WASHINGTON POST

OPPOSES PAID SICK LEAVE

IN WASHINGTON D.C.

Left Wing Hypocrisy Exposed

As Bipartisan D.C. Council Bill

Would Force Post to Pay Workers

For Sick Leave

Democratic House Organ Post

Loses Credibility in Opposing

Most Significant Employee Rights

Issue Since Family Leave

The hits keep on coming from the king of journalistic hypocrisy. After hypocrisy on the environment and drunk driving, now the Washington Post is bizarrely opposing the bipartisan D.C. Council bill requiring large employers to provide 7 days of paid sick leave per year. The important word in that sentence was "large." Small businesses would have to provide 3 days. And guess what company is a "large" employer in Washington, D.C.? That's right, the Washington Post Company.

We are always being lectured to from on high by the Post's far-left yet megacorporate-supporting editorial board about one social issue or another. Now when it is time for the Post to turn words into action, and provide paid sick leave for its employees, the editorial board is lashing out at the D.C. Council to prevent the most significant advance in employee rights since Family Leave in the 1990s.

Welcome to the 2000s, Washington Post. Paid sick leave is not only a humane concept, but would promote better health in our community. Do you really want sick people spreading their illness in the workplace, creating more employee absences? And in the case of restaurant and hospital workers, this is a critical health issue. With more and more odd new strains of viruses and drug-resistant bacterial infections such as MRSA mysteriously entering our country, paid sick leave is more critical than ever. It could potentially reduce outbreaks of pandemic flu or terrorist-released biological weapons.

The Washington Post is sadly behind the times, as evidenced again by its opposition to the paid sick leave bill. But at least Fred Flintstone may renew his subscription.

THE TRUTH ABOUT

"JOBS AMERICANS

WON'T DO"

Or Should They Say,

"Jobs Americans Won't Do

For an Insulting Low Wage?"

Many people, companies such as Microsoft, and media outlets such as - yes - the Washington Post, are quite fond of stating the need for foreign workers is great because they do the jobs "Americans won't." The fact is becoming quite clear that it's not so much a matter of Americans being unwilling to do a particular job, but that they won't do that job for that wage.

When Microsoft and other tech companies demand more advanced degree students from abroad, one has to ask why they are not putting up some of their ample fortunes to promote the study of those fields by American college students? Do we really have a shortage of qualified, skilled workers? Or do we have a shortage of workers who will do the job for the lower price that a foreign worker might accept?

For hard-hitting proof that reveals the inaction of our Democratic governor and General Assembly, travel to Maryland's Eastern Shore. A recent article in the Post recounted the story of former crabmeat pickers who have been forced by the crab "shortage" to become prison guards. The "free" trade-promoting Post states that this is just the reality of life on the water in today's Maryland.

Now, the shortage of oysters and blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay is a real and complicated issue. We are told that watermen (waterpersons?) are pulling in smaller hauls. But at the same time, government is threatening the livelihood of those who work on the waters with quotas, while not doing enough in the science department to address the crisis.

This issue requires new leadership in Annapolis and we don't have any more time to waste. A major industry in our state hangs in the balance. I'm tired of being told there are only Texas or Mexican blue crabs on the menu. Let's have some solid counts of where the crabs and oysters are. Let's stop the 3 major causes of Bay pollution. And let's get to work on reestablishing the crab and oyster populations.

This is more important than the useless special interest legislation that O'Malley and our Democratic delegates have on their 2008 agendas.

But wait, I haven't gotten to the end of the story. Those former crabmeat pickers from an island in the south of the Chesapeake Bay? We are told that there are no jobs for them by the Post.

There's just one problem with that. I seem to recall, among other reports, a YouTube debate question from a gentleman on the Eastern Shore. He said he needed Mexican employees to pick the meat out of his crabs at his Eastern Shore facility.

Wait a minute, there are upstanding, experienced American pickers on that same Eastern Shore currently being forced to work in a prison just to get by... One young woman in the article sounds as if she is being traumatized by working in the prison. If our state government was doing its job, instead of focusing on Big Government solutions to problems that don't even exist, and satisfying big donors, this injustice would not be occurring. Then again, we are talking about the same O'Malley administration and Democratic delegates who called $11.30 a "living wage" in Montgomery County.

What's wrong with this scenario? Why isn't that gentleman hiring these good people to work for him? Could it be that the Mexican workers will be far cheaper to employ?

Gotcha!