Driver2165

Well the good guys (ATU 1005) and the bad guys (the Republican Mafia) met again today, the first day before we can strike. I’m told that each side had their own room and the state mediator physically went back and forth between them. Maybe tomorrow i should just make a sign that says at the top “We are not striking tonight” and at the bottom “I don’t know” and point to it when somebody asks me a question.

From the Star Tribune:

Tim Pawlenty and Peter Bell are evil evil men.

From the Star Tribune on 28 Mar 04:

Former Gov. Jesse Ventura, who frequently and coyly talked of presidential aspirations for years when he was governor, is up to his old tricks. The Boston Herald, in a report about Ventura's appearance at the State Capitol in Boston to lobby against a ban on same-sex marriage, quoted Ventura as saying he is "setting up for 2008." Ventura said he would ask former NBA basketball star Charles Barkley to be his running mate and that the country needed a choice other than "Pepsi and Coke," according to the Herald. Ventura this spring has been teaching a class at Harvard's Institute of Politics.

Well then, since Mr. "Peter Bell Can Go To Hell" and Mr. "Tim Pawlenty's Wang is Benty" like to compare us to other agencies, I'll also compare a little bit here.

Keep in mind that today is Day 27 of this Minneapolis transit strike.

In 2003, Los Angeles's Mechanics went on strike. 35 days, and it was solved. And they got better than we even have a dream of getting. They got a 7% raise, and all the other issues would go to binding arbitration. We offered to stop the strike if we got exactly that, except instead of a 7% raise it would have been closer to the 0.5% percent the State wants.

"The Philadelphia Inquirer reported the 4,700 unionized transit workers will continue having healthcare paid for -- a key sticking point in the negotiations -- and would receive a one-time $1,000 bonus. However, the contract is only for one year" - Washington Times March 15 2004

This month in Philadelphia a strike was stopped. Of course they had to raise fares. Put this into perspective. Our fare is $1.25, $1.75 during rush hour. That's bloody cheap. Philadelphia's is $2, and they're considering raising it to $2.45. The current highest in the country is San Diego at $2.25. Yeah that sucks and all. But seriously, that's almost DOUBLE our fare. Chicago's is $1.75 AND you have to pay a quarter to transfer. It's no wonder they don't have enough money. (Well that, they blew all the cash on "high-tech" fare collection pieces of shit, and we're run by some cokehead) Why do people whine about how expensive it is here?

Probably for the same reason the Minnesota Taxpayers League likes getting free roads. Because we're all selfish bastards.

And that reminds me. What the hell kind of name is the Taxpayers League anyway? Aren't they opposed to taxes? That ugly ho won't email me back. That makes me sad.

From the Star Tribune:

"Meanwhile at the Capitol, in debate about the omnibus transportation funding bill, House Republicans voted in favor of an amendment that would turn the transit system over to private business."

What an awful idea. This thing gets worse every day.

Sticky issue. I’m expecting a no vote, but it’ll be close. Basically they offered us a year contract. Well, there’s 15 months left on it if we approve it. A one-year contract with a small paycut doesn’t exactly inspire confidence for the bus system. If we approve this, we’ll likely be on strike again near the beginning of 2006. If it had lasted an extra year, until June 2006, we could have at least took 9 months again (this time we were without a contract for 9 months, from August 2003 to March 2004) until after the election and the new governor. By that i mean that I figure a 0% chance of Pawlenty being reelected and a 5% chance of him even running again.

Some 12 year old spammed my comments on that last entry. Quite entertaining actually. But what he failed to realize is why health care is so important to us Transit Operators. I won't say it's a dangerous job, because some steel worker will probably whine (and there's many more jobs are are much more dangerous), but it's not a healthy job. And until we have more trains and electric buses, it's going to be bad for our health. Not to mention the horrible seats they've been buying since 2002. And how completely the opposite of ergonomic the gas pedal is placed (I don't think that was grammatically correct). Some short sighted people may see this as whining, and it is, but I didn't buy those seats, and I can't imagine that medium working conditions can be blamed on the employee. Almost everytime I have to use my health insurance, it's usually completely related to operating a bus. So why shouldn't my employer either pick up the tab or try to make things easier on our bodies? (They're doing neither. Horrible new seats are a product of the almighty bottom line, except they forgot to include worker's comp cases as a part of that) And no, no one's forcing me to work as a driver, but I might point out that after several years of W Bush getting rid of jobs and a whole bunch of Clinton not doing much, and shit there was the other Bush and Reagan before him (damn no wonder the American dollar is losing value) there's not much else out there.

He also believes everything Pawlenty said about transit not being needed. That was entertaining. Pawlenty is not only a bad politician and human being, but a bad Republican and a bad Christian. Just look at what he's doing! And why does he support pointless transit products like the Northstar Commuter Line? There may be a small need there, but there's much more pressing transit needs elsewhere in the state. Even for commuter rail.

Anyway I'm crabby because I've had to get up much too early this week. Have a good day.

Oh! And by the way, "Patrick". We will probably strike again. 15-20 months. Workers have rights too. I'm curious: Why do you hate America so much?

Interesting things I’ve learned from the book I’m reading:

As I write this, the worst world leader since Hitler (possibly maybe even since before Hitler – sure he hasn’t killed 6 million Jews and who knows how many other people, but at least Hitler didn’t run his country into the ground economically.) is nearly a shoo-in to win. God damn this country. And that rat bastard Mark Kennedy appears to have won.

Electoral votes in 2004

Since when does this publication put out realistic stories? (read the top two under “Top Story”)

I got the flu this week. Today is Day 6, and I’m finally feeling well enough to move around the house. It’s already too late to go back to work tomorrow, but I’ll be in on Tuesday. No doubt something crazy will happened in my absence, as they tend to do over just a two day weekend.

Anybody else wanna trash the new Starbucks at Nicollet and Franklin?
--------

Melissa Bean, Illinois (8th District): 202-225-3711

My favorite part of the transportation bill that just passed is the $231 million dollar bridge named for the chairman of the Transportation Committee that connects a town with a population with 5 digits to a town with a population with 3 digits.

Think Progress mentions an article where Bill Clinton is blamed for teaching Rafael Palmeiro how to lie. Sure Bush is the one positive that Raffy hasn't, and he did donate money to the Bush campaign, but those seem to side-step the point. For such a liberally biased media, Clinton does seem to be a widely used example of lying to the American public and to the courts. Bush never gets any credit for his lies about the War On Terror Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism War On Terror. He doesn't get any credit for lying to us about CAFTA, or withholding records on John Roberts that the Senate requires. Or sneaking John Bolton into the UN. Hmm that was all during this last week.

Transit Librarian to join the 21st century and I'll be all set.

According to the internet I'm a socialist. Thanks internet! (That's 63% social liberal and 90% economic liberal, for those keeping track of points.

UPDATE: You can pretty much safely ignore the flamewar going on the comments of this post. Unless you would like to read some hilarious insults by me. Oh and a hilariously reeling conservative named Apollo something-or-other. If you do decide to read it, keep in mind that hilariously insulting the poor fella is my not-so-subtle way of letting him know that until he comes up with a actual fact that he could back up (hell, man, even using the Onion as a reference is better than nothing) that he's not worth having an intelligent conversion with. Be forewarned - it gets naughty in there.

"...You can't play, you know, hide the salami, or whatever it's called." - Howard Dean

"The time has come to drop the fuck." - Tim Pawlenty

Also, the funniest Onion article I've read in a long time

I have to say, it took me a while to figure out the difference between Rybak and McLaughlin, but in the end, McLaughlin is gonna get my vote. He's much better on worker's rights, knows a new baseball stadium will generate new revenue, and most importantly, thinks the city zoning code needs a major overhaul (as opposed to Rybak, who wants to keep all new buildings under 2 stories and focus on developing downtown).

Pat Robertson tells Dover, PA "Don't turn to God."

The song that just missed making the winter mix: I know this is old by now, but I can't stop laughing at this song, some new plan to turn kids into neo-cons (at least the ones that get Zell Miller references). The song is so pathetically hilarious that I'm guessing it will work about as well as Creed worked to get people to go to Solomon's Porch (haha anybody remember that?)

No I'm not being sarcastic. Yesterday's announcement that GM will be cutting jobs and benefits just proves to me that the US needs a national health care system. Do any conservatives feel like explaining this one to me? Companies are paying an awful lot on health care for their employees, and are then forced to raise prices. $1,525 of every GM car sold in the United States goes to paying for that healthcare. How much of every GM car would go to healthcare if the care was taxed instead of sold at a profit? $0. They wouldn't have to pay for it! Their employees would pay for the whole thing! Am I saying that companies shouldn't be allowed to exercise their free-market whatevers to make a profit off of pain, suffering, illness, and death? Yes. Especially when the byproduct is more money for employers and more money for employees.

Allow me to preemptively bar talking points. No, Canada doesn't have long lines of people waiting for care. No, Canadians are not crossing the border for better coverage. Yes, statistics show that Canadians are on average healthier than Americans. No you may not dispute facts using some letter to some editor written by Ben Stein. No, Ben Stein is not an intelligent person (it has nothing to do with his politics. He would be a horrible liberal, also).

I realize my last few posts have been downers, so here's a light-hearted downer post, however serious. George W. Bush, hated by all, has now decided to ban Cuba from the World Baseball Classic this spring at the expense of future US baseball in the Olympics! I didn't know the guy could get any dumber, but apparantly his baseball policy is just like his national policy. Screw everybody else while going after his own personal grudge, and let the rest of us figure out the fallout in five or more years when we've got a president named Dean, Warner, or, in a perfect world, Kucinich (but not Clinton please).

ACLU: You're way off on your siding with people who operate motor vehicles recklessly. Sorry, but the right to walk across a street in a marked crosswalk with a green light more than trumps any supposed right people have to drive their automobiles through a crowd of people because they're running late for a soccer practice.

Way to kill civil liberties while siding with the upper class. Sounds awful right-wing to me.

I saw this posted at the UnCapitalist Journal. I like old hymns, and I like Wobblies, and I know that Bush, Dobson, and just about everybody else running the American exploitation machine are acting like no kinds of Christian lately, so I thought I'd post it. If you grew up in a church, you know the melody.

It looks like we accepted the second contract offer with 67% in favor. I voted no. The only change I saw from the previous contract offer, which was terrible in my opinion [and was voted down] was that they added a $400 "signing bonus" [which will end up being about $250 after taxes, or did everybody forget the $1100 bribe to end the strike ended up being about $600?] and to make up for it turned the 30¢ raise into a 20¢ one. So what's different about it? We get $250 up front instead of slowly over the next 6 months. I don't know what we're so afraid of.

The bit I find personally insulting is that they could have given us a two-year offer instead of the three-year offer we got, which would have cost the state the massive sum of zero dollars. Instead, the next administration will be have an anti-transit policy towards the state's transit employees for the first half of the next term, whether they want it or not.

In better transit news, Peter McLaughlin's wife took the train downtown when she went into labor the other day. I like Rybak enough, but this is part of why I voted for McLaughlin. Sidenote: Whenever I hear Minneapolis heralded for electing a liberal mayor I always wonder if anybody remembers that he was the most conservative of the three main candidates.

People that think the liberal media includes major newspapers, television stations, and radio stations in spite of the facts. Star Tribune has a major bias, sure, but nobody can seriously look at what they print, the wording they use in headlines and in stories, what stories they pass on, and say that it's not a conservative bias. I guess the problem is that the fascists in this country somehow view themselves as moderates.

Yesterday I saw a rusted out F-150 from the early 80's plastered with bumper stickers. There were all of the expected stickers, the Git r Duns, the Calvin peeing on a Chevrolet logo, the gassy ass for grass thing, the slanty number 8, and campaign stickers for everybody's favorite neo-facist pres. Interestingly, however, mixed in were all those annoying pagan stickers (my other car is a broom, I'm an Ameriwiccan, etc.) that you normally see next to stickers advertising for the raise-taxes-for-public-welfare crowd (as opposed to the raise-taxes-for-corporate-welfare crowd).

Happy Labor Day to everybody. Were there good showings by the immigrants today? The only grouping I passed on my 6 today was the rather light grouping at the Basilica.

Today I had a conversation with a guy who expressed his opposition to immigrants' rights. His views were typical of a liberal-voting union member that gets all of his news and information from conservative media like Fox News, CNN, and/or the Star Tribune [you'd think people would at least use sources that at least pretend to be vaguely populist like NPR and NYT, but I digress]. He went on to tell me about his plans to move to a Caribbean island when he retires, and made sure he told me all the loopholes on how to live there without having to actually apply for residency.

I ran empty just after rush hour between 54th and 29th Streets (Uptown Station). It felt like I was driving a 46.

We took the kid in for her four-month checkup. Her 10% head has grown in and now stands at 50%. The rest of her kept growing, though, so her weight and length are both 90%. She's enormous. 26 inches and 16.5 lbs. Last time, she didn't mind the shots so much. Yesterday, she hated them. Such is life. She's been so much more verbal lately, like the other day, she rolled over for the first time, and would not shut up about it. She was so stoked and proud of her self, she was almost hyperventilating. Adorable. Also big new, I'm headed to the Wedge to get her some baby cereal. That's right, solid food. Time passes quickly.

Last night a guy put a five dollar bill in to pay for his buck-fifty fare. I told him I could give him a few passes for the next few days, but he just rolled his eyes at me and asked for a transfer. I thought it was interesting that low-grade gas was listed at $2.95 at the beginning of my shift at all three Hennepin stations at the start of my work at about 3. At about 6:30, the price was $2.85, and on my way back at 7:30, it was back to $2.95. It pisses me off when talking heads start talking about how that's still cheap for Europeans, because they get taxes out of the deal instead fat old men lighting cigars with our commutes, and their goverments don't limit the number of small cars to the extent that ours does. It's no wonder Americans have so sense of geography or world context.

The other day, I called the customer service number of a large corporation who's name I can't recall at the moment. Their phone greeted me with "For english, press one. Para español, press two."

Today I drove the 2. Stuck in traffic, I noticed the for sale sign on a mid-90's SUV. It advertised the cars features: power locks, power windows, and "curse control".

I really enjoyed that NPR Democratic candidates debate. I hope the Republicans aren't so fond of bickering about sanctuaries that they don't do one of their own.