Obama signals collectivist danger ... The elite "Gulfstream liberals" who run the Democratic Party have managed to cobble together the perfect constituency. First, we have a dumbed-down, government-dependent, indolent proletariat. Next are the naïve, mostly affluent liberals and pseudo intellectuals (Lenin referred to them as "useful idiots") who have received more indoctrination than education from leftist faculties. Their ideological toilet training has been continually reinforced by corrupt media. President Barack Obama ran a brilliant campaign with full support of the media. The Republicans lost because they reneged on their "Contract with America," by which they regained control of the Congress. We then received more than a decade of "Democrat Lite" unrestrained spending and lax oversight of financial institutions. The swing voters had enough by then and voted in the Democrats. To the Republicans who were responsible for the last two election disasters (and you know who you are), I can only say, "Shame on you." We now are saddled with an arrogant, narcissistic, anti-capitalist demagogue who is giving the country the "change" he promised by taking from the ants to feed the grasshoppers, kowtowing to European socialists, stifling dissent and trying again the failed policies of FDR and Jimmy Carter. Obama is an anti-individual collectivist and a clear and present danger to our republic. What can we do? Get involved. Vote as many of his supporters out as we can in 2010 before it's too late. (beaufortgazette.com)
U.S. socialists use 'controlled chaos' ... Obama is a master at using his enemies' strengths (Christianity, free-market capitalism, Reagan conservatism) as a weakness (moral and economic collapse, multi-billion dollar bailouts, George W. Bush). Obama, along with his socialists and fascist minions, believes the best way to dominate a society is by always having a certain degree of controlled ("determined") chaos to supply the means to achieve their long-term ends of womb-to-tomb socialist controls over the people. The president has masterfully manipulated chaos theory to exacerbate existing societal problems by acting like he is somehow above it all or disassociated from the plethora of existing problems. ("I inherited this economy" and "not on my watch" are favorite Obama mantras.) Furthermore, Obama has purposely refrained from seriously focusing on fixing these pressing problems facing America, whether it's the economy, Wall Street, the home mortgage industry, the auto industry, the multi-trillion dollar debt we have with China, or the numerous geopolitical catastrophes across the world. In "Enemy of the State," Brill's dialogue with Dean concluded, "You grow stronger as they grow weaker. Learn to use your enemy's own weapons against him." Obama and his minions have been taught by radical professors at the Ivy-League schools they attended to utterly hate America and all of her wonderful attributes like Natural Law, Christianity, liberty, integration of law and morality, free markets, the Bible, the Constitution, separation of powers, federalism – qualities that made America the greatest nation in this history of the world in less than 200 years. Instead, we are literally watching the Obama administration wage a coup d'état against his own country and wage a full frontal assault against her most sacred and vested interests. (wnd.com)
U.S. turns to failed policies of the past ... A radical shift in labor law was introduced last week in Congress. Politicians supporting the absurdly named Employee Free Choice Act are seemingly willing to pay back labor leaders for their strong financial support. But should this bill pass Congress, our faltering economy will have to absorb another shock that we may find worse than bank failures. The Employee Free Choice Act, or EFCA, would be more accurately named the “Union Bailout Bill.” The proposal boosts the number of union-dues paying members by effectively taking away all employees rights to decide by secret-ballot vote if they want to join. The new law will provide a surge of unionization by pressuring employees to state their position publicly on union membership. And if their position is “no,” employees will suffer repeated “sales calls” until they change their vote to “yes.” The labor law overhaul is almost guaranteed to hurt an already sinking stock market. A study led by Princeton economist David Lee looked at the effect of union victories on companies’ stock prices. He found “substantial losses in market value following a union election victory -- about a 10 percent decline, equivalent to about $40,500 per unionized worker.” Should EFCA pass, Lee’s data suggest that the market value of firms will decline by as much as 11 percent. If that’s not enough to make President Barack Obama reconsider his support of the bill, he should listen to the director of his National Economic Council, Lawrence Summers. In 2007, Summers noted that one “cause of long-term unemployment is unionization. High union wages that exceed the competitive market rate are likely to cause job losses in the unionized sector of the economy.” (Think “Detroit.”) Summers’s warning couldn’t be more relevant today. As two UCLA economists established in 2004, pro-labor policies during the Great Depression that manipulated wages and prices further depressed economic recovery for seven years. Will we repeat the same mistake again? (dcexaminer.com)
Anti-American union organizers ... Although I have belonged to several unions over the years, I categorically agree with The Morning Journal's editorial concerning the "card check" bill before Congress. The bill denies a plant's workers from having a secret ballot during union organizing drives. Union excesses in the past have led to the demise of the Big Three automakers and today only about 14 percent of employees belong to a union nationwide. Workers compelled to vote while union organizers look over their shoulders would be patently unAmerican. (morningjournal.com)
Workers get rid of SEIU ... More than 350 workers at three Sacramento-area nursing homes and one in Pacifica have chosen the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) to represent them, union officials announced Tuesday. The upstart health care union -- formed in January after its leaders were fired by Service Employees International Union -- replaces SEIU in what appears to be its first successful organizing drive. Two of the three local nursing homes are located in Woodland: Cottonwood Healthcare Center and Woodland Skilled Nursing Facility. Also organized by NUHW is Valley Skilled Nursing Center in Sacramento. All four of the nursing homes are owned by North American Healthcare Inc., which has agreed to recognize the new union and begin contract negotiations, NUHW said. NUHW was formed following a year-long battle between leaders at SEIU and SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West that culminated when SEIU took control of the aggressive union local in January. The new union has wooed SEIU members ever since. This appears to be the first time workers have successfully organized under NUHW. “This is the first recognition anywhere,” said NUHW spokeswoman Sadie Crabtree. “We now have 350 members.” SEIU countered Tuesday that it will file an unfair labor practice charge against the employer for illegally recognizing the new union. “Frankly, our concern is for these workers, who have been without a contract since these very same individuals used them as pawns in their efforts to weaken the union,” SEIU spokeswoman Michelle Ringuette said in an e-mail. (sacramento.bizjournals.com)Life-threatening non-union oppression
Union membership overrated ... In the same week legislation that would kill the secret ballot used to form a union is introduced, a poll finds fewer than one in 10 non-union workers wants to join a union. No wonder coercion is necessary. The political left, long in line with organized labor, is pushing hard for card check legislation, betting that it will boost falling private-sector union membership. But there's a downside to expanding the rolls, according to Anne Layne-Farrar, an economist with the Law and Economics Consulting Group. She believes card check "would likely increase the U.S. unemployment rate and decrease U.S. job creation substantially." If the law "were to increase the percentage of private-sector union membership by between 5 and 10 percentage points," she reckons, "unemployment would increase by 2.3 million to 5.4 million in the following year and the unemployment rate would increase by 1.5 to 3.5 percentage points." The reason is that labor, when organized, becomes more expensive. The average worker likely isn't aware of Layne-Farrar's findings. But as the Rasmussen poll clearly reveals, he or she instinctively knows that union membership is overrated. (investors.com)
ACORN Judge tapped by Obama ... Giving the term judicial activism new meaning, President Obama has nominated an ACORN loyalist to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, the Chicago Tribune reports. David F. Hamilton "has a long and impressive record of service and a history of handing down fair and judicious decisions. He will be a thoughtful and distinguished addition to the 7th circuit and I am extremely pleased to put him forward to serve the people of Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin," the president said in a press release that conspicuously ignores the judicial nominee's actual history. The Judicial Confirmation Network notes that Hamilton previously worked as a fundraiser for ACORN, the radical direct-action group that not only resurrects the dead and gets them to the polls every election but also shakes down banks and pressures them to make home loans to people who can't afford to pay them back. (spectator.org)International Collectivism
Logical Latin Socialism Advances ... Hard on the heels of winning a referendum to abolish term limits last month, Hugo Chávez, Venezuela's president, is trying to fend off economic worries by taking on the private sector, especially companies in the politically sensitive food and farming industries. First to feel the impact were rice processors. A rice plant belonging to Cargill Inc., a Twin Cities company, was seized for allegedly violating the "food security" law. Two plants owned by Empresas Polar, Venezuela's largest private conglomerate, were taken over "temporarily" to enforce production of price-controlled rice. Like other companies, Polar argues controls force it to sell at a loss. It has been selling flavored varieties of rice, hitherto unregulated. Chávez rejects this argument, and threatened to expropriate all of Polar's businesses (which include brewing) and to pay compensation in bonds rather than cash. Rice is a staple for Venezuelans, but it has recently been scarce. The government claims there is no shortage. But rice producers say output has fallen because there is no incentive to invest in either factories or farms. They point out that the government itself supplies around half the market, and they complain that its imports are undermining their businesses. The government has also taken over two other factories, one making pasta and the other a tuna-canner. Other factories producing staple foods are being inspected and ordered to concentrate on making price-controlled goods. Owners fear that will force them into bankruptcy. Several farms have been taken over by troops and civilian supporters of the government. Elías Jaua, the agriculture minister, says the government seeks "hegemony" in food and farming. "Against the logic of capitalism," declared Chávez, "let us construct a new logic, that of socialism." (startribune.com)
AFL-CIO big is pals with western socialists ... AFL-CIO President John Sweeney met with Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva this past weekend, prior to Lula’s White House meeting with President Obama. Lula, a metalworker and internationally recognized trade union leader before he was elected Brazil’s president in 2002, was re-elected in 2006. He has met frequently with the AFL-CIO on his visits to the United States since his election. During their meeting Saturday, Lula and Sweeney discussed ways the international union movement and coordinated economic recovery policies can benefit workers in Brazil, the United States and around the globe. Lula recently showed he still honors his trade union roots. While most of the world’s heads of state preferred to attend the annual economic forum in Davos, Switzerland, in late January, Lula and several leaders of major Latin American countries participated in this year’s World Social Forum. In fact, Lula convened a meeting with three other Latin American presidents—Evo Morales of Bolivia, Rafael Correa of Ecuador and Hugo Chávez of Venezuela—during the social forum. (pww.org)
Panama officials pay tribute to Raúl Castro ... Cuban President Raúl Castro met on Monday in Havana with Panamanian First Vice President Samuel Lewis, who is on a working visit to the island. Lewis extended a greeting to Raul from Panama’s President Martin Torrijos Espino. The meeting reflected the excellent relations between the two countries. Also present were Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla and Jorge Marti Martinez, head of the Communist Party Central Committee International Relations Department. (periodico26.cu)
Union official embezzled in Israel ... The National Workers Organization and Nili, and associated organization Nili, have sued the union's former chief financial officer, Ovadia Cohen, for NIS 6.5 million. Cohen was convicted in the embezzlement affair as the "money man" for former finance minister Avraham Hirchson, whose trial is continuing. The suit was filed yesterday in Tel Aviv District Court. Cohen was convicted last year of theft by a manager, money laundering and false registration of corporate documents in a plea bargain. Among other offenses, Cohen admitted to stealing NIS 10 million. He was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison. Most of the stolen money was used to cover gambling debts amassed by Cohen's brother, David Cohen. (haaretz.com)<
