Jim DeMint explains why he's holding up TSA chief's nomination: Fear of unions trumps fear of terrorists
Sen. Jim DeMint went on Fox News' Your World yesterday to explain why he's been holding up the appointment of a new Transportation Safety Administration chief's appointment: Namely, he's more concerned about the potential unionization of the TSA than he is about the agency's ability to function properly.
Of course, he claims that keeping the unions out is essential to making them able to function well:
DeMint: It makes absolutely no sense to submit security in our airports and the passengers here in this country to collective bargaining with unions.
Of course, that would preclude such things as air-traffic controllers unions too -- but then, DeMint is probably fine with that. Because unions are a greater threat than terrorists.
McClatchy has the full story:
Who's running the TSA? No one, thanks to Sen. Jim DeMint
WASHINGTON -- An attempt to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day would be all-consuming for the administrator of the Transportation Security Administration — if there were one.
The post remains vacant because Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., has held up President Barack Obama's nominee in opposition to the prospect of TSA workers joining a labor union.
... Two Senate committees have given Southers their bipartisan blessing. An acting administrator is in place pending his confirmation.
Marshall McClain, the president of the Los Angeles Airport Peace Officers Association, said that the Senate should have acted sooner to confirm Southers.
"Friday's terrorist attack on U.S. aviation makes it all the more imperative that there be no further delays in filling this crucial position," he said.
DeMint said in a statement that the attempted attack "is a perfect example of why the Obama administration should not unionize the TSA." He wants Southers to clarify his stand on unionizing the TSA, a shift that Democrats support.
Without collective bargaining, DeMint said, the TSA has "flexibility to make real-time decisions that allowed it to quickly improve security measures in response to this attempted attack."
If organized labor got involved, DeMint said, union bosses would have the power "to veto or delay future security improvements at our airports."
ThinkProgress has more.
My fear of republicans trumps my fear of terrorists.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
The U.S. and Yemen are now looking at fresh targets in Yemen for a potential retaliation strike, two senior U.S. officials told CNN Tuesday.
..it brought obl to justice or made him dead.
..we get in, fight the fight we need to fight and leave.
..it actually makes a dent in the ability of the terrorists to employ terror against us.
..our security was in an imminent threat confirmed by more than one government agency and credible to the American people.
If not, urinating in the wind would be a better strategy.
Oh, and at some point, demint will explain why he thinks a Union would not implement a security procedure deemed necessary by the authority responsible for implementing it. demint can't and won't change his meme because that would upset the right wing and rush. Keep de-legitimizing the President, demint you a-hole. After all, what does this country need to be secure from? Oh yeah, rape-ublican'ts.
Mickey: "It was an epiphany. Do you know what an epipany is?"
Keoni: "NOT NOW MICKEY!"
I'm with you. These fascists are infiltrating every phase of our lives.
Rush Limbaugh is what a smart person thinks a stupid bigot sounds like.
Stand up straight! Suck that stomach in! Have some PRIDE!
and lying is the RepuglyKKKan stock-in-trade.
Some stuff you can't make up!
Republicans are terrorists. They use it all the time to try to get their way.
Fear is the republicans forte. It's funny that federal and state employees are unionized and are able to get some of the most critical work required in the nation done under collective bargaining. His rationale to prevent TSA employees to unionize is obviously lacking, along with his sanity.
How about the real terrorist THE DICK.
He obviously has created more fear than Bin Ladin, or did we forget him?
Fox...the circle of liars is a waste of time....
Wow
should be up to the employees, not one senator who is a corporate whore.
Thanks South Carolina! Can we let then secede now? Along with Texas and the rest of the deep, deep south? (my apologies to those poor lefties stuck down there)
Hoekstra - Michigan
Bachmann - Minnesota
Burton and Buyer - Indiana
Kyl and Flake - Arizona
Jennings and Brownback - Kansas
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
OK, OK, point made. fair enough. sigh.
OK, OK, point made.
OK lahoma is another one
And, of the 14 Deep South senators, 12 are Repukes (and one more, Landrieu from LA) is close enough...
then, of course, there's the western states like Wyoming...
and Pence from Indiana, and more than a couple wingnuts from my own state, Virginia, sigh...
Out to those that have no place to turn to but MSM outlets that do nobody any good, well maybe those that are interested in celebrities and popularity contests. If people in these rural areas that don't know where to find honest news, and probably don't know that they are being lied to, aren't able to get the truth than nothing will change.
This stupid saltine is more concerned with how his rich friends can continue to pay slave wages to workers than he is about the TSA? Take a look at his state. One of the poorest in the country with uneducated people who continue to vote for this douchebage. His state actually tried to deny unemployment extensions to laid off workers fearing it would discourage them from looking for a job. It's like anything that would help their people is a no no because it would also help the economy which would also help the Negro President. I can't stand this klansmen and will admit that each day I awake and don't find his name and several other Republicans inthe obituaries, I'm rally annoyed! Well, there's alway tomorrow!
education
teen pregnancy
health
and apparently too stoopid to elect anyone who gives a schitt about them.
Some stuff you can't make up!
Profits before people
... who changed one of the 'e's' in his name to 'i'?
If you need funds to pay for essentials, you have a revenue problem
If you need funds to pay for frivolity, you have a spending problem
The best thought on all this was over a Blog Round Up.
"For the past eight years much of America has operated under the delusion that terrorism can be Defeated, that there will be a moment at which it stands on the deck of the USS Missouri and signs an instrument of surrender in deference to our military might. It is a pipe dream. There are six billion people on this planet and there is no way to prevent a small handful of them from deciding that it will be a good or useful idea to blow up a 747."
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
Unions? Oh my god! His corporate fascist bosses might have to pay something other than slave wages, which means they would only have $200,000,000 to live on this year, instead of $300,000,000.
How anybody who is not a millionaire could still vote for these evil psychotic pricks, is beyond my comprehension.
Rush Limbaugh is what a smart person thinks a stupid bigot sounds like.
feel the hatred for all things northern, including education, self-awareness, modern medicine, etc. I am not making fun of these people. Once you pass maryland going south, you can see it first hand.
Some stuff you can't make up!
which warns Yanklees to keep their heads out of their asses while driving on southern highways.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
I think the Republican Party is a bigger threat to the country than al Qaeda, Iran, North Korea, the Taliban, etc., etc., all rolled into one. Not surprising they feel the same way on the other side about us.
The thing is, the govt of the US is so much more powerful than any of the usual suspect bogey men we are encouraged to fear, that even slightly wrong, merely misguided, action from it can do more harm, to all concerned, than the most extreme malevolence of any lesser power could ever achieve. And the Republicans have a history of getting things more than slightly wrong. Ditto for the Dems, if you want to get technical about it, but at least our side thinks of stupidity as a bug, not a feature, something to correct, not the basis for permanent policy.
gwb was a 'tragic success', literally!
Some stuff you can't make up!
YES! The Republican Party IS a far bigger threat to this country than al-Queda, etcetera.
They are the "Party of God", but not of some imaginary invisible sky god -- their God is the Almighty Dollar. Their status before their god is not determined by "good works for others" but by their acquisition of as much money as possible by any means, legal or illegal, moral or immoral, as possible. Any and all human beings in their way in the acquisition of money are mere obstacles in their path. Social moralists, sociologists and psychiatrists generally define such a major character flaw as psychotic sociopaths.
They are THE American Taliban. They are the ultimate incarnation of domestic terrorism. They are a disease, a plague for which there is only one certain cure -- their non-existence. The means or methods to achieve such a cure while maintaining a moral basis has yet to be determined ...
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
-- John F. Kennedy
I'm starting to wonder if anybody in this administration knows what the hell they're doing.
"Trust no one, Mr. Mulder." - Well-Manicured Man
The government was moving ahead Wednesday on a fresh multibillion dollar cash infusion to stabilize auto financing company GMAC Financial Services.
Got a keep them bankrupt companies afloat!
if you think things are bad NOW, just think what would happen if a few hundred thousand auto workers joined the ranks of the unemployed. I heard the morning that gmac is the lender for not only consumers purchasing vehicles but for dealers buying vehicles from the manufacturers.
Of course, the greedy a-holes running (or ran) gmac got their asses handed to them in the mortgage meltdown.
I'm not giving Obama a pass for his first year. He has to stop with the conventional political wisdom, while WE need to purge the Democratic Party of DLC, DSCC and DCCC. Then maybe he'll get rid of (R)ahm and the rest of the Clinton Cartel.
Some stuff you can't make up!
the ones from the Republican purge will have no one with whom to join.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
or as I like to call them..
(R)ahmocrats!
Some stuff you can't make up!
Spiteful lying bastard got caught being a fucking obstructionist.
are obstructionists. The party of NO.
shortly after the Sept. 11th attacks that the TSA experienced a nearly 100% annual turnover, meaning that all TSA employees spend their entire "careers" somewhere between inexperienced and disgruntled. Wouldn't unionizing these positions improve that statistic?
you don't deserve shit.
Some stuff you can't make up!
Unionizing the TSA would provide for better training and more stable workers who could and would do a better job.
The so called "conservatives" never wanted the TSA in the first place. They didn't want to "federalize" airport security. They wanted to allow airports to continue to higher security companies that looked at their bottom line more than the quality of their airport security agents. In short, they wanted Blackwater type firms to handle our nation's security at airports.
Election 2012: Be Educated! Be Active! Vote!
www.phoenixjustice.com
The only thing the TSA has ever done is degrade people in the name of security theater. It contributes exactly nothing to aviation safety.
you can find from time to time in every big city newspaper's want-ads positions open for TSA security screeners. The base pay, minus some stipend for regional cost of living differences, is 8.75 USD$ / hour. Their base number of hours at many regional airports doesn't even have a guaranteed minimum. If bad weather, like snow or thunder storms, shuts down the flight-line, they can be placed on stand-by without compensation.
The TSA security screeners are little more than chattel labor, and could absolutely benefit by unionization. At the very least, they should fall under the auspice of Federal Employee rules and regulations. That is currently not the case, as a new branch under the Department of Homeland Security, unlike Border Patrol, Customs, and Immigration.
Are you feeling any safer flying now? -- I thought not.
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
-- John F. Kennedy
that's what I thought. DeMint is even more of a tool with that in mind.
airliners that crash because of a malfunction than brought down by terrorists. Should we profile the CEOs that authorize cutbacks in maintenance too?
Are you with stoopid or whatever?
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
most of the time I'm with you.
Expeditionary Force to Bloody the Ears of the Incredibly Inobservant Dutchmen. Our line at the airport forms just south of the one for the muslims.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
which airport?
surrendered to the International Brotherhood Of Underwear
Gleaners.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
they're using the scanners @ Schipol International. Better late than never I suppose.
to scanners.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmJC3ZaXBEc
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
for my airline ticket. Oh wait, I don't want to fly there, it may not be safe.
is now done overseas by non-union shops. No way I will fly on these aircraft.
Airliner crashes are rare enough that they're all freak accidents. They are amazingly rare, and getting rarer, despite continuing increases in air travel.
Let's completely ignore that the first responders on 9/11 were union-represented police officers, firefighters, and paramedics. And that union construction workers gathered up their tools and made themselves available for rescue/recovery work.
And then there's this 'flexibility' nonsense. You mean idiot responses like requiring passengers to remain seated for the final hour of any flight, or requiring them to put liquids in 3 oz. bottles?
I am a union-represented worker and former interim shop steward. Our contract, while specific about hours and assignments, nonetheless has exceptions for 'major station events' (that is, when we covered the Bay to Breakers race, you could not claim overtime as a result).
And I'd like to think that protecting security screeners from being overworked or assuring staffing levels improves security, rather than hinders it.
affiliated radio station in SF as a reporter, union rules prevented her from being allowed to plug in her tape recorder?
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
... jurisdiction. That is, non-bargaining unit employees are not permitted to do bargaining unit employee work. Ultimately, it depends on which union, which station, and what the contract stipulates.
In many cases, this makes sense - you don't want just anyone being able to light up the satellite for an uplink, so limiting access is part of assuring quality and accountability.
I brought this up simply because all too often no one can admit their side is not absolutely in the right all the time and no mistakes can ever be acknowledged.
Plugging a portable recorder into a wall outlet is not exactly going to muddy the satellite uplink.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
... that in a critical situation, you are somehow limited by a bargaining agreement and unable to respond to a critical situation.
Which is why I said your example ultimately depends on the union involved, the station, and the language of the contract.
Our contract includes both a '25 hour rule' - which allows non-bargaining unit employees to perform bargaining unit work, provided it is not their regular assignment, up to a total of 25 hours in any calendar month. There is language that allows photographers and non-air personnel to ask questions (this is mostly so photogs can get eyewitness reaction without waiting for a reporter, and a sports intern can be sent to get post-game locker room soundbites without a reporter).
There are also exceptions for 'new technologies,' so as we switch to server-based editing and video distribution, it's not exclusive.
What DeMint would have you believe is that a union contract cannot and does not allow for such things, that a union contract will protect the unqualified and incompetent at the expense of national security, and that's utter nonsense.
We all know there is no better argument against organised labour that some anecdotal evidence said by someone in the internets.
Sure, labour syndicates brought us the 40hr workweek, regulated labour conditions, retirement, paid vacation, medical leave, abolished child labour, collective bargaining, increased standards of living, etc... but that means nothing if someone's sister may or may not have been able to plug in a tape recorder.
... dispute Ricky's account.
I wanted a bloody rehash of the history of labor- management relations. Internet commentary threads are the ideal place for that.
If you don't buckle up and fight me, Shadowgm it only encourages me to bring up the Central States Pension Fund.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
but you seem to be the first in line to discredit other people's anecdotal evidence. So I thought it was a bit hypocritical for you to use an event that may or may not have happened and for which no context was ever provided...
I had a job recording business seminars & selling duplicates of the tapes to business people who had (or had not, as the case may be) attended the seminars. This was in Chicago, a notorious union town. From time to time, one of the union electricians would go around unplugging our tape recorders & attaching a very difficult-to-remove sticker saying something to the effect that only a union electrician could plug in a tape recorder. Enforcement of this ridiculous rule was inconsistent because some of the union guys were actually decent human beings. Sometimes a bribe would get them off our backs. Sometimes they would accept a bribe and then unplug our tape recorders anyway. But I blame this behavior on common human greed, not unions. Greed has a way of seeping into every human activity.
and more to the point, the labor unions we have now are decended from management's early and mostly successful attempts to undermine the IWW and set up bogus unions of their own who would then more or less do management's bidding. Later, when organized crime infiltrated the unions, this approach was cemented. Not sure what affect all this would have on a TSA union, but what it comes down to I think is that America is infested with venal, self-absorbed nincompoops, which is what is at the root of all our problems. So the issue isn't union vs non-union, or Democrat vs Republican, but integrity vs corruption.
and in Oklahoma City
and in New Orleans (not all ran for their lives)
Some stuff you can't make up!
New Orleans. Even Bobby Jindal had to use an uninsured boat.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
... because it's fun to turn the GOP's propaganda points back on themselves.
I just wanted to supplement your list.
Some stuff you can't make up!
plain and simple.
Some stuff you can't make up!
"A war is when TWO ARMIES are fighting..."
--Bill Hicks
!
Some stuff you can't make up!
If it's not a war, then it must be a massacre.
The propagandists who work 24/7 for the corpora-fascists and the Congress-critters who represent Them, have incorporated all kinds of fear-inducing memes into our everyday vocabulary:
9/11, fight for our rights, war on terror, war on drugs, war on poverty, terrorism, terrorists, war, war, war, fear, fear, ......
The neo-cons themselves stated in their published PNAC "Defense Strategy for the 21st Century" that Americans would never knowingly support the preemptive invasions of sovereign nations. Therefore, a Pearl Harbor-like event had to be staged to put the fear of gawd (and Muslims)into US citizens in order to garner their support for the Army to invade Iraq.
I expect we'll see more of these kinds of foiled 'terrorist' plots and maybe even a few little ones that they allow to succeed,
just to make sure everyone remains fearful and compliant. We are soo-ooo-o screwed.
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
and the Congress-critters who represent Them"
Thanks for that meme as well. It is rarely heard in these parts.
By the way, if 9/11 as a staged event was "Pearl Harbor-like,"
what did they model Pearl Harbor after whenb they staged it?
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
its just so blatant that we are almost immune to the meme.
but we do see that the media war against Obama and any progressives has reached near fever pitch.
Some stuff you can't make up!
Nothing inherently wrong with that, but I am getting the distinct impression that anyone not to the right of Mussolini is going to be sandbagged by the American media.
Maybe the immigration officers should have been a tad more careful when reviewing Rupert Murdoch's visa application?
... the Reichstag Fire, maybe?
had access to aircraft carriers. Can't even trust the damn Hisotry Channel.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
no one suggested Pearl Harbor was staged by the US; intelligence indicating it was imminent may have been ignored, but that's not the point.
However, Messrs. Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Kristol et al did clearly state that an attack on the US would be necessary for them to get the backing of the majority of Americans before they could embark upon their plans to invade ME countries to steal (I'm sorry, secure) oil and gas resources and spread love, democracy and US hegemony.
Oddly, a short while after Cheney was installed in office, there was just such an attack - a gift from Gawd in answer to the neo-cons' prayers, no doubt.
Now, hundreds of thousands (maybe millions) are dead, including our own sons & daughters, and your civil rights and privacy have been stolen, but Cheney has his forward military bases, his oil contracts and millions in his bank account.
Yet, he and folks like Demento continue to ooze fear-mongering from every pore - with every word they spew to the'free press'. And, every few months, we have a little breach of 'security' to help them justify their continuing lies. Fascism is no longer creeping in this country....but you still have the freedom to make trite remarks..for now.
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
aren't there to protect us; they are there to advance Wall Street's & Big Oil's agenda.
but you missed a few steps in the progression of connecting the dots, albeit an easy mistake to make given the PNAC's stated goal.
USS Maine "bombing" in Havana Harbor -- Spanish-American War ==> actually a small ship-board fire blown all out of proportion by Hearst Publishing
Sinking of HMS Lusitania ------------- World War I ==> US citizens killed on British ship loaded illegally with war munitions destined for Britain
Attack on Pearl Harbor, HI ------------ World War II ==> FDR moved Pacific Fleet from San Diego to Pearl Harbor, provoked Japan with new trade embargoes, then ignored intel regarding rising threat of war, FDR got his justification for war in Europe
Gulf of Tonkin Incident -------------- Vietnam War ==> USA ignored UN call for VN reunification elections, CIA assassinated Diem brothers, replaced Green Beret trainers with Military, then used faked radar signals as justification for war expansion
9/11/2001 Terror Attack ------------ brief Afghanistan & Iraq Wars ==> Dubya et. al. ignored many intel warnings about al-Queda intentions, then provided an uncanny string of coincidences that made the attacks possible
The war-mongering chicken-hawks of the Military Industrial Complex have been around for a very, very long time. They and their minions in the MSM are well-adept at propaganda designed to engage the USA in foreign wars that the majority of the American people oppose. If you have been paying attention for the past 10 years, you should be aware that we are on the verge of yet another war -- this time in Iran.
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
-- John F. Kennedy
Those people definitely need to get organized. Maybe we'll have to pay them a bit more if they unionize, but at least we might actually get some work out of them if we had a contract that kept them at work 9 to 5 for five days a week, limited their camera breaks, and kept them from taking money under the table from other corporations.
You see, the necessary other part of the idea that Congress should unionize, is the part about we, the people, incorporating. Only massive, too-big-to-fail, corporations get any respect around this town, so if we want our interests served, we, the people, need to become WTP, Inc.
It's my idea, so I get to be CEO.
DON'T unionize Congress, just have some layoffs. Some of the larger, more productive states' representatives stay on, while some of the smaller states that produce little revenue, and in fact siphon a lot of federal aid, would be let go until we can afford to bring them back on. Maybe--maybe--Jim DeMint would learn what a significant number of his constituents go through as a result of his party's actions.
We don't really save much money by firing just DeMint. Your suggestion seems to be that we send the whole state of SC a pink slip. Not a bad idea, but you need to do all the firing that's needed all at once, up front. It's a shock doctrine thing.
The states we expel aren't going to give up the name, so we should call the remainder of the Union the SUSA, the Sane United States of America. The other side gets to be the CUSA, the Crazy United States of America. But they're so fond of their history in this area that they can't let it go, so they'll probably choose to go as the CSA instead. Whatever they think it stands for, everyone else will hear "Crazy States of America".
thirteen states. It is in their contract.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
... show a record of progressive discipline, i.e. documenting the specific instances where the employee has failed to meet the standards required for their job, and the steps which management has taken to communicate this to the employee, as well as providing the means through which the employee can improve, should the cause be determined to be inadequate training.
Otherwise, the employee may choose to file a grievance.
with a state map that reads "I vote for StOopid"
constitute the first step in that process?
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
Well, in the case of SC, we do have the Nullification Crisis of 1830 on the record, plus that rather serious matter of the events from 1861 to 1865, follwed by over a decade of Reconstruction. Just showing them the door, in a perfectly civil fashion, hardly seems to be a sudden or drastic escalation.
Not that we should deny them the full right to file any grievances they care to. I think that the UN would be the place for them to go in that matter. Good luck with that. They have such a fine record of amity with the UN, I'm sure they will meet with a full and fair hearing.
Not that this discussion has evolved entirely on the rails of sober analysis, and perhaps you're just making a joke about unions, but if your comment is supposed to be directed at the status of secession in the US system, I'm not following you.
The Constitution lays out an explicit procedure for admitting new states (Art IV, sec 3), where it also prohibits "cannibalization" of states without their consent, and it sets the standard that at least 9 of the original 13 must ratify the Constitution for it to take effect anywhere (Art VII). But it doesn't set forth any procedure for either new states, or the original 13, to leave the Union. This last circumstance is the basis generally used to say that secession was unconstitutional, and the same reasoning applies to expulsion. Folks on the other side of the issue generally counter that since there was an explicit ban on secession in the Articles of Confederation, that the Founders must have thought that silence on the issue in the new Constitution was not prohibition of secession, but that if they meant to ban the practice, they would have written in an explicit ban, as they did in the Articles.
Of course, perhaps they felt constrained to not have a ban on secession in the new Constitution, because they had, in effect broken the ban on the process wrtten in the Articles with the forming of a new Union by dissolving the supposedly indissoluble Confederation. But that just establishes the justification for secession on grounds even higher than the Constitution, since the Founders, who we have to say were correct in forming the Union if we are going to say that no one can secede from it, must have been sufficiently justified by practical circumstances and/or some overarching principle of justice, in their secession from the supposedly perpetual Confederation. You have to appeal to some higher authority than the written documents, Articles or Constitution, to justify the secession of the Founders from the Confederation, and for both the Founders and the folks who tried to found the CSA, the higher authority they appealed to was the will of the seperate states, which they supposed to be higher than any agreements they might have entered into, any Articles of Confederation or Constitution of the United States that they might have signed at some earlier time.
Terrorists.
"As I’ve watched the events of the last few days it is clear once again that President Obama is trying to pretend we are not at war. He seems to think if he has a low-key response to an attempt to blow up an airliner and kill hundreds of people, we won’t be at war. He seems to think if he gives terrorists the rights of Americans, lets them lawyer up and reads them their Miranda rights, we won’t be at war. He seems to think if we bring the mastermind of Sept. 11 to New York, give him a lawyer and trial in civilian court, we won’t be at war.
“He seems to think if he closes Guantanamo and releases the hard-core Al Qaeda-trained terrorists still there, we won’t be at war. He seems to think if he gets rid of the words, ‘war on terror,’ we won’t be at war. But we are at war and when President Obama pretends we aren’t, it makes us less safe. Why doesn’t he want to admit we’re at war? It doesn’t fit with the view of the world he brought with him to the Oval Office. It doesn’t fit with what seems to be the goal of his presidency — social transformation — the restructuring of American society. President Obama’s first object and his highest responsibility must be to defend us against an enemy that knows we are at war."
Prick Dick
or his daughter, Little Prickess?
Some stuff you can't make up!
everything looks like a nail.
a President more like GWB. His administration may have ignored all the warning signs leading up to the 9/11 attacks, and he may have led us into a war with an enemy that had nothing to do with the attacks, while blowing the best opportinities we had to destroy Al Queda, but who can deny how proud he made us when he was flown onto the deck of that aircraft carrier anchored a few hundred yards off our coast. Such a majestic figure in his flight suit, with codpiece, fulfilling our patriotic need to express our mantra, "Don't fu*k with us". Even if it was several years premature.
"DeMint: It makes absolutely no sense to submit security in our airports and the passengers here in this country to collective bargaining with unions."
This is idiotic. If the police can be unionized without compromising public safety then why can't the TSA?
OBSTRUCTIONISM. At all costs. The opposite of EVERYTHING Obama wants to get done.
won't say shit. If I were police or fire or ems in one of these media centers, I might not be in such a hurry to help one of this shitheads if there is a fire or some other incident.
But then again, unlike any politician, I might just do my duty because that's why I signed up for this job in the first place.
I really, really, really have a very, very, very strong dislike for RepuglyKKKans.
Some stuff you can't make up!
Was he called on that fact?
Of course not. Oh...communications workers...like Mr. Land of the Free, Home of the Slave Limbaugh are UNION WORKERS.
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
Terrorists surely aren't stupid...they'll just use a new group for their plots while us dumbass Americans are watching Africans and Middle Eastern people.
Profiling destroys any confidence of that particular group in the nation's system of laws. The no snitching mentality that is prevalent in many urban communities Nationwide has origins from police brutality, false reports(including framing innocent minorities) and various other forms of rogue justice. For every success racial profiling brings there are hundreds of law abiding Americans who are brought up despising and completely distrusting American jurisprudence.
racists.
Some stuff you can't make up!
I have often commented on the superior intellect displayed by thinking Allah has virgins awaiting you after your suicide.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
I don't think the real, knowledgable, 'experts' use that crap.
Some stuff you can't make up!
lets just skip the virgins and admire the intelligence of blowing up others in the name of God through a suicide attack.
Or were we tricked about that too?
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
If you're successful, the plane goes boom.
If you're unsuccessful, you blow your nuts off and remove yourself from the gene pool of future terrorists.
women's rights
civil rights
voting rights
living wages
living conditions in some places
[add your own entry]
For at least those reasons, they have been a target of the RepuglyKKKans.
Some stuff you can't make up!
... a standardized work week (40 hours, weekends)
... paid vacations
... FMLA (family medical leave)
Group Employee Insurance
Some stuff you can't make up!
See...just put a name on it that 80% of Amerikkka doesn't even comprehend, tell them it's evil like "communism" and "fascism"..cause it ends with a "..ism", and it's EVIL!!!
What a nation of fucking morons we live in.
Hulk!
but that's been done, however, there are retirement funds, some still intact, medical benefits, some plans, still affordable.
And of course, COLLECTIVE BARGAINING...
me-oww!
...202-224-6121 and express our displeasure with Jimmy D.
When you call, be sure to affect your best southern accent, profess to be from SC, visiting your cousins out of state, and express alarm that your Aunt Clara, herself a native of Charleston expressed embarrassment that South Cuhlina had sent someone to Washington that was more of an embarassment than Mark Sanford.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
I'm sure all those unemployed union workers are so very glad to have voted Republican for the last 30 years.
Yeah...wave that flag baby! USA USA USA! Fight them queers! We need better morals!! USA USA!!
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
... conservative members in our unit (he's retired) was an old-school Republican, not the current crop of WATBs.
That Republican Party was destroyed by Richard Nixon.
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
It isn't "destroyed"....it's "destructive".
I honestly believe the repukes are just as big a threat as the terrorists. NO DOUBT in my little mind. They have done more to destroy this country than a measley 3000 dead on 9/11. They have tried to obstruct EVERYTHING positive for this country since Roosevelt, and probably before that as well.
Damn terrorists. Honest to God...we need to group them with the other terrorist organizations around the world...and call them on it.
humm, Faux "News" used almost all non-white TSA employees in their clips. I'm sure that wasn't an accident. I bet it scream s "lazy colored folks" to Faux's largely elderly white audience of true believers...
DeMint appears to be collaborating with the terrorists, supporting their efforts to destroy the U.S. and our freedoms...
(com'on...where's the meme?)
only means THEY win. I prefer shopping to show my displeasure and futher our recovery.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
That must mean you have an income! Congratulations!
"Trust no one, Mr. Mulder." - Well-Manicured Man
adept at screening out bad risk than the TSA.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
There are only two things that have happened since 9/11 that have improved aviation security -- reinforced cockpit doors and an awareness that the proper response to a terrorist attack is to fight back. Notice that neither of these has a damn thing to do with the TSA.
The TSA is merely very expensive and degrading security theater. Actual terrorists are either thwarted by intelligence and police work or by active resistance by those on the scene.
This discussion about TSA leadership and unionization is merely a distraction from the correct course of action -- disband the TSA and turn boarding screening back over to the airlines. The TSA is nothing but a money sink.
.
... may sort of disagree with your claim regarding the "awareness that the proper response to a terrorist attack is to fight back."
Why does Mr DeMint hate america and americans so much? And now I know why Boeing chose to expand to So Carolina rather than keep jobs in the Pacific Northwest. The corporate bosses of Boeing see their profits going up as they pay workers less in the corporate friendly state of So Carolina.
... that there have been some serious issues with that Vought plant in S Carolina which is being subcontracted by Boeing, which among other things set back the 787 project in a very significant way. To the point that Airbus may have the A350 ready less than a year from the 787 certification. Putting a lot of the firm orders Boeing had for the dreamliner in speculative status.
The whole "penny wise, pound foolish" seems to apply to Boeing's management. Since their traditional Everett force had an excellent record regarding on-time deliveries. Boeing in Seattle, I believe, is fully syndicated. It seems American management disdain for organised labour is borderline psychotic, because they are willing to shoot their bottom line to hell if it means they get to undermine their own workers.
It is myopic to say the least. Not that I am complaining, since foreigners get to reap the benefits... but still. Good lord.
...don't forget the DINOs. Bayh, for example, is every bit as bad (well, maybe just a little bit better)as the other Indiana wackjobs you mentioned.
"Buy the ticket, take the ride."
Hunter S. Thompson
eom
me-oww!
that he is just another sh*t for brains rethuglican from South Carolina.
TSA moved with commendable speed after the Christmas incident. For the new airport security rules, look here:
http://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2009/12/3...
This pecker-head reminds me of raygun every time I see his smirk and listen to his nonsensical crap spewing from his mouth.
"Unions are the devil's workshop". Oh, heaven forbid they unionize. What a turd brain!
What ass-backward part of the world keeps sending such idiot, used car salesmen to Washington to represent them? This turd makes me want to throw up each and every time I see or hear his stench.
I made it through eight years of raygun....I can't take anymore....not even a "lite".
As a member of "The Family", "The Fellowship", or "the Christian Mafia", DeMint and other C Street Senators hate the unions. The following is from a recent interview --the entire interview is worth the read, so is Sharlet's book.
"JEFF SHARLET: The Family began as this domestic organization way back in the 1930s, a union-busting organization. But by the '50s, they-
AMY GOODMAN: What do you mean, union-busting organization?
JEFF SHARLET: Oh, they-it's part of that invisible hand of the market. They believe that organized labor is ungodly, to put it mildly, perhaps Satanic. It began with this vision in 1935 that the New Deal and organized labor were literally a Satanic conspiracy they had to fight back."
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/8/12/sharlet”
I am a union member (AFT) and can swear that I'm worse than any terrorist because I want a living wage and supportive working conditions.
The currents crop of underpaid non-union TSA workers have no incentive to do a superior job. But the Rethugs would rather have workers oppressed, than effective. Because they are the party of TOTAL FUCKUPS.
I see, according to this dullard, unionized TSA workers are a far greater threat to our country than terrorist attacks. Clearly, these America hating repugs in Congress are the ones giving the terrorists everything they want. The brain trust from South Carolina does it again.
The 343 firefighters that died in the towers on 9/11 were union brothers. The police officers that died that day were also. Union members give their lives for this country. Shame on Demint for disparaging their contibution
Recess appointments. Once Congress recesses, Pres. Obama should just tell his nominees "You start your new job January 4." That would really get the GOPers in the shorts.
Pursue Happiness
How many times have you seen unionized workers leaning on their shovels at a construction site? Do you want TSA workers with the same work ethic?
Obama waited until September to nominate someone for this post. Now all of a sudden, it's a crisis because a GOP Senator wants to do his job under the advice and consent clause?
I've seen lazy union workers resting.
What we need is more whips. How much cotton would have gotten picked by lazy African slaves, if there had been no whips?
If you look through my window at noontime you'll see Mexican gardeners sitting under a tree taking a siesta.
How much safer and richer we would all be if there were simply more bull whips.
All anybody has to do is look at police, fire, and nurses unions, and see what standards their unions hold them to. And to see how union empolyees respond to crises.
DeMint is so full of shit it is unblievable, and no spineless Dim or union leader is throwing the shit back into DeMint's face.
"If organized labor got involved, DeMint said, union bosses would have the power "to veto or delay future security improvements at our airports."
Actually, Republican politicians and airline executives have done a fine job of delaying airport security improvements without the help of union "bosses".
until in the middle of an arduous task when they realize there's a job next door that pays the same wages and you don't have to examine the smelly shoes of impatient passengers.
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