Would You "Call in Sick" in Iowa to Caucus, Even If You Knew Your Boss Would Be There?

Thanks for registering your opinion.

- Dave

and ask if boss wanted to carpool. there would be no discussion.

... your ready access to power tools (pneumatic nail guns, etc.) probably makes that a credible claim.

; )

- Dave

I've quit more than one job on principle.

... don't forget that!

: )

- Dave

and would encourage them to caucus.

:rofl:

You sound like you'd be a fun boss!

- Dave

:-)

... on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boss's_Day">National Boss's Day?

; )

- Dave

I mean, really. I buy myself flowers sometimes. I have been known to take me out to dinner too, but have never felt I needed a particular day set aside, ya know? Oh, and the office Christmas Party is a tad dull. :-)

... of the office Christmas Party?

:rofl:

I can promise it won't be ever again.

- Dave

:party:

... we'll improvise.

No http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=lampshade&gbv=2">lampshade will be safe.

- Dave

time to vote.

I'm not sure how it works in Iowa.

If not, I would use it as my one floating day or as a vacation day.

If none of that worked, the answer is yes, I'd call in sick and selection #1.

That would be the least offensive of excuses/lies, if you ask me.

I can't imagine my boss flying off the handle simply because I wanted to participate in the voting process.

Besides, only a Republican boss would be asshole enough to not give employees who work nights the chance.

(Ooops, I need to quit saying bad things about Republicans so I don't get censored and banned).

... settle down, sir!

(You left out those who report to Ratslinger.)

- Dave

P.S. The caucuses require actual attendance during a specific timeframe; by contrast, most primaries use hours that allow just about everyone motivated enough to vote.

Okay, actually it's this:






And this:

Yeah, 8 years in MA (or "4 extra winters while you finished your degree," as I sometimes remind my partner) was more snow and cold than I ever wanted to see in five lifetimes.

I saw a tornado on near the OH/WV border when I was a little kid. Freakiest sky color I ever saw, and not at all like the scene from Wizard of Oz.

Whereabouts in CA are you?

- Dave

If you're not familiar with the area, follow blue line.




I did go to school at U of Tennessee in Knoxville, so I'm a little familiar with snow and severe thunderstorms.

But it definitely wasn't tornado alley! :scared:

... from Reno and Vegas? Next time we're out your way, it'd be great to meet.

What'd you study in TN?

A few years ago (after severe CA quakes and severe East Coast hurricanes), there was a political cartoon showing the entire nation clustered in the heartland - with a tornado headed straight for them.

:rofl:

- Dave

hour plane ride.

Studied communication and information at UT. http://www.cci.utk.edu/

And funny cartoon!! I'll take an earthquake over a tornado, although now we get tsunami warnings and that kinda freaks me out. =)

Ever get to Vegas?

What are you doing with the communication and information degree?

If I can find that cartoon, I'll send you the link. It's one that really sticks out in my mind; earthquakes freak me out.

- Dave

than the gambling (which I can obviously do much closer in Lake Tahoe/Reno and the local Indian casinos.)

I liken my gambling interest to skiing. I go if friends want me to go. Otherwise, I'd rather go watch the Giants, 49ers, Warriors or Sharks.

As for my degree, I'm in corporate communications. :)

... more, too, though I always do well when we go.

Is it http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/index.jsp?c_id=nyy">spring training yet?

(And yes, I wore my Yankees ballcap when I lived in Boston for the mouthie mooks.)

"Corporate communications"?!?

Are you a PR flak?

:rofl:

My first job out of college was working for the guru who created the Apple launch commercial. She's a genius (and based in CA).

- Dave

Telephone poles and tractors?

... went somewhere bad.

- Dave

http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_tov.htm

Employees are eligible for paid time off for the purpose of voting only if they do not have sufficient time outside of working hours to vote. The intent of the law is to provide an opportunity to vote to workers who would not be able to do so because of their jobs.

Voting hours are from 7am to 8pm.

Employees can be given as much time as they need in order to vote, but only a maximum of two hours is paid.


**Even the rotten Republicans aren't allowed to violate this.

Oooops, no offense to Republicans whom I adore.

The caucuses (cauci?) are sponsored by the respective parties, not the State of Iowa. So, such a law, assuming Iowa has one, wouldn't apply.

This is only one of many criticisms leveled at the caucus system by Jeff Greenfield in Slate:

http://www.slate.com/id/2181096

By nature, a caucus suppresses turnout. If you can't show up at 7 p.m., you don't participate; there's no absentee ballot and no early voting because the fiction is that at a caucus, you're supposed to deliberate. So, if you work the nightshift—if you're a cop, a firefighter, an emergency room nurse, a waitress—and you can't change your hours, you're shut out. Beyond that, the Democratic Party's caucus method requires not 10 to 15 minutes at a polling place, but two or three hours in a school lunchroom or library. This is why turnout—measured by eligible voters—ran under 6 percent in 2000 (the last time both parties held contests)....

But the Democrats have a totally different thing going on; one that discards at least two key elements of an open, fair system: the secret ballot and the one-person-one-vote principle, as Christopher Hitchens points out. When you show up at a Democratic caucus, you and your fellow participants divide up into different corners of a room, based on who you are for. You don't submit a secret ballot; you stand up to be publicly counted. What if you're in a union and want to pick someone your union hasn't endorsed, and your shop steward is there, watching you from across the room? Or the person who holds your mortgage? Or your spouse? Tough. "It is free, it is open, and you are there of your own volition," says Carrie Giddins, the Iowa Democratic Party's director of communications. But of course, you are also in a polling place on election day of your own volition—and most free societies think that it's a good idea to let voters keep their choices to themselves.

Then there's the missing principle of "one person, one vote." More than 40 years ago, the Supreme Court told the states they had to follow that rule in drawing legislative and congressional districts. The court told Georgia it had to dump its "county unit" rule for electing a governor—a process modeled on the Electoral College, that gave rural areas power out of all proportion to their populations. But the Iowa Democratic Party hasn't gotten the message. Rather than simply tabulating votes, its precinct caucuses calculate "state delegate equivalents," using a mind-numbing formula based on past votes for Democratic candidates for president and governor.

edit: title

"Nothing in the law requires Iowa employers to give workers time off so they can stand up for the presidential candidate of their choice."

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071228/NEWS09/712280368

Some bosses bar night workers from caucuses

By JENNIFER JACOBS
REGISTER STAFF WRITER

Ruth Kennedy's boss won't let her take time off from her night-shift job so she can caucus. She's not alone — emergency workers and other Iowans on the night shift will miss the marquee political event in Iowa.

Three weeks ago, Kennedy asked to leave her customer service job at Mediacom at 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 3 so she could caucus for Democrat Hillary Clinton. She said her supervisor waited until Christmas Eve to deny the request, saying that they couldn't spare her, that they hadn't had such requests before and that one fewer person at the caucus wouldn't make a difference anyway.

"It made me so furious," said Kennedy, who lives in Des Moines. "I raised such a fit I'm surprised they didn't send me home."

Nothing in the law requires Iowa employers to give workers time off so they can stand up for the presidential candidate of their choice.

Caucuses are functions of the Democratic and Republican parties of Iowa. They're not elections, and they're not regulated by state government.

The employer's excuse is always "you could have voted earlier/you can vote later."

In other words, they have to give you time... but they often don't. They tell you to vote before or after work.

bwah.....

Don't they give people the day off or timeoff to caucus? Here in California you get time off to vote.

Which is a good thing, because my boss was there.

And I'd urge my boss to also be there.

But it doesn't matter here because Texas has a fake primary, instead (voting machines without paper trails in a "late" primary after everything is already decided).