Saturday, February 19, 2011

Friday 2/08/2011

Lol.
Cowards.
Did you see the GOP go into "hiding" when the vote for the health care bill was coming up on the floor?
I didn't know that state police could be sent off after them to "bring them back and force them to vote". That's pretty, except they don't know where these senators are, though one report has them in a hotel in Illinois somewhere. I doubt Wisconsin state police have any jusidiction whatsoever in the state of Illinois.

This is Obama commenting on the situation after basically blasting the governor: "I think everybody's got to make some adjustments, but I think it's also important to recognize that public employees make enormous contributions to our states and our citizens," he continued.

He continued - to go jump in a lake. So, because public employees make "enormous contributions to our states and our citizens", they therefore deserve huge pensions that they hardly have to pay ANYTHING into, health care plans that are also on the cheap and salaries that are WELL above the private sector?

This is the kind of thinking that has gotten this nation to the economic point of chaos that it is in. WHAT "enormous" contributions, specifically, are being made? I'll give the police and fire credit for that, the rest of it is bunk. In other words, what THEY do is more important than what any of us working in the private sector does. If that's not what should be read into that statement, then please enlighten me: illucidate the underlying message in those words, because that's the only thing I get out of it.

So what teachers have a huge job, so does everyone else. It is not sustainable. These are the operative words. The private sector has ALREADY gotten the shaft in this economic climate, why should public employees be able to slide? They sit there, smug, raising hell at the Wisconsin capitol, demanding their rights - for what? Inflated wages, almost-free pensions and for paying WELL under what I have to pay to ensure that I have health care coverage.

I must have missed something here. Let me look it over. No, I haven't missed anything. My city's government is doing the SAME damned thing, but, there is one councilman who is speaking out about it. The average employee in the city of Phoenix, with benefits and salary/wages, earns $100,000 per YEAR. The figures included everyone from maintenance workers to garbage truck operators to city clerks to - everything. Our city's council, besides that one person, doesn't want to lose all of that, they want to continue to raise taxes.

I'm done with that for now. It's Friday morning and I don't really want to ruin my day with thoughts about the government jobs sector and the ridiculous amounts of money people are making. Or the unions that demand collective bargaining rights. On and on.

However, those senators should all lose their jobs. Hiding. This is a juvenile activity that occurs on playgrounds while playing a game called Hide and Seek: it should NOT be the actions of grown, adult men and women who don't agree with a bill going through their state's senate, so instead of voting on it, they are going to go hide. I do hope the media blasts THEM as harshly as it would if it were Republican senators doing the SAME thing.

NO, that isn't going to happen on the same scale, is it? I'm sure they all feel it is somehow justified. Yet, they were elected to represent the people. The people in that state apparently have spoken. The governor has most definitely spoken: either take this deal or I am going to have to cut 6,000 jobs. But, union employees have this sense of entitlement. They somehow deserve more and more and more and if they can't get it, then who cares, let people lose their jobs.

Changing gears, there is, again, a lot of work today in the truck routing system. If it can all be done in one day, it will certainly be a LONG day in getting it done. Not that I mind that, that will get me some extra hours on my next paycheck, a thing I haven't seen in many, many months. In fact, if I don't get off early today, I'll have almost 6 hours worth of extra PLUS whatever hours I might go over today.

Our store's numbers quantify the hours as well. We're WELL beyond our store's budget for this month and it's only the 18th. Including today, there are 7 more business days in this month. I AM hoping, really, that I can get these hours and then some. The work today in our system pretty much details that that IS going to happen.

I worked out yesterday, btw. I lasted 15 minutes on that Stairmaster. My legs felt like there were on fire. It reminded me of my days in Junior High school, as I think I already said in another entry, when I was doing cross country running. We would run as hard as we could for as long as we could. After a while, your legs felt like lead weights.

I got off of that thing and hit the weights. 25 minutes of that and I felt good about that particular visit and left. I have a minimum goal of at least 3 days per week. So, if I feel too tired today, I will definitely go tomorrow and that will be day 3. I would have gone more, but I have been working much longer days at work than normal and it's drained me. I am tired, that's for sure.

Anyway, work day is here and I'm......outta here!

ben

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ben, I am ticked about the situation. Most public employees in Wisconsin are good, honest, hard-working people who do a good job for us. Our streets get plowed, the trash gets picked up, we have nice parks and so on.

But the state is broke. The protesters, who are a tiny fraction of all gov't employees, say they are OK with taking the pay cuts but want to keep collective bargaining. Which is about - money.

I asked a liberal friend how the union added value to education. The plumbers union and the electricians union at least train people and define standards of performance so you know what you're getting. But what does the teachers union do?

I was told that the purpose of the union is to ensure a fair wage, not to add value to the organization.

As in, it is all about the money.

My mom and dad both got a fine education from Wisconsin small-town schoolteachers before the teachers union came to Wisconsin. A union is not necessary.

Anonymous said...

Well hi there!
I did not know you are from that state. I have never questioned what kind of people they are, the point is that the governor is taking a stand, either take the cuts or he is going to have to cut up to 12,000 workers. That's a LOT of people suddenly on the unemployment rolls. It's abominable - to me anyway - that those senators just up and disappeared and are even showing their faces to the media and making statements. Recall every single one of them. Heck, there must be a law on their books somewhere that addresses this kind of problem.

Of course it is about the money, that is what unions are mostly about. Money and benefits. Well, it's an interesting story that is playing out there, I am going to continue to watch it as it unfolds.

ben

Anonymous said...

Monday

I actually wrote almost an entire entry yesterday but never got around to finishing it, much less publishing it.

Oh well. I found my cellphone where I had left it on Friday: in the semi. I figured it was in there but didn't bother to drive all the way over here to get it - I have my home phone as back up.

It rained a long time yesterday, very nice ground-drenching type of rain. I was out there in between rain stop and start looking at my dead Sissoo trees. The leaves are all dead, no green anything.

But wait, something caught my eye. I started to inspect one of the smaller ones much closer. Little, tiny green buds popping out all over the thing!! I rushed around the property, inspecting all of them, large and small: same thing!! Hootin'NannyHoller! They aren't dead!

I don't know which thought was more depressing about the idea that ALL of them were dead: the time it took to acquire them and plant them or the time spent in having them grow, especially the larger ones that are upwards of 15 feet tall now.

Oh, the hummingbirds showed back up. Inexplicably, they disappeared over a week ago and now - here they are again. No clue on that one. I just keep the feeders filled with fresh liquid.

Wisconsin. Fascinating stuff going on there. Republicans are stating that if the dems don't come back, they are just going to start passing other bills that don't need anything but a simple majority present. The weather in Wisconsin - anywhere in Wisconsin - is anything but pleasant. I have been there in the winter, it's usually very cold and a lot of snow everywhere if memory serves me correct.

You will see wedges of cheese walking down the street on their owner's heads........

Anonymous said...

Again, there must be some way to either force them back or find some ancient law in the books that deals with this kind of problem - or just recall the whole lot of them - them being the democratic senators who have fled the state - and start fresh. And one more thing while we're at it, those teachers BETTER get their hineys back in school tomorrow - I'm assuming today is pretty much a nationwide school free day considering it's President's Day - and start teaching those kids again.

If they don't, they should be fired. Period. They made their statement, now it's time to get back to teaching kids.

And if those "doctors" out there are actually real doctors that were handing out notes/prescriptions/whatever they were to get teachers "legally" out of work, without even checking the person over, they should lose their right to practice medicine anywhere.

I have absolutely no sympathy for any of these people. I don't have "collective bargaining rights". I collect all my brain cells together, think of how I might go about asking for more money and do it. But not NOW, in this economic chaos. I don't have guaranteed rights to raises and I definitely don't have a pension plan that will last forever a day and a half that I barely have to pay anything into like those people do. LET THEM PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE - just like the rest of us are being FORCED to do. Government employees should not be granted an out simply because they work for the government. Why do they get a free pass and people like me get hours cut, but still have to pay into health care and 401k's at MUCH higher rates? If times were good, it might be different. I live in a right to work state, unions don't have much grip here. There are some around, but mostly, you have to push for your own self and get as much money as you can per hour.

This is the 5th stop in a series of moves I made to get to higher pay. I restarted trucking in - 2004 I think it was - got a job paying low, got another job paying more, etc etc etc to the point where I'm at now. I will be happy when I'm making another $5 per hour above what I am currently making. That will bring me up to where I should be in my level of experience. Will I ever get it? I don't know - but I have to do it on my own.

Well, whatever, work day is here. I don't know that there's going to be a lot to do, the construction sites are probably muddy and probably general contractors will shut them down if city inspectors force them to, they don't want that stuff tracked all over the streets everywhere.

G'day.

ben

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