Random Thoughts (Political Edition)

Hadn't seen this here... Goldstone report reconsidered.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...and-war-crimes/2011/04/01/AFg111JC_story.html

We know a lot more today about what happened in the Gaza war of 2008-09 than we did when I chaired the fact-finding mission appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council that produced what has come to be known as the Goldstone Report. If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document.

The final report by the U.N. committee of independent experts ? chaired by former New York judge Mary McGowan Davis ? that followed up on the recommendations of the Goldstone Report has found that ?Israel has dedicated significant resources to investigate over 400 allegations of operational misconduct in Gaza? while ?the de facto authorities (i.e., Hamas) have not conducted any investigations into the launching of rocket and mortar attacks against Israel.?
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The tragic thing is that to anyone without an anti-Israeli bias, this was obvious all along. As the saying goes... those that don't learn from history are doomed to making the same stupid proclamations that the terrorists aren't the problem.

Steve
 
GRtak said:
The unions are not the only reasons for this happening. And the Unions already agreed to a pay cut and to pay a larger share of their health costs. Why is it ok for them to pass through a tax cut for the rich and then try to screw over the little guy? Don't you think that the taxes lost would go farther to pay down the debt than the pay cuts alone?
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The unions are a quite substantial part of the problem. And what is wrong with letting workers decide if they want to be part of a union? And if we are arguing that the state government can't be trusted to set fair work rules and policies... doesn't that pretty much validate the arguments that we should be looking to make government smaller because it can't be trusted? :)

The real little guy, as far as I'm concerned, are the folks working in private industry. Those are the people that took their harsh pay cuts and layoffs when the economy turned sour (rather than getting raises every year until now). Those are the folks that depend on Wisconsin being a good place to do business so that people want to make money there and keep them employed rather than moving on to business-friendly states like Texas.

Because, in the end, if you don't take care of the people that make money, then the people that take money (the government) will eventually run into trouble. To paraphrase the Oracle Leia "the tighter you squeeze the tax base the more taxes will slip through your fingers."

Steve
 
Steve Levin said:
The real little guy, as far as I'm concerned, are the folks working in private industry. Those are the people that took their harsh pay cuts and layoffs when the economy turned sour (rather than getting raises every year until now). Those are the folks that depend on Wisconsin being a good place to do business so that people want to make money there and keep them employed rather than moving on to business-friendly states like Texas.
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Hey, guess what. The unions in Wisconsin and Ohio also agreed to take pay cuts, but the legislatures didn't seem to think that was enough.
 
Steve Levin said:
Because, in the end, if you don't take care of the people that make money, then the people that take money (the government) will eventually run into trouble.
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We've been doing just that for nearly 30 years now. The result is that we now have an unprecedented income disparity, 1 in 7 Americans living beneath the poverty line, etc etc etc. The only thing trickling down is piss.

The WI teachers union, from day one, accepted every financial concession asked of them. But Walker refused to admit that the entire point of the legislation was breaking the union (well, that and privatizing WI energy production through no-bid sales). If union busting is so wonderful for the state economy, why not take down the police unions too? Because the entire point of this is breaking the left-leaning teachers union. And in Walker's tyrannical zeal to do that, he drove the conservative police unions to side with the teachers. He and the WI GOP defied 2 court orders blocking the implementation of the legislation, only playing ball when a third order (and probably the threat of sanctions or contempt) was given.

As for "giving educators a choice" about whether they want to be in a union or not? Hell, if they don't want to be union they can work in another state. Or just get a different job. That's a good right-wing line, isn't it?

Something else to remember is that a not insignificant chunk of Wisconsin's deficit was created by Walker and the WI GOP themselves. When Walker entered office WI faced a $137 million deficit for the current financial year (which ends June 30). So he did the logical, responsible thing and passed legislation containing $140 million ... in corporate welfare. Walker's just a thug trying to pad his resume for a nice lobbying job. He screwed up Milwaukee's finances so bad the state had to step in and now he's doing the same screwy shit as governor.
 
If it's broke, don't fix it, eh?
 
Steve Levin said:
The unions are a quite substantial part of the problem. And what is wrong with letting workers decide if they want to be part of a union? And if we are arguing that the state government can't be trusted to set fair work rules and policies... doesn't that pretty much validate the arguments that we should be looking to make government smaller because it can't be trusted? :)

The real little guy, as far as I'm concerned, are the folks working in private industry. Those are the people that took their harsh pay cuts and layoffs when the economy turned sour (rather than getting raises every year until now). Those are the folks that depend on Wisconsin being a good place to do business so that people want to make money there and keep them employed rather than moving on to business-friendly states like Texas.

Because, in the end, if you don't take care of the people that make money, then the people that take money (the government) will eventually run into trouble. To paraphrase the Oracle Leia "the tighter you squeeze the tax base the more taxes will slip through your fingers."

Steve
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I still want to know why it is ok for them to give a tax cut to the rich. They don't pay their share already and get enother tax cut?
 
Heathrow said:
BBC News ? Ivory Coast: French & UN forces fire on pro-Gbagbo camp

What happened to UN being neutral?

Gbagbo is the ?outgoing? president who lost the election last year, but won?t leave.

Sounds like a big ass, sorry mess down there in C?te d'Ivoire, with hundreds dead and thousands displaced.

:|
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As Ban Ki-Moon said, the action was in self-defense. Gbagbo's forces have been taking shots at UN forces for some time now. Personally I'd have rather seen the Security council take a hardline in the Ivory Coast than Libya.
 
http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/04/huckabee-arkansas-destroyed-records

Gov. Huckabee, bastard of a Governor that he was, apparently destroyed all records when leaving office. If you were pissed about Gov. Palin using her private email for state business, and you should be, then you should be livid about this. I am becoming so aggravated with the supposed "conservative" field in this upcoming election...
 
tigger said:
We've been doing just that for nearly 30 years now. The result is that we now have an unprecedented income disparity, 1 in 7 Americans living beneath the poverty line, etc etc etc. The only thing trickling down is piss.

As for "giving educators a choice" about whether they want to be in a union or not? Hell, if they don't want to be union they can work in another state. Or just get a different job. That's a good right-wing line, isn't it?

Something else to remember is that a not insignificant chunk of Wisconsin's deficit was created by Walker and the WI GOP themselves. When Walker entered office WI faced a $137 million deficit for the current financial year (which ends June 30). So he did the logical, responsible thing and passed legislation containing $140 million ... in corporate welfare. Walker's just a thug trying to pad his resume for a nice lobbying job. He screwed up Milwaukee's finances so bad the state had to step in and now he's doing the same screwy shit as governor.
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I agree with everything said here. I just wanted to point out that although the $140 million in tax breaks is ridiculous it did not increase the spending deficit for this years budget.
 
That is because the tax break is for this years earnings and they won't get paid until next year.
 
BBC News: Defence minister on MoD selling off Ark Royal carrier on website
Armed Forces minister Nick Harvey is asked about UK security with the announcement of the Ministry of Defence offering former carrier Ark Royal for sale on a website.
Mr Harvey said HMS Illustrious was still in service, but it was eight years since a plane was flown off any British carrier - although this claim was later questioned in several letters to the programme.
Conservative MP David Davis, who has been calling on the Government to revisit the Defence Review, said Britain had to decide whether it was a world power or to cut back its international duties.
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The Tories really are doing a very good job of screwing over the Royal Navy. I don't know where the hell this Harvey prick is getting his facts from. "Nothing has flown off any british carrier since 2003." I've hated the tories for getting rid of our Harriers. Now they are selling Ark Royal on a website.
I hate them, i really do. It honestly feels like they would sell off their own six month child if it meant they could line their bank accounts for a few more days.
 
jedd_kenobi said:
BBC News: Defence minister on MoD selling off Ark Royal carrier on website


The Tories really are doing a very good job of screwing over the Royal Navy. I don't know where the hell this Harvey prick is getting his facts from. "Nothing has flown off any british carrier since 2003." I've hated the tories for getting rid of our Harriers. Now they are selling Ark Royal on a website.
I hate them, i really do. It honestly feels like they would sell off their own six month child if it meant they could line their bank accounts for a few more days.
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he is right though, since the opening engagements of the Iraq war Harriers haven't been launched on combat missions from our carriers. They are in effect just expensive international ego flexing tools with little real world use when we aren't creating new conflicts every other week.
 
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Would have been useful in Libya - we now fly and refuel from land bases - wonder how much extra that costs? The MoD and RAF has been run by ex fast jet people for some time, if anything is getting cut it will be the Navy. They are still going to get shot of 2,000 front line trained military - this government is bat shit mad. And they are Tories FCS!

I had high hopes that they would actually do a review of all departments and the spending and ask the hard questions.

For instance why are we giving India (Rockets, Space Programme, it's own overseas aid budget, atomic weapons and half our office jobs) overseas aid at all? The Indian blokes learning our jobs at work are baffled as well. Why are we giving Pakistan 630 million GBP too? It is really insane. This is money we borrow to give away!

Grrrr.

There are plenty more things that should be reviewed now - what they actually did was we need 25% cut in budgets can I have your plans and a set of rushed gibberish was put together for the emergency budget.

Oh just found this - what an ARSE:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12591217
 
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Cobol74 said:
For instance why are we giving India (Rockets, Space Programme, it's own overseas aid budget, atomic weapons and half our office jobs) overseas aid at all? The Indian blokes learning our jobs at work are baffled as well. Why are we giving Pakistan 630 million GBP too? It is really insane. This is money we borrow to give away!
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With money, you buy influence. Take it from the biggest payers into the EU budget. ;-)
 
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