Recommended reading

-Freshman Congressman plans to sleep in office to save money. Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) says he can save $1500/month by sleeping on a cot in his Capitol Hill office.

-Joe the Plumber, the Ohio tradesman made famous by John McCain during the final presidential debate, is now Joe the War Correspondent. A conservative media site is sending him to Gaza to report.

-Illinois moves one step closer to impeaching disgraced Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich.

-78% of Americans support the Employee Free Choice Act, according to a recent poll commissioned by the AFL-CIO.

-Vietnam veterans sue CIA over MK-ULTRA mind control experiments.

-Not so recommended: An almost content-free article on Tom Daschle's confirmation hearing from the NYT. The headline promises an article about Daschle laying out his plan for reform, but the story tells us virtually nothing about the plan.

Comments

[MostEmailedNews.com]

Awesome about that rep. they should all sleep on cots!

- T

http://mostemailednews.com

[Alon Levy]

I saw the Wurzelbacher story earlier today. It killed whatever was left of my respect for conservative media.

As for the EFTA, "a recent poll commissioned by the AFL-CIO" is a euphemism for "a recent push poll commissioned by the AFL-CIO."

[The Phantom]

C'mon Levy. The National Review is great and they would never hire this guy.

The AFL CIO poll is laughable. I'm surprised they didn't say that there was 100% support for this denial of the right of private voting for working people.

[cfrost]

The AFL CIO poll is laughable
As are unions anymore. The union movement in the United States has been a pathetic joke ever since Taft–Hartley, and now that we're all happily globalized, those of us who work for a living are competing with the cheapest slaves labor Bangladesh and Haiti can deliver. Unions are an artifact of history along with working class pensions, single-worker families, etc.

No one will be surprised when Joe the War Correspondent gets a slot on Fox News, and I wouldn't discount a guest article in the National Review, which hasn't been particularly eager of late to put much distance between themselves and the Neanderthal branch of the conservative movement.

As for the CIA testing and/or using psychotropic drugs on unwitting and unwilling subjects, I have no objection, provided those who administer and/or advocate (John Yoo) such activities are first given 250 micrograms of harmless LSD and harmlessly waterboarded for a few hours.

[Alon Levy]

now that we're all happily globalized, those of us who work for a living are competing with the cheapest slaves Bangladesh and Haiti can deliver.

No, Bangladesh and Haiti have low-skill manufacturing jobs, like making garments. They're not even at the level of development needed to have their own auto industries, to say nothing of IT, education, semiconductors, or biotech.

As for "slaves," that's quite rich coming from one of the most unequal countries in the world. Most countries that American corporations outsource to, including India, Thailand, Vietnam, and now even Mexico, have less income inequality than the US. Their problem is low overall per capita income, not high inequality.

[The Phantom]

Largely correct, except that it will be "interesting" to see what happens with China

They're doing tons of slave labor still, but that's not all they want to do. They have goals to not just make but to design computers, medicines, aircraft, anything. And with their brains and desire to work hard, they will do just that.

[parse]

As for the CIA testing and/or using psychotropic drugs on unwitting and unwilling subjects, I have no objection, provided those who administer and/or advocate (John Yoo) such activities are first given 250 micrograms of harmless LSD and harmlessly waterboarded for a few hours.

Can I get the LSD without the waterboarding?

[Alon Levy]

China is the main exception, you're right. (It's also one of the few countries in Asia with more inequality than the US.)

[Jack]

Somebody tell Wurzelbacher his 15 minutes of fame were up about two months ago.

[cfrost]

No, Bangladesh and Haiti have low-skill manufacturing jobs, like making garments. They're not even at the level of development needed to have their own auto industries, to say nothing of IT, education, semiconductors, or biotech.

No problem, we're pitting the world's skilled labor against each other also. Dell computers just moved its Ireland operations to Poland, and if the Poles start asking for too much, Dell can move the whole shop to India.

As for "slaves," that's quite rich coming from one of the most unequal countries in the world.

It was ever thus. I recently read a quote from Samuel Johnson to the effect that as slave owners, the American colonists were making a rather unseemly fuss about liberty.

[The Phantom]

India's software. I think that the PC manufacturing threat comes from China. Where the Chinese already own Lenovo ( ex IBM personal computers )

Unfortunately, if Dell does not save every penny right now, Lenovo's gonna eat their lunch but good.

[cfrost]

Lenovo's gonna eat their lunch but good.

I don't doubt it. I just hope that the Polish and Chinese workers making the coolest new laptops get something like a decent shake. Meanwhile, a whole bunch of Irish workers are screwed.

[The Phantom]

The Dell story was a major story on A Tangled Web, a site with lots of readers and participants in Ireland and the UK.

[Cass]

Joe the Plumber, the Ohio tradesman made famous by John McCain during the final presidential debate, is now Joe the War Correspondent.

Because there's no job on earth, from President to talk-show host to war correspondent, that can't somehow be handled better by a white male rube with an utterly predictable set of borrowed opinions.