Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Outrages, from Cranston to Iraq

I agree with Justin's incredulity about the overly generous benefits enjoyed by Cranston firefighters:

It's amazing enough that Cranston firefighters can retire after twenty years at any age, but this is stunning:

Once retired, retirees continue to receive extra pay each year for longevity bonuses and extra pay for 15 holidays!

So, they get longevity bonuses for a job that they no longer do, as well as holiday pay for days they have off anyway. Jim Davey has more details on Cranston firefighters' new contract.

And I second Matt's observation about the mind-boggling wastefulness of our misadventure in Iraq:

Listening to more right-wing sycophants on the radio today babble on and on and on about how welfare recipients and undocumented immigrants are a drain on the Rhode Island economy, it struck me that these are the same wackos who pushed our nation to invade Iraq and who have supported the $750 billion that our nation has spent in taxpayer dollars in Iraq. Of this $750 billion, Rhode Island taxpayers have lost nearly $2 billion to the Iraq War. Imagine the kind of economic development that could have happened with this money! Nationally, do you know what we could have invested that $750 billion in instead of in a misguided war?

a Marshall Plan for the public schools
a Marshall Plan for renewable energy
a Marshall Plan for American roads, utilities and infrastructure
Full, Universal Health Care for every American
And of course, the American Dollar would be strong and the American Economy would attract more investors than simply China buying T-bills.

Speaking of waste, did you know that there are still 34 full-time staffers at the United Nations whose job is to monitor Iraq for Weapons of Mass Destruction and it wasn’t until 6/8/07 that the U.S. put in a resolution to disband this monitoring team (from Harper’s 8/07)?