Sacred Cow #1

Once upon a time, unions did truly brave and wonderful stuff. Ford and Coors busted heads and worse to keep them out of their sweatshops. Coal mines were even worse, with accidents, company stores, and black lung. But today some unions are just junk and should be chased off the face of the earth.

For example, my client is headed to Chicago to do a trade show in McCormick Place (big convention center). They can ship stuff to the hall by UPS or whatever, but some stuff didn't get done in time, and has to be shipped to their hotel rooms. Teamsters prohibits them from using any kind of wheeled device to bring those heavy boxes (full or printed material) into the hall. Got a suitcase with wheels (like everyone on the planet)? Can't wheel it into McCormick Place. Got to carry it. They don't give a rat's ass if you have a heart condition, you can't wheel it.

Ditto electric stuff. Want to plug your laptop into the wall so the battery won't go dead? Got to find a union electrician, write up a work order, and, since it's Sunday when they're setting up, probably pay triple the already ridiculous rate to do something any 4 year old can (but probably shouldn't). You can plug your ethernet cables into the hub, but don't you dare plug that hub into the wall jack for net access yourself. This is a complex task requiring a--you guessed it--union electrician, work order, and double time for Sunday. Probably has a one hour minimum, too.

If you think the IBEW is bad, check out the stevedores. This link is hilarious--but not too far from the truth. These guys and their comrades are basically just organized extortionists--maybe that's why the mafia got involved so deeply with the Teamsters, who knows? Remember when the ports on the west coast got shut down a couple of years ago? Those were $80-90K workers protecting their fatcat jobs. And teachers make, what? $30k? Their union sucks, too. But that's for another blog.

Novembner nightmare?

Last week when Shrub was in Washington (state) and made a speech at Ft. Lewis, McCain was along for the ride. If I don't disremember (as Shrub might say), these two were hardly on speaking terms during the runup to the RNC convention in 2000. But now Johnboy practically got down on his hands and knees to kiss the royal ass. "Everything Shrub is doing as 4-0" he said. "He's the man for the job."

Jeez.

So what I'm thinking is that Shrub will get Dicky-pooh to bow out and Sen. John will become the VP. Dick will get all teary and say it's because of the old ticker, just can't handle the stress, want my country to be in the best hands, blah blah blah. He can go back to Haliburton and continue the job of looting the treasury (can you say "cost plus fixed fee, little boy?"). McCain has to be worth at least 15% points on any ticket he joins. He's one of the last members of congress who has any credibility at all, which is why Kerry tried to sweettalk him into joining his ticket. The trouble with Sen John is that he spent all those years in the military, where they teach him to buck up and follow orders. So when Shrub said dance, he said oo hah!

Will Shrub + McCain beat Kerry + Edwards/Gephardt? If Iraq doesn't turn into a complete pile of dogpoo right before the election, if personal income keeps climbing, and if unemployment continues to head south, get ready for 4 mo years...

JB's blog

Well boys and girls, here's where I can vent without restraint. No limits (except reasonable decency). Please don't tell anybody who disagrees with me where I work.

My first blog

This is my first blog, here on blogger.com. I couldn't get the other blog to work, maybe this one will.