Green Ledbetter

And they called and I said that I want what I said and then I call out again...

Meet Lilly Ledbetter. She called for justice. Today she got it with President Obama signing his first bill into law approving equal pay legislation.


I know this is gonna get me some Kool-Aid remarks, but I'm sorry...this guy may be one of the shrewdest Presidents we have had in a long time. All of his acts so far seem to be wonderfully calculated to hit on what he promised during the campaign and how he wants to set up his agenda.

Torture? He's defined it and ordered we don't do it. Plus ordered Gitmo closed.

Environment? Give the Govunator the right to make stricter emissions.

Arab relations? Give an Arab television network the first interview.

Go to Capital Hill so that it shows you're not too big to work with Congress, while making any who oppose you in Congress seem small and petty? Check.

Throw a big bone to pissed off Hillary supporters? This Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. I heard Frank Lutz on NPR this morning saying he tested every single ad from this election, and the Ledbetter ad Obama ran was the single most effective "negative" ad. It was considered negative, because it had Ledbetter telling her story and then explaining that John McCain had voted against the bill explaining that women just needed more education or something like that.

Now 70, Ms. Ledbetter discovered when she was nearing retirement that her male
colleagues were earning much more than she was. A jury found her employer, the
Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company plant in Gadsden, Ala., guilty of pay
discrimination. But in a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court threw out the case,
ruling that she should have filed her suit within 180 days of the date that
Goodyear first paid her less than her peers.

This is one of the few times in recent years when Congress has come out after a particular Supreme Court decision and pimp slapped the Court back to reality. (And yes...I just used the term pimp slap in a post on pay equality). It's horseshit to say her statute ran from the day Goodyear first paid her less, instead of when she actually discovered it. According to Ledbetter, someone eventually left an anonymous note in her mailbox and she brought a claim within a few days. Congress tried to act right away, but guess who blocked them? The Compassionate Conservative himself.

“Goodyear will never have to pay me what it cheated me out of,” she said. “In fact, I will never see a cent. But with the president’s signature today I have an even richer reward.” If you're wondering, the Federal jury gave Ledbetter an award of more than $3 million, which John Roberts and company denied her.