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Ridicule is man's most potent weapon - Saul Alinsky

• Summary of Saul Alinsky's 'Rules for Radicals'
• More Saul Alinsky stories: here
• 'Rules for Radicals' at amazon.com
Individual liberty anywhere is a threat to the Progressive-Collectivist Cause everywhere.
(from forbes.com)Big Labor spends a lot of money on Democrats, and they want their money's worth. So it's no surprise that when union officials found out "card check" -- their plan to overhaul the organizing process--wasn't going to fly, labor bosses got out their gift receipts and named an exchange: the "high road" federal contracting standards. It's just the latest effort to increase costs on taxpayer projects in the name of pushing more money to labor unions.
Reports this week of the new proposal are raising eyebrows. Though details are sketchy, here's the general idea: The Obama administration is attempting to alter the scoring system currently used to evaluate government contractors and suppliers.
The new system would provide additional points for so-called "high road" employers who pay wages and benefits above minimum standards. (Note that the new requirement is not about providing quality above minimal standards; employers simply have to pay more.) Thus, competition in bidding becomes a tangled race to see who can charge the most to cover higher labor costs.
Sound like an unsound way to conduct a business? To determine this proposal's potential efficacy, consider the outcomes of two business models: Wal-Mart vs. what we'll call "ObaMart."
Public sector unions are a cancer in America. They are causing a massive economic crisis and, in terms of education, are the single most significant impediment to educational reform. All of this presents an opportunity for the right to address this issue and to build new alliances that could work a sea-change to the political landscape.(from wolfhowling.blogspot.com)
To understand all the ramifications of the public union cancer, one needs to know some of the history of the union movement. With the rise of the industrial era in the 18th century, large employers became infamous for abusing their bargaining power, many paying workers but a pittance to work long hours under dangerous, sometimes deadly conditions. And with their acts came the rise of labor unions.The conflict between owners and unions led to large scale violence. Indeed, it was in the middle of this volatile era that Karl Marx, in the Communist Manifesto, penned his theory that "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles."
(from spectator.org)The nation lost a lower than expected 36,000 jobs in February, keeping the unemployment rate at 9.7 percent, the Department of Labor reported this morning.
The report also found that there were 1.2 million discouraged workers in February who are not factored in the unemployment rate because they don't think jobs are available to them and thus have given up looking for work. That's up by 473,000 from a year earlier.