Congressional GOP Are Scum!

[Ramo]

Nickel and dimed. They make just enough to think they're getting somewhere, but in reality, they're not. Their expenses will be just enough to prevent them from saving just enough to start "making it".

If they can't save enough money to "make it" with a minimum wage, I don't see how having them make less than a minimum wage is going to fix the problem.

[Az]

hey, Ogie, I never knew you supported a workers' revolution.

[Q Classic]

Which goes to the point are we attempting to rectify a problem or merely address symptoms. And at what point do we become hooked on the bandaids and painkillers.

Well, it seems like a whole lot of them are. Oxycodone's supposed to be pretty nice.

[Q Classic]

If they can't save enough money to "make it" with a minimum wage, I don't see how having them make less than a minimum wage is going to fix the problem.

...

It's not supposed to.

[Agathon]

Oh yeah... I vaguely remember that book now. I remember it was better than A Seperate Peace.

I see that it it failed to raise compassion for one's fellows' lot in this particular case..

[Shi Huangdi]

Many entrepenuers *especially of small businesses* do not have degrees.

That doesn't really change my point. You can't have a society made up entirely of entreprenurs, the entrepreneurs are going to need people to work for them.

I'd rather be unemployed in France than working minimum wage in America.

I don't think you'd really like living in a society with as high an unemployment rate as France. I'll be graduating from college soon enough, and I know it will be ultra-competitive and extremely difficult getting a job as it it. I can't imagine how hard it must be and how stressful it is finding a job in a country with really high unemployment.

that doesn't mean we can't strive to make it as fair as possible

Right. We are always going to have some people in the underclass, regardless of how hard people in our society work or how educatec our society gets. Out of a desire to help people, it is good to do things to improve the condition of the people in those classes.

This is great.

It means that the day the poor finally start burning Republicans is that much closer.

I hope that thoughtful lefties like Che are taking names, so that the poor know who to burn when the time comes.

I Agathon will take a holiday in the US just to help burn Republicans.

Imagine the sight of the Washington Monument and reflecting pool at night, bathed in the light of burning Republicans. Ahhh....

We are the ones who have the guns. You can come over and try, you'll find that guns have a considerably longer range then torches.

[Agathon]

We are the ones who have the guns.

Sorry, I'd side with Tom Joad over some pasty faced stockbroker any day.

[Ramo]

It's not supposed to.

The point is that a minimum wage is in no way a company store type system.

[Agathon]

Garn!

If there's poverty in the USA, at least it'll be righteous and God-fearin' poverty while GWB is president.

This is terrible and the bankruptcy thing is worse. Lenders are supposed to be careful about who they lend to, not look for the government to bail them out.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Originally posted by Azazel
hey, Ogie, I never knew you supported a workers' revolution.

I don't. I abhor revolution as it creates more chaos and bad effects than good it ultimately creates by and large.

OTOH given the share cropper analogy, who stands to gain the most politically speaking to continue its poliferation?

Answer - Not the repugs.

Real Answer - neither party gives a damn it simply plays to the Dems.

[Shi Huangdi]

Don't underestimate those traders, Aggie

Kyoto protest beaten back by inflamed petrol traders

By Laura Peek and Liz Chong




WHEN 35 Greenpeace protesters stormed the International Petroleum Exchange (IPE) yesterday they had planned the operation in great detail.
What they were not prepared for was the post-prandial aggression of oil traders who kicked and punched them back on to the pavement.



“We bit off more than we could chew. They were just Cockney barrow boy spivs. Total thugs,” one protester said, rubbing his bruised skull. “I’ve never seen anyone less amenable to listening to our point of view.”

Another said: “I took on a Texan Swat team at Esso last year and they were angels compared with this lot.” Behind him, on the balcony of the pub opposite the IPE, a bleary-eyed trader, pint in hand, yelled: “Sod off, Swampy.”

Greenpeace had hoped to paralyse oil trading at the exchange in the City near Tower Bridge on the day that the Kyoto Protocol came into force. “The Kyoto Protocol has modest aims to improve the climate and we need huge aims,” a spokesman said.

Protesters conceded that mounting the operation after lunch may not have been the best plan. “The violence was instant,” Jon Beresford, 39, an electrical engineer from Nottingham, said.

“They grabbed us and started kicking and punching. Then when we were on the floor they tried to push huge filing cabinets on top of us to crush us.” When a trader left the building shortly before 2pm, using a security swipe card, a protester dropped some coins on the floor and, as he bent down to pick them up, put his boot in the door to keep it open.

Two minutes later, three Greenpeace vans pulled up and another 30 protesters leapt out and were let in by the others.

They made their way to the trading floor, blowing whistles and sounding fog horns, encountering little resistance from security guards. Rape alarms were tied to helium balloons to float to the ceiling and create noise out of reach. The IPE conducts “open outcry” trading where deals are shouted across the pit. By making so much noise, the protesters hoped to paralyse trading.

But they were set upon by traders, most of whom were under the age of 25. “They were kicking and punching men and women indiscriminately,” a photographer said. “It was really ugly, but Greenpeace did not fight back.”

Mr Beresford said: “They followed the guys into the lobby and kept kicking and punching them there. They literally kicked them on to the pavement.”

Last night Greenpeace said two protesters were in hospital, one with a suspected broken jaw, the other with concussion.

A spokeswoman from IPE said the trading floor reopened at 3.10pm. “The floor was invaded by a small group of protesters,” she said. “Open outcry trading was suspended but electronic trading carried on.”

Eighteen police vans and six police cars surrounded the exchange and at least 27 protesters were arrested. A small band blocked the entrance to the building for the rest of the evening.

Richard Ward, IPE’s chief executive, said that the exchange would review security but denied that protesters had reached the trading floor. However, traders, protesters and press photographers confirmed to The Times that the trading floor had been breached.

Mr Ward would not discuss whether he would press charges, and said he would not know until this morning if there had been any financial loss.

Greenpeace later started a second protest at the annual dinner of the Institute of Petroleum at the Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane, in Central London. Greenpeace claimed that five campaigners had got into the Great Hall. About 30 protesters were outside the hotel, some blocking the front entrance by sitting down and locking themselves together, while others sounded klaxons and alarms. Climbers scaled scaffolding to unfurl a banner reading, “Climate change kills, oil industry parties”.

[Az]

I don't. I abhor revolution as it creates more chaos and bad effects than good it ultimately creates by and large.

OTOH given the share cropper analogy, who stands to gain the most politically speaking to continue its poliferation?

Answer - Not the repugs.

Real Answer - neither party gives a damn it simply plays to the Dems.

In any case, it seems that you have a different system in mind instead of the current one. I would love to hear your ideas.

[Ramo]

OTOH given the share cropper analogy, who stands to gain the most politically speaking to continue its poliferation?

Answer - Not the repugs.

Real Answer - neither party gives a damn it simply plays to the Dems.

It plays to everyone. What kind of politicians do you think corporations tend to bankroll?

Answer - The ones that **** over the poor.

[Berzerker]

They defeated two minimum wage amendments, on the idea that it's better to make a little bit of money and not be able to support yourself than to make no money and not be able to support yourself.

The left endorses making no money and not supporting yourself? Yeah, tell the people who lose jobs or cant get them because their labor isn't worth $7/hour how much you care for them...

Btw, whats the unemplyment rate in France now?

[Shi Huangdi]

The left endorses making no money and not supporting yourself? Yeah, tell the people who lose jobs or cant get them because their labor isn't worth $7/hour how much you care for them...

Again, so far most of the empirical evidence I have seen has shown only a small effect on employment.