Category Archives: Organized Labor

Economy, Organized Labor, Politics

Is High Unemployment The ‘New Normal?’

The unemployment model in Europe is taking shape in the United States. When you look at historical unemployment rates across the pond you will understand why President Obama ‘fears’ the U.S. economy could enter a ‘new normal.’

The dirty little secret here is that this isn’t his fear. High unemployment is incidental to his goal. It is the community organizer’s way of moving forward with his agenda to ‘transform America.’

It is what happens when the government leans socialist and labor is pretty much owned by unions rather than a free market. It is no coincidence that Andy Stern, the president of the SEIU, is the most frequent guest at The White House. And they are nowhere near finished. The end-game where SEIU is concerned is to have taxpayers bail out the union’s underfunded retirement programs. Next up, Card Check. One step at a time.

Link: Obama says he fears economy could enter ‘new normal’ of low job growth.

2010 Election, Organized Labor, Politics

Redistricting Works Both Ways

Much to the chagrin of Big Labor and Big Law, and the ACLU, one of the responsibilities that goes with the majority party is keeping your districts properly represented in Congress. At least once every 10 years.

While most of the attention in next week’s midterm elections is focused on races for Congress and governor, results in scores of local, down-ticket races carry far-reaching implications, likely to dilute Democrats’ dominance in the once-every-10-years redrawing of political district boundaries for the U.S. House.

Link: GOP poised to win Congress redistricting edge, too

2010 Election, Organized Labor, Politics, Whiners

10.2.10 One Nation Working Together Report

Any questions where most Americans stand?

As best I can determine, having missed the big event, the 10.2.10 One Nation Working Together march on Washington was about as I expected it would be. A gathering of labor unions, socialists, statists, communists, and progressives that don’t like America very much. They’re angry at Obama for not fundamentally changing America already, like he promised. And they’re really angry that the political winds seem to be blowing Right.

Mike Papantonio’s version of what it was all about was that they (progressives) have to get their lemmings out to vote else they’ll be subject to more freedom and liberty for at least the next ten years or so. No big secret that the union’s stake in this is their unsustainable pension plans that they want the taxpayers to pay for by whatever means necessary.

Another account of the One Nation show was that they met there with no specific purpose in mind other than to hawk their own special interest, and to protest for the sake of protesting. Yes Virginia, the 60’s wannabes are among us. If they only had a cause that most Americans cared about.

Dumb and dumber came together on Saturday for the “One Nation Working Together” march on Washington, D.C. The liberal group of union members, migrant farm workers, NAACP members and gay rights advocates seemingly had no one agenda, other than, well protesting.

Update: After publishing their list of sponsors on their website, now that the event has passed, the One Nation Working Together website has scrubbed the list of sponsors, putting up an abbreviated list instead. Why would they do that? Aren’t they proud of the fringe wackos that supported them?

Related link: Leftists, Progressives and Socialists

Organized Labor, Politics

How To Win Elections, Cheat

That Acorn and its affiliate SEIU have a history of voter registration fraud should come as no surprise. The latest example of this is an investigation in Texas that showed that out of 25,000 voter registrations submitted, only 1,793 of them were valid.

Well, that will give the Democratic Socialists of America, a group backed by the SEIU, something to talk about at their big march on Washington October 2, 2010.

It’s going to be interesting to watch the pro-union, socialists, communists, and anti-capitalists on parade up there. Will also be interesting to see representatives of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and Congressional Black Caucus there.  Papantonio said he is going. Can hardly wait for his interpretation of the event.

Link: ACORN affiliate SEIU found facilitating rampant vote fraud.

China, Economy, Europe, Organized Labor, Politics

U.S. Debt Poised to Overtake GDP

Hellooooo! Eh, no problem. According to VP Joe Biden, the stimulus bill was an absolute success.  Maybe so for labor unions, and government workers. The latter being the only job sector that has grown.

When government grows government jobs, it is adding overhead to an already broke company, or rather, country. Who pays their salaries? You do. Government employees and government jobs don’t make money, they consume it.

What happens next? Picture a snowball at the top of a hill. For the last couple years, economists were warning about out-of-control spending, deficit spending. So is China, a major benefactor of the dreamers in Washington.

The government is gambling with the future of the country, or more accurately, the future of your children and grand children. They claimed that all this spending was needed to jump-start the economy. Realists were warning that the debt is heading to an unsustainable point. They warned that when interest rates begin to rise from their all-time low, that we wouldn’t be able to make the interest payments on the debt, let alone the debt itself.

The problem is not where to get more tax revenue. The problem is where to find the guts to cut spending. Realists were telling Washington to look at Greece and Europe to see what we can expect to happen here IF we don’t roll back spending.

Well, it is starting. Interest rates on our debt is poised to rise. The time to get real has come. The time has come to put all our dreams of a socialist utopia behind us and realize the truth of the matter that, just like you and your household can’t live beyond your means, the country can’t either.

Link: U.S.’s $13 Trillion Debt Poised to Overtake GDP: Chart of Day – Bloomberg.com.

Economy, Organized Labor, Politics

Behold Your IRA And 401(k)

In this day and age where things are happening that no one could have imagined happening just a few short years ago, do you think your IRA and 401(k) plan will always be yours? Do you believe that your children will be able to collect their Social Security?

Let me put it this way. The Department of Labor and the Treasury Department are exploring the idea of using your retirement accounts and to replace them with yet another version of a Social Security-like retirement program, or ‘revenue stream’ as it is referred to.

Some food for thought:

“When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that justifies it.”

Frederic Bastiat

Right now, they’re toying with the idea. But from here, it looks like the compass they’re following.

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Media, Organized Labor, Politics

Christie, FOX Punked By 'Prayer'

Apparently unaware that the so-called prayer for N.J. Governor Christie’s death was a joke circulating the Internet weeks ago, both Christie and FOX seem to be the victim of Internet spam. But it was a joke nonetheless.

That the ‘prayer’ was tailored to Gov. Christie by a teachers union is understandable, since the good governor wants the union to share in the cost of their health care benefits like everyone else. But to take it to the level that he is, and for FOX to be giving it the coverage that it is, is making a mountain out of a mole hill.

They both need to drop the death threat aspect of it and concentrate on the real issue which is the financial aspect of the labor union health care plan and its affect on the financial position of the State.

OK, given that we’re talking about New Jersey and labor unions, with the thoughts of the Soprano’s tooling around in SUV’s with tinted windows, it does become believable. That’s what makes it humorous. But it’s time to get real and not get worked up over Internet spam.

The version I saw had a different politician in it. But it’s still a joke.

Link: N.J. Governor Undeterred by Teachers Union Refusal to Fire Leader Who Prayed for His Death

Economy, Media, Organized Labor, Politics, Uncategorized, Venezuela

One Year Anniversary for BM, Barack Motors

A year after President Obama came out of the closet, not everyone is unhappy with him. Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez feel he’s doing a fine job of taking control of the people and industry. Taking control of people and industry is not making things better, but worse.

What else could one expect to happen when freedom and liberty get stomped on by an over-reaching and expanding government? The auto industry cabal was more to buttress labor unions’ benefits than to make the company financially solvent. The actions of what he orchestrated for Chrysler Corporation and GM, and the health care legislation prove that out.

For GM, rather than capitulate to President Obama, what GM’s CEO Rick Wagoner should have said was, ‘with all due respect Mr. President I don’t work for you. And your advisers are not welcome to ‘help’ us change our company. We, with the help of a free market and a timely bankruptcy, will get out of this. You will have to bring the National Guard to occupy our company while we stand to protect our rights. Thank you very much.’

Next, expect the President to complete his payback with a plan to increase labor union membership through Card Check legislation. About which, I hope he fails. His ‘focusing like a laser beam on job creation’ is empty rhetoric for the dumb masses. Just pay attention to what he does rather than what he says.

The Obama we are seeing today is the real Barack Obama. If you want to see what this means, force yourself to read about what his campaign and his willing accomplices in the media did not want you to know. Because if you did, Hillary might have been the President instead of Barack. It is a ‘must read’ in order to make any sense to what we are seeing going on in Washington today.

The job of the President of the United States consists of only two tasks. To protect and defend its people, and to protect and defend the U.S. Constitution. After you listen to this radio interview that Obama gave in 2001 to an NPR interviewer, you’ll have to ask yourself how this man could even put his and on the bible and take the oath. It is obvious that he feels the founding fathers erred in the creation of this country and its Constitution. And in this interview, he explores ways to fundamentally change it. Not protect it. And to become America’s new founding father.

Links: President Obama Comes Out Of The Closet | General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner out, replaced by COO Fritz Henderson.

Fairness Doctrine, Judiciary, Media, Organized Labor, Politics, Supreme Court

Why The Left Hates Freedom Of Speech

Forget about the fact that McCain-Feingold was plainly and clearly contrary to the 1st Amendment of the Constitution. Especially the ”Congress shall make no law’ part. Here’s what the First Amendment of the Constitution is . . .

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.                    {emphasis added}

Forgive me, but what part of NO is unclear here?

And forget about the negligence of President Bush for signing that gawd-awful piece of legislation. Can’t stop there though. Both Bush and Obama deserve a refresher course regarding the oath they took when they placed their left hand on the bible and raised their right hand to (ostensibly) God.

Just what does it mean ‘to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States?’ To both those Presidents, apparently it means don’t protect it at all. Shirk that responsibility and schluff it off to the Judicial branch.

But the far Left, including President Obama, is outraged that people and groups of people of any kind have the same right to free speech as you or I. Their straw man villain is ‘corporations.’ They’re foaming at the mouth that big corporations will start buying elections. Uh, does anyone believe that McCain-Feingold took big money out of political campaigns? Can you say ‘George Soros’ and the myriad of 527’s?

What’s ironic to me is the fact that, well gee, Big Labor has the same rights as General Motors now. Oh, bad example, that’s owned by The White House. But you get the point here don’t you? No one is disadvantaged, everyone has not only the right, but the opportunity to group resources together to make political statements of support either for or against any candidate. Whether a club, a union, a town, a corporation, or a wacko forum on the Huffington Post.

I think that’s what ‘freedom of speech’ embodies.

But to think that no one is disadvantaged would not quite be true with the current state of the mainstream media and here’s why. That part of McCain-Feingold what was stricken today prevented political speech either for or against a particular candidate within 30 days prior to an election. The only exception to that is the media. That’s making the large and foolish assumption that the media today is as it was a hundred years ago. But unfortunately, it is no longer the same media watchdog that was afforded specific protection in the Constitution. If you listen to the Left nowadays, they’re claiming that the media is controlled by the Right. Ridiculous of course, but it doesn’t matter to make my point.They help make my point.

That the folks cannot exercise free political speech 30 days before an election, tilts the power of persuasion away from the people and gives it all to the media. And we all know that in the last election, the McCain-Palin ticket was not only running against Obama-Biden, but against the media as well. The sum of which could not be overcome. (aside from the fact that McCain ran with one arm tied behind his back, but that’s another matter) That’s a power that neither the Left or the Right should accept.

But, what is Obama and the wacko Left wanting to do about this freedom of political speech? They want either a Constitutional amendment taking it away, or for Congress to make a law, (echo. . .shall make no law) taking it away. Forfeiting the people’s power back to the media. President Obama’s statement:

With its ruling today, the Supreme Court has given a green light to a new stampede of special interest money in our politics. It is a major victory for big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies and the other powerful interests that marshal their power every day in Washington to drown out the voices of everyday Americans. This ruling gives the special interests and their lobbyists even more power in Washington–while undermining the influence of average Americans who make small contributions to support their preferred candidates. That’s why I am instructing my Administration to get to work immediately with Congress on this issue. We are going to talk with bipartisan Congressional leaders to develop a forceful response to this decision. The public interest requires nothing less.

As we just learned with Obamacare, when the Left and Obama over-reach, they do it on steroids.

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2010 Election, Judiciary, Organized Labor, Politics

First Amendment Upheld By Supremes

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Freedom of political speech wins today in the Supreme Court of the United States.  Overturning part of the debacle called McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform.

Organizations of any size may pool their resources together and say whatever they wish to say about a candidate, pro or con. Freedom of speech is no longer a slogan. It is enforceable now under the Constitution.

Of course, the fact that it had to go to the Supreme Court to be tested is ridiculous. But it is confirmed now.

link: Supreme Court knocks down campaign spending limits