'You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet'
It may be a rough election year for Republicans, what with that little annoying war going on and on and the economy twirling down the toilet, but they're keeping a brave face here in Tennessee. At the Statesmen's Dinner Saturday night, which produced a record $400,000 for state legislative candidates, Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey predicted the GOP would take control of the Senate and the House too in November.
Unlike other states, where Republican prospects aren't so hot this year, Ramsey says, "We in the state of Tennessee are the shining star. We are the only ones who have a legitimate shot, and I mean a legitimate shot, of gaining seats."
So what happens if Republicans are running the show? Well, Ramsey says, at a minimum the legislature will never enact any of those nasty "Job Killer Bills" that the state Chamber of Commerce opposes each year. In this year's session, he says, the Democratic-run House passed all of them, but the Senate saved the day by refusing to go along.
One of those bills would have given unemployment benefits to women who have to leave work because their husbands have beaten them up. That kind of thing only creates a bad business climate. We owe a lot to those Senate Republicans.
Comments
From what I read, a couple of hundred thousand of that money came from Bill Frist, Lamar Alexander, and Zach Wamp. That's not raising new money. That's just shuffling money around.
Another of those "job killer" bills that Ramsey is so proud to have beaten would have given paid leave to Tennessee workers with illnesses and deaths in their immediate families. Yeah, Ron, it's a really bad idea to let your employees take a couple of days off if their child dies.
Posted 07/29/2008 at 10:53:04 AMThey can take off now----just not at the taxpayer's expense. Most of the rest of the working world has few days for bereavement - very few - like one to three. While I'd want to confirm, I suspect that either (a)state workers have a similar benefit, albeit short, or (b)state workers have the vacation days to take.
Posted 07/29/2008 at 11:14:59 AMTennessee Dept of Human Resources: "Bereavement Leave - Leave with pay is granted for three days in the event of the death of an employee's spouse, child, stepchild, grandchild, parents, grandparents, siblings, stepparents, foster parents, or parents-in-law without charge to the employee's leave time. Two additional days of sick leave may be granted to provide a total of five days absence for this purpose."
Someone ought to keep count of failed attempts by right wing lunatics to find a "gotcha" example of hypocrisy in state employment policies. It NEVER happens, yet the evil FYIGM bastards still try, time and again.
Anon: may you never have to decide between your job and attending your child's funeral, you sick bastard.
Posted 07/29/2008 at 11:49:24 AMI'm guilty of ambiguous wording. When I wrote Tennessee workers, I meant people that work IN Tennessee not people that work FOR Tennessee. I'm glad to see that the state provides such leave for its employees, but Ramsey and the Republicans killed a bill that would have established it for the rest of us.
Posted 07/29/2008 at 06:35:30 PMOkay, my misunderstanding: I smelled the frayed logic of our agressively right wing commentators.
Posted 07/30/2008 at 08:52:43 AMBy the way, the leave called for in the bill would not be at taxpayer expense, but at the employer's. I'd venture that most of us white-collar types have such a benefit already, but many poor hourly workers are told they cannot miss work for any reason, or they're out. This, dear friends, is what I would call a real "family-values" piece of legislation - one that allows people to grieve a family tragedy. Extending unemployment benefits to a woman (or man) severely wounded in a domestic dispute might mean the difference between that woman's ability to get out of the abusive home and protect her own life and that of her children. It would be paid for by the unemployment benefit funds we all pay into the system that is DESIGNED to protect workers. Ramsey and the Republicans apparently think such a woman should have no option but to go back home, injured, so hubby can finish the job.
Posted 07/30/2008 at 09:20:09 AM