the drivers independent contractors.

“We’re told what to do, when to do it, how to do it, when to take time off,” Jean said. “You have to wear their uniform. You can’t wear your hair certain ways. You have to deliver every single thing they put on the truck.”

Jean called it “a great deal for FedEx. They don’t have to pay for trucks, for the insurance, for fuel, for maintenance, for tires,” she said. “We have to pay for all those things. And they don’t have to pay our Social Security.”

By some estimates, this arrangement saves FedEx $400 million a year, giving it a significant cost advantage over U.P.S., which treats its drivers as regular employees. Moreover, FedEx Ground has sought to rebuff a Teamster organizing drive by arguing that its 15,000 drivers have no right to unionize because they are independent contractors.

“These drivers are more like business people,” said Perry Colosimo, a FedEx Ground spokesman. “They can set their own hours. They can buy routes. They can develop their business.”

In 30 lawsuits, FedEx Ground drivers have argued that they are employees, not independent contractors, and that the company should therefore pay for their trucks, insurance, repairs, gas and tires. In one lawsuit, a California judge ruled that FedEx Ground was engaged in an elaborate ruse in which FedEx “has close to absolute control” over the drivers. Last December, FedEx acknowledged another setback: the I.R.S. ordered it to pay $319 million in taxes and penalties for 2002 for misclassifying employees as independent contractors. FedEx could face similar I.R.S. penalties for subsequent years. FedEx said it would appeal.

Now, UPS is hardly a paragon of virtue, but it at least acknowledges that its employees are employees. They have a union. UPS is following the law. It is, essentially being put at a competitive disadvantage, not be being nice to its employees, but merely because it is not engaged in the same “elaborate ruse” as its competitor. FedEx is not an outlier, it’s part of a trend.

The FedEx workers’ experience is not unique, but part of a widespread trend in which companies misclassify workers as independent contractors, allowing employers to avoid making contributions to Social Security, unemployment insurance, workers’ compensation and health insurance. Independent contractors are also not extended protections under labor and employment law, and they cannot form or join unions.

Initially, there might be some attraction to think that you’re your own boss. But in the end, they’ll see that they don’t have any protections. “It makes [workers] responsible for a whole range of things that normally an employer should provide,” said Suren Moodliar, coordinator for the North American Alliance for Fair Employment (NAFFE). “In effect, [independent contractors] are responsible for their own exploitation.”

This sort of thing could not be happening without a government that did its best to look the other way. Our corporate and government masters tell us that market forces will take care of everything, and then they game the market forces by breaking the few rules that limit them. This lawlessness drives even well meaning employers toward these kinds of scams, because they can’t compete unless they move toward the lowest common denominator.

The Times story, by the way, is adapted from “The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker,” by Steven Greenhouse, the Times Reporter.

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Congress about to give Bush more Iraq money

Sunday, April 20, 2008

The fearless Democrats are about to give Bush $178 billion dollars for Iraq and Afghanistan. They want to do it on the sly, before the next election, though they do plan to “defy” Bush by sneaking in some additional spending, including money for Jim Webb’s GI bill. The most unpopular president in United States history (and the worst) has decreed that the bill must be clean of domestic spending. What are the chances that the Democrats will even score a PR victory on this? They will undoubtedly cave, as they always do, and will be unable to turn the national conversation to Bush’s callousness toward the vets.

At this point, we are beginning to talk about serious money being wasted on these wars. This new bill, the amount of which will draw no gasps from our media, the Republicans or, regrettably, most Democrats, is more than enough to pay for Hillary Clinton’s health plan (the best of the two plans on offer from the remaining candidates). We are routinely told that health care is unaffordable, yet we are flushing more money down the toilet in Iraq, both short term and, it appears, long term) than it would cost us to reform our health care system, the single most important economic issue we face.

The founders gave the Congress the power of the purse precisely to prevent executive overreaching. They assumed that Congress would have the institutional guts to stand up to a president, particularly one that was universally despised. No such luck.

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Spring arriving

Saturday, April 19, 2008

We have a little artificial pond in our yard, in which both fish and one or more frogs manage to survive. This is an amazing thing, particularly because we do almost nothing to maintain it, except to make sure the pump and filter are working, and that it doesn’t freeze in the winter. Each year the promise of spring reveals itself when, against all odds, the fish and/or frog reappear.

Today, we spotted them both for the first time. You’ll have to take my word on the fish, but I caught the frog in pixels. We have had this pond for at least 12 years now, by the way. The first day we put it in a frog appeared out of nowhere and jumped in it. I don’t know if this guy is a descendant of that first pioneer. I also don’t know how they live. In all the years since then I’ve never seen one of them (the population varies) eat anything. They always just sit there. Anyway, here he is:

Frogs are old news around here, as are the herds (and I mean herds) of deer that munch on our trees, shrubs, flowers, etc., sparing only the bittersweet that we would love to see go. Today, however, a wild turkey came by while we were sitting on the patio. There are plenty of turkey in the woods behind us, but they have been shy about coming in our yard. These guys are not only more picturesque than the deer, they are non-destructive. In fact, I understand they eat ticks. For all you city folk, here’s a genuine Connecticut turkey:

Back to politics tomorrow.

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Tense times

Saturday, April 19, 2008

For the last several weeks I have been informed by WordPress, whenever I log in, that a new and improved update was available. It was not available for easy install at my web hosting service, and I was reluctant in the extreme to try installing it myself. It is a major upgrade with one feature (batch picture uploads) that I really wanted. I finally emailed my web hosting service about it, and they told me they had switched to a new install service, and I should try that. I followed the instructions to the letter. I actually downloaded a backup copy of the blog before doing so, a precaution I might normally skip. The install went like a charm, according to the installation script. The only problem on my end was that both the blog and WordPress were inaccessible.

A call to the hosting service tech guy at first yielded modest success. WordPress was restored, and so was the blog. Except that every post I had ever written was gone. Some might say that the world would have been better off had things stayed that way, but I felt differently. Anyway, much to my relief, the tech guy figured out the problem and, with a few keystrokes, the blog was restored and I breathed a sigh of relief.

If you attempted to access the blog during that period you might have been unable to do so, or seen a post titled “Hello World”. All, at least I hope, is now back to normal. If anyone sees any anomalies I’d appreciate it if you could let me know. I had to disable all the plugins to do the install and then reactivate them, so there may be some glitches.

Hopefully this will all be worth it.

By the way, the tech guy from Blue Host couldn’t have been better. He knew what he was doing. That alone set him apart from most tech people with whom I’ve dealt.

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Groton Democrat to display art in Old Lyme. Other artists to appear too

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Next week, the Lyme-Old Lyme Junior Women’s Club holds its annual Art Show at the Old Lyme Art Association. The details are on the flyer reproduced below.

The money goes to good causes, and the art is always very good.

There will be lots of artists there, but only one of them lives down the street from us and only one of them is a Groton Democrat, so I am going to shamelessly promote Ruby Silva’s stuff. Two years ago we bought one of Ruby’s paintings, which now hangs proudly in our living room. Here’s a sample of the paintings Ruby will be displaying. I should add here that these are scanned from photos, so you can take as a given that the colors in the originals will be much better than you see here.

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I’m not a member of any organized political party, I’m a Democrat!

Saturday, April 19, 2008

If Will Rogers needed confirmation of his point of view, he need only have looked at the 2008 Democratic 18th Senatorial District State Central Convention, to which I had the dubious honor of being a delegate.

Actually, the convention went fine. I played a sterling role, being firstest with the mostest when it came to making motions to close the nominations, of which I believe I made all but one. The meeting took about 20 minutes, after which pizza and a good time were had by all.

However, getting there was another story. We received not one, not two, but three different notices from State Central about this convention, each with a different date or time. My wife tried to check State Central’s website at one point. The good news is that the website exists. The bad news is that it is of little use.

I suppose it could have been worse. At least the last notice was the accurate one.

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Friday Night Music-Doo Wah Diddy Diddy Dum Diddy Doo

Friday, April 18, 2008

If you can listen to this song and not start smiling, then you need to change your meds. Mannfred Mann:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwA0NaRmyCA&feature=related[/youtube]

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More on the debate

Friday, April 18, 2008

A few more thoughts about Wednesday’s debate.

First, I find it surprising that anyone finds it surprising that ABC sought out the flag pin lady. I knew it as soon as I saw her. That they left such easily followed footprints is just a sign of their arrogance, but also, I believe, of the fact that they don’t understand a new reality borne of the internet.

Could it be that this debate represents a watershed moment? Last night I wrote about the fact that I tend to avoid watching these things because of the impotent rage I feel as I watch the gross stupidity fostered by the broadcast media. But things may be different now. Individually, we are impotent to stop this sort of thing. In fact, just a few years ago there was literally no way for us to any one of us to know that we weren’t the only ones who were aghast at the way in which our media was cheapening our political discourse. There was no way for us to communicate with or connect to one another. But that has changed. We the people can now fight back. The playing field isn’t level, but it’s a lot closer to level than it was just a few short years ago. Sure this debate hit rock bottom, but it is just the natural culmination of the medias capture by the Republican party, which as Josh Marshall points out, no longer needs to Swift Boat. The press now does it for them, in the guise of anticipating the next Republican attack.

But public disgust is now harder to ignore. It is, as Gibson said so erroneously about the idiotic flag pin question, all over the internet. We are no longer reduced to screaming at our televisions. We can push back, en masse, and they have to listen. They don’t like it, and they pretend not to hear, but they do.

Which leads me to this final point. Go to Move On and sign the petition. If they get 100,000 people to sign, they’ll run commercials attacking the media for their mindless parroting of trivial Republican talking points.

Obama, by the way, seems to have tumbled to this as a talking point of his own (see my previous post). Here’s hoping he’ll push hard on that. His audiences will respond favorably, and he might force the media to back off just a bit.

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