Posts tagged politics
Journalism Today
Nov 19th
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We have a really awesome newspaper in Arizona called the Arizona Republic. They do such good reporting and they fact check everything before going to print.
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“With Congress in recess until after Thanksgiving, Arizona lawmakers are hosting town-hall meetings to discuss health-care reform, the economy and more.” Read
Ummmm…
A quick two second visit to Senate.gov and House.gov clearly shows that Congress is still in session. Not to mention that the Senate is set to vote on the Health Care bill on Friday and that it’s been all over the news. The fact is, Congress doesn’t go on break for Thanksgiving until 11/23. Finding that information took me all of five seconds. WTF is wrong with newspapers today?
Oh, and one last thing… Kudos to Sen. McCain for visiting Arizona when he should be in Washington doing the job he was elected to do! Holy crap the Arizona delegation in both chambers have been real winners lately.
Grocery Store Strike?
Nov 9th
Safeway and Fry’s (Kroger) employees are set to go on strike this Friday if an agreement isn’t reached between the companies and the Union. That’s all well and good but there are some issues that are troublesome for the Union and I’m wondering if they’ve really thought this whole thing through.
First, Arizona is a right to work state. This means that you don’t have to be a member of the Union to work in a unionized workplace. Given the fact that we’re looking at very large unemployment numbers at this time, there’s absolutely nothing keeping Safeway and Fry’s from hiring temporary workers or, in fact, firing every employee that is on strike and replacing them. One Fry’s employee put it well in the Arizona Republic today. She stated that working at a grocery store is probably more attractive to someone than working at a Taco Bell or McDonald’s. She may be right. It will be very interesting to see how the grocery stores react to the strike.
Second, the Union isn’t making many friends. The Arizona Republic reported that a majority of the membership does not want to go on strike given the tough economic times we’re currently in. Some are afraid of losing their jobs. Others are wondering how on earth they’ll survive on the Union strike pay of $100 a week. Top this all off with the reports coming out that the main sticking point from getting a compromise is that the Union does not want their membership to pay for any of their own health care costs and you have a recipe for disaster. With health care in the news and on everyone’s mind, it doesn’t make much sense to complain about the grocery companies wanting their NEW employees to pay $5 to $15 a week for coverage depending on their needs. As an example, I am on my company’s health care plan as a single person and I pay almost double the family rate the grocery stores are looking to charge.
Last time we had a grocery strike all the strikers found their jobs replaced by temporary workers and, in the end, the Union caved. The next few days will be very interesting.
The Political Process
Nov 7th
This evening I was watching the live vote from the House of Representatives on HR3962 (Health Care Bill). Watching voting on an issue is exceedingly boring but, at the same time, very interesting.
So, here’s how the whole thing went down. The speaker asked for a verbal vote on the bill and people yelled “Aye” and “NO” respectively. The speaker then said that it appeared that the “Ayes” had it. Someone then made a motion for a roll call vote and the speaker asked for those in favor to stand. Enough people apparently stood to require a roll call vote and that’s what happened. House members then had to vote electronically during a 15 minute period. For some odd reason, it took 10 mins to pass before the necessary 218 votes were cast by the Democrats. There was cheering once this occurred but we still had to wait another 4 mins while the final votes were cast. Amazingly, one Republican voted in favor of the House health care bill!
Anyway, it was all very interesting even if a bit boring. Now the fight moves on to the Senate. There should be some fireworks in there over the next week. I may be watching more C-SPAN than any person outside of politics should!
Healthcare Reform
Oct 13th
This is why we need healthcare reform in this country.
http://tinyurl.com/yghl3om
Illegal College Grads – What are they to do?
Feb 27th
The story linked below was on the front page of the Arizona Republic’s website this morning. First, I find it amusing that they don’t allow comments on that story. It think that they’ve had enough of the hate speech that usually accompanies these stories.
Anyway, for my opinion on this whole thing. It’s difficult to take a one sided position on a subject like this, at least for me. On one hand, you don’t want to reward bad behavior and the whole DREAM Act in Congress does just that. Some say it might even spur more illegal immigration, which is never a good idea. Obviously I don’t think it’s fair that these kids are being punished for a decision their parents made for them when they were very young, but what can I say?? It sucks, but that’s life sometimes.
How do we fix this problem? The US Government needs to readdress their immigration policy with Mexico. If so many Mexicans want to come to the United States to live and work, make it easier for them to do it legally. Why do there have to be so may hoops you have to jump through and years of waiting that needs to be done? Make it easier for people already living here illegally to go back to Mexico and reenter the country legally without having to wait years to do so. Instead of adding new policies to our already convoluted immigration system, let’s fix what we already have. I just don’t know why we can’t figure out how to fix what we already have vs. trying to create loopholes that will not solve anything and may even make things worse.
Okay, I’m done. Thoughts? The story is linked below.
More to Come
Nov 11th
I’ve been wanting to post about Prop 8, 2 and 102 but I haven’t fully gathered my thoughts. A post is forthcoming and will be up here soon.
A Busy Week
Nov 8th
It’s been a crazy week between the election and work. I just haven’t found much time to write anything. Just an update on the final numbers of Prop 102 here in Arizona. It’s not good news but it could have been a whole lot worse.
Hoping For a Repeat of History
Nov 4th
Here are the numbers from the November 2006 defeat of the same-sex marriage ban. Let’s hope that the results are the same this time around. A few more in the “NO” column wouldn’t hurt.
