Republican War On Workers Comes To Missouri

I have been meaning to write about this for some time now. A bill in the Missouri Senate would make it easier for employers to fire employees and make it harder for those employees to collect unemployment. From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

The bill by Republican Sen. Will Kraus, of Lee’s Summit, would include accidental violations — unless the employee could prove ignorance of the rule’s existence.

The legislation would also broaden the definition of “misconduct” to include violations of an employer’s rules outside the workplace and on an employee’s own time.

You can read the bill here

I Weep For Missouri

The race for a congressional seat in Missouri just took another giant step in to the land of the insane. Republican candidate Ed Martin, who is challanging Russ Carnahan says the following audi o here on a local radio show:

Couldn’t Have Said It Better Myself

Or by Republicans…

WTF Kind of Sick Bastards Live in Arizona?

I ask because of This:

R.E. Wall, director of Prescott’s Downtown Mural Project, said he and other artists were subjected to slurs from motorists as they worked on the painting at one of the town’s most prominent intersections.

“We consistently, for two months, had people shouting racial slander from their cars,” Wall said. “We had children painting with us, and here come these yells of (epithet for Blacks) and (epithet for Hispanics).”

*snip*

City Councilman Steve Blair spearheaded a public campaign on his talk show at Prescott radio station KYCA-AM (1490) to remove the mural.

In a broadcast last month, according to the Daily Courier in Prescott, Blair mistakenly complained that the most prominent child in the painting is African-American, saying: “To depict the biggest picture on the building as a Black person, I would have to ask the question: Why?”

Blair could not be reached for comment Thursday. In audio archives of his radio show, Blair discusses the mural. He insists the controversy isn’t about racism but says the mural is intended to create racial controversy where none existed before.

“Personally, I think it’s pathetic,” he says. “You have changed the ambience of that building to excite some kind of diversity power struggle that doesn’t exist in Prescott, Arizona. And I’m ashamed of that.”

The children in the painting were based on photographs of four children that attend the school…

Christian Fail: Biblically Endorsed Euthanasia

Words fail me:

Chalk another death up to animal rights insanity and to the ongoing failure of the West to take counsel on practical matters from the Scripture.

Private Healthcare Spending Accounts Being Ripped Off!

NPR has an interesting story on private healthcare spending accounts. Seems money is missing from thousands of accounts:

Thousands of people are learning that money they squirreled away in health savings accounts is gone. Many thought the money was sitting safely in banks. But now it appears it was stolen.

Federal investigators have released few details, but all the cases have one thing in common: a Chicago company called Canopy Financial.

Another Accidental Taser Death

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch the individual was hiding in a crawlspace and refused to come out. He was bitten by a police dog then tasered and later died at a hospital. The medical examiner says weak heart muscles/irregular heart beat and toxic levels of methamphetamine contributed to the death, which absolutely, positively had nothing to do with being tasered. Tasers need to be banned.

Gays in the Military: The Sacred Band Of Thebes

There is a big kerfluffle over repealing DADT. Republicans are against it, even though the military is for it. One is amused at the split in opinion between the two groups. At any rate, the Wall Street Journal is against it. Says Mackubin Ownes:

Does Healthcare Reform Mean The Death Of SCHIP: Kill The Bill

You know SCHIP, it’s the State Children’s Health Insurance Program that Democrats were screaming bloody murder about not all that long ago. The Democrats were mad because Bush vetoed two bills that would expand the program. Screamed and hollared and whined about how children were going to suffer and now Democratic hypocrisy is coming home to roost From the Columbia Journalism Review:

Culture of Life Hates Children

Back on my old blog I did a number of posts on the culture of life. I haven’t really done any at ScienceBlogs, however, today I feel the need to rant. Eschaton has been following a story of a DHS raid on a meat packing plnat in Colorado. The reason for the raids keeps changing. Today the DHS is saying it is to break up an identity theft ring – even though only 65 of the 1282 people arrested have been charged with identity theft related charges. How is this identity theft? From TPMmuckraker: