8/31/09

Monday wrap

Obama: Knows stupid, imperils Dems, serves injustice, promotes unionist Car Czar, dishonors 9/11, cancels union financial disclosure.

Mismanagement: Swindlers heart Dems, problem to worsen, SEIU hearts Chicago politics, forced-labor unionism rules, reelection fraud governs, limousine liberalism, anti-corruption fail, UAW 24/7, IAM takes dues hit, illegal teacher strike in WA.

International: Hugo's anti-U.S. tour, swine-flu takes down LatAm dictators, VeneThuggery exposed.


Obama knows stupid ... The Obama team is saddled with a foundering health-care strategy. But it has a fallback plan - relying on the sheer dimwitted gullibility of the American public. How stupid do they think we are? Stupid enough to think that a new $1 trillion health-care entitlement is just the thing to restore the country to fiscal health. Stupid enough not to know that almost every entitlement known to man has cost more than originally estimated, with a congressional committee in 1967 underestimating by a factor of ten Medicare's cost by 1990. Stupid enough not to realize that it is through budget trickery - the taxes begin immediately, the spending is put off for a few years - that the program in the House shows "only" a $239 billion deficit over the first ten years. (realclearpolitics.com)


In case you missed it: The Union News weekend
Sunday: We don't need no stinkin' reframing
Saturday: Hyperpartisan Obama playing politics with Stimulus projects


ObamaCare imperils Dems ... There are other Republicans in both the Nevada and Colorado races, but the swell of support for two who have made opposition to Obamacare central to their campaigns signals to every single Democrat what is ahead if Obamacare continues to drive Democrats deeper into an already deep political ditch. (washingtonexaminer.com)


Corruption plagues U.S. Department of Justice ... When President Barack Obama selected Eric Holder to serve as his Attorney General, many feared that the level of corruption experienced during the Clinton administration might return to the Obama Justice Department. Events of the past two weeks are certainly an indication that these fears were well-founded. First, Holder announced that a review of eye-witness testimony and videotape evidence of club-wielding Black Panther thugs at polling places in Philadelphia last election day showed no signs of voter intimidation which would require further investigation by the Justice Department. Next, came the announcement that a special prosecutor would be appointed to investigate and prosecute CIA and other government officials involved in interrogating the 9/11 suspects at Guantanamo Bay. This, despite an Obama pledge during the campaign that no such witch hunt would be undertaken if he were to be elected president; and despite the fact that career prosecutors and members of the CIA Inspector General’s office have already reviewd the interrogations and found no illegalities. (examiner.com)

Related video: Securing Philly voting for Obama



Many Dems took dirty money ... What do Vice-President Joe Biden, senators Chuck Schumer of New York, Chris Dodd of Connecticut, Barbara Boxer of California, and Rep. Carolyn Maloney have in common besides the fact all are Democrats? They are the first Washington politicians pledging to either return or give to charity thousands of dollars they received from financier Hassan Nemazee. Nemazee has long been a big cheese in Democratic fundraising circles and now he's becoming a household name after his arrest earlier this week on charges he tried to bilk Citicorp out of $74 million. He is now under house arrest in New York, and faces many years in federal prison if he is convicted. (washingtonexaminer.com)


Unionist Car Czar gets big promotion ... Is there anyone out there who needs any more proof that the usurper that sits illegally in the President’s chair in the Oval Office of the White House is, bit by bit, piece by piece, and day by day, in the process of totally destroying the democratic republic that once was the United States? The latest example of this rule of fear and suppression was announced on August 24, 2009 by the National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation, Inc. that Ron Bloom, former United Steelworkers Union executive, who was appointed by Obama as his “car czar” some months ago, will soon be named to oversee ALL of America’s manufacturing. Obama is getting to the point where he isn’t the least bit subtle anymore. He was pretty good at hiding all of his communistic tendencies, but now, naming the people he chooses to rule over all phases of government and citizen control as CZARS, is about as inconspicuous as a freight train steaming through your bedroom at three o’clock in the morning. However, that title which represented a barbaric stranglehold on the people if enslaved was finally eliminated when the people revolted against the tyranny of the czar in Russia in 1917. Will the Russian Revolution be repeated right here in the United States to rid us of the tyrants who would enslave us? The answer is imminent. (canadafreepress.com)


The problem will get worse ... Unions will be in the catbird seat while Democrats in Congress and the White House hold the reins of government. Unions are a key donor group to the party and contribute a great deal of unpaid labor (leaflets, canvassing) during campaigns. This is the pay-to-play politics that Democrats decry except when they benefit. These are special interest groups that Democrats never mention when they draft legislation, rules, and regulations to benefit them. Unions have already been amply rewarded through taxpayer bailouts of industries they dominate. Democrats are working on card check and mandatory arbitration legislation to help strengthen the power of unions. Obama has placed key union leaders in pivotal spots in our government - among them, the Federal Election Commission, and as head of the key Federal Reserve Bank of New York. A devoted union supporter now heads the Department of Labor. Of course, unions have helped devastate the very industries that are being bailed out by our money (think auto companies ... but the list is growing). The problem will get worse in the days ahead. (americanthinker.com)


Obama takes care of 9/11 ... President Obama is counting on two Marxists who blame America for the 9/11 terrorist attacks to help turn Sept. 11 from a day of solemn remembrance into an unseemly celebration of radical environmentalism and Big Government. The two men charged with this politically correct exercise in desecration and icon-smashing are the boorish, self-absorbed Rev. Lennox Yearwood and the comparatively suave, articulate Van Jones. Jones is adept at concealing his radicalism; Yearwood is incapable of doing so. Yearwood is apparently an ordained minister of the Church of God in Christ. He uses a megaphone and 1960s style protests to get his message out. Jones, the more urbane and media-savvy of the two, is the president's green jobs czar at the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). Jones uses Web 2.0 and the language of capitalism --non-threatening words like investment -- to sell socialism. But more on their Marxism in a moment. (spectator.org)


Transparency under the bus: SEIU operatives cancel financial disclosure ... Never mind about those revised union financial disclosure requirements President Obama inherited from his predecessor. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis now says she won’t make union officials comply. Unions officials complained for eight years that regulations issued by Elaine Chao, President George W. Bush’s Labor Secretary, were more rigorous than required by the Labor Management and Reporting Disclosure Act (LMRDA), which calls for modestly detailed annual financial reports by unions with receipts of $250,000 or more. The Bush-Chao regulations require union officials to disclose financial information that could aid union members’ seeking information on how their union leaders are spending dues money, and to help expose “no show jobs” that put paychecks for ghost employees into union coffers. Before Bush took office, the reports were mostly ignored by the Labor Department. Now, it’s back to business-as-usual. A notice appeared this week on the department’s web site saying the Office of Labor Management Standards (OLMS), whose main job is enforcing LMRDA requirements, won’t be doing its job under Solis. (washingtonexaminer.com)


SEIU teaches the Chicago Way ... Barack Obama told a crowd of supporters in Philadelphia back in 2008, “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.” He added, “That’s the Chicago way.” August 6 in St. Louis, Missouri, a local conservative found out firsthand about the “Chicago way.” Kenneth Gladney, a black conservative from the city, was handing out “Don’t Tread On Me” flags after a Russ Carnahan town hall meeting on health care in Mehlville. This didn’t go over well with the Obama supporters and union thugs who attended the meeting. They punched him in the face, kicked him in the head, and stomped on him on the pavement. So much for hope and change. This is my first-person account of what I saw at the the town hall meeting in Mehlville. (pajamasmedia.com)


Alternative to forced-labor unionism suggested ... Union bosses are trying to downplay the impact of their 'Card Check Forced Unionism' legislation in Right to Work states. While Right to Work laws are critical in protecting employees from forced union dues and in creating jobs and a higher standard of living, the fact is they do not deter coercive union organizing and other types of union abuse. The National Right to Work Foundation has released a short backgrounder on this topic, which is now available for download here. Although state Right to Work laws do ensure that no worker can be forced to pay union dues as a condition of employment, card check organizing campaigns make it dramatically easier for Big Labor to install union cronies in workplaces across the country. The end result is that even in Right to Work states, employees can be forced to accept union "representation" -- where union bosses may dictate the terms and conditions of their employment. (examiner.com)


Life terms: We don't need no stinkin' elections ... Sen. Strom Thurmond served more that 47 years in the U.S. Senate and retired at age 100. His last opponent reportedly said, “All he has to do to win re-election is not drool on himself during the campaign.” That proved accurate. Sen. Robert Byrd, 92, is still serving after 52 years. Nevertheless, a growing number of Americans claim to support term limits. Only fools would expect Congress to pass a law limiting their terms. So we will never have term limits — as many citizens have pointed out — until we stop voting for the same people every time. The mystery is why we do that. Apparently, we take comfort in re-electing the devils we know. But by sending them back for term after term, we give them the impression that we like what they’ve done, so they keep on. (tennessean.com)


Limousine liberalism will live on ... Sen. Edward Kennedy's family fortune not only fueled his brothers' presidential campaigns and his eight terms in the U.S. Senate, it also helped drive the family's liberal legacy and forge Kennedy's lifelong crusade for universal health care. Just how wealthy was Kennedy when he died Tuesday at the age of 77 after a yearlong battle with brain cancer? Under the filing rules, Kennedy was only required to place the value of those assets within a range, rather than give an exact dollar amount. The report placed the net worth of his publicly traded assets somewhere between a low of $15 million and high of $72.6 million. (sfexaminer.com)


Union legal operatives take down innovative, voter-approved anti-corruption law ... The Colorado Supreme Court has agreed to review the case of the constitutionality of a campaign finance law. Amendment 54 bans contributions larger than $100,000 from any organizations or individual with a no-bid or single source government contract immediate family members of people involved in no-bid contracts are included in the ban. On July 17, Judge Catherine Lemon granted a preliminary injunction that stopped the amendment from taking effect until an appellate court made its ruling. The authors of the amendment meant for it to be a means to combat pay-to-play corruption in the politics of government. (legalnewsline.com)


UAW colors labor-state politics ... Eight months into their reign, the county board Democrats led by Chairman Paul Gieleghem have taken a U-turn in their UAW relationship. Commissioners who had been accused of being too cozy with the unions, especially when concession-bargaining with county employees was ongoing, are now charged with pursuing a vendetta against the powerful auto workers' union. On the surface, the issue is budget cutting to avoid another county deficit. In reality, the issue is the 2010 election race for county executive. (macombdaily.com)


Sooners gain as IAM kisses Wisconsin jobs, dues goodbye ... In the end, it came down to timing and a deadline. And time was not on the side of the union of Mercury Marine Inc. after the company rejected the union's attempt at a second vote on a proposed labor contract aimed at saving hundreds of jobs. The vote Saturday night came too late, and further delays wouldn't be fair to an Oklahoma community that's been waiting for the outboard-engine maker to move additional work there, Mercury executives said Sunday. The company said the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Lodge 1947 should not have waited until 10 p.m. Saturday to launch a second vote on a contract proposal that expired at midnight. "There was an entire week in which the union should have allowed its members to have a second vote, rather than wait until two hours prior to the deadline," company spokesman Steve Fleming said. (jsonline.com)


Militants stage illegal teachers strike; families suffer ... There will be no classes Monday in the Kent School District, after teachers and administrators failed to reach agreement on a new labor contract, the teacher's union says. Negotiations are still under way on Sunday, and will continue on Monday as well, said Lisa Brackin Johnson, president of the Kent Education Association. Kent teachers voted overwhelmingly to strike last week after impasse was reached in the negotiations. In the meantime, teachers wave signs, wanting the community to know what they want. (seattlepi.com)


International Collectivism

Hugo's excellent adventure ... Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez starts on Monday an 11-day foreign trip that will take him to Russia, Belarus, Syria, Algeria, Libya and Iran. "The purpose of the trip is to strengthen political, energy and military ties with these countries," Chávez said at a news conference on Sunday. Chávez's first stop is Libya, where he will attend celebrations to mark the 40th anniversary of the Libyan Revolution and participate in an African Union summit. He will then head on to Algeria and Syria. He then goes on to Iran. "Iran is for us a strategic partner, with whom we have recently concluded a range of deals in the spheres of defense, energy, industry and technology," Chávez said, adding that Venezuela was ready to "strengthen" its ties with the Islamic Republic. (en.rian.ru)


LatAm thugs show vulnerablity ... South American leaders who met Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe at a summit last week have been alerted after he was diagnosed with swine flu. The 57-year-old was pictured sneezing and started feeling unwell on Friday, the same day as a meeting of the region's presidents in Bariloche, Argentina. Mr Uribe is the second Latin American leader to come down with swine flu. (news.sky.com)


Venezuelans split ... The majority of people in Venezuela think president Hugo Chávez is turning into a dictator, according to a poll by Alfredo Keller y Asociados. 53 per cent of respondents share this view, while 47 per cent disagree. (angus-reid.com)
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