Supply and Demand

      On a day in March 1911 on Washington Place in New York City, fire broke out in the upper floors of the Triangle Shirt Waist factory, where a great many young women were employed. Most were recent immigrants, 16 to  23 years of age.. They worked 52 hours a week,  for $7 to $12, making ladies' blouses.
       When they sought to flee the flames that day, they discovered the doors to stairwells and exits had been locked. to prevent them from stealing and from taking unauthirized breaks. Some 146 died, including those who jumped out of windows of the eighth, ninth and tenth floors.
     There's a reason we have the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union today.
     Last Saurday, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, fire broke out in an eight-story building housing a garment giant that supplies markets in the United States, Europe and elsewhere. The factory, which opened in 2009 and employed about 1,700,  had been given a "high risk" safety rating. It had no emergency exits leading outside the building. More than 100 died, including 69 on the second floor..
      According to the Associated Press, Bangladesh has 4,000 garment factories, many without proper safety systems. Altogether the country exports  some  $20 billion in these products, mainly to the United States and Europe.
      Think about it..

SLEAZE

     Colorado voters should know by now that when they elected Scott Gessler to high state office and Mike Coffman to Congress they were encouraging some measure of sleaze.
      Sleaze: "...anything cheap, vulgar, shoddy, etc......"
      Gessler, in his first term as secretary of state, has already run up a $1,452 bill at taxpayer expense for a junket to Florida to attend Republican-sponsored events. He also reimbursed himself $1,400, without documentation, from a discretionary expense account.
     Coffman has been caught borrowing the written words of two other Republican congressmen -- verbatim, and without attribution  -- to flesh out newspaper columns under his name.
     Lotta sleaze goin' on here.
     Please keep that in mind for the next time you see those names on a ballot.

GRE-E-E-E-D

     If you looked at the TV listings of ESPN and ESPN2 Friday, you saw what I mean.
     It's greed, pure greed, by the professional sports industry.
     Here it is, mid- to late October, which is traditional football time, except for the World Series. So now there are also pre-Series baseball playoffs and, look, there's women's professional basketball on national television.
     Well, it's all to satisfy the greed of sports moguls.
     Basketball used to sort of wait for the end of the football season. Now its greedy owners can't even wait for the end of baseball.
     As long as gullible fans have a buck in their pockets, the sports industry will be grabbing.
.    Never mind what the calendar says. The calendar is stingy, old-fashioned.
     Never mind that a fan's toes get frosty at the ballpark in October.. Or that he breaks into a sweat driving to see a basketball playoff in late spring..
     That's pro sports nowadays. Omnipresent. Get used to it, sucker..

    

saphead

Giddy Gesssler

     Colorado's secretary of state, Scott Gessler, the state's chief elections officer, may need to find a quiet corner and spend a while in cool contemplation. He seems to feel in danger of being demonized by powerful forces of what he calls the extreme "left."
      He can talk plainer than that. He means Democrats.
      Recently, in a public forum, Secretary Gessler suggested there were more than 11,000 noncitizens registered to vote in Colorado. That would be a shocking number, of course, if true, which  it isn't. Not by a long shot.
     Specifically, a total of 141 such potential vote-cheaters have been identified, of whom 35 actually voted, according to the Denver Post..
      In his scatter-gun blast, Gessler doesn't specifically identify his targets as Democrats. Instead he refers to them as a disloyal left wing that is "willing to lie," that will knowingly register noncitizens and will "play the racism card" to win elections.
       No matter. Gessler's just a political sap who gets a lot of Republican votes. It happens every couple of years in our state, and we extremists always survive.

FRAUD RIGHT AT HOME

Haw Haw Haw
     The Denver Post says the Colorado Republican Party spent over $400,000 this summer with a Washington firm to help the party register new voters, a campaign  "that has now fallen under suspicion of fraudulent activity."
       I can't tell you how much I'm enjoying it.
      For it is always us Democrats, you know, who first get hit with scurrilous -- and 99 percent false -- talk of "voter fraud." It's automatic.
      In this case, the Colorado  GOP hired Strategic Allied Consulting of Washington, D.C, as part of a five-state program. Since then, Colorado has heard of problems elsewhere and has fired the company after learning an employe had told a potential voter that she only wanted to register Republicans and she represented the county clerk's office.
     The same sort of breakdown between a state and Strategic Allied happened earlier in Florida but on a broader scale.
     So what does Colorado party chairman Ryan Call have to say about all this? What would you expect him to say?
     "The concern we have first and foremost in the Republican Party is full compliance of the law."
      Of course it is. But what are you saying, Ryan, to the Republicans who contributed the $400,000 that's now gone?    

  I remember the old radio commercial as "Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco," and my daughter remembers it as "Lucky Strike Makes Fine Tobacco."  But anyway,  for a long time in the long ago, the letters "LSMFT" were on everybody's radio. And in everybody's ears.
     In those pre-TV days everybody had radios. You got Jack Benny. Amos and Andy, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Major Bowes Amateur Hour, Fred Waring, the World Series, the Metropolitan Opera, and maybe some local police calls. And along the way you also got a pervasive promotion of a cheap, seductive and ultimately poisonous product  -- cigarettes.
     Loads of big-name endorsements. Peggy Lee, Perry Como, Jack Carson, Abbott and Costello et al. It was like "Hey, light up, join the party."
      Luckies, Camels, Pall Malls, whatever -- in those days they were peddled like so much candy. Maybe better than candy because they gave you a "lift."
     Sure.they did. Also, as we eventually learned, heart trouble and damaged lungs.
      Some anti-cigarette crusaders recently made news by publicly switching to pipes or cigars, as I once did. I wish them well, but eventually they're gonna inhale that smoke, as I did, making it as bad or worse than a Camel.
       I still see people smoking cigarettes.  Wish I didn't.

But.....Butt?

      I don't know about this, but it just doesn't seem right. Proper. Ladylike. Republican.
     In a headlined article in the weekly Colorado Statesman, one prominent Republican lady is speaking of her dealings with another prominent Republican lady, and she is claiming, quote, "We kicked her butt."
      Just like that. Said that to a group of supporters in Monument.
      It was State Rep. Amy Stephens of Monument speaking. Claiming she had so resoundingly swamped State Rep. Marsha Looper of Calhan in a Republican primary for a contested House seat.
      Well, now, it wouldn't really have surprised me much to hear such butt-kickin' talk from some of the semi-civilized Democratic ladies I've known over the years.
     But a Republican? Goodness gracious! Sakes alive!
     Aren't they the party of public niceness, afternoon tea and civil talk, even when they're slipping an ice pick between someone's ribs or when they're plotting how to legally bar thousands of Democrats from voting booths in November?
      Somehow GOP ladies just don't look comfortable in the political gutter. And their gloves get dirty.
            
      

RAGE

     How can one not rage at a Providence that snatches away the life of a 32-year-old mother whose career was to serve and protect her city and that, at the same time, allows a long-useless 90-year-old man to go on tottering wearily down a path to nowhere?
   

gram

      As I sit by the TV watching the extraordinary grandeur in London and on River Thames this week, I sort of feel a  presence at my side. It's Annie Maria Stout Steeper, my dear grandma, second mother  and ever-loyal  friend who departed this life some years ago.
       Annie Stout was born in Boston, England, during the reign of Queen Victoria and was brought to America as a girl, but always remembered where she came from. She never made a lot of it, but reports from Britain, and especially its very active royal  family, could make her smile or, in the occasional dark times of the family,  mutter darkly under her breath.
.     She'd surely be smiling this week.

The Cure

      What should we do about the sleazy campaigns being waged against Barack Obama by the squirrels, snakes and turkeys fronting for the Republican Party?
      Simply re-elect him in November and let them go on chattering, hissing and gobbling for another term.
      They aren't dangerous. Just politically stunted.
     ---- The doctor.

doc

    I don't remember exactly when I discovered Doc Watson and his flat-pickin' bluegrass music, but it was decades ago. They've been a joy to me ever since.
     Sadly, this virtuoso of the guitar, Arthel Lane Watson, died this week in a North Carolina hospital at age 89. The newspaper says he influenced guitarists around the world for a half-century and that he could play so fast that he actually intimidated some.
    . I believe that.
    .When Doc was playing a headlong romp like "Beaumont Rag," it was hard to believe a man's fingers could fly like that  But then, after just such a clap of musical thunder, he'd let down with a swingy tuneful bit like "Way Downtown" that would have you tapping your foot and singing right along:
           " Way downtown, foolin' around,
              Took me to the jail.
               It's oh me, and it's oh my;
               No one to go my bail."
     Some folks you'll always miss..
 

lugar

Sen. Richard Lugar's primary defeat may not have been a surprise to political wise guys, but it was a miserable setback for excellence, virtue and general good sense in public life.
      It demonstrates once more the barbarity that has come to characterize the tea party-like legions within the present-day Republican Party. Moderation can be fatal there these days.
     Think about it, in Colorado terms. Would John Love, Will Nicholson, Gordon Allott, John Vanderhoof, Don Friedman and Jim Johnson have fit the rigid-right 2012 mold of the Grand Old Party.?.

coffman

Happily, I am not a constituent of Colorado Congressman Mike Coffman, but I can still be ashamed of him.
Consider, for instance, Coffman's recent comments about Barack Obama: Coffman said he didn't know for sure that the president was born in the United States (as the Constitution requires), but did know  that "in his heart, he's not an American."
Coffman later issued a weasel-worded apology. He admitted  that Obama truly is native-born, and thus is holding office legitimately. But he didn't look into the president's heart again to determine whether Obama is a genuine, true-blue "American" like himself.
There used to be a label for the Coffmans of public life: "peanut politician"

ID idiocy

Maybe 'idiocy' is too strong a word, but the continuing rumpus about photo identification of voters is wearing on my nerves.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Requiring voters to show government-issued photo identity cards would be an intrusive, expensive and needless barrier in our grand old election system.
The supposed threat of widespread "voter fraud" is a fiction being propagated by largely sane and intelligent people who simply want to keep as many Democrats as possible away from voting booths.
These ID boosters are Republicans. They think that most of those who would be discouraged and disenfranchised by a photo ID law are the poor, the young, the homeless and minorities.
Historic pools of Democratic voters.
Other states have adopted the photo ID plan, and it seems to have strong support here.The Denver Post has endorsed it, saying:
"Presenting a photo ID is routine in many parts of our lives, such as when we cash a check or get on a plane....There's no good reason it can't be the norm when we cast ballots."
Think about that.
When you cash a check you're taking something of intrinsic value from someone else, and that someone else has at least some right to know who you are.
As for getting on a plane, history shows that any traveler might be a threat to life and limb of many others. Proper identity is important.
But when you cast a ballot, the worst that can be said of you is that you're giving some nincompoop a vote. At best, you're making democracy live.

bo

I've been selectively honored by the White House and Democratic National Committee to get a slightly blurred but colorful print of an original piece of artwork -- the "2012 Presidential Commemorative Print." It comes with a special Certificate of Authenticity.
I am, of course, duly grateful.
How exclusive is this limited edition? Well, the accompanying message from the DNC does not say exactly, except that only top leaders and supporters of the DNC are getting a copy.
That must mean something, don't you think?
Perhaps you're wondering what is pictured in the print. Well, basically, there is an expanse of lawn, some trees, the presidential Rose Garden and a corner of the White House itself.
Not, however, a single Obama. Not one.
There is, however, a certain lonely figure in sight, an unidentified, four-legged, black-and-white mutt which might just be there standing guard. Or which might merely be preparing to make some other use of the lovely lawn.
I assume that this is Bo, the Portugese water dog the Obamas adopted three years ago.
Hey, Bo!
Anyway, some big-shot Washington Democrats are so anxious that I receive my copy of the special print in good condition that they want me to let them know right away that I have.
Oh, something else. They also want money.
It needn't be colorful or original, but they suggest it be at least as many dollars as the amount printed on those U.S.bills that have Ben Franklin's picture on them. Preferably several Benjamins.

RICK

I don't know if there's a loose connection or a short-circuit in Rick Santorum's wiring, but something's goofy about this ex-senator who wants to be president.
One late reminder was his warning to our youth, over the weekend, about the perils of a college education.
Such an experience, said Santorum in a Michigan speech, can turn normal, sensible, right-thinking students into flaming liberals, in the mold of Barack Obama.
Calling colleges "indoctrination mills," Santorum labeled the president a snob for urging kids to go there.
Actually, here's specifically what Obama had urged in a particular speech to Congress three years ago: "I ask every American to commit to at least one year of higher education or career training. This can be community college, vocational training or an apprenticeship. But whatever the training may be, every American will need to get more than a high school diploma."
Sounds sensible. How many employers do you know who hire youngsters to good jobs straight out of high school?
Santorum himself got exposed to higher education quite a bit -- undergraduate degree from Penn State, MBA from Pittsburgh and law degree from Dickinson. And through all that he emerged ...... not as a liberal, but as a confirmed, bone-headed apostle of the far right.

foto2

The Republican doctrinaires who insist that Colorado voters have photo-identification cards are at it again.
They've set in motion a House bill that promises an expensive and wrong-headed solution to a problem that doesn't exist. They've dug up an old bogeyman, "vote fraud."
One of the bill's primary backers is Secretary of State Scott Gessler. Gessler is, by law, Colorado's chief elections officer and someone who ought to be encouraging more people to vote rather than fewer.
Now if this identity-card system were to become law, of course, a voter could simply show election judges a driver's license or other government-issued photo card. But the sad fact is that a significant number of eligible voters, notably the young, old and members of minority groups, do not have such a thing.
Yes, they could spend time and money to get one. They shouldn't have to.
The driving force behind this "identity" campaign is pure, hidebound Republicanism. And it is not really aimed at voter fraud. That's a lie; there's no such significant fraud nowadays..
This campaign, in fact, is aimed deliberately by white-bread conservatives at discouraging the vote of as many as possible of old, young and minority-group people who historically go Democratic.
That's as plain as the noses on their white faces.

bankers

Two of my uncles and a dear old cousin were bankers, and I have no animosity whatever toward that breed. I am, in fact, occasionally amused and entertained by the twists and turns I observe in the way they do their business.
It's a business that does not lightly let a loose dollar or a spare dime slip by.
Like today. I got a message from Wells Fargo of a very modest gain in an unused account -- monthly accrued interest of 76 cents. At the same time the bank levied on me what it calls a "monthly check return/image stmt. fee" of $2.
So I'm out $1.24. But entertained.

pockets

One reason the New England Patriots outscored
the Denver Broncos so easily this past Saturday: the Patriots' offensive line regularly gave quarterback Tom Brady a safe 'pocket' from which to throw, while the Bronco line mostly left quarterback Tim Tebow dodging, ducking and running for his life.
A second reason: Brady is a precision passer. Tebow tries hard.

eating crow

Once upon a time, in this space, I acknowledged that Tim Tebow of the Denver Broncos may be a fine athlete, but suggested that "he's just not a quarterback."
One of my few readers called, after Tebow played superbly and led the team to a decisive victory this past weekend, to ask me if I might want to reconsider.
All I can say is that Tim Tebow is a jim-dandy quarterback, always has been, and I've always said so. Don't you remember anything?

Tebow

If you say Tim Tebow is a gifted athlete. I won't quarrel with that. He's just not a quarterback.
He showed that again today. ....1-1-12