It's just business - yeah, right

Hey Folks -

The power structure works overtime propagating myths which many of us mindlessly adopt as our own. One such myth is:

. . . . .Whatever helps workers or citizens hurts business . . . . .

It's never pointed out, however, that if that is true, then:

. . . . . Hurting workers and citizens helps business . . . . .

That's not mentioned because it would conflict with the second myth attached to the first:

. . . . . Helping business helps workers and citizens . . . . .

i.e. . . . . . You gotta sacrifice to help business. If you don't, you're out of work entirely . . . . .

If actually considered, that sounds like blackmail, and in reality the claim should read:

. . . . . The way to help workers and citizens is to help business by hurting workers and citizens. If you don't go along with that, we'll find someone somewhere desperate enough to oblige us . . . . .

The truth is a little harder to sell, don't you think? I bet that even the poor simpleton whose letter I respond to below wouldn't buy that.

- Uke Man

To the Editor,

On the same day you reported that active Ohio military personnel were to be “shielded” from discrimination by businesses and landlords [full story below], a letter was published complaining that “Mandatory sick leave would harm business.”

Previously, comments have been published claiming that an increased minimum wage, unpaid leave for mothers with newborns, and jury awards for injured workers would harm business.

Will we soon read complaints that restricting discrimination against our troops harms business? If not, are the complainers afraid or ashamed to state their case? Or do they actually think that soldiers deserve to be treated fairly as human beings but the poor, new babies, and injured workers do not?

Tom Harker

Mandatory sick leave would harm business
Monday, January 28, 2008


I respond to the Jan. 20 letter "Sick-time off also is public-health issue" from Abramo Ottolenghi, which pushes for mandatory paid sick leave in Ohio.


The proposed legislation would require employers with more than 25 employees to provide seven paid sick days per year, and it is my opinion that enacting this legislation would seriously harm business within the state of Ohio and limit growth.


As a human-resources director in a small business, I understand the plight of ill workers, which is why businesses voluntarily offer vacation, sick and personal days. We offer these benefits to be competitive and keep our employees.


The Family and Medical Leave Act protects those with serious illness from losing their jobs, and many employers allow a doctor's note as an excuse to keep employees from coming to work ill.


Passing this legislation will hurt our company, and we will have to find ways to reduce the cost increase, including reducing benefits or head count. Many other small to medium businesses would have to employ similar strategies to find a way to profit in these tough economic times.


Additionally, businesses outside of Ohio do not generally consider our state business-friendly because of our workers' compensation and unemployment systems, in addition to our taxes. The 2007 State Business Tax Climate report placed Ohio at 49th out of 50 states, which is a major reason those precious jobs don't come here.


Requiring this leave will cause companies to look elsewhere for their new facility or to move existing operations because the cost of doing business in Ohio will be too high.


Our state economy is fragile enough. Let's not destroy it by passing this legislation.


BRENDA ROBINSON
Worthington






State shields military 'class'
Protected status helps service members fight bias in housing, jobs
Monday, January 28, 2008 3:08 AM
By Jeb Phillips
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

It will soon be illegal in Ohio to discriminate against people because of their military status, the same way that people can't be discriminated against because of race, religion or disability.

Regular active-duty service members and reservists or National Guard members who have been activated for service or who must report for training will be considered a "protected class" as of March 23. That means that in the areas of employment, housing, real estate, credit and public accommodation, military status can't be a factor.

A landlord can't refuse to rent an apartment because the tenant will ship out. An employer can't fire a worker because he will be gone for a year on duty. The Ohio Civil Rights Commission can issue cease-and-desist orders and order violators to pay damages to the service member.

Experts say that federal law covers some of this ground already, particularly with employment, but the Ohio law goes further in protecting military status. It should also cut through some of the bureaucracy that goes with filing a federal claim, said state Rep. Peter Ujvagi, a Democrat from Toledo who was a sponsor of the legislation. The bill requires the Ohio attorney general's office to assign a staff member to ensure that state complaints are handled as quickly as possible.


The courts will eventually decide how to interpret the new law, though it's not hard to guess what some interpretations might be, experts say. For example, gender-based discrimination is illegal, and courts have decided that means that sexual harassment is illegal, said Jonathan Hyman, a labor and employment lawyer with the Cleveland firm of Kohrman, Jackson & Krantz.

"It's not a stretch that harassment because of military status could be illegal," he said. In that interpretation, an employee who is anti-war could violate the law by making fun of an activated military member's service.
It's also not a stretch, he said, to think that the courts will be asked to decide whether the law covers reservists and National Guard members who aren't activated. The law doesn't include them now, but a Guard member denied an apartment because he might be activated in the future, for example, could have an argument.

In Ohio, employers, landlords and the rest cannot discriminate on the basis of race, color, age, ancestry, religion, disability, national origin or gender. What seems to separate military status from these other protected classes is that service members are often praised and better respected because they are service members, said Robert Stalter, a labor and employment lawyer with the Columbus firm of Porter, Wright, Morris & Arthur.

Even without the protection, most people would try to do the best they could for service members. Still, the new law will result in more lawsuits that wouldn't be filed without it, Stalter said.

The Ohio committee of Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve fielded 413 calls about employment concerns in 2006. The new state law will allow the Ohio Civil Rights Commission to investigate complaints.

Ujvagi worked for several years to make military status a protected class; it took inclusion in a larger military bill -- one that exempts military pensions from state income tax, among other measures -- to get it passed. No one seemed openly against the protected-class status, Ujvagi said; it just took awhile to work out the specifics.

The Ohio National Guard worked with Ujvagi on the status and will be glad to see it go into effect, said Mark Wayda, a Guard spokesman.

"It helps our members. We're very appreciative."

jeb.phillips@dispatch.com

More Fair & Balanced than Fox News

Onion Video - Most Important Issue for the Voters

Hey Folks -

Check out this video!! See what's REALLY important in the "War for the White House"!!!


http://www.theonion.com/content/video/poll_bullshit_is_most_important


- Uke Man

The Beatles reincarnated as Roy Orbison

Hey Folks -

Science marches on - but to a rock-and-roll band. At least part of the time (slime-mold beetles get named after slimy politicians - see below in red).

- Uke Man


This Beetle Really Rocks

Jeanna BrynerLiveScience Staff WriterLiveScience.com Mon Jan 28, 1:16 PM ET

A new species of beetle that appears as if wearing a tuxedo has been named in honor of the late rock 'n' roll legend Roy Orbison and his widow Barbara.

Entomologist Quentin Wheeler of Arizona State University announced the discovery and naming of the beetle, now dubbed Orectochilus orbisonorum, during a Roy Orbison Tribute Concert on Jan. 25.

The ending of the species name, "orum," denotes it was named after a couple. If the beetle were just named after Roy it would end in "i," and for just Barbara, the name would end in "ae."

Barbara Orbison, who attended the concert along with Orbison's sons Wesley and Roy Kelton Orbison Jr., remarked on her appreciation for the new species name. "I have never seen an honor like that," she said.

To mark the occasion, Wheeler presented Barbara with an original work of art titled “Whirligig." Completed by ASU scientist and artist Charles J. Kazilek, the painting included nine images of a whirligig beetle on cotton watercolor paper.

"The style of the print is [Andy] Warhol meets Carl Linnaeus," Wheeler said, referring to the pop art icon and the father of taxonomy (the method of classifying living things).

Less than a quarter-inch long (five millimeters), O. orbisonorum belongs to the Gyrinidae family, a group of beetles that typically live on the surface of the water.

Called whirligigs because they swim rapidly in circles when alarmed, the beetles have "divided" eyes that can see both above and below the water. A band of material separates the eyes so that on first glance you'd think the insect were four-eyed.

Unlike other members of the Indian Gyrinidae, however, this one has a white underbelly due to a clear cuticle through which the white internal tissues are easily visible. Its top surface is shiny black with dull patches covered with dense, tiny hairs. "The contrast between the two areas is visually very stunning," Wheeler said.

The beetle's elegant appearance is one reason for the naming. "It almost looks like it's wearing a tuxedo," Wheeler said.

In 2005, Wheeler, Kelly Miller of the University of New Mexico and taxonomist Paolo Mazzoldi of Brescia, Italy, discovered 65 new species of slime-mold beetle in the genus Agathidium. They named one of the beetles after Darth Vader and others for President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

The new species will be detailed in an upcoming issue of the journal Zootaxa.

The Roy Orbison Beetle

Check out the gray sun glasses !!!

Because it's there?

Hey Folks -

Sir Edmund Hillary who, with Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay, first reached the top of Mt. Everest, the world’s tallest mountain, died recently.

By all accounts Hillary was a good man, a New Zealand beekeeping regular guy. His climbing the mountain made Mr. Hillary Sir Hillary, but while he was no longer a beekeeper, he was still a regular guy, and as Sir Hillary he significantly helped the Sherpa people of Nepal via philanthropy.

I admire his courage and determination and respect his homeland, New Zealand; so I mean no disrespect toward any of that. I do, however, find the whole thing puzzling and instructive regarding the loony human race.


OK, it was dangerous and demanding - some thought it impossible - to climb Mt. Everest. But a lot of things are dangerous and demanding - perhaps impossible. Choosing to live in Iraq or Palestine to work for peace is dangerous and demanding; treating the sick during an Ebola epidemic is dangerous and demanding. Those involved in such activities, however, aren't lionized like Hillary and Lindbergh - even though there is much to argue that they are the greater heroes.

Doesn't it seem strange? Is it a good reason to climb a mountain simply "because it is there"? Is that a better reason than "to achieve peace" or "to heal the afflicted"?

I understand that the climb was "an adventure," a demonstration of "man's indomitable spirit," and all that, but - while such talk made sense to me in my youth - now it seems an "imperial" artifact and foolish.

Maybe it's just the difference of age and youth. I don't know.

- Uke Man

 

Want to hire this guy?? He'd be great to share a beer with!

Hey Folks -

This misunderestimated man is looking for a job. He will be available in January 2009 (358 days and counting) and is willing to redislocate.

RESUME -
GEORGE W. BUSH 1600 Pennsylvania AvenueWashington, DC 20520


EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE:

Law Enforcement: I was arrested in Kennebunkport , Maine , in 1976 for driving under the influence of alcohol. I pled guilty, paid a fine, and had my driver's license suspended for 30 days. My Texas driving record has been "lost" and is not available.

Military: I joined the Texas Air National Guard and went AWOL. I refused to take a drug test or answer any questions about my drug use. By joining the Texas Air National Guard, I was able to avoid combat duty in Vietnam .

College: I graduated from Yale University with a low C average. I was a cheerleader.


PAST WORK EXPERIENCE:

I ran for U.S. Congress and lost.

I began my career in the oil business in Midland , Texas in 1975. I bought an oil company, but couldn't find any oil in Texas . The company went bankrupt shortly after I sold all my stock.

I bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that took land using taxpayer money.

With the help of my father and our friends in the oil industry (including Enron CEO Ken Lay), I was elected governor of Texas .


ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS GOVERNOR OF TEXAS:

I changed Texas pollution laws to favor power and oil companies, making Texas the most polluted state in the Union . During my tenure, Houston replaced Los Angeles as the most smog-ridden city in America .

I cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas treasury to the tune of billions in borrowed money.

I set the record for the most executions by any governor in American history.

With the help of my brother, the governor of Florida , and my father's appointments to the Supreme Court, I became President of the United States , after losing by over 500,000 votes.


ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS PRESIDENT:

I am the first President in U.S. history to enter office with a criminal record.

I invaded and occupied two countries at a continuing cost of over one billion dollars per week.

I spent the U.S surplus and effectively bankrupted the U.S. Treasury.

I shattered the record for the largest annual deficit in U.S. history.

I set an economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12-month period.

I set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12-month period.

I set the all-time record for the biggest drop in the history of the U.S. stock market. In my first year in office, over 2 million Americans lost their jobs and that trend continues.

I'm proud that the members of my cabinet are the richest of any administration in U.S. history. My "poorest millionaire," Condoleezza Rice, has a Chevron oil tanker named after her.

I set the record for most campaign fund-raising trips by a U.S. President.

I am the all-time U.S. and world record holder for receiving the most corporate campaign donations.

My largest lifetime campaign contributor, and one of my best friends, Kenneth Lay, presided over the largest corporate bankruptcy fraud in U.S. history, Enron.

My political party used Enron private jets and corporate attorneys to assure my success with the U.S. Supreme Court during my election decision.

I have protected my friends at Enron and Halliburton against investigation or prosecution. More time and money was spent investigating the Monica Lewinsky affair than has been spent investigating one of the biggest corporate rip-offs in history. I presided over the biggest energy crisis in U.S. history and refused to intervene when corruption involving the oil industry was revealed.

I presided over the highest gasoline prices in U.S. history.

I changed the U.S. policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts.

I appointed more convicted criminals to my administration than any President in U.S. history.

I created the Ministry of Homeland Security, the largest bureaucracy in the history of the United States Government.

I've broken more international treaties than any President in U.S. history.

I am the first President in U.S. history to have the United Nations remove the U.S. from the Human Rights Commission.

I withdrew the U.S. from the World Court of Law.

I refused to allow inspector's access to U.S. "prisoners of war" detainees and thereby have refused to abide by the Geneva Convention.

I am the first President in history to refuse United Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 US election).

I set the record for fewest numbers of press conferences of any President since the advent of television.

I set the all-time record for most days on vacation in any one-year period. After taking off the entire month of August, I presided over the worst security failure in U.S. history.

I garnered the most sympathy ever for the U.S. after the World Trade Center attacks and less than a year later made the U.S. the most hated country in the world, the largest failure of diplomacy in world history.

I have set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously protest me in public venues (15 million people), shattering the record for protests against any person in the history of mankind.

I am the first President in U.S. history to order an unprovoked, pre-emptive attack and the military occupation of a sovereign nation. I did so against the will of the United Nations, the majority of U.S. Citizens and the world community.

I have cut health care benefits for war veterans and support a cut in duty benefits for active duty troops and their families in wartime.

In my State of the Union Address, I lied about our reasons for attacking Iraq and then blamed the lies on our British friends.

I am the first President in history to have a majority of Europeans (71%) view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and security.

I am supporting development of a nuclear "Tactical Bunker Buster," a WMD.

I have so far failed to fulfill my pledge to bring Osama Bin Laden to justice.


RECORDS AND REFERENCES:

All records of my tenure as governor of Texas are now in my father's library, sealed and unavailable for public view.

All records of SEC investigations into my insider trading and my bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.

All records or minutes from meetings that I, or my Vice-President, attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public review. I specified that my sealed documents will not be available for 50 years.

- Uke Man

"hello, God? It's me again."

Ukulele Man -

Another primary selection today - again, the media will shut out the anti-corporate / pro masses spokes-persons

"Tattooed Lady"

Hartley and Joseph
Friends of mine !!
- Uke Man

"Fair is foul and foul is fair. Ahm a humbug floatin' in the air"

Bizarro Land of the Bizarro Free

a son of the Greatest generation
..a father of the Alphabet
....a John the Baptist of the Big Boom
....... living under the gilded “W”
...................Watching . . .
............................. & Wishing:
........................................I wish I may,
.................................................I wish I might
......................................................find a chunk
.....................................................................of . . ...............................................................................Kryptonite

Superman has died
and he is not the same.

Clark Kent is dead
and Bizarro clark
stands there in his stead.

Lois is a trollop
Perry works for Fox
and Jimmy fancies signing up
to come home in a box.

And the Super one, born again,
according to god’s plan,
cannot speak the language –
says, “Hi, I’m Stuporman.”

Yes, he’s still a man of steel,
but a smirking super fool
who would destroy the world itself
to fit it to his rule

.........................................I wish I may,
.................................................I wish I might
......................................................find a chunk
.....................................................................of . . . ...............................................................................Kryptonite

Martin Luther King, Jr.'s last speech

One of the few great American heroes !!!

"Hey, ahm Stuporman - heh heh - the Decider!!"

"Facts is what I say they are!!"

More Lies from a "Christian" Government - Faith over Science!! Fiction over Reality!!

Well Folks -

That's how it goes: when it was secret, torture was torture. If the United States and Israel weren't allies of Canada, it would still be torture. But since it was leaked to the people and because the United States and Israel are allies, and because they applied political pressure to a "conservative" government, torture isn't torture any more (at least not in those two allied countries).

This doesn't strike me as Truth. Nor Justice. But, aparently, it is the American Way!!!

- Uke Man (I'll be re-posting a relevant poem next)



Canada removes U.S., Israel from torture watchlist

By David Ljunggren

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's foreign ministry, responding to pressure from close allies, said on Saturday it would remove the United States and Israel from a watch list of countries where prisoners risk being tortured.

Both nations expressed unhappiness after it emerged they had been listed in a document that formed part of a training course manual on torture awareness given to Canadian diplomats.

Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier said he regretted the embarrassment caused by the public disclosure of the manual, which also classified some U.S. interrogation techniques as torture.

"It contains a list that wrongly includes some of our closest allies. I have directed that the manual be reviewed and rewritten," Bernier said in a statement.

"The manual is neither a policy document nor a statement of policy. As such, it does not convey the government's views or positions."

The document -- made available to Reuters and other media outlets -- embarrassed the minority Conservative government, which is a staunch ally of both the United States and Israel.

U.S. ambassador David Wilkins said the listing was absurd, while the Israeli envoy said he wanted his country removed.

Asked why the two countries had been put on the list, a spokesman for Bernier said: "The training manual purposely raised public issues to stimulate discussion and debate in the classroom."

The government mistakenly gave the document to Amnesty International as part of a court case the rights organization has launched against Ottawa over the treatment of detainees in Afghanistan.

AMPLE EVIDENCE OF ABUSE

Amnesty International Canada, which says it has ample evidence that prisoners are abused both in U.S. and Israeli jails, said it was disappointed by Bernier's announcement.

"When it comes to an issue like torture, the government's main concern should not be embarrassing allies," Alex Neve, the group's secretary-general, told Reuters. The U.S. embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Under "definition of torture," the document lists U.S. interrogation techniques such as forced nudity, isolation, sleep deprivation and blindfolding prisoners.

It also mentions the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, where a Canadian man is being held.

The man, Omar Khadr, has been in Guantanamo Bay for five years. He is accused of killing a U.S. soldier during a clash in Afghanistan in 2002, when he was 15.

Other countries on the watch list include Syria, China, Iran, Afghanistan, Mexico and Saudi Arabia.

The foreign ministry launched the torture awareness course after Ottawa was criticized for the way it handled the case of Canadian engineer Maher Arar, who was deported from the United States to Syria in 2002.

Arar says he was tortured repeatedly during the year he spent in Damascus prisons. An official inquiry into the affair showed Canadian diplomats had not been trained to detect whether detainees might have been abused.

(Editing by Philip Barbara)

Little Prince Dedication - A Narration

Hey Folks !! Children as old as the Uke Man and older can be touched by this

Ohio's Greatest Ho Newspaper

Noblesse oblige ?? Noblesse o'bilgewater !!

Hey Folks -

Here's how it works!!

The local Titans are playing with the people again (building a new baseball field), developing the "big picture," acting out their patriarchal benevolence fantasies ("corporate donations" - "doing what's best" for the underlings by doing what's best for themselves).

In the process, the Franklin County Commissioners have been attacked for choosing a union contactor to perform a miniscule part of the construction.

Below is first: my letter to the editor; followed by the first, earlier article reporting the matter; followed by the latest editorial (which came after a suit to block the commissioners' decision had been thrown out of court, and which elicited my letter).

- Uke Man


To the Editor,

Over the years whenever a tax on business is proposed the Dispatch has editorialized that “businesses don’t pay taxes; consumers do.”

Well, if that’s true, then businesses don’t make donations either; consumers do. If businesses shouldn’t be taxed because the cost is “passed on to the consumer” by higher prices; then businesses have no business making “donations” which could have been used to help the consumer by lowering prices.

So, why then, in the continuing hubbub over building the new baseball field, have we not seen an editorial denouncing the $48 million of “corporate donations” reported Jan.5 by Barbara Carmen?

Why is it that the charge of “wasting” $215,000 of taxpayers’ money on union workers is newsworthy, but the charge of "wasting" $48,000,000 of consumers’ money is never even mentioned?

And, with Columbus facing a tight fiscal future, maybe it’s time to look at how much of the money corporations have in hand to “donate” has been generated by shifting corporate tax responsibility to the citizens – as, for example, with the hockey rink. (Uke-note: the newspaper is a 10% owner of the rink)

Tom Harker



BALLPARK BIDDING CHALLENGED AGAIN
Low bidder upset that commissioners plan to hire union contractor; lawsuit possible

Saturday, January 5, 2008
By Barbara Carmen
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Franklin County commissioners, accused two months ago of trying to steer a construction contract on their new ballpark to a union company, are being challenged by another low bidder crying foul for the same reason.

"If they award this contract to someone else, the taxpayers of Franklin County will pay no less than $215,000 more for these contracts," said Ed O'Brien, Columbus regional manager for TP Mechanical Contractors Inc.

"I'm not pleased with paying taxes to start with. To see them wasting it just upsets me."
Commissioners expect to hire W.G. Tomko on Tuesday, opening the county to a possible lawsuit that could delay construction of Huntington Park.

The $55 million stadium, being built with corporate donations and about $7 million from Ohio taxpayers, is set to open in the Arena District for the 2009 baseball season.

TP, a nonunion, Ohio-based company, bid $4,349,874 for the plumbing job and a heating, ventilation and air-conditioning package. It was the lowest combined bid.

But commissioners now say they want to separate the jobs, which they are allowed to do, and pay at least $4,564,666 to the new individual low bidders.

Commissioners insist they based their decision on policy, not politics. They say TP repeatedly violated state prevailing-wage laws, had worrisome worker-safety violations and has a reputation for bidding low and returning with price increases.

A Dispatch search of public records found that TP Mechanical had four prevailing-wage violations in 2005.

A county policy set in 2002 -- when two Republicans sat on the now-all-Democratic board -- said contractors can't have more than three prevailing-wage violations in two years.

But O'Brien said prevailing-wage violations are common because nonunion shops are audited on almost every job, and the rules and paperwork are complex. He said TP has two full-time employees doing nothing but compliance.

He said change orders that increased the price of jobs came from clients or architects, not his company.

The four wage violations in question required TP to pay $4,000 in wages to employees, or 0.08 percent of the total labor costs of $5.3 million.

TP's errors are minor compared with the potential contract savings, said Brian J. Ellis, president and chief operating officer of Nationwide Realty Investors, the county's representative to ensure construction is completed properly and within budget.

Elllis said he's concerned about any delay in approving contracts. "We don't have a lot of margin for error here," Ellis said. "We're out of time."

Commissioners' safety concerns also aren't justified, TP's O'Brien said. TP has paid one fine, of $650, since it broke off from its bankrupt parent company in 2003. It had failed to cover a trench in a floor, which was fenced off. No one was injured.

Tomko, because it has been in business for 55 years, has many more violations cited by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. In 2006, a Pennsylvania worker was crushed to death by a track-hoe bucket. OSHA fined Tomko more than $23,000 for four serious violations in that accident.

A spokeswoman for Bill Tomko III said the company immediately revamped its training and procedures to comply with OSHA regulations.

Mary Tebeau, president of Associated Builders and Contractors, which represents 125 union and nonunion companies in central Ohio, said she's convinced that commissioners are again favoring organized labor.

In November, commissioners quickly caved in after being sued by Lithko Contracting Inc., a nonunion shop. Lithko's $5.9 million low-bid contract to pour concrete for Huntington Park was $17,500 lower than Baker Construction, a union shop.

"It seems like they're trying to do the same thing," Tebeau said.

TP is talking with its lawyers.

Don L. Brown, Franklin County administrator, defended going with Tomko.
"This is not about union vs. a merit or nonunion shop. It's about following the county's quality-contracting standards that have been in place since 2002," he said.

He said several nonunion companies have won bids on the ballpark.

bcarmen@dispatch.com


Legal, but not wise
County commissioners stick ballpark investors with an expensive decision
Friday, January 18, 2008

A judge ruled Monday that the Franklin County commissioners' decision to ignore a lower bid and award a plumbing contract for the new Downtown ballpark to union contractor W.G. Tomko is legal. But the judge was not asked to rule on whether that contract is in the best interests of the taxpayers and private-sector investors in the ballpark, who will pay an extra $215,000 for the commissioners' decision.

Two of the three commissioners reasoned that the lowest bidder, nonunion shop TP Mechanical Contractors, was disqualified by a county policy prohibiting contract awards to any company that has violated the prevailing-wage law more than three times in the past two years. TP Mechanical had four violations in 2005, in which it failed to pay about $4,000 of a total project payroll of $5.3 million.

Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Richard A. Frye wrote, "There is no clear and convincing evidence that Franklin County used any unannounced bid criteria."

To her credit, Commissioner Paula Brooks questioned whether the county's 5-year-old policy should be set in stone or should be viewed more as a guideline.

Indeed. Any policy that forces private and public investors to pay an extra $215,000 to punish a low bidder for a $4,000 clerical error is a policy that deserves reconsideration.

One might wonder if this is the commissioners' way of setting a de facto union-shop-only policy for county construction projects. This decision could discourage nonunion contractors from bidding on future county projects, such as the new courthouse. That might be just fine with labor-friendly Democratic commissioners, but it will be no boon to the county's taxpayers, who will pay more for those projects.

Contracting policies are important for communicating the level of quality the county is seeking, but they shouldn't be slavishly followed. A policy of doing what's best for taxpayers trumps most others.

The one remaining Super Clown & his little pal Bushbo

We're not laughing . . .

Hey Folks -

Ever been frightened by a clown??

There's a Yahoo news story below, followed by a clip of pretty scary clowns (if it works).

- Uke Man

Don't send in the clowns
Wed Jan 16

LONDON (Reuters) - Bad news for Coco and Blinko -- children don't like clowns and even older kids are scared of them.

The news that will no doubt have clowns shedding tears was revealed in a poll of youngsters by researchers from the University of Sheffield who were examining how to improve the decor of hospital children's wards.

The study, reported in the Nursing Standard magazine, found all the 250 patients aged between four and 16 they quizzed disliked the use of clowns, with even the older ones finding them scary.
"As adults we make assumptions about what works for children," said Penny Curtis, a senior lecturer in research at the university.

"We found that clowns are universally disliked by children. Some found them quite frightening and unknowable."

(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Steve Addison)



http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=5601377&ch=4226714&src=news

Small Change

"Operation Change for the Better"

Hey Folks -

You MUST see this:


http://blip.tv/file/520347


You thought collecting quarters designed for every state was fun!!! Try this!!!


- Uke Man

p.s. Time to rob the piggty bank!!!

Hard Drinkin' Mama - Live at Larry's in the dark Jan.5, 2008

A Tub of Buttons

Poetry

"Ah feel good!!!"

A good review!!!

Hey Folks -

My friend John Locke came to the Larry's show and had some nice things to say on his blog "Folkie Haven," a great blog for folkies and singer/song-writers:

http://folkiehaven.blogspot.com/

Thanks, John!!

- Uke Man

Folkie Haven

Monday, January 7, 2008

Busy Saturday

Last Saturday was busy and next Saturday will be the same.

There was a very good jam session at Areopagitica Books, 3510 N. High Street, with a good number turning up. If you have not been to any of the presentations at the book shop yet you should try it. There is always something on Saturday evenings to grab your attention and you will find a wonderful friendly atmosphere with lots of books to peruse after, or before you listen to the entertainment. There is always coffee and cookies on offer to temp you, all part of being in a great place.

Following the jam session I went down to campus to see Tom the Ukulele Man and his Prodigal Sons. If you have not had chance to see Tom as a solo performer, or with his band you must. Here is a man with total commitment to his material, a lot of it written by himself. Protest, love, comedy, irony, satire, you get the lot with Tom and with the band behind him it is a fantastic experience. The band include: Sax, trombone, harmonica, bass, guitar, accordion and of course Tom on Uke. I lost track of time and could not believe it was 1:am when I looked at my watch.
I got home just before I turned into a pumpkin.

Obama!! Obama, I say!!!!

The Obama Endorsement - Hmmmmmm...

Hey Folks -

Could this explain how Clinton came from behind to catch Obama in New Hampshire? If George Will likes Obama, that makes me nervous; there's something wrong there.

Will is a conservative Republican twit. What does his endorsement mean??

- Uke Man

George F. Will: Huckabee, Edwards humbly wrong
Monday, January 7, 2008 3:07 AM
By George F. Will

Mike Huckabee and John Edwards, flaunting their histrionic humility in order to promote their curdled populism, hawked strikingly similar messages in Iowa, encouraging self-pity and economic hypochondria. They lament a shrinking middle class. Well.


Economist Stephen Rose, defining the middle class as households with annual incomes between $30,000 and $100,000, says a smaller percentage of Americans are in that category than in 1979 because the percentage of Americans earning more than $100,000 has doubled from 12 to 24, while the percentage earning less than $30,000 is unchanged. "So," Rose says, "the entire 'decline' of the middle class came from people moving up the income ladder." Even as housing values declined in 2007, the net worth of households increased.


Huckabee told heavily subsidized Iowa -- Washington's ethanol enthusiasm has farm values and incomes soaring -- that Americans striving to rise are "pushed down every time they try by their own government." Edwards, synthetic candidate of theatrical bitterness on behalf of America's crushed, groaning majority, says the rich have an "iron-fisted grip" on democracy and a "stranglehold" on the economy. Strangely, these fists have imposed a tax code that makes the top 1 percent of earners pay 39 percent of all income-tax revenues, the top 5 percent pay 60 percent, and the bottom 50 percent pay 3 percent.


According to Edwards, the North Carolina of his youth resembled Chechnya today: "I had to fight to survive. I mean really. Literally." Huckabee, a compound of Uriah Heep, Elmer Gantry and Richard M. Nixon, preens about his humble background: "In my family, summe r was never a verb." Nixon, who maundered about his parents' privations and wife's cloth coat, followed Lyndon B. Johnson, another miscast president whose festering resentments and status anxieties colored his conduct of office. Here we go again?


Huckabee fancies himself persecuted by the Republican "establishment," a creature already negligible by 1964, when it failed to stop Barry Goldwater's nomination. Huckabee says "only one explanation" fits his Iowa success "and it's not a human one. It's the same power that helped a little boy with two fish and five loaves feed a crowd of 5,000 people." God so loves Huckabee's politics that he worked a Midwest miracle on his behalf? Should someone so delusional control nuclear weapons?


Speaking of delusions, Edwards seems unaware that the world market sets the price of oil. He says a $100-a-barrel price is evidence of -- surging demand in India and China? Unrest in Nigeria's oil fields? No, "corporate greed." That is Edwards' explanation of every unpleasantness. The sunny Southerner of 2004 has become the angry paladin of the suffering multitudes, to whom he shouts, "Treat these people the way they treat you!" Presumably he means treat "the rich" badly.


Although Huckabee and Edwards profess to loathe and vow to change Washington's culture, each would aggravate its toxicity. Each overflows with and wallows in the pugnacity of the self-righteous who discern contemptible motives behind all disagreements with them, and who therefore think opponents are enemies and differences are unsplittable.


The way to achieve Edwards' and Huckabee's populist goal of reducing the role of "special interests," meaning money, in government is to reduce the role of government in distributing money. But populists want to sharply increase that role by expanding the regulatory state's reach and enlarging its agenda of determining the distribution of wealth. Populists, who are slow learners, cannot comprehend this iron law: Concentrate power in Washington and you increase the power of interests whose representatives are concentrated there.


Sen. Barack Obama, who might be mercifully closing the Clinton parenthesis in presidential history, is refreshingly cerebral amid this recrudescence of the paranoid style in American politics. He is the un-Edwards and un-Huckabee -- an adult aiming to reform the real world rather than an adolescent fantasizing mock-heroic "fights" against fictitious villains in a left-wing cartoon version of this country.


George F. Will writes for the Washington Post Writers Group.
georgewill@washpost.com

Dick Care !!!

Health Care !!! ("CheneyCare"!!!)

Hey Folks -

No comment needed here!! (Except: "Sign the petition!!)

- Uke Man


Press Release
Source: The California Nurses Association

Nurses Launch National 'CheneyCare' Campaign
New Print, Online Ads Jumpstart Petition Drive for Guaranteed Health Care

WASHINGTON, Jan. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- The California Nurses Association (CNA)/National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC) launched a national campaign today in favor of what the group has dubbed "CheneyCare" -- guaranteed, publicly-funded health care for all Americans.

The campaign was inspired by the success of the group's Iowa ads declaring that Vice President Dick Cheney "would be dead" if he did not have publicly-funded health care. A new version of the Iowa ad asking Americans to sign a petition for "CheneyCare" will run today in eight New Hampshire papers before going national in the New York Times, Washington Post, and USA Today, as well as leading political blogs, on Monday.

"All Americans have the right to the quality of care that our Vice-President, President, and Congress already have," said Rose Ann DeMoro, Executive Director of CNA/NNOC and a vice-president of the AFL-CIO. "All the leading Democratic proposals fall well short of "CheneyCare," keeping insurance companies at the apex of power and allowing them to deny care that can save lives. The Republican proposals are even worse."

The ad uses recent headlines about Vice-President Dick Cheney's latest heart procedure to point out the difference between the government-funded health care that the nation's leading politicians enjoy and the precarious health care situation in which most Americans find themselves.

A news article about Cheney's recent treatment for heartbeat irregularities provides the context with the headline: "If he were anyone else, he'd probably be dead by now." The text highlights that factors such as the patient's history and prognosis would likely lead to a denial of private insurance claims for most Americans, assuming that they had coverage in the first place.

The ad asks readers to go to http://www.cheneycare.org/ and sign a petition in support of CheneyCare for all Americans. The blog ads cut to the chase, with the tagline "CheneyCare for all."

The campaign plans to continue running ads in all the early primary states. Once the presidential candidates are chosen, the petition will be delivered to the both the Democratic and Republican nominees' state campaign offices around the country.

CNA/NNOC has been critical of "universal health care" proposals by top Democratic presidential hopefuls Senator Hillary Clinton, Senator Barack Obama and John Edwards, which continue to rely upon the wasteful inclusion of private insurance companies.

Earlier in the campaign season, CNA/NNOC teamed up with Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) to air television ads during Democratic presidential debates in Iowa and New Hampshire. The three "Speechless" ads featured regular Americans describing the costs, burdens and financial pressures that the current health care system is putting on them to one of the leading democratic candidates. They then ask the candidate what she or he is doing about it. The camera then cut to a cardboard cut-out of candidates Clinton, Obama or Edwards, with a voice-over that says, "The longer nobody talks about single payer, guaranteed health care for everyone, the longer we are going to wait t0 get it."

CNA/NNOC is part of the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care, a new umbrella group for labor, advocacy and health care professionals committed to working to pass legislation that will guarantee access to health care for all Americans.

About California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee: Founded in 1903, the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee today represents over 75,000 members nationwide. It is the largest and fastest-growing organization of direct care Registered Nurses in the country and is dedicated to providing a voice for nurses and a vision for healthcare.

A song performed Saturday at Larry's but recorded elsewhere in the light

Paloma y Abuelo

"Paloma" means "dove." Paloma is my granddaughter; she and I fly through the sky chirping.

The Band & I will see you at Larry's !!!

Homer & I will see YOU at Larry's !!