Capitalism

Budget - Capitalism - Chicago - Congress - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Jobs - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Disgusting: Chicago Firefighter ‘Priest’ Uses Fellow’s Funeral For Union Speech

December 29, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Father Thomas Mulcrone made an ass of himself at the funeral for fallen Chicago Firefighter Edward Stringer on Tuesday, Dec. 28 by delivering some union-like hectoring of the city from the pulpit during his dead comrade’s eulogy. Mulcrone’s union-centric address was as disgusting a display as I can imagine and at the most inappropriate time imaginable.

Sadly Stringer, a 12-year veteran Chicago Fireman, perished in a fire a few days before Christmas when a roof of an abandoned building collapsed on him and several other firemen. One other fireman, Corey Ankum, was also killed that terrible day.

At the funeral on Tuesday morning, Father Mulcrone, a Catholic Priest attached to the Chicago Fire Department for some 25 years, launched into some finger waving at all those people who claim that Firemen don’t deserve the money they make.
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Disgusting: Chicago Firefighter ‘Priest’ Uses Fellow’s Funeral For Union Speech”

Budget - Business - California - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Beware When They Say a Government Program Will ‘Make Money’

December 28, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The New York Times had a small story that it likely thought was just an amusing little tale of a quirky government program from Los Angeles. Centered on the gift shop run by the L.A County Coroner’s Department, the Times indulged such lines as “we’re dying for your business,” and headlined the piece “Dealing in Death, and Trying to Make a Living.” But one little part of the story should serve as a warning not to believe any politician or government hack that says their office or project will “make money.”

According to the Times the gift shop at the L.A. Coroner’s office was initially started in the early 1990s when a secretary working for the county noticed that mugs and T-shirts with the county coroner’s logo on them were popular items at forensics conferences. The county thought that a gift shop would be a moneymaker and when the coroner’s office floated the idea to the county government it claimed that the money the shop would make would pay for an anti-drunken driving course for teens.

Turns out it’s the ‘tother way ’round.
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Beware When They Say a Government Program Will ‘Make Money’”

Alan Caruba - Budget - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Government - Liberals - Nanny State - President - Taxes

Busybodies, Nags and Control Freaks

December 27, 2010 by

-By Alan Caruba

Not long ago I saw a television documentary on the rise of the Third Reich in Germany. I have, in addition, read any number of books on the period of the 1920s and 30s. The lesson it teaches is that the Nazis did not suddenly arise, take control, and impose a totalitarian government on Germans. It was a matter of slow progress until October 29, 1929 when the U.S. stock market crashed.

The affect was worldwide. In Europe where nations were still trying to revive from the devastating impact of World War One, it created havoc similar to the Great Depression that gripped America for a decade.

In the wake of the 1919 Versailles Treaty, a defeated Germany had been hit with huge reparations. The Weimar Republic was struggling to return the nation to some degree of stability.

The destabilization of the worldwide financial system created the chaos needed for Adolf Hitler and the National Socialists to gain seats in the government and when Hitler was named Chancellor it opened the door to total control.
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Busybodies, Nags and Control Freaks”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Frank Salvato - Government - House of Representatives - Liberals - President - Senate - Taxes

Those Damn Rich People

December 26, 2010 by

-By Frank Salvato

Throughout the debate over the extension of the tax rates, aka the Bush tax cuts, we have witnessed a concerted effort by Democrats and Progressives to demonize the wealthy. This demonization has crossed over into the on-going argument over the Estate Tax, aka the Death Tax. At every turn we are made to feel that the wealthy have no right to “monopolize” all of their riches when government could use a goodly portion of that wealth to “help” the down-trodden, the disenfranchised and the less fortunate. Truth be told, the government can’t do anything equal to what the wealthy in the private sector do to “help” those individuals.

Before we get into the issue of the rich and their wealth, let’s dispense with the myth that government can create jobs. Oh sure, the government can create employment through expanding the reach of government; by expanding government as an entity, but those jobs require an increase in taxation on the rank-and-file citizenry in order to cover the paychecks issued to those government workers. Government – aside from the blood-money interest produced by TARP and the ill-gotten gains of government through the hostile takeover of General Motors – cannot create wealth, ergo; it does not have the ability to amass wealth in order to expand; in order to create jobs. Simply put, when government creates a job, that employee is paid by the taxpayer, not the government; that employee is paid by the private sector.

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Those Damn Rich People”

Barack Obama - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Nanny State - NLRB - President - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Obama’s Labor Dept. to Force Employers to tell Employees They Have a Right to Unionize

December 24, 2010 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Obama’s intrusive National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the government regulatory agency responsible for making rules to govern the relationship between employer and employee, has decided that as an employee you are stupid. Worse, the NLRB also decided that it has the power to force your employer to waste its resources holding your hand as an employee and notifying you of your rights to join a union under the National Labor Relations Act. Essentially, this government agency has summarily decided that employers must do the government agency’s job for it.

What American doesn’t understand that they have a basic right to unionize? And for those who don’t it is incumbent upon them to learn enough to become an informed citizen. It is the basic charge of being an American, after all. It is a duty of each of us to learn about our rights and learn how to exercise them. It isn;t our employer’s job to teach us how to be useful American citizens. Ah, but if you are Obama, you assume that everyone is too stupid to learn what their own rights are and nanny government must force your employer to read a list of your rights to you upon being hired.
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Obama’s Labor Dept. to Force Employers to tell Employees They Have a Right to Unionize”

Barack Obama - Capitalism - Crime - Health - Jobs - Journalism - Media - Media Bias - President - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions ‘Christmas Carol’ Harassment, Media Ignores Hateful Unionistas

December 24, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

A bus load of 80 union thugs descended upon a sleepy — and private — suburb in Keokuk, Iowa disturbing the peace with loud singing, foul language and trespassing. And the media? Well, the Old Media thought this criminal behavior was just amusing “caroling.”

Locked out workers of Roquette America in Keokuk, Iowa (right across the river from Quincy, Ill.) invaded the property and homes of the company’s executives singing their foul songs and disrupting the peace in the quiet suburb.

Not only did the news media report this as but inoffensive “caroling” — which it decidedly was not — the media didn’t even report the illicit and immature behavior of these union thugs. The media whitewashed the whole incident.
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Unions ‘Christmas Carol’ Harassment, Media Ignores Hateful Unionistas”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Children - Constitution - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Jobs - Warner Todd Huston

Capitalism 101, A Video Series by Leon Weinstein

December 22, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Presented here is the first episode of Capitalism 101, a series intended to help parents teach their children of the virtues of capitalism and liberty.

According to series creator Leon Weinstein, “I am trying to teach adults how in an entertaining and engaging way to pass on their children why capitalism is important to THEM, and why without liberty THEY will be deprived of many things they (and we) take for granted.”

Leon Weinstein is an author and former citizen of communist Russia. His past work, The Capitalist Guidebook, is a tour de force apologia for capitalism, western civilization in general and the U.S.A. in particular.

AFL-CIO - Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Campaign Finance - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Liberals - Lobbyists - Public Employees Unions - Regulation - Republicans - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Obama Tells Labor, I’m On Your Side

December 21, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

They gave him hundreds of millions of dollars for his campaign for president and for that Barack Obama has given Big Labor many, many payoffs, sweetheart deals, and regulatory favors. And this week he met in the White House with members of Big Labor and told them that he was sill on their side.

Even with all the paybacks and special favors that Obama has given to the unions in the fist half of his presidency, Big Labor is suspicious of his fealty and unhappy with his apparently insufficient level of kowtowing. And I have to say, the way labor representatives were treated in this particular White House visit does send a subtle message that Big Labor is not quite the hale fellow well met that it once was.

But don’t be fooled by the artifice.
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Obama Tells Labor, I’m On Your Side”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Capitalism - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Founders - Frank Salvato - Government - Liberals - Money - Taxes

To Be Clear, It’s Not the Government’s Money

December 18, 2010 by

-By Frank Salvato

“I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.”
– James Madison, Fourth President of the United States and considered the Father of the United States Constitution.

There seems to be a great deal of confusion in Washington DC, especially on the Left side of the aisle, about the revenue surrendered to the federal government through taxation. For some reason, many Democrats – and all Progressives – seem to believe that they have a right to the citizens’ money, for whatever cause, whatever initiative and/or whatever programs they deem necessary. Not only isn’t this even close to the truth, but to believe so is to have a non-functional understanding of the Constitution and the proper limits of government.

If this needs to be said once it needs to be said a thousand times; it is not the right of the federal government to do with tax revenue what it pleases. Tax revenue, privately earned money that is surrendered to the federal government under law, is meant to fund the vital processes of the federal government as outlined in the enumerated powers of the US Constitution and the whole of the Charters of Freedom.
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To Be Clear, It’s Not the Government’s Money”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Chicago - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Illinois - Liberals - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Illinois to the Elderly: Retire Somewhere Else, Will Ya?

December 16, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Guess which state is the single worst state to try and retire in? Yup. Illinois.

TopRetirements.com, a site that tracks the best values for retirees, recently posted its top ten worst states to retire to and Barack Obama’s home state of Illinois tops the list of the worst. California comes up a close second worst.

Of Illinois the sites says, “Illinois’s fiscal health could be the worst of any state, which is what tipped the scales. It has even borrowed money to fund its pension obligations.”
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Illinois to the Elderly: Retire Somewhere Else, Will Ya?”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Ethics - Government - Jobs - Liberals - President - Regulation - Senate - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Reid Still Looking to Introduce Forced Unionizing Bill

December 16, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

As we discussed a few days ago, Senate Democrat Majority Leader Harry Reid still intends to push the bill that wold nationalize all police and firefighter unions.

The bill is titled the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act (S 3391) and would force all local, city, county, and state police and firefighter unions to operate under nationalized union rules created by union bosses based in Washington D.C. This bill would take away the power of local governments to control their own first responders and this would necessarily take away all power from you, the voters, too.

Reid tried to get cloture on this one last week but did not get it done. We are still on the watch for him to push this abomination against local control at any time.
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Reid Still Looking to Introduce Forced Unionizing Bill”

Anti-Americanism - Business - Capitalism - Economy/Finances - Frederick Meekins - Liberals - PCism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Western Civilization

Salvation Army Bells Deemed Offensive

December 16, 2010 by

-By Frederick Meekins

Giant, a prominent Washington DC area supermarket chain, has curtailed the number of days that the Salvation Army will be permitted to solicit donations this Christmas season outside of the grocery retailer’s locations.

In a number of media reports, it was claimed that the bells were offensive and irritating to a number of shoppers.

So what about those food solicitation campaigns where the grocery chain doesn’t simply set out a receptacle for those wanting to contribute food items to charity but instead gets broadcast news outlets involved?
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Salvation Army Bells Deemed Offensive”

Anti-Americanism - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Entertainment - Environment - Hollywood - Liberals - Movies - Warner Todd Huston

No Cancer in Hinkley, California: Activist Hollywood Wrong AGAIN!

December 15, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Proving once again that Hollywood always gravitates to the wrong causes, Tim Cavanaugh of Reason.com reported on Dec. 14 that the California town made famous by Erin Brokovich — an activism that Hollywood embraced with a major motion picture starring Julia Roberts — has proven not to have lived up to all the anti-corporate fearmongering that brought the town to the country’s attention.

For those of you that are hazy on the story, local activist Erin Brokovich successfully took Pacific Gas and Electric to court forcing it to pay a record $333 million class-action settlement because it was determined that the company allowed a toxic plume of hexavalent chromium 6 to be released from the natural gas pipeline based in Hinkley, California.

The charge from Brockovich and her supporters was that this cloud of hexavalent chromium 6 was surely going to unleash a wave of devastating cancers on the unsuspecting residents of Hinkley. The courts tended to agree. The court of public opinion also agreed. Interestingly, there wasn’t any real scientific proof to give the contention veracity, but everyone was just sure that increased levels of cancer would befall these poor people. The company lost and paid dearly.

It was just the sort of David vs Goliath story that drew Hollywood to the tale. A 2000 film starring Julia Roberts, one of the highest paid actresses of her day, was crafted to make a hero of Miss Brockovich.
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No Cancer in Hinkley, California: Activist Hollywood Wrong AGAIN!”

Budget - Capitalism - Card Check - Democrats/Leftists - EFCA - Ethics - Government - Jobs - Liberals - NLRB - President - SEIU - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Obama Using Regulatory Power to Force Card Check

December 14, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Congress has failed to pass Big Labor’s long sought after card check bill, the Orwellian named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). The reason congress has not passed this destructive law is because the voters have repeatedly spoken by urging their representatives and senators to stand against it. The voice of the American people, though, does not interest President Barack Obama because he is gearing up to use his power to control America’s regulatory regime to force card check on the people anyway.

One of the chief provisions of the card check bill eliminates the secret ballot and would force workers voting on union representation to make their vote publicly by signing a card that everyone can easily see. This procedure certainly leaves workers open to intimidation as union bosses learn just who voted for them and who voted against them.

There are also other bad parts to the EFCA. One of them is that the government will force automatic arbitration on union and employer alike if no contract has been arrived at in the very short time that the government is forcing on them by law.
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Obama Using Regulatory Power to Force Card Check”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Liberals - Nancy Salvato - Property Taxes - Taxes

I’m a Writer, Not a Financial Planner

December 14, 2010 by

-By Nancy Salvato

Like many Americans, I searched for a new job in 2010. Although I wasn’t unemployed at the time of my search, I concluded that it was in my best interest to find a job with a company that offered more stability and in which my job skills would continue to be valued. When I was offered a position which fit my criteria, with room to grow, I opted to take it. This meant no longer living near family and friends, which would be hard. Thankfully, they were supportive of my decision and agreed this would be best. There was one other hurdle. I would need to sell my home.

Very quickly we realized the extent of the economic recession in Illinois, as there was no way our house would sell without our owing money. Like many Americans, we had three options. We could default, we could rent and try and ride it out, or we could short sell. Since we had invested a good sized down payment into the house, defaulting or short selling were not our first choices. We decided to rent if we could find a tenant.

Surprisingly, we did find a tenant who would pay us the same amount that would be required of us to rent a home out of state. Though we would have to continue to supplement the cost of our present mortgage because we would not be renting the house for the amount of our mortgage payment, we would not lose money. We could just hold the house until things got better. The Universe seemed to be smiling on us.
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I’m a Writer, Not a Financial Planner”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - GOP - Government - Liberals - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Republicans - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Tim Pawlenty: Government Unions vs. Taxpayers

December 14, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty penned a great op ed in the Wall Street Journal that takes public employee unions to task for their greed and their destructive nature. I’ve said many times that public employee unions are antithetical to good government and should be outlawed. Pawlenty agrees that they make good governing impossible.

Public employees have not always had the luxury of unions. The idea that government employees should be allowed to enter into collective bargaining didn’t exist prior to 1958. The fact is, we will never be able to fix our public pension problems until we go back to a pre-1958 stance on public employee unions. They should be eliminated completely.

Now I don’t usually post whole articles. But this one is too good to just excerpt. I hope WSJ can excuse me…
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Tim Pawlenty: Government Unions vs. Taxpayers”

Alan Caruba - Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Climate Change - Congress - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Energy - Environment - EPA - Government - Liberals - Taxes

The EPA Versus the USA

December 13, 2010 by

-By Alan Caruba

It seems almost beyond reason that a single U.S. agency could so hate America that it was prepared to ignore the Constitution, distort a Supreme Court decision, and impose its will on the nation in the name of totally discredited science.

That, however, is what the Environmental Protection Agency is seeking to do while Americans are distracted by the Christmas celebrations.

The agency’s objective is to regulate so-called greenhouse gases (GHG) on January 2, 2011. More specifically, it would regulate emissions from power plants and other large emitters, but in reality it would end the role of coal as the provider of 50% of the electricity Americans require.
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The EPA Versus the USA”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - EFCA - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Jobs - Liberals - President - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Rep. John Kline & the Secret Ballot Protection Act

December 13, 2010 by

-By LaborUnionReport.com

Congressman John Kline [R-MN] has been one of the House of Representatives’ most vocal opponent of SEIU’s labor board appointee, Craig Becker, as well as a vocal defender of workers’ right to choose by secret-ballot whether or not to become unionized. In that role, he has stood strong against union bosses as they have worked to strip workers right to a secret-ballot through passage of the job-destroying (and delusionally dubbed) Employee Free Anti-Choice Act.

On Wednesday, showing the change in leadership that will begin in January, Republican named Kline to be the Chairman of the House Education & Labor Committee. The HEL committee is the House committee that must approve issues affecting union elections (like EFCA). Upon being stated for the committee, Kline stated:

“Job creation and American competitiveness are vital national priorities. As Chairman, I will ensure they are at the forefront of the Education and Labor Committee agenda.”

Given the five year push by union bosses to rid employees of their right to vote by secret-ballot, as well as this week’s NLRB decision institutionalizing card-check by collusion, Kline and his fellow Republicans are well suited to re-introduce the Secret Ballot Protection Act….

Please read the rest at LaborUnionReport.com.

Budget - Business - Capitalism - China - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Government - Jeff Lukens - Jobs - Liberals - Taxes

Could China’s Instability Threaten America?

December 12, 2010 by

– By Jeff Lukens

China’s double-digit economic growth over the past thirty years has been breathtaking. Growth has limits, however, and China may soon be reaching them. With worldwide recession, and inflation coming to the yuan, a slowdown in China’s growth is increasing probable. If China experiences any let up in growth, the nation’s internal stability becomes a concern. The modern western trait of rising expectations has set in with the populace. By their sheer numbers, any setback in the standard of living could ominously jeopardize the nation’s political and economic structure — and affect us as well.

Beijing has established, over the years, an integrated economy with surrounding Asian nations equal in size to that of the United States. They have the technological and financial advantages of a modern economy, and with their huge population, the cost advantages of a developing one.

But China has problems too. Part of their insecurity stems from a dependence on foreign sources for raw materials. China imports about half its oil, for example, and the vast majority of that comes from tankers that pass through the strategic chokepoint at Strait of Malacca near Singapore. And to reach Africa or the Persian Gulf, they must cross a vast Indian Ocean heavily patrolled by the U.S. and Indian warships.
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Could China’s Instability Threaten America?”

Budget - Capitalism - Constitution - Dan Proft - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Illinois - Jobs - Liberals - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Message from Springfield: We Heard You Loud and Clear, Illinois‏

December 11, 2010 by

-By Dan Proft

You wanted tax relief.

You wanted an end to runaway spending, including an end to reckless borrowing to finance the status quo.

You wanted the public sector to live in the same financial world you do; a world where one must be able to look at two numbers and decide which one is greater than the other.

You wanted an end to the ruling class mentality that sets out different laws for those who make them than for those who live under them.

You wanted elected officials who are responsive and who put your interests ahead of the special interests.
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Message from Springfield: We Heard You Loud and Clear, Illinois‏”

Barack Obama - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Free Trade - GOP - Government - Health - House of Representatives - Liberals - President - Regulation - Republicans - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

The Case for Reform by Stand-Alone Legislation

December 11, 2010 by

-By Frank Salvato

The healthcare reform bill, officially titled The Affordable Care Act, was a stunning 1,018 pages long. The stimulus bill – the American Reinvestment & Recovery Act – weighed in at 1,079 pages. And the American Clean Energy & Security Act, or cap and trade bill, passed the House at a length of approximately 1,500 pages. Omnibus bill this, comprehensive bill that…have you ever stopped to wonder why Congress produces such grotesquely long pieces of legislation? The answers are several and all disturbing but there is a way to reduce the length of legislation while assuring transparency and accountability in government: stand-alone legislation.

Forget for the moment the legalese required to enshrine a piece of legislation into law and pay no attention to the fact that Congress passed legislation mandating the use of “plain language” for the Executive Branch agencies, those status quo elements of Congress who produce behemoth pieces of legislation do so to hide things. Be they earmarks, pork, vote-for-mine-and-I’ll-vote-for-yours quid pro quo or votes that would see their constituencies preparing recall petitions, establishment members of Congress routinely attach bills and amendments to legislation that have nothing to do with the original bill and they do so to hide “politics as usual.”

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The Case for Reform by Stand-Alone Legislation”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Government - Jobs - Liberals - PLA - President - Taxes - Unemployment - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Another Big Labor Union Payoff: Obama Adds $3.3 Million to Construction Project

December 9, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

The government is over spent. This single fact is beyond dispute. Even Democrats say so. We have but to recall that Democrat after Democrat attempted to run for office this last election by claiming fealty to small government, cost cutting, and lower spending. So with all this small government/low spending fever sweeping the political classes, what does Barack Obama do? He forces policies on federal building projects that inflates costs by the millions. And why would he do this? As a payoff to unions that gave him millions in campaign contributions, of course.

The latest bloated price tag for a federal project is that of the Lafayette Federal Building in Washington D.C., a project that has seen costs rise at least $3.3 million thanks to Obama’s payoffs to unions. That’s right in a day when we are drowning in government overspending, Obama is making sure costs rise, not insuring that they fall.

Barack Obama’s political tin ear is nowhere better revealed than in his constant payoffs to Big Labor. One of Obama’s very first actions, for instance, was to write an Executive Order that forced all government building projects to follow union marching orders in pay scale, work rules, and pension payouts by imposing Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) on all of them.
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Another Big Labor Union Payoff: Obama Adds $3.3 Million to Construction Project”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Jobs - Liberals - President - Regulation - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston - WWII

Unemployment Worst since the Great Depression, NOT Getting Better

December 9, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Don’t believe a word of the happy talk you hear from the Obama Administration when they say that the jobs situation is getting better. It isn’t.

In fact, the current job loss stats are the worst since the years right after the Great Depression and it is not getting better.

The CalculatedRiskBlog had this disheartening graph showing that the jobs situation is worse than every down turn from 1948 to date.

What the graph also shows is that, contrary to what the administration is constantly saying, jobs have flattened out and are not coming back at this time. The other dips in previous recessions show that jobs came back fairly quickly, but this time they are not coming back.

CLICK ON CHART TO ENLARGE

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Unemployment Worst since the Great Depression, NOT Getting Better”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - FDA - Government - Health - Liberals - President - Regulation - Warner Todd Huston

FDA Set To Cut Off 17,000 Women Annually From Lifesaving Drug

December 8, 2010 by 7 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Obama’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is due to take up the case of Avastin, a cancer drug that successfully treats some 17,000 women annually. With a coming December 17 decision, the FDA seems poised to take this drug away from these patients quite despite the fact that their doctors find the drug effective.

The most dangerous period of time in Washington D.C. is that time we call the lame duck session (I call it the zombie congress; dead men walking). It is that time when those elected officials that are about to be ingloriously shipped off home for the last time due to losing election results make a mad scramble to grab for as much as they can get.

In the case of regulatory agencies like the FDA the lame duck session is not treated in exactly the same manner, but it is sure that when congress is about to have its majority party change over with the president’s party on the losing side of the switch, regulatory agencies often try to push through favored policies before the new congress is seated and before that new congress is in a position to put any pressure on those agencies to prevent them from pushing the president’s agenda.
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FDA Set To Cut Off 17,000 Women Annually From Lifesaving Drug”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Illinois State Government - Liberals - Peter Roskam - President - Republicans - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Rep. Peter Roskam: What You Need to Know About the Deficit Commission‏

December 8, 2010 by

From the office of Representative Peter Roskam…

Recently, President Obama’s Deficit Reduction Commission put forth a plan to address our country’s staggering deficits and national debt. The plan did not receive enough votes to make it out of it’s own committee and into Congress, but it does provide an important opportunity to discuss a critical economic issue – spending.

Although the report does recognize the need for spending restraint in Washington, particularly focusing on the federal bureaucracy, it also advocates for raising taxes at a time when Americans can least afford it. For all of my observations, click below to watch my interview on Fox News Chicago:
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Rep. Peter Roskam: What You Need to Know About the Deficit Commission‏”

Barack Obama - Budget - Capitalism - Congress - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Liberals - Police - President - Regulation - Republicans - Security/Safety - Senate - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Wed. in the Senate: Reid to Try and Force Cloture Votes on DREAM Act and Forced Unionization Act

December 7, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Call Your Senator Tell Them to Vote NO on DREAM Act and Forced Nationalized Unionization of Police/Firemen

From contacts in the Senate we’ve learned that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) will likely on Wednesday (Dec. 8th) try and bring a cloture vote on The DREAM Act and the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act in order to grab as much power for his supporters as he can before his power is weakened starting in the next congress.

Quite despite the obvious will of the American people as evinced by the last election, Reid intends to push these unpopular bills anyway. While Americans professed their desire to extend the Bush tax rates and for congress to address the floundering economy, the business that voters really want taken up is being put on hold as Harry Reid endeavors to give more payoffs to his union pals and his pro-amnesty supporters.
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Wed. in the Senate: Reid to Try and Force Cloture Votes on DREAM Act and Forced Unionization Act”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Chicago - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Free Trade - Government - Illinois - Jobs - Liberals - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Chicago Unions Leaders Not Thrilled With Rahm Emanuel

December 6, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Most Chicagoans are assuming that former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel will become the next mayor of Chicago. But while the perception might satisfy many folks in the Windy City, at least one powerful Democratic sector isn’t so sure they are happy with the whole idea. Chicago’s union leaders are not very fond of the distempered former Chief of Staff.

Big Labor has been put off on Emanuel since he helped Bill Clinton get the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) passed in the 1990s when Emanuel was a Congressman from Chicago’s 5th District.

Emanuel also has a history of dissing Big Labor. At least he’s put other interests ahead of Big Labor enough times that labor leaders are not overly fond of the diminutive candidate.
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Chicago Unions Leaders Not Thrilled With Rahm Emanuel”

Alan Caruba - Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Environment - Government - Liberals - Mexico - Taxes

The Climate Mafia Gather in Cancun‏

December 5, 2010 by

-By Alan Caruba

On November 14, 1957, leaders of the American and other Mafia organizations gathered at the home of Joseph “Joe the Barber” Barbara in Appalachian, New York; approximately one hundred Mafiosi from around the United States, Canada, and Italy attended.

Up to then, J. Edgar Hoover, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, had refused to acknowledge that the Mafia even existed, but a succession of prime time television appearances before Congressional committees by members of the Mafia made it abundantly clear that crime in America was, indeed, organized and led by some very colorful and ruthless descendants of the Sicilian Mafia.

It is time for the U.S. government to acknowledge that a climate mafia has existed since the gathering in Kyoto, Japan, to establish the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
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The Climate Mafia Gather in Cancun‏”

Business - Capitalism - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Socialism - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Member Advocates for End of Capitalism, Private Property Rights

December 4, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Calling for civil unrest and the end to private property rights, Sharon Black of the Baltimore All-Peoples Congress, tried desperately to rouse communists and socialists everywhere at the Workers World Party’s annual conference on November 13th and 14th in New York City.

Black — whose name is a fitting one for her dark agenda — wants an end to capitalism and the United States of America and yearns for a return to the glory days of the Soviet Union. “Socialist ideology which reflects the highest level of working class of solidarity” Black said, “which points in the direction of eliminating all exploitation and emancipating humankind has been in retreat since the collapse of the Soviet Union.”

Yes, let’s go back to the oppression and gulags of the old Soviet Union!! This pampered, western moron, this idiot fellow traveller of an evil empire that fell years ago, is what passes for an intellectual on the left.
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Union Member Advocates for End of Capitalism, Private Property Rights”