Speaking For Everybody

...and the beat rolls on. I hit Digg.com usually once a day, and you should too. It just gives you a shitload of links to all sorts of neat and educational recent news about politics, science, tech stuff, general stuff, whatever you like, you'll probably find something for you. There are also some web-comics that turn up fairly frequently, and a lot of them are quite good (especially the Oatmeal). Anyway, lots of good stuff, and when I'm looking for a blog topic, I'll usually find whatever pisses me off the most on Digg that day and comment on it. On this day, wow, there was no shortage of options, I actually had to make some choices!

First, I'm not done going after Rick Perry, but I'm obviously not the only one, because there were no fewer than six links to various things concerning the Governor of Texas on Digg today, ranging from reports about new ridiculous things he has said (just in the last 24 hours!) to other blogs. Apparently, he told a kid at a town-hall kind of event in New Hampshire that they teach creationism in Texas (they don't, and shouldn't). No telling if this is some misguided ploy, if he was talking without thinking, or if he just really doesn't know what they teach in the schools in his state. My favorite, though, hearkens back to the dark days when Perry said that climate change is a hoax...oh wait, that was yesterday. Anyway, one of today's Perry articles reminded me that even George W(hat-the-Fuck) Bush acknowledged the reality of global warming and the role of humanity in it, and what's more, he came out in favor of a cap-and-trade system to reduce emissions! I mean, if Bush was smart enough for that, then what's that saying about Perry?

Okay, I'm done with my whipping-boy for today, but I've got more, and this concerns many of the people I hope are reading this, at least indirectly, because it's about Ohio Senate Bill 5, the one that Governor John Kasich signed into law that killed collective bargaining rights. Okay, I'll admit that this one got by me at first, because I don't usually pay much attention to local news, but I have made a point of educating myself on it as quickly as possible. Here's the short version of the story: Kasich shoved the bill through despite massive daily protests, and now here he is today, begging to meet with union representatives to negotiate a new "compromise," and the union reps are rightly refusing. What happened in between? Oh, the pro-union organizations in the state collected something in the neighborhood of 1.3 million signatures (only 231,000 were needed) to put the issue before the voters this November, where it will surely be repealed. So, after refusing to negotiate with the labor leaders while the bill was being passed in the first place--he went to the extent of locking the doors to the state house--now Kasich comes crawling back to try to save some part of the law before it gets wiped out completely. Oh, I love social justice, but particularly in this case, because it's something that I feel strongly about, and this is the part of my blog where I get on my soapbox.

The ability to bargain collectively is an essential right for American workers. If we could trust the owners of companies, large or small, to treat their workers well without being forced to, then maybe we wouldn't need unions. However, we know that most companies do not care a lick about the well-being of their employees except insofar as they need them to be healthy enough to do their work. We know because lots of corporations operate sweatshops outside of the United States (don't think for a second that isn't still going on) and pay the workers there barely anything at all. They'd do the same here if they could, and they damn well did until the workers started to unite and revolt against the shoddy treatment, horrible working conditions, and so little pay that they weren't much more than indentured servants. This didn't even start until the late 19th century, and has been an ongoing battle ever since, with companies trying to pay their workers as little as possible and exploit them as much as possible, and many unions being forced to strike just to ensure that the workers are treated like actual people rather than slaves. Not happy with how little you make at your job? It would be even less without unions forcing state and federal labor laws. People working 9 to 5 Monday thru Friday, do you like your weekends? Thank unions for that. In this country, nobody should really be anti-union, except for the people who dole out the paychecks, and they are in the vast minority. Yet, we still have anti-union laws being forced through across the country. Well, that's our politicians bowing to their corporate masters, but we're going to see democracy actually work on this one, because most people are smart enough (barely) to realize that unions are good for just about everyone. I defy anybody to explain to me why the right to bargain collectively is not good for the working class which, last time I checked, is pretty much everybody. Why would anybody vote against anything pro-union? Do some people like being exploited by their employers? Do John Kasich and Scott Walker and people like them really think that people will stand for their bullshit anti-union laws that benefit nobody but the rich? People are getting fed up with it, and I love it. This one last thing, borrowed from politicususa.com, because I couldn't have said it any better myself: what about this Kasich guy? Has he forgotten that his father was a United States postal worker? Has he forgotten that he was educated in Ohio's public schools? U.S. postal workers and public school teachers are union workers. Governor Kasich wouldn't be where he is today without those unions. But fuck that, he got his, so it's okay for him to shit all over those people now? Boy, that really makes me want to just shove a mongoose down his throat and let a snake crawl up his ass and let 'em fight it out somewhere in between. What a colossal sack of dicks.