Monthly Archives: June 2013

Politics

Mexicans Running Animals, Had It With Humans

Morris, a black-and-white kitten with orange eyes, is running for mayor of Xalapa in eastern Mexico with the campaign slogan “Tired of Voting for Rats? Vote for a morris_the_cat_mayorl_candidateCat.” And he is attracting tens of thousands of politician-weary, two-legged supporters on social media. He promises to eat, sleep most of the day and donate his leftover litter to fill potholes.

Also running for mayor are “Chon the Donkey” in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, “Tina the Chicken” in Tepic, the capital of the Pacific coast state of Nayarit, “Maya the Cat” in the city of Puebla and “Tintan the Dog” in Oaxaca City, though their campaigns are not as well organized as that of Morris.

Link: Morris the cat runs for mayor of Mexican city

Organized Labor, Politics

Labor Union Picking On You?

A message from the National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation

“I’m saying if you strike a match and you put your finger in it, you’re likely to get burned.” Long before becoming the top union boss at the AFL-CIO, Richard Trumka’s reign as president of the United Mineworkers union was marked by intimidation against independent-minded workers who dared to defy the union hierarchy. The contempt on display in Trumka’s fiery rhetoric for those workers who refuse to toe the union-boss line remains widespread throughout Big Labor.

One of the National Right to Work Foundation’s latest free legal aid cases provides yet another example. Four West Virginia Constellium Rolled Product workers turned to the Foundation for help after United Steelworkers (USW) Local 5668 union bosses threatened them for exercising their right to return to work to provide for their families during a union-boss-ordered strike last year.

Union militants posted signs in public view containing the workers’ names, phone numbers, and addresses.

Not only that, union militants constructed an outhouse displaying nonstriking workers’ names next to a creepy decapitated doll’s head, as seen in the picture below.
union_outhouse
In March, the workers received letters from USW Local 5668 union bosses threatening massive retaliatory fines and placing the workers at the bottom of the seniority list.

Those threats are illegal under federal law. Workers who refrain from union membership are exempt from the union’s constitution and bylaws and thus cannot be disciplined for continuing to work during a union boss-ordered strike. Adding insult to injury, in violation of the Foundation-won U.S. Supreme Court precedent Communications Workers of America v. Beck, union bosses continued extracting full union dues from the workers’ paychecks.

Because West Virginia lacks a Right to Work law, the workers can still be forced to pay some fees but cannot be required to pay for union activities unrelated to workplace bargaining, such as politics and political lobbying. Foundation attorneys filed federal unfair labor practice charges against USW Local 5668 union bosses last month.

Over the years, Foundation attorneys have won settlements for workers illegally threatened by union bosses with fines up to $40,000 simply for returning to work to provide for their families. Workers should not be forced to abandon their jobs and be denied their right to provide for themselves and their families at the whim of militant union bosses.

Your support helps the Foundation fight back in cases just like this one.

Thank you for helping us stand up for workers who face intimidation by union militants.

Sincerely,

Mark Mix

P.S. The Foundation relies completely on voluntary contributions from its supporters to provide free legal aid.

Please chip in with a tax-deductible contribution of $10 or more today to support the Foundation’s programs.

Florida, Pensacola

Bayou Texar Closed Again, v2.0

Not only Bayou Texar, but Bayou Chico and Bayou Grande as well. The Florida Department of Health officials advise against any water-related activities at those locations due to the potential for high bacteria levels.

Chamber bumper sticker . . .

Visit Pensacola, You’ll love our shit!

It is obvious that “the plan” that the mayor has to remedy this chronic contamination problem is not working.

Link: Three local bayou areas under health alert | Pensacola News Journal | pnj.com.

Politics, Venezuela

Venezuela, Government Knows Best

Have you noticed the competition between the current pols in the United States and Venezuela? If you are a statist that believes that the government knows best, and is obligated to assume (usurp) responsibility for running citizens private lives, so you don’t have to, then you might like the effort underway in Venezuela to ban no_bottlebottle feeding your baby. The only difference between them is that Venezuela doesn’t have a Constitution to ignore. That “charter of negative liberties” as Obama calls it.

To show they have compassion, they have an exception in the case of the death of the mother. But you know, their heart is in the right place. Can we legislate some love here?

Legislator Odalis Monzon said the proposal would “prohibit all types of baby bottles” as a way to improve children’s health.

We want to increase the love between mother and child because this has been lost as a result of these transnational companies selling formula.

Oh right. It’s those evil corporations. It’s activism of the kind to make Mayor Bloomberg and President Obama jealous.

Link: Venezuela considers taking bottles from babies mouths – Yahoo! News.

Egypt, Media, Politics, Religion, War On Terror

Egypt’s Enemies? America And Israel

Remember how the Obama administration was so happy to take part in the Arab Spring? To bring down Hosni Mubarak who if nothing else, was a stabilizing factor in the Middle East and Israel.

Then the Arab Spring quickly turned into the Arab Winter and the Mubarak regime was replaced with the Muslim Brotherhood who slaughter Christians and burn churches in their spare time.

kerry_morsi_secret_arms_dealMeanwhile the Obama administration ignores all that, and presses on to sell our top-of-the-line military fighter jets, tanks, and related military hardware to them. Against the will of Congress. After all, why not better arm a country that is openly hostile to our ally, Israel?

In this video, you will see what a good citizen Egypt is in their part of the world. The first half of it is about a controversy about Ethiopia building a dam on the Nile to better manage the water resource. Egypt’s reaction is that they’re going to cut off their water supply. They discuss ways to undermine them from within by supporting groups hostile to the government. Remember, this is the Muslim Brotherhood. This is what they do, and how they think.

Then the subject moves to Egypt’s enemies. According to Magdi Ahmad Hussein, Egypts enemies are America and Israel, not Ethiopia.

Apparently Magdi Hussein didn’t get the memo that the meeting was broadcast live on channel 1 on Egyptian state TV. After making his inflammatory and hostile statements, he was told that this was not a secret meeting, but on live TV. He laughs ans says it’s no secret to Egyptians who our enemy is.

http://youtu.be/sSxkori-tPw

Transcript highlights, from Magdi Ahmad Hussein:

4:50 I’m very fond of battles. With the enemies of course, with America and Israel.

5:06 Even though this is a secret meeting, we must all take an oath not to leak anything to the media unless it is done officially by sister Bakinam.

5:35 Our war is with America and Israel, not with Ethiopia.

5:54 I am not presenting a secret plan or anything.

Under normal circumstances, our State Department and the President wouldn’t be propping up a regime hostile to the United States. But this administration is anything but normal. Preoccupied with the notion of improving our image around the world, giving them money and supplying them with arms, they are making us the laughing-stock around the world.

Link: Kerry’s Secret Gift to Egypt

Media, Politics

Hiding Isn’t Helping President Obama

With one government department after another being found breaking the law, lying about it and/or covering it up, and a growing number of Americans losing trust in their government, President included, where is the President? He’s still campaigning. Indifferent to the calamity and loss of trust all around him.

He has a unique problem, which explains why he is hiding. For the last 5 years he has not governed. He has been on the never-ending campaign trail. “Fighting” for this, that, and the other. Which explains why all the problems we have to live with are not sticking to the one man in charge. He, with support of a compliant media, is telling us that he is trying to fix these problems. Never admitting that the problems he is fighting to fix are ones he has created through his own policies and administration.

For someone who once bragged that if someone brings a knife to a fight, he’ll bring a gun, he is showing a huge yellow stripe down his back.

Economy, Organized Labor, Politics

Obama Wants A ‘Living Wage’, Wink To Big Labor

From The White House Monday, President Obama made another stab at spreading the wealth around. Using the 50th anniversary of the Equal Pay Act, the wealth envy warrior is pushing what he calls the Paycheck Fairness Act. President Obama said . . .

Now is the time for Congress to step up and pass the Paycheck Fairness Act. … Now is the time to make sure that we are putting in place a minimum wage that you can live on.

There’s a couple of problems with that. First of which is, one has to have a job. You could have a $20/hr minimum obama_houdiniwage, but what good is it doing you if you don’t have a job?

Creating jobs used to be his priority. At least that’s what he’s been telling us for about 5 years now. His rhetoric alone seems to insulate him from any responsibility of his actions which, have given us nothing but trillions of so-called stimulus spending, over $16 Trillion in new and record debt, high unemployment and the lowest labor participation rate since Jimmy Carter. What jobs are being created are low paying, and not enough in number to break even with retirements and population growth.

Second, and more importantly, it is not the role of the federal government to mandate that employers pay “a living wage” to anybody. Playing on your emotions with the notion of something fair does not give him the Constitutional authority to compensate for his inability to set the framework for a vibrant and growing economy.

Now to the real reason the President is harping on raising the minimum wage. It is just another attempt at quid pro quo to BIG LABOR. Like any sleight of hand magician, when he is shows you one hand with the fairness appeal, look for what the other hand is doing.

Raising the minimum wage does nothing to create jobs. The result is that raising the minimum wage not only puts the poorest, and lowest skilled workers in the unemployment line, it ends up artificially pushing up ALL labor costs, causing inflation in every area of the economy. But it does mean pay increases for BIG LABOR. You see, the big contracts are tied to the minimum wage. When it goes up, their wages also go up. And in the case of the public sector unions, the taxpayers’ overhead also goes up. So the union “working people” with $22/hr jobs will get a raise. Isn’t that special?

Link: Obama calls on Congress to hike minimum wage, close gender pay gap  |  Labor Union Self Interest: Facts Behind Organized Labor’s Push to Raise the Federal Minimum Wage

 

Immigration, Politics

78% Back Tougher Asylum Law

Seventy-eight percent of Swiss voters embraced changes made to the asylum law last September as applications soared to their highest level in over a decade. Switzerland, with a population about the size of the state of Virginia, is experiencing  a surge. Attributed in part to the Arab Spring uprisings, the surge is the highest number since the height of the Balkans war in 1999, when nearly 48,000 people sought refuge in the country. Among other things, the law limits the right to family reunification to spouses and children. They also discontinued using Swiss embassies for asylum seekers to apply. Meaning they would have to get to Switzerland to apply.

The takeaway is the message that the Swiss are making. That it’s OK to have an immigration/asylum policy that is good for the country and good for the immigrant. Instead of one that is bad for the country.

Link: Tougher asylum law backed by large majority – The Local.

Economy, Europe, Politics

Economic Imbecile Has Company

It doesn’t do any good to know that the U.S. isn’t the only country blessed to have an economic imbecile as its president. France has one too!

French President François Hollande said this during a state visit to Japan . . .

You must understand that the crisis in the eurozone is over.

If only to serve notice that the global economic problem just got more complicated.

via François Hollande: the eurozone crisis is over | World news | The Guardian.

Economy, Fair Tax

Leo Linbeck, Jr. Dies, Philanthropist, FairTax Co-Founder

More than just a co-founder of the FairTax. Leo Linbeck, Jr. was a visionary and philanthropist. It was his efforts along with two other wealthy friends, Robert McNair and Jack Trotter, that shared the vision of a tax system that was fair, simple, transparent, and conducive to economic growth. Never before has anyone thought that a tax system, by definition, could be conducive to economic growth. It was their joint efforts, and their $22 million that paid for the years of research that ultimately ended up as the FairTax. The most thoroughly researched tax system that treats taxpayers with respect, and none of it done with taxpayer dollars.

Statement from Americans For Fair Taxation® on the passing of chairman and co-founder

Leo E. Linbeck, Jr.

Linbeck-SMFairTax® giant devoted the past 20 years to championing fair and transparent federal taxation

HOUSTON, TX – June 8, 2013 – Americans For Fair Taxation® (AFFT) announced today the passing of its Chairman and Co-founder Leo Edward Linbeck, Jr.

“The American people have lost a giant who championed simple and fair taxation for everyone,” said Cynthia T. Canevaro, AFFT national campaign manager. “Leo Linbeck, Jr., has devoted 20+ years passionately advocating for fair and transparent federal taxation for all citizens regardless of income or social standing.  He was committed to replacing the income tax, a system that favors special interests while punishing taxpayers at every level, with a national consumption tax that taxes citizens not on what they earn, but on what they spend on new goods and services.”  The Plan includes the repeal of the 16thAmendment and the elimination of the IRS.

Linbeck was a nationally known Houston businessman and philanthropist.  He was a longtime Chairman of Linbeck Construction Corp., a firm founded by his father in 1938 and ranked in 2012 by ENR as the sixth largest building contractor in the U.S. specializing in general building construction for the private sector.  At the time of his death, he also served as Chairman of Aquinas Corporation, a holding company for the Linbeck Group.

In 1995, Linbeck joined forces with Robert C. McNair, founder, chairman and CEO of the Houston Texans NFL team, and Jack Trotter (now deceased), to found Americans For Fair Taxation®.  The grassroots organization works relentlessly to build national support for the FairTax®, a national consumption tax plan that treats every person equally and allows American businesses to thrive while generating the same tax revenue as the current four-million-plus word income tax code.

“Leo Linbeck recognized 20 years ago the destructive nature of the income tax and how unfair, overly complex, and impossible it is to administer.” said Canevaro. “He poured his time, resources, energy and unwavering passion into advancing the FairTax; a system that allows Americans to keep their whole paycheck while only paying taxes on what they spend, not what they earn.”  She added,  “We have truly lost an American hero and Patriot, one whose vision will live on among FairTax supporters nationwide. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife Bette, the entire Linbeck family and the legion of friends who now mourn his passing.”

 

We at Fair Tax Nation are saddend by the passing of Mr. Linbeck, Jr. We will continue our work to make his dream come true — to pass the Fair Tax.

Marilyn Rickert