Letters to the Editor
Michael W
Published Letters: 6 Editor's Choice: 2
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Turns out Iraqis don't have the same view of the visit.
[Read the article: Turning the corner, haberdashery-wise]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]See this New York Times article, via the SF Chronical, for "McCain Claim Shocks Iraqis": http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/04/03/MNGFEP0B1M1.DTL
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iMacs aren't very cheap
[Read the article: Apple's fantastic new iMac]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The problem with an iMac is that you're forced to buy a screen. Screen technology moves at a much slower pace than the rest of the computer. So bundling the iMac with a screen effectively results in a price increase, as it forces you to either throw away a perfectly good screen when you buy the iMac, or when you upgrade from your iMac, or both. I have a hard time accepting that.
A Mac mini might be a better deal, but then you're talking lower end CPUs and hard drives. And of course the Mac Pro, while being drool worthy, has the classic Apple ridiculous price tag.
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A democrat with a spine!
[Read the article: Chris Dodd to block FISA bill]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm impressed! Isn't it sad that it only takes a simple thing like this for a Senator to really stand out from the crowd? I just contributed $50 to his campaign, and am likely going to vote for him.
I wish my supposedly liberal senators (Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein) had half his spine.
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Doesn't seem such a great job to me.
[Read the article: Where have all the line technicians gone?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]A little research turns up lineman.edu, the site for Northwest Lineman College. Here's what I see:
1. Utilities stopped training their own lineman, and now expect prospective lineman to enroll in lineman college on their own.
2. NLC charges $7717.50 for a four month course.
3. 14% of graduates don't get a job in the field after 3 years of looking.
4. They don't address how many people are unable to complete the program, but they say power companies stopped training their own lineman because success rates of just 20% to 40% were common.
5. "Graduates who limit themselves to work only in their hometown
significantly limit employment opportunities."
6. If normal full time (40 hours/week) pay is $53000, and overtime is double pay, it seems you're only making the peak wage if you work 75 hour weeks.
7. Apparently when you get your first job, you enter an apprentice program, and the salary is quite a bit lower than the article states. Seems like it takes around 4 years of experience to reach the $53000 level.
I'd be sympathetic to the power companies if they hired lineman and paid for their training, and if the starting salaries weren't as low as $12/hour. It seems to me that there are a lot of jobs more attractive, and given the low unemployment rate, it doesn't seem like the power companies are really trying that hard to recruit people. As Dean Baker has remarked about similar "labor shortages", maybe the real problem is the power companies aren't willing to compete for potential employees.
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Too much horse race
[Read the article: Hillary Clinton's softer side]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Salon's political reporting has way to much horse race, and I think this is yet another example of it. I sure don't know, from reading Salon, what the real policy differences might be between the candidates, but I've seen endless analysis of how the game is played. I'm not saying you have to abandon horse race reporting entirely, but Salon ought to rethink it's emphasis. Ironically, Glenn Greenwald has a couple of recent blog posts critical of the sort of reporting Salon engages in.
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Finally, analysis instead of horse race
[Read the article: No climate for old men]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Salon publishes a huge number of boiler plate politics-as-horse-race articles, and not so much analysis of how a given politian might actually govern. It's refreshing to see an article that steps away from the usual hot air.