Tuesday, January 20, 2004
How Low Can We Go?/US Labor Dept Advises Cheating
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. - Just when you thought the Bush administration's disdain for America's working families couldn't get any worse, along comes another cynical move to prove you wrong.
This time it's the Labor Department putting out tips for employers on how they can avoid paying overtime to low-income workers when the government's new rules on overtime pay go into effect in March.
A cheat sheet, if you will, for employers.
{snip}
The ink is still wet on the new overtime eligibility rules, but Bush administration officials are already offering employers tips on how they can cheat these low-income workers out of their new overtime benefits. Suggestions include a "payroll adjustment" to convert workers' annual pay to an hourly rate, then cut the hourly rate so that annual pay is unchanged after overtime is paid.
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It is time, it seems, to bring back the classic question from the McCarthy hearings: "In the end, Mr Bush, have you no shame, sir? Have you, sir, no shame at all?"
This time it's the Labor Department putting out tips for employers on how they can avoid paying overtime to low-income workers when the government's new rules on overtime pay go into effect in March.
A cheat sheet, if you will, for employers.
{snip}
The ink is still wet on the new overtime eligibility rules, but Bush administration officials are already offering employers tips on how they can cheat these low-income workers out of their new overtime benefits. Suggestions include a "payroll adjustment" to convert workers' annual pay to an hourly rate, then cut the hourly rate so that annual pay is unchanged after overtime is paid.
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It is time, it seems, to bring back the classic question from the McCarthy hearings: "In the end, Mr Bush, have you no shame, sir? Have you, sir, no shame at all?"
Thursday, January 15, 2004
Mars Needs Dim Republicans!
As per usual, one cannot improve on the fine rants of columnists Mark Morford. From the headline to the closing comments, he is a force of nature. For example:
Mars Needs Dim Republicans
Dubya dons a shiny spacesuit, dreams of spending billions to meet little green men. The nation cringes
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist Wednesday, January 14, 2004
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Oh right, like this is exactly what we need.
Let us imagine the discussion: "Boys, the nation's in massive reeling record-breaking debt and morale's at an all-time low and disposable American soldiers are dying brutal horrific deaths every day over nothing at all except our greed and flagrant cronyism and corporate petrochemical profiteering.
"Our cities are gasping and health care is a joke and we've mauled Medicare beyond recognition, and we're plundering the living hell out of Social Security, the last remaining stable and sound fund left, to try and shore up our rapacious and gluttonous spending.
"There are no WMDs and our former allies openly resent us and the poll ratings are slipping and the big glops of warmongering lies are drying like blood stains into a carpet. And it's an election year. Damn.
"What's to be done? What could rally a wary country during its time of humiliated need and force-fed ignorance? What could turn this troubled nation around in the face of oily corporate war and fiscal gluttony and environmental savagery?
"Why, neato space stations on the moon, and sending men to Mars, that's what!"
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Mars Needs Dim Republicans
Dubya dons a shiny spacesuit, dreams of spending billions to meet little green men. The nation cringes
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist Wednesday, January 14, 2004
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh right, like this is exactly what we need.
Let us imagine the discussion: "Boys, the nation's in massive reeling record-breaking debt and morale's at an all-time low and disposable American soldiers are dying brutal horrific deaths every day over nothing at all except our greed and flagrant cronyism and corporate petrochemical profiteering.
"Our cities are gasping and health care is a joke and we've mauled Medicare beyond recognition, and we're plundering the living hell out of Social Security, the last remaining stable and sound fund left, to try and shore up our rapacious and gluttonous spending.
"There are no WMDs and our former allies openly resent us and the poll ratings are slipping and the big glops of warmongering lies are drying like blood stains into a carpet. And it's an election year. Damn.
"What's to be done? What could rally a wary country during its time of humiliated need and force-fed ignorance? What could turn this troubled nation around in the face of oily corporate war and fiscal gluttony and environmental savagery?
"Why, neato space stations on the moon, and sending men to Mars, that's what!"
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URGENT: Truth Alert!
I urge all readers of this blog to follow the link in the next story down, from ABC News. Learn and remember (before the story disappears from the site) that O'Neil is guilty of nothing more that inconveniently blurting truth.
He will be savaged over the next weeks, and likely prosecuted on a tissue-thin indictment. Today, while the link survives, we can learn that O'Neil's honest assessment truly does support the claims of the most wild-eyed liberal critics of this administration. Great catch, Gary!
He will be savaged over the next weeks, and likely prosecuted on a tissue-thin indictment. Today, while the link survives, we can learn that O'Neil's honest assessment truly does support the claims of the most wild-eyed liberal critics of this administration. Great catch, Gary!
Tuesday, January 13, 2004
Hypocricy 808 Graduate Seminar
Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that the O'Neil affair exposes White House hypocricy in its purest, most blatant form? Barely six months after the Plame outing, which took four months to be noticed .... and THEN took the Justice Department another week to secure the documents from the White House AND STILL allowed the White House Counsel's Office to review each document before turning it over......!
NOW, with O'Neil embarrassing the pResident politically, less than 24 hours elapse before they swing into high gear in his investigation with NO warning, NO legal screen. He will be crucified as the "liberal" media stand around pointedly NOT watching, filing their nails and filing reports on Jacko and Scott Peterson.
We are so screwed........... Any who dare oppose this junta must prepare and expect to be destroyed, and no one will speak up for them. No one.
NOW, with O'Neil embarrassing the pResident politically, less than 24 hours elapse before they swing into high gear in his investigation with NO warning, NO legal screen. He will be crucified as the "liberal" media stand around pointedly NOT watching, filing their nails and filing reports on Jacko and Scott Peterson.
We are so screwed........... Any who dare oppose this junta must prepare and expect to be destroyed, and no one will speak up for them. No one.
Friday, January 09, 2004
Thought for the Day-from RackJite
"Kurt Cobain was, ladies and gentleman, a worthless shred of human
debris." Rush Limbaugh the very day the lead singer of Nirvana
committed suicide due to a drug addiction.
I can understand the selfish callous disregard of conservatives, it's their pride in it that passes me by
debris." Rush Limbaugh the very day the lead singer of Nirvana
committed suicide due to a drug addiction.
I can understand the selfish callous disregard of conservatives, it's their pride in it that passes me by
US Companies Added Few Workers in December
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The nation's unemployment rate dropped to 5.7 percent in December to the lowest level in 14 months, but employers finished the year without many help wanted signs for the holidays, adding just 1,000 new jobs.
The 0.2 percentage point drop in the jobless rate occurred because fewer people were looking for work, the Labor Department said Friday. More than 300,000 people gave up their search for jobs and dropped out of the pool of available workers.
``The rate is going down, but it is going down for the wrong reasons,'' said Bill Cheney, chief economist at John Hancock Financial Services, noting that it fell not because people were finding work. ``That doesn't make you feel really good about the state of the jobs market.''
The 0.2 percentage point drop in the jobless rate occurred because fewer people were looking for work, the Labor Department said Friday. More than 300,000 people gave up their search for jobs and dropped out of the pool of available workers.
``The rate is going down, but it is going down for the wrong reasons,'' said Bill Cheney, chief economist at John Hancock Financial Services, noting that it fell not because people were finding work. ``That doesn't make you feel really good about the state of the jobs market.''
