Reason Morning Links: Big Raises for Federal Workers, No Charges for Destroyed CIA Tapes, Steele May Get the Boot

• Some GOP leaders looking to oust Michael Steele.
• Pay of federal workers has soared since 2005, well beyond inflation.
• Beating up on the Fed: Not so crazy any more.
• Obama administration won't charge CIA officials who destroyed video evidence of torture.
• "The world could run out of affordable chocolate within 20 years…"
• Joe Miller argues ballots that misspell Lisa Murkowski's name shouldn't count.
• British officials deny claim in Bush memoirs that torture prevented London attacks.

Comments

[Pip]

"Obama administration won't charge CIA officials who destroyed video evidence of torture."

Where the fuck is joe?

[Mean Girl]

He's never coming back. Why can't you let it go? Just...let it go.

[Xenocles]

Heard this yesterday. To my untrained ear it sounds rather like what those kooky teabaggers called "death panels."

[The President Has No Sarong]

uh...

[Xenocles]

Thought it would be clear in the transcript. Government creates an entitlement out of a life-saving chronic treatment. The entitlement status in turn creates explosive demand for the treatment. This forces committee t

[Xenocles]

This causes committees to chose who gets the treatment based on subjective evaluations of the patient's worth.

[cynical]

That's not how I read it -- it seemed like they were saying that government created the entitlement because care was being rationed and people were uncomfortable with it.

("One of the things this program was a reaction against is an actual life and death committee at a medical center that was, what, screening who was and who wasn't eligible for treatment with dialysis?")

[Xenocles]

You know, you're right. It sounded like the panels came after the entitlement when I heard it on the air, but the reading definitely puts it in a different order. Thanks for the backup.

[John]

http://volokh.com/2010/11/09/n.....ken-glass/

Interesting post on Nazism and the disarming of the populace. The comments are an amazing collection of stupid.

[BakedPenguin]

The comments are an amazing collection of stupid.

The first few are, then apparently the commenters from the short bus got distracted by shiny objects or something...

[Mr. FIFY]

Money shot:

"comparing the uses of gun registration in modern America versus the minute chance of such records being used to oppress the citizenry"

Epic stupid.

[John Thacker]

Why, it's as crazy as the idea that the licensing of barbers would be used as an end run around the 4th Amendment?

[Mr. FIFY]

And licensing of interior decorators. Obviously, one is not qualified to recommend sofa fabrics without a license, lest we tumble down the slippery slope to Somalia...

[Edwin]

WHY THE FUCK do you assholes hate authority??? Live by the rules, dumbshits!!! We NEED these regulations!!!!! Fuck.

[Federal Comment Regulator]

I'm sorry, do you have a commenting license? If not, please cease and desist from posting here.

These rules were created to protect readers from irresponsible unlicensed commenting like the above.

To obtain a commenting licenses, you must have a history of responsible licensed commenting and donate $100 to the Reason online webathon.

[John]

"The world could run out of affordable chocolate within 20 years..."

Ah no. If you RTFA is says that farmers are getting out of the cocoa growing business because the middle men are fucking them and keeping too much of the profits. As that happens, the middle men are going to be forced to fork over more of their profits to farmer and the market even the whole thing out. No, we are not going to run out of chocolate.

[Montani Semper Liberi]

I bet we could reduce costs if the federal government would have a bidding process and contract with one chocolate company to provide for the whole country. Economies of scale and all that.

[Ragin Cajun]

Single payer is the only way to go.

[Mean Girl]

Will I be forced to purchase chocolate, or can I take a penalty at tax time?

[John]

I assume you are being sarcastic. If you, well played.

[Joe M]

That was my first thought as well. It seems like the most salient point in all this.

[Michelle Obama]

If I had My way, I'd just ban chocolate.

[Aresen]

I'd be able to support an entire illegal chocolate cartel on my consumption alone.

[Nick]

Even Chocolate Jesus?

[Wesley]

What about Sexual Chocolate?

[Pro Libertate]

Sexual Chocolate! SEXUAL CHOCOLATE! [stomps foot, drops mike]

[dunkel]

[dunkel]

http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/foothill.....out/69930/

[zoltan]

I bet we could reduce costs if the federal government would have a bidding process and contract with one chocolate company to provide for the whole country. Economies of scale and all that.

If only we could start that Metropolitan Improved Hot Muffin and Crumpet Baking and Punctual Delivery Company.

[Joe M]

Yeah, it's a pretty idiotic article. Obviously market forces will balance things out over time.

[The Other Kevin]

Simple supply and demand. Those farmers will come back when the price of chocolate (and hence profit) goes up.

I did find it interesting they mentioned farming for biofuels. How long before we see a biofuel backlash when people realize the cost of every day items is going up because more crops are being used for fuel?

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

Sexism alert! Women tend to be more enamored of "green" policies than men. But wait till they find out their chocoholic fix is threatened.
;^)

[The Other Kevin]

We've already had tortilla prices go up in Mexico due to more corn used in ethanol. To racism alert, too.

Or you could go another route, and say that biofuels increase food prices: women and minorities hardest hit.

[BakedPenguin]

Or farmers may band together and create their own middleman function. Assuming they can pool enough cash to pay the bribes.

In Ghana, the bribes aren't too bad, so I could see that happening there.

[some fed]

In Ghana, the middle man is actually the government. The markup from farmer to export has constituted a major part of government revenue since independence.

This has been liberalized a little, such that licensed private firms are awarded export quotas, but they are still regulated by the national marketing organization.

[Marshall Gill]

The world consumption of chocolate has been growing for decades. If we haven't reached Peak Chocolate yet, it is clearly just around the corner.

[Tulpa]

Adapted from the originals on the NIH website:

Oompa, Loompa, doom-pa-dee-do
I have another puzzle for you
Oompa, Loompa, doom-pa-da-dee
If you are wise, you'll listen to me

Who do you blame when you're out of chocolate?
And all the substitutes taste worse than shit,
Blaming the farmers is a lie and a shame,
You know exactly who's to blame...

The evil corporations!

Oompa, Loompa, doom-pa-dee-da
Without false consciousness, you will go far
You will live in happiness too
Like the Oompa Loompa doom-pa-dee-do

[Pro Libertate]

The real problem stems from the government's plan to add chocolohol to gas.

[Rainbow Party Violet]

You suck 'em and suck 'em and they never get smaller!

[Johnny Longtorso]

Mystery Missile: Defense Dept. Issues Statement

[The Other Kevin]

I think it was Ahnold testing his new weapon systems before he stages a military coup of California.

[Jordan Elliot]

After that, he and Hank Scorpio can divide up the rest of the country.

[Ska]

Sweet, I'll be in the hammock district on third.

[Brett L]

California? He's the avatar of SkyNet!

[John]

http://www.businessinsider.com.....et-2010-11

People are saying now it was a contrail of a jet. But perhaps this is just the cover story. LOL

[SIV]

Contrail? Or Chemtrails !!1!

[Corduroy]

No... please... don't....

I get enough of that crap by email from acquaintances.

[JW]

It was...Venus...No! It was swamp gas or a weather baboon!

[cynical]

A weather... baboon?

[The Librarian]

Oook?

[cynical]

No, not an orangutan.

[hmm]

Skynet

[Chad]

That missile contrail just contributed to global climate change. Where is the EPA on this?

[Enjoy Every Sandwich]

This story is why I tuned into Fox and Friends this morning. I was hoping to get a laugh out of that Kilmeade character.

"It's obvious, isn't it? That missile was fired by IRAN!!! We just got lucky that it missed! The Iranians are attacking us right now and Obama is ignoring it! We need to nuke Tehran right now!!!

And I'll bet the missile came from Saddam's stock of WMD! I told you Saddam's WMD was real! Toldyoutoldyoutoldyoutoldyou!"

Alas, it didn't happen (unless he did it after I left for work). But I'll bet he (and some of those other neocon wankers) was thinking it. Heh, hoping it.

[Chris]

Do Fox newscasters often carry on with imaginary shows in your head?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Some GOP leaders looking to oust Michael Steele.

Two (soon to be) newly-minted Congresspersons of Color and the GOP makes its quota by double. RACISTS!

[Cyto]

I'm not a Republican, so I don't think they give a crap about my opinion. Still, I hope they have the sense to get rid of that guy. He's pretty well full of crap, which isn't so bad in politics, but he gives me an "ick" vibe. I get emails from the DNC and RNC - which uniformly suck - and his always creep me out. I think he may be stuck in 8th grade.

And worse, I couldn't point to any one specific thing that creeps me out. His emails are fairly standard "give me money" fair, written with a 5th grade reading audience in mind - but just reading the title makes me think he's a dick. "Hillary Clinton Was Right", "Pelosi's Failure", "Don't let the Democrates 'Franken' This Election". Maybe it is just that he's a professional fundraiser and I'm epically "frugal".

[Fist of Etiquette]

You know who else wasn't a Republican and didn't want to give money to the black man?

[DJ Drugs]

Roads?

[sloopyinca]

Robert Byrd?

[Gayle]

Oprah?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Somali warlords?

[John]

For once I am on Michelle Obama's side. Make the fucking barbaric little bastard shake your hand. Good for you Ms. Obama.

AKARTA, Indonesia ? A conservative Muslim government minister admits he shook hands with first lady Michelle Obama in welcoming her to Indonesia but says it wasn't his choice.

Footage on YouTube shows otherwise, sparking a debate that has lit up Facebook, Twitter and the rest of the blogosphere.

"I tried to prevent (being touched) with my hands but Mrs. Michelle held her hands too far toward me (so) we touched," Information Minister Tifatul Sembiring told tens of thousands of followers on Twitter.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/201....._handshake

[Cyto]

Yeah, it is fun to watch a hypocritical politician hoist on his own petard, whatever his political stripe. The little bastard is positively glowing as he gets the honor of shaking the Mrs' hand. Oops.

[John Thacker]

Is the Minister allowed to be "friends" with unmarried women on Facebook, or to have such licentious women "follow" him?

[Cyto]

As long as nobody does any poking...

[Barely Suppressed Rage]

Meh. It seems it's a big no-no in their culture to touch a woman; seems to me she should have respected that - it's called protocol.

[Joe M]

Except the guy is full of crap. He forgot himself in the excitement of the moment, then tried to cover his ass to maintain his status with his conservative supporters.

[John]

His culture is primitive and barbaric. I love it that we sent a big bad black woman to shake the guy's hand.

[BakedPenguin]

After she saw him hesitate, she probably crushed his hand in her massive kung-fu grip claw...

[Mike M.]

I agree. If only the president himself had the courage to say it, instead of continually running down America in order to try and ingratiate himself with these primitive horses' asses, as he has continued to do on this trip like he has throughout his entire presidency.

[shrike]

hey, it's okay to run down America, since it's now run by Christ-fag Republicans...

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

The tone is all wrong. Try again.

[Chinny Chin Chin]

Can you point to an example of Obamba running down America during this trip?

[Mike M.]

Obama acknowledges decline of U.S. dominance.

MUMBAI: Implicitly acknowledging the decline of American dominance, Barack Obama on Sunday said the US was no longer in a position to "meet the rest of the world economically on our terms", blah blah blah blah blah, end excerpt.

Even if there is in fact some degree of truth to what he is saying, I don't want my president talking like this when directly addressing foreign dignitaries, especially when we're talking about what are to a large extent still third world countries.

All it does is make us look weak, and contrary to what Obama probably thinks, it's not going to gain us any respect abroad, just the opposite in fact.

[Chinny Chin Chin]

thanks

[Tulpa]

Ah, so acknowledging reality is running down America now. And "appearing weak", the old neocon bedwetter standby.

There comes a point where acting so terrified of "appearing weak" is a sign of weakness in its own right. When you're strong, the worst that can happen if you give the appearance of weakness is that you're minorly inconvenienced by having to beat the shit out of an emboldened inferior. The appearance of weakness is only a serious problem if you truly are weak.

[Mike M.]

That's nothing but a bunch of libweenie psychobabble bullcrap.

And by the way, the idea that America is in decline (even in relation to the rest of the world) isn't exactly something that I would consider to be an established fact. It could very well be true, but it is certainly a debatable issue.

Of course, guys like Obama no doubt secretly want it to be true, and are more than happy to try and make it so.

[Slut Bunwalla]

I wonder if he was surprised when the black didn't rub off on his hand.

[sloopyinca]

Maybe he just touched her palms and/or the soles of her feet.

[Timon19]

In that culture, it's more about shaking hands with a woman NOT RELATED to you.

It is generally considered improper (male or female) to extend one's hand to a new acquaintance before talking to them and essentially "earning" the trust to be able to shake hands.

It's certainly a strange thing for a Westerner to adjust to.

[hmm]

The Obama's don't need no protocol. Look at the last visit to manhandling of the Queen. They even provide a complete rundown on protocol before meeting the Queen, fuck they do all but give you a pop quiz and our leaders (you know who wears the pants in that family) still fucked it up.

[DJ Drugs]

On the other hand, I sort of like the idea of the American President not following protocol as to proper interaction with royalty - especially with the British monarch.

[hmm]

Do you show up to formal events ironically wearing torn jeans and a tuxedo shirt?

[The President Has No Sarong]

It gets worse (some cultures are essentisally animalistic):

Christian woman sentenced to death in Pakistan 'for blasphemy'

The court heard she had been working as a farmhand in fields with other women, when she was asked to fetch drinking water.

Some of the other women ? all Muslims ? refused to drink the water as it had been brought by a Christian and was therefore "unclean", according to Mrs Bibi's evidence, sparking a row.

The incident was forgotten until a few days later when Mrs Bibi said she was set upon by a mob.

The police were called and took her to a police station for her own safety.

Shahzad Kamran, of the Sharing Life Ministry Pakistan, said: "The police were under pressure from this Muslim mob, including clerics, asking for Asia to be killed because she had spoken ill of the Prophet Mohammed.

"So after the police saved her life they then registered a blasphemy case against her." He added that she had been held in isolation for more than a year before being sentenced to death on Monday.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new.....phemy.html

[Slut Bunwalla]

The Religion of Peace, everyone! Let's give it a big hand.

[cynical]

1. Animalistic? What animal species (other than humans) murders its own over religious differences?

2. Being martyred for your beliefs due to the lies of the zealous and bigoted is sort of a quintessentially Christian thing to do. She should relish the opportunity to fully experience her religion; maybe they can make a saint of her.

[The President Has No Sarong]

Have you tried fucking yourself?

[cynical]

Yes, that was a dickish thing to say. But still, it's true -- one of the fundamentals of Christian religion is persecution. The trial and execution of Jesus is the archetypical example, but Stephen, Peter, Paul, and any number of other saints make it clear that it's a recurring theme. Martyrdom is typically considered one of the more extreme and heroic expressions of faith.

[mad libertarian guy]

Read the medieval Saints' Lives and you will see this sentiment to be ABSOLUTELY TRUE.

[Brett L]

What animal species (other than humans) murders its own over religious differences?

What was the name of the short story? Sandkings?

[cynical]

Sorry, I was looking for non-fictional species.

[Kenneth]

One of the few benefits of a Hillary Clinton Presidency would have been watching Islamist assholes have to deal with a female President. I would have loved to see the reaction of the Saudi princes to that.

[hmm]

They have dealt with other female heads of state like Thatcher.

[Pete Mynack]

He was just being nice. She tried to grab the hand he wipes his ass with.

//Ray-cess!!

[Mr. FIFY]

"Make" him shake hands? Why?

[Tulpa]

You would think that a guy who, you know, was born grew up in Indonesia would be familiar enough with local customs to tell his wife not to make the first move to shake a man's hand.

And John, you are supposed to make an effort to abide by local customs when you visit a foreign country. Especially if you're on a diplomatic visit and don't want to look like the prototypical Ugly American.

[Enjoy Every Sandwich]

Part of me thinks that the Obamas, being guests, should have been a little more aware of cultural elements like this, especially as the "progressives" like to portray themselves as more intelligent and civilized than us rednecks what are clingin' to our God and guns.

At the same time, I don't really buy the guy's explanation either. He's a grownup and could have finessed the situation if it means so much to him. Pfah, I suspect he has a secret thang for the sistahs; he looked to me like he had a woody.

[oncogenesis]

"Michelle held her hands too far toward me (so) we touched"

Sometimes when we touch, the honesty's too much.

[Fist of Etiquette]

British officials deny claim in Bush memoirs that torture prevented London attacks.

Methinks a few minutes inclined on a board with a saturated cloth over their faces will make those officials admit torture did prevent those attacks.

[SugarFree]

"Defying the physics of just how long dickriding is humanly possible."

The long-awaited fusion of Men's fashion criticism and stream-of-consciousness poetry.

Post Howie Mandel Nascar secondary sex characteristics.
Deal or No Dealin' on hoes.
Throwin' Euros in the air like we don't give a fuck.
And not shaking hands with any of yall.

_______

It took me 15 minutes to get this bandanna right.
You think I'm gonna fuck that shit up by doing any manual labor disguised as a hobby?
My only hobby is looking fresh.
I repeat, my only hobby is looking fresh to death.
I repeat, my only hobby is looking fresh to death on my fucking yacht.

_______

Catch me doing a buck 60 in my Macbook.
Swerving through comments.
Catch me in Duane Reade.
Blowing AdSense paper on Top Ramen.
Catch me at launch parties.
Telling bitches I write for a living.
Catch me on Twitter.
Snagging my 300th follower.
Called up my moms.
She's hella proud.
I'm a real blogger.
My journey starts today.

[DanD]

Pure gold!

[John Thacker]

British officials deny claim in Bush memoirs that torture prevented London attacks.

Not entirely, if you read the article and not the headline. What they apparently denied was that they knew that waterboarding was involved in obtaining the "extremely valuable" information:

They said Mohammed provided "extremely valuable" information which was passed on to security and intelligence agencies, but that it mainly related to al-Qaida's structure and was not known to have been extracted through torture. Eliza Manningham-Buller,head of MI5 at the time, said earlier this year that the government protested to the US over the torture of terror suspects, but that the Americans concealed Mohammed's waterboarding from Britain. Officials said today the US still had not officially told the British government about the conditions in which Mohammed was held.

They then go on to say well, even if it was obtained by waterboarding, that that doesn't prove that it could have been obtained in another way:

David Davis, the Conservative former shadow home secretary, said: "For [Bush] to demonstrate the use of torture saved British lives he has to demonstrate you can't get information any other way."

So all they're saying is that they knew nothing, and were shocked, shocked to find out that waterboarding was going on here.

[John]

The whole myth that torture doesn't work is really crap. Read the accounts of the Algerian war sometime. The French tortured the shit out of people. And they used torture to work their way up insurgent groups and collect intelligence. It was extremely effective. And the insurgency lost.

There certainly are moral reasons not to torture people. And there certainly is a slippery slope where you start torturing in "important" cases and end up torturing all of the time. But the idea that it doesn't work is just bunk.

[John Thacker]

The typical objection to "torture doesn't work" doesn't apply in all situations and questions because you can ask provable questions. For example, if you ask someone for his password, you can pretty easily test right then if he's telling the truth or not. That not only makes it easier to torture until you get the correct answer, it also means you can credibly threaten him with "we'll know if you're lying" to persuade him to give up.

Obviously not all questions you could ask in interrogation are the same way, but it seems unwise to assume that professional interrogators couldn't devise sufficiently devious protocols and techniques.

That doesn't change the moral argument. I think it's a bit of a cop out to say that you're only against because it's ineffective. But then again people like to convince themselves that the candidate that they vote for is actually good instead of the lesser evil too.

[Cyto]

It also can provide false positives. Plenty of documentation is available here at Reason to show that some pretty simple threats, badgering and sleep deprivation can get people to confess to horrible crimes that they didn't actually commit. In some cases the confession carried a death sentence. Imagine what you could get them to confess to if you started lopping off fingers...

[John]

The value is not to get people to confess. The value is to get them to tell you where their cohorts are. If your goal is to convict a guy in court, torture is of limited value. If your goal is to take down an organization of people, find out who they guy's bosses and coworkers are, torture works extremely well. As Thacker said above, the false positives mean that it only works on things you can verify.

[John Thacker]

Consider that many people here were perfectly fine with the government not letting someone out of probation if an ex-girlfriend accused them of being a terrorist, and in general denying people security clearances on such grounds. Or that many people approve of investigations being started on the basis of tips. All of those things are unreliable information like that acquired under torture. Hell, eyewitness testimony isn't that accurate even when there's an absence of motive. And some people will tell cops and interrogators what they want to hear to get them off their back even if there is no torture involved.

It's certainly not sufficient to convict someone in a court of law, and certainly not enough to make you sure that the other person is involved. But it might be enough to focus further investigation.

[John Thacker]

Yes, but asking someone "did you do it?" is an entirely different type of question than asking someone "what's your password?"

Torture almost surely is never sufficient to prove anything by itself, but it can certainly be used to provide leads and be better than random chance.

The argument against torture and on defining torture doesn't rest on efficacy.

[John Thacker]

Plenty of documentation is available here at Reason to show that some pretty simple threats, badgering and sleep deprivation can get people to confess to horrible crimes that they didn't actually commit.

Plenty of documentation at Reason to show that the availability of plea bargains can get people to confess to horrible crimes that they didn't actually commit. And the ability to testify against others and turn state's evidence can get people to finger others for horrible crimes that they didn't actually commit.

If you want to draw a sharp line between torture and not torture, I believe that a moral objection is required.

[The President Has No Sarong]

"There certainly are moral reasons not to torture people."

[citation needed]

[barfman]

*barf*

[Warty]

Torture discussions always remind me of Solzhenitsyn. It seems to me that a good rule of thumb, if you want to be moral, is to not do anything in this chapter.

[BakedPenguin]

The bedbug box was the one that got me when I read Gulag. I'd probably break just seeing it, and knowing they were going to put me in there.

[dbcooper]

That's some nasty shit.

[John Thacker]

"Persuasion in a sincere tone" is pretty horrifying. Imagine listening to one of the President's more earnest speeches for hours.

[Brett L]

Sounds like parts of Naked Lunch.

[Mr. FIFY]

Depends on what torture is defined as. And, yes, I'm going to reinvoke the "underwear on the head":

http://middleeast.about.com/od.....erwear.htm

NSFW. But not torture, either.

[Warty]

Bullshit.

5. Preliminary humiliation was another approach. In the famous cellars of the Rostov-on-the-Don GPU (House 33), which were lit by lenslike insets of thick glass in the sidewalk above the former storage basement, prisoners awaiting interrogation were made to lie face down for several hours in the main corridor and forbidden to raise their heads or make a sound. They lay this way, like Moslems at prayer, until the guard touched a shoulder and took them off to interrogation. Another ease: At the Lubyanka, Aleksandra O_-va refused to give the testimony demanded of her. She was transferred to Lefortovo. In the admitting office, a woman jailer ordered her to undress, allegedly for a medical examination, took away her clothes, and locked her in a "box" naked. At that point the men jailers began to peer through the peephole and to appraise her female attributes with loud laughs. If one were systematically to question former prisoners, many more such examples would certainly emerge. They all had but a single purpose: to dishearten and humiliate.

[sloopyinca]

Apparently she wasn't much of a looker, which may be the reason she became disheartened and/or humiliated. Perhaps if she had taken better care of herself, the men would have boosted her self-worth and the entire ordeal could have ended positively for all.

[EscapedWestOfTheBigMuddy]

If I wanted to play semantic games around this issue I would make much of the distinction between torture as an event that happens in a limited interval, and "reeducation" or some other euphemism for brainwashing that takes place on an extended timescale.

Not that it matters: neither activity (nor the gray areas between them) is acceptable as a tactic for moral people. The more so as a matter of policy--a point that seems important to me because it is easy to understand how someone might succumb to the temptation when the pressure is on.

[Mike M.]

Speaking of Britain, just how bankrupt are they? So bankrupt that they can no longer keep their streets well-lit at night.

The west is approaching a new Dark Age not just figuratively, but literally!

[SIV]

Good for amateur astronomers anyways.

[Tulpa]

But they have universal health care and gun control.

[DJ Drugs]

And roads.

[John Thacker]

Pay of federal workers has soared since 2005, well beyond inflation.

Someone at Cato's blog was saying that it was totally useless and symbolic for Republicans to talk about freezing or cutting Congressional pay. However, it does seem to me to be a prerequisite for freezing or cutting federal pay in general, something that Cato has argued is important.

[John]

You have to start somewhere. No one thing is going to stop this. But if you take the position that anything that doesn't completely solve the problem is not worth doing, you will never do anything.

[TrickyVic]

It's just politicians taking a stance that they know will not pass just to make themselves look good.

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

Pay of federal workers has soared since 2005, well beyond inflation.

The number of federal workers earning $150,000 or more a year has soared tenfold in the past five years and doubled since President Obama took office, a USA TODAY analysis finds...

...National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen Kelley counters that the proposed raise "is a modest amount and should be implemented" to help make salaries more comparable with those in the private sector...

...Jessica Klement, government affairs director at the Federal Managers Association, says the government's official pay analysis shows that federal workers earn less than private workers for comparable jobs. Still, she says, managers are willing to give up next year's raise: "If it will help the country bounce back, they're willing to make the sacrifice..."

In other news, the sun rose in the east this morning...

[NoVAHockey]

That means you're a GS 15-7 or better, depending on your locality. either way, you're a manager. Those slots are are hard to come by.
That's even the top end of the SES pay schedule.

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

He shoots and misses. I can increase the number of federal employees making more than $150K ten-fold without offering a single raise. Just hire ten times as many of them.

[John Thacker]

Any studies about "comparable worth" or pay are near useless, because there's always far too many things to control about work environment-- things which different people feel differently about.

The only reliable metric is the free market, and in the case of government pay whether people tend to flock to government jobs or leave them. The turnover rate is so low at government jobs it's difficult to imagine that they're underpaid.

[hmm]

# Pay of federal workers has soared since 2005, well beyond inflation.

Look on the bright side. They will have more shit to pillage when the country goes French Revolution on their asses.

[Warty]

Christian woman sentenced to death in Pakistan 'for blasphemy'

Christian Woman

[?ato]

Someone at Cato's blog was saying that it was totally useless and symbolic for Republicans to talk about freezing or cutting Congressional pay.

If they proposed a heavily bureaucratized congressional pay-freeze voucher program, that would show the Republicans are serious about policy.

Spending cuts are an empty populist sop to the slopeheads.

[P Brooks]

I don't know what everybody is worried about; that "mysterious missile" in California was just Krugabe, in his tights and cape, heading off to the G20 meeting to teach those ignoramuses some Nobel-quality economics.

[Warty]

The conspiracy theorist in me wants to believe that it was us test-firing an ICBM in response to the Chinese credit agency lowering our credit rating. Seems plausible enough, right?

[waffles]

I want to believe!

[Corduroy]

I laughed.

[JW]

You win the internets.

[Tulpa]

Without a photo I won't believe it.

[ClubMedSux]

According to a pre-election Bloomberg poll, 60 percent of likely voters who self-identified as Tea Party members said they want to see the Federal Reserve either reined in or abolished.

This is why I'm skeptical of self-identified tea partiers... FORTY PERCENT of them DON'T want the Fed reined in or abolished? What exactly is their reason for self-identifying as tea partiers then?

[sarcasmic]

To get chicks!

Conservative chicks are WAY hotter liberal chicks.

Why else would someone go to a political rally?

[Brett L]

Those are the 40% who are just there for the hot members of their preferred gender.

[P Brooks]

The long-awaited fusion of Men's fashion criticism and stream-of-consciousness poetry.

your pants are too tight

your bloodless brain oozes crap

random word splatters

[Mike E]

Just saw an article from AP that says the feds want to put pictures of diseased lungs and such on cigarette packs.

Think about the children! If they get everyone to quit smoking how are they going to continue funding SCHIP?

[Mr. FIFY]

Ahh, yes... the children's health-care program that covers children up to their mid-twenties. Brilliant!

[Liberal Douchebag]

Why do you hate children???

[Ska]

The meat is almost never tenderized properly.

[Kristen]

I'm glad I'm on Chantix now, because I expect the FDA to ban it any day due to "harmful side effects". Meaning it's cutting into tobaccy tax revenues.

[Rhywun]

My company just told us if smokers don't cough up extra next year, they won't cover you if "anything happens". I'm gonna guess that by "anything" they really mean anything - "Sorry, your urine says you smoked a cigarette last week. I'm afraid you're on your own for that brain tumor." The implications of all this are just so absurd - I can't wait to see what happens.

[Tulpa]

...and yet they ban billboards near abortion clinics showing pictures of fetal corpses.

[John]

http://www.thefrisky.com/post/.....ipples/P2/

Ten types of emotional cripples. Very good read and very true.

[robc]

They left out "people who post to slideshow type articles".

One fucking page was all that was necessary.

[Charlotte Sometimes]

Neckwear Mt. Fuji

how do you reach the top row

more ties than wisdom

[Charlotte Sometimes]

Ugggh, this was supposed to be in response to SF's link. I'm ashamed.

[prolefeed]

Sugarfreeing a SF link is great irony -- nothing to be ashamed of.

[sloopyinca]

There will be riots in France today.

Sorkozy just signed the law raising the retirement age to 62. No word yet if they plan to cut the paid vacation time from the state-mandated 24 weeks per year.

[Warty]

The second sentence is a joke...right?

[SugarFree]

The average French worker gets 37 paid days off a year.

[sloopyinca]

Sorry, Warty. It was a joke. Sadly enough, it seems plausible that the frogs would have 24 paid weeks off though.

37 paid days , as SF notes. Hey, if our government mandated that for the private sector, wouldn't unemployment plummet because all the jobs filling in for people on vacation.

Oh, shit. I didn't say that out loud, did I? Prank call. Prank call.

[marlok]

Better yet- reduce retirement age to 45. Think of the number of jobs that will become available!

[hmm the Frenchman]

le riot
le disdain
le upset

[hmm]

How about those entitled kids in England? Brits rioting? Damn kids.

[sloopyinca]

They don't riot in England. The permitting process takes too long and is rather costly.

[Brett L]

Failing to disperse within an hour of a reading of the Riot Act is felony. That might have something to do with it.

[Robert]

Now see, what other candidates should have done was to get other persons with names similar to Murkowski's to file as candidates.

[sloopyinca]

Did they count the write-in's for "Sore Loser" with the Murkowski votes?

[cynical]

Isn't that just as applicable to the person to the guy trying to avoid losing the election by tossing out votes with a slight misspelling?

[sloopyinca]

It certainly is. Of course, the only way her name got into voters hands was because a judge her daddy put on the bench essentially changed Alaska law. It's douche and turd time, but this guy won the nomination fair and square.

I think if someone loses a primary and runs as an indy, they shouldn't be allowed to caucus with either party once in office. That would eliminate a lot of this bullshit.

[cynical]

It would further cement the idea that parties are an actual part of government, rather than private organizations reflecting broad coalitions of citizens with shared ideals or interests.

[Syd Henderson]

Miller may lose the election, but he has a future checking ballots in New York.

[prolefeed]

Reading the law for Alaskan write-in ballot counting, it is ambiguous -- it doesn't seem to rule out counting ballots with minor misspellings of the candidate's name.

[????? ??????]

Thanks