j_b

First, whatever your reason, your example is cherry-picked

just go to the site and search for the compensation of any administrative level at the given department. You'll get a $ total and a number of employees. No average ad assistant at any level has a total comp over 70k.

who cares? what matters is whether that data is representative or whether you cherry picked it. I looked at average compensation per position, and I say you cherry-picked that data. The example you picked is an extreme portrayal of compensation for public employees that has nothing to do with the average condition. What gives?

You are cherry-picking data. ~95% of administrative assistants in Washington don't have anywhere near a total compensation of over a 100k. Your entire argument is based on that other 5% being the norm, which is totally false.

34 senators now ready to vote for the public option through reconciliation, but WWOD (what will Obama do)?

Do you think Obama is going to push for it to happen?

THat's rich coming from someone who cheered Bush's military adventurism that is responsible for the death of up to 1.5 millions innocents Iraqis even though he was told that it would happen.

[video:youtube]Alz5d1L0Ggs

The existence of the story itself is relevant to issues of national importance insofar ACORN has been targeted by the right wing and its media for years. ACORN is the main organization fighting against the all important conservative strategy of suppressing minority and poor voter turnout. ACORN being targeted by a smear campaign is nothing new, and this latest episode shows they will stop at nothing.

Unfortunately, it was just another helping of BS by the entire corporate "press", NYT included: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7701

On second thought, this thread needs more pictures of crooked "journalists" because they are guilty of giving legs to this scam.

One has to be careful with comparing gun ownership in the US and Switzerland. The Swiss take military weapons home (they serve one week a year for several decades), but I believe access to ammunition is severely restricted. The preceding suggests that most gun ownership in Switzerland isn't owning a pistol but a rifle; handguns being the weapons most used in manslaughter in the US.

here 's the complete list. Enough mud to go around and swamp the 2 party system to the gills: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_scandals_of_the_United_States

or perhaps a video of Tiger's latest escapade :-) What does it mean that some goons can doctor videos to be picked up in a firestorm of media coverage (nice job "journos"), leading up to action by congress to de-fund the organization being victimized? 5 months later the truth comes out in a 5 lines blurb on page 27.

1. Transcripts reveal that O’Keefe and Giles said they needed ACORN’s help to protect Giles from a violent pimp—but they carefully edited this out of their videos1. O’Keefe and Giles used clever editing and voiceovers to hide a key fact that the transcripts show to be true in each case: In each office, the duo claimed that 20-year old Hannah was being threatened by a violent abusive pimp. They pleaded for ACORN to help protect the prostitute (and in some cases underage girls as well) from the pimp by helping her get a place to live. O’Keefe and Giles edited this out of the video given the news media and the public, but neglected to remove it from the transcripts. Remember, for example, the tape of the NY ACORN worker advising the prostitute to hide money in a tin can, presumably to evade taxes? The transcript shows it was so the pimp “can’t get it from you if he wants to come and rip up the place.” And the prostitute told the loan counselor that her pimp had “ all these 13, 14,15 year old girls from El Salvador and that’s what—I need to protect them like I know what its like and I have to protect them and like give them somewhere to live.” 2 2. While their press releases claim they were posing as a “prostitute and a pimp,” the transcripts show that O’Keefe consistently introduced himself as Giles’ boyfriend trying to protect her.3 While we have seen videos of O’Keefe’s ridiculous “pimp” get-up, with Chinchilla cape, hat, and walking cane, these are all outdoor visuals. In the actual videos in the offices, every view of O’Keefe shows him dressed in normal casual business attire. 3. In each of the cases, the ACORN staff advised the prostitute to pay taxes, not to evade them. They correctly advised, as any tax lawyer or properly trained tax preparer would have, that the IRS requires taxes to be paid even on income from illegal activities, but does not require disclosure of the illegal activity itself. 4 For over half a century, this is the way the courts and the IRS have reconciled the right not to incriminate oneself with the obligation to pay tax on illegal activities. Indeed, among the IRS codes from which filers must select, there is none for prostitution, and the closest codes are for entertainment or personal services. http://www.acorn.org/fileadmin/HomePageNews/2009Dec/Video_Transcript_Analysis_withExcperts.pdf

The video tapes widely shown by the corporate media were edited to create the impression of wrongdoing. A tale of the use of propaganda in the corporate media to attack advocates of the destitute. "Brooklyn prosecutors on Monday cleared ACORN of criminal wrongdoing after a four-month probe that began when undercover conservative activists filmed workers giving what appeared to be illegal advice on how to hide money. While the video by James O’Keefe and Hannah Gilesseemed to show three ACORN workers advising a prostitute how to hide ill-gotten gains, the unedited version was not as clear, according to a law enforcement source. “They edited the tape to meet their agenda,” said the source. O’Keefe and Giles – who visited ACORN offices in several cities, including its Brooklyn headquarters – stirred controversy when they posted the videos on their Web site. They were hailed as heroes by the likes of Rush Limbaugh and their footage led several government agencies to temporarily cut funding for ACORN as the prosecutors opened an investigation. “On Sept. 15, 2009, my office began an investigation into possible criminality on the part of three ACORN employees,” Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes said in a one-paragraph statement issued Monday afternoon. “That investigation is now concluded and no criminality has been found.” The Democratic majority must feel so proud of themselves today. Defunding an important piece of political infrastructure because racist right wing hit men doctored some tapes is so very, very smart. http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/03/01/acorn-cleared-cowardly-dems-must-feel-great-for-defunding-them/

McKinney was guilty of pushing back a security guard who grabbed her while she was trying to enter congress without an identifying pin. One more evidence of conservatives like FW being lying POSs. Don't you have any shame?

I only pack a 12 gauge when I work solo in the Alaska bush. I never had to use it but it helps me work better without constantly looking over my shoulder and I suspect I sleep a little better too; however, I never felt the need for a gun because of people.

IMO it's more the fact that the term libertarian has been co-opted by neo-liberals in the USA, so that you have people running around calling themselves libertarians because they are for the legalization of pot, yet they systematically support economic monopolies and the worst human right abuses, such as slavery like working conditions.

a true libertarian, not like the fakers trolling these pages.

ZimZam: if you had used some euphemism such as "water the tree of liberty" that hypocrite KKK wouldn't have thought twice about it.

where is my post? It looks as if it was lost in the cc.com bowels. edit: odd, my previous post eventually showed up when I posted the above sentence.

If you'd scroll down the page a little more, you'll see that the above information is a mistake. Further down it shows that an Administrative Assistant 5 makes $53,148 base comp. An administrative Assistant 2 is in the pay range 35, which ranges from $28,440 to $36,756 base pay. Funny what a little fact checking will get you! It's par for the course for conservatives to either cherry pick information to substantiate an unsupportable point of view or lie about it, which is the reason why I asked our screw-the-people bunch to actually compare apples with apples. Needless to say, I am still waiting for this sorry bunch to actually answer my question.

New Republicans: [video:youtube]sQi7wfaW-1I

GOP's Inhofe initiates witch-hunt to criminalize 17 leading climate scientists "Senator James Inhofe, ranking Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee, has gone a step beyond promoting his long-notorious global warming denialist propaganda. He is now using the resources of the Senate committee to seek opportunities to criminalize the actions of 17 leading scientists who have been associated with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment reports. A report released by Inhofe’s staff on February 23 outlines this classic Joe McCarthyite witch-hunt: page after page of incorrect and misleading statements, a list of federal laws that allegedly may make scientists subject to prosecution by the U.S. Justice Department" http://climateprogress.org/2010/02/25/sen-inhofe-inquisition-seeking-ways-to-criminalize-and-prosecute-17-leading-climate-scientists/ When is enough harassment of climate scientists, enough? Stop the goons before it's too late!