Thursday Open Thread
Welcome to your Thursday open thread. It’s Thursday and I’m ready to pack up and get on Noah’s Ark. Seriously. I guess we should be happy the rain means April flowers!
Illinois has released many wrongly convicted people thanks to the work of students at Northwestern University. A previous governor actually imposed a moratorium because so many people had been released. Now it’s official:
The governor of Illinois signed a law on Wednesday ending capital punishment, saying it was impossible to fix a system that wrongly condemned 20 men who were later found to be innocent.
When the law signed by Democratic Governor Pat Quinn takes effect on July 1, Illinois will become the fourth state in the past two years to dispense with the death penalty after New York, New Jersey and New Mexico.
“To have a consistent, perfect death penalty system … that’s impossible in our state,” Quinn told reporters. “I think it’s the right and just thing to abolish the death penalty and punish those who commit heinous crimes — evil people — with life in prison without parole and no chance of release.”
The ultimate punishment will remain an option in 34 states and for federal inmates. No other Western democracies carries out executions.
“It is naive to think that we haven’t executed an innocent person. We stop looking after they’re executed.” said Ron Safer, an attorney who has defended death penalty cases.
Good for Illinois. It’s the 13th state to outlaw the death penalty.
It’s a RWNJ fight! Karl Rove’s astroturf group American Crossroads started running ads based on a Cato Institute study saying that unionized public workers make 42% more than non-unionized workers. Cato says Rove is misrepresenting the study:
But the author of the study, Cato director of tax policy studies Chris Edwards, tells me the ad’s claim distorts his data in two key ways. The ad says that unionized government workers get paid 42 percent more than non-unionized workers in general, a charge that seems intended to turn non-unionized workers of all kinds against unionized public employees.
In fact, Edwards points out, Cato’s study compared unionized government workers only with non-unionized government workers, not with non-union workers overall, and found the first group doing better. In other words, even if the study’s overall thrust is critical of public unions, Cato’s actual finding on wages would be likely to persuade workers that unions are a good thing — if you’re unionized, you make more than those in the same sector who are not unionized. Instead, the ad misrepresented the finding.
That’s not all. Edwards points out that the ad rips the 42 percent figure out of context, further distorting what his study actually found in another way. The study did claim the 42 percent number, but it went on to state specifically that this difference can be partly explained by “general labor market variations across states,” because “states with generally higher wages tend to be more unionized.”
The study concluded that once you factor in that variable, public sector unions can be said to increase pay levels by approximately 10 percent — not 42 percent, as the ad claimed.
Someone explain to me again why we want people making less money. I don’t get it. Isn’t the fact that unionized workers make more money an advertisement for union membership?
Tags: Open Thread
Dear UI, it IS the race to the bottom, they’ve set things up so nicely for the rich, now, they’re going for the last of the crumbs, because they deserve it ALL!
By the way, Democracy Now interviews Michael Moore;(quoting) We speak to filmmaker Michael Moore. “”[This] is a class war on the people,” Moore says. “I think that the whole world has been inspired by what happened in Tunisia and in Egypt and throughout the Middle East. And while their problems are different than ours, the spirit is the same. And we need a pro-democracy movement in this country, badly, right now.”(end quote)
Mr. Moore’s part of the show is at 28:30- after a lot of other bad news on this episode of Democracy Now.
Also, see this clip from last night’s Rachel Maddow Show, which Michael did last night, he refers to it in the Democracy Now interview.
To un-rhyme & parody, if you go carrying pictures of Michael Moore, your right wing friends’ heads WILL explode. (Oh, and maybe even some moderate Delaware Dems, too) 😛
We need a Pro-Democracy movement RIGHT NOW.
Karl Rove’s pro-union message has him looking like Karl Marx.
And again I ask?
When the BLUNT-SKULLS wanted their tax breaks for the rich passed in exchange for extending unemployment they made the argument that people making $250,000 a year were NOT rich.
NOW, they say public service employees making $50,000 a year are TOO rich!
Why isn’t the MSM calling them out on this hypocrisy? Or anyone?
Breaking on Fox News from Mike Tobin at the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison. Protesters have trapped GOP lawmakers in their offices shutting down the vote at 11 AM and have threatened violence and are trying to enter their offices.
I’m not seeing that on MSNBC.
site your source, avagrado…. otherwise stop projecting your Tbagness on peaceful demonstrators standing up for democracy.
The Madison protesters have been so violent all along. Breaking imaginary windows, inflicting $7.5 million dollars in imaginary damage on the Capitol.
i heard there was even some TAPE RESIDUE from signs left behind….. i have family that survived the Holocaust and they NEVER had to endure anything as horrific as TAPE RESIDUE. Shame on those evil liberals.
I heard the protesters did so much damage the palm trees all disappeared.
“Someone explain to me again why we want people making less money.” I can tell you why many wealthy Republicans want members of public unions to make less money. Any money they can save in a state budget becomes available for potential tax cuts–ones that they will lobby to benefit mostly them.
I can tell you why many wealthy Republicans want private unions to go away or become ineffectual and want to create legal barriers to unions’ ability to organize workers. It will mean that workers will not be in a position to negotiate for higher pay and better benefits, leaving more money available for profit and dividends.
It’s all about exploitation and class warfare driven by greed.
The Witch’s favorite pet flying monkey has a letter to the editor in today’s News Journal. Does anyone know if he ever paid that 2007 default judgment?
LOL. I’m speaking with DL’s man on the ground, Scott Harman, tomorrow. I’ll aksi him about my perception, that the Wisconsin protesters have been absolutely Ghandi-esque as they are being violently abused by their Teabag Gov. and state legislature.
My friend who has been blogging from Wisconsin and sending me updates just sent this message. “I will be on DemocracyNow.org tonight. He will be wearing the blue work jacket and Lombardi styled hat. While arguing with police, he got pulled into the Capital last night where stayed all night. Scott Fitzgerald the repuke Majority leader putting out a false story claiming Obama is behind the recall”. Scott says, “Obama has nothing to do with any of this, these are the workers of Wisconsin collecting the signatures and people on both sides are signing up without flinching”. Its US not Obama who is pushing the recall. Tune into democracynow.org tonight.
We have a pro-democracy movement right now. Only problem there isnt one in Delaware. The young folks call this movement the “Wave” an international Wave that will never be defeated! If we were having this problem in Delaware how many people do you think would have had the courage and momentum to do what Wisconsin has done. Our goose would have been cooked the first day because in Delaware the people are not united, not organized or mobilized. Shouldnt we be doing that right now.
To be fair to Delawareans, while we have a Governor who is willing to give the wealthiest individuals and corporations a free pass by not looking at the revenue side of the budget – he is not trying to destroy unions.
But Jason, we just saw an election where millions of outside the state dollars rolled in and really busted the Republican party here, I think we’ll just see MORE of that, not less.
They have untold wealth and we could see low information voters really persuaded by a media blitz unless we start inoculating everyone NOW!
We need campaign finance reform!
No Jason he hasnt yet because he knows it would political suicide. Standing for the wealthy class instead of the working class is not leadership, sorry. Progressives calling on Union Leaders to use their own nuclear option….STRIKE! Problem is many of these “leaders” have been in the pocket of corporate america too. The members are looking for leadership and are ready to rumble, but the leaders are sitting in their suits around the confernce table scratching their heads. What to do, what to do! If they dont know what to do, get out the books on Labor Law and Labor struggle and see what their options are. The only option left right now is to call for STRIKES. School children are being organized nationally to walk out of their classrooms on Friday at 2:00…if these kids have the guts, where the hell are the union leaders playing their nuclear option card.
A campaign finance bill has been sitting down in Leg hall for at least 6 yrs. ONly one legislator and you can guess who that is, would sponsor such a bill, but worries the others wont sign it. Why? Because they depend on corporations to donate to their campaigns, they are not going to undercut themselves. We need some referendums in this State to address these questions these lame ass democrats wont sponsor. Forget repukes…they know exactly what side of their bread is buttered.
If your curious what executives from what company donated to Walker: Go to: Wisconsin Democracy Campaign website. Click follow the money, then Campaign Finance Database, then specific employers. You’ll completely understand who owns this guy, and probably everyother bagger Gov.
Jason
Don’t think for a minute that the maneuvering against State benefit packages is anything other then an attempt to weaken and destroy unions as his chamber of commerce frat brothers wish.
I’m willing to let this very low tax rate for Delaware’s wealthiest individuals and corporations play out and see if it creates jobs as its supporters claim. We should have some conclusive data by 2543.