Open thread for night owls: Your DVR is boosting
your utility bill

post from Daily Kos on 15 June 2011 11:30:02 PM. © Daily Kos

At Climate Progress, the Energy Interns inquire about whether you know what appliances are drawing the most electricity at your house.

(Chart by Climate Progress) "Turns out that one of the most inconspicuous home fixtures is one of the biggest energy hogs ? even when they aren?t recording or replaying programs!"

? ? ? ? ?

At Daily Kos on this date in 2007:

I've previously written about the Employee Free Choice Act, probably the most important piece of labor legislation the 110th Congress will take up, here, here, and here, so I'll try not to be too repetitive here. The EFCA passed the House by 241-185 on March 1. ...
Opponents of the EFCA often try to argue that it will reduce democracy in the workplace by introducing an alternative to "secret ballot" elections. These claims, however, are false. Those secret ballot elections bear no resemblance to true democracy:

? ? ? ? ?

High Impact Diaries can be found here. Top Comments can be found here.

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-owls:-Your-DVR-is-boosting-your-utility-bill

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Rolling in the Mud

post from Docudharma - Front Page on 15 June 2011 11:22:24 PM. © Docudharma - Front Page

Sometimes it's deeper than others. I recall a year when I foolishly volunteered to help park cars. Now when I say it was raining hard I'm not talking 40 days and 40 nights, but it was more than merely damp.And the drainage was poor.Now my[...]

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Late Night: Now THATS Racist!

post from Firedoglake on 15 June 2011 11:02:19 PM. © Firedoglake

Holy toboggans could wingnuts come up with a more racist video? Probably, but still, this video is pretty damn racist.[...]

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Confessions of a Motel Maid

post from Kmareka.com on 15 June 2011 11:00:24 PM. © Kmareka.com

First confession– I haven?t pushed a linen cart for over thirty years, but I feel called to expose the fundamental truth about the maid biz.

It?s about cleaning rooms.

The people who go to work every day and keep our hotels, motels, hospitals and public spaces from becoming dens of contagion and unlivable don?t usually get a lot of press. The work is unglamourous, the pay is low, the likelihood of promotion is less than the risk of demotion. A back injury can pretty much end your future in the hospitality industry.

The DSK case has thrown a spotlight on hotels, and intrepid reporters have actually interviewed some maids. This is a good thing.

But the reporters are focusing on the dangers and disrespect workers may face, leaving the impression that most of the workday is spent eluding pervs. Let me set the record straight. Most of the day is spent cleaning rooms.

I worked in two motels near Green Airport when I got out of high school. Later, finding myself unemployed, with even the factories drying up, I worked at a big motel near the State House. There was not much difference between them, and as far as I can see, the job has not changed much. Two of the motels are long gone, the third has brigades of lawyers and a special relationship with God, so I?m not going to name names.

A typical shift is 9am-2pm. You get a list of rooms to clean. If the? the management calls them ?guests?, but they weren?t my guests. If the transients are checking out you have to change the sheets and scrub the tub. Otherwise you make the bed and vacuum around their stuff, mop the bathroom and replace towels. Wipe the toilet with a rag and put on a paper strip that says, ?Sanitized for Your Protection?.

Management supplied our uniforms, baggy polyester pantsuits in weird colors. Mint green, and later, the shade of orange people wear in the woods so they are not mistaken for deer. I think that was so the manager could spot us at a distance. I kind of envied a high school classmate of mine who I discovered working at the front desk. Her pantsuit was chocolate brown.

The women and girls I worked with came from all kinds of backgrounds. They were kids on their first jobs and mature women keeping the bills paid. We took pride in our work, but had little regard for the transients. It was a hindrance if they were around. I remember a minor TV star, who stood in the hall asking in a whiny voice if he could get his pants pressed. We just gave him a ?where do you think you are, the Biltmore?? look.

We despised the owners, who liked to strut around in suits uselessly. ?There go the big s?ts.? my friend Olivia said. Olivia was an undiscovered artist and fun to talk to on breaks. The suits, I heard, had a party and invited some of the maids and assaulted them in a swimming pool. Although I blamed the suits, I also wondered why any woman would trust these guys. They wore white loafers with matching belts and stinky cologne.

Speaking of smells, I think my dislike of air conditioning comes from walking from summer heat into those stale, chilly motel rooms. Maybe they never changed the filters in the air conditioners. Nothing really had to be clean, it just had to look clean.

The transients were mostly away during our work hours. I drew some conclusions from what they left in the rooms, and here is my rating of transients? good, bad and ugly…

Do Not Disturb? Best. You don?t have to clean that room and still get paid the same.

Truckers? Good. They arrive, walk to the bed, fall on top of it, check out the next day and don?t stick around to make a mess.

Tourists? Okay. As long as they don?t eat in their rooms.

Tourists with kids? Messy, cluttered, hope they?re out touring something.

Jehovah?s Witnesses? Bad. They bring hundreds of suitcases and tons of food. There is only a narrow strip of rug you can vacuum and that is strewn with sunflower seeds. This is the highlight of their year and they are going to make the most of it.

Shriners? Very Bad. They bring enough liquor to open a package store, and if you are walking behind them with an arm full of linen they will let the door slam in your face. And they dress weird. I would explain this to the Ladies Auxiliary, when they called me for donations, and finally they stopped calling.

My High School English Teacher? Spotted sneaking out of a room. I felt sorry for him, that he couldn?t afford an apartment.

Three Guys Who Appeared in a Deserted Hall and Tried to Get Me to Open a Door? Ugly. I pretended to try, they went away. This is one reason I believe that a maid could be in danger and no one would know. I was lucky that time.

Transient who accused me of stealing a glass? I thought it belonged to the motel and put it on the cart. What would I want with their glass? The wife gave me a dollar tip, I guess to make up. Jeeze.

That was in the big motel in Providence. My career there started with a mandatory unpaid inservice, but they served lunch. They showed us a cartoon about a very bad thing called ?unions?, so that our tiny minds would be converted.

The job was the basic cleaning, and they continued to serve lunch, which was good. One day they served Brie from some banquet, and most of the maids thought it was something that had gone bad and wouldn?t touch it. More for me. Later there was a scandalously expensive wedding? just before that kind of thing became commonplace. A million dollars they said it cost, and none of the transients left a tip.

For a couple of weeks I was assigned to work in the laundry, and soon realized that I was the only person there who was not impaired. One poor young woman with Down Syndrome lasted about half a day, then spent the next few hours standing in front of the wall and rocking. It was about 100 degrees, but a dry heat, from all the dryers. There was only one man, a jovial guy named Ralph, who?d look at us benevolently and say,
?All the girls are happy today. All the girls are making money today.?
He would say that a few thousand times. And then the next day he would say it again.
One day he was gone. Pat told me that the day before, Ralph had been going off on his usual and Agnes just flipped. She took a big stack of sheets and whacked him over the head. He ran out and stayed away for weeks.

I was supposed to throw away a bunch of those sheets because of minor spots, but I asked the manager if I could take them home. After consultation with someone important, he said yes, which was a great concession on their part and I had to be grateful, but sheets are expensive.

Sheets were the only enduring benefit I took away from that job, the pay was spent before the next check came in? minimum wage.

I found something in photofinishing and I was out of there.

Reading about the DSK case, I noted many misconceptions about what a maid?s job is like. Some underestimated the isolation and vulnerability of the workers, and others gave the impression that maids tolerate constant insults, which is not true.

I thought the Sofitel?s response to the incident was quick and appropriate, and I think the union deserves a great deal of credit for maintaining a culture of respect for the workers. Management, too, performed admirably. I hope they won?t pay too high a price for not covering up an allegation against an important customer.

I was lucky to get a job when I needed one. I don?t mind honest work. Toilets don?t clean themselves. I do think that if I had to look forward to a life of living on minimum wage the future would have looked pretty bleak.

The Sofitel paid a living wage with job security and health benefits. The maid was robbed of a good job. She?s paid a heavy price for reporting the crime. My friend Ruth, who helped me recall my motel maid days, gave me a quote from Barbara Eherenreich, author of ?Nickled and Dimed?.

?There?s no such thing as unskilled labor.?

Amen.

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Janeane Garofalo as "Katherine Harris" discusses
Michele Bachmanns run for the White House

post from AMERICAblog News on 15 June 2011 11:00:20 PM. © AMERICAblog News

Way too much fun, and way too smart. Sam Seder playing straight man (think George Burns) to Janeane Garofalo's version of "Katherine Harris," the former Palin-Bachmann look-alike and failed senatorial candidate from Florida.

In this edition, "Katherine Harris" is now on board the Bachmann Express. It's delightful. Enjoy!

As an improvisatory satirist, Janeane is on top of her game. I hope there are more segments like this one. (And if you're so inclined, the Majority Report could use your help. Thanks.)

GP

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C&L's Late Night Music Club With The Beatles

post from Crooks and Liars on 15 June 2011 11:00:12 PM. © Crooks and Liars

Title: Here Comes The SunArtist: The Beatles

It's time for a little sunshine! What song makes you most happy?

Abbey Road (Remastered)

Artist: The Beatles Price: $10.66 (As of 06/15/11 07:01 pm details)

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Medicare patients can't afford many life-saving
drugs

post from Daily Kos on 15 June 2011 11:00:03 PM. © Daily Kos

prescription bottle
Here's one way to fix Medicare: drug price negotiation. This is criminal.

WASHINGTON ? Facing a life-and-death struggle with kidney cancer, Rita Moore took her prescription for a new kind of chemotherapy pill to her local drugstore.
She was stunned when the pharmacist told her the cost for a month's supply would be $2,400, well beyond her income.
Medicare drug plans that cover seniors like Moore are allowed to charge steep copayments for the latest cancer medications, whose cost can run to tens of thousands of dollars a year. About 1 in 6 beneficiaries aren't filling their prescriptions, according to recent research that has put numbers on a worrisome trend....
Private insurance companies that deliver the Medicare prescription benefit say the problem is that drug makers charge too much for the medications, some of which were developed from taxpayer-funded research. The pharmaceutical industry faults insurers, saying copayments on drugs are higher than cost-sharing for other medical services, such as hospital care.
Others blame the design of the Medicare prescription benefit itself, because it allows insurers to put expensive drugs on a so-called "specialty tier" with copayments equivalent to 25 percent or more of the cost of the medication.
Drugs for multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and hepatitis C also wind up on specialty tiers, along with the new anti-cancer pills. Medicare supplemental insurance ? Medigap ? doesn't cover those copayments.
"This is a benefit design issue," said Dan Mendelson, president of Avalere Health, a research firm that collaborated in a recent medical journal study on the consequences of high copayments for the new cancer drugs.
Cost-sharing should only be used to deter wasteful treatment, he explained. "It is hard to make the argument that someone who has been prescribed an oral cancer medication doesn't need the drug," added Mendelson.
The study last month in the Journal of Oncology Practice found that nearly 16 percent of Medicare beneficiaries did not fill an initial prescription for pills to treat cancer, a significantly higher proportion than the 9 percent of people with private insurance who did not follow through.
Forty-six percent of Medicare beneficiaries faced copayments of more than $500, as compared to only 11 percent of patients with private insurance. Among people of all ages, 1 in 4 who faced a copayment over $500 did not fill their prescriptions. Cancer is more prevalent among older people.

Moore ended up applying to Pfizer's prescription assistance program, a process that took two months. During those two months, her cancer was untreated and spread.

Here's a solution: forcing pharmaceutical companies to negotiate drug prices without increasing premiums for beneficiaries. They're making plenty of money off of the rest of us. They are maximizing profits at the cost of actually saving lives?presumably the whole reason they are in business.

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Greek bailout in limbo, USD Gains

Source: Advanced Currency Markets | G10 Advancers and Decliners vs USD JPY 0.03 GBP -0.08 CHF -0.21 EUR -0.32 Greek issues continue to hold dominance over markets as EU officials struggle to break a deadlock on a second Greek bailout plan after an emergency session of finance ministers yesterday failed to agree on the terms of the bailout. Germany is pushing for bondholders to bear part of cost of the new bailout while ECB is against the move saying that it could lead to EU?s first default and German and…

Read More . . . → Read More: Greek bailout in limbo, USD Gains

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Teabagger summer camp: Won't someone please think
of the children

Teabagging: Not just for octogenarians anymore!

Parents are always hunting for summer activities to keep their kids engaged and occupied. And with even west-coast schools now letting out for the summer, the search is on among enterprising parents to enrich the lives of their children through science camps, music camps, and sports camps.

Pfft. Worthless endeavors, one and all. Physical fitness, educational rigor, musical enrichment. What, in God's name, are kids going to get from any of those things that are of value?

Fortunately, if you are in the vicinity of Tampa, Florida, there is a real alternative, the kind of summer camp that really has a tangible impact on the quality of your youngster's life. Indeed, if you are lucky enough to be in the area, your children are afforded the opportunity to teabag their summer away!

Here's another option now that the kids are out of school: a weeklong seminar about our nation's founding principles, courtesy of the Tampa 912 Project.
The organization, which falls under the tea party umbrella, hopes to introduce kids ages 8 to 12 to principles that include "America is good," "I believe in God," and "I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable."

Yes, lucky parents of Hillsborough County, you can introduce your children to the wondrous ways of Glennbeckistan, right in your own backyard!

If you worry about the content of political indoctrination being too dry to keep young minds engaged, fear not. With activities like this, your kids will doubtlessly be clamoring for more:

Another example: Starting in an austere room where they are made to sit quietly, symbolizing Europe, the children will pass through an obstacle course to arrive at a brightly decorated party room (the New World).
Red-white-and-blue confetti will be thrown. But afterward the kids will have to clean up the confetti, learning that with freedom comes responsibility.

Then there's the gold standard simulation. Seriously. There is one. Or how popping bubbles mimics socialism.

As often is the case, allow Digby to ask the question that everyone should be asking about this particular venture:

These people are raising their kids to be insufferable, proselytizing Ayn Rand adolescents or black-clad teen-age loners who love Death Metal and hate their parents. (The latter have a far better chance of becoming productive human beings.)
But doesn't anyone see the irony of indoctrination into individualism?

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Countdown to Netroots Nation, Episode Fifteen:
Partying for a Good Cause

One of the bits of local background noise you'll be hearing during your Netroots Nation 11 weekend in Minneapolis will be on the looming state government shutdown. There are at least a couple of ways one could fight back against this sort of asshattery:[...]

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