Nice to meet you, Jason! Thanks for reading us. :-) Here's a link to part three of Rich Lord's "Network" investigation for Carolyn. Thanks to Ginny for her shout-out to 2pj (good to finally meet you).
Unfortunately, my camera is slowly dying and it took forever to "warm up" so no photos of City Paper talk show host Lynn Cullen or KDKA's Jon Delano. But, you can see Lynn interviewed in the link above.
As Lynn said on her show yesterday, she wanted to find some ray of light and so hoped that the BP Oil mega clusterfuck (my phrase, not hers) could be a "teachable moment." She spoke about the co-dependent relationship that we have with oil and how we've made a deal with the devil. She also mentioned an article in this week's City Paper about the dangers of drilling in the Marcellus Shale fields (of which we were all standing above).
It was raining cats and dogs leading up to the rally and for the first ten or fifteen minutes, so kudos to all those who braved the weather.
Lukey claims he's taking this campaign seriously, but I notice that his campaign web site appears not to have been updated since May. Acklin and Ravenstahl both seem to be far more up the butts of the police while Harris raises concerns about their actions during the G-20. Acklin mentions that he was for the expansion of an "anti-discrimination bill" up before County Council and how that cost him among Republicans but he somehow leaves out that the expansion was all about teh gays. Is he having it both ways with the teevee audience who will likely not look this up or is this a genuine oversight? On explaining why he's running as an independent rather than as a Republican (which he's run as before), Ackin says "I woke up one day and found myself on the other side" but fails to mention that that day was right before he started his mayoral campaign... (Lukey is the only one on the Republican ticket.) The debate got a bit testy when questions arose about Harris' qualifications for mayor. He is qualified because he has lived in the city for the required number of years but was still registered to vote in Sewickley until earlier this year. Drinking Game: Take a shot every time Acklin says "door knocking." Check out the look on Lil Mayor Luke's face when Acklin mentions that he's met with current members of Lukey's administration. Harris is amused. Rice mentions Pat Ford. Lukey says that he's "growing increasingly comfortable with staff we have." Well, I hope so, it's been three years, no? Harris mentions that he's spoken with Judy O'Connor. (I wish the camera had been on Luke for that.) The candidates are allowed to ask each other questions and Acklin asks Lukey, "Who are John Verbanac and Ed Grattan and what role do they play in your administration?" Lukey answers with "John Verbanac and Ed Grattan are friends of mine and they have no formal role in my administration." (Verbanac Wikipedia page here. More on both of them in the comments section at the The Pittsburgh Comet here and here.) Harris makes a play for women, minorities and labor. After watching the debate, I still like Harris best and will be voting for him.
The big issue is whether the Employee Free Choice Act takes away the workers' secret ballot in unionizing.Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity is quoted as saying:
It takes the right of the secret ballot away from American workers when they're deciding whether or not to join a union. It's almost unamerican in many ways.Jack Shea, president of the Allegheny County Labor Council says otherwise:
It's a lie. They're lying.Unfortunately, Delano doesn't delve into which one is telling the truth (though in fairness, he does state early in the piece that the bill "would make it easier to unionize companies").
Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, whenever a petition shall have been filed by an employee or group of employees or any individual or labor organization acting in their behalf alleging that a majority of employees in a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining wish to be represented by an individual or labor organization for such purposes, the Board shall investigate the petition. If the Board finds that a majority of the employees in a unit appropriate for bargaining has signed valid authorizations designating the individual or labor organization specified in the petition as their bargaining representative and that no other individual or labor organization is currently certified or recognized as the exclusive representative of any of the employees in the unit, the Board shall not direct an election but shall certify the individual or labor organization as the representative described in subsection (a).Here's the National Labor Relations Act. You can hunt down 29 U.S.C. 159(c) on your own, if you like.
Here's how it works currently: Say you work at a factory and you want to form a union. First, you approach your favorite union and request a bunch of blank cards. (Here's what they look like.) Then you go around to your colleagues and ask them whether they want to sign up. If they do, they sign their name to the cards. Once you get 30 percent of the total work force to sign cards, you're eligible to hold an election on whether to form a union. (Workers usually wait till they get at least 50 percent or 60 percent, just to make sure they will win the election.) You then present the cards to the National Labor Relations Board and the employer. The employer can then either recognize the union right away or request a secret-ballot election, which must happen within 60 days. If more than 50 percent of employees vote for a union, they've got a union. If not, they don't.And what would things look like if the EFCA passes? Beam:
It's simple: the choice of a "secret ballot" would be up to the employees not the employers. Something you don't hear too much from the media, huh?The essential change of the EFCA would be to allow the employees—rather than the employer—to decide whether to hold a secret-ballot election. If at least half of the work force signed cards saying it wanted a union, there would be a union—without the rigmarole of a full-blown election.
Workers still have the option of holding a secret ballot election, of course. But, again, as a practical matter, it's hard to imagine why a group of workers, having just won a union, would then also decide to hold an election. Sure, a smaller group of workers—it'd have to be at least 30 percent—could still petition for a secret ballot. But the legislation clearly states that "[i]f the Board finds that a majority of the employees in a unit appropriate for bargaining has signed valid authorizations … the Board shall not direct an election but shall certify the individual or labor organization as the representative." [emphasis in original]
Tomorrow night (Tuesday), we will do a live-stream webcast on http://www.kdka.com/ with several political bloggers in Pittsburgh, beginning at 7 pm. My hope is to analyze the first night of the convention (Monday) and discuss what ought to happen on the second night (Tuesday) when Hillary Clinton addresses the convention. I hope you will join us both to hear what we have to say and, more importantly, to ask your questions or make comments that I will read to our guests from the blogosphere.Guest bloggers tonight include The Pittsburgh Comet's Bram Reichbaum, Gab Bonesso, and 2pj's own David DeAngelo.
Mayo has an e-mail from Paul Lindsay of the McCain camp in PA:McCain became a POW in 1967. The legendary Steelers defensive line that McCain appears to be referring to -- The Steel Curtain -- wasn't in place until 1971. Mean Joe Greene --the first of the front four to arrive -- didn't join the Steelers until 1969, two years after the time McCain refers to as when he was first interrogated.
In 1967, John McCain was 31 years old and the Steelers were anything but super. They'd had only eight seasons since McCain was born in which team wins outnumbered losses. In the two years before McCain was shot down, the Steelers were 2-and-12 and 5-8-and-1. Discouraged fans back then called them SOS -- the "Same Old Steelers".
I can't imagine it was a mistake. If you watch Delano's interview, it's all very carefully planned out. The pander enters the discussion immediately after Delano asks McCain what's the first thing he thinks of when he thinks of Pittsburgh.Hey Bob,
On background as a McCain official - It was an honest mistake. If bloggers want to make fun of him because he forgot which team he used under torture, let them.
Hope that is helpful to you,
Paul
McCain, the Republican candidate for president, says he naturally thinks of the football team whenever he thinks of Pittsburgh.Only one problem with that: in the past (and in his book and in a made-for-TV movie), McCain's always claimed that it was the Green Bay Packers lineup -- not the Steelers -- that he named to his captors.
"The Steelers really made a huge impression on me -- particularly in their early years."
In fact, McCain explains how the team helped him during his time in a POW camp.
"When I was first interrogated and really had to give some information because of the physical pressures that were on me, I named the starting lineup -- defensive line -- of the Pittsburgh Steelers as my squadron-mates!"
he drew this symbol:
(A Philadelphia-themed ad had an image of a cheesesteak sandwich sketched in the dirt.)
