j_b

it means nothing for Kool-Aid drinkers and corporate shills like you who threatened bloodshed a few days ago if Obama did what he was elected to do, but it doesn't change that the Reagan administration had the most convicted officials ever; you know, crooks hanging from the government teat while teaching others about personal responsibility, doesn't it sound familiar by now. You didn't seem so concerned about due process when you vehemently supported your man Bush blatantly lying us into war, spying on Americans and clamping on liberties.

Korea's spectacular economic success is also due to protectionism, so was Japan's, Taiwan's, etc .., like 99% of economic expansions throughout time (including our own). Argentina's economy cratered thanks to the neoliberal economics that you advocate. If you want to see what happens in the race to the bottom check out the textile industry, where manufacturers are now finding even cheaper labor in Africa and other destitute places. what are you talking about?

no, it wouldn't. I am not limiting my criticism to foreign unfair trade. I am also against poor remuneration of employees in the US. I believe that minimum wages, working time, time off, etc .. should be regulated, the same way that I am for cracking down on US employers who use illegal labor. We certainly would be much better off if we traded a lot more locally.

"By the end of his term, 138 Reagan administration officials had been convicted, had been indicted, or had been the subject of official investigations for official misconduct and/or criminal violations. In terms of number of officials involved, the record of his administration was the worst ever." by comparison Nixon only had 8 staffers convicted. the top 21 Reagan admin offcials convicted: 1. Lyn Nofziger--White House Press Secretary - Convicted on charges of illegal lobbying of White House in Wedtech scandal. The lobbying would not have been illegal had he not been White House Press Secretary. 2. Michael Deaver, Reagan's Chief of Staff, received three years' probation and was fined one hundred thousand dollars after being convicted for lying to a congressional subcommittee and a federal grand jury about his lobbying activities after leaving the White House. Same as with Lyn Nofziger. 3. James Watt, Reagan's Secretary of the Interior was indicted on 41 felony counts for using connections at the Department of Housing and Urban Development to help his private clients seek federal funds for housing projects in Maryland, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Watt conceded that he had received $500,000 from clients who were granted very favorable housing contracts after he had intervened on their behalf. Watt was eventually sentenced to five years in prison and 500 hours of community service. 4. John Poindexter, Reagan's national security advisor, guilty of five criminal counts involving conspiracy to mislead Congress, obstructing congressional inquiries, lying to lawmakers, used "high national security" to mask deceit and wrong-doing... 5. Richard Secord pleaded guilty to a felony charge of lying to Congress over Iran-Contra. Appointed by William Casey to assist Oliver North. 6. Elliott Abrams was appointed by President Reagan in 1985 to head the State Department's Latin American Bureau. He was closely linked with ex-White House aide Lt. Col. Oliver North's covert movement to aid the Contras. Working for North, Abrams coordinated inter-agency support for the contras and helped solicit illegal funding from foreign powers as well as domestic contributors. Abrams agreed to cooperate with Iran-Contra investigators and pled guilty to two charges reduced to misdemeanors. He was sentenced in 1991 to two years probation and 100 hours of community service but was pardoned by President George Bush... 7. Robert C. McFarlane, Reagan's National Security Advisor, pled guilty to four misdemeanors and was sentenced to two years probation and 200 hours of community service. He was also fined $20,000. He received a blanket pardon from President George Bush... 8. Alan D. Fiers was the Chief of the Central Intelligence Agency's Central American Task Force. Fiers pled guilty in 1991 to two counts of withholding information from congress about Oliver North's activities and the diversion of Iran arms sale money to aid the Contras. He was sentenced to one year of probation and 100 hours of community service. Alan Fiers received a blanket pardon for his crimes from President Bush... 9. Thomas G. Clines: convicted of four counts of tax-related offenses for failing to report income from the operations; 10. Carl R. Channel - Office of Public Diplomacy , partner in International Business- first person convicted in the Iran/Contra scandal, pleaded guilty of one count of defrauding the United States 11. Richard R. Miller - Partner with Oliver North in IBC, a Office of Public Diplomacy front group, convicted of conspiracy to defraud the United States. 12. Frank Gomez 13.. Donald Fortier 14. Clair George was Chief of the CIA's Division of Covert Operations under President Reagan. George was convicted of lying to two congressional committees in 1986. George faced a maximum five year federal prison sentence and a $20,000 fine for each of the two convictions. Jurors cleared George of five other charges including two counts of lying to a federal grand jury. Clair George received a blanket pardon for his crimes from President George Bush... 15. Rita Lavelle was indicted, tried and convicted of lying to Congress and served three months of a six-month prison sentence. 16. Philip Winn - Assistant HUD Secretary. Pleaded guilty to one count of scheming to give illegal gratuities. 17. Thomas Demery - Assistand HUD Secretary - pleaded guilty to steering HUD subsidies to politically connected donors. 18. Deborah Gore Dean - executive assistant to Samuel Pierce - indicted on thirteen counts, three counts of conspiracy, one count of accepting an illegal gratuity, four counts of perjury, and five counts of concealing articles. She was convicted on twelve accounts. She appealed and prevailed on several accounts but the convictions for conspiracy remained. 19. Catalina Villaponda - Former US Treasurer 20. Joseph A. Strauss - Accepting kickbacks from developers 21. Oliver North - He was indicted on sixteen felony counts and on May 4, 1989, he was convicted of three: accepting an illegal gratuity, aiding and abetting in the obstruction of a congressional inquiry, and destruction of documents (by his secretary, Fawn Hall, on his instructions). He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gerhard A. Gesell on July 5, 1989, to a three-year suspended prison term, two years probation, $150,000 in fines, and 1,200 hours community service. His conviction was later overturned.

When Marian Hood, of Gonzales, retired, she assumed she would receive all the benefits she had earned during 35 years of private employment and 10 years with the state. While Hood receives a modest state pension, the 71-year-old retiree gets only about one-third of her anticipated Social Security benefits because of federal rules that limit retirement income. On top of that, the rising cost of living has used up all her extra savings, said Hood, who lives on about $10,000 a year. “Just enough to make ends meet, I’m finding ways,” she said. If relying solely on pension benefits, up to 30 percent of the retirees from the two largest state employee retirement systems would be living under the federal poverty line. The 2008 U.S. federal poverty levels are $10,400 a year for a single person household and $14,000 a year for a two-person household. Officials with the Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana, called TRSL, and Louisiana State Employees’ Retirement System, called LASERS, said they do not know how many retirees survive on pensions alone. “Those benefits are very modest,” TRSL spokeswoman Lisa Honore said. “Everybody would like to see retiree benefits that help them meet their living expenses.” Louisiana is one of seven states where state employees do not typically participate in Social Security. If employees receive Social Security benefits from other jobs or spousal employment, the benefits could be reduced because of federal restrictions. http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/34724229.html

yep, Fairweather still doesn't know how the median public employee compensation scheme compares with the equivalent in the private sector despite his repeated gratuitous claim that public employees get too much. I guess that regurgitating GOP talking points is what he knows how to do.

both the real and the casino economies crashed thanks to the policies conservatives pushed, revenues have consequently declined below projections and now conservatives claim public employees compensation schemes are the cause of the problem. You guys just don't stop with the non-sense.

The existence of a total budget crisis doesn't mean the pension scheme is bad.

still no answer from Mr Lamo who claimed that Washington public employee got way too much and yet appears to not know what the median public employee gets. Per usual, it's only Fairweather making an ass of himself spouting regressive talking points.

Thank you for demonstrating my point: you have no idea of the median pension and benefit of a Washington State employee and how it compares to an equivalent employee in the private sector. You are regurgitating what the GOP told you but you have no idea what you are talking about.

BS. You don't even know what's the median pension and benefit of a Washington State public employee. Regurgitating GOP propaganda to bust unions won't cut it bozo.

Hey Fairweather, why don't you pull yourself up by your own bootstrap and get a better benefit package from your boss instead of putting down those who organized and got a better benefit package. Have you heard of personal responsibility?

Aren't you people confused? Don't conservatives usually demonize people who complain to have less than others? I am sure everybody remember at least one instance of Fairweather calling someone a bitter jealous loser (or something to that effect) for mentioning so and so had more than they did. What gives?

The Non-Existent Public Pension Funding Crisis according to the Government Accounting Office "[M]ost state and local government pension plans have enough invested resources set aside to pay for the benefits they are scheduled to pay over the next several decades.[...] Pension benefits are generally not at risk in the near term because current assets and new contributions may be sufficient to pay benefits for several years." http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d08223.pdf

you still have a few things to learn if you think that today performance is more important to get and keep a job than how you present yourself and who are your friends.

I love it that conservatives who traditionally defend obscene wages for the very few, often the product of nepotism and cronyism now claim to want everyone to be treated the same and according to performance nonetheless. Laughable.

YEAH, why don't you want a performance-based system like the banksters and CEO's have? what about it?

YEAH,why don't you play your retirement at the Wall Street casino?

sounds burly, especially for the polish style part. You may know the answer to the question I asked earlier today: how did Fred name Town Crier?

who votes for the minority Whip? good question, but it seems more than just him since: Minority Whip Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., said that Republicans will block consideration of the new bill unless they get “a path forward fairly soon” on the estate tax. (emphasis added) I assume that any Republican congress critter who doesn't publish an explicit disapproval is complicit.

did you forget that "cutting fat" only affected the expense part of the budget, while it left the revenue part unchanged. As we all know there are many ways to increase revenue like getting rid of tax breaks and closing loopholes, clamping down on tax heavens, increasing taxes on the uber-wealthy who are unaffected by the crisis, etc ...

what's the don and natala traverse? googling "enchainment traverse" didn't give a single hit.

doesn't 'enchainment' include what Bob is talking about?

and here we are, 30 years after Reagan the regressive reversed the course set by Carter toward renewable energy and energy independence, contemplating the demise of guzzlers and still fighting dead-enders about the consequences of shitting in our own bed.

some claim the Olympics are proxies for wars that decrease the chances of real wars from happening. I personally never understood how exacerbating nationalism ever decreased the chance of war.