Veterans are in another battle, which ought to become our battle as well, to preserve a 75 year old memorial to veterans located in the Mojave desert. After all this time one might ask, who is in this battle against our veterans? The answer is, its the ACLU.
Sandwich shop worker turns tables on robber; beats him, makes him cry
Police say a man walked into the Subway sandwich shop on West Little York and tried to rob it. But instead of getting the cash, the woman behind the counter served him a “knuckle sandwich.”
Convicted sex offender offends again, to the same horse.
Authorities think he has mental problems. Do you think?
Vick, the former star quarterback who served a 23-month prison sentence for bankrolling a dogfighting ring, was conditionally reinstated by the league Monday. The decision makes Vick, 29, eligible to sign with a team, join it during training camp and play in the final two preseason games.
Resume: Professional football player, quarterback.
Hobbies: Dog fighting and torturing dogs to death. Photos available.
I can’t imagine any NFL team hiring him, even if he takes no salary for the first 5 years.
MEXICO CITY — Mexican authorities say two professional wrestlers found dead in a low-rent hotel in the capital may have been drugged to death by female robbers.
Autopsies are being performed on the two midget wrestlers, one of whom went by the name “La Parkita” — or “Little Death” — and wore a skeleton costume in the ring. The other was known as “Espectrito Jr.”
Authorities say two women were seen leaving the men’s hotel room before the bodies were discovered.
Prosecutor Miguel Angel Mancera said Wednesday that gangs of female robbers are experienced at using drugs to knock men out and rob them, but they may have used too strong a dose.
That may have been because of the wrestlers’ small stature, although larger men have also died in similar crimes.
Hotel Mexifornia? Cancel that trip to Mexico honey. I know, this has nothing to do with politics. Sometimes I’ll digress. But a headline like that bears a second look.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) at her weekly press conference yesterday continued dodging questions about her accusations that the CIA lied to Congress about waterboarding terrorist detainees.
Pelosi was pressed by reporters on whether she continued to receive briefings and admitted that she is still receiving the CIA presentations. She refused to answer when this humble correspondent asked whether or not she believes intelligence professionals are still lying to her.
About that vacation in Mexico
Things got a bit out of hand over the weekend in Acapulco, Mexico, in the heart of the hotel district.
A military official says 15 gunmen and a soldier were killed in a two-hour shootout in the heart of Acapulco’s hotel zone.
The army colonel who led the battle against the gunmen says the shootout erupted when the military received a tip about the presence of armed men at a house in the hotel zone.
Tourism is out. Now, by default, illegal drug cartels in Mexico and illegal aliens in the United States seems to be what Mexico runs on.
Taser use to obtain DNA not unconstitutional
Opinions of what constitutes torture have been kicked around ever since waterboarding was used on 3 terrorists. That’s right, only 3 sorry human beings at Club Gitmo that did produce helpful information.
What would you call repeatedly tasing someone until they ‘volunteered’ to give a DNA sample? That’s what happened in Niagara Falls, NY.
In an attempt to get his two employees back from a North Korean labor camp, vice president Al Gore (or Algore for you right wing extremists), President Obama might send former vice president Al Gore to Pyongyang in order to negotiate the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee. They are facing a possible 12 years in a hard labor camp.
Sec. of Treasury Tim Geithner, responding to his counterpart in China who suggested a possible need to go to a global currency, said he was open to the idea. China, after all, is looking out for their own interests (as it should be), but indicates they are apprehensive about looking out for ours in buying up more of the United States’ debt. On second thought. It would be helpful for the U.S. if China just said ‘no mas’ in financing our debt and the debt of our grandchildren. But I digress.
Because Geithner’s initial response was as ambiguous as the President’s initial response, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) has introduced legislation that would “bar the dollar from being replace by any foreign currency.”
I’m down with that. This sounds like bi-partisan legislation, doesn’t it? Won’t it be interesting to see who would not support that bill?
As soon as a bill number becomes available, I’ll update that right here.
While I’m on the topics of the obvious, here’ s another one. How about a bill to require legislators to read bills before they sign them? That, and to make them available online for the public to examine at least 72 hours before voting. I’d rather hold Obama to his 5-day promise when he was campaigning. A promise he has yet to keep. It isn’t a bill yet, but one of those online petitions.
(Due to the fact that the bill is being debated in Congress today, I’m bringing this post out of the November 2008 archives)
Among the first items on President-elect Obama’s agenda will be to pay back labor unions for their generous campaign contributions in the name of the Employee Free Choice Act. As if government is not already involved in all kinds of things of a socialist nature that it should not be involved in, but is, Democrats in Washington, if not by executive order itself by our new President, will resume the effort to boost labor union membership by enacting new legislation. Since when does boosting labor unions membership become a responsibility of the government? The easy answer to that is to follow the money. If you do that then you’ll know why the bill was sponsored solely by Democrats including Barack Obama.
The bill was mis-named on purpose. Had it been named correctly, it would have been named the Employee Forced Choice Act. The meat of the bill will remove the private ballot in union organizing and replace it with a public one. It is more than a little ironic that Democrats would have such contempt for a private ballot when every other kind of vote Americans participate in is a private one.
And be prepared also for the Left to attach this bill to their favorite political tact, class warfare. Last year, Sen. Hillary Clinton was speaking for this bill and said that it is for ‘the middle class’ because, she asserts, labor union members are middle class. Although Democrats purport to support ‘the working people,’ what they really support are labor unions.
Didn’t we just learn that small businesses create something like 80 percent of jobs in this country, and that most of these small business owners and their employees are ‘middle class?’ And that’s why Obama wants a ‘middle class’ tax cut while raising taxes on ‘the rich.’
Let’s examine Barack Obama’s economic theory. He wants to increase minimum wage to over $9/hr. He wants to increase taxes on small businesses with incomes higher than $120,000. He wants to enable labor unions to unionize small businesses. Does this sound like a pro-growth economic policy to you? It sounds like disaster that will only worsen our economic woes.
In 1983, 20 percent of workers in the U.S. were union workers. In 2007 that percentage was 12.1 percent, up .1 percent from 2006.
Much of last year’s growth came in the West. California’s rate of union membership rose one percentage point, to 16.7 percent, an increase of more than 200,000 members. Nevada showed an increase of 15,000 union members, reflecting the organization of casino and construction workers.
As you might expect, union membership in the Midwest decreased.
In the Midwest, manufacturing job losses reduced union membership. Michigan lost 23,000 union members. The largest decrease came in Illinois, where union rolls dropped 89,000. Ben Zipperer, research associate at the Center for Economic Policy Research, said the manufacturing sector — long the stronghold of U.S. unions — is being supplanted by the construction and private health-care fields, where union membership is growing.
The reason union membership has declined over the years is that employers have negated the need for them by paying more and offering benefits that employees want, without them having to pay dues to a union. This so-called Card Check legislation is a mistake for a number of reasons. Not the least of which is that it is not the government’s job to increase labor union membership. The other reason is the negative impact on business that come with unions in vastly increased overhead and payroll expense.
Look what labor unions do the the auto industry. Did you know that . . .
At a time when the average American company requires workers to pay more than $2,000 a year toward family health insurance premiums, the auto industry is among the 4% of employers that offer free family health coverage.
And these figures are from 2005, it is only worse now . . .
The cost of providing health care adds from $1,100 to $1,500 to the cost of each of the 4.65 million vehicles GM sold last year, according to various calculations. GM expects to spend at least $5.6 billion on health care this year, more than it spent on advertising last year.
Granted that it was the management of these automakers that agreed to such extravagant benefits, at the threat of a strike, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see how labor unions can put not only the auto industry, but any industry at a competitive disadvantage, including small businesses that need all the help they can get. If unions go away, no one suffers. If small businesses go away, everyone suffers.
vice president Al Gore (or Algore for you right wing extremists), President Obama might send former vice president Al Gore to Pyongyang in order to negotiate the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee. They are facing