Jump to content

tomato can

Community Member
  • Posts

    310
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by tomato can

  1. Thank God we finally got Lance and now cycling can go back to being the honest, drug-free sport it always was!

     

    And what vindication for folks like Tyler Hamilton and Frankie Andreau - who were completely clean until Armstrong forced them at gunpoint to dope up. It's a shame because they would have been just as successful if Lance hadn't forced them to cheat.

     

    And each of themn deserves a medal for being so brave to stand up and accuse Armstrong - after being caught themselves.

  2.  

    This argument is entirely reliant on the hope that the electorate will never delve past this assumption. It requires that a large number of Americans be so unbearably ignorant and aloof that they fail to recognize that a firearm's recreational use has absolutely nothing to do with its usefulness in the context of the most obvious enumeration of our rights as Americans -- the Bill of Rights.

     

     

     

    I think people forget the battle to approve the Constitution required the Bill of rights be attached, because the whole point was to create a government to protect existing individual and god given rights of man … NOT to create a government to takeover “giving” us the right to things. Guns were a pre-existing right that the constitution was approved to protect.

  3. Yet the union brotherhood is perfectly happy to see film production move to other states or countries, because heaven forbid a non-union stage hand lifts a hammer.

     

     

    What is striking here is how little has been done to encourage producers, who are plainly responsible for the situation, to review their practices. IATSE has been reluctant to go on strike in recent years even if such a decision is hard to make given the numerous legal obstacles that prevent workers from taking this step. It is also obvious that internal bureaucratic procedures and the lack of autonomy within IATSE local unions act to dissuade the rank and file from launching such movements. In addition, actors’ or writers’ strikes have already demonstrated how weak solidarity between Hollywood unions actually is. In 1960, the Screen Actors’ Guild went on strike over television residuals. As soon as the movement began, IATSE president Richard Walsh was concerned about possible unemployment among his members. He did not hesitate to order IATSE workers to cross actors’ picket lines.

  4. True to a point. Asses won't end up in those seats even with Matt Damon on the big screen if the production sucks and they have to skimp on where the film is shot. Maybe early on in the film industry they could pull it off...

     

     

     

    Economic runaway productions are by no means a new phenomenon. Such productions have existed to a greater or lesser degree depending on the historical context. But producing offshore may often have created at least as many problems as it aimed to solve. The movie adaptation of Lew Wallace’s Ben Hur provides a noteworthy example from as early as 1925. The film was produced first by Samuel Goldwyn, then by his new company, the soon renowned Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Fred Niblo was named director and the decision was made to shoot the film in Italy for artistic reasons. This second adaptation of Wallace’s novel represented a capital investment hitherto unheard of. Yet the budget notwithstanding, the shooting turned out to be an unmitigated disaster. During the famous naval battle scene, the galleys caught fire: many extras, their costumes ablaze, had to dive into the water. Unfortunately, some of them were unable to swim and a dozen of them perished. Adding to this tragic event, technical constraints forced the operation back to the United States in Hollywood, where new sets had to be built. Even if the audience was impressed by the chariot race, the company never recouped its colossal expenses. In fact, the movie would become the epitome of how unprepared the company had been for the artistic, financial and technical challenges of such runaway productions.Though Italy already boasted a powerful motion picture industry at that time, Hollywood producers would henceforth be reluctant to relocate their production abroad for fear of uncertain costs. International runaway productions would be extremely rare in the decades to come.

  5. http://www.suntimes.com/business/16999862-420/retired-state-workers-in-cross-hairs-of-illinois-pension-crisis.html#

     

    The former two-term Republican governor, a traditional ally of business interests when he oversaw state government in the 1990s, went so far as to deliver a tongue-lashing recently to some of the business leaders who have been the most strident in pushing for pension cuts.

     

    “I’ve told some of the CEOs in Chicago who are all for this, ‘Hey, I worked in state government. We never had profit-sharing. We never had stock options. We never had bonuses. All we really had was our retirement,” Edgar said. “I think people in the private sector don’t understand there were some limitations in the public sector they didn’t have. And they ought to be a little more understanding and not maybe quite as harsh on some state workers as they’ve been.”

     

     

     

    The pension system is Illinois is the worst in the nation. I mean its a 95 billion dollar crisis! How could you fix this? Politicians and Judges get by far the highest pensions. Retired state employees get about 34k on average, with retired university workers seeing $28k pensions. These retired workers are not eligable for social security either. Just curious what some thoughts are on this?

  6. At some point he's going to have to build a little pack of Repubs who will deal and just bargain with the Dems in the house with that group to get the best deal they can....Plan B suggests there's no other way b/c he isn't going to bring a majority of house GOP to a position where they would accept anything negotiated.

     

     

    Doesn't appear that the Repubs are to happy with Boehner!

     

    http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/12/21/House-Republican-members-circulate-plan-to-oust-Speaker

  7. But when it comes down to a vote like in Wisconsin to break the grip that the teachers unions had on the state, what was your position?

     

     

    3rd, i'm sure you can tell for the most part I do support labor unions. In regards to the Wisconsin situation if Gov Walker has the votes to pass a law that limits or eliminates collective bargning then thats just the way it is. If the unions want to protest then so be it but do it peacefully and responsibily. Violent protest dont solve a thing and will not fix their problem. Pols feeling the state to resist a vote is just plain stupid and the pols that did that should have resigned. If they didn't like the results they should work harder to win the power and votes to change the result.

     

    Again unions are not perfect but they do a lot of good things for workers. Fighting for the best outcome in pay and benefits isn't a bad things but they have to remember they can also price themselves out of the market if they over reach. Nothing last forever and times appear to be changing. Unions are losing power and wages are on the way down for a lot of workers not just unions workers and more and more jobs are being eliminated or outsourced to a sweat shop in another country. Flip side of nothing last forever, the top earners have lived nicely off the Bush tax cuts. Those cuts cuts didn't really do much for middle income to lower income people but half of the voting populations appears to want the tax rates completely jacked up on those much higher earners. Those CEO and higher management people say they had no choice to outsource the jobs for the company or it wouldn't survive and did this while collecting a really handsome salary and lots of bonuses and benefits. Obviously they felt that they were entitled to those big salaries, bonuses, stock options, & benefits because they worked hard. The guy who got his job shipped overseas probably feels that a large portion of his salary went into the pockets of upper management, so come tax time those people that lost jobs want to see those upper management folks get it stuck to them. Again times are changing, the unions and middle class are losing there strong hold on good paying jobs and benefits and they are voting for pols that are willing to stick it to the top earners that are some what responsible for the loss of jobs and for the declining wages and benefits. I'm some where in the middle of all of this :o

  8. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-21/american-dream-fades-for-generation-y-professionals.html

     

     

    Eighteen months and two busted jobs later, the daughter of a retired physician and a former editor at Vogue circled back to upstate New York and hunkered down at a small legal office that pays about one-quarter of her former $165,000 salary.

     

    Middle-income jobs are disappearing for a wide range of young professionals. The number of financial counselors and loan officers ages 25 to 34 has dropped 40 percent since 2007, outpacing the 30 percent drop in total jobs for the profession, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

     

    “I had a lot of faith in the system, the mythology that if you work really hard you can achieve anything, and the stock market always goes up,” says 2009 law school graduate Elizabeth Hallock, 33. “It was pretty naïve on my part.” Hallock is the named plaintiff in one of 14 lawsuits against some of the nation’s best-known law schools, including her alma mater, the University of San Francisco School of Law. The civil complaints, filed in 2011 and 2012, accuse the institutions of overstating graduates’ job-placement results and incomes.

     

     

    Law schools are turning out about 45,000 degree holders a year for about 25,000 full-time positions available to them, according to the National Association for Law Placement Inc. in Washington.

  9. Are you kidding me? The teacher unions have fought merit pay tooth and nail for like forever. Tells ya something doesn't it?

     

    3rd I don't agree with everything that the teachers union does. I honestly don't have that big an issue with merit pay. While I do agree with teacher tenure I believe the teachers union should work with the board of education to make the process easier to weed out the bad teachers.

  10. The question is, is there a way to replicate this across the board in a way that is effective both resulst and cost wise?

     

     

    I believe that this can be done. I wont say that I know exactly how to achieve this. The taxpayers are paying the bill and they should demand the best results.

     

    This is quite a nice story, but remember, it is the exception. Not too many teachers would request all the bad apples for their class.

     

     

    I believe that there is a lot of teachers out there that would take on the bad apples. Some teachers love their jobs and would embrace the challenge but we still have some teachers that show up and just teach the class that is given to them. I won't pretend that there isn't bad teachers out there, i'm sure there are plenty. That is one of the areas that I wish the teachers union would bend on. Its one thing if a teacher is trying really hard every day to get the students to learn but I don't like when a teachers just shows up and does the basics of the job and doesn't care what the results are.

     

    Maybe the lesson is that groups of like students grow together when shown reasonable rules, support for their needs and rewards for their successes. For example, when I was a high school principal I had occasion to assign certain students to a small highly structured program outside of our school. Often, the students began to succeed nicely. Then the principal of the program would call me and tell me that the student was ready to return to the regular program. I always refused to permit the student to return--for this reason: We had finally found a program where the student was succeeding, why throw him/her back into the environment where he/she had failed?

     

     

    I would say that was a great call on your part.

     

    Yeah, its a good point. As a teacher though, taking the !@#$ ups from the bottom of the barrel to achieving is a WAY better indicator of performance/results than skimming the cream.....

     

    Maybe we should pay the teachers who take the worst student and get them to perform handsomely......

     

    Nah, we'll pay the under performers just the same....

     

    Maybe there should be a different pay scale for teachers that take on the bad students and get them to perform at an acceptable level. It could create an incentive for other teachers that want to make more money to step up and take on big challenges.

  11. I know there have been a lot of debates on teachers and their union on the board. Below is a story about former QB Jon Kitna who is now a teacher. A lot of people don't argee with their union and often rip on the teachers for standing with the union but I believe that this story sheds some light on what they are up against all the time. Most of the teachers can not do what he has done on the financial side of things but I believe there are many that go above and beyond to help the kids. Any way I dont want to take away from the story because its really a great story.

     

     

     

    http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nfl--former-nfl-qb-jon-kitna-finds-‘gold-mine’-at-a-school-where-other-teachers-only-saw-problems-194739063.html

  12. http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/12/13/flight-attendents-for-hong-kong-airline-threaten-to-not-smile-serve-alcohol/

     

    The union is also considering working to rule, which involves doing no more than the minimum work required in contracts and precisely following safety regulations. Such tactics could include strictly enforcing size limits on hand luggage or waiting for all cleaning staff to leave the plane before boarding. The measures could delay flights by 20 to 30 minutes, Tsang said.

    Sounds to me like them union workers go above and beyond to meet the needs of the customers.....

  13. It's a shame that this stuff happens. The union fought to get these people a livable wage. At $15.80 an hour these workers were able to afford their mortgage or rent payment, a car payment, put food on the table and feed themselves and their family. Cut the pay down to $11.90 per hour, no benefits, and no guarantee of full time work and all this does is possibly force some of these workers onto subsidized housing and food stamps until they can recover and find a new job that pays enough for them not to be on welfare!

  14. http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/16950379-418/mayor-blasted-for-replacing-ohare-janitors.html

     

     

     

    Waguespack noted that Emanuel never stopped talking about the middle-class while campaigning for President Barack Obama’s re-election.

     

     

    Mildred Rueda, 35, fought back tears as he she talked about the pain of being out of a job that paid $15.80-an-hour with full benefits two weeks before Christmas.

     

     

    Jermaine Samples, who also cleans the washrooms at O’Hare, said he applied for a job with United, even though the company is offering $11.90-an-hour with no guarantee of full-time work.

  15. Wrong. Burglars commit violent acts all the time. He has no way of knowing their intent, if they are armed, etc. He is not a trained police officer, nor should he be expected to act like one on a moments notice.

     

     

    You are correct in saying that he had no way of knowing their intent. Reading the articles and the statements that he allegedly made to the investigators, he disabled the threat therefore removing any intent on their part. Looks like he is being charged with his actions after disabling the threat. I don't believe all the details are out so I wouldn't rush to judgement here because no one knows for sure what went on inside that house.

  16. The morning news was reporting that UPS is having trouble filling 55,000 seasonal jobs nationwide that pay $8.50 per hour! Amazon, GSI Commerce, an eBay subsidiary that has handled online retail sales for other companies such as Bath and Body Works, Burberry and Dick's Sporting Goods all struggling to find workers!

     

    Heavan forbid they have to pay a living wage! Nah I'm sure there is a line of trained monkey's waiting to be hired 0:)

  17. A lot of companies do that, not just Hostess, since they'd rather their driver get his deliveries done, than spend time in the store stocking shelves when they can hire someone cheaper for that duty.

     

     

    Meanwhile, at Walmart.....

     

    Wal-Mart workers plan Black Friday walkout

     

    NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- A group of Wal-Mart workers are planning to stage a walkout next week on Black Friday, arguably the biggest holiday shopping day for the world's largest retail store. The walkout builds on an October strike that started at a Wal-Mart in Los Angeles and spread to stores in 12 other cities. More than 100 workers joined in the October actions.

     

    Workers at LAX also.....

     

     

    http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012/11/16/thousands-of-lax-workers-set-for-walkout-on-thanksgiving-eve/

  18. To the CEO salary vs. labor dispute:

     

    It's a simple supply and demand situation. People who drive trucks, bake bread, and stand on assembly lines are 100% fungible. They could be replaced by a !@#$ing monkey, and aren't a value add to the company. They are essentially machine parts whose greatest contribution is being affordable, and showing up every day. In down economies they become even more replacable as the pool of fungible labor grows.

     

    On the other hand, CEOs who can rescue a large company from bankruptcy are few and far between, and the compensation package nessecary to attract these types of individuals must be competitive with other companies, and account for scarcity.

     

    The CEO is valuable and the laborer is not. End of story.

     

    They've had 6 CEOs since 2002, giving the latest a raise from $750,000 to $2,550,000, and none of these high-paid execs has done anything to revamp their products or their plants.

  19.  

    B-MAN, even if you don't like unions or union workers how can you justify this,

     

     

    Board of Directors

     

    Brian Driscoll, CEO, around $750,000 to $2,550,000

    Gary Wandschneider, EVP, $500,000 to $900,000

    John Stewart, EVP, $400,000 to $700,000

    David Loeser, EVP, $375,000 to $656,256

    Kent Magill, EVP, $375,000 to $656,256

    Richard Seban, EVP, $375,000 to $656,256

    John Akeson, SVP, $300,000 to $480,000

    Steven Birgfeld, SVP, $240,000 to $360,000

    Martha Ross, SVP, $240,000 to $360,000

    Rob Kissick, SVP, $182,000 to $273,008

     

     

    Why weren't these exec's adapting to evolving customer tastes, public perceptions, and health standards which was clearly hurting this company? The workers took cuts and management got increases. They tried to make the workers pay the price for management's incompetence.

×
×
  • Create New...