George Will calls him "A boor".
Ouch. How do you keep from cutting yourself with a tongue that sharp, George?
I myself would rather like to call him "A Father" - who also happens to be a Decorated Marine, Vietnam Vet, former Secretary of the Navy and now U.S Senator.
Right now Webb just vaulted to the top my "08 Presidential Draft" if only because the very idea will give the neo-cons night sweats.
But Webb isn't the only one whose finally learned not to back down and skulk away at the first hint of right-wing ass-hattery.
There's a report on yet another right-wing attack on Nancy Pelosi and her "San Francisco Values" currently up on Thinkprogress that I found literally stunning.
It wasn't stunning because of what this particular wing-bat claimed, it was stunning because the news station in question - actually reported the facts.
The essential accusation, made by Hoover Institution fellow Peter Schweizer, is that Pelosi is a hypocrit for not employing union workers in her Napa Valley vineyard.
In fact he actually goes much further and claims the Liberalism itself is hyprocracy.
If you go to a college campus, watch television or go into a bookstore, you’re like to see these suspects: people like Al Franken, Michael Moore, Noam Chomsky, and Ralph Nader. They talk about a whole host of issues. They talk about affirmative action. They talk about economic justice. They talk about the importance of regulating corporations and avoiding entanglements with corporations.
We also have people like Hillary Clinton, Barbara Streisand or Nancy Pelosi. Some of these people on the liberal left actually are in positions of power and authority.
Really? As opposed to all of them living in co-op commune, wearing birkenstocks, cargo pants and dirty Grateful Dead t-shirts, eating macro-biotic tofurkey just before having the pre-marital and gay sex - only so they can practice their condom use and play morning-after roulette, abort any babies that still might happen to show up accidently, and just for the fun of it perform scientific experimentation on the left over and soon-to-be disgarded blastocysts all so they can cure - fucking right-wing stupidity!!
Wow. Whodathunkit?
When it comes to debating them and arguing with them, you probably have had the same experience I have, and that is that often times people on the liberal left pose as our moral superiors.
Yes, of course - and it's not like anyone one the right ever takes such a position. Not Jerry Falwell or Laura Ingraham or Glenn Beck. Oh no. Never happen.
In his speech Schweitzer attacked Al Franken's support for Affirmative Action for pointing out that Bob Jones University only has 1% African-American participation while his own staff at Air American only has 1 Black person out of a group of 112. In the process he completely misses the point that both of these are private institutions are not required by any law to implement Affirmative Action unless they contract with the Federal Government, which is highly unlikey in either case.
An even if they do - the Government has been prohibited since the 1978 Bakke decision from implementing quotas. Since then legal and legitimate Affirmative Action has been about reaching out, not about numerical outcomes. This makes achieving diversity goals more difficult, but far more fair than an artificial quota - like Schweitzer suggests - would.
Schweitzer goes on to attack Micheal Moore for his pro-worker/anti-corporate stance and claims that the corporation he setup to make his first documentary Roger and Me (which has no employees) happens to have invested in other corporations like Pfiser and that he actually used to own shares of Halliburton.
Schweitzer is too busy tarring Moore with a being in bed with big business brush to ever ponders why Moore just might have wanted to divest himself from Halliburton. I think he might have had a few billion no bid reasons.
He also attacks Ralph Nader for his stock ownership - although some of those stocks were owned by members of Nader's family, not himself - before finally settling in on Pelosi.
I have another section I like to call, “Workers of the World Unite Somewhere Else.” This is where we find Nancy Pelosi—Democrat leader in the House, the best friend of labor unions you can imagine. She says that labor unions are vital to negotiating good wages and working conditions. She won the Cesar Chavez award from the United Farmworkers Union in 2003. Remember that, the United Farmworkers Union. She is the top recipient of PAC contributions from the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union.
Ok, so she's a big union supporter and has received lots of their support in return.
What’s interesting about that is, there were several strikes a few years ago in San Francisco, where she came down strongly on the side of the hotel employees and restaurant employees union and campaigned aggressively for them against other hotels. Of course she is the most reliable vote in Congress for organized labor.
What’s interesting about Nancy Pelosi is that she and her husband not only are very influential in the Democrat [sic] Party, they’re very wealthy.
Not only?
Yeah, that's real REAL interesting because y'know - Theresa Heinz Kerry sure is in the poor house. And gee those Hollywood Liberals like Arriana Huffington must really have to skrimp and save their food stamps to pay for all those latte's. Liberals in Power? Run for the Hills - Any second now it's going to start raining Healthcare.
With Nancy Pelosi, her commitment to organized labor essentially ends when it comes to her own businesses. Nancy Pelosi and her husband own a Napa Valley vineyard that’s worth about $25 million. They grow very expensive grapes for very expensive wines, and they don’t use members of the United Farm Workers to pick their grapes. This winner of the Cesar Chavez award hires only hire non-union contractors.
Ok, so what I found amazing about this local ABC News - note again ABC NEWS - report on Schweitzer's comments is the fact that they actually bothered to fact check his statments.
Pelosi is prohibited by law from helping her workers unionize. If Pelosi wanted to have union workers, “she could not ask the union for a contract. It’s illegal and has been since 1975.” Marc Grossman of the United Farm Workers Union explains: “It is patently illegal for any grower to even discuss a union contract, which is the only way you can supply union workers, without the workers first having voted in a state conducted secret ballot election.”
It's not up to Pelosi or her husband to decide whether to unionize her vineyard, that's a decision for her workers to make.
As it turns out though, it's something they aren't likely to even consider because they're treated and paid better by Pelosi than other union workers in Napa Valley.
Pelosi treats her workers better than unionized vineyard workers. “The Pelosis pay more than union workers are paid in the same valley — that from the pastor at St. Helena’s Catholic Church, a well known advocate for farm workers who’s involved in labor negotiations with the same labor manager the Pelosis use. ... Monsignor Brenkle says the Pelosis pay a $1.25 an hour more than workers at Napa’s biggest union winery. ... Of the more than 300 vineyards, fewer than four are union, and most of the farm workers in the Napa Valley get paid better.”
But the real kicker is this - when asked by Reporter Mark Matthews about why he didn't know that it's illegal for Pelosi to just go hire union workers, and that her vineyard already pays her workers more than other union workers are paid Schweitzer said...
It’s for her to explain the inconsistency. It's not my responsibility to go and find out how every single particular circumstance is handled on the Pelosi vineyard.
To this Matthews responded by holding up a copy of the 1975 argricultural labor relations act.
I got a copy. It's pretty clear that what Peter Schweitzer is suggesting for Nancy Pelosi would be illegal. Growers like Pelosi can not higher workers from a Union, but workers can on their own, union, and then negotiate with the growers after they have organized.
Schweitzer told me this morning he would call back and clear all this up. He hasn't called. We've left him several messages.
Today Nancy Pelosi press secretary said...This account is riddled with errors and clearly wasn't Fact Checked.
Well, it's been Fact Checked Now.
That it has.
Wouldn't it be nice the next time some right-wing gasbag decided to make some blatantly false shit up about a Liberal, if someone in the media wouldn't just sit there like a lump and nod their head?
Or worse play along like Nora O'Donnel did when claiming Cindy Sheehan's Hunger Strike was just a publicity stunt or Soledad O'Brien who questioned the Patriotism of Veterans who oppose Bush's War Policy?
Isn't it nice to have someone like Webb in the Congress and someone in the media, not just the blogosphere, finally call Bullshit on Bullshit!?
Wouldn't it have been great if the media had been doing that - which happens to be their freaking job - for the last six years?
Maybe it's a sign of the new Democratically Controlled Times.
I certainly hope so.
Vyan
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