- SO MUCH FOR THAT ONE: Sen. Arlen Specter has flipped his long-held stance siding with unions on the Employee Free Choice Act and will now vote against invoking cloture on the measure, which is kind of important, because he very well may have been the deciding vote over a filibuster. It may have been to help him win back some conservatives in Pennsylvania, where he will still probably get trounced in the closed Republican primary next year since he voted for the Communist’s stimulus package. And the EFCA is probably done for this legislative session. Take that, remaining people in America who still actually make things! The Fat Cats shall dine on the finest of steaks and potatoes tonight. [National Journal]
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If I may quote the late, great Florida Evans: “Damn! Daaamn! Daaaammmmnnn!”
You know, if I worked in Pennsylvania, I would get really bitter and cling to my gun and bible.
And that’s why we, here in the great commonwealth of Pennsyltucky, call him Fucking Arlen Specter.
He tries to make everybody happy and winds up alienating everybody. Fortunately for him, the people the right have chosen to run against him have been — how can I put this politely — batshit crazy.
Suckfest. (Not in a good way)
OK sure, he’s flip-flopped on a few vital issues, he betrays his Republican base in initially supporting EFCA and then betrays his working-class constituents as the final nail in the coffin that shuts EFCA down and ensures that organized labor will whither away entirely. But the guy has HAD CANCER TWICE, folks! He even wrote a book about it! How can you vote against a guy who has had cancer twice?
If only it were true that union members were still people who actually make things. One can have sympathy for the sleeping car porters, ironworkers, miners and garment workers who got their heads busted repeatedly in the battle for a safe workplace, a decent wage, etc. It’s a little harder to work up much sympathy for unionized government employees.
If anybody wonders why Coleman v. Franken is taking so long, and is going to take longer, this is why.
[re=272218]Pizzuti[/re]: “How can you vote against a guy who has had cancer twice?” Well, if that guilt trip worked, Walnuts would be president now.
[re=272216]FMA[/re]: “Fortunately for him, the people the right have chosen to run against him have been — how can I put this politely — batshit crazy.” That didn’t stop the good people in MN (see Michele Bachmann). Or Texas or GA or AK or…you get the picture.
Aim for politicians fair who’ll treat your vote hope well
The last thing they’ll ever do act in your interest
Look at the world through your polaroid glasses
Things’ll look a whole lot better for the working classes
Fuck you, Arlen. Go suck a big fat teat. Limbaugh’s preferably. You miserable sack of rich man’s shit.
[re=272222]V572625694[/re]: that’s the whole point. most public employees are already in unions. this bill would make it easier to form unions by people who clean hotel rooms and offices, cook food, drive delivery vans, work in grocery stores, construction, etc etc …
“Let them eat Scrapple!” – Sen. Arlen Specter (R – Douchebag)
[re=272234]Capitol Hillbilly[/re]: I know, and agree — the office cleaners and hotel housekeepers are an invisible underclass (along w/migrant workers). I was just quibbling with Newell’s description of DMV clerks as “people who make things.”
[re=272230]Capitol Hillbilly[/re]: The worst thing in 1954 was the bikini!
Hahaha! Fuck you, America! And fuck your working class.
WOO HOO!
(why am I happy?)
[re=272252]V572625694[/re]: I was a member of a union when I worked as a medical assistant and as a supermarket checker. A lot of unions will represent both government employees AND private industry workers. In fact, the local that I belonged to represented both medical assistants from Planned Prenthood (non-government) and social workers (government).
Oh yeah – and FUCK YOU VERY MUCH Arlen Specter.
[re=272257]doloras[/re]: that’s what they thought back then. turns out they were wrong.
You know, a single ‘magic’ bullet would sort this matter out quite nicely. It could take out both Specter AND whoever runs against him. [T'would be poetic, too.]
Not that I’m ADVOCATING this, per se.
Just stating the obvious, is as my wont. And my only forte.
[re=272322]Canuckledragger[/re]: I’ll swear I had sex with Specter and Toomey (his apparent primary challenger). Think that would work? As pissed as I am right now, I’m sure I could sound passionate about the guy.
[re=272332]Will work for shoes[/re]: If you’re a chickie, it might not suffice.
But if you’re a RuPaul kinda guy, it could do the trick. Or turn the trick. Whatever. Gopherit.
it’s good to see that screwing your constituents never goes out of style.
Vote Specter: Entirely Useless, But Consistently So!
[re=272258]shortsshortsshorts[/re]: Are you punch-drunk, shorts?
how hard is it to throw something in the bill some republican will want? it should be what’s the least they have to give to get ONE convert, is it really that hard for politicians to play politics and get one to sell out?
Much as I hate Arlen Specter (ok, not quite enough to run with ‘I am the gay boy with whom Arlen generates Santorum‘), he’s not the one who will destroy unions. Arlen will just be an accessory to the crimes committed by power hungry guys like Andy Stern. When Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky tell you that you’re heading in a dangerous anti-democratic direction, maybe that’s the time to step back and re-evaluate your motives. We don’t stand a chance of fighting those who want to keep unions powerless and undemocratic when we can’t even have democratic unions and empower our own members.
May all of Arlen Specter’s children and grandchildren, and their children and grandchildren, wind up working at Walmart.
Wonkette, please don’t use the words “Arlen Specter” and “stance” in the same sentence. It’s very disturbing.
[re=272218]Pizzuti[/re]: We’re not impressed; everyone in Pennsylvania has cancer. If we weren’t born next door to a steel mill or a coal mine we were raised downwind from a slag heap, a nuclear power plant, or New Jersey.
[re=272222]V572625694[/re]: Unionized workers don’t have to make things to be entitled to have rights (I don’t really believe you were saying otherwise.) Not all unions work in the best interests of their members, but it’s up to the members to make their reps work for them, just as its our responsibility to fire fuckheads like Arlen Specter. Goddamn can we PLEASE get Al Franken in there already. Or how about let’s get to the elections in 2010 and have 60 or more Dems in the Senate. This idea of one or two crazy fuckfaces having the power to derail Obama’s agenda is fucking perverse.
But yes, the sooner US America actually makes shit the rest of the world wants to buy, the better off we’ll all be. Like solar power stuff, and uh, other stuff as well. When the only real growth in your country has been in the financial/gambling industry, your country is fucked, because it ain’t making shit anymore, just playing shell games & fighting over pieces of an ever-shrinking pie. We gotta build more pies!!
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