It’s prisoner volunteer day, and I’m hurrying like crazy.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 2:38 (average 4:55). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From PRWatch: The Wisconsin Senate held a hearing of sorts on the GOP proposal to make Wisconsin a "right to work" state.
The bill pushed by Wisconsin Senate leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) bears a striking similarity to the American Legislative Exchange Council "model" bill of the same name (see CMD’s side-by-side comparison here). In his opening statement, Sen. Fitzgerald claimed that right to work legislation would "protect every worker" from being forced to join a union. He added that the legislation would save families from being uprooted by having to find non-union employers elsewhere. He presented no data or even anecdotal evidence to support these claims.
The argument that the bill would protect workers from "forced" unionization is a red herring. The U.S. Supreme Court has long stated that nobody can be forced to join a union, or be forced to pay unions dues, or to have their dues go to political campaigns. What current federal and Wisconsin law allows, and what the right to work law would make illegal, are "fair share" agreements and fees in union contracts that make all represented workers, including those choosing not to join the union, contribute to the costs of worker representation on the job.
Click through for more detail on how Fartfuhrer Walker’s vile minions are whoring themselves for Koch rocks.
From The New Yorker: In the hopes of appealing to Republican primary voters, candidates for the 2016 Presidential nomination are working around the clock to unlearn everything that they have learned since the third grade, aides to the candidates have confirmed.
With the Iowa caucuses less than a year away, the hopefuls are busy scrubbing their brains of basic facts of math, science, and geography in an attempt to resemble the semi-sentient beings that Republican primary voters prize.
An aide to Jeb Bush acknowledged that, for the former Florida governor, “The unlearning curve has been daunting.”
“The biggest strike against Jeb is that he graduated from college Phi Beta Kappa,” the aide said. “It’s going to take a lot of work to get his brain back to its factory settings.”
At the campaign of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, the mood was considerably more upbeat, as aides indicated that Walker’s ironclad façade of ignorance is being polished to a high sheen.
“The fact that Scott instinctively says that he doesn’t know the answers to even the easiest questions gives him an enormous leg up,” an aide said.
Andy’s satire is so accurate, that it might as well be factual.
From Think Progress: Texas State Rep. Debbie Riddle (R) has introduced two new bills that seek to criminalize the use of bathrooms by transgender people. Not only could trans people face jail time and fines for using gender-segregated facilities that match their gender, so too could businesses who make their facilities open to trans patrons.
Businesses might post "Trans patrons peeing on Republican Reps permitted!"
Cartoon:
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Only the good news that the FCC voted twice for neutrality and consumers today can offset the tripe undergirding these stories today.
4:45 average still 4:55. If I were looking for a place to see the sky, I must admit that "through a ginger plant" would not have occurred to me. By the time you read our comments yu will be back, and I join everyone in hoping the day went very well.
PRWatch – I live in a right to work state, and you would be amazed by the number of people who think they still have rights, hard fought for by unions, which they do not have. And how the Republicans do work to make sure they do not find out they have lost them until they are about to get them violated! God help Wisconsin!
New Yorker – So that's why 4 out of 3 Republican politicians are challenged by math!
Think Progress – I think what's going on is "I don't understand it, so it most be terrible, and therefore should be criminal." A typical Republican position which should scare anyone with a third grade education or above – but apparently doesn't.
Cartoon – "Josephine Tey's" Detective Inspector Alan Grant would have picked him out of a lineup as a crook in a heartbeat, possibly even as a murderer.
3:21 TomCat beat me by almost a minute. Obviously, I must spice up my game some.
3:30 I stopped for a Ginger Ale.
2:52 Is this the plant whose root is so delightful to the palate?
PR Watch — The "Fitz" of Fitzwalkerstan has raised his ugly head again. Such an ignorant legislator when he won't answer questions from state residents about proposed legislation that will affect them. Right to work is total BS.
The New Yorker — What they really need to do is scrub, with a wire brush of course, all the Koch, ALEC and Republicanus/Teabaggerum BS from their feverish little brains.
Think Progress — Riddle is a bubblehead! Such BS is a waste of legislative time and money. Will there be guards at the doors to every bathroom and strip searches done to ensure that the correct genatalia are entering the correct bathroom?
Cartoon — The BS is already there! Could there possibly be room for even more BS?
I hope you had a good day with your guys.
PR Watch: I read the whole article. All the "right to work" laws do is drive down wages and benefit no one but the corporations who pay smaller wages and do away with benefits.
The New Yorker: Jeb Bush would have no problem with this process, would he?
Think Progress: I am ashamed to say that the Ky State Senate just passed a bill that would prohibit transgender students from using bathrooms other than the ones for which ever sex they were when they were born. It is not expected to pass in the HOuse.
Cartoon: That comes out every time he speaks.
TY TC.
What a despicable piece of "humanity" Scott Walker is. Yesterday he compared working class men and women
with a group of psychopathic barbarians aka ISIS.boasting that if he could stop" right to work ''rules,in his state he would have no problem,"taking care of the terrorist ,s in the middle east. WHAT an incredible insult to not just the workers but members, of the armed services.dept of defence etc. and he is leading the list of clowns running for President.in the REPUG party.I hope that many will be as disgusted,and upset as am I. How in hell did he get elected? Oh I know .he is the golden boy of the KOCH,s. Bought and paid for. Be afraid America. VERY afraid.
One moore thing he stopped unionisation with the "right To Work. rule.