Saturday, February 26, 2011

Attention, Democrats!

The foolish voters have rejected your message and put Republicans in power. What's a good, left-wing, progressive lawmaker to do when you can't pass legislation favoring your special interest groups, or worse when there's pending legislation mandating that your friends in organized labor should pay their fair share for their own health care coverage and pensions?

Sometimes, you just have to get away from it all, especially if it shuts down government and at least temporarily blocks offending legislation. But where to go?

Ask no more.

Rockford, Illinois, is waiting for you!


Thursday, February 24, 2011

Unions in Action

Yesterday, Feb. 23, 2011, union members. including those from the Communications Workers of America, descended on the Washington, D.C. offices of FreedomWorks, a conservative think tank. (FreedomWorks recently moved to into a new, more secure facility following a number of credible death threats.) The protesters were expressing their displeasure at the think tank, which is certainly their right.

Several FreedomWorks employees went outside to talk to the demonstrators. When one of the protesters exhibited his debating skills by calling an employee a "little sh*t,", Tabitha Hale turned on her iPhone and attempted to record the exchange.

Apparently, the union man felt threatened by the 5'1" Hale.



As Hale stated after the attack, "It’s one thing to be called a violent teab*gger. It’s another to be called a violent teab*gger while you’re being assaulted."

Progressives like to claim conservatives are violent, yet it seems that conservatives are the victims of left-wing violence.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Public Employee Unions ‘Unthinkable and Intolerable’

Much attention is focused in Wisconsin where thousands public employees gathered at the state capital protesting pending legislation that would, among other things, force the union members to assume greater responsibility for their own health care coverage and retirement benefits, as part of an effort to balance the state budget. These union members, aided and abetted by the Democrat Party and even the President, have expressed their displeasure by closing down schools and effectively brought the machinery of state government to a halt.

Some on the left claim the actions of the Republican governor and GOP-controlled legislature are really about depriving public employees the right of collective bargaining, not balancing the budget.

There are arguments on both sides.

However, it raises an even more basic question: Should public employees have the right to collective bargaining?

Unions were formed in the private sector. Companies profited because of the workers’ labor. Unions were a way for workers to share the profits they created.

But the public sector has no profits; it creates no wealth.

In the private sector, the union negotiates with a company’s owners, be it a single individual or stockholders.

In the public sector, the owners are the taxpayers, most of whom have smaller salaries and poorer health care coverage and retirement benefits than their counterparts in the public sector.

For these and other reasons, many influential thinkers were leery of public employee unions.

One of those concerned voices raised belonged to George Meany, president of the AFL-CIO. I, 1955, Meany said, “It is impossible to bargain collectively with the government.” Part of his reasoning was that government collective bargaining meant bargaining meant that voters no longer had the final say on public policy, which goes to the heart of the democratic system.

Another such thinker called the concept of public employee unions “unthinkable and intolerable.” Those words were from Franklin Delano Roosevelt, arguably the most labor-friendly president of the 20th century. He wrote in a 1937 letter to the National Federation of Federal Employees, “All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service.” He continued, “Particularly, I want to emphasize my conviction that militant tactics have no place in the functions of any organization of government employees.”

What we are witnessing today in Madison, Wisconsin, is the “unthinkable and intolerable” as foretold by Roosevelt and warned of by Meany.

Perhaps collective bargaining by public employees is an idea whose time has come ... and gone.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

The ‘What A Maroon’ Award

And now, ladies and gentlemen, the moment you’ve all been waiting for ... This week’s “What A Maroon” award goes to...


VALERIE JARRETT


Valerie Jarrett, a Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement (whatever the heck that is), continues the Administration's tradition of embarrassing gaffes.

Jarrett was at the annual black-tie Alfalfa Club dinner when she mistook Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli for a waiter. Somehow missing his four stars and chestful of medals, she asked the general to get her some wine. Chiarelli, a gentleman, complied.

What does it say when a high-ranking member of the Administration doesn’t recognize her own country’s uniform? What is the message this conveys to the men and women wearing that uniform? What would these brave men and women like to tell the Administration?

Cartoonist Chris Muir address that question in his “Day By Day” comic strip.

Whether it’s Barack Obama announcing that he campaigned in 57 states, Vice President Joe Biden telling a paraplegic to stand up and take a bow or Secretary of State Hillary Clinton giving a cheesy Staples Easy Button to the Russian Foreign Minster that Clinton claimed had “reset” written in Russian on it when it actually spelled “overcharge,” the current Administration never ceases to bring embarrassment and humiliation on itself. Jarrett has proven herself a true servant of this inept regime.

WHAT A MAROON!




In honor of the great American philosopher Bugs Bunny who first coined the phrase, I’ve decided to present the “What A Maroon” award each week to the politician, organization or celebrity who makes the most sand-poundingly stupid statement of recent days.