Republican U.S. Senate candidate Scott Brown – who called for a federal wage freeze yesterday – has cashed in on more than 130 taxpayer-funded daily travel allowances to the State House this year, a Boston Herald review shows.
Brown ranks ninth among state senators who took so-called “per diems” last year, the review shows, even as he raked in some $77,000 from his private law practice and also pocketed an extra $15,000 in a taxpayer-funded stipend as an assistant minority whip.
Please share widely!
You’ve got to be kidding. The articles in Media Matters are their own best distortions of facts. I know that all of you chicken littles have been quiet about “climate change” lately-maybe because of the record world-wide cold spells??
And by the way, Lamberts has much better tasting, fresh fruits and vegetables at better prices than Whole Foods.
P.S. faux article about “green” jobs in Media Matters was a hoot, especially when thinking about Evergreen Solar.
Repeat after me: Global temperature sensitivity to doubling of CO2 is about 3 degrees C.
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p>Nothing in the SwiftHack emails changes this.
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p>A cold spell does not change this (BTW, globally, December was actually warmer than the 1979-1998 baseline).
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p>The global temperature dropped in the early 1980’s. It dropped around 1993 (volcano). 2008 was pretty cool. But the presence of fluctuations in no way precludes the basic physics and historical record of the impact of increased greenhouse gas (GHG) levels.
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p>Imagine a squiggly line, one that on average goes horizontally. These are your natural variations in temperature. Now tilt this line. The tilt is the underlying trend (driven primarily by GHGs). In places, this line will still move down. In other places, it will move up quite sharply. Maybe something like this:
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p>The presence of short-term up and down squiggles does not preclude the presence of the underlying trend.
Al Gore said the other week that climate change is “a principle in physics. It’s like gravity. It exists.” Sarah Palin agreed that “climate change is like gravity,” but added a better conclusion: Each is “a naturally occurring phenomenon that existed long before, and will exist long after, any governmental attempts to affect it.”
Is it not a fact, especially after climategate, that more and more scientists are questioning the “research” into global climate change?
But why attack the CEO of Whole Foods because he disagrees with the AlGores of this world? I wouldn’t waste my time nor money at that yuppie store. The fruits and vegetables are of better quality and cheaper at Lambert’s.
Syphax gave you cold hard evidence. Al Gore didn’t invent global warming – he just spoke up to say we need to do something about it.
Huh, you know that I am madly in love with Sarah.
I could care less about Sarah, one way or another. You really seem to be struggling today.
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p>If you include any yahoo who likes to post at wattsupwiththat.com, or those think-tank commentaries who took a geology course once as “scientists”, then yes.
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p>If you limit yourself to people who have spent their lifetime studying various aspects of climate science, then not so much.
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p>The list of scientists who are a) skeptical about some major aspect of human-induced climate change and b) demonstrably competent (they have published papers that aren’t obviously wrong) isn’t all that large, and hasn’t changed much over the years. I follow what these guys say, because on some topics they may have something to contribute. But they are a minority.
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p>I’m taking this over to the Whole Foods thread.
You can rightfully say that I’m getting a bit senile in my old age.
Must be only for democrats. After all, they’re special. Anybody wanna run that by Gooch? John Binienda used to carpool with John Fresolo. Both would claim their per diem. Do you give back your paycheck when you make a personal call on work time? You have enough democrats to worry about first.
It’s no more than $15.50 round trip on the commuter rail. Why are we paying him an extra $10.50 per day?
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p>I don’t mind the per diems in principle. You’ve got to live in your district, and some districts are farther away than others. At the same time, I think we ought to give folks like Mr. Brown a monthly MBTA pass and not pay the per diem. Ride the train, suffer like the rest of us, and then fight like hell to make the train ride better for yourself (and the rest of us).
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p>Yeah yeah, I know — they work late. So do the rest of us. Their schedule changes at the last minute. So does ours.
I could understand if we had a parttime legislature and thus get paid for the days they actually work, but ours is salaried and fulltime. I wouldn’t mind encouraging MBTA use by letting them ride for free, however, and possibly even a housing stipend for those from the four western counties.
this morning, Brown defended his per diem windfall with the same excuse Billy Bulger used for his pension windfall- by saying he was “entitled” to it. I guess that makes it OK!
Is the criticism be lodged here against ANY MA Senator taking per diems?
…or at least massive overhaul. Until then they can take what the law says they can. I’m sure you realize that Scott Brown is the current target because he’s the candidate, just like Mark Roosevelt was the target of a similar bruhaha in 1994 when he was the Dem. nominee for Governor.
It’s a silly and anachronistic perk- especially when they are cutting other things, like the health insurance that Brown voted for people to be mandated to buy and now wants to cut.
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p>You think hackery OK if you’re conservative on social issues?
Let’s say 40 miles outside the city of Boston, and then pay actual mileage.
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p>I commute a lot further than Scott Brown everyday. No one subsidizes that for me.