This is pretty damn dickish. If you don’t care about the link, here is a summary: circuit city fired their retail employees that made the most (due to performance-based raises) and then generously rehired them at the “market” rate. They saved less then a million dollars doing this. The CEO makes 2.17 million a year.

A year ago Delphi proposed to the union that they accept 39% pay cuts. The CEO who was hired to Delphi around got a three million dollar signing bonus before this move. MORE than the money that would be saved by this kind of pay cut.

The economic gains of the last few years have only benefited a tiny percentage of the population. The distribution of income in the US looks more like feudalism than anything else. But you know, its probably the union’s fault.

This is a must read.

I think this poll cannot possibly be accurate. There must be other biases at work here, because I can’t accept that near half of americans reject evolution. 41% of catholics believe the earth is younger than 10,000 years. The need to check with their priest, because the catholic church does not agree with them.

I agree with more eloquent Sifu Tweety. Electability is a bullshit way to pick a candidate for president. Especially when we judge electability based on how half-assed a candidate is on the issues. If we are going to trust the system of primaries we must vote for the candidates we want to win, not the candidate we think middle america independents will want. Everyone looks to McGovern as evidence for what happens when you pick a candidate with your heart, not your head. But it is not 1972 anymore. Vote your conscience in the primaries and I suspect we will end up with a good candidate. A truly “too liberal” candidate just won’t win the primaries. I agree with Dennis Kucinich on the issues, but I guaruntee he won’t win the primary, even if every democrat votes for their favorite candidate, with no political calculus involved.

The entrepreneurial spirit of the United States is often cited as one of its better qualities. I agree on some level, its great that anyone with an idea can go out and give it a shot. But a side effect of this is that every single conceivable market niche is filled with people trying to live out the american dream of getting rich selling some sort of obscure useless crap:

“Christian perfume,” he said. “It’s a really, really new genre. We’re the first!”

I mean, can’t people do things without trying to figure out a way to monetize them? You want to be a crazy christian, fine. But do you really need to productize crazy christianity?

Your new SecDef:

[Gates] said it may require a new law to “address the concerns about some of these people who really need to be incarcerated forever but that doesn’t get them involved in a judicial system where there is the potential of them being released,” Gates told the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee.

Ah, yes, isn’t it so annoying that we have to get involved in a judicial system before we incarcerate someone forever? Stupid constitution…

Link from Pandagon.

I like this post about libertarians.

No other organization insists on believing every single piece of wingnuttery out there. Did you know that making english an official language was a christian, family issue?

I don’t have the energy for a long post on this but it drives me crazy:

1. The reason for failing schools is NOT because teachers can’t be fired. (note: they can)
2. The teachers union is supposed to represent the interests of the teachers. That is what they do. Critizing them for putting the teachers first in their negotiations is deranged, that is what a union is FOR.
3. The union will always support “across the board salary increases”. See above.
4. The union does not set education policy and they aren’t a government agency. They are accountable to their members, who have a right to collective bargaining.
5. You can complain about the teachers union and oppose what they support. But don’t oppose their existence if you really believe in the free market

This is pretty obnoxious:

For at least a year before the 2004 Republican National Convention, teams of undercover New York City police officers traveled to cities across the country, Canada and Europe to conduct covert observations of people who planned to protest at the convention, according to police records and interviews.

Aside from the civil liberties, what a fucking waste of tax dollars. Undercover officers all over the country? What the hell did they think was going to happen? What were they going to do with this information? Did they really think that there were going to uncover a secret plan of some kind?