tvashtarkatena

Constitutionally, a state is free to cut services for the most part. It's not free to not balance its budget, however. Which am I - regressive or enabler? I loves me some black and white labels. So...useful in problem solving, no?

I've informed my employer that cutting expenses CANNOT POSSIBLY balance a budget. Awaiting a response....

Maybe you could hook up with Pat and your jurisprudence expertise could run it through the courts in time for the budget talks. In the meantime it's the law. Was I just bestowed an honorary law degree? Kewwwwwllllll.

In reality, Budeep Budeep's is too busy thinking about his next grope. Anton's too busy quietly masturbating under his robe in disgust at all the licentiousness in the world.

I'm actually curious to read the logical gymnastics they used to reach this outcome Vintage Natural Law thinking: The Constitution only regulates Gubmint - Business is like God, it can do whatev.

It ain't over til its over, which is never.

"VICTORY! Court Says Plaintiffs Can Challenge Bush Wiretapping Law In a huge victory for privacy and the rule of law, a federal appeals court today reinstated our landmark lawsuit challenging the FISA Amendments Act (FAA), a statute that gives the executive branch virtually unchecked power to collect Americans' international e-mails and telephone calls. The ACLU filed the lawsuit on behalf of a broad coalition of attorneys and human rights, labor, legal and media organizations whose work requires them to engage in sensitive and sometimes privileged telephone and e-mail communications with colleagues, clients, journalistic sources, witnesses, experts, foreign government officials and victims of human rights abuses located outside the United States. A federal district court dismissed the case in August 2009, ruling that the plaintiffs did not have the right to challenge the new surveillance law because they could not prove that their own communications had been monitored under it. But with the support of law professors, the NYC Bar Association, the Reporters' Committee for Freedom of the Press and many others, we appealed that decision to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. "Today, the appeals court reversed the lower court decision, finding that the plaintiffs have standing to challenge the law even though they cannot show to a certainty that the government is acquiring their communications. According to today's ruling, "the FAA has put the plaintiffs in a lose-lose situation: either they can continue to communicate sensitive information electronically and bear a substantial risk of being monitored under a statute they allege to be unconstitutional, or they can incur financial and professional costs to avoid being monitored. Either way, the FAA directly affects them."

Let me know what you decide.

Be scared when everyone else is greedy and be greedy when everyone else is scared. Both JayB and Billcoe's advice are instructive as to exactly what not to do right now.

We're shootin it up agin

Considering America's ripening demographics, these two should be a a shoe in for the Hot Chick on Geriatric Leg Humper porn market after their failed bid to penetrate the oval orifice.

Public pensions are the item under question, not salaries. And the argument has been that they are unsustainable. Funny how this is not an issue in the private sector. I wonder how that could be... hmmm. Because the company declares bankruptcy and dumps the pension on the PBGC fucking over everyone? Ask an airline employee sometime. Sweet jesus you fuckers are retarded. Or the auto companies, or the... Yeah, private industry? NO PROBLEMS! LOL Fucking idiot.

fiscal responsibility (please leave regressive framing in the closet) demands revenues. Solely cutting spending isn't responsible Or 'conservative' as you call it. I think both Jim and I agree that we should tax the rich as part of the package, if that's politically possible, of course. You haven't been listening, apparently. Effective problem solving is 90% listening and 10% action.

Well designed private compensation program sets discretionary dispursements like bonuses and retirement contribution levels as a % of profits. This way, nobody goes out of business, and everyone shares the pain and the glory. It's sustainable. Companies can choose to rob one dispursement, bonuses or dividends, for example, to prop up retirement contributions as the situation calls for.

Pluto was considered a planet for 76 years, and Ceres for 50. Why u no call Ceres a planet, hater? By paranthesizing the issue I stepped one dimension above it.

Can you two retarded midgets throw the rest of us a bone and not shit all over every single thread? Thanks in advance.

Come on. Jim's suggesting some very reasonable (and likely unavoidable) solutions. Everything isn't an 'us' versus 'them' thing. FACT: most states MUST balance their budgets by law. Constitution and all that. FACT: They can't right now OPINION: Bringing retirement contributions in line with private sector norms is one of the least painful ways to do this. Recognizing a real problem and trying to solve it in a real and fair way is what 'our side' is supposed to do. Science based reality and all that. You seem to object to any proposed solution save 'grow the economy'...which is precisely the kind of 'wish your way out' proposal the 'other side' typically pursues. I think tweaks like this, in the long run, will aid public service workers and sustain vulnerable programs. There is nothing wrong with being fiscally conservative while pushing a progressive agenda. It just makes sense in the long run. Sustainability requires fiscal conservatism, by definition.

Come on. Jim's suggesting some very reasonable (and likely unavoidable) solutions. Everything isn't an 'us' versus 'them' thing. FACT: most states MUST balance their budgets by law. Constitution and all that. FACT: They can't right now OPINION: Bringing retirement contributions in line with private sector norms is one of the least painful ways to do this. Recognizing a real problem and trying to solve it in a real and fair way is what 'our side' is supposed to do. Science based reality and all that. You seem to object to any proposed solution save 'grow the economy'...which is precisely the kind of 'wish your way out' proposal the 'other side' typically pursues.

Just in time to herald in the spring rains on Titan.

NASA put a spacecraft in orbit around Mercury today after a 6 1/2 year journey. For this trip, slowing the spacecraft down enough for this maneuver took a number of gravity 'desist' maneuvers involving Earth, Venus, and Mercury itself. One onboard camera is cooled by a paraffin 'bath' that freezes on the dark side and absorbs reflected heat from the sun while photographing the sunny side. linky The New Horizons spacecraft will fly by Pluto in 2015 - the last of the unvisited original nine 'planets'. In many ways, this is a great time to be alive.

There are no reasonable answers to fallacious questions. Cutting your hand off will stop your finger from bleeding, but you won't have stopped the bleeding. As matter of fact, you'll have made matters worse: permanently decreasing public employee compensation will further degrade public services and reinforce the race to the bottom. If pensions, work-rules, seniority based pay, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc then California world beater in every category of public sector performance. It isn't. Virginia outscores California, Illinois, NJ, NY, Wisconsin, etc in every category. http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/gpp_report_card.aspx There *are* states with collective bargaining rules that score well, The data certainly don't support the claim that collective bargaining is necessary for the efficient delivery of high quality public services, effective public administration, etc. And yet, without collective bargaining, Virginia's schools still suck. Surely this would suggest there isn't a link at best? Hell, having lived in that state I'm surprised anyone would trot it out as a model for anything - except never ending suburban sprawl, regional incompetence and general shittiness. But Jay's packing up the Buick and moving out to Virginny! Oh dear, those dirty little facts getting in the way of Jay's ideology JayB would prefer if the U.S. followed the Texas model of governance. He's apparently not willing to live in such a shithole himself, however, preferring instead the bask in the benefits of a more enlightened, liberal state. What not-so-closeted hipster wouldn't? Ah, the Angry Hairless Monkey and its many contradictions.

How does one gauge the 'motivation' of a bus driver or DOT clerk? As long as the bus gets driven and I get my driver's license, I'm good. Many public sector jobs (not all, but many) are repetitive by nature. Obviously, they 'attract' folks who are good with that. Repetitive private sector jobs, which would be most of them, attract pretty much the same. But then, there are police, fire, etc - who seem to be as 'motivated' as anyone in the private sector, which is no stalwart bastion of 'motivation' by any remote stretch of the imagination. And then again, there are the legions of private sector workers whose motivation cannot be distinguished from that of a slug on a cold morning. Of the many public and private workers I know personally, I see absolutely no difference in level of 'motivation' - what they put into their work. The teachers, police, fire fighters, public defenders, politicians, military, and other public workers I know seem to occupy the upper echelons of 'motivated'. I have to wonder if Jim is comparing a lower level, repetitive public job to a higher level, interesting private one in his 'motivation' comparison.

Stand by for another round of surreal YouTubin'.

On the list of competing influences, regional Sunnis seem to play a more important role, family ties and all, than we do. We only eat at the restaurant. They own it. Sunnis would not...ever...ask our permission to help their kin next door during what they perceived as a regional deal breaker.

I'm not sure a GOP presidency would be doing that much different, given the severe constraints that US is under. There would likely be more bellowing, as is the habit of the blowhard, the half wit, and the socially malformed, all aflame with one righteous grievance or another against the sins of sloth, sluttery, and suckling the apple from the fisting baby. The GOP verbal response would, of course, exhibit a certain well marbled bullying that would make the likes of Ike stab himself in the eye with his own campaign pin. The kind of punctuated, on camera jacking off that instantly identifies the loudest, fattest guy in the room. Of action, however, that song has long lost its royalties.