Another Harley Strike?
First and foremost, on a subject near and dear to our hearts (as well as other body parts), the International Association of Machinists is scheduling a strike vote on September 20th at the Harley Davidson plant in York, PA.
With 2,000 jobs at stake, this is a seemingly suicidal tendency on the part of the IAM as it comes on the heels of Harley's ultimatum that it needs to trim costs or it will (like Caterpillar before it) leave York, especially following the three-week strike just 2 1/2 years ago.
Arlen Specter's Little Purple Pill & Its Ugly Stepchild ACORN
If you you've been reading our blogs, just when you think Arlen Specter (D-R-D PA) is heading into proverbial town hall hell with flaccid poll numbers, it seems as though he just takes a little SEIU Purple Pill, mixed with some mixed nuts at ACORN, and WHAMMO! his poll numbers start to rise again.According to a Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll, Specter is once again back in the saddle, riding a five point lead over his Republican rival Pat Toomey.
While it does seem hard to believe that Pennsylvanians would support a man who switches his opinion and his party likely more often than his underwear, it may be that Specter's Viagra-like poll numbers are due to the cover he's getting from the Purple People Eater union known as the SEIU.
The SEIU and its ugly stepchild known as ACORN have apparently been astro-turfing for Specter by busing their storm troopers to Specter's town hall meetings to avoid more embarrassing 'senior moments' for the octogenarian politician who, it seems, has forgotten who he works for.
The Spectre of EFCA in September
Speaking of Senator Specter-the-Spectre (the man just who can't make up his mind when it comes to the delusionally-dubbed Employee Free Choice Act), on Friday, the Democrat-turned-Republican-turned Democrat Senator told an audience of left-wing bloggers in Pittsburgh that he wood vote for cloture on EFCA.This means, contrary to his statement in March that he was opposed to EFCA, he is once again fully for it AND, if all Democrats are in alignment, EFCA will pass as written (see caveats below).
Here's Our Current Prognosis on EFCA...A Lot of IFs:
- Nothing before September 8th (when the August recess is over)
- IF Democrats Mary Landrieau (LA), Mark Pryor (AR), Blanche Lincoln (AR) and Dianne Feinstein (CA) all vote along party lines the Senate will pass EFCA as written.
- IF Senators Byrd and Kennedy are back in town
- NOTE: It will be a surprise if a "frail and failing" Ted Kennedy is able to re-enter the Senate chambers to cast a vote and, it is unknown how long it will take for his successor to be named and pressured into supporting EFCA
- IF the Health Care debate sucks all of the oxygen out of Washington, it is remotely possible (though doubtful) that the Democrats may become so embattled with intra-party fighting that it will not be able to focus on another highly contentious bill until after the mid-term elections.
- Utilizing our favorite motto: Hope for the best, prepare for the worst…
A brighter side to the recession if we've ever heard one...The good news is: According to Surfer magazine's July '09 issue, shark attacks in 2008 dipped to their lowest level in five years.
Apparently, more Americans are skipping out on their annual pilgrimages to the beach, which means less tasty morsels for those hungry man-eaters swimming in the deep.
The bad news is… [Click here to find out]
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