Tag Archives: Organized Labor

Judiciary, Organized Labor, Politics

Obama’s “Recess Appointments” Ruled Unconstitutional

That’s right. The man who has taken the oath twice to ‘preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States’ has been ruled to have violated it. Not because a president doesn’t have the power to make recess appointments, because he does. But the Senate first must be in recess. Which in this case last year, it wasn’t. The Senate was in pro-forma sessions, which means that it was not in recess. Democrats used the same pro-forma sessions in 2007 to prevent Bush (the guy who respects the Constitution) from making recess appointments.

Kudos to the Landmark Legal Foundation that spearheaded the case.

A three judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit today adopted arguments advanced by Landmark Legal Foundation to overturn appointments made by President Obama to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Landmark argued in its amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief that the President’s use of the Constitution’s “recess appointments” clause violated the restrictions placed by the Constitution on that power.

Landmark Legal Foundation President Mark R. Levin said “This President doesn’t get to tear up and toss aside the Constitution just because he disagrees with the limitations it imposes on him.”

The contentious recess appointments were made to the National Labor Relations Board which at the time had three vacancies out of 5. The President appointed three pro labor union appointees, making the NLRB a Democrat and pro labor union majority.

If the ruling stands, it means that hundreds of decisions issued by the board over more than a year would be invalid. It also would leave the five-member labor board with just one validly appointed member, effectively shutting it down. The board is allowed to issue decisions only when it has at least three sitting members.

Link: Court: Obama appointments are unconstitutional

Organized Labor, Politics

Labor Union Prepares To Sue Members Who Opt Out

Oh this is rich. Teachers in Michigan are about to find out where their union’s priorities are. New right-to-work laws, which go into effect onSolidarity-Fist March 27, 2013, allow workers to opt out of union membership unless they have an existing contract with their employer.   And if they decide to opt out of union membership and keep their hard-earned money, the union is threatening to sue them.

The law is what it is. Michigan is now a right-to-work state. All it means is that unions will now have to offer their members a reason, other than losing their job or being sued, to want to belong and pay dues.

It also shows that union intimidation is not just limited to employers.

Link: Pay Up or Get Sued

Update:

2012 Election, Economy, Media, Organized Labor, Politics

Obama’s Arrogance On Display

It was much more than simply arrogance on display at today’s White House Press Conference. More lies and obfuscation and finger-pointing. More ducking responsibility for his own lack of leadership. Stunning, but not surprising.

Hard as he may try, and contrary to what he said, he does not have a mandate to increase the national debt and continue deficit spending year after year just because he was re-elected. The first time he was elected, he ran on decreasing the deficit by half by the end of his first term. It was $500 billion when he took over. The deficit isn’t $250 billion. It is 1.2 trillion, for four years in a row. The Republican majority House was also re-elected. And that’s where the spending is authorized. According to the Constitution. I know. He doesn’t like it, nor has he tried to protect and defend it. Remember, that is what he took an oath to do. And what he will do again next week. But that’s another story altogether. The people don’t want deficit spending. They want the debt to be paid down. Not added to.

At the presser, he said he cut the debt by $4 trillion dollars. Where? On Mars? He has added over a trillion dollars in deficit spending for each of the first four years of his administration. And, plans on adding another $4 trillion dollars over the next four years in his second term. Bringing the total national debt from the $10 trillion he inherited, to $16 trillion now, and to $20 trillion by the end of his second term. And he stands there with a straight face and chastises Republicans for being irresponsible for not wanting to pay our bills. And the press corp let him stand there and get away with it. Not one question challenging the truth and voracity of his claims.

On the contrary. He was irresponsible for not only maxing out the credit card, but for treating it like there is no maximum amount he can spend. He paints a picture of dire consequences if the U.S. doesn’t pay its bills. Like a child who misbehaves, he has to face the music. His actions have consequences. He is the one that overspent. Now, not only he, but all of us must pay the piper and face whatever dire consequences we have coming because we’re tearing up that credit card. Forget about raising the debt ceiling another dime. Deal with it. Only after that will this country be able to recover and get itself on the right track again.

He proved himself incapable of making the tough decisions needed to insure the sustainability of Medicare, Medicaid,  and Social Security. That is the epitome of irresponsibility. Instead, he demagogues Republicans for wanting to cut it. The hard truth is, those programs can’t be saved without cutting them somewhere and somehow. They no longer fit the demographics for which they were designed. Period. And they cost many times more than they were anticipated to be in the first place. Sooner or later, interest rates will return to ‘normal’ levels. And by the time that happens, the interest on our debt will be equal to or greater than our GDP. By any definition, that’s broke. That’s irresponsible.

Fact is, he is the irresponsible one. First by neglecting his duty to pass a budget and work by one for all of his first term. Having no budget to hold him back allowed him to run up the debt via CR’s (continuing resolutions) for every year of his administration. Paying off donors, unions, and bailing out his buddies created no jobs. It merely completed the quid pro quo. Wasting taxpayer dollars on one green energy bankruptcy after another. And enriching the bankruptcy lawyers in the process. It’s a win, win, lose. Green investors who are also donors and campaign bundlers win. The bankruptcy lawyers win for handling the bankruptcies with zero transparency. And the taxpayers lose all the way around.

One of the punch lines in this presser was his declaration that the government is part of the economy. As if that is a justification for the never-ending spending. He is right to the extent that the government is part of the economy. It is the overhead of the economy. It produces nothing. It only takes from the producers in taxes, and borrows and spends on growing the government even bigger. The cost of government used to be 18 percent of GDP. Then 20 percent under Bush 43. Now it is over 22 percent heading to 25 percent. The community organizer does not care that there isn’t enough money to sustain a government this big. Nor does he care that as government grows, the private sector gets smaller, along with our freedom and liberties.

That’s Obama’s vision of fundamental change in America. That’s what being irresponsible is. And there’s no way in hell he can embarrass me for not paying our bills by not raising the debt ceiling. It’s time for him to be spanked (figuratively of course), take the credit card away, and do what every other American has to do to survive within their means. Whatever happens is the result of his misbehavior. It won’t be the end of the world as we know it. It will mark the dawn of sanity in running the country.

2012 Election, Media, Organized Labor, Politics

Wisconsin Voters Still Support Gov. Walker

With 27 percent of the votes counted, both FOX and CNN are projecting that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and his Lt. Governor Kleefisch keep their jobs by a landslide margin with 60% of the votes to the challengers’ 40%. That 20 percent spread is a wider margin than elected Gov. Walker the last time. Twenty percent is way beyond the voter fraud margin.

Tough luck for the public sector labor unions. If they had any sense, they would see the need to be competitive in the labor market, because the taxpayers (at least in Wisconsin) are holding their feet to the fire. And if they had any sense, they would realize that it was the governor’s policies that the legislature put into law that enabled them all to keep their jobs while at the same time turning a budget deficit into a surplus.

Big Labor’s free ride on ‘the government’ (aka taxpayers) is over.

Reaction to a Walker victory from DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman-Shultz (D-Fl) was enormously downplayed . . .

She said the June 5 recall is a contest with no implications for national politics. “It’s an election that’s based in Wisconsin,” she said.

The union’s know what it’s all about. As described by Patrick Martin.

[W]alker’s hard-line stance threatens their position as a secondary layer of management in controlling state employees.

The Walker victory today has the socialists calling for a split from the Democrat Party to form a third party.

The debacle in Wisconsin underscores the dimensions of the struggle now facing the working class. The defense of jobs, living standards and social services can go forward only through a mass rebellion against capitalism and the political domination of the financial aristocracy. This requires, first and foremost, a break with the Democratic Party and all its political apologists and defenders and the building of an independent party of the working class, fighting for a socialist program.

What a great idea. For them.

Update: Watching Gov. Walker’s victory speech live, thanking Wisconsins ?? on FOX. Checked to see what CNN was covering, and they’re re-playing the Queen’s Jubilee.  “CNN, the most trusted name in news.”   ROTFLMAO

Economy, Organized Labor, Politics

Labor Unions Over Half Of Government Employees

There is a certain synergy between labor unions and the government.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=S844k_GigaQ

When you follow the money, that relationship is nearly incestuous. Some observers, like Rush, label it as a money laundering scheme. Your taxes go to Washington, to Big Labor, and back to Washington in the form of campaign contributions.

It’s a great system, for the public labor unions. Not so good for the taxpayers footing the bill.

It also explains why Big Labor is against voluntary membership and for mandatory dues payroll deductions. Both of which the Obama Administration support. Both of which, for example, is why Big Labor is spending millions of dollars trying to recall the Governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker.

2012 Election, Organized Labor, Politics

Big Labor To Endorse Obama

1 Comment

As the A.F.L.-C.I.O. prepares to endorse President Obama on Tuesday, labor leaders say they will mount their biggest campaign effort, with far more union members than ever before — at least 400,000, they say — knocking on voters’ doors to counter the well-endowed “super PACs” backing Republicans. Trying to make Barack Obama America’s newest founding father.

Link: Labor Leaders Plan to Apply New Clout in Effort for Obama

Economy, Energy, Media, Organized Labor, Politics

Obama, Oil Is The Energy Of The Past

Never missing an opportunity to prolong our dependence on foreign oil, and high gas prices, President Obama lobbied the Democrat controlled Senate to oppose a bill that would, if passed, be the start of the Keystone Pipeline project with our Canadian neighbors.

The message to the president was clear. There is majority bi-partisan support for the pipeline. The senate voted for it 56-42. But because the Senate rules required 60 votes for passage, it was defeated.

In all, 11 Democrats joined 45 Republicans to support the pipeline. Only the fact that 60 votes were needed for passage saved the White House from an embarrassing defeat.

How does a president justify turning down a project that would build a measure of energy independence and energy infrastructure and lower gas prices?

How does a president justify turning down a project that would create 20,000 jobs now, and over 140,000 jobs once complete? Union jobs in fact. (Big Labor supports the pipeline.)

Today it’s out. President Obama doesn’t want jobs if they have anything to do with the oil industry. He doesn’t want energy infrastructure improvements nor any oil from Canada to come to our refineries and our ports. He made that known today.

President Obama finally gave us his blueprint for the nation’s energy future, beginning today apparently. He told us that oil is the energy of the past.

Oh really? Here’s what the United States Energy Information Administration has to say about it.

EIA projects that most petroleum-based and non-petroleum based liquid fuels — including those derived from fuels such as coal, biomass, and natural gas — will continue to be used for transportation over the next two decades.

Who at the EIA is going to update President Obama on this?

Economy, Energy, Organized Labor, Politics

Obama’s Energy, National Security Dilemma

If there’s one thing people are growing tired of in Washington it is the lack of will to solve problems by kicking those problems down the road and calling it a solution. That is where we are with the Keystone XL Pipeline project.

All the studies of the pipeline are done. Our Canadian neighbors are not happy that Obama chose to delay his decision on the pipeline until after the 2012 election. Senate bill S.1932 is Republican’s attempt to force the president’s hand before the election, calling for a decision from the Sec. of State within 60 days.

The bill would:

  1. Establish congressional affirmation that Keystone XL is good for job creation, economic growth, and national security;
  2. Require the President, through the Secretary of State, to issue a permit within 60 days to allow the Keystone XL project to move ahead, unless he finds that it’s not in the national interest;
  3. Require the permit for Keystone XL to contain strong and specific environmental protections and protect states’ rights;
  4. Require the federal permit to recognize an alternative route approved by Nebraska, protecting their ability to shift the route of the pipeline to avoid the Sand Hills area, while not holding up construction elsewhere;
  5. Concludes more than three years of federal review by deeming the Final Environmental Impact Statement to be adequate.

Where President Obama is concerned, his re-election takes precedent over the national interest. Because if he were to approve the pipeline, he would alienate his environmental base and risk losing their campaign contributions. If he rejects it before the election, he puts BIG LABOR (labor unions are in favor of the pipeline) on the ropes and risks losing their support.  To him, putting off the decision until after the election is his way of voting present and doesn’t risk a dime of campaign contributions or support from either the environmental or labor union special interests.

If he rejects it, how could he explain to the American people why the nation doesn’t need 700,000 barrels a day of Canadian crude and 140,000 high-paying jobs? After all the green-energy bankruptcy scandals (BrightSource, Solyndra, etc.), he can’t say with a straight face how green energy is the answer to today’s energy problems. His own Energy Information Administration . . .

projects that most petroleum-based and non-petroleum based liquid fuels — including those derived from fuels such as coal, biomass, and natural gas — will continue to be used for transportation over the next two decades.

At a time when our economy is struggling and real unemployment is north of 11 percent, a truly shovel ready project like this means over a hundred thousand jobs nationwide. 14,000 in Oklahoma alone according to Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), ranking Republican on the Senate Environment Committee.

In my state of Oklahoma alone, we’d be creating 14,000 jobs with the Keystone pipeline. Existing pipeline infrastructure can’t accommodate the current volume of crude oil, which makes us more dependent on imports and vulnerable to increasing prices. The Keystone pipeline will improve both the inbound and outbound flow of crude oil at Cushing, OK.

Speaking to the President’s speeches of lessening U.S. dependence on Middle East oil and creating jobs, Inhofe continues . . .

There’s not one piece of legislation in the House or Senate right now that would do more to achieve both of these goals than this Keystone bill that we are introducing today.

If you think we don’t have an energy problem, consider this. Bill Clinton opposed ANWR exploration because, he said, it would take 10 years to get anything out of it. That was nearly 20 years ago and ANWR is still closed. As recent as five years ago, people in the Northeast United States were suffering from a lack of heating oil. (84 percent of heating in the NE comes from oil.) Back then, Joe Kennedy’s oil company accepted discounted heating oil from the hemisphere’s idiot, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, to ostensibly ‘help’ poor people in the United States. A political move to give then President Bush a slap in the face.

All the green energy talk and environmental lobbies have managed to do to solve the NE problem is . . . nothing. Five years later and we have headlines like this one, ‘Northeast states cut heating aid to poor.’

If there ever was a case to increase oil production, I think people going without heat or food would make a compelling case. Even though these are the people Obama champions on the campaign trail, he officially ignores them in The White House.

National security meets foreign policy

While we’re on the subject of oil independence, let’s take a look back to the Carter administration and the long lines at the pump, the gas rationing, and OPEC’s embargo that caused it all.

Jimmy Carter was forced into getting a spine and came up with the Carter Doctrine. It was supposed to ensure protection of Middle East oil. Carter declared that the United States would consider any attempt by an outside force to gain control of the gulf region an assault on U.S. vital interests, and would be considered an act of war that would be repelled by military force if necessary. Carter also invented the Cabinet position of the Department of Energy which, thanks to environmentalists and big government statists, was and is a dismal failure.

Today, the Iranian situation is still volatile. They are making threats via military exercises to close the Strait of Hormuz to oil traffic. With the Keystone Pipeline project on the table, and people in the Northeast  being left in the cold, and Iran threatening to cut off oil to most of the world, how does him voting present on the Keystone Pipeline work for you?

So far, except for ‘social justice,’ there is no Obama Doctrine.

Economy, Organized Labor, Pensacola, Politics, Whiners

Is Occupy Pensacola Here To Stay?

The Occupy Pensacola bunch have shown, among other things, that their word is worth nothing. They have now violated their ‘agreement‘ with Pensacola’s Mayor Hayward by three days. What remains to be seen now is whether the mayor is willing to continue to deal with the dishonest entity called Occupy Pensacola or simply move them out.

occupy-pcola-10Speaking to some of the folks there today, they’re not planning on moving any where any time soon. Noble as their cause may be (and it depends on who you ask as to just what their cause is), they are staying put until they fix all that’s wrong in the world. I found some of them to be free-spirited, believing they are doing something good, some totally naive regarding work, responsibility, and wealth, and some were just homeless that came to live there.

If there is a common thread in their ‘complaint,’ it is centered around money and wealth. They want some of it and they resent the fact that Washington (both political parties) isn’t taking if from those that have it and giving it to them.

occupy-pcola-5
Dixie Meise, Safety / First Aid, Occupy Pensacola

What it means to Dixie Meise, the ‘safety and first aid’ person in camp, is that the homeless all need a place to call home. And they expect to stay there until homelessness is ended. How’s that War on Poverty working anyways?

Dixie estimates about 50-60 percent of those present were homeless people. There were many empty tents, apparently belonging to people who have jobs during the day, then return to camp to spend the night.

Calls to Mayor Hayward’s office and an email to ATU (Amalgamated Transit Union) president Mike Lowrey as to the future of Occupy Pensacola and the labor union’s support of them have so far gone un-answered.