Monday, February 28, 2005

Citizen’s Initiatives, Unions, and RTD

I hate citizen’s initiatives as they’re practiced here in Colorado.  Amending the Colorado state Constitution is frighteningly easy, seeing as it takes 50.00000000001% of the vote and an insanely low number of signatures on a petition.  I pay my state legislators to legislate, damn it, and I expect that they’ll do their jobs, not rely on me to do it for them.  And, against all odds, I actually expect the people I elect to represent me, not screw me over in favor of special interests.

I’m also not a big fan of unions.  Most unions today exist as special-interest groups that use the same strong-arm tactics that NARAL, the Sierra Club, Focus on the Family, and the Western Business Roundtable use (for abortion rights, the environment, so-called moral values, and energy/mining interests respectively).  Unions have their place, namely protecting the rights of their members, but too many unions have crossed the line from member advocacy and contract negotiation into legislative and economic arm-twisting.

These two, seemingly unrelated topics fuse together in Colorado Senate Bill 61 (SB61).  This lovely bill, passed by the Colorado Senate and sent to the House, order the Denver metro area’s mass transit organization, RTD, to reduce the number of privately contracted (vs. unionized) bus drivers from 50% to 35%.  This seems pretty benign until you realize that the average hourly cost of a unionized bus is between $73.50 and $82.05, as opposed to $56.68 for a privately contracted bus.  Taken over the lifetime of the recently voter-approved FasTracks rapid transit construction program, the additional costs are estimated at about $143.5 million.

I bring up FasTracks because SB61 proposes to pay for the extra unionized employees by stealing funds away from FasTracks.  The RTD board of governors convinced the Denver metro area voters to approve a sales tax increase to pay for improved mass and rapid transit throughout Denver.  Now the state Senate has the unmitigated gall to try and strip away voter-approved tax revenue from a voter-approved project and redirect it to paying the extra wages, maintenance bills, and construction costs required to maintain the exact same level of bus service as we have now, but with unionized employees instead of private contractor employees.

I didn’t vote for a pay increase for current bus drivers.  When I voted for the sales tax increase, I voted with the understanding that FasTracks would be done by 2017, and now the state Senate is essentially forcing the project to run long by stealing $143.5 million.  I didn’t vote for that, but I’m not sure that there’s anything I can do about it, besides lobby my state House rep to kill the bill and, barring that, lobby Governor Owens to veto it.

Regardless, the state Senators who voted to approve SB61 should be replaced with real legislators who understand that they serve at the voter’s pleasure at the earliest opportunity.  And whatever union leader(s) came up with the idea to misuse public funds and the public trust like this should be thrown out of the union for it.  Barring that, I’d be tempted to use our screwy citizen’s initiative procedure in Colorado to strip the legislature of the power to screw with the RTD, or an other voter-approved project, like this.  It’s the least we can do

Sunday, February 27, 2005

The Daily Mantra:  Caffine, Part 2

Going cold-turkey on caffeine will cause withdrawal headaches.

Saturday, February 26, 2005

The Miscreant’s Dictionary:  “Science Fiction”

science fiction

1. fiction in which technology and actual or possible scientific developments are fundamental to the plot, setting, and/or characters (Ed. Note: this is very close to the real definition)

2. pseudo-literature, according to the snooty so-called literary intelligentsia

Posted by angliss on 02/26 at 06:34 PM
Entertainment • Language • The Miscreant's Dictionary • P-T • (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

Friday, February 25, 2005

The Daily Mantra:  Competence

Unless you plan to be insanely busy all the time, don�t illustrate that you’re far more competent at work than people think you are.

Thursday, February 24, 2005

The Micro-Pundit:  Soldier Survivor Benefits

Currently, if a soldiers dies in Iraq or Afghanistan, his or her family receives a one-time payment of about $12,500 tax-free as compensation for their loss and for the loss of the soldier’s future pay and benefits.  This is grossly insufficient, and veterans groups, state governors and legislatures, pundits, and bloggers have been calling for this compensation to be increased dramatically.  Finally, after several states took the initiative and started granting additional survivor benefits themselves, Bush II is proposing that the federal survivor benefits be increased to $100,000 and an additional $150,000 in group life insurance.

It’s about damn time.  Bush II has been horrible over the last four years to veterans and soldiers, and even worse to the National Guard and Reserves.  Four years is too long to wait before doing right for veterans, soldiers, and their families.

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

The Miscreant’s Dictionary:  “Recording Industry Association of America”

Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)

a trade group of U.S. record companies that exists to generate a legal climate conducive to it�s member�s financial and creative viability through creatively distracting the public from the abysmal quality and variety of music by suing P2P file traders and thus ensuring financial viability

Sunday, February 20, 2005

The Daily Mantra:  colloquial vs. scientific

Never underestimate the ability of Creationists to intentionally confuse the colloquial use and the scientific use of words such as “theory.”

Friday, February 18, 2005

The Young Cookie Lawsuit

The Denver Post ran an article on Herb and Renea Young, the couple who sued two 18-year-old girls in response to a late-night, ostensibly friendly cookie delivery.  Basically, the girls rang the doorbell and ran at 10:30 PM one night and scared the shit out of Renea.  Here’s a link to the article.

In the article, Renea Young says she hasn’t been able to go back to her part-time job at Wal_Mart because she’s “devastated” by the attacks, nasty phone calls, and weird mail that her family has been receiving since this sordid affair became public.  She claims that “my spirit, my soul, is damaged.” Mrs. Young actually makes you want to feel some sympathy for her.

There are some interesting facts that I’d like to point out.  Mrs. Young had an anxiety attack and went to the hospital the next day.  Once she figured out who scared the snot out of her, she complained to the girls’ parents.  Both sets of parents downright insisted on paying the $900 of medical costs that insurance didn’t cover, but they wanted to see a copy of the medical bill first.  When Mrs. Young didn’t produce the bill, they were still willing to pay the bill, but they wanted written assurance that Mrs. Young wouldn’t ask for more money later.  Mrs. Young was “bothered… by the lack of trust” the request for a written statement indicated, so she sued instead.

The audacity of the girls’ parents to demand proof of a $900 charge before paying it is outrageous!  And then to expect that Mrs. Young agree not to demand more money?  How dare they!?

Renea Young went to court rather than deciding to be a reasonable person.  And, from this article, we see that the Young’s have a long history of using the courts instead of being reasonable people.

The two girls’ parents tried to take responsibility for a bad choice made by their daughters.  They tried to do the right thing and pay the medical bills, but Mrs. Young wouldn’t let them.  And when the parents grew concerned about the possible legal problems with paying the bills (I believe that paying the cash might have opened the parents up to legal liability for ongoing “emotional distress"), they continued to be reasonable people.  But not Mrs. Young.  The Young family is now reaping what Mrs. Young sowed.  The nasty phone calls, strange packages, etc. truly are unfair to the Young’s daughter, and I cannot countenance threats of any kind.  But, given the Young’s history of suing (and being sued), I must say that I agree wholeheartedly with one person who called the Young’s:

“‘You are what’s wrong with society.’”

Thursday, February 17, 2005

The Miscreant’s Dictionary:  “Papal Infallability”

papal infallability

the Roman Catholic church doctrine that claims that, since the Pope is God’s most immediate representative on Earth, the Pope’s word is as good as God’s

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

The Daily Mantra:  Vows

Don’t vow to do something before the Gods (or God) as witnesses if you’re not ABSOLUTELY sure you can do it.