It's much more than troubling. It's graft. What is also (though only slightly less) troubling is that some Republicans voted for the bill without even knowing this provision was in it. If they are too busy to read the laws they are passing, couldn't they pay an orderly to do it before they cast their vote?

OMFG.. I'm shocked!

Shocked that anyone would expect anything better from PorkMistress Pelosi!

OK all you "defenders" of the American way line-up.

The line starts here Lee, Nogo Postal, et al.

Isn't $5.15 to $7.25 too large a leap to make all in one go?

That's a 40% increase. Think of it this way. If an employer has a fixed amount of money to spend on employees, and that employer has mostly minimum-wage employees, they will be forced to lay off 40% of their workforce.

I think this could send a shockwave through the U.S. economy and cause all sorts of undesirable problems, that might not happen if it were to occur in stages. Doing it in stages would also give you an opportunity to cancel the later stages if the earlier ones have an undesired effect, before it's too late to reverse any problems observed.

This is the problem when you let politicians mess with fiscal policy. They usually don't understand what they're doing. This is the sort of thing the Reserve Bank should probably be responsible for, in my opinion.

I'd like to see pelosi defending herself or at least how she explains her actions, cause although her stocks are going up they might also go down http://www.trendio.com/word.php?wordid=106&language=en

"This is the problem with rushing legislation through without full debate."

No you putz. This is the problem with legislators voting for legislation they haven't read.

No you putz. This is the problem with legislators voting for legislation they haven't read.
:: by Stephen Macklin on January 12, 2007 6:19 AM ::

So I take it you feel Pelosi is justified in perpetrating this scam on the US taxpayers.

Heck, the problem is legislation that's so long that nobody can read it. I bet the "Ham and Swiss Sandwich Day Proclamation Act" is at least 20 pages long.

I understand wanting to put in some exclusion clauses (such as allowing a lower minimum wage for certain classes of people, such as those under 18 without a high school diploma), but it still shouldn't require hundreds of pages.

But no matter the exclusions, it is patently unfair to single out particular companies for exemption, and particular territories over others.

And so the tyranny of the newly elected Congress begins....

from the article:

My intention was to ...

That's the crux of many of the problems we face as a nation. So many fail to see the difference between intent and actual result.

Nicholas -- it doesn't jump all at once.The bill passed in the House raises the current $5.15 minimum to $5.85 effective 60 days after it becomes law, goes to $6.55 a year later and $7.25 a year after that.

It is certainly true that typical federal legislation is so dense that it is impossible for a member to have personally read every word of every bill he votes on -- but they have legislative staff that are assigned to particular subject areas, and then there are committee staff too. This sort of "red flag" exception is the sort of diabolism that someone on the minority staff should have caught before the bill went to the floor -- unless it was tucked into the bill between committee vote and floor action, which is an entirely different sort of diabolism.

" I bet the "Ham and Swiss Sandwich Day Proclamation Act" is at least 20 pages long."
With the democrats in control of Congress no
proclamations referring to pork will be allowed.
It would upset their largest support group.

The rules never apply to the dem leaders in Congress do they?

Look at how Drunken Ted avoided residency requirements when Rose died. Seems like he wanted to avoid the estate taxes he desperatey wants everyone else to pay, so he lied about his Mom living in Fl.

Despite leftists' insistence that the federal government has the power to regulate the details of a private employment contract between a private employer and private employee, they are dead wrong.

Per the Commerce clause, and the Federalist Papers, "commerce" means only trade and exchange, not anything else. Just because a bunch of idiot legislators, an idiot president and learned idiots in black dresses decided to expand federal power and destroy the constitutional limits by distorting the commerce clause, it does not make it correct or constitutional.

Did anyone expect anything different from the new majority? You ain't seen nouthing yet.

The problem is us, not the Democrats or Republicans. We keep re electing these a--holes and they start to see themselves as a class apart, devoid of any responsibility to represent anyone but themselves.

Until we, the electorate wake up things are only get worse.
Chuck

Same stink, different names.

With one exception, the new names campaigned on reform but won't be called on it by the media.

I suppose this kind of thing never went on in the Republican Congress?

Lets all face it: they're all crooks and they are elected by us. That makes us accomplices to the crimes. When we reform ourselves, we might have a fighting chance to reform them.

Maybe these morons should read the legislation before voting on it. Don't have time to read it? Then don't have the vote until you've had time. If that means Congress doesn't have enough time to pass all the laws they want, well, that's not necessarily a bad thing.

To quote the tagline of a commenter at RedState, "If 'pro' is the opposite of 'con,' what is the opposite of 'progress'?"

Why are the Democrats so HEARTLESS? ONLY $7.25 an hour!!! that is Heartless.

They obviously have the power to set wages and how much people make, so why only 7.25??? Why not $10, $20, $100 and hour??? The Democrats are our Messiah, yet refuse to raise up the poor and pay them a real wage. $7.25, spit!

/sarcastic truth off.

they want a recession going into 2008. Atleast the price of Tuna will not be going up. If only the founding fathers like Ben Franklin who wanted to set limits on who could vote, by those that paid taxes at the time and owned property had got what they wanted.

anyone pulled up Del Monte Corp. political contributions yet? along with top shareholders and Executives?

Where are Lee, Hugh, BryanD, Brian and the rest of the liberal moron trolls on this post???

Exactly.

Bwahahahahaha.....

Jo

Unlike the Wizchoir and the rest of the right wingnut universe that is all out over every story w/ their Pavlovian talking points trying to turn reason on its head, those who'd you'd like to taunt are absent and silent because this IS NOT a justifiable incident, and, it does reflect hypocresy.

Nonetheless, it hardly invalidates the fact that, after 10 years, the minimum wage has been raised and

this time it includes The Marianas, ehich your former Leader, DeLay dutifully precluded from any labor legislation as he was on the take from Abramoff who had the businesses in The Marianas as clients.

So you manage to catch a note of hypocresy; well goodie for you.

So I guess Nancy Pelosi personaly wrote the minimum wage legislation... Wow, she's quite the lady. I assume Lori is leaving out some facts here?

For one, this article conviently ignores the fact that California has long been one of the states that exceeds the federal minimum wage with a higher state minimum wage.

It also ignores the fact that multinational corportations often do business in other parts of the world with different laws, political structures and standards of living. Boeing, Microsoft and Yahoo all have business in China. Epson and Toyota have facilities here... International business conform to LOCAL rules and mores, and interstate businesses confrom to local rules. For example the per person GDP in American Samoa is 5,800 USD. By comparison, the United States per person GDP is 42,000 USD. Even minimum wages state by state take into consideraton prevailing wages.

The article also completly ignores the Republican promoted Marinias Island sweatshop scandal, featuring Ralph Reed and Jack Abramof, which promoted a free trade paradise complete with sweatshops, no minimum wage, and prostitution. The suggestion that Republicans now after 50 years are all of a sudden in favor of labor and the rights of workers is unbelievable.

BUSTED!!!

Same stink, different names
With one exception, the new names campaigned on reform but won't be called on it by the media.

Bingo!

Is everyone suffering from memory failure? The Dhimmi's wrote these bills in secret, 'froze' the minority out, and stated the representatives of half of America would not be allowed to offer any amendments. It's only been a couple of weeks and i'm sure someone remembers these dhimmi statements. True the republicans were stupid for voting for it, but then we have a few a** kissers left over. Next cycle we get rid of them. We dumped some garbage in 06 and will dump the rest in 08. The republican party is self cleaning, the dhimmi's are garbage collectors.

The great dhimmi comedy of the century continues.

Brian, BryanD, Hugh, Lee? ??

Anyone? Anyone?

Bwahahahahahahahah.... exactly..

Didn't Pelosi claim she was going to run the most ethical congress ever, ever?

ScrapIron,

Your delusions are amazing.

Perhaps you forgot that Dennis Hastert wouldn't allow ANY legislation or debate from the then minority party.

Oh, and the Republican party is not self cleaning, as we noticed over the last couple of years.

Oh, and your party didn't dump it's own garbage. It was dumped for you, to the great surprise of your pundits and political leaders.

JP asks an interesting question...

anyone pulled up Del Monte Corp. political contributions yet? along with top shareholders and Executives?

Posted by: jp at January 12, 2007 11:14 AM

I'm looking for that now. So far I've found that Marvin Bush, brother of Dubya was on the board of Fresh Del Monte, a spin-off until a few years ago. He was elected to two terms, and sat on the powerful compensation committee. These are the folks that decide how much the executives get paid. It's probably the most important committee on the board, and a great position of power.

I'm not implying anything other than that JP poses an interesting question... Oh, and the truth is probably a bit more complicated that Lorie makes it out to be.

Scrapiron

per your post in reference to lost GOP Congresspeople, "We dumped some garbage in 06 and will dump the rest in 08"

Thanks and here's hoping you succeed. It will be wonderful to have a Republican-less Congress.

BTW don't spoil your '08 ballot by dropping your droolcup on it.

Do some of your own research, please.

The article refers to a company based in California that has processing plants in American Samoa. She isn't giving some special rate to some company running a sweatshop in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. Also, the plants in American Samoa would be subject to their local laws.

While I would be in favor of including American Samoa into the minimum wage law, it is not how that territory determines it minimum wage. It is actually determined by a multi-industry committee. Each industry has its own minimum wage set through the committee.

Here is the law relevant to the process which American Samoa uses: http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode29/usc_sec_29_00000208----000-.html

To save you the work, Puerto Rico sets their minimum wage equal to the federal rate, and the US Virgin Islands has a minimum wage that is higher than the federal rate.

Furthermore, the increase federal rate wouldn't even apply to companies in California. Why? Because California's minimum wage is already higher than the House approved $7.25. California's current min wage is $7.50 and will be moving to $8.00 in 2008.

Hope this helps clarify the point. Next time be what a blogger should be, skeptical of the mainstream media, and do your own research.

Welcome to the way in which the dhimmicrats "clean house."

Ooops, Nancy, you missed a spot.

Has anyone looked at the cost of living in Samoa, to see if the minimum wage needs to be raised or not for people living and working there?

check out Powerline's update on this, apparently these workers are making around $3.30 an hour now, but what is more interesting is the Delay angle the Dems tried on something similar couple years back. They have apparently forced this law on the Northern Marnina island to completely ruin it.

http://powerlineblog.com/archives/016478.php

Dan

how about the Northern Marinas that they are making this apply to? Do your research dan!

Lee, are you saying that the minimum wage should be indexed to the local cost of living?

Mike,

The mimimum wage is for practical purposes indexed to the cost of living, which is why some states choose to have a higher mimimum wage over and above the federal level. Wages in general do reflect the cost of living in a given area.

"Lee, are you saying that the minimum wage should be indexed to the local cost of living?"

I'm saying if the cost of living in Samoa is ridiculously low that could explain why they were exempted from this increase. I haven't checked, so I'm asking if anyone else has checked.

The longer you cook a stew the thicker it gets. Peeeloshi has just stated she will remove the exemption. If anyone wonders why it was there in the first place, read on:
NewsBusters points out that few in the Mainstream Media will cover this story given their breathless love for the new Speaker. FoxNews has picked up the story, questioning the potential influence Del Monte may have as a major player in the Speaker's District. Doing my own research, however, I've discovered that the impropriety is much deeper. Speaker Pelosi's husband Paul, it turns out, owns something to the order of $17 million in Del Monte stock (according to Wiki -- Ed.)! I wonder if he stands to benefit should StarKist avoid an additional $2 hike in hourly wages... (actually, for the Samoans, it would be a $3.99 hike from $3.26 to $7.25 -- Ed.)

Follow the money trail a little further and Speaker Pelosi may have a sympathetic accomplice in the US Senate. It turns out that the H.J. Heinz Company owns nearly 75% of Del Monte's stock. Heinz, of course, is the company owned in large part by the H.J. Heinz family of whom Teresa Heinz is a major heir as the widow of H.J. Heinz the III, the late Senator from Pennsylvania. And who did Mrs. Heinz marry shortly after her late husband's passing? Senator John Forbes Kerry of Massachussetts!

If the Del Monte holdings of Mr. Pelosi are supposed to appear on her Congressional Disclosure Form, I don't see them. The Del Monte stock could be owned by a separate holding company that is listed, or it could be that such holdings don't have to be disclosed.

Stolen from BizzyBlog

Debate this.

Brian, BryanD, Hugh, Lee? ??
Anyone? Anyone?
Bwahahahahahahahah.... exactly..

Yep, I'm here. Yep, I agree it was fishy.

You see, the Democrats don't automatically fall into line and blindly defend their leaders when they do something wrong. If you're expecting perfection from either political party, you're delusional. And if you're going to "Bwahaha" everytime a Democrat does something wrong, you're going to be a very jolly fellow. But unlike you, Democrats don't see criticism of their leaders as a personal attack upon them. So "Bwa" away!

Has anyone looked at the cost of living in Samoa, to see if the minimum wage needs to be raised or not for people living and working there?

So, Lee, then why is the one-size fits all minimum good for the continental 48? Cost of living and economics are very different between, lets say, New Jersey and Wyoming. Why should they both have the same new minimum wage?

Lorie

Where are you when real sacandal is to be investigated???????

I can hardly wait until we see your piece about the pending Iraqi oil resource legislation before the Iraqi Parliament and your probing of what nation is promoting same and the beneficiaries. Then we'll see whether you can get this tuna bone out of your throat long enough to comment on whether Bush's Iraqi rape was blood for oil.

anyone here realize what is happening, this is the first time in the modern internet age the democrats have had power. And because of that we are able to use the power of the internet to inform democrat voters(many of whom are brainwashed) about the corruption of the Dems. While the MSM continue to run cover for them.

U.S. Department of Labor

Volume 68, Number 152, Page 46949-46951

====

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Wage and Hour Division

29 CFR Part 697

Industries in American Samoa; Wage Order

AGENCY: Wage and Hour Division, Employment Standards Administration,
Labor.

ACTION: Final rule.

-----------

SUMMARY: Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, minimum wage rates in American Samoa are set by a special industry committee appointed by the
Secretary of Labor. This document puts into effect the minimum wage rates recommended for various industry categories by Industry Committee
No. 25 (the Committee), which met in public and executive session in Pago Pago, American Samoa, during the week of June 16, 2003.

DATES: This rule shall become effective August 22, 2003.

Were you aware of this when you posted this story, Lorie, or you just an unwitting puppet for the people who manipulate you and put words in your mouth?

Or perhaps can explain how this isn't relevant?

Just checking...

jp: "anyone here realize what is happening, this is the first time in the modern internet age the democrats have had power. And because of that we are able to use the power of the internet to inform democrat voters(many of whom are brainwashed) about the corruption of the Dems. While the MSM continue to run cover for them."

Nothing's changed. Republicans are lying on the internet, as usual. They don't know how to do anything but lie.

Occasionally they'll make an honest mistake, and admit it. If they don't correct their errors, and are happy to let the error stand, it's safe to assume they intended to lie. Usually they'll let enough time pass so that the truth, if it finally comes out, comes out much later -- after the damage has already been done.

How many days until the next election?

check the powerline link and you will see why it isn't relevant and the blatant hypocrisy.

also, why is it Pelosi today said she would get rid of that exemption.

OK, Just checked out the Powerline update. Thanks.

The wage exemption for American Samoa, as evidenced by my quote above, was put in effect August 22, 2003. The exemption, it appears, was put into effect by a Republican-led Congress and signed into law by a Republican President.

So the following quote from Lorie's post is a lie:

"Now we find out that she is exempting hometown companies from minimum wage. This is exactly the hypocrisy and double talk that we have come to expect from the Democrats."

Pelosi didn't exempt hometown companies, the exemption was pre-existing.

The post is a lie, and there's the hypocrisy. The right-wing blogosphere smears left and right, and never corrects their lies...or am I wrong? Will Lorie issue a separate retraction on this?

"also, why is it Pelosi today said she would get rid of that exemption."

Because that is the right thing to do. -- hopefully Lorie will address that in her retraction.

Lee, Lee, Lee, was that the only exemption in effect from prior laws? Why was this the only one left on the books and it is now being done away with. Where there is smoke there is normally fire so the ownership of milliions of dollars in stock in Charlie the Tuna by Peeeloshi through her husband and Hanoi John through his wife makes it smell awful stinky. More like rottem dhimmi's than fresh tuna.

Someone is going to be happy with a doubling of their wages.

All that and a solution to Global Warming -- make Lee and jp wear pulleys around their waists and harness them to generators. With that amount of spin we could light up Massachusetts.

It's real simple, guys. We'll take the EEEEEEEEEvil Rethuglicans angle as a given -- the labor-hating bastards not only refused to raise the minimum wage, causing millions of teenagers to have to sacrifice and wait to get their iPod, they carved out exemptions to the miserable cheap existing one for their bosom buddies. Clear?

Now the noble, people-loving Democrats are going to correct that injustice ::snif:: warms the cockles of yer heart.

EXCEPT THAT the fat lazy Samoans don't get to share in the wonderful new largesse, because it might cut into Nancy's beer money. That's all there is or ever was to it.

Regards,
Ric

Psst, Jo... I've got something to tell you...

Bwahahahahahahahah!

And Scrappy, you're so right! The great comedy of the century continues! Oh, I'm laughing now! The exemption that you're all waxing "corrupt Democrats" about was actually put in place by Bush and the Republicans! Hahahahaha! Oh, make it stop, make it stop! Wait... on the other hand... again, again!

Lee, Lee, Lee, was that the only exemption in effect from prior laws? Why was this the only one left on the books and it is now being done away with.

Well, that's kind of obvious if you bother to read. From the PowerLine link above...

American Samoa already had one of the last remaining exceptions to the federal minimum wage in place.

Try again, Scrappy.

As Paul Harvey might say: And now the rest of the story.

According to this web site, there ARE federal minimum wages in Samoa, but they have been traditionally far below those of the rest of the United States. http://www.dol.gov/esa/minwage/americanSamoa/ASminwage.htm

The minimum wage rates for American Samoa are set by a special industry committee (29 U.S.C. 205, 29 C.F.R. Part 511) appointed by the U.S. Department of Labor, as required by the Act.

If you look at the minimum wage rates published therein you will find:

Bottling $3.19/hour
Construction $3.60/hour
Finance and Insurance $3.99/hour
Fish canning $3.26/hour
Garment manufacturing $2.68/hour
Government employees $2.91/hour
Hotel $3.00/hour
Petroleum marketing $3.85/hour
Printing $3.50/hour
Hospitals and education $3.33/hour
Publishing $3.63/hour
retail, wholesale, warehousing $3.10/hour
Ship maintenance $3.51/hour
Shipping $3.88 - $4.09/hour
Tour and travel services $3.48/hour
Miscellaneous $2.70/hour

So, don't you think that the Washington Times might have, as usual gotten its facts wrong either accidentally or (dare I say it) on purpose?

This was a hatchet job, pure and simple. The new minimum wage law merely continued the status quo, as anyone who wanted to determine could find out with less than ten minutes internet work.

"This was a hatchet job, pure and simple. The new minimum wage law merely continued the status quo, as anyone who wanted to determine could find out with less than ten minutes internet work."

It only took me about 5 minutes, and that included cutting and pasting the relevant info into my comment above. All I did was search for (Samoa "minimum wage") and the Department of Labor link was the first hit.

With all of Lorie's (fake) outrage over the Jamil Hussein/AP controversy, which turned out to be nothing more than another smear campaign by the right-wing blogosphere, you'd think her high journalistic standards would compel her to publish a retraction to this obvious, blatant lie.

I haven't seen any correction or retraction by Lorie - have you?

"So I take it you feel Pelosi is justified in perpetrating this scam on the US taxpayers."

No Marc, I'm just sick of legislators voting on legislation they don't know the content of.

Well, if chicken of the sea and starkist want to go around the min. wage, by lobbying pelosi, JUST STOP BUYING TUNA.

What is hilarious is the moonbats think they debunked this, all the while oblivious to the actual Economics of Minimum Wage laws.