Wonkette
OK here is the problem with labor/union disputes: they are invariably very complicated and sort of dull to the uninitiated. The articles about these disputes are fiendishly unskimmable, and they often discuss legislation that doesn’t at first glance favor one side or the other until you look into it and realize they are PURE GOOD/EVIL. Thus it is with some trepidation that we even attempt to wade into the Hilda Solis debacle.
Here is the briefest of brief recaps: Once upon a time there was this Congresslady, Hilda Solis (pictured above right, with Fruit), who was sympathetic to labor interests and in fact served on the board of some pro-labor group called American Rights at Work. ARW lobbied for the Employee Free Choice Act, which Solis also sponsored. If you do not care for unions, this is an egregious wrongdoing and a textbook conflict-of-interest case. If you are pro-union, this is not a big deal at all because Solis only served in a “well-known and ceremonial role.”
Anyway, Solis was nominated for Secretary of Labor, a move which should not have surprised any Republicans, as Barack Obama made it pretty clear that he hearts unions. However, Republicans have professed shock and outrage that this terrible labor shill might get a spot in the cabinet.
Solis’s confirmation has since been indefinitely delayed and an acting secretary has been named in the meantime. We will say this: finally, a cabinet nominee whose confirmation has been delayed or derailed due to some non-tax issue! A refreshing change indeed.
Hilda Solis: The Next Tom Daschle? [The Heritage Foundation]
The Right Wing’s Next Target: Hilda Solis? [Think Progress]
Solis Lingers; Acting Secretary Appointed [The Atlantic Politics Channel]
Ahhh!!!
FOUR Mexicans?
That is why we need to get rid of the commie unions anyway and do the old fashioned way, with man-flesh in the hot dogs and whatnot.
Can’t they just get that 4′ gnome that Clinton used?
For every day that these cabinet posts aren’t filled, another red state should be destroyed. I nominate “Texas” to be first on that list.
Remember when Senate Republicans went on and on about the Nuclear Option? They wanted to amend the rules so that filibusters weren’t possible anymore. Well these anonymous holds are crap — and if the Republicans keep it up, their “You better not treat us as badly as we treated you for the last eight years” posturing should go out the window.
can she just be our “Fruit” czar?
Is she the pineapple, or….?
shortsshortsshorts: HEY HEY HEY I love you Mr. SSS but please give adequate warning so I can gets my families out of state before you blow us all away. I have four cats — DO THEY DESERVE THIS TREATMENT?
RE: the fruit photo — nice racks, ladies.
Ha! See! She’s a MEXICANO LATINA fer fucks sake! I’ll bet she has some serious nanny issues. Like all those times she failed to turn in the parents of the kids she babysat for not paying income taxes on all those envelopes of cash she used to receive once a week.
That said, she does look like she’s probably got a real way with kids…Can’t we make her Secretary of Day Care?
magic titty: I wouldn’t pass up the chance to insert my lime into her coconut.
I have a feeling that David Murdock actually dressed up in his very own yellow pineapple/banana thingy for this special occasion.
Gurkman: isn’t a rather sad commentary on America that the message we took away from “The Jungle” was that we needed to regulate food safety?
nestor: He’s working for Orbitz.
The republicans really, really don’t have any intention of moving this country forward, do they?
What a bunch of crap.
The Republicans will never get over Robert Bork. This is the punishment we get.
I work in the district that Solis ’serves’.
She ran unopposed this last time and I got REALLY mad at the LA County GOP for not finding a candidate to oppose her.
She will lie even when the truth would really serve her better.
Why aren’t the Democrats complaining about that new pro-business nominee for Commerce?
Too bad Americans are such cowards and never go on strike for anything anymore.
The Repubs never stop running. The Democrats think that it is time to settle down and govern. But while they do that they really need a wing of the party to pound the shit out the every Repub idea and icon, starting with Reagan, that comes into their sights.
Working people in the country have been getting screwed since 1980. Ray-gun was a union busing asshole who was senile before his second term started but who showed that people in the United States are stupid enough to tax the shit out of themselves so that the very wealthy don’t have to pay anything, ever.
The Repubs aren’t hypocrits–they are willing to fight for tax cuts for the wealthy and no regulation of industry. If Obama’s people can’t figure out how to destroy them then it is time to give up.
nestor: AHA … let the Republicans think Robert Reich would be Obama’s alternate and this would quickly be resolved.
GlennBecksFelch: Not true. Democratic politicians who give advice and commentary on television news talk shows have assuredly gone on strike. Either that or they are very very sick. I hope they feel better soon.
Mr Blifil: Wait, what? Democrats are allowed on tv shows to talk about current issues? I didn’t know that– I thought you had to be either some Republican asshat or Joe Lieberman to be allowed on those tv news talk shows
After being told that her nomination was going to be delayed indefinitely, Ms. Solis wrote and recorded this song.
Now the Republicans, feeling sorry for her, are going to move to support her confirmation immediately and with no strings attached.
This is the power of music, folks.
She got some nice pieces of fruit there…in her blouse!!! Seriously though, I welcome our next pro-EFCA busty Latina secretary of communism.
ElRonaldo: oh, that’s what you got angry with the gop for?
Wait, I thought this article was about the Fruit of the Loom guys.
How dare the Democrat nominate a … Democrat … for his cabinet. I thought Barry was bipartisan and would fill his cabinet with Republicans and Abraham Lincoln. He has some nerve!
This is really odd — this story is all over the news, as is Daschle, how the stimulus doesn’t have enough votes, and what a massive failure the first 15 days have been — and then I run across a story on HuffPo that I thought would be everywhere: “Obama signs SCHIP.”
Admittedly I haven’t caught a whole bunch of news today, but I thought I would’ve seen something that big — you know, adding 8 million kids to the roles of the insured? Well I just visited WashingtonPost.com, and it’s not there at all you can find “Hans Beck, Creater of Playmobil Toys, Dead at 79.” No disrespect to Mr. Beck and his wonderful toys, but you’d think the signing of a bill that Dubya vetoed twice would play somewhere.
Hell, even the HuffPo story was buried down in the Politics page — and the accompanying video is (I shit you not) called “Tigers Maul Snowman.”
Dear Reporters: To quote the great Casey Stengel, “Can anybody here play this game?”
SayItWithWookies: Apparently the nations news editors don’t view the SCHIP signing as sufficiently stimulative. To their prostates.
Mr Blifil: It’s on NYTimes.com, but didn’t make it to the front of CNN.com — it’s on the front page of the Health section under the not-so-current “House to Vote on Kids’ Health Bill” or something like that. Oh, and apparently it’s only 4 million kids, not 8 million. Too bad it doesn’t cover just one cute white girl who went missing, ’cause that would be all over the planet by now.
SayItWithWookies: I saw it on my local news, here in Who-ville, if that makes you feel any better. Followed by a story on Dick Cheney snarling about the end-times. Made Obama seem extra Jesusy. And that’s probably just what the producer intended.
hockeymom: Well I’m glad they’re balancing actual facts with baseless fearmongering. Never let it be said that the press’ standards have become skewed.
hockeymom: Seriously, what’s Cheney positioning himself for when the nuke goes off? Bragging rights? The ability to say “I told you so?” What the fuck good will any of that be?
Classy, Dick, real classy.
SayItWithWookies: Goddammit my smokes tax will go up 60 cents per pack! Stupid childrens and their needing insurance. SCHIP monies should come out of the paycheck of Citi’s CEO, one hour of the Iraq war and Cheney’s dead puppy breakfast fund.
What the fuck, Wonketeers?
Has no one noticed that she’s eminently fuckable?
In a gesture of bi-partainship, Barry will nominate the withered, ancient corpse of Henry Ford to be co-Secretary of Labor.
Repugs will take a week to think about it.
They agree to vote for the co-Secretaryship so long as the cadaver of Walter Reuther is dug up and burned.
Barry accepts if the word “burned” is changed to “barbequed”.
Vote passes.
Reaching across the aisle.
SayItWithWookies:
It’s a matter of who holds or controls the vote.
The days of “Poverty in America” are long past.
SCHIP benefits expanded? Hell. Whenever did you see a kid pulling a voting lever?
Extension of Medicaid or Unemployment comp? Feh. Since when do the poor contribute to an election campaign fund (as, e.g., Repug, Mini-Rush Aaron Schock well knows).
Speaking as a former Teamster, unions are the best thing ever. Unless you have to employ their members, then they suck.
shortsshortsshorts: Good call.
hobospacejungle: Get the cats out NOW, the destruction of Texas should occur ASAP, while both the Shrub and Kwame are still there.
Good God! You would think Hopey nominated an actual UNION MEMBER the way the Repubs are acting! Can you imagine the scandal!
That’ll show Obama not to pick anyone but wives Senate GOP leaders to lead to the Department of Labor. This Solis person might start meddling in our coal industry pushing all those lefty “safety” rules.