Some Stuff From Yesterday

Last time I tried the three-dot-monte approach, my browser crashed. Looks like I can't resist tempting fate again.

***Democrats are running on the domestic policy side on the platform of raising the minimum wage yet again. But their affiliates in Wisconsin are themselves unwilling to pay their canvassers the minimum wage, and those workers have walked off the job in protest:

Alex Scherer-Jones began working for Grassroots Campaigns to fight the Bush Administration and elevate the fortunes of the Democratic Party. The 21-year-old MATC student left feeling exploited and sour: "I went in there being very idealistic and it kind of ruined my idealism."

The job involves going door to door asking people to give money to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, using talking points that include a call to raise the minimum wage. For this, Scherer-Jones says he was paid far less than the state minimum wage of $6.50 an hour.

"I worked 37 hours one week and got paid around $130 [after taxes]," recalls Scherer-Jones, who quit after two weeks.

John Dedering worked for Grassroots Campaigns for about a month last year and again this year. He says the company paid a satisfactory base wage in 2005, when he canvassed for Environmental Action, but this year switched to a new system, dropping his wages to less than minimum.

Juan Ruiz says he put in about 45 hours working at Grassroots Campaigns for five days this year, and was paid just $56. And Miles Kristan produces pay stubs for two two-week periods, during which he says he typically worked 50 hours per week. One is for $339.81, the other for $281.50 - before taxes.

How's this for a strike slogan: "Fight the REAL enemy!" Or "The Democrats can't afford us and we can't afford the Democrats!" Or "Bleep the Donks, I'm going to Wal*Mart!"

***Guess who's going to disarm Hezbollah according to United Earth Impotentate Kofi Annan?

Would you believe....Syria? As in the same Iranian crony state that has served as the Hezbos' arms conduit for the past twenty years?

See, this is why I lump Turtle Bay in with the mullahs, NoKos, ChiComms, Hugo Chavez, and any other American and Israeli enemy I've neglected to mention. There's simply no way that anybody could be so stupid as to treat this smirking "assurance" from Bashar Assad as if it were serious.

Or his bosses to the east. The International Atomic Energy Agency has announced their latest discovery of Iranian weapons-grade uranium, which does not fall within the excuse of having REALLY been Pakistani in origin. Has that changed any minds in the "international community" about forcibly disarming the mullahs instead of contining to appease and protect them? Are you kidding? The only concrete result has been increasing Iranian obstruction of inspections, which weren't credible to begin with.

If this sounds like the same path down which we trod with Saddam Hussein, congratulations on your less-than-extra-sensory perception. The principle difference is that unlike Saddam, the mullahs already have a few crude nukes, and by the time our government decides to get serious about stopping them, they'll have enough of their own, complete with North Korean ICBMs to deliver them, that even if we can deter a direct attack on ourselves, nuclear blackmail in the Middle East will be essentially guaranteed.

And still we continue the five-knuckle-shuffling about "sanctions" and other exercises in futility, as if the same tired fandance HAS to be acted out to its wearisome, foregone conclusion.

***Linc Chafee may not even make it to the general election after all. Which may not be the boon to Rhode Island Dem senatorial nominee Sheldon Whitehouse that conventional wisdom suggests:

U.S. Senator Lincoln Chafee may lose his seat to challenger Steve Laffey, according to a new statewide Republican primary voter poll released today by the Bureau of Government Research and Services at Rhode Island College.

The survey was conducted August 28-30, 2006, at Rhode Island College by Victor L. Profughi, director of the Bureau of Government Research and Services. It is based on a statewide random sample of 363 likely Republican primary voters in Rhode Island. The sample was proportioned among the state’s geographic regions to reflect the likely voter contribution from each portion of the state. Overall, the poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 5.1 percentage points.

If the September 12 primary were held today, 51% say they will vote for Steve Laffey, 34% support Senator Chafee, and 15% are undecided. A BGRS survey of Republican voters conducted in June had Laffey at 39% and Chafee at 36%. Chafee’s base is virtually unchanged since the June survey, while the number of Laffey supporters has grown 12 percentage points.

Under 50%, trailing by a growing, double-digit margin, challenger above 50%, primary election imminent - well, what would you conclude? If Chafee is still in any doubt, I'm sure his colleague Joe Lieberman could tell him all about it.

Difference is, there won't be any Chafee independent candidacy. Another is that unlike Laffey's counterpart in this equation, Ned Lamont, his "big Mo" may be coming at just the right time. A victory over the RINO incumbent could serve as a springboard to the retention of a seat that the other side is considering a lock pick-up.

And let's reiterate: if Steve Laffey is the next U.S. Senator from Rhode Island, along side Michael Steele from Maryland, that will NOT be a barometer of a Democrat comeback.

Indeed, it'd be the functional equivalent of a GOP pickup instead.

***Looks like Bill Frist is slapping down the porcine duo of Ted Stevens and Sheets Byrd after all. At least he's going out with the bang he should have come in with.