A new Declaration of the Free People of the united States of America ... The Want, Will, and Hopes of the People ... "Such has been the patient sufferance of these Citizens; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to reform their Systems of Government. The history of the recent Federal Government is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. The Congress has refused its Assent to Live within Our Means, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good." Read the rest here. Inspiring. (taxdayteaparty.com)
Anti-collectivism breaks through U.S. culture-smog ... The current national administration has exponentially expanded government and government control of industry, banking, our money, and even private property. In fewer than 100 days, they have done this to a degree unheard of in our history. In so doing, they have created debts for us we cannot repay in our lifetimes. They have exposed us to the certainty of $1.6 trillion in hyper-inflation. Concerned citizens across the country are say, “Enough!” “Stop the bailouts.” “Stop the stimulus.” “Stop spending.” “Stop borrowing.” “Stop expanding government.” Our nation is at a crossroads in its history. Quite literally, a line is being drawn in the sand. Shall our nation continue a runaway stampede to a system of national socialism as adopted in Germany in the 1930s or shall we draw back and insist upon the interests of individual freedom, liberty, and private property? The protest on tax day will not be about taxes. It will be a demand that we want our country back. It will be a rejection of collectivism under whatever form: national socialism, communism or fascism. (newswithviews.com)
Sen. Bernie Sanders placed on Dirty Money Watch ... WHO: Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, a co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act (aka Card Check) WHAT: Sanders received the following dirty money: Communication Workers of America (PAC) $2,500 in 2008 election cycle; $10,000 in 2006 election cycle. Boilermakers Union (PAC) $1,000 in 2008 cycle; $5,500 in 2006 cycle. American Federation of Government Employees (PAC) $3,000 in 2006. International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) $10,000 in 2008 election cycle, $10,000 in 2006 election cycle. Service Employees International Union (PAC) $10,000 in 2006 election cycle. United Steelworkers of America (PAC) $2,500 in 2008 election cycle; $10,000 in 2006 election cycle. WHY IT’S DIRTY: Multiple officers and members of these unions, including division presidents, secretary-treasurers and business managers, have been convicted since 2001 of felonies ranging from embezzlement, falsifying official reports to government, mail fraud and conspiracy. The Boilermakers have had at least 10 members convicted, while the IBEW has had at least 14. The United Steelworkers of America, which includes Paper, Allied-Industrial Chemical and Energy Workers International Union (PACE) has had at least 30 convictions among its membership. The amounts of embezzled funds range from over $5,000 to over $100,000. WILL SANDERS GIVE IT BACK: Sanders did not respond to The Examiner’s request for comment. (washingtonexaminer.com)
What if there was a Global War on Capitalism and the MSM ignored it? ... Although this is what has come to be expected from the anti-first amendment Left, on 7 April Fox News’ Neil Cavuto reported that Barack Obama’s group ACORN, members and readers of the far Left blog “Huffington Post” and other left-wing groups plan to infiltrate and cause chaos at scheduled tax day citizen tea parties. The tea parties—based upon the original Boston Tea Party’s taxation without representation—have barely been mentioned by the apparent Obama Administration-controlled leftist press. Note: Any honest reporting of anti-Obama programs is considered to be taboo by the mainstream media. The protests against the citizen tea parties—which were organized to stop Washington D.C.’s continued theft of trillions of taxpayer dollars—are said to be very well-organized and funded by anti-USA sources. The seemingly pro-Socialist and Fascist blog sites Huffington Post and Daily Kos are said to be recruiting rabble-rousers to turn peaceful protests into violent and racist events. Other reports include ACORN and other groups staging counter-protests in support of Obama’s and Congress’ gutting of the US Treasury. Obama’s group “Americans United for Change”—a group that has taken out TV Ads pushing Obama’s budget—advises that counter protests “will hold dozens of events outside local post offices in at least 30 states to highlight President Obama’s plan to help restore fairness to the tax code, including closing an outrageous loophole in the tax code that allows offshore corporate tax havens, as called for within the president’s budget.” A spokeswoman for the group appeared on Neil Cavuto’s program actually defending Obama’s and Congress’ ongoing destruction of the US economy! Note: This is what we get from one of Obama’s paid PR groups. By the way, is he also using our taxpayer money to pay these people? (canadafreepress.com)
Workers win as Card-Check arbitrator imposes CBA ... A Quebec arbitrator has imposed the first legal union contract on Wal-Mart in North America, nearly four years after workers at its retail store in Ste-Hyacinthe voted to join the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW Canada). The company refused to say whether it would close the store to keep its operations free of unions, an option it exercised in 2004 after employees at another Quebec store in Jonquiere voted to unionize. Last October, the company also closed a small automotive shop in Gatineau, Que., across the river from Ottawa, after employees unionized and an arbitrator imposed a contract granting workers a 33% increase. The excuse used by the Arkansas-based retail giant to justify both closures was that its operations would not be make enough money with unionized staff. Since the Gatineau closure, employees at Wal-Mart's main Gatineau retail operation have also voted to join UFCW Canada. The Ste-Hyacinthe ruling affects approximately 200 workers. The agreement gives them a 30-cent-an-hour increase annually over a two-year contract. Newly hired employees will not be entitled to the increase. (nupge.ca)Related video: Related video: Card-Check intimidation: UAW targets women
Political kickback financing mandate on the table ... The unions are blaming this on selfish big business. The real problem is that it's hard to defend a law that effectively abolishes the secret ballot. When nobody's looking and it's not for real, politicians may vote that way. But not when it's for keeps. Moreover, as General Motors and Chrysler spiral toward bankruptcy, it's not apparent that adversarial unionism is healthy for the economy. It's not clear that imposing federal arbitration on the private sector is a recipe for economic growth. Certainly it's not a recipe for innovation or flexibility at a time when businesses need them more than ever. Union sympathizers are now talking about fallback positions. But it's not clear that a bill with minor changes that does not effectively abolish the secret ballot and impose federal arbitration will produce the vast increase in unionization that union leaders seek. There's not much polling showing that vast numbers of private sector workers yearn for union representation. (patriotpost.us)
UAW bigs label replacement workers as 'scabs', employer as 'terrorist' ... In a town with one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation, being on strike is not going to get you much sympathy. And staying on strike for three years is going to earn you even less. “People don’t respect us. They look at us like, ‘You are stupid because you’re on strike when you could have a good job,’” said David Kish, 62, who spent 40 years making trumpets, trombones and other musical instruments at Elkhart’s Vincent Bach plant before he and 230 fellow union members walked off their jobs April 1, 2006. About 130 workers remain on strike. The strike has never officially ended, although production at the plant was disrupted only briefly before the company hired replacement workers. It later lured a number of strikers to cross the picket lines. “Scabs,” said John Fruchey, vice president of United Auto Workers Local No. 364, to which the striking workers belong. “We would have extended the current contract, we asked for nothing,” said Kish, who believes the company wanted to force a strike to destroy the union. “I call it corporate terrorism.” In the meantime, the striking Conn-Selmer workers pull shifts on the picket line outside the plant, gathering every now and then for larger reunions, such as a three-year anniversary potluck at a park in Elkhart that featured labor singer Anne Feeney. (msnbc.msn.com)Related video: Ode to Scabs
Community organizer shortage plagues U.S. ... I usually have about 20 students in the Community Organizing course I teach each year at Occidental College in Los Angeles. So far, 42 students have registered for next fall's class. I haven't all of a sudden become a more popular professor. There's clearly something happening on American campuses and in the broader culture that's tapping the pent up idealism of today's students. An important element of that new mood on campus is Barack Obama. You can find that new mood on almost every college campus today. When a skeptic asks me if the students in my community organizing class have what it takes to change the world, I'm proud to say: Yes, They Can. (tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com)
Rogue U.S. government draws critics ... Modern Tea parties creating controversy. One side says the government is spending too much, the other says they aren't spending enough. "One night we're sitting here in our living room and we are just fed up, we're tired," Jennifer Humphries said. Trent and Jennifer Humphries, fed up with state and federal legislators, decided it was time to have a tea party and they got a big response. "I created a Facebook page and invited five or six people to the Facebook page and the next thing I knew it was 12, 20, 30, 40. It's up to almost 200 now," Trent said. That was about three weeks ago. The Facebook group, Tucson Tea Party sort of joined forces with another page called the Arizona Tea Party and interest has skyrocketed. This is just one grassroots group across the state and the nation that plans to protest on the April15th, "tax day." The protest is inspired by the original Boston Tea Party where revolutionaries dumped a cargo of tea into the Boston Harbor to protest a tax imposed on it by Great Britain. (kvoa.com)
Collectivist News Union 'jerks' plague Boston Globe ... 2. It's full of elitist Ivy League jerks with a liberal agenda and an insular mindset. George Snell argues that the Globe hired and promoted Ivy League grads over local journalists, emphasized upper-class lifestyle coverage over actual news, and allowed themselves to create an insular mentality that resisted change. We've done our fair share of complaining about the Globe's bourgeois tendencies, and think that creating such articles at the expense of reporting is a misstep. Adam Reilly takes issue with the liberal allegations, but agrees that "the excessively boutique-y nature of much Globe content" is a cause for concern. James Boyce at the Huffington Post goes further, actually criticizing the Globe for being too conservative (Herald commenters will be up in arms!), saying the Globe is "failing because when the whole world went left, the Globe continued to go arrogantly to the right and continues to this day." The rest of his article focuses largely on financial matters such as advertising revenue and lack of subscribers, providing no evidence of conservative rhetoric, so it's a big accusation to make. Still, it's clear that the problem isn't just financial or managerial: the content of the paper plays at least some role in its crisis. (bostonist.com)Related video: The NYT loves unions, except their own
Powerful News Union draws a line in the sand ... Boston Globe unions are showing signs of digging in against management as frustrated labor leaders say their members have already given up enough in the effort to keep the struggling broadsheet afloat. “The general attitude is, ‘When is this going to stop?’ ” a top Globe union official said yesterday. “The unions are going to tell management, ‘We’ve worked with you as much as we can. Now you are taking it too far.’” “We’ve already given up enough,” echoed the frustrated leader of another Globe union, who added that even if the unions agree to the $20 million in concessions demanded now, management “will soon be coming back around again.” (bostonherald.com)
Reaction: UFCW's secret-ballot rejection at Foxwoods ... The union tried and the workers spoke. Let it go. I think back to businesses that are unionized and I see workers taking home less money (union dues among one of the culprits) and working conditions equal to nonunion shops. While I agree with the right of unions to try and unionize, I do take exception to them trying an end run when the elections do not go their way.” (theday.com)
Striking workers shut down oppressive government art gallery ... Museum and art gallery staff in Southampton are set to stage another walkout tomorrow in a dispute over pay and working hours. The City Art Gallery, Maritime Museum and the Museum of Archaeology will close as city council workers hold a second one-day strike over the proposed loss of pay enhancements on Saturdays. Union bosses said members have already agreed to work Sundays as part of their contractual hours, rather than as overtime, as part of a bid by the council to increase opening hours of the attractions. Union members have also been instructed to work to rule. It means gallery and museums will be shut every Sunday and Monday until the dispute is resolved. Last Saturday they formed a picket line outside the Maritime Museum, near Town Quay. (dailyecho.co.uk)
FBI probes typical, virulent labor-state education P2P ... Federal agents are looking for leads on a possible shakedown scheme of people seeking jobs in school districts in northeast Pennsylvania. The Federal Bureau of Investigation issued an unusual public statement Wednesday seeking tips on an ongoing criminal investigation in the area. "If you are a teacher, prospective teacher, employee or prospective employee of any kind who has been required to provide money, or anything else of value, to any individual in connection with being hired at any public school in northeastern Pennsylvania, or if you were denied employment because you refused to provide money or anything else of value for your prospective job, you may have been the victim of a crime," read the FBI's statement. Scrutiny has focused on the Wilkes-Barre Area School District, where the FBI interviewed recently hired teachers and issued subpoenas for employment records, the Scranton Times-Tribune reported. Agents are also said to be looking at the Wilkes-Barre Career and Technical Center. Sources say that rumors had long circulated that pay-to-play rules were in effect for job seekers at schools in Luzerne County. Two former judges there pleaded guilty to accepting more than $2 million in kickbacks from private youth detention centers. (poconorecord.com)
Public education indoctrinates pro-union kids ... Regarding Card Check, I agree with Mr. Viohl of Barrington. Unions and government don't create jobs, businesses do. What you did not mention, Mr. Viohl, is that Mr. Obama helped bring this bill to Congress several years ago, and continues to support it today. As John Stossel said in his March 4 column "he handed it to the union on a platter and it goes beyond outrageous." Speaking of unions the teachers union is a large financial supporter of the Democratic Party, supporting their contribution by means of union dues. Unless a teacher signs a yearly document requesting otherwise, their dues will automatically be used accordingly. And we wonder why most students are junior Democrats in the making. Teaching politics during cooking, math, gym and language classes, political science aside, is unacceptable. It is their job to teach our children, not give their political opinions. (dailyherald.com)
It's always time for selfish, gov't-union hardball ... Some unions just can’t seem to see the big picture. Such is the case of the teachers’ union in New Hartford, which played hardball and got a 6.7 percent salary increase at the expense of a classroom teacher, half off a language teacher and $30,000 worth of district resources and field trip money. A 6.7 percent increase in teacher salaries? Why? So the district would have to scrimp and ultimately shortchange students? Was this the right year to play hardball? The answer is obvious: An emphatic “no.” It is, of course, the union’s job to fight for their members and, from the point of the union, it is better to lose a few members (when those members lose their positions) if they can guarantee a pay increase for the masses. That is what some might call selfish and shortsighted. Does a position like that benefit the school district? No. Does it benefit taxpayers? No. Does it benefit students? No. (registercitizen.com)Congress preps another huge failure ... Janet Gilbert's column "Protection from whom?" (Commentary, April 6) could not have provided a better argument against the so-called Employee Free Choice Act. She wrote from experience and defined the intimidating actions that are likely should this legislation pass. Will employees be protected from the intimidating actions of labor unions and their cronies in the administration? Or will the U.S. Congress again fail the people, as it has done so frequently this year? (baltimoresun.com)International Collectivism
Anti-communist journalists unwelcome in U.S. ... The office staff of the Moldovan newspaper “Jurnal de Chisinau” and the online news channel jurnaltv.md has requested political asylum in the United States, APA reports. They link it to the unprecedented terror directed towards the free press in the country. The journalists mention that journalist Oleg Brega was beaten and later called to the prosecutor’s office for questioning, cameraman Gennadi Brega and deputy editor-in-chief Rodika Makhu were also interrogated. According to some reports, those journalists were the main organizers of the unrest in Chisinau on April 7. Moreover, media representatives from opposition underlined that the ruling Communist Party had prepared a secret plan and as a result of the plan all “freedoms” gained after Moldova’s independence would be liquidated. (en.apa.az)
Bolivia: 'Totalitarian' Leftist overcomes token resistance ... Lawmakers must still vote on the details of the election reform law, which is seen helping the leftist president in a general election in December by assigning more seats to poor, rural areas where he is popular. Morales, the Andean nation’s first indigenous president, started a hunger strike earlier on Thursday, accusing his rightist opponents of blocking the proposal. “Faced with the negligence of a bunch of neoliberal lawmakers, we have no choice but to take this step (hunger strike) ... they don’t want to pass a law that guarantees the implementation of the constitution,” he told reporters. Morales’ Movement Toward Socialism, or MAS, party controls the lower house in the natural gas-rich country, but right-wing parties have used their Senate majority to block dozens of government-proposed reforms since Morales took office in 2006. Lawmakers traded insults during a heated debate and some opposition members called Morales government “totalitarian”. However, a majority eventually voted to approve the general outline of the law. Bolivia, the poorest country in South America, has been racked by decades of political upheaval. The opposition is split ahead of December’s vote, when Morales will stand for re-election and 166 lawmakers will be chosen. According to a poll published in El Deber newspaper this week, some 54 percent of Bolivians think Morales will be reelected, far ahead of his closest contender former President Carlos Mesa with 6 percent. Morales, a critic of Washington and an ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, won sweeping victories in a recall vote in August and the constitutional referendum in January, showing strong backing for his leftist and pro-indigenous policies. (tehrantimes.com)
Chávez gathers Latin communists ahead of secret tête-à -tête with Obama ... The extraordinary summit of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of our America (ALBA) will meet next week in Cumana, Sucre state, Venezuela, announced today the Presidential press office. An official note indicated that the presidents of the member countries will benefit from the occasion to make a balance and analyze the perspectives for the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago to be held April 17 to 19. Besides the representatives of the members of ALBA (Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Honduras, Nicaragua and Venezuela) the president of Paraguay, Fernando Lugo, has been invited according to previous reports that include in the agenda the proposal of a common currency and development projects. He said the agenda correspondsto an unstoppable dynamics based in an intense work seeking to strengthen alternative, geopolitical relations in the economic, energy, social and cultural fields. This is part of the great project. "The national project Simon Bolivar cannot be understood without a geopolitical framework, to be feasible, this requires a pluripolar world", Chávez said and asserted that preps in Caracas advance to host the Second Summit Africa-South America in September this year. "We are working for the Africa Summit in Caracas next September. All Africa and South America at presidential level. Caracas will be the epicenter of the geopolitical game", he stressed. He highlighted that the advance of South initiatives from Venezuela and other nations over the last years, "has reached maturity, pre-maturity or development." (plenglish.com)
Chavistas craft a 'new' communism ... To re-imagine and reinvent Socialism has been the Bolivarian Agenda and it is refreshing that progressives in the U.S. are daring to re-conceive this debate. In Venezuela, when we speak of 21st century socialism, we mean empowering people by retaining the grassroots aspirations of anti-capitalist movements but rejecting the institutions that have failed to meet peoples' needs. As the authors point out, solidarity is extremely relevant. It can be a practice that allows new ways to think about ourselves as individuals, about society, as well as about North-South relations. This is why the Venezuelan government practices a number of non-market policies that are expressions social solidarity, such as the discounted heating oil program for poor communities in the U.S., the solidarity-based trade initiative known as ALBA, and the Petrocaribe agreement, which provides low interest financing for oil. Although there is still much to be done and done better, in Venezuela we foster equity of distribution and give people control over their own lives and economic circumstances. Communal councils and communal banks are key institutions for creating Socialism of the 21st century in this context. Communal councils consist of communities organized to deliberate their most pressing problems and work with local government and national officials to turn community ideas into feasible projects. Through the communal banks, which are funded by the central government, thousands of local projects that emphasize collective property and participatory economics (Socialist Enterprises, cooperatives, etc) have been financed. This model is still developing but generally gets rid of bureaucracy and corruption, eliminates top down command, improves efficiency, and gives a sense of empowerment to the whole community. By reimagining socialism we are creating a more equitable, empathetic, and human society. (venezuelanalysis.com)
