...I'm okay with being REALITY-based.




Friday, June 06, 2003
      ( 3:45 PM )
 
Overtime Lies

Does it seem strange that constant and dramatic reporting on Sammy Sosa, Martha Stewart and the Peterson Case continue to dominate the headlines and news shows -- or is it just me? There is some (though not much) reporting on the Senate's investigation into the fact that a report from the CIA last fall told BushCo they couldn't confirm whether there were weapons or not in Iraq...and yet BushCo made quite a convincing representation (through Colin Powell, who I no longer accept is an unwilling partner in this deceit) that there were specific numbers of weapons of various kinds. The implication was that our intelligence was so precise that we knew exactly what was there and so Han Blix was a complete fool for not finding anything yet, and it was our duty to get rid of this imminent threat.

Much has been blogged and written about the lies that this administration has told and is telling. Yet, even with ongoing deceits, distortions of truth and fundamentally bad decisions regarding the direction this country needs to head, the corporate media chooses instead to focus on scapegoats for stories. Even in their own subject matter, the stories are subterfuge for greater issues. Let's talk about Sammy's brush with scandal instead of the fact that major league baseball is the only professional sport that does not regulate steroid use for players or cap salaries. Let's talk about Martha Stewart, who has been indicted in the greatest subterfuge of the corporate malfeasance episodes yet: She saved $45,000 by going along with her broker's suggestion, and yet she's being tried in criminal court while Ken Lay, who stole retirements from thousands of hard working people, sits pretty in his many mansions.

(An aside on the Martha Stewart thing, why is there so much vindictive hatred towards women who have hard business sense and aren't sweet and kind to everyone? Is there such hatred towards male CEOs or politicans who act the same way? Is it better to have supposedly (but not really) clueless and ineffective male CEOs like Ken Lay who preside over the milking of their own employees, not to mention stockholders, than to have a woman who isn't afraid to bust balls and get things done to the betterment of her company or her cause? Why must Martha Stewart and Hillary Clinton be couched as such evil women, worthy of the vile and distrust of the public while men like Ken Lay and Rick Santorum go scott-free of criticism? The mysoginistic overtones that thread their way through the fabric of our culture have got to end. It's time this kind of unequal treatment and expectations crap stopped. NOW.)

So, on the subject of lies, let's talk about how good the Republican leadership of this country is at not only telling them, but lying about other people telling lies, to get the heat off their (the GOPs) own backs. Yesterday, the House of Representatives had to table a bill calling for the dismantling of the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act. Yes, that's right, they want to undo the set of laws that guarantees workers' rights to a 40 hour work week and then time and a half overtime pay over 40 hours. BushCo introduced this bill on Mother's Day, for godsake, stating that it was a "gift" to mothers. The bill proposes that instead of getting guaranteed overtime pay of time and a half, businesses would be able to instead give their workers comp time. The GOP insists that it's unfair to working mothers and fathers not to get paid time off work when they want it instead of overtime pay.

Okay, let's take a step BACK into reality:

1. If the businesses have the right to decide whether you get overtime pay or comptime, that essentially decides that people will be working for free. The employer doesn't have to pay you, but you still have to work overtime? The comp time doesnt' count for time and half either.

2. If you are told you're getting flex-time instead of actual money, you aren't guaranteed you'll ever be able to cash in on that time. And if you did, more likely than not, you would be seen as a slacker and not committed to your job. And you would eventually be fired for taking too much time off work.

3. Most people NEED the overtime pay they work for. The whole point of the extra work is to get extra money. Most working people who work overtime do it because they need to. Not many people I know work extra time because they like to do it and wouldn't mind not getting time and a half for it.

4. This government and its politicians values businesses and corporations over human beings. This obvious fact grasped, we can now move forward to dislodge them from their places of power. This country was built on the backs of human beings, was put together in the minds of human beings, and grew because of human beings. Corporations are lifeless monoliths that though they have monetary and influential power in our government, do not deserve the right to decide whether a woman who works overtime so she can feed her babies should instead be granted fictitious "flex time" that would not be granted to her when she wanted it anyway.

This bill sucks. And it couldn't pass so the House dropped it. For now. And the reason they say they dropped it? Not because it's fundamentally unfair to working people, not because it flies in the face of the Fair Labor Standards this country has worked under for 70 years - no, they dropped it because the labor unions lied when they said working moms and dads would not rather have "flex time" than time and a half for overtime pay after 40 hours of work. Yes, it was the unions' fault for lobbying on behalf of workers to keep this bill from passing - and the unions were just outright liars. Who says workers don't want to be paid (or not, as is more likely) at the whim of their employers? Damned unions. Always getting in the way of the GOP's corporate goals.

This is shabby governing at best, criminal at worst. We can't let this continue. It's not only the president and his cabinet that must be voted out in 2004, the majorities in Congress must also be changed. Lessons need to be learned now. This country would not run without us working people, and we should claim it for ourselves and take back our destinies from the politicians who kiss the butts of corporate power. Get your voting power ready. It's go time.

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