Unions

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Jobs - Liberals - News - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Dems to Take up Card Check on Tuesday

March 10, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Senate has secret elections for its leaders. The House of Representatives also uses a closed ballot, one not open to public view, for its own members. We all, you and I, have a secret ballot when we vote for president or for our local officials at our local polling place. It’s one of the oldest aspects of the democratic system.

Yet, Democrats want to take that oldest part of the democratic process away from 105 million Americans.

For their support in the last election Democrats are poised to launch an effort to force a payback to Big Unions through Congress, perhaps as early as Tuesday. That payback will be in the form of the woefully misnamed “Employee Free Choice Act” — which is neither free nor any choice. In this legislation, unions can dispense with the ages old secret ballot for union members and force them to sign public cards revealing their personal vote to everyone. Naturally, when a voter’s choice is known to everyone, pressure will be greater to conform and the conscience of the union member can easily take a back seat to that of getting along with union bosses.

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Dems to Take up Card Check on Tuesday”

00Publius Contributor - Business - Media Bias - News - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Opposes Rail Safety Suggestion, Instead Offers to Enlarge Membership

March 6, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The United Transportation Union is coming out against a rail safety measure suggestion because, the union claims, the idea violates the “privacy” of union employees. Instead of agreeing to the safety measure, however, the union used a recent accident that killed 25 train passengers as an excuse to try and force companies to double the number of train operators, thereby enlarging union membership.

Put succinctly, while the government and rail companies are looking for ways to improve safety and prevent future loss of lives, the union is trying to make more money and gain more members.

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Union Opposes Rail Safety Suggestion, Instead Offers to Enlarge Membership”

00Publius Contributor - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Execs Meet at Swanky Resort Hotel

March 5, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

As union members lose their jobs all across the country, the AFL-CIO executive council met at a luxury hotel in Miami Beach, Florida this week.

The union bigwigs met at the Fontainebleau where the cheapest room rings up at $400 dollars a night.

Were I a union member, I might take exception to such extravagance for union bosses. Especially in an economy like this.

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Union Execs Meet at Swanky Resort Hotel”

00Publius Contributor - Barack Obama - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - Media Bias - News - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

UPDATE on Unions a Hatin’ Unions

March 5, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

On February 25, we noted a story by Ben Smith of Politico about the newest troubles in the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and its President Andy Stern. Stern is attempting yet another hostile take over of yet another union in his attempt to gain iron-fisted rule of all unions in the country — no less than that is his ultimate goal.

It looks like Politico has another note in that battle.

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UPDATE on Unions a Hatin’ Unions”

00Publius Contributor - Barack Obama - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - Military - News - President - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Prez: GOP ‘Fomenting Rebellion’ In Military Against Obama

February 28, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Ron Moore, AFL-CIO local president and Examiner writer, absurdly and irresponsibly claimed on February 25 that “the Republican Party” is trying to “foment rebellion” inside the U.S. military against President Obama. This is exactly the sort of irresponsible charges that the left loves to throw around to create fear and loathing, sadly.

Moore bases the untruths in his headlined, “Is the Republican Party fomenting rebellion among the armed forces as a political tactic?,” on the fact that individuals that happen to be Republicans — or once were — are still pursuing the Obama birth certificate issue. But he takes that extra untenable step to say that these few people represent “the Republican Party.”

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Union Prez: GOP ‘Fomenting Rebellion’ In Military Against Obama”

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Obama’s Radical Appointees Piling Up

February 27, 2009 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

We all remember the drubbing that conservatives took during the campaign when they openly worried, and even directly charged, that Barack Obama was a far left radical. Pointing to the racist Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the domestic terrorist William Ayers and wife, and several others of Obama’s close friends and associates conservatives sounded a clarion call to alert the country that we were about to get one of the most extremely leftist presidents ever.

Of course, the so-called rational and presumably non-partisan commentators that abound in the center left of the chattering classes scoffed at what they claimed to be the wild demagogues on the “extreme right” who then said Obama was a radical. They have for the last two years excoriated anyone that worries about how far to the left Obama is, saying that Obama is just an average Democrat that seeks to “bring us together.”

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Obama’s Radical Appointees Piling Up”

00Publius Contributor - Barack Obama - Business - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Jobs - Liberals - Media Bias - President - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

These Are the People Supporting EFCA

February 27, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), the union friendly law currently sitting idle in Congress awaiting a Big Labor financed president to get around to addressing it, has some very interesting supporters. We’ve been told, of course, that we shouldn’t worry about Barack Obama and his followers, that they are just as American as anyone else. That claim of red-blooded Americanness is a bit hard to reconcile, however, where it concerns the EFCA.

While taking a small uptick in numbers the last few years, union membership has been down compared to the heyday of union labor in the US. Unions backed Obama with many millions of dollars during the campaign and have been keenly interested in enacting the EFCA, a bill that will help grow union membership in the country. They expect pay back for supporting Obama and he’s pledged to give it to them.

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These Are the People Supporting EFCA”

00Publius Contributor - Economy/Finances - News - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

A State-By-State Breakdown of Union Membership for 2008

February 25, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Public Service Research Foundation has finished its research into how union membership was distributed throughout the US for 2008. It looks like some very useful info:

The Public Service Research Foundation has announced that it has updated its state-by-state, sector by sector tables and charts on employment, union membership and union density for 2008 and is making them available.

Information about union membership is obtained from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Current Population Survey and is released annually in its report on Union Members http://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm

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A State-By-State Breakdown of Union Membership for 2008″

00Publius Contributor - Barack Obama - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - Media Bias - News - President - Rights - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Dems say Secret ballot for Them, but not for us?

February 23, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

We have been talking about it for some time here, that most odious provision in the Democrat pushed Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) that eliminates the secret ballot for prospective union members. Democrats want to eliminate the secret ballot because, they say, it will make it easier to enlarge union membership without all that messy votes of conscience stuff. It’s easier, they feel, to leave prospective new members open to union intimidation to get them to vote pro-union.

So, doing away with the secret ballot is a particular goal of the EFCA. Democrats are dead set on passing this act with this anti-democratic voting measure intact.

Yet in 2001 the same Democrats that are so intent on eliminating the secret ballot for American workers were all exercised over maintaining the secret ballot for Mexican workers.

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Dems say Secret ballot for Them, but not for us?”

00Publius Contributor - Barack Obama - Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

‘Blue Dogs’ Stave Off EFCA For Now

February 21, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Greg Sargent is reporting that a coalition of conservative Democrats, the so-called “Blue Dogs,” have joined to ask Speaker Pelosi not to bring the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) to the floor.

The Blue Dogs have asked Pelosi not to consider the bill until the Senate has first voted on it. As far as the Senate goes, Majority Leader Harry Reid has said that he won’t bring it up for vote unless he knows he has 60 votes and that number doesn’t seem very likely at this time.

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‘Blue Dogs’ Stave Off EFCA For Now”

00Publius Contributor - Barack Obama - Children - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Media Bias - News - President - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

AP: Advertising Kids ‘E-Book’ Obama Indoctrination Effort

February 17, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Associated Press is taken with the new e-book full of letters to President Obama published by the National Education Association (NEA) a liberal teachers union. Naturally, all the kids in this book are filled to overflowing with leftist talking points like pushing the anti-military angle — one kid even said he was “very luckey because I am not part of a military family.”

The kids were all indoctrinated with concern over global warming, infused with unthinking anti-war sentiment, disdain for our soldiers, and enthusiastic for Father Obama and his big government machine. Sadly, it appears that not one of these kids have been taught by their teachers about liberty, freedom, personal responsibility and American principles.

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AP: Advertising Kids ‘E-Book’ Obama Indoctrination Effort”

00Publius Contributor - Barack Obama - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - GOP - Jobs - Liberals - Media Bias - News - Race - Republicans - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Now You’re a Racist if you Don’t Support Unions?

February 12, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Union shill Ron Gettelfinger wants you to know that if you don’t support unions you are a racist. That’s right. If you don’t want the undemocratic card check bill to pass Congress you are exactly like the negro hanging, civil rights denying, Jim Crow enforcers of the 1950s.

In one of the most disgusting examples of moral equivalence I’ve seen for a long time — at least one not appearing on such low-born sites such as the DailyKos or Huffington Post — Gettelfinger committed the anti-intellectual outrage of positing that hanging black men in the 1950’s is “just like” voting against a bill that would take away the right of prospective union members to be allowed to vote their conscience in secret as all votes in a democracy are traditionally cast.

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00Publius Contributor - Barack Obama - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Jobs - Liberals - Media Bias - News - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions are Inherently UnAmerican — Teachers Union Rips Off Members

February 11, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Imagine a fast food place that makes you buy a cheeseburger when you want a chicken sandwich. Oh, they don’t mind if you buy the chicken sandwich, too, mind you, but you are forced to purchase a cheeseburger every time you walk through the doors whether you want it or not. Seems a bit like a rip off, not to mention unAmerican, to force you to buy something you don’t want, doesn’t it? Well, this is unionism. Only unions prevent you from even having a job in your chosen profession in the first place to have the cash to buy your chicken sandwich unless you follow their rules. That’s forced labor for other’s benefit.

We used to call that a form of enslavement… now it’s called union membership.

Case in point, teachers unions and teacher’s support for California’s Proposition 8 — the sanctity of marriage law now embroiling California in such turmoil.

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00Publius Contributor - Barack Obama - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Liberals - Media Bias - News - President - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Obama Order Allows Unions to Drive Up Cost of Gov’t Contracts

February 8, 2009 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

The newest in his series Executive Orders that are little else but sops to unions was uncorked in Washington on Friday, February 6. This one ordered the use of union labor for large-scale federal construction projects, eliminating 84 percent of the American contractors that are not unionized.

Not only would this bill force unions on government projects, but the resulting rise in the costs of those projects would be incredible. This executive order — a re-establishment of a Clinton era order — will force federal projects to accept labor agreements and the resulting higher wages, benefits and collective-bargaining that comes with that.

Naturally, the unions love this order. But the exorbitant costs that will be forced upon federal projects will be a bitter pill to taxpayers.

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00Publius Contributor - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Liberals - Media Bias - News - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions’ Incestuous Relationship to Government Means BAD Government

February 8, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Lisa Jones of the web news site The Examiner has a great piece that exemplifies what I have been saying for a long time: unions are antithetical to good government.

Jones details a story of the incestuous relationship between anti-democratic union thugs and the city government in Denver, Colorado. Her sad tale of inside dealing and graft concerns the story of a law firm that promulgates the interests of Big Labor and members of Denver government that tends to make a mockery of the people’s interests by using subterfuge and lies to further the goals of Big Labor over that of the people.

One part of her story is quite egregious. It reveals a Councilman that got away with violating the law while running for the city council because of his support from insiders connected with the law firm Isaacson Rosenbaum. Apparently while running for a council seat in the 3rd District, Paul Lopez was in violation of residency requirements.

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00Publius Contributor - Barack Obama - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Liberals - News - President - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Ethics of Obama’s New Labor Chief Questioned

February 7, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Recently, we wondered aloud how anyone could expect a Secretary of Labor that has had a long history of being a member of various Big Labor groups can be expected to administer an agency that is supposed to deal equally and evenly with both labor and business? How could we not expect Obama’s choice for Sec. of Labor, Hilda Solis, to be a shill for Big Labor since she has been one her whole adult life? And not just a shill for Big Labor, but an actual employee of Big Labor.

At any rate, the business community must realize that their new Washington boss is their enemy. It simply can’t be any other way given her ideology and history.

But, if we are lucky we may just see the appointment of this hardcore union shill go down in flames. Apparently, Solis has been caught hiding on official filings with the House her complex and integral activities as a lobbyist at the same time she was in the House of Representatives, a violation of House ethics rules.

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00Publius Contributor - Barack Obama - Business - Communism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Liberals - News - President - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Obama Gearing up for Union Payoffs

February 5, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Last week, president Obama signed several executive orders that he claimed would “level the playing field” for the unions. By that he means, of course, that he expects to take away more power from business and the individual as a payoff to big unions.

As the AP reported, Obama signed three orders that materially affects the business sector.

Require federal contractors to offer jobs to current workers when contracts change.

Reverse a Bush administration order requiring federal contractors to post notice that workers can limit financial support of unions serving as their exclusive bargaining representatives.

Prevent federal contractors from being reimbursed for expenses meant to influence workers deciding whether to form a union and engage in collective bargaining.

Now, Obama claims this is going to “help” workers, right? So, how does removing information from workers “help” them? As the second order above indicates, Obama has helped union thugs hide the facts from workers so that workers are left in the dark about their rights.

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00Publius Contributor - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Liberals - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - State Government - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions Gain Heavy Among Government Workers

February 1, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

As we reported a few days ago, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported its newest stats on union membership for 2008. These stats show that union membership has increased for the second straight year. But where it has increased is of key importance.

The report shows a gain of 428,000 members, the largest in the last 25 years and since such statistics have been gathered. Alarmingly, a rising number of union workers are employed by government.

The union membership rate for public sector workers (36.8 percent) was substantially higher than the rate for private industry workers (7.6 percent). Within the public sector, local government workers had the highest union membership rate, 42.2 percent. This group includes many workers in several heavily unionized occupations, such as teachers, police officers, and fire fighters. Private sector industries with high unionization rates include transportation and utilities (22.2 per-cent), telecommunications (19.3 percent), and construction (15.6 per-cent). In 2008, unionization rates were relatively low in financial activities (1.8 percent) and professional and business services (2.1 percent).

This was a rise from numbers seen in 2007 and previous, as well. State and local government worker unions are steadily on the rise and therein lies the danger to good government. The singular problem with unions and government is that unions do not make for good government.

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00Publius Contributor - Barack Obama - Business - Communism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Liberals - News - President - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

What do Obama and Unions Have in Common? Communists!

January 31, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Michael Richardson of the on-line news group the Examiner wrote recently about some revealing quotes about the modern American Communist Party by a Richard Winger of Ballot Access News.

Speaking about how the Communist Party in the US has for the most part ceased trying to run candidates for office, Winger points out that the CPUSA fully endorsed Barack Obama for president in 2008 and has decided it best to focus on Democratic Party politics and union activities.

Communist Party members participate in politics and electoral life mostly by participation in unions, and inside the Democratic Party. The Communist Party’s weekly newspaper supports Democratic presidential nominees…

This says a lot, not about where the CPUSA has gone, but where Democrats and Unions have. If CPUSA members have gravitated toward unions and the Democratic Party, this means that those nominally American groups have drifted far enough to the extreme left for even communists to agree to join their efforts.

This is singularly bad news for America. This should also be kept very close in mind when considering if we should work with Obama and the Democrats or not.

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Equal Pay

January 30, 2009 by 2 Comments

-By Dan Scott

To hear the AP story of President Obama signing the Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act one would think a new page in civil rights has been turned. However, like all things liberal Democrats foist upon the public these days using their salesmanship it’s the details they gloss over that are particularly problematic. The AP story was devoid of detail that would allow a reader to consider the facts.

Here are the details that should raise some red flags in every employer’s mind.

“Ledbetter was a supervisor at Goodyear Tire & Rubber’s plant in Gadsden, Ala., from 1979 until her retirement in 1998. For most of those years, she worked as an area manager, a position largely occupied by men. Initially, Ledbetter’s salary was in line with the salaries of men performing similar work.

Over time, her pay slipped in comparison to the pay of male area managers with equal or less seniority. By the end of 1997, Ledbetter was the only woman working as an area manager and the pay discrepancy between Ledbetter and her 15 male counterparts was stark: Ledbetter was paid $3,727 per month; the lowest paid male area manager received $4,286 per month, the highest paid, $5,236.
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00Publius Contributor - Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Liberals - News - President - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Obama Appoints Collectivist to Chair NLRB

January 29, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The National Labor Relations Board (nlrb.gov) is a federal agency created to monitor and administer federal laws that govern the relationship between labor unions and business owners and corporations and to this board, Barack Obama has appointed as its chair a woman that does not seem to believe much in individual freedom but seems more interested in collectivism. To you and me that might be considered a communist ideal, but even if she doesn’t take it that far it is certainly an adversarial idea to individual freedom and the rights of business.

Last week, Obama named to the NLRB Wilma Liebman, a Philadelphian that has served on the legal staff of two labor unions: the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (1980-1989) and the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftsmen (1990-1993).

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00Publius Contributor - Barack Obama - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Jobs - Liberals - Media Bias - News - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - State Government - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Hires Off-Duty Cops as Street Thugs?

January 25, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has been in a struggle with its sister union, the United Healthcare Workers (UHW), for quite some time over the eventual disbanding of the UHW and its absorption into the larger SEIU based in Washington D.C. Needless to say, the local folks of the UHW in California are not pleased to lose their local control of their own union affairs to the far off Washington offices of the SEIU.

The clash has been growing increasingly heated with UHW officials speaking out in dismay at the combined unions yearly convention in Puerto Rico last year after which both sides began to file lawsuits against each other for various offenses real and imagined. It’s a real donnybrook and this week the situation took one more step toward vitriol and turmoil.

Now it seems as if the SEIU has hired off-duty policemen to hang around outside the UHW’s Oakland offices photographing members coming and going and engaging in harassing comments and behavior.

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00Publius Contributor - Budget - Business - Communism - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Jobs - Media Bias - News - Socialism - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

L.A. Goes Enviro-MENTAL With Insider Dealings, Waste In Solar Plan

January 19, 2009 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Los Angeles, California has a new initiative underway called “Measure B” that would basically award a monopolistic, no-bids contract to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union (IBEW), the union that would be given the task to install the things in the city. Campaigners for the initiative have so far raised $267,000 with two-thirds of that coming from the very unions that would benefit from the unfair set asides that would exclude outside companies from being able to bid on the installation.

It’s a bit convenient that the group that would benefit most is almost fully funding the drive to get this measure passed, isn’t it? Especially given the fact that solar cell technology is still far too expensive to install and maintain to be cost effective. A recent study claimed that, for home use, it would take a homeowner 100 years to recoup the costs of installing solar cells. Now, pile on top of that basic fact the many millions that will be wasted by giving the installation job to a union, and pile on top of that the other corruption taxes that a big city adds to any project, and we can easily realize that this is nothing but a giant boondoggle to the tax payer and, of course, another undeserved but giant boon to the unions.

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00Publius Contributor - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - GOP - News - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Georgia Legislator Wants ACORN’s Tax Exempt Status Revoked

January 15, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

NBC Augusta is reporting that State Senator Jeff Mullis (R- Chickamauga) is sponsoring legislation to revoke the tax exempt status of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) because of the wide spread voter fraud that the group has been perpetrating over the last few years.

“An organization that chooses to undermine the integrity of our nation’s election process should not be entitled to tax exemption benefits,” said Sen. Mullis. “The excessive amount of evidence against ACORN engaging in fraudulent activity demands that the organization to be held accountable for taking advantage of hardworking taxpayers, and I call on the IRS to ensure that justice is executed in this case.”

Well said. These criminals should not be favored by government with OUR tax dollars either in direct payments (which it woefully receives) nor in tax breaks (which it also gets).

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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Media Bias - News - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions Decide THEY Should Say Who Gets Taxed

January 14, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In the military it’s called “mission creep.” That is when you start out doing one thing and end up doing something that has nothing at all to do with what your main function is supposed to be. Unions in New Mexico have just shown mission creep, once again, because, for some reason, labor leaders in that state imagine it is their duty to tell government what sort of taxes should be invented for the citizens of Santa Fe.

These so-called labor leaders have decided to urge government to institute a “transfer tax” on houses that they deem “too big” to be allowed to be sold without confiscatory taxes imposed upon them.

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00Publius Contributor - Barack Obama - Business - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - News - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Disgruntled ACORN Employees — Loose Nuts Strike back at the Tree

January 12, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Last year a scandal rocked ACORN when it was revealed that the brother of the founder of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), Dale Rathke, was caught by the ACORN board embezzling one million dollars in the organization’s operations cash. For eight years founder Wade Rathke hid the theft from public consumption as well as from his fellow ACORN board members and tried to arrange a pal of his to “pay back” the money to cover up his brother’s theft. (see here, here, and here)

Now, several ousted members of the ACORN board are seeking a federal criminal investigation into their ouster and Dale Rathke’s theft. The self-dubbed ACORN 8, led by Marcel Reid and Karen Inman, were removed from the ACORN board last year after they failed to convince others to join their efforts to instigate a federal probe of the embezzlement.

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00Publius Contributor - Barack Obama - Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Jobs - Media Bias - News - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions Ready to Pounce on 111th Congress

January 11, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Unions gave many millions of dollars to elect Democrats and Barack Obama last November. Now they want payback. And, at least according to The New York Times, it is to begin with a bang.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D,CA) is planning an early push of two pay “discrimination” bills ASAP.

Last year, President George W. Bush threatened to veto both the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which would overturn a 2007 Supreme Court decision making it more difficult to sue over past pay discrimination, and the Paycheck Fairness Act, which closes loopholes allowing employers to get around the 1963 law requiring equal pay for equal work.

As in all things Democratic Party, the Ledbatter Act was based on the lie that this Ledbetter woman was discriminated against. Ledbetter had every opportunity under the law for redress by waited too long to take her former employer to court, exceeding her 180 day complaint period. But, who needs rules, eh?

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00Publius Contributor - Barack Obama - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - News - President - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

New Labor Sec Claims SHE Can ‘Create’ Jobs?

January 11, 2009 by 4 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Hill is reporting that Obama’s newly minted Labor Secretary was “pressed” on the job losses recently reported by the federal government. Oddly enough, Rep. Hilda Solis (D, CA) imagines she is somehow imbued with the ability to create jobs.

Lawmakers quizzed Solis as to how she could best reverse the jobs decline for a number of sectors in the economy, from healthcare workers to those afflicted with disabilities. One solution the California congresswoman recommended was focusing on creating new “green-collar” jobs. That could include retrofitting government buildings to meet energy-efficiency standards and installing solar panels, among other tasks that would develop America’s alternative energy production.

So, when, exactly, did it become the job of the Sec. of Labor to “create” jobs? What magical powder was she given to sprinkle upon the earth for these jobs to rise forth like a spring daffodil?

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00Publius Contributor - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Jobs - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Leader Becomes Speaker of Conn. House

January 10, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

It was just announced this week that representative Chris Donovan (D, Meriden, CT) is the next Speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives. What makes this a strike against good government is that Donovan is a former member of the Service Employees International Union. (Donovan info and further bio)

So, we have a former union leader (and former as only having left union leadership a short time ago) now stepping into the role of Speaker of the House where his former colleagues in the unions will be lobbying him for favorable legislation and other goodies.

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