I Never Knew It Was *This* Hard Being a Lobbiyst
Mass. state rep apologizes for comparing lobbyist badges to Holocaust tattoos
A Massachusetts state representative has apologized for comparing lobbyists with Holocaust victims when he was commenting on a proposal to require lobbyists to wear badges.
Representative John Binienda, a Worcester Democrat, said he had made an “inappropriate analogy” on Wednesday when he criticized the badge proposal.
“No comparison can be made between the Nazi regime and a rules proposal made by members in good faith. I apologize to the sponsors as well as the people of Massachusetts for my words,” he said.
Binienda, who heads the House Rules Committee, said Wednesday that a Republican proposal for a rule change to force lobbyists to wear badges while talking to lawmakers smacked of tattoos that Jews were forced to wear.
“The idea of the badge by lobbyists to me, I kind of find that revolting,” Binienda told the State House News Service in article posted this morning. “Hitler during the concentration camps tattooed all of the Jewish people so he would know who was a Jew and who wasn’t, and that’s something that I just don’t go along with.”
This is what you get when a political party gets to be lazy about its dominance in a state. Sheesh.
Scenes from Hell: Incentives Are for the Exceptional
Here, the story of little Peter Laramie, a kid from a world I don't want to live in, continues.
We Need Riots. Good Riots. Big Riots.
Investors May Lose as Congress Saves Money on Adviser Oversight - Bloomberg.
Congress may hand oversight of almost 12,000 investment advisers to Wall Street’s self-funded regulator as a cost-saving measure. The price could be paid by investors.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, deputized by the government to oversee brokers, is lobbying to replace the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as a regulator of registered investment advisers who manage about $40 trillion. Congress is considering the move as a cheaper alternative to increasing resources for the SEC, since Finra’s $877 million budget is paid by the brokers it regulates....
Finra, established in 2007 by the merger of the National Association of Securities Dealers and most of the New York Stock Exchange’s regulatory unit, has done a poor job of protecting investors, said Crawford, who retired in February after 17 years as a securities commissioner. Fines imposed are usually a fraction of the damages suffered, and Finra fails to share information regularly with state regulators, she said.
The regulator fined members almost $43 million last year, while the SEC, working with a similar budget, issued more than $1 billion in penalties.
There's no way to win, is there?
Um, Because You Don’t Know Me
I thought it wouldn't be that funny.
FUoS: Phase One: Accept Friend Request
I thought wrong.
And they say that technology cripples our young people, forever leaving legions of man-children lurking in the shadows. Hah!
Mayor Menino Sucks, Is Anti-Labor, Talks Funny
Mayor Thomas M. Menino blasted the city’s part-time school bus drivers — who have threatened to strike when school closes today — saying the action will leave disabled kids stranded.
“The bus drivers are making a huge mistake,” Menino told the Herald yesterday. “They’re picking on the most vulnerable of our school children, young kids with special needs like autism and disabilities like that.”
Regardless of the merits of the issue-- oh no a 3% yearly raise that will surely be bargained down to about nothing-- since when is having a job that some people come to rely on a surrender of pretty standard labor rights?
The Herald, sucking as it does, just goes along with Menino's assertion that drivers make $60k/year, nevermind that they're hourly. The contract they want with First Student (of FirstGroup), surprise, keeps them hourly-- to earn that kind of money, they have to work for it. Transporting dozens of kids safely is something worth $24 per hour... right?
But no, they're fixing to sabotaged disabled children! Shameful tactic, Mumbles. Shameful.
Here's my message to the kids of Boston: say no to powerful people stoking anti-labor sentiments. That sort of talk is the reason why your parents don't have vacation days or due process in dismissal from their jobs, anymore.
The Secrets of My Success: If You Can Dream It, You Can Manifest It (Special Guest Writer Gov. Rick Scott*)
by Gov. Rick Scott
Photo by the Rick Scott for Governor Campaign
The six traits that I adopted to achieve success as a man of means and action. Heck, I'm a governor! Want to succeed in life? Emulate the successful! Try out these six traits and you can do what I do.
American Democracy Can Do Better
It shames me to write this, but I’m a registered Democrat. It’s not because I believe that the party is anything close to highly-compatible with me in terms of the issues I care about—obviously not. In the current winner-takes-all, first-past-the-post system of elections we have in the United States, voting for a third party is essentially throwing one’s vote away.
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