See, they’re working hard! Great isn’t it!
As I’m sure you’re aware, the new law doesn’t exempt StarKist Tuna specifically. It exempts the territory of American Samoa from the law. Now this is beneficial to StarKist Tuna because they have packing plants there. However, it’s worth noting that previous minimum wage laws haven’t applied to American Samoa either.
The scandal! The Democrats didn’t extend minimum wage protections to a U.S. territory that has never had them before!
Well, if you want to take that tack…you guys had a chance to unseat Bush. But you propped up a screaming maniac, and a phony war hero who threw phony medals over the White House fence. Now Hilary is tanking, Obama has a snowball’s chance in Hell, and you’re stuck with an ambulance-chasing shyster.
Because average wages in the Pacific islands are so much lower that it would be impractical to raise wages to match the mainland, maybe? In any case, if you Republicans care so damn much about the wages of the people in American Samoa, WHY DIDN"T YOU PASS LEGISLATION TO HELP THEM WHEN YOU CONTROLLED CONGRESS?
Hey!!! That’s some “new direction”, huh?
Anybody who the Democrats ran would have been slimed and smeared the same way. I’m not whining about it. That’s just par for the course if you’re a Democrat running for President.
See what I mean?
REALLY??? Perhaps you never read this… http://www.dol.gov/esa/minwage/americanSamoa/ASminwage.htm
So, basically you’re pissed off because the Democrats aren’t being sufficiently liberal? They’re not passing enough progressive legislation fast enough for you? In that case I suggest that you write to your Congressman! If he’s a Democrat, tell him to pick up the pace. And he’s a Republican, tell him to get out of the way. We’ll need some Republicans to cross the aisle if we’re going to override the inevitable Bush vetos. You can help!
WE didn’t exempt them…YOU did. http://www.dol.gov/esa/minwage/americanSamoa/ASminwage.htm
I’m pissed off because I thought the Dems would bring some balance to the government, based on the promises they made.
Ah, here’s twice (at least) that we’ve heard the suggestion that the Democrats promised balance (or bipartisanship or unity). The Democrats ran and won talking about Republican corruption and Republican failure.
There was no need to promise anyone that they would work with them; in fact that would have been counterproductive to the message that the Republicans were corrupt and were failures.
Yes, there is A minimum wage in American Samoa. :rolleyes: But since the 1950’s it has been determined independently of the national minimum wage. This new national minimum wage law does nothing to change that.
Maybe we SHOULD extend the national mimimum wage to American Samoa. Truthfully, I don’t know enough about their local economic situation to hold a strong position on it. But “not extending the national minimum wage to a territory where it didn’t apply before” is not the same thing as “curiously exempting StarKist Tuna”.
Jeez!!! Do you Nancy’s quotes right there on your monitor?
need, even
Forgot to add: Having said what I just did, the Democrats in actuality do support a bipartisan plan for Iraq. It was developed by a group of Republicans and Democrats called the Iraq Study Group. It reflected a change of course, and it was rejected completely by Bush.
They’ve been exempted for more than 50 years, through both Democratic and Republican governments. It’s amazing to think that Nancy Pelosi managed to engineer a loophole for an constituent years before she was even elected! When she was still a teenager no less! Now there’s a LEADER for you!
Yup, I heard lots of talk of a bloodbath for conservative politicians and ideas. That namby pamby kumbaya stuff wouldn’t have gotten so many dems out to vote.
The LEADER is going to leave the poor slobs wallowing in misery??? How progressive is that?
The bill “extends for the first time the federal minimum wage to the U.S. territory of the Northern Mariana Islands. However, it exempts American Samoa, another Pacific island territory that would become the only U.S. territory not subject to federal minimum-wage laws.” One of the “biggest opponents of the federal minimum wage in Samoa is StarKist Tuna, which owns one of the two packing plants that together employ more than 5,000 Samoans, or nearly 75 percent of the island’s work force.”
OOPS!!!
On this silly StarKist Tuna bullshit, let me also say this: There is nothing wrong with any politician, Democrat or Republican, advancing the interests of businesses within his or her district.
Representatives from farm states push for legislation that benefits farmers. Representatives from coastal states push for legislation that benefits ports. Representatives industrial states push for legislation that benefits factory owners. This is how represenative democracy is supposed to work.
The Republicans act like its somehow immoral for Democrats to represent their constituents. Democrats are supposed to all be high-minded saints, only interested in the national good. It’s okay for Republicans to help the folks back home, but Democrats aren’t allowed to. That’s corrupt and indecent.
Now, “representing the folks back home” does become a problem when bribes are invovled. Funnelling business to a defense contractor because he buys you a yacht is immoral and illegal. But there’s no evidence that Nancy Pelosi has even accepted LEGAL lobbying money from the tuna industry, let along an illegal bribe. There’s not even any evidence that the exemption for American Samoa in the current legislation is the result of ANY politicking on her part.
It just one more baseless Republican smear in a long line of baseless Republican smears.
Except that Pelosi and her conspirators campaigned on ending “earmarks” and pork…or was your TV broken those seven months?