Reason Morning Links: Fallout From Karzai Victory, Elections Test Obama Clout, Ford Soars

• Karzai default victory in Afghanistan presents problems for Obama, U.S. plan.
• Dems brace for what could be a long day at the polls in Virginia, New Jersey, New York.
• House health care bill includes national menu labeling requirement.
• Ford Motor Company, which declined bailout funds, posts strong third quarter profit.
• Fall of the Berlin Wall: a "carefully planned government plot?"

Comments

[Kyle Jordan]

From the Ford story:

"The United Auto Workers announced just hours after the earnings report that its members at Ford plants voted overwhelmingly to refuse to give up their right to strike on wages when the current contract expires in 2011.

"We haven't had a raise in five years," said Nick Kottalis, president of the local at the truck plant in Dearborn, Mich. "It's peculiar that Ford was asking for all these concessions while they were making all this money. A lot of the people on the line were asking, 'Was this all a big lie?'"

Just can't wait to start fucking things up can you, shitbag?

[Quibbler]

Unions never really have understood the concept of cause and effect. They extort all they can until they kill their company, then they whine about the unfairness of capitalism.

[Too Much Lignin]

No raise for five years? Look around, meatheads. How about, 'still have a job' is a big win.

[Art-P.O.G.]

Word. :::sigh:::

[proud libitard]

My employer came to me this year and said, "Dude, no raises are available". I was happy to have a good job that I like. I completely understand and know that when things turn around, as long I'm still there and productive, he'll reward me. It's not hard to understand, right?

[TP]

That's why they've only applied them to chain restaurants?restaurants they say can afford to send dishes off for nutritional testing.

I thought many of those fast food chain restaurants were independently owned franchises.

[Rich]

Exemptions include items that will be on the menu for less than 60 days -- and limited test runs of food products.

With all due respect, WTF?

Does this mean people don't have to wear seatbelts in rental cars?

[Pablo]

This is not about health care, it's about snobbery and the fact that so many nanny statists can't believe someone would actually eat at Chili's or Applebee's. Why are gourmet restaurants exempt? Surely they have the cash flow to tell you how many calories are in their foie gras, creme brulee, chocolate mousse, etc.

This is a trial lawyer's wet dream. If the parolee working in the kitchen puts a generous scoop of Caesar dressing on your salad, as opposed to a level one, all bets are off! Lawsuit time!

[Mike M.]

Good to see Ford doing well. No surprise that people don't want to buy a car from the scumbags in the White House.

[John Tagliaferro]

That New Jersey election might not be over for months with all of the challenges, recounts, etc.

[Johnny Longtorso]

Chris Christie's Next Case: Who Stole My Election?

http://online.wsj.com/article/.....16146.html

[Rich]

Obama called Karzai to congratulate him. "Although the process was messy, I'm pleased to say that the final outcome was determined in accordance with Afghan law,"

Does he offer the same sentiment about, say, treatment of women under Sharia? Just asking.

[John Tagliaferro]

I thought we were the ones who were wrong about that? Just askin' 🙂

[creech]

This must be of great consolation to the parents of any American serviceperson killed in Afghanistan.
America, beacon of liberty, dimmed by all the ass-kissing our leaders do in order to flex their muscles and serve everybody else's interests but Americas.

[The Gobbler]

Wow! Afghan law incorporates massive fraud into it's election laws. How progressive.

BTW, I have voted in every election, including primaries, since the 1970's, but beginning this year, no more. Why? Two words - Al Frankin.

[James Ard]

Now that there is no more election uncertainty, could Obama please make up his mind on the troops already.

[Mike M.]

Sorry, now he has to gear up for the 2010 elections.

[Xeones]

Does he offer the same sentiment about, say, treatment of women under Sharia?

I'm curious about why a "messy" election carried out according to Afghan law is cool, while an impeachment carried out according to Honduran law is not.

[Art-P.O.G.]

Ooh, nice rhetorical question.

[Rich]

Because the impeachment wasn't "messy" enough?

[anonymous]

So... they also want restaurants against the bill, in addition to any intelligent insurers and doctors? And probably unions, if they keep taxing the nicer private policies.

[Kolohe]

An industry association has come out in favor of the provisions, for the usual pro-regulation reasons. FTFL:

In June, the National Restaurant Association threw its support behind the Harkin-DeLauro compromise.

[anomdebus]

I thought many of those fast food chain restaurants were independently owned franchises.
Yes, but they are buying prepackaged pretested supplies from a central location.

Re: wall
I fail to see the blockbuster in the wall story. Ok, so they were planning to allow more travel freedom in a more orderly fashion than before. Apart from the flubbed delivery, that doesn't seem much different than the "official" version. The "official" version doesn't say the spokesman made it up on the spot, therefore some planning was involved. The way this expose says it, you would almost think the collapse of the eastern bloc was a carefully planned government program that got off to a bad start.

[P Brooks]

Yesterday, when the "analysts" were talking about Ford, they said Ford had benefited from reduced "buyer incentives" without mentioning that those "incentives" had been shifted onto the government/taxpayer in the form of CashForClunkers.

Astonishing.

[Nick]

More freedom is a government program we should adopt? How did the eastern bloc get that before us?

[Nick]

There should be no question mark on my first sentence.

And yo, suck threaded comments...again.

[Nick]

Damnit. Suck should be fuck.

hehe

[Chicago Alderman]

Get that guy's license number.

[P Brooks]

Freedom is Slavery.

[Johnny Longtorso]

Houston Tea Party rally draws more than 10,000

http://www.chron.com/disp/stor.....99950.html

[Victor Beeno]

Sounds like some pretty serious fallout to me dude!

RT
http://www.complete-privacy.at.tc

Woman whose dad hit her with car for being 'too Westernized' dies:

PHOENIX - A young Iraqi woman whose father allegedly hit her with his car because she had become too Westernized died from her injuries Monday after laying in a coma for nearly two weeks

http://www.startribune.com/nat.....:_Yyc:aUUI

[John Tagliaferro]

Amazing how these are ignored or forgotten right after they happen. Like that Buffalo TV station employee who was murdered just last year or so.

[Pablo]

Was that the one where the guy who's supposed to be countering stereotypes of Muslims is accused of cutting off someone's head?

[John Tagliaferro]

Yes, that one. The head of his wife, I believe.

Apparently, "I divorce you, I divorce you, I divorce you" was not an acceptable method to him.

[hotsauce]

But if an abortion provider gets killed, say, once every few years, this is a MEGATREND and the MSM will be all over it for days.

/not an endorsement of murdering abortion providers

[JB]

I'm going to do my part in VA to punch Obama zombies in the head.

[Citizen Nothing]

Happy Warren G. Harding's birthday everybody!

[The Gobbler]

Feds to Continue Raids on Medicinal Pot in California

The federal government will continue raids on medical marijuana operations in California despite guidelines issued by the Justice Department two weeks ago indicating the contrary.

"I think it's unfortunate that people have for some reason picked up on this as a change in policy, because it's really not a change at all," said Joseph Russoniello, federal prosecutor for the northern district of California, who was appointed in 2007 by then-President George W. Bush.

Asked if federal officials will halt investigation and prosecution of medical marijuana operations in the state, Russoniello said simply, "The short answer is no."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/.....&tsp=1

[1 Gram = 20 Years]

Mom of Yankees' Chamberlain faces prison for drugs

The mother of New York Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain faces up to 20 years in prison on a felony drug-sale charge.

Lincoln police say the 44-year-old Standley was arrested in May after selling a gram of methamphetamine to an undercover officer at her Lincoln apartment.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/.....&tsp=1

[anomdebus]

for being 'too Westernized'
Hate crime?

[J sub D]

Karzai default victory in Afghanistan presents problems for Obama, U.S. plan.

Allow me to be a unchacteristically optimistic for a bit. Maybe the pipe dream of an enlightened non-despotic government taking root in Afghanistan will be acknowledged by the Obama administration and the rest of NATO and we can all begin an orderly withdrawal from that hellhole. I only ask that we let Karzai know that there is no room on the helicopters for him or his followers.

Ford Motor Company, which declined bailout funds, posts strong third quarter profit.
Fall of the Berlin Wall: a "carefully planned government plot?"

What have I been telling y'all for a couple of years? Somebody. anybody, please tell us how Mullaly is being overpayed.

[TrickyVic]

""Maybe the pipe dream of an enlightened non-despotic government taking root in Afghanistan will be acknowledged by the Obama administration""

Slim chance since cut and run became a gotcha game. Politics replaced reality a while ago.

Congress could pass a bipartisan resolution to end the war. Uh yeaaahhhhhhhhh, that will happen.

[R C Dean]

Speaking of the unions, Obama, and Afghanistan:

Revealing, isn't it, that the head of the SEIU can get into see Obama more than twenty times, and they just can't make room on Obama's schedule to meet with the guy running the Afghan war?

[TrickyVic]

McChrystal?

He does meet with him, maybe not often enough for an on going war.

Once. 30-minutes.

[P Brooks]

Something tells me the Teamsters will have plenty of access to Obama, to lobby against Buffett's purchase of BNSF.

Efficiency is the LAST thing those assholes want to see.