Registered?
Commenting on WE Blog now requires you to be a Kansas.com member. Use the links above to register, if you haven't already, or to log in.Contact us
Follow us
Daily Archives
-
Recent Comments
- BlueJay on Open thread 11/22
- Boxlock20 on Open thread 11/22
- satatom on Open thread 11/22
- JimJohnson on Open thread 11/22
- Regular on Open thread 11/22
- Regular on Open thread 11/22
- DavidB on Health care reform would save state money
- DavidB on Minority status in Senate; majority approval at home
- JimJohnson on Open thread 11/22
- American_Way on Open thread 11/22
Open thread
- By Phillip Brownlee
- Posted May 26, 2007 at 1:04 a.m.
- Filed under Open thread
- Permalink
- Comments RSS
- Both comments and trackbacks are closed
62 Comments
Months before the invasion of Iraq, U.S. intelligence agencies predicted that it would be likely to spark violent sectarian divides and provide al-Qaeda with new opportunities in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a report released yesterday by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Analysts warned that war in Iraq also could provoke Iran to assert its regional influence and “probably would result in a surge of political Islam and increased funding for terrorist groups” in the Muslim world.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/25/AR2007052501380.html?hpid=topnews
With little fanfare, Congress yesterday approved the first increase in the federal minimum wage in nearly a decade, voting to boost wages for America’s lowest-paid workers from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour over the next two years.
The bill, which a spokesman for President Bush said he would sign, would end the longest stretch without an increase in the federal minimum wage since it was established in 1938. It would also mark a victory for congressional Democrats, becoming the first item to be enacted from an eight-point agenda that House leaders vowed to pursue during their first 100 hours in power.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/24/AR2007052402241.html
Hank,I know this is a terrible blow for you, but we understand, LOL!
Bullshit XXX!
My wife will have to give me a raise now!
Of course she’ll probably cut back on my hours.
Hank
PS Real men ride in the rain.
You need to quit reading the Washington Post, it’ll turn your mind to mush.
Hank
Hank,”You need to quit reading the Washington Post, it’ll turn your mind to mush.”
Yeah, I’m trying to cut back. Actually, the second article came up from Google News, so does that really count?
“PS Real men ride in the rain.”
Actually, that’s pretty dangerous. It really doesn’t bother me that much but these days, I’m hauling precious cargo (lovely wife).XXX can take a licking and keep on ticking, but the thought of hurting Mrs. XXX in a lay-down is a little much to bear.
We’ll be riding today. The boss wants to go check the rivers for flooding. I’ve never known a woman who likes to ride so much.
This woman doesn’t ride. NO way, no how.
road rash, head trauma, multiple trauma..not my thing.
P_mom,Do you drive or ride in a car? Do you walk across the street? Does your home have electricity? Gas? Do you ride horses? Ever owned a Pit Bull, Rot, or Dobe?
P_mom, this link is for you, LOL!
http://www.hsegroup.com/hse/text/cowboy.htm
A little over 63% of deaths in this country (according to National Vital Statistics Report released by the National Safety Council) are medically related, with heart disease leading the list, followed by cancer, stroke and respiratory problems. All accidents account for 4.4% of deaths, and motorcycle accidents account for less than .01% of all accidents.
So, gonna take my ‘chances’, looks like a gorgeous day for riding..seee yaaa!
XXX! What you fail to say or you just didn’t know (probably the later) about the Minimum Wage hike was a provision attached to the Iraq Spending Bill which the Democrats long standing troop retreat provision has loss and they gave in to Bush.
The vote in the Senate was 80-14. Of the 14 Senators who voted against it, 10 where Democrats:
List of Democrats in the Senate who voted against the Minimum Wage Hike:
Boxer (D-CA)Clinton (D-NY)Dodd (D-CT)Feingold (D-WI)Kennedy (D-MA)Kerry (D-MA)Leahy (D-VT)Obama (D-IL)Sanders (I-VT)Whitehouse (D-RI)Wyden (D-OR)
Joe — What makes those votes interesting, is that they were all votes cast AFTER it was certain the measure would pass…
Note also that both Clinton and Obama voted NO, because both are presidential candidates, and do not want to vote FOR the war…
Meet the new boss same as the old boss…
Everytime, the military industrial complex wins. Follow the money.
Hillary is going to have a tough time shaking her image as a war supporter. Obama not so much, but I dont think this “after the fact” voting will impress anyone.
Least of all the “base”.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20070525-1228-economicmobility-report.html
American men make 12.5 percent less than their fathers 30 years ago, report on mobility says
AP 12:28 p.m. May 25, 2007
WASHINGTON – The part of the American dream that says a man’s children will be better off than he was, has become a dream, not reality, according to an analysis of Census data released Friday.A generation ago, American men in their thirties had median annual incomes of about $40,000 compared with men of the same age who now make about $35,000 a year, adjusted for inflation.
That’s a 12.5 percent drop between 1974 and 2004, according to data from the Pew Charitable Trusts’ Economic Mobility Project.
“Today’s data suggest that during a 30-year period of economic expansion, a rising tide did not lift all boats,” Morton said in a release accompanying the report, “Economic Mobility: Is the American Dream Alive and Well?”
Of course, the men who run American companies don’t have too much to complain about. CEO pay increased to 262 times the average worker’s pay in 2005 from 35 times in 1978, according to the report’s analysis of Congressional Budget Office statistics.
*****
Wealthy, elitist CONservatives make sure they get richer by feeding the willing idiots (Hank Price, Joe Williams, Republican, GSheridan, KSgrm) a steady diet of Rush O’Hannity.
Meanwhile, average Americans continue to get POORER while the rich–like billionaire Rush–get richer.
Ya know, I think it is really funny that EVERYONE in economic development in the 80’s was jumping on the bandwagon of small biz government contracts. And the location or expansion of a defense related company was job security for EVERYONE in economic development.
EVERYONE wanted a defense related company in their community to promote job growth and traditional economic development goals.
Most folks dont remember that Austin’s booming economy was built on DEFENSE contractors like Lockheed and research and institutions like Semetech. And of course, UT. And Pike Powers, hehehehe.
The Austin high tech boom of the 90’s was a direct result of that military industrial frenzy of the 80’s. All those tech people were already in place, with networks and resources like Sematech, MCC and UT.
And then came the venture capitalists and the internet to REALLY throw gas on the high tech fire. And those vc and internet folks and that money came from where?
You guessed it. California. The military industrial complex for the world. Stanford, Palo Alto, etc. Even the internet was begun as a DARPA effort.
That little history lesson means the pols in CA today have some tough choices to make. Their voters are more liberal and demand their elected officials to vote as such. Except for the military industrial groups in Orange County, San Diego, etc.
So when you attach military spending to stuff like the minimum wage, it is no surprise that mostly “liberal” Californians have no choice but to support the MIC. Damn their more liberal voters, someone has to pay the bills.
And paying the piper is a bitch, no?
Oops, typekey just decided to log me out for no apparent reason . . . that nic was left over from yesterday’s little experiment to show how one could post under two nics at the same time.
Easily done btw.
Any way . . . good point KSFrmGrrl.
I got a pledge card from the DNC which I’m going to send back with a note that they get no more donations from me until they start actually OPPOSING the war.
It’s time to weep for American when she has one party that’s totally wrong about everything–the Republicans–and the opposition that can’t take a stand on anything–the Democrats.
Great choice.
“American men make 12.5 percent less than their fathers 30 years ago, report on mobility says…” Posted by: CapnAmerica posts twice | May 26, 2007 at 10:42 AM
On that I call totally BS.
Ask anyone of the working class what their salary was 30 years ago and even with inflation adjustments, salaries of that era doesn’t even come close to salaries of today.
Where did they do this survey? In Hollywood?
That’s not surprising that you wouldn’t believe a robust statistical survey using the standard research methodologies.
You don’t believe the global warming data that is based on the same process.
American wages peaked in 1972 and have been going down ever since.
This is established fact.
But because ReplagiarCon didn’t hear it on Rush, he doesn’t believe it.
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=1057-8641(1993)1993:2%3C161:ITAAWI%3E2.0.CO;2-P
William J. Slaughter, MIT
“During the hundred years before 1973, real average hourly earnings rose by 1.9 percent a year. At that rate, earnings doubled every 36 years . . .
“By 1992, they [wages] had actually declined . . . [to] a level acheived in the late sixties . . . ”
“A second ominous development has accompanied this slump: a dramatic rise in the inequality of earnings.”
Oh, I almost forgot. Americans work FIVE WEEKS longer now than they did in 1969–that’s a full MONTH more now than then–to earn LESS than they did in 1969.
Real wages in the US rose during every decade from 1830 to 1970. Then this central feature of US capitalism stopped as the figures below show:
Source: Labor Research Associates of New York based on data from the US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics; wages expressed in constant 1982 dollars.
1964 $302.521974 314.941984 279.221994 259.972004 277.57
No comparable steady rise in real wages has occurred since. The most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate real weekly wages declined again over the last year (2005-2006). American workers’ reactions to this downtrend in real wages have profoundly shaped the nation’s economy and society for the last thirty years.
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/wolff120606p.html
XXX,
One of these days I am going to buy a motor cycle.
It is one of those things I have always wanted to do, but I knew I was not quite mature enough to be safe.
As my Father told me:
When he wanted to vistit my grave he would have to drive 100 miles an hour down the freeway to see a series of signs which read:
Here lies Nathan
100 yards later…
Here lies Nathan
100 yards later…
Here lies Nathan
He said all they would need was a fire truck to hose me off the pavement.
Yeah, I think I am a bit closer to being mature enough now. Just don’t have any money! LOL
CapnAmerica
What they don’t tell you and NPR did a story on the exact same subject.
That was considered take home pay. The 12% reduction does not take in medical insurance benefits, bonuses, 401(k) and other retire benefits and tax increases, which FICA contribution made by an employer double since 30 years ago.
Factor that in, and today’s person actually makes more, with many households double income, today’s 30 years olds are more well off.
XXX,
Oh, the Minimum Wage bill is not a real defeat for Conservatives.
Are argument was never that we didn’t support the working man or them making a living.
It was that a wage increase would accomplish nothing.
Employers and Busninesses will simply increase their price to componsate.
Every other hourly wage earner will get an increase as well because you are basing your hourly wages off of the base.
Ultimately everyone will “feel” better but in the end not much will change.
Considering that 11 percent of the GDP now goes to health care (actually, “sick” care), including this legalized blackmail would definitely increase the total.
But I don’t think too many people feel that their employer paying 500 a month on their behalf to a bloated corporation is really raising the employee’s standard of living.
Also, Social security has been around for 70 years. Not a factor.
“We’ll be riding today. The boss wants to go check the rivers for flooding. I’ve never known a woman who likes to ride so much“.
Maybe she love your company… maybe she likes the vibration… Yeah I would say she just like the company! I have found most women would ride on a Harley over a Goldwing…. must be the sound huh?
Republican,
Your unattributed copy/paste of’An Inconvenient Truth?’http://streetwiseprofessor.com/?p=47
on the previous open thread is wrong.
‘Climate myths: The oceans are cooling’http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/climate-change/dn11664Correction pdf:”The bulk of the recent cooling signal in the upper ocean reported by Lyman et al. [2006] is shown to be an artifact that was caused by a large cold bias discovered in a small fraction of Argo floats as well as a smaller but more prevalent warm bias in eXpendable BathyThermograph (XBT) data. These biases are both substantially larger than sampling errors estimated in Lyman et al. [2006].”
Nathan–
You assume that the only way companies could pay for higher labor costs is increased prices.
Wrong.
They could hold top earners’ salaries constant and use the surplus to pay lower wage workers.
The historically low minimum wage is one reason why wealth distribution has become so obscenly skewed to the rich.
But as long as big capitalists have worker bees like you who uncomplainingly labor to make THEM rich, that will never change.
Wealth distribution?
What is wealth CapnAmerica?
Nathan,Check out used bikes. You can get into a nice used Jap bike pretty reasonably. That doesn’t hold true with Harleys. And for God’s sake, don’t get one of those stupid looking crotch rockets. Those are murder on the road (uncomfortable).
“Oh, the Minimum Wage bill is not a real defeat for Conservatives.”
Nathan, it’s not a defeat for anybody. Just like the war funding bill isn’t a defeat for anybody. The Democrats put aside politics to support our troops. Too bad the pres isn’t up to that kind of thing.
No Cosmos, I posted it for benefit of why current Climate Models are far from perfect. Even with just the two proved research I posted, the whole Climate Model system needs to be re-worked.
It is hardly settled science as you often lay claim to.
Everyday, your settled science gets taken down a notch as they tried to prove something true without doing experiments. Science doesn’t work that way.
Republican,
So this 989 KByte correction pdf does NOT exist?http://oceans.pmel.noaa.gov/Pdf/heat_2006.pdf
And your eyes tell you that the graphs of observed temperatures don’t match the models predictions using natural AND anthropogenic forcings?
‘Climate myths: We can’t trust computer models’http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/climate-change/dn11649
Heh… whatever.
CapnAmerica dreams of a Communist state for the USA.
He degrades all companies and capitalist. Hmmm.
Capn! I hate to speculate, but do you work for a living or are you one of the growing amounts of people living off of SSDI and other government programs?
( The email addy is no longer “live”)Boy this roaring economy I hear about sure doesn’t seem to find me! I no longer even have my own internet access. I just happen to have a rainy afternoon to use someone elses. : (
We are not all toady little yes man suck ups like you Joe.
JR is back! Too bad for the Cons . . .
Nathan–
Okay, let’s not get into a philosophical discussion. Let’s call it “wage distribution.” I take it, you DO know what wages/salaries are . . .
JoeW.–I work for a living. But like all Americans including you I do benefit from gov’t spending.
I just think that gov’t spending should benefit the most people possible instead of fewest, already rich people possible (Halliburton, Bechtold, CACI, Blackwater, KB&R etc).
We already have socialism in this country–except it’s socialism for the rich.
Joe Williams . . . corporate darkie . . . “Yeahz bozz, dat’s right, bozz, whatever you say, bozz. I’z so tankful for de crumbs dat falls from your table, bozz, I surely ams.”
Hi Capn. When I am able to get back for good I intend to make up for lost time with the clowns…er cons!
That’s cool CapnAmerica. I can agree with you there.
We need to stop corporate welfare of all types and stripes, including farm subsidies.
But I’m not for taking profits away, nationalizing companies or taxing rich and successful people to the till either.
Help people who need help and government programs that work and help this nation become prosperous should stay. I’ll accept the fact that we are and will continue to be a socialist nation, so long as the spirit of business and commerce remains intact and we keep government’s greedy hands away from acquiring more responsibility and power.
Cool J R..I look forward to kicking your poverty-stricken, victim licking ass!
Can’t even afford 9.95/month for Internet! What a loser!
Huh? Is that a nic or a sneeze?A newbie troll or another of Republicans personalities?
Better get the word on who you are throwing down on boogalooie. I’m gonna be looking for you. I’ll only make ya cry a little bit.: )
Go get ‘em, JR!!!!
As for motorcycles, here’s one female who doesn’t like riding. It could be because of previous rides back when I was young–like the time the guy I was riding with popped a wheelie in the middle of Douglas…without warning me.
I DO like looking at them. Many are gorgeous machiens. I do like to see guys on them. (It really is macho. *grin*) I’m just afraid of them when I’m on them.
Enjoy, XXX! And Mrs. XXX, too!
Hi RD – long time no see! Hey, I’ll take you for a ride if hou hang on tight! ;^)
Why, by golly, you’re RIGHT, Capn America.
The facts don’t lie. Americans really ARE working harder and getting less.
Boy, was I ever wrong!
Posted by: Republican
That’s what he would say if he were a man, instead of the Bush-licker he is . . .
Finally, a museum for the Prices!http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070526/us_nm/usa_museum_dc
Republican,
“It is hardly settled science as you often lay claim to.”
Again you posts LIES about what I post. You are consistent.
You seem unable to understand the difference between what humans have done to Earth’s climate, and the uncertainty of future climate.
I’ve claimed that the debate of AGW is over. And you’ve got zero credible science to prove me wrong.
I’ve claimed that the uncertainties, and unknowns about Earth’s future climate are very strong reasons to cut GHG emissions.
And I’ve pointed out science’s failures. Such as the Larsen-B ice shelf, Arctic ice melting faster than projected, the recently discovered warmer oceans = less phytoplankton, and the CO2 problem in the Southern Ocean.
Well, Phan, I have to say that I am quite curious as to how Noah got those carnivorous dinosaurs on the Ark to behave themselves and not eat the rest of the animals or even Noah and his family.
Now, Nathan says that Dino was a vegan until after the Flood, as were the lions and tigers and bears, oh my.
I am not quite sure about that, but I am curious as to where all the water went. The highest point on the Earth is over 29,000 feet above sea level, so it would be reasonable to assume that the water had to be at least six miles deep. If the Earth was completely covered by water, it obviously did not drain off, so the only other way dry land could have been exposed was for it to evaporate.
How long would it take for water that completely covered the Earth to evaporate and uncover the continents?
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm……………..
Capn,
Republican also lied on the FEMA thread. He falsely claimed that “the Sierra Club screwed the Levees in New Orleans”.
http://blogs.kansas.com/weblog/2007/05/dont_count_on_f.html#comment-70787370
WS Clark,
My position is that you could easily conclude that God made dinosaurs and all other carnivorous animals vegans during the flood, not up until after it.
We could speculate on “how” everything happened on the Ark. Unfortunately the Bible is not a complete detailed account of hour by hour happenings only the overall picture.
Regardless, you are questioning the ability or how of God (an omnipotent being) in the minute details of the Ark.
Why don’t we jump to the bigger picture, that there is even a God?
Why you insist upon nit picking to death the Biblical Flood when you don’t even accept that Jesus is God.
It is like debating about a tree in a Forest.
The Biblical Flood is described as follows:
Genesis 7: 11-12
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened.
12 The rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.
Now, the Bible says that the fountains of the deep burst open. So the water came from the Earth as well as the sky.
You could easily argue that the water which came from the deep also went back to it.
Genesis 8:3-5
3 and the water receded steadily from the earth, and at the end of one hundred and fifty days the water decreased.
4 In the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat.
5 The water decreased steadily until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains became visible.
So the evaporation claim doesn’t mix with the description the Bible gives.
Whatever, Nathan. For every logical question, you have an illogical answer.
What is the point to even discussing anything with you?
“Why don’t we jump to the bigger picture, that there is even a God?”
I am not an atheist. Just because I do not share your religion does not give you the right to label me as such.
“Why you insist upon nit picking to death the Biblical Flood when you don’t even accept that Jesus is God.”
I do not accept that Jesus is God – so what? What does that have to do with Noah?
But again, there is no point in discussing it with you – according to you, you have ALL the answers, and anyone that disagrees with you is either a fool, a liar, a traitor or evil.
The bottom line is – who cares what you think?
How the Environmentalists systematically killed the City of New Orleans
(And we want to trust these kooks with Climate Changes Issues?)
In 1977, U.S. District Judge Charles Schwartz Jr. issued an injunction against the Army Corps of Engineers’ project to install floodgates on Lake Pontchartrain. He wrote, “plaintiffs herein have demonstrated that they, and in fact all persons in this area, will be irreparably harmed if the barrier project based on the August 1974 FEIS [Federal Environmental Impact Study] is allowed to continue.” Schwartz also ruled that associated flood prevention plans in Chalmette and New Orleans East must be stopped.
In 1986, nine years after they had been blocked in court, the Corps formally dropped the Lake Ponchartrain Hurricane Protection Project as part of a compromise with environmentalists that allowed the Corps to raise the levees around St. Bernard, Orleans, East Jefferson and St. Charles parishes. But the levee-raising program was not designed to protect the area against anything stronger than a Category 3 storm.
A 1996 suit (Mississippi River Basin Alliance, et al. v. H. Martin Lancaster) filed by environmental groups at the U.S. District Court in New Orleans claimed the Corps had not looked at “the impact on bottomland hardwood wetlands.” The lawsuit stated, “Bottomland hardwood forests must be protected and restored if the Louisiana black bear is to survive as a species, and if we are to ensure continued support for source population of all birds breeding in the lower Mississippi River valley.” In addition to the Sierra Club, other parties to the suit were the group American Rivers, the Mississippi River Basin Alliance, and the Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi Wildlife Federations.
As a result of the 1997 lawsuit, the Army Corp of Engineer lost the funding to do any improvements and could not from that moment on get sufficient funds to work on the levees in New Orleans in any meaningful manner.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=9104
http://aaenvironment.blogspot.com/2005_09_01_archive.html
http://saveourwetlands.org/74-edenisle(fed).htm
smirks
If the Corps had listened to the geomorphologists who had repeatedly warned against stripping the wetlands the disaster would not have occurred. The Corps has systematically taken action that has (a) lowered the city through accellerated subsidence and (b) caused the removal of protective marshes by starving them of sediment.
The Corps, along with industry, also cut channels through the remaining marshes. This facilitated the passage of the storm surge through the area.
Slash and channel engineering (as practiced by the Corps) needs to be replaced with geomorphological engineerins. This is true with ALL flood control; from the Mississippi River to the Cowskin Creek.
Lots of reliable info about the New Orleans levee failures. Read the links.http://www.levees.org/factsheet
My contribution to the Hillary Campaign Song. :)
http://republikan.typepad.com/republikansan/us_politics/index.html
The earlier posts weren’t mine. I assume they are posted by repuke, as the typepad link is a phony linked to XXX. This moron thinks we are as stupid as he is. MY POSTS DON’T LINK TO ANYTHING, BOZO. Brilliant, repuke, simply brilliant. Next, your mini-monkey will be posting in threads denying he’s attached to you. Which means it just might be your time of the month, what?
Well I’ll just be dipped! Thanks for cluing me in, Walker. Looks like I must be getting to Republiar. He’s gone troll on us again.
Yeah, no kidding guys. He thinks nic stealing is cute.
He’s killing your blog, editors. Do you care enough to do anything about him?
hmmmm, Some mysterious goings on here.
Notice that cosmos calls things a lie without backing up his big mouth.
1) Prove that funding for the Lake Pontchartrain project was cut because of the “1997(sic) lawsuit”, on a proposed project 100 miles to the north.
2) Post links to the Congressional Record and Justice Department reports that Republikhan claims exist.http://blogs.kansas.com/weblog/2007/05/dont_count_on_f.html#comment-70787370
Oh Cosmos, you forgot to include the other long line of lawsuits that prevented the Corp of Engineers from making improvements on the Lake Pontchartrain.
Or is that an “inconvenient truth” for you to reference. :)
Did anybody read Carl Brewer’s op-ed piece in the Eagle today?Talk about letting your mouth write a check your butt can’t cash!When NOBODY (especially Rebenstorf) gets fired as a result of the bowling fiasco, Brewer will be perceived as so impotent, he will have no effectiveness left as mayor…and less than 45 days into his term, no less.What was he thinking, writing that kind of stuff?