As might be expected, the compiler of this message board is celebrating the defeat of organized labor's effort to return control of the WI state senate to its trained seals. Two WI senate Dems face recall elections next week, so perhaps the wailing and gnashing of teeth in union boardrooms may continue.
Also to be noted is that 45,000 Verizon employees in the NE are out on strike in this time of high unemployment. Some of those working class heroes have damaged Verizon's fiber optic cables. The CWA disavows association with the crimes. Mmmhmmm.
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2011/08/10/some_customers_feeling_pinch_in_verizon_strike/
Surprise endorsement
I am no fan of hard-right firebrand Ann Coulter, but will have to give her a nod for accepting the honorary chairmanship of an advisory board for GOProud, a gay conservative group. The board's members also include Grover Norquist and Andrew Breitbart.
Get real!
This AM, NPR interviewed Phil McGraw, aka Dr. Phil, about the psychological effects of the economy upon the middle class. Dr. Phil?
Idiot of the week
Years ago, I operated a website devoted to political issues (mostly slamming the Clintons), odd news, and bad taste (appropriate for a site that discusses the Clintons). Where possible, I would include an idiot of the day, something like the Darwin Awards, but unlike the DA, I would go to the trouble to verify the report.
From Chandler AZ comes a report of one Joshua Seto, who was walking with his fiancee' Cara Christopher from his car to a convenience store. Ms. Christopher was in possession of a dainty pink handgun that she did not wish to carry. Mr. Seto gallantly took the weapon and stuck in the waistband of his pants. You fill in the blanks. Unfortunately for him, the gun was not loaded with blanks. Unreported is why the couple felt it necessary to pack heat into the convenience store. While Seto's family jewelry recovers, Chandler police are considering charges against him.
Labor pains in Wisconsin. The Union, Democrat party and Organized crime spent how many millions to gain 2 seats?
ReplyDeleteAt least Joshua's last name was not Johnson...
Hi WW! I have read figures as high as $20MM spent by unions and their cronies. To be fair, a lot of dough was spent by anti-union outfits, money well spent, IMO.
ReplyDeleteActually, the union money was well spent, also, as it now cannot be used elsewhere to subvert the political process. Of course, dues keep flowing in, with no member permission needed to spend those dues.
One positive aspect about the recall is that it shows people are willing to do a mass recall election in the middle of the term if they sufficiently p.o.'ed. It would be awesome if this would carry over across the nation so that we see massive recall elections for members of Congress after the debt ceiling debacle.
ReplyDeleteRe: idiot of the week - AZ has its share of Wild West cowboy wannabes, so this story doesn't surprise me. They are far more likely to be killed driving on Loop 101 or Loop 202 than in a shootout.
Hi dotnet!
ReplyDeleteDoes the Constitution allow recalls of Congresspeople?
Mr. Seto had better raise his sights, so to speak, if he is a Wild West wannabe. I would recommend walking (probably bowlegged in his case, now) into a saloon with a more robust but less rosy shootin' iron.
Hey Stab!
ReplyDeleteDidn't think about the Constitutionality until you brought it up. Good question. I did a lookup and found this: http://www.senate.gov/CRSReports/crs-publish.cfm?pid='0E%2C*PL%5B%3A%230%20%20%0A (it opens a pdf file)
There is no provision in the Constitution for removing any member of Congress by recall :(. Apparently, once they are voted in, you're stuck with them until the next election unless they die or resign.
They can also be expulled from Congress by a 2/3 vote of their particular branch.
ReplyDelete"expulled" is an old play on words that some friends of mine and I used to discuss(i.e. if expulsion takes place, shouldn't person said to be expulled instead of expelled? Does a person have to become nowned first before becoming renowned?)
ReplyDeletewaiting on my test server to finish upgrading so i can continue with what i was working on
Loved the pink pistol story. Arizona has never lacked for fools.
ReplyDeleteThere are many great graveyards in the USA, none better than Boot Hill in Tombstone, which I have visited more than once.
My favorite Boot Hill characters, most of whom are real, some of whom may not be:
Bronco Charlie (real name unknown, shot by Ormsby)
China Mary (business woman and brothel madam)
Billy Clanton (killed at OK Corral)
Billy Claiborne (shot by Leslie)
Harry Curry (shot by Indians while hauling hay)
Bill Delaney (legally hanged)
Deron (real name unknown, shot by Sheriff John Slaughter while resisting arrest)
Seymour Dye (shot by Indians while hauling hay)
Dutch Annie (brothel madam)
Judah Florentine (AKA Indian Charlie, murdered by Wyatt Earp)
John Gillespie (Cochise County sheriff for fewer than 12 hours. While questioning suspects in the Martin Peel murder, shot in the head by Zwing Hunt)
Billy Grounds (shotgun wound to the face while being questioned in the Martin Peel murder)
Louis Hancock (shot in a barroom brawl by John Ringo over a disparaging remark about a lady)
Frank Hart (shot over a mining claim)
John Heath (lynched by Bisbee mob)
Charles Helm (shot by Wm. McCauley. I served with McCauley's great grandson in Viet Nam)
James Patrick Hickey (shot by Billy Claiborne)
John Hick (killed by Jeremiah McCormick during a card game)
Hilly Hickson (schoolboy died of injuries after falling off a pair of stilts)
Tex Howard (legally hanged)
J.W. Houten (beaten to death over a disputed mining claim)
Dan Kelley (legally hanged)
Kansas Kid (real name unknown, killed in a stampede)
Mike Killeen (killed by Frank Leslie in an argument over Killeen's wife. Afterward, Leslie married her)
Cowboy Bill King (shot by Burt Alvord)
Jack King (shot by Cherokee Hall…this is not Cherokee Bill, who was hanged at Fort Smith, Arkansas)
Billy Kinsman (shot by a jealous woman)
Stinging Lizard (shot by Cherokee Hall)
Six Shooter Jim (real name unknown, shot by Burt Alvord)
Margarita (real name unknown, stabbed by another dance hall girl)
M. McCarthy (shot by a man named Poplin)
Frank McLaury (OK Corral)
Tom McLaury (OK Corral)
Lester Moore (shot over a package, both men died)
Martin Peel (murdered at work)
Red Sample (legally hanged)
Peter Smith (shot by Thos. Doland during a fight)
Charlie Storms (shot in a gunfight in front of the Oriental Saloon by Luke Short, from whom western novelist Frederick Dilley Glidden took his pen name. Glidden was a good friend of one of my college professors, so I got to meet him a few years before he died)
Jos. Thomas (allegedly shot by Indian Joe)
Dick Toby (shot by Sheriff John Behan)
Red River Tom (real name unknown, shot by Ormsby)
Tom J. Waters (shot by his partner Edw. Bradshaw during an argument over a blue checked shirt)
Jos. Wetsell (stoned to death by Apache Indians)
Glenn Will (his son sent his ashes to the town of Tombstone, COD, to be buried in Boot Hill, 1953)
Fred White (US Marshall accidentally shot by Curly Bill Brocius)
The person referred to as Ormsby and others supposedly buried in marked graves in Boot Hill may have been invented by dime novel writer in the late 1890s. Bronco Charlie, Red River Tom, Ormsby , Stinging Lizard and Jack King are the names of fictional characters in the Western novel Wolfville by Alfred Henry Lewis, published in 1897.
I might add that when you see the term "legally hanged" it should be taken with a grain of salt. Don't forget that at one point the notorious Earps were the law in Tombstone.
ReplyDeleteMost of the people listed here died within a 3-4 year period. I somehow doubt that Tombstone would have made one of our modern "best places to live" lists.