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Bad Bush Nominees, Consumer Debt, Working Too Hard and More |
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Monday, 11 June 2007 |
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Yet another bad Bush nominee: Bush’s nomination of Leslie Southwick to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit as being one which brings up Southwick’s troubling court decisions, which included ruling against compensating workers for on-the-job injuries.
Today, the Center for American Progress describes a Bush nominee for the Federal Election Commission (FEC), Hans von Spakovsky, who is said to have
“used every opportunity he had over four years in the Justice Department to make it difficult for voters—poor, minority and Democratic—to go to the polls.”
Like many of his other extremist nominees, Bush temporarily placed Spakovsky on the FEC using a recess appointment. Proving again that for an Imperial Presidency, a democratic process of checks and balances is such a bother.
Consumer debt on the rise. Spinning away, The Wall Street Journal today calls the latest rise in consumer debt—to an unprecedented $2.4 trillion—good news. After all, consumers increased debt by $2.6 billion in April, compared with $14 billion in March. Since this item is such good news, the Journal buries the seven-graph story on page 14. And based on recent experiences with data coming out of Bush-run federal agencies, expect a revision in the numbers—for the worse. Wonder what page that item will show up on?
Vetos, unions and Bush. Having a rubber-stamp Republican Congress for six years enabled Bush to brag about his lack of vetos. With Democrats running the House and Senate, Bush has actually used the veto pen more than once. But what really pushes Bush’s veto buttons are issues benefiting working families. Writes the Chicago Sun-Times:
Five of the 24 veto threats President Bush has issued since Democrats took control of Congress target bills with provisions that benefit unions and their members.
Among those is the Employee Free Choice Act, now in the Senate (S. 1041), which would level the playing field for workers to form unions. Bush certainly wouldn’t want workers to get a break.
600 million of us work too many hours. What a better way to end the week than with an International Labor Organization (ILO) study released this week showing that 614.2 million—22 percent of the world’s workforce—are working “excessively” long hours. As much as we stressed out Americans like to think of ourselves as overburdened on the job, work hours in the United States are behind even some developed nations.
Peru topped the list at 50.9 percent of workers (Note 2), the Republic of Korea at 49.5 percent, Thailand at 46.7 percent (Note 3), and Pakistan at 44.4 percent. In developed countries, where working hours are typically shorter, the United Kingdom stood at 25.7 percent, Israel at 25.5 percent, Australia at 20.4 percent, Switzerland at 19.2 percent, and the United States at 18.1 percent.
But for many of the folks working long hours in the United States, the subprime lending disaster means they will lose their homes to foreclosure. Before heading off to happy hour today, take a second and check out our ally ACORN and the group’s Campaign to Stop Foreclosures. There may be something you can do to help.
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