Equal Pay Act and the Equal Rights Amendment - both are still needed as recent court decisions still regard women and minorities as unequal before the court. Their time is coming.

Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have proven to be ineffective leaders in protecting the rights of American women. They need to go and go now.

McCain knows nothing more about the health care than the so-called leader he seeks to be. he and Clinton are simply an extension of the Bush policy of the last seven years and a hope to continue those same policies. They include the "politics of fear" as Obama speaks of and so many other means to lie to the American people as the gas tax scam. The race and gender issues is simply part of a greater issue of fairness in all human issues and an end to exploitation of the masses at any level including the exploitation of women, minorities and children. The Fox network and these two politicians along with the power brokers of the Rupert Murdoch style of revisionism in America and the world move gullible humanity back toward the 1952 Australian style of thought recently abrogated by the Australians in foreign affairs and economics that if continued will bring the world to extinction.

Clinton once again show her irresponsible thinking at any price to gain the American nomination to continue to lead the world to oblivion. I read with interest the comments of Americans. I consider myself a humanist and not one that has the USA tattooed to my backside although I gave three years to the military and so have a right to speak. Nationalism, is always based in me-firstism, let the rest of the world be damned mentality. Clinton is the new spokesperson for that idea and has now teamed up with the Fox network and the rabid so-called journalists who have helped diminish the America I once knew and fought to maintain. The way the rest of the world looks at the USA is colored by people like these at the highest levels of power.

The economic system that determines all peoples survival regardless of where they exist, also determines what a country will become, much of it the result of chance. In that regard the USA has been lucky, with well-worn imperialist ideas brought over with the Pilgrims. America has taken this country from the people who were here, the European model, without paying them. Some of us here know the story. The so called, "free market market system", formerly American capitalism, and now globalization into which it has now morphed. the US with its European allies has created the current means of controlling everything for the few. The G 8 has developed ever-greater means to develop these ideas and to take what it wants from the rest of the world and its own population.

The African Americans, the Africans, the Hispanics, Asians and Indians have been the slave classes that have built the white European and American wealth. The historic exploitation of the working classes of America brought from the world into its "melting pot" with the so-called freedoms and democratic ideals built from the blood spilled to form, compared to the European monarchies and divine kingship, so called Democracy unique in the world. The freedoms bought so dearly, were the first "Divine Kingship" of the "Robber Baron" and now, corporate power elitism.

To keep the masses quiet and to build the lives of Americans, consumer ideology supplanted education, the study human purpose, as a goal in itself. The economic forces, which have built their power, care little for human development and survival. They care largely for their continued power as an end in itself and for the few who have the most based on its protection with a huge military force, hence the oil wars in Iraq, this to support an auto centered disposable consumer society.

The expense of privilege in the community of nations may become the death of the globe and its entire people as a result of the American and European economic system, now out of control. Many American economists, Jeffrey Sachs, Joe Stiglitz, and others view these historical developments as a threat to global harmony and survival.

American wealth once had an altruistic quality about it. The post-World War II USA, developed the Marshal Plan and cared about the condition of the world. Now the top one percent, those who have taken so much, continue to be supported by the thirty percent of Americans who still believe George Bush, and his myth of global superiority at the expense of the rest of the world. It is clare that to many of Clinton's opinions continue the Bush doctrine, of unilateralism.

We sit on the edge of an environmental and economic disaster. This American system is out of control and the economic meltdown will continue regardless of who occupies the Oval office. The only difference is that Obama is intelligent enough to know that there are fundamental change needed in the way America and the so-called "free world" do business.
Rev Wright, simply addresses continued black slavery in a world of exploitation of all people led by the US and now the power elite in collusion with the government to continue the "American Dream" mentality, represented now by corporate multilateralism and their wealth and power. Corporate elitism cares for itself alone at the expense of all people, the environment, the human experiment, its freedoms, and so called democratic ideals which has become nothing more than an oligarchy.

We should not be too pejorative about Rev Wright who simply rails against the exploitive aspects of the Western mentality and points out the deficiency in the USA of evolved thinking toward the slave classes and the human species. He, having been able to experience directly because of his skin color these abuses is perhaps too angry which limits his effectiveness. His experience in seeing the wreckage of black America and his intelligence, has caused him to take up the defense of the disenfranchised.

America has a history of caring about others, once a genuine American direction, led by people, despite their failings like: The Kennedy's, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and so many others who died for their belief in a better America and a better world, caring about humanity.

The media who carries their continued assault against those, who would in any way, attempt to include different thinking to bear on the so called "American Dream" which has become the world's nightmare must be seen by the masses for what it has become. The media must begin to understand its roll as an objective commentator to the necessary changes that must be made to the USA and the world if humanity is to survive.

The media above all must be changed once again to give democratic exposure to all important ideas. It must present an understanding of the complex thought needed to be brought to bear on global complex issues of survival. A departure from the simplistic superficial treatment ad-nauseam we witness each day which passes for news presented by the Barby-Doll class of newsreader called journalist.

hey there honorthebor,

good post, well written, and you do have a legitamate bitch.

we all must must keep our guards up against scouldrels. I hope you worked it out.

Too many are caught up[ in the peterprinciple (yess I know, spelling again)

By the way, thanx for the nice comment; I don't get too many here, and I'd like wine and cheeze as well....so many folks, my best buddy up in Mass. included don't appreciate my taste in wines, they're not the finest, that's for sure....you don't even need a corkscrew for it.

See folks, it's OK to be nice to people with other views...thanx again there honorthebor your friend B

"Those guys should call the lib Dems the "GIVE ME SOMETHING FOR NOTHING GROUP". Thats all Hil and Obam sell…their pitch is "LETS SEE WHAT I CAN GIVE TO YOU". Climb back into the woodwork and hope the whole thing blows over, I suppose. Should be interesting. Get ready to label some TWO FACED "hipocrits" (spelling)at your wine and cheeze parties this weekend. Show some guts."

Banjoman: So, you don't like wine and cheese? How about beer and pretzles? I would sit down with you and enjoy either.

I am a liberal, progressive, Democrat, white woman, same age as Senator Clinton.

As a young married woman with a child going to college, my husband and I could have easily gotten food stamps. We didnt, we worked extra jobs.

After busting my butt for 10 years to earn my degree, my first professional job was one where I brought in more revenue than anyone previously--yet my boss siad it was "OK" that I earned the same as the male janitors, because "they had families to support."

One of my female friends worked in an optical shop, her boss was fired for gross mis-management and she was promoted into the management job. As she was cleaning out drawers, she found one of his pay stubs--the imcompentent manager was paid $1000 more a month.

I served on the first Commission on the Status of Women to try to teach women how to ask for/demand the money that was equal to the JOB that was to be done, not more, not less.

My definition of equal opportunity, is that neither race nor gender, religion, national origan or anything else is a factorin hiring; AT THE SAME TIME, my definition of Affirmative Action is: making sure that your recruitment efforts are bringing in candidates of all types. Like advertising in newspapers and magazines read by diverse groups. THAT WAY you get a pool of diverse candidates, and, voila, you are able to choose the best candidate from among a wide diversity.

And before you lump all of us liberals or progressives into some "give away" group, consider this: all we want is an equal chance for everyone.

Senator Obama talks of a tuition credit for college students, IF THEY EARN IT by community work or Peace Corps volunteering. There is no free lunch, one earns, or one becomes lazy and develops and entitlement mentality, kind of like the oil companies who get billions in subsidies while earning record profits.

We have become "penny wise and pound foolish"; we quibble about a pitiful amount of money to help people at the bottom of society, while we pay no attention to the BILLIONS going to corporate interests in the form of subsidies and tax breaks.

Banjoman, happy to sit down with you for a beer.

Progressives work toward the day when all brothers and sisters stand together in universal solidarity and prosperity, elites of both genders in their little cages where they belong, after the people win the class war, the grand-daddy of all wars.

Wcdevins (April 29th, 2008 1:32 pm), Kathyodat (April 29th, 2008 4:03 pm), and frank1569 (April 29th, 2008 5:37 pm), good points. Unfortunately, the reach of the Republicans' SC appointments will cast a long shadow as such legal boneheads as Scalia, Alito, Thomas and, to a lesser degree, Roberts, make their Dark Ages philosophy of 'conservative justice' a reality.

Here we have, respectively, a Justice who doesn't think torture is punishment and is crazy enough to go bird hunting with Dick Cheney; another one who believes in the nutty extra-Constitutional theory of the 'Unitary Executive,' which basically makes the president the king, accountable to no one; a man who apparently has no opinions of his own, follows Scalia's vote on every issue, and never asks questions in court; and a Chief Justice who has been associated with a very conservative religious group that advocates Christian theocracy.

At least we've learned a few things from the Junior Bush era: When a Republican says a worker needs 'education and training' it means you might as well resign yourself to a lower paying job; when a Republican opposes 'activist judges' it really means they want a court that will appoint presidents against the will of the majority of voters and intent of the Constitution; when a Republican claims they want smaller government, it really means they want a larger one that extends tax breaks and lucrative contracts to their cronies; when a Republican says they deplore 'politicizing' a government office, they really mean they want a GOP stooge in that job to do the party's bidding; and when a Republican says they believe in 'equal rights for women' they're lying through their teeth.

bj - I tried being open-minded to close-mindedness but it didn't work - it's impossible to reach a closed mind halfway. Doesn't work for religious fanatics and it doesn't work for right-wing dupes.

Maybe you want to tell us what the Republicans you've voted for have done to improve the lot of you and your fellow American workers. And maybe you'd like to answer my question about grooming your kids for Bush's war.

banjoman sez - here in N. America, it's LABOR, not le-bour. Keep it across the pond there, big fella.

Too bad banjoman, in Canada, we speak The Queen's English, which involves spelling lots of words with a "U" that you're not used to. (And a cute version of the French language, too.)

WC DEVINS & CHESSGAME: Excellent postings!

That kind of closed minded thinking belongs in the toilet.

Perhaps 'w' 'c' stands for water closet?

"If the Republicans are the party of the rich, why are there so many hard working Republicans paying taxes and raising families?"

That's easy - because they are suckers who believe that the Republican tax cuts are benefiting them (they aren't, of course - the money goes to campaign contributors and the hard-working voters get less services, poor schools, crummy infrastructure, etc), that Republicans will keep the terrorists away (Republicans ARE the terrorists; they have bankrupted America faster than a thousand bin Ladens could have); that Republicans will protect the American way, like marriage and the flag (even though the divorce rate is above 50%, well above that in the red states, and the flag is only a symbol of the USA whereas the Constitution, the real American way, is used as toilet paper by the Republicans); and that Republicans hate minorities as much as they do and will keep vote against their interests (okay, this one is true).

Any non-millionaire who votes Republican is a dupe and a fool or worse. I used to be open-minded about those on the other side of the political spectrum, but no longer. Today's Republican is anti-American and a fascist enabler. Bush is an idiot controlled by Cheney, the biggest criminal to ever hold high office in this country. Their supporters are following them straight into hell and taking the rest of us with them.

Paul M.

The females I was referring to were all blue collar hardhats.

Don't twist the facts, and, by the way, I'm certainly not the best speller, but here in N. America, it's LABOR, not le-bour. Keep it across the pond there, big fella.

And as a blue collar hardhat, management has it's scoundrels, but most earn their pay. Sounds like some sour grapes there, huh?

What's totally sick about this is the numbers of women who buy into it.

To Jacob Freeze (good PA. Dutch name , by the way)

Well said, my friend.....

If the Republicans are the party of the rich, why are there so many hard working Republicans paying taxes and raising families?

I work right along side a huge number of Democrats, mostly Union members, and we can discuss it and even joke about our differences.

We don't need to call names and use insults (Unlike usan, devs, canuk, and hakori and company.

Those guys should call the lib Dems the "GIVE ME SOMETHING FOR NOTHING GROUP".

Thats all Hil and Obam sell...their pitch is "LETS SEE WHAT I CAN GIVE TO YOU".

Oh by the way, now what are all these Rev Wright LOVERS going to say now after Baraks rebuking?

Climb back into the woodwork and hope the whole thing blows over, I suppose. Should be interesting. Get ready to label some TWO FACED "hipocrits" (spelling)at your wine and cheeze parties this weekend. Show some guts.

Oh yeah, well written post there Jake!

your friend banjoman

Exploitation for maximum profit is the name of the game folks. If an employer can get a woman to take less, it will. There's up discrimination, down discrimination, age discrimination, and sideways discrimination, but what are you going to do? It's often hard to prove. Sometimes an employer would rather have a woman in a certain position--is that discrimination against men? Many prefer woman because they tend to be more passive in the conduct of their duties, or so I'm told.

What we need to do is insure that there is a LIVING wage for all, and stop the exploitation of illegal immigrants--did we forget them? The new male and female slaves?--then move from there.

Lets not divide ourselves along gender lines, but remember that corporations will do whatever they can get away with and, without meaningful regulation, who's to stop them?

The powers that be in America deal the whole world a bad hand not just women!

How about American women close down all sexual favours until the men produce a better, more just and democratic nation?

Now that would really be a show of power!

Jack37, I got there right after the 2002 election when the Republicans were put into control of both houses of the legislature. That is why I now live in Canada.
I served in WWII, I worked against the continuation of the Vietnam military involvement, I ran for office twice, I worked for improving the environment rather than raping it, but I finally became too embarrassed. I saw a country that I had loved being bled to death and most of the people were either supporting the destruction or they were too damned lazy to care.

"I work alongside skilled "tradeswomen". Their job description is the same as mine, AND SO IS THEIR PAY!"

Yup. This person was an area manager, not someone who engages in productive labour. Management don't do anything useful apart from getting their own way - negotiating and competing with their peers for more budget/space/resources/time etc. So a manager that can't negotiate their own pay is necessarily incompetent and deserves only whatever pittance they get (a mere 5 or 6 times what the workers make, no doubt).

This decision in the senate and the court's upholding of the poll tax in Indiana are just a couple more rungs on the ladder of this country's descent into fascism. Firmly anchored in the past by Reagan, we have been rapidly descending into the abyss ever since.

I used to enforce the Equal Pay Act (EPA) for the US Dept of Labor. That act is in fact a section of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA, the Wage & Hour law) which has a long and unbroken set of precedents which establish violations based on a workweek basis. That is, each workweek stands on its own and any pay violation occurring in that week is separate and distinct from pay or hours in any other week. This means each time a woman recieves a paycheck in violation of the EPA the clock starts again. The court overturned this long-standing precedent, which is, in fact, the foundation of the FLSA. Without it, eg, overtime pay becomes
unenforceable. I await the day when a determined employer holds out to the supreme court (it hasn't been in caps since Bush v Gore) and they rule that the workweek standard does not apply in hourly-pay cases, thus effectively eliminating overtime pay.

Our beloved supremes, who all swore up and down that they were precedent-following strict constructionists, lied. They have proven that they only follow precedent when it suits their corporate masters. Roberts, Scalia and Alito, and their toady Thomas, might as well be Mussolini's minions for the fascism they espouse. Even if we rid ourselves of Cheney, Bush, and McSame, their moles on the court will perpetuate fascism in America.

John McCain's message to American women:

"Look, we discriminate against women in this country. You just have to get used to it, it's not going to change. You are going to need more education and training to earn the same as the men working alongside you. A man is always going to be paid more than a woman with the same level of education, skills, and experience. So if you want to earn what the man with a bachelor's degree makes, you will need a master's degree. If you want to earn what the man with five years experience makes, you will need ten years experience. That's the way things work."

Hey Marie:

If there were a Pulitzer Prize for best title for an Internet article, you'd be my nominee.

"Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power."

Benito Mussolini

FRANK 1569: That one be one amazingly potent motivational device! Brilliant!

The issue isn't ignorance. These people know perfectly well what the problem is, and they like it that way. They want to preserve the upper class white male elitist hegemony. They camouflage it by taking a few token minority and female operatives on board--Clarence Thomas and Condoleezza Rice, for example--but the pattern remains basically unchanged. The masses are so distracted by guns, abortion, Jeremiah Wright and other matters that they don't notice that the trickle-down stream is warm, yellow and malodorous.

banjo sez: "I work alongside skilled "tradeswomen". Their job description is the same as mine, AND SO IS THEIR PAY! If it were not, they could all sue for huge amounts and never have to work again. And they would win."

That's just the point, banjo - Ledbetter was underpaid, sued for her back pay (not "huge amounts"), and LOST because the supreme court is bent on taking us back to the good old days of the fifties when sexism and racism were the law of the land. The Equal Pay Act said she had been underpaid and had always been interpreted as such until this supreme court overturned 70 years of precedent. And that precedent includes your overtime pay, so don't hold your breath when this fascist court upholds some corporation's claim that overtime pay is illegal. It's underpinings, the workweek standard established by the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, is the very item that the court undermined in this case.

Please, do some research before commenting rather than shooting from the lip continously. You really need to get out more and avoid the right-wing echo chamber. If you actually read the articles here you might learn something.

Peace.

"Look, we discriminate against women in this country..."

No Google hits on this. You just made it up, right?

"The powers that be are quite content to keep dealing American women a bad hand."

Great. Well, then, let me be the first to suggest that Hillary receive only $80,000 per-year for her new-Position...[not that she'll be worth even-that...].

>>What will it take until you are simply so ashamed that as an American you want to crawl under the table of the world?<<
I've been under that table for the last 28 years, I'm afraid.

It's time the anti-human GOPlunderers put their ill-gotten wealth where they fat lying mouths are:

Introduce a bill that calls for lower pay for female Senators and House members. Female congressional staffers should be forced, by law, to accept a lower salary than male congressional staffers. Female interns should be forced to work longer free hours than male interns. Add a clause that says female Presidents can only be paid 70% of what a male President might earn. And, of course, the bill would also forbid anyone from telling the working women that they're being f**ked over.

Is Condi-liar paid the same salary Powell, er, earned? If so, it needs to be cut by 30% - without telling her, natch.

Let's call it the Women Are Only 70% Human Act of 2008! (Late night addition to the bill - the McCain Amendment: women are only permitted to receive 70% of the 'education and training" a male in the same position might receive.)

I'm already there, Jack37!

What will it take until you are simply so ashamed that as an American you want to crawl under the table of the world?

Don't blame it on the Republicans!

Did the Democratic majority fight this thing out to the bitter end in the Senate?

Of course not!

Harry Reid just rolled over, like he has rolled over again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again...

If the Republicans have 40 votes against anything Harry Reid just rolls over, and the Republicans never have to filibuster.

Just the threat of filibuster makes Harry Reid roll over like the completely unprincipled coward that he is.

So what excuse do the Democrats have for all the tax breaks for the rich and unconstitutional wars and invasions of privacy and torture bills that the Republicans passed when the Republicans had the majority?

The Democrats always had at least 40 votes, but the Republicans wouldn't roll over.

So don't blame the Republicans for being the Party of the Rich.

Blame the Democrats for being the Party of Chickenshit!

banjopman, yours is the isolated case. The average is currently said to be 79% equity of women to men, but declining. I'm including an interesting link (from 2006 US census) which breaks it down by sex and race which helps to show that the disparity is actually larger, but concealed due to the lower wages included for Black and Hispanic men.

It's not advisable to take one case and spread it across the landscape as the norm. Get informed.

http://www.infoplease.com/us/census/median-earnings-by-race-2006.html

A link to another aspect of wage gap:

http://www.apa.org/releases/wagegap.html

kathyodat

Just another example of how the whole system is rigged towards the corporations. Do you see yet how the government HATES You?

how sick, how perfectly sick --

by the same logic, if i get raped and beaten by a perpetrator, he's only potentially guilty if i make it to a cell phone after the first punch --- after all, he's only responsible for his first decision

I work alongside skilled "tradeswomen". Their job description is the same as mine, AND SO IS THEIR PAY!

If it were not, they could all sue for huge amounts and never have to work again. And they would win.

So it SHOULD be......so it is.

banjoman, your friend as usual

Sure there are isolated cases, but just as many men are paid less for the same work.

It just doesn't make as good of a headline in the paper.